Maybe it’s because we have moved out to Bogor, but I don’t recall ever having seen so much rain in my 20 years in Indo. Not the full weeks’ non-stop rain and drizzle, like you get in Sydney and down the south coast of OZ. The rain still comes mainly in strong bursts that last for an hour or two and then subside , allowing all the bikies to get to their destination a little less drenched.

The afternoon drive home has been great. You can see mountains on all sides of Jakarta at the moment. There’s some really big ones out Bogor way, and I’ve never seen them so clearly.

I’ll see if I can get some photos up.

The clear skies got me wondering. Could it really be that the downpours alone and winds are washing away all the pollution from cars and buses, giving us such spectacular views ?
I’ve always cursed the buses as the main culprits to Jakarta’s foul air, but now I’m beginning to wonder if there is another factor….

Living in Bogor among the farmers and bike thieves, you tend to become climatized  to all the burning off that occurs daily. there is no rubbish collection where I live. People simply burn it. Plastic bags, paper, freshly cut grass, leaves. Anything that will catch fire by itself or assisted with a splash of kerosene from the stove.

Boy how they love to burn off. I think i mentioned this in an earlier blog, but it wasn’t until this incessant rain that I realized the real impact of the burning off. With constant rain. People simply can’t burn off. Due to humidity some are finding they can get a great compost heap going and plants and veggies are literally jumping out of the ground . But once things start to dry out, the pyromania sets in. When you have 20 odd million farmers burning stuff everyday, the result is a smoke screen big enough to shroud an entire city.

Breathing disorders , especially in young children are rife in Jakarta.

I can’t get my head around it.

Clean air, wonderful sunsets, mountain views

or

Misty stifling smog.

Why do people choose to damage their environment and themselves, when the alternative choice is just as easy ? – make some nice compost ! Grow some food more effectively !

It always comes back to Education. Fire restrictions would probably help. And council depos with plastic rubish collection bins and community composters.

I just worry that with 200 million people over here, and little environmental education assistance in sight, this part of the world is going to get a whole lot more smokier.

I can see clearly for now.

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.

For some this means never going outside when it’s sunny, certainly covering up to go to the beach and never going swimming in a public pool. And for many it means spending a fortune on creams and lotions that will give you a ‘beautiful clean white’ complection , just like the perfect rich people, in a matter of weeks. Except you have to keep using the product, otherwise you might turn back into an ugly person again.

There is another popular phrase often related to advertising ; ‘Korban Iklan’ – victim of adverstising – that i like to use whenever Yayang reaches for the Dove whitening cream. Live and learn to love what the good Lord gave you, don’t fall prey to these nasty companies who sell nothing but vanity and self doubt.

It angers me how these big companies blatantly exploit cultural stigmas and adolecence to such an extent that it becomes ‘the norm’. Nobody questions the morals or ethics behind such a campaign. These products contribute to social and cultural divide but even more sinsterly can even be bad for your health, as was exposed in today’s Jakarta Post. Other companies that produce womens sanitary items try to convince young women that they should be wearing their product day and night regardless of whether they are menstruating or not, because it’s what the intellectual Western folk do and you wouldn’t want to be caught ‘malu’ (ashamed) by any incidental accidental wet marks !

My doctor friend says this behaviour can lead to the harmful spread of bacteria. Next time you are in the bathroom of a female relative over here, look for the bottle of Femina Wash – a leading hygene website says this kills all bacteria in ‘that area’ including ‘good’ bacteria neccessary for maintaining a delicate healthy balance. Girls in Indonesia are encouraged to use the stuff like soap to keep away ‘bad smells’

Should these companies be allowed to dupe the whole of society inflicting potential outbreaks of poisoning and bacterial sickness, for the sake of making a profit ?

Indonesian women choose Western style products in an effort to be more progressive, more sophisticated. There is nothing wrong with such ambitions or drive , but there is something terribly wrong with the companies that exploit that drive and offer disguised poisons and harmful products in place of commodities or knowledge to assist these women.

Yayang is pretty happy with her colour and natural beauty for now. Me, I’m a horrible pasty whitey. I can’t even get a decent suntan in this tropical country, but I’ve learnt to accept my pinkish glow. I’m certainly not going to start rubbing browning lotion on my body.

We’ve just made a new human, who is neither black or white and probably the most beautiful being I’ve ever seen.

Black or White

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.

A lot of political and media information that reaches far flung communities often does so via the mosque during Friday mid-day prayers (Sholat Jumat) or in ever increasingly popular ‘road shows’ by the likes of Nuril Mustofa , who tour the country delivering fire-brand public sermons. These guys have billboards showing young clean faced bearded Imams ( Islamic equivalent to preachers) dressed in full Arabic garb – the boards the size of which put Malboro to shame. They had a ‘show’ in our neighborhood a few months ago. Spanduks (promotional banners) lined the length of jl. Warung Buncit. By seven o’clock in the evening, bang on peak hour, around 2000 people had amassed and were laying prayer mats across two lanes of the main road. Traffic was forced to jump the busway barrier in order to pass. There was a massive jam. It took me an extra hour to complete my otherwise 30 min journey home. I’d be real surprised if there were any formal requests made to local police or department of roads, as are the requirements for any public meetings that take place in Jakarta, for this particular ‘meet’. These firebrand political religious groups display a real sense of arrogance in their quest to ‘morally reform’ South East Asia. Mustofa is actually promoted by Bakries’ phone company. He has impressive representation around many parts of the Jabotek area. I wonder if there are any bigger fish in the international arena that also support such groups as these ?

In a country with such a massive population (in excess of 200 million) it is easy to make an impression on the poor who have little education and less resources to aid them in decision making. Should an outsider offer free education , albeit rather heavily enriched with a hard-line religious flavour, he will be readily received with open thankful arms.

America really wants to take heed of this kind of phenomena. The Bush administration’s ‘crusade’ to stamp out terrorism and religious fanaticism was a foolish mistake. Well it was mainly a cover up to gain footing in competitive oil producing nations actually, but the media hype and anti-Islamic spin that has resulted has had far reaching xenophobic consequences.

While the West is busy over turning rocks and checking under beds for terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, silent minorities are investing in Islamic boarding schools and publishing houses distilling their own brand of anti-West philosophy. And this is certainly a smarter more effective approach reaching entire communities in a seemingly non-violent way. Would it not be far more effective for Western governments to make a concentrated effort and monitored investment in the improvement of the nation wide sub-standard public education system over here ? I’m not suggesting Bible class in every school, but empowering the next generations with effective learning and decision making skills that are sadly lacking in present day schools. Show the kids how to think for themselves and they are less likely to be misguided by all the fanatic retort. A fate that befell those three poor fools from Semudra. Pawns in a scheme to generate a religious political divide.

Amrozi was an idiot. Could it really have been so easy to brainwash these men into strapping bombs to themselves in the name of God ? Show me where it says that is how to act as a good Muslim in the Al’Quaran ? When the only access to education is the likes of a warped fanatic such as Basir preaching how to get to heaven and get some revenge on the way, it is very possible. Take away education and you take away the ability to make logical conclusions. A lot of people act on impulsive emotion because they simply don’t have anything else to act upon. The laughing Amrozi can not begin to even comprehend the extend of the atrocities he committed. His brain was never taught to. He and his family cry out ‘injustice’ at the notion of his impending execution in much the same manner a child would cry out ‘It’s not fair !’ when half his chocolate is broken off to give to one of his siblings. It’s a non-thought-out emotional reflex action.

Now here’s the real clincher. The Semudra brothers were three little nobodies plucked from a tiny village by a calculating , communally vocal and highly convincing higher authority. They reacted quickly. They reacted emotionally. The only teaching they had taught them to follow, not to think. So what of the few hundred thousand illiterate villagers whose only understanding of this incidence is what they hear from word of mouth ? How are they likely to react ? No wonder the government is being highly cautious about how they handle meting out justice .

My mother in law is a devote Muslim. She has not been to Mecca yet. We are a bit concerned that the heat might be too much for her. However all her neighbors call her ‘Ibu Haj.’- a title reserved for those who have gained purification while on pilgrimage to Mecca. When discussing the evening news, she retorts ‘Why don’t they just get a shotgun and get it over with ! They are a disgrace to my religion !’

Well if you ask me Mum, rather than take their lives as they took others, perhaps it would be more fitting to take from them their idea of religious identity. For what they did was not only cold blooded senseless murder, but also slander on the righteous followers of Islam. Strip them of their robes , shave their beards and heads, take away their books and mats. Make them understand that what they have done is not perceived by anyone with an education as a religious act but only as an act of senseless terrorism . This would strike a more effective blow to the real instigators of the bombing and in doing so would hopefully bring a more humane sense of justice to lose who have lost their loved ones.

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 ;

DANONE decided to go one step further by taking action at the source of the problem; reducing by 10% the overall weight of product packaging over 10 years.

Gee ! A whole 1% reduction every year ! let’s celebrate with a bottle of Aqua !

What other steps are Danone prepared to take to reduce the damage they have inflicted on our river systems and oceans ? The step from glass to Pep was a giant leap backwards if you ask me. But when you are selling water to the world there’s apparently no time for environmental compromise.

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.

Television during the fasting month is a mixture of celebrity Dangdut concerts and T.V. serials with actors dressed in Jilbabs and Arab smocks delivering moral messages on how to be a good Muslim. Even commercials cash in on what kind of toothpaste and shampoo a good Muslim would choose and this year, a phone by Bakrie especially for Muslims which has an alarm that automatically rings at the five daily prayer times. It irritates me in the same way commercials at Christmas time used to irate me back in Oz. For my family though it’s pretty usual. They say price still determines their choice of toothpaste more than any other factor.

Idul Fitri comes at the end of the fasting month and everybody visits neighbors , friends and relatives to ask for forgiveness of last year’s short comings and snack-out to make up for calories lost during the fasting month. About 70% of the population make a pilgrimage back to their parent’s kampong. Roads across the nation are jam packed. Buses and ferries are over-loaded, trains and planes sold out and absolutely anyone bar no-one who has access to a motor bike is on it with two or three friends on the back. I dread going anyway at this time of year. It’s usually quite nice just to stay in Jakarta and enjoy the strangely deserted roads around the city. But this year Yayang insisted we take her parents and Jessy and brother Harry down to Cilegon to visit her sister. I convinced her to wait at least a day and it paid off. There were virtually no cars on the notoriously jammed toll road to Merak port and we made record time to Kipit and Hasuri’s humble farm house.

Kipit and Hasuri live on 300 square meters with their three children, in a dirt floor house next to a chicken coup which provides a substance living. They have a television, that we gave them and a motor bike and 40 chickens and that’s about it. I have never seen them miserable or complaining – not even the youngest. It never ceases to amaze me.

Cilegon was at the end of the dry season when we arrived. Each year it looks more and more barren. Farmers are not prepared for the effects of global warming. There has always been ample water for crops for generations until now. Most people in the kampongs these days have access to a television either at home or at one of the neighbors. They know of the word ‘Global Warming’ but have no idea of the ramifications or how to prepare for it’s impact on their livelihood in the years to come. I remember reading in a travel guide somewhere , Lonely Planet I think , 15 years or so ago, about one traveler’s account of Java. He predicted with the rate of deforestation and overpopulation as it stood then, Java would become a desert by the year 2010 in a manner much similar to how the Egyptians turned a once fertile land along the Nile into eternal desert. By my own personal accounts of increasingly long dry seasons , I fear he may be right – at least as far as Cilegon is concerned.

Having said all that, I still enjoy going to ‘The Gon’. It’s very peaceful at Hasuri’s piece of dirt. The days are bloody hot but at night there’s a cool breeze and the smell of wood coals from the kitchen. It’s far enough away from the city lights so you can see stars in the night sky. The family sit together on the back porch drinking tea and laughing at simple stories. For them there is a real sincerity in the festivities at Idul Fitri. Sharing, forgiving and just being with family. Prayers are simple, there is little mention of God or any ‘holier than thou’ that goes on. I am totally relaxed and blend in with little special attention aside from the odd comment or two from the young kids on what a long nose I have.

It’s a real tragedy what the September 11 bombings have done for the image of Islam. Terrorism , Fanaticism , brutality are too often associated with Islam by people from the West who have little experience with the religion other than what they see on news broadcasts about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indonesia plays host to two-thirds of the worlds Muslims. I was watching a fascinating documentary about a shipwreck off the coast of the Maluku islands on Discovery the other night. The ship was six stories high and overloaded with porcelain bowls from China that were intended for transportation of Spices back to the Arab world. The ship sank over one thousand years ago. One thousand years ago Indonesians were trading spices with Arabs and Islam was introduced to Indonesia. The religion was less than 500 years old when it first arrived here. So Indonesia does in fact have pretty good claim as to what defines Islam. It is often misconstrued that Islam was forced upon these humble animistic peoples by Arab ‘missionaries’ but the majority of Indonesian Muslims have interpreted this religion from their hearts in their own Eastern style.

It’s not my cup of tea. I had a go at ‘masuk Islam’ (entering Muslim faith) It scored me a lot of points with my in-laws and for a while I was happy to attend afternoon Friday prayers and meet members of my community on an equal, spiritual level, but like my disappointment with Christianity in the West, I was frustrated by the dogma , the repetitive sermons and the mis-interpretations of what it means to be a ‘good person’. I don’t believe one has to pray to God in a church or in a mosque to be a better person and stand a better chance of peace in the ‘afterlife’ I believe it’s your own actions and how you treat others that determines what kind of person you are.

There is nothing sinister about the Indonesian Islam I have experienced firsthand.

There are a few small minority Fire-brand groups in Indonesia who get a lot of media coverage. Amarozi and the Bali bombers were actually from a poor village background and were trained by a Malaysian group that preys on the financial hardship of vulnerable Indonesian villagers in order to spreads it base for political strength across Asia. Most Indonesians are aware of what’s going on here but are reluctant to openly speak out against it. It’s simply not their nature. But with the increasingly biased way ‘Islam as a whole’ is being presented on global news, maybe it’s time the real majority of Muslims – the ones that live in harmony in Indonesia – stood up to give their story and be counted.

It rained on the night we were in Cilegon. Hasuri told me he’d get around to fixing the leak in the roof before the wet season set in.

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.

We climbed to the top of the four meter high embankment and were greeted by a handful of ‘make-shift’ guides, victims of the mudflow, who were offering tours, DVDs and factual accounts of the disaster. The ‘mud lake’ stretched out for miles. A fair bit of work had gone into holding it back before it consumed the railway linking Surabaya to Malang. It has already absorbed one major highway and 16 villages along it’s route. I was told the lake covers some 300 hectares and it certainly looks about that big. Nearby from where we were standing was the tops of a couple of brick houses and a couple of bubbling pools. (Take a look at my short video embed.)

Reports state that the disaster occurred when Lapindo Brantas ; a private company belonging to Bakrie, the current minister of public welfare (there’s irony for you !) , was drilling for gas. The Banjar-Panji 1 borehole disrupted a limestone shelf which was under pressure and gas and mud began to spurt out…and then spurt some more…and more and more… This occurred on May 28 2006. Two years later efforts to plug the hole have failed and the mud continues to flow.

There’s a lot of debate about Lapindo. The company of course says it was a natural disaster linked to an earthquake that happened two days before in the center of Java. Subagiono, who has lived in Malang all his life says that the volcano constantly blows fine black sand into the air. I noticed this on the roofs of many cars in the rural areas and wondered just how refreshing the fresh air in Malang actually was.
So maybe mother nature did have something to do with it. A team of Geo’s from the UK sent in to study the disaster don’t think so. There’s a good read about the whole fiasco over on WIKI

At the end of the day it’s the displaced villagers who lost out the most. There are some pretty poor people in this part of Java. They are even the brunt of a lot of TV serial humor ; Orang Jawo. They are a humble bunch that seem content to get by day by day on next to nothing. Indonesia is in the’ ring of fire’ , volcanoes and earthquakes all over the place so the people of Porong will probably plod on deservingly of whatever assistance the government and Mr Bakrie may or may not decide to give them.

]]> http://www.indogreenies.com/lapindo-mud-catastrophe/feed 0 http://www.indogreenies.com/whoops-lyrics-by-john-popper http://www.indogreenies.com/whoops-lyrics-by-john-popper#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:43:48 +0000 admin http://www.indogreenies.com/?p=28

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

Have you ever seen an atom
Little bits of everything floating by
Take a good look at them
Collectively they compose all you
see including your eye

Brilliant puzzle
A living Rubix Cube we think we
can figure out and solve
But we’re just monkeys
Scratching our heads trying to open our ears
To a chord that just won’t seem to resolve

And we call it wisdom
Yes intellect in our truest sense of the word
You see for us security means a harmony
According to only what we have heard
And this along and nothing less
Will ease our heart and our mind
In the hopes that in feeling free we’ll reach paradise
On that hilltop we’re still trying to find

But the possibility exists no
matter how scary it may seem
That paradise was once the world
and it wasn’t just a dream
The earth was our heaven and we
didn’t know there were rules for
us to break
And maybe now we’ll find out too late
what a clever hell we can make

Whoops
Whoops

In this corner
Weighing in at almost every weight imaginable…
Life, and all that surrounds it
And in this corner
Weighing in at well, not really very much of anything;
A very sound and user friendly idea
On finally bringing that pesky mountain to Mohammed
[ Find more Lyrics at www.mp3lyrics.org/wAc ]
Gentlemen at the sound of the harmonica
solo you may come out fighting

Take a look at the horizon
Quiet and still
You know there used to be bison
Gentlemen you may fire at will
They say this land won’t go to waste
But you gotta wonder how
You know we’re chopping down the air we breathe
As fodder for the cow

That’s right so we can eat well
Yes and starve to death
And say there’s nothing we can do
Because we really don’t want to do a goddamn thing
Look I’m shrugging and so are you
We can imagine the straightest of lines
But our fingers can’t control the pen
And it’s this frustration that yields relief
As we say we’re just mortal men
And that means we get to torture a chimpanze
And infect him with disease
Because he screams just like a human child
While we study his desperate pleas

But the possibility exists no
matter how scary it may seem
That paradise was once the world
and it wasn’t just a dream
The earth was our heaven and we
didn’t know there were rules for
us to break
And maybe now we’ll find out too late
what a clever hell we can make

Whoops
Whoops

While we’re on the subject you
know my conscience hurts
And it will not go away
So please concoct me some pill I can take
While I think of something clever to say
So I can look in my mirror made of polished glass
And find no need to cringe
And forget that sinking feeling I’m a dinosaur
Out on his drunken last binge

…from fossil to fossil
Dust to dust
I’ll see you all in the earthy crust

Whoops
Whoops

whoopsoundfile3

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.

The problem with the arrival of plastic bags and bottles in Indonesia, was that they suddenly appeared without any instructions on how to recycle or dispose of them properly. It was a case of “Wow ! Cool ! Coca-cola in a light weight plastic bottle ! When I’m done I simply throw it away !” Australia , with a population less than one tenth of Indonesia, is already struggling with it’s waste management. Would it not have been a better option for everybody, to say at the onset ; “Well plastic coke bottles are great but there are a lot less problems with waste by sticking to the glass ones you use and recycle now. Plus it does taste better doesn’t it ?” Maybe it’s a little arrogant to say “ Learn from our mistakes.” We’ve had our joyride with the planet and discovered a few set backs, so sorry but no more MTV for anyone.

People may well react in a manner “The product is here, so I’m going to use it to my benefit and let the guy who made it work out the solution to the pollution.”

Awareness is one thing, attitude is another. As Gaertner observes in India “We have the best environmental laws and regulations in place but very lax implementation.”

This rings true in Indonesia as well. The government here also has a ‘Blue Skies’ program for reducing vehicle emissions and yet filth spewing un-maintained private sector buses are a common eye-sore. There is random emission testing and even hefty fines, but ultimately a compromise is met at street level between both underpaid driver and policeman and the consequence to the environment is literally breath taking.

It is not enough to expect governments of these nations let alone their humble people to take responsibility for their actions. The issue is global. It’s time the international community as a whole took a broader view of the problem facing the planet, stepped up to the plate and really enforced the kind of protocols such as the Kyoto agreement. For everyone. No exception.

We are all in this together.

]]> http://www.indogreenies.com/review-asia-the-green-issue/feed 0 http://www.indogreenies.com/kemang-festival-goes-green http://www.indogreenies.com/kemang-festival-goes-green#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:07:08 +0000 admin http://www.indogreenies.com/?p=15

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.

The theme for the Festival was ‘Green Kemang’ in an attempt to raise public awareness about the environment. The main road in Kemang was closed to traffic and stalls lined the streets. There were a couple of bands playing and the usual loud MC yelling enthusiastically into a microphone. A few ‘Green’ stalls here and there , which was encouraging to see but I felt they were a little lost on the idea of how to ‘Green’ Jakarta. A couple of young nice looking Uni girls were handing out WWF brochures showing people how to conserve energy – the usual ‘turn your lights off to reduce the Green house effect’ thing.

It’s not really fair to criticize because they are making an effort. I wonder though, I they feel futile in their efforts, like I do, when you consider the rate at which forest is being cut down and the powers-that-be that you are up against should you wish to protest.

There were a number of Bamboo-styled bins along the streets demonstrating how to separate organic waste from non-organic waste. I noticed a street scavenger who was probably delighted by this concept as she only had to go through the non-organic bin to find her recyclables without having to ferret through the mouldy muck.

The BIKE TO WORK community were there as well. Pioneering warriors for clean air on an uphill battle.

A twenty minute stroll up the street was about as festive as my camp wanted to get though. One things for sure ; mid-day in Jakarta is hot outside. If you bike to work, you’d want to leave early.

The humble folk of Kemang seemed to be enjoying themselves though. It never ceases to amaze me how the kids over here seem so happy despite the hardships they endure on a daily basis.

I grew up in the late sixties / early seventies. The hippie revolution was just coming to a close. The war was over. John Lennon was spreading power to the people. Aids was an un-known, gangs (and tattoos) were only for the really really mean guys – not for school kids. My mum and dad weren’t really into the ’scene’. They may have smoked the rare joint at a party, but no flares or tie-dyed jeans in the cupboards. Just Business magazines and science books. My uncle and aunty on the other hand were die hard hippies. Uncle Paul had side burns a mustache and cool brown sunglasses. He went knee boarding at Wamberal beach. Aunty Lindy had hair down to her knees, was always laughing and to me  epitomized  ‘hippie’ They went kayaking and drove half way round Australia in a  Kombi  van. I thought they were so cool. Growing up, I was always waiting for the next wave of the hippie revolution. The next ’sleep in’  ,  ‘woodstock’ , people-power movement. It never came  and i wonder if it ever will.

Today’s generation is faster and more intelligent than mine. What we could have done with broadband internet connection in those days. Social networking is really a great thing. But i wonder how many people actually USE it , and how many just try to make a fast buck on the logistics of it all.

I just signed up for Celsias. it will be interesting to see what they get up to. On Facebook I have the Lil Green Patch application.

It all seems a bit glossy to me. In my day (sounding old now) if we were concerned about something, we’d stick it to the man. Protest outside the oil company offices, even camped out on the lawn in front of parliament house once. I’m pretty sure we got noticed enough to piss a few people off and at least stop and think. I wonder just how far these application things go though.

You know. I’m very skeptical about this ‘Save the rain forest by using an application’ scheme actually. how much impact are they having on the rain forests of Indonesia ? Where exactly did they save 36 million sq feet ? I’d really like to know how they do that in countries such as Africa and Indonesia where forests are being felled by the kilometer daily. These guys are linked to PayPal so you can contribute money, but are they linked to WWF ?

Forests play a huge part in the equilibrium of things. Multinational companies and third world governments who don’t give a rat’s arse about the environment have direct control of the world’s biggest , last remaining rain forests. Schemes like this one can create a false sense of security. “Phew, well I’m aware of the problem and I did my bit today by feeding seeds to the virtual Macaw !” The slash and burners of Sumatera would be laughing. It’s nice to be happy with my friends on Facebook , send a cute little apple seed doll (or pay for and exotic frangipanni) but it spooks me a bit. shouldn’t we be getting angry ? These forests don’t just grow back at the click of a mouse. When they say a square kilometer of forest is lost every day, they’re (WWF – I guess ?) talking about 100 year old trees.how about I send you an orangutan carcass. Or some elephant tusks ? At least it’s more realistic. I’m going to take a look into these Lil Green Patch people and see what they’re really all about – if the are legit, i’ll be happy to support and promote them. I’ve started my own blog about the environment btw.

indogreenies.com I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with it. I’m living in Jakarta Indonesia and i see the real shit that goes down, or burns up, first hand. It’s frightening. Really. most people in the safe house of the western world have no idea how bad the situation really is until they’re flying over it on the way to a holiday destination. “What’s all that smoldering field down there ? Shouldn’t that be forest ?”…….