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Indonesia Quotes

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Indonesia Quotes

“Lagi pula tak ada satu pun kota di Eropa yang bisa memberi potret sahih tentang kota Batavia. Penduduk kota Paris, yang terbiasa dengan jalanan berbau dan teramat kotor, juga plaster temboknya yang buruk, tak akan pernah mengerti tentang kemewahan dan keanggunan rumah-rumah di Jawa, demikian pula di kalkuta, yang saban tahun dikuas dengan lumuran baru dari batu gamping. Lapisan ini memberi kesan selaksa perak mewah, dan garis-garis tata bangunan teramat jelas tergambar rapi. Di kota ini, ada banyak rumah yang dengan mudah melampaui kemegahan istana di Eropa.”

CitiesBeautyEuropeFranceParisIndonesiaJavaJakartaBatavia
Book:Voyage de Paris à Java / Un drame au bord de la mer
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“1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was ‘a basket case’ before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion—‘I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible’—suggests he may have been having the best of times.... 3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. ‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred. 5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there are good judges who put this estimate on the low side. Kissinger was furious when news of his own collusion was leaked, because as well as breaking international law the Indonesians were also violating an agreement with the United States.... Monroe Leigh ... pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?’ A good question, even if it did not and does not lie especially well in his mouth. It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough.”

WarPoliticsUnited StatesDemocracyMoralityDoctorsIndiaMurderIraqIsraelChinaCivil WarIranFascismForeign PolicyPakistanDiplomacyGreeceMarxismIndonesiaSlaughterAssassinationRefugeesInternational LawLebanonAthensChileBangladeshWar CrimesPartitionTurkeyHenry KissingerCyprusRichard NixonMissionariesCoup D éTatKurdistanJakartaSaddam Hussein19741975Foreign Policy Of The UsCentral Intelligence AgencyKurdish People1971ShahIran Iraq WarIraqi KurdistanWalter IsaacsonJuntaSalvador AllendeYahya KhanBangladesh Liberation WarChina Pakistan RelationsIndo Pakistani War Of 1971Mohammad Reza PahlaviNews LeaksPakistan United States Relations1971 Bangladesh Atrocities1972 Nixon Visit To China1973 Chilean Coup D EtatDoctors Of PhilosophyEast TimorEcclesiastical CoupGreek CypriotsIndonesian National Armed ForcesIsraeli Lebanese ConflictKurdish Iraqi ConflictMakarios IiiMilitary Of ChileMonroe LeighPortugualPortuguese EmpireRene SchneiderSchneider DoctrineSecond Kurdish Iraqi WarSino American RelationsThomas D BoyattTurkish Invasion Of Cyprus
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Totally isolated from our own culture for long periods, we became vulnerable to forgotten times and tribes re-awakening within us. Our journeys, we found, were to take us simultaneously to some of the least-charted regions of the planet and to the least-charted regions of our own minds. What began for us as the effort to capture a purely objective record of what we saw gradually dissolved into a quest, an odyssey of self-discovery which actually took place amongst the last of the lands of real living kings and queens, dragons and pirates, cannibals and headhunters, mystics and magicians.”

KingsSelf DiscoveryQueensDragonsIndonesiaQuestPiratesMagiciansMysticsCannibalsHeadhunters
Book:Ring of Fire: An Indonesia Odyssey
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“locals came to him, time and time again, and asked, with genuine mystification: 'We just don't understand America. You were once a colony. You know what colonialism is. You fought and bled and died for your freedom. How can you possibly support the status quo?”

FreedomColonialismIndonesiaCapitalism Vs CommunismCapitalism Vs DemocracyDiplomatic HypocrisyUs Government Hypocrisy
Book:The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
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“Biarin aja anjing menggonggong, Ren. Gue nggak peduli. Gue tahu, mereka ketawa untuk menutupi kesalahan mereka. Kalau sekarang gue tanggapi, sama artinya gue jadi bagian dari mereka. Toh gue nggak butuh pengakuan mereka tentang hubungan gue dan Nathan. Bagi gue, pengakuan Nathan atas gue udah lebih dari cukup. Kalaupun gue marah, nggak ada gunanya, dan itu seperti mengumumkan gue kalah dari mereka.”

NovelIndonesiaInspirasiRomantis
Book:Will You Marry Me?
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“.... Dan semua itu berjalan dari detik ke detik, hari ke hari. Akhirnya orang jadi biasa juga dengan keadaannya. Dan mereka, yang tidak kena kerja paksa, tidur sehari-harian, atau berjalan-jalan mengedari pelataran dalam yang sempit itu, mengelamun, berangan-angan. Ya itu pun berjalan saja dan berjalan saja. Kadang-kadang orang tak sempat menginsyafi apa sesungguhnya yang telah dialami sehari-harian. Tapi dengan pasti hidupnya telah gompal sejam demi sejam. Kadang-kadang orang tidak sempat mengenangkan hari-depannya. Orang lebih suka memikirkan hal-hal yang dekat-dekat: makan, buang air, nyanyi, mengobrol tak berkeputusan, memaki-maki, atau mengaduh dengan tiada maksud. Atau-orang memikirkan sesuatu yang jauh, yang besar, yang takkan tercapai oleh tenaga dan tangan manusia-terutama sekali manusia yang dipenjarakan. Kemudian.. Kemudian semua berjalan saja. Berjalan saja. Berjalan saja. Juga umur manusia berjalan mendekati akhirnya. Juga balatentara kedua belah pihak berjalan mendekati keruntuhan atau kemenangannya. Dan tak ada tangan manusia yang kuasaa membatalkan proses itu ...”

NovelIndonesiaHidupManusiaPramoedya
Book:Mereka Yang Dilumpuhkan
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