Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

in Indonesia and their engagement with modernity.
Askiah Adam discusses the developments of Islam
and Muslims in the post-9/11 scenario with emphasis
on trends and opportunities for modernization,
highlighting certain groups that in her mind can play
such a role. Shamila Ariffin discusses the views and
practices of several Muslim groups in various parts of
Indonesia, those groups whom she calls “dissidents and
disciples”. The two papers address the gender question
from different angles. Elizabeth Eviota discusses the
articulations of gender and sexuality in the Philippines
and Malaysia under the impact of globalization while
Flaudette Datuin discusses the art works by selected
Malaysian and Japanese women artists as expressions
of women’s experiences and sufferings. The remaining
two papers are also on art. Mizuki Endo deals with
the issue of creating alternative sites and networks for
contemporary artists in Southeast Asia to exhibit their
works. Rudyard Pesimo takes a look at the animation
industries in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines and
assesses their dynamic nature and their attempts at
identity construction through their digital contents.
Changing lifestyles and health
One of the major changes and conflicts arising from
globalization is changing lifestyles anchored in
consumption. Despite the increase in consumption,
lifestyles have generally been sedentary. Questions have
been raised about the sustainability of such consumerist
lifestyles, due to their attendant tension and stress, their
impact on health as well as the strains on the public
healthcare system.
At the same time, despite medical advances, the ageold
problem of communicable diseases is still with us
today, worsened by the heightened flows of people
through cross-border migration. Today, we encounter
the spread of diseases, especially communicable diseases
(for example, SARS and STDs) across borders which
require collective regional and international efforts to
put them under control.
Health awareness and demand for affordable healthcare
is on the increase today. Competition over resource
allocation and the neoliberal push towards healthcare
privatization have thrown into sharp relief the urgency
for the continued availability of an efficient, peoplefriendly
and affordable healthcare system. Similarly,
besides relying on conventional medical care and
treatment, people are also seeking complementary and
even alternative medicine. In the process, many have
gone for complementary and/or alternative treatment
and sought herbal medicine, thus providing impetus for
further research into medicinal plants or herbs.
The four papers in Session III address the following
questions:
• Can we go on consuming the way we have been
doing? Can we go on working the way we have
been working? What are their effects on health,
the family and identity?
• What are the challenges to the healthcare system
arising from the new demands including changing
lifestyles and the ideology of privatization? Also,
how do we effectively deal with new diseases,
including infectious diseases that affect the public?
What new knowledge and forms of cooperation
are needed for such purpose?
•
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
25
What is the general scenario with respect to demand
for herbal medicine? What are the advances and
directions of research in herbal medicine? In what
way can advances in such research be translated
into policy to benefit the people and improve
their health and well-being?
Wan Manan highlights the globalization of fatness
due to changed lifestyles; it examines in particular the
cultural, social and economic dimensions of obesity in
Southeast Asia, which has become a serious cause of
concern for public health. Seiji Kageyama reports his
work as a medical doctor in Manila where he focused
on team-building and simulation of HIV outbreak.
Chan Chee Khoon takes up the issue of the healthcare
system in Japan and Southeast Asia, and emphasizes
the need to renegotiate the social contract, so that the
state does not abscond its responsibility in providing
healthcare and a proper health system for the citizenry.
Ambar Yoganingrum takes the issue of public health
from a different angle. She focuses on the issue of
herbal medicine by examining the research projects
on medicinal plants undertaken in Thailand between
1998-2002 by Thai as well as foreign researchers.
The state, development and globalization
xxv
Much debate has taken place with regard to the
relevance of the role of the state in development and
international affairs in the era of globalization. Despite
its reduced role, states are still relevant, and that the
theory of the powerless state is a myth. (Weiss, 1998)
In fact, as states become powerful economically, they
want or are pressured to assert themselves politically on
the international arena. This is true in the case of Japan, an
economic power constrained by its post-War constitution