BY TOM PLATE — The term ‘noir’ is rather difficult define but instantaneously recognizable. In the American literary tradition, many of our greatest writers have been associated with the tradition of ‘noir’ (French for ‘black film’). They would include Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Ross Macdonald and Elmore…
ASIA MEDIA seeks to spotlight outstanding talent from the Asia-Pacific region that speaks to the cutting edge of our contemporary political concerns and emotional needs as human inhabiting a troubled planet. This issue’s featured art comes from Australia. It is perhaps hard to believe, but this fabulous 46 x 61…
You might think of it as a sort of secular miracle! At the very moment that the white smoke of confirmation was puffing skywards for the new Catholic Pope – now Francis I – Loyola Marymount was having a private lunch with UNSG Ban Ki-Moon. The venue was the secretary…
ASIA MEDIA seeks to spotlight outstanding talent from the Asia-Pacific region that speaks to the cutting edge of our contemporary political concerns and emotional needs as human inhabiting a troubled planet. This issue’s featured art comes from Australia. It is perhaps hard to believe, but this fabulous 46 x 61…
The following column by Tom Plate appeared in the Opinion Section of China Daily, the official English language newspaper in Beijing: Recently, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea threatened to nullify the Armistice Agreement inked in 1953, an apparent move to exert pressure on the United Nations Security Council while…
ARGO, the thrilling film that copped the Oscar award for Best Picture last month, was anything but a documentary. Canadians will argue that the CIA role was greatly romanticized — and blunders smoothed over. But the opening newsreel footage was commendable. It quickly depicted the sordid history of Western intervention…
ARGO won for Best Picture, of course, but in my view it merited an additional Oscar. And so did the far more controversial ZERO DARK THIRTY. Consider that Hollywood hands out awards for everything from “Sound Mixing” to “Best Picture.” But over the decades no Oscar category existed to honor…
Los Angeles – (a syndicated column by Tom Plate) It’s uncertain whether Asia will come to entertain many Western journalists that tried harder to understand their region, their ways and their history than Barry Wain, who has died at 69. The former editor of the once Hong Kong-based Asian Wall…
The Oriental Economist is a periodic newsletter that adds a whole next dimension of quality to the very idea of the ordinarily mundane if not dreary “newsletter”. The brainchild (and dear baby) of New York intellectual Richard Katz, TOE, as it is warmly called, has for years been totally invaluable…
This Thursday 6pm, LMU’s Von der Ahe Suite, William Hannon Library 322……a public lecture and discussion (with free food). The main attraction: Dean and former Singapore Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, on his new book “The Great Convergence.” Be there!
Here is an event you do not want to miss: the influential Kishore Mahbubani will be offering his views on the future political order of global politics this Thursday 28 Feb. The event is absolutely and astonishingly cost-free, but you should email your notice to attend to <asiamedia.lmu@gmail.com>. The venue…
The following column recently appeared in The Khaleej Times, a leading Gulf States newspaper with its central office in Dubai — By Tom Plate: “Crusty but brilliant Lee Kuan Yew, for decades modern Singapore’s founding leader Singapore, is on record as admitting he is anything but a religious believer in…
It would not be hard to convince many us who live in the West Coast of the painfully obvious need for severe gun-restrictions laws and attendant gun-control law-enforcement. We’re easy. California is just that way. Why recently, we actually voted to increase our taxes to support our schools! Imagine. Call…
On 5 January The Straits Times of Singapore published as its lead opinion essay a review of ‘Conversations with Ban Ki-moon,” the new book on the United Nations Secretary General that is featured as part of the ‘Giants of Asia’ series. The reviewer Asas Latif, a visiting research fellow at…
The new movie about the successful hunt to find and kill Osama bin Laden will surely cop a few Academy Awards. It is well done and worth seeing. But this is not intended to be a movie review. Rather, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ raises difficult issues about the morality of America’s…
This review of ‘CONVERSATIONS WITH BAN KI-MOON by Tom Plate has just been published in The Huffington Post — Tom Plate stands out among Western journalists. Not only has this former editorial director of the Los Angeles Times, syndicated columnist and Loyola Marymount University professor relentlessly chronicled the most important…
