The Listening Post

The Listening Post

* "Appealing, yet puzzling" might describe the Indonesian paintings and drawings of Canadian artist, Ken Pattern, our guest on this morning's rebroadcast of "The Listening Post" (Radio Sonora FM 100.9, at 9:15). His precise, clean renderings of the old Jakarta, fast disappearing as it becomes a global capital of business, have been shown widely, here and abroad; local people often ask him, "Why are you painting slums?" he remarks. * The fact is that he finds "kampung" life visually appealing; notice that there is a very important semantic difference between the word "kampung," which usually has a neutral connotation (expect in an expletive like "kampungan"), and "slum" which by definition is a pejorative term. The fact is that while a "kampung" may be a slum (those around Tanjung Priok are pretty rough, and might qualify), it is not necessarily so. I live in a "kampung Betawi," in old Condet, and do not at all consider the area to be a slum. Rather, I think of myself as being rather privileged to be able to live in a green belt of the big city. * Since there's no precise English term for "kampung," we are really forced to use the Indonesian one. That may be why the persons who ask Ken why he is "painting pictures of slums" may simply be at a loss; they think this is the closest term in English. Well, it's not. You simply have to use the Indonesian term, and if a Westerner doesn't understand what it means then you explain it. It's like calling "gado-gado" "Indonesian salad," which, while not wrong, is certainly inaccurate. English grows rapidly with new terms from foreign languages, especially for things like foods ("tofu," "tom yam koong," and "nuc mam" are recent additions to the culinary language of American English, following the growth in popularity of Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese food there). * Ken Pattern is also the creator of a lovely 1995 calendar, called "Indonesian Impressions" and featuring scenes from various places in the archipelago where he has traveled and painted, including Mount Bromo, Parangtritis, Maluku and Irian Jaya. This full-color calendar has been sponsored jointly by the American Women's Association and the Canadian Women's Association. You should consider buying several, to give as gifts: all proceeds from sales go to worthwhile Indonesian health-service charities. * Ken came to Jakarta in late 1988 with his wife, an international human resources development consultant. They had previously been in Beijing, where he found many difficulties in pursuing an art career: "To use the only lithography studio in the city, I would have to bicycle for one-and-a-half hours to the University only to find that the professor with the studio key was out. I was greatly frustrated at the amount of time it took to complete one project" is a quote from Vickie White Costello's review of Ken's work, in "The Arts" section of the Sunday, October 9, Jakarta Post. Check it out if you'd like to know more about Ken's art, and see photos of several examples. * Here are some more points of usage and grammar which you might find helpful; they are taken from recent student compositions and I mention them in the hope that they will help you avoid similar errors in your own writing. * Avoid the "due to" form, which, according to many English experts, is poor usage. Instead, try "as a result of." Example: "As a result of the trouble in Cambodia, and the potential danger for tourists there, Ed and Tootsie decided to spend their annual vacation in Rwanda. * Do not use a semicolon between an independent and a dependent clause. Here is a erroneous example (the asterisk is used in linguistics to indicate an incorrect form): *"After the pie- throwing date is negotiated between counter-parties; the red-hot- chili-pepper-spray event will be discussed." Another such common mistake is to do just the opposite, and place a comma (instead of a semicolon) between two independent clauses: *"Payment in dried jellyfish is due one to two days prior to prison sentencing, this is a few days prior to nuclear submarine delivery of bogus roller-coaster certificates." High-school students in the U.S. frequently make these kinds of mistakes in their compositions, in spite of being native speakers (it's one more reason why they hate English class.)

-- Byron Black