Award for Ridiculing A Country

The job ridiculing a country can pay handsomely. More than that, you can even get a trophy of an international commendation. So far, a Golden Globe award, that is. We will still wait and see about Oscar.

This may not work for everyone though. But, at least, it works for Borat Sagdiyev, or, to be precise, Sacha Baron Cohen. Movie goers from all over the world must have all known him by now. Some may laugh out loud just by remembering Borat’s journalistic 'mockumentary' in America.

Sacha successfully badmouthed a sovereign country, Kazakhstan, down to the lowest level four screenwriters could possibly imagined. It was about a full portrayal of such backwardness.

The film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan released in 2006, hit the world with a very high profit. Sacha is now one of the highly paid actor for his harsh and sarcastic jokes.

This is one movie where Jews are ridiculed badly (throw the Jews down the well) and not one knee-jerk commentators came forward shouting antisemitism. Knowingly, people just laughed---even Jon Stewart of the Comedy Central. Sacha Baron Cohen himself, who also take the role as Ali G in a hilarious British TV comedy, is a Jew and nothing to do with Kazakhstan. The joke is on the Kazakh people, of course.

When President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited President Bush in September 2006, Sacha used it for free advertisement by having a press conference in front of Kazakh Embassy in Washington DC. The Kazakh government even felt the need to launch a tourism campaign to counter the bad image caused by Borat. Though Kazakhstan's reactions divided and tactic changed, it is understandable that in the country people could just run berserk. It is not Kazakhstan the country Sacha representing, said a Kaszakh senior diplomat, but "Boratistan".

Of course, this is no longer news, since time always moves on. Sacha himself is now on a new project, Bruno. People go to theater to see newer movies and, sure, there are plenty of them. All are more civilized.

Unfortunately for the country and the people of Kazakhstan, the news is not yet over. Borat also made it into the more prestigious film festival nomination, the Academy Award, which is due this mid February. The short list of nominees for Oscar includes Borat as a nominee for writing (adapted screen play) category.

Inasmuch that some movie goers considered the Kazakh people need to develop a sense of humor, it seems only fair to kindly spare the country from more of such insulting gag. Borat is surely far more painful than that of the fondly funny, country-mate Crocodile Dundee for Australia.

International relations-wise, I think globalization should not have to also mean a free ride to humiliate a country and get more award for it. Even for a laugh, the dictum should read that if it is too much it is too much. When it is enough already, the category applied now should be 'poor taste'.

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How Foreign Are You, Really?

How will travel change you?

That is the question in a frequently-printed advertisement of the L.A. Times leading to a gala event of travel and adventure show in February.

Sure, the picture pasted in that ad shows a man wearing a suit paired with a pinned nose bone the Maori way; or a woman wearing a sea shell bra and long lei necklace. The gist is obvious: we surely adopt something as a result of traveling.

But, the point I am making here is how travel will change you, not.

Ok. This is all about focus of perspective. Both qualities, of changing or staying the same, are valid.

When you change a little, due to traveling or other contacts, most of your being just stay intact. Or, even if you change a lot, some part of you still holds on to that old thing from the past. No one changes totally.

Stiglizt may call it globalization. The fact is we are accommodating something foreign into our being everyday. As citizens of the world, we are all hybrids of so many cultures and backgrounds. But, even when we take in some, we will always keep some (of the old). The case is more complex when you do not just travel but live in a foreign country.

That is perhaps the reason why there is something of the old standing together with the new. Otherwise, how can we explain the existence of, for instance, a China town in New York or Los Angeles. There is this Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, even Little Saigon. Something that was left behind is being transformed into something of here and now.

Amazingly, a quickly flourishing part of the city of Los Angeles is, in fact, the Koreatown area.

If you are brought and dropped there blindfolded and suddenly open your eyes, you would probably think that is Seoul or Kwangju just by glimpsing at those so many Korean characters in business billboards. When you take a quick look and see so many Asians around, you would probably be more convinced and think that the white, black and Latino individuals passing by as just tourists.

True, that is Los Angeles, a very multi-cultured city in America.

The point remains---even if you change, what changed is just some part of you. It is within the foreign setting, however, that process of cultural accommodation occurs more deeply.

So, a person of Chinese, Korean, Philippino, Indian, Bangladesh or Indonesian background will pick up and adapt to the local way, acting like an American. While some may absorb the good quality, some others may just translate liberty or equality into self-centered attitude or sarcasm.

All of a sudden there stand the newly-cultured individuals that whine on everything else but failing on self-criticism. Only after a dose of Uncle Sam, you would also find some who would see their home country as just the place of the corrupt and the incompetent.

Yet, even so, people will never really change fully.

As Americans in other countries missing their home, including their favorite pancakes, foreigners in America experience the same things. Small things can be what are missed badly.

So the Middle Eastern immigrants will still go for the kebab, for instance, the Korean eat bulgogi, while for the Indonesians the ikan asin or salty dried fish will still be favorite.

Now, tell me, how will travel change you? Not?

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The Piano of Christine Utomo

Do you like classical music; those of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Schriabin or even Barber the American composer?

If you don't---preferring the electric hip hop pop or other instead---imagine to get a Doctorate of Musical Arts in classical piano performance?

That is Christine Utomo, a shy looking pianist completing her top-level doctoral education at the University of Southern California, through her soft fingers running wild, say, in the tune of Samuel Barber---The Piano Sonata.

Yes, classical music is indeed the elite of any kind of music finesses of civilization.

This is indeed the kind of music by invitation, of which you should really be willing to come in order to enjoy it. Otherwise, you'd better off to associate yourself just to an easy listening program or the like at a local FM radio channel. It seems almost absolute that we really need to be mentally ready, and by letting go all other things around, in order to enjoy it, since it is precious like a antique porcelain. Be careful; otherwise, it will break.

Then again, that is only the way I see it every time. I am no expert on this but a regular man in the street. Yet, once a while I do like to sit and listen to the numbers by a genius, even long dead, like Mozart. Or of else.

I am so much a regular guy who does not even have a special pick to mention. Any pick goes just fine. In fact, apart from a rare, quite listening of a classical CD in the living room, the classical distance I have may just be listening to an open concert presented in a public hall.*

But, invited to the recital by Christine Utomo in the evening of January 18 as a presentation by the Flora L. Thornton School of Music, USC, I was so much engulfed sitting in the back row listening attentively to every tune played by her.

This is the Christine who started playing piano so very young and even performed a recital in public at the age of five. She was the award holder of prestigious piano festivals and earned a Dean Scholarship in her USC education.

There performed skilfully were Debussy's Image Book II, Schriabin's Sonata No.9, Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 109, Mozart's Piano Sonata K.332 and Barber's Sonata for Piano.

Up in the front center, the glowing Christine commanding the piano under a single spotlight was really catching the breath of the audience. One thing about classical music is its magical lure stiring you heart into many kind of feelings. The soft and longing tunes would fly you far away, the sad turn could even bring you tears, while the forceful glares would wring your heart in turbulence. Very often in a composition, all together would just take turn to play you.

And watching Christine playing, while she was so playful---even child-like---in soft tunes and jumped up from the seat for Barber's four parts Piano Sonata, was really a due treat for me. Perhaps even for everyone.

When she elegantly bowed upon finishing the whole performance perfectly, the room was full of applauses. As an encore, she also played a piano improvisation of the joyful “Kopi Dangdut”.

I am not only happy for the chance of being there, but even proud knowing that she is not just an excellent pianist, but an Indonesian talent completing a doctoral degree and anxious to go back home.

Congratulation, Christine!

*) Even that, was already far back to 1996-1997 when I studied in Brisbane, Australia. There a concert performed once a week at the heart of Queen Elisabeth Mall.

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