Southeast Asia remains football’s backwaters

Thailand’s coach Steve Darby calls on Southeast Asian nations to improve their football infrastructure for developments

Long considered a sick man in Asia, Southeast Asian football has been unable to get rid of the tag despite making great efforts in the past decade.

No country from the region has ever won a title at the Asian level, and Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia seem highly unlikely to change that any time soon.

Peter Butler – a former midfielder at English club West Ham who has coaching experience in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia -- said Southeast Asia is the “little boy” of Asia.

“They need better infrastructure and qualified managers.

“Japan and South Korea have pulled far ahead of them.”

Thailand’s coach Steve Darby also stressed the vital role of infrastructure in developing football.

Alfred Riedl, Vietnam’s former coach and currently head of the Indonesian team, said youth training plays the most important role but many nations in the region have failed to do it.

“They are not patient to wait for 10 years for a generation of young players to mature,” he added. “The period is longer than the office terms of football officials who need instant results.”

Cambodia’s Australian-born coach Scott O’Donnell pointed to another aspect of the problem: “Southeast Asian teams seem to focus on competing with one another and not on longer-term plans to catch up with the world.”

ASEAN youth keen on HCM City home-stay

Delegates joining the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Programme had an
interesting experience on a home-stay duration in Ho Chi Minh City.

The 329 young people, who came from 10 member
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and
Japan , arrived in the city on December 5 after visiting Malaysia ,
Thailand , Indonesia and Singapore .

During
their four-day stay in HCM City , the delegates participated in
cultural and sports exchanges with local youth and studied local
culture, manners and customs.

Sharing his feelings,
Kong Davon from Cambodia , said: “The Vietnamese people are very
friendly and hospitable. When I came to stay with them, all members of
the family took care of me. Despite the language difference, I felt the
care through their gestures. I am particularly interested in Hue
beef noodle soup.”

Meanwhile, Buama, a delegate from
the Philippines, talked of the deep impressions gained during walks
along the streets in the city where there are many beauty spots, wide
roads and rows of old trees.

The ship, which left
Japan ’s Yokohama Port on November 4, is scheduled to return to the
Japanese capital, Tokyo on December 8.

The
programme is an initiative of the Japanese Government and receives
cooperative assistance from the governments of ASEAN nations. It aims to
strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between young people
from Japan and Southeast Asian countries, and to provide a chance
for them to expand their view of the world, develop their creativity and
get to know about each other’s culture./.

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Exhibition revels in diversity

The cultures and diversity of Southeast Asia are on display in a new
exhibition of lacquerware and Indonesian glass paintings entitled “A
Glimpse of Southeast Asia” that opens at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
in Hanoi.

The art of glass painting originated in
Europe but was introduced to Indonesia in the early 20th century by
the Dutch, flourished there during the 1930s. Artists paint on the
reverse side of the glass, with the first stroke on the glass seen in
the foreground of the image as paintings are viewed through the glass.

The new exhibition aimed to increase public understanding of the links
among Vietnamese ethnic groups and those of Southeast Asia as a whole,
which together form both a unity and a diversity of cultures, according
to museum director Vo Quang Trong.

In preparation for the exhibition, museum staff travelled throughout the region collecting objects and materials, added Vo.

"We were met with excitement and collaboration from cultural
institutions, museums, researchers, private collectors, and many people
who are keen to preserve their cultures," he said.

The
collections were particularly enriched by objects donated by Prof Kaneko
Kazushige from Japan , Prof Le Thanh Khoi from France , and Rosalia
Sciortino and O'ong Maryono from Italy . The resulting exhibition is
based on a Vietnamese-French project entitled Enhancement of Vietnamese
Museum's Heritage, organised by the French Embassy in Vietnam and
the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.

Since 2005,
French experts have participated in designing and giving professional
advice on exhibit space. They have also worked with the museum staff on
selecting objects, photographs and films, making suggestions, editing
texts and captions, shaping the catalogue and designing graphic forms,
said Christine Hemmet, curator of France 's Branly Museum .

A Glimpse on Southeast Asia also celebrates the occasion of the
museum's 15th anniversary and will run through October 5 of next year.
With the opening of the Kite Building , currently under
construction, the exhibition will be expanded to include costumes and
other exhibits on the religion, performing arts and social lives of the
region's ethnic groups./.

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Southeast Asian cultures on show

As many as 42 objects related to Southeast Asian cultures are on display
at an exhibition, which opened in Hanoi on October 4 in the presence
of the Swiss, French, Swedish and Indonesian diplomatic corps in Hanoi.

The exhibition, “A glimpse of South East
Asia”, which presents costumes, lacquer art and Indonesian tribal art
paintings on glass, is part of a Southeast Asia Corner project, a
virtual museum on the regional cultures.

The project aims to enrich public knowledge of the diverse and vibrant Southeast Asian culture.

It is also expected to help visitors discover the similarity and
difference between nations in the region, said organisers from the
Vietnam Ethonology Museum , which will house the Southeast Asian
Corner.

Since 2006, the museum has collected over
2,000 objects, 8,000 documentary pictures and more than 30 video tapes
from the other nine members of the Southeast Asian Nations, namely
Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei,
Singapore, Laos and Myanmar.

Under the project, a
building called “Kite” is now under construction to showcase fabrics and
costumes, daily life, social life, performance art and religion of the
regional countries.

The Head of the Southeast
Asian Section, Dr. Vi Van An, said the collection has highlighted the
traditional weaving technology with special techniques and products
popular not only in the region but also in Europe .

He cited two Gadang costumes of tribes living in north of the Philippines .

Also worth of notes are nine lacquer-painted objects of Myanmar , including those dating back hundreds of years.

“A Glimpse of Southeast Asia” exhibition will last until November 5, 2011./.

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