THE CHAOS THEORY

“Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World’s Greatest Investor” by Jeremy C. Miller

It’s chaos all over the world. Trump’s liberation day tariff 2 April 2025 sent a shockwave to the global market, and the trade war that it instigates could possibly cause a global recession after the market crashes subside.

During this mayhem, in the list of 10 of the richest people in the world 9 of them lost a significant amount of money (all in the billions). That is, except for 1 person. Warren Buffett. And so I thought, there’s probably no better time to revisit the wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha than now.

Just like any other finance geeks, I’ve read my fair share of books about Buffett, from the cartoon biography by Ayano Morio, to “Tap Dancing to Work”, “the Tao of Warren Buffett”, “The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros”, the brilliant “University of Berkshire Hathaway” about the content of plenty of Berkshire’s shareholders’ meeting, not to mention the many generic investment books that mentions about Buffett’s style, such as “Money Masters of Our Time”, or a bit of cameo in “Tao of Charlie Munger” and “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, or gaining his insights from the books that he reads, like, of course, “The Intelligent Investor” by his mentor Benjamin Graham.

But never have I read a book about Buffett’s pre-Berkshire days. This is the strength of this book that sets it apart from the rest of the pack. In the sea of books, podcasts, videos, etc about Warren Buffett, this book is probably the only one that dived deep into Buffett’s early investment career, when he formed Buffett Associates, Ltd (1956-1970).

It covers the earliest investment thinkings of Buffett, fresh from graduation and mentorship with Benjamin Graham, through his Partnership Letters where he poured everything down and explain them all to his fund’s investors. It shows the thinking behind a young investor’s mind, working with a modest sum of money not unlike the most of us, but can still somehow generate a substantial amount of returns.

As the author Jeremy C. Miller remarks, “[The Partnership Letters] make a powerful argument for a long-term value-oriented strategy, one that is especially viable in turbulent times such as our own, when people are vulnerable to a speculative, oftentimes leveraged, short-term focus that is rarely effective in the long run. They provide timeless principles of conservatism and discipline that have been the cornerstone of Buffett’s success.”

The book is organized around several different topics, in which it extracts Buffett’s take on them in the Partnership Letters, reorganize them into the appropriate chapters, and then add a summarizing introduction at each chapter’s beginning, followed by the most important excerpts on each topic that was presented in full, which allows us the reader to learn directly from Buffett’s words.

The topics covered include: compounding, passing investing (or market indexing), active investing, on incentives, his switch from net-nets cigar puff strategy (“buying fair businesses at wonderful prices”) to “buying wonderful businesses at fair prices”, arbitrage, control over companies, coattailing, how to avoid common mistakes in investing, taxes, on managing growth, and so much more; all with the real-life examples from what Buffett did during his early investment years.

Buffett never published a book. But instead, so many books are written about him and his investment style, using the letters and articles that he has written, as well his many speeches and talks. And this Partnership Letters from his earliest days of investing shed an interesting light into his way of thinking, which makes this book a very important puzzle piece to read and understand Warren Buffett.

A headline at Reuters on 10 April 2025 says: “US recognizes Panama’s sovereignty over canal, Panama says after talks.”

What the hell is going on? And what’s with Trump’s obsession over Panama?

The Panama Canal is controlled by a Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison Holding (owned by Li Ka-shing), which operates both the entrance port at Pacific ocean and Atlantic ocean. And last month, the company said that it would sell its interests in a deal worth $22.8bn to a consortium led by US investment firm, BlackRock. The deal covered a total of 43 ports in 23 countries, including the 2 in Panama.

But then on Monday 31 March the Chinese government blocked the deal (Hutchison is a private company but operates under Chinese government’s financial laws), citing a thread to its national interest. And two days later, Trump launched the tariff bombshell and hit China pretty hard. Coincidence? The timing is definitely suspicious.

A week later on Monday 7 April, Panama’s comptroller authority suddenly publish an audit that claims to have found irregularities in the renewal of a 25-year port concession with Hutchison, which put more pressure for Hutchison to let Panama go. And coincidentally (juuust coincidentally), the report was published on the same day the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Panama to participate in a regional security conference.

He’s the first Defense Secretary to visit Panama in decades, and in the conclusion of his visit on Wednesday he said that the US recognizes Panama’s sovereignty over its canal, and announced an agreement to deepen US military training in the country (you know what happens when Murica decides that a country needs “freedom” LOL). But why the sudden interest on Panama?

Note that Trump has been talking about America’s plan to “take back” Panama for months in a matter of national interest. Because, get this, around 40% of US container traffic (roughly $270 billion/year) passes this canal. Imagine what will happen if “China” suddenly closes the canal? Looks like Panama is a key puzzle piece to this whole shenanigans, as this leverage China has is driving Trump crazy.

1. Announce a bombshell of tariffs on Wednesday 2 April 2025 to multiple countries (except, suspiciously, to Russia, Belarus, North Korea, and Cuba). Using amateurish calculations that include charging two inhabited islands filled with Pinguin, even charging Australia whom the US actually has a trade surplus against.
2. Within the duration of one week, markets crashed whiping more than $6 trillion, China retaliated, hedge funds’ “Basis Trade” exposed, Treasury yield spiked to 4.5% on Wednesday 9 April and was this close to needing a Fed bailout.
3. Giving a face-saving speech filled with ego, saying “these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are dying to make a deal, please, please sir make a deal. I’ll do anything, I’ll do anything sir.”
4. And then back off from the move, pausing the new tariffs for 90 days. Markets rebound, and Peter Navarro somehow taking claim: “This is one of the greatest days in American economic history.”
5. Except for Chi-na. Their new tariff is now 125% (so 20% + 125% = the total tariff against China is 145%) and the trade war is ON full blast. But of course. this is a big problem for another day.

Elect a clown, expect a circus.

“Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn” by Stephen Mitchell

What is Zen? According to Zen master Seung Sahn Soen-sa, in its most basic form Zen can be described as the following: “if you are thinking, you can’t understand Zen. If you keep the mind that is before thinking, this is Zen mind.”

And what exactly is a mind before thinking? The answer, apparently, is not that simple.

This is a confusing book that recorded the conversations between master Soen-sa and his students in the 1970s, broken down into 100 short chapters that cover stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letter correspondences.

In almost every single one of these chapters, he teaches, above all else, how not to think. As Soen-sa remarks, “Zen work is becoming empty mind. Becoming empty mind means having all your opinions fall away. Then you will experience true emptiness. When you experience true emptiness, you will attain your true situation, your true condition, and your true opinions.”

You would think that with a statement this intriguing he would proceed to show us the proper way to attain this state? But what occurs instead in the book is Soen-sa adding more to the confusion. Like this line in chapter 4: “Anything that can be written in a book, anything that can be said—all this is thinking. If you are thinking, then all Zen books, all Buddhist sutras, all Bibles are demons’ words. But if you read with a mind that has cut off all thinking, then Zen books, sutras, and Bibles are all the truth.”

I’m sorry, what? Unfortunately Soen-sa never elaborate or explain what his vague words mean, and instead he ask the students to have some kind of spiritual journey and figure out the answers themselves.

Just like this one example: “The next morning, the same student walked into the interview room and bowed. Soen-sa said, “Do you have any questions?” “Yes. What is death?” “You are already dead.” “Thank you very much. Now I understand.” Soen-sa said, “You understand? Then what is death?” The student said, “You are already dead.” Soen-sa smiled and bowed.” I mean, what kind of teaching is this?

There’s more. Soen-sa seems to use this teaching method quite a lot: “Soen-sa asked one student, “What color is this snow?” The student said, “White.” Soen-sa said, “You have an attachment to color.”” Ok sure, attachment to color. But when a student throw this trick back to him: “”I ask you once again—what color is this door?” The student was silent. Soen-sa said, “It is brown.” “But if I’d said brown, you would’ve said I’m attached to color!” Soen-sa said, “Brown is only brown.”

I mean, from my limited understanding (hey, this is why I read this book in the first place, to learn deeper about Zen Buddhism), Zen Buddhism is supposed to be simple and clear. But what Soen-sa is doing is making the understanding complicated and blurry at best, especially when he was asked some difficult questions that he cannot answer directly. Heck, in most conversations, the answers that he gave often left the students more confused and lost, which is well documented in the book.

Moreover, as I read through I keep on questioning myself whether I have read this story or that story before or if I have mistakenly read the wrong early pages of the book? Nope, just the book repeating the same story or similar interraction in several chapters.

Therefore, it is perplexing for me that the book is one of the highly recommended ones by several [caucasian] meditation gurus. And this probably deserves a little background check: Soen-sa was a Korean Seon master of the Jogye order and founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen. And he was one of the earliest Korean Zen masters that came to the US and introduced the religion to Westerners in the 1960s and 1970s, during the height of the hippie movement. Hence, the recommendation I found to read this book by the “ten percent” gang.

If this feels a little bit borderline fraud, it does have the same feel as the cult community built around Osho, doesn’t it? Bold accusation, I know, but Soen-sa did get himself into a bit of controversies in the 1980s when he was caught having a consentual sexual relationship with his students, while he supossed to be a celibate monk. Consentual sex with the leader? Now that’s a very cultish behaviour.

And another sign of a cultish behaviour? Soen-sa gave a hint that Zen masters can somehow perform miracles, when saying: “Many people want miracles, and if they witness miracles they become very attached to them. But miracles are only a technique. They are not the true way. If a Zen Master used miracles often, people would become very attached to this technique of his, and they wouldn’t learn the true way.”

I know what you’re going to say, what was I thinking when deciding to read this book without researching about it first? I didn’t. And by not thinking, maybe that’s the whole Zen point after all.

“Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths” by Karen Armstrong

Once upon a time Jerusalem was nothing more than a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. Originated since around 3000 BC, the city was largely forgotten in its early days in between the more powerful and prosperous neighbouring empires.

As the author, Karen Armstrong, remarks, “Ironically, the city which would be revered as the center of the world by millions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims was off the beaten track of ancient Canaan.” And so what happened between its obscure beginning and what it becomes today?

This impressive book tells the immense 5000 years history about the origins of Jerusalem. It is a story about the city, the people who inhabit it, the politics, the many conflicts and misunderstandings, the cosmic battles, and the atrocities committed in its name, that left some traces in the battle scars of the city today.

It is the story over the various different rulers of Jerusalem and how it fares under their respective control: From the Canaanites, to Judahites, Persians, Greeks, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, British, to Israelis, not to mention various Christian and Muslim nations who have their religious interests in the city. And it shows, perhaps above all else, how the city can rise and fall and rise again, destroyed and rebuilt, and simply refused to disappear into obscurity.

The book is also the story about how for centuries Jews, Christians, and Muslims were able to live harmoniously together in the city. It is, as Armstrong remarks, “an attempt to find out what Jews, Christians, and Muslims have meant when they have said that the city is “holy” to them and to point out some of the implications of Jerusalem’s sanctity in each tradition. This seems just as important as deciding who was in the city first and who, therefore, should own it, especially since the origins of Jerusalem are shrouded in such obscurity.”

So, did Armstrong eventually reveal who is the rightful owner of Jerusalem? Not quite, not that simple. But she does illustrate how it becomes a holy city; how various different sects, religions, and races get to claim their spot in it; and how their complex dynamisms with each other have created the environment like no other cities in the world. And perhaps most relevantly for today’s geopolitics, the book shows that the current Israel-Palestine conflict actually had a beginning, and it was not a religious conflict but a political one.

All in all, it is a slow burn book, with intricate details filled every page of the stories. It is never meant to be a light book about a city, and instead it is truly a complex book about the history of humanity. I expect nothing less from a Karen Armstrong book.

“Beliefs That Changed the World: The History and Ideas of the Great Religions” by John Bowker

This is an important book about religion from the perspective of its political history.

It is written by John Bowker, an English Anglican priest who is also a pioneering scholar on religious studies. He is a former director of studies and dean of chapel at Corpus Christi and Trinity College, Cambridge, who is credited with introducing the discipline of religious studies to University of Cambridge. He has also been a Professor of religious studies at universities of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina State. Outside academia, he is a consultant for UNESCO, a BBC broadcaster, and author and editor of more than 40 books. And his depth of expertise in religious studies is immediately apparent from the very first paragraph.

In the introduction, Bowker set the gripping tone of the book by addressing the big misunderstandings for inter-religion conflicts, using the risky examples of religious POV of Israel-Palestine problem and the rise of ISIS. The brief highlight of these cases, in an impressively non-partisan tone, illustrates “the fact that the conflict between different religions cannot possibly be understood unless one realizes that there are also profound conflicts within each religion.”

Bowker then further remarks, “It is simply not possible for diplomats and politicians (or for that matter anybody else) to unravel the complexities of the conflicts listed at the beginning of this Introduction unless they understand the ways in which those conflicts are rooted, not only in religious beliefs, but also in different interpretations and applications of those beliefs.”

And this is what the book is addressing, the big picture with its intricate details. It provides the most concise and crystal clear history of the major religions, how they came into being, why they matter to those who believe, and how they have evolved into the shape they are now today. It discusses the following religions:

• Judaism: From Ancient Judea to Qabbalah to Zionism and the State of Israel.
• Christianity: The story of Jesus Christ, Council of Nicaea, the Orthodox Church, the Western Church (and its consolidation), the Reformation, Council of Trent, the ecumenical movement, the many different breakaway Churches (especially in the New World, United States).
• Islam: The life of the Prophet Muhammad, on Hadiths, schools of interpretation (Madhab), on war, the dynasty period, the golden age of Islam that excelled science and philosophy, on Caliphate, and the many different types of interpretations: Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Ahmadiyya, Babis, and Bahais.
• India: the religions of the Hindus (Vedic development, Brahmanism, Hare Krishna, the caste system, the dynasties, the multi-deities worship), Jainism, Parsi (or Zoroastrianism), Sikhism, Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan (Vajrayana), the life of the Buddha, the distinctions between Buddhism and other Indian religions).
• China: Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Daoism, Moism, Zou Yang (school of Yin Yang and the Five Agents), and of course Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
• Japan: Shinto, many forms of Buddhism (from Zen to the controversial Buddhist sect Soka Gakkai), neo-Confucianism, Christianity.

Among other things, within the context of each respective religions, the book describes the establishment of a community, the customs and traditions (and the reasoning behind them), the making of the holy texts, the political events happening around them (and their adaptation afterwards), the power struggles between state and religion, the changing of powers at the top leadership, the schisms within a religion, the assimilation with local religion and customs, the many sects, the rejection, the persecution, the enforcement of a new religion, all the way to false messiahs and the many inter-religion conflicts.

Now, I’ve read more than 60 books so far about religion. But it is only after reading this one that I become fully understand about the political side of religion and its implication towards the shape of the community.

Because, as Bowker explains, “religions emerged as organized systems to code, protect and transmit information that successive generations of people have come to regard as particularly important. That information is not confined to words. Much of it is expressed non-verbally in actions, gestures, signs, symbols, music, dance, rituals and the like.” And although the words came directly from God, every single one of these other elements are changeable by humans.

Furthermore, religions are also “organized systems in which some particular beliefs and behaviours are endorsed and encouraged, while others are discouraged and forbidden. Religions are protected circles in which people are likely to hold and share beliefs and practices.” This is where the political environment of a religion come to play.

For example, not everyone will agree with the status quo of how religion being run or organized. In fact, “sometimes they disagree so profoundly that some people will form a smaller group insisting on its own interpretations and practices. They form a kind of inner circle within the larger circle of shared assumptions.” This explains the many different school of thoughts, or sects, or breakaway new religions, or reforms within the original religions over the past centuries.

It is only after we understand all the political occurrences that prompted the changes, that we get to truly understand how religion really function today. And this is why this book should be the go-to book to understand about the big picture on religion, and to some extend to understand about the world as a whole.

Bowker perfectly capture this essence when he said “[t]he philologist Max Müller famously said that those who understand one religion understand none. I would simply add that those who try to understand the world without understanding any religions understand nothing.”

“Stories of the Prophets (Peace Be Upon Them)” by Ibn Kathir

This is a fascinating book about the Prophets of Islam (peace be upon them). It tells their stories concisely, using Qur’an citations for added context, then provides the further explanation about the stories, including the theological debates between the scholars and sacred books.

The stories are about the following:

1. Prophet Adam and Eve (Hawwa) 2. Prophet Idris (Enoch) 3. Prophet Nuh (Noah) 4. Prophet Hud 5. Prophet Salih 6. Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) 7. Prophet Isma’il (Ishmael) 8. Prophet Ishaq (Isaac) 9. Prophet Yaqub (Jacob) 10. Prophet Lot (Lot) 11. Prophet Shuaib 12. Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) 13. Prophet Ayoub (Job) 14. Prophet Dhul-Kifl 15. Prophet Yunus (Jonah) 16. Prophet Moses and Aaron 17. Prophet Hizqeel (Ezekiel) 18. Prophet Elyas (Elisha) 19. Prophet Shammil (Samuel) 20. Prophet Dawud (David) 21. Prophet Sulaiman (Soloman) 22. Prophet Shia (Isaiah) 23. Prophet Aramaya (Jeremiah) 24. Prophet Daniel 25. Prophet Uzair (Ezra) 26. Prophet Zakariyah (Zechariah) 27. Prophet Yahya (John) 28. Prophet Isa (Jesus) and Mary 29. Prophet Muhammad.

Never have I found the stories of these Prophets all compiled neatly into one book. Now, of course that there could be 29 books written about these 29 Prophets, and that’s one of the unfortunate downside of this book. It’s a shame that the stories are [understandably] shortened to make way for all the other stories to fit in the book. But so much so that some of the important details are missing, and the events look speeded up.

Hence, for untrained eyes it would mistakenly appear that most of the stories have the following sequence: 1. Certain group of people are starting to sin and forget about Allah 2. Allah send a Prophet to remind them of the true path 3. They ignore the message 4. Those who follow the Prophet are safe, while the rest are punished. Which is technically true, but not in this grossly simplistic way.

Now think of it like the final season of the Game of Thrones. It’s rushed, it’s an awful ending for such a great build up from season 1 to 7. But apparently, the original plan was to spread out the sequences in season 8 for several more seasons. So that the transformation of Khalesi into a mad queen will be gradual, the war against the White Walkers will be longer, etc. Now this sounds absolutely fantastic.

Likewise, the long-form stories of the Prophets reveal so much more than just this simplistic sin-to-punishment template. They show, among many others, more descriptive details of their awful sins, the many attempts over long period of time to make the sinners realise of their sins, and they also show Allah’s mercy and patience over them. And thus, reading this book requires a bit of a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, this book of short biographies is still an excellent introduction for the stories of the Prophets. It is written in a “goldilocks” pace where it is fast enough not to be boring, but slow enough to let us absorb them in peace. Perfect for a Ramadan reading.

“Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion” by Nicholas Spence

This book is intriguing right from the beginning. It started off with a story about 3 pivotal events in history with regards of what appear to be religion vs. science: the abjuration of Galileo, in Rome 22 June 1633; the Huxley vs. Wilberforce debate, in Oxford 30 June 1860; and the Scopes “monkey” trial in Dayton, Tennessee, 20 July 1925 where this time around it was religion that is in the hot seat being humiliated.

The author, Nicholas Spencer, then remarks that “there are stories behind and within the story of each of these famed battles. The single, coherent narrative we have been sold fragments, on closer inspection, into a mess of variously connected tales. There is no such thing as a -still less the – history of science and religion.”

I’m sorry, what?

As Spencer explains, “the science of Christendom was considerably more sophisticated than most people give it credit for; medieval science is not a contradiction in terms after all. Nicolaus Copernicus never imagined that his theory was a threat to his religion. Senior Church figures were initially positive about heliocentrism. Almost nobody thought the Copernican decentring of the earth demoted or degraded humans, as Freud later claimed. Giordano Bruno was not made a martyr on account of his science. Galileo’s trial was as much about Aristotle, the Protestant threat and his soured friendship with Pope Urban as it was about heliocentrism. Catholic science did not disappear after Galileo.”

Indeed, as Spencer further elaborate, the early scientific societies like the Royal Society were not anti-religion (as portrayed in the brilliant book The Clockwork Universe). In fact, Isaac Newton wrote extensively more about theology than science, and his science did not discredit God from the universe. Moreover, the Enlightenment was actually a period of closest harmony between science and religion, much of the early research of geology was done by clergymen, while even Charles Darwin did not lose faith after discovering evolution and instead until his end of life he denied that evolution was incompatible with theism.

So, naturally, the question would be, what the hell happened between science and religion?

This book is what it says on the tin, a very diligent take on the entangled histories of science AND religion. It provides so many intriguing stories that serve to be the myth-busters of science vs. religion. The book is incredibly well researched, with Spencer often demonstrate his in-depth knowledge on the subject and appears to have read every single books or documents ever produced since the dawn of time.

It is a shame, therefore, that the same strong point of the book can also be the weakness. Because the sheer abundance of characters, stories, quotes, the portrayal of many different eras, and the many debates can be overwhelming at times due to the unclear narrative that dwell too long in the intricate details, making it an unnecessarily difficult book to read.

But it was never intended to be a light reading, especially for a book with a topic as big as science and religion. And if we can digest it, or rely less on the often distracted narrative, the insights from the book can indeed be mind-altering.

The book takes us into an incredible journey through time, with part 1 started from the classical world to 1600 (a period when everyone worshipped God), moving to Islamic Baghdad and Spain, to North Africa and medieval European Judaism, to Christendom, to the spread of Copernicanism through the 16th century, and then to Western Europe where science as we know it now emerged.

Moreover, part 2 of the book takes us through the period when modern science was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries while religion helped to conceive, nurture, and develop it. Part 3 takes us to 19th century where science started to drift apart from religion, where conflicts emerged between science and religion, for better and for worse. And finally part 4, where the story took us from 1900 to present day where all of the authority disputes had been settled, and both science and religion are having the “inconclusive, sometimes beneficial, sometimes fractious, conversations.”

It is so fascinating to see that science and religion now seems to be the absolute nemesis while few hundred years ago they were very much compatible and inseparable. And reading this book is crucial to fully understand what science (and religion, for that matter) is really about.

“Saya Ingin Lihat Semua Ini Berakhir: Esei dan Wawancara Dengan Pramoedya Ananta Toer” by August Hans den Boef and Kees Snoek

This is a condensed book that provides a thorough biography of Pramoedya Ananta Toer in the first half of the book, and an intimate conversation with the great man himself in the other half that dived deeper into his past.

What stands out about this book compared to other Pramoedya biographies is that this book focuses on some of his selected books alongside the story of the man, which gives a more complete picture about his journey as a writer.

The book reveals, for example, the raw chaos in the transition period between Revolution and Independence, Pramoedya’s conversation with Soekarno, addressing his encounter with PKI (and his argument with D. N. Aidit), his role in nation building as a writer, how he sees his books as an individual with its own life, how he never reads his finished works, his favourite writers (John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Lode Zielens, Maxim Gorki, Multatuli), and his hope for his readers.

The book also blatantly shows the criticisms, the imprisonments, the book banning (and destroying), his hunger in exile, and multiple tortures launched against him after Suharto took over power, including the financial difficulties during the many arrests where he’s unable to sell any of his work and had to live from honorarium grant from overseas. All of them give an added weigh to the title of the book, that comes from his expression “I want to see all of this to end.”

You know that phrase by Ernest Hemingway “In order to write about life first you need to live it”? It is only after reading this book that it becomes clear where his brilliant writing comes from, how the struggles contributed to his way of thinking, how the mood of the stories reflected the mood of his own circumstance during the time of writing, how the harsh occurrences in the books were the same occasions that he experienced or witnessed, and how the characters in the stories reflect his personal opinion.

This added a more complete picture towards Pramoedya, which complements the brilliant biographies by his English translator Max Lane (about the making of the Buru Quartet), and a close family account by his brother Koesalah Soebagyo Toer (which provide an angle on his human side from the family perspective).

And if I learn anything from this book it is that ideas are powerful, ideas are feared by the status quo wanting to preserve a propaganda. That’s why Pramoedya was grossly mistreated due to his nature as truth-teller. And as much as I want to see justice served to those who tortured him, Pramoedya eventually got the last laugh when he got his revenge through what he knows best: by writing about them through his fictionalized stories, and let the world knows.

Because bones can break and heal, criminals can even get killed and still amount to nothing, but revealing the truth is much more dangerous for the perpetrators, because it can enlighten the masses and create a spark of change.

“Cerita Dari Jakarta” by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

This is a book of 12 short stories, that shows Jakarta in the turbulent 1940s, from 12 different perspectives. The stories are incredibly diverse with rich characters:

1. The struggles of a white-skin maid during the occupation of the Dutch and then the Japanese.
2. A conversation between 2 hungry wanderers in the city.
3. The tragic back story of a domestic abuse victim running away from home.
4. A neighborly conversation with an enigmatic Arab.
5. An art enthusiast talking about books, movies, and drama plays.
6. An animal doctor who lives and works in the Dutch, Japanese, revolution, and independence eras.
7. A prostitute in the time of Japanese occupation.
8. The story about many different types of maid in the city.
9. A rags-to-riches story about a man called Maman, who lives at the bottom end of society.
10. The deep reason behind a street musician’s performance.
11. The story about a famous martial arts expert, who turned into a heroic soldier, then moved into politics and lose his soul.
12. Life in Jakarta’s main train station, Gambir. Told from the perspectives of the porters, the food stall seller, the police, the local thugs, and more.

These stories show, among others, that it is not the character of a person that will determine how he or she will act. But it is the circumstance in which they found themselves in, that will prompt them to react. And the stories show the extreme interpretation of this, using the most incredible tales of hardship and hope in the capital city.