Decisions, decisions....
Today was election day in Aceh. Early accounts suggest voter turnout was in the high 70s but little solid news on numbers till the first exit polls are released at 8 pm local.
The world's press are scuttling about analyzing the heck out of the situation and trying to figure out What It Means if the GAM slate comes out on top.
Quite extraordinary past few days, scenes unimaginable in Dec 2004 - driving home late Saturday, a light red wine buzz on smoking a #3 Romeo & Juliet with Herbie Hancock lowering the bass-line boom out the back of our midnight blue Kijang, the streets choked with young people on motorcycles doing what young people do; looking for dark corners to smoke and canoodle while dodging the authorities, in this case the religious police; the roadside burger stands packed to capacity with anxious, chain-smoking boys in prized Heavy Metal t-shirts eyeing girls backing 28" rear-ends into 24" Levis; families gathered in Banda Aceh back road kampungs to chat and swat mosquitoes, Mums heaping plate-loads of food in front of disinterested yoots; cops lounging, knee high faux-leather biker boots atop the handlebars of the their motorcycles looking for reasons ignore traffic infractions; tiny shop-house grocery-caves ablaze in kerosene light where the local power has died yet again while smoke coils from a hundreds small garbage fires.
I'm exhausted and exhilarated. Two months of seven-day weeks planning for the year-end came down to last week and this. Juggling journos and job interviews, starting the process of packing two years of my life into plastic boxes, finalizing all the paperwork debts and dues. Today was a bit of an off day on account of the elections so I started shutting down my office. There's already two large cardboard boxes loaded with papers and junk waiting for the tip tomorrow. My drawers are empty of all but a couple of paperclips, an orange highlighter and a shell I picked up in Lhokna that doubles as an ashtray. All my travel claims are ready and by tomorrow I'll have all the security guard declarations completed and it'll be time to tackle the filing cabinet.
The Han and I are scheduled to leave for the Great White North on the 20th or 21st for about a month. Do some skiing, catch the Habs live, maybe check out the Grinch's new cave if there's time. Then back to the Big Durian to sort out the next phase of our lives.
I'm feeling like a third party observer to my own life at the moment, utterly detached but living in the anger. Almost manic, cracking jokes, entertaining and no one but me can hear the fuse slowing burning. I have to keep moving. The rage still keeps me up nights: Black Label blunts it but I'm no child and that's a hell of a way to go.
There's rumors of a reprieve but frankly it would be better if I were not presented with that option. Folks seem to think that if a call comes from the warden at midnight on Dec 31st that I'm going to do cartwheels. And it is just not the case. Right now, staying with this outfit will be far harder than leaving for good.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Weirdness
Two items cropped up in my screen in the past 24 hours, further signs that the world has gone crazy.
Reuters is carrying a photo with the following capiton: Brazilian student Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, holds her cat Mimi together with what Cassia claims are Mimi's own offsprings born with dog traits last Friday, three months after mating with a neighbour's dog, in the southern Brazilian city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul state, November 15, 2006. A geneticist from the Passo Fundo University plans to take blood samples from the animals to verify the claim by Cassia and her husband Rogerio that the puppies are part of Mimi's litter of six, of which the three that were born with cat features died soon after birth, leaving the surviving three dog-like offsprings.
Dogs and cats successfully breeding together? Say what?
The second image is a satellite image of an 87,500 sq ft Colonel Sanders, the mascot of U.S. fried-chicken restaurant chain KFC, in the desert in Nevada. KFC claims it is the first brand visible from space.
Two items cropped up in my screen in the past 24 hours, further signs that the world has gone crazy.
Reuters is carrying a photo with the following capiton: Brazilian student Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, holds her cat Mimi together with what Cassia claims are Mimi's own offsprings born with dog traits last Friday, three months after mating with a neighbour's dog, in the southern Brazilian city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul state, November 15, 2006. A geneticist from the Passo Fundo University plans to take blood samples from the animals to verify the claim by Cassia and her husband Rogerio that the puppies are part of Mimi's litter of six, of which the three that were born with cat features died soon after birth, leaving the surviving three dog-like offsprings.
Dogs and cats successfully breeding together? Say what?
The second image is a satellite image of an 87,500 sq ft Colonel Sanders, the mascot of U.S. fried-chicken restaurant chain KFC, in the desert in Nevada. KFC claims it is the first brand visible from space.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
UNEMPLOYED!
Just found out my contract is not going to be extended beyond Dec. 31. 13th floor Jakarta called earlier to break the news.
22 months of 60-hour weeks (minimum) in Aceh, and words like "exceptional contribution" thrown around like horseshoes, and no job for 2007.
Particularly ironic as 'Dutch', the new BA boss - who was as surprised as me about the news - has managed to piss off all his senior staff who are literally burning up the wires trying to find work elsewhere.
Damn.
Just found out my contract is not going to be extended beyond Dec. 31. 13th floor Jakarta called earlier to break the news.
22 months of 60-hour weeks (minimum) in Aceh, and words like "exceptional contribution" thrown around like horseshoes, and no job for 2007.
Particularly ironic as 'Dutch', the new BA boss - who was as surprised as me about the news - has managed to piss off all his senior staff who are literally burning up the wires trying to find work elsewhere.
Damn.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Reaction to Aussie Imam's Rape Comments Heats Up
It is a long way from the shore of Aceh, but the controversial comments by an Australian imam are creating heat across the Islamic world. It remains to be seen if this will this evolve into another 'cartoon controversy'.
The commentary below appeared in the Nov. 3 issue of The Herald newspaper in Australia. It is a strongly-worded analysis of the reaction within that country's Muslim community to some exceedingly offensive statements made by a leading Mufti.
Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly in a recent address to the faithful likened immodestly dressed women to "uncovered meat" inviting assault.
The comments come several months after a series of virulent, tit-for-tat bashing incidents between 'white' men and Lebanese-Australians that began when a drunken mob of Australia-first thugs swarmed dozens of non-Caucasian men, and two highly-publicized gang rapes by men of Paksitani and Lebanese descent.
Beneath the story I have included a large portion of the transcript of what the Mufti actually said. It comes during an obtuse and rambling lecture about the nature of God and punishment that includes the statement - that for some reason the press has not picked up on -that "behind every man who is a thief, a greedy woman. She is pushing him. Not our women in Australia, the women of Canada... And no matter how much he brings her, she wants more. She wants to change the car, and change... Of course, the woman keeps demanding from her husband more than his ability. Either she will tell him to go and deal in drugs, or to go and steal."
Backing a bigot
Andrew Bolt
November 03, 2006
Excuses over. The disgraced mufti of Australia set Muslims a test last month and they failed. That test couldn't have been easier: make Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly pay for preaching that unveiled women invited rape. Prove that Muslims can't be led by a man who says raped women must be "jailed for life". Prove we have nothing to fear from your faith.
Simple? Yet yesterday 34 Muslim groups signed a petition backing this bigot, while others plan a big rally for Sydney tomorrow, denouncing not Hilaly but the non-Muslims who criticise him. The results are in: Islam here -- as represented by many of its leaders -- is now a threat. What's more: our culture of self-hate makes us too weak to properly resist. I know saying such things is hard on the many moderate Muslims I keep insisting are out there. I am sorry for that, but where in God's name are those people? How much longer must we wait for them to speak?
For more than 20 years they said nothing as their most prominent imam, in their biggest mosque, damned Jews as perverts, called suicide bombers heroes, praised terror groups, vilified non-Muslims and hailed the September 11 terror attacks on the United States as "God's work against oppressors".
They said nothing as he gave the run of his mosque to a pro-bin Laden youth group and hired one of its translators as his spokesman. For years they let this man, their mufti, represent Islam in this country, whose language he never really bothered to learn in nearly 30 years of living here.
But I never lost hope, and so for a few days last week thought . . . at last! At last we heard Hilaly being damned by Muslims, too -- by women's groups, a Melbourne University academic and even the Islamic Council of Victoria, which had foolishly helped to make this Egyptian the mufti so no government would dare deport him.
At last Muslims were disowning this man. He was disinvited from a Brisbane festival. There was talk of stripping him of his title. The Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the Lakemba mosque, even debated sacking him as imam, before banning him from preaching for three months. No, this wasn't much, but many in the media grabbed it hungrily. We badly want to find Muslims who'll renounce the values of the hate-preachers, to show that it's not us against Islam. Mind you, we shouldn't have had to be so pathetically grateful.
What sane person could want a woman jailed for being raped? But we should have known already this was a bigger problem than just Hilaly. Last year Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed also gave a speech in Sydney, which said raped women had themselves to blame. And which of the 500 men who heard Hilaly say the same at his sermon complained? Only when it was reported in the English-speaking press did some concede Hilaly had gone too far.
Yet even then supporters sent him vanloads of flowers, and when he returned to his mosque last Friday he was greeted "like a rock star", said one paper, by an adoring crowd of 5000.And that criticism of him? It faded away.
Now the Lebanese Muslim Association isn't so ashamed of him, after all: "We did accept his apology and we want to move on." The Muslim Women's Association, which first admitted to being "shocked" by Hilaly's sermon, now said he was "very good to all Muslim women".
Said founding president Aziz El Saddik: "Those who say bad things about him, they have very bad manners."
His sermon on rape was for Muslims only. Not our business. But we can't afford to believe that any more.
They weren't Muslim women, after all, who were raped by a Lebanese gang in Sydney, which called them "sluts" and "Aussie pigs". It wasn't a Muslim teenager who was pack-raped in Sydney by Pakistani brothers, whose father told the court: "What do (the victims) expect to happen to them? Girls from Pakistan don't go out at night."
When Hilaly preaches excuses for such rapes, that concerns us all. Very much.
But it is true that not all those defending Hilaly like what he said. The people behind tomorrow's rally say, rather, that our criticism of him has degenerated into just Muslim-bashing. Yesterday's statement by 34 Muslim groups -- most representing Islamic colleges and students, or the Muslims of tomorrow -- says the same, even as it confirms something far more scary.
"We believe that the public scrutiny of this matter should have ended with the sheik's apology," it says. "We believe that the Muslim community should be allowed to deal with the ramifications of the incident without interference from people who only wish to promote hostility and incite hatred towards our community. Finally, we consider this matter to be closed."
Closed? In fact, Hilaly has not retracted a word of what he said. If this matter is "closed" then he has won. But what is most frightening is not that he's won, but how. Both this statement and the rally show he's won because even educated Muslims, born right here, think it's better to defend a Muslim bigot than to have him criticised by infidels.
It's the code of the tribe: the worst of us is better than the best of you. It's a closed community speaking -- a paranoid one that sees itself at war even with people whose only worry is that their preacher excuses rapists. And menace is in the air.
What other congregation at prayer needs to be reminded -- as Hilaly reminded those at his mosque last week -- not to punch people on the way out? Which other rally for a religious leader needs to be warned -- as the NSW Police Minister warned this week -- that police would not tolerate any violence?
I'm not surprised one of Hilaly's former advisers, Jamal Rifi, warns that if he hangs on as Lakemba's imam he may trigger "racial tensions, much bigger than what we had over the Cronulla riots".
But what are we doing to help Muslims to break from him and leave this cultural ghetto, this encampment, before things get truly ugly? Not enough.
For a start, we make too many excuses for the Hilalys, as if they were mere children, or Australia the real villain. Yesterday Suzanne Bassette, national secretary of the Australian Democrats, even said: "I'm willing to stand up with anybody else in this country who happens to agree with Sheik Hilaly's sentiments . . . Unfortunately, how a woman dresses does affect her level of likeliness to be chosen." She said the "real lesson" from this fuss was this "latest opportunity to get angry".
The problem wasn't the mufti who wants to jail raped women, but his critics. Bassette wasn't alone. The Age ran a big cartoon likewise blaming sluttish white girls for putting themselves in danger, and federal Labor's Peter Garrett, the former singer, said Hilaly's comments were terrible, but "at the same time, the levels of violence against Australian women is something happening in the bars, in the clubs, in the bedrooms, in the boardrooms".
Again, we are the truly wicked. Leave Hilaly alone.
How can a culture so sick of itself resist the kind of challenge that Hilaly and his angry supporters represent? How can it inspire young Muslims to side not with him but with us? I don't know, when we teach the young we are a country of child-stealing, land-raping, Muslim-murdering, Yank-licking, gas-belching vandals. Until that changes, expect the traffic to flow more into Hilaly's ghetto than out of it.
Just consider the radical mother of two of the Australian Muslims arrested in Yemen last week on terrorism charges, and accused of ties to al-Qaida -- a so-called former "hippy chick" from Mudgee, who found in Islam what she couldn't in the society that raised her.As I said: Muslims have failed. But so have we all. We now have urgent work to do, if we want to save ourselves from far more strife than we dare yet imagine or say.
Portion of Transcript of Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly's comments
But in the event of adultery, the responsibility falls 90% of the time with women not men.
Why? Because the woman possesses the weapon of seduction. She is the one who takes her clothes off, cuts them short, acts flirtatious, puts on make up, shows off, and goes on the streets acting silly.
She is the one wearing a short dress, lifting it up, lowering it down... then a glance, then a smile, then a word, then a greeting, then a word, then a date, then a meeting, then a crime, then Long Bay Jail, (laughs - one word not clear), then comes a merciless judge who gives you 65 years.
But the whole disaster, who started it?
The Al-Rafihi scholar says in one of his writings, he says: If I receive a crime of rape - kidnap and violation of honour - I would (...) the man and teach him a lesson in morals, and I would order the woman be arrested and jailed for life.
Why, Rafihi? He says, because if she hadn't left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it.
If you take a kilo of meat, and you don't put it in the fridge, or in the pot, or in the kitchen, but you put in on a plate and placed it outside in the yard.
Then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats ate the meat. Then (...). Right or not?
If one puts uncovered meat out in the street, or on the footpath, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover... then the cats come and eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat?
The uncovered meat is the problem! If it was covered the cat wouldn't have... it would have circled around it and circled around it, then given up and gone.
If the meat was in the fridge and it smelled it, it can bang its head as much as it wants, but it's no use.
If she was in her room, in her house, wearing her hijab, being chaste, the disasters wouldn't have happened.
The woman possesses the weapon of seduction and temptation.
That's why Satan says about the woman, "You are half a (...). You are my messenger to achieve my needs.
You are the last weapon I would use to smash the head of the finest of men.
There are a few men that I use a lot of things with, but they never heed me.
But you? Oh, you are my best weapon.
Draw your own conclusions about this but I'm thinking at the very least there should be some sort of licensing procedure for all those 'weapons of seduction'!
It is a long way from the shore of Aceh, but the controversial comments by an Australian imam are creating heat across the Islamic world. It remains to be seen if this will this evolve into another 'cartoon controversy'.
The commentary below appeared in the Nov. 3 issue of The Herald newspaper in Australia. It is a strongly-worded analysis of the reaction within that country's Muslim community to some exceedingly offensive statements made by a leading Mufti.
Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly in a recent address to the faithful likened immodestly dressed women to "uncovered meat" inviting assault.
The comments come several months after a series of virulent, tit-for-tat bashing incidents between 'white' men and Lebanese-Australians that began when a drunken mob of Australia-first thugs swarmed dozens of non-Caucasian men, and two highly-publicized gang rapes by men of Paksitani and Lebanese descent.
Beneath the story I have included a large portion of the transcript of what the Mufti actually said. It comes during an obtuse and rambling lecture about the nature of God and punishment that includes the statement - that for some reason the press has not picked up on -that "behind every man who is a thief, a greedy woman. She is pushing him. Not our women in Australia, the women of Canada... And no matter how much he brings her, she wants more. She wants to change the car, and change... Of course, the woman keeps demanding from her husband more than his ability. Either she will tell him to go and deal in drugs, or to go and steal."
Backing a bigot
Andrew Bolt
November 03, 2006
Excuses over. The disgraced mufti of Australia set Muslims a test last month and they failed. That test couldn't have been easier: make Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly pay for preaching that unveiled women invited rape. Prove that Muslims can't be led by a man who says raped women must be "jailed for life". Prove we have nothing to fear from your faith.
Simple? Yet yesterday 34 Muslim groups signed a petition backing this bigot, while others plan a big rally for Sydney tomorrow, denouncing not Hilaly but the non-Muslims who criticise him. The results are in: Islam here -- as represented by many of its leaders -- is now a threat. What's more: our culture of self-hate makes us too weak to properly resist. I know saying such things is hard on the many moderate Muslims I keep insisting are out there. I am sorry for that, but where in God's name are those people? How much longer must we wait for them to speak?
For more than 20 years they said nothing as their most prominent imam, in their biggest mosque, damned Jews as perverts, called suicide bombers heroes, praised terror groups, vilified non-Muslims and hailed the September 11 terror attacks on the United States as "God's work against oppressors".
They said nothing as he gave the run of his mosque to a pro-bin Laden youth group and hired one of its translators as his spokesman. For years they let this man, their mufti, represent Islam in this country, whose language he never really bothered to learn in nearly 30 years of living here.
But I never lost hope, and so for a few days last week thought . . . at last! At last we heard Hilaly being damned by Muslims, too -- by women's groups, a Melbourne University academic and even the Islamic Council of Victoria, which had foolishly helped to make this Egyptian the mufti so no government would dare deport him.
At last Muslims were disowning this man. He was disinvited from a Brisbane festival. There was talk of stripping him of his title. The Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the Lakemba mosque, even debated sacking him as imam, before banning him from preaching for three months. No, this wasn't much, but many in the media grabbed it hungrily. We badly want to find Muslims who'll renounce the values of the hate-preachers, to show that it's not us against Islam. Mind you, we shouldn't have had to be so pathetically grateful.
What sane person could want a woman jailed for being raped? But we should have known already this was a bigger problem than just Hilaly. Last year Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed also gave a speech in Sydney, which said raped women had themselves to blame. And which of the 500 men who heard Hilaly say the same at his sermon complained? Only when it was reported in the English-speaking press did some concede Hilaly had gone too far.
Yet even then supporters sent him vanloads of flowers, and when he returned to his mosque last Friday he was greeted "like a rock star", said one paper, by an adoring crowd of 5000.And that criticism of him? It faded away.
Now the Lebanese Muslim Association isn't so ashamed of him, after all: "We did accept his apology and we want to move on." The Muslim Women's Association, which first admitted to being "shocked" by Hilaly's sermon, now said he was "very good to all Muslim women".
Said founding president Aziz El Saddik: "Those who say bad things about him, they have very bad manners."
His sermon on rape was for Muslims only. Not our business. But we can't afford to believe that any more.
They weren't Muslim women, after all, who were raped by a Lebanese gang in Sydney, which called them "sluts" and "Aussie pigs". It wasn't a Muslim teenager who was pack-raped in Sydney by Pakistani brothers, whose father told the court: "What do (the victims) expect to happen to them? Girls from Pakistan don't go out at night."
When Hilaly preaches excuses for such rapes, that concerns us all. Very much.
But it is true that not all those defending Hilaly like what he said. The people behind tomorrow's rally say, rather, that our criticism of him has degenerated into just Muslim-bashing. Yesterday's statement by 34 Muslim groups -- most representing Islamic colleges and students, or the Muslims of tomorrow -- says the same, even as it confirms something far more scary.
"We believe that the public scrutiny of this matter should have ended with the sheik's apology," it says. "We believe that the Muslim community should be allowed to deal with the ramifications of the incident without interference from people who only wish to promote hostility and incite hatred towards our community. Finally, we consider this matter to be closed."
Closed? In fact, Hilaly has not retracted a word of what he said. If this matter is "closed" then he has won. But what is most frightening is not that he's won, but how. Both this statement and the rally show he's won because even educated Muslims, born right here, think it's better to defend a Muslim bigot than to have him criticised by infidels.
It's the code of the tribe: the worst of us is better than the best of you. It's a closed community speaking -- a paranoid one that sees itself at war even with people whose only worry is that their preacher excuses rapists. And menace is in the air.
What other congregation at prayer needs to be reminded -- as Hilaly reminded those at his mosque last week -- not to punch people on the way out? Which other rally for a religious leader needs to be warned -- as the NSW Police Minister warned this week -- that police would not tolerate any violence?
I'm not surprised one of Hilaly's former advisers, Jamal Rifi, warns that if he hangs on as Lakemba's imam he may trigger "racial tensions, much bigger than what we had over the Cronulla riots".
But what are we doing to help Muslims to break from him and leave this cultural ghetto, this encampment, before things get truly ugly? Not enough.
For a start, we make too many excuses for the Hilalys, as if they were mere children, or Australia the real villain. Yesterday Suzanne Bassette, national secretary of the Australian Democrats, even said: "I'm willing to stand up with anybody else in this country who happens to agree with Sheik Hilaly's sentiments . . . Unfortunately, how a woman dresses does affect her level of likeliness to be chosen." She said the "real lesson" from this fuss was this "latest opportunity to get angry".
The problem wasn't the mufti who wants to jail raped women, but his critics. Bassette wasn't alone. The Age ran a big cartoon likewise blaming sluttish white girls for putting themselves in danger, and federal Labor's Peter Garrett, the former singer, said Hilaly's comments were terrible, but "at the same time, the levels of violence against Australian women is something happening in the bars, in the clubs, in the bedrooms, in the boardrooms".
Again, we are the truly wicked. Leave Hilaly alone.
How can a culture so sick of itself resist the kind of challenge that Hilaly and his angry supporters represent? How can it inspire young Muslims to side not with him but with us? I don't know, when we teach the young we are a country of child-stealing, land-raping, Muslim-murdering, Yank-licking, gas-belching vandals. Until that changes, expect the traffic to flow more into Hilaly's ghetto than out of it.
Just consider the radical mother of two of the Australian Muslims arrested in Yemen last week on terrorism charges, and accused of ties to al-Qaida -- a so-called former "hippy chick" from Mudgee, who found in Islam what she couldn't in the society that raised her.As I said: Muslims have failed. But so have we all. We now have urgent work to do, if we want to save ourselves from far more strife than we dare yet imagine or say.
Portion of Transcript of Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilaly's comments
But in the event of adultery, the responsibility falls 90% of the time with women not men.
Why? Because the woman possesses the weapon of seduction. She is the one who takes her clothes off, cuts them short, acts flirtatious, puts on make up, shows off, and goes on the streets acting silly.
She is the one wearing a short dress, lifting it up, lowering it down... then a glance, then a smile, then a word, then a greeting, then a word, then a date, then a meeting, then a crime, then Long Bay Jail, (laughs - one word not clear), then comes a merciless judge who gives you 65 years.
But the whole disaster, who started it?
The Al-Rafihi scholar says in one of his writings, he says: If I receive a crime of rape - kidnap and violation of honour - I would (...) the man and teach him a lesson in morals, and I would order the woman be arrested and jailed for life.
Why, Rafihi? He says, because if she hadn't left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it.
If you take a kilo of meat, and you don't put it in the fridge, or in the pot, or in the kitchen, but you put in on a plate and placed it outside in the yard.
Then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats ate the meat. Then (...). Right or not?
If one puts uncovered meat out in the street, or on the footpath, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover... then the cats come and eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat?
The uncovered meat is the problem! If it was covered the cat wouldn't have... it would have circled around it and circled around it, then given up and gone.
If the meat was in the fridge and it smelled it, it can bang its head as much as it wants, but it's no use.
If she was in her room, in her house, wearing her hijab, being chaste, the disasters wouldn't have happened.
The woman possesses the weapon of seduction and temptation.
That's why Satan says about the woman, "You are half a (...). You are my messenger to achieve my needs.
You are the last weapon I would use to smash the head of the finest of men.
There are a few men that I use a lot of things with, but they never heed me.
But you? Oh, you are my best weapon.
Draw your own conclusions about this but I'm thinking at the very least there should be some sort of licensing procedure for all those 'weapons of seduction'!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Abundant Ales and Agro Elephants
Just back in Banda Aceh after a week's running around Java. Spent a full day in Yogyakarta for the first time since the I left in early June, a week after the earthquake. Still 800,000 people without decent place to live and the rainy season approaching. The government's position seems to be embodied by "Crisis? What Crisis?" Wait till the vast chickencoops (yes, literally raised wooden chickencoops 120 m long) crowded with birds and homeless families brew up a nasty Avian flu cocktail and maybe that'll get someone's attention.
Stayed in Jakarta for the Eid, had the best visit yet with the in-laws who are doing some renos in defiance of the floodwaters that seem to seep through the foundations twice a year. There was a calm there I'd not seen before which gives me hope.
Mixed business with pleasure. Briefed out some journo friends about how things are progressing in Aceh and actually spending time with 'my staff' in the office - something that happens every two months, so infrequently that the graphic designer breaks out in a sweat every time I walk into the room - while eating fabulous Thai and Indian food and getting completely hosed three consecutive nights at the Face Bar and The Oriental, something I rarely do up here.
The Evil Thieving Ex-Security Guard has vanished from immediate view though he may simply be saving up his energy to take another run at us now that the fast is over. My housekeeper, The Mouse, had a family tragedy to attend to in far-off Tapaktuan (Dad's in a coma and fading) leaving roomie El Gordo to his own devices while I was away. Won't say he's any worse than me in similr circumstances but the litter of dead cockroaches in the kitchen and the empty fridge testified to his sloth.
Learned yesterday that my old driver, Wally, is dealing with a nasty bit of business as well. His young son fell out of the back of a minibus and cracked his head on the pavement three days ago. Apparently in quite serious shape in Harapan Bunda hospital in Banda so I'll visit later today.
Seems there's a never ending series of tragedies here. Young security guard was beaten to death by a couple of cops for unknowingly raising the Indonesian flag upside-down. Dozens of road death here over the holiday period and further rumblings of discontent within the GAM ranks.
Today I stumbled across the story below filed out of South Sumatra. Not an uncommon occurance there and further north in Aceh. Villagers v Starving Elephants is always going to end badly.
And so it goes.
Starving elephants kill Indonesia farmer
Tue Oct 31, 1:32 AM ET
Starving wild elephants trampled a farmer to death and destroyed several houses in a rampage in a village on Indonesia's Sumatra island, witnesses said Tuesday.
The people of Lubuk Embut, a village on Riau province 600 miles northwest of the capital, Jakarta, have been terrorized by a herd of around 20 elephants in search of food, said Jayok, a village chief who goes by a single name.
Sumatra's elephant habitats are quickly shrinking due to illegal logging and land clearing. About 2,500 are believed to live in the wild on the island, Indonesia's largest.
"We cannot sleep at night and are scared in the day by the sound of trumpeting elephants," Jayok said.
The head of the Riau province's nature reserve, Nafsir Siregar, said scores of wild elephants have also vandalized the nearby villages of Siak and Balairaja, about 90 miles northwest of the regional capital, Pekanbaru.
Siregar said there were insufficient funds to relocate the endangered Sumatran elephants to a protected area where they won't pose a threat to people.
Just back in Banda Aceh after a week's running around Java. Spent a full day in Yogyakarta for the first time since the I left in early June, a week after the earthquake. Still 800,000 people without decent place to live and the rainy season approaching. The government's position seems to be embodied by "Crisis? What Crisis?" Wait till the vast chickencoops (yes, literally raised wooden chickencoops 120 m long) crowded with birds and homeless families brew up a nasty Avian flu cocktail and maybe that'll get someone's attention.
Stayed in Jakarta for the Eid, had the best visit yet with the in-laws who are doing some renos in defiance of the floodwaters that seem to seep through the foundations twice a year. There was a calm there I'd not seen before which gives me hope.
Mixed business with pleasure. Briefed out some journo friends about how things are progressing in Aceh and actually spending time with 'my staff' in the office - something that happens every two months, so infrequently that the graphic designer breaks out in a sweat every time I walk into the room - while eating fabulous Thai and Indian food and getting completely hosed three consecutive nights at the Face Bar and The Oriental, something I rarely do up here.
The Evil Thieving Ex-Security Guard has vanished from immediate view though he may simply be saving up his energy to take another run at us now that the fast is over. My housekeeper, The Mouse, had a family tragedy to attend to in far-off Tapaktuan (Dad's in a coma and fading) leaving roomie El Gordo to his own devices while I was away. Won't say he's any worse than me in similr circumstances but the litter of dead cockroaches in the kitchen and the empty fridge testified to his sloth.
Learned yesterday that my old driver, Wally, is dealing with a nasty bit of business as well. His young son fell out of the back of a minibus and cracked his head on the pavement three days ago. Apparently in quite serious shape in Harapan Bunda hospital in Banda so I'll visit later today.
Seems there's a never ending series of tragedies here. Young security guard was beaten to death by a couple of cops for unknowingly raising the Indonesian flag upside-down. Dozens of road death here over the holiday period and further rumblings of discontent within the GAM ranks.
Today I stumbled across the story below filed out of South Sumatra. Not an uncommon occurance there and further north in Aceh. Villagers v Starving Elephants is always going to end badly.
And so it goes.
Starving elephants kill Indonesia farmer
Tue Oct 31, 1:32 AM ET
Starving wild elephants trampled a farmer to death and destroyed several houses in a rampage in a village on Indonesia's Sumatra island, witnesses said Tuesday.
The people of Lubuk Embut, a village on Riau province 600 miles northwest of the capital, Jakarta, have been terrorized by a herd of around 20 elephants in search of food, said Jayok, a village chief who goes by a single name.
Sumatra's elephant habitats are quickly shrinking due to illegal logging and land clearing. About 2,500 are believed to live in the wild on the island, Indonesia's largest.
"We cannot sleep at night and are scared in the day by the sound of trumpeting elephants," Jayok said.
The head of the Riau province's nature reserve, Nafsir Siregar, said scores of wild elephants have also vandalized the nearby villages of Siak and Balairaja, about 90 miles northwest of the regional capital, Pekanbaru.
Siregar said there were insufficient funds to relocate the endangered Sumatran elephants to a protected area where they won't pose a threat to people.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Mr. Gloom & Doonesbury
I was going to put a few words together about how the political in-fighting within the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has reached a head in recent days and the Old Guard loyalists to the Swedish and Malaysian exiles are now on a collision course with the Young Guard, the guys who didn’t run but stuck it out here through decades of bloodshed and repression.
Sounds vaguely familiar: I’m no expert bit I don’t know a post-conflict situation where similar schisms haven’t emerged.
I was going to write about how there has been a marked increase in shakedowns, truck-jackings and robberies and how guys with handles like Rambo and Deadheart are unwrapping their oiled and cached weapons – by some estimates as many as 1,200 were not decommissioned post-peace deal – and running amok with the tacit support of their commanders while the European Union organ AMM works diligently to whitewash the whole situation in the interests of personal and professional expediency.
I was going to write about how on the eve of the elections (that among other things will set the two GAM factions against one another for the governor’s job much to the glee of the existing power structures) all the prerequisites are in place for the emergence of the perfect storm: the hot winds of a fragmented, armed independence movement colliding with the cooled expectations of homeless, unemployable, landless and poorly represented populations (who may or may not be who they claim-plenty fraud out there) two years after the tsunami.
But I’ll leave further explorations of that gloomy prospect for another night. For now, I’ll direct you to The Sandbox, (http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox) a creation of Doonesbury illustrator Gary Trudeau, a forum not unlike a blog, where ordinary US servicemen and women can post their thoughts and experiences.
Today’s postings include one soldier’s description of being mortared while on guard duty in Iraq; an American soldier in Afghanistan writes about his admiration for his civilian translators and an officer stateside contrasts Cheney’s visit to his base with his job at the time, packing the worldly possessions of a dead 23-year-old female soldier into boxes to be sent to her family.
Gripping stuff.
I was going to put a few words together about how the political in-fighting within the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has reached a head in recent days and the Old Guard loyalists to the Swedish and Malaysian exiles are now on a collision course with the Young Guard, the guys who didn’t run but stuck it out here through decades of bloodshed and repression.
Sounds vaguely familiar: I’m no expert bit I don’t know a post-conflict situation where similar schisms haven’t emerged.
I was going to write about how there has been a marked increase in shakedowns, truck-jackings and robberies and how guys with handles like Rambo and Deadheart are unwrapping their oiled and cached weapons – by some estimates as many as 1,200 were not decommissioned post-peace deal – and running amok with the tacit support of their commanders while the European Union organ AMM works diligently to whitewash the whole situation in the interests of personal and professional expediency.
I was going to write about how on the eve of the elections (that among other things will set the two GAM factions against one another for the governor’s job much to the glee of the existing power structures) all the prerequisites are in place for the emergence of the perfect storm: the hot winds of a fragmented, armed independence movement colliding with the cooled expectations of homeless, unemployable, landless and poorly represented populations (who may or may not be who they claim-plenty fraud out there) two years after the tsunami.
But I’ll leave further explorations of that gloomy prospect for another night. For now, I’ll direct you to The Sandbox, (http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox) a creation of Doonesbury illustrator Gary Trudeau, a forum not unlike a blog, where ordinary US servicemen and women can post their thoughts and experiences.
Today’s postings include one soldier’s description of being mortared while on guard duty in Iraq; an American soldier in Afghanistan writes about his admiration for his civilian translators and an officer stateside contrasts Cheney’s visit to his base with his job at the time, packing the worldly possessions of a dead 23-year-old female soldier into boxes to be sent to her family.
Gripping stuff.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Sexy SI Bikini Girls Oil Up In The Tsunami-Zone?
Grinch’s spies report the arrival in Banda Aceh of supermodel tsunami-survivor Petra Nemcova in with a support gaggle of stork-legged young belles and enough camera gear to outfit a small nation.
The Czech 2006 Sports Illustrated Magazine covergirl was vacationing in Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck. Her boyfriend photographer was among those killed. She suffered a broken pelvis and spent several hours in a tree before being rescued.
So will the lovely Perta and chums oil up for a shoot aboard the beached PLN Electrical barge, among survivors at a local barrack or perhaps in the ruins of mosque? All enquires should be directed to you friendly, neighborhood Syariah law enforcement unit because her personal soft-porn website has very little information.
Aceh has seen its fair share of celebs since Dec. 2004 though mercifully aging opportunists like boy-toy Ricky Martin gave us a wide berth. I seem to remember ManU football star Chrisiano Ronaldo swunf by on a three-hour whistle-stop pausing long enough for the cameras to catch him kicking around a soccer ball with a select group of kids before jetting off to Bali to shoot a Powerdrink commercial.
Nemcova has created a fund-raising organ called the Happy Hearts Fund which, if I understand the hype, is administered by a charity called Give2Asia (which I’ve never heard of) but apparently was created by The Asia Foundation. Hmmm. Wonder if they’re the one’s organizing this trip?
The HHF’s focus is “to aid children who have suffered from natural disasters”. They held a fundraiser last week in the US (gimped tennis diva Serena Williams etc) around the release of a coffee table book called the Big Red Book, which is described thus: ... features iconic personalities and ordinary people who have made extraordinary contributions. The coffee table book has been photographed by well-known photographers that use the thematic exploration of the color red via poetry, photography and art.
Huh?
HHF claims to have donated $130,000 to a Thai foundation that built a dorm for 80 school kids, another $38,000 to a Thai university “for psychological and emotional programs for children in tsunami-affected areas”n and $12,000 for Orphan Aid (whozat?) to support 20 kids.
Grinch’s spies report the arrival in Banda Aceh of supermodel tsunami-survivor Petra Nemcova in with a support gaggle of stork-legged young belles and enough camera gear to outfit a small nation.
The Czech 2006 Sports Illustrated Magazine covergirl was vacationing in Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck. Her boyfriend photographer was among those killed. She suffered a broken pelvis and spent several hours in a tree before being rescued.
So will the lovely Perta and chums oil up for a shoot aboard the beached PLN Electrical barge, among survivors at a local barrack or perhaps in the ruins of mosque? All enquires should be directed to you friendly, neighborhood Syariah law enforcement unit because her personal soft-porn website has very little information.
Aceh has seen its fair share of celebs since Dec. 2004 though mercifully aging opportunists like boy-toy Ricky Martin gave us a wide berth. I seem to remember ManU football star Chrisiano Ronaldo swunf by on a three-hour whistle-stop pausing long enough for the cameras to catch him kicking around a soccer ball with a select group of kids before jetting off to Bali to shoot a Powerdrink commercial.
Nemcova has created a fund-raising organ called the Happy Hearts Fund which, if I understand the hype, is administered by a charity called Give2Asia (which I’ve never heard of) but apparently was created by The Asia Foundation. Hmmm. Wonder if they’re the one’s organizing this trip?
The HHF’s focus is “to aid children who have suffered from natural disasters”. They held a fundraiser last week in the US (gimped tennis diva Serena Williams etc) around the release of a coffee table book called the Big Red Book, which is described thus: ... features iconic personalities and ordinary people who have made extraordinary contributions. The coffee table book has been photographed by well-known photographers that use the thematic exploration of the color red via poetry, photography and art.
Huh?
HHF claims to have donated $130,000 to a Thai foundation that built a dorm for 80 school kids, another $38,000 to a Thai university “for psychological and emotional programs for children in tsunami-affected areas”n and $12,000 for Orphan Aid (whozat?) to support 20 kids.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Samaritan's Purse Orders Out of North Sumatra
Medan, North Sumatra, Oct 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia`s social affairs minister has issued an instruction asking a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), Samaritan`s Purse, to immediately leave North Sumatra, for illegal practice of converting people`s faith in the province.
"The social affairs minister has issued an order for Samaritan`s Purse to leave immediately and stop operating in North Sumatra," Raden Muhammad Syafi`i, chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR) faction at the North Sumatra regional legislative council (DPRD), said here on Tuesday.
Syafi`i said that he got the information about the instruction from the ministry`s director general for social development, Gazali H. Situmorang, when they met in Jakarta, last Saturday (Sept 30).
"So, in the future, Samaritan`s Purse is allowed to operate only in East Nusa Tenggara," he said. The US-based NGO has been spreading certain religious teachings under a disguise of humanitarian mission, he said. Syafi`i was of the view that a number of foreign NGOs operating in Indonesia had claimed that they were on humanitarian mission, while they were actually bringing other missions. "They are also loaded with certain missions, including converting people to a particular belief, as what have allegedly done by 12 foreign NGOs in Aceh," he said.
The North Sumatra DPRD called managers of Samaritan`s Purse last September 18, 2006, following complaints by some people on the activities of the NGO.
If true, this story carried by the national news wire Antara is significant as it is the first time I am aware of of a foreign agency being thrown out of N Sumatra province for preaching since the tsunami. SP is working on Nias island - which is predominantly Christian/animist - and has operations in Meulaboh, Aceh Barat and several other districts here in Aceh province. If they are being tossed out of Nias then one has to wonder how long they'll be allowed to remain in Aceh, which as we all know is 99 percent Muslim. I understand they make a mean cheese-cake and pizza at the Meulaboh office.
Also significant as SP has connections at the highest levels in Washington- headed by Franklin Graham (son of presidential confessor Billy) who is perhaps best known outside Evangelical circles for popping out of his hole long enough to describe Islam as a "very evil and wicked religion".
Actually, the full quote is: "We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."
I was a little surprised they are allowed to stay this long but the tsunami did attract a diverse set of characters. I have had a few peripheral dealings with SP, particularly in Nias where their chopper was instrumental in providing medical services to remote areas in the wake of the March 2005 earthquake. No doubt they saved lives.
At the same time, if the allegations of proselytizing - a criminal offence in Indonesia that mobs have used to rationalize violent attacks on minority Muslim sects - are true it is extremely serious. Plays into the hands of the hardcore minority who see the 'defence of Islam against Crusader influences' as Job One.
More as events unfold.
Medan, North Sumatra, Oct 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia`s social affairs minister has issued an instruction asking a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), Samaritan`s Purse, to immediately leave North Sumatra, for illegal practice of converting people`s faith in the province.
"The social affairs minister has issued an order for Samaritan`s Purse to leave immediately and stop operating in North Sumatra," Raden Muhammad Syafi`i, chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR) faction at the North Sumatra regional legislative council (DPRD), said here on Tuesday.
Syafi`i said that he got the information about the instruction from the ministry`s director general for social development, Gazali H. Situmorang, when they met in Jakarta, last Saturday (Sept 30).
"So, in the future, Samaritan`s Purse is allowed to operate only in East Nusa Tenggara," he said. The US-based NGO has been spreading certain religious teachings under a disguise of humanitarian mission, he said. Syafi`i was of the view that a number of foreign NGOs operating in Indonesia had claimed that they were on humanitarian mission, while they were actually bringing other missions. "They are also loaded with certain missions, including converting people to a particular belief, as what have allegedly done by 12 foreign NGOs in Aceh," he said.
The North Sumatra DPRD called managers of Samaritan`s Purse last September 18, 2006, following complaints by some people on the activities of the NGO.
If true, this story carried by the national news wire Antara is significant as it is the first time I am aware of of a foreign agency being thrown out of N Sumatra province for preaching since the tsunami. SP is working on Nias island - which is predominantly Christian/animist - and has operations in Meulaboh, Aceh Barat and several other districts here in Aceh province. If they are being tossed out of Nias then one has to wonder how long they'll be allowed to remain in Aceh, which as we all know is 99 percent Muslim. I understand they make a mean cheese-cake and pizza at the Meulaboh office.
Also significant as SP has connections at the highest levels in Washington- headed by Franklin Graham (son of presidential confessor Billy) who is perhaps best known outside Evangelical circles for popping out of his hole long enough to describe Islam as a "very evil and wicked religion".
Actually, the full quote is: "We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."
I was a little surprised they are allowed to stay this long but the tsunami did attract a diverse set of characters. I have had a few peripheral dealings with SP, particularly in Nias where their chopper was instrumental in providing medical services to remote areas in the wake of the March 2005 earthquake. No doubt they saved lives.
At the same time, if the allegations of proselytizing - a criminal offence in Indonesia that mobs have used to rationalize violent attacks on minority Muslim sects - are true it is extremely serious. Plays into the hands of the hardcore minority who see the 'defence of Islam against Crusader influences' as Job One.
More as events unfold.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Creepy Dead Baby Recruitment Efforts
The following item from The Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2387589,00.html) must qualify as the creepiest item of the day:
THE Pope will cast aside centuries of Catholic belief later this week by abolishing formally the concept of limbo, in a gesture calculated to help to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ.
All the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the idea anyway. But in the fertile evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope — an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic — is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to Heaven. For the Church, looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is a good time to make it absolutely clear that stillborn babies of Christian mothers go direct to Heaven, too.
The Pope is expected to abolish only “limbus infantium”, where the souls of unbaptised infants go. The precise status of “limbus patrum”, where the good people went who lived before Christ remains . . . well, in limbo.
Is it just me or is the competition for savable souls getting just a wee bit wacky? What next, microwave ovens and redeemable frequent flier miles for new converts?
This will presumably provide fertile ground for comic relief but there's at least one prankster out there who'll have to give this one a close look. In his seminal album - yes, ALBUM... black disky containing recorded data - Class Clown, George Carlin riffs on Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Limbo. This a few tracks after The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television, which to this day I can (and do) quote chapter and verse. It all seems so genteel now but back in the 70s - when attending a Life of Brian matinee (We-wees Wodewick!) was considered grounds for excommunication - Carlin, Richard Pryor and other graduates of the Lenny Bruce school of social criticism were considered dangerous men.
If the Pope really wants to ramp up the numbers in developing countries he might consider lowering the conversion bar. Most Evangelists just wanna dunk people, the conversion to Islam is only slightly more difficult than getting a video membership card (Recite the Testament of Faith in Arabic before a cleric and it's 'Welcome Aboard'), and Mormons will do for you retroactively after you - and your entire line - are centuries dead.
I recommend drive-through conversions tied into an election-registration program. Resign yourself to a certain vision of the thereafter and take a degree of control over the here-and-now at the same time.
Forgive me, I'm ten days into the fast and feeling a bit lightheaded. Monday was tough; pretty much ready to chew through my seatbelt on the drive to Pizza House (a straight rip-of of Pizza Hut located in the centre of Banda Aceh) to break the fast with a large House Pepperoni with extra-cheese and strawberry milkshake. I really feel for the kids who work there. How tough is it to be preparing food when you haven't had a thing since 430 am?
Word @ Pasar Aceh
- Talk on the street is that the Shariyah enforcement androids want to close down Caswells sandwich shop, one of only two places where the infidels can eat during daylight hours.
- Our lovely cleaning lady at the Banda Aceh office lost her husband yesterday. He was helping a neighbor work on the house and somehow electrocuted himself. She's got four kids under the age of 16.
- Will break fast at the office in 48 minutes and 23 seconds, 22 seconds, 21 seconds... as one of our international staff is returning to Japan. Then off the Italian restaurant for overcooked linguini.
- Grinch Lair has been rewired for wireless Internet. Boys climbed up the mast outside the kitchen (dead owner, the former Regent of North Aceh, was a ham radio nut) and now we've got better connection speeds than folks in Singapore. Full package costs about $90/month. Joy. No excuse not to work 24/7 now.
- Alerted teman-teman in bulk e-mail that the Blog is alive. Also advised about the following Grinch cameo appearance: Earlier this year I helped the folks at a London production house shoot a reenactment for the show ‘Seconds From Disaster’. My role as 'Anonymous Technician #2: Guy with Measuring Tape’ is being described as "a gripping tour-de-farce" – MSNBC; "complex… allegorical" - S Hawking; "Reminiscent of Brando and other complicated fat guys.." – The Drudge Report; "Hoo-Mammy-Tsunami!!!" - Hollywood Insider.
‘Asian Tsunami’ is going to air on National Geographic Channel in the US on the 25th October at 9pm, and again on the 28th October at 3pm. No word on broadcasts north of the 49th parallel or abroad.
The following item from The Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2387589,00.html) must qualify as the creepiest item of the day:
THE Pope will cast aside centuries of Catholic belief later this week by abolishing formally the concept of limbo, in a gesture calculated to help to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ.
All the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the idea anyway. But in the fertile evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope — an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic — is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to Heaven. For the Church, looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is a good time to make it absolutely clear that stillborn babies of Christian mothers go direct to Heaven, too.
The Pope is expected to abolish only “limbus infantium”, where the souls of unbaptised infants go. The precise status of “limbus patrum”, where the good people went who lived before Christ remains . . . well, in limbo.
Is it just me or is the competition for savable souls getting just a wee bit wacky? What next, microwave ovens and redeemable frequent flier miles for new converts?
This will presumably provide fertile ground for comic relief but there's at least one prankster out there who'll have to give this one a close look. In his seminal album - yes, ALBUM... black disky containing recorded data - Class Clown, George Carlin riffs on Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and Limbo. This a few tracks after The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television, which to this day I can (and do) quote chapter and verse. It all seems so genteel now but back in the 70s - when attending a Life of Brian matinee (We-wees Wodewick!) was considered grounds for excommunication - Carlin, Richard Pryor and other graduates of the Lenny Bruce school of social criticism were considered dangerous men.
If the Pope really wants to ramp up the numbers in developing countries he might consider lowering the conversion bar. Most Evangelists just wanna dunk people, the conversion to Islam is only slightly more difficult than getting a video membership card (Recite the Testament of Faith in Arabic before a cleric and it's 'Welcome Aboard'), and Mormons will do for you retroactively after you - and your entire line - are centuries dead.
I recommend drive-through conversions tied into an election-registration program. Resign yourself to a certain vision of the thereafter and take a degree of control over the here-and-now at the same time.
Forgive me, I'm ten days into the fast and feeling a bit lightheaded. Monday was tough; pretty much ready to chew through my seatbelt on the drive to Pizza House (a straight rip-of of Pizza Hut located in the centre of Banda Aceh) to break the fast with a large House Pepperoni with extra-cheese and strawberry milkshake. I really feel for the kids who work there. How tough is it to be preparing food when you haven't had a thing since 430 am?
Word @ Pasar Aceh
- Talk on the street is that the Shariyah enforcement androids want to close down Caswells sandwich shop, one of only two places where the infidels can eat during daylight hours.
- Our lovely cleaning lady at the Banda Aceh office lost her husband yesterday. He was helping a neighbor work on the house and somehow electrocuted himself. She's got four kids under the age of 16.
- Will break fast at the office in 48 minutes and 23 seconds, 22 seconds, 21 seconds... as one of our international staff is returning to Japan. Then off the Italian restaurant for overcooked linguini.
- Grinch Lair has been rewired for wireless Internet. Boys climbed up the mast outside the kitchen (dead owner, the former Regent of North Aceh, was a ham radio nut) and now we've got better connection speeds than folks in Singapore. Full package costs about $90/month. Joy. No excuse not to work 24/7 now.
- Alerted teman-teman in bulk e-mail that the Blog is alive. Also advised about the following Grinch cameo appearance: Earlier this year I helped the folks at a London production house shoot a reenactment for the show ‘Seconds From Disaster’. My role as 'Anonymous Technician #2: Guy with Measuring Tape’ is being described as "a gripping tour-de-farce" – MSNBC; "complex… allegorical" - S Hawking; "Reminiscent of Brando and other complicated fat guys.." – The Drudge Report; "Hoo-Mammy-Tsunami!!!" - Hollywood Insider.
‘Asian Tsunami’ is going to air on National Geographic Channel in the US on the 25th October at 9pm, and again on the 28th October at 3pm. No word on broadcasts north of the 49th parallel or abroad.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Ex-Guard Begging Whup-Ass: Redux
As expected, the saga of the thieving guard drags on.
Only in Indonesia (or in this case Aceh) does a guy who is paid to protect your home and then turns around and thieves from you, charge you with slander after he is fired.
Rommie got notice a short while ago that he's expected at Banda Aceh headquarters to answer slander charges.
I suppose we can look forward to further fun and games in coming weeks including a possible summons to the Grinch. Yeah Baby! Pic on the front page of the newspaper! Check here for further updates...
All pales in comparison to news from abroad about the psycho who barricaded himself in a single-room Amish schoolhouse and sharted executing girls aged eight-12. A dozen children in hospital, four dead along with the suspect, a milkman described as a "quiet man" and "a good father."
This is the third school shooting in the States in the past ten days. Last week in Colorado a guy did the same thing but molested the girls first. One teen and the gunman dead when cops burst through the door.
Meanwhile the Repubican congressman who co-chairs the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, has resigned for sending explict emails and sms' to teenage pages at his office. He claims he is a depressed alky and has checked into rehab. His former colleagues are putting as much daylight as possible between themselves and Mark Foley saying they had no idea. Presumably they did know he was an alcoholic but that it wasn't serious enough to effect his performance as a lawmaker for the past 12 years.
One day it's all gonna be too much and I'm going to leave the news behind. The psychic weight is becoming unbearable. Now that I've got my country bolthole - five acres and love shack in coastal BC signed, sealed and delivered Sept 1 - it is even more do-able.
As expected, the saga of the thieving guard drags on.
Only in Indonesia (or in this case Aceh) does a guy who is paid to protect your home and then turns around and thieves from you, charge you with slander after he is fired.
Rommie got notice a short while ago that he's expected at Banda Aceh headquarters to answer slander charges.
I suppose we can look forward to further fun and games in coming weeks including a possible summons to the Grinch. Yeah Baby! Pic on the front page of the newspaper! Check here for further updates...
All pales in comparison to news from abroad about the psycho who barricaded himself in a single-room Amish schoolhouse and sharted executing girls aged eight-12. A dozen children in hospital, four dead along with the suspect, a milkman described as a "quiet man" and "a good father."
This is the third school shooting in the States in the past ten days. Last week in Colorado a guy did the same thing but molested the girls first. One teen and the gunman dead when cops burst through the door.
Meanwhile the Repubican congressman who co-chairs the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, has resigned for sending explict emails and sms' to teenage pages at his office. He claims he is a depressed alky and has checked into rehab. His former colleagues are putting as much daylight as possible between themselves and Mark Foley saying they had no idea. Presumably they did know he was an alcoholic but that it wasn't serious enough to effect his performance as a lawmaker for the past 12 years.
One day it's all gonna be too much and I'm going to leave the news behind. The psychic weight is becoming unbearable. Now that I've got my country bolthole - five acres and love shack in coastal BC signed, sealed and delivered Sept 1 - it is even more do-able.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Evil Thieving Guard Begging for a Beating
I thought this situation with our thieving guard was taken care of but nooo.
After copping to stealing the roomie's laptop when 'interviewed' by a sage uncle and his copper buddy in the kampung a couple of nights ago, the guy showed up at the office today claiming he is innocent.
He arrived unannounced with a young cop who lives on my block looking for the roomie. I was called in to observe and maintain a menacing presence. He now catagorically denies having lifted the unit and is demanding his job back and his salary! In fact, my driver told me this morning that last night's guard told him (but not me) that the guy showed up last night to work!
To his credit the cop is not taking sides - at least in my presence - but says it would be better to make an official complaint to the police and let the system, crooked as it is, decide innocence or guilt.
Fair enough. We tried to be nice but now it looks like the gloves are off.
What neither cop nor robber know is that when the uncle and buddy went out to the village to do their interview a couple of nights ago - during which the gormless jerk admitted the theft - the village head asked them to arrest the guy because he's been stealing stuff from his own neighbours!
The other irritant in this case is the fact that the snitch-maid who finally IDed the guard (only after she'd confessed to nicking one of our water dispensers mind you) vanished at noon so when the roomie wanted to sit down with her, she was nowhere to be found.
This is going to get worse before it gets better. Guaranteed.
I thought this situation with our thieving guard was taken care of but nooo.
After copping to stealing the roomie's laptop when 'interviewed' by a sage uncle and his copper buddy in the kampung a couple of nights ago, the guy showed up at the office today claiming he is innocent.
He arrived unannounced with a young cop who lives on my block looking for the roomie. I was called in to observe and maintain a menacing presence. He now catagorically denies having lifted the unit and is demanding his job back and his salary! In fact, my driver told me this morning that last night's guard told him (but not me) that the guy showed up last night to work!
To his credit the cop is not taking sides - at least in my presence - but says it would be better to make an official complaint to the police and let the system, crooked as it is, decide innocence or guilt.
Fair enough. We tried to be nice but now it looks like the gloves are off.
What neither cop nor robber know is that when the uncle and buddy went out to the village to do their interview a couple of nights ago - during which the gormless jerk admitted the theft - the village head asked them to arrest the guy because he's been stealing stuff from his own neighbours!
The other irritant in this case is the fact that the snitch-maid who finally IDed the guard (only after she'd confessed to nicking one of our water dispensers mind you) vanished at noon so when the roomie wanted to sit down with her, she was nowhere to be found.
This is going to get worse before it gets better. Guaranteed.
Monday, September 25, 2006
It's only Day 2 of the fast but already I feel like crap.
Woke up after a full "ayam a la J" dinner Sunday morning and guzzled two pots of coffee before realizing I'd already broken the rules... so sat with a couple of liters of Acehnese brew burning a hole in my belly for the better part of the day, trying to read, trying to sleep, trying to do anything but think about laying a couple pieces of bread in my gullet to head off the acid. By the time magrib rolled around I was twisted.
I woke today feeling a bit better. It's 5:08 now so only 90 minute or so to go. Gonna send Dede - my driver - out to pick up something to drink and maybe some bananas shortly.
I don't remember it being this hard last year. I think it is accumulated stress from dealing with issues on the home front.
I never got around to explaining the dynamic at Chateau Grinch in earlier posts. Since taking the place in June 2005 I've had to fire several housekeepers and one of the guards - we are required to have guards - for thieving. Most recently one of the roomies had a laptop pinched - what, did you think he wasn't going to notice? - and my ipod has gone missing as well a day before heading to Maldives on R&R. The other roomie reports his water dispenser has vanished from his room.
Turns out the housekeeper took the water dispenser, which only produced hot and scorching hot water, to her husband to be fixed. When he and various members of the extended family couldn't figure out how to fix it I guess they decided it looked good in the corner of their house so she never bothered to return it.
After recriminations and tears she offered to pay for the damn thing and then coughed up that Dyulfan had come into the house while we were on holidays and the place was empty, and walked off with the laptop.
I've been crushing down the desire to take a length of pipe to his head and instead developed an elaborate rus to get his home address. Roomie has some connections to local cops - having been interrogated, threatened and harassed over several years - and later this evening, once the evil one has returned to his home, they'll pounce.
Now the question becomes 'what next?'
What exactly has he stolen and what are the chances of actually getting any of it back? Will he cop to the thefts or end up in cells? Will he turn up at the house with a mob of his friends and family or try and take revenge on the maid? Arrggh.
Its amazing how many people have similar stories though. Just learned a friend had her camera stolen from her bedroom recently, others have had people slip into their homes at night to empty the refrigerator. Ask anyone you find a story.
At the same time I've got all kinds of work-related deadlines to meet over the next 10 days or so, and this after coming out of a pretty rough production cycle that began in late August.
And I wonder why my stomach is in knots.
Woke up after a full "ayam a la J" dinner Sunday morning and guzzled two pots of coffee before realizing I'd already broken the rules... so sat with a couple of liters of Acehnese brew burning a hole in my belly for the better part of the day, trying to read, trying to sleep, trying to do anything but think about laying a couple pieces of bread in my gullet to head off the acid. By the time magrib rolled around I was twisted.
I woke today feeling a bit better. It's 5:08 now so only 90 minute or so to go. Gonna send Dede - my driver - out to pick up something to drink and maybe some bananas shortly.
I don't remember it being this hard last year. I think it is accumulated stress from dealing with issues on the home front.
I never got around to explaining the dynamic at Chateau Grinch in earlier posts. Since taking the place in June 2005 I've had to fire several housekeepers and one of the guards - we are required to have guards - for thieving. Most recently one of the roomies had a laptop pinched - what, did you think he wasn't going to notice? - and my ipod has gone missing as well a day before heading to Maldives on R&R. The other roomie reports his water dispenser has vanished from his room.
Turns out the housekeeper took the water dispenser, which only produced hot and scorching hot water, to her husband to be fixed. When he and various members of the extended family couldn't figure out how to fix it I guess they decided it looked good in the corner of their house so she never bothered to return it.
After recriminations and tears she offered to pay for the damn thing and then coughed up that Dyulfan had come into the house while we were on holidays and the place was empty, and walked off with the laptop.
I've been crushing down the desire to take a length of pipe to his head and instead developed an elaborate rus to get his home address. Roomie has some connections to local cops - having been interrogated, threatened and harassed over several years - and later this evening, once the evil one has returned to his home, they'll pounce.
Now the question becomes 'what next?'
What exactly has he stolen and what are the chances of actually getting any of it back? Will he cop to the thefts or end up in cells? Will he turn up at the house with a mob of his friends and family or try and take revenge on the maid? Arrggh.
Its amazing how many people have similar stories though. Just learned a friend had her camera stolen from her bedroom recently, others have had people slip into their homes at night to empty the refrigerator. Ask anyone you find a story.
At the same time I've got all kinds of work-related deadlines to meet over the next 10 days or so, and this after coming out of a pretty rough production cycle that began in late August.
And I wonder why my stomach is in knots.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Not Quite Dead Yet!
Speaking of near-death experiences, here's a creepy one.
Plugged my birth name into Blogger Search a short while ago and came up with the following note, dated Sept 12 from some Missouri lass' MySpace site:
I heard this morning that (my name) died last night in a car accident. I was so sad when I heard that. I was never great friends with him but i knew people who were and who it was going to affect greatly. Like my sophmore year prom date josh, and tasha atwell who's grandpa comes into where i work a lot. And Raji..his brother. I think i am more sad for them. I wish i could do something besides dedicate a blog to him.
Yikes! And here's me all tanned and healthy after a week's R&R out of Aceh, and freshly stuffed from our staff pre-Ramadan Megang feast in the parking lot of the shop earlier today.
On a more pleasant note, apparently I am also a guitar-packing member of the Humbolt Green Party on walk-about in Peru, a B-list Hollywood movie actor, an Aussie drug policy specialist, a celebrity chef with my own TV show, a 22-year-old Limerick resident up on weapons charges, a Denver fire department captain, a Californian jewelry-maker, a high school newspaper sex columnist, and an on-line auto auctioneer.
No wonder I'm so tired all the time.
Speaking of near-death experiences, here's a creepy one.
Plugged my birth name into Blogger Search a short while ago and came up with the following note, dated Sept 12 from some Missouri lass' MySpace site:
I heard this morning that (my name) died last night in a car accident. I was so sad when I heard that. I was never great friends with him but i knew people who were and who it was going to affect greatly. Like my sophmore year prom date josh, and tasha atwell who's grandpa comes into where i work a lot. And Raji..his brother. I think i am more sad for them. I wish i could do something besides dedicate a blog to him.
Yikes! And here's me all tanned and healthy after a week's R&R out of Aceh, and freshly stuffed from our staff pre-Ramadan Megang feast in the parking lot of the shop earlier today.
On a more pleasant note, apparently I am also a guitar-packing member of the Humbolt Green Party on walk-about in Peru, a B-list Hollywood movie actor, an Aussie drug policy specialist, a celebrity chef with my own TV show, a 22-year-old Limerick resident up on weapons charges, a Denver fire department captain, a Californian jewelry-maker, a high school newspaper sex columnist, and an on-line auto auctioneer.
No wonder I'm so tired all the time.
Top Gear Host Hospitalized After 300mph Crash
Doctors treating Richard Hammond said last night that the Top Gear presenter had "suffered a significant brain injury" when the jet-powered dragster he was driving crashed after reaching speeds approaching 300mph.
The father of two had to be cut from the wreckage and was flown by air ambulance to Leeds General infirmary, which issued a statement about his condition after his wife and children had been to see him. In the statement, the hospital trust said: "Mr Hammond has suffered a significant brain injury. It's still giving cause for concern as it is still early after the injury. However, we are reasonably optimistic that he will make a good recovery."
Spinal injuries
The two most serious possibilities are that he has suffered damage as a result of his brain slamming against the inside of his skull during the crash. Because of that, arteries could have been ruptured. Doctors will also be fearful of spinal injuries. As well as his family, Hammond, 36, was visited by Top Gear co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Clarkson reported that Hammond had smiled briefly at him when he quipped: "The reason you're here is because you're a crap driver."
I really like this guy, a foil to the pompous, motorcycle-hating git Clarkson.
Bloody miracle the guy is alive at all.
Kinda reminds me of the story out of Arizona or Nevada a couple of years back about the fellow who bloted a jet engine to the roof of his station wagon, and opened it up in an open piece of road. Car got airborne at some point and basically vanished. Took weeks but the wreckage was eventually located beneath a black smudge on the side of a nearby mountain, the implication being he'd plowed into it a la Wile E Coyote.
Turned out to be a hoax rather than a Darwin Award candidate but the idea remains hugely entertaining.
Doctors treating Richard Hammond said last night that the Top Gear presenter had "suffered a significant brain injury" when the jet-powered dragster he was driving crashed after reaching speeds approaching 300mph.
The father of two had to be cut from the wreckage and was flown by air ambulance to Leeds General infirmary, which issued a statement about his condition after his wife and children had been to see him. In the statement, the hospital trust said: "Mr Hammond has suffered a significant brain injury. It's still giving cause for concern as it is still early after the injury. However, we are reasonably optimistic that he will make a good recovery."
Spinal injuries
The two most serious possibilities are that he has suffered damage as a result of his brain slamming against the inside of his skull during the crash. Because of that, arteries could have been ruptured. Doctors will also be fearful of spinal injuries. As well as his family, Hammond, 36, was visited by Top Gear co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Clarkson reported that Hammond had smiled briefly at him when he quipped: "The reason you're here is because you're a crap driver."
I really like this guy, a foil to the pompous, motorcycle-hating git Clarkson.
Bloody miracle the guy is alive at all.
Kinda reminds me of the story out of Arizona or Nevada a couple of years back about the fellow who bloted a jet engine to the roof of his station wagon, and opened it up in an open piece of road. Car got airborne at some point and basically vanished. Took weeks but the wreckage was eventually located beneath a black smudge on the side of a nearby mountain, the implication being he'd plowed into it a la Wile E Coyote.
Turned out to be a hoax rather than a Darwin Award candidate but the idea remains hugely entertaining.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Ugly little demo last night and today in Banda Aceh. Some shadowy organ calling itself FORAK (Forum Inter Shelter Communication) rolled up to the BRR offices in Banda Aceh last night with a crowd of 500 people, forced the doors closed and basically held the staff hostage for several hours.
Publically they say the issue is insufficient reconstruction but behind the scenes folks say the mob is a front for business interests (read, contractors) who have not received the plum building contracts they feel they are entitled to.
Unclear what set people off this morning but it seems the crowd was moving away from the offices, the Brimob were a little too abbrasive and the whole thing degenerated into a nasty rock-throwing incident that injured several cops. Instead of gunning down the demonstrators - as they would have done here until the tsunami struck - the cops opened up with the water cannon.
The pix of the scene show paving stones and bricks littering the front lawn of the BRR offices and several trucks with smashed windows.
This is the first in what I expect to be a series of increasingly nasty confrontations between now and the year's end involving ordinary civilians with a legitimate beef, bitter little Hizbt-tahrir wanna-be jihandis, covert elements of the security apparatus who are always happy to stir the pot, and political types hoping to cash in on local anger over a variety of different issues by scapegoating BRR, the infidel international community, NGOs, the behavior of some foreign women, in hopes of gaining more votes.
We can expect all these riptides to converge in the coming months and no one seems to be paying attention to it, least of all the gormless humps who set policy for the UN's security apparatus. They recently forced through recommendations that have seen the security phase in Aceh, Ambon and other national flashpoints reduced from Phase 3 to Phase 2. Without getting into the operational changes this entails, suffice to say that against all recommendations on the ground New York, under advisement from Jakarta has made this political/financial decision (savings of about $900 per international staff member/month) at the worst possible time.
Be interesting to see how DSS, Jakarta and NYC scapegoat when the first internationals are injured in one of these clashes.
Publically they say the issue is insufficient reconstruction but behind the scenes folks say the mob is a front for business interests (read, contractors) who have not received the plum building contracts they feel they are entitled to.
Unclear what set people off this morning but it seems the crowd was moving away from the offices, the Brimob were a little too abbrasive and the whole thing degenerated into a nasty rock-throwing incident that injured several cops. Instead of gunning down the demonstrators - as they would have done here until the tsunami struck - the cops opened up with the water cannon.
The pix of the scene show paving stones and bricks littering the front lawn of the BRR offices and several trucks with smashed windows.
This is the first in what I expect to be a series of increasingly nasty confrontations between now and the year's end involving ordinary civilians with a legitimate beef, bitter little Hizbt-tahrir wanna-be jihandis, covert elements of the security apparatus who are always happy to stir the pot, and political types hoping to cash in on local anger over a variety of different issues by scapegoating BRR, the infidel international community, NGOs, the behavior of some foreign women, in hopes of gaining more votes.
We can expect all these riptides to converge in the coming months and no one seems to be paying attention to it, least of all the gormless humps who set policy for the UN's security apparatus. They recently forced through recommendations that have seen the security phase in Aceh, Ambon and other national flashpoints reduced from Phase 3 to Phase 2. Without getting into the operational changes this entails, suffice to say that against all recommendations on the ground New York, under advisement from Jakarta has made this political/financial decision (savings of about $900 per international staff member/month) at the worst possible time.
Be interesting to see how DSS, Jakarta and NYC scapegoat when the first internationals are injured in one of these clashes.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Apologia
It’s been a while.
And I wrote this three weeks ago.. couldn’t figure out my logon for the Blog! How embarrassing is that?
The delay is not because I have nothing to say or that old crutch about being worried about getting busted for publicizing stuff that is too sensitive as almost happened last year… (Funny to be purging my anger about issues only to scurry back into the office in the wee hours to erase my blog entry!), and certainly not because of a lack in things to write about.
But with a wee bit of time now available to me in the evenings – making an effort to cut back on those weeks of 15-hour days – I hope to be able to bring a few things forward. That and a distant cousin’s email the other day that reminded me of why I got into journalism to begin with, have got me set down in front of the Mac listening to Ben Harper and Blind Boys from Alabama.
The weekend’s Sunday Times carried a story about how millions have gone missing from various aid agencies involved in Aceh beneath an eye-catching headline that reads: Massive Fraud in Tsunami Rebuilding.
Beyond the BBC I’ve not had any calls about it today but who knows what the next days will bring. The main source of the information seems to be a local NGO that supposedly monitors corruption-related issues here.
Like most journos, I used to steer clear of citing these kinds of groups, all the while pillaging their files for information that passes the Sniff Test, to follow-up on. The ST guy didn’t bother and the consequence is that the story is garbled, hyperbolic and rather than setting the bar nice and high, is so full of holes that anyone with half a brain can punch it full of holes.
Which is too bad. I have been waiting for months for someone to do this story properly because there’s no doubt that graft is increasingly an issue and a solid right to the chin might snap the powers that be back to life.
The city is awash in banners decrying corruption and urging people to Maju bersama, tampa korupsi (Move Forward Without Corruption), the President has in the past 48 hours again vowed to bust down anyone caught siphoning off money, Wolfowitz was in town making similar noises on behalf of the World Bank etc etc and everyone nods and smiles and then plants their faces back in the trough.
The local government flunkies are as slick and oily as ever, and enjoy a position of great authority over the international agencies: you can’t get the job done on your own and they don’t have the money or capacity to do it on their own. So, when you offer to ‘support’ their efforts in the field and they show up with an envelop full of $200.00 hotel bills following a three-day ‘workshop’ in a one-horse town in the sticks where the executive suite costs $20 a night, what are ya gonna do? Very few have the stomach to do what needs to be done: call in the head of the delegation and tell him you’re not his personal ATM, that you have noted his team’s attempt to rip you off and are preparing a report to his superiors, the BRR’s complaints board and the president’s office for good measure in the event there is a repeat.
That approach won’t work in Java but in Aceh people understand the big stick and sometimes you have to wield it.
Everyone is grappling with this one and no one will talk about a united response.
At the same time, we have not seen to sort of institutional corruption one generally associates with Indonesia. More like nibbling about the edges.
And the ST’s ‘expose’ that contractors are corrupt will come as no surprise to anyone who has renovated their bathroom back home in Brighton, Boston or Bombay.
On the plus side, Banda Aceh now boasts its first Italian restaurant, located in the same alleyway where Steakhouse 1 & 2 are found. The fellow who runs all three operations is canny, paying off local and national police to the tune of $2,500.00 a month, paying off the Religious Police and their yoot Taliban shock-troops by contributing to their charities of choice, getting papered up legally though the local administration etc. He’s gotta sell a lot of lager to make it pay but he is obviously making a go of it, fueled by our demands for beer, wine and more beer.
The Spaghetti joint will take off no doubt, especially as more and more foreign families opt to relocate to Aceh when the UN’s security phase drops as is being considered. Current Phase 3 means no family members are allowed, with a compensatory pay hike to the tune of about $2,500.00 per UN employee/month. With close to 300 people working under that security umbrella that’s a $9 million cost savings over the course of a year.
In the interests of full disclosure, I get that salary top-up so I am not exactly a disinterested party.
I am all for lowering the security phase if it makes sense but in this case I – and many others who are not necessarily looking at the bottom-line – think it is poorly timed.
Provincial elections will be held in August (Insh’allah) so why would you not wait until October/November before lowering the phase? Right now we have no idea what the sort of Law on the Governance of Aceh (LOGA) the House in Jakarta is going to approve, and how that package is likely to be received by many thousands of non-combatants.
Phase adjustment will result in an influx of new foreign faces all of whom will have to go through a period of readjustment to local norms at a time when grassroots fires will be burning in the lead-up to Election Day. We know that some politicians are going to try and make hay bleating about morally corrupt internationals so why add potential fuel to the fundamentalist fires at such a sensitive time?
Some will argue that the Phase could simply be raised in the event of trouble forgetting the huge internal administrative costs associated with this exercise and the potential costs to individuals who opt to bring their families in to join them will wipe out whatever marginal cost savings their might have been.
No. I say wait till we see the outcome of these elections and make a decision based on the situation on the ground rather than the fiscal expediencies laid out by UN bean counters.
It’s been a while.
And I wrote this three weeks ago.. couldn’t figure out my logon for the Blog! How embarrassing is that?
The delay is not because I have nothing to say or that old crutch about being worried about getting busted for publicizing stuff that is too sensitive as almost happened last year… (Funny to be purging my anger about issues only to scurry back into the office in the wee hours to erase my blog entry!), and certainly not because of a lack in things to write about.
But with a wee bit of time now available to me in the evenings – making an effort to cut back on those weeks of 15-hour days – I hope to be able to bring a few things forward. That and a distant cousin’s email the other day that reminded me of why I got into journalism to begin with, have got me set down in front of the Mac listening to Ben Harper and Blind Boys from Alabama.
The weekend’s Sunday Times carried a story about how millions have gone missing from various aid agencies involved in Aceh beneath an eye-catching headline that reads: Massive Fraud in Tsunami Rebuilding.
Beyond the BBC I’ve not had any calls about it today but who knows what the next days will bring. The main source of the information seems to be a local NGO that supposedly monitors corruption-related issues here.
Like most journos, I used to steer clear of citing these kinds of groups, all the while pillaging their files for information that passes the Sniff Test, to follow-up on. The ST guy didn’t bother and the consequence is that the story is garbled, hyperbolic and rather than setting the bar nice and high, is so full of holes that anyone with half a brain can punch it full of holes.
Which is too bad. I have been waiting for months for someone to do this story properly because there’s no doubt that graft is increasingly an issue and a solid right to the chin might snap the powers that be back to life.
The city is awash in banners decrying corruption and urging people to Maju bersama, tampa korupsi (Move Forward Without Corruption), the President has in the past 48 hours again vowed to bust down anyone caught siphoning off money, Wolfowitz was in town making similar noises on behalf of the World Bank etc etc and everyone nods and smiles and then plants their faces back in the trough.
The local government flunkies are as slick and oily as ever, and enjoy a position of great authority over the international agencies: you can’t get the job done on your own and they don’t have the money or capacity to do it on their own. So, when you offer to ‘support’ their efforts in the field and they show up with an envelop full of $200.00 hotel bills following a three-day ‘workshop’ in a one-horse town in the sticks where the executive suite costs $20 a night, what are ya gonna do? Very few have the stomach to do what needs to be done: call in the head of the delegation and tell him you’re not his personal ATM, that you have noted his team’s attempt to rip you off and are preparing a report to his superiors, the BRR’s complaints board and the president’s office for good measure in the event there is a repeat.
That approach won’t work in Java but in Aceh people understand the big stick and sometimes you have to wield it.
Everyone is grappling with this one and no one will talk about a united response.
At the same time, we have not seen to sort of institutional corruption one generally associates with Indonesia. More like nibbling about the edges.
And the ST’s ‘expose’ that contractors are corrupt will come as no surprise to anyone who has renovated their bathroom back home in Brighton, Boston or Bombay.
On the plus side, Banda Aceh now boasts its first Italian restaurant, located in the same alleyway where Steakhouse 1 & 2 are found. The fellow who runs all three operations is canny, paying off local and national police to the tune of $2,500.00 a month, paying off the Religious Police and their yoot Taliban shock-troops by contributing to their charities of choice, getting papered up legally though the local administration etc. He’s gotta sell a lot of lager to make it pay but he is obviously making a go of it, fueled by our demands for beer, wine and more beer.
The Spaghetti joint will take off no doubt, especially as more and more foreign families opt to relocate to Aceh when the UN’s security phase drops as is being considered. Current Phase 3 means no family members are allowed, with a compensatory pay hike to the tune of about $2,500.00 per UN employee/month. With close to 300 people working under that security umbrella that’s a $9 million cost savings over the course of a year.
In the interests of full disclosure, I get that salary top-up so I am not exactly a disinterested party.
I am all for lowering the security phase if it makes sense but in this case I – and many others who are not necessarily looking at the bottom-line – think it is poorly timed.
Provincial elections will be held in August (Insh’allah) so why would you not wait until October/November before lowering the phase? Right now we have no idea what the sort of Law on the Governance of Aceh (LOGA) the House in Jakarta is going to approve, and how that package is likely to be received by many thousands of non-combatants.
Phase adjustment will result in an influx of new foreign faces all of whom will have to go through a period of readjustment to local norms at a time when grassroots fires will be burning in the lead-up to Election Day. We know that some politicians are going to try and make hay bleating about morally corrupt internationals so why add potential fuel to the fundamentalist fires at such a sensitive time?
Some will argue that the Phase could simply be raised in the event of trouble forgetting the huge internal administrative costs associated with this exercise and the potential costs to individuals who opt to bring their families in to join them will wipe out whatever marginal cost savings their might have been.
No. I say wait till we see the outcome of these elections and make a decision based on the situation on the ground rather than the fiscal expediencies laid out by UN bean counters.
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