200,000 Killed and I Didn’t Even Know About It

Bangkok, July 8, 2010. It takes a powerful film to tell a little-known story. I attended a screening at the FCCT on July 8, of “Balibo,” which tells the story of five young Australian journalists slaughtered in East Timor in 1975, and the subsequent ghastly murder of another Australian journalist, Roger East, who took it upon himself to find them, when they went. Balibo is the name of the small, nondescript town where the five journalists were assassinated.
The five young Australian journalists murdered in East Timor

Okay, where is East Timor, f/k/a Portuguese Timor? It probably won’t help to say that it is next to West Timor, f/k/a Dutch Timor. Actually, both occupy the same island of Timor, located about 400 miles northwest of Darwin, Australia. I had to study a goggle map to get some general idea where Timor is. In 1975, apparently with the complicity of the United States (Henry Kissinger presiding) and Australia, Indonesia invaded East Timor after the Dutch left and the indigenous population declared independence. The slaughter within the first few months of the invasion, of 60,000 Timorese by the Indonesian army, has been classified by many commentators as genocide, and if the film is a guide to what actually happened, it is hard to argue with the classification. Ultimately, about 200,000 people were killed by the Indonesians.

Assasinated journalist Roger East as played by Anthony Lapaglia in "Balibo"


Here’s where art comes in. I need a story to make an impression upon me, preferably one created by a master story teller. If you tell me that 100’s of people were executed by the Indonesians, on a dock in Dili, East Timor, and thrown into the sea, my cognition is fleeting. But, watching Roger East and other innocents dragged, shot, and then dumped in the sea, as dramatically reenacted in the docudrama “Balibo,” my consciousness and emotional memory are awakened, not only by the cinematography, but, more importantly, that during the past hour or so, I had been brought into Roger East’s life and thereby know the tragedy. Similarly so with the murders, also most likely by the Indonesian military, of the five young Australians, whose lives and stories have been told in the film “Balibo,” as only good artists can do.

At the end of the screening, the atmosphere of emotional exhaustion of the audience at the FCCT, was palpable, so much so that the question period produced virtually no questions from the usually interrogative audience. My individual response, aside from my usual resignation that justice is rarely done (no one has ever been indicted for either the murders of the six journalists, or the genocide), is that I’ve now read several articles about the history of Timor and the conflict, and the eventual independence of East Timor in 2002. Still, although somewhat more educated than I had been, I’m still not exactly sure where Timor is.

Buzz’s Journal---Buzz Predicts the Future

While the future is unknowable, if you read as much as I do, you will begin to see hints of things-to-come, from important policy-makers, influential think tanks, and in-the-know academics. Based on what I’ve started to see, here are some predictions of mine:

1. The US and Europe will accept a nuclear Iran. Forget about sanctions being effective, or an Israeli attack. Already policy wonks are writing papers about containing Iran and co-existing with an Iran which possesses atom bombs. The old cold war policies of co-existence and containment are being dusted off.

2. There will be no meaningful withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan next July, as promised. All the old arguments for the “surge” will resurface as reasons to keep the troops in place. The public is being prepared for this almost on a daily basis. There is no end in sight for America’s longest war.

3. There will be a national VAT tax, not right away, but sooner than you might think. Of course, many will become hysterical over this, but take a look at Europe and you’ll get the picture. The US will not be able to meaningfully cut spending, the budget deficit is unsustainable, and with balance of payment deficits continuing; only tax increases will prevent financial disaster. The income tax is about tapped out as a source of new revenues, so we’ll need a VAT. You’ll start to see mention of this coming out of Washington before the end of the year.

I would like to be wrong about all of this. But, hope alone is not a substitute for thinking.

Eri Nakagawa Plays---Chopin & Schmann Would Be Pleased

I attended a wonderful piano recital on July 9, at the Goethe Institute, Bangkok, by master pianist Eri Nakagawa, who choose to play a fiendishly difficult program consisting of all 24 of the Chopin etudes and, as if that were not enough, Schumann’s Fantasy in C. Ajarn Nakagawa proved once again that she is among the very finest of pianists resident in Thailand. The etudes displayed not only technical proficiency, but also musicality, and adding a major Schumann work to the program, provided balance and interest. Schumann was an early admirer of Chopin’s, both were born in 1810, and both would have been pleased to hear their music played 200 years later by Eri Nakagawa.

Picture Above: Master pianist Eri Nakagawa (left) is presented with congratulatory flowers following her July 9, 2010 successful recital at the Goethe Institute, Bangkok

A Pleasant Hour with French Pianist Amandine Habib

Bangkok. July 4, 2010. Sunday night’s hour-long recital by French pianist Amandine Habib was a pleasant way to spend an evening. Of course, the excitement of major artists performing at renowned venues is unique, as are such outstanding events as the Singapore Piano Festival or the London Piano Competition, which I attended recently. Still, an accomplished pianist like Habib, performing in an intimate hall like the Goethe Institute’s in Bangkok, is a different kind of event that goes down well, unless, of course, one expects too much.

Habib has an adequate technique to play the difficult pieces she selected. After a few minutes into her performance of the first movement of Schumann’s Fantasie, one could stop worrying whether Habib would be able to get through the demands of the music, but it was clear that we were not in the presence of a superior performer, one major fault being erratic pauses of her own invention, in this and several other pieces. The Rachmaninov Prelude in c sharp minor followed, and then two Bach-Busoni transcriptions, one a chorale, and the other the famous Chaconne in d minor, which I thought was very musically played. The evening ended with a fluid performance of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, again, nicely, although not spectacularly, played. It was an evening of good music, performed in a pleasant and enjoyable way.