Public Relations as I think it should be
There’s a hilarious scene in one of Jackie Chan’s Rush Hour series where he follows Chris Rock into a joint run by black brothers. Chris, being black, goes something like “Wassup Nigga” and gets a friendly reply. Then Jackie, who plays the role of a cop from Hong Kong who knows little about American culture... Continue Reading →
Former US Ambassador who reinvented himself as the organizer of Supermentor, Dino Patti Jallal, has a point in the ongoing feud with BEKRAF chief Triawan Munaf over Indonesian Rapper Rich Brian where children are concerned. Children should not be exposed to obscenities. But the whole episode is not as clear cut as he makes... Continue Reading →
@anakcerdas just alerted me to this blog posting in Travel Blog with the terse and succinct message: "Memalukan yah" (Shameful, isn't it?). Yes, it is indeed shameful if even half of what the blogger, Mike Foster, says is true. As someone who's adopted Jakarta and Indonesia as my home I feel duty bound to defend... Continue Reading →
The age-old enigma of the attraction of pembantu looking women to Bule men once again gets an airing in the Indonesian blogosphere. This was an question that Unspun tried to deal with quite some time ago (see this link) but till this day puzzles observers as to why relatively well-off and sometimes even good-looking bule... Continue Reading →
When Unspun was growing up in Malaysia he was told that the kris was an intrinsic part of the Malay identity.The kris was such a big deal that some years ago when the son of a former Malaysian prime minister and UMNO big shot wanted to establish Malay supremacy over the other Malaysian races he... Continue Reading →
This is an interesting perspective of the question of Malayness from Malaysian writer Karim Raslan. His last paragraph is especially sobering for ketuanan Melayu types: "History’s record is cruel and unforgiving. Winners shape history and erase the achievements, even the existence of the losers. For many Malaysian Malays it is eye-opening to come to Indonesia... Continue Reading →
Unspun readers who liked the previous posting on the pecularities of the Malaysian language (at least in hospitals) may find this fascinating - an Indonesian-Malaysian dictionary produced by the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to help promote understanding between both countries. Can't wait to see what the definition of words like "batik" is like. The... Continue Reading →
So reports the LA Times. Unspun even got his 5 seconds of fame from the article (you have to go down the paragraphs in the story) but seriously, the two countries have much more to gain than spitting and spatting with each other. clipped from http://www.latimes.com Indonesia vs. Malaysia: a cultural war The neighboring nations... Continue Reading →
Probably not since the Taiping rebellion has so much idealism, foolishness, naivety and stupidity has been combined with so much misguided idealism, nationalism and foolishness. The Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat intends to invade Malaysia with bows and arrows, black magic and other paraphernalia on October 8. One doubts if they would be able to even mount... Continue Reading →
There is a hilarious opening scene in the comedy film Thank You For Smoking where the film's protagonist, Big Tobacco Spokesman Nick Taylor is hemmed in by anti-tobacco guests in a talk show. He panics for a moment but then decides that the best way he could defend himself is to attack the other parties.... Continue Reading →
After all the summoning of the Indonesian Ambassador in Malaysia, after the mysterious appeal to former Vie President Try Sutrisno of the Eminent Persons Group and a rap on the knuckles by President SBY, some hotheads in Jakarta are still conducting sweeping operations against Malaysians in Jakarta (see story below). Like before, the real cause... Continue Reading →
Wrote this piece on request for a Malaysian newspaper but they had to hold it for a day and then decided not to run it because relations between Malaysia and Indonesia have "cooled down". Could never figure out what the roles of the media should be in such times but it's their right. So, since... Continue Reading →
Unspun 