Culture & History of Indonesia
As promised, I am continuing on to tell y'all a few things about the county of Indonesia - culturally as well as historically.
Basic History: Did you know that Indonesia is actually comprised of 13,000 islands?!? I didn't even know there were 13,000 islands on this planet much less in the same area tied to the same country! From what I learned this past week, Indonesia was founded in the 5th century by a man from Brunei (Malaysia) and he was Hindu, which became the religion of the area he settled. In the 8th century, the Muslim missionaries came into Indonesia and began converting lots of people to the Muslim religion. By the 16th century, a dutchman came over to Indonesia and claimed it as a Dutch colony; along with the dutch came Christianity. The Dutch claimed the land of Indonesia until the early 1800's - this is when the English came over and fought the Dutch until they surrendered. Apparently, the English claimed the land for 11 years (including Maylasia & Singapore) and then Indonesia was taken back by the Dutch. Confused yet? The most interesting part of all of this is that during WWII, the Japanese took over when the Dutch surrendered to Japan in 1942. However, Indonesia FINALLY obtained its freedom when WWII ended in 1945! Therefore, Indonesia is a fairly young independent country of its own.
A specific part that I found quite interesting is how the Dutch colonized the islands of Indonesia whereby they kept the people separated according to the islands they lived on so as to keep their skills/personalities a certain way in order to better fit jobs that needed to be done around the country. For example, the Javanese (from the island of Java where Jakarta is located) were known to be persistent and disciplined. The Sutanese (from the Western area of Java) were known to be thinkers, writers, intellectuals. The people from the island of Celebes (located furthest east of Indonesia islands) were known to be loyal and most of the country's military comprised of these people. The people of Sumatra, an island Northwest of Java and hardest hit by the tsunamis, were found to be very driven and determined people but no so disciplined. Finally, the Balanese (from the island of Bali, directly east of Java) people were known to be trustful, giving, and very open to others.
Basic Culture: I knew basically very little coming over to Indonesia for the first time. All I knew was that there has been lots of terrorist activity here since 9/11 and the country is the largest Muslim country in the world. Bali, however, located East of Java, still remains something like 98% Hindu back from the original settlement by the man from Brunei ... quite a difference!
One of the most valuable times that I learned about Jakarta was when Tony was giving me the security briefing on the city/country. Apparently, I had virtually nothing to worry about when it came to getting mugged because the people of Jakarta won't stand for it. So, if someone came to steel my purse and I hollered "thief", there would be about 20 people who would automatically go after the mugger and take care of him themselves (if you know what I mean). Therefore, it doesn't happen very often. The police don't do much about it because of the amount of people that usually get involved in an even such as that! The most common way of steeling at this moment is to break a window in a taxi cab and take a computer or something valuable that is lying on the back seat next to you. BP drivers are only allowed to drive cars that have glass windows that would take 7 whacks with an axe before the window actually shattered! Also, there is of course the trick where they will set up your driver to get in an accident. I was told that if this happened and my driver got out of the car to figure out the situation - I was to lock all the doors and move to the middle of the car and call Tony ... even if they were beating my driver up or hurting him. Tony said that within about 10-15 minutes that men on scooters would show up and settle the incident - often by paying off whomever they needed to ... I have found out that money can buy a LOT in Indonesia!
Gambling is illegal in Indonesia but I would say that the most surprising thing I learned of ALL was that getting caught with drugs in Indonesia is punishable by DEATH!!! I believe for the most part it is if you are trying to smuggle drugs into the country but they have no mercy on people that get caught with drugs - i.e. they often are put on death row to be shot by firing squad. The worst of it all is that they are not given a date of execution! They are just to sit there fearing that at any time, the Indonesian Gov't may think their time is up and take them out and get it all over with. The firing squad is comprised of 10 shooters and 1 is given a real bullet and the others are given blanks - so no one REALLY knows which shooter actually fired the fatal wound. Anyways, the saddest part of it all is that many Australians are caught and there is very little that the Austrailian Gov't can do for these people. When I was in Jakarta in fact, 9 Auzzies got caught smuggling in marajuana and heroin. They were all young men & women, ages ranging from 18-29! The news reports that they are as good as gone - except I saw that one girl is going to be sparred the death penalty because she was the one with marajuana, which is obviously not as bad as heroin, but she will still get life in and Indonesian prison ... yikes!!! The ones who were smuggling heroin into Bali were getting paid $15,000 to do so - not worth it in my opinion.
No worries for me - I was not afraid of the whole drug thing, obviously, but you do hear about stories of people smuggling it through your bags and stuff ... I managed to make it out of Jakarta just fine!
Basic History: Did you know that Indonesia is actually comprised of 13,000 islands?!? I didn't even know there were 13,000 islands on this planet much less in the same area tied to the same country! From what I learned this past week, Indonesia was founded in the 5th century by a man from Brunei (Malaysia) and he was Hindu, which became the religion of the area he settled. In the 8th century, the Muslim missionaries came into Indonesia and began converting lots of people to the Muslim religion. By the 16th century, a dutchman came over to Indonesia and claimed it as a Dutch colony; along with the dutch came Christianity. The Dutch claimed the land of Indonesia until the early 1800's - this is when the English came over and fought the Dutch until they surrendered. Apparently, the English claimed the land for 11 years (including Maylasia & Singapore) and then Indonesia was taken back by the Dutch. Confused yet? The most interesting part of all of this is that during WWII, the Japanese took over when the Dutch surrendered to Japan in 1942. However, Indonesia FINALLY obtained its freedom when WWII ended in 1945! Therefore, Indonesia is a fairly young independent country of its own.
A specific part that I found quite interesting is how the Dutch colonized the islands of Indonesia whereby they kept the people separated according to the islands they lived on so as to keep their skills/personalities a certain way in order to better fit jobs that needed to be done around the country. For example, the Javanese (from the island of Java where Jakarta is located) were known to be persistent and disciplined. The Sutanese (from the Western area of Java) were known to be thinkers, writers, intellectuals. The people from the island of Celebes (located furthest east of Indonesia islands) were known to be loyal and most of the country's military comprised of these people. The people of Sumatra, an island Northwest of Java and hardest hit by the tsunamis, were found to be very driven and determined people but no so disciplined. Finally, the Balanese (from the island of Bali, directly east of Java) people were known to be trustful, giving, and very open to others.
Basic Culture: I knew basically very little coming over to Indonesia for the first time. All I knew was that there has been lots of terrorist activity here since 9/11 and the country is the largest Muslim country in the world. Bali, however, located East of Java, still remains something like 98% Hindu back from the original settlement by the man from Brunei ... quite a difference!
One of the most valuable times that I learned about Jakarta was when Tony was giving me the security briefing on the city/country. Apparently, I had virtually nothing to worry about when it came to getting mugged because the people of Jakarta won't stand for it. So, if someone came to steel my purse and I hollered "thief", there would be about 20 people who would automatically go after the mugger and take care of him themselves (if you know what I mean). Therefore, it doesn't happen very often. The police don't do much about it because of the amount of people that usually get involved in an even such as that! The most common way of steeling at this moment is to break a window in a taxi cab and take a computer or something valuable that is lying on the back seat next to you. BP drivers are only allowed to drive cars that have glass windows that would take 7 whacks with an axe before the window actually shattered! Also, there is of course the trick where they will set up your driver to get in an accident. I was told that if this happened and my driver got out of the car to figure out the situation - I was to lock all the doors and move to the middle of the car and call Tony ... even if they were beating my driver up or hurting him. Tony said that within about 10-15 minutes that men on scooters would show up and settle the incident - often by paying off whomever they needed to ... I have found out that money can buy a LOT in Indonesia!
Gambling is illegal in Indonesia but I would say that the most surprising thing I learned of ALL was that getting caught with drugs in Indonesia is punishable by DEATH!!! I believe for the most part it is if you are trying to smuggle drugs into the country but they have no mercy on people that get caught with drugs - i.e. they often are put on death row to be shot by firing squad. The worst of it all is that they are not given a date of execution! They are just to sit there fearing that at any time, the Indonesian Gov't may think their time is up and take them out and get it all over with. The firing squad is comprised of 10 shooters and 1 is given a real bullet and the others are given blanks - so no one REALLY knows which shooter actually fired the fatal wound. Anyways, the saddest part of it all is that many Australians are caught and there is very little that the Austrailian Gov't can do for these people. When I was in Jakarta in fact, 9 Auzzies got caught smuggling in marajuana and heroin. They were all young men & women, ages ranging from 18-29! The news reports that they are as good as gone - except I saw that one girl is going to be sparred the death penalty because she was the one with marajuana, which is obviously not as bad as heroin, but she will still get life in and Indonesian prison ... yikes!!! The ones who were smuggling heroin into Bali were getting paid $15,000 to do so - not worth it in my opinion.
No worries for me - I was not afraid of the whole drug thing, obviously, but you do hear about stories of people smuggling it through your bags and stuff ... I managed to make it out of Jakarta just fine!
posted by Keely @ 4:27 AM
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