The Answer to Teenage Sex: More Mosques...

Sexually active young people is hardly a new phenomenon. Maybe the 'scope' of what we read about in the news now is that teenagers themselves are more open about talking about their experiences than they have ever been in the past. So, this might be a case of teenagers being more truthful about their extra-curricular activities for statistical purposes.

Nevertheless, the moral and religious crusaders go to great lengths to tell us that this is indicative of a failing society and that the beginning of the 'end of days'. This leads to obvious "answers" to be put forward by these individuals. The answers always involve religious and moral instruction in places of worship.

So, there is no surprise when the Mayor of West Jakarta, Burhanuddin,  reckons that the best way to combat casual sex amongst teenagers is to build more mosques and indoctrinate them on all things religious and moral.  To each their own. In my mind, the best way to address this issue is to ensure that our teenagers are indeed educated. However, that education is not one of religion or morality. The education, or lesson, is one of responsibility. If you are a teenager and you are dead keen to have sex then it will be almost impossible for adults to prevent it from happening.

Assuming that others are of a similar view, then the issue is one of ensuring that teenagers know the risks and consequences of engaging in pre-marital sexual activity. If the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) are to be believed, then there are some 32% of Indonesian youths in the 14-18 years of age in Indonesia's larger urban centres of Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Medan and Yogyakarta are engaging in sexual activity. Once again, the most critical component of any response to this is to ensure that youngsters understand the risks and consequences, and then act responsibly and from a position of being forewarned and forearmed.

It seems a little naive to think that the solution to this "issue" is one of building new mosques and mandating that youths attend special sessions on pre-marital sex. I wonder whether these are non-denominational sessions or Burhanuddin is only concerned about young Muslims and their sexual appetites? One would have imagined that pre-marital sex is a community issue and not one that is exclusive to Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism.

I guess to be fair, one must give Burhanuddin a chance to show that his plan is capable of teaching these youths about safe sex, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and responsibility amongst the expected God prohibits unmarried teenagers from having sex (and if you do so then you are going straight to hell!)

There goes another RAB Experience rant and rail.
Ho hum...

[Potentially] Causing Panic is a Crime?

Is the reporting of the owner of an Indonesian television station to the police for allowing a broadcast that suggested that Mount Merapi, an Indonesian volcano on the island of Java, was going to erupt with even more intensity an attack on free speech and the freedom of the press?

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission has a brief to ensure that Indonesian broadcasters maintain some standards. However, it is questionable as to whether its brief includes reporting broadcasters to the police for the content of a show that suggests that an eruption of an active volcano is likely to be more intense than it has been previously. Using that logic any TV or radio broadcaster that reports a tsunami warning where the tsunami does not eventuate should also be reported to the police for causing unnecessary panic and telling lies, shouldn't they?

Harry Tanoesoedibjo is the owner of Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) which includes in its stable of interests RCTI, Tanoesoedibjo also owns Global TV and MNC TV along with a wide range of other print and broadcast media interests.

The KPI has determined that Tanoesoedibjo has breached a number of articles of the Broadcasting Law, including articles 36. Article 36 sees Tanoesoedibjo liable for a jail term up to five years and a IDR 10 billion fine for spreading misinformation (lies). In addition, the KPI is relying on Article 54 which in essence allows them to pursue the owner of a recalcitrant broadcaster.

The gist of the crime is that a program on RCTI, Silet, reported on 7 November 2010 that Mount Merapi was gearing up for an even larger eruption than those that it had recently experienced. The eruption according to the Silet report was not expected to happen until the following week. This would reasonably be of concern to people living in and around Mount Merapi as the Silet report also suggested that the magnitude of the eruption was likely to be the end of the closest major city to Merapi, Yogyakarta.

The Silet report drew the ire of the KPI and the KPI decided to ban RCTI from broadcasting the program until the Merapi status had been downgraded. However, RCTI decided that it would repackage and re-brand the show as "Intens" and front it with a new presenter. It goes without saying that this move annoyed the KPI and this is the reason that the KPI has acted as it has, like a petulant little child who got picked last for the playground soccer game at lunchtime.

What is silly about the reporting of Tanoesoedibjo to the police is that only Tanoesoedibjo has been reported. All TV and radio broadcasts at that time were presenting content of a very similar nature. Why has Tanoesoedibjo been singled out and targeted and the other have not? Is it personal or political or related to a business dispute?

Or is this a simple case of the KPI overreacting and over-reaching with respect to its brief?

This case seemingly is destined to set a poor precedent going forward for broadcast freedom and predicting the ferocity or lack thereof in relation to unfolding natural disasters.

A River of Mud and Volcanic Ash at 100km/h...

The recent rains in and around Yogyakarta have given rise to a new Mount Merapi related threat; rivers of mud and volcanic ash.

What is most scary about this photo (courtesy of Antara) is that this river of mud and volcanic ash is flowing at about 100 kilometres per hour. The mud and volcanic ash has been transported from Mount Merapi along the Code River which flows from the side of the mountain right through the centre of Yogya.

Nature at its very best, or is that at its very worst?

Mount Merapi...

Fire Mountain...

Back in 1993 I lived in Condong Catur in Yogyakarta for a couple of months. It was the first time I had ever been to Indonesia. I lived in the shadow of this really impressive mountain called, Merapi. I will have to dig through my photo albums and scan a few of the images I have. Meanwhile, I will make do with these ones that I borrowed from the internet.

Mount Merapi is in the news of late. The vulcanologists are suggesting that a rather large eruption is imminent. The evacuations have started. There is a 10-kilometer exclusion zone around the mountain.

When I zoomed in on the map I was able to locate the little gang (lane way) that I lived on. I stayed in a "home stay". Although, I have now lost touch with the family that put me up all those years ago, I remember them fondly. They were instrumental in setting me on my way with learning Indonesian.

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Hospital Forces Mother to Sell Child...Indonesia

Are you kidding me?

This is a crime, is it not? By my reckoning the Child Protection Law (No. 23 of 2002) would prohibit the buying and selling of children for any purpose. The idea of buying a child would also be in violation of the provisions of Law No. 21 of 2007 on Human Trafficking.

A hospital has forced a mother of twins to sell one of the twins to a hospital employee in order for her to pay her bills. This is just so wrong on so many levels. The fact that the hospital condones this as a method of paying patient medical expenses is criminal. All those involved must be punished to the fullest extent permissible under the applicable law. If there is no laws that make this kind of action criminally punishable, then parliament needs to focus on this issue immediately and put a legal framework in place that makes it impossible for hospitals and hospital staff to take advantage of, and exploit, the poor in this way.

I find myself shaking my head and thinking, why do seemingly educated people working in hospitals think that this is OK?

Let's "Save the Children"

The Pornography Law -- A Dead Document?

The Jakarta Post recently reported that Constitutional Law Expert, Irman Putra Sidin, saying, "How can we expect the law to be implemented when people and officials oppose it? Who's going to enforce it? It will end up as merely a dead document," based on the fact that at least four provinces were going to actively oppose the law and refuse to enforce it. Those provinces are Bali, North Sulawesi, Yogyakarta, and West Papua.

The rationale for this position is that if the law is not implemented nationwide then can it be valid anywhere. I would have thought that once the law was passed by parliament and enacted as law then it was the law of the land. Therefore, in a republic like the Republic of Indonesia, the law would apply everywhere.

A more interesting argument would be does the refusal to implement the law amount to the beginning of an act of secession? How far do the provinces want to push this? What sanctions could the State impose on rogue provinces that refuse to enforce state laws and regulations.

In fact this should be read as a preliminary movement towards seeking independence from the Republic of Indonesia. Quite clearly the intent of West Papua is to secede from the Republic if they are required to enforce the law. Andrikus Mofu, spokesperson for the West Papuan delegation said the following, "We will inform the international community of our aspiration and our intention to separate from Indonesia." This seems to leave little doubt where the West Papuan intentions lay.

The most likely course of action will be a Constitutional Court challenge to test the binding nature and legality of the provisions. The definitions of pornography and the manner that pornography is to be determined is arguably loose. Nevertheless, this is an issue that the Court will be asked to determine.

The reality is the laws of the land are to be applied and all are to be equal before the law. Special dispensation in one province compared to another means that there is no equality before the law and this is more likely to lead to problems than the enforcement of the law.

Of all the things that could trigger the disintegration of the Republic it is interesting that it is the Pornography Law that is being talked about as being this trigger.

Ten Reasons Why You Are Not Rich

Someone asked me whether I considered myself rich the other day, I don't. I had never really thought about why. Although last year I was in Jogja and the people I was staying with knew this fella who was a paranormal and a bit of a legend when it came to reading palms.

I am always open to new things and so I had my palm read. This explained my lack of financial savviness and the reasons why I am not as rich as I should be. The essence of the reading with regards to money was; easy come, easy go. Come to think of it, that sounds pretty much the crux of it.

Nevertheless, as I was checking out financial news stuff and trying to get a better handle on the financial crises the globe finds itself in, I cam across these pearls of wisdom and thought I would share them as they are.

Hopefully, they enlighten you as they have enlightened me.

"... Here are 10 more possible reasons you aren't rich:

1. You care what your car looks like: A car is a means of transportation to get from one place to another, but many people don't view it that way. Instead, they consider it a reflection of themselves and spend money every two years or so to impress others instead of driving the car for its entire useful life and investing the money saved.

2. You feel entitlement: If you believe you deserve to live a certain lifestyle, have certain things and spend a certain amount before you have earned to live that way, you will have to borrow money. That large chunk of debt will keep you from building wealth.

3. You lack diversification: There is a reason one of the oldest pieces of financial advice is to not keep all your eggs in a single basket. Having a diversified investment portfolio makes it much less likely that wealth will suddenly disappear.

4. You started too late: The magic of compound interest works best over long periods of time. If you find you're always saying there will be time to save and invest in a couple more years, you'll wake up one day to find retirement is just around the corner and there is still nothing in your retirement account.

5. You don't do what you enjoy: While your job doesn't necessarily need to be your dream job, you need to enjoy it. If you choose a job you don't like just for the money, you'll likely spend all that extra cash trying to relieve the stress of doing work you hate.

6. You don't like to learn: You may have assumed that once you graduated from college, there was no need to study or learn. That attitude might be enough to get you your first job or keep you employed, but it will never make you rich. A willingness to learn to improve your career and finances are essential if you want to eventually become wealthy.

7. You buy things you don't use: Take a look around your house, in the closets, basement, attic and garage and see if there are a lot of things you haven't used in the past year. If there are, chances are that all those things you purchased were wasted money that could have been used to increase your net worth.

8. You don't understand value: You buy things for any number of reasons besides the value that the purchase brings to you. This is not limited to those who feel the need to buy the most expensive items, but can also apply to those who always purchase the cheapest goods. Rarely are either the best value, and it's only when you learn to purchase good value that you have money left over to invest for your future.

9. Your house is too big: When you buy a house that is bigger than you can afford or need, you end up spending extra money on longer debt payments, increased taxes, higher upkeep and more things to fill it. Some people will try to argue that the increased value of the house makes it a good investment, but the truth is that unless you are willing to downgrade your living standards, which most people are not, it will never be a liquid asset or money that you can ever use and enjoy.

10. You fail to take advantage of opportunities: There has probably been more than one occasion where you heard about someone who has made it big and thought to yourself, "I could have thought of that." There are plenty of opportunities if you have the will and determination to keep your eyes open."

Garuda Pilot -- Trial

Captain Marwoto Komar the pilot of the ill-fated Garuda flight that crashed in Yogyakarta on 7 March 2007 is to be tried for his alleged negligence in the deaths of 21 people and the injuries of many more.

The trial is to be held in the Sleman District Court (near Yogyakarta) in Central Java. The trial is scheduled to begin on Thursday. There is to be a panel of judges to hear the case.

The final report by Indonesia's air safety investigators stated that Komar was so "fixated" with landing that he ignored 15 alarms and the pleas of his co-pilot. Nevertheless, Komar's arrest was greeted with protests and claims that the data from the black boxes and other flight recording equipment was inadmissible in a court of law pursuant to prevailing laws, regulations, and practices.

This means that the police would have had to obtain evidence that did not rely on the black boxes or the flight recorder information. Obviously the Office of the Public Prosecutor believes that the police have done a sufficient job in this regard to warrant proceeding to trial.

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!

Update on Garuda Pilot

Well, it seems that Garuda in a show of solidarity with the pilot allegedly responsible for the crash that killed 21 people in Yogyakarta last March (2007), it has offered the gentlemen the option of resigning or being fired. He, Captain Marwoto Komar, opted to resign.

Apparently, the final report suggests the the pilot was so 'fixated' with landing that he ignored 15 warnings lamps and alarms.

The unfortunate pilot is being charged with negligence for his actions leading up to the crash. He is currently out on bail.

Borobudur

Last week, 14-16 February 2008, I had the good fortune of being invited to present a workshop in Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta. I have not been to Yogya for a number of years and every time that I do go back I wish that it was for longer than a couple of days. Yogya is a place I would like to live and I guess my fondness stems from the fact that my introduction to Indonesia was Yogya. Introduction here means the first two months I spent in Indonesia, I spent in Yogyakarta.

But as the title to this post suggests that it is not really about Yogyakarta at all but rather it is about Borobudur. I have been to Borobudur a number of times now and the reality is that it does not change much over time in the grand scheme of things. I think that I keep going back to spot the little changes such as any renovations or re-ordering of the stones which supposedly tell a story. But rather by my reckoning these stones look like a collection of disorganized sheets of paper torn from a book and then stuck back in in any old place.

Aside from that I always forget to take a hat and get sunburnt and then have to endure the taunts of those who think I look like a boiled crab!

One thing that never changes at Borobudur are the souvenier sellers. If anything they have become more agressive and super persistent. Each of them has a tragic tale of existence to tell and for all I know these tragic tales are undoubtedly true. Yet, I could not make myself buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff...I really don't need any t-shirts that are 4 sizes to small and most of the other really gaudy trinkets on sale I have already bought on previous occasions...So, I resisted even though at times that resistance seemed like it was going to be futile.

However, one of the guides there (a reasonable speaker of English for any of my non-Indonesian speaking readers) by the name of Agus. Agus doubles up on his guide duty with being a bit of a fortune teller on the side and his friends seem to consider him a bit of a legend on the Javanese mysticism front.

No cost was involved and no tip was expected but as always any donation was appreciated. Funnily enough most of what he said seemed to make sense and seemed to be leaning more towards being true than false. He asked me no questions and just got straight to work...there were no far-reaching predictions of life and death but nevertheless interesting tidbits about career and family. So, if your ever in that part of the world just ask anyone of the guides about this bloke and they will point you in the right direction.

I would encourage you to go and look at Borobudur for yourself...The above photo is from my very own collection (and not some copyrighted photo I stole from the web)!

Garuda Pilot Arrested

Some might argue that this particular arrest has been a long time in coming. How does someone kill 21 people so publicly and seem to be immune from prosecution. Ahhh, but no more, the police have bitten the bullet on this one and have arrested Captain Marwoto Komar and charged him with manslaughter in the deaths of 21 passengers in the crash that occurred on 7 March 2007. The arrest came at the end of a 10-hour interrogation. They should also charge him with subsidiary offences relating to the greivous bodily harm he did to many other passengers as well.

His lawyers are claiming that pilots of commercial aircraft should not have to face criminal prosecution for mistakes. I disagree. When you assume the controls of a passenger aircraft and you have the lives of 100s of people in your hands there is a reasonable expectation that you will do your job professionally and in a manner that does not endanger the lives of your passengers or crew. A captain that ignores 15 separate warning indicators and attempts to land a commercial aircraft at twice the recommended speed deserves to be punished.

Interestingly, it would seem that the police have been able to secure independent testimony as the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has said the data contained on the voice recorders and in the black boxes cannot be used in a criminal investigation or prosecution of the Captain. The most likely source of this corroborating evidence is going to be the co-pilot for what was going on in the cockpit at the time. The airforce, who run the Yogyakarta airport (Adi Sucipto), have allowed police to interview air traffic controllers on the proviso that the air traffic controllers are not to become suspects in the investigation. These interviews will also shed some much needed light on what transpired on that fateful day.

The dossier or case file needs to be completed and then handed to the Office of the Public Prosecutor for the purposes of handing down an indictment. This is a case of potentially interesting arguments and one that I will follow so expect some updates as they become available.