Palace of Yawns - Tapa blanda

Bangkok diplomatic nightlife, Soviet spies, tranquil Buddhist monks, Thai princesses, Khmer Rouge, cave temples, cobras, a Nobel Prize and more fill the pages of Palace of Yawns. When a 29-year-old advisor was posted to Korea by an American foundation to advise the Ministry of Health on management of the national family planning program, he developed a breakthrough method allowing governments to reduce birth rates as rapidly as possible from fixed budgets. Based on his discovery, the United Nations recruited him, and from Bangkok he directed a UN program to assist Asian governments in resetting their demographic goals. Though eight countries requested the UN to help them implement the program, it failed to do so, instead turning out a barely read “study” much later. Palace of Yawns recounts this failure, its harmful growth consequences, and the amazing year which the adventurous young advisor spent in Southeast Asia as the Viet Nam War reached its historic climax.

Peter Michael has also authored Remembering John Hanson, the landmark biography of the first president of the original United States government, two books on the Underground Railroad, frequent newspaper, magazine and journal articles, op-ed pieces and book reviews. A reviewer entered Remembering John Hanson for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. Michael is founder and publisher of Underground Railroad Free Press, the top-circulation Underground Railroad news publication. Free Press operates the central registry of Underground Railroad organizations, and awards the annual Free Press Prizes for Underground Railroad leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the highest honors in the international Underground Railroad community. Free Press Books publishes books on the Underground Railroad, abolitionism and related topics. Michael was educated at the University of Maryland, Berkeley and Princeton. He serves as president of Michael Strategic Analysis, an award-winning strategic planning, market analysis and economic damages testimony firm. He is the seventh generation of his family since 1768 at Cooling Springs Farm, an Underground Railroad historic site near Adamstown, Maryland.