After Mount Merapi...Mount Bromo?

One of the positives of living in a country with lots of active volcanoes is that there are plenty of mountains to climb and plenty of excellent scenes to be photographed from the tops of these active mountainous regions. There are also some negatives. An active volcano is always in need at some point to be blowing off some steam.

Indonesia is a very big part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Recently, Mount Merapi has erupted and caused much damage, including the loss of more than 300 lives. Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) has also been rumbling and people are being warned to keep their distance. Now, back into Java, Mount Bromo is also rumbling and spewing smoke and a little ash.

Mount Bromo is a really active volcano. It is a perennial eruptor, in that it goes for a minor eruption every year. But, the minor eruptions are sort of like just topping off the pressure that is building deep down in the earth. Vulcanologists are concerned enough that they have raised the warning levels on Mount Bromo and are encouraging villagers and tourists to stay away.

Mount Bromo is a very popular tourist spot. If you ever have the chance to climb it, then you should take the time to do so. The view from the top is spectacular. And, there is nothing quite like the sense of achievement one has in reaching the peak of a mountain.

Necrophilia...

It is a little weird how things appear. I was having a discussion within the past several days about the term necropolis in a historical context, then low and behold I am reading The Jakarta Globe and come across this story of necrophilia in Kediri, East Java.

Anyway, it is a story that I do not recall having heard before in Indonesia. Maybe I have and just cannot recall it. The standard fare has generally been bestiality where lonely men are having their way with an animal or two, goats and cows being the animals of choice.

The story goes that Eko Santoso is a married man of 27. He is married to a young woman of just 19, Tri Wayuni. Tri accused Eko of continuing to sow his wild oats after their marriage with sex workers. Unfortunately, Eko was offended by the suggestion and thought the most appropriate course of action was to strangle his wife, then have sex with her dead body, and then try and cover it all up by hanging her from a fan in their house.

What I do not get is the need to strangle her because of the accusation. I am not sure how that enrages one to the point of murder. I can appreciate that it happens, and it seems to be the way this crime unfolded. However, what I really do not get is how then this reaches a point of defiling the body by having one last round. I guess this is why I am not a psychiatrist.

Maybe I need to read a little more on this subject. I can probably justify it by classifying it as necessary research to teach history subjects. Maybe I could even buy a book on the subject and claim it as a tax deduction.

Metro TV, Porn, and KPI Sanctions...

Oops!

Metro TV has 'mistakenly' broadcast some rather graphic images during its morning news program. The offending footage was associated with a news piece about a raid on an internet cafe in East Java. Unfortunately for the station and the news editors, someone has missed a close up of a computer screen that had not been pixelated to remove the images.

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has decided that the most appropriate sanction is to pull the program from the airwaves for a week and require the station to broadcast an apology three times a day for three days.

I cannot work out whether the station was fined as well. However, a fine and an apology would probably have been sufficient. Pulling the program for a week seems a little like overkill to me by a KPI that is hungry for attention, and in need to justify its existence.

Valentine's Day -- A Western Tradition, Not a Muslim One...

It always happens that when you have a group of grumpy old men sitting around with too much time on their hands and not enough to do who call themselves the peak Islamic Scholars body of Indonesia, then you are likely to get silly fatwas. These fatwas serve no other purpose than to convince most righteous and modern Muslims that these gentlemen really do not "get it".

Now, the Nahdlatul Ulama is generally accepted as Indonesia's biggest Muslim organization. It also happened to be the spiritual home of one of Indonesia's most vocal proponents of a pluralistic Indonesian community, the late Gus Dur. However, more recently Abdullah Cholil of the East Java branch of the NU decided to tell his Muslim brothers and sisters that it was forbidden (haram) for Muslims to celebrate Valentine's Day (photo) in any shape, manner, or form.

According to Abdullah, the day is celebrated by young unmarried people and this would lead to sinful thoughts and actions, such as free sex (perhaps casual sex would be a better term as sex is generally never free - just ask Antasari who paid USD 500 for a little and is now about to embark on 18 years in prison for oral sex).

Furthermore, Abdullah states that young people are not supposed to be doing either, committing sins or having sex. Nevertheless, if Abdullah's concerns relate to youn unmarried people then it would stand to reason that celebrating Valentine's Day for married couples who are gong to be having sinful thoughts about each other and engaging in some carnal pleasure with each other on Valentine's Day should not be a problem, right?

Well, may be it is. It would seem that Lalilurrahman, of the East Java of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Ulema Council / MUI) went a little further stating that a celebration of romance and love is a Western tradition and therefore haram for Muslims to celebrate as it is not part of Muslim or Eastern culture.

For my mind, this leaves Lalilurrahman a little exposed to the cynics among us who might be tempted to suggest that romance and love are obviously not part of Islamic tradition. Although, I am guessing that there are some more moderate Islamic views on love, romance, and Islamic traditions that remain faithful to the tenets of the faith but make a compelling argument that Laliurrahman and Abdullah have it wrong. I will leave it to them to make those arguments, if they want.

In any event, it goes without saying that Indonesia faces more pressing problems and challenges than Valentine's Day, but then again with a group of grumpy old men who are not getting "any" it seems that if they are not getting their Valentine's Day rocks off then no-one should be getting them off, let's kill it! Or they could just stay home and view some online porn and self-gratify, but that might expose them to being called 'wankers', then again a fatwa banning Valentine's Day might have already taken care of that.

It's Official (or is it)?

Well, it seems when things go bad they go bad across the board. A group of international petroleum geologists looking at the mud volcano (photo) in Sidoarjo in East Java have made a statement to the effect that the cause of this disaster was drilling and not some distant earthquake as claimed by the companies involved in the drilling.

The main company involved is part of the Bakrie empire. The Bakrie empire is slowly but surely unraveling as loan and debt pressure forces the group to sell off some of its best assets in order to make ends meet.

The petroleum geologists were meeting at a conference in Cape Town (South Africa). The view is not universal among the 74 experts in attendance. Three of them still consider the earth quake scenario the most likely cause.

These are the key reasons that drilling rather than the earthquake is the cause:

• the earthquake was too small and too far away to have had a role.
• the well was being drilled at the same time and only 150 m from the volcano site.
• the well took a huge influx of fluid the day before the eruption, resulting in pressures that the well could not tolerate.
• the pressure measured in the well after the influx provides strong evidence that the well was leaking and even evidence for the initial eruption at the surface.

Does this end the debate and have any implications for compensation. Probably not!

ExxonMobil and People Smuggling

The Department of Labor and Transmigration has singled out ExxonMobil and in particular its subsidiary Mobil Cepu Ltd, for being responsible for human trafficking. Well, the Department says smuggling because Mobil Cepu allegedly has expatriates employed who have not fulfilled the necessary immigration and presumably labor requirements.

The Deputy Head of the Regional Departmental office is convinced that an investigation into illegal expatriate workers has turned up evidence that there are in fact expatriates working on Mobil Cepu's East Java gas fields.

The investigation was sparked by a denial by Mobil Cepu for a joint team to enter the mining site. The Deputy Head, Setiadjit, was also a little upset that the joint team was not allowed to raid the houses of the expatriates as well.

This has all the hallmarks of a "he said, she said" shakedown. Setiadjit is of the opinion that the parent companies are ultimately responsible for the actions of their subsidiaries and it is ExxonMobil that needs to ensure compliance and if compliance does not occur then it is ExxonMobil that must be responsible for any violations.

This has ended with the Labor and Transmigration Regional office jumping up and down and threatening to lodge a police report if the relevant paperwork is not handed over. The deadline is 13 October 2008.

It is certain to get a little more interesting yet as ExxonMobil has stepped into the fray, just like Setiadjit demanded. A spokesperson for ExxonMobil has stated unequivocally that they have complied with all prevailing laws and regulations and that the relevant labor authorities are already in possession of the required documents.

If this develops into a story I will post a postscript to this entry.

The Price of Life and the Cost of Entry into Heaven

A tragic story and perhaps old news now more than 24 hours after it happened. However at least 21 people have been killed in a stampede for a handout that amounts to about USD 3.50. There are probably many ways you could look at the issue. Perhaps you could look at it from an economic perspective and analyse the value of life and the costs of getting into heaven. maybe you could look at it from a law and order perspective. You might look at it from a public negligence perspective, or as some have suggested you might want to look at this from the perspective of a complete breakdown in the trust of the people for their public institutions such as the police.

The story occurs in Pasuruan, a small town in East Java. A local Muslim of some fortune decided that he was going to make donations to the poorer members of the community in the form of a cash hand out. It is after all the holiest of holy months, Ramadan, and many Muslims make the giving of alms a priority during the month. So, the simple fact that a rich Muslim wanted to do this is not strange or unusual.

The Pasuruan tragedy is probably the result of the convergence of a number of issues.

Poverty in many parts of Indonesia remains acute, some might even argue that it is worsening, and this runs counter to much of the positive spin that the government is putting on economic numbers. So, the very idea of a cash hand out is likely to draw the masses. In this case it is thought to have drawn somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 people (perhaps up to 7,000). The area surrounding the private residence of the family handing out the alms is small and littered with small gang ways. Try and imagine if you can 5000+ people crammed into a series of small gangs and a small courtyard.

The end result was perhaps as predictable and preventable as it is tragic. The crowd surge meant that many were crushed and trampled to death in the rush to get to the front. At least 21 lives have been snuffed out and each for less than USD 3.50.

There were no police in sight to administer or control the crowds. The police were not there because they were not invited or asked to attend. Why not? Probably because the family was concerned that if the police were there then most of those receiving the donation would have lost a portion of it on the way out as a "service charge" or tax collected by the police. Are the police responsible and can they be held responsible for not being there? I would hazard a guess and say not. However, this needs to be contrasted against the fact that it is alleged that the deaths occurred over a period of seven hours. So, on the first report of a death occurring it would make sense for the police to attend and then attend to crowd control. They did not.

The next question focuses on the family. Should the family have used a charity to distribute the alms that they wanted to distribute. The answer to this question is a tricky one. The family chose not to because perhaps they were concerned that much of the alms they wanted to provide would have been lost to administrative charges (the charities enriching themselves) and not distributed to those most in need. This is a sad indictment of the people's trust in charities.

Who is responsible for this tragedy? The family decided to go it alone on this one and as such they should bear primary responsibility for what occurred. However, it would seem that perhaps they are not solely responsible. The reasons for doing what they did highlights that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system that it cannot take care of the people it is designed to care of nor function to distribute alms to those most in need.

The cost of getting into heaven in this instance was just too high.

The Entrepreneurial Indonesian Spirit

One must tip their hat to the never say die Indonesian entrepreneurial spirit. The recent serial killings that have been uncovered in Jombang, East Java, have unleashed plenty of activity in the area. The increased number of journalists and spectators of the macabre have descended on the place. This has meant that a small service industry has sprung up to serve the needs of those in town.

The services have seen some enter into the merchandise trade. These entrepreneurs are selling pictures of the suspect, Verry Idam Henyansyah (aka Ryan) (pictured), for IDR 4,000 a piece. The happy snaps of the alleged serial killer are selling like hot cakes and most trades seem to have been able to sell a few hundred of them. Funnily enough, the picture is one that has been downloaded from the Internet.

The other big entrepreneurial gig is in food and drinks. A large crowd needs to be fed and watered. True to the Indonesian spirit of entrepreneurship these traders have arrived in force. This is something that I do not recall from other places that I have visited in the world. I am not sure that it is unique to Indonesia, perhaps I just have not been to the "right" places on my other travels.

Nevertheless, whenever there is an incident there will be enterprising Indonesians on the scene within minutes selling food and drinks. I recall an accident scene a few years ago where a car had overturned and caught on fire. No one was trapped inside but the burning car and possible explosion meant that a crowd gathered at a safe distance, me include. Within minutes there were people selling bottles of tea, peanuts, fried snacks, the whole works as a matter of fact.

Some people might be amazed or surprised to read about the traders that have emerged around the scene of a horrific series of crimes such as these must have been. For me it is just another example of the Indonesian ability to make a Rupiah no matter what the circumstances.

Long live the entrepreneurial spirit!

Jamu in Yogyakarta

It seems that the Health authorities are doing the rounds in East Java, Central Java, and the Special Administrative Zone of Yogyakarta. The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (Badan Pengawasan Obat dan Makanan / BPOM) have withdrawn hundreds of herbal medicines from sale in markets throughout Yogyakarta.

The withdrawal from sale is for similar reasons to the one stated earlier. These herbal medicines contained prescription drugs that have serious effects on the heart, liver, kidneys, and blood pressure of those who take them.

Once again it seems you drink jamu at your own risk!

Herbal Medicines -- Jamu

Although this particular story originates from Malang in East Java it might just be representative of any region in Indonesia. Indonesians are big believers in traditional herbal medicines and cosmetics both of which are big business and provide turnovers to the owners of these businesses in the many millions and hundreds of millions of dollars annually. These companies include Martha Tilaar and Jamu Jago to mention but two.

However, a recent survey by the Indonesian Department of Health through the Health Service of Malang found that 77 types of jamu in Malang contravened current safety regulations with respect to the ingredients contained in the jamu. Of these 38 were registered and 39 were unregistered brands. The registered brands were immediately cancelled.

Most contained substances that are banned because they require a doctors prescription to be bought. The banned substances include diuretics, beta-2 stimulants, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, powerful pain relievers, asthma medicines, and a range of other prescription drugs.

I guess you drink jamu at your own risk!