Spanning broad accounts of the development of nationalism and identity, and detailed studies of SE Asia, the book includes pieces on East Timor, where every Indonesian attempt to suppress national feeling has had the opposite effect; on the Philippines, where it is said that some horses eat better than some stable hands; on Thailand, where so much money can be made in elected posts that candidates regularly kill to get them; on the Filipino nationalist and novelist Jose Rizal for whom 'we mortals are like turtles - we have value and are classified according to our shells'; and a remarkable essay on Mario Vargas Llosa, detailing the fate of indigenous minorities at the hands of the modern state.