Exhibiting Cultures: Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum

Museums occupy many roles which are influenced by wider circumstances and changing conditions. This study deals with the case of Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum and the manner in which it is used to promote nation building in a multi‐ethnic and relatively newly independent state. In addition, it serves a political purpose and acts as an economic resource. The Asian Civilisations Museum illustrates some of the recent trends affecting the museum sector as a whole and also the particular challenges facing such institutions in a country like Singapore with its many distinctive qualities.     

Nationalism and anti-ethno-politics: why ‘Chinese Development’ failed at Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam

In 2011, the Burmese military-backed government stunned global audiences by unilaterally suspending the construction of the Myitsone Dam, the cornerstone of China’s largest hydropower project abroad. This prominent failure of China’s “Going Out” investment strategy reverberated globally. Both Western and Chinese accounts frame the event as a pivotal moment in Myanmar’s celebrated reform process, the cooling of China–Myanmar relations, and US–China geopolitical rivalry in the Asia-Pacific. However, my ethnographic field and media research from 2010 to 2015 reveals that the mega-project’s failure does not originally stem from inter-state geopolitics or contested economics and ecology. Through chronological narration, I show how the Myitsone Dam is primarily the casualty of a distinctly ethno-political causality, whereby three nationalisms clashed and the replication of China’s “anti-ethno-political” model of development failed. Though no monolithic Chinese state directs “Chinese Development” overseas, individual Chinese entrepreneurs nonetheless draw from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) anti-political and state-centric paradigm when facing foreign social worlds. In the particular case of Myitsone, Chinese proponents drew from PRC’s state-nationalist heuristics of “national minorities and state-led development” and “Western anti-China conspiracy,” when facing Myanmar’s ethnic Kachin and Burman nationalisms. State ideological subjectivities of these developers seemed to blind them to the weakness in their own anti-ethno-political strategies, even when those collapsed publicly. I conclude that the Myitsone Dam’s construction will likely not be restarted, despite the hydropower company’s efforts. The Myitsone case also exemplifies how China’s previous historical entanglements in its neighboring regions uniquely disrupt the progress of “Going-Out” in Asia.     

Understanding and using built heritage: Singapore’s national monuments and conservation areas

Issues of heritage administration in the city state of Singapore are examined in the paper with specific reference to decisions about the designation of national monuments and conservation areas. The analysis reveals growing official interest in built heritage conservation for a combination of economic, socio‐cultural and political motives. However, commitment is constrained by the importance attached to economic development objectives and there is an emphasis on maximising the commercial potential of old buildings through adaptive reuse. Questions are also raised about the meanings of national identity and nationhood and the challenges of selecting and preserving structures which embody these concepts in relatively young and rapidly modernising countries.     

Common Ground,Multiple Claims: Representing and Constructing Singapore’s “Heartland”

This article examines the various meanings of “heartland” and “heartlander” in Singapore that emerged as the city-state embarked on its transformation into a global city in the 1990s. It discusses the political and ideological nature of these terms, including the way the state has tended to deploy them and the ways they are used in public discourse. The terms’ usage serves as a measure of the state’s not unproblematic attempts to define its citizenry in order to reinscribe its legitimacy. The deployment of the terms by non-state actors and individuals, however, indicates greater civic involvement in national self-identification, which complicates the official state version. The article focuses on two significant Singapore texts that contribute to the cultural imaginary of the heartland and the heartlander – the novel Heartland by Daren Shiau and the film Eating Air by Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng. In implicit opposition to the state view, these creative works seek to convey a sense of the local and of national authenticity through their creative representation of the Singapore heartland and what it means to be a heartlander, disclosing in the process various social tensions, silences and cultural blind spots.     

Lampon’s Episode in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca: The Reformulation of a Goatherd

The article examines the figure of Lampon, an uncharacteristic goatherd appearing in a folk-tale-like story in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca 2.9–12. It has long been recognized by critics that the circumstances of the Euripidean Electra are recalled in the episode under discussion. Comparisons are made with the Euripidean scene and the “reshuffling” of the main roles is expounded, including the novelist’s decision to make Anthia the partner of a goatherd and not the wife of a lowly farmer. On the basis of thematic and verbal similarities, it is argued that Xenophon appears to have a direct knowledge of Euripides’ Electra, which he imaginatively exploits. Subtle details of occupation and name are also discussed in relation to the stereotypical α?π?λο? and the ?γροικο?. A characteristic feature recalling the Aristotelian notion of ?γροικ?α is pointed, and it is concluded that Xenophon skilfully subverts the stereotypes, as he does not endow Lampon with the traditional negative marking of ?γροικοι and α?π?λοι, and indeed moulds an anti-aipolos.     

Canada’s Trade Policy: In Search of a Roadmap

This article examines Canada’s trade policy in light of efforts by the Harper government to respond to increasing global competition through the Global Markets Action Plan (2013). Through an analysis of three initiatives, the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA), the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Trans–Pacific Partnership (TPP), it becomes clear that Canada’s current strategy has only gone part of the way to enact policies that will be most beneficial to its economy. This article shows that Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan, though ambitious, does not correctly prioritize Canada’s interests: it gives too little attention to improving Canada’s strongest trading relationship with its immediate neighbors in North America; it does not comprehensively address the changing nature of trade (which is now focused on trade in value-added products); and finally, its almost singular focus on market access and increasing exports directs attention away from the type of liberalization that would be most beneficial to Canadians, which is opening up the market for imports and dismantling Canada’s supply management system.     

The artist’s resale right revisited: a new perspective

This paper revisits the debate concerning the legal provisions of the artist’s resale right with the aim of providing some new perspectives. Using recently released empirical studies, the paper argues that while resale right payments may be concentrated on established artists in value terms, small amounts will be paid to a large number of relatively unknown artists, particularly in the European market where lower value transactions are large in number. By drawing on the non‐economic literature on pricing art in the primary art market, the paper suggests the rationales of the resale right, often seen as invalid in the past, may actually be valid. Art dealers will be faced with complex economic impacts as the resale right is legislated.     

Iran’s Socio-economic Drought: Challenges of a Water-Bankrupt Nation

Iran is currently experiencing serious water problems. Frequent droughts coupled with over-abstraction of surface and groundwater through a large network of hydraulic infrastructure and deep wells have escalated the nation’s water situation to a critical level. This is evidenced by drying lakes, rivers and wetlands, declining groundwater levels, land subsidence, water quality degradation, soil erosion, desertification and more frequent dust storms. This paper overviews the major drivers of Iran’s water problems. It is argued that while climatic changes and economic sanctions are commonly blamed as the main drivers of water problems, Iran is mainly suffering from a socio-economic drought—i.e. “water bankruptcy,” where water demand exceeds the natural water supply. In theory, this problem can be resolved by re-establishing the balance between water supply and demand through developing additional sources of water supply and implementing aggressive water demand reduction plans. Nevertheless, the current structure of the water governance system in Iran and the absence of a comprehensive understanding of the root causes of the problem leave minimal hope of developing sustainable solutions to Iran’s unprecedented water problems.     

Wicked game of smart specialization: a player’s handbook

The objective of this article is to explore the theoretical foundations of a wicked game. The theoretical part is based on the notion of wicked problems, which is developed further. It is also illustrated that the latest innovation strategy of the European Union, called smart specialization, resembles a wicked game. Comparison between the two revealed several similarities gives new insights into the theory of wicked problems and into the process of smart specialization.     

María Zambrano’s and Albert Camus’s communal ethics

ABSTRACT

Maria Zambrano and Albert Camus had much in common, especially their sympathy for the Second Spanish Republic and their ethical vision. Both intellectuals employed literary forms to explore philosophical ideas allegorically, explicitly notions related to exile and solitude. Works included in the study are ‘Delirio de Antigone,’ La tumba de Antigone, and Delirio y destino [Delirum and Destiny] by Zambrano and The Plague and The Myth of Sysifus by Camus. Zambrano’s works are interpreted as allegories of Franco’s Spain, while Camus’s novel and essay represent Vichy France under the Nazis. Like Camus, Zambrano was a master of blending political, philosophical, and literary themes and genres.     

‘It’s a different time. It’s a different era. It’s a different place’: the Legacy of Vietnam and Contemporary Memoirs of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Abstract

This article examines censorship of US journalists in World Wars I and II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Persian Gulf War, and from war to war, trends in types of censored information. This article also answers whether any censorship has avoided bloodshed or been legitimate, and concludes by examining how, in any future US wars, the government or military could most legitimately ensure safe reporting.     

Molly Bloom’s nostalgic reverie: a phenomenology of Modernist longing

ABSTRACT

I propose to reverse the prevailing understanding of the novel’s concluding episode, “Penelope,” as affirming and optimistic, and instead situate it as the wellspring of Modernist nostalgia. This darker reading of Molly Bloom’s nostalgic reverie depends, as we will see, upon Molly’s resonant psychological ties to her mythological antecedent: Homer’s Penelope. Despite Molly’s manipulative, contradictory, and at times self-deceptive consciousness, scholars still tend to read her famous final utterance as one of firm affirmation. Taking into consideration her semblance to Homer’s Penelope, Molly’s final “Yes” is likely less sanguine than previously considered. And even my own “reading” may confine her role too narrowly. Nevertheless, we should establish this countersign as a means of exploring the consequences of her nostalgic reverie.