Bib item

   
Title The lands of charm and cruelty : travels in Southeast Asia by Stan Sesser.
Author Sesser, Stan
Published New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1993
Edition 1st ed
Detail xxvi, 306 p. : maps ; 23 cm
Abstract Southeast Asia - an infinitely fascinating part of the world, whose people are beautiful and welcoming, whoseancient cultural traditions still thrive today, whosegreat religious relics and works of art dazzle thetraveler. At the same time, however, Southeast Asia ishaunted by tyranny and repression - ruled by governmentsthat dismiss democracy and human rights as Westernindulgences and view the most severe ecologicaldegradation as a small price to pay for economic growth.Taking us with him into Burma, Laos, Singapore, Borneo,and Cambodia, Stan Sesser shows us these lands of charmand cruelty - and ubiquitous paradox - as we have neverbefore seen them. For example:. In LAOS, along the Ho ChiMinh Trail, the villagers, even those who were maimed byU.S. bombs, welcome a visiting American with unreservedwarmth and hospitality - and they have turned the endlessbomb craters we left behind into fish ponds whose edgesare lined with decorative rows of spent artillery shells.In SINGAPORE, an economic powerhouse where employment isuniversal and everything works with awesome efficiency,the government imprisons a political dissident in aguardhouse in the middle of a theme park. In BORNEO, wemeet the gentle Penan people, who don't even have a wordfor greed in their language and who consider theenvironment paramount - but they are literally starving astheir rain-forest habitat is devastated by their ownpoliticians in league with Japanese loggers. In CAMBODIA,the BMW-filled boomtown of Phnom Penh flourishes while therest of the country struggles in poverty; meanwhile, theKhmer Rouge are rising again (with a surprising amount ofpopular support). Enlightening, politically savvy, exotic,and exciting, The Lands of Charm and Cruelty provides ajourney of discovery that leaves the reader with enduringimages and a new understanding of the extraordinary worldsit surveys
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