From Home

My highlight moment of 2015, with Darrel, wearing Tri Handoko

Well, it's New Year's day and here I am, back in London. I know it is a bit arbitrary, many people do not celebrate their new year today, it is the new year in the Gregorian calendar but it is a global convention to set all calendars to reflect this change of date. After all, when I was in Indonesia, a country with a Muslim population of almost 80%, although the Islamic new year was observed, all dates were given according to the familiar Gregorian calendar, now universally adopted.
Anyway, that was a digression.
I begin the year with some melancholy: a family bereavement that, as often happens on such occasions, nearly caused a rift, of the kind 'this is mine, now' with the typical response  'no, it is not, it belongs to me'.
Then, of course, I am feeling melancholic because I left a most beautiful country - I know, I was always complaining about the traffic jams of Jakarta but it all seems rather hazy now. I do regret not going to Papua, I hesitated when I had a window of opportunity back in November and opted for North Bali, which seemed safer, somehow,  but I know I should have gone. I spent the whole of yesterday reading about Papua  and I now know I will have to go there. Definitely.
Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, is the western half of the island of Papua proper and it is an Indonesian province, the other half being Papua New Guinea, an independent nation, until 1975 ruled by the  Australians.
Papua is absolutely stunnning.   It is the home of the bird of paradise, whose plumes were traded for centuries, of the Dani and of the Asmat tribes, who are known for their woodcarving and were once headhunters.

I also begin the new year with some intellectual curiosity about ethnomathematics of which I was only vaguely aware. A family member is quite obsessed with maths, a bit of a problem really because once he starts talking about it  he just never stops, firing off examples I can't get my head round.  For him it all started with the Rhind Papyrus at the British Museum and its famous problem "Aha, its whole, its seventh, it makes 19" where aha stands for x. It sparked off  a lifelong fascination with maths.
But ethnomathematics, which came up during one of our idle conversations sounds quite interesting so I will try to explore it.  Why not? Basically, ethnomathematics studies the relationship of mathematics and culture. It does have its critics and its supporters.  That too is interesting, in itself.
I look forward to the new year, I hope it is as eventful and interesting as 2015 was, with lots of travel. Happy New Year everyone!