Destination: DUFAN

DU-FAN is "Dunia Fantasy" (Fantasy World) , an Indonesian version of Disney Land. My new girlfriend and I decided to come here on a Monday morning to try some of the rides. I myself was full of vim until about 15 seconds into the Viking-Swing Boat; suddently I remembered that I'm afraid of heights (or more specifically: afraid of falling).

The Viking-Swing boat was truthfully the only ride that challenged me to keep my breakfast in my stomach. Also noteworthy was the 'whirly-birds': a bird shaped carriage that spins, rotates, and rises about 20 meters into the air.

The highlight of the trip (next to the exhilirating rollercoaster) was the Indonesian "It's a Small World" where we get to see animatronic dolls dressed in traditional clothes from around the world.

While passing the Middle East section, there was an OBL sighting

I Couldn't Resist

A banner fotographed from Pondok Indah Mall

The Ediots at The Jakarta Post Have Gone Too Far

Monday's Jakarta Post had an editorial espousing the tolerant qualities of Islam and went so far as to say that during Idul Fitri "muslims even pray for Christians and Jews and it's the only religion that encourages its followers to pray for people of those two faiths."

Ok. First of all, Buddhists and Hindus weren't mentioned at all. Does that mean those two religious groups are not deserving of respect from muslims?

Next, if muslims have such a high regard for christians and jews, why isn't Judaism acknowledged as a religion by the Republic of Indonesia?

Furthermore, if muslims truly respect christians and jews, why is there such undue bureaucracy in constructing a christian house of worship? More importantly, why are christian houses of worship constantly targeted by muslim extremists?

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International Religious Freedom Report (2002):
Saudi Arabia= The Spiritual Home of Islam
The Government prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation, and sometimes torture for engaging in overt religious activity that attracts official attention.

Indonesia:
The Government continued to restrict the construction and expansion of houses of worship, and maintained an ostensible ban on the use of private homes for worship unless the community approved and a regional office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs provided a license. Some Protestants complained that community approval was difficult to obtain and alleged that in some areas, Muslim authorities were systematically trying to shut them out. A government decree has been used to prohibit the construction and expansion of churches and to justify the closure of churches in predominantly Muslim areas. Although the regulations implemented under the decree apply to all recognized religions, minority groups--especially Protestant--claim that the law is enforced only on religious minorities, and that minority faiths have difficulty obtaining the proper licenses and permits to build houses of worship. Christians claim that the law is not enforced on Muslim communities, which they assert often do not apply for the permits before constructing a mosque.


Religious intolerance increasingly was evident during the period covered by this report, and became a matter of growing concern to many Indonesians. Apart from the violence in the Moluccas and Central Sulawesi, religious intolerance occasionally manifested itself elsewhere in the country in the form of attacks on churches. During the second half of 2001, at least 30 churches were either forcibly closed or destroyed in Sulawesi, West Java, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Aceh and Buru Island. There were no reports of any mosques being destroyed during the period covered by this report.

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I find it unnecessarily pretentious for The Jakarta Post editors to insinuate that "muslims are the only ones who pray for members of other faiths". In my studies of Buddhism, there is no distinction between members of other faiths; a Buddhist prays for the benefit of "all sentient beings". Additionally, it seems arrogant to assume that christians NEVER pray for the well-being of other humans who might be members of another faith. As long as these grandiose and unsubstantiated boasts continue unchallenged, I don't see how true religious freedom can be actualized.

Religion: Ritual vs. Spiritual Growth

Julia Suryakusuma is one of my favorite contributors to The Jakarta Post. Her stories are always illuminating and often entertaining.

The pious giggler: Religion and reality
Julia Suryakusuma, Jakarta
Remember my story about my cook, Sari (Chalk and Cheese, The Jakarta Post Aug. 8, 2006)? I also employ her husband, Didi. In the past he's been a builder, a farmer, a house-cleaner and a cook and so he is versatile and skilled at various jobs that need to be done around the house.
Didi is a nice guy, but he is also very diffident and shy. He has a debilitating awkwardness that he covers up by giggling. Whatever you say to him, he giggles, even if it is something that is absolutely not funny. If we said to him, "The police are coming to arrest you for a crime you didn't commit and will keep you in jail for life," his reaction would probably be to giggle nervously. He'd do same if we told him we were doubling his salary!
So Didi is a contradiction: a very competent worker who is an incompetent communicator. But this isn't his only contradiction. The other one relates to religion, which is why I call him 'the pious giggler'.
Didi follows Islam in a ritualistic way that is common in Indonesia and is very disciplined in doing so: praying five times, taking part in Koranic recitals, fasting and attending Friday prayers. He sticks closely to the rules of his religion and makes sure his family does the same, making his young children follow him in prayer and memorize key Koranic verses.
But despite his formal piety, he is chaotic, haphazard and often irresponsible in many other aspects of life -- especially those relating to his family. The most striking example of course, was Sari's recent unplanned pregnancy. He planted the seed of baby No. 4 because he was not disciplined enough to use any form of contraception (see Aborting the Abortion, The Jakarta Post, July 19, 2006).
Recently we bought a motorbike for Didi to take his kids to and from school and to perform household errands. I told him he had to have a driving license, but, giggling, he admitted he didn't even have any identity card (KTP), which, of course, every Indonesian must have and which is vital to one's existence in Jakarta. As it turned out, Didi's last KTP was from his village and expired in 1999! This meant he also lacked a family card and that therefore his kids didn't have birth certificates either. This could have serious long-term repercussions for them, making school, work, marriage etc virtually impossible. Didi also ran the risk of being caught in a KTP raid and thrown out of Jakarta.
I told him to get on the case, but after many months of no results, using a contact I had at the local subdistrict administration office, I helped him fix the mess instantly. Legitimately, no bribes, and all in one week.
Didi's lack of responsibility also extends to his behavior as a husband and father, often being unwilling to do things his wife asks of him, because of her pregnancy. And he gets stroppy and sulky when she's out too long, for example when she had to enroll all three kids into new schools on her own, because Didi thought this was woman's work.
Didi's behavior is a reflection of the gap -- sometimes huge -- between religious practice and private behavior so common in Indonesia today. The papers seem full of depressing stories of religious hypocrisy: a religious teacher rapes his student, a person who prays five times a day treats her servants inhumanely, or someone who diligently attends Koranic recitals consistently abuses people. National religious politics aren't immune either, with the former Minister of Religion, Said Agil al-Munawar being jailed this year for corruptly dealing with national haj funds entrusted to his care. Unfortunately, there are many other examples.
The gap between religious practice and reality is puzzling, considering that Islam (in this case) spells out guidelines for so many aspects of human life, both personal and social. Perhaps this is, in fact, part of the problem: too many Muslims understand religion to be merely ritual (ibadah) and jurisprudence (fiqh). In fact, the essence of religion should be spirituality, a personal understanding and connection with God, which develops from within, more than a set of do's and don'ts imposed from outside.
So, Didi's religiosity is largely formal and often doesn't connect with the practical realities of his obligations as a husband and father. But it would be wrong to think he is entirely without spirituality. His does have some other, very rare virtues: he is hardworking and, unlike our former minister of religion, he is also fiercely honest.
Indonesia is a bit like Didi, but -- sadly -- without his hardworking and honest aspects. As a nation, we are becoming preoccupied with religion, but it is formalistic, intolerant and hypocritical. Legislators at the local and national levels want laws to enforce sharia rules but seem unable to run the country responsibly. Islamist politicians want to introduce an anti-pornography bill when we already have laws banning dirty pictures, which are not enforced against the makers of an ocean of hard-core DVDs but are instead used to lock up young artists. Women are arrested for wearing lipstick in Tangerang and Playboy offices are sacked in Jakarta, while nobody seems to be able to do anything about the homeless in Yogya or cleaning up the horrific mudspill in Sidoarjo -- and there are still people in tents in Aceh!
We are using pseudo-religiosity as a substitute to facing up honestly to spiritually empty, frustrating lives, and a growing national failure of governance and a spiritually bankrupt national leadership.
Will our leaders ever borrow some virtues from Didi and honestly admit their failures and then do some hard work to make things better for the ordinary, poor Indonesians?
The wrier is the author of Sex, Power and Nation. She can be contacted at jsuryakusuma@mac.com.

This page from last week's Jakarta Post really jumped out at me.







First of all, what di SBY add to the peace process. What started negotiations was the devestation from the 2004 Tsunami. So maybe the Nobel Committee should consider the Tsnumai a candidate for the Peace Prize.

Psychics Called In to Stop E.Java Mudflow

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060910.@03&irec=2



A competition has been organized offering a prize of US$10,000 to any supernatural who can stop the disasterous mud flow caused by Lapindo's incompetance.

The competition has attracted psychics from many cities in East Java and from further afield, including Jakarta and Medan. All are trying their luck to stop the hot mud, which has been gushing out of Lapindo's exploration well since May 29.

One psychic had this to say

"...it is clear that the mudflow can only be stopped if the government and Lapindo end their sinful acts, which are affecting the people."

very profound.

Friday Night Diversion

While riding my motorcycle to one of the less obstreporous expat hangouts, Jl. Jaksa, I passed a Wayang Golek Performance.

I had never seen one "en vivo" and thought it would be a nice compensation for the "discultural" activities I had in mind for later that evening.

Surprise, surprise. Not only was I to be somewhat entertained by wayang golek (couldn't understand a word), but there were all sort of vendors in the parking lot selling everything from pick-ups to amplify acoustic guitars, t-shirts with wayang kulit patterns (75.000rp ? lain kali aja) , to native remedies for enlarging the penis involving a trilobyte looking critter called a MIMI (still looking for english name).

The seller was showing off his laminated credentials (licensed snake oil salesman :)) and book of newspaper articles and headlines. He quickly flashed a page of a bule with a gigantic "red tree trunk" between his legs. In a country where sex is generally a taboo topic, there sure are a lot of natural potions to make it happen more often and last longer. Perhaps after I've procured a girlfriend/willing victim, I'll be able to sample some of these native treatments and give them a "clinical trial."

The "huh?" moment of the evening was seeing one witch doctor, complete with a necklace of animal teeth, treat one patient with "cupping" using what looked like bull horns. In this picture the patient is sitting on the right with about a dozen bullhorns (?) stuck on his back.

Food Shortages and Fasting

Yesterday, some RI gov't official remarked that we don't need to worry about a food shortage in Jakarta during Ramadan. Hmmmmm a food shortage during a month when everyone is supposed to be fasting during the day? How does this happen? Well, the old-timers in the office point out that in order to compensate for not eating during daylight hours, fasters gorge themselves in the morning and at night, thus actually their daily consumption of food is higher than usual. As Paul says " Ramadan isn't the fasting month, it's the FEASTing month."


I was looking for the article mentioned above when I found this very interesting information about fasting.
http://www.anti-aging-guide.com/31humanstudies.php

There Can Be Only One

Special thanks to the waitresses at "The Highlander" bar in Kemang for satisfying two fantasies at the same time; exotic beautiful asian girls, and girls wearing kilts.

Anmo Peter Chung

What do you get when you combine


with











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The answer: Anmo Peter Chung. I've had regular shiatsu and Thai Yoga Massage, but this was without a doubt the most painful body treatment I've ever had. Was it a coincidence that my therapist's name was Samson? .

Anmo is actually Chinese for Acuppressure Therapy... it's not quite a massage. It's a treatment and not really a treat in any sense. It involves applying pressure with the fingers on certain points on the body that correspond with the energy meridians. Think of acupuncture without needles but ironically, more painful.

These treatments supposedly remove impurities from the blood. I can't testify to that but after I began treatments 3 weeks ago, I've been in a much better mood generally; my energy level is higher and my symptoms (insomnia and gas) have been alieved significantly.