The purpose of this paper is to consider the social meaning of “ownership” of sago palm (Metroxylon spp.) in Seram, eastern Indonesia.
 In the highland community under study, local people depend heavily on sago starch as a staple food. Every sago clump belongs to a certain holder of sago palm (ipia kua). Although the number of sago palm clumps held by each household varies, there is no significant difference in the frequency of sago intake among households. This is because people who have harvestable, mature sago palms transfer the right to utilize sago palm to people who do not.
 Sago palm is not regarded as a resource that can be utilized exclusively by an “owner.” Ipia kua are expected to give usufruct rights in sago palm to the needy without compensation. At the same time, ipia kua maintain the sago groves in good condition in order to secure effective utilization by the community. Taking this point into consideration, ipia kua should be regarded as “custodians” or “managers” of sago palm rather than right holders with total ownership to sago palm.

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The magazine Soeara NIROM (Voice of Nederlands Indische Radio Omroep Maatschappji), was issued periodically from 1934 to 1942 to introduce its radio program specifically to Indonesian-reading Nederlandsch-Indie listeners. NIROM itself was established in 1934 as an official network, first broadcasting in Dutch and subsequently in Indonesian. This paper attempts to depict the musical culture of the time by quantifying the frequency of music programs for each broadcasting station in October 1936 and January 1942. This analysis of musical programming depicts a very diverse musical culture in Nederlandsch-Indie and indicates that radio broadcasting, as a new medium, promoted interaction amongthe musical genres.
 In October 1936, music constituted more than 70% of radio programming in number of programs and approximately 83% in programming hours. Of the various musical genres broadcast by NIROM, six were dominant: kroncong, Javanese music, Sundanese music, Malay music, Chinese music, and Arabic music. Kroncong was the most popular. It seems that kroncong actively incorporated a musical element of rumba popularized all around the world by the 1930 hit song El Manicero. Consequently, a new style of kroncong rumba was created. A good example is Rumba Tamang Mango, sung by the Eurasian singer Annie Landouw. The most famous kroncong singers were S. Abudullah and Miss Iem, well known in Singapore and British Malaya as well. There was little local music except Gambang Kromong, an ensemble based in and around Batavia (Jakarta) that combined Indonesian and Chinese instruments and styles. Malay music was represented by bangsawan, a modern style combining Indian, Arabic, Chinese, and Western elements into traditional Malay music. Female singers like Miss Maimoon and Miss Tjiah were popular. These singers belonged to bangsawan groups in Singapore and British Malaya, as well as Nederlandsch-Indie. The popularity of Arabic music arose mainly from Arabic films starring actors like Om Kalsum and featuring the gambus, a lute instrument brought by Hadhramaut immigrants residing in Surabaya. A gambus group led by Syech Albar enjoyed high popularity.
 In 1942, the popularity of these six musical genres continued, although music programming itself had been reduced to approximately 44% of programs and 69% of programming hours. This was due to an increase in other programming, including news coverage of the eruption of war in Europe. Kroncong declined in frequency and program hours, with few new styles or singers emerging. Several genres of local music, such as Minangkabau, Ambon, Batak, and Acehnese, which had hardly been broadcast in 1936, were on the air. Chinese, Arab, and Malay songs were relatively more popular than they had been. Malay music became more diverse, with domestic groups such as Penghiboer Hati, Sinar Medan, and Patjaran Muda seeming to perform different styles than bangsawan. In the gambus genre, while Syech Albar's popularity was still high, many new gambus groups were established at Batavia, Semarang, Medan, and Garut (in West Java) outside Surabaya.
 In addition, the new genre of harmonium music had emerged by 1940 and was frequently aired. The harmonium, a small reed organ set in a box, was an essential instrument of modern Malay music. Judging from the sound source, it seems that harmonium music was basically gambus, or Arabic music, but because it emphasized the sound of the harmonium, it was regarded as Malay music. In fact, the style of gambus and Malay groups in the 1940s indicates that interaction among them took pace flexibly and easily. Some gambus groups, as well as Malay music groups, called themselves harmonium groups. By the early 1950s, these harmonium groups were calling themselves orkes melayu ...

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Overseas Chinese have been an important factor in the modern Asia-Pacific economy. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, remittances by overseas Chinese have gradually influenced the economy of the region; they have been important not only in amount but also in the effect of their multiple uses for trade and investment. In the latter sense, remittances by overseas Chinese have had a huge impact.
 Geographically, remittance funds flowed from throughout the Asia-Pacific to South China via Hong Kong. For example, Cantonese remittance houses in South East Asia, the Americas, and Oceania remitted funds to Hong Kong, from where they were retransferred to the Pearl River Delta. Such funds were used for purchase or investment in Canton or in other Chinese cities through the Cantonese networks. This is just one example. Each Chinese group had different routes and means of remittance but all funds, with different objectives, crossed paths in Hong Kong.
 This paper focuses mainly on the connection mechanisms of Cantonese Chinese remittances from Singapore to the Pearl River Delta via Hong Kong.

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This paper aims to clarify factors in the expansion of farm size in Vietnam's Mekong River Delta through an analysis of the inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity. The Agricultural Censuses of 1994 and 2001 show that both the number of landless persons and the number of medium or large-size farmers (operating over 3 ha) grew steadily after the implementation of the land law in 1993. Using these data, I confirmed the inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity in the mid-1990s, showing that the labour input of large-size farmers was lower than that of small-size farmers due to labour constraints and the cost of monitoring hired labour.
 Based on a survey of recent controversies over the inverse relationship, I then analyzed contributing factors using the household panel data of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey and found that labour market imperfection seemed to contribute more strongly to the inverse relationship than land fertility. The reason farmers had been able to expand the size of operated lands, despite the inverse relationship, was the development of the agricultural labour market and agricultural mechanization. Large farmers could practice double cropping using labour made plentiful through landlessness and by reducing the effective cost of hired labour through mechanization.
 I also confirmed that the inverse relationship was sustained in 2001; however, it was merely a “spurious inverse relationship” caused by differences in cropping patterns and behavior between large and small farmers. The high intensity of land utilization through the practice of double cropping has alleviated the disadvantage of large-size farmers. Therefore, the change in agricultural structure behind the increase in farm size is not inefficient.

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This paper assesses a variety of views held by the Thai people residing in an area considered “rural” in the Khonkaen province of northeastern Thailand concerning the adoption in 2001 of Universal Coverage (UC) through the 30 Baht Scheme. According to findings from a questionnaire process that included casual interviews, a number of respondents expressed favorable opinions of the concepts underlying the implementation as well as its performance so far. This was especially the case with respect to lower medical expenses, qualitative improvements in health care provision, and attitudes toward the 30 Baht Scheme. Some of those covered by other health schemes, mainly the elderly who obtain their health benefits through the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS), even mentioned a preference to be switched to the 30 Baht Scheme if it were allowed. The fixed co-payment of 30 baht per episode is seen as affordable and fairly reasonable to people across socioeconomic statuses, and therefore need not be revised. For most factors related to satisfaction with the utilisation of medical care, average scores indicate satisfaction. The “co-payment” scored the most satisfactory and “transportation costs” scored the least satisfactory. Now that they are entitled to the right to access better medical care through UC, a larger proportion of people reported that they prefer to visit public health facilities when care is needed rather than private facilities more often compared to the pre-UC period. The rate of care utilisation is also tentatively higher. In this study, an analysis of medical care expenses shows an inequitable burden of the expenses on people across three strata of income groups, which are classified by annual household income per head.

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