French philosopher and journalist Benrad-Henry Levy wrote a seminal book on forgotten wars titled "War, evil and the end of history", chronicling his various travel to the low intesity war around the world (SriLanka, Angola, Burundi, Colombia, and more) where the vision of hell is turned to reality.

An American writer Robert Young Pelton write "The Hunter, the hammer and heaven: Journeys to the world gone mad" travelled to aftermath of Sierra Leone, to the midst of second Russian invasion to Checnya, and the post Executive Outcome scandal in Bougenville, Papua New Guinea.

I very much recommend you to read these two books about these conflicts that are still raging for decades and constantly consume any vision of hope for peace in their region. What both books bring is a horiffic and vivid description of "we are in worse shit than we thought" concept and why the good intention of peace process and diplomacy might looks good on paper and newspaper headline, but simply doesn't matter to the parties involved on the ground, locked in a dance of death and distruction that lasts for generations, so long that most people involved have forgotten why the conflict started in the first place. War is simply what you do.

Excerpts from "War, Evil and End of history"

"And the Muslim engineer who tells about the impossible situation of his community, the third group on the island and, perhaps, the most threatened: "we speak Tamil, but we are not Tamil, and even are we Tigesr - they see us as false friends, they hate us, rob us" Muslims as excluded outsiders? Islam caught in the crossfire of Buddhism and Hiduism?" (On Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger conflict - the innovator of sucide bombers)

"The second camp came after a year. It was a training camp still in the Wanni. They taught the women who, like me, were not virgins to spend a day with a grenade in our vagina. They put replicas of the suicde-vest on our backs-those big heavy vests, stuffed with dynamite, with a detonator, a cable , and stell balls, which the Leader himself had conceived of after seeing them at the cinema in a Rambo movie" (from a repentant Tiger Tamil female suicide bomber trainee)

"I ended up simply asking a taxi to drive me south, and teh driver replied yes, okay, the roads are good in Burundi- but on one condition, and only one, which he clung to quite adamantly: that we make teh journey on a Saturday.

"Why Saturday? Because the "genocidal attackers," the Hutus of the FNL (National Liberation Front) the images of whose abominal crimes the entir country keep replaying over and over again--that priest whome they forced to eat his own penis before they crucified him.... those babies burried alive... those children impaled, sprinkled with gas and burned, in their schoo, by the principal himself...-- are also excellend Christians, generally of the Adventist persuasion, who don't smoke, don't drink, arrive in the villages singing humns at the top of their voices, and they consider Saturday a sacred day, devoted to prayer, on which one must above all not shed blood (On Burundi)"

"Who kills better? A fascit or a Marxist guerilla? The peasants of Querbrad Nain are still debating about it. A month ago the former arrived in the village, the "paramilitaries" of the drug lord Carlos Castano, and killed twenty people suspected of "collaboration" with the Marxist guerilla movement. Egith days later, people from the guerilla movement turned up, the one called FARC, and on the pretext that the survivors hadn't resisted enough, on the pretex that they might even have fraternized with the enemy, killed ten more of the villagers (On Colombia lost map)

After you are done with these two books, you will see why "war is never an answer" slogan simply rings hollow. Violence happens, and most of the time an overwhelming force and decisive victories are more merficul to the alternative of prolonged misery of attrition and tiring conflicts;where they last so long, it's simply become part of the country reality, and with sufficient numbers, became a reality of the regions. Take a look at Central Africa; will you be surprised to hear another armed conflict in that region?

These low intensity conflicts are the cancer of humanity, happening under our awareness, draining bloods by the gallons;not by rivers, because it will be stopped if it reaches that level.

What the world community have set is an unacknowledged acceptable level of bloodshed; a gruesome calculation of body counts and victims per day or per month; and somehow by twisted logic, it somehow makes more sense to kill many many more so that intervention will finally arrive; please horrify us to spring to action.

Currently on my reading list (don't try this at home)

W.E.B Griffin “Retreat, Hell!” - an excellent fiction based on the eve of China intervention in Korea war. Recommended.

Phil Jackson “The Last Season“ - Phil Jackson's personal perspective on L.A. Laker's 2004 season. Midly amusing but not worthy unless you are into NBA ballers.

“wordcraft“ - a business book that shed the light into the product/brand name invention (you'll read about how they come up with the name Viagra) - only interesting in you are into this kind of stuff.

Wolfram “a new kind of science“ - a encyclopedic size treatize on cellular automata. I am still sloggin' through this monstrous book.

“softwar“ - The best book on Oracle's CEO's Larry Ellison - Well recommended if you are a geek like me.

“20/20 vision“ - A fascinating book about international trends by the Chief Editor of the Economist. Still finishing it up.

“Faithful“ - two fans (famous authors) ' chronicle about the Boston Red Sox's 2004 season. Haven't read it yet.

“The Flyers“ - no judgement. Hasn't started.

“Resisting Rebellion“ - an excellent and insightful examination on insurgency around the world. Well recomended.

“The power of productivity“ - a fascinating global microeconomic examination by McKinsey Global Institute on nations economic health. It's kindda dry but the insight is useful. Recommended.

“Microsoft Reboot“ - This is supposed to be a treatise on Microsoft change of business practice and reform ..blah...blah..blah...burn the book.

“The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century“ - A book about 4th generation of warfare. Haven't read it yet.

“The flatland“ Yes, that book. I haven't read it yet.

“For the Survival of Democracy : Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s
“ - Haven't read it yet.

“Walk on water“ - You gotta..gotta..read this book about the elite Pediatric surgical unit based in Cleveland (real story). Very inspiring.

“Florence of Arabia “ - Very highly recommended funny and fine piece of writing set on a country callled “matar“ that involves that oil producing country “wasabi“ and involves satelite television and a protagonist name Firenze and the CIA and state department.

I'm currently reading a business book called “hardball : are you playing to play or play to win”.

Essentially the book says that American businesses have gone soft and lost its hard driven competitiveness.

“use every legitimate resource and strategy available to them to gain advantage over their competitors...[and by doing so] attract more customers, gain market share, boost profits, reward their employees, and weaken their competitors' positions." “

It implores businesses to be ruthless to their competitors. If your competitor left an opening, drive a stake through it. Step on them while they are down. Fuck'em. Let them bleed and die and sell their carcases.

No sympathy for the enemy.

I have no problem with the book but I rather concentrate on building our own markets and our customers than worrying about our competitors. They have plenty of opportunities to shoot themselves on the foot. As Digs quipped in his blog “As though more proof was needed that Dody doesn't have a soul!”

”endgame: the Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror” is one crappy book. What a waste of my 20 minutes skimming time (book is free, borrowed from library)

The book is written by Lt. General Thomas McInerney (USAF - Ret) and Maj. General Paul vallely (Army - Ret).

Sorry generals, better stick to your FoxNews commentator job.

Here' the main problem with the book.

1. The book is 208 pages in length. 35 pages of those are introduction written by Oliver North, a bunch of political rants that have no place in a book with such a serious title. Man, if I want to read rants, I can read blogs.  

2. This book is direct translation of television punditry into written text. “Our nightmare - made more nightmarish because it is so plausible”. blah.

3. Blue print. What blue print? There is none here. What we have in the whole 208 - 34 (introduction) - 16 (pictures)  = 150 pages of Op-Eds.

4. There is no new ideas that hasn't been espoused or written by many people, military or non - military during the past three years. Been there, read that, ranted about it.

5. Dubious “facts” and “claims“

   “In our research for this book, we discovered that a group of countries, led by Israel and U.S., has been working since 1981 on a mega secret project to develop and deploy a weapon system than can neutralize nuclear weapons. The highly advanced, space-deployable, BHB weapon systems, code-name XXXBHB-BACAR-1318-I390MSCH, has extraordinary potential and is a key part of the West's deterrence strategy. For the past twenty-five years, the project and the sicentists involved in it were kep secret in strict secrecy and their existence denied. The scientists rejected Noble Physics prize and Nobel Peace prize nominations and have been repeteadly and deliberately the subject of intense military disinformation through the media in order to diver attention from tehir higly secretive work. In 1981, when CIA director William J.Casey signed onto the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) - a missile defense shield against incoming nuclear warheads - he gave the green light for the technology's development for deterance purposes and peaceful use only. Although we have only limited information, it appears that Iran's rapidly developing nuclear capabilities could be neutralized and rendered obsolete, as could the capabilities of other rouge countries” (page 74)

Avoid at all costs.

http://arnoldkling.com/econ/book/contents.html Free Economic Online Book.

This will be a short review.

1. Final Justice (W.E.B Griffin)
This is an awesome police story book. A must read for the fan of the genre.

2. Exit Wounds (J.A. Jance)
So so crime story.

3. Ties that Bind (Phillip Margolin)
Creative twists and interesting plot. Read.

4. Civil Wars: A battle for Gay Marriage (David Moats)
Get the street level story behind the Vermont breaktrhough civil union legislation for gay couple.

5.Sojourner: An Insider's view of the Mars Pathfinder Mission (Andrew Mishkin)
I supposed this can be a great story to tell, but I found the details boring.

We are still going strong, not a Saturday goes by without a book review.

1. How the Markets Really Work by Joel Kurtzman.

The author cited an anecdote about a meeting between a group of Russian economists and politicians and some of its American counterparts. The Russians were trying to understand who exactly in charge of the Markets.

If you want to understand the nature of prices, read this book (why my Gucci bag costs $5000 dollars?)

The previous book reviewed here (How Market Really Works) works on the fundamental nature of market. This book address the higher issue of how information shapes market (including stock market, bond market), consideration about price and value, etc.

It's  a compact book and an entertaining to read one.

Go read 'em.

2. Hunting the 1918 Flue (by Kirsty Duncan)

What is the most devastating disease ever? Black Plauge, AIDS, EBola ? nope.

It's the 1918 Spanish flu that killed an estimated 20 to 40 million people in just ONE YEAR. 1918 is not even a hundred years ago.

And the problem is, even until right now the nature of the virus is not understood. More is known about AIDS than this flu virus.

This book chronicle the effort to exhume the bodies of the victims located under permafrost in Norwegia. Kirsty Duncan is the leader of the expedition and it tells the tale for struggle within the acadamic cirlce (back stabbing, betrayal, money, soap opera stuff) regarding the project.

The book can be a bit dry at places, but the story is gripping and the educational value about the flu (of what little is known about it) is tremendous.

Recommended.

3. Murder in the Hearse Degree (by Tim Cockey).

This book is hillarious. It's a story about an undertaker who play detective. The writing is sharp and witty and I can heartily recommend this book to anyone, even to a non-fan of this genre.

Recommended. 

Alright Kiddos, here's another batch of book reviews. It'll be a terser review this time around.

1. More Balls Than Hands by Michael J. Gelb.

This book is practically a self-help book in juggling myriad tasks and demand put upon you in your life. Bland and predictable.

Not worth your time. Skip.

2. Global Woman (Nannies, Maids and Sex Workes in The New Economy) by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild.

This is a very informative and engaging book about the phenomena of global woman workers, it's benefits and troubles (abuse).

Read.

3. Near A Thousand Tables (A history of food) by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

What a delightful book. I love food and this book engage you and makes you think because it brings multi-dimensional perspective on food. There are so many interesting nuggets of knowledge that you might not know about the concept of food in the book. Do you know that Cannibalism actually comes from the word Carriba because Colombus misheard Carriba (later become Carribean) as Canniba.

Read. Run.

4. Secret Justice (James W Huston)

Stupid military thriller book.

Skip. 

Alright Chicas, there's plenty of books listed today. Let me make it quick.

1. Passages by Ann Quin.

You don't know Ann Quin ? Pick this one up.

2. SurPetition by Edward De Bono.

The king of lateral thinking wrote this compact 'lateral thinking' for business by commanding people to move from a mere competition (to just barely survive) to create value monopolies to move ahead. This is practically a creativity book. It's a breeze to read and offer useful insights.

Recommended. (compact book)

3. Embedded by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Calrson.

This is a meta media report consisted of interviews and pieces of writing by journalists embedded/non embedded with the military during the Operation Iraqi Freedom last year.  The interview wit John Burns, New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief (and the second person to win two Pulitzer prize in international reporting) is my favorite.

Recommended.

4. The Inside History on AIDS by Set C. Kalichman, PhD.

This is a sobering Q & A book on AIDS which takes you through various topics on AIDS (what is it? etc). It's a good refresher book to return to the topic again because AIDS is on the rise again (and still the biggest killer in sub-Saharan Africa).

Recommended.

5. Thinking for a living by Joey Reiman.

Another easy to read compact book on creativity. The author is a successful serial entrepreneur that in 1994 decide to leave his advertising company and decide to start yet another on based on simply selling ideas.

Recommended.

6. Special Blend : Fusion Management From Asia and The West by Lynette Lithgow.

This book does a survey coverage on Asian business practice and contrast them with Western practice in several places.

The message is interesting, but the methods of delivery sucks.

Skip. (didn't complete reading it. Snore past page 2)

7. More Than Courage by Harold Coyle.

This is a Tom-Clancy wannabe writer on military mission.

B-o-r-i-n-g.

8. Simplify Your Work Life by Elain St. James.

Self improvement book. This one can use a good one real real badly. Just as bland and sugary as two tricks blond from a Midwestern sorority.

Go read dodysm  if you want real and useful advice.

Skip. (I read page 1, 50 and 80 and bzz)

Welcome to another round of Saturday Book Review (not to be confused with NYTimes' Sunday Book Review; duh)

1. Martin Luther (The Christian Between God And Death) by Richard Marius.

This is a scholarly treatise on the life of Martin Luther. More than just re-telling the story of Luther's life, Marius ponder about the philosophy and mind of Luther at any key point of his life (such as Luther's fear of death) and provided the context and environment that makes Luther, Luther.

It's a very fascinating book but it's fuckin' hard to read.

2.  What is Gnosticism? by Karen L.King. This is THE book to read and understand Gnosticism. King pretty much busted the traditional notion that Gnosticm as some sort of “heretic version of Christianity”(and other variation) to a pre-Christian belief system that influence the organizing values system in Christianity.

Well recommended (still tough to read though;)

3. Sony (The Private Life) by John Nathan.

This is a story about Sony from its founding years up until late 90's. Nathan wrote the story of Sony from select perspective of key individual in Sony. And their story make a compelling read. The book is good until it starts exploring Sony's 80's decision to buy Columbia Pictures.

One main flaw of the book is it barely mention the development of Sony Playstation and its impact on the company.

Read the first 6 chapters. Discard the rest.

4. Time's Eye (Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter)

What if time shift happens and you end up with different period of human civilization at the same time.

This sci-fi book is a joy to read. Fun, rich of imagination, and interesting plot.

Recommended.

5. Bullets (Steve Brewer)

This  is one a  more interesting crime thriller I've read centering on a female hired killer and a Chicago cop (no they don't have sex or fall in love) much set in Vegas. There are more twist and turn in this thin book than people in a Tokyo's residential square mile.

Recommended. 

I only manage to finish  two books this week (yeah I know, that's little. Go ahead and flog me) and both of them are mediocre book.

1. The Fifth Angel by Tim Green. This is another cliche infested crime thriller book. The plot is predictable and full of cheap tricks to advance its story (even porn movies have better and more coherent plots).

This book is the kind of book they force you to read when you fall into the oh, so eternal hell. Avoid, even if your life depend on it.

2. Discover Your Genius by the guy that wrote “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci“, Michael J.Gelb (I haven't read that book). This book is a self improvement book that retell the stories and lesson learnt from 10 geniuses in history (Plato, Elizabeth I, etc).

Inspiring history in short.

The book is uneven. I like its section on Plato, Brunelleschi and Elizabeth I (Non Sine Sole Iris. gosh, love that phrase) but the rest are ho hum affairs.

My recommendation: go to the library and read the section on the aforementioned chapters. Do not buy.

Anyway I apologize for the sordid affair of this book review. I am in the processes of reading three HUP (Harvard University Press) books that so far still quite interesting. Next week is bound to be exciting.  

1. “Blue Horizon” by Wilbur Smith.

I must confess that I am a huge Wilbur Smith fan. His book is not the type of literary masterpiece or of clever narrative, but all of them have the sense of unabashed fun and adventure in colonial era and ancient Egpyt in  Africa.

Fun, adventure, Africa. Definately my cup of tea.

Blue Horizon stays true to that path.

If you are not familiar with Wilbur Smith work, this is a good book to start.

2. “Thinking How To Live“ by Allan Gibbard.

This is another heavy duty philosophy book that I refuse to finish. I know from the beginning that this book is written specifically to the academic circles, its theme to be debated endlessly by the occupants of the high towers.

It takes the central theme of the difference between normative thought and descriptive thought.

Yeah, if that theme doesn't put you to sleep already, sail ahead, otherwise avoid.

I do like its cover though. Yet another prove that to dodysm that you can only judge magazine by its cover, not books.

3. “How digital is your business” by David J. Morrison, Karl Weber, Adrian Slywotzky.

This books advocate the use of information technology to radically alter and improve the performance of your enterprise (4x, 10x performances). You only need to read the first three chapters of this book as the rest are dedicated to case studies of companies that espouse this digitization value.

How valuable is this book? If you are not familiar with the concept of digitizing business, you will reap great insights from this business, otherwise this book is  a ho-hum affair.

The central lesson of this book is that you need to automate, automate, automate as much as possible inside your organization and combine the effeciency of machine with the agility of talented people in your company. Got it?

Now I hold dear this concept because SilverKey is founded just simply for this purpose, digitizing business. Business upgrade version 3.0. Let the machine do the mundane, the predictable and the repetition, and free the human to have more time to innovate, push boundaries and play.

Usually I do my round of quick book reviews on Saturdays, but I have just finished reading book of an extraordinary tales of a Chechnyan surgeon named Khassan Baiev who stayed in Chechnya operating the wounded during the first and second Chechnyan war in the 90's .

The book is a vivid and moving personal story to the tragedy that is Chechnya. A destruction of war and conflict from the ground level. His account on the terrible toll he saw as he operated on his patients (in once case, three days straight, as he was the lone doctor, helped with volunteer nurses) is sickening. You will find yourself cringe from time to time. It's a tale filled with tragedy and unbelievable cruelty that one human being can do to another. Yes, those shocking pictures and moving videos of Chechnya, people lived there throughout the war, during the intense bombardment, without electricity and water.

If you do not care much about the conflict before, you will after.

You will learn about the culture of the Chechnyan people.

And you will be inspired by the strength and compassion of those people who survive through the whole ordeal.

If you think you have it tough, you will feel lucky after you finish this book.

This is a book you can draw inner strength from.

“The Oath : A Surgeon under fire“ (by Khassan Baiev)

A must read.

I read 5 books this week (completed three)

1.  “Blow Fly” by Patricia Cornwell. This is the latest saga from her famous Scarpetta character. I read it in 4 hours. It's pretty much content free. There ain't much brain required to read this baby. If you are fan, you'll like this latest book, otherwise it is a pretty mediocre novels (illogical ending, distruptive thrill)

2. “The free-market innovation machine” by Willliam J. Baumol. This book is drier that the Saharan dessert in the peak of Summer. The purpose of the book is to argue that “innovation, not price-setting, to whichmanagement gives priority in important sectors of the economy”, “innovation plays a role of at least comparable importance for theory of the firm and competition”.

I only managed to go through 3 chapters (out of 16 chapters) in 3 weeks time (I have to return the book today to the library). I wish I have more time.

3. “The emotional hostage: Rescuing your emotional life“ by Leslie Cameron-Bandlre and Michael Lebeau. There one word to describe this book: Narcisist.

Blah..blah..blah..you are a tramp. Sorry, I didn't finish this book as well because I cannot stand the sugary approach they use in writing this book, otherwise I'll end up with diabetes.

Avoid. Waste of time. Read Buddhism treatist on emotion instead of this crap.

4. “Re-Imagine“ by Tom Peters. Tom Peters book, as usual, acts like a stimulant to a business mind. You should read it just to revive all your creative energy in finding and acting on new ideas.

Must read. Even just for the entertainment value of it.

5. “The Art of Profitabililty“ by Adrian Slywotzky. This is a brilliant book that present 23 (twenty three) ways corporation build their profit model. It presents the models in  simple easy to understand graphs (in a Zen painting style) . You can race through this book in 2 hours as he use fictional characters and narrative to explain his theory.

That's all for this week. I will get 5  more new ones ready for review next time. Adios.

Book finished this week.

”Simplicity : The New Competitive Advantage” [Bill Jensen] -- Read Them. Bill presents an interesting  view on how to cut through the information glut and help others make decision.

“Thinker's Toolkit: Fourteen Skills for Making Smarter Decisions in Business and Life” [Morgan D.Jones] -- Skim. Spend no more than 15 minutes. Quite useful, but it doesn't present any new techniques. The insight about the unreliability of human mind as an effective decision making mechanism  in the first chapter is worth the whole book.

“Citizen Soldiers” [Stephen E. Ambrose] -- Well, this is a very engaging book about the final year of WW II, post Normandy.

I am finishing my third book this week and here's a quick review of one of them.

“Turnaround : How Carlos Ghosn rescued Nissan”

This book outlined the remarkable story of Carlos Ghosn's (affectionately called Ghosn-San in Japan) international career in  reviving companies around the world, starting from Michelin Brasil to Michelin USA, before saving the troubled French company Renault and upping it by being the master behind Nissan remarkable corporate turnaround.

The book is a quick read and offers there valuable lessons:

1. Do not be fazed by stereotypes given to a culture. Go and discover it yourself.

2. There is no inherent obstacle in a culture to adopt new influence.

3. Start with a clean sheet of paper when you move to a new place. Listen and let others teach you new insights. This way the decision you make will be more effective instead of forcing your own mindset and implement it in a new locale.

The book is worth reading.

I finished two books so far this week.

1. “Renegades of the Empire”, a book narrating the story of how three developers in Microsoft set out to create DirectX. That's all you need to know. There is nothing interesting in the book.

2. “The Art of Innovation”, a book about creating culture of innovation inside a company. The book is author by the folks at IDEO, a renowned design firm. This book deserves your time.