Foreign Policy Magazine

I saw the March-April issue of this excellent magazine from the Carnegie Institute in the Chinatown newsagency, but alas I am fated to read it online these days and there’s a lot you don’t get to see there unless you are a subscriber. However, check what you can see! Still quite a lot.

Here is just one example: A World Enslaved by E. Benjamin Skinner.

Most people imagine that slavery died in the 19th century. Since 1817, more than a dozen international conventions have been signed banning the slave trade. Yet, today there are more slaves than at any time in human history.

And if you’re going to buy one in five hours, you’d better get a move on. First, hail a taxi to JFK International Airport, and hop on a direct flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The flight takes three hours. After landing at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport, you will need 50 cents for the most common form of transport in Port-au-Prince, the tap-tap, a flatbed pickup retrofitted with benches and a canopy. Three quarters of the way up Route de Delmas, the capital’s main street, tap the roof and hop out. There, on a side street, you will find a group of men standing in front of Le Réseau (The Network) barbershop. As you approach, a man steps forward: “Are you looking to get a person?”…

You might also ponder Is Iraq better off? “Five years on, key indicators paint a picture of a country trying to rise from the rubble.”

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About changes around here

Because some of you come straight into this blog without looking at the Gateway blog, now known as Ninglun’s Entry and Index, I am taking from last Sunday over there this part:

First thing you will notice is that a major transformation has happened, part of my ongoing project to integrate the active blogs. Ninglun’s Personal Papers has become Ninglun’s Specials and incorporates Floating Life Sans Words. This required a change of template. I have also made sure there is a link from Sans Words on each post back to its new home. It made sense to incorporate these two as the posts facility on one and the pages facility on the other were under-utilised. I think the blend works well. A brief incorporation of Sans Words into this blog didn’t work so well.

So the first entry in the new Ninglun’s Specials is More nostalgia. In my boyish imagination….

And yesterday I added:

…on Ninglun’s Specials Closely watched planes 1 which deals with the Kittyhawk and refers to my father’s RAAF service.

Ninglun’s Specials is pretty much rant-free. Do have a look.