Greetings and salutations for Felix Unger Day. May your linguine never be garbage.

This year’s FU Day falls amid the US 2024 presidential race, featuring a codependent odd couple of white men pushing 80 from either end as the major party front runners. Polls show a majority of the country would rather have different nominees on each side; instead, the erstwhile world’s greatest democracy is giving the electorate a big, fat FU.

As The Odd Couple hypnotist episode quotes Shakespeare, “The fault lies not within our stars but within our selves.” Or as Felix Unger himself said, “Let it be on your head.”

Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for iGaming Business, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, Twitter @MuhammadCohen and LinkedIn.

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Goenawan Mohamad in conversation with Pamela Allen at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. (Photo credit: Reskiana)

“Like crime, poetry doesn’t pay.” – Indonesian man of arts and letters and press freedom icon Goenawan Mohamad explaining why he turned to journalism from poetry at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.

Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for iGaming Business, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, Twitter @MuhammadCohen and LinkedIn.

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In a conversation with author Leila Chudori at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Debra Yatim pointed out that Indonesia’s deadly political upheaval that began in 1965, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, gets a couple of paragraphs in national history textbooks but is the subject of more than 20 works of fiction. Those include Chudori’s Home, chronicling Indonesian political exiles and their families left behind. My favorite is Laksmi Pamuntjak’s The Question of Red, a retelling of a piece of the pan Asian Ramayana tale in The Year of Living Dangerously and its unresolved aftermath.

Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for iGaming Business, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, former Twitter @MuhammadCohen and LinkedIn.

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Momentum has been building toward casino legalization in Thailand within three years. But how Thailand’s new government reforms cannabis policy could provide hints as to how the dice will roll on casinos.

Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for iGaming Business, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, Twitter @MuhammadCohen and LinkedIn.

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This year’s Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali runs October 18-22. This five day twentieth anniversary edition features a top drawer lineup of Indonesian and global talent.

“Over the years, our festival has cemented its reputation as a world-class event that continually presents award winning, internationally recognized authors, thinkers, and activists, along with exciting new voices from the latest literary zeitgeist to intellectual commentary and current affairs,” festival founder and director Janet de Neefe says. “This year is incredibly special as it’s our twentieth anniversary, and our 2023 program will be no less exceptional.”

International literary luminaries coming to Ubud include groundbreaking Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, additional Booker awardees Geetanjali Shree and Shehan Karunatilaka, and Pulitzer Prize winning historical novelist Geraldine Brooks.

Indonesian superstars include best selling novelists Eka Kurniawan and Dee Lestari, Laut Bercerita (The Sea Speaks His Name) author Leila S Chudori and legendary journalist and man of arts and letters Goenawan Mohamad. The program also features climate change and sustainability experts and activists working on five continents.

Back in its traditional format, the Ubud Festival remains a great opportunity to see and hear some of the world’s top writers and other creative artists up close and personal in one of the world’s most inviting destinations.

Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for iGaming Business, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, Twitter @MuhammadCohen and LinkedIn.

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