{"id":3106,"date":"2022-08-18T19:57:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T19:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2022-08-18T19:57:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T19:57:44","slug":"happy-belated-independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=3106","title":{"rendered":"Happy (Belated) Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Indonesia-Independence.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3107\" width=\"174\" height=\"176\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I got busy yesterday cutting grass and didn\u2019t get around to mentioning that August 17 is a very special day in Indonesia.<br>Back in the 1970s, one August 17th I was in Jakarta, Indonesia \u2014 it\u2019s easy to remember that day, because it was Indonesia Independence Day. On August 17, 1945 a group of nationalists declared Indonesia\u2019s independence from the Netherlands. The day was designated a national holiday by government decree in 1946.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indonesia had been under Dutch colonial rule for over 300 years until its independence was declared in 1945. The struggle didn\u2019t end with the declaration of independence \u2014the struggle for their freedom and liberation took four more years of turmoil and diplomacy before Queen Juliana of the Netherlands formally granted Indonesia her independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I remember Independence Day in Jakarta being a huge celebration. Buildings were decorated with large red and white banners. Today, the stores all offer special Independence Day discounts.\u00a0<br>The Constitution of Indonesia recommends every Indonesian fly the national flag in front of houses, office buildings, schools and public institutions throughout the country on Independence Day. Diplomatic offices abroad are requested to fly the national flag on August 17 to commemorate the national holiday. At 7 A.M. local time on August 17, cities and regencies throughout Indonesia hoist the national flag in a ceremony held at their respective city halls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indonesia was formerly known as the Dutch East Indies, and\u00a0 is comprised of over 17,000 islands, making it the largest island nation in the world.<br>The Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia, is the biggest gold reserve in the world, and \u2014 the second biggest copper reserve.\u00a0<br>Even though \u201cBahasa Indonesia\u201d is Indonesia\u2019s official language, there are more than 700 other languages and dialects spoken throughout the islands.<br>Indonesia\u2019s motto, \u201cBhinneka Tunggal lka\u201d means \u201cUnity in Diversity.\u201d<br>Happy (belated) Independence Day.<br>\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got busy yesterday cutting grass and didn\u2019t get around to mentioning that August 17 is a very special day in Indonesia.Back in the 1970s, one August 17th I was in Jakarta, Indonesia \u2014 it\u2019s easy to remember that day, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=3106\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3108,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}