364 - 20.10.26 - South East Asia

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This year I decided to read about South East Asia. Let me think about what I do know about South East Asia in the past. Well, for a start, I have never been to a few of these countries. Like Vietnam and Cambodia - a situation I hope to soon rectify. I haven't been to Burma. I don't know if I'll be going there soon. I have very little connection with the non Bahasa speaking parts of the place. Malaysia and Indonesia I know a little better. I have no idea of the history nor the landscape nor the pre history - beyond that which I have read cursorily when going to the museum. I don't even know the geological epochs, etc. It's really bad. I know more about Ireland, for instance. But then there are so many sources and stories. I know more about the Vikings and more about Hindu mythology. This is why stories are important.

Anyway. I started reading this book - The History of South East Asia by Eric C Thompson. You gotta start somewhere I suppose. And already I am fascinated. He starts off with the eruption of Mount Toba 74,000 years ago - what a catastrophe that must have been for everyone - and Sundaland which was when South East Asia was not a chain of islands, but a landmass. you could walk everywhere... what a thought. He also follows up with the arrival of agriculture and the existence of foragers and farmers. Reading Graeber's book alongside this is fascinating.


Might this have been the memory of Lemuria? Possibly.

But there were then so many other things which emerged very quickly - like how in Sulawesi, the oldest cave painting 45,000 years old exists. That of a warty pig. It is the cutest thing you have ever seen.


There is nothing cuter really.

Look at that shading, that's mental. 

From FB today.

This is a drawing of a warty pig, thought to be 45,000 years old, found in Sulawesi. I chanced upon it reading The History of South East Asia by Eric C Thompson. It is insanely cute. The artist also signed it using a hand stencil... look at the thing. In addition to being utterly adorable, the SHADING that was used. The detail showing the hair and the snout! It's insanely good. Apparently, the reason why these pigments lasted so long was because menstrual blood was used to mix them. I love the way in which our ancestors were, this is good stuff, let's not let it go to waste. Today, only the most outrageous performance artist would do something like that. We have become so tamed, so sanitised, so afraid of our own bodies. 

I have also finally learned a bit about Sundaland, the land mass which South East Asia was at the last glacial maximum 2.5 million years ago, before we had become a series of islands and archipelagos. I wondered if this was the memory of Lemuria then? Lemuria is a bit of 19th century pseudo history - like Atlantis. Half myth and half memory... 

The other big takeaway is that South East Asians, apart from being competent sailors, fishermen, foragers, farmers, potters, ironmongers, goldsmiths, weavers... you name it - they were also rabid entrepreneurs and LOVED trading. You couldn't stop us. It is also the most ethnically diverse place on the planet. All this was throttled by the colonisation of the place by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French. 

Wouldn't it be amazing of ASEAN actually did its job and revived the history of South East Asia and came up with a curriculum which enabled all South East Asians to embrace their prehistory and precolonial past, so that it could exorcise the ghost of colonialism and move forward with meaning and feeling into the future, developing a unique identity in this region of the world? 

Maybe it's already doing this. Maybe I am wrong. If it is, then, that is awesome.

Alright... time for Ma's physio. I'll do that, then we'll go for a shop. After that, I'll go for my run and then swim... maybe i'll sleep first. I can smell the haze in here again. Shanmugam came up yesterday and said that he was going to go after all the companies with every legal recourse he could find. Beside him was the simpering Grace Fu who must have been told to stop grinning and giggling like an idiot through each press briefing. You know it's bad when the enforcer has to come in and take charge. Is Shanmugam the only minister in the cabinet? It's very weird. 

Anyway - for today.

8.45: Physio
9.45: Shop
12.00: Run and swim
1.30: Duolingo and sleep
2.30: Write and draw
4.30: Garden
5.30: Dinner
6.30: Tidy up front room
8.30: Wash up
9.30: Read
10.00: Sleep

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