# How much do you know about Indonesia **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764 "2012-12-11T22:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/21 "2012-12-12T02:00:19Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > Remember the “Hobbit man” discovered a few years ago? The species name is _Homo florensis_, reflecting the Indonesian island of Flores, where fossils were discovered. Long before the ‘hobbits,’ Indonesia had another landmark discovery in human evolution–Java Man, a.k.a. _Pithecanthropus_. Speaking of java, Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi, Flores) is one of the world’s leading coffee producers. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/22 "2012-12-12T02:09:23Z")
Wasn’t there a really horrible terrorist bombing at a hotel/nightclub like 10 years ago? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/23 "2012-12-12T02:37:08Z")
The Bali resort area. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/24 "2012-12-12T02:46:03Z")
Largest population of Muslims, which kind of puts the kibosh on the whole “Muslims Are Arabs” stereotype. A massive ton of languages spoken there; the official language, Bahasa Indonesia, is a semi-artificial prestige version of one of them. Huge population. Part of the Ring of Fire, which means volcanoes and earthquakes. A lot of coffee is grown there; Java, one of the Indonesian islands, is practically synonymous with coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/25 "2012-12-12T04:06:08Z")
This thread makes me think of [this](http://xkcd.com/850/) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/26 "2012-12-12T04:16:00Z")
I know that Dre be smellin like dem. Aside from that about 200 million people, muslim majority democracy. Invasion of east timor caused a lot of human rights abuses. used be a dictatorship under Suharto until the 80s? (I think the 80s, I think it was Suharto). Near Australia. Probably exports a lot of raw material and not too many finished goods, per capita income maybe 3k a year. Obama lived there as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/27 "2012-12-12T04:38:37Z")
They name their children according to strict ordinal names starting with Wayan, Muday, I can’t remember the rest, but in large families they just start over when they get to ten. On the sides of residences there is often a car license looking plate filled with numbers, it seems cryptic but you can decipher it and it will tell you how many families, males, females, children etc. Indonesian is one of the easiest languages to learn. Anak = child, anak anak = children. This results, on signage (which is no end of fun!) that has words that are squared like we denote squared numbers. They have a road sign that consists entirely of an exclamation point. Yeah, that’ll slow you down. They have a celebration called Nepi wherein you are to stay in your home, not use the electric or cook anything, no cars on the roads, no businesses open. During this time the streets are patrolled by a type of cultural police, for lack of a better word. They are bare chested, wearing beautiful sarongs, awesome headscarves, and carry ceremonial swords. In Bali dancers and musicians are still revered for their temple performances even while they work at your guesthouse in the day. The Hindu culture of Bali is unique both in it’s form and in it’s ability to survive contact with the west. Balinese culture still thrives, not just for tourists, and it has been a tourist haven dating back to the 1920’s. This alone truly makes it unusual. You must never phrase your question such as, “Is this North?”, Indonesian’s are just so wanting to be agreeable and polite they will routinely answer, “Yes, yes”, when in fact it’s not. Better to ask, “Which way is North?” I better stop, I could do this all day… ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/28 "2012-12-12T04:43:39Z")
I totally forgot, shoppers paradise! It’s all there and it’s all awesome quality, wood carvings, stone carvings, leather goods, clothing, and it’s all a huge bargain! On my first visit I found it was cheaper to buy new clothes on the street, than to pay to have your laundry done! I know a girl who had slimmed down considerably, on a diet of fish, rice, fruit, by the time she reached Indonesia. Clothes were cheap and she was skinny, she bought all kinds of things, including leather pants and jackets. Of course once home, back to beer and french fries, she never got to wear the gear, poor thing. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/29 "2012-12-12T10:19:21Z")
- Several posters are past or present residents of Indonesia. I, **CairoCarol,** live in Jakarta even as I type this, and have about 12 years total residence here, beginning in 1993. - **madmonk** used to live in Indonesia - I believe doing post-tsunami reconstruction around Aceh. - **Clothahump** used to live in Indonesia. Most of the stuff upthread strikes me as either true or true-ish, but I’ll clarify or amend a few statements: - the population is not 95% Islamic. 85% is closer. - FGM is not a huge issue for the majority of the population, and women are (rightfully, IMHO) offended when outsiders accost them and say “oh! Are you circumcised?”. Yes, this has been known to happen. - The language is not “semi-artificial” in the least - yes, it went through a “market Malay” phase, but it is as real and natural as any other language and comes from a language originating in Sumatra. - People don’t usually bother to say a word twice to pluralize it. There are other, simpler options. The double word thing is technically true, but you don’t actually hear it. It’s more the sort of thing that appears in books attempting to romanticize Indonesia. - The Year of Living Dangerously was set in Jakarta, but filmed in the Philippines because the movie offended Indonesians. - Jakarta was once known as Batavia; Indonesia was never called that. - Only Balinese following the naming convention mentioned by **elbows** ; the statement sounds weird for most Indonesians - The car license statement is totally wrong. (My license is B 1642 NW). - “Survival Indonesian” is easy to learn. Once you get into higher levels and must deal the actual grammar, it is ranked as more difficult than Mandarin, which (I’m told) has a relatively simple grammatical structure. - Nyepi is a Balinese Hindu celebration. While it is a national holiday, no one else does the “day of silence” routine. With all due respect **elbows** , you seem to have picked up some “tourist Bali” assumptions and applied them to the entire country. Most of what you say is not generally true. I’ll agree with “shoppers’ paradise” though, so it’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/30 "2012-12-12T10:28:14Z")
ETA: I mis-read **elbows** ’ statement about the “car license” signs. The truth is a bit boring and complicated and I won’t bother to explain it - elbows isn’t exactly right, but it’s kind of like that. Just imagine a world where every community was finely divided into states/provinces/counties/areas/neighborhoods/blocks, and you had an “Entering Dullsville, pop. 420” sign in most every possible situation, depending on how traditional it was or how much the mayor cared. Not quite right, but close enough. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/31 "2012-12-12T10:40:48Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > - FGM is not a huge issue for the majority of the population, and women are (rightfully, IMHO) offended when outsiders accost them and say “oh! Are you circumcised?”. Yes, this has been known to happen. I recently read an article that said that FGM had been banned for years, and had seemed like it was on its way out before increasing again recently. It had become largely ritualistic and relatively non-invasive, just a pin-prick in the clitoral hood or something. But I think there was then an organisation that started offering money (or was it rice?) to get girls circumcised, and some important community figures started endorsing it. This lead to a sudden increase, and the performing of mass-FGMs. The author of one of the articles I read attended the festivities surrounding the mutilation of 300 girls. That said, how absolutely bizar to ask someone if they have been circumcised! ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/32 "2012-12-12T10:41:07Z")
Lots of islands, Muslims and Suharto are about it for me as well. I think they were an “Asian Tiger” that got hit pretty hard by the Asian currency crisis in the 90’s > [@even\_sven](#): > > Indonesian gay sex workers have a high HIV rate compared to the general population. I suspect gay-sex workers have an elevated rate of HIV pretty much the world over. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/33 "2012-12-12T11:07:47Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > I recently read an article that said that FGM had been banned for years, and had seemed like it was on its way out before increasing again recently. It had become largely ritualistic and relatively non-invasive, just a pin-prick in the clitoral hood or something. But I think there was then an organisation that started offering money (or was it rice?) to get girls circumcised, and some important community figures started endorsing it. This lead to a sudden increase, and the performing of mass-FGMs. The author of one of the articles I read attended the festivities surrounding the mutilation of 300 girls. > > That said, how absolutely bizar to ask someone if they have been circumcised! Not to dismiss the importance of FGM, which is a horrible thing, but believe me, it’s NOT a mainstream thing here. I don’t know what article you read - I’m sure that it what it says is true about a particular community in Northern Sumatera, or Lombok, or somewhere where conservatives tend to hold sway. But Indonesia is a huge, diverse country. Taking one particular organization and “some important community figures” as representing the whole nation is pretty much like someone thinking the Westboro Baptist Church represents America. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/34 "2012-12-12T11:12:22Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Isn’t that where a mobster tells you you’re going to get it when you’re behind in your protection money? No, that’s Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, places like that. You know, upper U.S. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/35 "2012-12-12T11:23:48Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Not to dismiss the importance of FGM, which is a horrible thing, but believe me, it’s NOT a mainstream thing here. I don’t know what article you read - I’m sure that it what it says is true about a particular community in Northern Sumatera, or Lombok, or somewhere where conservatives tend to hold sway. > > But Indonesia is a huge, diverse country. Taking one particular organization and “some important community figures” as representing the whole nation is pretty much like someone thinking the Westboro Baptist Church represents America. Oh undoubtedly. It’s just a thing that’s been in the news recently. So it’s something I know about Indonesia. Even if it’s localised, it’s still an issue and falls into the category of “stuff going on in Indonesia”. ---
**Author:** ![JessMagic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@JessMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessMagic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/36 "2012-12-13T01:19:00Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > at certain restaurants near the beaches in Bali you can order “magic mushroom soup” and enjoy the night on the beach. The Crystal Palace on Seminyak beach does the mushie cocktails… the night I was there they were also hosting an Australian wedding… sipping my cocktail, listening to the best man’s speech - bizarre. By midnight the dancefloor was a strange, strange place. Also: Nightclubs in Jakarta have a “minimum height” for girls’ high heels (two inches I think). There’s like 240 million of them (Indonesian people, not Jakartan nightclubs). Terimakasih means “thank you”. Sama sama means “you’re welcome”. Indonesian girls are beautiful, friendly and great company. Visa on arrival costs USD25. Um… I’m going to Bali tomorrow! ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/37 "2012-12-13T04:24:35Z")
A huge gold deposit was discovered there in the Nineties by a little Canadian company named Bre-X. Haven’t heard much of it since, though. Must be taking a long time to develop. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/38 "2012-12-13T06:37:55Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > A huge gold deposit was discovered there in the Nineties by a little Canadian company named Bre-X. Haven’t heard much of it since, though. Must be taking a long time to develop. 😉 I was just talking to a journalist who knows Mike de Guzman’s “widow.” He said that money magically appears in her bank account every month and she lives in a very nice house. Strange story, that. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/39 "2012-12-13T15:37:12Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > … the official language, Bahasa Indonesia, is a semi-artificial prestige version of one of them. > … Malay, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764/40 "2012-12-13T16:48:03Z")
Shares a national language with Malaysia. The two countries sometimes spelled the same word differently owing to one being colonized by the British and the other by the Dutch, but there was some kind of treaty about standardizing the spelling. Many, but not all (IIRC), of the nouns can be pluralized by reduplication. Some aspects of _Bahasa Indonesia/Bahasa Malaysia_ are easier to pick up than those same aspects in other languages, depending of course on one’s native language, but overall the language is just as difficult as any other language. Indonesian food is awesome. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-know-about-indonesia/643764.md?page=3)