Starting Points: Asia

Author(s): Philip F. Williams (ed)

ISBN: 978 90 8964 092 5

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 176

Price € 37,50

Tracks and Traces. Thailand and the Work of Andrew Turton

Author(s): Philip Hirsch & Nicholas Tapp (eds)

ISBN: 978 908 964 249 3

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 168

Price € 27,50

South Asian Partition Fiction in English. From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh

Author(s): Rituparna Roy

ISBN: 978 90 8964 245 5

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 180

Price € 27,50

Varieties of Religious Authority: Changes and Challenges in 20th Century Indonesian Islam

Author(s): Azyumardi Azra, Kees van Dijk, Nico J G Kaptein (eds)

ISBN: 978 981 230 940 2

Publisher: ISEAS/IIAS

Publication year: 2010

Pages 211

Price USD $39.90

State, Society and International Relations in Asia

Author(s): Mehdi Parvizi Amineh

ISBN: 978 90 5356 794 4

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 312

Price € 44,50

Frameworks of Choice. Predictive and Genetic Testing in Asia

Author(s): Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner

ISBN: 978 90 8964 165 6

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 272

Price € 42,00

Asian Cross-border Marriage Migration. Demographic Patterns and Social Issues

Author(s): Wen-Shan Yang, Melody Chia-Wen Lu

ISBN: 978 90 8964 054 3

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 264

Price € 42,00

Modernization, Tradition and Identity. The Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts

Author(s): Euis Nurlaelawati

ISBN: 978 90 8964 088 8

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 296

Price € 42,00

China with a Cut. Globalisation, Urban Youth and Popular Music

Author(s): Jeroen de Kloet

ISBN: 978 90 8964 162 5

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Publication year: 2010

Pages 264

Price € 42,00

Decentralization and Regional Autonomy in Indonesia: Implementation and Challenges

Author(s): Coen J G Holtzappel, Martin Ramstedt (eds)

ISBN: 978 981 230 820 7

Publisher: ISEAS Publications

Publication year: 2009

Pages 433

Price US$79.90

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Network of International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)

International Institute for Asian Studies

ABIA

The ABIA project is a global network of scholars co-operating on an annotated bibliographic database covering South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology. http://www.abia.net

Asia Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA)

Asian Studies in Amsterdam (ASiA) is a joint endeavour of the University of Amsterdam and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). ASiA aims to promote and facilitate the study of Asia through academic research and the organising of outreach activities within the Amsterdam region. http://www.iias.nl/asia

Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) was established in February 1997 under the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. ASEF seeks to promote mutual understanding, deeper engagement and continuing collaboration among the people of Asia and Europe through greater intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges between the two regions. http://www.asef.org

Asian Borderlands Research Network

The concerns of the Asian Borderlands Research Network are varied, ranging from migratory movements, transformations in cultural, linguistic and religious practices, to ethnic mobilization and conflict, marginalisation, and environmental concerns. Its aim is to generate new knowledge and methodologies for a better understanding of transitional zones and borderlands in general. http://www.asianborderlands.net

EASAS

The board of the EASAS consists of 12 elected and 3 coopted, in all 15 ordinary members, representing the various academic disciplines represented by the Association as well as the regional specialisations of the members. http://www.easas.org

ECARDC

The ECARDC Network (European Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development in China) was set up as an academic network to provide a forum to meet, discuss and share information and experiences about China's agricultural and rural development among scholars, development agencies, international donors, and professionals in development aid. http://www.ecardc.org

European Alliance For Asian Studies

The European Alliance for Asian Studies (Asia Alliance) is a co-operative framework of European institutes specializing in Asian Studies. http://www.asia-alliance.org

European Studies Programme at Delhi University

The European Studies Programme at Delhi University is framed keeping in mind certain aspects of the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology in particular and the social sciences in general in India. URL: http://www.europeanstudiesgroupdu.org/

ICAS

The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) is listed among the largest gatherings of research scholars from Centres on Asia and Asian studies, especially in the humanities and social science.

URL: http://www.icassecretariat.org

South Asian Studies Association (SASA)

The primary purposes for which SASA was organized are: to promote scholarly study of and public interest in South Asian civilizations and affairs; to provide a public forum for the communication of research and scholarship on South Asia, by means of an annual conference; to promote scholarship and networking opportunities for scholars of South Asia between annual conferences through electronic and other media; etc. See: http://www.sasia2.org

Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM)

33 museums from Asia and 38 from Europe have contributed approximately 1400 masterpieces to the Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM). This web-accessible selection of images and accompanying information on Asian masterpieces from Asian and European museums is a fantastic search tool for people from various levels interested in Asian art and cultural history. The VCM project promotes mutual understanding and appreciation between the peoples of Asia and Europe, specifically through the use of works of art and culture. URL: http://masterpieces.asemus.museum

Jul 27, 2010

More Job-Seekers Hitch Ride on Asian Economy

NYTimes.com

Bettina Wassener/International Herald Tribune

Jan Mezlik, 29, moved to Hong Kong from the Czech Republic for a job as a trainer in a physical therapy studio called Stretch.

By BETTINA WASSENER

HONG KONG — Shahrzad Moaven quit a public relations job in London and moved to this teeming metropolis four months ago to take up what she saw as a more exciting post: communications director at the exclusive jeweler Carnet.

Jan Mezlik, 29, moved here from the Czech Republic in late April for a job as a trainer in a physical therapy studio called Stretch. For him, the move brought a secure job and the chance to learn to become a yoga instructor.

Charlotte Sumner, a lawyer, arrived eight months ago, thanks to a transfer within her firm. She had spent six months in London and another six in Moscow and had jumped at the chance of a stint in Asia, which she felt would lead to more opportunities than a posting elsewhere.

Before the global financial crisis, none of the three had thought seriously about moving to Asia. But growth in China, India, South Korea and many other countries in the region is outpacing that of Europe and the United States. Many local companies are enjoying rapid expansion, while international employers are shifting positions to Asia and are hiring again. So increasingly, European and American job seekers are hoping that Asia is a place where opportunities match their ambitions.

“Things are just so much more dynamic here,” Ms. Moaven, 28, said. “Back in London, there were fewer resources for P.R. events or advertising. Here, everyone is expanding and spending on marketing activities. That makes my job here a lot more interesting.”

In Hong Kong, the recruiting firm Ambition estimates that the number of résumés arriving from the United States and Europe has risen 20 to 30 percent since 2008. These now make up about two-thirds of the more than 600 résumés its Hong Kong office gets every month, said Matthew Hill, Ambition’s managing director for the city. Similarly, at eFinancialCareers, an online job site, applications for positions based in Singapore and Hong Kong have jumped nearly 50 percent in the last year, its Asia-Pacific chief, George McFerran, said.

Landing a position in Asia, though, is not just a matter of being willing to make a new life halfway around the world. Many employers prefer candidates who have track records in the region and who bring language skills and local contacts to the job.

Mike Game, chief executive in Asia for Hudson, an international recruitment agency, said the number of Westerners actually making the move was still fairly small. Many employers, he said, are more demanding than they were during the economic peak of 2007 and are “setting the bar very high in terms of what they want.”

Nevertheless, many Westerners seem to be looking to make the move.

No wonder. The jobless rate in the United Stands is 9.5 percent, Britain’s is at nearly 8 percent and Spain’s is 19.9 percent. In Hong Kong, by contrast, the unemployment rate is 4.6 percent. In Singapore — another hub of banking, legal and other white-collar positions — only 2.2 percent of people are registered as being out of work. In Australia, the jobless rate fell to 5.1 percent in June, the lowest level in nearly a year and a half.

During the downturn, millions of people in Asia — from factory and construction workers to bankers and architects — lost their jobs as demand for the region’s exports plummeted and multinational companies cut back. But with most Asian countries free of bank failures and the crippling debt loads that governments and households in the West are trying to pay down, economies in the region have bounced back quickly. (Japan is an exception.)

“The speed of the recovery has caught people slightly by surprise,” Mr. McFerran of eFinancialCareers said. “The jobs market is starting to be candidate-driven again.”

Hudson said in late June that the percentage of companies in Hong Kong that planned to hire workers soon was at the highest level since it began monitoring the data in 1998. Two-thirds of companies queried in Hong Kong and in mainland China in May said they planned to add workers in the third quarter of this year. In Singapore, the figure was 57 percent, the highest proportion since 2001, Hudson said.

Many companies in Hong Kong said it was hard to find qualified candidates and complained that salaries were rising, Ambition said in another report.

The renewed hiring has been especially strong in the financial industry and in legal services. But there is movement pretty much across the board — in architecture and engineering, marketing and sales.

Hardly a day goes by without news of expansion in the hospitality and luxury goods sectors, where companies are seeking to tap booming demand in China for luxury handbags, clothes and hotel accommodations.

“You have to staff up now, ahead of the curve, to be ready for the sort of company you will be in five years’ time,” said Pradeep Pant, head of Kraft Foods in Asia-Pacific.

Lauren Kwan left San Francisco to take a position at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller in Hong Kong last year.

“I was seeing the hiring freezes and layoffs happening all around me, so I cast my net wider and wider to see what was out there,” she said.

“We’re seeing the beginning of a trend here,” Jeffrey A. Joerres, chief executive of the employment service Manpower, said by telephone from Milwaukee. “With prospects so weak at home, people are considering different options and looking for where the action is. Sure, there is still a lot of hesitation; people want to stay within their comfort zone. But the pressure is on.”

A Westerner hoping to move to Asia often needs to have a profile that fits the region. Employers want people who are familiar with the local culture, as well as the business and regulatory environment. For many jobs — like sales and marketing, or investment banking and wealth management — they are looking for candidates who bring contacts and clients.

Local language skills are a plus — and often a must — for anything China-related, especially jobs that involve interaction with customers.

As a result, local candidates and Asians raised overseas tend to stand a better chance. Ms. Kwan at Burson-Marsteller is just such a person: she grew up in the United States but is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

“Employers don’t want to have to do a lot of baby-sitting and training,” said Matthew Hoyle, who runs his own company, which specializes in hiring senior staff members for banks and hedge funds. “There are plenty of local people with good qualifications who speak Mandarin and Cantonese — you’d have to bring something pretty special to the table to top that.”

Those who have the qualifications to secure a position in Asia will find that jobs are unlikely to come with the sort of lavish benefits they once did. So-called expat packages, which used to include school fees for children and generous housing allowances, are pretty much a thing of the past.

Still, wages in many countries and sectors are starting to rise as the search for qualified personnel intensifies. For example, Ambition found that nearly three-quarters of respondents to its queries had received both salary increases for 2010 and annual bonuses for 2009. In the firm’s previous examination in Hong Kong six months earlier, only 60 percent said they thought they would get both bonuses and raises, indicating that pay had risen more than many expected.

Employers are also increasingly willing to make counteroffers to dissuade important staff members from resigning. Hudson, for example, found in its recent examination that many companies in China, Hong Kong and Singapore were prepared to raise salaries by more than 10 percent to retain top talent.

With taxes rising in other parts of the world — the European Parliament approved one of the world’s strictest crackdowns on bank pay this month, and Britain recently announced tax increases — parts of Asia are beginning to look increasingly attractive in financial terms, too.

Mr. Hoyle’s advice for those interested in working in Asia is to spend time in the region and knock on doors, rather than rely on long-distance networking. If possible, he said, get an internal transfer to build up at least 12 months’ worth of experience in the region.

“Treat Asia as a medium- to long-term project, not just as a stop-gap solution,” counseled Mr. Game of Hudson. “If you’re prepared to learn Mandarin, and if you have a genuine interest in the region, the long-term prospects here are very good.”

Jun 27, 2010

Newsletter 54 | International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)

Summer 2010
1	Cover
2	Contents
3	From the Editor
The Study
4 - 5	Iran: social revolt and prospects for change (part 2) Mehdi Parvizi Amineh
6 - 9	World Heritage site status: boon or bane? Ean Lee
10	Leather gloves and tiny fingers Anna Ensing
11	$#@% mak!: the oil in the multicultural machine Yeoh Seng Guan
12 - 15	Sexuality and power: towards an intimate history of the consolidation of Dutch rule in early 19th century Java Peter Carey
16	Art collections in wartime in the Netherlands East Indies 1942-1945 Louis Zweers
The Focus - Religion and Global Empire
17 - 18	Politics and religion in Asia – comparative frameworks Kiri Paramore
19	The value of comparison Peter van der Veer
20 - 21	The historical roots and character of Secularism in China Prasenjit Duara
22 - 23	The second encounter between Confucianism and Christianity Ya-pei Kuo
24 - 25	Religion as practice, politics as mission Kiri Paramore
26 - 27	Ultimate concerns: religion, the state and the nation in Korea Boudewijn Walraven
28 - 29	Negotiation over religious space in Vietnam Edyta Roszko
30	Confucian thought in early Nishida Dermott Walsh
31	Japan, the Jews, and divine election: Nakada Juji’s Christian nationalism Aike P. Rots
32	Women, Confucianism and nation-building in Han Yongun’s novel Death Jung-Shim Lee
The Review
33	New For Review
24	Bookmarked
35	Indian students back home and abroad Michiel Baas
36	Southeast Asia and the great powers Ang Chen Guan
37	In our third age / Inventing ourselves as Filipinos Niels Mulder
38	The Indonesian Reader Laura Noszlopy
38	Epistemic anxieties and colonial common sense Katrina Gulliver
The Network
39	News
40	Opinion – What do Chinese negotiators think? Lessons from Copenhagen Kerry Brown
41	A longitudinal treasure trove Ron Witton
42	Folk gods, memorial stones, pastoral communities and temples Edeltraud Bienek & Sonja Stark-Wild
43	ICAS
44	Announcements
45	IIAS Research
46	IIAS Fellows
47	Colophon
The Portrait
48	Simply a sari?

	Attachment		Size
	IIAS_NL54_01.pdf		2.27 MB
	IIAS_NL54_02.pdf		1.28 MB
	IIAS_NL54_03.pdf		1.36 MB

May 20, 2010

Timor-Leste: Oecusse and the Indonesian Border - International Crisis Group

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Asia Briefing Nº104 20 May 2010

Full PDF report Media release

This overview is also available in Tetum, Portuguese and Indonesian.

OVERVIEW

Indonesia and Timor-Leste have done much to normalise relations ten years after the end to Indonesian rule in the former province, but the goodwill between capitals is not yet matched by full cooperation on the border. The costs are greatest in Oecusse, Timor-Leste’s isolated enclave inside Indonesian West Timor. Negotiators have so far failed to agree on two segments of Oecusse’s border, leaving open the risk that minor local disputes could be politicised and escalate into larger conflicts. Without a final demarcation, steps to improve management of the porous border have stalled. Initiatives that would promote exchanges and lessen the enclave’s isolation remain unimplemented. As the bonds between the two nations grow, they should prioritise this unfinished business. Leaving it unresolved can only promote crime, corruption and the possibility of conflict.

The security threat to Oecusse and its 67,000 inhabitants has sharply decreased since independence. While the unresolved border segments remain a catalyst for occasional tensions, no violence has taken place in recent years. Settlement of the border issue requires both national and local responses. The governments must work with renewed urgency to resolve the remaining disputed segments. Whatever border is agreed will not satisfy everyone. To alleviate this discontent, local arrangements for cross-border activities should be promoted. Without such flexibility, long-standing local disputes will fester and could escalate into active conflict.

Beyond security threats, the two countries face a range of border management challenges over the movement of people and goods. Though the enclave has remained politically distinct for several hundred years, links remain strong between families divided by the border. They cross regularly for marriages and funerals. Some even farm land in the other country. Isolated from the rest of Timor-Leste, residents depend on cheap goods from Indonesia.

Informal arrangements have served to facilitate movement of goods and people in the absence of a sustainable system that would promote rather than criminalise local traffic, but these are often put on hold when border tensions rise, increasing Oecusse’s vulnerability. Both countries are establishing civilian border management agencies that may help accommodate local interests in the medium term, but they are still months, if not years away. Unresolved issues regarding accountability for the violence around the 1999 referendum and the subsequent large-scale displacement across the border pose challenges that are more political than security-oriented. Their resolution is a prerequisite for the enclave’s long-term stability.

While Oecusse’s viability in the years following independence was once questioned – chiefly by foreign observers – such concerns underestimated the strong sense of Timorese identity in the enclave and overestimated the threat from former Indonesia-era militia on the other side of the border. Investment by the central government has increased, sending a message of Dili’s commitment to the enclave. While welcomed by residents, such efforts start from a low base. Infrastructure remains poor, access to information limited and the ability to deliver government services low. Nationwide decentralisation was to have given this district the autonomy to determine some of its own cross-border affairs, but the process has stalled at national level. Timor-Leste’s leadership should consider uncoupling Oecusse’s regional development from the broader process and look for ways to provide means and funds to promote direct cross-border cooperation.

As Indonesia and Timor-Leste work on being good neighbours, they should focus on concrete actions that improve life for the people and lessen the risk of conflict on both sides of the border. While Indonesian doctrine means a significant decrease in security forces on the border is unlikely in the near term, demilitarisation of the frontier should remain on the agenda as a long-term goal that would truly reflect normal relations. Immediate steps that should be taken include:

finalising demarcation of the border as a matter of priority;
formalising arrangements for efficient communications between government and security forces on both sides of the border and at all levels, so as to create avenues for quick de-escalation of future incidents;
increasing cooperation between the two countries’ military and police, including training and exchange of attachés;
introducing the long-discussed border pass system for citizens of both countries and implementing the initiative for joint border markets that would facilitate both commercial and social exchange; and
improving the training, equipment, and facilities of Timor-Leste’s border patrol unit.

May 18, 2010

Twitter / Search - 18 May 2010 before 5 pm Tweets by johnamacdougall

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JohnAMacDougall

Starting Points: My Country, Tis of Me - #Tea #Party 'Patriots' http://bit.ly/apauZH #american #right-wing 30 minutes ago via twitthat
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Ethiopian #Diaspora, #US #Rights Groups Seek Democratic Progress in #Ethiopia | USA | English http://bit.ly/9hiOTz #minority #global about 1 hour ago via twitthat
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Seach public #Facebook status messages out on the net via Openbook app. http://bit.ly/aw0V07 #internet #security about 4 hours ago via web
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#Facebook hit by massive adware attack. http://bit.ly/9dSHHE #internet #security about 5 hours ago via web
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May 11, 2010

Development in the shadows : how the World Bank and the Frente Clandestina almost built a new government in Timor-Leste

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Citable URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50109

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Title:	Development in the shadows : how the World Bank and the Frente Clandestina almost built a new government in Timor-Leste
Author:	Totilo, Matthew Alan
Other Contributors:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.
Advisor:	Judith Tendler.
Department:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.
Publisher:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Issue Date:	2009
Abstract:	The failures of post-violent conflict development projects have so far outweighed the successes. In response, international aid organizations have deepened and broadened their dedication to state-building projects across all aspects of institution-building, to include economic, social and political. I chose to examine the implications of this commitment by looking at Timor-Leste's first local governance project and studying the relationship between its two main actors: the World Bank and the National Council of Timorese Resistance. While largely panned as a failure by NGOs, donor organizations and the government of Timor-Leste itself, this project brought the traditional local leadership closer to having a true role in governance than similar efforts by any other actor working in Timor-Leste. A historical analysis of the application of traditional Timorese relationships with outsiders reveals parallel stories of similar partnerships. When in Timor, local leaders described to me an interesting story in the Frente Clandestina, the resistance movement that formed the core of Timor-Leste's proto-government structure. Counterintuitively, this organization was built on a foundation of weak relationships and distrust in order to function as an effective military logistical operation fighting an occupation government. This challenges the literature on social capital, social cohesion and trust which inadequately describes its relevance to recent events. (cont.) Unfortunately, the collapse of this project demonstrates that divergent agendas, inaccurate assumptions about state-building by the international community, and the misuse of terminology such continues to be a fundamental problem. Outbreaks of violence in recent years have highlighted the problems of ineffective institutional construction. Timor-Leste was hailed as a model state "built from scratch", but those rosy predictions have not endured. Its first 10 years of independence can teach us a lot about the principles of legitimacy, democracy and dignity in the post-violent conflict development experience of building institutions.
Description:	Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009. "June 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-101).
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50109
Keywords:	Urban Studies and Planning.

Apr 6, 2010

Stupid Americans? Send Them to China | china/divide

by C. Custer on April 2, 2010

So says President Obama, who is working with Chinese officials to ensure that the US sends 100,000 students to China over the next four years. The number of Americans studying in China has been rising steadily on its own, but what is the point of this? That’s a vast generalization, of course, but take it from someone who spends all day every day with American kids — they know nothing about the world outside the US.

When I say “nothing” I want you to understand exactly what I mean, so here are some examples. I asked my students what language they speak in Australia. Less than half of them knew for sure, several thought “Australian”, and one of them said French. I asked them what continent China was on, and only around half of them got it right. Several of them wrote “China”. I could go on, but you’ve heard these statistics before. That’s because they are true. American students are woefully, woefully ignorant of the world outside their iPods.

As some of you know, I teach Chinese and History at a boarding school in New England, so my students tend to be privileged. They have grown up with more and better access to education than the average American. Many of them have traveled abroad with their parents before. By all accounts, they ought to be performing better than the average American on simple questions like the ones I asked them, which makes their abject failure even more worrisome. Obviously, my “study” was not at all scientific and my sample size far too small, but this is a blog, so I’m going to make the point anyway: Americans don’t know anything about other countries.

More worrisome than that, though (after all, as a teacher, isn’t that kind of my fault) is that at least among my students, I believe there is a complete lack of empathy for those outside the US’s borders, especially those in faraway places like Asia. Students act as though historical events were plot points in a movie, and their writing further betrays that conceptually speaking, they do not perceive the places we are talking about as real.

I probably don’t have to explain why that’s a problem in the long term. Now, maybe kids are all like this, or have always been like this. I wouldn’t know. But I do think I understand why Obama wants to send 100,000 Americans to China. They aren’t all going to come back speaking Chinese fluently, ready to join the CIA’s China analysts pushing desks in Virginia. But they are all going to come back with a real sense that there is a world outside the US. They’re going to come back with friends, business contacts, and experiences — real life experiences, not classroom knowledge — that turn the Sino-American policy debate into something that seems real and important. Say what you will about Obama, but at least when it comes to China, it seems like he’s not planning to throw the whole “mutual understanding” thing under the bus.

But I am extremely tired, and it’s possible this line of reasoning makes no sense, so, what do you think?