Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote two fantastic books about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The Sympathizer and The Committed. They’ve been made into an HBO series, too. The first book follows an unnamed character from his childhood in Vietnam as the son of a Vietnamese woman and a French priest. He gets a job working… [Read More]
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Tag: emerging markets
India: A River Sutra
A River Sutra was published in 1993. The novel is a series of tales told to the main character, a retirement government official who operates a guesthouse along the Narmada River. This position allows him to meet monks, musicians, and merchants who have storied to tell about their lives and about what brought them to… [Read More]
Morocco: Bank Al-Maghrib Museum
Morocco’s central bank has a museum in Rabat, the nation’s capital, and it is worth a visit. The collection and exhibits are a mix of economic history, numismatics, and works by Moroccan artists. The Bank al-Maghrib Museum also hosts public performances and corporate events. (Maghrib, which means “west” or “sunset”, is the Arabic name for… [Read More]
Bolivia: A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism
I first learned about Bolivia in second grade. One of the priests at my parish had served as a Maryknoll missionary in Bolivia, and he visited our classroom to tell us about it. Bolivia had two capitals, La Paz and Sucre, and the women wore bowler hats. To second graders, these were things that made… [Read More]
New Zealand: Alps to Ocean Challenge
The two most disturbing movies that I have ever seen were set in New Zealand. Once Were Warriors is a difficult story of a Maori family trying to stay together in a modern era, and Heavenly Creatures is a disturbing true-crime story starring a young Kate Winslet. Babe and What We Do In the Shadows… [Read More]
