I had dinner at Yamo, a hole-in-the-wall Burmese place in the Mission tonight.  When I say hole-in-the-wall, I really mean it, it’s just 10 seats along a long, narrow counter looking on to the kitchen area with three Cantonese ladies engaging in a frantic ballet of taking orders, cooking, pouring water and collecting money.  I [...]

I just got an email from Paul Hilder of Avaaz.org about a Global Handshake for the China Olympics: As the Beijing Olympics begin, the world looks on with mixed emotions. It’s a moment which should bring us closer together, and Chinese citizens deserve their excitement — but the Chinese government still hasn’t opened meaningful dialogue [...]

From Avaaz.org: In the wake of a massive cyclone, at least 22,000 Burmese are dead. More than 40,000 are missing. A million are homeless. But what’s happening in Burma is not just a natural disaster–it’s also a catastrophe of bad leadership. Burma’s brutal and corrupt military junta failed to warn the people, failed to evacuate [...]

What do you think? Burma, China, North Korea – should travelers visit oppressive countries with bad human rights records?  I read this article this morning while I was waiting at the dentist’s office. In her April 2008 article, “See Mo’ Evil,” Outside senior editor Stephanie Pearson rebuts Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s call [...]

This is an email I received today from Avaaz.org. They are on a staff retreat right now in the South of Spain, but it seems like they are keeping busy with this Burma campaign and trying to get ads placed in newspapers. I can’t wait to see what the ads look like. Hopefully, they will [...]