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Reviews (8)
21 Jun, 2017
Excellent Go Set
A high standard Go set, complete with magnetic board and pieces. Bought for my Niece and she loves it.
It's a simple game, but the product quality is excellent.
31 Jan, 2018
Perhaps the most important book of the past 30 years
It is over 10 years since I read Samuel Huntington's full length expansion of his classic Foreign Affairs article. This was read during my final year at university, and back then, it was fashionable amongst many to refute, or outrightly mock Professor Huntington's disturbing piece of work. The work was derided amongst my fellow students, it was frequently derieded amongst academia, it is something of a fashion statement to deride Huntington's work. Why?
Could it be, perhaps, because of a deep, inbuilt feeling that we just know that he was right?
In the 10+ years since I read this monumental study, I have encountered very little in current events to refute his argument. Time has vindicated Huntington, and will continue to vindicate him.
Huntington identifies 9 civilizations, Western, Orthodox, Islamic, Latin American, African, Sinic, Hindu, Buddhist and Japanese.
The 2 civilizations that Huntington considers to be the most potentially antagonistic toward the West are Islamic and Sinic, however, as this book was completed in 2006, various conflicts had not yet played out between the West and the Orthodox World, and this is deserving of a special place as a potential faultline civilization.
Huntington considers the value systems of Sinic and Islamic culture as essentially incompatible with the West, and attempts to assimilate or reconcile Western values with these cultures is ultimately futile. Therefore, Huntington advocates a careful, cautious approach to foreign policy, wherein Western powers should try to mediate civilizational disputes, but not directly involve themselves with them.
Why do I think Huntington has been vindicated? The list is not exhaustive.
Firstly, attempts through that ill conceived 2003-? War in Iraq to democracize Iraq has proved a colossal failure. The Arab Spring led to an outright dead end for all countries involved except Tunisia, and Turkish membership of the EU remains a pipe dream.
However, while Huntington's work was written before the full democratization of South Korea and Taiwan, we have seen little progress in China toward any kind of accountable or open system, and China has recently given Hong Kong a half-baked, managed democracy.
If anything, the civilizational faultline that has become more pronounced is the Orthodox World. Russia and US relations are at the worst they have ever been since the end of the Cold War, and the continuing support of Putin's strongman leadership amongst the Russian population shows a general preference in Russia at least for strongman leadership, rather than a more pluralistic approach.
The situation in Ukraine is perhaps the Western-Orthodox divide being played out within a single, fragmented state, and is in many ways the result of naive Western attempts to push Western Institutions (NATO and the EU) into the Orthodox World.
A further example was the almost universal Western support (exception Spain) for the unilateral independence of Kosovo, and then the complete reverse of this foreign policy toward the Russian unification with Crimea.
This is not to distract oneself with current issues. Huntington's original work was written in response to the 1991 Gulf War, and the expanded book was based on events in the 90s, such as the Yugoslav wars, Chechnya, and the very nature of Sino-Western relations.
However, very little has transpired to prove Huntington wrong, and few would argue that his main policy proscription, that the West only mediate, not directly involve themselves with disputes involving other civilizations.
I think the dust will never settle on the debate over Huntington's thesis, but Huntington has convinced this reader at least.
In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transforma... by Meyer, Michael
10 May, 2018
Excellent panorama of Northeast China
Michael Meyer has provided an approach to travel writing with which I was previously less acquainted. While my travel writer of choice, was, and is, Robert D Kaplan, Meyer provides a style and narrative in contrast, in the sense that a greater portion of the novel is personal recollection of interactions with people, but not just any people, people who form the human and personal accounts of China's transformation.
Having previously lived in Jilin Province, and having personally explored the cities described in this book, namely Harbin, Changchun and Shenyang, Meyer brings the places to life in the form of a journey through history, worthy of any previous travel writing I have encountered.
The transformation of rural China of the subtitle, is largely the corporatization of rural China. Meyer takes us through a journey, from the Qing Dynasty, to subordination in the Japanese puppet state of Manchuguo, to collectivization in the Mao era, to the abolition of the latter and the introduction of the household contract responsibility system in 1984, and eventually the abolition of all agricultural taxes in 2006.
The people described in the book are faced with the dilemma of the conglomerate of East Fortune Rice who were effectively buying up the land, and redeveloping the town, a development with mixed views. As Meyer describes, this may offer the chance for the urbanisation of the village, the chance to live in 2 bedroom apartments with central heating, rather than the Kang, but perhaps some people are content with the life they have.
Meyer provides an insight into Chinese culture one is unlikely to gain from scholarly history or current affairs books because he intimately interacts with the ordinary people themselves, therefore, the book is educational, and educational in a warm and personal way.
Definitely recommended to those with an interest in China, and particularly those with an interest in China's much overlooked Northeast. The Northeast is a charming, unique place of beautiful forests, and lively people, and is well worth a visit, or even living for an extended period, as I have done. For those considering the Northeast, Meyer's book is a very good prelude.