Video below shows Indonesian horse spirit possession, although with horses rare in the archipelago monkey spirit possession (being possessed by the spirit of a monkey) is relatively more common.
While in Indonesia trance dance is a time-honored way to put the whole village on edge, possession by the spirit of Janet Jackson (videos below) only began gaining popularity in the early 1980s (Jackson was born in 1966).
A relatively uncommon hybrid form of Indonesian dance/drama: simultaneous possession by the spirit of Janet Jackson and a horse (unknown breed):
OPEN SHAREHOUSE from 10:00 -11:00 a.m. on each of the following Sundays in April/May 2012:
April 29, May 6 and May 13
Please let us know in advance if you’re coming (sharehouse.wordpress@gmail.com)
Terima kasih!
Here’s the map as from Shangri-La Hotel, next to BNI tower (pictured). If you need directions as from somewhere else, please email.
Sharehouse Address:Jl Muria 16 (East Setia Budi, Near Jl. Guntur on border of South/Central Jakarta, behind Menara Imperium)
Take a taxi from Hotel Shangri-La:
1) From Shangri-La, Jl. Guntur is about 5 minutes going east on Jl. Sultan Agung (as if toward Pasar Raya, Manggarai). Go past Kuningan turnoff and Haliumun TransJakarta bus stop (in the middle of the street) and turn right at next traffic light onto Jl. Guntur.
2) Go past Indomaret convenience store and turn right onto Jl. Muria.
3) Just after the next intersection (Jl. Muria/Jl. Malabar) you’ll see on your left tall trees and green Sharehouse gate (green triangle on map)
4) If you reach the Tangukban Perahu spoke-and-hub circle park, then you’ve apparently gone too far. Turnaround and/or ask someone which spoke is Jl. Muria.
BIGGER MAP, JUST CLICK
For directions from Four Seasons or Menara Imperium email sharehouse.jakarta@gmail.com
Here’s what we’ve heard over the years about why single expats find that sharing a house near the business district with other expats makes sense in a city like Jakarta.
“The Jakarta serviced apartment thing was convenient, but ultimately alienating and boring. There’s just not that much going on in Jakarta on the 26th floor.” — Development consultant, Madrid
“Thekostthing was fun for a while. Sure you meet a lot of people, including Indonesians. It’s almost like a family experience. But then if your boyfriend comes to Indonesia or something . . . or you want to throw a Halloween party, you may as well be in a hotel . ” — Tech journalist,Palo Alto
“My company offered me a big kontrakan [rental house]. But there were a lot of questions about who was going to look after it. I’d just as soon not have a pool if I have to clean it.” — Expatriate GM, Melbourne
“I’m having enough trouble with my driver so I wasn’t really keen on having more people [maid] to manage.” — Hydro engineer,Montreal
“Once I got the gym membership and located a few good swimming pools, there was really no reason to stay in the apartment.” Intern, Helsinki
So bagus sekali (groovy), as we say in Indonesian. But until recently, there wasn’t really anything we could do about this fabulously rewarding domestic living arrangement we had allegedly pioneered because . . .when you think about it, houses just aren’t scalable.
But right now — by renting the house next door — we have a clear shot at lightening fast Internet, more gourmet dinners cooked by Sharehouse staff, and better parties. Plus, it would also help get the new recycling program spinning faster, create a couple new jobs in the neighborhood and even given sharehousers an opportunity to pool pro bono volunteer hours on weekends.
In short, if we had more people on board the sharehouse “share value” could see a substantial increase. But since this vessel is full, that’s why we’re looking at the place next door. If you’re interested, please don’t hesitate to email. And don’t forget to ask about the home brew program and weekends in Bali.
(This blog was launched to promote Jakarta-relevant lifestyles — including the sharehouse concept. So please forgive me for an on-topic post or two ; )
I’ve seen a couple prominent bullish-on-Jakarta articles in the Jakarta Post, itself prominent as regards telling the story of Indonesia in English. Supposedly, Jak is a great place to live. Can you imagine? And the head reads Jakarta Has a Lot to Offer Young Expats.
Now as far as relying on a survey of top places to be an expat to map out your next 12 months of 4-hour work weeks . . . I think I’d probably stick with blogs. Read about kids who are there and see how you’d fit into the picture if you were there. Work hard not to read stereotypes. Only stuff written by people who were there for a long time because they liked it. Even the guys who write the definitive on-the-ground-type guides can do it fast without it showing.
Anyway, from said JP article we learn:
Britain’s Daily Telegraph, quoting the Global Property Guide, recently listed Jakarta as one of the top 20 destinations to emigrate for young people. The economic potential, lack of language-learning requirements and low living costs are among the reasons that put Jakarta on the list.
So money is the reason to live in Jakarta and everyone here speaks English. Whatever. Anyway, we do have a vacancy. So even as Jakarta gets discovered and the glow finally fades, we’re hardly in a position to disrespect Jak. Although we are bitter about the last 250,000 cars the parliament decided to issues license plates to.
How about sealing Jakarta inside a huge transparent, geodesic dome; just like they do to Springfield in the recent Simpsons movie? The world’s environmental scientists could then conduct experiments on us. They could reduce the water supply for example, or artificially increase air pollution levels in order to see what happens. We would be like 10 million lab rats in amongst the real rats, providing crucial population/ environmental crisis data that could later be used to save the world.
Done. Deal is sealed. And it’s both experimental and cruel, because here in Java we like to take it easy. We’re not built for this NYC-style push-and-shove. We don’t even honk when people pull out in front of us.
And now full disclosure moment is over and all diggers, dreamers and inbetweeners should book flights to Jakarta today. Oh yea, just one more thing — no one so far has figured out a way to translate Indonesia into English. (I’m working on it, one province at a time ; ) In fact, the importance of language and cross-cultural savvy here can not be overestimated. Least of all by us, since we’re looking for a skilled English language copy editor with business and overseas work experience. If you’re interested, live editing trials will be held April 7-8. It will help to read the Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe every day. Includes competitive cash stipend and weekends in Bali.
I’m been thinking of a city by the mountains and the sea. A dozen million people and it’s pretty as can be. LA? Rio? Nope, it’s Jakarta.
Because this is where, on a very clear day in Feb. — if you can just find a south-facing window about 25 stories up . . . that opens, you’ll see the lush volcanic range that backgrounds and backstops greater Jak. — let’s call her Gede-Pangrango.
Mt. Gede means big in Javanese and reminds me — why would it be — of the Grand Tetons back in the other state abbreviated ID. And it does beat all, since up there it’s covered with sage brush.
Anyway, here’s what the official tourist literature from around 1900 had to say about these twin peaks:
In the west monsoon [Dec.-Feb.] the volcanoes of the Preanger district are (p. 50) often visible from [Jakarta Bay]. From West to east they are called the Salak, the Panerango-Gedeh, and the Tangkoeban Prahoe.
Please inquire re: upcoming vacancies at Sharehouse No 2:
sharehouse.jakarta@gmail.com
Upstairs
Bedroom 3
Front yard
Living area
Landing
Back terrace
Back yard
If you’re new in town, please note the difference between a sharehouse and an Indekost (AKA “kost”): rent here at the sharehouse is usually paid annually. There are no short-term (under 6 months) currently available. So in local Jakarta context it’s more like a house share than rooms for rent.
It’s the opposite of what you see on TV — no dramas at the Sharehouse. The staff does all the cleaning and laundry. And there’s really no scarcity of anything in Jakarta. So nothing to fight about.
The prestige of Menteng within the context of colonial Batavia would eventually be transferred to the indigenous urban elite of Jakarta in the post-colonial period. Whereas many emblems of the colonial past were shunned, Menteng as a neighbourhood of prestige persisted. It provided a residential anchor for the central core of the city that remarkably withstood the pressures of commercial encroachment in later years. This should be attributed, in good measure, to the quality of the community’s original plan, which effectively incorporated elements of interconnectedness with adjacent areas while preserving the area’s spatial integrity through an ingenious system of streets and boulevards and contiguous structures that conformed to the system. [p.60]
The initial development of Menteng took place between 1910 and 1918, based on a plan by Dutch architect, P.A. Mooijen . . . . Mooijen’s original plan bore a striking resemblance to the [utopian] garden city model of the English reformer Ebenezer Howard, in that it combined wide cross- cutting boulevards with concentric rings of streets and a central public square. . . . Although Menteng was originally intended to be an exclusive community, there were, in fact, many modest houses built along its edges, perhaps to serve as a buffer, but also ensuring occupancy by a cross section of the European community of Batavia. [p. 57]
Not only in size but also in style, Menteng was the most important neighborhood in the city and introduced into the urban landscape a diversity of traditional and modern structures that changed and enhanced the look of the city. Traditional Indisch style one-storey villas were intermingled with two-storey structures. There were three types of small villas, the Tosari, the Sumenep, and the Madura, all of which were designed with facilities to accommodate automobiles and hosue servants but were kept under 500 square metres. There was a sprinking of Art Deco style houses and also innovative roof designs, including widespread use of the mansard roof. [p. 59]
Although escalating city centre land values exerted pressures on the edges of Menteng to convert to more convert to more intensive non-residential uses in later years, the core of the community became the focus of preservationists and re-greening advocates in the 1990s. The community plan of Menteng, and the lifestyle that it was intended to provide, endured as the city around it changed drastically. [p.60]
Alfred W. McCoy’s seminal work The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia says that “sanctimonious empire builders subjected millions of natives to the curse of opium addiction, generating enormous revenues for colonial development, and providing profit for European stockholders (58).”
So the recent WTO ruling may belong to the old story of business and government working together to market drugs. The WTO ruled — in essence — that since menthol in the USA is — by definition — “cool,” the U.S. can’t ban other ciggy flavors, like cloves. This came very much as a surprise to lawmakers of every stripe. Even Phillip Morris (which is heavily invested in Indonesia, via its Sampoerna brand) had worked out a way to get behind the failed no-flavored-cigarettes (except menthol) campaign.
So what we’ve got is Indonesia selling cherry-flavored to American youngsters (who might not be into ol’ Joe Camel) and the U.S. — totally steamed — desperately searches for the trade loophole and discovers that the tobacco trade — and all the-double think that’s kept it smoldering so chilly all this time — isn’t a loophole. It’s more like the way countries (and major guerrilla movements) have always done business. It’s how they finance the military, build hospitals, etc.
As McCoy tells it:
“[I]n the 1500s European merchants introduced opium smoking; in the 1700s the British East India Company became Asia’s first large-scale opium smuggler, forcibly supplying an unwilling China; and in the 1800s every European colony [including Batavia] had its official opium dens (59).
This is a victory for the Indonesia-based manufacturers of cloves cigarettes (we call them kretek), including Phillip Morris and the powerful tobacco families. But it’s hardly a victory for Indonesia. Indonesia — like the U.S. — simply has nothing to celebrate as regards its drug policy, particularly with regard to tobacco. Here in Jakarta, even if three doctors have said they think you have oral cancer, they’ll easily keep you waiting a couple months to get a biopsy within the state medical system. Meanwhile, zero attempt is made to keep kids from buying cigarettes (quite the opposite).
At the same time, selling drugs is easier said than done, and eventually accomplished through a ruthless amalgam of domestic politics, trade diplomacy, and either military or mafia force. So maybe it’s good this is a court decision rather than a military coup or a purchase order for helicopters.
But the take-home for Unc. Sam is that, if you can’t even prevent ruthless foreign profiteers from legally selling candy ciggies to your kids, then just imagine — ’cause most of the time they’re not even going to bother to sue.
Most favored flavor status for menthol? I guess the WTO agreed with the kretek makers — it just sounds ridiculous. Like calling the other guy’s fag a dirty weed without hurting the fresh, flavorful image of your own menthol-mix marvel. But for backers of commodities like cocaine and cannabis, even a drug war or two may go down as the normal costs of doing business.
If I’m not mistaken, both cloves and menthol leverage eugenol as the key happy ingredient. Who cares, however, because the point is that kids are always going to hit exotic new substances, whatever they may be. If the local stash in Cincy runs low, they’ll order more from Indonesia. So the focus on tobacco, which tons of smokers admit has a miserable cost/benefit ratio, is unjustified. Alcohol ( about as anti-social a drug as you can find) may also get much more attention that it deserves.
Kids (and adults) aren’t really as stupid as people think. The problem is they tend to be misled by the semi-well-intentioned regulation efforts of government/business. If you chose your drugs based on U.S. law, then you’d be smoking and drinking — both extremely legal in the U.S. –and you’d be 15 times more likely to get oral cancer (a new risk factor we just learned about and you should quit at least one, today).
Meanwhile, having gotten into the business of helping market cigarettes, the the U.S. government ought to be wondering, just about now, what the hell it’s doing. Cigarettes sell fine, no need to mess with the flavors. And it’s too complicated — work for chemists, not politicians.
It just seems that nothing’s working and a new paradigm is needed. Both alcohol and tobacco should be forced to compete on a fair playing field with other roots, bark, berries, brews and every other type of thing that people drink, snort, chew or otherwise ingest. Because honestly, who would smoke a bunch of unknown stuff rolled up in a paper tube with a silly flavor? Why?
Would alcohol and tobacco really be able to compete for people’s recreational drug dollar it it weren’t for the legal cachet? Pride in the quality of one’s national tobacco seems to me so old school. There are a lot of safer drugs.
What happened to e-ciggy? I think you’ll find it’s safe enough. Problem is, it doesn’t help move all this tobacco that’s piling up in the warehouses of Java.
This post provides the background of how the Sharehouse took interest in Jakarta garbage culture and — most recently — the following two fun and easy-t0-read whitepapers:
Jakarta neighborhood waste management — a recent study with a practical bent and specific Menteng focus co-authored by an engineering team with members based in Australia and Indonesia; and
A slightly more dated paper based on research done in Menteng over a decade ago by Rafealla D. Dwianto — this is a good grounding in Jakarta Neigborhoods and How They Work and thus provides indirect light on local garbage. This paper is also fun because it compares the two different “sides” of Menteng
Anyway, if you live on the fancy side of Menteng, you may very well have no idea what happens to your trash after you throw it on the floor or wherever. This, of course, is a very good thing. And you should stop reading now!
On the Jl. Guntur side of Menteng, where the Sharehouse is located, even before the BBC did their mind-blowing video report on local trash culture, we had a hunch. Almost anyone who’s ever driven to the far end of Jl. Guntur — to where it abuts the filled-in wetlands that are being developed for office towers — has a good shot at witnessing a vast pile of garbage, stinking to high heaven, being attended to by bare-hand, barefoot workers using pushcarts and no other technology whatsoever to deal with the rubbish of a society that becomes palpably wealthier and more consumptive every single day.
Although when I first came to this part of town I used to enjoy mountain biking the ganglia of little footpaths that criss-cross the city and are especially important to the gerobak proprietors and those that use their freelance hauling services.
I noticed that in the lots between Menteng and Kuningan (then mostly vacant, now mostly not) there were a lot of obviously staging areas for things as specific and varied as abandoned mirrors (to be resold) and empty Mama Lime dish soap bottles (to be recycled).
Once I became a self-employed house renter I had various opportunities to hang out at home and observe the interface between the house I lived in and the other houses in the neighborhood network. I learned that it’s not OK for blossoms from my side of the wall to fall onto the neighbors’ side — and that invariably identify that as a “garbage” problem. I was particularly keen on one particular port, which I’ll call the “garbage hole.” Into it the Sharehouse maid (and occasionally other known and unknown third parties) deposit trash and through it the city-paid garbage man (and various other freelance refuse workers) fish for our trash using sticks in the early morning hours. (“Our” guy is Udin and he prefers to access the trash from the inside (after you open the gate for him) and moonlights doing gardening work . That kind of stuff is good to know.)
With the assistance of Sharehouse including maid and front-gate security, I began to monitor the garbage hole (no longer in use closed) which is something most Jakarta houses also have in order to facilitate the passage of kitchen and other trash from the inside to the outside of the property. Very recently we began inspecting and weighing garbage, as an intermediate step to reduction and recycling.
I didn’t really have in mind anything like Imam and Wilbur’s BBC video essay as an option for learning about and experiencing the organization of local sanitation activities. That was kind of jolt, but a good one. If you’ve got questions about how trash collection works around here, then swing by tonight and ask Pak. Imam (who teams up with London bin man, jazz singer and amateur journalist Wilbur Ramirez in the BBC video). He’ll be here to demo the local sanitation team’s motor-gerobak and chat with neighbors about trash culture.
The event is was a benefit : funds raised go to purchasing a 1st aid kit for Jl. Guntur sanitation team. If you can’t didn’t come you can still donate.
For this area, FastNet from First Media is ideal because it’s almost never down or noticeably slow.
Why do we mention it? Well, just to update our previous consumer satisfaction posts about Lippo-owned First Media FastNet broadband service, including comparisons to Indonesian government-owned Telkom Speedy DSL.
OK, I’d be a little surprised to hear that First Media customer service won awards recently, since in the past (including before it was called First Media) the customer was so reliably always wrong. Nevertheless, I have not heard any complaints recently from the Sharehouse finance department; so it seems they’re managing to get the bill paid without a phone brawl.
Certainly we try not to abuse our hookup since — who knows — if everyone decided to download movies on the same day, that would presumably suck bandwidth and – if you tried hard enough — you could probably even “screw over” your ISP to some degree. But that’s just never been an issue here. I’m sure speed does vary for us here and I’m sure the connection has gone down for a spell a number of times. (It has. And each time we call First Media immediately and then continue reporting the outage on a regular basis. They often deny any problem on their end while — I must assume — simultaneously resetting the connection so it works ; )
But not very often. And the rest of the time it’s simply “fast.” Don’t know how it works in your naked woods, but ’round here it’s cruisy.
(Sadly, we did cancel our First Media cable TV service, again. First, it seemed like there were less and less good channels all the time. Surprise, surprise. Second, one of the cable boxes was broken and they didn’t seem very enthusiastic about fixing it. Third, we hated the way we got strong-armed into investing more in a service we didn’t really like. It seemed to us we had been given crappy service so that we’d complain, so that they could cut a deal with us to vastly improve the service for not too much money. The first time we mentioned the possibly of canceling our cable subscription it was casual on our part. But First Media was so adamant that we not cancel it. But we persisted, even as they pretended like they would be forced to cancel our broadband, too. You just have to patiently rip into the rep again and again on the phone. Eventually they’ll quit playing dumb.
Seems like we’d probably qualify for a special offer if we decided to sign up again for cable TV from First Media. So why not cancel?)
[If only blogs were driven by the moon, like the tides. Regardless, I figure it has been exactly three years since I wrote a post about my experience at a holier-than-average and "totally authentic" full moon temple ceremony near Sanur, Bali. And posts by Made Wijaya (now there's a blogger you can set your clocks by) reminded me of that. Meanwhile, my original photos (including, I should hope, a shot of holy rollers Frank Morgan and Leonard Lueras throwing dice under the big, hairy banyan outside the temple) were stored on blog that has been retired. So re-connecting with that is on the to-do list (due in 2015 ; ) For now, the score for this post is as follows: text, 90 % non-new and all dates refer to April 2009; pictures, 100% new (semi-sorted) and don't relate (directly) to the text -- ED]
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I’m not sure what Om Frankie and Om Leonard like most about the three-day full moon ceremony at the Mertasari temple just down the beach from their cozy seaside villas in Sanur. May be the elegantly dressed women, the in-temple beer concessions, or the trance dance.
Could be, on the other hand, the holy gaming tables laid out under a massive banyan tree and the full moon. They provide a lot more action than a roulette wheel. It’s almost eerie how that little ball bounces around. And so back they came, night after night.
With buddies and a backstage pass, Miss S and I also made to all three sessions, too. Night one was topeng — stand-up routines in Balinese and in drag — over my head. Night two was a Balinese version of Baile de la Conquista with the Dutch and Chinese playing the Spanish. Whoa.
Night three of the party did not disappoint — trance dance, dramatically violent movements, that fearsome Balinese barong beast with Chinese characteristics, the moon, the ancient temple on the magic beach — complete.
According to my wife, back in the day, when Charly and his posse used to play music for passersby at Station 12 between Jakarta and Bogor (ST12), he had a crush on her.
“Stay with me, Angel, he told her. “I’m gonna be bigtime. You’ll see” [I'm not making this up, but was she? ]
“No way, Charly. It is fun kickin’ it here with y’all. But I don’t want no dirty busker for a boyfriend.”
[And she regrets it big-time, to this day : ]
Everybody in this town got a story like that. However ineffable once you’re there, the highway to fame and fortune — people around here say — often turns out be a country lane or a narrow urban alleyway (gang) crawling with rats and cockroaches. You don’t even need to go anywhere specific — like Hollywood or Nashville — to get famous around here.
So in the context of rags to riches, what’s the Indonesian version of country music?
Emma Baulch’s article “Music for the Pria Dewasa: Change and Continuities in Class and Pop Music Genres,” in the Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, makes me want to check the box next to: Pop Melayu.
The article is theory-laden but readable; all you really need to know is:
The Malay word #kampung (kampong) — in this part of the world — lines up with the notion of village, countryside, less developed, etc.
And the word may be opposed to another — gedung, which means building — to set up a little rural/urban dichotomy
Despite their mass popularity, some — or I mean lots — of Indonesians will rather forcefully argue that they don’t like bands like ST 12, Kangan Band, and Hijau Daun. (Honestly, it does remind me of the Nashville twang — I mean thang ; )
Dandgut, certainly, is legit. And a lot older than Pop Melayu (which — as you can probably tell — is a label that come music executive came up with and not the way that fans would refer to bands like ST12). And then there’s reggae — which can be down-to-earth without sweating the urban /rural thing. (I guess I’d have to emphasize can bedown-to-earth. Cuz, the self-styled Indonesian ambassador of reggae, lately of NYC, himself — Ras Muhammad — was recently lamenting that a lot of reggae these days is nothing but a soundtrack for airhead beach parties.)
OK, I’m done. Below, however, are the ‘graphs I dug from Baulch’s rock-n-roll article. Taken together, you’ll see they do — just for the fun of it — support the notion of Pop Melayu, being “Indonesian Country.” (Which is a plenty weird result, since the music doesn’t really sound like country . . . whereas Iwan Fals kinda does (Iwan Fals also sometimes sounds like Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd).
. . . pop genre distinctions and their attendant kampungan-gedongan dimensions [should be looked at in terms of how ]print media have played a cruical role in building, and reinforcing, a myth of class @109
Dangdut became a social text for assigning all sorts of meanings — kampungan for example — through which elites could register their own class position. . . Dangdut fans, synonymous with the masses, were discursively produced in print media according to middle class and elite notions of the rakyat [the people] as explosive and uncontrolled. @107
In contrast to dangdut though, pop Melayu [ST12, Kangan Band, Hijau Daun] generally make use of Western instrumentation, not a bamboo suling (flute) or a gendang (paired hand drums). Pop Melayu’s nod to dangdut can be very slight and barely noticeable. In recent years, in terms of sales, pop Melayu has emerged as an enormously successful genre. @117
Rather than distancing itself from the images of provincial vulgarity associated with the term kampungan, [Kangan Band's] publicity machine began to make much of its humble, marginal beginnings. In cinematic and literary form, narratives of the band’s rags to riches story appear in a chain of bookstores and on television. Here is an inspirational story of wong cilik (little people) battling against the odds.@121
Much seems up for discussion here: the question of how an interest in the vocalist’s physical appearance reflects on consumers, the role of the metropolis in cultural production, the Melayuness or otherwise of Kangen Band’s music and it’s implications for the affective qualities of consumption. Indeed, the term kampungan is not unpacked here. Nevertheless, the responses to Selinkuh on You Tube do evidence a kind of inquiring, reflexive mode that, it could be argued, disagreements about pop Melayu’s quality seem to provoke. @123
Besides the commercial significance of pay-to-download ring-back tones featuring the music of Pop Melayu bands and “the pervasiveness narratives of upward mobility which depict this trajectory as one from kampung to metropolis” [what matters for present purposes] “is that these musical products are . . . most intensively consumed by those living in provincial second-tier and third-tier cities, especially those cities on islands other than Java, therefore most squarely beyond the fringes of Jakarta.” @122-3
The article concludes that kampungan – as the marker of Otherness that has been so important in the construction of Indonesian middleness — is “increasingly unstable.” Moreover, as Pop Melayu is “spun and pitched” as a musical genre, it is being incorporated into narratives of upward mobility with the result that it is “no longer just the waste, the un-modern, the vulgar (although these significations endure). Instead, “kampungan (which I suppose we can translate as “country roots”) can now also signify the possibility of bettering oneself.”
Kemarin di Twitter ada orang jawap kpd tweet dari Ras Muhamad dng cara betulin lirik Bob Marley yg di sedikit salah. Si Edgar (AKA Ras Muhamad) ‘dikit malu. Lucu sekali, karena semua orang yg demen musik Wailers (seperti lirik Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer) juga sadar lirik2 itu kadang2 susah di mengerti 100%. Apa lagi kalau mau di jadikan Bahasa Indonesia.
Contohnya, apa artinya “chuckin” yg lumayan sering kita dengar di lagu2 Bob Marley. Lebih mirip Church’s chuckin’ or KFC chuckin’ or what??
Sebenarnya, ini mesti dirapikan sama orang sebelum bisa di playout di gig. Tapi cepat kayanya karena hampir jadi. Ini dia dalam file .doc biar lebih gampang.
Nah, kalau Peter Tosh orangya memang hitam tapi gaul habis. Super tinggi tapi pintar goyang dan “pede.” Katanya pakai gacamata biar orang gak bisa lihat matanya saat becanda biar mereka tamba takut habis dia tinggi sekali dan suka godain “downpressor man, yaitu siapun yg bikin susah hidup orang kecil termasuk “ap4rat.” Dia serius tapi suka main juga. Kata dia “Kalau damai itu gampang. Ke kuburan aja. Pasti dapat.”
Katanya suka kesel krna sih Bob (yg bapak orang bule juga jadi dia blasteran) lebih banyak cewek, lebih banyak fans. Lama2 di bunuh di rumah dia sendiri sama maling yg dia pernah bantu cari kerja. Cerita lumayan luar biasa Wailers itu.
Someone just did a full 60 minute documentary report on the Sharehouse garbage team! “Desensitized” said one foreigner who has been living in this parta Jakarta for several years also. I think that’s just about the size of it. I’m going ahead with the composter, the bio pores and English classes for the bin man’s kid.
If you’re interested in how it turns out, post a COMMENT BELOW and we’ll let you know.
Ninety percent of the report (it’s a documentary, roughly speaking) was shot within a stone’s throw of the sharehouse. I remember seeing a crew in the area once, recently. But that’s very common. You’re always stumbling into a music video, TV spot or soap opera. Indonesian TV covers jobs that require you to work on the street all the time, including garbage families. But this is different. Some of it even looks good, especially Jl. Malabar and around the park. (But not very well edited and too long.)
The Sharehouse garbage guy is in one shot. Just last week we hired him to cut the trees, which means extra income. (But it’s true the guys are scared they’ll be framed for something and lose their job. They hardly dare stand up for themselves. Udin, I’m told, still remembers I yelled at him because his cart was blocking the front gate as a guest was walking in.) Our garbage bill is Rp 50,000/month and I have no idea how much he gets. I remember he used to kind of have to fight over it with the local neighborhood unit chief (AKA “Pak RT”). We would always wonder where the money went when the RT would ask us to kick in to help Udin because he was ill or a;family member had died. I would say the service is really good. There are a lot of issues in this neighborhood, aside from whether we give money directly to the bin man or not: how he’s supposed to get the garbage; what if other people dump garbage on our garbage heap — does he have to hall that too; what if we have cut trees or have more trash than usual; how much time off does he get? But bin men are certainly the first or last Jakartans to work hard and do their best despite a utterly rotten, broken, stinky system.
This is the border of South and Central Jakarta, sandwiched between extensive graveyards and vacant lots. Maybe that’s why it’s an important rubbish staging area. There’s also a lot of freelance recycling (they call ‘em the pemulung). I used to think more about garbage when I still had the Cannondale. There’s a congregation in Kota that ministers specifically to the homeless/people living on the railroad track. There used to be a healthy little recycling community in the vacant lot behind us. Almost entirely relocated as of a month ago. The vacant lot between Jl. Guntur and Village Bakrie isn’t very vacant anymore.
Tons of issues, really. Being homeless, being a recycler and being a bin man aren’t at all the same thing. But they are related. It’s about people assuming that the system works. It doesn’t! Jakarta is broken. The current garbage system presupposes access to all parts of Jakarta by guys pulling handcarts piled high with garbage. In fact, they do have access. You’ll see them easing up the major thoroughfares counter-traffic in the merciless heat. There are plenty of traffic implications. Jakarta is clogged and congested by it’s own clearing and cleaning processes. We need the rains to wash the garbage down the Ciliwung and out to sea. But the garbage in the water causes the river to overflow and flood.
I’ve always assumed the garbage families were outsiders, not originally from Jakarta. I don’t really have any evidence either way on that. But I have noticed it’s a family thing. In other words, it’s a way to raise a family. It’s a life. And often in Menteng you won’t be able to see all of everybody who’s resting in or under the hand truck. But you can tell basically who’s there — mom, dad, kids.
There are bin families all the way from Cikini to Monas along the route the train takes. You can conveniently catch up with them at the small park next to the Cikini train station. And there’s a community in Senen near the tracks, there. That was where Pak Tambus worked. He was an unorthodox Christian minister who used to frequently hold services –including for Muslims and poor Chinese — out on the railroad tracks.
I don’t know why but over on the swish side of the tracks where Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo lives garbage costs Rp 25,000/month. I guess some people’s crap is really worth something. Probably still smells.
Remarkable: a UK journalist moves into a rubbish heap on the corner (the exact spot where I shot a few pictures of the tukang sampa or garbage guys couple months ago) and we don’t notice. We didn’t notice him. We notice the garbage at the end of Guntur. That’s why we never go there. It’s a massive civilizational failure. (Technically he’s not a journalist, but a London bin man. No matter, he’s doing research in Jakarta — comparative garbology in fact.)
The report is well researched and well timed — coming just now as the Bakrie’s and Rothschilds’s team up to mine coal, Indo prospers generally and Jak grows filthy rich.
We’ve got super high-quality poverty here and it makes life so easy — the garbage gondoliers unclogging the river, petrol vendors that bring subsidized fuel into the ‘hood so we don’t ever have to queue at the pump, fishmongers at the filthy market where the maid shops , and cheaper than Carrefour . . . . what would we do without them?
If there’s one thing this kids not scared of it’s cops and doctors. He had three operations before he could talk and his first words were “hurts” and “thank you doctor.” But now he’s looking into becoming a pilot.
So Jeremy Menchik’s awesomely researched article on Islam in Jakarta Post deals with semi-official intolerance of the Ahmadiya minority Muslim sect. And thus provides a counterpoint to the feel-good article about chilling out in the park listening to reggae in Jakarta on the Prophet’s birthday.
Menchik has a better grasp of this than most people. So it was a bit disconcerting for me to see how deep this knee-jerk, semi-official prejudice runs.
Ameliorating factors, I suppose, are that the average guy on the (Jakarta) street doesn’t really think about stuff like where to draw the line on people who claim to belong to our religion but believe different stuff than us. Even Americans are beyond that, as evidenced by recent bullishness on Mormon Mitt. (I’d say the Ahmadiya are the Mormons of Indonesia.) A lot of Indonesians, quite frankly, would simply laugh at the ridiculous notion of six official religions — Catholicism, Protestantism (that’s two), Islam (that’s one), Buddhism (that’s a religion) and Hinduism (that’s Bali). This type of line-drawing is such a joke, isn’t it. I mean, isn’t that the part about religion that everyone hates (except for religious professionals who have to constantly grown their base or else lose money and prestige)? (Atheists friends, please insert most after hates in the preceding sentence).
And knee-jerk is an ameliorating factor. No one in their right mind would care how many prophets one recognizes. The more the merrier. Any other rule will and surely has led to war. Also, the fact that the average woman on the (Jakarta) street is going to be all the more gimme-a-break about people killing each other over prophet counts. That’s just not the kind of thing Indonesians really care about, trust me. (Semi-official isn’t such a factor, since everything about the place is semi-official).
With privileged class — which admittedly rhyme with kiss-my-ass — I think you basically get the sense of something top-down. In other words, religion isn’t this thing that happens out there around the fire at the village level and catches on and spreads from heart to heart among the true believers. Instead it’s more the Dutch or Roman approach where the important thing is that everyone has exactly one and we know which it is so that we can divide, conquer, tax or whatever it may be.
In fairness (to myself : ) , I would say street-level Islam in Indonesia (don’t know about the Ahmadiya, however) lacks a soft spot for the “priesthood of the believer,” as it would be in Protestantism, or “being guided by the spirit” as the Mormons have it. Like so many other activities, Indonesians just find it more interesting when lots of people are involved and are hardly concerned about the politics of it, as long as it’s not boring. Ultimately, I think the large-scale buy-in very much increases its value to the individual. The thing Indonesians ask before going out to hear a famous preacher is just how famous he is, how big a crowd does he pull. It’s like they’re missing the appeal of catching a big-name act playing an unadvertised gig at a venue she just happens to like.
I’m going to update my post on 24/7 drug stores in Jakarta and here’s the question: What’s a good pharmacy in Jakarta for hard to find drugs?
Answer depends, really. That’s why you have to try all of them. This process (do it at night or pay the price) also results in important Jakarta drug information that you need, since Indonesian docs aren’t great communicators.
Here are your options in no particular order:
1. Melawai is sexy as a disco with fairly good service and lots of drugs. But they take zero risks and thus won’t try very hard to figure out what you actually need or help with substitutes. And they may require a prescription for things you should be able to get OTC elsewhere. Disappointing really.
2. Century chain is crowded and full of hype but stocks lots of drugs. Avoid everyone but the pharmacist him/herself. The rest are useless. Know exactly what you want and don’t browse. There are a lot of these and so experience will vary. Some good folks in there.
3. Guardian chain is sometimes conveniently located, but generally unreliable or else slightly weird. They don’t like to fuss with prescriptions.
4. Kimia Farma is a necessary evil. They’re gov. owned. So supposedly that’s good for something. But they’re way, way to confident about the sorry, sorry show they run — but often friendly. Have to be in the mood to deal with them.
5. Titi Murni in Central Jak is said to “have everything.” It’s usually the best for filling prescriptions. They know whether or not it’s available. Service leaves a lot to be desired, mostly because they’re understaffed.
6. Apotik Indonesia on the border of S. and Central Jak (Jl. Salak) sucks for no reason. They’ve been around a long time and actually have quite a bit of stuff. But the attitude of the employees is beyond bizarre. It’s like they’re on strike but still show up for work every day. Give it a miss.
7. Apotik Rini in East Jak. Well deserved reputation for being well stocked. Professional in their own psuedo-aloof way. Quite often worth going out there. The wait at ancient mosquito-ridden joints like this one and Titimurni should prove they have more drugs than Century and that’s what customers care about.
8. Pharmacies at the bigger hospitals. Good way to waste a lot of time. Sometimes its the only way to get what you’re looking for. But definitely hit and miss. Still, worth a try if it’s the middle of the night. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if a one-of-a-kind hospital like RS Cipto did have some unique offerings at the pharmacy.
9. No-name, non-pharmacy drug stores (little infrastructure, may appear unlicensed). This is a toko obat and sometimes has what you need. Esp. if it’s an old remedy that works but big pharma hasn’t figure out how to milk it. Eg, tramadol, ie, ultram. Some specialize in herbals or Chinese medicine, which means they may not have basic stuff like cough syrup or whatever you’re looking for.
10. Apotik Senopati. No complaints. Make sure you get their attention and communicate exactly what it is you want and they’ll do it.
11. Skin centers. Is this a good place to look for drugs specially for the skin? Yes, it is.
12. That K24 place. They try pretty hard, sometimes get it right. Pretty new, however. Not my first choice.
So what about everything that isn’t on the list?? Well, appreciate if you could COMMENT about all that stuff and how it works in your area.
One thing I’ve noticed is that unless you’re looking for something totally specialized — body building, Chinese, herbal, openly counterfeit, etc. — then you go to the old, established players or whatever chain seems to be doing the best in your area. The mom and pop shops mostly just survive by selling cough syrup to new parents.
One reason for going to a lot of drug stores is to do cross-comparison of the reactions you get when you present your scrip. Another reason is because, for some reason, most drugs stores will only have a fraction of the things the doctor has scrawled out for you.
Here’s what you need to somehow find out despite language barriers:
1. What’s the common name for the stuff on the scrip?
2. How much does each item cost?
3. How much of the stuff is optional?
4. Any overlap between optional and expensive items?
5. Does the pharmacy have enough of the things on your little shopping list to make it pulling out your wallet and waiting around for half an hour or so? If not, give ‘em a big smile and take off.
Next, here’s how to second guess the pharmacist and his/her staff:
Do they seem to need more information? Did the doc maybe get it wrong? In which case you have to assure them that whatever they have is exactly what he meant.
Are they totally negative from the get-go? In that case, maybe the doc is prescribing stuff that’s just not on the market. Often the person him/herself doesn’t really know the deal, but you can often read between the lines. They won’t tell you when something has been discontinued. But if they’re kind of chuckling or else totally uninterested, –there could be a little problem. Sometimes they come across as forceful– “We don’t have it” — to make you think they never have it. Why? They just get tired of turning people down and don’t want to get asked anymore for a while.
Did they totally blow you off? Could be they actually have it but for some reason can’t give it to you (saving it? problem with the scrip? ) They don’t like to lie. So they’ll use other language to communicate their “no joy” message.
Are they taking any shortcuts? Like not telling you what it is they’re about to sell you? Like not giving you a new prescription with the remaining things they weren’t able to provide you? Like not itemizing prices so you know what’s what?
Do they have something in mind they want to sell you and are only asking information so as to get that to come up faster? The vitamin girls are supposed to do that, of course. No matter what you’re looking for, they’ve got vitamins for you. But the pharmacist shouldn’t be involved at all.
St. Valentine’s Day is a Roman Catholic-derived holiday which captures the imagination of some Jakartans. This year Gangsta Rasta and friends put on a free reggae concert in the park. Meanwhile, Maulid Nabi refers to the birthday of the prophet Muhamad. Its observance in many Islamic countries is at matter of custom and often involves lights, processions and poetry. Both celebrations, on the 2011 calendar, got bunched up in the same three-day weekend last year. Would there be a collision?
Anak reggae
Red-pink-and-white ads and merchandise are everywhere this time of year in Jakarta. Most of the hype is directed at adults, including the Westernized and expats. But even a child could figure out that Valentine’s Day is for lovers.
The subtler shades coloring this lovely holiday — like who was Cupid and did he have a crush on Plato — may require explaining for those who aren’t up on their Greek and Roman history. It’s true — you know — there are many ways to say love in Indonesian. And even romantisisn’t used the word you’d think. One common V-day localization is “Hari Kasih Sayang” which is “Care Day” and fails to provide any clue as to just how sexy the holiday is (oops — I mean, can be cuz that all depends on if you’re married or not ; )
In a diagnosis that’s going to open a can of worms, they’re calling it mass hysteria. It’s affecting New York high school girls in a “multiple-stressor,” (pressure cooker? ) environment.
I tried last year to interest Mindhacks in garden variety mass spirit possession of junior high school girls in Indonesia, which has been receiving more frequent attention in this country’s burgeoning free press. Of course, that’s a pretty rough translation for this whatcha-gonna-call-it-anyway ailment that — don’t get me wrong — seems to freak everybody out pretty badly, including the patient and those around her.
Anyway, I figured that taking a closer look at these freak-out situations involving a bunch of young women in close proximity (e.g., in a school or factory) would be a pre-req for trying to interpret the tougher case of the Indonesian dude possessed by a monkey spirit last year. Freak out, isn’t exactly the right term. Since the focus is on the objective, physical manifestations of this thing. No one is pretending to know what’s going on in the poor patient’s head. (And of course the patient has no idea either).
Why do I think the Indonesian and New York mystery ailments are related? I don’t. I’m just wondering. I thought maybe Tom Stafford would know. But the weirdest thing — obviously — is the mass part of mass hysteria. Why the hell would it be contagious? On the other hand, why not?
Anyway, Bali is so long on magic, that back in the good old days (as seen in a well-known 1960′s documentary series), Balinese spirit adventure types used to think nothing of getting possessed by jar lids — on purpose — which is entirely counter-intuitive.
Where do I find this stuff? It’s been front-page news in Indonesia and the US. How can you miss it?
