tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81401990587625031122024-02-18T20:38:28.293-05:00Kiran AsherSince 2009, I've posted here on a small fraction of what pushes my buttons, and to begin articulating my "postcolonial, marxist, feminist" positions on development and environmental issues.KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-69702401265722897072020-03-19T09:54:00.000-04:002020-03-31T11:41:50.479-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yes COVID19 is on my mind like on everyone else's. This crisis is just making visible the underlying crises of our world today, and the need to work for social and environmental justice. More about that soon I hope. But in the meantime, two keys things: PLEASE stay home if you are not already doing so, and encourage others to do so: <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/further/2020/03/19/stay-home-save-lives">https://www.commondreams.org/further/2020/03/19/stay-home-save-lives</a><br />
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Keep informed but also establish a routine so that you can prepare for the long haul. Below is what I made last week based on my partner Robert Redick's excellent and funny schedule (check his out on his FB page: <a href="http://facebook.com/robertvsredick">facebook.com/robertvsredick</a>). Use it and modify it for yourself. And see this for context:
<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-You-Should-Ignore-All-That/248366">https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-You-Should-Ignore-All-That/248366</a>.
Don't confuse the schedules for "productivity porn." Use them to
process how you feel and what you do during this crisis. We
all have different processes - honor yours.<br />
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-12810831636409752002020-02-03T09:49:00.003-05:002020-02-03T09:49:51.281-05:00Radical Geography for a Resurgent Left<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am so proud and honored to be part of the Editorial Collective of <i>Antipode: A Journal of Radical Geography</i>. See the Collective's editorial statement https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.12599</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-44391388354820724132019-06-22T12:37:00.002-04:002019-06-22T12:40:16.196-04:00My review of Arturo Escobar’s new work is just out in GeoForum (free access until July 2019)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001671851930017X?dgcid=author" target="_blank">The risky streets of ontologically redesigned cities: Some comments on Arturo Escobar’s rurbanization research program</a></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-10470432424020539072019-06-06T17:38:00.000-04:002019-06-22T12:44:27.439-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>The grief of losing my mother and writing</b><br />
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The struggles of academic writing have
a new shape this summer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother, Veena Asher, was neither a formal
scholar nor was she formally educated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet
she was my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">guru</i>, my teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s been a year and 3 months since her
passing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the grief is still raw and
I miss her acutely every day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost
everything I touch– clothes, jewelry, pots and pans, utensils, spices, flours,
flowers—has her marks on them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
her mark on me—my features, body type, the way I speak, the way I engage the
world. And yet the grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every day I
think about all the things I learnt from her and what I did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I was aware of her mortality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spoke about death since my grandfather’s
death in the 1970s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spoke about her
death and yet nothing prepared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spoke
about the impermanence of life, discussed the teachings of old texts and their relevance
to living our daily life with dignity and care. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes all the strength of my will to hear these
things from my yoga teacher as she reads from the Yoga Sutras.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With my mother there was space for skepticism
and debate even about traditional wisdom. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possible respect but no romance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learnt my philosophy and theory from
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Long before I read Marx, I engaged
in the ruthless criticism of everything with her. With her I learned nature-cultures,
and understood what Donna Haraway was writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wasn’t learning to do just be – strong and brave to face any situation,
anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To hold failures lightly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To celebrate successes but not fetish them.
We never spoke of love, and yet her love of life and for the world upheld me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without her I have to build my scaffolding
anew, not quite alone but without the material guidance of our weekly conversations.
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As I write this I realize something
odd: I don’t associate my books with her, and yet she made me a scholar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That insight must be her gift to me today.
Tomorrow I will follow up on it to guide me to a path to articulate and engage
the contradictions and aporias of struggles for social and environmental
justice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="transplant showit" data-direction="from" data-remove="false" data-target=".extra-info-wrapper>p>a" data-toggle="transplant" data-transplant="self"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119558071">Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50 </a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="transplant showit" data-direction="from" data-remove="false" data-target=".extra-info-wrapper>p>a" data-toggle="transplant" data-transplant="self"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">is just out! Get free access to it, including to my chapter "<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119558071.ch22" target="_blank">Fieldwork</a>"!</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-3768739631481334612017-12-27T15:08:00.000-05:002017-12-27T15:08:05.131-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Some of my recent publications include: <a href="http://catalystjournal.org/ojs/index.php/catalyst/article/view/132">Thinking Fragments: Adisciplinary reflections on Feminism and Environmental Justice </a> Check out the other amazing pieces in the special issue on Science out of Feminist Theory</div>
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I also have a lead piece entitled <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15767/feministstudies.43.3.0512?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spivak and Rivera Cusicanqui on the Dilemmas of Representation in Postcolonial and Decolonial Feminisms</span></span></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>in <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">a special issue of </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Feminist Studies 2018, vol 43, number 3 on</span></span> <b>Decolonial and Postcolonial Approaches: A Dialogue</b>.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>This special issue provokes a conversation between decolonial and postcolonial feminisms by asking what they are, how they speak about each other, and how they can speak to each other. Read together, the articles engage and sometimes trouble the temporal and spatial distinctions drawn between decolonial and postcolonial approaches. Our hope is to offer intellectual resources, through reviews of recent literature as well as summaries of both approaches, to recognize how both these formations build on similar ground. We also wanted to revisit critical insights that continue to be relevant to critiquing colonial knowledge formation. The issue also features Aimee Carillo Rowe, Amy Piedalue and Susmita Rishi, Breny Mendoza, Emily Zhang, Hyunji Kwon, Jennifer Hamilton, Banu Subramaniam and Angela Willey, Megan Kaminski, Patricia Schechter, Paulla Ebron and Anna Tsing, Raina León, Sandra Harding, Tiara Na’puti and Judy Rohrer, with a preface by Priti Ramamurthy and Ashwini Tambe. Read it at http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15767/feministstudies.43.issue-3<br />
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-89082155019195770752017-03-17T18:04:00.000-04:002017-03-17T18:04:27.858-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Spivak, G. C. WHAT IS TO BE DONE? Tidal: Occupy Street, Occupy Strategy, Frontier 44(31) Feb 12-18, 2012<br />
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Spivak's essay on Occupy Street, Occupy Strategy is more than relevant at this moment.<br />
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http://frontierweekly.com/archive/vol-number/vol/vol-44-2011-12/vol-44-31/whatistobedone-44-31.pdf</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-11638285845278328802017-02-14T08:34:00.002-05:002017-02-14T08:43:43.969-05:00Feminist Scholars Statement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://feministscholarstatement.com/"><span style="font-family: "times"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Statement By Feminist Scholars on the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States</span></a></div>
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-25055580472171314782016-11-09T16:24:00.003-05:002016-11-11T08:45:08.356-05:00Fighting White Tr[i]umphalism... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm in shock and grieving like so many people across the country and the world who are committed to social justice. Yet the results of last night's elections are all too believable. Below I share some of the many eloquent analyses of this outcome, which we hoped would not come upon us. Of course it was about sexism (and yes women can be sexist if understand it as an ideology that governs us and traps us all), of course it was about race (white supremacy in this case), and of course it was about class (understood as the unequal positions we hold within the social relations of capitalist production). They intersect at all times, and in the conjuncture of these elections they intersected and lit up over the kindling of race-class-gender divides that undergird this country and have done so since its inception. They do important ideological work (like the seepage of sexism into the very fabric of people's being so much so that they say that the candidacies had nothing to do with sexism). Yes they undergird other countries, our world -- in unique and interconnected ways. Last year (Aug 2015) I wrote about the "man's world" in Hollywood here. It was but a reflection of the realities that are almost everywhere in this country, often just below the surface but often not so very far beneath either. <br />
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Our analyses weren't wrong before, and are not wrong now. I think many saw and tried to show--again and again--what was coming (it's the same with climate change I think. Well, not the same but similar. It will be devastating). No, our analyses did not fail us and remain necessary. <br />
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Nor was it lack of action--at least not in terms of the election. There was so much mobilization to address the stark divides to prevent us from getting here. And no, I don't believe that people are "just stupid" (no more than I believe that women are stupid or black people or colonized people or rural peoples are stupid). What's lacking in all of us in some measure is what my favorite social theorist, Gayatri Spivak, calls "reflexes of democracy" -- those muscle have not been given a workout. What's lacking (amongst other things) is politics of the everyday kind -- politics of connections, of relations, of acknowledging that "race" is a relation, as are gender and class. Unequal relations, and ones that piggyback on each other. That's why they are so hard to fight. It's not about equality alone, folks. It's about justice, and the struggles for justice have been given a serious <i>patada</i> (kick).<br />
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There is no choice but to struggle, to rise up, to work against violence, fear and hatred, against racism, sexism, capitalism. These are feminist struggles through and through. Might "relations" serve as an analytical, political and personal anchor from which to begin thinking and acting? Might connections help to think about how we find the good in each other and in the world, though it may require digging pretty deep, through layers of pain and hurt, to realize that one cannot be free until others are also?<br />
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Some key analyses and calls for action from colleagues in my department:<br />
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/us-election-result-misogyny-america-panel-woman<br />
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An Open Letter to Our Nation from 100 Women of Color: https://our100.org/<br />
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Ai-jen Poo's article from yesterday, "10 Things Progressives Need to Do Now": https://www.thenation.com/article/10-things-progressives-need-to-do-regardless-of-who-wins-today/<br />
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Brittney Cooper: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8262379/donald-trump-white-supremacy/<br />
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-58446472985635119912016-08-29T10:00:00.001-04:002016-10-22T16:12:06.915-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-7f618b7m4DxZZYtTLHcV5veSYrkHIp8-EgzLTFNPZnW_rgbKnKkKzuyL50ZEtivnti9QgyGUT9cgaeEavJEqWLJme2TDWv2NOXmMYvGbbHq5S_qJlfHt0XR2mwDp153UGFW0q7oO7rr/s1600/NegroyVerde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">The Spanish translation of my book was published in May 2016! </a></div>
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-79000271324646207172015-08-11T12:33:00.003-04:002015-08-11T12:33:42.147-04:00Back in the USA, which feels like a "man's world"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
... Back in the US after living in Indonesia for two years. Yes, going throug "culture shock." For instance, went to the movies yesterday. Granted we saw "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation," and granted that Rebecca Ferguson kicked butt. But other than her, women were almost entirely absent from the movie. They seemed to be entirely absent in the movie previews that preceded the feature. Such poor representation begs poor questions: has the US has experienced a demographic shift such that women have disappeared from the country? Or is this one more example of the absence of women from the Public Sphere? Apropos which, check out Mary Beard's excellent address: <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/mary-beard/the-public-voice-of-women">http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/mary-beard/the-public-voice-of-women</a><br />
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-37780907692865068412015-03-12T03:24:00.000-04:002015-03-12T03:24:02.168-04:00"Doers and Done For" finally out!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Clearly I'm not too good at blogging regularly. I compose many posts in my head. Alas, most don't make it to the page or the screen. Ditto with respect to many of my intellectual and research concerns. But I did put some of my key positions on "useful research" on paper. They are finally in print. Please check out my piece and those of my colleagues.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.acme-journal.org/volume13-4.html">http://www.acme-journal.org/volume13-4.html</a><br />
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<br /></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-7943108550054282582014-11-28T13:29:00.001-05:002014-11-28T13:29:59.358-05:00Capitalism Verde y Violento<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Nov 8, 2014, I was one of two speakers at the Cátedra Manuel Ancízar at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá. For a limited time, my remarks (and those of other speakers) are on YouTube. Link below<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWq8iQnmszk&list=PL0eIMKIq57cW6e74FGVMIfYidrnE0T3y3&index=9">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWq8iQnmszk&list=PL0eIMKIq57cW6e74FGVMIfYidrnE0T3y3&index=9</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-10674487149449400582014-10-16T23:52:00.001-04:002014-10-17T00:24:59.763-04:00I entered a blog competition...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://dialogues.cgiar.org/blog/sustainable-development-romance-rhetoric-and-realities/" target="_blank">about the Sustainable Development Goals. Click to read and vote! </a></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-70567918808472367032014-09-25T22:52:00.003-04:002014-09-25T22:52:41.487-04:00Why Scientists should read the history of development...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://blog.cifor.org/24452/whats-green-about-the-green-economy-why-scientists-should-read-the-history-of-development#.VCTVb-dmBFQ">http://blog.cifor.org/24452/whats-green-about-the-green-economy-why-scientists-should-read-the-history-of-development#.VCTVb-dmBFQ</a></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-63012967655107504712014-09-06T03:54:00.000-04:002016-08-29T10:00:57.416-04:00Three photos (poster from Kunming restaurant, in Borobudur, meal in Slovenia)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-20396961840321550982014-09-06T02:42:00.000-04:002014-10-07T02:01:14.351-04:00Back to Bogor to become Toad Catcher-in-Chief<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This year, 2014, I’ve traveling every month (which is a lot less
than most CIFOR colleagues!) and when not traveling I’m was most happy to just
“be” rather than “do”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or if I was doing
something, it was something away from desks, chairs, or keyboards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That meant no blog posts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So a overview of the trips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be warned that what follows reads like a
travelogue, and is more romantic in the telling because it involves no fatigue
other than feeling dizzy with reading! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We celebrated the new year (probably asleep) in
southern India finishing up our lovely vacation in Fort Kochi (Robert must have
written about it somewhere and posted pictures). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I returned to India in February for the World
AgroForestry Congress in New Delhi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
the end of March, we went with our good friends Louis and Tony to Bali for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nyepi</i>, the Balinese new year which is
celebrated in a style that is wonderful -total silence and no external light or
gadgets. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Candidasa, which used
to be a big resort until the reefs were mined and caused the tourist industry
to tank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reefs are being recovered,
and Robert and our friends had a wonderful time snorkeling and swimming. I
enjoyed the beauty of marine life vicariously through their descriptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks to Tony, we are now fans of the French
game <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tarot</i>! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In April, thanks to Louis, I got to visit
Kunming, southern China to learn about some of their forest restoration
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every meal we eat there was spectacular and the
restaurants there had this amazing poster on the walls (see photo on blog). I tried getting the actual poster but each
restaurant gets only gets one and I could get one from city hall.</span></span><style>
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--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the way back, I met up with
Robert in Bangkok for a long weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
felt and thought so much in both places, and have much to say about both
trips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The month of May saw us in
Jakarta for a CIFOR conference and then in Yogyakarta for a workshop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between work, we had a fantastic trip to
Borobudur (see photo above)
with our friends Manju and Kanchi, and Annie, a student-colleague from UC Berkeley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was my third trip Yogyakarta and the
second time we stayed in the marvelous Dusun Jogja Village Inn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a few public holidays later in May but I was so
tired of traveling that we went no further than to </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Vila
Botani,</span> an organic farm on <i>Salak</i>, the volcano
around Bogor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With some planning we were
mercifully spared traffic misadventures and had a rejuvenating day trip.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In June, I had to go to Italy and Turkey
for workshops, so Robert joined me in Istanbul on his way back to the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we had a fantastic time walking around
the streets filled with cafes and cats, eating great food and also got great
views of the Bosphorus from the terrace of the apartment we rented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The highlight of the trip was meeting up with
Ipek Ozgul--one of my former students who is from Turkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a few days in Istanbul, we went to
Slovenia to see our friends Steve and Mia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were superb hosts and we were lucky that the weather was excellent
while we were there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among the many
fantastic things about the trip was eating one of the best meals I’ve had in a
year or more (photo above),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hiking
in the mountains, going to the Adriatic, and eating more great food from the
farmers markets. Robert returned to the US from Slovenia and </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">returned
to Indonesia and spent a month working with two student colleagues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also shared the house with me, and with
most CIFOR scientists gone, we had a few pleasant weeks of work and play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They latter was mainly lollygagging (in the
wonderful hammock and sewing).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I went to the US in mid July and
stopped in Chicago to see my mom before heading back to Massachusetts. After various
minor dramas associated with resettling in the house after having rented it for
a year, I flew to Charlottesville to visit the Redicks and help Robert drive
back with Chloe dog. I worked from our Massachusetts home for three
weeks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Non-work time was spent hanging
out with friends, visiting old haunts, hiking or hanging out with our pets,
enjoying summer and the ability to walk or drive without traffic dogging our
every move!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was lucky that the weather
was perfect during my time there. The heat and humidity held off until I was in Bogor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back in my Bogor home I returned to
the warm embrace of tropical vegetation and the bestiary of my back yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The black cat that lives around the yard came
by just as a poor fish that had jumped out of our pond died. No I don’t
plan to adopt the cat but it serves its purpose of keeping the big rats at bay.
I saw a big rat crawling down the pipe near the back of the pond. I
shooed it back up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too bad that neither
the cats nor rats catch the toads that have somehow breached the barriers that
the gardener has rigged to keep them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With Robert and Annie gone, I have become the toad catcher-in-chief, and
taken over Robert’s job of involuntarily migrating anything that croaks! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Following parade of rat and cats,
was a bat (alliteration unintentional). It was a medium sized one flying
low in the back yard and especially over the fish pond. I have yet to see
the javanese kingfisher that comes to catch the fry from our pond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tokays</i> have been calling all night and all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love them!</span></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-85850527531895455412014-06-01T00:38:00.000-04:002014-06-01T00:38:29.628-04:00Remembrances of two young friends who just died<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This year I lost two good friends. In February 2014, Jesus Alberto Valdes, our friend of over two decades died after a prolonged battle with cancer. Beto had been our roommate in Cali and compañero at Fundación Habla/Scribe. A few years after we left Colombia in 1995, Beto had to give up his full time work with social movements to drive a taxi to earn his living. But he continued his engagement with social struggles and taught us so much about love, friendship, and humanity. <br />
<br />
In April 2014, another compañero, S. Bhupathy died prematurely and tragically. <br />
<a href="http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140430/nation-current-affairs/article/scientist-falls-death-agasthyamalai-hills">http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140430/nation-current-affairs/article/scientist-falls-death-agasthyamalai-hills</a><br />
<br />
I met Bhupathy in 1991 on a wildlife management field course in China, and bumped into him again twenty years later. In December last year, I contacted him when we went to Kerala for Robert's long anticipated trip there. He graciously and generously hosted us at SACON, sharing his knowledge of Indian ecology and herpetology unreservedly with us. <br />
<br />
Beto and Bhupathy were friends that I did not see regularly in the past, and had no hopes of seeing often in the future. But they touched my life and made not just my world, but the world a better place in their quiet, gentle way. </div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-46539570020575506982013-11-17T21:44:00.000-05:002013-11-17T21:44:32.056-05:00Month four in Indonesia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
... and I have been running around too much to post here. But check out Robert's eloquent entries about his first impressions (robertvsredick.blogspot.com). Will post here soon!<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-17565351390369472822013-09-15T03:16:00.003-04:002013-11-17T21:40:52.988-05:00Self, Sidewalks, and Social Change (with apologies for my addiction to alliteration)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just back
from walking to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All Fresh</i>, a smallish
upscale grocery store close to the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I was walking there I passed Teman Kencana, the garden after which the
neighborhood is named.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw a lot of
dogs and heard a lot of yapping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
seemed to be both a gathering of people who have dogs and an equivalent to a
puppy mill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little beyond the puppy
mill were several people walking civet cats on leases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So not just a puppy mill but also a mill to
buy civets, probably not just as pets but to (force?) feed them to eat coffee
beans for the expensive luwak coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Total conjecture on my part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also
in the park were a bunch of guys with snakes. Yesterday in Yogkakarta, I saw a
sidewalk full of birdcages with little birds flapping wilding in them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These birds were not used to being in
confined spaces yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A street over were
vendors with baby chicks dyed in the most lurid flourescent colors. The hidden
liberal in me surges up as I struggle to deal with animals in capitivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally got
to the store which is not to far as the crow flies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But getting through the streets clogged with
cars, motorbikes, hawkers and gawkers takes time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only the poor walk it seems, and they don’t
need footpaths (the term for sidewalks that I grew up with, and I imagine is
still used in India).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, if
there are sidewalks or footpaths there (and in Colombia, and here) are
multifunctional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walking on them is
only possibility. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are a great venue
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">warungs</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">penjuals</i> or their equivalent. I’m okay with the multifunctionality
of sidewalks (something that used to drive Robert crazy in Cali).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>But
not having them makes it hard to get around, and adds another dimension to the
dilemma of wanting to be car free here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a pain to have a car –it will add to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">macet</i> (traffic jams) and global warming, besides my having to deal
with one more thing (the car) and one person (the driver)!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also a pain to have to get around a city
where on has to rely largely on public <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">angkots</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll see how far I get with this. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Both the
examples above reveal (to me), my ineffectual struggle to come to terms with my
role in bringing about the change I want. “Being the change you want to see,”
is a nice slogan, but it doesn’t get me very far – literally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But being getting very far, very fast isn’t
the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it is our hurry to do
that has brought us to the impasse of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">macets</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if this were not turning into a personal
blog, I’d go on to ask who is “we” and what do I mean by all the points I am
making here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s for my academic
writing.</span></div>
</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-33664257984598806022013-09-14T11:40:00.001-04:002013-09-14T11:40:49.079-04:00A few more photos from Prambanan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiDYBQXpYgNYSHskPd_8cmYRMnuFNKq5H9foE8JSQRxbpSvObWnDy-ipMJthI9twW8JDYRfbW2j23l0-kXA9059bJbSeDmret1cc1uYZxm2e1wP6oF7SBZnQcA_8Uc_HF5CRxTkFteD5Ul/s1600/DSCF0286.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiDYBQXpYgNYSHskPd_8cmYRMnuFNKq5H9foE8JSQRxbpSvObWnDy-ipMJthI9twW8JDYRfbW2j23l0-kXA9059bJbSeDmret1cc1uYZxm2e1wP6oF7SBZnQcA_8Uc_HF5CRxTkFteD5Ul/s320/DSCF0286.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-67985480592714781152013-09-13T10:32:00.002-04:002013-09-13T10:37:48.200-04:00Learning Bahasa Indonesia,Yogyakarta, and T-shit Shop!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I started learning Bahasa Indonesia a few weeks after I got to
Indonesia. The language is grammatically simple but culturally very
complex and nuanced. Irr, my teacher is fantastic and we have had some
great conversations about semiotics and different cultural logics. This
is the first time that I am learning a language formally with a teacher, and
while surrounded by people speaking another language I know. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter makes my progress slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So after three weeks of lessons with Iir, I
decided to go to Yogyakarta for intensive language training at one of the many
language schools in this city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I arrived in Yogyakarta on a Sunday, and it was immediately
evident that this is a smaller and less crazy city than Bogor, and certainly
less so than Jakarta.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also full of
a lot of tourists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the brochures
said that it is the second largest tourist destination after Bali.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bumped into a lot of them at Jalan
Malioboro, a long street full of shops selling batik (mostly batik prints) and
handicrafts. Many of my friends and recommended one of the largest of these
shops. Mirota Batik is a multi-storey shop which sells beatiful stuff and a lot
of junky things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a place where
tourists and locals shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a lot of
basic things for my house, and had them shipped to Bogor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since I hadn’t yet taken a lot of
language classes, that took a bit of figuring out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual, people here were amazingly
nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then back to my hotel (Yogya Plaza hotel), where the food is
mediocre but the gym superb!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside the
hotel is a sign that says “No pets, no durians!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll try to put up the photo I took of the
sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of you who know durians will
know why there is such a sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of
you who don’t durians, suffice it to say that the smell is intense!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hotel was my home base for the next 6
days while I took classes at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alam Bahasa</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took 4-6 hours of classes a day and learnt
a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I could have learnt a lot
more had the classes been more intense, and had I done more home work in the
evenings!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still I learned a lot and
enjoyed the “Direct Communicative” method of teaching (speaking only in the
language that one is learning), which involved excursions to the local fruit
stall and a visit to a street with incredible batik shops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one of the shops, Batik Winotosastro (<a href="http://www.winotosastro.com/batik/">http://www.winotosastro.com/batik/</a>),
I saw the craftspeople involved in the incredible labor of making batik.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say, any of the pieces I liked
were between $200-500/-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was glad to
have had witnessed the beauty and am okay with not possessing them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Thursday, I went on </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
Prambanan temple on the outskirts of Jakarta.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was really quite spectacular and I also saw an incredibly beautiful
cat there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will try to upload pictures
of both! Back at the school, there was a community lunch of excellent
Indonesian food! While Indonesian food is famed to be good, I haven’t had
much luck with finding good food even when it is expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance, a few days before I went out
with a colleague from Bogor to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kedai Tiga
Nyonya</i>, supposedly one of the best restaurants in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The food was alright but not so much that I
want to go back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the food here
is way too oily for my taste. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIunvGRz9SfVDMKQTFabnnbFxl9hv6ITx997uuvIT8NUZ0iecBP_HquAvzEKN1Zj9edfJAZ3UFBtveKmeVpoed1eTWcdiGodtae6c5O5VxV1vjrM5Y9dBphyphenhyphenNvw-Gq8kph6PDXHA-tb_kn/s1600/photo-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIunvGRz9SfVDMKQTFabnnbFxl9hv6ITx997uuvIT8NUZ0iecBP_HquAvzEKN1Zj9edfJAZ3UFBtveKmeVpoed1eTWcdiGodtae6c5O5VxV1vjrM5Y9dBphyphenhyphenNvw-Gq8kph6PDXHA-tb_kn/s320/photo-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What has been
feeding me well is a tiny restaurant called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Loving
Hut</i> on a street adjacent to the hotel. It’s been a really and unexpected </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">blessing.
Their menu is varied enough and everything is vegan so that makes eating
easy. I even got to eat a vegetarian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">baxso</i>
and some very spicy (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pedas) </i>fried
rice (which I could not finish). This evening I walked to Jalan Solo to
check out some more batik clothing stores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most of the them were closed by the time I was walking along the
street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But my long walk rewarded me
with many interesting sights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two of
them I will remember for a long .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
was more of a sound than a sight – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mynahs</i>
getting ready to roost at dusk in a large palm tree in front of a huge mall
(yep, here too)! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It so reminded me of
India home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other was a shop called “T-shit
shop”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Need I say more?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m looking forward to returning home to Bogor tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before that I hope to to go <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kota </i>Gede (Old City) famed for its
silversmiths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-7328252806551870242013-09-12T09:30:00.000-04:002013-09-12T09:54:39.911-04:00Racking up debt in my first month in Indonesia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I'm well into the second month of being in Indonesia and these posts are long overdue. </span><span style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As you all may imagine, there is a lot going on and lots to
share.<span> </span>I do miss Robert, our menagerie,
my friends and family (not just in the US but in other parts of the world!).
But despite the adventures and misadventures of settling in a new place and job,
I have the feeling of familiarity and newness. </span></span><style>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">If you want the highlight of my first month, the subject
heading says it all: I’ve racked up debt
past counting in my first month. It
isn’t monetary debt but like the debt that third world countries owe to the
World Bank, it is unpayable. The debt I
have incurred is with the many Indonesian and expat people who welcomed me and
helped me settle in Bogor. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">
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--></style></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span></span>Thanks to them, I
find myself saying “Saya pulang ke Bogor” (I am going <u>home</u> to
Bogor).<span> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you want details read the posts that follow! </span></span>
</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-13318447566031044752013-09-11T09:37:00.000-04:002013-09-12T09:56:59.718-04:00Moving and settling into a new house and beginning language lessons <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I moved into my new house on Saturday, August 17,
Indonesia’s Independence Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the
last two weeks of August I focused on settling into a new house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I moved here with only a few suitcases,
I had very few things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The house comes
with some basic furniture (including three mattresses) and a beautiful teak
dining table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is enough for my
needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A CIFOR colleague was moving away
from Bogor and selling a lot of her stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thanks to here and to the advice of another friend, I bought most of my
kitchen stuff from her, including a juicer for all the lovely fruit
here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beyond that the next few weeks
involved the adventures and misadventures of settling in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know if it is okay to name names here
of all the colleagues, friends, and random people who helped me with the above
and dozens of other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They fed me,
had me over for yoga sessions, took me to parties and shopping, brought bottles
of wine (no small thing given that wine here is sooooooo expensive), set up
emergency internet and then permanent internet, dealt with inexplicable loss of
electricity (just n my house not neighborhood), ith made dripping water
dispensers work, helped deal with dead fish in the pond in the back yard,
helped commicate with the old retainer associated with the house (he does not
speak any English and my language skills were rudimentary though they are
improving), find domestic help, give me rides to and from work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list goes on and on and on, and I was
accompanied at each step (even by Robert who was hearing about all this by
skype, including hearing about my first sighting of a civet cat, which is not a cat), and never felt alone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am slowly establishing new routines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in addition to missing Robert and the
animals, I really miss the Mill River, our neighborhood, and especially the Y
and my yoga classes. I’ve had no luck finding an Iyengar yoga teacher in
Bogor, and I’m not yet up to the ordeal of facing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">macet</i> (traffic jams) of Jakarta for classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I invoke my wonderful teach Suzie
Goldstein of the Rivervalleyyoga studio in Florence (www.rivervalleyyoga.com) as
I focus on my home practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another kind of home practice involves settling new routines
for cooking and eating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The CIFOR
cafetaria is great and convenient though the food is mixed. They always
have Indonesian dishes and other cuisines (wednesday is Indian food). They
also have local vendors sell all kinds of things periodically (bread organic
rice and veggies, tofu, etc).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though
CIFOR had an orientation session, none of these most important things were
covered there – things that are basic to living!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few weeks ago, I hired a part time <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pembantu</i> to help with the cooking,
etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many who claim to have a
social consciousness and/or come from or have lived in the west, hiring
domestic help is a complicated issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
remains complicated for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is
equally complicated to face work, home and in a new place, in a new language,
with all kinds of logistical and cultural challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I soon realized that I need an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibu</i> (literally mother though the term is
used as a prefix to the names of all older women as a mark of respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am certainly Ibu Kiran – no mistaking
middle age here!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, the help
of friends and particularly my friend Iir was invaluable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also a gardener and general
factotum, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pak</i> Hasim (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pak</i>, pronounced Pa, is the short form of
Bapak and is the term used as a prefix to the names of all older men as a mark
of respect) who has been associated for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>40 decades with the house I rented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whether I like it or not, he turns up at the house and hiring him was
inevitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s another story, which
I am sure I will tell you when we talk in person!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8140199058762503112.post-66814687261919244582013-09-10T09:32:00.000-04:002014-09-06T01:20:40.747-04:00Indonesia: The first ten days (August 1-10, 2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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--><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I arrived at the beautiful CIFOR campus and guesthouse late
on Wednesday night, July 31. After a
nice deep sleep, I walked over to the campus awake enough to handle the many
logistical tasks that awaited me and meeting my new colleagues. Among my logistic tasks was a trip to the US
Embassy in Jakarta the next day to apply for a new passport. As the crow flies, Jakarta and Bogor are
close. But the infamous traffic in this
part of Java means that a round trip could take anywhere between 2 hours and 6
or more. It took me five and half to get
to Jakarta and back! </span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The next week was Lebaran, or Idul Fitri, the holiday/holy
day marking the end of Ramadan, and the biggest holiday in Indonesia. Many Muslims go to their home villages (<i>pulang</i>), non-Muslims go to (<i>pergi</i>) Bali or elsewhere, and Jakarta
empties out. So does the CIFOR campus.
Consequently, things were slow for me during my first ten days. It gave me a chance to get some work done,
travel to Jakarta (called the Big Durian) when it was not so crazy, and to have
some local adventures (like try all kinds of tropical fruits!). I also got to hang out with my old friends
Amy, Or and their children; meet and make new friends, and find a house! Piggy backing on the experiences of others, I
liked and decided to rent the first house I walked into. It is a huge house (for me though not
necessarily by expat standards). I meant
to look for a place in Jakarta (so much going on there compared to the more
provincial pace of Bogor). However,
considering the high costs (in terms of money and time) I decided to take the
path of least resistance and settled on living in the very green neighborhood
of Taman Kencana. A lot of CIFOR folks
live there and that meant instant community.
It also meant racking up unpayable debt to that community! During the
Lebaran holiday I also got to hang out with CIFOR colleagues who were new like
me and staying at CIFOR, and many students and scholars who stay at the
guesthouse. Mealtime conversations means
crash courses or personal seminars on all kinds of fascinating research! Happy Me!</span></span></div>
</div>
KAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00996182363503783956noreply@blogger.com0