Foreigner Tag Page

Public Diplomacy 2.0: A New Approach to Global Engagement

Earlier this week, Under Secretary James K. Glassman spoke at the New America Foundation. An excerpt from his prepared remarks follows: In the war of ideas, our core task in 2008 is to create an environment hostile to violent extremism. We do that in two ways: by undermining extremist ideologies and by encouraging young people to follow productive paths that lead away from terrorism. The Colombian experience is relevant to both these tracks. It also reminds us that there is nihilistic vi

---

Mona E on Arab Racism

Mona Eltahawy has had some great posts lately. This one, entitled “The Arab World’s Dirty Secret”, is worth a read. She recounts an Egyptian woman’s treatment of a Sudanese woman on the Metro. I know for me, MommaBean and at least three Umms with Alabama connections, remnants of Civil-War era racism was something we grew up with in our homes, or our grandparents homes. In an ironic twist of the family tree, I had cotton-picking, white-trash, moon-shinin’ relatives in the South fighting Old Mo

---

Court summons bureaucrat over deportation camp's dirty state

Court summons bureaucrat over deportation camp's dirty state The Delhi High Court Wednesday summoned the secretary of the social welfare department of the Delhi government for not complying with its orders to remove the lack of basic facilities in the foreigner deportation camps here.

---

Pick up the pieces

This story by Nick Triggle, a health reporter at BBC News, makes me cross. To my mind, it’s lazy journalism, riddled with assumptions and sweeping generalisations. Briefly, it seems the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) is whining about patients who travel abroad for their surgery, and who, should they develop post-op complications, then turn to the NHS for help. NHS pays to rectify cosmetic ops The NHS is having to pick up the tab for cosmetic surger

---

Blocked by the Belle

I've been in a deep post-thanksgiving malaise, unable to write and everytime I turn around I'm remembering this weird scene from Luis Bunuel's BELLE DU JOUR (1967).In it, our frigid would-be masochistic love slave, Severine (Catherine Deneuve) has been trying to warm up to the clients at the brothel where she's working during the afternoon, but is unable to, until the arrival of a strange, portly Asian man, played by Iska Kahn. This guy first shows her some weird box, that buzzes, and we never s

---

Johnny Foreigner - DJ’s Get Doubts / Lea Room

Messy haired, English indie kids Johnny Foreigner are back, but this time there’s a twist. Far removed from their fast footed indie-pop of yore they’ve introduced some unvarnished feeling to their repertoire with a romantic acoustic ballad, ‘DJ’s Get Doubts’. We’re pitched in at the emotional deep end as vocalist Alexei Berrow, stripped naked with only an acoustic guitar to keep him company, sings forlornly about how people believed poet Sean Walsh saved England. The addition of his usual anecd

---

China Chooses Its Favorite Foreigners of the Last 30 Years

Just in time for the upcoming anniversary of China’s 30 years of reform and opening later this month, China has selected 15 overseas experts as the most influential foreigners “for their contributions to the country’s development over the past three decades,” Xinhua reports. The list was compiled by International Talent Monthly, a periodical owned by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. The list apparently aims to be politically neutral, avoiding world leaders and their represe

---

And the gloves come off…

Neil Stephenson is back. Not in Dubai, but in the spotlight. After giving up a lawsuit he filed against Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) chairman Abdulhamid Juma and managing director Shivani Pandya in California, the former CEO and founder of DIFF filed a new one in the UK High Court of Justice on December 2. Neil Stephenson claims his former colleagues falsely accused him of being a “racist” and an “Arab hater.” He also claims the two defendants conspired to get him removed from his

---

Surviving the Taj Mumbai Horror

The attached story of terror is so truly heart-rending that I am forwarding it to you. We tend to magnify petty troubles rather than be thankful for our blessings. Just today I read somewhere “There is always, always, always something to be grateful for”. That is a thought which we all need to keep in mind and we shall be able to cope up with sorrow much better. Regards, Priyanka ————————– Mine is a story so improbable that if it were made into a movie, no one would believe it. I

---

What Price ‘Victory’?

editor’s note: Given all the craziness in the politics and the airport stuff we have been posting a little than normal but I think readers, especially outside of Thailand, are looking for the updates and opinions. So here is another one. Just so you don’t miss the On Nutter post, since it is a good one, go here! The Great Bangkok Airport Siege is history. Flights have begun again and feelings of relief have washed away the dread and desperation that had overwhelmed me this past week. But as

---

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, purveyors of Chocolate Teapots since Palmerston retired in 1865.

It seems the Thais have re-opened their airports after the Thai courts threw out the Thai Prime minister for bribing the poor to vote for it by stealing from the not quite so poor. Obviously this wouldn’t work in Britain, Labour wouldn’t be able to do anything to get elected if they were not allowed to follow this strategy. Now that the Thai’s have got the airports open again I thought the time is right for a little post-mortem on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.Britain announced during the

---

U.S. Essex girl

U.S. Essex girl Filed in: Ed's blog spot U.S. can refer to America or it can be slang for "useless". In America, the star of the relatively funny story coming up would be known as a Valley girl, in the UK, as an Essex girl. So that we all feel included, and so that I can do justice to the star, let's affectionately call her U.S. Essex girl. A while back, we went mad and agreed to go out for a drink with a couple of friends. The conversation was fun and interesting and grown up. I choose the

---

Madam Kwan’s - Kuala Lumpur, MY

Madam Kwan’s Unit 1.16, The Pavilion Kuala Lumpur 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang Kuala Lumpur 55100, Malaysia +603 2118 8833 (main mall) Observing people easing into a new cuisine that they are unfamiliar with is an interesting study in personality. Some will boldly leap into a hot dish without hesitation, seeking that thrilling, first time experience of new flavors and a jolt to their mundane eating experiences. Others will meekly play with their utensils and anxiously pick away at the foreign food

---

Tips to Avoid Being Assaulted in Korea

I've held this post as a draft since December of LAST year. I held it mainly because I was getting lots of flak for being overly negative at the time, and pretty angry -- and I'd have to agree with the assessment that my anger with Korea at the time was boiling over. But when you hear incident after incident of foreigners being attacked, but the Korean media instead acting as if the pattern was the complete opposite, that foreigners were going out there with the intent to make trouble... Arg

---

Obama's Birth Certificate and Schwarzenegger

I was talking to a friend of mine today who was a Hillary supporter and I was telling her about the ongoing Obama birth certificate saga. Unbelievably, I had never mentioned it to her before and of course, she hadn't heard about it because the media has not been talking about it. So, I started to break it all down for her and as anyone with half a brain should, she was disgusted. She was shocked and she was livid. She said to me, "Well damn. They can't let him do this and not people like Arnold

---

Brains Not Valid In Ken-Tuck-Ee

Brains Not Valid In Ken-Tuck-Ee Main Column | Kentucky Kentucky, 3 December 2008 Memo to Daniel John Essek: YOU ARE DUMB. You would think Kentucky would be satisfied with having the Creationist Museum within its borders, meeting the collective stupidity needs of the entire state, day after day. You would think, given the law of averages, that the rest of the state would almost have to be an intellectual paradise, with flying cars and domed cities and fusion plants cranking out clean energy, ju

---

Hey! x3

From TV Magazines Hey! Hey! Hey!  "One Love ~ truth" SP Medley!  Plus one more song! At the shooting Jun kun made a mistake on choreography. So they had to re-take. When they were getting ready Nino chan said to Ohchan "Today's your outfit is seriously sexy!" Everyone said "Hu~! Hu~!" So Ohchan look back and smirked! Aiba chan said "Today we have a foreigner" and looked at Ohchan. Ohchan has gone fishing a lot and got tanned. They also sung "Beautiful days" There was part when Ohchan and Jun

---

Stuck between two worlds

Have you ever felt like you don’t really belong anywhere? That you are stuck between two cultures and at times it feels like two worlds? You can’t seem to satisfy either one, and people ridicule you for that. I don’t know why I have this feeling. Maybe I felt it more as a blogger than at any time in my life. I am just very different. Also, I don’t ridicule others, or bother to say anything negative about anyone. When I don’t like what someone says, or disagree with someone, I just leave their

---

Billboard Top 100 Songs from this week in 1990

How many of these are you old enough to remember? Billboard Top 100 - 1990 2 Dec 2008 01. Hold On: Wilson Phillips Wilson Phillips - Wilson Phillips: Greatest Hits - Hold On (Single Edit) 02. It Must Have Been Love: Roxette Roxette - A Collection of Roxette Hits! Their 20 Greatest Songs! - It Must Have Been Love 03. Nothing Compares 2 U: Sinead O’Connor Sinead O’Connor - So Far…The Best of Sinead O’Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U 04. Poison: Bell Biv Devoe Bell Biv DeVoe - Bell

---

REVIEW: The Storm by Jean Johnson

Shannon C.'s review of The Storm (Sons of Destiny, Book 6) by Jean Johnson Fantasy romance released by Berkley 1 Sep 08 I'll be sad to see the last of the Sons of Destiny. I feel like I've spent the last year getting to know all of them, and there are only two more books to go. I really do hope Ms. Johnson has other stuff in store for us, because I for one will definitely be on board when she brings it out. That being said, this sixth entry in the series isn't my favorite, largely for perso

---