Week 7 -- Indonesian Media links

I've added a couple of links to The Jakarta Post and Laksamana.net, 2 English-language media sites from Indonesia. It's been interesting for me to read Indonesian media after reading about the censorship that was present during Soeharto's New Order government (which ended in 1998, so things have been improving slowly) in a couple of books that Mickey loaned me.

I read the print version of The Jakarta Post every weekday. There is a news stand on the way to work that gets it especially for me. I've read that you have to read between the lines (or "lies" as some people say) to get the real story. With most information coming from government sources it's good to read the governement quotes with a healthy dose of skepticism. All in all it's a good paper except the crossword gets harder later in the week. I would think that by Friday they would give us working stiffs a break and make the crossword a breeze. It would put us in a good mood for the weekend.

Laksamana.net is on the Net only as far as I can tell. It's a little more critical and has a lot of stories criticizing government corruption and abuses of the law. I guess the government censors don't have high-speed internet or something cause they haven't found this one yet.

Check them out for the latest news from the archipelago. And I promise I'll have photos soon.

Week 7 -- Random Notes

Work has been moving along in the same groove, or is that rut? Anyways there is not much to post about so I thought I would just relate a few random occurrences and stuff with no real topic, theme or meaning.

Stuff I do;

I’ve started talking jive to unsuspecting Indonesians. Angkot (mini-bus) drivers, guys on the street, anybody. Usually it’s when I’m stuck with someone for a bit and I know they don’t speak English well enough to understand any of the junk coming out of my mouth. I call them all “Cheech,” and say stuff like “Whazz up, my man?” I haven’t pulled out “shizzle my nizzle” yet, but it’ll happen soon. The great thing is that Indonesians are so polite, for the most part, and therefore they just smile and nod like they enjoy my BS. It’s almost like a conversation except I’m not really saying anything and they aren’t really hearing anything. Next will be throwing out high-fives to everyone who shouts “Hello, Meester” to me on the street.

Stuff I see;

Cockfight. That’s right and I’m not talking about anything organized or set up as entertainment either. You know when you see a boxing match and they call it a fight but it’s really a sport with rules and equipment and everything. But then you see a street fight or bar fight and you’re like “Whoa that was real.” That’s what I saw except with roosters. A couple of the neighbourhood roosters threw down on each other in front of my house over the weekend. I imagined they were duking it out for turf rights or to claim all the hens as their bitches. They were all ruffled feathers and rooster noises until one turned tail and ran. Just like people.

Indonesian reality TV. They have this show where a dude dressed up as Mr. Moneybags from the Monopoly game comes to the house of a low income Indonesian family and demands they pay back their crippling loan immediately. He makes them cart all their valuables out into the street so he can add it all up and show the crowd how poor they are. Then when they can’t feel any lower, or suicidal, Mr. Moneybags says he will pay off their loan for them and everybody cries. The whole ploy isn’t very believable since there is a huge crowd attracted by the cameras and the host is seriously dressed like a cartoon character.

Annoyances;

I got some photos developed the other day. I wanted to get them on a CD so I could easily upload them to my blog. They told me to come back in 30 minutes, but 45 minutes later they realized they couldn’t do it. Something was wrong with their software. So I asked for prints instead, which meant another 30 minute wait. Eventually I got my photos and they all suck. Digital cameras have really spoiled me. Some may be decent enough to post though, I just have to take the time to scan them into the computer. So check back later and I’ll hopefully have some photos from a month ago for you all to see.