(Grid) girl, unveiled

I have mentioned before how useless I find the ‘news feed’ in MS Live Messenger – that, when it’s not downright stupid, or unintendedly hilarious, as below:

How about 'announced'?

Not to be nitpicky, but the primary meaning of unveil is to remove a covering. Thoughts of Page3 flashing through my mind…

Jakarta, again

…in the news, and for the wrong reasons. Just when I was singing its praises to everyone – and when the country seemed to do well after a successful election, and in general was holding up quite nicely in the current crisis.

I always thought security at the hotels, tight as it was, was quite easy to go around – just a bunch of guys looking underneath cars and in trunks; you can easily conceal a bomb in the engine or under the chairs. Not sure if this is related to SBY’s election, or is another signal to naughty foreigners, or…? It is sad though, as it pushes back in the gutter a city and a country that have been making huge strides towards normality lately.

How moronic can this be

No comment...

The guy has been dead for a few days and the geniuses at MSN kept the useless news feed running and pulling related pieces of info.

Indonesian contemporary history 101

The book I’m currently reading goes over the events in 1965 in Indonesia but not too deeply – the topic is politically charged, but there are efforts underway to shed some light on it. I’m not sure how I feel about it; extinguishing Communism in Indonesia certainly took a couple of massacres but the same would have happened if Communists had won.

Will Indonesia go sharia? Not sure, but I think this tiermondiste religious fad too will pass. In the preface to ‘Javanese Lives’ a good explanation is given to both the rise of Islamic militancy and the proliferation of fundamentalist religiosity in American public life (the exception among 1st world countries; those living outside the US who see the country as some kind of 1960’s free love end drugs haven need a reality check): difficulties in dealing with modernity and globalization lead people to retreat into religion, now that the isms have disappeared; okay this is frequently mentioned about Islam, but it’s the first time I heard it in relation to charismatic Evangelism (so prescient! the book appeared in 1990) (I might have those terms wrong; tant pis). Still, that does not explain the apparent gains this (to me, unpleasant) form of belief has made in Singapore, China, and Korea.

Moving on, I’m still baffled by the whole konfrontasi thing though. Blood brothers seem to make best enemies.

Jackie misspeaks

This is no outtake, unfortunately. I’m not sure which is more interesting, what Jackie said, or what reaction it elicited.

An explanation of Thailand

Great article on what’s going on in Thailand.

And another, which I am totally not qualified to judge.

When the rubber hits the road

So, Thailand supposedly isn’t all smiles and compassionate kindness. But, isn’t it like this every time when real life meets caricatures, self-created or not?

I have often wondered how would I have felt about different other places had I gone there first. For example, I found Bali underwhelming, (but see here a day in the life of someone who did not; I’m quite sure Nick isn’t the author of the post; last year I spent an enjoyable afternoon at Kuta with him and an aging Australian hippie dude talking about the comparative advantages of each South-East Asian country), and while I enjoyed Mexico and South America, they just did not rate nearly as high as the Land of the (supposed) Smiles.

An afternoon at Kuta

A week later

Somseng’s friend is OK. The wheel of Karma keeps turning….

Incidentally, turns out Pattaya’s radio station is online as well.

Oh, and I ran into the Eaton Hotel (HK) girl just tonight. It’s a small Asia after all.

Some places are best left untraveled

Not only does it have many zeroes, it also expired on Dec 31

This place does not sound like much fun, however romantic old Rhodesia might have been (or not).

Sic transit

In 1950, Manila, Rangoon, and Saigon were significantly richer than Seoul and Hong Kong. In fact, Korea had a anverage income below that of Sudan. Japan at that time had no more manufacturing base to speak of.

Where are they now? For some reason, I cannot convince myself to visit Burma, although it is definitely a new frontier, as exotic as they come. Going to a country in such deep trouble is like watching an accident from the sidelines.

And speaking of Asian godfathers, here are some of those mentioned in the book:

Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand

Indonesia’s Bakrie Brothers