August 25, 2015 edition

Kaboel Karso was busy at the Javanese Diaspora Conference held in Yogyakarta on August 15-16. He was one of the panelists who shared their stories of living abroad, while trying to preserve their Javanese cultural roots. "There were people from 14 countries yet there was a strong sense of common identity among them," said Kaboel, who saw the gathering not just as a forum to exchange ideas but as a deep reservoir of rukun, or brotherhood to be harnessed.
Kaboel Karso, 58, is an ethnic Javanese from Suriname, a Dutch colony until 1975, located just north of Brazil, along South America's Atlantic coast. His concept of Javanese culture sounds different to that here. He eats saoto rather than soto (soup), and bami, with French-style vermicelli, instead of bakmi (noodle). And he is as likely to croon pop jawasongs in creolized Javanese 'that you can dance to' similar to the kroncong (Portuguese-style Indonesian music) more familiar to Indonesians.

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More Horizons articles in other editions

August 4, 2015 edition

Having worked in box-office Hollywood productions, Rini Sugianto is bringing her unique experience to Indonesians by providing online animation mentoring.Rini Triyani Sugiantos trip last June is still fresh in her mind: hiking in the wilderness. It was gorgeous, the view was great, she recounted her trip to Tempo through the telephone a couple of weeks ago. Together with some friends, Rini hiked across the John Muir trail in Californias Sierra Nevada mountain range for three weeks. I always try to take a break after working on a project so that I wont burn out, said the 35-yearold Indonesian animator, who lives in San Francisco.

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July 10, 2015 edition

During a recent discussion at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, information technology (IT) specialist and mechanical engineer Irwan Tantu from Houston, Texas, in the United States, exhorted the audience of some 400 students to "do something!"

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