Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Voices
Southeast Asian Refugees in the Bronx
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In 1980 – as tens of thousands of refugees fled violence in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act. He declared that the United States would finally take responsibility for the devastating effects of its policies in the region.
Touch Roth, 65, a refugee from Cambodia, with her granddaughter in their Bronx apartment. (D Merina)
Within ten years, more than one million refugees arrived to American cities. But over two decades later, America’s promise remains unfulfilled.
I spent the last few months reporting on the Southeast Asian refugee community in the Bronx and produced a half-hour radio documentary called Mekong in the Bronx. You can listen here. It airs nationwide on July 3rd on Free Speech Radio News.
Also, check out a short clip of a song by rapper, Boomer. He’s one of the Cambodian American youth who was deported back to Cambodia under a secret agreement between the US and Cambodian governments.
Dangdut Music Hits the Global Stage
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When I interviewed Arreal Tilghman for a profile in the Jakarta Post, he said that spending two months in Indonesia studying Dangdut music actually brought him closer to his African American heritage. The 22-year-old from Maryland spent his first trip abroad immersing himself in Indonesian culture and Dangdut music.
Listen to “Dang dut” by Hesti, Agung, Irfak, Toni, Bejo. (1:30).
Dangdut is the vibrant and constantly evolving musical form that draws on Arabic, Malay, Indian and rock influences. It exploded in the 1970s with acts such as Rhoma Irama and Elvy Sukaesih and spread through working class Muslim communities.
Now, Dangdut is about to hit the global stage with a debut album by Tilghman set to be released next month. Read the full profile of Arreal Tilghman, in the Jakarta Post.
Pornography Bill Stirs Controversy in Indonesia
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Close to 16 million Indonesians are expected to leave the country’s cities this week in a mass exodus to their hometowns in order to celebrate Idul Fitri and the end of the Ramadan month. But this year, they will be hitting the roads as a broad national debate over a controversial anti-pornography bill continues to rage from the local communities of Bali to the streets of Jakarta…
House of Reps Closer to Passing Bill That Could Limit Artwork, Expression
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The Jakarta Post reports today that the House of Representatives has moved closer to passing the “porn bill.” The bill could severely restrict artwork, photographs, animation – even conversations – that are seen as pornographic or leading to “the violation of normative values within society.” (Quotes are from a text of the bill obtained by the Jakarta Post.)
Members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights protest the proposed bill in Bali (Ni Komang Arviani / The Jakarta Post)
How does the proposed law define pornography?
Article 1 reads: “Pornography is any man-made work that includes sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative message.”
Supporters are hoping that this month means smooth sailing for the bill. “It will be a Ramadan gift,” a PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) member is quoted as stating.
NPR’s Michael Sullivan reported on a 2006 version of the bill. Listen here.
Fiber Art Exhibit: Tradition and Modernity in Jakarta
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(Jakarta Post, 6/9/08) – An expanse of silk fabric stretched across the wall behind artist John Martono at the Bentara Budaya cultural center in Palmerah, South Jakarta.
Photos: P.J. Leo / Jakarta Post
Martono had spent four months on the art work, embroidering a fine, gold thread onto its surface, weaving pebbles brought from Kalimantan and crushing salt onto its fibers to create a complex pattern.
The result, said Martono, is an imagining of the meaning behind his one-year-old son’s wordless cries as the infant learns to speak.
“For me, it’s a kind of never-ending painting,” said Martono, who is based in Bandung. “This composition is very free.”
The piece, titled My Son’s Song, is just one of the many works of art brought together for the 6th Asia Fiber Art Exhibition, now showing until Sept. 14 at Bentara Budaya… Read the full story in The Jakarta Post
Listen to an excerpt from an interview with Senior Deputy Governor for the Bank of Indonesia, Miranda Goeltom, about the exhibit’s theme, Tradition Into Modernity.
