Postmarks from a Political Traveler

Phil Karber is an award-winning travel writer who has journeyed to all continents and more than 130 countries, lived in Africa and Asia for fourteen years, and authored several books including Fear and Faith in Paradise: Exploring Conflict and Religion in the Middle East, The Indochina Chronicles: Travels in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and Yak Pizza to Go: Traveling in an Age of Vanishing Cultures and Extinctions. He currently calls Cambridge, Massachusetts, home.

“The trick about Phil Karber’s travel writing is the trick about Paul Theroux’s travel writing. Or the writing of Chatwin, Bryson, or Krakauer. The trick is there is no trick. You go, you look, you push, you study, you talk, you listen. You get arrested, you get dirty, you get lost, you get drunk. In a word, it’s exploration. And Karber, at his core, is an explorer, looking close, pushing hard, and writing it down.” —Mark McDonald, foreign correspondent, International Herald Tribune “The author is owed a debt of gratitude for bringing forth the experiences recounted here. His revelations help us understand that indeed strides have been made in racial understanding and yet we have a ways to go.” —Henry W. Foster Jr., MD, Professor Emeritus of Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University, and former Clinton nominee, US Surgeon General “Taken a decade apart, Phil Karber’s two trips to Churchill highlight the startling effects of global warming on the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Fewer polar bears, less ice, less wildlife in general—his keen observations record the need for action before it is too late.” —Krista Wright, Executive Director, Polar Bears International “From Arkansas to Vietnam, from American racism in the southern US to American war-making in southeast Asia, Phil shares his fascinating journey through continents, cultures, and conversations, never straying far from an underlying quest for understanding and genuine peace that most of us seek. Phil’s Vietnam connections—with the US military during wartime, and decades later during peacetime—shape his skepticism about the likelihood of workable solutions from the same worn policy formulas. Yet there is some hope in the stories of ordinary people, their resilience, and their wisdom. We’re fortunate that he’s invited us to share the journey.” —Chuck Searcy, Vice President, Veterans for Peace Chapter 160 (Hoa Binh)

• Introduction; Part I Down at the Blue Lagoon; Chapter 1 Two Minds, Two Worlds, One Country; Chapter 2 Lest We Forget; Chapter 3 Go Hunting Where the Ducks Are; Chapter 4 The Cross-Fertilization of Attitudes and Practices; Chapter 5 Religion, Education, Poverty, Xenophobia, and Rainbows; Part II Polar Bears; Chapter 6 The Hudson Bay Train to Churchill; Chapter 7 A Blue-Ribbon Day and a Blue Moon; Chapter 8 Canaries in the Coal Mine; Part III An Anti-American Age; Chapter 9 Beauty Is As Beauty Does; Chapter 10 Pirates at Sea; Chapter 11 Tiger Cages and Torture; Chapter 12 We Believe; Therefore It Must Be True; Chapter 13 Mooning the Russian Army; Chapter 14 Bush, Brickbats, and Bouquets in the Koreas; Chapter 15 Welcome Home, Man; Part IV Return to Kabul; Chapter 16 Testing Our Resolve; Chapter 17 An Improvised Excursion through Kabul; Chapter 18 Fortress America and an Army of Aid Workers; Chapter 19 Let Me Die in My Footsteps;