The Economist offers a good overview of the Shining Path’s apparent resurgance in Peru.
Authoritarian ex-president Alberto Fujimori (who, it turns out, Peru’s in a hurry to extradite from Japan) crushed the Maoist rebels with brutal force. But current president Alejandro Toledo is seen to have gone soft on rooting them out.
In “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” a new show from Bravo, five gay men make over a straight guy:
“They are the Fab Five: an elite team of gay men dedicated to extolling the simple virtues of style, taste and class. Each week their mission is to transform a style-deficient and culture-deprived straight man from drab to fab in each of their respective categories: fashion, food & wine, interior design, grooming and culture.”
For all my Brooklyn friends (you know who you are), I give you Hipster Bingo! (Related: a cool place to buy good produce in the East Village.)
Michael Smith maintains a good Weblog about Peru.
Alberto Fujimori, the disgraced and exiled (and ethnically Japanese, interestingly) former president of Peru, says he’s on the verge of a political comeback in his Andean homeland. And many Peruvians would love to have him back (although if he entered the country he’d be arrested).
Two un-related items: Garbage Pail Kids, which I loved when I was 10, are returning next month. And 29,000 rubber duckies, adrift at sea for over a decade, are about to wash ashore. (Both links via Reenhead.)
It’s a wonderful thing to have friends who’re way smarter than you.
Responding to my political musings herein, Jack W. says I should dispense with the “anti-Bush rhetoric” and “stay away from citing the NY Times op-ed board too frequently.”
And although he feels we shouldn’t conclude just yet that Iraq never had WMDs, and though he says our relations with our allies haven’t been too severely damaged by Bush’s unilateralism, he says he’s a bit worried about the state of Dubya’s economy:
“Bush is turning into a modern day Hoover with increasing unemployment rolls, reliance on state and local agencies to cover unfunded mandates (even though they
have no money in their budgets), and large federal deficits (though it is only at 4% of GDP, which is not bad–in 92′ the deficit was 8% of GDP). Granted not all of the extra expenditures are his fault, but you can’t blame everything the cost of the war on
terror.
Obviously the fiscal police at the Fed would not let another Great Depression happen but we could see continued stagnant growth (1-2% per quarter) for the foreseeable future, which is not good for the job market, business re-investment, and general competitiveness of American large cap industrials against foreign rivals.”
Okay, Jack, you got me there.
Everyone out there: I want an Octodog Frankfurter Converter for Christmas. (Via Miles B., obviously.)
Chris D. sends word that Explore Indochina, formerly known as Motorbiking Vietnam, has re-vamped their site.
The fine folks at this Hanoi-based outfit guided us on a thrilling four-day motorcycle ride last year. And their new site includes a couple new photos–me navigating a rather difficult bridge, and Chris dangling from a precarious steel cage used for crossing a valley.
Got back last night from an excellent weekend-long excursion to Vilcabamba. We stayed at a hosteria called Madre Tierra; it was, as always, exceptional.
