Regions

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

Confidence crisis for Bali’s women mask dancers

Women and marginalised groups seize new opportunities in the arts

Aid must embrace social change

Intravenous drug use is exacerbating the spread of the HIV virus

Helping to boost English teaching seemed a splendid idea, but then Indonesian realities intervened

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

Half a century after Herb Feith first lived in Kamal, Nikolas Feith Tan retraces his grandfather’s steps

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

An Indonesian NGO finds injustices in unexpected places

NGOs and local people work together to rebuild communities, until feudalism intervenes

An Australian aid worker recounts the challenge of rehabilitating a devastated society

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