Some Thoughts About Indonesia
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Indonesia is another Pacific island chain with a super simple name made up by early European explorers with limited imaginations. [Indo = India : Nesia = Islands] Just like Polynesia = Many Islands or Micronesia = Small Islands or Melanesia = Black/Dark Islands. At the same time by naming the island chain the Indian Islands they acknowledged the influence and sustained contact that traders and explorers from the Indian subcontinent had on the islands.
Generally Indonesia is described as an archipelago or major island group with 17,508 +-islands. That number, like many statistics or numbers used to describe Indonesia is an estimate. Since only 6000 or so are inhabited, it really does not matter much if there are 17,502 or 17,509 islands. There are also 80 or more ethnic groups among the 240 million population. Indonesia is actually the world’s 4th most heavily populated country and the home of more Muslims than any other country. Some of the hundreds of ethnic and language groups have sub groups and those sub groups have sub-sub groups and on and on. The point, if there is a point, is that the Indonesian population could not be accused of sameness or homogeneity.
Generally Indonesia is described as an archipelago or major island group with 17,508 +-islands. That number, like many statistics or numbers used to describe Indonesia is an estimate. Since only 6000 or so are inhabited, it really does not matter much if there are 17,502 or 17,509 islands. There are also 80 or more ethnic groups among the 240 million population. Indonesia is actually the world’s 4th most heavily populated country and the home of more Muslims than any other country. Some of the hundreds of ethnic and language groups have sub groups and those sub groups have sub-sub groups and on and on. The point, if there is a point, is that the Indonesian population could not be accused of sameness or homogeneity.
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| Jakarta Crowd |
The island chain, however many islands there are, stretches from the island of Sumatra on the Western side of the Malacca Straits ( that is the body of water that separates Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand from Indonesia) all the way down to New Guinea near Australia. That is a far stretch. The northern end, the tip of Sumatra, is further away from the southern part of Indonesia than Seattle is from Miami. Or London is from Moscow. The big difference is that what is in between those places is not land that has been occupied for centuries and which is criss-crossed by roads, power grids and established cities but by water with tropical islands covered with forests and inhabited by what could best be called tribes.
We will pick up on the general topic of Indonesia over the next few posts. For most of us that come from European ancestors Indonesia is just another incomprehensible 3rd World place. The Country and the people are both worth knowing and I would like to help introduce them to you.
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