The week is coming to an end. It has been productive, despite the occasional hiccups here and there. I am proud to announce that my dissertation project is finally underway, and I had shortlisted areas which I would be working on. Now, I just need to get my preliminary report out and chart the framework of my chapters.

I need to prepare myself to moderate for a seminar tomorrow. Drats, that means no late night for me today. And to think that it is Friday ):

Going for a friend's housewarming this Sunday. That promises to be loads of fun. We might even be catching Michael Moore's latest film.

Life is looking up for me as I managed to pull myself out from the rut of never ever starting on my thesis. I need to get it done as soon as I can so that I could get on with life before I become too old.

Maybe I will blog more this coming weekend, if I have anything else to say...

 

We move in different worlds....

I am sure that you would already have read about things like this in the other blogs, about how people are never satisfied with what they have or what others have. I am certain that many of you have seen the bitchings and mud-slingings that go on in other public internet forums and even newsgroups. How we all seem to have a great capacity for passing judgements and make bitchy remarks about others, even those who have not done anything to harm us or anyone else. I know that I can be guilty of this sin.  And I do know that I, and many other people reading this, have a superiority complex when dealing with other people that we deemed inferior to ourselves. In my case, the fact that I am able to contain such feelings is because I have gone to school, university and work in jobs with all sorts of people from all walks of life. I do get to hear about what they do and their lives. And I do know that not everyone always make the choices that they make out of freewill. It is often dictated by a necessity to survive, to live on in a world screwed up by humans. It is always easy for us to think that we are not them, therefore there is no need to empathise but we never realised how fucked up we really can be until we are thrown into similar situations. Perhaps we need to stop being such a navel-grazing generation, ne c'est pas ?

In 1969

Monday night gave a pretty stimulating event, something one seldom find in Malaysia, due the level of intellectual depth of most of its people. Beth Yahp gave a reading of her short story " In 1969". I hope that it could get translated into other languages, so that other people would be able to read it for themselves. Even if you do not identify with the contents of the story (it is about a black part of Malaysian history), you would still enjoy the voice of the narrative, of the narrator of the story. Its use of language and imagery is powerful and poetic, even if Beth does not consider herself a poet (:
 
The reading was followed by a discussion of the invisible or silenced voice. Of whether one should or should not write about something. THe censorship that follows it, whether internal or external. The people who feel that they have to earn a living and maintain a precarious position in the society. People who feel too repressed from talking about black history, race, nationality, ethnicity and sexuality. Even Beth, a Malaysian writer with the full freedom to write whatever she wants abroad, is faced with this dilemma. Would one hurt the people one is closed to? Or is one able to cut of such ties and write with a vengeance, come sorrow or pain. Write in order to tell the truth. But then, many of us in this postmodern age seem to regard the truth as subjective. I beg to differ. History or Herstory is subjective. But not the truth.
 
If none of you have heard of Beth Yahp, just google her. She comes up quite a lot.
 
I take my inspiration from her, and I hope to be as great a writer not too far in the future. I am not growing younger everyday after all.
 
Fictional narrative provides an alternative explanation to the supposed objective history, when everyone now knows that there is no such thing as objective history. History is what we know or choose to remember. But fiction could play a part in reawakening interest in history, a subject badly taught and much magligned by the education system in Malaysia, and most probably elsewhere.
 
 
 

I am an idiot, but so are you..

Oxymoronic quotes overheard

"I love to read but this book has got too many words"

"I am not prejudiced, but I can't stand Malaysians, Indians, Afrikaneers, Thais, Chinese, Indians, (insert whatever other races/nationalities that come into your mind)"

"I am doing a PhD now but I can't stand the subject I am researching on. I will do it anyway, for the PhD. Beats working."

"I love to write poetry, but I don't read poetry."

Best things that people ever said to me (though I didn't like the context in which some were said at that time). Interesting how the same people(some of them, not all) did not take their own advice.

"Don't you ever fall into a rut."
"The world does not owe you a living or respect. You earn it."
"You are too self-centred. Think of those around you for a change."
"Always live your dreams, no matter what. Don't let frustrations and obstacles stop you."
"Capitalise on whatever strengths you have."
"Do you want to be part of a problem or part of a solution?"

Hmm, can't think of more. Let you know when I do *wink*

of cattle shows and beauty pageants

This is quite a lousy day for me, suffering from a stomach flu that reduced me to running to the toilet every 1 to 2 hours. Horrid. Since I can't get in to work today, I thought that I would alternate between sleeping, eating (bread is all I can ingest without too much ado), and surfing the net. Currently at my friend's place, but will be going home soon to mull for the rest of the day.

Here are some interesting things that I had picked up from the NET. It started with me innocently going to other ppl's blog (I read blogs when I am feeling too mashed up to really concentrate on anything heavier). There is this ongoing debate about what is beauty, what is a beauty pageant and who has the right to represent. Thought that I should post it here for my readers to peruse.
http://n1kki.frens.net/archives/2004/06/02/miss_malaysiauniverse.html
http://www.nicsteronline.com/archives/000908.html

One thing that I do agree about, with regard to international competitions, regardless of the principles behind it (be it a showcase of true talent and hardwork or a cattle show of flesh), it has to go by standards. Being optimistic, brave and irrepressible does not make me a suitable candidate to represent my country at whatever it is that I wish to do. That has to be won through true skill and ability. That, my friends, differentiate a solid performer and a wanna-be. I would like to be a good poet someday, and I am brave enough to work towards it. But if I am talentless, all the hardwork and sheer gumption would only give me 15 minutes of fame, and I would most probably be pelted with rotten tomatoes, like Mcgonagall

I am still so not very well ):

Money, money, money

Sometimes, I wonder whether I should work for money or for love. It would be good to combine both and become a millionaire one day. To know that you have all the money in the world to spend without worrying about creditors and debts can be quite exhilarating. It could also lead to one's downfall if one spend indiscreetly. But then, I would definitely like to give it a try in making as much money as I could, without crushing too many people. But then, it is hard to be filthy rich without crushing people in the process, right?

I must say that this is a funny article from express India.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=32353#compstory

Talking about money, there has been much speculation about China's supposedly burgeoning economy. Naysayers think that it would burst. I am still trying to understand China's economics, so there is not much that I could add now, but I will provide the links that I feel is useful in the further understanding of China.

postmodern science and some personal tidbits

I have recently finished reading Luce Irigaray's "The Sex Which is Not One", a book that compiles a collection of her writings and interviews that have been translated into English. I will discuss more on it later. Suffice for me to say for now that she refutes many of the attitudes that Freud took with regard to the question of feminity. I found some interesting quotes that I could use for an academic essay that I am working on, and will tell the rest of you once it is published (somewhere *wink*). I also googled for Sandra Harding, a feminist philosopher of science, and will be getting her book from the library later today, the title being, "Is Science Multicultural". Go google out the book yourself, you lazy uns :P. And in my search, I found an essay critiquing her work, which I have not properly read through as I was busy with Irigaray yesterday (stayed late at work just to finish her). Anyway, you can check it out yourself at http://www.uno.edu/~asoble/pages/HARDING.htm .

Also, thought that I should mention that this blog appeared here. Must be due to the fact that I have linking out of me blog to a few urls that you will see on the site. And a search for Clarissa's Blog does rank it quite high, though there are other Clarissas around. Indulge my ego for a bit :D

Anyway, that's all folks. Til later.

Requiem For A Dream

Just a few days ago, I was watching the film, Requiem For A Dream,about addiction (to everything, from tvs to drugs). The underlying motif that run through the entire film is the fact that the characters in them have no hope, felt crushed, unwanted, alone, lonely, bored, self-hatred. They were mostly ordinary people, though one was initially a rich kid who finally had to prostitute herself to feed her habit. It is as much a critique of the American culture (the kind of food that leads to obesity, the repetitive and trancelike television shows, the holier-than-thou attitude, poverty, materialism and self-centredness). This darkly hints on the direction that Malaysia is spiralling into, with rising crime and psychotic people, that not stemming from a lack of morals (after all, they have all these moral and religious education rammed down the kids throats from an early age), but from lack of direction, goals, self-hatred, boredom, complacency, selfishness and everything that we see as happening in many first world countries. Seeing how the world has evolved, be they war-torn countries like many of the countries in the African continents and some in the Middle East, dictatorships in Latin American countries and most parts of Asia, or supposed democracy in the US, my belief in social Darwinism grows stronger everyday. We want and we need values, yes, but why aren't as practising it? Moralising aout all these things, as many institutionalised religions are apt to do, will not solve the issues, especially when many of their own people are the perpetrator of some of the most heinous conducts. It merely skims over things and dissolves us from the responsibilities of thinking further and to look beyond our mini-Pinochio noses. However, while I do not believe totally in the cold objectivity of social Darwinism, I believe that society will become self-destructive deal to its lack of altruism. This brings me to an article I read about anthropology in this magazine called 21st Century Science and Technology , which accuses this discipline of empiricising and othering non-White cultures. While my piece here is not going to go into the epistemological arguments in the article, a particular paragraph caught my attention. Since I do not have the magazine with me now (I am at work after all), I will paraphrase it for my readers. It says that when anthropologists go to certain 'primitive' cultures to study them, they make the empirical and ethnographer assumption that such there is uneven evolution within the human species, hence there are the very developed Aryan race (as the neo-Nazis would be proud to say) and the undeveloped, almost simian-like, Aborigines. What the anthropologists failed to address, the article claimed, is that these so called 'primitive' cultures could have been leftovers, or marginal groups, of a lost civilization, or one that is destroyed. I find this fascinating, as the level of knowledge of the average person of the great civilizations of the past is almost nil. Many can't even name the civilizations, let alone know why they fell. It seems that our education has failed in this regard, when we have postdocs and even some academics who do not know or understand what could have destroyed a supposedly sophisticated society. Perhaps we have doomed ourselves to repeat the mistakes of the past. When people like Darren Arofnosky and other non-mainstream publications (the fact that they are non-mainstream already marginalised them and hamper their ability to reach to the average Joe or Jane) try to rub some form of awareness into us via their art or creation, we often choose to ignore them. The people I know who have watched this film, which is the title of this post, agrees that showing impressionable kids the stuff in all their gory bits (even if it could be traumatic, but that is where the parents and more mature adults-note the use of the word 'mature'-is there to explain things to them) rather than moralising to them, serve as a stronger deterrent. Don't you agree?

Wasted Education

My friend and I were reading through Jeff Ooi's archive and we found a story on LimKokWing. HAving only spent 3 months in a private college (the sum of my private education), I am not able to comment too much, though from what I hear from college students of private institutions, the Education Ministry has failed in regulating the setting up of colleges, accreditation of the institutions and even in checking on the quality of the teaching staff, facilities, internal examinations and course contents. I have attended an interview for a job as a lecturer with a private college. They put me through some role-playing, by having me present a short lecture to a 'class' that consists of my interviewers. They seem impressed enough and I was shortlisted for an interview with the MD. That was where I met my Waterloo. Firstly, he thought my asking price was too high (due to my youth and my lack of consistent full-time work experience. Apparently, my past part time teaching experience and other related work experiences do not count) and from the way the interview went, I had a feeling that he was more interested in how much he could milk out of me for minimal pay. I was pretty appalled that the lecturers who were more senior than me were paid less than my asking price, which I felt was it was in a fair range (=RM2500) based on my past experiences and the amount of responsibilities I have to take on if I was to be given the post.

While waiting for that interview with the college's MD, I chatted with a fellow interviewee, whose idea of teaching college was teaching a tuition class (I wonder if she got the job), but I guess they must be impressed enough (or desperate enough) to pass her on for the second interview.

Anyhow, throughout the final interview, the MD seemed less interested in my teaching capabilities and how I could contribute to the students' and college's educational achievements (as to whether it existed or was I faking it) than how much he could pay me and all the roles that I was to assume as a "team-player" in a "corporate"-like environment. Needless to say, I never got the job.

While I would never deny the fact that many of the lecturers who decided to take up lecturing despite of the bad pay (though if you are some acclaimed professor from a public university, you can go in for a good position and higher pay. It is all about publicity) do it for the love, there are many others who do this job because no one in the industry or anywhere else would hire them. It is the second breed that we should be most concerned with, as there are more of them in private colleges, than the first breed. And also with the money grasping directors of colleges. What can one do when share-holders are more interested in profit margins than quality of education? After all, they see such ventures as a business, regardless of whose lives such ventures would affect.

Media

I am currently finishing up a paper that I would be giving at a conference, and my partner would be adding and revising it further. It is a paper on audience reception and new media and you can get the abstract here and then scroll down to page 37. You will find it. Of course, you are welcomed to look at all the other abstracts. (:

I am currently reading this book called Representing Women: Myths of Feminity in the Popular Media by Myra Macdonald and it has set me thinking as to how not only how the media portray women to be, but how the women like to portray themselves as. One of the easiest thermometer to use is to visit the various weblogs women (as in that we DO KNOW that they are women, and not men masquerading as one) have published, and read the kind of issues that focusses their attention. Or even how they present their more 'private' spheres for public consumption. I have also been surfing through various websites dedicated to women, both the commercial and semi-commercial sites, and it is interesting to note what they perceive as being matters of concern or import to their female audiences. This could be done by comparing with the sites specifically dedicated to men, or the cultural construction of the male persona. I am currently particularly interested in writing a paper, using feminist theories, to construct the media representation of beauty through the image they endorse with all its trappings (beauty paraphernalia or surgical reconstruction). This of course would require me to surf the net, look at women's magazines, watch ads, and look at ads everywhere (:. Since I am now working on a half finished paper, I might work on this later in August, or Sept.

Googolism, online networks (like Friendsters) and blogs provide a playground for the voyeur in us. It is so easy to stalk people nowadays, n'est-ce pas ?

Ugly Malaysian/Me

OK, need to rant here
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ugly Malaysians
1. Fraudulent
2. DIrty
3. Unethical behaviour in everything that they do
4. Parents who breed more ugly Malaysians
5. Getting themselves banned because they can't be trusted

What do Malaysians have to say about being the capital for fraud, illicit trafficking and endless stupidity? On the third count, I daren't say that I am any better, seeing that I am still around and not doing much about that,

The Naive Malaysians
1. Who think that life should be handed on a platter to them.
2. Who whinge and whine but basically refuse to do anything, even when given the opportunity to do so.
3. Who think that building the biggest roti canai or mooncake or penis (oops, I mean KL Tower) is equivalent to being world class.
3. Who think that Bangsar is the epitome of class and good food (this is targetted only at those who knows whom and who I mean).
4. Who think that the worst thing that can ever happen to them is to not get tickets to a big rave or a Britney Spears concert.
5. Who think that everyone is upper-middle class like themselves.
6. Who think everyone is as pedestrian as themselves.
7. Who think they are people to be reckoned with despite being citizens of a tiny country nobody gives two hoots about.
8. Who believe that Malaysia practises democracy.
9. Who wouldn't understand what am I going on about.


Peace

Can a literary critic be an expert on air safety?

I was looking for some works on Beauty by Elaine Scarry and came across this rather interesting article on how the English don has expended herself and her literary skills to decoding Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and air crashes. Read on
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20001119mag-scarry.html

Intellectual Mumbo?

Some of you might be aware of this, but to those who are not. Check it out here at Alan Sokal's webpage

The reason why he managed to pull this stunt of so convincingly could be due to the fact that anything goes, as long as you can explain it well. Sort of like those so-called postmodern-dada art tht you see in the Modern Art Museums in the First World countries. One thing about third world countries like Malaysia, because of the fact that most people still value utilitarian concepts or have a strong desire to see something that need not require too much extrapolation (or 'quantum leap') of the mind, stuff like these wouldn't be popular here. Cept among the more pretentious lot, maybe?

Writing and other things

I need to work very hard on my writing. How to write in a style that denotes brevity, clarity and wit. How to grab your attention from the moment you read the first paragraph, the headlines, the subtitles. How to write enticing prose minus the purple, velvet,and the obtuse (obscure, perhaps?). I am thereby embarking on this journey to learn how to read AND write better. Perhaps teaching young teens how to do the same might be the best lesson for myself.

From today onwards, I am going to dedicate myself to the life of honing and polishing the art of writing good prose and poems. Content, style and technique would be the three areas I will be keeping a sharp eye on. Hence, I am joining a writing workshop.

I was planning to go Brazil next month. I managed to get a bit of money to pay for my trip from the organisers but the management of the place I work in refuse to give me any kind of funding, even though I am representing them, not just as a participant, but as a speaker! Nevermind then, their lost. So, I am not going anymore for this round. Maybe the next time, when I am travelling the world. Decided to spend the next 5 months completing a paper, polishing another, write a few reviews,work on my dissertation and read as much poetry as I could.

I think I will be going to Australia instead. For the upcoming Melbourne Arts Festival.

I think I neeed to go to the gym again. Haven't been at it for a month.

I discovered a useful resource for writers-to-be at PlacesForWriters that I would like to share with all of you. This is also for the more experienced and jaded among you.

Btw, after October 17, I am going to be jobless. So if anyone would like to offer me a job that commensurates with my interest and experience, please email me. I prefer temporary positions, though full time ones are also accepted. I am however, only available for employment, in November.

Weblogs and poetry

Today, while discussing a project with my partner, we spoke of a world that is not created by imaginings, but by solid, tangible bric-a-brac and realism. In that, we branched off our discussion into weblogs (Sparked by a glance at a newspaper with a feature on blogs) and the voyeuer's playground. From my own surfing of blogs, I noticed that blogs with photos, artworks and even personal, pedestrian details of the writer's life generate a huge following from friends and strangers alike. One could of course argue that the blog circles are inbred and revolve around a community of people who specialise in patting each other on the back, or taking turns in writing comments on each other's blog, which is true with at least 70% of the blogs you see around, there are many worthy ones started out by individuals that have attracted the attention of new readers and popular following for their content and aesthetics, as opposed to rantings by kids (and adults) about their life, their activities (which are often repetitiously similar) with friends, their incessant partying, getting laid, shopping, bingeing (on food and alcohol) etc etc. Weblogs have been touted as the latest lifestyle gateway, with thousands of them popping all over cyberspace, started by individuals who often have little idea as to what they want to blog, and thus left blank or abandoned after a few inane postings. The question is, should one blog even when one has nothing new to add other than attracting the attention of would-be-stalkers and voyeurs or bored inviduals who surf through easy-to-read blogs out of lack of things to do (or imagination), or should it be limited to individuals who are empowered and who have something actually worth sharing. But then, who is to determine such lines anyway? Arguably, reading weblogs of these many varied individuals sometimes offer a disturbing insight into the cultural, political and ethical precepts of the global, affluent community (they are the ones with the luxury to blog).

On a different note, I read a rather insightful article (interview actually) on an artistic development of a poet which I would like to share with you. While it might not hit you the same way as it did me, it would still make insightful reads to those wanna-be poets out there like myself.
Interview with James Reidel

I was just looking through two Malaysian books (in between reading up on cognitive science, something which I will discuss in later blogs). One is a bibliography of Malaysian Literature in English compiled by Malachi Edwin Vethamani. Unfortunately, this book merely documents a bibliography of works produced by Malaysians in the last century and hence did not add in new works by younger and newer writers. It is also a sad tribute to the state of publishing in Malaysia, especially of English Language publishing, with very few quality works, and most of which have never reached an international audience, with the exception of a notable few like Shirley Lim. Even then, she was never quite a household name. The other book is Petals of Hibiscus, edited by Mohammad A. Quayam, Rosli Talif, and Noritah Omar. While it considers itself to provide a representative anthology of Malaysian Literature in English, which it did succeed in doing to the fair degree, it suffers almost similar fate as the previous bibliographic compilation, which is a lack of quality writings. Despite a stable of talented writers, something is keeping the Malaysian writers from moving into greater limelight and even maturity in their works. Even the few gems here and there speak of a potential that has never quite been reached.


If anyone (especially Malaysian writers) have any thoughts on these, do post your comments. We could perhaps even start a new thread of discussion.

Am I wasting my time?

Since I don't get much comments of late, either nobody reads this blog, or nobody has any comments to add. Hopefully it is the latter. What if nobody reads the blog? Should I just write for myself? OR should I write for an audience

Was going through some blogs today (was a bit bored) and came across numerous personal blogs of people with photographs of their friends, their shindigs, their active social lives and everything there is to say about their lives. Would people prefer to read things like that? Do they find my jottings so pedantically boring that they aren't worth reading at all?

Only they know...

What intellectual?

I went to a talk on how intellectuals can contribute to the politics in Malaysia last Monday. Was so tired that I took a nap and managed to wake up before the thing ended. While there are interesting aspects of the talk, one of the speakers ramble a bit too much. Nothing particularly new, and I am particularly disappointed with the level of Q&A session. It seems that there are people who can't differentiate between activism and intellectual activities, and how each can feed into the other, instead of trying to make one the other. While it is easy to just attack the system, a system remains a dead thing as long as there are no people to run it. People need to be mobilised and need to achive a sort of maturity for any democratic machine to be mature. As long as constituencies themselves are immature, I doubt any amount of activism will help. People are intellectually lazy by nature. The question is, how do you motivate them to be interested? And how do you keep the level of debate from falling down the pits and remaining at such a low level as to never ever effect change?


Ok, I am rambling too much here

Recently, I have been engaged in some debate on academic publishing online, especially that pertaining to third world nations. Many debates that go on in first world nations often ignore the lack of options of poverty-stricken nations. Albeit, you could argue that poor nations should find means to fend for themselves before engaging in any academic mongering. Well, you aren't too wrong. But this divide will never go away and the playing field levelled as long as we selfishly believe that only we the 'haves' should have the right to engage in cultural or intellectual activities, while poor people shouldn't and just be satisfied with living from day to day.

Here are the two opinions I have posted and you can read others' responses and opinions on the site
http://www.comm.umn.edu/mailman/private/cultstud-l/2004-May/007825.html
http://www.comm.umn.edu/mailman/private/cultstud-l/2004-May/007838.html

I haven't been doing as much work this week as I should. I seem to feel rather restless. Less tired today, which is why I can blog. (:


Going to sound more frivolous now and ask

"How many of you think that manicures and pedicures are a necessity? How often would you do that? Would you do it yourself or pay others to do it?"

"How often do you give your hair a nice and replenishing treatment?"


A word of advice to myself :have more compassion and be nicer

Another day in the life of..

Another review came out while I was away, Voices of Injustice You are allowed to like or hate it. However, do give this book of chance, inspite or despite of my review.

I have been reading various poetic works online. I am excited by the fact that one day, we will actually be reading hypertext of literary works, instead of buying them in paper. Though part of me is of the old fashion school that loves the feel of paper, we have to face the fact the publishing on paper is not viable, unless we are willing to use recycled paper, which technology of today has yet been able to produce a high-quality version. However, more for principles than taste, I would support publications that uses recycled paper. It can be cheaper as well.

Tonight, I am going to meet some young women for a tete-a-tete. Last Wed, I met some young women for a workshop on writing. Being a rather young and raw writer, I definitely need more exposure to polish up my style.

While reading through news of the turmoil surrounding Sonia Gandhi's refusal to take office as prime minister (I am sure all of you are reading that all over), I came across a clipping on the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark to the Australian Mary Donaldson. Despite of the Prince Charles-Princess Diana saga, I supposed we who love fairy-tales can't get enough of that. I suppose now that hoards of commoner girls/women are vying for the hand of a few eligible princes left on this planet. I mean human princes. Wonder what is it like dating a prince. Can't be too different, sans bodyguards and high security. I would definitely like to keep my life under wraps. But then, never dated a prince.


Cheers all

Back from Indonesia

The trip to Indonesia was one great breather and a change of scene for me. I learn now to appreciate what I have, after seeing the kind of poverty prevalent around Jakarta and Jogjakarta. However, these provinces have their charms (Jogja is a special province of Indonesia) and the food was good. I managed to visit the various tourist traps (cottage industry crafts) and got myself a really nice set of kebaya, complete with a painstakingly painted silk scarf), a set of Rama and Sita wayang golek dolls and some silverware. Poverty make many of the craftmans and traders occasional mendacious merchants(though not done in a way that actually hurt the victim other than being a few dollars/ringgits poorer). It is easy for us to dismiss these as pure greed when taken out of context. While others grow portlier by ripping people off million of US dollars, these small-time "crooks" only do so to ensure their survival for another day in a society that is cold and cruel to them. While I do not endorse any form of dishonesty, it is better to recognise the root of the problem than to ignore it as just another irritant.

Jakarta has a thriving arts community that publishes books and high to middle brow journals. While they might not be doing anything particularly cutting edge, they are trying to move themselves forward by emulating as much as they could from the far richer West. It is hope that they would do a good and thorough soul-searching to ensure that they are not merely imitating without resolving to develop their own, original brand of products.

First day at work today. Attended a seminar organised in my absence "Religion's Challenge to Secularism in the Contemporary Age". What do you make of this headline? Ng Kam Weng, Khalid Jaafar, Christopher Merrill and Rustom Barucha were the panellists.

Really sleepy today...

Blogging from Jakarta

This is my third day in Jakarta. So far, so good. On the first day, 8th May, I spent most of the day sleeping, having not slept much the day before coming over. The flight was uneventful, and being used to longer flights, I didn't realise when we arrived. The airport is small but cozy looking, and as there were not too many travellers, we managed to get past the immigration in a relatively short time. Within minutes of arriving, I began to feel the humidity in the air striking me full force, and this despite having come from Kuala Lumpur. On the night of the first day, we spent our time eating and exploring the nightlife within Jakarta. On our way back, we passed a pathway that is a popular hangoug for the transvetite prostitutes in Jakarta. One of them actually got in front of our vehicle and attempted to bargain for some sort of work with the driver. Another one was showing off her wares, and she is pre-oped so one can imagine what could be seen. After facing some abuse for our reticence, we managed to drive away. This night, we watched some bits of the documentary "Women Film Desire". And then fell asleep.

Second Day
In the afternoon, we visited the National Museum of Jakarta in Batavia. It has a nice collection of artifacts from the various parts of the Indonesian islands, as well as bilingual write-ups in Bahasa Indonesia and English. There is a model mimbar (where the Bilal calling for prayers in Mosques would stand), a model temple and a model Dutch kerk. There were also beautiful antiques designed mostly in Batavia, made of hardwood. Unfortunately, the museum is not in as great a state it could have been, due to funding problems. For lunch, we went to a a rather high-end cafe with mosstly foreign clientele. However, the food was really good and I had a Flemish tarte with bacon for the first time in my life. THe Batavia punch that I had was actually pineapple punch and was rather refreshing after a very hot day. After lunch, we took a long bus ride to a big bookshop in Jalan Sunda. They have a wide selection of books, though more overpriced than in Malaysia due to the low turnover rate. However, they have some rather interesting selections, especially of Indonesian writers. I bought 3 books (including on on Islam) and the Poets&Writers Magazine which is published in the US but not available in Malaysian bookstores. After that, we went to another branch of the same bookshop in Pondok Indah to catch the rather interesting film on Frida Kahlo, the Mexican woman painter who became famous for her poignant and soul-ripping self-portraits. After that, we had a quick dinner at a small foodcourt in an adjacent mall and went home. After showering, I spend most of my time checking my email as well as reading up a bit more on Kahlo. Before going to bed, I watched the very 1984 type movie "Equilibrium"

For today, we haven't really done too much beyond lazing about at home. Will say more later.

Anyway, staying with a friend now so it is definitely a rather homely atmosphere. Good food and good company. Getting Indonesian home-cooked food everyday. (:

I think I should read my Sylvia Plath today. Haven't made much headway with it.