I was watching the Australian network chanel on our satelite TV last night. A newscaster was interviewing the Indonesian Minister of Environment Rachmat Witoelar about the conference and environmental issues concerning the seas around Indonesia.

Among other things they discussed fishing methods in Indonesia. Some of the less desirable traditional methods in indonesian fishing communities include dynamite blasting and poisoning to bring the catch to the surface. I’ve seen a popular inland method in practise, whereby the fisherman straps a car battery to his back and attaches jumper leads to a bamboo pole and zaps the river where he wants to fish. It brings the fish to the surface and gives the fisherman a ‘tingle’ in his legs.

We have a thing here called ‘Waktu Karet’ (rubber time) so forgive me for my unpunctuality.

Never too late to start saving the planet I say ! I participated in Earth Hour last year. It was a new concept over here in Indo, so not much of a public reaction. This year they reckon there are about 20 million new web-surfers on-line, so global messages such as Earth Hour are starting to get around a bit more.

I was actually at the beach holiday resort of Ocean Queen at Pelabuhan Ratu with a large part of the family. As we were in a bamboo bungalow on the beach anyaways, I figured it an opportune moment to impose a bit of western environmental conservationism on the family. I took out my copy of the Jakarta Post and flashed the big one page ad for ‘flicking the vote switch’.  We were having a few bintangs and a seafood B.B.Q so the idea of no lights was appealing and well accepted.

“How come the ‘bule’ men like to go out with black girls ?” A question I often hear from female friends who are interested in foreign men. (you can find legions of them on Tagged or Facebook - looking for Mr. Right - ‘preferably rich, preferably white’). Well for me, your fairly average Australian bear, skin colour has never been high on the priority list for qualities to look for when choosing a life partner. Call me old fashioned, but I was attracted to my wife because of her personality. She may well have been green or purple for all I care.

Many indonesian women find it extrodinary. ‘How could he choose a black girl, over a white princess like me ?’ Being dark skinned it seems has connotations with working outside ; dirty, lower class, un-educated - ‘Kuno’ (from the village) as they like to sum it up over here. So for many of the girls who are born on the browner side of the spectrum - and it’s a whole lot of many - there is a great desire to change their colour and thus distance themselves from the ‘poor person’s’ stereo-type.

Amrozi goes to hell

Domestic politics or rather crafty fishing by police intelligence ?

The execution of the three Bali bombers has been perpetually postponed in a fashion rather similar to the trial of Soeharto. It’s a sensitive issue. The many millions of Indonesians who live in remote villages, far from television, many of whom are illiterate may have a different spin on the Amrozi case compared to someone who has Googled the topic on the net and stumbled upon this blog.

Well the Bali beach sports games is under way with 30 odd countries participating. No doubt the government will have had a big campaign and drive to clean the beaches to ward off international criticism. At least the beaches will be clean for a while.
The main problem for nearly all of Indonesia’s beaches is that most peoples sewage goes straight into the river, untreated, and then straight out to sea. My surfing mate Ben often jokes about ‘dodging the brown sharks’ ( eeyyww) when reporting on surf trips in Java’s Pelabuhan Ratu.
The second worst polluter to human waste is plastic bottles and cups.
Danone Aqua is the main producer of drinking water in Indonesia. There bottles are literally everywhere. And I don’t just mean in the market shelves. Empty bottles and aqua cups possibly comprise 20% of most rubbish tips and litter that is frequently thrown straight onto the street in this country.
What is Danone Aqua doing about this ? Their water used to come in glass bottles, but these days Pep-bottles are the go - drink and throw. Ironically Aqua has a new TV commercial that preaches of a brighter , cleaner future for Indonesia’s children. Why can’t they put some of their marketing budget into an anti-litter campaign to educate people not to throw bottles in the river or onto the side of the road ? Why doesn’t the government or the people hold Aqua responsible for the garbage they generate ?
Here is a link to Danone’s website ;

The Ramadan fasting month has come to an end. My wife, and hence her family are Muslim. I’m what is known in Indonesia as a ‘KTP Muslim’ – it says so on my identity card and that’s about as religious as I get. I did try the fast and lasted three days but I also joined in most of the ‘buka puasa’ (break fast at sundown) and some of the early morning saur.

I’m not a big fan of the call to prayer. Every corner of every kampong has a mosque and yet drive on any major road in Java and you will undoubtedly pass boys and girls in their Muslim dress standing by big gallon drums waving fishing nets collecting money for the building of yet another new mosque. And no mosque is complete without the biggest locally available loudspeaker which is always turned on full volume and invariably pointed in the direction of where I happen to be ‘trying’ to sleep. Actually I’m so used to the noise that I can sleep quite comfortably, even during Ramadan when the prayers run non-stop accompanied by the beating of drums and firecrackers that are set off to ‘remind’ people that it’s time to wake up.

Last week I went to accompany David to do some filming and documentation of the life cycles of Bamboo Andong in Malang. Dr.Subagiono is super keen to get involved in our project and had offered to show us around some of the bamboo forests and community nurseries in Malang.

It was the end of the long dry season , so not much going on in terms of the latter.

We flew into Surabaya ; Indonesia’s second biggest , pretty much tree-less city, and took the toll road up to Malang. A very pleasant drive albeit the long traffic jam alongside some kind of retaining wall. I noticed a huge plume of smoke billowing from above a lake in the distance. Subagiono informed me it was the notorious ‘Lapindo disaster’. We stopped to get a better look.

Thought I’d add some poetry to this blog and keep it varied.

John Popper is one amazing dude. I consider his lyrics poetry rather than ‘blues lyrics’.

I’ve got a couple of live DVD’s of this band. Great music - mind-blowing harp from the big man.

‘Whoops’ is a pretty heavy song probably written after a not so ‘high’ session. It could almost be an anthem for this generation - my generation anyway - or was that another band ? What ? Who ?

‘We’re cutting down the air we breath’ - it’s that simple. We’ve been that stupid. whoops would suggest we may be too late. Well I like to be optimistic, so I’m willing to punt that bamboo might just save the planet.

Here’s the poem…

Whoops

Music & Lyrics: John Popper

Review-Asia is one of the many ‘Glossies’ to be found in the newsagent magazine rack these days. Their 15^th issue is their Green Issue. A pretty good read. Thought I might write a letter to the editor. Here’s the first draft ;

While the cover of Review Asia’s ‘Green Issue’ rings a well needed alarm, your feature article illustrates that at least there is some awareness of the urgency of the problem and that governments and organizations in Asia are starting to take steps in the right direction. It is now a question of will it be ‘too little, too late’ ?

I have been living in Indonesia for the past twenty years , hopelessly witnessing it’s environmental demise as populations over take ecosystems and communities eagerly exchange a rural existence for a technologically enhanced modern one with all the trappings plastic bags and detergent bottles can afford. These communities simply desire the disposable glitzy lifestyles that we of the west have enjoyed and indeed flaunted, in blissful ignorance of the environment, for the last century.

Yayang’s mum and dad and sister Ani and her kid Vivi and cousin Rina were over for the week-end.
It really is a god send for me that Indonesian’s have such a close knit family structure. At 10 months, Jessy can be a real handful, so it’s great to have family around to keep her entertained.

On Sundays I have the Jakarta Post delivered to my house. I don’t subscribe to the rest of the week because it’s too depressing. Sunday’s paper is a leisurely read though. Simon’s column always gives me a laugh. On this Sunday there was a front page article about the Kemang Festival. Vivi spotted a clown on stilts in the accompanying photo, so we decided to make a family outing out of it and head down to check it out.