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Subtitled “Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare”, Brenner uses his extensive background in and knowledge about national security to explain America’s next great battleground: digital security. Incidents like WikiLeaks posting secret U.S. State Department cables is only the tip of this massive, transparent iceberg that threatens to sink the United States.
Counterfeit computer chips have found their way into our fighter aircraft; the Chinese stole a new radar system that the navy spent billions to develop. American and NATO soldiers used intentionally corrupted thumb drives to download classified intelligence from laptops in Iraq; citizens fall for phishing scams and give up the log in information to their bank. And you and I should stop trying to hide behind anonymity when book blogging and blog reading because nothing is secretive on the web.
The book reads largely like a spy novel with perennial favorite Russia and new favorite China at it again and there were moments when I was afraid Brenner might be exaggerating. Yet, he backs up with statements with citations and expertise. Overall, the book is a great read. Unsettling? Yes. But a fascinating read nonetheless. I’m really looking forward to my class’ discussion on this topic tomorrow.
Book Mentioned:
- Brenner, Joel.America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare. New York: Penguin, 2011. 308 pgs. ISBN: 9781594203138. Source: Purchased.
Subtitled “The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle”. Merchants of Madness provides a convoluted examination of the methamphetamine trade in the “Golden Triangle”, the intersection of the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma (also known as Myanmar). The authors argue the root causes of the drug trade are ethnic conflict and prolonged, stifling military rule in Burma mean drugs will continue to circulate throughout the Golden Triangle and the rest of the world.
Utilizing extensively researched examples, Lintner and Black explain how the trade in methamphetamines and other drugs are carried out under the auspicious of a government trying to hold onto territorial control. The Burmese government allowed particular regions such as the Wa State to become semi-independent buffer states with their own laws and administrations between Burma and its neighbors, subsequently allowing the trade in heroin and methamphetamines to flourish. The construction of these states within states and the intertwining of the state’s governmental apparatuses with drug trafficking mean prosecutions rarely occur.
The extensive use of examples is complicated, however, by an instance on using examples from other countries. By comparing the Wa area of Burma to Boten, Laos and corruption in Burma to Thailand, Lintner and Black are actually saying efforts to stem drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle are problematic across the region rather than in one particular hotspot. Burma may be the source of methamphetamine tablets, but the reader is left with a sense that the region as a whole has failed to prevent the trade of yaba. Singling out Burma seems unjustifiable given the geographical expanse of examples and may be indicative of a basis on the part of the authors, both of whom reside in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The later idea is supported by the opening chapter entitled “The Madness” which explains the horrific social effects of methamphetamine usage for the Thai people, particularly those residing in Chiang Mai, rather than for people of all nationalities in the region.
The final chapter of the book entitled “The Future?” explains how little criticism has befallen on Burma from its neighbors and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who call the drug trade an internal affair over fears of losing access to Burmese natural gas. Those who criticize the Burmese drug trade exist mainly the West and refuse to work with governments not recognized outside the country. Lintner and Black argue that in order to stem the flow of drugs criticizing nation-states must see entities like the United Wa State Army (UWSA) outside of the binaries of good and evil. Certainly this is an argument that can applied to efforts to combat at litany of illegal activities, but the final suggestion of creating accord between ethnic groups in Burma falls flat because the authors fail to explain how this could be accomplished. Democracy appears to be the primary suggestion without consideration that democracy could open the country up to further violence and tensions under an assembling government, conditions under which drug trafficking could continue to flourish.
Overall, Lintner and Black’s Merchants of Madness makes some good points on extraterritoriality for drug traffickers and complications of sovereignty in dealing with the trade of methamphetamines, but the book fails to make a convincing case that Burma is the sole country to blame for the “explosion” in methamphetamine trade and usage.
Book Mentioned:
- Lintner, Bertil and Michael Black. Merchants of Madness: The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2009.
Subtitled “Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men,” Hvistendahl turns a critical eye to practice of sex selection as people around the world are tilting the sex ratio from a normal 105 boys for every 100 girls to a staggering 120 to 163 boys for every 100 girls. It’s not just China and India that are selecting boys over girls but countries in Eastern Europe and the United States are selecting one sex over the other.
“It also does not bode well for places like Afghanistan or the Middle East, where couples have a long-standing preference for boys and fertility is, at least for now, still high. If access to abortion improves and the birth rate falls in the Middle Eat, some scholars believe it will be the next region to develop a gender imbalance.” (pg. 40)
Hvistendahl breaks this complex issue (and her book) into three parts: part one addresses the discovery of tilting sex ratios across time, part two traces how encouraging people to have only one child whether through forced sterilization or changing social norms became “A Great Idea”, and part three presents an apocalyptic world were women don’t exist. Except, in parts of the world, this apocalyptic world is already in existence and women are being trafficked across countries to become brides for men where women are in short supply.
So much of the world’s attention has focused on Asian countries where millions of women are said to be missing due to sex selection. But one of the things I love about Hvistendahl’s book is that she casts a wide net and focuses on how the problem has manifested itself in other countries. In contrast to Asian countries, Americans want girls under a fanciful idea that all little girls enjoy playing with dolls and wear dresses. She also explains how sex selection decisions by parents in South Korea and Taiwan effect the lives of poor families in Vietnam as their daughters leave (willingly and unwillingly) to become wives of those the country as well the effect it may have on nationalism.
Hvistendahl approaches the role abortion has played with this issue with a delicate hand, not outright demanding that abortion be outlawed but also not shying away from the role abortion has played in the issue. It’s clear to see why women’s rights and feminist groups, particularly those that are pro-choice, have shied away from addressing sex selection based on Hvistendahl’s book.
The book wasn’t exactly what I needed for my research paper on gender and development but it still proved to be an absolutely fascinating read. So glad I decided to pick it up.
Book Mentioned:
- Hvistendahl, Mara. Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. New York: Public Affairs, 2011. Print. 316 pgs. ISBN: 9781586488505. Source: Library.
Subtitled “Conversations Between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution”, this oral history is a translation of a conversation between Ye and Ma as they recount their lives in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, which includes the volatile Cultural Revolution. Fashioning themselves as a misunderstood generation, the authors explain the impact the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the march towards the countryside had on their lives.
An absolutely fascinating read. Raised to shed gender distinctions, Ye and Ma now reexamine their lives during this time period through the lens of gender and see how they were raised differently from their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. These women not only attempted to adopt less feminine dressing but also attempted to fashion themselves as men.
“Eliminating gender distinctions was never articulated as a goal of the movement, but to be a revolutionary implicitly meant to look like a man.” (pg. 4)
I also greatly appreciated their honesty as to their actions during this time. Instead of trying to present themselves as counterrevolutionary and against Mao’s campaigns, the two women admit the roles they played. One even goes so far as to admit that she had physical abused a woman with a belt. I highly recommend this book.
Book Mentioned:
- Ye, Weili with Xiaodong Ma. Growing Up in The People’s Republic: Conversations Between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution. New York: Palgrave, 2005. Print. 177 pgs. ISBN: 1403969965. Source: Purchased.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has championed itself as the great equalizer amongst man and woman alike. But while it ostensibly favored women’s rights and family reform, it has rarely pushed for such reforms and, in reality, its policies have often reinforced the traditional role of women to further the CCP’s political, economic, and military aims.
I have the feeling that Johnson’s book started out as a collection of essays as she rehashes common phrases as well as terms and research established by others every time she uses them. Margery Wolf established what the natal family meant for Chinese women; I do not need this repeated to me every time she uses the term. This repetition left me frustrated and drew the book out longer than necessary.
There is a heavily reliance upon novels and short stories, many of which I have read for my class this semester, written during this time period to explain how women felt about the actions of the CCP. Unfortunately, this book is also not ethnography so the personal stories needed to garnish sympathy and understanding was missing.
Book Mentioned:
- Johnson, Kay Ann. Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Print. 282 pgs. ISBN: 0226401898. Source: PaperBackSwap.
