Jim Webb discusses his books this morning on WTOP

[DemsUnited]

radio station in DC with commentator Mark Plotkin

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200610/POL20061027c.html

<snip>
"It's not a sexual act," Webb told Plotkin regarding the "Lost Soldiers" excerpt. "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist."

"The duty of a writer is to illuminate his surroundings," he added.

Coincidentally, a Cambodian woman in Las Vegas is facing sexual assault charges for performing a similar act on her young son, according to an Oct. 14 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The article quotes an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America, who described the act as a sign of respect or love.
<snip>

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=600&sid=956260

<snip>
Webb defends his fiction, saying the novels illuminate cultures about which people may not be aware.

"If you want to show them how the world lives, you have to step forward and do this," he said.

"People should read my novels. A lot of the military novels are male novels," he says. "There are strong female characters in my novels."
<snip>

[kskiska]

1. You don't have to travel far

(snip)

The Miami relatives resisted a reunion between Elian and his grandmothers and U.S. officials had to order their compliance. A few days later, an allegedly impartial nun announced her new stand that Elian should not return to Cuba, because she sensed such fear in the grandmothers. After the two women returned home, they received a huge welcome. One of the grandmothers publicly announced that she had asked Elian about his penis size and bitten his tongue, two culturally normal things for a grandmother to do in Cuba, but obviously outrageous to Americans. The Miami family and Cuban exiles attacked the grandmother as a child abuser.

more…
http://immigration.about.com/od/ussocialeconomicissues/a/Eliansummary_2.htm