FP: Tomas van Houtryve's Maostalgia

Photo © Tomas van Houtryve-All Rights Reserved
When one thinks of Foreign Policy magazine, large photographs and photo essays don't really come to mind...but that would be incorrect. The magazine regularly features photo essays from well-known photojournalist and, contrary to many online newsy magazines, does a nice job showcasing them in a large size.

This month, Foreign Policy published Maostalgia, a photo essay by Tomas van Houtryve, who traveled in the heart of China and found Mao's legacy in the most unexpected places.

For instance, he photographed in the town of Nanjie, where its government provides for all its citizens' needs, supplying them with everything from cough medicine to funerals.

A different take from the recent photo essays on glitzy China we've been accustomed to see, and which for the most part extol the virtues of the Chinese economy.

Tomas van Houtryve is a documentary photojournalist who spent much of the past five years photographing the few remaining countries still under Communist Party rule. His 2009 photo essay for FP on North Korea, "The Land of No Smiles," was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

More of his images on China can be seen here.

Booking Hotels online

This is summer time and of course the vacation time for all. Most of us might be planning on a tour to other country or some other places that is worth visiting. So if are planning for two or three days tour the first thing that we have to do is book hotels. New York one of the most beautiful place will be full of tourist during this period. Finding a hotel to stay itself will be biggest problem in this season. But internet has made this task easy for us We can search for Hotels in New York online itself. Times Square is one of the busiest area in New York which attracts millions of visitors every year. The digital banners that occupies every tall building will be very nice to see. We can search for five star, four star hotels and also know about the facilities provided by them such as dining, gym, swimming pool and also about  room rent and availability of rooms. This will greatly help us in choosing a hotel. Some provide us with inner views of the hotel too. Like wise Melbourne Hotels will also be full because it also have a lot of tourist attractions. Some of the famous hotels in this region are Claremount guesthouse, VIT HAll, Base ST Kilda and many more. Booking online is a boon to many of us who are planning for tour at the last minute. Not only in New york and Melbourne we can also search for hotels in many countries online. Since its summer most of us would like to visit coastal areas where the sea breezes makes the area pleasant. While choosing resorts the important thing to note is that most of the tourist places must be easily reachable from that location. One such famous place that is worth considering is  Caribbean Islands.  It is the famous place for beach vacation. You can find a number of resorts in this area. So don't forget there is internet to help you to figure out the best hotel. Enjoy your vacation.

NPR: Sebastian Junger On 'War'

The arm-chair warriors amongst us will like this post on NPR:

"Five times between June 2007 and June 2008 the writer Sebastian Junger traveled to a remote Army outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Junger, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, made the trip to embed with a company of soldiers from the Army's 173rd Airborne brigade as they fought to keep the Taliban from controlling a small, treacherous plot of land."

I have yet to read all of the article and listen to the excerpts, but I can easily predict that a book such as this one, and its supporting hoopla, glorifies war.

On my flight back to NYC, I tried to watch "The Hurt Locker"...5 minutes into the movie, I turned it off. Is it eyeball fatigue from all the war coverage since 2001 or is it moral disgust...or is it both?