16. A letter from Jakarta
Many years ago, in 1987, I left Madrid and came to Jakarta to become a journalist. For about a year, I was a trainee at Tempo magazine and…
Tag: Indonesia
15. Location technologists: the politics of digital media in a ‘special region’ of Indonesia
Chapter proposal to Location Technologies in International Context, Rowan Wilken (Swinburne Uni of Tech), Gerard Goggin (U of Sydney) & Heather Horst (RMIT), eds. John Postill RMIT University…
Killing People is Always Wrong (Andrew Chan & Myuran Sukumaran)
Indonesia is about to execute two Australian men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for trafficking drugs. They were arrested in 2005 after a tip-off from the Australian police,…
Jawi Script
I'm learning classical Malay (that is to say, the language used in Melaka and the Malay world at the time of the Portuguese conquest) and I'm starting with…
Island Southeast Asian Geology & Volcanic Explosions
I've been trying to read as much as I can about the geological history of Southeast Asia for the book I'm working on. It's a fascinating topic: island…
‘Remarkable Plants’ by Bynum & Bynum, ‘The History of Central Asia’ by Baumer
It was my birthday last week, so I've got some new books to read, including volume two of Christoph Baumer's The History of Central Asia (I B Tauris),…
BBC: "Cave paintings change ideas about the origin of art"
Indonesian archaeology briefly made the news this week with a story about rock art from Sulawesi. The art, which includes the oldest known figurative drawing in the world…
Creative Intersubjectivity in Performance
Ethnomusicology Forum has just released a special edition on “Creative Intersubjectivity in Performance” with contributions from Elizabeth Betz, Monika Winarnita, Sean Martin-Iverson, Paul…
What I’m writing these days
I haven't posted anything in a while, primarily because I've been busy. I've been planning and researching a book on ancient Indonesia, writing out detailed chapter plans and…
Albuquerque and Drake in Indo-Malaysia – Bows and Arrows
It probably isn't surprising that historical references to bows and arrows in Indo-Malaysia from the age of exploration are relatively few. The bow wasn't a particularly important weapon…
PNG deal – regional solution or co-dependency
This is a pre-edited version, final version on theconversation.edu.au. We are yet to find out the details of the deal struck between Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and…