December 22, 2015 edition

Eni Lestari Andayani's cellphone never stops ringing. She might as well be a walking, talking call center. Almost every day, Eni, 36, takes between five to 15 calls or short messages through WhatsApp and Facebook. Like her, the callers are domestic workers holding jobs in Hong Kong. But to them, she has become the confidante whom they can pour out their grievances.
The number of callers further increased seven years ago when Eni came to be chairperson of the International Migrant Alliance, an alliance of migrant workers from 32 countries. The grievances vary, from working relations with their employers to their rights over family matters. The latest case involved a worker form Pati, Central Java, who complained about the Indonesian government's new data recording system that implicated her in forging documents. As a result, since December 11, the person has been detained in a Hong Kong prison.

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More Horizons articles in other editions

November 24, 2015 edition

There was nothing more fascinating to five-year-old Josaphat Tetuko Sri Sumantyo than an array of defense systems in an air force base. His father, then a commander in the Special Task force used to take him to the base and then left him to wander alone. He was always drawn to the radar system at the base.
Young Josaphat then would ask the officers who were on duty, "Where were these made?" The officers showed him different radars made in different countries, the United Kingdom, Francebut none from Indonesia. It made an indelible impression on him, leaving him to wonder why his own country did not produce radars.

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October 20, 2015 edition

When a woman came up to him after an event in Surabaya last April, Iwan Sunito, 49, never expected her to say that her son was one of his biggest fans. Iwan asked to meet her son, so along came this 12-year-old clad in black, his 8-year-old brother traipsing behind him. "Pak Sunito, when I grow up I want to be a property developer like you," the boy said.
Iwan was somewhat taken aback that a school boy from his hometown knew him as the CEO of one of the biggest real estate companies in Australia, the Crown Group. He asked the boy why he wanted to have a career in property and received a simple answer; because property prices would always go up and never come down. "I was even more surprised when he asked me to be his mentor," exclaimed Iwan, a father of three.

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