Ladies of the Borobudur

By Barbara Haines Howett (Outskirts Press, 2007)

For the wives of American oil industry workers living in the insulated opulence of Jakarta’s Hotel Borobudur in 1976, the problems are many; and for the Indonesians  who get to know them, the puzzlements are life‐altering. In the hot house of culture shock, fears and conflicts can change lives in unexpected ways. Just as the shadow

plays of Indonesia reveal new facets of old stories in each performance, so too the characters in this rich collection of interrelated stories discover new strengths and old weaknesses.

“Barbara Haines Howett writes with the passion and grace of one who has traveled deep into other realms of perception and brought back a precious gift‐‐her cycle of stories, Ladies of the Borobudur. It is a realm fraught with mystery and wonder. I was amazed and enthralled by the range of emotion.”

‐ Don Williams, Editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings

Child of All Nations

By Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Penguin Books, 1996)

“The imperialistic injustices of the 19th century have become the firmly institutionalized injustices of the 20th century in many countries, as evidenced by the fact that Pramoedya wrote this novel while imprisoned in Indonesia because he was considered a subversive writer. The work, the second volume of a quartet called the “Buru Tetralogy,” speaks convincingly for itself. The balanced and enchanted life of natives in the Dutch East Indies of the 1890s is disrupted as they are set against one another and destroyed by the Dutch. As Minke, the main character of This Earth of Mankind ( LJ 10/1/93), struggles to reclaim a dignified identity amid the confusion, we can feel the universal plight of the oppressed anywhere, whether caused by governments, terrorists, or technology. If this seems a bold claim for a novel, it is because Child is the kind of work that upholds the drastically important tradition of literature’s attempt to create empathy.” – Brian Geary, Library Journal

City of Dreams: An extraordinary journey, inside the heart of Indonesia’s capital –Jakarta

By Mark Medley (CreateSpace, 2009)

The city of Jakarta is described as the “City of Dreams,” by visitors usually overwhelmed by its sheer size, and the unique lifestyles of the people who live there. Discover a collection of true to life stories from the “City of Dreams,” that can amaze, amuse, or simply confuse you. Find out what really can happen when East meets West in a downtown club, and explore the crumbling old city that was once Batavia. Meet Chicken Harry, an expatriate in love with the city’s diverse nightlife, or experience a rainy season flood. Journey into Jakarta, with each unique story, and truly discover the city of dreams. This book is written with a lot of dry humor making it entertaining to read. It reveals many funny and surprising aspects of the expat life in Jakarta, Indonesia. The author exposes his experiences in a candid and interesting manner. Reading the stories will give a glimpse of the dynamic and adventurous “city of dreams” in the capital city of the biggest country in South East Asia. – From Amazon.com

In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos

By Richard Lloyd Perry (Grove Press, 2007)

“In the last years of the twentieth century, foreign correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry found himself in the vast island nation of Indonesia, one of the most alluring, mysterious, and violent countries in the world. For thirty‐two years, it had been paralyzed by the grip of the dictator and mystic General Suharto, but now the age of Suharto was coming to an end. Would freedom prevail, or was the “time of madness” predicted centuries before now at hand? A book of hair‐raising immediacy and a riveting account of a voyage into the abyss, In the Time of Madness is an accomplishment in the great tradition of Conrad, Orwell, and Ryszard Kapuscinski.

A must read for anyone interested in Indonesia” – Indophile Magazine

Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey

(Mystic Fire Video: 5 films on 2 DVDs)

With modest financing from investors including the BBC and Ringo Starr, filmmaker brothers Lorne and Lawrence Blair arrived in Indonesia from England in 1972. They traveled through Indonesia’s chain of volcanic islands known as “The Ring of Fire” and recorded their experiences in these four fascinating films. At the time, the Indonesian archipelago still offered isolation for neolithic cultures and their ancient indigenous beliefs. The Blair Brothers spent over two decades documenting the relationships of island ecology and their peoples. One result of the Blairs’ work was a PBS‐distributed multi‐media package ‐ an oversized picture book, alongside the Emmy‐nominated BBC/PBS television series Ring of Fire. The film is widely considered a masterwork of both adventure and ethnographic film.

“Sets sails and sights for lands as unfamiliar and spectacular as anything dreamed up for a Steven Speilberg movie. Thoroughly fascinating nearly every harrowing step of the way.” – Washington Post

At Stake

Engage Media (only accessible via web page)

A brave and eye‐opening documentary series tackling taboo issues that many women are facing in the world’s most populous Islamic country. The films are a result of Project Change, a master class documentary workshop, in which four projects from five emerging filmmakers were selected and produced in anthology format. The topics range from female genital mutilation, the conflict over a woman’s marital status and her access to reproductive health services, sex workers, female migrant workers, and the difficulties of being a lesbian in Indonesian society. At Stake has been screened at the Berlin, Jakarta, and Hong Kong International Film Festivals and was the opening film during the 2009 Freedom Film Fest in Kuala Lumpur.

Globe Trekker: Indonesia
Pilot Film and Television Productions

If you’re a geography buff, you’re probably aware that Indonesia is an archipelago. But did you realize that it encompasses some 13,000 individual islands? That’s just one of the facts you’ll learn on this “Globe Trekker” excursion through a fascinating island nation. 3 Episodes: Bali & Sulawesi, Java & Sumatra, and the Eastern Islands. Stretching 3,000 miles from Asia to the Pacific, with a population of 175 million, Indonesia is the world’s largest Moslem nation and one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world.

Join travelers Megan McCormick, Shilpa Mehta, and Mark Crowdy as they visit the archipelagos major islands of Bali, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, Lombok, Komodo and Flores. Along the way… Relax with a massage on Kuta Beach. Take part in Bali’s New Year celebrations. Come face to face with a Komodo Dragon. Marvel at the dramatic Sulphuric lakes in Flores. Climb the Anak Krakatau volcano ‐ the site of one of the world’s most violent eruptions.

Iwan Fals was born Virgiawan Listanto in Jakarta, on September 3, 1961, and is considered a legendary singer‐songwriter in Indonesia. At the age of thirteen, he performed as a street performer at wedding ceremonies and other social events. His first solo album was released in 1981, and he continued to produce records through 2011.

Fals has been compared to Bob Dylan, one of his key influences on both his early style, which made heavy use of the harmonica, and his lyrics, which have frequently been in the protest song genre. He has sung of teachers’ salaries being cut, the contrast between hospital treatment of the rich and the poor, and even about an old oxcart that “requires no fuel and creates no pollution.”

Watch Iwan Fals perform Bongkar in concert on YouTube. The title translates to Rip It Down – and the lyrics speak of no longer tolerating greed and oppression.

Titiek Puspa ‐ Born in 1937 in Tanjung, South Kalimantan, Puspa has been described as “the grande dame of Indonesian entertainment”. As a child, she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. However, after winning several singing competitions she decided to become an entertainer. When she won the Radio Republik Indonesia singing competition in Semarang, Central Java, Puspa was asked by the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra to sing for them, and the group  elected to keep her as their regular singer.

One of Puspa’s songs, Kupu‐Kupu Malam (Nighttime Butterflies) was selected as one of the best Indonesian songs of all time by Rolling Stone Indonesia in 2009. The song was an unbiased look at prostitution in Indonesia, with Puspa’s vocals at times sounding as though she were holding back tears and at other times roaring with strength.

Agnes Monica has achieved considerable fame for a 26‐year old! Born in Jakarta, she entered the entertainment industry at age six, and released her  second album by age nine. She became a host for several children’s programs, then acted in soap operas. Due to her popularity, she became the highest‐paid teenage artist in Indonesia.

Agnes has named Aretha Franklin, Madonna, and Beyoncé among her musical influences. In 2011 she was appointed as an ambassador of the MTV EXIT organization (End Exploitation and Trafficking), which combats human trafficking, for which she performed at benefit concerts in Surabaya and Jakarta. The same year she participated at the Save Teen Charity Concert in Jakarta, a benefit concert to raise money to help teenagers who have dropped out of school. Her personal slogan “Dream, Believe, and Make it Happen”, was used to inspire young people in a 2011 cultural conference organized by the US Embassy in Jakarta.

Watch her lively performance on YouTube