My friend loves Gramsci and uses him at every opportunity. I used to take the piss out of her because Gramsci for her brain is the equivalent of what Playboy Magazine is to a straight pubescent boy ahem.  I say used to because we were once in a seminar together and while I was engaged in tête-à-tête (random but also the title of a book about Beauvoir's love story?!) with possibly my favourite tutor, she poked me to death and made me see the hypocritical errors of my way. 

You see, me and my tutor are both self professed Changites and mention Chang and his many brilliant works to each other, literally without fail, every.single.seminar. And when I'm not gushing about Mr Ha-Joon to other fellow Changites (and there are plenty of us .. logically), I'm shoving him down the throats of anyone who makes the mistake of asking me about anything econo-developmental, urging them that they must must MUST read at least one Chang in their lifetime. 

Opps. Thats when I realised .. that what started off as an exciting affair has long blossomed into long term love and dedication. Guess I'm a fan girl too eh.

Seriously though, I love this man, Dr Ha-Joon Chang, so so much. I read his work and can literally hear my heart / brain go bing bing as all the lightbulbs start lighting up and make me go YES YES YES, thats the spot right there! And you know what, why shouldn't it be that way? Chang tells you the straight story without all the bullshit, exactly as it should be. Plus, he's Korean too //swoon. 

I've read many many many over the years .. but none do it for me like Chang <3 

And even if you don't have any economic / developmental bone in your body, I strongly suggest you read him and prepare to blow your mind. And if your mind isn't blown, its because you blow.

Changite for life <3 

PS - I've fantasised about going to his talks or something so many times, but I'm afraid he will disappoint me in person (this happened when I had Mushtaq Khan, someone I would say I had a wee crush on, though for obviously bias reasons and only over his work on corruption) and this is a risk I'm not willing to take. Its also the reason why I didn't go to see Chomsky when he came to give a talk at my uni (well, it was also heavily booked ha) and I don't even like him that much so .. yeah. I will however very much appreciate signed copies of any of his books :P 

PPS - speaking of which, even if you don't want to get into dense topics, read his new book, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism .. its short, to the point, and being Chang, brilliant :D

PPPS - I almost forgot to link you to his site, here. I just went to read it and it gave me giggles. LOL omg I'm such a school girl. But this man, he's just brilliant <3

PPPPS - I know, down with the Ps. But last one, I promise. While you're checking out Chang, why not look at Rodrik too? He's cool, but obviously I love Chang more. 

PPPPPS - okay I lied, THIS will be the last PS, inshAllah. But I was just thinking about when I had to read an article criticising Chang and how annoyed and kind of upset / angry I got while reading it and got thinking about mum's earlier conversation / match making of my cousin (a statistician) with an economist .. and while I initially thought it would be cool to marry someone I can talk about these things with, I am most definitely a heterodox economist while most of the world isn't .. and if he doesn't agree with me / doesn't respect / love Chang, we're gonna have a problem lol. So yeah, no economists or doctors for me! I'm not inclined to engineers either. So kinda kills off the Brown Boy Pool. But meh, I'm going to marry a Korean revert and move to Korea anyway ;)