It’s not often that I feel generous enough to share links to blogs rather than to just specific posts. Tonight, however, I’m going to. Enjoy!
- The Duck of Minerva is a great IR blog.
- Journey of a Burmese Rebel is a photo blog of a Burmese rebel who became a refugee in the U.S. Unfortunately, I think this blog has run out of material, but it’s an interesting hour or so.
- World Politics Review Blog is simply phenomenal. I strongly recommend you read it!
- This is Why You’re Fat isn’t really related to this or these blogs, but it is a great look. Also, it reminds me of the glory of American living.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, I thought I should show you this: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/05/english-teachers-quarantined-for-swine.html
It’s sadly stuff like that that gives embassies/the FS a bad name sometimes among expats, and I’m curious about your thoughts about this type of thing happening.
Thanks for the link, Kelsey. Yes, I recommend Brian in Jeollanam-do, too. *cough*
I don’t know exactly how accurate that conversation is, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the embassy just blew them off. I’ve heard nothing but complaints about the serrvice at the US Embassy in Seoul, though I’ve not been there enough to say for myself. But, the more troublesome incidents have to do with cases of mysterious deaths of Americans in South Korea, in which the US Embassy has not only been uninterested, but at times apparently intentionally obstructive.
(pardon the plug, but the links are collected here:) http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/03/almost-kind-of-strange-coincidence.html
Also take a look at http://mightiemike.com for perhaps the highest profile case of a foreigner dying in Korea under suspicious circumstances.
Yeah, there have been a few American deaths while I’ve been here, and from what I can tell, the support from the embassy has ranged from nil to actively problematic. It’s one of the things that led me to write up a letter to my folks with instructions of what to do, who to talk to, etc, in case something happened to me here. I feel fortunate that I know Marc, as his family would probably be able to help, since they know the right hoops to jump through, etc, but most people would likely be 100% lost, and the embassy here seems to, frankly, not really care. There’s a huge number of Americans here, and many of us have had major problems here, so it seems interesting to me that this particular embassy seems to be staffed largely by uninterested staff. And yeah, even with the case of Mike, it apparently took a huge amount of harrassment of the embassy to get them to do much at all.
Out of curiosity, how common is it that embassies get reputations like this? Is Seoul’s particularly bad?
Unfortunately, that sort of reputation is common. Hopefully if you’ve been reading this blog you know that the men and women of the foreign service are dedicated, intelligent and hardworking folk who are trying to serve their country. However, consular officers are guests just like anyone else. We have to use the host country’s police, medical, and legal infrastructures. In many countries, these institutions aren’t as developed as in the U.S.; that’s part of the price (and adventure) of living abroad.
Consular officers generally care greatly about what goes on in their district, but frequently find themselves constrained by resources and international law. (It can also be difficult finding local staff who provide American levels of service.)
Consular officers visit prisoners, get the destitute home, register births and deaths, and try to help grieving families understand the complicated process of repatriation despite their recent loss. It’s not an easy job, but I believe we generally have excellent people doing it.
Now, I’ve never been to Korea, so it’s possible there’s a convergence of really terrible officers, but I doubt it. Americans expect a lot from their government, but for better or worse, we can’t govern overseas. It’s simply not our country.
One of my professors contributes to the Duck of Minerva and she definitely knows her stuff. It’s a shame that it is always the same handful of people commenting though.
Strange to find a blog and days later see references to people I know.
And seeing as you seem to know about seo, based off the structure and interlinking of your blog, I would just add that deep links to posts are in fact more generous than those to the homepage.
“Americans expect a lot from their government”
I agree, in fact, I’d say we generally expect *too* much. However, that said, if I was detained like the person in that post, I’d probably be pissed if someone said “It’s inconvenient right now. Can you call back in a couple days?”
Okay Hegemonist…..been reading in the background for the past month or so without commenting. Posts continue to be solid, enlightening and entertaining. The “This is why you’re fat” blog is absolutely hilarious. Of course monkey brains are high in cholesterol - all brains are! Thanks for your continued efforts for this blog.
@The Hegemonist: Why not create a blog roll?
For the record, I second DoM. It is an excellent blog that I regularly find myself commenting on. Of course, I like it more for “policy wonk” reasons than “IR” fixes, but it is nice to see them get recognition nonetheless.
@T. Greer: So far I’ve avoided it because I’m not sure how it would work. All the cool kids seem to have them, but I’m not crazy about cluttering up my sidebars more than they already are. I’m thinking about adding a “Links” page, like a 1998 Geocities website, but there are still challenges. Who do I include? What do I do when a good reader e-mails me asking to be included even though his or her blog isn’t quite right? What do I do to make sure they’re all up to date? It seems like an awkward social situation just waiting to explode. Also, it seems like a lot of work for less tangible reward than occasionally linking. Of course, more content for readers is supposedly a perk, so we’ll see.
Have you found any of this to be true with your blog roll? Do you know of anything you’ve gained by having it that you wouldn’t otherwise? I’d love to hear your insights…
TH, sorry about the slow response time on this one.
If length is the a challenge, you can do what I currently have in place - a blogroll that picks ten random links to display. Every time you refresh the page, 10 different links will appear.
You should not worry about them being out of date. Your blog roll should not include sites which you do not visit frequently- why recommend a blog if you are not an active reader yourself?
As for the random reader wanting to be part of the blog roll- to be honest, I have not had this problem. However, it should not be too hard to get around, I don’t think. A small disclaimer somewhere on here that you do not take submissions for the blog roll or something of that sort would be enough.
I generally think blogrolls are good things. And to be honest, I never would have found this site were it not for its position on Diplopundit’s own blogroll.
So will a blogroll benefit you directly? No, not really. However it will benefit those bloggers out there who you think should be read by everyone of your readers.
And for the record- it is a lot easier to edit your blog roll than it is to write a post like this.