Mixed Marriage – Is it About Love or Economic Benefit?

by Jacobus E. Lato

I boarded a worn-out, noisy bus in Tawangmangu, hoping for a decent seat where I could relax and take a nap on my trip to Solo. But, within minutes, the woman next to me started chattering in my ear and my idea of getting some rest rapidly vanished.

“My son is dating a girl from Brunei Darussalam”, she said proudly and proceeded to tell me all about him – how he works in a motorcycle shop in a tiny, wealthy state in north Borneo, makes good money in his after-hours job and is now about to take part in an intercultural marriage (with prospects of a possible larger fortune).

“My neighbor married a Dutchman and they have been living next door for more than five years,” she continued. Her following comment irked me. “Before her marriage, she had nothing. Now she owns several houses and land, some of them in Tawangmangu”.

A Schengen Visa for Asia

The team behind evisaasia.com are based in Malaysia. It all started when the team began developing an online visa system for the government of Cambodia 6 years ago. Eventually, it led to the creation of this project, which encompasses more than 20 countries in Asia and provides secure and reliable visa services for travelers worldwide.

Pagar: fencing off life in Indonesia

By: Ade Tanesia

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Between the lanes in the heart of Jakarta, my childhood friends strove to spy over the highest house fences. It’s still fresh in my memory; they called them rumah gedongan (mansions). Our image of a ‘rumah gedongan’ was a high-fenced house, closed, so that we could only see the roof. Certainly a house like this would be owned by someone rich. To the eyes of children, the rumah gedongan was something mysterious, so naturally we tried very hard to scale or peep through the gaps in the fence to see what lay beyond. Often a guard dog would start barking when we tried to approach. These houses sometimes had warning signs posted on the wall—“Beware: Vicious Dog”. The dog need bark only once and we’d run, scrambling and laughing, from the scene. When I was a bit older, I often heard cynical adults gossip about people who owned houses with tall fences. “People who live in gedongan houses are sure to be Chinese, tuh. They don’t want to mix. Arrogant. Hard to get money from them for the Independence Day celebrations.” This is the empty chatter that I frequently heard from the mouths of Jakarta housewives.

Pyongyang Restaurant Kuala Lumpur: Dishing up Dollars for North Korea?

By: Diana van Oort

The Pyongyang restaurant Kuala Lumpur is a nice, clean, banquet style restaurant with the friendliest waitresses I encountered so far in Kuala Lumpur. The menu is diverse: from dishes I never heard of ― or I don’t want to eat like dog meat or shark fin soup ― to nicely barbequed meat dishes and tasty side dishes. Nothing much to talk about, or is there?

Before I visited the place, my mind wandered: this could be the ideal location for a spy novel and in my mind I saw North and South Korean diplomats striking deals. Questions also arose: what is a North Korean restaurant doing so close to the South Korean embassy and do I want to spend money in a restaurant where (part of) the proceeds go to the North Korean government, infamous for its seclusion and human rights violations.

Disappearing Trades in Singapore

Modernization in Singapore has been exponentially rapid in the past two decades. The turn of the millennium – and thusly, the burgeoning need to live up to its reputation of being a first-world superpower – has resulted in an automatic culling of what are deemed relics of the past. The ubiquitous sidewalk cobbler that was once a fixture of the 80s and 90s have made way for boutique cobblers situated in air-conditioned shoe shops in shopping malls.

Youth group helps cocoa farmers in Indonesia

In parts of Java where some youth have been drawn into militancy, many young people are working to help local farmers develop their potential in one of Indonesia's major agricultural commodities: cocoa. Many Indonesians may not know that after Ivory Coast and Ghana, their country is the third largest cocoa exporter in the world. What's more, 92.7% of Indonesia's cocoa plantations are owned by members of local communities, with a farmer typically owning one hectare, according to the Indonesian Department of Agriculture.

‘The Lady’of Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi

By: Diana van Oort

Aung San Suu Kyi is without a doubt the most iconic Burmese politician. As the Chairperson and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), she has been described as charismatic, dedicated, inspirational, courageous and stubborn. She was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon and is the third child and only daughter of Aung San (father) and Khin Kyi (mother). Her father founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma’s independence from the British Empire in 1947. He was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. He’s still held in high esteem. Her mother was appointed Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s Political Life

Aung San Suu Kyi grew up with her mother and two brothers. One, Aung San Lin, drowned when he was eight. The other, Aung San Oo migrated to The United States. After Aung San Lin's death, the family moved to a house by Inya Lake, where she still lives today. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Theravada Buddhist.

We built this city: Jakarta’s change makers (2)

By: Dina Indrasafitri

Jakarta’s cyclers are determined cruise the streets their own way, and while some only do it on car-free days or weekends, others are even more persistent in their effort to use bicycles as their daily tools of transport. This movement became more evident when a group of cyclers in Indonesia established the Bike2Work (b2w)Indonesia group in 2005. Having been engaged with mountain biking sessions in Tangerang’s “jalur pipa gas” track for several years, the cyclers decided to take up a new challenge of regularly biking in the city.

We built this city: Jakarta’s change makers (1)

By: Dina Indrasafitri

Jakarta and wildlife do not really go together. Unless you count beasts in cages or chained macaques used for street entertainment. But the city actually has a reserve housing almost a hundred species of birds as well as others species of wildlife, and it came close to being forgotten by the public if not, at least partly, for the effort of a group of people under the name Jakarta Green Monster (JGM). The Suaka Margasatwa Muara Angke, or the Muara Angke Wildlife Reserve, is central to the forming of JGM back in 2006. The 25-hectares reserve is located in Jakarta’s north coastal area of Pantai Indah Kapuk and includes a mangrove forest, whose important benefits include moderating erosion and as a wildlife habitat.

The sanctuary is prone to pollution, which comes, partly, with the Angke river flowing just adjacent to it. Garbage can also cover the roots of the mangrove plants, causing them to die.

Bali’s Sashimi Tuna Journey to the World’s Biggest Fish Market

Five local Indonesian wooden longline vessels enter Benoa harbour within the space of two hours. They have been fishing for yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the Indian Ocean for the past week and will offload today to a simple processing facility beside the quay, TFK, for export overnight to Tokyo, Japan. It is the third day of the New Year, and the world’s biggest fish market, the Tsukiji wholesale market in Tokyo, Japan, will open again on Saturday, 5th of January 2013, two days time. The captain and crew of the boat know that this is jackpotday, the day the highest price will be paid for a bluefin tuna, and are hoping that their fish will also get a good price. And their surprise catch of this trip is a 150 kg Southern Bluefin tuna which, given its size, will have a high fat content and so be very valuable.