by admin | Sep 3, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
My sister, Eileen, has numerous skills and virtues but one of her traits is more debatable: an uncompromising attitude. She has always held a clear opinion of what is right and wrong as well as what she likes and what she doesn’t. On the “no like” list is the smell of...
by admin | Aug 6, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
The recent death of Sapardi Djoko Damono (20 March 1940–19 July 2020), one of Lontar’s founders, has had me thinking of the suasive role that poetry has played in my life. Poetry was not a focus in any of my literature courses either in primary school or in high...
by admin | Jul 2, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
Anyone who knows anything about Indonesia knows that Pancasila is the nation’s official ideology, the five principles of which include belief in God, a just and civilized humanity, national unity, democracy, and social justice. Anyone who knows anything about...
by admin | Jun 10, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
The Idul Fitri holidays are now past but with millions of Indonesians unable to mudik—to go home for the holidays—because of Covid-19, there was much dismay this May in Indonesia (and much of the rest of the world) this year. This year’s Idul Fitri holidays were,...
by admin | May 8, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
It’s hot in Jakarta today with the noontime temperature around 32 Celsius and, what with everyone ordered to stay within the confines of their homes due to the Covid-19 virus running amok worldwide, it appears from media reports that this situation has given rise to...
by admin | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Ruminations
Born in 1952, I have no direct memory of the 1918 “Spanish Flu” pandemic that took the lives of up to 100 million people. My memory of that disease is a borrowed one from my Aunt Molly who told me the story of how Great Aunt Jo, a baby nurse who worked for wealthy...
