| Paradise Lost, More Than Once! Great forces are set in motion; we cannot always predict the outcome. The forces of heat and plate tectonics power continental drift and volcanoes. Most of the earth’s land mass is clumped together in Eurasia and Africa. At the edge of that plate where it rubbed against the Australian plate, volcanoes were spawned that gave birth to the last island that can be called part of Asia. Volcanic ash and time make for fertile soil. The prevailing winds come from the west, and rising up over the volcanic peaks, the moisture in the clouds turns into regular rain on the island. This island was like a garden, with good soil and sufficient water, waiting for something to be planted. Just beyond there is a deep trench in the ocean before the next island, which is home to totally different fauna. When the winds get there, the clouds had been wrung dry, so it was, by contrast, quite arid. Humans set in motion great forces as well. The culture of India and its first major religion, Hinduism, began to spread slowly eastward before Buddha preached of an enlightened path. Buddhism began spreading later, but it followed the trade routes to Siam and China, and hadn’t yet reached our island at the end of the earth before other forces intervened. The island was usually part of a kingdom whose capital was on the bigger island to the west, which was also very fertile. That kingdom ruled many islands, which shared a Hindu culture. Christianity made a splash on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, but was soon surpassed in the area by the spread of Islam. Islam spread rapidly at first, but eventually slowed down as military setbacks, language and cultural differences took their toll. But it kept spreading until other forces checked it. Islamic warlords began nibbling away at the Hindu kingdom of many islands, finally capturing the large island. The displaced rulers moved their capital to the only civilized island they had left, the fertile volcanic island to the east. There was warfare, on and off, between them, which would have eventually led to the final defeat of the remnants of the Hindu Kingdom. Something came along that distracted and then conquered the Muslims. It was the Christian and mercantilistic Europeans. First came the Portuguese, then later the Dutch. The Dutch, with their metal cannons, took over the now Islamic former capital of the Hindu kingdom. They renamed it Barataria, and made it the capital of the Dutch East Indies. They skirmished off and on with the remnants of the Hindu kingdom on our pretty little island, but eventually signed a treaty with them. They didn’t stop coveting it however. Thus in 1910, the Dutch staged an incident that made it look like the Hindu kingdom had violated the treaty. The Dutch went to war, quickly forcing the island to surrender. The island’s royal family was unwilling to put up with the terms, and decided that suicide was a better choice. This makes for a poignant tale, but they might have been wrong. The Dutch set up rules preserving the local culture, and there was an artistic renaissance. The island became a magnet for European artists wanting to get away from it all, a 20th century successor to Gauguin’s 19th century Tahiti. The Netherlands were overrun by Germany in 1940, so there was little in the way of resistance to the Japanese in 1942, when the conquered the whole archipelago. This shattered the illusion of European invincibility. After the war, a resistance fighter against the Japanese named Sukarno, with some communist support, began a revolution to oust the Dutch. The rest of the archipelago, which was over 90% Muslim, joined the revolt and succeeded in throwing off the war wracked Dutch colonial yoke. However, the locals of the predominately Hindu island fought to retain the Dutch administration, having prospered and benefited for 30 years before the war and not wanting to be a minority enclave in what would become the largest Islamic nation. The rebels invaded and chased out the Dutch. It is ironic that a country that had retained its independence for over 2000 years was conquered three times in the 20th century. The former Dutch East Indies named their newly independent country Indonesia, and actually made quite a reasonable effort to allow this predominately Hindu island to maintain its diversity. The president of Indonesia has a vacation palace there. The island attracts millions of visitors every year. Indonesia’s main resource is oil, but they were happy to profit from tourism as well. If this island had been subjected to strict Islamic rules, its charm as a resort would have been diminished, as that would have limited three popular activities: watching Hindu festivals, women sunbathing, and drinking. When I lived in Singapore, we went there for a vacation, staying for the first half of the week in a resort in the south called Nusa Dua, and then the rest an artist colony in the middle of terraced rice paddies in the center called Ubud. One day we visited a museum in the local capital, Denpasar, where I learned much of what I related above. Another day we went for a walk down a seemingly endless beautiful white sand beach on the west side of the island, where the trade winds created a constant flow picturesque waves, much appreciated by surfers from all over the world. That beach runs by the resort town called Kuta, on the island of Bali, the site of the terrible bombing that killed hundreds last week. Al-Queda, haven’t been able to hit us here recently, looked for and found a soft target. They have shown themselves thereby to be less enlightened, if there was any doubt, than either the colonial Dutch or Indonesians. Considering the latter’s record in East Timor; that is saying quite a bit. Bush made clear our enemies included those that harbored terrorists, such as the Taliban. Al-Queda has, by this atrocity, made it clear that their enemies are anyone who harbors first world citizens at work or at play. There is no longer any place for neutrality. |