HAVE YOU HEARD . . .?
 Malaysia (Malaya until its independence from the British in 1957) is in South East Asia. Its mainland borders Thailand in the north and is separated from independent Singapore in the south by a short stretch of water.
It is divided into 11 states. Malaysia also has two other states, Sabah and Sarawak, in northern Borneo. They are 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) across the South China Sea to the east.
The country, and each state within it, has a long history and distinctive culture, including music. As well as native Malays, the 23 million population of Malaysia includes many people of Chinese and Indian origin. In the 16th century the country was colonised by Portugal and in the 17th by The Netherlands. Finally, the British took over the country in the 19th century. These different European cultures have also influenced Malaysian ideas and its folk music.
There are 15 tracks on this CD, each lasting between three and seven minutes. The first introduces us to ghazal which comes from Johor, Malaysia’s southern-most state. It is traditionally used to accompany a narrator of love poems, especially at wedding ceremonies. This piece is hauntingly repetitive and rhythmic. Here, it’s played on violin, guitar, lute and traditional drum – without spoken or sung poetry.
Track 5, Main Chali Main, is a ‘pop’ song performed by a male and female duet with small orchestral accompaniment. It’s very much in the style of a British 1950s pop song.
Track 13, however, is much more ‘eastern’ in flavour and is performed by members of Johor Sports Club. The following track gives us the same music in a much more ‘western’ form.
Finally there’s the western-sounding Fredo and the Flybaits performing in the style of early 1960s British rock and roll. His band uses an electric guitar and bass – but the piece still has a hint of eastern flavour.
An interesting, easy-to-listen-to CD covering a range of styles, but still clearly ‘eastern’ in character.
The Rough Guide to the Music of Malaysia. RGNET 1176 CD.
HAVE YOU READ . . .?
 Ruby Winters, aged 17, is a white girl. Her father is a lawyer and her mother runs an art gallery. They live in Johannesburg, in South Africa and it is the 1970s.
For many years South Africa was governed by a system called apartheid. This meant that black people had to live completely separately from whites. They had different schools and transport and blacks had few job opportunities. Most were poor and lived in specially set-up zones such as Soweto on the edge of Johannesburg.
Blacks and whites were not allowed to mix socially as equals and usually the two groups met only because blacks were servants to whites. Anyone caught getting together in any other way was punished. Apartheid – which eventually ended in the early 1990s – was at its height in the 1970s.
Ruby’s parents are caring, liberal people. They think apartheid is wrong and want it to stop. They have many black friends who visit their home as guests. Mrs Winters encourages promising black artists in their work. But because such activities and views are strictly against the law Ruby has to keep it all secret when she is at her private, whites-only school.
There is another problem. Under apartheid there were divisions even between white people. It wasn’t the law, but there was a lot of prejudice and bad feeling. One group is descended from Dutch settlers and speak a language called Afrikaans. The others are British in origin because South Africa was a British colony. The British fought a war against the Dutch South Africans in the late nineteenth century. In Ruby Red there are further complications in Ruby’s life when she gets an Afrikaner boyfriend.
Then there’s Julian, the tremendously talented African artist from Soweto. He has a studio in the Winters’ house and lives there with them as a guest. Eventually, of course, it all goes wrong and there is a police raid which leads to arrests. The whole situation is working towards the well-known riots in Soweto which historians now see as a turning point in events in South Africa,
In spite of Ruby Red’s seriousness it is a good, fast read, full of characters that the reader quickly comes to care about. And there are some interesting issues to think about. When Ruby becomes friends first with Loretta, and then with her brother Johann, her worried parents tell her they’re unhappy about her having close Afrikaner friends. They are afraid that other non-Afrikaner whites will notice and make trouble – which is what happens. Ruby is angry with her parents. She tells them that they have always taught her to think of blacks as equal. So the same must apply to Afrikaners.
Then there’s Uncle D – the beautifully dressed white man who assists Ruby’s mother at the gallery. Linzi Glass describes him so well that the reader can see immediately that he is gay. In 1970s South Africa this was also highly illegal. It leads to problems once the police begin to watch the Winters family and the people they associate with.
Ruby Red is a well-written, enjoyable and moving book which will probably teach you a lot about apartheid and what it is like to live in a society dominated by race, colour and beliefs.
Ruby Red by Linzi Glass. Penguin ISBN 978-0-141-38280-7. | 
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