If I’m posting this it means I’m finally back to Sidrap after the weekend in Jakarta. It took a little longer to get back than I wanted or anticipated because we stayed Sunday night in Makassar since we didn’t land until almost 8pm. I’ll cut the story to this: on the way to Jimmy’s I stopped at an ATM to get money to front to Daya so that she could buy phones for her store and that ATM decided to eat my card. After a bunch of running around and hassle I got my card back. I’m still going to watch my account closely though.
On to the more important topics…the national English competition. Thursday afternoon Daya, Febby and I eventually caught a bus and got to Makassar. This was the first time Febby had returned to Makassar since she was about 5 years old (i.e. she hadn’t been to the only big city near her in over 10 years). We got some dinner and they spent the night with Daya’s cousin while I crashed with Jimmy (how many times has that guy bailed me out and let me stay there?...too many!). Actually, I met Jimmy at a bar where he was having a beer with a former ETA (that I had ran into when I was returning from Sumatra) so we sat around and talked for a while.
The next morning I got a cab and picked up Daya and Febby on the way to the airport. We of course got there earlier than we needed to because Daya didn’t want to be late! This was the first time she has ever left the province, so I understood wanting to be prompt. It worked out because we met up with Jimmy and his student (who had received a ride from Jimmy’s school) and all checked in together. Later, we met the rest of the SulSel crew at the gate and we all took off for Jakarta.
The flight was pretty mundane even though it was Daya and Febby’s first. I was surprised a bit, but they didn’t seem to be nervous at all (though they later said they were).
In Jakarta we met up with a bunch of the other ETAs in the airport, but we all took separate cabs (eventually) to the hotel. At check-in I was pleasantly surprised to see that AMINEF had given everyone (ETAs, students, and chaperones) Rp300,000 for meals we needed to buy. I thought I was going to be buying Febby some meals, because I really wanted the whole weekend to be free for her.
The next thing I knew I was in cab headed to some big, grand mall in the middle of Jakarta (because despite what they had said previously and our complaints, AMINEF put us in a hotel in the middle of nowhere). The mall was RIDICULOUS! All you need to know about it is that parked outside I saw the first Porsche 4-door coupe I’ve ever seen! I didn’t even know those were outside of Europe yet!
I also got some sushi and build-your-own frozen yogurt! That evening there was a welcome dinner and ice breakers, but for the most part the ETAs caught up with each other and we let the students hangout by themselves.
The next day was the competition which consisted of each student giving their presentation. I thought Febby did very well for herself, though due to some nerves her pronunciation was not as good as during some of her practices. In my opinion, she was in the middle of the pack, maybe on the lower end. She didn’t win any of the awards, but I thought she did just fine. It was pretty funny watching the ETAs, we were like proud parents; I was nervous for her when Febby was presenting.
We also felt like parents when we had to constantly keep herding them along at various times (Daya was a help on that most of the time, though at other times I had to keep her moving too!). One time in particular was that night when we took our students out to see some of Jakarta. There were several groups, but I took Febby and Daya to see the giant mall I had gone to previously. I made a point on the night that it was all about Febby and Daya doing whatever they wanted to do; this was their moment to get to have a new experience.
Febby is so shy that she didn’t talk much with the other students that came with us, and Daya was feeling very ill. In fact, when I eventually sent them back in a cab (I was staying for some nightlife with the ETAs), Daya scared me. I left them walking around a bit before returning to the hotel, but 3mins later I got a call from Febby on Daya’s phone crying/screaming “I need you mister!”. To cut it short, Daya had gotten some sharp pains in her feet and basically collapsed. Luckily the pains subsided, but when I found them she was sobbing and needless to say I was freaking out a bit.
The next morning she was feeling fine and everyone piled into 2 tour buses to go see Monas (the national monument). That was mundane, but I think Febby enjoyed it. After that it was back to the airport (like Febby said, this whole weekend was sitting, waiting, repeat). We didn’t fly out until 3:30 though so we had a TON of time to kill. After Jimmy and I finally got our 3 students (Daya was the 3rd) herded through security (any store selling something pulled them like a magnet!), we headed straight to an Executive lounge where you get all the food you can eat and all the soft drinks you want, plus free internet, a pool table and much more comfortable chairs. Considering that a standard meal in the airport is at least Rp25.000, the Rp50.000 entrance was a really good deal, and Jimmy and I made it pay!
The flight went off without a problem and we were back in Makassar for my little ATM fiasco.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Northern Sumatra II: Pulau Weh, Danau Toba, and Medan
After plenty of walking around in Banda Aceh it was time to head to Pulau Weh (pulau=island). All in all, I wasn’t particularly impressed with Weh. For me, there were too many Euro-hippy-tourists (I hadn’t seen that many dreadlocks since I lived in Portland!), and not enough activities to keep me entertained. The main reason for the dearth of ‘Aaron-activities’ was that I don’t dive. Diving is the main pull for tourists, but surprisingly the snorkeling was just ok. A big detractor from snorkeling was all of the tiny stinging jellyfish; at times there were so many jellyfish that you couldn’t even see! Jimmy, Ricky and Dani had a pretty horrible jellyfish/mosquito adventure during a swim/hike. Another reason that I wasn’t a big fan of the island was that the prices were higher than elsewhere in Indonesia; this is the 2nd time I’ve seen this in dive sites.
For the most part it was Kerry, V and I hanging out because the other ETAs were divers. We managed to find some things to do including hiking to a waterfall (and then going for a swim and waterfall-shower) and to the northwest-most point in Indonesia (not much to see there). The rest of time was just hanging out on a tropical island and eating food. Speaking of those two things…the food on the island was an interesting Indonesian interpretation of Western food delivered in a VERY ‘island-time’ manner; I kid you not, at one dinner it took 3 and a half HOURS for Dani to get chopped fruit! That was particularly bad, but it was indicative of the time it took.
One other interesting aspect of the area we stayed was that there wasn’t really a road. Cars could drive to the beginning of the ‘town’, but after that you passed through a gateway and from there on out it was all by foot up and down the hilly brick walkway.
We spent about 3 days on Weh and then headed out early in the morning through Medan to Lake Toba and onto the Samsoir Island. All told we traveled for about 18 hours using, a minibus, a ferry, a SUV taxi, a plane, a taxi, a bus, a chartered boat and plenty of walking! In retrospect though, it was well worth it. We eventually spent the night in a surprisingly nice place for ~$5/night/room with hot water! And one of the nicest things about Toba is that you actually want hot water! When I woke up the next morning and saw where we were I was blown away; it actually reminded me a bit of Oregon.
Lake Toba is the largest lake in all of SE Asia and is the crater of a volcano, because of that there are forested walls rising up from the water. In combination with the cool temperatures there was also a fair amount of clouds and rain (see why it reminded me of Oregon?!). We were actually staying on a huge island (Samsoir) in Toba that itself has a lake and some stunning hills/cliffs.
The time on Toba went by pretty quickly even though we didn’t really do much. We did enjoy some pretty good food though including pizza, but also some traditional foods; it seems like the local spices there are different from elsewhere in Indo, particularly anise seed and some sort of menthol-y nut thing.
One day we rented some bikes and saw some sites which were the highlight for me. During that time we also went to a museum and checked out a traditional dance. At the museum it seemed to me that a lot of the houses, colors/patterns, and even the dances were pretty similar to Toraja. I didn’t take part in the dance, though the rest of ETAs did. I always feel a little awkward at ‘traditional’ things like that anyways, and taking part just makes it worse to me.
While we may not have actually done a lot, I felt like I could have easily spent 2 weeks at Toba, just looking around, relaxing, trying out all the different restaurants and hotels (the area we stayed is absolutely packed with nothing but tourist spots). Unfortunately for me though, everyone else had to head back Saturday morning so I went with them.
We eventually got into Medan that evening. From there V, Dani and I, each with a big backpack hopped on one sidecar-style becak (motorcycle taxi); we were quite a sight to behold I’m sure. The next day was Kerry’s birthday so we headed out for some ‘night activities’! Apparently the highlight was seeing a famous Indonesian singer called Geisha. I say apparently because I have never heard of her, but the other ETAs said she is pretty famous.
I ended up staying a few days in Medan as well because there wasn’t any class back at the pesantren and I was able to change my ticket for free. With that time I was able to see Medan (similar to Makassar, but cleaner, a little nicer, and many fewer ‘Hello Mister’s), John’s school there, a bunch of crocodiles, an over-the-top Christian temple that tried to incorporate too much, and even eat horse for the first time!
Considering I wasn’t even going to get to Sumatra, I really enjoyed my time there, and the 2 weeks went by really fast.
Now I’m getting ready to head to Jakarta for the national English competition; that will definitely warrant a post. Until then…
For the most part it was Kerry, V and I hanging out because the other ETAs were divers. We managed to find some things to do including hiking to a waterfall (and then going for a swim and waterfall-shower) and to the northwest-most point in Indonesia (not much to see there). The rest of time was just hanging out on a tropical island and eating food. Speaking of those two things…the food on the island was an interesting Indonesian interpretation of Western food delivered in a VERY ‘island-time’ manner; I kid you not, at one dinner it took 3 and a half HOURS for Dani to get chopped fruit! That was particularly bad, but it was indicative of the time it took.
One other interesting aspect of the area we stayed was that there wasn’t really a road. Cars could drive to the beginning of the ‘town’, but after that you passed through a gateway and from there on out it was all by foot up and down the hilly brick walkway.
We spent about 3 days on Weh and then headed out early in the morning through Medan to Lake Toba and onto the Samsoir Island. All told we traveled for about 18 hours using, a minibus, a ferry, a SUV taxi, a plane, a taxi, a bus, a chartered boat and plenty of walking! In retrospect though, it was well worth it. We eventually spent the night in a surprisingly nice place for ~$5/night/room with hot water! And one of the nicest things about Toba is that you actually want hot water! When I woke up the next morning and saw where we were I was blown away; it actually reminded me a bit of Oregon.
Lake Toba is the largest lake in all of SE Asia and is the crater of a volcano, because of that there are forested walls rising up from the water. In combination with the cool temperatures there was also a fair amount of clouds and rain (see why it reminded me of Oregon?!). We were actually staying on a huge island (Samsoir) in Toba that itself has a lake and some stunning hills/cliffs.
The time on Toba went by pretty quickly even though we didn’t really do much. We did enjoy some pretty good food though including pizza, but also some traditional foods; it seems like the local spices there are different from elsewhere in Indo, particularly anise seed and some sort of menthol-y nut thing.
One day we rented some bikes and saw some sites which were the highlight for me. During that time we also went to a museum and checked out a traditional dance. At the museum it seemed to me that a lot of the houses, colors/patterns, and even the dances were pretty similar to Toraja. I didn’t take part in the dance, though the rest of ETAs did. I always feel a little awkward at ‘traditional’ things like that anyways, and taking part just makes it worse to me.
While we may not have actually done a lot, I felt like I could have easily spent 2 weeks at Toba, just looking around, relaxing, trying out all the different restaurants and hotels (the area we stayed is absolutely packed with nothing but tourist spots). Unfortunately for me though, everyone else had to head back Saturday morning so I went with them.
We eventually got into Medan that evening. From there V, Dani and I, each with a big backpack hopped on one sidecar-style becak (motorcycle taxi); we were quite a sight to behold I’m sure. The next day was Kerry’s birthday so we headed out for some ‘night activities’! Apparently the highlight was seeing a famous Indonesian singer called Geisha. I say apparently because I have never heard of her, but the other ETAs said she is pretty famous.
I ended up staying a few days in Medan as well because there wasn’t any class back at the pesantren and I was able to change my ticket for free. With that time I was able to see Medan (similar to Makassar, but cleaner, a little nicer, and many fewer ‘Hello Mister’s), John’s school there, a bunch of crocodiles, an over-the-top Christian temple that tried to incorporate too much, and even eat horse for the first time!
Considering I wasn’t even going to get to Sumatra, I really enjoyed my time there, and the 2 weeks went by really fast.
Now I’m getting ready to head to Jakarta for the national English competition; that will definitely warrant a post. Until then…
Friday, April 2, 2010
Northern Sumatra, part 1: Makassar to Banda Aceh
I went from no break for the national testing to being gone for 2 weeks and then having half a week of relaxing when I returned; oh Indonesia! I’m certainly not complaining though, as northern Sumatra was one of my favorite trips in all of Indo. A big part of that was that I didn’t do as much as I usually try to fit in, in fact most of the time was just relaxing with the other ETAs, but even more it helped that other people organized things, leaving me free to just enjoy for a change! That is one thing that Indo has taught me: to lay back and just do what other people organize, even if it isn’t exactly what I want to do. Basically it’s taken a bit of the control freak out of me, and even when I do ‘plan’ I find myself doing the Indonesian thing: ‘let’s see the condition’ then decide. It’s the only way to get anything done here.
Anyways onto the trip. I went down to Makassar Thursday morning and met a friend of a friend who had studied a semester at Oregon State. Andi is originally from Makassar and now works at a hospital in Mak; he seems like a very motivated and well connected guy. I ended up spending the whole day and night with him (at his insistence). It was a pretty Indonesian experience: I meet a guy for the first time and proceed to go around with him all day as he insists on feeding me and then we go sing karaoke before I end up eating late night street food and spending the night at his friends house.
After less than 2 hours of sleep he then dropped me off at the airport where I somehow managed to deal with the ridiculously childish and impatient people in the check-in line (I really thought one woman was going to throw a temper-tantrum) and get onto my flight before I passed out (don’t even remember take off).
I eventually got to one of the few cheap places to stay in Banda Aceh (Uncle’s) and in some AC. After lunch and a nap I headed downtown to go explore. One unexpected highlight was enjoying an A&W Rootbeer; I used to love rootbeer, but that was probably my first one in a decade. As I was walking along sucking down my rootbeer, I suddenly realized how clearly western I looked (as if being a tall white person wasn’t enough!) in a city that less than a week before had captured 2 terrorists with supposed ties to Al-Queda (sorry mom decided not to drop that little tid-bit of info until I got home safe and sound).
Needless to say I sucked down the rootbeer really fast and chucked the cup even faster! In all honesty though, throughout my time in Banda Aceh I felt that it was as friendly and safe of a city as I have found in Indonesia. During my afternoon wanderings I talked to many locals including a water from a local gold shop owner and his friends and at least an hour chatting about sports, politics, and just about anything else with one older guy and his friends at a local coffee shop (Acehnese coffee is supposedly particularly good, though I couldn’t really tell after all the sugar they added, but it was fun to watch them make it: straining it through fine mesh and pouring it from up-hi [similar to Malaysian teh-tarik for anyone who has watch Anthony Bourdain]). It seemed like as soon as I told the locals that I was a teacher acting as a tourist and not affiliated with an NGO they warmed up substantially. I certainly don’t want to diminish all of the incredible good that NGO’s did post-tsunami, but they certainly did have some negative impacts as well. In particular they drove prices for everything in the area to ridiculous highs because they would come in and pay whatever was asked (you have to spend all of about 2mins in Indonesia to realize how ridiculous that is). It got so bad that the locals couldn’t even afford to buy houses or rent building spaces; one or two months of an NGO using the building was more than a year or more of a normal local rate.
While I’m on a bit of a NGO rant, I also had very mixed emotions about what the NGO’s constructed and how the money was spent. Clearly Banda Aceh owes many NGOs and governments a great deal (a fact they seem to fully realize judging by the number of placards thanking various groups); just walking around the city demonstrates that. Banda Aceh is one of the, if not the cleanest and best laid out cities I have seen in Indo (starting from scratch will do that) and it is remarkably well established considering the devastation of 5.5 years ago. With all that said, some of the planning seems a little out of place and over the top. For instance, there was a park I walked through that was clearly western designed; it favorably-made me think of home until I started to look closer: the center piece, a lake, was half full of water, and completely full of trash and about the only people using the park were washing in the drain off from the lake. So I guess what I am saying is that it seems like the NGOs came in with a lot of money and just started throwing it around: doing and building things as their western minds found logical. That’s great, fantastic, the city was rebuilt very quickly and has some fine infrastructure you won’t find elsewhere in Indonesia. The problem is much of that isn’t being used, wasn’t completely finished, or simply seems completely out of place. Not to mention the incredible amount of good that could have been done if that $13billion+ that was donated by the world had been spent frugally and spread around all of Indonesia. Again I’m not trying to be negative, I was just surprised by how I felt and what I noticed. My opinion was also influenced by the locals I talked to that seemed less than pleased with the NGOs, though most of the NGOs have recently pulled out and prices are starting to return to normal.
Back to the feel of the city though. Aceh (the province) has a reputation as being a very strict Muslim community. For example, in the National Geo article about Indo they mention that there are police going around enforcing head coverings and forcing men to Friday Prayer. Uh…no! I was there when Friday prayer was being called…no police. And I saw all of one burqa (full body cover) in my 2.5 days in Aceh; that would be 1 less than I saw in the 20mins I spent in the bus station in Makassar on my way back. I was also pretty amazed by the amount of touching and flirting I got from the women asking me for pictures (though to be fair, I think some of those were Indo tourists).
All in all I found Banda Aceh to be one of my more favorite cities in Indonesia, though it’s not much of a tourist location to be honest: the Mesjid Raya is gorgeous in the evening, the history of resistance by the Acehenese against the Dutch is interesting and has some sites, and the tsunami sites: a 350-ton boat in the middle of the city miles from the ocean, a fishing boat on the roof of a house, several mass graves (the one we visited purportedly entombed 47,000 people), the architecturally interesting but still un-finished tsunami museum, are somewhat interesting, everything can be seen in one long day.
Maybe that was part of the charm for me though; we know how I like to get away from the other bules…which was a bit of a problem at our next stop: Pulau Weh.
That will wait until the next posting though.
Anyways onto the trip. I went down to Makassar Thursday morning and met a friend of a friend who had studied a semester at Oregon State. Andi is originally from Makassar and now works at a hospital in Mak; he seems like a very motivated and well connected guy. I ended up spending the whole day and night with him (at his insistence). It was a pretty Indonesian experience: I meet a guy for the first time and proceed to go around with him all day as he insists on feeding me and then we go sing karaoke before I end up eating late night street food and spending the night at his friends house.
After less than 2 hours of sleep he then dropped me off at the airport where I somehow managed to deal with the ridiculously childish and impatient people in the check-in line (I really thought one woman was going to throw a temper-tantrum) and get onto my flight before I passed out (don’t even remember take off).
I eventually got to one of the few cheap places to stay in Banda Aceh (Uncle’s) and in some AC. After lunch and a nap I headed downtown to go explore. One unexpected highlight was enjoying an A&W Rootbeer; I used to love rootbeer, but that was probably my first one in a decade. As I was walking along sucking down my rootbeer, I suddenly realized how clearly western I looked (as if being a tall white person wasn’t enough!) in a city that less than a week before had captured 2 terrorists with supposed ties to Al-Queda (sorry mom decided not to drop that little tid-bit of info until I got home safe and sound).
Needless to say I sucked down the rootbeer really fast and chucked the cup even faster! In all honesty though, throughout my time in Banda Aceh I felt that it was as friendly and safe of a city as I have found in Indonesia. During my afternoon wanderings I talked to many locals including a water from a local gold shop owner and his friends and at least an hour chatting about sports, politics, and just about anything else with one older guy and his friends at a local coffee shop (Acehnese coffee is supposedly particularly good, though I couldn’t really tell after all the sugar they added, but it was fun to watch them make it: straining it through fine mesh and pouring it from up-hi [similar to Malaysian teh-tarik for anyone who has watch Anthony Bourdain]). It seemed like as soon as I told the locals that I was a teacher acting as a tourist and not affiliated with an NGO they warmed up substantially. I certainly don’t want to diminish all of the incredible good that NGO’s did post-tsunami, but they certainly did have some negative impacts as well. In particular they drove prices for everything in the area to ridiculous highs because they would come in and pay whatever was asked (you have to spend all of about 2mins in Indonesia to realize how ridiculous that is). It got so bad that the locals couldn’t even afford to buy houses or rent building spaces; one or two months of an NGO using the building was more than a year or more of a normal local rate.
While I’m on a bit of a NGO rant, I also had very mixed emotions about what the NGO’s constructed and how the money was spent. Clearly Banda Aceh owes many NGOs and governments a great deal (a fact they seem to fully realize judging by the number of placards thanking various groups); just walking around the city demonstrates that. Banda Aceh is one of the, if not the cleanest and best laid out cities I have seen in Indo (starting from scratch will do that) and it is remarkably well established considering the devastation of 5.5 years ago. With all that said, some of the planning seems a little out of place and over the top. For instance, there was a park I walked through that was clearly western designed; it favorably-made me think of home until I started to look closer: the center piece, a lake, was half full of water, and completely full of trash and about the only people using the park were washing in the drain off from the lake. So I guess what I am saying is that it seems like the NGOs came in with a lot of money and just started throwing it around: doing and building things as their western minds found logical. That’s great, fantastic, the city was rebuilt very quickly and has some fine infrastructure you won’t find elsewhere in Indonesia. The problem is much of that isn’t being used, wasn’t completely finished, or simply seems completely out of place. Not to mention the incredible amount of good that could have been done if that $13billion+ that was donated by the world had been spent frugally and spread around all of Indonesia. Again I’m not trying to be negative, I was just surprised by how I felt and what I noticed. My opinion was also influenced by the locals I talked to that seemed less than pleased with the NGOs, though most of the NGOs have recently pulled out and prices are starting to return to normal.
Back to the feel of the city though. Aceh (the province) has a reputation as being a very strict Muslim community. For example, in the National Geo article about Indo they mention that there are police going around enforcing head coverings and forcing men to Friday Prayer. Uh…no! I was there when Friday prayer was being called…no police. And I saw all of one burqa (full body cover) in my 2.5 days in Aceh; that would be 1 less than I saw in the 20mins I spent in the bus station in Makassar on my way back. I was also pretty amazed by the amount of touching and flirting I got from the women asking me for pictures (though to be fair, I think some of those were Indo tourists).
All in all I found Banda Aceh to be one of my more favorite cities in Indonesia, though it’s not much of a tourist location to be honest: the Mesjid Raya is gorgeous in the evening, the history of resistance by the Acehenese against the Dutch is interesting and has some sites, and the tsunami sites: a 350-ton boat in the middle of the city miles from the ocean, a fishing boat on the roof of a house, several mass graves (the one we visited purportedly entombed 47,000 people), the architecturally interesting but still un-finished tsunami museum, are somewhat interesting, everything can be seen in one long day.
Maybe that was part of the charm for me though; we know how I like to get away from the other bules…which was a bit of a problem at our next stop: Pulau Weh.
That will wait until the next posting though.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Catching Up
I’ve just posted a ton of blogs that I had written sometime ago, but hadn’t had a chance to post yet because my internet was down before I took off on my Sumatra trip, which will have a post up soon too. You'll need to click through to the blog if you're getting the email.
In the meantime here are the pictures from N. Sumatra:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083351&id=15804233&l=1892e82ed1
And here are some pics from the announcement ceremony in an old album
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074571&id=15804233&l=64d4b87f5a
Enjoy!
In the meantime here are the pictures from N. Sumatra:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083351&id=15804233&l=1892e82ed1
And here are some pics from the announcement ceremony in an old album
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074571&id=15804233&l=64d4b87f5a
Enjoy!
Soapbox Part Dua: Corruption at the core
Written: March 17
WARNING: I’m climbing back on the soap-box a bit and without real facts or research, just my experiences and uninformed opinions!
I mentioned corruption briefly in my last soapbox moment as well as a few other previous posts, but thought that I would dedicate a whole blog to it now.
The level of corruption in daily life in Indonesia is truly atrocious and it is THE limiting factor to Indo’s growth. The sad part is that everyone knows it. I have had conversations about it with people I have just met and to a person, everyone says it’s a very bad thing, but when it comes to it they all partake in it. Thus the amount of actual change is very little and progressing slowly. But hey it is a young country emerging from a political culture of extreme nepotism.
That’s not an excuse though; if Indonesia wants to be a global power (and frankly it is positioned to be one if it gets itself straightened out) it must eliminate the everyday corruption. That’s the difference here and in the US or other countries. I’m not naïve enough to say that we don’t have corruption, but on a daily basis we do not run into road blocks thrown up just to make some money, or find it necessary to pay the police for them to do their jobs. And that’s the problem here in Indonesia: the corruption literally runs from top to bottom; from the lowliest local politician living in a gaudy house while his neighbors live in shacks to the vice president being embroiled in the big Century Bank scandal.
In my opinion, the majority of the corruption is due to individuals finally coming into power and feeling that it is now their turn to earn a buck. As I mentioned Indonesia is just now emerging from the rule of Suharto and his extreme levels of KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism). Basically all of today’s leaders were raised in a culture where KKN was standard and expected. So now that they are the leaders, they feel it is their right to be able to make some money as well. And that’s what it comes down to, people need/want more money, and there is simply not enough to go around. For years, Indonesia has been brutally exploited (there is no other word for it) by numerous colonial powers. The primary culprit was the Dutch who invested a stunningly little amount into infrastructure for the country considering they ruled for centuries. The result is that the everyday citizen has little while the rulers/powerful business owners are wealthy. The normal people see that and of course want a piece, so then when they get a chance to step into a role of power they take the opportunity to set themselves (and their families) for life.
The complicated thing is that in the Indonesian culture it is important to treat your superiors (conventionally this is meant to be your elders, but the politicians have stepped into that role as well) and everyone else for that matter, with a great deal of respect. One fairly common practice is to bring gifts to people when you work with them or visit them, and of course if they are your superior the gift should be a little nicer (another side effect of treating everyone with respect is that I am constantly bombarded with ‘hello mister’!). This is great and all, but at times it becomes very difficult to separate what is corruption, and what is simply being ‘Indonesian polite’.
Unfortunately I don’t have any remedies for this one either if I did, they wouldn’t let me leave this country, they would insist I become president. Well assuming I bribed the right people at least! Really though the only remedy to NKK is time and strong leaders willing to buck the trend so that the accepted status-quo is not taking bribes. Hopefully that time will come, and the start of it may be happening right now as the first step is recognition and that is certainly not lacking anywhere in this country. Now there just need to be people brave and strong enough to actually do something.
Good luck Indonesia!
WARNING: I’m climbing back on the soap-box a bit and without real facts or research, just my experiences and uninformed opinions!
I mentioned corruption briefly in my last soapbox moment as well as a few other previous posts, but thought that I would dedicate a whole blog to it now.
The level of corruption in daily life in Indonesia is truly atrocious and it is THE limiting factor to Indo’s growth. The sad part is that everyone knows it. I have had conversations about it with people I have just met and to a person, everyone says it’s a very bad thing, but when it comes to it they all partake in it. Thus the amount of actual change is very little and progressing slowly. But hey it is a young country emerging from a political culture of extreme nepotism.
That’s not an excuse though; if Indonesia wants to be a global power (and frankly it is positioned to be one if it gets itself straightened out) it must eliminate the everyday corruption. That’s the difference here and in the US or other countries. I’m not naïve enough to say that we don’t have corruption, but on a daily basis we do not run into road blocks thrown up just to make some money, or find it necessary to pay the police for them to do their jobs. And that’s the problem here in Indonesia: the corruption literally runs from top to bottom; from the lowliest local politician living in a gaudy house while his neighbors live in shacks to the vice president being embroiled in the big Century Bank scandal.
In my opinion, the majority of the corruption is due to individuals finally coming into power and feeling that it is now their turn to earn a buck. As I mentioned Indonesia is just now emerging from the rule of Suharto and his extreme levels of KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism). Basically all of today’s leaders were raised in a culture where KKN was standard and expected. So now that they are the leaders, they feel it is their right to be able to make some money as well. And that’s what it comes down to, people need/want more money, and there is simply not enough to go around. For years, Indonesia has been brutally exploited (there is no other word for it) by numerous colonial powers. The primary culprit was the Dutch who invested a stunningly little amount into infrastructure for the country considering they ruled for centuries. The result is that the everyday citizen has little while the rulers/powerful business owners are wealthy. The normal people see that and of course want a piece, so then when they get a chance to step into a role of power they take the opportunity to set themselves (and their families) for life.
The complicated thing is that in the Indonesian culture it is important to treat your superiors (conventionally this is meant to be your elders, but the politicians have stepped into that role as well) and everyone else for that matter, with a great deal of respect. One fairly common practice is to bring gifts to people when you work with them or visit them, and of course if they are your superior the gift should be a little nicer (another side effect of treating everyone with respect is that I am constantly bombarded with ‘hello mister’!). This is great and all, but at times it becomes very difficult to separate what is corruption, and what is simply being ‘Indonesian polite’.
Unfortunately I don’t have any remedies for this one either if I did, they wouldn’t let me leave this country, they would insist I become president. Well assuming I bribed the right people at least! Really though the only remedy to NKK is time and strong leaders willing to buck the trend so that the accepted status-quo is not taking bribes. Hopefully that time will come, and the start of it may be happening right now as the first step is recognition and that is certainly not lacking anywhere in this country. Now there just need to be people brave and strong enough to actually do something.
Good luck Indonesia!
Soapbox Part Satu: Slapped by Palm Oil
Written: March 16
Occasionally I get fired up enough to talk about a political/social/environmental/’fill-in-the-blank’ topic to get into a heated debate with people, but very rarely do I care enough to write an article/email/etc or to ask people to do something. It’s because of this dearth of action that I hope this one has more impact. I don’t know what got into me, but this is something that is too easy to glance over, but too important to ignore.
In previous postings I may have previously mentioned the lack of concern for environment here in Indo, and how it was a bit disturbing. Mostly what I was referring to was the atrocious amount of plastic garbage EVERYWHERE, the typical person’s attitude toward littering (it doesn’t exist; of course you throw garbage out the bus window or on the ground beside you), and the noxious habit of burning all garbage. These are all obvious maladies of Indonesia and ones that really do detract from its beauty. They are not however the biggest issue for the Indonesian environment.
The biggest issue is undoubtedly the legal, and even more so, illegal, exploitation of the land. Whether it is mining or logging or over-fishing or palm oil, Indonesia and its stunning beauty and biodiversity is literally being ripped to shreds. Clearly Indonesia is a growing country and thus needs to make the most of its natural resources so that it may continue to develop; I’m not naïve enough to sit in a country that has exploited its natural resources and tell others they can’t do the same thing.
The problem in Indonesia is the illegal exploitation and this traces back to Indonesia’s largest nation-wide problem: corruption. I didn’t come to write about corruption though (see Soapbox, part dua), my concern for today was the way the environment is being unnecessarily shredded here. This ties to corruption however because while laws are passed and movements made to protect the environment, these may be circumnavigated by local politicians looking to line their pockets or by enforcement agents looking to do the same thing.
I come from a logging family (something that raises some eye-brows here, but I’ve gotten good at in one breath saying my father is a logger, but that logging in the US is different, more like farming) and I border-line despise environmentalists, namely the extreme ones. It is because of that background that I really believe that if the laws and movements to protect the environment were actually enforced (and hopefully expanded somewhat), Indonesia would probably be able to attain a level of steady and a much more sustainable, if not quite as rapid, growth. That fact is the really aggravating part to me.
So that’s a lot of negative, and I always hate when people just write ‘bitch-blogs’, so what can people actually do? Sadly, the average American can’t do a whole lot. While this is the world’s problem (just look up an article about the amount of endemic biodiversity in Borneo, it’s absolutely stunning), it is Indonesia’s land (as well as Malaysia’s to some extent) and thus they are the ones that will need to enact the ultimate change.
What I will say is that one of the worst culprits, palm oil, is something that can be helped from abroad. Palm oil plantations are rather notorious here for flattening rainforest, burning the land (often resulting in fires that rage out of control), and then planting orderly, single-species plantations. Initially when I went to Kalimantan and heard my friend complaining about palm oil I wrote her off as a bit of an environmentalist nut, but then I started looking around and doing some reading. You know what? She was right; these companies really are having appalling consequences for the environment and the local peoples. But I said this problem could be helped from abroad, so on to that. Palm oil is a wide spread cooking oil, it is used in cosmetics and now amongst its numerous other uses it is being touted as a bio-fuel. I’m a realist, I know that you can’t always completely boycott a product, it’s simply too widespread, but I would ask this:
Think about it. Next time you’re looking at the ingredients or the nutrition facts, do a quick scan, see if palm oil is listed. If it is, think about reaching for a different product (granted that one may have it too). But more than anything, realize what is going on, one of the most diverse wild jungles in the entire world is being turned into a tropical ‘Mid-West’ full of nothing, but orderly rows of crops.
Ok, I’m off my soapbox; I hope that wasn’t too painful. I don’t do that very often, but it really is tragic what is happening.
As for me, my internet has been down for a few days. Hopefully this actually gets put up before I leave tomorrow for one last extended trip first to Pulau (island) Weh and then Danau (lake) Toba, both in Northern Sumatra.
Occasionally I get fired up enough to talk about a political/social/environmental/’fill-in-the-blank’ topic to get into a heated debate with people, but very rarely do I care enough to write an article/email/etc or to ask people to do something. It’s because of this dearth of action that I hope this one has more impact. I don’t know what got into me, but this is something that is too easy to glance over, but too important to ignore.
In previous postings I may have previously mentioned the lack of concern for environment here in Indo, and how it was a bit disturbing. Mostly what I was referring to was the atrocious amount of plastic garbage EVERYWHERE, the typical person’s attitude toward littering (it doesn’t exist; of course you throw garbage out the bus window or on the ground beside you), and the noxious habit of burning all garbage. These are all obvious maladies of Indonesia and ones that really do detract from its beauty. They are not however the biggest issue for the Indonesian environment.
The biggest issue is undoubtedly the legal, and even more so, illegal, exploitation of the land. Whether it is mining or logging or over-fishing or palm oil, Indonesia and its stunning beauty and biodiversity is literally being ripped to shreds. Clearly Indonesia is a growing country and thus needs to make the most of its natural resources so that it may continue to develop; I’m not naïve enough to sit in a country that has exploited its natural resources and tell others they can’t do the same thing.
The problem in Indonesia is the illegal exploitation and this traces back to Indonesia’s largest nation-wide problem: corruption. I didn’t come to write about corruption though (see Soapbox, part dua), my concern for today was the way the environment is being unnecessarily shredded here. This ties to corruption however because while laws are passed and movements made to protect the environment, these may be circumnavigated by local politicians looking to line their pockets or by enforcement agents looking to do the same thing.
I come from a logging family (something that raises some eye-brows here, but I’ve gotten good at in one breath saying my father is a logger, but that logging in the US is different, more like farming) and I border-line despise environmentalists, namely the extreme ones. It is because of that background that I really believe that if the laws and movements to protect the environment were actually enforced (and hopefully expanded somewhat), Indonesia would probably be able to attain a level of steady and a much more sustainable, if not quite as rapid, growth. That fact is the really aggravating part to me.
So that’s a lot of negative, and I always hate when people just write ‘bitch-blogs’, so what can people actually do? Sadly, the average American can’t do a whole lot. While this is the world’s problem (just look up an article about the amount of endemic biodiversity in Borneo, it’s absolutely stunning), it is Indonesia’s land (as well as Malaysia’s to some extent) and thus they are the ones that will need to enact the ultimate change.
What I will say is that one of the worst culprits, palm oil, is something that can be helped from abroad. Palm oil plantations are rather notorious here for flattening rainforest, burning the land (often resulting in fires that rage out of control), and then planting orderly, single-species plantations. Initially when I went to Kalimantan and heard my friend complaining about palm oil I wrote her off as a bit of an environmentalist nut, but then I started looking around and doing some reading. You know what? She was right; these companies really are having appalling consequences for the environment and the local peoples. But I said this problem could be helped from abroad, so on to that. Palm oil is a wide spread cooking oil, it is used in cosmetics and now amongst its numerous other uses it is being touted as a bio-fuel. I’m a realist, I know that you can’t always completely boycott a product, it’s simply too widespread, but I would ask this:
Think about it. Next time you’re looking at the ingredients or the nutrition facts, do a quick scan, see if palm oil is listed. If it is, think about reaching for a different product (granted that one may have it too). But more than anything, realize what is going on, one of the most diverse wild jungles in the entire world is being turned into a tropical ‘Mid-West’ full of nothing, but orderly rows of crops.
Ok, I’m off my soapbox; I hope that wasn’t too painful. I don’t do that very often, but it really is tragic what is happening.
As for me, my internet has been down for a few days. Hopefully this actually gets put up before I leave tomorrow for one last extended trip first to Pulau (island) Weh and then Danau (lake) Toba, both in Northern Sumatra.
The big announcement and a whole new Sidrap
Written: March 14
Here at PPUW, this past Saturday was the big announcement ceremony for the national English competition that the ETAs organized. I wanted to make all of the contestants here feel good about their accomplishments particularly because I’m not sure how they’ll stack up relative to the other ETA’s finalists. To do that, I, with a BIG hand from Daya, organized a ceremony to announce the winner and to give out some prizes to our 3 finalists as well as some certificates of commendation to a total of 9 students. While I wasn’t sure it was all going to come together, everything went particularly well with the families of the students recognized all showing up.
For the past 2 weeks Daya and I have been successfully deflecting the nonstop questions of the other teachers who wanted to know the winner; even more, for the past month and a half I have been deflecting the, ahem, ‘suggestions’ on how to run the competition and who to take.
My winner ended up being a 10th grade girl, that clearly had the best submission. Though I have to say some of the submissions were better than I expected. Lately the students seem to be making significant improvements; it may have taken nearly 6months, but hey, better late than never!
As for my winner, Febby, she apparently edited her story somewhere around 10 times. Clearly she put in the work, and the results showed. She was able to use a fair amount of figurative language and her response fit with the prompt quite well. So for all her hard work she will be getting a free trip to Jakarta, compliments of AMINEF. What makes it even more special to me is that Febby’s family is not very well off, so much so that her mother, and perhaps her father as well, is forced to work as housekeepers in Malaysia, where there is a better per capita; they send money back home to the family. To see an individual truly earn an experience she would never otherwise be able to attain is very special, and I’m glad I could be part of it.
In addition to sending Febby to Jakarta, AMINEF will also be sending Daya (and of course me); the reason being the winner was a girl. I was very excited to be able to help Daya get an opportunity like this as well. She has never even left the province so to get to go to her Nation’s capital, and for free (!), is pretty special. On the topic of Daya, just in the past week she has really loosened up and is becoming, dare I say, almost western in her joking and sayings. This coming from a woman, that I had difficulty speaking to when I first arrived (though to be fair I’m pretty sure most of that was nerves). To think compare my first arrival and how she was acting to this weekend when she was playing tour guide it’s really stunning.
The reason that Daya was playing tour guide was that as part of the announcement ceremony Ab, the ETA in Tanah Toraja (about 4 hours north of me), came down to take part and also serve as the final judge. He got in Friday afternoon and took off around lunch time today (Sunday). The biggest activities while Ab was here included: the most-well attended English Club ever (over half the pesantren was there to ask Ab questions), the obligatory pesantren tour (5000 chickens included), a walk around the area to get a feel (when I realized that the locals have become comfortable enough with me to not gasp and run away now; a big step!), Ab’s first time trying durian, a drive to the regency capital (Pankerjene) which included lots of stops for pictures and some food including dessert at Daya’s home, and a trip to the new Rappang Market which is much bigger, cleaner and nicer than the old traditional market.
To have someone come visit me here was really refreshing too; the only other person who has even seen the pesantren was Jimmy who stayed one night, but little more than 12hrs. Not only was it great to have some real discussions and conversations with someone, it was also a ton of fun to get to show off my area (and yes, it is MY area now!). And by showing it off, I was kind of seeing the place with new eyes again and realizing that it is a pretty good, if far from perfect, situation.
All in all a great weekend, and one of the few remaining that I will spend here. The next 2, and perhaps 3, will be spent traveling since there is the big national exam (which determines if and where the 12th graders can go for university). Should be fun, and only 11 more weeks until I start my big travels!
Here at PPUW, this past Saturday was the big announcement ceremony for the national English competition that the ETAs organized. I wanted to make all of the contestants here feel good about their accomplishments particularly because I’m not sure how they’ll stack up relative to the other ETA’s finalists. To do that, I, with a BIG hand from Daya, organized a ceremony to announce the winner and to give out some prizes to our 3 finalists as well as some certificates of commendation to a total of 9 students. While I wasn’t sure it was all going to come together, everything went particularly well with the families of the students recognized all showing up.
For the past 2 weeks Daya and I have been successfully deflecting the nonstop questions of the other teachers who wanted to know the winner; even more, for the past month and a half I have been deflecting the, ahem, ‘suggestions’ on how to run the competition and who to take.
My winner ended up being a 10th grade girl, that clearly had the best submission. Though I have to say some of the submissions were better than I expected. Lately the students seem to be making significant improvements; it may have taken nearly 6months, but hey, better late than never!
As for my winner, Febby, she apparently edited her story somewhere around 10 times. Clearly she put in the work, and the results showed. She was able to use a fair amount of figurative language and her response fit with the prompt quite well. So for all her hard work she will be getting a free trip to Jakarta, compliments of AMINEF. What makes it even more special to me is that Febby’s family is not very well off, so much so that her mother, and perhaps her father as well, is forced to work as housekeepers in Malaysia, where there is a better per capita; they send money back home to the family. To see an individual truly earn an experience she would never otherwise be able to attain is very special, and I’m glad I could be part of it.
In addition to sending Febby to Jakarta, AMINEF will also be sending Daya (and of course me); the reason being the winner was a girl. I was very excited to be able to help Daya get an opportunity like this as well. She has never even left the province so to get to go to her Nation’s capital, and for free (!), is pretty special. On the topic of Daya, just in the past week she has really loosened up and is becoming, dare I say, almost western in her joking and sayings. This coming from a woman, that I had difficulty speaking to when I first arrived (though to be fair I’m pretty sure most of that was nerves). To think compare my first arrival and how she was acting to this weekend when she was playing tour guide it’s really stunning.
The reason that Daya was playing tour guide was that as part of the announcement ceremony Ab, the ETA in Tanah Toraja (about 4 hours north of me), came down to take part and also serve as the final judge. He got in Friday afternoon and took off around lunch time today (Sunday). The biggest activities while Ab was here included: the most-well attended English Club ever (over half the pesantren was there to ask Ab questions), the obligatory pesantren tour (5000 chickens included), a walk around the area to get a feel (when I realized that the locals have become comfortable enough with me to not gasp and run away now; a big step!), Ab’s first time trying durian, a drive to the regency capital (Pankerjene) which included lots of stops for pictures and some food including dessert at Daya’s home, and a trip to the new Rappang Market which is much bigger, cleaner and nicer than the old traditional market.
To have someone come visit me here was really refreshing too; the only other person who has even seen the pesantren was Jimmy who stayed one night, but little more than 12hrs. Not only was it great to have some real discussions and conversations with someone, it was also a ton of fun to get to show off my area (and yes, it is MY area now!). And by showing it off, I was kind of seeing the place with new eyes again and realizing that it is a pretty good, if far from perfect, situation.
All in all a great weekend, and one of the few remaining that I will spend here. The next 2, and perhaps 3, will be spent traveling since there is the big national exam (which determines if and where the 12th graders can go for university). Should be fun, and only 11 more weeks until I start my big travels!
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