INDONESIA   

Capital: Jakarta

After my rather eye opening – not to say life changing - experience in East-Timor in which I realized there has to be done a huge effort to upgrade the general well-being of East –Timor, I can only hope I don’t have to notice the same poverty and economical recession again in Indonesia.

I hope you (fellow bloggers) and I can stimulate their political leaders and president Jose Ramos-Horta to create a positive environment where people can actively participate.

How can we help to achieve this goal?

• ·          Write letters to syndic authorities (who actually can make a change)

o   United states

o   Human rights authorities

o   …

• ·       Fundraisers
• ·       Upgrade the “know-how” of the local entrepreneurs
• ·       …

In the end it’s their population who will need to fix their general problems which are holding back evolution in al its forms.

Several hours ago I crossed the East-Timor land border and walked straight into Indonesia that with its 238 million people becomes the world's fourth most populous country.

If we’re continuing this journey together you (fellow bloggers) need to know a certain background about this fascinating country which shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and like you already know East Timor. (Indonesia%20background)

Indonesian history has been influenced by many foreign powers because of its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity what has resulted in wars forced by religion. After those horrific wars Indonesian people had to endure three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism.

It doesn’t stop and ever since Indonesia's history has been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a cumbersome democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.

Eventually the current nation of Indonesia became a unitary presidential republic

 In recent years Indonesian’ population faced (BBC%20facts)

• ·       The Asian financial crisis,
• ·       The fall of President Suharto after 32 years in office,
• ·       The first free elections since the 1960s,
• ·       The loss of East Timor,
• ·       Independence demands from restive provinces,
• ·       Bloody ethnic and religious conflict 
• ·       Devastating tsunami.

In December 2004 (a part of) Indonesia got literally flushed away.

7 years later Indonesia still remembers the devastating tsunami that struck the coastlines across Asia, more than 160,000 Indonesian's died and it was so forceful, that in many places, the landscape has been altered forever.  

Still today many houses remain empty and hundreds of families are awaiting permanent resettlement.

Many foreign powers are already in progress to help the people of Indonesia. But I think that instead of going and actually building their houses and try to change their cultural and political habits we should rather compensate and give funds (in several sectors) to the RIGHT PEOPLE to let them rebuild their “own” society.

The key thing is for the government and donors to provide advice on earthquake-resistant houses.

Unfortunately there hasn’t been much time for me to really experience Indonesian’ culture and their way to approach certain matters.

I had a deadline to keep. My agency planned a meeting in Cambodia’s capital  Phnom Penh to talk about the nations culture, religion, economy,…

Date of meeting: 23-03-2011

Signed,

Louis

Ps: If you are still interested in learning more about this magnificent compilation of Islands (Indonesia) this is a link with some practical numbers about Indonesia.

(Practical%20number%20about%20Indonesia)

18-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Louis BMA1