whynot | It's been 64 years since August 17, 1945.

DEAR INDONESIA,

WILL I STILL NEED YOU, WILL I STILL FEED YOU, WHEN YOU ARE SIXTY-FOUR? AS YOU ARE NOW?

Happy birthday, you crazy country! Sixty-four years ago, Japan was atom-bombed into surrender, and Indonesia was like, "NOW'S OUR CHANCE," and was all *DECLARES INDEPENDENCE!*. Then Holland came along and tried being all, "Hey, thanks for kicking out the Japanese and saving our place. Now we can continue--" but Indonesia was like, "LOLOL NICE TRY, HOLLAND."

Independence day strikes me as kind of arbitrary sometimes, though. Indonesia as we know it is the Indonesia that the Dutch East Indies had carved out before Japan came along and occupied. THAT Indonesia is 64 years old. That's the Indonesia that Holland delineated being basically like, "This is where all the nutmeg and cloves are." It's like when Africa was divided and the borders didn't take tribal land into consideration. Indonesia's heritage goes back to before BC. We are FUCKING old.

Sixty-four years old since we shrugged off our last occupier. You know what it kind of reminds me of? It kind of reminds me of this xkcd comic.

Not to like, poop all over independence day or anything.

Some facts about Indonesia-as-we-know-it
1. Wiliam Shatner is older than Indonesia.
2. Being born on August 17, Indonesia is a Leo, indicating that it is enthusiastic and generous, but intolerant and patronizing. Other famous Leos include Hulk Hogan and Fidel Castro. Distinguished company! Its Chinese astrological sign is a rooster, indicating that it is delicious dipped in batter and deep-fried.
3. The Indonesian flag is the Polish flag turned upside-down, and a longer version of Monaco's.

Many happy returns!

Okay, so I was looking up The Beatles' video of "When I'm 64" to see how relevant the lulz are, and the video begins with the Beatles spontaneously growing beards due to some strange time warp, MUCH LIKE CASPIAN IN THE DAWN TREADER MOVIE APPARENTLY. WHAT. Oh Caspian, at least one questionable characterization choice for you per installation!

I was also clicking through http://fuckyeahemmawatson.tumblr.com/ trying to deny my secret crush and then I come across THESE PICTURES, and I was like hfjdksljflsjflksd. OMG GRINT IN A PINK JACKET AND HAT BEING SHAMELESSLY LIKE ":D!". And then vespas. jfldks!

While on the subject of pics that make me go "jfldks!": QUEENS OF NARNIA

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i kind of enjoyed it, actually. i mean, it hasnt been particularly useful for my international travel in europe, but i think it's important that australians remember that, as they say in keating! the musical (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xifh9rVMgk8), "australia's part of asia". at least geographically we're closer to indonesia than frikking germany!

also, indonesian: A LANGUAGE THAT MAKES SENSE. in that way, you are very right, it's no english!

A part of Asia! Yes, that's interesting, oh man. Hmm! 'Cos totally, these continental designations are weird sometimes. Like, the Asian Cultural Society in my school was East Asian by unspoken agreement, but what about South Asia? And what about the Middle East? And what is the deal with Turkey now, are they still Asian? But I guess they're trying to join the EU.

HAHA. Indonesian is so weirdly straightforward! I never really thought about it until I moved out of Asia, but yeah, no tenses or female/male pronouns, stuff like that. And it is hilariously onomatopoeic!

yeah, what-counts-as-asia in different cultures is really interesting. i think in australia "asia" basically means east asia and south-east asia. 'the general population' (whatever that means! not asian???) don't really think about central and northern asia as particularly "asian", they're just those bits in the middle/up the top. and the indian subcontinent is "india and stuff" (ouch). until i started hanging out with people from the uk, i'd never heard india, pakistan, sri lanka or bangladesh referred to as 'asia' or the ppl from those countries as 'asian'.

indonesian is the most sensible, practical language i've ever tried to learn. when i was in high school i liked that the vowel sounds don't really change much, so i could read out pages and pages of text to my teacher and he thought i was excellent, but really i didn't have a clue what i was talking about, i just knew how to pronounce the words. *shiftyeyes* i did like that spider was 'labah-labah' (iirc), so we used to sing this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9WH8AfakFs) and make it about spiders.

Yeah! So, 7 continents, but I never really hear someone from the Middle East refer to themselves as Asian. The US is similar to Australia then, in terms of what the term 'Asian' brings to mind. What I understand is that in the UK, 'Asian' is assumed to be South Asian?

And then Russia. Most maps of my youth portray Russia to be part of Asia, but western Russia is such a different beast from the rest of the country, and these days it's accepted to be European from what I see. Europe! One of the most hilarious talks I went to, some UN delegates came to my school and they were discussing possible new members of the EU. Egypt was like, "I think there might be three new members--" and Liechtenstein interrupts, "Two."
"Two?" Egypt frowns. "What about Turkey?"
And Liechtenstein just makes this epic "wtf, are you CRAZY?" face.

BAHAHA I was like that with Spanish! And then I switched to French, who is never straightforward.

omg the song! XDXDXD

yep, most of the uk peeps i know use 'asian' to mean 'people from south asia/indian subcontinent' and 'oriental' to mean east (and south-east to an extent) asia. huh, that is interesting about russia. i think that the maps of my youth portrayed it as OMG TEH COMMIES!!! and i thought of it as it's own thing, kind of how i see indian subcontinent as it's own thing. but even just now, talking about this with

daniel_bethany, he immediately associated "central asia" with russia, whereas to me russian seems more european. but the place is GINORMOUS! and clearly i'm thinking more about western russia than the bits near, like, mongolia.

The bits Palin can see from her house!

I tend to see them as pretty much their own things too, 'cos it gets problematic with this whole continental categorization. So, uh, I just wiki'ed "continent" to see what makes a continent 'cos if it's not political geography, then maybe it's geology, and the wiki page is like, "It's geological sometimes! 'Discrete land masses' more or less!" It's not necessarily continental plates, and it's not separations by water because if so then what's up with Eurasia? I don't know enough about Russia, but sometimes it feels like the "et cetera", and Europe and Asia are asking each other, "Hey I found this wandering in my yard, is it yours?"

And then Oceania!

It's been 64 years since August 17, 1945.

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