Sept. 2018: Indonesian Independence Day celebration Bahrain 2018. Without going into paragraphs of history, then it is perfectly obvious what the day of independence and celebrations are all about. This is the edited (very) highlights of the evening. Just about all embassies hold some sort of celebration function – Ambassador says a few words (unless the Russian and he tends to just let the night take its fabulous way), then cut the cake and guests scoff their brains out with traditional food – in general, but not always.
Some embassies, such as the Indonesian go out of their way to bring in traditional artists or at least representative product and the Indonesians like their traditions big time, so it was expected. In 2016, in the video you can see a whole orchestra and a fantastic show of skill it was. For 2017 it was classic dancers which included an amazing traditional dance on ‘broken china’…. OW!!!! For 2018, well again full of tradition, but the Sasando player Berto Pah, surprised the life out of many by playing excellent renditions of Eric Clapton songs among other Western classics. Berto has appeared on the famous Indonesian talent show; ‘Indonesia Mencari Bakat‘
Having only been in the post a few weeks, we remember in 2017, asking ambassador H.E Nur Syahrir Rahardjo about the dance of the broken china. He admitted that he had never seen it live before. As for Mr. Rahardjo, well it is very rare to see him not smiling. A true gentleman and always pleasant.
Comments often refer to the fact that these embassy celebration feasts always show the same faces. Well there is not much we can do about that, since obviously each embassy likes to invite other ambassadors and dignitaries from within the Bahrain Foreign Office who embassies work constantly with. The thing is, what is not always shown is the other events that co-inside with national days and the Indonesian Embassy have several other shows or gatherings around town in association with the special day. Unfortunately, Whodoeswhat.tv cannot possibly cover them all, so we tend to mark the event by attending the official function.
