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.