Indonesian Natioal Anthem

[motormouth]

I dropped the kids off at school in Denpasar this morning and couldn't exit through the gate as the morning assembly was in progress. So I waited for it to finish. There were @300-350 kids in the SD(primary school ) section all lined up, no one was talking. The teacher said a few announcements and then the music teacher fired up the organ. Well , they had 3 girls standing in front like conductors and all the children belted out the National Anthem with gusto,it made the hairs on my arms stand up. There was a line of children who were late to school , they are made to wait in the foyer until the assembly is finished, they then have their names taken for the late roll. Even these kids stood to attention and sang the song with the same enthusiasm as the others. I was so proud of them.

 

[spicyayam]

I have to admit I haven't heard the national anthem. How do Indonesians feel about it? Is it a song they are proud of? I remember them playing the national anthem when I was in school in Australia, but I am not sure they still do that :?:

 

[aquaman]

I don't remember hearing the national anthem at school in Oz but then again I didn't pay much attention to anything at school :lol: I haven't heard the Indo anthem either. Filipinos stand to attention for their national anthem at the cinema before the movie starts which is not suprising as they are so fiercely patriotic.

 

[JohnnyCool]

I have to admit I haven't heard the national anthem. How do Indonesians feel about it? Is it a song they are proud of?

I think so.

Some national anthems are too long for some people to remember all of the words, or, they're often such boring songs few get overly-excited...apart from "Hey, that sounds like my national anthem - I come from there - I must be proud". Anybody heard a reggae version of "God Save The Queen"? Or a house music mix? (The closest to something like this was The Sex Pistol's punk version.)

I remember them playing the national anthem when I was in school in Australia, but I am not sure they still do that.

As a very young displaced person ("refugee") in Australia during the 1950s, I was struggling to learn English, spoke Lithuanian, (my mother tongue), German and a bit of Russian.

In those days, as school students, we often had to sing the Australian national anthem, which was "God Save The Queen". For many years, (as I found out later), there was one particular word I didn't quite get right. Just mumbled my way through it.

"God Save Our noble Queen" always sounded like "God Save Our Gnome for Queen". When I learned what a gnome is, the anthem didn't make any (more) sense to me.

If you went to the pictures in those days, (movie theaters), everybody had to stand up while the national anthem was played first. Not any more - thankfully.

Today, most Australians do not know all of the words of their current anthem. Even elected politicians start mumbling halfway through the second verse.

New wave Indonesians, with their fledgling stabs at western-style democracy, benefit from a national song that most can relate to. Music is both a powerful force and universal "language", certainly nothing to be sneezed at for uniting people in common causes. Music is everywhere - some people don't hear it because they don't listen.

Perhaps ironically, in the end, I went on to study for and obtained university degrees in English Literature and Language. My early "gnome" mystery might have been a catalyst.

I've still to meet a real-life gnome, but I've met several dwarfs and midgets. Lovely people, all of them.

:mrgreen:

 

[motormouth]

Speaking only from the people and kids in my house, they all seem rather patriotic when the national anthem is played, the kids sometimes sing it when we are driving in the car.
As for the Aussie national anthem, I couldn't wait for it to change as I hated the way the Queen was central to it all. What do they change it with, a bloody song that nobody knows the word to. it has 3 verses I think, but nobody knows more than 1,and it has the strangest phrase of any song I know, girt by sea????????

 

[JohnnyCool]

Does "girt by sea" have anything to do with gnomes?
"Encircled gnomes", perhaps?

...a bloody song that nobody knows the word to...

I used to know Advance Australia Fair when I was a busker in Sydney and Melbourne. It never went down very well, but then again, I was never a Joan Baez.

Got many more coins with stuff like Waltzing Matilda, What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor, various Bob Dylan songs and bawdy Irish and Scottish ditties. Oh, and some good 'ol jug-band music.

There were still people singing Kumbaya and other dreadful stuff. I never stooped that far, but admit to doing "The Old Bark Hut", sometimes...

 

[motormouth]

Yeah, good one, I liked your piece about he little people. By the way, what is the attraction with garden gnomes??

 

[JohnnyCool]

By the way, what is the attraction with garden gnomes?

None whatsoever.

A reference to:
"God Save Our Gnome For Queen"
which I mentioned earlier.

 

[motormouth]

Soryy, I didn't mean you. I meant people in general who keep the little blighters

 

[tintin]

motormouth,

You wrote

I was so proud of them.

I have 2 questions

1) Why were you "so proud" upon hearing the the Indonesian National Anthem? Are you Indonesian?

2) Don't you know that national anthems are one of the tools designed by old bastards to brainwash suceptible young minds to do the old farts' dirty work? :evil:

 

[Jimbo]

Tintin

You are one of the old farts.......as am I. You are a cynic and I am not I like the national anthem. Along with the Pacasila it brings many different people together in a diverse country.

 

[motormouth]

Tintin,
I don't know why exactly. I was a combination of things. Unity, belief...I just dig seeing young kids belting out a tune and this lot seemed to do it with passion.

 

[JohnnyCool]

...By the way, what is the attraction with garden gnomes?...Sorry, I didn't mean you. I meant people in general who keep the little blighters.

You mean like the Irish and their convict descendants?

I don't know. Might have to do with "magic", "spells" and keeping up with the Joyces, (like James living in Paris all that time). Maybe I've mixed up garden gnomes with leprechauns.

"Magic" is all around us. All one has to do to see it is believe in it. Simple.

I'm finding the current tract of crabby posts lately rather tiring. The temperature/humidity combination rating, (the "Heat Index"), is between 43-47 Celsius every day of the week, already for months. I've seen geckos dropping off the ceiling.

Here we go, yet again:

...Even these kids stood to attention and sang the song with the same enthusiasm as the others. I was so proud of them.

Jimbo comes at you with his questions, like:

...1) Why were you "so proud" upon hearing the the Indonesian National Anthem? Are you Indonesian?

motormouth said he was proud of them. There's a difference.

And BTW, if we're going to start nit-picking:

Along with the Pacasila it brings many different people together in a diverse country.

How come you can't spell Pancasila? And presumably, you're thinking of becoming an "Indonesian citizen", soon?

It takes an old fart and a half to know an old fart.

People who live in glass houses should find bigger stones.
People who live in stone houses should have garden gnomes, (with glass eyes).
...Please get out of the road if you can't lend your hand...

Maybe somebody should upload a version of the Indonesian National Anthem so we can all hear it. I could, but it's too bloody hot. I'll leave it to the more passionate ones amongst us.

Anybody know when the atmosphere is going to catch on fire?

:shock: 8)

 

[ronb]

There is an instrumental version of it as an MP3 file here
http://www.national-anthems.net/ID
and the history and lyricis are given in the Wikipedia article here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia_Raya

 

[tintin]

Jimbo comes at you with his questions, like:

...1) Why were you "so proud" upon hearing the Indonesian National Anthem? Are you Indonesian?

Sorry, Johnnycool, Jimbo is not to be blamed for this one.

As to why I asked these two questions to motormouth, it has nothing to do with Indonesia's own national anthem, which I find quite nice as far as national anthems go. I am not being chauvinistic when I say the French one, la Marseillaise, is one of the best (pretty bloody though), and the very BEST, IMHO, is the Russian Federation's, the ex-Soviet Union's anthem.

Anyway, I was just "decompressing:" I am FED-UP with the "tribes." The cynicism of President Obama and of the whole US Government gives more life to the old adage "Plus ca change et plus c'est la même chose." At my age, I should have known better…

motormouth

Thanks for your smooth response. I know what you mean about all those darling little Balinese school kids.

Jimbo

Yes, cynical sometimes, when I see the realities, idealist some other times, when I dream about what could be.

 

[Jimbo]

Fair enough Tin Tin

 

[Jimbo]

jonny/Phil apart from attributing things to me I did not say you are even more cynical that Daniel or me.

 

[JohnnyCool]

Please accept my humblest apology, Jimbo.

The heat is really affecting me.
BTW, I've never regarded you as a cynic. Quite the opposite.

 

[Jimbo]

No problems

 

[AjnaInWater]

Discipline is a good gift in personality, still for some reason the Scandinavian schooling system has been credited for the amazing teaching results. According to my knowledge they in Scandinavia are not that strict with their morning routines.