Indonesia Inquiry

Bahasa Indonesia – The National Language of Indonesia

admin — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:47:01 +0000

**Here are resources related to the history and contemporary uses of Bahasa Indonesia.**

If you have additional recommendations or corrections, please let us know in the comments section below.

Thank you / terima kasih!

Links from around the Web

“Bahasa Indonesia”: http://donh.best.vwh.net/Languages/burg.html
“Bahasa Indonesia” – Background Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language
“Bahasa Indonesia: The Indonesian Language”: http://ipll.manoa.hawaii.edu/indonesian/about/bahasa-indonesia-the-indonesian-language/
“Bahasa Indonesia: For Unity or Identity?”: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/05/bahasa-indonesia-for-unity-or-identity.html
“Indonesian”: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/indonesian.htm
“Indonesian Language” – Multiple Contexts: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286604/Indonesian-language
“A Short History of Bahasa Indonesia”: http://www.expat.or.id/info/historyofbahasaindonesia.html

Books

The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society (2003): http://www.amazon.com/Indonesian-Language-History-Modern-Society/dp/0868405981

Suggestions?

(*Image above from http://indonesianlanguagecourse.blogspot.com/)

Development Data

admin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:57:11 +0000

Here is a starter list for development data on Indonesia.

Additional suggestions are very much welcomed.

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: http://developmentasia.org

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME – INDONESIA: http://www.undp.or.id/

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT – INDONESIA: http://indonesia.usaid.gov/en/home

THE WORLD BANK: http://data.worldbank.org/country/indonesia

Pasar Keputran Surabaya

7 October 2009

Sakurai Midori

Image Source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pasar_Keputran_Surabaya.JPG

On the importance of shoes

admin — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:26:07 +0000

Here are some quick background notes for this YouTube highlight:

Title – “A Unique Approach to Rehab in Indonesia: Junkie Shoes”

Location – Bogor, Indonesia

YouTube Description -

Published on Dec 7, 2012

“We traveled to Indonesia to buy sandals made by former drug addicts. The shoes, called “junkies,” are a part of a program started by the YAKITA Drug Treatment Center to help women suffering from addiction learn a marketable skill. Indonesia experienced a drug epidemic in the 1980s due to rapid economic growth and the increased availability of new drugs; YAKITA was started in 1999 as a response to this crisis. Hannah spends the day at the center getting to know the girls and chatting about shoes and drugs.”

please install flash

If the video above does not work, you can view it at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSkC9aiOAF8

December 2012 – Poem of the Month

admin — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:43:01 +0000

NOT SO AIMLESS

By Maraya Sjah, Indonesia

Some moments take forever,
Some last only awhile,
And yet some just slip by like a whisper from the breeze,
But everything that happens is not so aimless,
If looked through every perspective there is,
Just like the wandering bard,
For he too has a reason for wandering so,
Spreading undescribable feelings,
Like happiness, passion, and love.

Source: http://www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=68330

Transgender Issues

admin — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:56:34 +0000

Here is a “starter list” for research resources related to transgender identities and specifically waria in Indonesia. Please add suggestions and comments in the box after this post. Thank you / terima kasih!

Books:

Boellstorff, Tom. 2004. “Playing back the nation: Waria, Indonesia transvestites.” Cultural Anthropology 19 (May): 159-195.

Boelstorff, Tom. 2005. The gay archipelago: Sexuality and nation in Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Blackwood, Evelyn. 2010. Falling into the lesbi world: Desire and Difference in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Davies, Sharyn G. 2010. Gender diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam, and queerselves. London: Routledge.

Kulick, Don. 1998. Transvesti: Sex, gender, and culture among Brazillian transgendered prostitutes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Valentine, David. 2007. Imagining transgender: ethnography of a category. Durham: Duke University Press.

Van Wichelen, Sonja. 2010. Religion, politics and gender in Indonesia: Disputing the Muslim body. New York: Routledge.

Wieringa, Saskia E., Evelyn Blackwood, and Abha Bhaiya. 2007. Women’s sexualities and Masculinities in a globalizing Asia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Films:

The Aggressive (2005) / Link: www.imdb.com
American Beauties (2008) / Link: www.groovefilm.net
Bombay Eunuch (2008) / Link: www.imdb.com
Degham: A Film on the Transgendered Experience in India (2009) / Link: www.maxwell.syr.edu
Tales of the Waria (2011) / Link: www.th ewaria.com
Taboo: Transgender (2011) / Link: www.topdocumentaryfilms.com
Wariazone (2011) / Link: www.wariazone.com

This is Maryani.

See http://www.vice.com/read/warias-come-out-and-plaaayayay-0000007-v18n10 for more information.

November 2012 – Poem of the Month

admin — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:58:20 +0000

PAST & FUTURE

By Dirk Rukka Sandarupa, Indonesia

The past has touch my life
The past has showed me many things
The past has taught and made me better
The past has open my eyes
I never regreted for the past
Cause it made me more mature
From the past i could feel the world
My past never hold me back
But taught me to move forward
Things will never get back
Theres no turning back
I felt blesssed with the past
I have leave my print of life

The future will bring me to a new life
The future will come
The future is my best day
The future will change my world
But i’m scared to move ahead sometimes
I dont want to lose the love ones
I scared of getting old
I’m scared of being failure

Why oh why
Past and future should exist in this world
The earth keep spinning
From morning to night
Why oh why
I cant believe how past and future has change me

Source: http://www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=217747

admin — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 13:46:00 +0000

Social networking has always been important for professional and personal development, but today there is often a need (and interest) to utilize technology in the process. In two previous posts on Indonesia Inquiry titled “Scholars and Associations” and “International Research Centers and Departments,” I listed a number of resources to locate other professionals who work on and/or in Asia, especially Indonesia. Reaching more professionals is also possible via a website/service called “LinkedIn.”

According to the LinkedIn website:

As of August 2, 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 175 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
Sixty-two percent of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States, as of August 2, 2012.
LinkedIn members did nearly 4.2 billion professionally-oriented searches on the platform in 2011 and are on pace to surpass 5.3 billion in 2012.
Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., LinkedIn also has U.S. offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha and San Francisco. International LinkedIn offices are located in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Delhi, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, Paris, Perth, São Paulo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
The company’s management team is comprised of seasoned executives from companies like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, TiVo, PayPal and Electronic Arts. The CEO of LinkedIn is Jeff Weiner.
LinkedIn is currently available in nineteen languages: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Registration is free for basic accounts. Members can upgrade their basic accounts to “Business,” “Business Plus,” or “Executive” accounts for additional monthly fees that are actually billed annually.

Besides individual accounts or pages, there are groups from a variety of backgrounds that you can join. For example, there are alumni groups for colleges and universities, business groups for current or former employees, foundations and non-profit organizations, and different personal interests. The idea is to leverage “six degrees of separation” nationally and internationally for professional purposes. LinkedIn is particularly useful for those people who want to build a certain type of online presence, but want to avoid some of the potential problems of other social networking sites like Facebook.

For those interested in Indonesia, there are a ton of groups listed when you type in “Indonesia” in the group search engine. You name the industry, and there’s a group for it. For instance, there are groups for marketing, IT, oil, tourism, mining, finance, retail, pharmaceuticals, law, real estate, etc. LinkedIn members are permitted to create groups, too, in case you cannot find one that fits your purposes.

LinkedIn also has announcements and groups for people looking for employment.

Be sure to create a complete individual profile (think “formal resume”) so others know who you are when they search for you online or remember you when you request a connection.

–> I personally do not have any stake in promoting LinkedIn. As of October 14, 2012, I just think it’s a useful networking tool at the local, national, and international levels. <–

Eating and Drinking Words in Bahasa Indonesia

admin — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:21:22 +0000

Here are useful words and phrases in Bahasa Indonesia related to eating and drinking. The original source for this list was http://wikitravel.org/en/Indonesian_phrasebook. Edits were made as needed.

A table for one person/two people, please. –> Tolong, satu meja untuk satu/dua orang.
Can I look at the menu, please? –> Bisa lihat menunya?
Is there a house specialty? –> Ada makanan istimewa?
Is there a local specialty? –> Ada makanan khas daerah ini?
I’m a vegetarian. –> Saya vegetarian.
I don’t eat pork. –> Saya tidak makan babi.
I don’t eat beef. –> Saya tidak makan sapi.
Can you make it “lite”, please? (less oil/butter/lard) –> Tolong bisa dibuat dengan lebih sedikit minyak?
I want _____. –> Saya mau pesan _____.
I want a dish containing _____. –> Saya mau makanan yang mengandung _____.
May I have a glass of _____? –> Saya bisa minta satu gelas _____?
May I have a cup of _____? –> Saya bisa minta satu cangkir_____?
May I have a bottle of _____? –> Saya bisa minta satu botol _____?
May I have some _____? –> Saya bisa minta _____?
Excuse me, waiter? (getting attention of server) –> Mas-Mas! (young male), Bang-Bang! (older male), Mbak-Mbak! (young female), Bu-Bu! (older Female)
I’m finished. –> Saya sudah selesai.
It was delicious. –> Tadi enak rasanya.
Please clear the plates. –> Tolong piringnya diambil.
The check, please. –> Minta bon.
Do you serve alcohol? –> Anda menyajikan alkohol?
When is closing time? –> Pukul berapa tutup?