Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us

Open Registration for CBR13 ends Jan. 31! Sign Up Today!

> FAQ Home
> Genre: History > I Do Wonder if the Title Blood and Money Might Have Been More Appropriate?

I Do Wonder if the Title Blood and Money Might Have Been More Appropriate?

Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia by Michael Vatikiotis

October 11, 2020 by LittlePlat Leave a Comment

 

I think I have mentioned previously that as an Australian, I believe that our country should make more of an effort to reach out to and engage with our closest neighbours, rather than waiting for them to engage with us, on our terms. Part of this then is making more of an effort to pay attention to and understand the politics of the region.

Now, I have to confess here, while I have made the choice to sniff out more works describing the politics of South East Asia, my interest is not entirely purely academic. Some of it is motivated by what I think is probably the same kind of things that drive (and I hate to say it but it’’s true) gossip hounds to go after celebrities. I just want to stick my nose in. Except my target isn’t the rich and famous but the rich and horrifically corrupt.

My main target of interest? The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Just WHAT was going on there? What the hell was Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Najib Razak fucking doing? Was he trying to one-up Indonesia’s General Suharto in the dirty-rotten-scoundrels embezzlement competition (There’s another story that we just never seem to hear about.)

I want to know more.

So I picked up Michael Vatikiotis’ book Blood and Silk and gave that a shot. Vatikiotis worked for and edited the Far Eastern Economic Review, and has worked for years in the region, so I figured he might have a pretty good idea what’s going on.

One thing that stood out right from the get-go is that this is not an optimistic book. Don’t get me wrong, Vatikiotis has nothing but praise for the people in the region and their cultures. But their governments are a completely different matter. Much of the region seems to be struggling with democracy and to work out why you need to look at their more recent history.

In the first part of the book, Power, Vatikiotis give us a political history of the region, giving us the context of the countries’ political systems, and why “demi-democracy” seems to be the prevailing state. Even though the wealth of most of these counties has grown since the 1980’s, along with the level of education, the openness of their democracies has not caught up; possibly linked to a lack of institutional integrity. In the second part, Conflict, Vatikiotis goes on to addresses what he considers the most urgent concerns facing this part of the globe. And it’s not terribly optimistic. Personally, I think a whole other book could be written on the role of China in this region in the next few decades, although the Middle East certainly has a vested interest as well. The amount of money flowing through this region, both historically and in more modern times, has not done anything to help stability.

Fitting for someone who was taking a less than purely academic interest, Blood and Silk is not a purely academic book. It’s very obvious the Vatikiotis is not telling this from a detached perspective; you feel like he’s across the table from you, sharing a drink or two, as tells you about all the times he met certain figures when working at the Far Eastern Economic Review. (The bit about the Thai crown prince’s pet poodle that got commissioned as an air force officer was surprisingly hilarious) While this makes the book very engaging, it also makes its structure a little scattershot. So while informative, it’s no reference book.

Overall, this is a good introduction to the political complexity of the region — provided you take into consideration that fact that it’s only one man’s observations. And not only did I get some insight into the drama behind the 1MDB scandal, but it gave me a couple of more leads to follow as well.

Which I should probably approach more seriously.

 

For Bingo, this is Money. For the hundreds of millions Razak channelled to his personal accounts.

Filed Under: History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: #history, cbr12bingo, Michael Vatikiotis, Money, South East Asia

LittlePlat's CBR12 Review No:22 · Genres: History, Non-Fiction · Tags: #history, cbr12bingo, Michael Vatikiotis, Money, South East Asia ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About LittlePlat

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participant

I'm trying to catch up with my reading And my writing And my everything, really. Not actually a platypus View LittlePlat's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Malin on If you are getting another cat, read this book. Heck, if you have a cat, get this book.Ponyo is just as cute as her namesake. This book sounds really useful, I suspect my husband and I are not giving our cats all...
  • msvreadsbooks on The Last Resort – Meh.Thanks, all! I'm excited to get started on this journey and to read more reviews from my fellow Cannonballers (is that what we're called?).
  • msvreadsbooks on The Last Resort – Meh.Then this book is for you! Haha. It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
  • andtheIToldYouSos on Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.ONE OF US ONE OF US
  • andtheIToldYouSos on Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.I let the art come my way through the Tor instagram...if I sought it out, I'd never stop!
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in