A different conclusion

People talk all the time about rediscovering their “national identity” or “cultural affinity” to their homelands after spending a significant amount of time abroad in some foreign country. I, however, found something different. I associate with people from my homeland and people from the United States equally and found that they serve as equally fantastic company.

People have often told me about how they miss home-cooked food, and I understand that, yet I feel something different. Although I would praise it endlessly for its taste, Indonesian food, a rarity in the midst of Midwestern cornfields, is a form of enjoyment rather than necessity to me.

I found something different.

I do not walk around feeling that I bear the flags and banners of “Indonesia’s sole representative” or “the grandson of the Indonesian revolution,” although I value people whose convictions of these sentiments are exceedingly powerful.
But I found something else.

It is the drive to serve, and it is the drive to give to others that I have found. Being surrounded by an incredible amount of helpfulness and diligence has motivated me that it is never enough to just take and utilize as many resources as possible for myself. Being a recipient of excellent education subconsciously plants in you a willingness to do something that will change the world for the better in your own way. This is, above everything else, what I have learned from living in one of the world’s privileged communities.

I will serve, and I will do something for the world’s people, regardless of what their religion, skin color, political affinity or nationality is. National borders are abstract lines that have been unsatisfactorily drawn by colonial powers and ambitious budding dictators of the 20th century. I want people to think that they live in the same planet and eat from the same soil, regardless of their GPS coordinates or passports.

masalah bahasa lagi

Pada dasarnya saya juga senang menggunakan bahasa Indonesia kok, tapi kadang takut kecampur-campur bahasa Inggris (atau malah kadang bahasa Jawa juga) entar jadi belepotan enggak indah...


"Miss... miss, I'm afraid I am still... ora mudeng"
"Let's roll Merah Putih 17an neeh!"
"100% proud to have anak bangsa like you"
"Hayolah ke farewell saya punya"

???

Redenomination

“Do you know why Megawati doesn’t like the redenomination idea? Because she’s afraid that she would have to change her name to Kilowati.”

Places

The housing complex
Red rambutans fall, a wooden bench,
I sat once, I heard
Scales on the piano,
tuned to octaves
Tock, tock, tock, tock
Sweet ginger, on bitter walks


The street
The tamarind tree, it hovers over
Sweet smell of meat cooked tender
Buzzing, whistling, clanking
Stop the blue van not, but for the lady, waving
with a flying veil


The school between fields of tall grass
Plains of wild grass, yellow
Circle bus windows with white
dresses, ties and polished shoes
Asleep, weary, wary
The fishpond, I looked away, peering
Walls, glasses of study

The eight-lane street
On three wheels the dirty cloth of
Orange, rust, and hope
Blackened, dusty bank notes
Trampled over, the pedestrian bridge
White, red shirts, acquaint myself not
The names, I read, I whisper


The old town
Locks of hair, small, black, afloat in the wind
White, gray monuments, there stood
Slaves, masters enslaved, the gallow
Stepped, I, on stone, steeped
In echo, pollens of spirits past


Changi Airport
Wings, grids on glass
Tongues I heard, faded,
Icy, cupped, sour, swept
A house of paper, a village of lines
Footsteps, through, and went

In what language?

Why does Minke, the main character in Pram's Buru Quartet, write in Dutch instead of Javanese? Why do I write in English instead of in Indonesian?

I've read a lot of Pram, in both languages, and the two questions above are not easy to answer. I'd like to leave them open for now.