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Jamu: Why Isn’t Indonesia’s Ancient System of Herbal Healing Better Known? [TIME Magazine]

Jamu: Why Isn’t Indonesia’s Ancient System of Herbal Healing Better Known? [TIME Magazine] In 1990, Irish journalist Susan Jane-Beers noticed a herbal medicine clinic in the corner of a hair salon in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, her adopted home. A victim of age-related chronic knee pain that conventional pharmaceuticals couldn’t numb let alone heal, Jane-Beers decided to try jamu — traditional Indonesian medicine. The results astounded her. After three days of taking only one third of the prescribed doseRead more
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Post about Indonesian women and expat men has reached 221 comments

This post from nearly 5 years ago has certainly received a lot of feedback – currently at 221 comments. And there were many more comments not approved or moderated for various reasons (and I’m very lenient). It appears the nature of relationships between Asian women and foreigners is a hot topic. Unfortunately, the discussion also seems to breed hate, blatant racism, extreme generalizations, and the other crap that comes with the telling of peoples’ personal history. Each of these delicatelyRead more
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Twitter downturn? Nah, it’s just me, methinks. aka Twitter’s future in 2010.

A funny yet predictable observation: I’ve been too busy these past few months to utilize Twitter in the same way as I did last year, and noticed a few things: 90% of the people I used to converse with on a daily basis 12 months ago no longer communicate with me, nor I with them (nothing negative, just factual). I spend perhaps 70% less time on Twitter currently than I did last year – hmm, correlation perhaps? The statement “YouRead more
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Delivery from Indonesia: A taste of home.

Novita’s wonderful sister, Nana, just arrived at 5:30am this morning from Jakarta. She’ll stay with us for three weeks, relaxing and hopefully exploring more of Manila and the Philippines. We have a vacation coming up for 9 days at the end of October; still undecided where we may go. Not only did she bring Novita a cure for homesickness (herself) – she brought a ton of spices, sambal, and Indonesian food! In fact, she brought so much, she was chargedRead more