Our Bold Path To Prosperity Analysis

“Our Bold Path to Prosperity” is the compelling true story of my life as a refugee immigrant child from Indonesia to Holland; a tiny country on the continent of Europe and ultimately to the United States; a world power country on the continent of North America. It is the story of our search for a better life, as told by my loving mother and grandmother while I was growing up and as I remember living it with my younger sister. Although the dates sometimes may not be historically accurate, the experiences are true and consequently, the deep emotion with which I composed each chapter is genuine and gut wrenchingly heartfelt.

The story begins with my grandmother who was born to Muslim parents on May 1, 1910, in Banjuwangi; a port city located near the

Their oldest daughter was born in September 1927, in Singkawang; known as the “City of a Thousand Temples” for the many temples found in the city and it’s surroundings. After the birth of their daughter, the family returned to Java, where my mother was born in the city of Banjuwangi, in April 1929, followed by the birth of my uncle, two years later. My father was born in 1924, in the city of Djombang, Java; near the birthplace of my mother. These exceptional Dutch-Indonesian people, made strong by the horrors they survived during Indonesia’s Wars for Independence, made passionate by their optimism and courage to create new beginnings, were the backbone of my family and accordingly, the significant influence of my childhood, which shaped my character as an adult.

I was born in January 1951, on the island of Java, in the village of Surabaya. After the Indonesian National Revolution, which followed World War II, my family, forced to leave independent Indonesia, repatriated to the Netherlands. I was a baby when we made the month-long voyage to the Port of Rotterdam on a refugee ship called the Groote Beer; the Great