Where's Aldo?

Where’s Aldo? First i just want to say thanks for letting me interview you Aldo.

I decided to interview Aldo Sidartawan for my international project. I think everyone knows who he is and to tell you the truth, he speaks such good English that I had no idea he was from another country until he told me so. I was really getting into the questions about his native country of Indonesia. I guess curiosity really caught the best of me, because when I was done interviewing him my page of notes was completely filled up. Aldo explained to me about media and its effects on his society. I started by asking him about who actually controlled the media. I am kind of brainless when it comes to knowing much about a lot of international affairs, I have to admit, but I do sponge up everything that I get exposed to. This is why I was so surprised to hear some of his answers to my, ”to the point” questions. As far as ownership of the media, the difference is that the government of Indonesia controls everything that is sent out to its audience. This means that they censor everything. Cuss words for the most part are blanked out as well as any words or actions against their country. Pride of the Indonesian government is very high. The interesting fact is that they are not communist like China and other Asian countries close by. I believe the fact of censorship comes primarily from knowing that Indonesia is 80% Muslim. Muslims tend to have high morals for their lives which rub off on a all powerful government. Like I said before, their government controls everything that is shipped out to the audience, from music to movies, magazines, News, television, newspapers, and so much more that you can imagine. They have the last word. They are what we call the Gatekeepers. In America we can bypass the gatekeepers, but in Indonesia this is against the law.

I was also curious about what kind of music and video games that were available over there. Aldo responded that pretty much everything that is available here is also available there in not more. He also said that Asia is so close to them that they have all the up and coming cool gadgets that most Americans don’t even know about. They are very techno-savvy I guess you could say. Their phones are only one example, but a prime one as they are so much more complex than what we consider complex. Our Iphone is probably not even close to how cool an Asian phone might be. One wild fact that he wanted me to know was that GPS is not a workable technology there. Who would have known that such a high-tech society wouldn’t have what we Americans cannot live without.

One last point Aldo definitely wanted to make was that in his country there are no age limits on smoking, drinking and other ideas like that. The media actually encourages and advertises for young people to start early. Corruption in the country has been high. “Money controls the government and the government controls the media”. It’s a circle that keeps the rich happy and in power, as well as power over all that the rich can get their hands on. Indonesian Media site

Indonesia has all the amenities that we Americans also have. They have the same music, just put into other words, as well as movies being similar. Aldo showed me a clip from what he considered being a scary Indonesian horror movie. Dennyshotspot.com

I really enjoyed this assignment because it opened my eyes up to a new culture. It was very informative and its really cool to find out first hand about another country instead of just reading about it in a censored news article.