My full name is Jose Manuel Tesoro, but everyone calls me Joel. My hometown is Manila. For most of the 1990s, except for eight months as a student in Myanmar (Burma), I was a print journalist who covered East and South East Asia, first as a staff writer in Hong Kong for Asiaweek and then as Jakarta correspondent for the magazine. I wrote The Invisible Palace, a true account of a journalist's murder in Java, which was named a 2005 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book in Non-Fiction. Now I'm a third-year student at Harvard Law School, where I study transnational federalism, regulation and the evolving Internet.
[Editor's note: Sadly, Joel passed away at the end of 2008 and is missed and remembered by his friends at Global Voices]
Latest posts by Jose Manuel Tesoro
Philippines: Blogging Humanity
San Juan Gossip Mills Outlet gives thanks for all the people he's met through blogging. He writes: “All in all, friend or foe come home to nest in their respective...
Thailand: People's Constitution
Tom Vanvanij reflects on the current Thai constitution — now that it looks like the kingdom will be getting a new one.
Myanmar: Growing Army
Burma Digest looks at how Myanmar's military has doubled in the past 15 years even as its neighbors have reduced the numbers of their soldiers.
Malaysia: Chinese Taxes
Anak Merdeka reacts to an amazing statement by Malaysia's former PM Mahathir Mohamad that Malaysia's development had been funded largely by taxes paid by ethnic Chinese — and not Malay...
Indonesia: Polygamy, Polygyny, Polyandry
Cafe Salemba points readers to a clutch of interesting links analyzing polygamy from the perspective of economics.
Malaysia: Rising Islamism?
Colors of Life worries that, as Islamist political power rises in the country, the dice has been cast against a “Malaysian” Malaysia.
Philippines: More on Rent Control
Another Hundred Years Hence responds to a reader, a Filipino-American who owns some apartment buildings in New York, who argues that rent control may help the urban poor stay in...
Singapore: Staying Skeptical of Scripture
Singapore's Salt * Wet * Fish reposts a 2004 entry from his old LiveJournal that continues to have resonance: a reflection on a passage by Buddhist nun Thich Nhat Hanh...
Thailand: Dodging the Question
Thai blog Bookish reflects on the beleaguered Thai PM's evasion of a question posed to him on a TV talk show: Did he make a mistake transferring his company's shares...
Vietnam: The Rest of the Country
Virtual Doug tries to grasp how Việt Nam’s rapid economic growth is affecting its countryside, where 80% of its people live.
Vietnam: Painted Scrolls
Six Months in Hanoi asks for help identifying the imagery in two painted scrolls he brought back with him from Vietnam.
Singapore: Playing the Game Counts
Wormie takes issue with those in Singapore complaining it was a waste of money to send a losing team to the Commonwealth Games. “Winning or losing is not everything in...
Singapore: No Longer Anonymous
Mr. Wang Bakes Good Karma, commenting on the rising prominence of local bloggers in the media, thinks the old belief that bloggers are anonymous is no longer true: “So I...
Thailand, Singapore: Crashing Investment
Singapore Election Watch reposts a forum comment by someone pointing out that the value of state-owned Temasek Holdings’ controversial investment in Thailand's Shin Corp. — which triggered a political crisis...
Singapore: Leaving Home
agrain of sand has a dilemma: “How to tell my parents that Singapore isn’t really my home anymore? I mean, yes, they are back there, I grew up there, they...
Thailand: Boycott and Democracy
Chemical Generation Singapore thinks that Thai opposition's decision to boycott the coming snap elections is a strategic miscalculation and bad for democracy.
Philippines: Dress Codes
Jove Francisco asks if whether the Philippine press corps’ decision to dress “up” or “down” reflects their level of respect for the President.
Myanmar: Material Support
Burma Underground discusses the hypocrisy of the U.S. government opposing the Myanmar junta while denying thousands of Myanmar refugees resettlement in the U.S. because of purported “material support” to terrorists.
Indonesia: Tolerance for Terror
Sarapan Ekonomi worries about a recent survey result that indicate 11% of Indonesians – or 24.2 million people – think terrorist attacks are OK.
Cambodia: Gentle Tactics
Maytel 2020 talks about how Cambodians’ gentleness is really a strategy for survival. “Having observed the natural and unassuming bodily gestures of village life I can say undoubtedly that the...
Singapore, Malaysia: Comparing Educational Systems
Rajan Rishyakaran recently got his exam results back. That got him writing about the differences between the Singapore and Malaysian systems of education. Singapore's is highly competitive and meritocratic while...
