American Echoes
I’ve spent 13 of the last 17 months outside the USA, writes Linh Dinh, and have no plan or wish to return.
Reading Malaysia
Linh Dinh stops off in Malaysia where he reflects on the local history and the architecture
Escape from America: Mexico
Linh Dinh talks to a young Mexican who lived in the U.S. as an illegal migrant since he was a baby, but who now wants to return to the land of his birth
Frontiersmen vs. Wusses
Linh Dinh reports from Vietnam’s Central Highlands, from where he reflects on the delights of a local delicacy, dogmeat
America as Religion
America’s most enduring export has been its image. The farther you are from the US, the more mythical it becomes, it seduces everyone into worshipping its self-portrait.
Escape from America: Budapest
Linh Dinh talks to a U.S. expatriate living in Budapest on the joys and benefits of not living in the States
Walt Whitman, Mass Media and Jewish Power
Sigmund Freud’s discovery of the unconscious was weaponized by his nephew Edward Bernays and transformed into what is euphemistically known as ‘public relations’
The Mekong Retains, Erases
The Mekong Delta hasn’t just become Vietnamese, but quintessentially so, just as California, taken from Mexico, is emblematically American. Nothing is final
Escape from America: Dedovsk, Russia
Linh Dinh talks to an American who has been living in Russia for the past few years
I’m Your Next President
Do you want John Bolton in charge in the White House? Linh Dinh offers a solution to prevent that nightmare scenario
Monkeys
The Vietnamese seem to have concluded that Marx is a false god. In place of his image temples, shrines and churches are spreading throughout the land, together with the odd shaman
Heart of Darkness Germany
While still enjoying relative prosperity, stability, even tranquillity, there are more signs that Germany is fast approaching the “heart of darkness.”