Women's health and history

Ms Vasco wrote a couple of days ago of an encounter in a village just south of Gunung Sitoli. She saw a body wrapped in a sheet being carried by a group of men. It was the body of a woman who had died in childbirth and was now on her way home to her village. For Vasco, this scene raised questions about the effectiveness and direction of development programs in Nias.

It raises some other questions, too. While it's true that Nias has been neglected and under-developed for many years, things have certainly improved over the past couple of years. Roads are better, schools are being built, there's money flowing in, Gunung Sitoli is booming, and attention is being directed toward important issues. I've heard that the local hospital is of a very high standard. Perhaps that's what makes this story all the more tragic.

I don't think that this is indicative of the situation in the whole of Indonesia, although I would suspect that other poor, outlying regions may be facing similar challenges.

For the last week or two we've been reading a book before bed. I've been reading aloud while Vasco sips her tea and does some knitting. At present we are reading A Short History of Indonesia: The Unlikely Nation? by Colin Brown. We are really enjoying it and learning a lot. Each night, as I finish a chapter, I flick forward a few pages to see what's next: it's a teaser.

On Tuesday night I was skimming ahead a little and came across a short passage that resonated deeply and sadly with the scene in the village that very afternoon.

A very small number of Indonesian children - mostly Christians or members of the aristocracy - were permitted to attend Dutch-language primary schools. One person to receive this opportunity was Kartini, the daughter of the bupati [local head] of Jepara, on the north-central coast of Java. In early adulthood she entered into correspondence with friends, both Indonesian and Dutch, in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Kartini saw much that was to be admired in Dutch culture, but by the same token was resolutely Javanese in her orientation. A firm believer in education for women, and in women's emancipation, she was the first major female figure in modern Indonesian history. In 1905 she died in childbirth, aged just 25. (p108)

This isn't the first time that we've stumbled upon a fragment of this country's history only to see echoes of it in the daily life just outside our front door. In this case, though, we have to ask why the tragedy of women dying in childbirth is being allowed to repeat itself today.

Correction: Amended to state that the woman's body was being carried in a sheet, not on a stretcher.