Since the middle of the nineteenth century the traditional rice exporting countries of Southeast Asia, namely Burma, Thailand and Indochina (South Vietnam and Cambodia) have experienced and are continuing to experience agricultural and agriculture-based economic development in three phases. The first and longest phase is the development of export-oriented rice culture, which lasted until the outbreak of World War II, making these countries the rice bowl of the world. The second phase is the development of various crops other than rice which began in the 1950s and is still proceeding; rapid expansion in the production of these new upland and garden crops being made possible by growing foreign and domestic demand. The third and newest phase is the trend to re-development of rice culture which appeared in the latter half of the 1960s and is now gaining momentum. It has been widely accepted that a suitable theoretical explanation for this development is provided by H. Myint's theory on tropical export economies.
  In this article, the author points out that : (1) the theoretical explanation provided by H. Myint's theory is insufficient for the first and the second phases of development and inappropriate for the third phase; and that (2) a new theoretical explanation must be found which fully utilizes the findings of area studies on mainland Southeast Asia now in progress and examines the applicability of other theories such as the "staple theory" of economic development and the various theories concerning the "green revolution."

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 Soewardi Soerjaningrat, a Javanese aristocrat from the Paku Alam House of Yogyakarta, left Jave in September 1913, and stayed in Holland for six years, until 1919. During these years and the three following his return to Java, that is, up to 1922, when he founded the first Taman Siswa school, he was active as a militant anti-colonial writer. The Hindia Poetra (Son of India) under his editorship propagated his ideas towards the colonized motherland and the West. Careful scrutiny of his writings reveals a significant change in his ideas after his arrival in Holland.
  Previously, his main concern was focussed on the political issues of the East Indies rather than on the question of (Javanese) culture. When in Holland he became interested in his own Javanese culture and began to advocate it to the Dutch whom he considered had neglected the culture and history of his native land. Through this, he became interested in ancient Indian philosophy, which was undergoing a revival at that time in the West. It also revived in Java, where it was known as Theosophy. Wederopbouw (Reconstruction), an organ of "Het Comite voor het Javaansch Nationalisme" (The Committee for Javanese Nationalism), under the editorship of Soetatmo Soerjokoesoemo, was central in advocating this philosophy. Soetatmo, Noto Soeroto, and Soerjopoetro, personal friends of Soewardi from the Paku Alam House, all contributed to the magazine. They claimed Javanese authenticity as a legitimate successor of ancient Indian philosophy and tried to reinterprete it so that it could be relevant to "the spirit of the age" (Democracy).
  They were all enchanted by Tagore's asrama (traditional dormitory) type of education, and recognized it not only as an advanced trend in education which might resolve "the crisis of Western humanity" but also as something which could legitimize Javanese indigenous social values.
  The activites of Soewardi in Hindia Poetra and those of his comrades in Wederopbouw were thus ideological preparations for the Taman Siswa educational system, and also paved the way for modern Indonesian political ideology, namely "democracy and leadership" or "guided democracy".

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 The natural and war related calamities that caused the famines that forced peasants in North Vietnam to abandon their native villages from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries are analyzed through an examination of some Vietnamese chronicles and geographies.
  1) During the Lê dynasty there were many droughts from spring to early summer that led to large-scale famine. This illustrates that fifth-month rice production was important in North Vietnamese agriculture, especially in the highland areas beyond the Red River Delta.
  2) One of the major causes of instability in rice production during the Lê dynasty was the difficulty of maintaining stable yields in fifth-month rice cultivation which depended entirely on rain from the unpredictable Northeast Monsoon. Furthermore, the fifth-month rice cultivated in the highland areas was frequently damaged by locusts, especially in the fifteenth century.
  3) Tenth-month rice cultivated in the delta area suffered damage from inundation by the Red River. In the early years of the Lê dynasty, the flooding effected mainly the Hà-Nội district and later, with the agricultural development of the lower delta, the Hu'ng-Yen district too was subject to flooding. However, except in the Thanh-Hóa delta, only a few of these floods led to famine.
  4) The littoral zones of the Red River Delta were frequently damaged by high tides, mostly caused by typhoons. However, although such damage had increased with reclamation, it rarely caused large-scale famine.
  5) Civil war produced famine in certain strategic areas such as Hải-Du'o'ng, Nghe-An and Thanh-Hoá.
  It appears that famines occurred mostly in the highland areas, the upper part of the middle delta provinces, and the Thanh-Hóa and Nghẹ-An provinces during the Lê dynasty.
  However, a geography written at the beginning of the nineteenth century, shows that most of the ghost villages have thôn or phu'ò'ng as part of their name, indicating that they were probably established in the later part of the Lê dynasty. From this it appears necessary to research into the socio-economic factor linking natural or war related calamities to the peasants, abandonment of their native villages. This will be considered in part (2).

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Historically, the Malay press has been identified with fostering various causes of the Malays and of the Islamic faith. It has been a fighting press. Today's mass media in Malaysia have assumed new roles : they no longer fight causes, oppose government policies or think critically; instead, they act as supporters-and even, apologists-for the officials. Malay language media are expected to be at the forefront of the campaigns to propagate governmental programs because the authorities are themselves Malay. Thus, through restrictive legislation, self censorship and ownership patterns, the Malay mass media have been made into nothing more than extensions of government.

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