At the Christmas party last weekend, I mentioned to the people seated with us that I was Indonesian. Someone said, “Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony, right?” I said, “Yes, for three and a half centuries.” Then they added, “My family is Dutch.” And I was like, ummmm… Should I tell them that the Dutch were crap rulers and were so successful at keeping the Indonesian people uneducated that it actually took us three and a half frickin’ centuries to smarten up and kick their collective butt out of the country? And that to this day we still secretly wish we’d been a British colony instead? Luckily for them, I got distracted by food and didn’t remember having that conversation until this morning. Heh.
Adventures in the Cool North
It’s true what they say, never talk politics or religion. It gets everyone into trouble. I always bring up politics in gatherings. Ugh.
Hehe. We weren’t really talking politics. I’m sure they didn’t mean to offend me or anything. 🙂
Well, I doubt being any country’s colony would be much fun. Though now that you mentioned it, I think the British wouldn’t have done much better than the Dutch. Bigger colonies must be tougher to rule.
firda, would you be angrier if i told you that in the dutch school they teach only good thing about the colonial times? it makes me sick!
if i have children i’ll tell them the truth, war is not nice, but it’s much not nicer to ignore the truth
I doubt the English would have been any better, remember a little British colony known as India? Though I guess relations with the “mother country” is a little more congenial than between the Dutch and Indonesian people.
I wouldn’t doubt it., Retno But hopefully they’ll learn what really happened when they’re older.
it’s kind of like when people apologize to me for enslaving my ancestors… weird. “Thanks, I guess?,” you know?