Proud as Spain was for having extended her hegemony to the Philippines, attempts were made to abandon that distant outpost of the empire. The island colony in Asia was a constant drain to the royal treasury and, consequently, Mexico had to supplement the revenue deficit with an annual subsidy (situado) for over two hundred years.
 A breakthrough in the Philippine economic development occurred in the late eighteenth century. The Bourbon reforms implemented many innovative measures that finally made the government self-sufficient.
 Concurrent and interrelated with these government-initiated activities was the glimmering of entrepreneurship, the emergence of a few Spaniards interested in developing the resources of the land. Brought up in a society that looked down on industrial and commercial activities as “ungentlemanly,” Francisco Xavier Salgado was a rare breed who dabbled in manufacturing, mining and agricultural ventures. He displayed practically all the qualities deemed necessary to achieve success in a business enterprise: an adventurous spirit willing to take a risk, an eagerness to learn a new trade and the patience to stick with it in times of adversity, a thorough knowledge of the inner workings of the government acquired through many years as a civil servant, and a sizeable fortune to finance his projects. Living in an autocratic system of government, Salgado is a classic example of the daunting hardships an entrepreneur had to overcome in the pursuit of his economic goal—the bureaucratic maze of regulations that stifled individual initiatives, the jealousy and pettiness among his peers, and the bitter partisanship and retribution of higher public officials. This article recounts and analyzes the saga of Salgado, the pioneer industrialist in eighteenth century Philippines.

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During the present century, Holocene sediments of the lower Barito basin have been reclaimed for agricultural purposes. On Martapura river sediments, stable agricultural plots have been established which are not affected by severe acid toxicity problems: but on Barito river sediments, many plots have been abandoned because of such problems.
 To clarify the characteristics of the sediments of the lower Barito basin, boring observations were made along two transects on the Barito and Martapura river sediments. The fossil pollen composition, layering patterns, and the presence of sulfidic materials were used to identify the depositional environments of the sediments.
 This paper presents details of the succession of depositional environments on the Martapura river sediments and Barito river sediments, and demonstrates that the stable agricultural plots belong to a riverine environment. while the unstable agricultural plots belong to a brackish environment.

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This study takes the auto parts industry in Malaysia to demonstrate the difficulties a developing country faces in promoting skill development. Auto parts production needs a wide range of production techniques, which in turn require many types and levels of skilled workers. Realizing the importance of skilled workers, the Malaysian government has been emphasizing skill formation by increasing the number of technical schools, introducing a skill certification system, and giving a tax incentive to companies which undertake training for employees. Malaysia, however, lacks skilled workers, especially those at an advanced level, in order to sustain industrialization. This study attributes the shortage to the following four factors : insufficient government support, employers' lukewarm attitude, unfavorable skill environment, and weak individual interest. Korea is used as a contrast since it has overcome successfully the problems Malaysia has been facing.

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It is largely agreed that the origin of dangdut, the most popular music in Indonesia, is musik Melayu. This paper highlights the changes and development of this musik Melayu, which was played by orkes Melayu in 1950-65.
 In 1951-54, Malayan films were so popular in Indonesia that the music in these films, especially P. Ramlee's songs, were favorites with Indonesian people and many orkes (musical groups) imitated and played P. Ramlee's songs. The most popular orkes Melayu at that time were Orkes Melayu Sinar Medan and Orkes Melayu Kenangan. In 1954-58, Orkes Melayu Bukit Siguntang reached the peak of its popularity, through such popular singers as Hasnah Tahar, Nur'ain, and Suhaimi. They combined diverse musical influences, including Indian and Latin music, with musik Melayu and composed songs that differed from the previous orkes Melayu. By 1959, Orkes Melayu Bukit Siguntang had declined in popularity under the onslaught of rock 'n' roll, although Serodja, a solemn Melayu song sung by Said Effendi, was a big hit in 1959-60.
 In the development of the concept of “Indonesia” following the “sumpah pemuda” (youth oath) of 1928, polemic about how a new Indonesian culture should be created, arose among intellectuals. This polemic was known as “polemik kebudayaan (Culture Polemic).” Kroncong was regarded as national music (musik nasional) because kroncong songs were composed and sung to encourage the Indonesian people during the war of Independence. But the popularity of kroncong had declined by 1954. Musik Melayu was then popular, but musik Melayu was not regarded as national music. Rather, it was thought of as a lower form than other kinds of music and as one type of ethnic music in Indonesia. The term Melayu had been used to indicate Indonesia, as in Bahasa Melayu (Bahasa Indonesia). But the term Melayu in musik Melayu referred to one of the ethnic groups in Indonesia. Orkes Melayu was called orkes Harmonium before the 1950s. But the name was changed to orkes Melayu because its musical style was largely influenced by Malay (Melayu) film songs.
 Sukarno criticized rock 'n' roll in his speech of 17th August 1959 as decadent and culture-imperialistic. In this leftwing political atmosphere, western culture like rock 'n' roll and film was restricted. In its place, Minangkabau (West Sumatera) songs became popular in 1960 as a good model of Indonesian national culture.
 Under these conditions, Orkes Kelana Ria was formed in 1962 and released a remarkable first album entitled “Kafilah.” Ellya Agus, one of the singers of this orkes, sang several Indian-influenced Melayu songs. Orkes Melayu had usually utilized gendang besides violin, piano, acoordion, clarinet, contrabass, guitar, and trumpet. But Orkes Kelana Ria utilized suling and gendang, two indispensable musical instruments for dangdut, for the first time. However, these songs by Ellya Agus were banned under the stronger leftwing political atmosphere, together with other young bands like Kose Bersaudara, because of the strong Indian and western influence displayed.

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Baoshan is a mountainous prefecture of western Yunnan in the border area with Myanmar. Most mountain slopes were formerly covered by dense forests, but with the increasing number of Han migrants, the forests cover has been denuded. The bare mountain slopes on the east side of the Nujiang river are obvious proof of this. Continuous forest denudation has resulted not only in the aggravation of environmental problems (for example, landslides and erosion) but also in shortages of fuel and timber for the inhabitants.
 In contrast, the forests on the western slopes of the Nujiang river are comparatively intact. On the forest-covered slopes, there are many villages in which various ethnic groups like the Han, Lisu, Yi, and Bai live together. The migration of these ethnic groups and the mixing of their cultural heritages have a long history. The green landscape in which the villages are located is maintained by the presence of large agroforestry gardens and village common forests besides paddy terraces and cornfields. This combination of land use has achieved a balance between utilization and preservation of ecological resources. Hence, a way to restore the degraded environment in Baoshan may be sought in the analysis of this local landscape, which has been created by ethnic minorities.
 This paper examines the forest utilization in the multi-ethnic villages located on the west side of Nujiang river. The utilization of the village common forests is observed and analyzed, and the creation techniques of the agroforestry gardens are investigated. In addition, stock farming, an occupation closely related to the forest, is discussed. As a whole, this paper aims to present details of the material culture of the ethnic minorities, their ecological base, and to extract the people's perception of nature.

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