CHINA’s Left Behind Children

Twelve out of the 18 children in Poqi Village, Guizhou province, were left behind with their relatives during the Chinese New Year. There are a total of 85 million left-behind children in China, according to an estimate by Deutsche Welle.(Weibo.com)

“I got up really early this morning to fix breakfast for my younger brother before he went to school,” wrote sixth grader Yang Haijiao in her diary recently. The government was distributing water on the side of the road, and she had to take the day off to collect it.

“The water has been gone completely in the past two days,” she wrote. “Grandma has been ill for days. I can’t expect her to get the water.”

Like many of estimated 85 million other “left behind children,” the young Guizhou Province student too often misses school to assume the responsibilities of an adult, while her parents live and work in a city far from home. This is the one of the prices of the Chinese regime’s economic growth model, which has brought astounding GDP statistics, but more than 30 years of fractured families and emotionally wounded children.

Struggling to support their families, millions of rural parents leave their villages to seek work in factories in the cities. Their children are left at home with their elderly grandparents, or other relatives, or even alone. The care of the children is often limited to basic living support and safety, while education, behavior, and psychological needs are often neglected.

“I could not help crying whenever I thought that when the bus arrives, my father will leave.” — Yang Haijiao

Because of their low income and the strict household registration system in China, which makes it difficult for children to attend school anywhere but in their hometowns, most migrant workers’ children cannot go with their parents, reports Deutche Welle. There are few local boarding schools for these children, and few schools for migrants’ children in the cities.

In Their Words

“The Diary of Chinese Left-behind Children” http://english.cri.cn/8706/2012/03/06/2381s685182.htm, a collection of reflections written by 26 children from southwestern China’s Guizhou Province, documents the plight of these children in their own words. Their teacher, Yang Yuansong, compiled and edited the narratives, which describe what statistics and studies could never convey.

Burdened with the responsibilities of an adult, Yang Haijiao missed school every other day to take care of her grandmother, or the family farm. “The weather is terrible. The drought has lasted for too long. If it rained, we’d have water and I would not have to miss school. I really don’t want to continue missing school!”

When it did finally rain, she had to plant corn.

The overwhelming responsibilities are accompanied by the sorrow of separation. Yang Haijiao writes of the misery she felt at seeing her father leave: “I could not help crying whenever I thought that when the bus arrives, my father will leave and we will be left with many chores at home, and we won’t know when he’ll be back.”

When her father asked why she was crying, she didn’t respond. He reminded her to “study hard.” Yang writes: “I kept crying until father got on the bus.”

Another student, Xia Min, wrote of Xia Congli, her classmate who was left alone at home, “One day on the way to school, Xia Congli told me her mom and dad are leaving to work at a far away place and she started to cry. I told her not to feel bad and said her parents must have felt sorry, too.”

The note continued: “We often played games with her when we went to her house and hoped she would forget about the sad things. But she can not. She is still feeling as sad as before. I feel so bad.” 

Psychological Problems

The daily pressure of this bitter life has left many children with psychological problems. According to a survey by Women of China, 57 percent of high school age left-behind children suffered from mental health problems. The longer their parents have stayed away from home, the more serious were the psychological problems the children developed.

The survey showed that most of the left-behind children are prone to psychological problems because of the lack of affection or family supervision and guidance. They become weak, introverted and exhibit low self-esteem. The separation from their parents often caused resentment and loneliness.

Learning disabilities are common in left-behind children. Frequent school absences and little, if any, help with homework coupled with the emotional trauma of the fractured family have left these children with few resources for gaining a proper education. The survey by the All China Women’s Federation reported that 45 percent of grandparents had never attended school, and 50 percent only had a primary education, and could not be expected to help the children with their schoolwork.

The left-behind children of Youji village of Guangxi are boarded at a primary school. School principal Lu Lipeng explained to Deutsche Welle: “The responsibility is immense. Their parents have all left for work and left their children at the school. Being a principal, their personal safety is my number one priority. Secondly, it is their room and board. They must be cared for like my own kids.”

Other left-behind children are not so fortunate, and must face difficult and even dangerous situations alone. Some of these vulnerable children even lose their lives. A 2005 flood in Hetang County, Hunan province killed 12 children, eleven of whom had been left behind.

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CHINA Struggles to Curb Tibetan Unrest

Beijing has tightened its grip on Tibetan regions in China at a time when activists say the number of self-immolations in protest of Chinese rule has reached a grim milestone. The WSJ's Brian Spegele explains the conflict.

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NE ASIA: Japan not to disclose evidence of China radar target-lock on MSDF assets

]The government will not disclose its evidence of China's recent locking of weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese warship because doing so would tip its hand on intelligence operations, official sources said Monday.

The Liberal Democratic Party-led government had considered disclosure after Beijing denied Japan's accusations that a Chinese frigate aimed its weapons radar at a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer on Jan. 30 near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea at the heart o...

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JAPAN: Marines Blasting a Cave, Iwo Jima, 1945

In April 1945, LIFE magazine published one of the most memorable cover images of its four-decade run as a major photographic weekly. The picture, made in March 1945 on the island of Iwo Jima by the great W. Eugene Smith, captures the deliberate violence inherent in all war as graphically as any photo ever published in LIFE. At first glance just another explosion in a war filled with millions of explosions, the picture grows more extraordinary the longer one gazes at it.
For its part, LIFE described Smith’s picture this way:

The scene of demolition on Iwo Jima symbolizes the saga of battle that in years to come will take on the epic quality of Roncevaux, Agincourt and Gettysburg. Blown up into this column of smoke is a blockhouse and some stubborn Japs who would not leave their hiding place, although invited by the Marines to surrender quietly.

Here, on the anniversary of the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima (Feb. 19 – March 26, 1945), LIFE.com presents not only the full, uncropped photograph, but an entire series of other photos — many of which never ran in LIFE — that Smith made on that sterile volcanic outcropping in the South Pacific, where thousands of men were fighting to the death as the long world war was winding to its grisly close.

W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The cover of that April 19, 1945, issue of LIFE is remarkable on a number of levels. For instance, aside from the LIFE logo and the most rudimentary information — the issue date, the price — there is no language, no text, no cover lines. Ninety-nine percent of the more than 2,000 LIFE covers ever published have at least some words letting the reader know what he or she is looking at, even if it’s something as straightforward as “Basketball,” or “Florida” or “Summer Fashion.” But the Iwo Jima cover has absolutely nothing but Smith’s picture.

No words. No descriptors. Nothing.

It’s almost as if, in April 1945, there was no need to let people know that the photograph was made on Iwo Jima. After all, was there anything else on most Americas’ minds that spring besides the war in the Pacific?

And then, of course, as with all of Smith’s photographs, there’s the sheer technical brilliance of the picture: the grim clarity of the scene, despite the chaotic nature of the explosion that serves as the thematic and visual center of the shot; the four Marines, barely visible at first, crouching behind a rock in the lower right of the frame; the terrible, blasted landscape that might have been the inspiration for stage directions in any number of Beckett’s plays — all of these elements cohere into a masterful, one might even say (through clenched teeth) a beautiful portrait of destruction.

LIFE, meanwhile, described the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the island itself, in words that, at times, sound weirdly reminiscent of Tolkein’s unforgettable depictions of the desolate land of Mordor in his Lord of the Rings trilogy:

Of all the places where American have fought, none looks so much like a poet’s nightmare of a battlefield as Iwo Jima, the bare, ugly, sulphurous spot of land where 4.700 marines were killed and missing and another 15,308 were wounded. In only one offensive action, Pickett’s Charge up Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg, has so great a percentage of casualties ever been suffered by American fighting men. On the battlefield of Iwo Jima the Pacific War reached a peak of concentrated ferocity. It was a terrifying distillation of the kind of battle the Marines had learned to fight at Tarawa, Palau and other small but valuable Pacific Islands.

On eight-square-mile Iwo, men rediscovered, as Marine correspondent S/Sgt. David Dempsey wrote, “something that almost been forgotten: there are places where there is no use sending bombs and shells to do a job. Instead, you must send men, alone and willing to die.” The Japs were deadly earnest about keeping Iwo Jima. The Marines took it away from them because the Marines were even more serious about getting Iwo Jima.

After the fighting was over LIFE photographer W. Eugene Smith, who had covered the whole operation, went back over the island to record the famous places of this historic battlefield.

For a month Iwo was one of the most densely populated eight square miles in the world, with 10,000 men to the square mile. It then became one of the most densely populated cemeteries in the world, with 20,000 dead Japs and 4,100 dead marines. But Iwo has always seemed a place better suited to death than life. Its southern end is a sulphur-steaming volcano, about as high (546 ft.) as Little Round Top at Gettysburg. This runs into a bottleneck slag heap of fine volcanic dust, which rises toward a plateau about as high as Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, where a little kunai grass and a sickly salt bush grow. At the north end it becomes a jungle of tumbled stone wreathed in clouds of sulphur steam.

All this had been spotted by the Japs with invisible thousands of pillboxes, honeycombed caves and tunnels. Brave men had to go in after the Japs, trading lives for pillboxes. More than half the assault troops became casualties.

 

W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
LIFE's W. Eugene Smith, in Marine Corps garb, studies action in distance during Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945.

CHINA: Why China Hands Think What They Think

These days, China books are a dime a dozen and so, too, are China analysts. Journalists, scholars, businesspeople, general foreign policy analysts, and random people living in Beijing all have something to say. To stand out, you have to bring something unique to the table—a new finding, a new framing, or, unfortunately, too often, just a willingness to say something controversial.

A new book, My First Trip to China, edited by Hong Kong-based journalist Kin-ming Liu, manages to be exceptional in a few respects. At one level, it is a great coffee table book—no pictures, but some truly fascinating reminiscences of first trips to China by a range of great scholars, as well as officials, businesspeople, activists, and journalists. The time span covering the authors’ first visits is vast—with the first trip recorded in 1942 and the last in 1986. Through the eyes of people such as Andrew Nathan, Jonathan Mirsky, Lois Snow, Sidney Rittenberg, Jerome Cohen, Steven Mosher, and others, the small details of modern—but not too modern—China come alive. The vast majority of stories are quite engaging and, since many of the authors write for a living, quite well-written as well.

At a deeper level, however, what makes this book so valuable is the entry it provides into understanding how some of the most important thinkers and actors in U.S.-China relations have had their perspectives shaped by their first trip to China. To a one, the authors approached their first trips to China with openness and excitement. Almost immediately, however, differences in outlook emerged. Ed Friedman and Jonathan Mirsky, who traveled as members of delegations and were shown a Potemkin world of China, became skeptics; their writings today reflect a continued skepticism of official Chinese proclamations. (No doubt the fact that Chinese officials locked Mirsky in his hotel room did little to endear official China to him.)

There is a special section devoted to first visits to China by Chinese expatriates, such as businessman David Tang, scholar Steve Tsang, and journalist Frank Ching that is quite moving. Each felt a sense of “going home,” although by the end of their first visits, their perspectives were radically different: Steve Tsang, for example, developed a stronger “Hong Kong” identity, while David Tang embraced the mainland as his motherland.

Still others, such as Steven Mosher and Lois Snow, had their views of China upended by a singular experience: for Mosher, it was bearing eyewitness to a forced abortion campaign; for Snow, it was Tiananmen and the heartbreaking case of Ding Zilin, a Tiananmen mother who lost her son. And of course, no “first visit to China” book could be complete without the story of Sidney Rittenberg, whose chance meeting with a group of children changed his life and made his story one of the great personal dramas of U.S.-China relations.

One of my favorite stories is that of my friend and colleague Jerome Cohen, who despite encountering numerous annoyances during his trip—such as having his hotel room bugged—manages to weave together the beauty, darkness, and absurdity of the country and its politics in one thoughtful and humorous account.

If I have one bone to pick with Kin-ming’s story selection, it is that there are so few stories written by women—only two-and-a-half (since one is a husband and wife recounting) out of thirty. I would, for example, have loved to hear from Jan Berris, who was involved in the 1972 ping-pong diplomacy and has been engaged in U.S.-China diplomacy through her work as the vice president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations ever since. However, this really is my one criticism of an otherwise wonderful book that manages to be a great read for the China novice, the China expert, and everyone in between.

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CHINA: 72 hours in SHANGHAI

SINCE the beginning of this year, Shanghai has offered foreign tourists a 72-hour window to explore the city without a visa, following the introduction of a new policy for transit passengers from 45 countries. The city's airports - Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao Airport - have set up special visa-free channels for these passengers.

The 45 countries include much of Europe, plus the United States and Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

So if you're in transit, why not take the opportunity to explore the city? Here are the Shanghai Daily choices for getting the most out of three days in this vibrant metropolis.

If you're on a 72-hour trip to Shanghai, you're well advised to seize every moment. And for transit passengers landing at the Pudong International Airport, that can start with the maglev train (50 yuan/US$7.9 one way) linking the airport to Metro Line 2.

Traveling on the magnetic levitating train that can exceed 380 kilometers per hour provides a thrilling start to your stay. Within eight minutes, you can transfer to Line 2, which crosses the Huangpu River and links Shanghai's busiest areas, including Pudong Lujiazui hub, People's Square and the Jing'an Temple.

For foreign visitors to Shanghai, Chenghuang Temple - or the City God Temple - is a must-see.

Transfer from Line 2 to Line 10 at People's Square and you will soon be at the bustling temple, with its traditional architecture, colorful folk cultures, crafts and local snacks. Chances are you'll also encounter one of its biggest characteristics - seas of people.

At the Chenghuang Temple Fair, "the kingdom of snacks," you can eat to your heart's content. Mouthwatering options include vegetable pastries from Song Yue Restaurant for vegetarians and Buddhists; Nanxiang's xiaolongbao - pork-filled buns served in bamboo steamers; pigeon's egg dumplings from the Osmanthus Hall; rose rice cake at the 450-year-old Lu Bo Lang (Green Wave Porch) Restaurant, which counts former US President Bill Clinton among previous customers.

After a feast, you can relax with a cup of green tea on the second floor of Huxin Pavilion and idle away an hour or two people watching.

Or stroll around the area to discover some local handicrafts and antiques hidden in the small lanes and venture into the temples and shrines - all helpful for burning off some calories gained from the snacks.

One of the best ways to get a feel for the city is to see its old architecture. Take a taxi or a brisk walk from the City God Temple to the Bund, where the buildings reflect Shanghai's colonial history from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Westerners came to Shanghai to do business, bringing their own influences - including architecture - with them.

The buildings stretch 1.5 kilometers along the west bank of the Huangpu River that divides the city in half, providing a counterpoint to the glitzy skyline of the spectacular high-rises in Pudong on the east bank.

The 52 buildings on the Bund represent a diversity of styles, including Gothic, Romanesque and Baroque, leading to the stretch being dubbed the city's Gallery of World Architecture.

If you're in need of refreshment, enjoy English afternoon tea at the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel at the northern tip of the Bund or sip Japanese sake at the Bund 5.

Wukang Road is another top location for seeing the city's Western architecture heritage. Unlike the noisy and busy Bund, this 1,200-meter street in Xuhui District flanked by phoenix trees is a quiet spot.

Located in the picturesque former French concession, Wukang Road features a number of old beautiful villas - including mock Tudor-style - and gardens. Many celebrities and politicians of old China lived on the street.

You can rent a bicycle on the road (300 yuan deposit and 2 yuan for the first hour, 4 yuan an hour thereafter) and take your time to explore the old stories hidden behind those ancient wooden doors.

When night falls, sample some of the city nightlife. On and around Hengshan Road are numerous restaurants, bars and night clubs, among many options in the former French concession. Around the Bund too are vibrant restaurants, clubs and other nightlife.

If all this partying sounds too much, you might want to take a stroll along the Huangpu River bank pathway, with the gentle breeze and twinkling lights your companions.

The second day: shopping

Shopping is another unavoidable part when visiting Shanghai. Take a day and follow Shanghai Daily's picks of must-go places to do shopping as well as to find the most charming faces of this attractive metropolitan city. Here we go!

Commercial streets

Nanjing Road W., Huaihai Road M. and Xujiahui area are where many popular malls and shops are found.

Nanjing Road W. (mostly within the stretch between the intersections with Shaanxi Road N. and Ruijin Road) is home to high-end malls, including Plaza 66 and Citic Square, and Isetan Department Store.

Plaza 66 gathers international luxury brands, such as Channel, Gucci and Prada, while Isetan has exclusive fashion brands from Japan.

Xintiandi

Xintiandi offers a different shopping experience with its connected malls featuring indie design brands, both local and international, plus traditional-style buildings with plenty bars, restaurants and coffee options.

In addition, you can find high-end souvenirs and gifts and home decoration stores in and around the malls. These include Gift Zen lifestore and Shang Tang Home and Gift.

Tianzifang

This is an ideal place for stocking up on souvenirs, designer accessories and having a look at traditional Shanghai living style.

Located on Taikang Road and Jianguo Road, Tianzifang brings together various stores and cafes and restaurants in a maze of old Shanghai lanes.

These are full of quirky and creative stores, with everything from ethnic clothing to fridge magnets. You can also find all kinds of international cuisine here, including Thai, American, French and Japanese restaurants.

Highstreet Loft

Highstreet Loft on Jianguo Road W. near Jiashan Road in Xujiahui was established in 2007, and is now one of the trendiest creative parks in the town, featuring indie designer shops, cafes and restaurants.

It's not just somewhere people come to for shopping, but also a place for socializing.

A cup of coffee in a relaxing atmosphere and the latest trends from fashion show rooms are what Highstreet Loft promises.

Brands with outlets there include Premium, Anton Lee Professional Salon, Prolivon, FeiDan Imported Food Store, and Cellar Door Wines.

It's also worth a visit to see the architecture of old warehouses, dating back to the 1920s.

Shanghai is famed for its indie designer stores, often tucked away down leafy lanes. Here are a selection:

May J.

Indie design brand May J. features men's styles from local designer Jiang Ling, a new star of international fashion.

Address: 2/F, Xintiandi Style, 326 Madang Rd

Raffles Privato

This features the work of young designers from Raffles Design Institute in Shanghai.

Address: 2/F, Xintiandi Style, 326 Madang Rd

NPC (New Project Center)

Owned by Taiwanese singer Wilber Pan and Shanghai local TV host Li Cheng, the store carries items from Nike, STAGE, toy designer Michael Lau and G-Shock.

Address: 139-15 Changle Rd

Diva House

Shao Junyan is a famous Shanghai pop singer who recently moved into fashion with his own accessories store. And if the adorable exclusives weren't enough for female fashion fans, there's also a nail salon.

Address: 383 Panyu Rd

The third day: art trip

"72 Hours in Shanghai," sounds like it could be the title of an arthouse film. So why not spend a day on an art tour of the city and discover somewhere and something special?

Shanghai art galleries and museums have interesting histories and architecture in their own right, which alone merit a visit. And many have their own cafes, or there are options nearby, so visitors can admire architecture and artworks, followed by a leisurely glass of wine or an espresso.

Shanghai Museum

Located at the edge of People's Square, Shanghai Museum is the home of ancient arts.

The scope, depth and quality of its collections, plus the striking architecture and use of modern technology make the Shanghai Museum one of the most famous in China. It covers an area of 38,000 square meters, several times bigger than its predecessor.

The museum is divided into 10 collections: ancient Chinese bronzes; sculpture; ceramics; jades; seals; calligraphy, coins and other currency; paintings; Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty furniture; and crafts of China's national minorities.

In addition to these permanent exhibitions, the museum often holds small-scale shows and has items on short-term loan from collections within China and abroad.

So if you're a fan of China's art and culture over the centuries, Shanghai Museum is a must-see.

Opening hours: 9am-5pmAddress: 201 People's Ave

M50

In industrial buildings dating from the 1930s at Suzhou Creek are numerous galleries featuring contemporary Chinese art. M50, one of the earliest contemporary art communities in town, is an art hub housing galleries, plus design and artists' studios.

The struggling artists of M50's early days have been replaced by big high-end galleries, as the 24,000-square-meter space has established itself as Shanghai's answer to Beijing's 798 art zone.

Top contemporary art gallery ShangART Gallery is an M50 tenant, where visitors can find work by pioneers of China's contemporary art stage - including Ding Yi, Zhou Tiehai and Zhang Enli.

There are also some art gift stores where visitors can find unique and tasteful presents, such as the limited edition of prints, mini-sculptures and artistic jewelry.

You could easily spend half a day checking out the many galleries in this complex.

There are cafes on hand where you can take a break if you're felling a little overloaded by art.

Opening hours: 11am-5pm

Address: 50 Moganshan Rd

Minsheng Art Museum

Established by the China Minsheng Bank, this museum opened in 2010 in the Red Town art area in the city center - so called because it's part of the old red brick Shanghai No. 10 Steel Factory.

Today, Red Town creative zone houses the Shanghai Sculpture Museum Park and a collection of cafes, gift shops and offices.

The grassy areas among the sculptures are a popular place for weekend picnics.

The two-story main building covers 4,000 square meters and is notable for not having a single supporting pillar. This obstruction-free design makes it an ideal venue for exhibitions.

The museum officially opened with the landmark exhibition "Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art 1979-2009." This was considered a milestone in the history of modern Chinese contemporary art.

Since then, Minsheng Art Museum has hosted numerous top contemporary art exhibitions, including solo shows by Zhang Enli and Liu Wei.

Visitors can relax, read magazines and chat on the first floor in the Room of Switzerland, which is decorated with drawings by Swiss new media artist Yves Netzhammer.

Outside are landscaped grounds, lawns, galleries and design shops.

And you can top up on caffeine at a nearby branch of Costa Coffee.

Opening hours: 10am-9pm, Tuesday-SundayAddress: Bldg F, 570 Huaihai Rd W.Rockbund Art Museum

The Rockbund Art Museum is situated in the famous Rockbund area of the Bund, where Suzhou Creek flows into the Huangpu River. The building formerly housed the Royal Asiatic Society and the Shanghai Museum, one of China's first modern museums.The building was restored by British architect David Chipperfield, who also directed the master plan of the Museum Island in Berlin.

The original structure, built in 1932, was designed by George Wilson of British firm Palmer and Wilson, in Hong Kong. Its hybrid architectural style dovetailed with the cityscape, blending Western architectural elements and Chinese decorative elements.

To retain the feeling of the original historic building, Chipperfield stayed true to the 1932 design in the main exterior facade.

The museum operates a small cafe on the sixth floor.

Opening hours: 10am-6pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; 10am-9pm , Monday, Thursday and Saturday Address: 20 Huqiu Rd

Longmen Art Projects

Sinan Mansions is becoming a fashion, style and art beacon, less crowded and glitzy than nearby Xintiandi.

Sinan Road, one of the city's quieter roads, was home to numerous celebrities in old Shanghai. Today a number of its old houses and apartment buildings have been converted into galleries, restaurants and fashion shops.

Longmen Art Projects occupies a three-story renovated building, where colorful paintings by acclaimed Shanghai-born artist Walasse Ting (1929-2010) are on display.

Gallery owner Lily Lee, former president of Taiwan Galleries Association, occasionally gives a tour, and has been known to invite art lovers for a cup of coffee on the second floor.

Opening hours: 10am-6:30pm, Tuesday-Sunday (1/F); 10am-6:30pm (2/F); appointment only (3/F)Address: Bldg 23, Sinan Mansions, 515 Fuxing Rd M.

Power Station of Art

Shanghai's new contemporary art museum, the Power Station of Art, opened last October with the 9th Shanghai Biennale art festival, appropriately titled "Reactivation."

The Power Station of Art is China's first government-aided contemporary art museum, housed in the former Urban Future Pavilion from the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

The pavilion itself was the renovated Nanshi power station, built in 1897 and symbolizing the city's industrial might at the time. Since it burned high-sulfur coal, it was a major polluter and from 1997 was gradually converted to gas power. It was decommissioned in 2007.

The power station was at the heart of an area containing the city's first steel company, water company and other industrial giants.

But these days, the old plant has turned green and artistic, epitomizing creative sustainable development.

Opening hours: 10am-5pm, closed on Monday

Address: 200 Huayuangang Rd

INDONESIA: Social Media Gives Indonesian Women New Voice

 (JAKARTA, Indonesia) — A judge being interviewed for a Supreme Court job jokes that women might enjoy rape. A local official takes a 17-year-old second wife, then quickly divorces her by text message. Both cases reflect attitudes toward women’s rights and safety that have persisted for years in this Southeast Asian archipelago nation of 240 million people. The difference now: Both officials are at risk of losing their jobs. (MORE: Movie, Books Push Indonesia to Confront Its Bloody Past) Women in this social-media-obsessed country have been rallying, online and on the streets, against sexist comments and attacks on women. The response is seen as a small step for women’s rights in Indonesia, where the government is secular and most people practice a moderate form of Islam. “We are living in a different era now,” said Husein Muhammad of the National Commission on Violence Against Women. “… Now we have supporting laws and social media to bring severe consequences and social sanctions.” Still, rights groups say the country remains far behind on many issues involving gender equality and violence. Rape cases often are not properly investigated, and victims are sometimes blamed. And although it is rare to divorce by text message, as Aceng Fikri did last summer, unregistered polygamous marriages such as his are common. Fikri, chief of Garut district in West Java province, called it quits four days after marrying his teenage bride in July. He claimed she was not a virgin, which she denied. A photo of the couple posted on the Internet slowly began to stoke chatter — and then rage. The outcry spread by local media and on Twitter, blogs, Facebook and popular mobile phone networking groups such as BlackBerry and Yahoo Messenger. Thousands of people took to the streets in December to protest. Students and women’s rights activists in Garut demanded that he resign, trampling and spitting on photos of his face before setting them ablaze outside his council building. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono responded by issuing a rare public condemnation of the 40-year-old official and his

AUSTRALIA: Assange sees freedom in Australia senate seat

In an interview published on Australian website The Conversation, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has outlined a scenario that would set him free to return to home.