Toowoomba Flood: 10 January 2011

The power of nature and the heroics of a few. This is Toowoomba yesterday. Queensland is suffering.

No other commentary necessary!

Corruption and SBY...

"My President is not capable of stopping corruption! Save the KPK! Save Indonesia!"

It has an almost "Hereos" ring to it, "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!".

But, the reality is that nothing is likely to save the presidential legacy of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. There is little likelihood that the dysfunction that is the SBY presidency will generate any debate like the Soeharto presidency. There will simply be no debate as to whether SBY should be declared a national hero. It is sort of like not cleaning up spilled wine straight away; the longer you leave it the more ingrained the stain!

The funny here, in that really perverse kind of a way, is that SBY came to the Indonesian presidency on a promise that he has not been able to keep; rooting out and eradicating corruption. The problem, corruption, is big. Yet, when Indonesia most needed leadership, SBY has been missing in action. Some might want to argue that SBY is the Teflon president. I would suggest that nothing ever sticks because he is not there to start with as all the hard yards are done by others and then spun by those closest to the president to intimate that he was at the forefront of any response.

To the contrary, why is it that corruption still exists on such a grand scale six years into the SBY presidency? Although, I am waiting for the presidential spokespeople to start spinning the apparent decision of the office of the attorney general to allow prosecutors to drop the fabricated case against Bibit and Chandra. It would be just too funny now for the spin to come that the president worked hard behind the scenes to see that the case was dropped, particularly after the claims that he had to keep arm's length and let the judicial process take its natural course.

Unfortunately, Mr. President, there was never anything natural about this case from the start. It was a "stitch-up" and an attempt to forever smear the reputations of two good, decent, and honest men who put all those personal traits on the line to fight your war against corruption! These men are the epitome of the testicular fortitude that you yourself lack. I am sure in the future that you will not see Bibit or Chandra lobbying to become national heroes. Two good men who are more concerned about the direction of their nation and the futures of their children and grandchildren! Now, if you ever need some pointers on how to maintain dignity and lead in times where the forces of evil line up against you, then you should give them a call; you might learn a thing or two.

Mr. President, it's time for a little 20 / 15 vision!

Indonesian Heroes -- Achmad Mochtar...

Indonesia is a wonderful country. Indonesia is a country filled with many wonderful and accomplished people. Indonesia is also a country with a rich history. It is in consideration of this that I post this little news piece discovered on my daily surf through Internet news. The post is in stark contrast to the less than rosy picture I have been painting with the posts about SBY and his ineffectual presidency.

Achmad Mochtar is not necessarily a name that jumps from the page as an easily identifiable Indonesian hero. However, he should be recognised much more widely for his sacrifices for the nation and her people. And, perhaps, this may now begin to happen.

Achmad Mochtar was executed by the Japanese in 1945. His beheading was to perpetuate a cover-up of a failed Japanese experiment that resulted in the deaths of some 900 Indonesian forced laborers. The experiment was the testing of a tetanus vaccine. The wide-scale experiment was performed on the 900 Indonesians to test whether the vaccine was safe before it would be administered to Japanese troops.

Mochtar was one of Indonesia's greatest scientists and was held in such high regard that he became head of the Eijkman Institute of Medical Research. Mochtar and his associates were working on medical research that was also looking at the possibility of creating and administering a tetanus vaccine. However, it is clear that the vaccine that poisoned the Indonesian forced laborers was the Japanese one. This is where the story takes a tragic turn for Mochtar and his staff.

In an attempt to cover-up the incident the Japanese quickly blamed Mochtar and the Eijkman Institute. The Japanese arrested all of the Eijkman staff in October 1944. The staff were tortured and mistreated. However, as quickly as they had been arrested, the staff of the Eijkman were released. Mochtar though continued to be held. Mochtar was subsequently beheaded, his body crushed by a steamroller, and his remains tossed into a communal grave.

Research conducted by a clinical research scientist from Oxford University, Kevin Baird, has found that Mochtar had taken the blame for the failed experiment on the proviso that the Japanese released all of his staff.

Achmad Mochtar deserves to be recognised for his sacrifices.

He was a martyr in the true sense of the word, he was a patriot, and a true Indonesian.

Note:
Maybe the president, the parliament and those in high public office in Indonesia could learn a thing or two from the sacrifices of Achmad Mochtar.

Gratuitous Postings -- Hayden Panettiere -- Heroes

I must confess that this post, photo, and the associated tags are a means of testing whether or not a gratuitous posting of a young woman in a sexy sheer lace dress can cause a spike in my visitor statistics. I will let you know how that goes.

Sad but true :D

Hayden Panettiere is known for her role in "Heroes". However, she has crossed over into the big screen format as well. This picture is from a promotional trip she took to the Late Show with David Letterman for "I Love You Beth Cooper". She is not nude, but the dress does not leave a whole lot to the imagination.

The other thing that Panettiere is known for is her ink, particularly a misspelled tattoo. There is a photo of that here.

Gay Marriage -- Who Cares?

Tuesday is the first full day in California were same sex couples can legally get married! It is 02.54 Wednesday now while I write this sitting here in Jakarta and by my reckoning that makes it Tuesday in California. I am sure there will be a bit of a rush today with couples looking to tie the knot and get on with business. The system in California expects a rush too. They have extended operation hours and put on additional staff to cope with the expected rush.

The change in the law has required some form changes as well. The traditional "bride" and "groom" spaces on a marriage license have been changed to "Party A" and "Party B".

One of the first couples to get a marriage license were George Takei and his longtime partner. This is the fella that played Sulu in the original Star Trek and more recently appeared in Heroes. Nah, this is indicative of how much attention I pay to who is gay and who is not, as I did not even know he was gay! I just do not care!

I do not believe that homosexuality and lesbianism are lifestyle choices. I do not believe that homosexuality and lesbianism is a disease that can be cured like genital warts. I believe that you are born homosexual or lesbian and that society encourages you to repress your true self in order to conform to an unrealistic and arbitrary norm.

My good blogging friend Rima has written an excellent little post on "why religion does not matter" and I encourage you to drop by and read it! The relevance to that post and this one is with regards to the "not caring". I really do not give the proverbial rat's arse in terms of people identifying whether they are gay or lesbianism. I am not judging them on any criteria that relates to the sexual preferences as I would expect them not to be judging me on my preference for heterosexuality. To each their own!

Yet, I must care because there are many who want to convince me that there is something inherently evil and bad in homosexuality and lesbianism. So evil that I must rail against it now or forever live in damnation! My response is always the same...if this is such a bad thing then let them get on with it and God can sort it out later.

I have never really understood why some people think that God has given them the authority to be God's arbiter and representative on earth. This bothers me because I am asked to tolerate the stupidity of the Westboro Baptist Church and their protests. They seem to think that God hates Australia but I wouldn't be surprised if in fact God had a few more issues with the Westboro Baptist Church than God has with Australia.

I have never met a gay or lesbian person who has interfered with or been a hassle to my daily life experience. Not one of my gay and lesbian friends has ever tried to "convert" me in order that I bat for the other side. Nope, the only zealots that I have encountered are those who try and convert me to some misguided religion that looks for me to allocate 10% of my salary to the building of a bigger church or mosque!

Back to California. It was nice to see that the first couple married were Del Martin aged 87 and Phyllis Lyon aged 83. This pair have been together for some 55 years! A commitment of 55 years to each other deserves to be recognized in marriage. I do not care who was Party A and who was Party B. I bet my last dollar that neither did they! The picture is of the happy couple and it is a sweet photograph of two people still in love after 55 years. They have been together longer than I have been alive!

I am pro-same sex marriage!