Helping the West learn about Asia

By Lawrence Pintak

JAKARTA (JP): The global economy. The Information Age. The Pacific Century. Who cares?

The tag lines are repeated a thousand times a day. We read them in the newspaper. We hear them on the radio. We utter them over lunch.

Ours is an era in which the world has been reduced to a single neighborhood, the experts tell us. Where events on the opposite side of the globe affect our everyday lives.

Or do they? A recent trip to the U.S. provided a reminder that despite all the hype about the borderless society, for most Americans the horizon doesn't extend much beyond the local mall.

Bali is a mythical place in the movies. Singapore is some kind of techie Big Brother state. Thailand is one big brothel. At least that seems to be the view from places like Houston and Salt Lake City. Southeast Asians shouldn't take this personally. Most Americans think Seoul is something on the bottom of a shoe. Hong Kong? That's somewhere around China, isn't it?

Oh sure, they've vaguely heard that the region has a booming economy, but only the most internationally minded think it actually affects them.

Bottom line: America is a parochial society.

A recent survey by a Chicago foreign relations group indicated that Americans have a high level of interest in events abroad. Unlikely in the extreme. A more likely explanation: Those surveyed gave a response they thought would make them sound sophisticated.

A better indicator of public opinion is Pat Buchanan's win in the New Hampshire primary. His isolationist message is striking a very worrying chord.

For all the talk of projecting a U.S. Pacific presence, the APEC summit barely registered with the general public. The O.J. Simpson trial? By now half the population probably knows what color underwear he was wearing. Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley? America is all a twitter over the divorce.

"You live where?" "How did you ever hear about it?" Just some of the reactions among American acquaintances when I told them I ran a business in Jakarta. I might just as well have said Jupiter.

Even a foreign correspondent colleague who has spent 20 years wandering through more than 100 countries was amazed to learn that Jakarta is the capital of an economic powerhouse.

Not that this was a surprise. Indonesia is, after all, only the fourth most populous nation on the face of the earth. That it's economy is among the fastest growing in the world, or that it is the second largest destination for U.S. citizens working overseas, is no reason to expect an American to have heard of it.

"Why don't Americans better understand our region?" my Asian friends frequently ask.

Because, at the end of the day, it doesn't really affect them -- at least not directly. Rising interest rates. Taxes. Crime. The health-care system. These topics -- what the politicians call "the pocketbook issues" -- are what resonate with the American public (along with cheap Hollywood gossip and the sex lives of politicians).

Events abroad -- whether Southeast Asia's economic miracle or the crisis in Bosnia -- are fleeting images on the TV screen. Distant and intangible.

Where we live determines what is important to us. As a TV correspondent in the Middle East, I used to think the Lebanon conflict was the most critical story on earth. From my perspective it certainly was. After all, people were shooting at me. Reality struck one day when I was sitting in a barber's chair in New York.

"You live in Beirut. Boy, those Sandinistas really are causing trouble over there, aren't they?"

Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Lebanese Shiites. They're pretty much all the same to the average American barber.

But are Americans really that different to anyone else?

Would Indonesians rather read about market opportunities in India or the "Oki" murder? Would Thais prefer to discuss political reform in the former Soviet republics or the Great Crocodile Hunt? What were people in your office talking about late last year? The APEC summit or Princess Di's interview?

Do the Kurds deserve autonomy? Are Brazilian foresters practicing sustainable development? Don't know? Don't care? Then don't be surprised if some foreigners misunderstand East Timor or are ignorant about Singapore's caning laws.

Sure, much of the world's population calls Bill Clinton's wife by her first name. Yes, the cast of L.A. Law is as familiar in Bombay as in Los Angeles. No, it's not fair that most Americans can't name the king of Thailand or the largest religion in the world.

Then again, life's not fair. Complaining is not going to change that. Look on the bright side; There is opportunity in ignorance. Images are still being formed. The challenge for Asia is to help Westerners connect the dots in the region, and turn these vague impressions into a clear portrait of business potential for all.

The writer is advisor to TriComm Strategic Communications, a Jakarta-based corporate communications firm.