What do Americans think of Indonesia? Not much, apparently.
The USA is the third largest country in the world by population. How many of them could tell you that Indonesia is the fourth? We’re just speculating, but we’re going to guess not many. Even former US President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, said that while some Americans had heard of Bali, most couldn’t locate Indonesia on a map.
While that could certainly be seen as an indictment of America’s educational system, there’s also the fact that our two countries are simply on opposite sides of the planet. Most Americans are barely cognizant of what’s going on with their direct neighbors to the north and south (beyond Canada having a hot prime minister and Trump’s planned border wall). Just getting to Indonesia is economically out of reach for most Americans.
“Eat, Pray, Love” definitely helped spread Bali’s fame among a certain, and maybe a few more Americans heard about Indonesia from random viral oddities like “Om Telolet Om”. But, judging by the street interviews done by popular Indonesian Youtubers Andovi da Lopez and Jovial da Lopez (aka da Lopez brothers) in New Orleans last weekend, most Americans still have little to know knowledge of our vast archipelago nation.
But, when asked to say the first thing they think of when they hear the word “Indonesia”, many did provide some hilarious responses:
Moist, Asia, Indian, a drug, India, exotic women, Asian, beautiful fabrics (nice!), Koreans (?), Vietnam, Bali (from the girl who was apparently looking it up on her cell phone)… Of course, it’s far from a scientific survey, but since the place they were interviewing people, Bourbon Street, is a very famous tourist destination in New Orleans, da Lopez brothers do get to ask a pretty diverse cross-section of Americans.
At least nobody said terrorism, tsunamis, or death to drug dealers.
It might not be fair to say, but your average Indonesian probably knows more about America than your average American knows about Indonesia. Thanks to the global domination of Hollywood and American corporate media means just about all Indonesians would have some idea of what New York, Trump and hamburgers were, while most Americans would only give you a puzzled look if you said Jakarta, Jokowi or nasi goreng.
But that’s okay. Maybe as globalization increases, and more Americans learn about Indonesia through things like the music of Agnez Mo and Rich Chigga, the action movies of Iko Uwais and the deliciousness of sate and rendang, most populous country #3 will get to know a little more about most populous country #4 in the near future. Frankly, as long as India wasn’t the first thing that popped into their minds when they heard Indonesia, we’d be happy.
