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An introduction is presented for the issue, which is in honour of Professor Ian Brown, on the theme of South Asia's colonial history.

The much studied 1999 big bang of Indonesian government decentralization was, in the end, relatively muted and quickly undone in forestry. This paper assesses the big bang as it relates to forestry. It reviews the extensive body of literature that was produced in the years immediately after the big bang occurred, as well as siting it in the longer sweep of Indonesian forestry history. The paper finds that there has been a long-term centralizing tendency in forestry governance, with nation-building and assertion of power over resources in the periphery being key centralizing forces. However, there are valid reasons for decentralized forestry management, such as improving rural development and respecting traditional rights through more accountable and responsive institutional arrangements. It is suggested here that a number of changing factors in Indonesia and in forestry could provide opportunities for a more enduring decentralization in forestry. These include strengthening democratic institutions, a declining role for natural forests in wood production as plantations replace supplies, and a shift to forms of governance built on systems thinking. For these reasons, it is suggested that the promises of decentralized forest governance might be delivered, not as a central government-ordained big bang, but rather as a progressive, paradigmatic evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valley's environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burma's first well known welfare plan was entitled Pyidawtha or Happy Land, and it was launched in 1952. In vernacular terms, the literal meaning of Pyidawtha is 'Prosperous Royal Country'. The government's attempt to sustain tradition and culture and to instil modern aspirations in its citizens was reflected in its choice of the word Pyidawtha. The Plan failed and its implications still overshadow the development framework of Burma. This paper discusses how the country's major decisions, including whether or not to join the Commonwealth, have been influenced by language; how the term and concept of 'development' were conceived; how the Burmese translation was coined to attract public support; and how the detailed planning was presented to the masses by the government. The paper also discusses the concerns and anxieties of the democratic government led by U Nu in introducing Burma's first major development plan to a war-torn and bitterly divided country, and why it eventually failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, Filipino cinema has presented internationally distinguished narratives on same-sex sexuality. Contemporary films from the Philippines dealing with issues of sexuality demonstrate an increasing interest in Filipino men who identify themselves as gay. Looking closely at two such films, Ang Lalake sa Parola (Man in the Lighthouse, dir Joselito Altarejo, 2007) and Bathhouse (dir Crisaldo Pablo, 2005), this paper examines how Filipino men engage with (or disengage from) the global gay construct. Drawing on ethnographic research, queer theory and post-colonial discourse, this article analyses how these filmic texts reflect the changing diversities of incumbent homosexual and global gay subjectivities. Using notions of cultural imperialism and protest as a conceptual backdrop, the paper considers the relevance of dichotomies - global/local or metropolitan/rural - in understanding appropriations of the gay identity by characters tied to globalized spaces. Its contention is that these texts illustrate how same-sex screen identities are recontextualized, visually and digitically, through self-peripheralization of the body and of the self. The author argues that the reshaping and redistribution of homosexual identities is synonymous with a reconstituted (national) resistance to non-Filipino global gay identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, serviced apartment complexes have become one of the defining architectural typologies of Asian urbanization. Relatively unknown before the 1980s, these complexes are designed to accommodate foreign business people, knowledge workers and students for a fixed period, typically three to six months. The rapid expansion of serviced apartments testifies to the substantial increase in the number of people who are working, training and studying outside their home countries, and provides physical evidence of the impact of these short-term populations on the urban fabric of South East Asian cities. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork conducted in Bangkok and Singapore, the paper posits shifts in the design and use of serviced apartments as a useful lens for investigating both the emergence of a geographically mobile middle class and the increase in temporary housing types to meet its residential needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]