It’ll be interesting to see how this kind of thing pans out: An Indonesian publishing company run by an expat American has launched a catalogue of Indonesian pop music on iTunes (declaration of interest: the guy, Mark Hanusz, is a friend of mine). Could this kind of thing change the way this kind of music is … Read more
It’s amazing how hard it is to let go of a security mindset when you’ve been living in a place where bombs are (of late) a fact of life. In Hong Kong these things don’t seem to matter so much, so when I was standing at the ATM machine in a subway station today it … Read more
Tourism to South and Southeast Asia may have taken a hit in the aftermath of the tsunami, but clearly not every travel agent thinks it’s a no-no — even to the capital of the hardest hit region, Indonesia’s Aceh. This contextual ad appeared on Google doing a search for Banda Aceh. The blurb is unsurprising, … Read more
Loose Wire — I Seek Mum, Nick and Sally By Jeremy Wagstaff from the 14 March 2002 edition of the Far Eastern Economic Review, (c) 2003, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Communication is a funny thing. Living in Southeast Asia in the 1980s I’d type out letters in the enveloping heat, making carbon copies — … Read more