Celebrity Indonesians Attack!

The weekend is a time for fluff, so apropos of nothing, here's your daily dose of nothingness: A roundup of celebrity Indonesians. Funny that you don't hear much about their heritage ... must be the retiring Javanese personality. Or like those stealth Canadians, they're just trying to infiltrate the US completely in order to take it over.

Herein and forthwith, in no particular order, singer/songwriter Michelle Branch (creator of the ubiquitous pop tune "Everywhere"); Carmit Bachar, former member of the Pussycat Dolls; Mark-Paul Gosselaar, ex-star of sitcom detritus Saved By The Bell and more recently of NYPD Blue; professional poker player, often seen on endless reruns of the World Series of Poker, John Juanda; hip-hop wannbe Sky Lopez; porn queen Jade Marcela; Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Tom Mastny; CNN correspondent Atika Shubert; Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barack Obama's half-sister and recent speechmaker at the Democratic National Convention in Denver; and, maybe most improbably, the hard-rocking Van Halens.

Who knew?

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The Magic of Lombok

Reader (and author) Kathryn Alice just sent along some lovely photos of her stay in Lombok, a gorgeous island in the Nusa Tenggara chain that's somewhat like Bali's overlooked kid sister. Not as developed or overrun with tourists as Bali's Kuta Beach and the like, to the island's direct west ... which is a very good thing.

Alice took full advantage, spending three months on the island and writing a book for good measure. For Americans looking to stretch their travel cash, she says it's the ideal locale to live for cheap - the weak US dollar still goes a long way here - and do nothing but "write and dive and sail." It's also a good jumping-off point for visiting islands further down the chain, like Sumbawa and Flores. And don't forget the Gili islands off the northwest coast, sandy gems that have long been known to the backpacking crowd.

Visit Alice's personal site at http://www.kathrynalice.com/, and be sure to check out her book Love Will Find You, on Amazon.com and everywhere else.

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Indonesia Stock Roundup

Best-of-breed investment bank Goldman Sachs has said that it expects Indonesia to be among the 15 biggest economies in the world. With recently-announced year-over-year growth rates of 6.4%, while the rest of the world sputters, it's not so farfetched. But which Indonesian stocks in particular might be worth a look for adventurous investors?

Many analyst picks are in the coal sector, which has been so beaten up that bargains are starting to appear. Tom Wright in Wall Street Journal Asia points out that Bumi Resources and Adaro Energy are now looking attractively valued. Analyst Nick Cashmore of CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets recommends state-owned coal concern Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, along with Indo Tambangraya Megah.

For the bigger picture, ETF advisor Carl Delfeld singles out the Indonesia Fund, a closed-end Credit Suisse product. With the country still boasting muscular growth rates despite a central bank that's committed to taming inflation, he says Indonesia's emerging story bodes well for the Jakarta Index as a whole.

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Crusin', Sulawesi style

Ever wanna be a pirate? For would-be Jack Sparrows of the world, a reader writes in of a fascinating expedition kicking off in South Sulawesi in the next couple of months. The KLM Pearl is a hand-constructed, 38-meter wooden replica of an 18th-century pirate ship, which is setting sail for a one-year voyage east to the Caribbean, to its permanent home in St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

Happily for armchair pirates, you'll be able to follow the whole expedition on the Web. Or if you want to get a firsthand taste of the traditional Indonesian boating fleet, check out the website of the organizer, http://www.songlinecruises.com. Its founder Robin Engel runs regular trips for wildlife, scuba and yachting enthusiasts, equipped with a host of traditional schooners built by the Bugis people of south Sulawesi. For more info on getting aboard ships like the one at right, contact them at info@songlinecruises.com.

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Shariah comes to mutual funds

With so many Arab states swimming in petrodollars, it's not surprising that financial institutions are offering more investments with an Islamic spin. Welcome to the world of shariah-compliant mutual funds, which are only allowed to invest in companies that fit with Muslim ethical precepts. That means barring companies that carry high levels of debt, or profit from the charging of interest like most financial institutions. Or those that trade in all manner of 'vice' investments like gambling, alcohol or pornography.

It sounds like significant handcuffs for a fund manager, but it's not as limiting as it sounds. The DJ Asia-Pacific Islamic Index tracks 1,085 stocks with a market cap of $3.5 trillion. And Western-based shariah funds, like the Nicholas Kaiser-helmed Amana Growth, have boasted surperior returns (in the top 2% of large-cap growth peers, over 10 years). One of Kaiser's home runs: Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, bought at 32 and now in the 160s.

Indonesia's Batasa Capital, for one, currently offers the country's only shariah-compliant mutual fund. But look for more and more shariah-oriented financial products to crowd the market, as burgeoning sovereign wealth funds look for Muslim-approved areas to place their bets.

Learn more about the niche from this Investor's Business Daily article, http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=19&issue=20080820.

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Ghosts of Leaders Past

Let's reflect for a minute about ghosts. Ghosts of nations, of past administrations, that linger like spirits that haven't been able to find closure. And so, they stay, and haunt. Exhibit A: Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of Indonesia's ex-strongman. Just when you thought that era was pushing finally into the definitive past, it reappears again, as very much something of the present.

This time it involves the seizure of US$134 million, related to one of Tommy's companies and accusations of graft. The merits of the particular case will be left to the courts; he's been able to fend off such actions before, including defeating a corruption case earlier this year (even winning a countersuit).

The more interesting point is how long these cycles prove to be, whether in economies or in national politics. Look at the U.S. housing market, or the credit boom and crunch ... long on the way up, long on the way down. It takes years for nations to work significant events through their systems. So it is for Indonesia and the ghosts of dictators past, whose names and influences never seem to recede.

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