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the national identity thing
So, one time my dad was in Timor Leste, in a meeting that ran inordinately long because they had to translate everything from Portuguese to English. (The official languages in Timor Leste are Portuguese and Tetum.) "And after the meeting, we started chatting," said my dad. "And you know what language we were chatting in? Indonesian!"
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
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Uh. I need to sleep. Really, really sleep. But what you said got in my head a bit. Oh dear, oh well.
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+1
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One can't escape one's context, sure. One's personal paradigm can handle a lot of contradictions. But this context isn't necessarily delineated by national borders anymore. Not that national borders have become obsolete, FAR FROM IT, but we have to account for the fact that an individual isn't necessarily going to be stationary in the country they're born in, or that sometimes an individual is going to stationary in a country they're not born in. That their centers might be halfway across the world, like how Tamil and Darfurian refugees in London are directing political movements in their home territories. In this sense, having cultural adaptability is not a luxury, but a defense and a survival strategy. They have to make use of London's resources to fight for their homes.
I'm reminded of the saying "those who are close to everyone are close to none". Because you are equally comfortable everywhere, you are truly comfortable nowhere. It's interesting that you focus on the strength of identity in that context, because I think it's just as easy to have a weak sense of self, overwhelmed by multiple contexts, and somehow failing to become more than the sum of your parts.
Yes, saleable side of culture! Have you read Aihwa Ong's spiel about symbolic capital and habitus? Okay, Bordieu's ideas, but she uses them well for her purposes.
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Yes, I, er, do know that people move around. I was thinking of people who can't see their identity because they're in the middle of it -- vague thoughts of stuff like 'the English only become English when they meet Americans'. But in a way I'm the wrong person to try to talk about this, because I've never had to. I do believe that one's ideas only began to have proper shape and strength after one has spent a lot of time expressing them and exposing them and letting them get beaten around a bit.
I suspect people are probably only equally comfortable everywhere if they have a lot of power. Unless it's having learnt by necessity to have to adapt to everything, which isn't what I first think of as comfort.
No, my goodness, I've barely read any theory, and what I have, not in a long time. I spent a certain amount of time in my late teens around -- er, I suppose you'd call them Chinese intellectuals, although that (incorrectly) sounds awfully exciting. There was someone who'd published a bestseller in English, and someone who wrote poems in Chinese, and then they were good friends with an artist whose family still lived in China but who'd gained some recognition in France (I think), and so on and so forth, so you can probably imagine the kind of conversation I was suddenly exposed to. And when I started thinking about buying and selling. And then, I suppose I was also devouring a lot of postcolonialist crit and flicking through everything that looked interesting in a big academic bookshop I used to visit. But now I just have directions for enquiry, a headache, and whatever I've caught on the World Service. And, uh, apparently, a fearsome ability to make stuff All About Me. Oh dear.
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'the English only become English when they meet Americans'
Yes that! It's like my family telling me I'm Americanized because I didn't act like what they thought an Indonesian should act like, but I still got culture shock adjusting to the US. Perhaps doubly so because I hadn't expected to feel out of place, because I bought it when everyone was telling me how American I was, but then I arrive and discover I'm still pretty damn Indonesian.
which isn't what I first think of as comfort.
This also! Empty and full glasses! 'Cos equally comfortable everywhere can also mean equally UNcomfortable everywhere. What if nowhere is home?
I received your email, girl, wow. Downloading as we speak.
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COME BACK TO ME, OH SHOW MY SHOW
muchas thanks!
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Here's hoping for Timor Leste. *raises a glass*
(Oh, and thanks for the vid rec - I, too, am becoming obsessed with Merlin/Will vids. ^_^)
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I am obsessed with Merlin/Will in general. There are more Merlin/Will vids out there? Where?!
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As the Day Is Fading (actually, this is a rec - multipairing but with an entire verse for Merlin/Will)
Almost Lover (this is almost a rec)
Break Even (I really wish people would stop using intros. They make me frustrated with perfectly decent vids before I even watch them, argh.)
First boyfriend stories are love.
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Man, I've already written one overlong Merlin/Will fic, but I'm itching to write (OR READ) the AU where Will lives and follows Merlin back to Camelot. Gets some job skivvying around the castle because he saved Arthur's life. There is precedent for that, after all.
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I would absolutely read that AU. Possibly a bazillion times.
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Wait. You just said that.
-Anyway, if we can stick this AU possibility in people's minds, maybe we can get lots of Will!fic. Obviously people are interested - kink meme has several Arthur/Merlin/Will prompts already. It's just a matter of providing the trope so folks don't have to explain it every fic.
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I sort of commentficced this AU here (http://lassiterfics.livejournal.com/89256.html?thread=1452712#t1452712), but like I said, I forgot Arthur thought Will was sorcerer, so.
Sorry to do this again but: WHAT ARTHUR/MERLIN/WILL ON THE KINK MEME WHERE
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-Oh right, that friending things again. But seriously, every time I miss these things it breaks my heart. I needed that fic.
KINK MEME == PROMPTS ONLY. IN NEED OF LOVE. *hints* (and now that I look, most of them are Arthur/Will)
Arthur/Merlin/Will Arthur and Will try to fight for Merlin's attention and he persuades them to share.
Arthur/Will dub-con or non-con. Possibly with Merlin finding out and kicking Will's ass.
Arthur/Will Will's jealousy of Arthur turns to obsession. Could stick to canon or could be AU with Will not dying and maybe turning up in Camelot?
Arthur/Will AU when Arthur is young he is hidden in the small village of Ealdor (not sure if that's spelt right) to protect him from Nimeuh. No one knows his true identity, not even him. He becomes friends with Merlin but Will is really jealous. He's both jealous of Arthur's relationship with Merlin but is also attracted to Arthur and hates that he gives Merlin all his attention. Possibly dub-con/non-con or could end in a threesome maybe.
And this Gaius+Merlin comfort fic relating to Will's death: Patch up the Hole (totally gen, gawd I love this meme)
I would happily post some Merlin/Will or any other prompts you'd like. Just say the word. ^_^
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Have you read this other awesome Merlin&Will fic (http://penknife.livejournal.com/394916.html)?
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And no, I hadn't read that one. It was shiveringly awesome - thank you!
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I am down for all of your Arthur/Will sex-having impetuses. XD
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(Pssst - btw,
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Is the DW scene so active? I admit, I barely use my DW for anything.
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Not at the moment. We're hoping to change that, at least for this little corner. As for why we chose it, well, we just feel more comfortable over there. ^_^;;;
Several people joined today, so I guess there are folks who use their DW accounts.
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Production of local telenovelas is scheduled for later this year! They've just put out calls for writers, directors, producers and anyone with television skills.
The language issue here is fraught. While there are certainly some Timorese who believe that the future of the country lies purely Portuguese, the path there is still very unclear. Currently schoolchildren in primary school are being taught in a mixture of Portuguese and Tetum, but teachers who grew up during the occupation are more familiar with Indonesian and barely speak Portuguese. (Portugal sent dozens of Portuguese teachers here to strengthen the language, but these teachers find themselves teaching basic education principles to poorly-educated Timorese teachers, rather than language to the students.) In high school and university, classes are in a mixture of Tetum and Indonesian, despite new legislation attempting to force classes to be conducted in Portuguese. When classes are conducted solely in Portuguese, students are simply unable to learn. The vast majority of Timorese high school students who leave to study overseas still go to Indonesia.
Meanwhile the majority of members of Parliament are unable to read draft laws in Portuguese, and people entering the court system (which operates solely in Portuguese, with limited translation services) are denied legal counsel in a language they can understand.
The push towards Portuguese is led by the generation of politicians who were already adults when the occupation began. Many of these politicians are 'mesticos' (half- or part-Portuguese) from Timor's elite. Many of them spent the occupation in Portugal or Portuguese colonies such as Mozambique. It's arguable that they do not represent the interests of the majority of Timorese, who speak Tetum as a lingua franca. Portuguese was a colonial imposition on Timor in the first place. And for 300 years, Portuguese colonialism in Timor was hardly what you could call 'pleasant' for Timorese, either, despite the fact it looks rosy in comparison to Indonesian occupation. I've met younger Timorese who remain deeply angry at the Portuguese cultural influence on Timor, including the enforced adoption of Catholic names.
There are a number of local and international NGOs working to promote and develop Tetum as a national language. The argument against Tetum is always 'Oh, but it's too simple for use as a language of administration and law!' -- but people also used to say that about Indonesian.
(Side note: Do you know that famous dangdut song, 'Goyang Inul'? I walked past a boy the other day, probably no more than six or seven, who was singing it perfectly to himself as he sat at the side of the road. "Para penonton, bapak-bapak, ibu-ibu semua..." The continuing influence of Indonesian cable TV...)
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This is fascinating! Thanks for taking the time to type this out. Yeah, there does tend to be tendencies towards cultural essentialism when it comes to articulating national identity. As if the only true culture of Nation X took place before Colonist Y came along. But, if Y has been there long enough, then trying to completely erase Y from X can be damaging and counterproductive. It's 'killing the messenger', I think Benedict Anderson calls it. This is not to say that you have to unquestionably accept Y, not by any means. You can't just Ctrl+Z stuff like this, not when it has ingrained itself into the next generation. It's just that you have to allow for hybridity in identity.
Or reclaiming the oppression thrust upon you, the way black people reclaimed "nigger" and Filipinos reclaimed the barong tagalog. The barong tagalog is a transparent men's shirt made of pineapple fibers. During Spanish colonization, Filipinos wore this so the Spanish can see that they weren't hiding any weapons under their clothes. But now it's become the national dress, and has couture variations.
I don't know any dangdut hahaha. I was thrilled at how the Indonesian music scene has blossomed in the past few years though! The Brandals, Homogenic, Souljah. Those are the ones I know and like.