Thursday 7 February 2008

Happy Chinese New Year

1. "Hey I'm minority too" excuse won't work. If offending black, Jews, and Islam are so unforgivable and deadly, why do excuses are given for Asians (that including South Asians)? Yes, pandas are Chinese animals, but now pandas do not drive with bamboo. They ride Toyota.

2. Tempo has apologized. Take that, you "I-know-European-reference-best" suckers. We Catholics can bite. Again, you have to pay attention to printed news since access to Koran Tempo Interaktif worth 10,000 rupiah per week. Apply online or through SMS.

3. Another example of state racism. You might know the Roma people as "gypsies" (since they were believed to come from Egypt. Actually they came from India).

4. This is serious: What's the best Indonesian term for Chinese-Indonesians? The English term is perfect, but Bahasa Indonesia still demands the neutral, convenient term. Tionghoa still sounds awkward and people don't use it in normal conversation. Cina is still considered offensive so media hedges it with English pronunciation "China". I use Cina because I want to reclaim the word, like the LGBT community had successfully reclaimed "queer". "Black" seems to be more well-accepted in England than in America.

But here - why does the "C" word is so feared in Indonesia? One explanation is that the racism still there, and you can't pretend everything OK after Lunar New Year becomes national holiday. Heck, things could go worse now.

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