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British Council focuses on ASEAN creative economy
As the British Council marks 75 years of its presence in Southeast Asia, the institution continues to bolster the United Kingdom’s ties with Indonesia and other countries in the region through the creative economy.
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The British Council’s Indonesia country director and Southeast Asia director Summer Xia (right) speaks on March 26, 2024 during a creative economy roundtable in Jakarta, along with British Ambassador to ASEAN Sarah Tiffin (left) and Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno, to mark the institution’s 75th anniversary in the region. (JP/Tunggul Wirajuda)
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riter Rama Aditia Adikara has never allowed himself to be limited by his visually impairment, and believes his condition has instead enabled him to be a “jungle of ideas and imagination”.
“I constantly think about how can I be a guiding light for other people,” said the 43-year-old, whose novels Mata Kedua (Second Eye) and Cukup Gue Aja (It Stops with Me) has earned him a following among the visually impaired community in Indonesia.
He added, “if it weren’t for [myself and other disabled creators], who would educate [the public] about people with disabilities?”
Equally uplifting is Rama’s fellow artist Faisal “Aal” Rusdi, a painter with cerebral palsy who creates dramatic landscapes and still lifes of flowers and plants.
“[Aal] started to dip his brush onto the palette and swept it on a canvas, depicting a scenery with a sunset (or full moon?),” noted blogger Karina Eka Dewi Salim in a profile of the painter.
“I may not [be] an art expert, yet I still feel the artistry in his paintings,” she continued, “which soothes the eye and calms the heart.”
Championing inclusivity
