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Thailand’s Political Crisis and the Economic Rise of its Eastern Seaboard
News that a Thai court had just ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra came to my attention yesterday just as was beginning to prepare a lecture on the politics, culture, and economy of Thailand. I...
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Mapping Nighttime Light and Economic Development in Burma
After posting the excellent Wikipedia map of per capita GDP in Thailand in the previous GeoCurrents article, I decided to look for similar information on Burma (Myanmar). I was not surprised to...
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Industry, Insurgency, and Illumination in India
The “nightlight” map of Burma posted in the previous GeoCurrents article reveals an interesting contrast with northeastern India. Although India’s far northeastern region is generally considered one of...
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Regional Patterns in India’s 2014 General Election
The overriding story of India’s 2014 general election is of course the massive triumph of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader Narendra Modi, along with the corresponding defeat of the...
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A New Political Bifurcation of India?
As mentioned in the previous GeoCurrents post, the 2014 Indian election reveals a intriguing division across the country, one separating the greater southeast, where regional parties generally...
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Indonesia’s 2014 Presidential Election and the Geography of Heavy Metal Music
When lecturing in my course on the History and Geography of Current Global Events, I always begin by showing an enigmatic map or other image and asking if anyone can make sense of it. This week the...
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Sexualized Dangdut Performances in Indonesia and Resulting Controversies
As the most recent GeoCurrents post explained, heavy-metal music has been of some political importance in Indonesia, with the country’s new president, Joko Widodo, being a major fan. Although cultural...
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The Uncertain Role of Religion in Indonesia’s 2014 Presidential Election
The on-line maps that I have found of Indonesia’s 2014 presidential election are not very helpful. That of the Wikipedia is particularly poor. To begin with, it merely shows which candidate received a...
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Slides on Conflicts in the East Asian Seas
Dear Readers, Regular GeoCurrents posts continue to be delayed, due to a combination of illness and teaching obligations. Today’s post merely links to a set of slides that I used for my lecture last...
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Narendra Modi and the Rise of India
Yet again, teaching duties are preventing me from making regular GeoCurrents posts. All that I can do this week is post my slides from last evening’s lecture on Narendra Modi and the Rise of India....
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Intriguing Patterns in Scolbert08’s Map of Religion in Insular Southeast Asia
Scolbert08 does an excellent job of mapping the religious complexity of Insular Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea. I have therefore posted a detail of his or her map of world religion that focuses on...
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The Lost World of the Sago Eaters
The previous GeoCurrents post mentioned the Manusela people of the Indonesian island of Seram, who evidently incorporate elements of Hinduism, animism, and Christianity in their religious beliefs and...
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Maritime Linkages in the Linguistic Geography of the Philippines
The best example of seas connecting opposing shores is probably the Philippines, a quintessentially archipelagic country composed of more than 7,000 islands. This post is from GeoCurrents
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Chavacano: A Spanish-Based Creole Language of the Philippines
Chavacano is interesting from both linguistic and historical-geographical perspectives. To begin with, it is widely considered to be one of the world’s oldest creole tongues, with a history dating back...
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The Geography of Poverty and Social Development in the Philippines
As the map indicates, poverty is pronounced in several widely scattered parts of the Philippines. Overall, the poorest part of the Philippines is the Muslim-majority area in the southwest, which I have...
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Population History, Population Density, and Cultural Values in the Philippines
Owing to this long history of internal migration, the population distribution of the Philippines has become somewhat more even. Mindanao is no longer a frontier zone, and is now moderately populated by...
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Customizable Maps of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Indonesia
Today’s GeoCurrents post provides free customizable maps of the provinces of Iran, the provinces of Indonesia, the states of Malaysia, and the regions of Saudi Arabia. An additional map shows the major...
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