ASIA MEDIA WRITES – We found this advertisement, for some reason, intriguing. But we’re not exactly sure why. It has just appeared appeared in The Jakarta Post, that wonderful English language newspaper of Indonesia. We leave it to you to figure us out. You may know us better than we…
Full Article JAKARTA POST: ANY CHANCE YOU’LL BE IN OUR TOWN IN EARLY SEPTEMBER?THE FOLLOWING COLUMN BY ASIA MEDIA FOUNDER TOM PLATE COMES TO US COURTESY OF THE KHALEEJ TIMES NEWSPAPER IN DUBAI, WHERE IT FIRST APPEARED: You may have noticed that yet another one of those allegedly authoritative Top 100 rankings of world universities has managed to cut into all the heart-warming…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: Don’t Be Fooled by Media’s Hype of Phony University Ranking Lists
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – Picture a world of rainbows , puppy dogs and smiling children running through rose-scented gardens. Sure, it’s a dream. But for some, even imagining such a scene could prove impossible, so harsh is their reality. As one of the world’s most family-oriented societies, Indonesia prioritizes family…
Full Article INDONESIA: Overcoming Adversity One Step at a Time
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – With an affable personality and Obama-like charm, Joko Widodo nonetheless appears to have fallen from grace after a mere 100 days in office. The Indonesian president, called “Jokowi” by his loving supporters, got into trouble over the proposed appointment of a new head of the National…
Full Article INDONESIA: “No We Can’t!”- Jokowi’s Popularity Hits a Bump
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – Not a single person thinks that being Chinese and Christian in a homogeneously Muslim majority will make history in Indonesia’s political sphere. Basuki Tjahaja Purnarma, otherwise known as Ahok, is Jakarta’s first governor of Chinese descent. While Jokowi has already left his position as Governor of…
Full Article INDONESIA: And God Said…Let There Be a Chinese-Christian Governor!LOANA BENJAMIN WRITES – On February 27, The Jakarta Post named Indonesia’s PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) “media darlings” for being mentioned in the press more than any other party in the previous month. But given that PKS rivals own many of the media outlets in question, the accomplishment may just…
Full Article INDONESIA: THE MESSY LOVE TRIANGLE OF MEDIA, POLITICS AND DEMOCRACYTOM PLATE WRITES IN HIS SYNDICATED NEWSPAPER COLUMN: Try it, you might like it: a sense of proportion. Avoid the extreme cry of apocalypse now — or, at least, of apocalypse soon. Stretch your intellectual and historical horizons to appreciate Japan as an expanse of more than just a few…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: Trying to Keep Japan in PerspectiveTOM PLATE WRITES IN THE JAKARTA POST: Our favorite optimist of Asia is at it again, and may the gods of our future bless this learned man. He is Kishore Mahbubani (KM), the savvy Singapore policy-school dean and acclaimed author whose most recent book “The Great Convergence” might almost be…
Full Article INDONESIA: IS ‘JOKOWI’ THE GREAT NEW HOPE?
Three foreign correspondents recently filed a report against the Indonesian National Police, accusing them of acid attacks. BBC’s Alice Budisatrijo, Al Jazeera’s Bobby Gunawan, and Reuters News Agency’s Louis Benjamin suffered chemical burns while reporting on the fuel policy protests at the gates of the House of Representatives. Anato Handoyo,…
Full Article INDONESIA: Police Take Aim at BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters!The Communications and Information Ministry in Indonesia claims that it has effectively blocked nearly 1 million pornographic websites, and vows to continue its mass censorship of unfavorable Internet publications. According to the Jakarta Post, the nation’s leading English-language newspaper, “censorship on porn sites was in line with the government’s commitment…
Full Article INDONESIA: Internet Usage Rises—and So Do Tempers and WorriesTensions between the international NGO Greenpeace and the government of Indonesia have continued to escalate in recent weeks over increasing deforestation practices across the country.
Full Article INDONESIA: Not So GreenpeaceAmnesty International has released a stunning report on the death of three peaceful protesters participating in the Third Papuan Peoples’ Congress rally on October 19th that came at the hands of Indonesian security forces…
Full Article INDONESIA: Jakarta Post Take a Tough Stand on Papuan Death Controversy