Visitors of the exhibition “Window to Indonesia 2013,” held on May 24-26 in Kyiv, got a chance to see for themselves that Indonesia is not all about Bali. Organizers (the exhibition was held at the initiative of the Embassy of Indonesia), apart from dispelling the myths about this island country, wanted to draw the attention of Ukrainian business to the Indonesian market. As the General Director of the Department of National Exports Development in the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia Gusmardi Bustami noted at the opening ceremony, Ukrainians and Indonesians already have well established business connections. However, so far they are rather in favor of the Ukrainian side. “Today, the relations between the two countries [Indonesia and Ukraine. – Ed.] trade surplus is in favor of Ukraine,” said Bustami. “Indonesia exports chocolate, palm oil, nickel, and animal fats to Ukraine. Ukraine exports semi-finished products, iron, ammonia, urea, and steel ore.” So, as Bustami noted, Indonesia is actively working now to improve the business climate. Thus, they hope that Ukrainians will invest in this island country. And this country is really extremely interesting.
Indonesiais an amazing country with a great variety of languages and ethnic groups. More than 350 peoples, with even greater number of dialects they use, but there is only one official language – Bahasa. Even at the exhibition Indonesians from remote regions spoke in different languages. But when they communicated with each other they used Bahasa. This language was invented to unite a large island country. Indonesians say that you can learn Bahasa in two months because it is so simple.
Today, Indonesians want to open a “window” to their country and in the 13th century Marco Polo did it for the first time. He was followed by Portuguese, who brought the Bible to the islands. However, the territory was owned by Dutch until 1945. Now the greatest part of the country’s population are Muslims. There are many Hindus on the island of Bali. Apart from these two religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Buddhism are also recognized as official ones.
By the way, for language learning Embassy of Indonesia offers Ukrainian young people under 35 years 11-month educational program “DARMASISWA.” Every year about 35 students from Ukraine go there. Apart from language young people can study tourism, art of photography and dancing, and batik technique. Students receive scholarship of 200 dollars but are not allowed to work. “Prices there are almost the same as in Ukraine that’s why you can easily live on your scholarship,” told Elmira Davydenko, participant of the last year’s program. “It is better to go to the provincial towns because you have a 100 percent chance to be selected to go there and it is cheaper to live there. I went to the center of batik art to learn this technique.” At the exhibition “Window to Indonesia” the young lady taught the visitors the batik technique for three days. This art is learnt easily even by beginners. You don’t need much to start – desire, fabric, hot wax, and tjanting (stick with a sharp end, similar to those that are used to decorate Easter eggs). You need to heat up wax and tjanting and use it to paint on fabric. Good batiks are those, on which you can see the image on both sides.
Most anticipated master class from the program of the exhibition was a culinary class. The basics of Indonesian cuisine, like that of most of Asian cuisines, is rice. It is steam cooked. People in Indonesia eat a lot of rice – approximately 150 kilograms per person each year. Fish is scaled with a spoon instead of a knife. By the way, it’s rather unusual but quite handy. Chefs say that there is a lot of seafood in Indonesian cuisine. However, Ukrainians who lived in the country on an exchange program, argue that people eat chicken there more often. But it was very “manta” – means delicious in Bahasa. Chefs say that Indonesian ready-made dishes can last for weeks without getting spoiled.
If you eat chocolate in Ukraine it is very likely that it is of Indonesian origin. Indeed, Indonesia is one of the largest exporters of chocolate in the world and the largest in Ukraine. Interestingly, the local population, who actually live surrounded by fields of cocoa beans, barely eat chocolate. This product is not present in the national cuisine of Indonesia.
Today, Indonesians want to open a “window” to their country and in the 13th century Marco Polo did it for the first time. He was followed by Portuguese, who brought the Bible to the islands. However, the territory was owned by Dutch until 1945. Now the greatest part of the country’s population are Muslims. There are many Hindus on the island of Bali. Apart from these two religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Buddhism are also recognized as official ones. Perhaps, this is the reason why on the jewelry that was sold by Indonesian jewelers at the exhibition there were symbols of different religions – Christian crosses and figures of Hindu God Ganesha, labels on Bahasa and Hindi.
