When it comes down to it, if somebody were to put a gun to my head and credibly demand to know my one favorite bar above all others or else, I’d have to go right ahead and betray Bouche Bar in favor of International Bar, on 1st between 7th and St. Marks.
Yes, the place looks like a biker dive, with cheap-beer neon in the window to scare away tourists; yes, it has blinking Christmas lights strewn year-long along the length of the railway carriage shaped space; and yes, it has a yellowed map of the world in the back on which Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union are forever forces to be reckoned with; but boyo what generous cheap martinis! And the jukebox is the best in NYC — it’s where I first heard Stereolab — and they let you bring pizza slices into the bar to have with your drinks on rainy winter sunday afternoons… And the bartenders all just walked off the set of a Suicide Girls shoot.
One of them used to bartend at Downtown Beirut a few blocks up the roadThe perfectly adequate but tame bar Standard has taken its place., that legendary but now defunct punk rock bar from a time when the East Village still scared people. She took her attitude seriously: When American moviestar Buddhists successfully ignited the Free Tibet campaign in the late-middle nineties
, she put up a sign behind the till that read, “Free Tibet (with every drink)”. To me, that line will forever nail our jaded end-of-the-millenium take on the world, from a time when people still smoked and 911 was a Porsche model.
Fast forward to today’s Swedish papers, which ganged up on their king for comments he made while visiting a fellow monarch, the Sultan of Brunei: King Carl Gustaf thought Brunei a lovely place, “a country which is much more open than one may imagine,” with an absolutely delightful host of a Sultan who “holds an open audience where anyone who wants to can come and present his wishes, and presumably his complaints also.”
The problem? The Swedish government considers Brunei to be a dictatorship, and King Gustaf, politically neutered by law, is not supposed to make normative statements about anything weightier than the weather, unless it’s about global warming, in which case he better shut up and not sweat either.
Except that Brunei, an absolute monarchy, is filthy rich, and the Sultan has more than enough money to rule his 350,000 subjects through patronage. The human rights situation in Brunei, compared to all the other countries of the region, is really quite good — certainly better than any other Muslim country that I can think of — and improving. The 2002 Amnesty International country report documents the release of evangelical Christians who were held as prisoners of conscience. The 2003 Amnesty annual report does not bother with Brunei at all; few countries manage that featSweden isn’t one of them. Both the 2002 and the 2003 Sweden country reports document police brutality, deaths in custody and a suspicious police killing. Going by Amnesty’s numbers, then, you might want to go live in Brunei — and imagine, they have no income tax..
So perhaps it was bit opportunistic to criticize the king for being publicly grateful to his host, especially if in a narrow sense, his comments are not factually incorrect. It is certainly the case that we are not in a situation where the oppressed Bruneian masses are yearning to breathe free, like they do in Tibet; and this in turn frees me to revisit, just for the evening, my jaded views of yore: To all those members of parliament who paraded in front of the cameras, condemning in the strongest possible terms the evils of the Sultan’s regime in a country they had to look up on the map this morning, go ahead, buy yourself a Free Brunei T-shirt, or mug. I’m selling at cost, since the Brunei Relief Fund is not short of cash. It should go nicely with that previous icon of jaded chic — the Free Winona T-shirt:
I suspect this whole affair has absolutely nothing to do with Brunei, and everything with the monarchy. Let’s face it: Monarchs, be they Belgian, British, Swedish or Bruneian, have more in common with each other than they do with their subjects — they are born cossetted rich parasites through no fault of their own, but choose to remain so in their adult life, and that is inexcusable. Monarchies symbolize the superiority by birth-right of one man over another. If the monarch also wields power, as in Brunei, this at least makes sense according to some internal logic. But in a constitutional monarchy, this symbolism is a jarring anachronism, because ostensibly, democracies are meritocracies.
Maybe I’ll go make some Free Belgium T-shirts…
Stefan
Wearing a tshirt like “Free Belgium” is just asking for trouble. You’ll have some dyslexic American thinking that you are a “Free Belgian” and lo and behold- your worst nightmares or best fantasies will occur…..
Kungen och jag
I morse var en av Dagens Ekos toppnyheter att den slemme Sultanen av Brunei bjudit kungen på på kost och logi under statsbesöket. De försökte antyda att det var något skumt med det hela, men det lyckades väl inte r…
bouche bar has sucked since 1997.
No alcohol is allowed in Brunei. Not even at the international hotels. Not even in the privacy of your own home. Not a single bloody drop.
To hell with the goddamn political prisoners, why isn’t Amnesty alerting the world to this unconscionable violation of civil rights?
Aux arms, O righteous defenders of liberty! Free Brunei! Free Brunei!
Marc is not so far off – Bouche sucks but not since 1997. It’s when Stefan Geens left NYC that it began to suck. Seriously. Right after Stefan’s departure the (new, I think) Bouche owner decided to rennovate and set up an area in the front for a dj.
They
a) put the dj in our favorite spot to sit right next to the window, bad idea – – – it was the best seat in the house
b) now have loud music pumping through a tiny space
This is insanely stupid and very un-Bouche like as it use to be a chilled out lounge where you could grab a cheap drink and have a civilized conversation with friends, neighbors and bartenders. Now you can’t move through the bar nor can you hear the people you’re chatting with.
Not every flipping watering hole in NYC needs a dj… there’s a time and a place for spinning. And in my opinion, there’s no time or place for loud uptowners – so I’m boycotting Bouche until you, Stefan, can persuade the powers that be to revert the Bouche scene to the “good ol’ days” when you lived on St Mark’s and all was right in the natural world.
Happy Independence Day … Brunei Darussalam
Even the smallest of nations gets a mention in the so-called “blogosphere” as proven by these sites about Brunei. It…
I’m from Brunei and i dont want to be ‘freed’ because i love this country and proud to be a Bruneian. A lot of people from other countries envy Brunei because we Bruneians agree that we are one of the luckiest people on Earth. The name of our country is Brunei Darussalam (in english; Brunei,The Abode Of Peace) And the country really lives up to its name. I never thought of wanting to be a citizen of any other country except Brunei itself. One of the reasons is that Bruneians are given free education from early school up to tertiary(University)level.We Bruneians are also given free health care with no exceptions to any race or religion the Bruneians practices. See, what i mean when i said that we are lucky. Talking about religion, different religions are very openly practised. This is proven by the fact that a Church, a Temple and a Mosque are located within less than 1km (one killometer) away from each others. And it is against the law in Brunei,just like many developed countries, to discriminate women. And i can give thousands more reasons why i really never want to be ‘freed’ from my country, Brunei,The Abode Of Peace.
About the alcohol bann, actually private(home) ownership of alcohol is allowed in the country up to a certain amount. If it wasn’nt allowed at all, then i would certainly want to get out of the country and be another citizen. So, shame to anyone who thinks the people of Brunei wanted to be freed. Never!Never!Never we Bruneians say to them, Never!Never!Never! will i be another citizen.
Hello sir
how are you sir , let me introduce my self . I’m Sarfaraz , from Pakistan . sir my mother is a cancer patient , and i have no money to treated her in any hospital . sir i have heard that there is a very good hospital in london , that is is cancer hospital , sir you can help help us , sir plz help us , send us some money that i can treat my mother , my mother gave you good wishes . sir i’m sarfaraz and my home address is
Millat Colony ,Bukharay Chowk ,House #558 ,Faislabad ,PAKISTAN
i come from brunei. brunei is really an interesting places. you also can meet the sultan and u also can go to his palace in a celebrations.
the sultan also drive his cars by his self. he also can drive helicopter. he is very kind.
the mosque in brunei are very beautiful. theres a lot of shops in brunei and all the foods are halal. free educations and free hospitality. the countries is so safe and peace. many people can speak english.
This message is for ANWAR. At least have the decency to speak and type English properly. You are one grammatically challenged individual. I am ashamed to have you as a neighbour. In fact, if I knew you lived next door I will be throwing stones at you!!
This message is for MATT. Religion is a HUGE issue in Brunei. Although we have churches and temples in this tiny little country, I would like to see you to erect one that towers the local mosques here. You’d be shot! My guess is you are Malay and that makes you Bumiputra (look it up in a Kamus/Dictionary – it actually means prince/ss of the earth). You write about Brunei as if the Sultan was watching over your shoulder. Although I agree that we boast the highest per capita income than any other country, have you tried owning a piece of land or a business entity in Brunei. If you’re not Bumiputra (excuse me), or your identity card isn’t yellow in colour,… DREAM ON!! Your ideal view of Brunei is very naive to say the least.
But having said all that, yes I agree to both MATT and ANWAR on one thing. Brunei is a beautiful country but is it free?? NO it ISN’T. There isn’t a need to complain since the people here live peacefully and crime is at it’s all-time low. Peace to you all!
This is for JAME. If you don’t like the fact that Brunei does not sell or offer alcohol, please stay out of our BEAUTIFUL country. Because we sure as hell don’t need you. I dare you to voice your comment in person on the streets of Brunei. I’d be on the sidewalk along with everyone else throwing stones at you!
Can I join? How big are the stones? Is this like a real stoning? Maybe if the alcohol he’s drinking is strong enough we can flambé him!
LOL @ Stefan
I’m not sure if I’m in a correct way, but I try to find 2 cd albums released in Brunei Country.These two albums are from Sting and Sting and Bryan Adams ,both are live concerts to celebrate the 22nd Birthday of Sultan of Brunei and they are from 1994 aprox.I try to find these albums but I do not have any conections in that country..so..I’ll apreciate very much is there any people who help in find these records.
all the best
toni
Please everyone, peace ! I’m indonesian, and for sure to be honest, yes, i’m envy with the bruneians. Please excuse my english as it is not my native lang.
I love brunei eventhough i’ve never been there. but i’m saving my money to go there next year in 2006. Being the muslim country, brunei is perfect. Islamic law is executed very well and organized.
For Stefan or everyone else, i’m very-very sorry, i won’t throw any stone to you. I just want to say, this is the way of muslim living, please be acknowledged. I’m sure the bruneians love to keep it that way, as a good muslim. Please, religion is very basic human right for me. Don’t make this as a cause of a fight. Lets live side by side in harmony whatever the religion is.
Thank you very much, everyone. I was loking for tips about Brunei for my Atlas, and your opinions’ll be very usefull.