Letter from Indonesia

[Music] Dear Dave and dy I was glad to learn from your letter that you are studying about Indonesia in school I'm enclosing some Indonesian stamps which you can show to your class someday I hope you can visit our Islands to see how we live as I did when I visited you in the United States what can I tell you about Indonesia it's raining outside right now I could tell you about our long rainy season and our tropical climate but I'm sure you will learn about this at school I suppose I could describe our animal life and our tropical vegetation I could tell you about our economy and our plantations the great Groves of palm trees which Produce Palm Oil the rubber plantations but I'm sure you can read about these in your textbooks I think I would like to tell you about our people and how we live there are many things that are alike in both our countries and many things that are different there is traffic in our cities too but for each car there are dozens of bicycles even some of our taxis are free wheed bicycles with the passengers in front and the drivers behind we have jeeps and trucks and Automobiles but they all come from the United States and Europe because we don't have factories here to make them it's not strange that we have our traffic problems down here on the equator after all 3 million people live in Jakarta our Capital City many of our newer buildings are like yours too buildings such as the national museum which is much like your National Art Gallery in Washington buildings like the National Post Office and our president's home the White House of Indonesia throughout our cities new plans are being developed construction would be a familiar side to you but our methods are different because we do not yet have much Machinery you would feel at home in many of our houses many of our people even dress like you do most of the time at other times they dress in the traditional way like little YF suito in his black cap and sarong you would like my friends the suitos sometimes when Mr sugito isn't busy at his job with the government he goes to market with the family bananas The Peddler says bananas and oranges and a free sample for Yu I hope the Peddler is a friend of his for a quick bite the suitos can buy packets of delicious steamed rice wrapped in Palm leaves instead of wax paper and just as you might buy a hot dog to go with the rice in Indonesia we have sa strips of meat barbecued on sticks over a charcoal fire with our food we like hot peppers and spices the hotter the better then to cool off we have soda pop and soft drinks ice cold orang it tastes mighty good here on the Equator so you see City Life here isn't so very different from life in your hometown it's when I leave the city that I realize how things in our country would seem different to you our country is spread over an area as large as yours but it's broken up into 3,000 pieces Java Sumatra Borneo the cabus the malakas new 3,000 Islands you can imagine how much harder it is for us to communicate with each other then it is for you who have only mountains and plains to cross that's one reason why radio is so important to us we have a national radio that broadcasts news of current events in the new national language and many other languages to our 80 million people we are also making moving pictures to bring information to as many people as possible Motion Pictures and radio are so important because most of our people learn best by by looking and by listening they don't read newspapers or books because most of them have never been to school what this man knows about rice farming he learned from his parents and he can tell his own little boy only what he knows things are done the same way generation after generation this is one of the things we are changing before planting a new crop some Farmers make an offering to the rice God do you feel that offering this rice is a strange custom perhaps the farmer would feel that your custom of throwing rice at a wedding is even stranger another thing that we are changing is the harvesting of rice in the ancient tradition each head is cut one by one with a small knife in the palm of the hand in some places the rice is HED and pounded into flour with poles in other regions the grain is Haled in the fields by stamping on it it's hard for you to realize but it takes at least 200 times more labor to produce a bushel of rice hair than in your country where you have Machinery to help people work hard in Indonesia eight men have to work longer and harder to unload a boat full of coconuts than if there were one man and a machine our fishing boats sail far out to sea they carry no charts no navigation AIDS no books they use only the skills of their crew why do our people do things in oldfashioned ways they haven't had a chance our children weren't able to go to school for many many years Indonesia was a colony unable to help herself or her people a little of our history is told in the stamps that I'm sending you the red stamp is the first one ever issued in Indonesia King William the third of the Netherlands willina became Queen in 1898 queen of the Netherlands indias or Dutch East indias as we were called then in 1938 a commemorative stamp reminded us that will helina had ruled our islands for 40 years but four years later an anchor and some Japanese characters appeared on her picture we were ruled by the Japanese for 3 years and then Indonesia mdea freedom for Indonesia but a Declaration of Independence was not enough like you we had to fight a Revolutionary War the war in which I was a battalion Commander finally with United Nations Aid Freedom At Last came to Indonesia this is sucaro the leader of our Revolution and our first first president our national anthem Indonesia Ria we think of sukarno the same as you think of George Washington we believe in any God we want 90% of our people are Muslims who pray to Allah and follow the teachings of Muhammad about 3% of our people are Christians like these bataks in Sumatra converted by Christian missionaries many years ago these people are honoring one of their Local Heroes many of our present day leaders come from batak Villages like this just as your leaders came from blog cabins and Frontier towns besides Muslims and Christians there are Buddhists Hindus and followers of other religious beliefs in Indonesia here in Bali women bring offerings of rice cakes fruits and flowers to their Hindu temple festivals have become much more frequent since we won our [Music] independence the most remarkable change that freedom has brought to Indonesia is education with the opening of schools everywhere children flock to them eager to learn there are college students Elementary School students and kindergarten children our little boys and girls sing and dance about the importance of rest and sleep just as little children do in your country [Music] country sometimes they dress up these two are the king and queen of sayam and here are visitors from Japan Boys in Indonesia play Wild men of Borneo just like you play Cowboys there and we like our dis guys too but not all our play acting is done by young children puppet shows are one of our favorite entertainments in Java and Bali the puppets cast a shadow on a thin screen and may be viewed from either side the show begins about 8 in the evening and we watch all night long even the children stay up to watch the puppet stories always involve a struggle between good and evil and good always triumphs but don't think that Indonesia uses only puppets to tell its stories we have many dances on the many islands some that tell stories some that we do do to express our feelings these boys in central Sumatra are doing a plate dance striking the plates with metal rings on their [Music] fingers all through the islands our children learned the music and the Arts that make our country rich not rich in the sense of money but rich in the pleasure of living this girl on Bali only 7 years old is dancing the Leong the dove dance the instruments are made from bamboo by people in the village and belong to the Village small boys may play in the orchestra and even the Very Old Man for hundreds of years our children have learned the customs of our people the old ways now that Independence has come to us we are also beginning to teach them the new these children are growing going into a world that is different from that which our old men have known we plan to keep what was good in the old and find what is good in the new for now goodbye I sent you best wishes from your friends in Indonesia