Realignment

Penyusunan Semula Kuasa Asia Pasifik

Sejak berakhir Perang Dunia ke-2, dunia kini sedang menyaksikan satu penyusunan semula dan perubahan imbangan kuasa terbesar, yang antara medan utamanya ialah rantau Asia Pasifik.

Menjelang sidang kemuncak Apec di Australia, beberapa perkembangan menunjukkan satu kesungguhan baru kuasa-kuasa dunia untuk mempengaruhi aturan kuasa dunia.

Pada 4 September, Amerika Syarikat, Australia, Jepun dan India, kumpulan yang secara efektif merupakan satu "pakatan anti-China" memulakan latihan ketenteraan besar-besaran selama seminggu di Teluk Bengal, India, dalam latihan terbesar pakatan empat negara berikutan pertemuan pemimpin empat negara itu di Manila, Filipina Mei lalu.

Pada 5 September, Presiden George W Bush dan Perdana Menteri John Howard menandatangani perjanjian kerjasama perdagangan ketenteraan di Sydney, menjanjikan akses lebih luas teknologi terkini AS kepada Australia, satu titik penting dalam hubungan rapat kedua-dua negara dan mengukuhkan lagi peranan Australia sebagai sekutu utama AS di Asia Pasifik.

Kemudian, pada 6 September, presiden Rusia, Vladimir Putin tiba di Jakarta, Indonesia untuk menyempurnakan urusan pembelian senjata bernilai AS$1 bilion, termasuk 20 buah kereta kebal, 15 helikopter dan dua kapal selam terkini buatan Rusia dengan Indonesia dan bertemu Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dalam usaha untuk mempertingkatkan kerjasama ekonomi dan ketenteraan.

Canberra dan Tokyo membina hubungan ketenteraan yang lebih rapat apabila perdana menteri kedua-dua negara menandatangani Deklarasi Bersama Jepun-Australia mengenai Kerjasama Keselamatan di Tokyo Mac lalu, selepas lawatan naib presiden Amerika Syarikat, Dick Cheney ke Australia dan Jepun.

Sejak itu, Jepun terutamanya terus berusaha agar pakatan itu diperkukuhkan dengan penyertaan India, negara yang terlibat dalam penubuhan pergerakan berkecuali yang semakin rapat dengan Washington, lebih-lebih lagi berikutan kerjasama nuklear yang baru dicapai. Hasrat Tokyo itu semakin jelas dilihat melalui lawatan Perdana Menteri Abe ke New Delhi baru-baru ini.

Abe menjanjikan bantuan ekonomi kepada India sekiranya New Delhi bersedia mengetuai satu pakatan negara-negara demokratik, yang juga bermakna menyertai pakatan untuk mengekang pengaruh China.

Disebabkan pelbagai kepentingan, India masih meneruskan dasar berkecualinya dalam banyak hal sehingga dianggap sesetengah pihak sebagai gagal membuat keputusan. Dasar luar India untuk satu tempoh yang panjang banyak difokuskan pada Pakistan, negara jirannya yang juga sekutu penting kedua-dua China dan AS.

Tetapi, walaupun cuba memulihkan dan membina hubungan baik dengan China, India kelihatan semakin condong kepada pakatan diketuai Washington. India masih tidak menghantar wakil peringkat menteri luar atau ketua negara ke sidang kemuncak Pertubuhan Kerjasama Shanghai (SCO) yang diterajui China dan Rusia.

Kemudian, tidak lama selepas sidang kemuncak SCO berakhir, India menjadi tuan rumah latihan perang besar-besaran pakatan strategik untuk menangani kebangkitan China.

Latihan bersama itu menyaksikan penyertaan terbesar kapal perang India dalam latihan bersama negara lain.

Latihan itu ialah latihan kedua yang mengundang kemarahan China selepas latihan AS, Jepun dan India di Laut China Selatan April lalu.

Negara-negara terbabit, yang membina pakatan dinamakan "Inisiatif Quadrilateral" bagaimanapun terus menegaskan pakatan mereka tidak ditujukan terhadap China.

Sebelum itu, selari dengan mesyuarat ketua negara SCO, latihan perang besar-besaran melibatkan semua negara anggota SCO diadakan di China dan India. Latihan di India itu jelas kelihatan seperti respons empat negara terbabit terhadap pengaruh SCO.

Kedua-dua Australia dan Jepun menghantar wakil pegawai kanan ke New Delhi, antaranya menteri pertahanan Australia, Brendan Nelson, Laksamana Russell Shalders dari tentera laut Australia dan menteri pertahanan Jepun, Yuriko Koike, untuk membincangkan latihan ketenteraan dinamakan Malabar 07-02 itu.

Australia dan Jepun ialah dua negara yang akan menerima kesan langsung daripada peningkatan kuasa China dan merupakan dua negara yang mampu bekerjasama dengan Washington untuk menangani kebangkitan China.

Kedua-dua Canberra dan Tokyo sedar mereka perlu bergantung pada persahabatan dan sokongan AS untuk menangani apa yang dilihat sebagai ancaman dari rantau Asia Pasifik. Kedua-dua negara melihat ancaman sekeliling semakin meningkat.

Jepun bimbang dengan peningkatan keupayaan tentera China, sekaligus pengaruhnya di Asia Timur, manakala Australia, selain bimbang dengan peningkatan China, juga melihat Indonesia dengan penuh syak sebagai tempat subur bagi gerakan radikal seperti Jamaah Islamiyyah.

Hal itu mendorong kedua-dua negara untuk terus bersama AS dan mengukuhkan pakatan ketenteraan mereka. Perjanjian perdagangan pertahanan yang ditandatangani Howard dan Bush itu telah mempertingkatkan lagi hubungan baik Canberra dengan Washington, dan mengukuhkan lagi peranan Australia sebagai sekutu penting AS di rantau Asia Pasifik.

Dengan perjanjian itu (kedua-dua negara perlu memperincikan peruntukan perjanjian itu dan perlu disahkan badan legislatif masih-masing) Australia akan menyamai taraf Britain, sekutu paling rapat AS dari segi akses kepada teknologi "sensitif."

Perjanjian itu akan memudahkan lagi operasi kedua-dua pasukan tentera dan meningkatkan keupayaan ketenteraan Australia. Kedua-dua negara juga sedang membincangkan penjualan pesawat terkini F-35 kepada Australia, bernilai AS$16 bilion, selain peralatan canggih lain seperti peluru berpandu dan radar.

Australia dan Jepun turut terlibat dalam rancangan AS untuk membina sistem pertahanan peluru berpandu di Asia Pasifik. Pemimpin AS, Australia dan Jepun dijangka membincangkan rancangan itu dalam mesyuarat pertahanan tiga pihak pertama mereka di Sydney 8 September ini. Negara yang dilihat sebagai ancaman sudah tentu ialah China dan Korea Utara, disebabkan potensi mereka dan kedudukan di Asia Pasifik. - 6 September, 2007

Funny How? I'm Here to Fuckin' Amuse You? How Am I Funny?

From AlterNet, September 4, 2007

Are Men Threatened by Funny Women?
By EMILY WATSON

"Comedy is so unfeminine," says comedian Judy Gold. "It's so powerful. I mean if you think about it, it's you and a microphone and a bunch of people listening to you."

Gold thinks society is still not accustomed to women having that power. "For a woman, it's like, 'That's interesting, keep it to yourself, shut up,'" she says.

Having done standup for 20 years, Gold has spent a lot of time thinking about the role of women in comedy. She shares some of her observations in a new documentary, Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women, which she introduced at the Jewish Film Festival in San Francisco.

The six comedians featured in the film are Yiddish actress Molly Picon, Fanny Brice of the Ziegfield Follies, vaudeville star Sophie Tucker, Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live, Joan Rivers, who went from the comedy club circuit in New York City to the red carpet for E!, and playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Gold says these comedians opened doors for her and her colleagues.

"These women were so amazing," she says. "I mean, here it is 2007 and the only real barriers I have are George Bush and the people who like him, but with Sophie Tucker and Molly Picon, look what they did during those times when there were such prescribed roles for women. When women were just supposed to have kids and maybe drink martinis because they were so miserable."

It's important to tell those women's stories, says Lauren Antler, a program manager with the Jewish Women's Archive, which produced the film. "The comedians in the movie show women it's OK to be funny, and you don't have to be a supermodel to be on stage."

A stand-up comic herself, Antler says most people don't expect women to make them laugh, and when she was growing up, boys at school thought her sense of humor just made her weird.

"People think it's an anomaly to be funny and female," she said.

Stand-up comic Beck Krefting, who is working on a dissertation about women and comedy at the University of Maryland, says it's not socially sanctioned for girls to be funny.

"It's OK for guys to crack jokes and be the class clown, but if a girl did it, she was marked the strange one," she says. "That was true in elementary school and high school and then on the stage."

And, Krefting adds, Women comics constantly have to prove they can do their job.

"I feel like I have to work a lot harder to get my audience's respect," she says. "When a guy comes up, there's this assumption that he's funny, but when a woman comes on, there's a very slight but very present skepticism, like, 'Are you sure you're funny?'"

Krefting agrees with Gold that men are uncomfortable with women having the power associated with humor. "When you're the one cracking the joke, you're in control of the conversation," she says. "Men are the ones supposed to be in control."

Rather than being in charge, society gives girls the message that they need to be quiet and well-behaved, says Andi Zeisler, a co-founder and editor at Bitch, a magazine about feminism and pop culture.

"A lot of people are threatened by funny women," she says. "Women are just not socialized to use comedy as power. We're socialized to play nice. It seems weird that comedy should be so subversive in these times, but it still really is."

Zeisler says we need to look at who is defining what is funny. "I always say it's like a Zen koan," she says. "If a woman makes a joke and a man doesn't laugh, is it funny? I think women are said to have a great sense of humor when they laugh at men's jokes, not when they make jokes themselves."

Sense of humor is defined differently for men and women, says Gina Barreca, a professor of English literature and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut.

"If you say to a man, 'I know a woman who has a great sense of humor and you've got to meet her,' they think she weighs 300 pounds and has an eye in the middle of her forehead," Barreca says. "If you say to a woman, 'This guy has a great sense of humor; you have to meet him,' she immediately thinks he's cute and will be a great lover and fun to be around. People think the girls who are desirable don't speak, so the syllogism is don't speak to be desirable."

Barreca, who has written several books on humor, including They Used to Call Me Snow White ... but I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, says that means just speaking up can be a subversive act for women.

"Every time a woman gets up and says something besides 'Oh I love how you parallel park,' we are making strides for feminism," she says.

According to Krefting, the subversive nature of comedy makes it powerful. "You're laughing the whole time, but you're still getting it," she says. "It's not didactic or beating you over the head, but it's a way of saying what you want to say and hav[ing] people hear you and maybe even start[ing] to change their minds."