Why not Splendors of Indonesia?

Prompted by Soegio Sosrosoemarto's letter (The Jakarta Post, June 15, 1995) on the subject of the Faces of Indonesia cultural road show, that was recently conducted in a number of European countries, I should like to make a different kind of comment on the use of the word "faces" in the show's title.

What the organizers of the show probably did not know is that in many European languages the English word "faces" is pronounced in exactly the same way as the word "faeces," a word of Latin origin. It is a word that is often used either as a quasi-medical term or as a euphemism for more earthly locutions standing for "human excrement."

If the show is to be taken on the road again, I would strongly recommend replacing the unsavory (and malodorous) implication of "Faces", as used in the show's title, with some other, less offensive term. Sosrosoemarto has suggested the phrase Glimpses of Indonesia. But to my mind, "glimpses" carries the connotation of an all too brief, or glancing, look. The show certainly deserves more than that. The substitute title that I--as a former advertising professional--would like to propose is the mission statement: The Splendors of Indonesia.

Incidentally, on the banner displayed as the show's backdrop (as seen on the local television coverage of the show) there was one single word that contained no fewer than three spelling errors. The word is rystaffel.

Error number one is the use of the letter y: the correct spelling of this Dutch word uses the letter i followed by the letter j. Error number two is the omission of another letter t as, correctly spelt, the word contains two letters t, one after the other. Error number three is the use of two letters f where only one should be used. The correct spelling of the word is rijsttafel; it is the contraction of two Dutch nouns (rijst meaning 'rice' and tafel meaning 'table').

That this ceremonial colonial Dutch custom of serving tiffin should be flogged as an Indonesian tourist attraction is, I think, as demeaning to the richness of Indonesia's cultural heritage as it is spurious in its intent to lure foreign visitors, with something that has long gone into oblivion in this country.

NURADI

Jakarta