Our condolences and prayers to families and persons affected by the tsunami and the earthquake.

I was going to end the year with a tidy little round up. Okay, maybe a long rambling bitchy round up. But then I thought, won’t my gripe about the lack of contemporary dance or original scripts this year seem so inconsequential in the wake of the recent tsunami catastrophe? When confronted with deaths so staggeringly senseless that even atheists question God, is there anything we can do that won’t seem trivial? For now, I know this: the less potentially pretentious things I say, the better.

Meanwhile, contributions to the International Response Fund may be sent to the Malaysian Red Crescent Society via The Star, or you can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org (International Response Fund).

New Articles

To help us reflect on our New Year hopes, Indonesian poet-essayist Goenawan Mohamad ponders on the evolution of hope through the centuries, and how the faiths of the present age has left us with a kind of hoping that finds expression through violent acquisitions (terrorism?).

I have also been hoarding two articles for about six months. I will spare you the lame excuses (my mouse developed an allergy to the mousepad). Anyway, I thought I better hang them out before the sun sets on the year. The first is an interview with director Jo Kukathas and Singaporean playwright Haresh Sharma, on the role of mentors, the state and schools in nudging a young writer along.

Next, Khoo Gaik Cheng reviews of the cutting edge Performance Studies international coference held in Singapore in June. At this colon-obsessed conference, everything is fair game for deconstruction, even the conference itself. It was certainly one of the most enlightening anything I have ever attended.

Editor’s Recommendation

Hannah and Hanna: Featured in last year’s Edinburgh Arts Festival, this play, by award-winning playwright and director John Retallack, deals with the friendship between Hannah, a girl in a small English town, and Hanna, an asylum seeker from Kosovo. Jan 8 - 15, 2005. The Actors Studio Bangsar, KL.

Rooster Mania: To celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Rooster, contemporary Malaysian artists, including art collective Matahati (whose artists were all born in the year of the Rooster), come together to respect the cock. Jan 10 - Feb 4, 2005. Townhouse Gallery.

At The Polls last week, we asked “What unites Malaysians?” The popular votes, in ascending order are: Fear of ISA (Internal Security Act? Or Nabi Isa?); Toll Hikes (Sami for PM!); and Shopping Malls (Demi Megamall, yang tercinta, dicurahkan gaji penuh setia…). There, it’s okay to lock a few of us up, as long as the rest of us get to shop.

May the new year finds us with less reasons to fear in our own country, less inflation on our highways, and more reasons to be united, with or without malls. May the new year be good to us all.

Sincerely,
Pang Khee Teik
pang@kakiseni.com