“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” – Abraham Lincoln- On National Education Day, May 2nd, Minister of Education and Culture, Mohammad Nuh, said: “The national exam plays only a little part in the country’s education system. The most important thing is to ensure [...]

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No, that isn’t a spelling error, but you’ll have to read on to find out why. I first started wearing glasses when I was seven years old pupil at Charlton Manor Primary School in southeast London. These were provided by the then fairly new National Health Service, along with a third of a pint of [...]

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 “White rice is lacklustre, lifeless, tasteless and irritating to prepare; brown rice is flavoursome, wholesome and easy to prepare”. Maud Grieve F.R.H.S. (1858-1941) – A Modern Herbal (pub. 1931) Every society has a staple food: my London upbringing revolved around potatoes, varieties such as King Edwards in winter for baking and Whites for salads. We [...]

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“The success of Homo Sapiens rests primarily with our capacity for empathy and our urge to understand and appreciate others” From a review of The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans De Waal Indonesia is often cited by those governments and businessmen wishing to garner the country’s resources as being [...]

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“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” – Voltaire The movies I generally seek out are those with a superbly directed cast of gifted actors bringing to life a captivating story. Very rare, however, are those movies that leave you [...]

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Raffles and the British Invasion of Java Tim Hannigan Monsoon Books 2012 368pp ISBN 978-981-4358-85-9 As a lad growing up in post-World War II London, I was force-fed a history diet which told me that Britain was great because it once had an Empire. I was taught that as an island nation, we had fought [...]

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To celebrate World Toilet Day* (http://toiletday.org/about/), which is held on November 19th every year, I’ve tried to get to the bottom of the mystery as to why Indonesia has been left behind when it comes to the disposal of our body wastes. I started with what happens when we flush the loos, yes we have [...]

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Was it a coincidence or something more? Our Editor emailed me with a list of upcoming themes and said that she thought that I might “have something up [my] sleeve for Ghosts, Magic and Mystery.” How strange, I thought, what should make her think that? After all, I don’t have any skeletons in my cupboard, [...]

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“… the sight of stars always sets me dreaming…” – Vincent Van Gogh – The front terrace of Jakartass Towers faces east and that is where we sit on the cloudless nights of a full moon. On May 6th and 7th, it appeared to be exceptionally large. Of course, it hadn’t actually grown in bulk, [...]

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Floods by Pablo Neruda The poor live on low ground waiting for the river to rise one night and sweep them out to sea. I’ve seen small cradles floating by, the wrecks of houses, chairs, and a great rage of ash- pale water draining terror from the sky: this is all yours, poor man, for [...]

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