(margin*notes)^squared is a sharp, values-driven newsletter unpacking power, policy, and possibility—from the margins of the global majority to the frontiers of tech and democracy — pushing past the main text, and elevating what and who gets left out.
I’ve spent most of my life in the global south — including working more than 25 years across governments, multilateral institutions, non-profits, civil society and big tech. Along the way, I’ve carried questions with me: Who gets to set the agenda? Whose voices shape the narrative? Who gets a seat at the policy table? What kind of future are we being steered toward — and who gets to say no?
This newsletter is a space for exploring those questions, surfacing perspectives, experts and lived experiences that are far too often missing in policy and governance discussions taking place in New York, Washington, London and Brussels. The majority of voices in the world are from historically marginalised and under-represented communities — including people with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities, women, and ethnic and religious minorities.
We have the power to bend the arc of technological innovation in the direction that benefits citizens and our societies first and foremost, despite what billionaire (mostly western) evangelist would like us to believe. Our digital future is not inevitable. And technology is political, not economic.
Expect dispatches, deep dives, commentary and resources from the global south on:
Frontier Technology and AI governance
Countervailing forces of civil society, activism, and democratic resistance
Policy, governance and its technocolonial discontents
Scale, competition and the economics of exploitation
Thought leadership from, for and in the global south
Sometimes I’ll analyze headlines. Sometimes I’ll offer a story, an idea, offer a resource or just a sharp margin note on what’s hiding in plain sight. Always with an eye toward shifting the frame, not just filling it. And a relentless focus on justice, equity and human rights.
This is a newsletter for people who think critically, care deeply, and want better answers than what the status quo offers. Its for people who recognise the need for more substantive, equitable and sustained participation of people and knowledge from my part of the world — the global south.
If that’s you — subscribe, share, and let’s stay connected.
Why Subscribe?
The future is being debated in rooms that too often exclude the rest of us.
Mainstream narratives on technology, governance, and ethics are still shaped and dominated by a narrow slice of voices—mostly from the Global North, mostly powerful, and mostly disconnected from the everyday realities of most people on this planet.
(margin*notes)^squared helps fill that gap.
This newsletter brings in perspectives that are often left out—but never lacking in insight. Voices from the Rest of Us. From the Global South. From the marginalised. From women and queer communities. From people with disabilities and people living with HIV. From ethnic and religious minorities. From those on the front lines of democratic resistance, civic innovation, and everyday struggle. Climate activists and human rights defenders demanding decolonialisation. These aren’t edge cases. These are the majority of the world.
By subscribing, you’re supporting:
Sharp analysis and commentary that cuts through noise and centers what matters
Grounded insights from lived experience—not just theory or headlines
Critical reframing of dominant narratives around power, technology, and governance
Fresh connections between global debates and on-the-ground realities
Ideas on how to frame your purpose-driven strategies — whether you’re an academic, an NGO or a progressive corporation.
Your paid subscription invests in helping to reshape narrative power, sustaining work that challenges the status quo, supporting insights from a network of thinkers, doers, and truth-tellers who are often overlooked, and making it possible to connect, translate and elevate stories that deserve global attention.
This isn’t content for content’s sake. This is about shifting the frame, not just fillin
Join a community committed to building a more inclusive, just, and participatory digital future — starting with who gets heard.
My journey and values
I’m Polish-American. Left home at 16 for high school in the coal mining areas of northern France—before the internet, when phone calls were expensive and the post office was how you stayed close. I went on to university in Japan in the early 1990s, still mostly offline, and eventually settled in Southeast Asia nearly 30 years ago. I’m fluent in English, French, Bahasa Indonesia, pretty good in Melayu, previously fluent in Japanese, and do okay in Spanish and Thai. Currently learning Portuguese and Python.
In my DNA, I’m an immigrant through and through. Thailand has been home for nearly twenty years. Previously, Indonesia for a decade. And bits of Hong Kong, Japan, France and Portugal mixed in there for good measure.
From my perch in Asia and — from the margins, from places deeply shaped by colonialism — I’ve experienced a changing world. I’ve witnessed firsthand how the rise of digital technology, social media, and AI has unfolded not just in boardrooms and labs, but in people’s lives: in how we organize, resist, communicate, and imagine what’s possible.
As an LGBTIQ+ person who has lived most of his life in Asia, I carry with me a lived understanding of power, progress, and accountability. My lived experiences have shaped how I work, how I listen, and how I advocate for structural change rooted in justice, equity, and human dignity.
Over the years, I’ve worked across governments, multilateral institutions, big tech, grassroots movements, and advocacy organizations. I’ve worked on international policy, designed research, led regional rights-based campaigns, advocated for the rights of gender and sexual minorities, empowered peacebuilders and promoted democratic governance, and advised on AI governance frameworks. That mix of experience has fueled a sense of purpose: to align evidence, strategy, lived experience and imagination in service of a society where all of us can flourish by building the lives we want and the lives we choose.
I volunteer on boards and advisory bodies supporting the arts, human rights, and ethical technology. Whether I'm working on LGBTQ+ inclusion, tech and AI policy, or helping small organizations define their strategic direction, I bring analytical rigor, cultural fluency, and an unwavering public interest lens to everything I do.
At the core of all of this is one belief: that policy and governance are not just about rules and code. They’re about agency. About making audible the voices that have too often been overlooked. About using insight as a tool for collective power.
This newsletter is my effort to make the invisible visible. The unseen, seen. The marginalized, centered.
We are the margin notes.
And we hold power — exponentially.
Thank you for joining me,
Michael
