Three months ago, I exchanged e-mails with Priscilla K M regarding the fact that there is very little available in English that deals with the horrific circumstances of the Dutch-Indonesians on Java under the Japanese during WWII that I describe in “with nothing but our lives”. Priscilla is the founder of The Indo Project whose […]
Tag Archives: Indonesia
Leo Vroman, poet – illustrator – scientist
Leo Vroman April 10, 1915 – February 22, 2014 This Dutch poet, illustrator and scientist died yesterday in Fort Worth, Texas at the age of 98. He lived in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) from 1940 to 1945 and was a POW of the Japanese on Java and in Japan. After the capitulation of […]
Please help me get this story told
In today’s topsy-turvy book publishing industry it does not matter that you have written the most compelling, forceful, soaring, and moving novel or memoir with sharply etched characters, displaying deep wisdom of the nature of human beings. No publisher will look at you unless you have a successful social media presence, what they call a […]
Galangal: Is it contagious?
A long time ago, a friend turned up unannounced for a visit at our herb farm. He carried a gallon plastic pot holding a pretty green ginger-like plant, which he called “galangal”. A gift to his wife from her Indonesian relatives, the plant had arrived as a tiny slip of a thing several months before […]
Balinese Dancer
Wajang puppets
swaying against the candle light
like finding nemo
Leo’s Green Beans in Galangal Coconut Milk
This is an easy introduction to home-cooked Asian food. It is very flexible, has no rough edges and doesn’t elicit cries of “Whad’s this?” Most importantly, I have not yet found a person (including hot dog, hamburgers and fries eating teenagers) who does not love it.