Helping the West learn about Asia

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.