"[This book] embodies the Buddhist wisdom about change, life, and the
world more than anything written after the events of that day."
Robert Stone

January 2011 Archives

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January 29, 2011

AGAIN, WATCHING THE WORLD CHANGE ...IN TUNISIA AND EGYPT

I've written a preface to the new edition of Watching the World Change, coming out this summer. Among the topics discussed: the recent upheaval in Tunisia and elsewhere in the Middle East and how the populace in the street utilized YouTube and social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter to organize, mobilize, and disseminate information.

Citizen journalism and social-networking-for-social-change are themes explored in the sixth chapter of the book (pages 284 to 292). As on September 11, we are tapping into new technologies to document, witness, and propel history-as-it-happens. And we are, again, watching the world change.

Today, Tunisia and Egypt. Tomorrow, Jordan and Yemen? And what about Pakistan? Or even Iran, with its dormant Green Revolution, itself embodied it the viral video of young Neda, shot in a Tehran street by militiamen?

January 9, 2011

10th Anniversary Edition

Watching the World Change, for the time being, is out of print and out of stock in both hardcover and paperback editions. I encourage any interested readers to pick up the electronic version for the Kindle, or other tablet devices...or to put in an advance order at your local independent bookstore for the next edition.

This month I am writing a new preface to that volume, which Picador will publish this summer, both in print and digitally, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.