Hi Duck friends. Here are some links to start your week…

• Liao Yiwu served four years in prison for reciting his poem “Massacre” in memory of the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests.  His horrifying prison memoir reminds us that “China remains a prison of the mind: prosperity without liberty.”  More importantly, the memoir show the ways in which the Leninist-capitalist Chinese system of government and economy is replicated inside the prison.  The poet’s memoir is a portrait of China painted in shit, but it is a rather telling portrait nonetheless.
• Mong Palatino argues that the trans-boundary haze that is choking Malaysia and Singapore is sign of ASEAN’s failure.
• Wearing a tie in India is a sign of submission or awkward stupidity. (The Raj is truly gone, mates.)
• Shadi Hamid ask whether Egypt really needs a second revolution.
• The Qataris have been arming Syrian rebels with shoulder-fired missiles. (Given the Qataris desire to meddle in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, perhaps they are contending to become the next hyper-power.)
• By the way, As’ad Abu Khalil has been killing it lately. (I can see why he’s angry…)
• Political Violence @ a Glance asks: Where are all the Female Bloggers?

• Finally, are social science graduate students being taught to write poorly? (Yes.)