Indonesia National Day – Happy Birthday Indonesia!
Published by Sylvia Giacinta August 17th, 2007 in Current Affairs and day by day. 2 CommentsNote: This post’s timestamp had been edited.
It’s funny that the national days of my home country and the country I’m living in are really close to each other. And Singapore had fireworks display at the night of the 17th! Okay, I consider that a celebration. Hahaha.
So how are you doing, Indonesia? You’re 62 now. Old and weary, I suppose? Still trying hard to stand up to be the “great lion of Asia” again? It’s been 10 years… Whoa FGS it’s been 10 years!! There were a lot of things going on. The monetary crisis, the terrible riot, the earthquake(s), the tsunami…
A lot of things can change in 10 years. The “Indonesia? Is it in Bali?” kind of joke is already cheesy. Now they know you as a insert-any-negative-adjective-here country. They call you terrorist’s basecamp. They call you corrupt. They call you unstable. They forget about your unbeatable beaches at Bali (I swear I haven’t seen beach that is more beautiful than Bali’s). They forget about your always-smiling people (tell that to Singapore people). They forget that you are, indeed, a pleasant country…
Nevertheless, you’re still my home country. The country that I still call my home. The country where I was born and raised. To be honest, I don’t regret leaving you. But I must admit that I miss you so much. I miss those cheap cute accessories. (Damn, why does my fetish for accessories grow after I left you?) I miss using cars to go everywhere. And I miss those goddamn hawkers that sell the most delicious food on earth, delivered to my door!
So what’s up? I bet there are a lot of things going on in you. People going to Monas to….. do something. Flag ceremonies.. Ooh, speaking of flag ceremony, I can’t believe the fact that I miss flag ceremony now. The damn thing that forced me to stand for 1.5 hours to see a flag going up and hear some bullshit… Gosh. Hey Singapore friends, do you guys have flag ceremonies too? =)
Oh and you surely have those competitions!! And I found many pictures of it from internet..
Balap karung

photo by supriyadisw. credit
Well, for the readers, as you can see, it’s a competition where you must race in karung (sack, usually rice sack).
Makan kerupuk
Photo by Aphrodita. Credit
This one is pretty obvious. Try to be the fastest to finish eating kerupuk/keropok. But the thing is… It’s hanging! =D
Tangkap belut

Photo by Aphrodita. credit
Catch that slimy eel! *yikes*
Sepakbola daster

Photo by devie_ritani. credit
Cross-dressing soccer game.. The guys are using girls’ night gown.. Either their wifes’ or maybe their mothers’. Hahahahaha… This one is the most LOL.
Well my dear home country, you didn’t have expensive celebration like the country I’m living in had. Did you know, they held kewl performances on a floating platform, complete with fireworks and lasers and what-nots? Nevertheless, I’m sure you have one of the most enthusiastic people to celebrate their independence day! And interesting competitions, of course..
I’ll see you again at December. ’til then, I wish you best wishes. May you be prosperous. May you be safe. May you’ll always be the Indonesia I love, until forever..
MERDEKA!!
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Merdekaaa…!!
but still we need more than this yearly yell-yell lol.
hey here we have IYS (Indonesian Youth Society) with all their balap karung, makan keropok, sate madura, bakso and more. Each year they have IYS Tournament for basketball and football. It’s pretty much in Indonesia, but flag ceremonies hehe
As a matter of fact, Singapore does have flag ceremony. In fact it’s done everyday in secondary schools and JCs! But it only consists of flag-raising and reciting of pledge, and here we don’t do reciting of the constitution (UUD), amanat kepala sekolah (whatever it is in English, principal’s message?), Pancasila, etc. One of these usually lasts for only about 30 minutes at most.