MORE LESSONS ABOUT INDONESIA

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I have been reading 'Indische Duinen' (Indonesian Sand Hill) by Adriaan van Dis in the last two weeks. It apparently one of his masterpiece which almost everyone in Holland is familiar with. Basically it tells about his experiences as a member of family who went to the Japanese camp in Indonesia around the Second World War. He himself didn't go to the camp but the rest of the family did, so to some extend he had a burden to be 'an outsider' of their collective memories. There are Indonesian words here and there and it is amusing to see how these 'foreign' language flow smoothly amongst the Dutch expressions as if they are part of the Dutch language itself. Simply a proof how two cultures and languages melt together easily as prejudice didn't exist. I appreciate this book in helping me getting some understanding about emotions of the Dutch towards Indonesia, Japanese and and the past. It is a fiction, though, but to some extend I am sure it is based on a true story (I knew it from his previous book which I have read.)



The second is a film titled "Contractpensions" that was just released last week in
the Netherlands, with the Director Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich. It is about a migration of 300 thousand Indonesians to Holland in 1950's as consequence of the end of colonialism in Indonesia.
They must temporarily stayed in different accommodations called "contractpensions." Mostly these houses were run down hotels in touristic area and the new Dutch-Indonesians had to live in a modest situation until they found ways of a better settlement. The process of integration into the Dutch society is told through this film. One of the illustration is, they received a brochure called "Jangan Loepah!" (Don't forget!) It was a guide how to conduct life in the cold country who mostly eat potatoes. Indonesians peal potatoes with a knife to the outside direction and they were told that the Dutch peals potatoes with the knife to their body direction. And this new Dutch-Indonesian asked, is the taste of the potatoes change if they change the way they peal them?

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