Author Archives: admin

Invisible violence

Written for Bulatlat South Korea’s Tower Infinity will feature the world’s third highest observation deck. But the building’s main attraction cannot be seen, literally. Using an LED façade with optical cameras, the building will ‘disappear’ which would wake it the world’s first ‘invisible’ highrise. The trick works by displaying images of the building’s surroundings onto […]

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Suu Kyi Lectures Singapore on Materialism

Written for The Diplomat Singapore received a stinging, albeit friendly criticism from Nobel Peace Laureate and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who reminded one of the world’s richest countries that there are greater goals to achieve in life than wealth. Suu Kyi attended a leadership summit in Singapore where she discussed, among other […]

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Protests and Alternatives

Written for Bulatlat Rallies are sometimes caricatured as noisy and irrelevant street spectacles. Dismissed as futile ranting of a mob obsessed and afflicted with negativity. They offer only problems not solutions. They are contrasted with other political acts that focus on providing so-called practical alternatives to everyday evils. A responsible protester is someone who does […]

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Anti-Americanism, anyone?

Written for Bulatlat I believe in America. This is the famous opening line of the Hollywood film The Godfather. Incidentally, I share the same sentiment and I’d like to believe that most of my activist friends have a similar high regard for what America stands for. So why are we called anti-Americans? First, America should […]

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Thailand Opposition Behaving Badly

Written for The Diplomat It seems Thailand’s opposition politicians are getting desperate. Last month, 57 members of parliament belonging to the opposition Democrat Party were evicted from the session hall after they repeatedly protested the ruling of the presiding officer. When parliamentary police officers were called in to escort the MPs out, they forcibly resisted, […]

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Public space and resistance

Written for Bulatlat When Third Word dictators are ousted, many people celebrate the emergence of a democratic space in society. After years of repression, there is suddenly a micro explosion of multiple freedoms in the streets, in schools, in workplaces, and in the press. Interestingly, it proves that public space is not inherently democratic. It […]

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More Religion, Less Science for Indonesian Students

Written for The Diplomat Indonesia has recently pilot tested a new curriculum in over 6,000 schools which instantly drew controversy after it removed science, English, social sciences, and information technology (IT) as separate subjects in favor of Bahasa Indonesia, nationalism and religious studies. The reduction of subject load is meant to give students more time […]

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Politics of Helping

Written for Bulatlat Aside from being sexual and social animals, we are also ‘helping’ beings. Giving aid to a neighbor in need is considered an ethical duty. Volunteering in charity houses, community shelters, and churches once in a while is equated with doing good. We honor individuals and groups whose mission is to extend assistance […]

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False Transparency

Written for Bulatlat Beware of politicians who like to insert the keywords ‘transparency’ and ‘good governance’ in their speeches. They are the same people who also use deceptive slogans such as ‘sustainable economy’ and ‘inclusive growth’ to justify the imposition of anti-poor economic policies. These are agreeable political concepts – who would openly oppose them? […]

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Decree 72: Vietnam’s Confusing Internet Law

written for The Diplomat Vietnam is often accused of being an enemy of media freedom because of its notorious record of jailing dissident bloggers and blocking social networks. Its new Internet decree, which purportedly contains several provisions that ban the sharing of online news stories, could be added to the list of its crimes against […]

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