ModeShift - Part 18

Singapore Knocked As A “Police State.” In This Era It’s A Virtue

by Keith SchneiderApril 28, 2018April 28, 20184

SINGAPORE — Michael Fay was a 19-year-old American student in May 1994 when Singapore authorities delivered four strikes to his bare bottom with a rattan cane. Arrested nearly a year before for stealing road signs and vandalizing vehicles, Fay’s caning prompted an international debate about the fairness of Singapore’s justice system and an outcry about its “police state” tactics. I knew two facts about Singapore before I arrived here. First was the debate about Michael …

Malaysia. Where’s Malaysia?

by Keith SchneiderApril 16, 2018April 16, 20180

KUALA LUMPUR — I had no idea what to expect from Malaysia when I accepted an assignment from Mongabay to report on the consequences of a prodigious wave of infrastructure development that is remaking this country’s economy and geography. What I’ve found is a nation contending, like so many others, with political disruption, but fully competent to develop the new muscles and bones to support the contemporary needs of this century. People here are suspicious …

From Malaysia, Expressions of Concern For A Roiled U.S.

by Keith SchneiderApril 9, 2018April 16, 20180

KUANTAN, Malaysia — Has there ever been a more disturbing time to be an American? Not in my life. And most certainly not in the 10 years that I’ve reported from outside the United States. On the way by train and auto from Penang on the west coast to this industrial city on Malaysia’s east coast, I had a number of conversations with Malaysians about conditions in the U.S. Malay people are a guarded lot. …

Listen to Our Kids’ Call to Disarm America

by Keith SchneiderMarch 26, 2018March 26, 20181

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican right is unnerved in the days following Saturday’s March For Our Lives in Washington and hundreds of other cities across America and the world. Stricken with grief and stirred by the passions of love cut short by bullets, the students from Parkland, Florida stood up, stepped forward, and found a mass movement to end gun violence waiting for them. Hundreds of thousands of people were on Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday, …

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Tough Second Act

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 17, 2018February 19, 20180

SALT LAKE CITY — January was supposed to be a great month for Interior Secretary Ryan Keith Zinke, the tall, cowboy-fit, decorated SEAL warrior dispatched by the White House to battle the â€œelitesâ€ and elevate resource development to the primary goal of the worldâ€™s largest conservation agency. Guided by his personal hero, Teddy Roosevelt, who once said â€œconservation means development as much as it does protection,â€ Zinke opened the year with the most ambitious federal …

Our Covered Wagon Stopped in Utah

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 28, 2018January 28, 20180

SALT LAKE CITY — Almost all of Utah’s 3 million residents — some 80 percent — live within ten miles or so of the Wasatch Front, which extends north to south for about 100 miles in the state’s northeast region. At the center lies Salt Lake City, a surprising city of 180,000 that is as modern, pleasant, and well situated as any in America. Near the city are magnificent trails that wind up into the …

In 2017, At Home On My Native Ground

by Keith SchneiderDecember 31, 2017January 17, 20181

SOMERSET, KY — Maybe because I married in October, and traveled to India in January and to Manila in May to write about environmental heroes. Maybe because I summered in Michigan without any deadlines to meet or editors to impress. Maybe because my mother regained her balance, our friends remain close, and our families and children are making their way so well in the world. Maybe because I joined the Los Angeles Times for a …

The White House Wants To Disrupt Elko County and a Whole Lot of Other Places in the West

by Keith SchneiderDecember 24, 2017January 19, 20183

ELKO, NEV. â€“ From this rest stop desert city midway between Salt Lake City and Reno the snow peaks of the Ruby Mountains are like finely crafted wainscoting in an elegant ballroom. The slopes rise sharply to form triangles in the sky. In 1989, Congress approved permanently safeguarding 92,650 wooded acres along the ridge lines from any intrusions in the Ruby Mountain Wilderness. The big flat sagebrush valley that runs up to the base of …

Dennis Pace Loved His Life in Benzie County

by Keith SchneiderOctober 24, 2017August 19, 20195

I looked back in my photo archive to find a picture of Dennis Pace, my dear friend who died last week. I found I’d photographed Dennis solely in the winter while we skied or skated. Strange since Dennis and I spent a lot of time together during every other season, as well. He was a bike rider, a soccer and basketball and tennis player. We ran the Sleeping Bear dune trails and sailed on Crystal …

This Is Tamil Nadu

by Keith SchneiderJuly 14, 2017October 25, 20170

CHENNAI, India â€“ Unlike Indiaâ€™s other immense cities Chennai is a world apart. Tamil Naduâ€™s capital city does not have crowds of beggars trolling intersections like in Delhi. It is not nearly as traffic jammed as Mumbai. Its homes are well cared for, and many of its office buildings are new and Miami white, unlike the sagging and dilapidated built environment that describes Kolkata. The most distinguishing feature, though, for an American journalist who has …