In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Oprah Winfrey looked nervous. Making her way across the stage, she stopped to smile for the herd of photographers and then quickly sat down in her chair. Waiting for the applause to die down, she folded her hands in her lap.

This was Oprah’s first visit to India; the press has tracked her every move as she traveled across the country filming an episode for her new show, “The Next Chapter.” Among her stops: a visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival, held in the Northwestern State of Rajasthan. The festival features five days of readings, panel discussions, and musical performances. In just seven years, it has become the largest literary festival in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting more than 60,000 people annually.

Author Deepak Chopra speaks at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Attracting more than 60,000 people annually, the festival is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region. Photo by flickr user Havelgotastory4u.

I thought I could sense curiosity and discomfort pass across Oprah’s face as she waited for her discussion, “O: Oprah in Jaipur,” to begin. When I landed in India seven months ago to begin my year as a Luce Scholar and writer-in-residence at the Sanskriti Foundation, I, too, had mixed emotions. Although I had experience living abroad, that hadn’t prepared me for the chaos, for the throb of life in India. Oprah said of her first impressions of India, “It’s a bit chaotic, and then I realized there’s an underlying calm, or flow, that everybody else here gets the flow, and that as a foreigner, you have to get in and move with the flow.”

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DVDs of popular Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Hollywood movies are readily available in Laos, but there are very few Lao films and only a small and nascent Lao filmmaking industry. With only a handful of movie theaters in the entire country, many citizens have never been to the cinema, and filmmaking is generally seen as a foreign industry. Not only are there few films about Laos, but even fewer told from a Lao point of view.

As part of our focus in Laos on expanding access to information, The Asia Foundation recently supported the second annual Luang Prabang Film Festival, held in partnership with the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism. The festival brings contemporary international views and ideas to Laos through film and provides a forum and encouragement for present and future Lao filmmakers.

Young filmmakers participate in a 10-day workshop prior to the main festival. The students then wrote, directed, filmed, edited, and subtitled short films which were then shown in Luang Prabang. Photo credit: Utth Media Creation Co.

Twenty-five feature-length films from across Southeast Asia were shown over the course of the festival, with an average audience of around 600 people per screening. All screenings were free, and most were held in open-air venues to encourage anyone with an interest to stop by. In addition, 18 short films created by Lao filmmakers were included in the festival. This was generally the biggest, and in some cases the only, public screening most of these films have ever had.

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For three days in December, individuals from a range of industries gathered at the 3rd Annual Big Ideas Fest to explore the future of education. In a venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley, teachers, administrators, and representatives from policy and advocacy groups, non-profits, foundations, social enterprises, and cutting-edge technology companies discussed the unique opportunities offered by the intersection of education, technology, and innovation.

I registered for the Big Ideas Fest hoping to better understand innovative trends in education and assess their potential application for the developing world. Based on its growing reputation, I knew that Big Ideas would be unlike any other conference I had attended. Challenging from the start, the ice-breaker exercise asked us to reflect on our earliest memories of learning and the most dramatic shifts in our own personal education experiences, and to then share them with all 175 participants, in a span of 15 minutes. I was immediately brought back to my experience as an English as a Second Language (ESL) student. Born in a refugee camp in northern Thailand to parents who fled war-torn Laos, I was very young when we were sponsored to resettle in the United States. Speaking only my mother tongue, Mien, and placed in an ESL group at school, I felt lost and at times ostracized in the classroom. But as I gained fluency in English, I remember the wonderful “aha” moments that occurred as I found a voice in my new environment. As it turns out, my own early memories were about to inform another dramatic shift in my perception of education at the Big Ideas Fest 2011.

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The flooding that submerged one-third of Thailand this year was the worst the country had seen in 50 years. Sixty-five provinces and over 4 million people have been affected, tens of thousands have lost jobs, and nearly 700 were killed. Nine provinces remain underwater. Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Board slashed its projected 2011 GDP to 1.5, down from its pre-flood projection of as much as 4 percent. The World Bank estimates that rehabilitation costs could reach $25 billion.

Primary and secondary schools were not spared from the destruction. A total of 2,237 schools were destroyed or damaged. According to the Ministry of Education, repairs will cost an estimated $44.2 million.

Floodwaters in Thailand damaged thousands of schools, including Angthong Temple Nursery School above, located on the shore of the Chao Phraya River north of Bangkok. Photo: Angthong Temple Nursery School.

Principals from four of the worst affected areas that I visited recently said students missed 25 or more class days on average, which were made up by staying an hour longer each day and, in some cases, coming in on Saturdays. Also, because their workplaces were flood-damaged, many parents could not work for a month or two, dramatically reducing household income and their ability to provide for their families. Even though tuition, lunch, and uniforms at public schools are free, students must pay for courses not required by the Ministry of Education. Ang Thong Nursery, located on the shore of the Chao Phraya River north of Bangkok, for example, offers computer classes and English and Chinese instruction with foreign teachers, totaling $33 per year. These skills are critical to the future success in Thailand’s highly populated and competitive job market but were disrupted due to the flood damage.

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Having worked with Indonesia’s higher education sector since 2000, I have come to believe that studying abroad is as close as one may come to a “sure thing” in Indonesian developmental assistance. Indonesian students and professors studying abroad are exposed to new educational techniques and knowledge, and will take that expertise home with them either (as graduates) to their new workplace or (as professors) to an educational system sorely in need of innovation. The likelihood that those individuals become leaders in their fields rises exponentially – and, as a result, they have the potential to bring great economic and intellectual benefit to Indonesia. In fact, almost 50 percent of the ministers in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s current cabinet spent some time studying overseas.

Above, students mingle after class at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Indonesia's student population in higher education has witnessed an explosive 35 percent increase in just six years.

Indonesians who study overseas, most of whom do so in the United States, Australia, the UK, or the Netherlands, carry their experiences – the vast majority of them overwhelmingly positive – with them for the rest of their lives. It is reflected in their work and their conversations; it becomes a part of them and thus the environment they interact with. It is arguably the ideal of what we mean when we speak of long-term impact and sustainability. Absent such exposure, perceptions of the West are often left to be derived from some combination of anti-Western rhetoric, syndicated TV shows, and internet conspiracy theories.

Yet the number of Indonesian students studying in the United States has fallen to half of what it was 10 years ago. That number, and the number of visiting professors, should ideally be increasing dramatically every year, and developmental projects should be making sure that happens. But despite some recent efforts, such as an increase in funds for U.S.-Indonesian Fulbright exchanges, the majority of these developmental opportunities remain untapped.

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Law has little meaning when it is not widely understood. Concepts like “conflict of interest” or “integrity” are used repeatedly in theories and explanations of law, but they are not self-explanatory. Perhaps nowhere is this more the case than in Timor-Leste, where rule of law is in the early stages of institutionalization and not well-understood by most citizens. And, until now, there were no legal texts focused on the laws of Timor-Leste. Professors were dependent on foreign law texts, primarily from Portugal or Indonesia.

Attendees at the launch of Timor-Leste's first law text focused on the laws of Timor-Leste in both official languages – Portuguese and Tetum – and the working language, English. Until now, there were no legal texts focused on the laws of Timor-Leste. Professors were dependent on foreign law texts, primarily from Portugal or Indonesia.

Last month, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with Stanford Law School, the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), and USAID, launched the new nation’s first law text focused on the laws of Timor-Leste in both official languages – Portuguese and Tetum – and the working language, English.

The launch of the text, An Introduction to Professional Responsibility in Timor-Leste, is a culmination of a two-year-long program, the Timor-Leste Legal Education Partnership (TLLEP), which aims to make Timor-Leste’s laws more broadly understood, clear, and equally binding to the governing and governed alike through texts that clarify existing law. It is the first in a series of texts, some of which are already completed in draft form. The texts explain legal concepts in clear, simple language (in local languages) with real-life examples that allow citizens to understand often-complex legal concepts, and give the next generation of leaders the tools to strengthen the rule of law. The content carefully analyzes the regulations of civil servants, public prosecutors, public defenders, magistrates, and private lawyers.

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In Asia’s editor, Alma Freeman, interviewed 2011 Survey of the Afghan People co-author and former Asia Foundation program director for Law, Human Rights, and Women’s Empowerment in Kabul, Najla Ayubi, for her reaction to the findings of The Asia Foundation’s 2011 Survey and what they might mean for women’s rights, peace talks, and more. Ayubi is currently the Afghanistan country director for the Open Society Foundation.

As a survey author, what surprised you most about this year’s findings?

The high support for peace and reconciliation was a very surprising and important finding in this year’s survey. It’s surprising to see that 82 percent of the people support peace and reconciliation, which has interesting implications for the peace process. I also found it surprising that 74 percent of the respondents said they have confidence in religious leaders and 70 percent of respondents say that religious leaders should be consulted on problems facing an area. Also, 46 percent say that the country is going in the right direction, and only 35 percent say it is going in the wrong direction. That’s positive news, but since last year, the percentage of people who think the country is going in the wrong direction has increased by 8 percent. In 2009, that figure was 29 percent. To me, this reveals an unstable attitude of the people on whether their country is moving in the right direction.

Women respondents report lower levels of support than men for reconciliation with armed opposition groups. What do you make of this?

Women have been marginalized by the Taliban and other armed opposition groups for decades. That’s why woman don’t have much empathy for the armed opposition groups, and are not as supportive as men for the so called peace and reconciliation process which is going on with the government. In many cases, they feel they won’t get any benefit from this type of negotiation – specifically, they worry their rights will be compromised, and for me as an Afghan woman, I’m also afraid that my rights will be compromised during these peace talks. Two of the biggest issues that affect women’s lives here are the lack of freedom of movement to work outside of the home and access to education. In the current peace talks, how this will be factored in is totally up in the air. It’s very clear that women support peace, but not the kind of approach that risks compromising their rights.

Also, women are only symbolically part of the peace talks: some women have been put in high-level positions, like at the High Peace Council or at the local, provincial level in peace talk committees, but they aren’t able to actually represent women’s voices and interests there. For example, some of the women representatives in the High Peace Council have said that in many cases when there is a peace talk trip inside of the country, they are not allowed to be part of the delegation. The male representatives say that due to the security situation, women aren’t able to come. But this makes me ask, if the security is a problem for women, why is it not a problem for men? If the men can go and be protected by security forces, then why can’t the same be done for women? It’s more of a stereotype or patriarchal thinking that women are not eligible to be in peace talks rather than anything having to do with their ability.

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Among the assets of the annual Survey of the Afghan People is the fact that the data is collected from men and women, and disaggregated as such. In this way, not only does the survey allow for a nuanced look at attitudes across geographic regions, ethnic groups, and age ranges, but it opens a window into the differences between women and men’s perceptions. Though the commonly held, often unspoken assumption is that views and experiences will coincide at the same level, it is the occasional gaps that most warrant our attention.

Education

When asked to identify the biggest problem women face in their local area, 25 percent of all respondents, men and women, cited the lack of education and/or illiteracy as the most significant problem for women. Despite both men and women recognizing it as a problem, over the years fewer male respondents than female have been in favor of gender equality in education, as shown by this year’s results in which only 42 percent of men strongly agree that women and men should have equal opportunities in education, while 61 percent of women do.

Employment

Likewise, while the majority of respondents (62%) are in favor of women being allowed to work outside the home, the survey shows a significant difference between men and women’s attitudes regarding gender equality in employment. Indeed, 79 percent of female respondents say women should be allowed to work outside the home, but that opinion was only shared by 50 percent of men. It is also worth noting that this figure has been declining, for both men and women, over the past six years that the survey has been conducted.

Political Leadership and Participation

There was also divergence of opinions regarding equal representation among political leadership, with just 33 percent of male respondents and 61 percent of female respondents saying that men and women should have equal representation. There was little difference, however, between men and women’s objection to being represented by a woman in governance institutions from the local to the national level.

Regarding voting, and whether men should vote in place of women, 85 percent of respondents said that men should not vote in place of women. At the same time, there was a significant difference between men and women’s responses with over a third, or 34 percent, of male respondents saying that women should be advised by men before voting, as compared to less than a fifth, or 19 percent of women.

A few additional gaps covered in the survey include:

• More men are supportive of the peace, reconciliation/negotiation and reintegration efforts than women.
• Men are more likely than women to have contacted their MP for help in solving any of their personal or local problems.
• As in the formal justice system, more men than women say local shura/jirga are accessible to them.

Identifying where differences between the sexes, or even gradations, exist such as these evident in the survey results, allows us to begin to take critical steps toward achieving gender equality.

Barbara Rodriguez is a program officer for The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Program, based in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at brodriguez@asiafound.org. The Women’s Empowerment Program develops women’s leadership, strengthens women’s organizations, increases women’s rights and ensures their personal security, and creates new political and economic opportunities for women across the Asia-Pacific region. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

As world population reached 7 billion last week, stories about the implications of population growth saturated the media. While total population counts offer broad “sound bite” appeal, the underlying structure of population has far greater socio-economic, political, and environmental implications.

The population of India is expected to eclipse that of China around the year 2025. Photo by Karl Grobl.

Population composition by sex, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, political orientation, or geography matters for everything from school planning to environmental management and even to political stability. It has been 25 years since the widespread adoption of sex-selective abortion, and pockets of developing countries around the world are now contending with a dearth of women which precludes a generation of young men from marrying and starting a family. The absence of this stabilizing social institution has already had a notable impact on crime rates, political organization, and migration patterns.

Variance in age structure has similar ramifications, and a comparison of India and China offers an illustrative example. As noted in last week’s blog piece, “7 Billion and Counting,” the population of India is expected to eclipse that of China around the year 2025. But the sheer size of the world’s two most populous countries masks stark underlying differences in population age structure. In the year 2000, China’s total fertility rate was just 1.6 births per woman, falling well below the “replacement rate” of about 2.1 needed to sustain a stationary population. So is China’s population shrinking? Not yet. This is partly because a total fertility rate of 2.1 will only maintain a constant population size under a stable mortality rate while China is making substantial gains in public health. Life expectancy at birth was already 71 in 2000 but is expected to reach 81 by 2050. In fact, China will still be growing when the population of India surpasses it. However, sometime around 2030, the population-shrinking influence of low fertility will overtake the population-growing effect of reduced mortality, and the population will begin to decline. This expectation is of course contingent on the assumption that fertility rates will not rebound and that longevity improvements fall along a similarly predictable trajectory.

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Sitting at the back of the classroom, with one eye on her mobile phone, Shanti looks like a typical Indonesian high school student. But Shanti is not here to learn; instead, she’s a tutor herself. In a makeshift classroom constructed from two old shipping containers stacked on top of each other, Shanti tutors first grade students at the Master Community Learning Center in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Shanti (center) first came to the Master center three years ago after moving from Sukabumi in West Java and now serves as a tutor to the center's students, many of whom spend the day busking on the streets to support their families. Photo by Anne Luntungan.

“It’s a great experience,” the 17-year-old says. “I can contribute to the education of Indonesian children as well as help relieve some of the pressure on the learning center.”

And this center needs all the help it can get: due to lack of funds to hire trained teachers, the sprawling Master center recruits its successful alumni – like Shanti – as tutors. The center is named for its location near a mosque and the Depok bus terminal. (“Master” is a contraction of the Indonesian words for mosque, masjid, and terminal.)

The Master center is one of nearly 50 Community Learning Centers across Greater Jakarta supported by The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program. To coincide with National Literacy Day (Hari Aksara Nasional) last week, we distributed 3,250 English-language books to the centers.

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