I have not tossed up whether to write this little piece. However, I must qualify that the story is based on hearsay.
Just down the street from my place and in front of the cat killer's house is a small park with a swing and a few other pieces of parky like furniture. There is also a 'pangkalan ojek' (motor cycle taxi stand). The missus and I have only been in the new place for just over a week and I have developed a pretty good rapport with the local ojek riders. I am a pretty personable fella really and nice to everyone.
It turns out that my psycho cat killing neighbour decided in his infinite wisdom that he would shoot some more cats this morning. I heard the shots but did not see the events first hand. However, the ojek riders were quick to report to me the events as they unfolded. The victims were two kittens and their mother. According to the ojek riders all three were hit but all managed to get away. The preferred method it seems is to shoot the cats in their rear hind legs or back.
These cats were not my cats and I do not know if they are pets. They had taken to playing in our yard over the last couple of days. But, as I have said previously it is cowardly to shoot defenseless animals just for the fun of it. What's more is these three cats were shot through the fence while they were playing on the other side of the street. I would suggest that even though this is a street in a private housing complex, the street by definition is a public thoroughfare as far as residents are concerned. Shooting into the street is not only dangerous it is stupid.
I have made my report to the coordinator of security and to the RT (Local Community Chief). Both have said that the owning of a gun, even an air rifle, is dangerous and not in the spirit of a residential complex like this one. I was promised that they would talk to the man (I hesitate to call him a man), one Pak Joy, but this seems to have been nothing more than lip service. Pak Joy, somewhat ironic as the fella certainly does not bring a whole lot of Joy, goes on his merry way killing cats. At least now I know why there are not that many cats in the vicinity.
I should add that the RT instructed me that it would not be worth my while to escalate this and make an issue of it. It would especially not be worth my while to refer or report the matter to the police. I must resolve this in a neighbourly way as all good neighbours in the complex where I live apparently do.
It was then suggested that I moved prematurely to the new house because my immigration paperwork was not complete in terms of recognizing my changed location of residence. I might add it is in process, but that was like, well you must have it done before you move, so you are not really a legal resident of the complex until the paperwork is complete. In my ever-increasing cynicism, I might interpret this to mean it is time to pull your head in and get with the program. In this case the program being that the cat killer can do whatever he wants. Any suggestions on how to proceed from here would be appreciated.
It is too bad that I am not on an expat package where I could have more options as to where I live. I work and live like a local on a local salary and under local conditions, but I am always treated with suspicion no matter how long I live in one place. It is frustrating at times and this is one of those times.
15 comments:
It's funny in a sad way..
There really is no where to escalate this case. The best you can do is probably to claim ownership on those cats, mark them properly, and really treat them as pets, to protect them from future abuse..
If my guess on where you live is right, I heard the RW of your area is a lot more reasonable. You can talk to him. Although I believe he won't take any action against this guy, he can probably calm you with his level-headedness. Once, my car hit his car and he only asked for Rp.100,000 to replace the claim cost. (To claim for car insurance in Indonesia, you must pay Rp.100,000 per incident a few years ago).
Keep us updated please.
Amitz...
I am calm and I do not need calming down. I just find it amazing that people in the complex are not a little more concerned with the issues themselves.
I have a strange feeling that putting a collar on a cat and feeding it and treating it like a pet is not likely to save it from the site of this bloke's gun.
In terms of escalation, it depends! It depends on what we mean by escalation and it also depends on where the escalation is taken.
Smudges, the cat from last week was really treated like a pet so perhaps your suggestion is a little off the mark. This bloke just does not care. A cat is a target for target practice, period.
The car analogy is also a little weird in this case as I would have assumed that you bumping the RW's car was an accident. There is nothing accidental in the way this bloke shoots cats.
Rob,
I am so sorry for your loss. The other day I read about your previous entry, would like to leave some comments but I was caught up in another thing. This man is a bastard. It reminds me with someone in the neighborhood who threatened to shoot my dog many years ago. This man (he is a Chinese) arrogantly yelled and threatened me not to pass his area with my dog ever again. He talked to me in front of his house with his wife next to him as they were about to send the kids to school. He said my dog and other dogs have contributed to the poo mess in the neighborhood.
Being a Chinese myself, I was not afraid of him and yelled back at him. I challenged him to do that over my dead body. There are a lot of people in the neighborhood owned dogs as well, so I told him...since you're going to kill mine, why don't you knock every doors and shoot both the owner and the dog, why you are picking me out??? He was so furious but I didn't back off...I cussed and calling him names. Fortunately my dog lived until his old age. He passed away last year at the age of 13.
Now I am a proud owner of a stray cat named Suneo. I hope there's something you can do to help the cats away from the beast. His barbarian acts need to be stopped, but I know you cannot do it alone. I wish he get shot in his eyeball for the crime he did/does to the innocent cats.
Elyani...
I am contemplating the best way to move forward on this one. It seems that the powers that be do not care much for the fight.
He seems to be able to shoot cats with relative impunity. The Coordinator of Security is supposed to be organizing a face-to-face sitdown in order for us to resolve our issues on gun ownership and his shooting of local cats. I do not see this meeting going all that well.
But, that said I am sure that I will give as good as I get in any meeting. I will keep you all updated.
For the record, I don't agree with the cat shooting.
What I meant is the RW had suggested a relatively win-win solution to my car accidentally bumped his, which is an obvious solution yet noone I bumped in my driving history has ever suggested that.
That is a reflection of how he is a clear-headed guy. I expect him to be able to satisfy you in a way that works for both parties.
I don't know how much you treat the cat as a pet so I can't comment on him shooting the cat you claim as your pet.
In the very same neighborhood, that is if we're talking about the same neighborhood, there is a person that like to feed a stray dog. The dog become regulars near his house. Yet, I actually asked around and the servants (who are home everyday) never consider the dog as his pet. Anyway, you should see all the sign of injury it suffers. It seems to had lived a tough life.
btw, don't take my words, but you can probably escalate without the maniac retaliating, as long as you don't do much damage. People are more likely to tolerate you since you're considered a foreigner who is not used to Indonesian way. Just don't do anything you might regret..
My advice, time to shut the door and forget about the cat killer. Seems that you will be as dumb as the cat killer, will be as dumb as the RT and RW, if you continue to pay-back that dumber.
I wish I can punch him on his nose, like my dad taught me when I was a kid.
That's how you deal with that lil boy, his advice to the 9 years old lil girl.
Not because I love to settled things down through violence but what all that bloke have did it to you was the same like "an eye for an eye".
You are more educated than them, so leave behind those all stupid people.
Amitz...
Mate I do not know whether I should be offended or feel complimented with the suggestion that I can escalate this thing and get away with the escalation because I am a foreigner that does not know the Indonesian way.
I cannot see a win-win situation developing here. It is not as simple as him giving me another cat! How do you quantify the life of an animal in monetary terms? How do you quantify the enjoyment that a pet can give you each and every day? This is not a win-win situation. Right now it is win-lose, where he wins and I lose. Simply, no one is prepared to confront this brave man with a gun.
Once again, the analogy of feeding a stray dog is off the mark. More to the point even if the cat was a stray and I adopted it, fed it, looked after it, then it still does not deserve to be shot for sitting on a wall. Yet, the cat was not a stray it was a pet.
Furthermore, just because an animal has had a tough life does not translate to it needs to be shot.
There are plenty of people that have lead hard lives and are homeless perhaps we should start shooting them as well? Ahhh, but we value the lives of living things differently, don't we? I wonder do all living things have souls or is it just us humans?
Tere...
It would be nice if it was that simple. I will be living next to this fella for the next 12 months or so.
I am not going to be jumping fences and punching him in the face or perpetrating any other violence against the man. Any escalation would be reasonable and legal.
I believe life works in mysterious ways, ways that we do not fully understand, I do not know whether that is karma or something else (those that believe in God probably attribute this mystery to God).
A time will come where he reaps what he has sown.
The comment concerning how foreigners can get away with many things because they're considered unknowledgeable on Indonesian way, is meant to be a statement of fact. Whether it's a wrong statement of fact, is of course open for dispute. That statement is not meant to offend you. I'm just saying that you can capitalize on that advantage if you insist on escalating, however the escalating will be. I just think that all legal escalations will be futile unless you take some unusual path that are potentially regretable.
If you're offended, I'm sorry.
Concerning the neighbor perception on whether that pet is your pet or just a stray cat, what I was saying is that he probably didn't consider the cat as your pet, regardless whatever the truth is. I was only pointing how in a similar case in that neighborhood, no neighbor consider the stray dog as pet, which indicates how people's consideration are relative.
Regarding your last comment on how a dog shouldn't be killed even if it lives a tough life, that's a disturbingly off the mark statement, like in your other comment on how I probably think it's OK to shoot animal.. I don't think it's best for me to continue commenting unless you discard your preconception of me.
Amitz...
There is no preconception of you. I do not know you beyond your blogger profile and your comments here.
Disturbingly off the mark? Maybe, maybe not. I was merely making the point that it is easy to make a distinction and then it is easy to take arguments to logical conclusions that raise even more disturbing possibilities.
I am not offended. You would need to do much more than the foreigner statement. You talk about preconceptions and in some ways what you wrote perpetuates a stereotype of the unknowing foreigner exploiting the situation.
I am not unknowing in this regard. Sometimes, it would be nice to be treated just like everyone else and be expected to act like everyone else. If you're going to say that can never happen because you are a foreigner then perhaps there needs to be a little bit of a re-evaluation on the prejudices and biases we hold as individuals.
If the roles were reversed and you were a guest in my country of origin I would not be suggesting that as a foreigner you have a little bit more wiggle space than citizens. But that's just me.
In the big scheme of things whether you continue to comment either on this post or on other posts is a matter for you.
Once again, I have no preconceptions of you and as such have tried to word my responses specifically to the issues that you note in your comments.
Enjoy your day.
Rob,
Your responses seem like an (unconscious?) effort to always paint me as a bad guy, which is why I think you're not calm these last few posts. Your so called logical conclusions are.. unusual at best.
I'm particularly struck with a (admittedly) good pair of slippery slope you did, the one where you're mulling the possibility that I think it's OK to torture cat, continued with a smooth transition to a question whether I enjoy torturing cat. You painted an impression that I'm a similar cruel animal torturer.
But I can live with that since you seem like a decent guy who happen to be passionate on this sensitive matter, which is why I thought I should just drop this particular sensitive issue. (and here I am posting again, heh).
Amitz...
I have re-read my comments on this particular post and I cannot see where I am making a conscious or unconscious effort to paint you as a bad guy.
I also do not see where I have alluded to you as a person who derives any pleasure from torturing or killing cats. To the contrary, you have said something different.
My comments were in response to your comments and generally addressed the issues you raised. Any time that "you" was used in sentences like 'how do you value the life of a cat?' it was used in the general sense of you being all encompassing and not you directly or singularly.
Once again, I just do not see where I have painted you as a bad guy. It also seems that you have spent a lot of time defending the idea that I think you are a bad dude.
As I said, I have no pre or misconceptions about you as I just do not know you well enough to have either.
If you comment or continue to comment on any blog, including this one is a matter for you. I am happy for you to keep commenting here if you want to. However, try not to read my comments as being a personal attack on you. Truth be told if I was to write something that was a personal attack you would most certainly know the difference :D
Enjoy your day!
Rob,
Okay then, I understand.
Have a good day.
I really need to take a holiday, soon.
Amitz...
Me too! Or perhaps you could smoke or chew some Salvia Divinorum. It seems that the trip you take mught be as good as a holiday :D
hmmm, cheap vacation yet only limited by imagination. :-)
Post a Comment