BRATTLEBORO — The Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCV) and the American-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (AICC) will present "Spotlight Indonesia," a series of events on April 29-30 designed to showcase Indonesian business and cultural offerings to the United States and fortify cross-cultural opportunity and to highlight several important and under-utilized green-industry connections between Vermont and the multi-island country.
The upcoming events are phase two of a program that commenced on March 13-14 with a business forum at Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro headed by AICC President Wayne Forrest, Indonesia Consul General Trie Edi Mulyani; and Consul for Economic Affairs Bambang Antarikso. The March program also included a multimedia arts exhibition at C. X. Silver Gallery, "The Art of Indonesia: Art from the Consular Collection."
On Wednesday, April 29, Phase Two continues the format of juxtaposing the diplomatic with the creative, with a 5:30 p.m. discussion at the School for International Training's Graduate Center, “Indonesia's Emerging Role in World Affairs,” followed by an all-day celebration of Indonesian dance, music and cuisine, culminating in a cooking contest and evening performance at the Latchis Theater, on Thursday, April 30.
This is the first event of its kind for AICC and the choice of Brattleboro as host was predicated by natural affinities for green production and future industry trends.
“Vermont companies are very interested in the concept of sustainability,” said Forrest from the New York AICC office. “Many Vermont companies are importing organically grown commodities, and the areas that have been planted under such methods preserve their environment. Indonesia has vast natural resources that can easily be destroyed for profit. Business activities could be conducted in those areas, such as organically grown agriculture, with an eye to preservation - so it would be a win-win situation for everybody. Indonesia wouldn't have to cut down the forests and would have quality exports among that.
“Indonesia is a hugely agricultural country,” continued Forrest. “Rain forests are being cut down at a rate more than [the country] wants. So it is very interested in connecting to places that have had similar problems in the past. If you look at Vermont in the 1920s it doesn't look like Vermont today. Most of the trees were cut down in Vermont in the 1920s. But Vermont has come back. It took a while - but [the state] is now a leader in green industry.
"So Spotlight Indonesia is a forum not only to reach out to businesses that may be interested in products that Indonesia makes that we can't grow in the United States, but also to draw this parallel between two very agriculturally oriented geographies.
“I told the Indonesians, 'You've got to check out a place like Vermont, because your future is going to be tied to the way the market is moving in the United States, and the market is moving toward the green end of the spectrum',” Forrest added emphatically.
An exotic land, a partner in trade
Indonesia is comprised of 17,000 islands, 700 languages and 250 ethnic groups. At 237 million inhabitants it boasts the fourth largest population in the world after China, India and the United States. It is the world's third-largest democracy. Its humid, tropical climate allows for the year-round farming of coffee, palm oil, vanilla, and spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper. Vermont's Green Mountain Coffee imports a substantial percentage of its beans from Indonesia.
Reached via e-mail, Consul General Mulyani was very enthusiastic when she discovered firsthand how Indonesia could be of unique value to Vermont and vice-versa.
“One thing that surprised me is when I woke up in the morning at the Latchis Hotel in Brattleboro and wanted to have breakfast; I found Sumatra Coffee at the coffee shop. Isn't that great? And Green Mountain Coffee, with 12 percent raw material imported from Indonesia, was everywhere. That means that Indonesia and Vermont - especially Brattleboro - are very close,” she wrote.
“We see that Vermont and Brattleboro have a very specific cultural capacity,” Mulyani continued. “And partnered with the Asian Cultural Center, we could show Indonesia at a glance from our equally unique angle.”
The Asian Cultural Center, headquartered in Brattleboro, has positioned itself as a premier organization in the state for art initiatives between Asian countries and Vermont. Adam Silver, executive director and co-founder with his wife Xi Cai, felt a need for art to be coupled with discussions of trade and commerce during the early planning stages of Spotlight Indonesia last spring.
“Even in times of economic downturn with places closing or trimming budgets, the arts and cultural events are still an economic engine for the region,” Silver explained. “Spotlight Indonesia celebrates, among other things, the potential of the arts and culture to align with business--which is, itself, part of culture, as is language. Business opportunities expand where there is common ground in a shared appreciation of the arts and culture.”
Making the linkage
In a time of global economic duress, such reaching out for connections and appreciation between unlikely locales could prove beneficial, especially given the facts of past trends.
As Forrest put it, “There's a real growing middle class in Indonesia, and in any country in the world when the middle class grows, their appetite changes, their interests change. They open up to more things from around the world. Indonesians are eating pizza now; that's not a natural part of their diet - their diet is rice-based - but they're moving into a wider international palette.
"So could Vermont sell more cheese there? You bet, because the Indonesians don't naturally have a milk industry. So why not have Vermont cheeses right there at specialty markets?”
In hopes for the success of April's events, Forrest added that, “Anytime we make a linkage, it's really hard to predict where it's going to lead. The real issue is to make the linkage.”