The Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirata
Indonesia is made up of a bunch of islands:
The summary is made up of a bunch of words:
Ikal is one of the ten students of the Muhamaddiyah School, the oldest and poorest school in the Indonesian tin-mining island of Belitong. Like him, his classmates are from the most downtrodden families in the region. But the school has two weapons—its teacher Bu Mus, a slight fifteen-year-old girl with burning courage and a passion for education, and Lintang, the boy genius who inspires his classmates to dream and fight their destiny. Soon the island’s underdogs become its champions. Incredibly moving and full of hope, The Rainbow Troops swept Indonesia off its feet, selling over five million copies and becoming the highest-selling book in its history. It will sweep you away too.
I finished my last book in MAY? Where the fuck did the time go?
Anyway. This is one of those books that shows you just how different it is in very poor countries. I was also thinking that it took place a very long time ago, but it was only published in 2005 so there goes that theory. Whoa. The author was born in 1967, so this would have taken place around the 70s/80s. Definitely changes my thought on it. (And shows how little research I do on my books. I could be so much better at this). But let's get into it with the perfect starter:
"Imagine the worst possible problems for an elementary school classroom: a roof with leaks so large that students see planes flying in the sky and have to hold umbrellas while studying on rainy days; a cement floor continuously decomposing into sand; strong winds that shake the students' souls with the fear of their school collapsing; and students who want to enter the class but first have to usher goats out of the room. We experienced all of this." Now can you imagine kids in first world countries dealing with even one of these problems? They just wouldn't do it. (And no, I'm not talking about "kids these days!" I'm also thinking of when I was a child and I don't believe I would have braved all that for school.) But here's how he felt about it: "There was a beauty in this poor school, a beauty that I wouldn't trade for a thousand luxurious schools."
But, as we can expect with so many colonized countries, not everybody lived that way: "We, the natives of Belitong, were like a pack of starving rats in the middle of a barn full of rice." Tin mines were found, and of course the colonizers got to digging. Indonesia was independent by the time Andrea Hirata was born, but we all know that doesn't mean they just clear out and leave the natives to themselves. So the Dutch continued to prosper and the locals continued to slave in manual labor. At one point it's believed the school needs to be destroyed for tin mining, but the teachers and students keep pushing and end up saving the school. "And though our efforts would surely fail, our pioneering had opened people's eyes, showing them that a corporation, even a state-owned one, couldn't treat people however it wished." Uh, can we get some of that over here in the US? Be real cool if our country wasn't run by corporations. Also, of course, that really didn't change anything for the folks at the school: "The experience taught me something important about poverty: it is a commodity. PN canceled its tin plundering plans for our school, but that didn't make us any less poor." And this very unfortunate situation: "A genius, a native of the richest island in Indonesia, had to leave school because of poverty."
I feel like each new book/country/perspective gives me a new appreciation for this project. I'm so glad to learn about different cultures, countries, people, time, and history, but you find so many similarities too. (Of course. Duh.) But here we are in 2022, let's just estimate about 50 years later--50 YEARS--and things aren't that much different. The rich keep stomping on the poor and keeping them down. Everywhere. Of course it's worse in some places than in others, but that situation is universal. And I guess it always has been. But why? Yeah, I like money too, but I also don't want to earn that money by pushing others into (or farther into) poverty. So you get these Bezos-Musk-Zuckerberg types but...why? How is it better, in their minds, to buy an island or a super-duper-yacht, or go to space for 30 seconds instead of helping people? Build libraries, clinics, wings of schools in poor areas; donate books, food, clothing, scholarships, flat out money; advocate for universal healthcare, climate and environmental protections, protections for the rights of minorities. Now, I know it's easy for me to say they should do all this stuff when I'm not actually doing a whole lot of it myself. But I do try.
Whoa, got a little carried away there for a bit! I shall step down from my soapbox now. But guys--and I know I don't have a lot of readers but who cares--let's all decide to just try to be nice. Help out where we can, take small steps to help the environment or a downtrodden animal or person. Let's all just do something good.
