National

Subversive ‘underground’ voices in Indonesian rap Michael Bodden It’s Jakarta, June 2004 and the boom box is playing a hip-hop beat. It’s a far cry from the meditative gamelan music, saccharine love songs or even the sensual dangdut one expects to hear in Java. The rapper is Xaqhala and he spins a gritty, rhythmic poem of everyday youth experience.

Indonesia’s comic scene is in a golden age but the industry remains marginal and plagued by self-doubt

Women and marginalised groups seize new opportunities in the arts

Aid must embrace social change

Portraits of Islamic women from different centuries and different organisations

With Suharto gone, the anniversary of the 1965 coup attempt is more controversial than ever

Who should call the shots – international donors or local NGOs?

Much aid comes with strings attached – crippling loan repayments, exploitation of resources and vulnerability to unfriendly international markets

Many are ambivalent about international aid

Foreign policy not poverty reduction drives the Australian aid program

Economists propose an alternative strategy to the prevailing neo-liberal ideology for reducing poverty

Aid works best when it seeks to confront social injustice

Networking sites are popular with young Indonesians

Here’s looking at you, kids

Are recent fatwa evidence that moderate Islam is a myth?

Djenar Maesa Ayu – one of Indonesia’s exciting new female authors

Underage women in the commercial sex trade

Universal access to treatment is not just a dream

HIV prevention in West Jakarta’s red light district