random stories from nowhere & everywhere
I am excited to announce that Roots, Routes, Routers: Communications and Media of Contemporary Social Movements is out as a monograph, accompanied by commentary by wonderful colleagues and experts in media & social movements – Emiliano Treré, Orley Durán & Clemencia Rodríguez, and María Paula Martínez.
link: http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jmoa/20/2
or if you don’t have access to it, here is a PDF version.
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Continue reading “Roots, Routes, Routers”
Standing in front of the mirror of my parents’ cabinet, I’m seeing the shadow of myself. I am definitely much older. It’s been seventeen years since I left this house for good. Now I am a different person with my own life, different than and separated from the life I had in this house. The old mirror. It is the only full body mirror in the house. It is the same one I used when I was a little child. Looking through this mirror, I realize that I am changed and, yet, everything I had in Dayeuhkolot remains the same. Continue reading “Dayeuhkolot and me”
After standing in line for hours, it was finally my turn. I was one of thousands of high schoolers who were queuing to register for the national entrance examination for public universities. I wished to be admitted in the best technical university in Indonesia. My very smart eldest brother, who applied to the same university a decade earlier and wasn’t admitted, already warned me not to keep my hope too high. He said, “I know you’re smart and everything, but remember, we are classified as ‘non-native’ (non-pribumi). While others just need to score around 80 (out of 100) to get in, we need to be near perfect”. It was only later in my life I learned that during the Suharto’s New Order era there was indeed a very narrow quota for those who were classified as “WNI Keturunan Cina” (people of Chinese descent in Indonesia or Chinese Indonesians) to enter state universities. Having said that, my brother encouraged me to try anyway.
The admission officer checked my documents and asked, “Where is your proof of citizenship? Where is your change of name document?” “I am Indonesian and never changed my name,” I replied. Continue reading “Being Lim”