lifestyle leader

The venerable BBC World Service has a daily show called 'World Have Your Say,' where listeners and panelists from around the world call in to discuss a topical issue in global affairs. It streams live at 1800 GMT daily on the BBC World Service (here), and has its own blog where you can also post comments live on the air (here). You can also download each episode on iTunes (presumably the next day). Though I suspect it might be harder in China...

Today's topic was 'Google, China and the nature of free information.' I called in, as I have occasionally done in the past, and for the first time: I made it on air!

This was exciting. My two points were classic IPE, even if they were delivered in a very nervous and slightly convoluted manner: 1) what appears to be a commercial dispute is part of a broader escalation in tensions between China and the West, as the West realizes that its 30-year assumption that China's economic integration would be followed by political convergence with Western and democratic values is false, and 2) China risks setting a dangerous precedent that undermines the foreign investment critical to their economic development and ascent up the value-added chain.

If you ever wanted to put a voice to the words on these fine pages, you now can. Check it out!

UPDATE: Here's the podcast, I'm at the 24th minute mark.