Singapore earned its nickname, Lion City from its Malay/Sanskrit based name - singa meaning lion and pura meaning port. I've lived in Singapore off and on for about 20 years so it seemed a suitable login for my account. I am an American though, a fiercely progressive, pro-labor Democrat. Dedicated to my Indians, my Browns and my beloved Buckeye state (though not, as you might assume, to the Ohio State Buckeyes. I'm a proud Ohio University grad, thank you very much).
I've signed on to Daily Kos for a number of reasons. I've wanted to start writing in a more creative and general vein again for some time now. I do a lot of writing of a much more academic nature in my work as an assistant curator at a local museum but I wanted to start writing down some of the other things I've been interested in and thinking about as well and this seems like a good forum. Certainly my frustrations at the present domestic and international policies of our government will be familiar to many and I hope to occasionally add my voice to the discussions here when I feel I can say something meaningful. Occasionally I find myself wanting to write down things of a more esoteric nature as well though and I hope that I can do that here. However my main reason for signing on here may be a little more unique.
I've often been struck by the general lack of awareness many of my fellow Americans have for folks in this wide old world. Never has this been more apparent than it is right now, what with the world filled, as it seems, with terrorist bogeymen and their appeasers. Of course the average American can hardly be faulted for this rather black and white perception. The United States is an immense expanse and with the exception of a few cosmopolitan cities like New York and San Francisco, is pretty isolated. Average folks in Indonesia and Thailand have just as distorted impressions of Americans as we do of them.
It doesn't help that American media portrays us in rather unflattering terms. Every day, billions of people around the world see the crime ridden, immoral, greedy, vacuous, facile and violent America of television and movies. They see our ridiculous, fascist, illegitimate dictator make arrogant and brash pronouncements whilst our storm troopers march across the globe. They see our wealthy, fat-cat expatriates, comfortably ensconced in their own little exclusive worlds. Small wonder then that I'm often confronted by people incredulous that such an American as I exists, despite the fact that I am very much an average American in many respects.
Of course I speak a few languages, Malay and Indonesian fluently, Thai and Javanese well enough to make myself understood and I have an inordinate interest in Southeast Asia - which makes sense given that I work at a Museum of Asian Civilization. But otherwise I am very much a rather un-extraordinary, average middle-class American; I'm a big fan of indie rock, love muscle cars, baseball and football, I'm religious after a fashion - though no doubt you'll hear more on my rather un-orthodox views of Christianity and the Church in general in future posts, I could stand to loose a few pounds and regularly ride my bike to work in the hopes of accomplishing this, try my best to practice the Golden Rule in all aspects of my life and occasionally fail to do so, read voraciously, and generally just try to live my life as best I can.
To get back on track a little though, I travel around Southeast Asia a lot and I do tend to prefer getting off the beaten track. Some of this travel is work related, getting out and documenting cultural traditions, doing research and hunting for artifacts for the museum's collections. Another part of this though is my general sense of adventure and my interest in things that others might find somewhat eccentric. I was down in the Riau-Lingga Archipelago just this weekend visiting the sleepy little backwater of Daik, on Lingga Island. A fairly remote little Malay town, though town may be too strong a word, that also happens to be the former capital of the Sultanate of Johor-Riau. It's all in ruins now sadly and few people even know about it anymore. Even locals generally know little enough but it's just the sort of place I feel compelled to go and see.
In the process I also fortuitously serve as a roving ambassador for the United States, adding a more liberal, progressive and positive voice to the relentless stream of lies, distortions and bullshit that most of these folks are fed through the media, their governments and their religious leaders. However I also feel I can serve as a useful conduit of information and views for my compatriots back home in the USA, about the wider world and our place in it. In my travels, in coffee shops, in noisy bus stations and jam packed ferries, believe it or not, I'm often asked by locals I meet what American are really like. My answer to that question is that they're very much just like you are. Indeed we're all very much alike, just as much as we're all pretty much average Joe's. We have our hang-ups and our virtues, our biases and misperceptions. Perhaps in starting this diary I might in some small way help to bridge the gaps of our mutual ignorance and serve as a conduit for better communication and understanding between American and the people of Southeast Asia. That is my general hope and I hope it is well received.