Now, where was I?

The Brazilian restaurant was like an endless buffet where in one took a plate a smorgasboard of vegetable and rice dishes then sat down. I was wondering for a moment whether we were in a vegetarian establishment but soon that theory was proved far off the mark as the servers came to table with skewer after skewer of all manner of meat and sharp knives with which to slice thin strips of it onto your plate. This parade continued until we begged them to stop.

That night I rode back to my hotel with a cabbie who made a hell of a lot of grunting noises and muttered. He also was found of pumping the breaks which made me a tad nauseous. I had not watched tv much at all since early last summer, but spent many an hour in the hotel room with CNN on and wondering why it sucked to much. Apparently, Madonna is adopting a poor child and Oprah thinks it's wonderful and so do all the fans of Oprah, blah, blah, blah. There is no doubt in my mind that the child will be better off MATERIALLY now. This story played every 20 minutes and so it got a little sickening, a lot sickening.

On friday, I went with J. to an Islamic center for English speakers and bought some books, including a very interesting book on the traditions of "Intellectualism in Islam" which is quite challenging and layered. I will share some of those details at a later date and I made an appointment to speak with someone there this coming December regarding questions I have about the religion.

I spent the afternoon of Friday by myself (J. was visiting relatives, friends, et cetera for the holiday week) walking around the Museum of Ancient Asian Civilisations and later around the malls of Orchard Street, or is it Orchard Drive, or it could be something else, Orchard something. J.'s mother gave me a coupon worthe 50 Sing Dollars to eat at the Marriot Hotel and my chicken sandwich and clam chowder cost every bit of it. I returned to my hotel Friday night and watched bad tv until J. came to visit me.

Saturday morning was spent sleeping and then to the harbour to leave for Medan. I'll finish this story later. Sorry for all these typos.

The Hindu Temple; the torments of the damned

First photo is of the Ancient Chinese mythology park, the Houses of Hell, and the second is the Hindu Temple--they have no relation to each other

Singapore Day 2

I wanted very much to post a picture of the Hindu temple but for can't seem to at the moment, don't know why.

I will do this at a later date.

Wednesday night ended early as I had been up for some time and fell asleep. Thursday morning I took a taxi to meet J. for lunch, and from there we ran a few errands before ending up at a park that is home to many colourful, though, crudish statuettes inspired by Chinese folklore and mythology. At one time, one had to pay to enter this park and there were even amusement park rides and so on, but these days it's free to walk around. The statues are many and some seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with China, for example the Statue of Liberty is represented. There is also a dark cave that is home to the 10 houses of Hell, and J. took great pleasure in asking, "Do you want to go to Hell?" Of course, I agreed. I have pictures of this also, although I warn you they are graphic. Each stage of Hell would have a statue of a stern looking judge and several torturers taking it out on humans who had transgressed in their lives. The transgressions were listed along side their "appropriate" punishments although the groupings seemed to be random. For small crimes such as lying to one's parents or avoiding the payment of taxes one could get away with simply being thrown upon the mountain of knives. For more severe crimes, one was liable to have their entrails pulled out, be bludgeoned with a hammer, or sawn in half width wise. If I recall, being sawn in half length-wise was a punishment seen more fit for crimes of the most heinous nature. All of this, it seemed to me, begged the question, what is the punishment for issuing excessive punishments? To this, I received no answer.

That evening we went out to a Brazilian restaurant and had quite a feast. I'll continue this story later.

Singapore, in Chinatown

My previous Chinatown experience was in San Francisco, and that was interesting as San Francisco has a Chinese history all its own. The essential difference, or the most notable difference between the SF Chinatown and Singapore's (aside from the latter's being a bit redundant) is the cleanliness of Singapore's. There are other differences to be sure, but that's what struck me hardest--of course Singapore, jokingly referred to as a "fine city", makes every effort to remain a relatively spotless city. We also ventured to Little India on that first day and here we saw Hindu temple. We were told, by no less of an authority as J.'s Hindu friend, that we could enter the temple but both of us lacked the necessary temerity and neithor of us wanted to risk offending anyone--we were later told that we needn't have worried. So, we simply gawked from the doorway.

This is one shot of Chinatown. More later.

Singapore story continued

In a previous post I mentioned buying cakes for J.'s grandmother. Her grandmother lives in Singapore and I brought these special cakes to her, well to J. who brought them to her. There were three cakes in all. I only mention it so you know that troughout my journey I was carrying not only my bag, but three increasingly heavy cakes.

I had envisioned the ferry ride somewhat romantically, believing I would be able to walk the deck with salt winds blowing in my face as I observed the many small islands decorating the sea seperating Batam from Singapore. Instead, there was no deck, only cramped indoor seating in a stuffy cabin densely populated by travellers who were more than content to listen to smooth jazz and watch the horrible Mr. Bean movie without sound or for those of us English speakers, with the worst possible translations of the already dim-witted diologue presented in sub-titles. The mis-translations had a magnetic pull and so I could not look away. I could see the actor's lips move and then the subtitles would appear and suggest that the line uttered was "him have fiery heart. In mind you must go." Again, this was the Mr. Bean movie.

The boat docked in Singapore after only an hour of travel, and then there was one last line in which to wait. Entry into Singapore was fairly efficient business, but by this time I had long since lost patience. The quene was lengthy but there were six customs officers checking people in and so it should have gone quickly. Phenomonally, the first people in line never seemed to be aware of when an officer was ready to see them, and so they had to be told, adding precious seconds to my wait. Aside from that there was an old man behind me who kept making a sort of noise that simply defies description. Suffice it to say that he made the noise with his lips and made it repeatedly like a small child so bored that they decide amuse themselves by making strange sounds until some adult supervisor insists that they knock it off. I was within a fraction of assuming that role with this fellow traveller but could not work up the courage. In front of me was another man with a large mole that proved fertile soil for a shock of grey whiskers that sprung out of this man's violently. They appeared not only long, but rigid and I wondered how he could put up with it. Didn't it get caught in doors, other things? At long last it was my turn. After clearing customs, I faced only one last metal detector and x-ray machine which negotiated without hassle. Then I saw J. and things suddenly improved, I immedialtely held out the cakes and said, "here, your f***in' cakes."

I'll continue this story later.

Well, hello.

I asked both J. and Jamison to guest post in my absence and both seemed to consent to the idea, so imagine my surprise today upon regaining access to the internet only to find that neither of them had posted a thing. Guest posters can be easily replaced, you know.

The trip to and from Singapore was a whirlwind. Wednesday morning my alarm went off at 4 and the taxi arrived at quarter after. We got to the airport and quarter to 5 only to find that it was closed. We waited at the gate with the meter running until the guard took his post at roughly 5 after the hour of 5. I then waited to be allowed to enter the terminal for 30 minutes and then another half hour passed before the person who was to check me in arrived at his post. In short, though I was told to check in by 5:30, I didn't actually check in to 6:30 plus. The plane took off around 7:15 and then I landed at 8. I deplaned, and soon realized that, in fact, I was not on a direct flight (I had been told that I was). In fact, I was still in Sumatra in Perkanbaru. I got back on the plane and waited 20 minutes to fly another hour to Batam. From there I took a taxi to the ferry terminal, waited in line for 20 minutes, bought a ticket, and believed that I paid my fiscal payment to the government (around 50 US dollars). I proceded to customs, waited in line for 15 minutes, was told that I had not paid the fiscal, and returned to a moderate sized queue that was not moving at all in front of the fiscal office. Two things soon became apparent: it was a slow moving queue because each of the people in front of me was not paying one, but dozens of fiscal payments, and that this fact made making my 10:15 ferry unlikely. With three minutes to catch the boat and two people in front of me I put myself in God's hands and said aloud in English to anyone who might understand, "I've only got one fiscal to pay, and three minutes to catch the ferry, can I please move ahead?" The two people in front of me turned and said, "Sure." This was amazing as all prior experience had told me that traveling in Asia was cutthroat business. The queue was disorderly, people nudging ahead, pushing you out of the way unless you learnt to be more aggressive than they, and this I was learning. I ran and ran and ran to boat, encouraged by the customs officer and other seaport employees. I got on the boat, took my seat, breathed a sigh of relief, and then waited another 20 plus minutes for the boat to leave while it waited for latecomers. So, such anxiety for nothing. I've much more to tell, I'll continue later. Consider this the first in a series.

I have nothing to say, but J does, so why doesn't she post?

I am meandering back home. J. asked that I buy cakes for her grandmother and having accoplished that, I feel I can put the day to rest, I've no ambition to do a thing more. I have been pressuring her to post but she's stubborn and lazy, and I mean that in the best way. I am simply jotting down a few notes, before I make one last stop at the pool. I can't seem to wake up today no matter how much coffee I consume. I am hoping the pool will do the trick, if not, I will just go sleep and wait for wednesday morning when I fly to Batam, then ferry to Singapore. I'm a tad nervous about it, but am sure that's unnecessary worry.

In the papers yesterday NBA star Yao Ming advised his countrymen to work on their manners before they host the Olympics in 2008. He thinks they should keep their voices down in restaurants and not butt ahead in long lines. It needed saying, apparently. My own experience is that Yao is on the money. I hate to generalize but the Chinese DO talk very loudly in restaurants and push ahead in lines. Obviously, Americans are a pretty rude lot, but we know the rules of the line. Sitting with a fellow american, two brits and an aussie, I jokingly said that I believe the English are the most polite of Western peoples, followed by Canadians, then Americans and then Austrailians. Then, looking directly at the Brits, I said, "present company excluded, of course." The Aussie said, "he's right. We're a rude lot, we are. But you're very nice for an American." So, the best part about being an American expat is expectations are very low.

I'm on break and posting, and do you care?

J. is off for the next few days to the city-state from which she hails and I will follow shortly. She joked that after my last post "all of your (my) friends in the states will know that I cannot throw or catch for nuts" That must be an antiquated phrase left over from British rule as I have never heard an American say that and I enjoy and use antiquated phrases. She admitted that she has no idea as to its literal meaning. Has anyone?

I have been reading "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells--the school library had a copy. There's a very interesting passage early on in the text which cautions the reader from judging the Martians too harshly for their wanton slaughter of the inhabitants of Earth, after all, the narrator says, we are the same race who drove to extinction (or virtually did) the tribes of Tasmania and the bison of North America, how can we blame the Martians "for warring in the same spirit?"

Like any good work of Science Fiction the novel is allegorical and critical of the problems of our own times--written as it was in the late 19th Century (or early twentieth?), the comparison to earthly colonialism is quite vivid. His point, though made with only a few sentences, is resonant for me. Our own aggression often slips out of perspective while the aggression waged against is portrayed as the sole evidence of evil in the world. It seems we need to avoid the mirror as it catches our own transgressions lest our worlds become too confusing, or we realize that avoiding evil is difficult, difficult work--we may have to go without some things. There's also this Elvis Costello song called "new lace sleeves" in which the chorus is "you say, the teacher never told you anything but White Lies, still you never see the lies that you believe." I think that's true of us all in both our personal and political lives. In the latter we remain willfully in the dark on what actions have been made with our tacit (or enthusiastic) approval for our material benefit, or financial gain, or worse, for the vicarious glory that a public assumes when its leaders rally it to support conquest. [In a conversation over dinner with a man I once had the misfortune to be related to, I tried to use Rumsfeld's memorandum regarding the potential for the Iraqi occupation to make the world less safe as a means of bridging the ideological gap between us. After all, if Rummy were conceding that this was possible, why couldn't my Fox News indoctrinated dinner companion? The answer to that I will never know. He did not respond to my point in the slightest but said instead that he wanted the "terrorists" to pay. "But the Iraqis were not the people who attacked the US" I replied and he said, "I don't care." I wonder if we could have invaded any nation without his approval?] To bring this wayward point back home allow me to conclude that for some, the nation and national pride is a part of their identity. Their own sense of self worth seems to be contingent upon their belief that were born one of a chosen people.

As a substitute teacher in a class in a wealthy Minneapolis suburb last spring, I tried to speak about the earthquake near Mt. Merapi on the island of Java. Not one of these students had heard a thing about it. I went on and on about how we need to be more aware of the world around us and one kid said, "Why? America's the best, right?" Others nodded their approval. To openly disagree with them would have in their eyes marked me a traitor. In truth, there isn't a best nation in the world, different nations offer advantages and disadvantages. America is a lovely place to live if you are wealthy, if not, well... And to the wealthy, and to my overall point that is now drowning in an ocean of digression, how is it you are so lucky? Do you see the lies that you believe? The Costello song concludes thusly, "but you look so pretty in your new lace sleeves."

Here's the mundane I promised to avoid

Monday night J. and I went for Japanese food in Sun Plaza (the mall of malls here in Medan). There is an ice skating rink there, and I think I would like my skates now, so that I can show off.

As we were leaving the restaurant we passed an arcade and I pulled J. into it with full understanding of her utter disdain for video games. They had that basketball game in which a player shoot small basketballs at a small basketball hoop and has only a limited amount of time. The machine records all made baskets and it is a race against the clock. We played that. As I am, in this region only, considered a basketball expert, the pressure was on me but not too heavily as J. appears to have very little experience with any sport that involves catching and throwing things. Fate must have been in her favour for as our games simultaneously concluded, the scoreboard revealed that she had made more baskets than I, and of this I have been repeatedly reminded ever since. The full record should show, however, that after three games it was I who had the highest score. My performance improved once I realized that good shooting technique was a hindrance and that it was far easier to simply throw the ball through with one hand. I also beat her soundly at air hockey, but she doesn't seem to recall that so well.

Two teachers are gone this week visiting sick relatives or dealing with visa issues and therefore I have had to cover classes outside of my own, I don't really have time for that, but...what choice do I have.

Once class I covered is called Values. I have noticed that the "values" stressed by the Singaporean curriculum are defined in such a way that the "value" that trumps all is OBEDIENCE. Flexibility is defined as accepting the changes made by your authorities with grace. Indpendence is defined as taking responsibility for the work you are orederd to perform by your superiors. I once, in America, was drinking coffee and talking politics with a table housing an inordinate number of libertarians all of whom agreed that Minnesota was paternalistic state. If they'd any understanding of Singapore, they'd have chosen a different word, I'm sure.

I agree with the commentor that Cheney is insane. I remember news of that Rumsfeldian memo "Are we creating terrorists faster than we can kill them?" from a while ago. At the time I thought it was a question that should have been asked before the invasion and occupation and phrased "Will we create more terrorists..." Rumsfeld wanted people in the DOD to answer this for him, but apparently not the CIA, as the latter had already released reports suggesting that such an outcome was LIKELY.

I believe President Bush is planning on visiting Indonesia early next year. It will be interesting to see where he goes and how much information of his visit will be available. He has come before and stayed somewhere posh in, where else?, Bali. He should come to Sumatra, visit Aceh, pledge more aid to the region where the victims of the tsunami still rot in regugee camps with no hope of having a home again in the forseeable future. He should do this out of true humanitarian (or even Christian concern) and not for political purposes. He should, but he won't.

So much celebration, so little joy

The school, just off the Mid Autumn Festival, will be hosting a halloween party, a UN Day, and a Christmas Party all within the span of a month. Not such a bad deal if it didn't require an enormous amount of work from all mentor teachers. We are to organize our students' efforts on all accounts and must prepare them to perform at each of the events. In addition to that, my class is responsible for the Assembly performance during that same week. The assembly is a weekly event and includes both the singing of the national anthem and the recitation of the Pancasila. The latter is the creed of Indonesia and stresses the prevailing 5 sensibilities of the nation. Suffice it to say that it is derived from Soekarno's idea that the strength of the nation must come from unity. Unity was so important in the formation of this nation because the land is so diverse and divided. Regions are seperated by sea, for heaven's sake, and people are divided by language, geography, and traditions. Indonesia, once again, was a Dutch concept that incorporated all of the territory they had conquered in the archipelago. It is not a historic idea, there was no ancient Indonesia. The nationalists who founded the country (eductated in Dutch schools) took hold of this idea. The independence movement suffered from a total lack of consensus, and so, since indpendence was all that the various players could agree upon, unity toward that end was stressed and difference downplayed. Since independence, unity is stressed to prevent rupture.

Recent public polling of Indonesians shows that most Indonesians still believe in the Pancasila and do not support political parties looking for either partition, or the implementation of Muslim law "Shariah." Parties advocating the latter are also divided and while the most popular garnered only 8 percent support, the three major Islamist parties all together were supported by roughly 23 percent of those polled. Concerning those who'd prefer to part ways, Aceh is the most vocal these days. One point made in the papers recently is that Aceh's issue is not so much its desire to set up an Islamist state as it is its desire to control its own oil resources. Foreign companies, of course, benefit greatly from the oil of that region while Acehnese are poor and getting poorer. They blame this on economic policies set in Java, and they are right to do so as that is where the policies are set. Even before independence came, there had been a division between Java and the outer islands.

The World System's Theory that speaks of the world as divided between a core and a periphery (and not between first and third worlds) says, basically, that the periphery's purpose is to provide the resources for the economic benefit of the "core." Colonies were set up to do just this (they had other purposes as well, but this was certainly one of them). In the post-colonial period the periphery still provides the core with resources (labour amongst other things!) Java has a history of being both the "periphery" vis a vis its relations to the Dutch, and the "core" in its relationships with the outer islands. Anyway, local control of resources is what drives the separtist movemnet in Aceh and the Islamists know this. They use this issue to rally support for their cause. Thus, free trade between nations has not spread Western ideals to the areas hurt most by the agreements, but rather encouraged support for anti-Western movements. I think the same could be said for much of Latin America.

I've been reading a little about the Iraq situation today and am just stunned by how, really, if one bothers to think about it, the only people who have not declared the Bush administration's policies an utter failure, work in the Bush administration or Tony Blair's office. Not everyone has come to these conclusions in good faith, of course, Congressional Republicans are just clinging to their seats, but most seem to be saying that another course must be taken. That much of what has happened was predictable and predicted by critics of the war seems to go unmentioned in the press. I remember the day after Saddam's statue was pulled down and Minneapolis newspapers were teaming with letters to the editor asking "where are the critics of Bush and the enemies of freedom now?" I can remember these same letters saying that we should not doubt the existence of WMDs as the Bush administration surely knows a jot more that we lowly citizens. To the first point, that event was meaningless in the larger scheme of things and anyone with any understanding of history knew that then and knows it still; to the latter point, well, there was enough information available to the public even then--if one could possibly believe a foreignor like Hans Blix!--that no evidence of WMD existed and even if it did, it did not pose any threat to the people of the United States (the conjunctive point came courtesy of the CIA). Anyway, this war was not a necessary war and we need not argue that point any further as we can all concede this: if it were a necessary war, we would not be considering a phased withdrawel troops having accomplished not one of our goals.

Lastly the former Army Chief of Australia has said that the war in Iraq has given foment to global terrorists, another outcome predicted by even our own CIA. The current Army Chief of UK has said that the presence of Western troops in Iraq has made that situation untenable, also predicted by many who were not listened to in the run up to the war. Is it even possible to imagine how this war could have gone more badly for the Bush administration? And yet we all wait with baited breath for next month's election results--knowing still, that a change in Congress may mean no real change in policy, at least not knowing anything for certain.

American concerns in Asia

Articles and editorials have begun to appear with frequency in the Jakarta post regarding the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea. The general feel of these pieces is that N. Korea threatens to destabilize the region. Some of these editorials come from former advisors in the US government. They are fairly frank. One made clear that real concern for the US (and American hegemony) is the rising power of China. The Chinese (even Singaporean Chinese) are aware of this ascent, but few seem to realize that the weapons and technology gap is still lopsided in the American's favor. The policy of the American government toward China has been to coopt them by rewarding good behaviour (in this case that means not being to militant with Taiwan, maintaining serviceable relations with Japan, though those have recently soured). One American foreign policy expert made the point that while China is rising economically they are nowhere near ready to threaten the US militarily,but they can reduce US influence in Asia. The analogy that is appropriate by means of contrast would be the situation of the late 19th century when Germany industrialized so rapidly that they overtook the world's only superpower of that time,England, both economically and miliatarily. That devlopment led to World War I more than any other factor. Your high school history textbook probably said it was caused because an archduke was offed by a Serbian nationalist, but that was merely the pretense. That was a interneccine struggle between Austria-Hungary and those ethnicities it ruled through force and coercion. Anyway the real conflict was that Germany was in a position to challenge England for world hegemony and sought to do so. China is not yet that far along and US policy is to see that it never gets there. This, more than anything else, probably drove America's recent nuclear deal with India which upset Pakistan and no doubt seemed like the usual American double standard to Iran and others. You don't need software to search all foreign press to guess that.

School on Saturday (again), still no class

As my schedule (and all schedules) will change as of this Monday, today is sort of a waste, yet we have school today. I went into my Secondary 3 Geography class knowing that on Monday I will have 16 additional students. I really didn't know what to do as these students were already going to be ahead of the new ones and I didn't want to teach anything new. Three students had acoustic guitars with them in the room. They are going to be performing at our weekly assembly on Monday and had them with them to practice. Some kids knew that I played guitar as they had seen me when I brought it to play for J.'s class a few weeks ago. They asked me to play and I did and then continued to play for the rest of the hour. It was fun, but not really educational. I am rationalizing on the grounds that I was building connections to the students--not sure how that would sound to the powers that be...but not certain that they could blame me either.

The school used to have a dean and now has a dean again. In the interim the prinicipal took on the dean's duties, and apparently, the Singapore people who we try so to impress felt that things were amiss. So, the new dean has made some changes. Chief among them, so far as I am concerned, has been to increase the mandatory hours (and therefore the importance) of humanities at the school. That's good for me.

The Indonesian government condemned the N. Korean nuclear tests arguing that such a development stood to increase the likelihood of SE Asian arms race. Fair point, I think. Other than that, I haven't seen much comment on the subject.

I wrote it in the comments section but it bears repeating, I chose my words poorly when I wrote that Iran has the only significant Shia population. Iraq has a majority of Shiites as well (still fewer than Iran). The hostage taking at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 is my first, and I think many Americans first, impression of Islam. The Western media has a fondness for showing the Shia as self flagellating, riotous, flag burners. For a long time, I don't think the Western media even made much effort to distinguish between Shia and Sunni. This effect may explain why, after 9/11, even Sikhs faced persecution or feared it in America.

I noticed a story in the Jakarta Post about a new US Dept. of Homeland Security measure that will use newly created software to scan the global media for what's being said about the US. How this will help prevent terrorist attacks is beyond me. Foreign media and free media advocates find this a worrisome move, I just think its highly paranoid and silly. Are there not CIA all around the world who report on the countries they analyze? The Jakarta Post is mostly an outlet for wire services, save the local news--the local news is always the most interesting anyway, here.

School Structure

The structure is as such: Board of govenors, School Directors, Principals, Deans. There was no Dean at all at the begining of the year and now we have one. She seems very competent and is a former History teacher and that helps me tremendously. The school cared not at all about my subjects before and she has doubled the amount of class hours I have for all Secondary level classes and taken away my primary classes altogether. This is much closer to what I had originally thought I was getting into. She also understands that I have almost no resources (a true hazzard for my subjects) and is trying to help me in that regard as well. I don't know what other questions you may have about structure. The hierarchy tends to fail from a lack of communication and trust, won't pontificate on that issue any further--M.O., you know.

A very quick clarification

To the Shia, the Caliph is the heir to Mohammed in matters political and religious. To the Sunni, the Caliph was only the heir in matters political as there can be no heir in religious matters. The Shia view the Imam as a guide who conitinues to lead them in interpreting the Koran, the Sunni have ulema (a consensus of Islamic scholars) who provide the same sort of guidance. I don't think one can say that Sunni are inherently moderate as the Taliban and Al Quaeda are Sunni. Only Iran has any significant Shia population. 90 percent of all Muslims are Sunni and the reform minded young Iranians are Shia. The point I was trying to make is that the western concept of fundamentalism does not apply to Islam. We have to look at the issues in their complexity and not assign our concepts and assumptions to the religion. Many of them are not even aware of the differences between them and the Shia and the Ayatollah Khomeni himself said that no significant differences exist. Others say that the true divide is a Persian/Arab one, not Shia/Sunni.

The reports here about N. Korea must be the same. I haven't seen any local opinions about it. My understanding is that the French considered the test a failure, so that ought make it easier to ignore. The Bush administration's record of foreign policy is so inconsistent and full of rapid retreats that they have no credibility and where they have tried to be tough, they've proven to be little more than bluster. Maybe nobody believed the myth of American omnipotence more than the current administration. I have no more time, I hope this is not rife with grammatical errors. I'll write later.

One more thing I've been meaning to post

I am by no means an expert in Islam but would to share some thoughts based on my recent study. If anyone reads this and finds errors or misunderstandings, I hope they will set me straight. Here goes: In Christianity, the radicals are generally cosidered to be fundamentalists, there are exceptions but the connotation of a Christian fundamentalist is generally of a very rigid, fanatical sort who is intolerant of other belief systems, and of anyone whose lifestyle does comport with their understanding of the Bible. Westerners mistakenly apply this definition to Islam. All Muslims accept the fundamentals of the Koran, and all Muslims interpret as well. The Koran says that all humans are equal, Mohammed was a human, not a deity or demi-god. He was enlightened, yes, but not above other men, he is not the Muslim equivelent of the Christian Jesus. Since all humans are equal and since Allah is the supreme power, there should be no hierarchies amongst humans, particularly in religious matters. The Sunnis have no priests, they have prayer leaders (imams) who sometimes take on leadership roles, and there are religious scholars who also take leadership roles (this is a source of debate as to how much authority these people should assume) but technically, there should be no distinctions between human beings--no one can be above others and closer to Allah. Shia view things slightly differently and there is a hierarchy with the supreme religious title of Ayatollah. These men do interpret the Koran and explain to less "enlightened" believers. It would seem that Sunnis are the more "fundamentalist" of the two. In fact the rift between the two sects began with a disagreement over who should assume the role of Caliph after Mohammed--the Shia believing that his brother in law was the rightful heir. This suggests a belief in some sort of hereditary rule and that is seen by Sunnis as anathema to the religion.

All of this can be sort of confusing, and it confuses me, and I wish I could find someone to talk to about this, but that's how it seems to me. I will go look this up again and correct errors that I find. At any rate, the fundamentals of the Bible are somewhat reinterpreted in the Koran. The Koran points out that a day for God may not be a human day (24 hours) and seems to be open ended enough to provide room for evolution, a fundamentalist view of the Bible does not allow for this. There are other small differences as well. All this is well beyond my understanding at this point; I've probably just muddied the waters more than anything else by posting. I'm probably just writing about it as a means to work it out for myself--thinking aloud, if you will.

The point is this, there are moderates in both sects and radicals in both sects, but no one would say that they are not fundamentalist in their approach to the Koran, and yet, at the same time, most moderates do have a historical interpretation of the Koran which places certain verses in their proper context. The question is what does it mean to be "fundamentalist" in Islam, and as you can see, there are no easy answers.

Do you know about the HAZE?

Forest fires and brush fires started as efforts to clear land is an illegal but widespread action in Indonesia and it is affecting neighboring countries. Air quality is now dangerous in both Malaysia and Singapore, not to mention parts of this country. I can't say that we notice it here, and it must be noted that air quality is always poor in Medan. When I flew into Jakarta last July I took a picture of the smog from my window seat and it was amazingly disturbing. Apparently, things are now even worse. ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is attempting to pressure Indonesia to clean this up, but that will be no small feat. It's difficult to see how they will be able to do anything about it. The reason for this is also difficult to determine, all one can say for certain is that this is not a particularly efficient country and law enforcement is not a specialty. There are articles in the paper everyday about this, graft is the norm.

A clothes hanger fell from my closet and shattered. I've bought two belts here that lasted a week each. Things are not made well, it's a wonder as to how things could be built so poorly. It's possible that people who are paid so little, with no recourse against hostile or unfair employers, and no welfare state just see no reason to care about doing quality work. It's possible.

Yesterday featured some truly embarrassing typos

First, I apologize for my not proofreading the last post. I was under timre constraints and just rolled the dice that I made no mistakes--snake eyes.

Here's something about food in Indonesia (and Asia generally, I'm told). At restaurants food is served as it soon as it is ready. You may find yourself the only one at the table without a meal, or receive part of your meal well before the remainder is ready. That doesn't happen in the U.S., does it? I don't remember it happening.

I will no longer be teaching the youngsters, and my secondary level classes will double--that is, instead of two classes per week, four. The new dean was a History teacher and she is dedicated to increasing its importance here at our school. So that's good news as I was generally at sea dealing with 7 and 8 year olds, though they seemed to like me for some reason.

I am not going to get cable tv. At least not now, the internet and newspaper supplies me with news and as for sports, espn here doesn't show too much of what I like--although baseball airs and there is sportscenter. I don't think that's enough to justify the payment. I must now go to class. I'll try to write something more interesting later.

Islam and the tenor of Jihad

In the land of the free after the "events of September 11th" 2001 it was a common theme for the Western press to cry "where are the moderate Muslims and why do they not condemn these actions." The press of SE Asia is saturated with editorials by Muslims discussing problems within the religion. Violence and Islam is a common theme that continues to be focal point of analysis as the issue continues to arise in cases such as the Pope's recent speech, the provacative cartoons orignating from the European right wing, and of course, in the actions of Al Quaeda, Hizbollah, and Hamas, etc. These are not treated as symptoms of the same malady here, rather they are seen as seperate and complex issues in and of themselves. Hizbollah and Hamas are not equated with terrorism, Al Quaeda generally is, and the reactions of some Muslims toward the free speech smears of elements of the Western conservative media are regarded as naturally offensive, but not everyone is ready to hurt another human being over such things.

The moderate Islamic view of jihad is that it is to be waged within oneself. Jihad is the battle against temptation and the struggle to live decently according to the dictates of the Koran. Some see themselves as the protector's of the faith and will look to harrangue and harass those they see as evil, but there are many voices saying that the true evil is human suffering, that the efforts of Muslims should be spent trying to find homes and education for street children and not smashing the windows of discos and alcohol selling establishments. J. has said, and I've read this elsewhere, that the concept of Islam as a religion under siege is historic but no longer relevant. Islam is a growing religion and needn't be so defensive. Yet, and I think there is a connection to the encroachment of free market globalization, the religion does seem to feen besieged these days, and some are acting out, but by no means all, or even most. That seem sentiment can be seen in America, yes? Do Americans not demonstrate irrational feelings of insecurity? The tragedy of 9/11 took the lives of 3000 innocents and was a terrible crime, but did it justify what followed in American policy? Few other nations could even conceive of a global war effort in reaction to such a thing, maybe no other nation. That is not to mitigate the crime, it is simply to say that most nations endure hardship on a daily basis, and nearly all have had to witness terrible loss, but they could not ignore the will of the international community when reacting. India knows this quite well. After their recent attack, they knew, or believed they knew who the culprit was, but American officials were demanding caution, and even citing it as the work of Al Quaeda. India had to listen, and India is no small player in world affairs.

Great comments!

First, I was very interested in Jamison's comments, if Democrats had any cleverness about them they might have made it an issue that the White House felt it NECESSARY that the President be given RETROACTIVE immunity for war crimes as that is not far from an admission that war crimes were committed.

I was thinking this morning of the people I spoke to before coming here--people from a broad sample of the American populace: students, teachers, businesspeople, blue collar workers, etc. Few of them had much of a concrete notion as to even the location of Indonesia. Indonesia is world's largest archipelago, has the world's fourth largest population, and has the world's largest Muslim population. America is one of the world's wealthiest countries, with a long established democratic government and free education for everyone. How can such a nation as the latter be so ignorant of such a country as the former? Perhaps, it is because we are not concerned with increasing our knowledge of the world as it is, or as it was. We are not interested in much aside from our own consumptive habits. Americans want the nice house, have to have a tv in every room with a dvd and so on. They don't want to watch real news (too depressing), they don't want to watch films that deal with complex issues (too confusing, I don't want to think!). I guess this is preachy but what a waste! I don't think the war in Iraq could have happened or continued as it has if the American population were truly educated, if they were interested in other cultures. It was written once that a King need only offer his subjects "Bread and Circuses" to mollify them. Most Americans have bread, and those who don't also don't vote. The circuses are easy enough to find.

Being here I don't have to read so much about Iraq as I used to, that is, I have so much else to learn about. Going back to it yesterday was depressing as things seem even worse. It's even more discouraging that during a time when it seems the GOP should be on the ropes, that the Dems are still so toothless and feeble. Perhaps, the left of America needs to organize a new party and let the namby pambies of the middle aged Democratic guard out to pasture. I am full of myself this morning, no?

The Jakarta Post is in English

The paper is in English, it's not large for a daily but it does have a lot of world news and some local news and it may prove useful to my geography classes as it often has stories on the sort of problems we discuss. For example, Singapore does not have easy access to fresh water so they have to make trade agreements with Indonesia and Malaysia--sort of interesting since one cannot drink the tap water of Indonesia, but they must have enough water, somehow. It's also interesting to note that the US does not have enough to fresh water and is upset that Canada won't tap into its natural reserves and sell it (they might be more eager to do this if we'd stop contributing to the global climate change that is rapidly reducing Canada's supply, who knows?). Anyway, these stories, and the stories about the illegal burning that goes on this time of year that contributes to a vast smog covering much of Java, Malaysia and Singapore, and others are relevant to the theme of Secondary Two Geography which is this: humans affect the physical environment in myriad ways, some are meant to increase our environment's "carrying capacity" (land reclamation, etc.) and some inadvertantly decrease it. So, the paper is valueable, that's what I'm trying to say. Though the comics really suck.

I am planning on visiting Singapore for two to three days at the end of the month and during this stay, I will attend some Idul Fitri celebrations. I have to stay in the seedy part of Singapore (though I have my doubts as to its true seediness) as it is the cheapest. I also get to fly into Batam (a small Indonesian Island known for its prostitution industry) and ferry from there to the City of Lions. It should be fun but it all has to be done on the cheap. We have a week long break then, as I mentioned once before. As critical of Singapore as J. often is, she still wants to show me around, and we can get good Indian food and buy books in English that are not Bahasa to English dictionaries. Bully for Singapore!

I have been mainly focused on SE Asian news since I've been here. So I've a few questions for Americans: How's that war coming along? Just a joke, of course, editorials here like to make the point that American power has been proven to be exaggerated. We are now less feared, which was the opposite intent of our two invasions, was it not? Oddly, there was a story in which a Washington think tank fellow was quoted quite a lot about the war gaming Washington has done in the event that China should invade Taiwan. The Melaka straits--so important in colonial history--are still a focal point as it remains the best waterway from India to China. The US, said the article, would most likely try to choke off this waterway, effectively blockading China. This issue never comes up in America, does it? Melaka, the port, is not so far away and I long to go there, soon I hope, or relatively soon. That's all.

Mid Autumn Festival; leadership seminar

The festival was a Chinese Festival in which "moon cakes" are served and people carry around lanterns and wear read, I guess. Our school had a singing competition in which students sang pop songs in Mandarin Chinese and not, as one would hope, traditional Chinese songs. The event was devised by the Mandarin teachers and Mandarin was the language used by all participants. Thus, I had no idea what was happening for the two hour competition. Nevertheless, I was one of the judges. I had to determine if the singer was on key, remembered the lyric, was dressed appropriately, and whether they were self possessed on stage. One thing that might have improved the competition--shorter songs! A pop song these days seems to run around 6 minutes. These kids might have song just a verse of two but they did the whole thing start to finish. It took a while. There were a few very nice performances, but as per usual, the audience listened when it felt like it and parents pulled kids out to go home when they felt like it. 'Twas not the Festival of Bad Manners, but close. In other Mid Autumn Festival news, the nearby KFC donned its Colonel character in Red tradional Chinese dress complete with the Colonol donning a queue (the long braided pony tail that Chinese men used to wear)--that's your corporate sensitivity in the age of globalization.

The retreat was as one would expect it--an awful lot of talk and energy spent on elementary pontificating about simple concepts. In other words, we were taught what was rather obvious in a fashion that suggested that there we were being handed the pearls of wisdom. It was a long weekend, but we were in the mountains and it was very cool, and pretty. For only the second time since arriving here (both times were in the mountains, I wished for a long sleeved shirt).

This morning in the bus, driving to school but still on my block, I saw a woman who collects garbage walking down the street balancing the bag of trash on her head. That way she could presumably carry more trash, or perhaps it was the only way to carry the amount of garbage she had collected. We see people like this in America but not this extreme.

Scanning the Jakarta Post it becomes very clear that the main concern of Indonesians regarding their government is corruption. So many articles dedicated to this issue. Technically, Indonesia is a democracy, and it may be as much a democracy as most others, I don't really know. At any rate, in a class that was focussing on political systems I asked the class what kind of government Indonesia had. This girl who is the best student in the school and one of the best people, I'd say, answered, "a corrupt government." I was reminded of a time when I subbed in a high school class in the States. In the context of a discussion about nuclear proliferation, I asked the class why the US went to war with Iraq. Several said aloud, "For Oil!" "Ok" I said, "but why did we say we were going to war with Iraq?" While some may find that cynical, I think it's delightful.

I post and post for you people...

Not sure what to write today but feel I must as the weekend approaches. We teachers are being sent on a retreat for some ostensible purpose not divinable by mortals. I figure (sorry Krista, I am paraphrasing myself here from my email to you) that if we all remain positive and maintain a good attitude it should still be excruciating. So we have no weekend to speak of. Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival and I don't know what that means. I'll let you know should information arise.

I've been bummed to see the Twins falling so flat in the post-season. I got the number for a cable company that would give me HBO and ESPN and CNN--that sort of thing for only 15 US dollars a month, but have held off now that they seem certain to be eliminated. Most programing airs at ridiculous times here anyway. I have seen about 10 minutes of television since I've been here and don't really miss it, but wouldn't mind seeing the news and sports from time to time. Then I wonder why I think that I should bother with this, do I really need this amenity and the answer is of course not. So, I am torn.

Don't know what to title this

In the Jakarta Post recently there have been articles concerning remarks made by the former Prime Minister of Singapore regarding the treatment of the Maylaysian and Indonesian Chinese communities by those respective governments. The thrust of his remarks was that these communities are marginalized by the society at large because they are "hard working and successful." Both governments took exception to this and suggest that the former P.M. was attempting to meddle in the domestic affairs of their governments. He has since apologized, or, at least, stated that this was not his intention. The Chinese communities here are marginalized, but it is a very comfortable margin, to say the least. It was interesting that in the staff meeting yesterday we were informed that we would be having schools on a couple of saturdays this term as a result of a slew of complaints from parents who believed that there were too many holidays interrupting the school year. The holiday in question is Idul Fitri (the Muslim celebration that comes at the end of Ramadan). This is a national holiday and the nation will shut down--some parents here thought that we should be an exception. We will not be, but we are acting to placate these concerns. This is a change made on the run and will, of course, mean that planning for the term will have to be adjusted as these additional days will give some classes more time than others. I have some classes that meet only once a week, an extra day for them means an extra week or one more week than other classes will have. That's, of course, beside the point but it's the sort of thing that happens here regularly. We are asked to plan, and then are given a moment's notice when a disruption will be commanded. The larger point is that the Chinese community cares not about the Indonesian lifestyle--they keep themselves apart. I am doing a unit with the younger classes about holidays and as we began this week it was noteworthy that few of these children could name the Muslim holiday that is ongoing, not surprising when I learnt last term that few could tell me what a Mosque is. Considering that one cannot toss a stone over their shoulder without hitting one, this is strong evidence as to the extent that these children are sheltered. As for the native Indonesian, they do not show a tremendous amount of respect for other cultures either (unity is stressed, but the Chinese are not welcomed--it goes both ways).

In the academic article I noted once earlier about Singaporean issues, the point was made that in contrast to Taiwan and South Korea (who also developed rapidly), Singapore has no rising political consciousness. Ostensibly a democracy, the ruling party of Singapore today is the only one they have ever had and it also owns most of the industry, control the media (and enforce strict censorship), and there are no viable political options. The society is paternalistic in the extreme and the idea of rugged individualism that is so often linked to capitalism in America can hardly be said to exist in the city-state of Singapore. Our history textbooks come from Singapore and they are truly works of propaganda. In a section designed to teach about political systems and the concept of "society" to 12 year olds it states very clearly that social classes are divisions within the society that are designted on the basis of the importance of the contribution that a citizen makes toward his nation. I wrote this definition on the board and asked if this was true. The students, not getting what I was getting at, said "yes." I asked which social class a successful pop star belonged to and they replied that he/she would be in the upper class. I then asked what a teacher in an orphanage should be classified as, and they answered "middle class"--maybe in Singapore. I then asked where a maid and a nanny would fit in, and they said "lower class." Exactly, I said, is it more important to sing a popular song than to take care of those who have no one or to raise a child? They said "no." Exactly, I said, I don't think "importance" is the correct definition in explaining social classes--"income" is they key ingredient. At any rate, "place" in Singaporean society is very well defined and what makes money is praised above all. I'd say this is true of America as well, but I don't believe we are as blatent about it. I don't think we are so comfortable stating it as fact.

Here's what I was talking about

I was given an academic journal written by scholars who happen to be Muslim. The articles were not unlike what one would find in most academic journals and one article in particular caught my attention. The point was not original yet one that needs to be given more attention by a much wider audience. Twenty percent of the people on this earth consume eighty percent of the world's resources. That divide between the wealthy (who consist of the very rich, slightly less rich, and the middle classes of all developed nations and many developing nations)is in itself an infliction of violence doled out by world's most advantaged against the world's least. The religion of consumption for its own sake, in my view, has much to do with this. I do not exclude myself from this damning point. Those of us who talk about the injustice of this world towards the poor do little more, often nothing more, than talk. We are bound by feelings of helplessness and addicted to comforts we consider ourselves entitled to. We rationalize are fortune and use most of our power to protect ourselves from knowledge of how most people live (indeed from those people). We never talk about this violence, we never strategize about how to diminish it. The violence we focus on instead is that perpetrated by the poor against the wealthy. Living amongst the impovershed here, moving through them on the way toward a school which tries to give an education to those who live behind gates and are given all they have been persuaded to desire. This post is nothing more than strident talk, it won't change a thing, and I know that. The article made the excellent point that the "liberals of the West" feel they can mitigate their own guilt in this matter through talk alone. What to do?

Super Post lost to Power Cut

I was in the midst of a long and involved post when the power cut came and swept it all away--this is why one should save as they go, save as they go.

A meeting is about to begin and so I will simply summarize in brief.

The inequities of the world are staggering. My position here makes that reality quite stark and I am afraid to say that I have begun to believe that an American in the "third world" for the sake of his own edification is nothing less than condescending to the poor of this country who could not even imagine such an undertaking.

My blog has been about my day to day life up to this point, but from here on out it will become more personal. Though not excluding the quotidien, that will no longer be the sole emphasis.

modified Ramadan; back to school

I believe that Ramadan began officially over one week ago and the original intention was to try to observe the holiday at roughly its true begining. Things changed, and I officially start fasting today although I have already done one or two things wrong--and probably more. I am easing myself into it. Technincally, one is supposed to eat in the morning before morning prayers which begin around 5am, I ate a piece of toast at roughly quarter to six. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

I am sure there are many who would question why I would agree to do this. I have thought about thoughtful answers I could give to that, but have decided that it is not my duty to explain it, I expect to learn something from it.

On friday morning I woke up with a sick feeling. Within minutes I was vomiting and or losing fluids in other ways--as the French say, I had it coming out of both ends. This continued with torturous abandon until J. insisted that I be taken to a docter. I thought that this meant that I would be going to the hospital because that's where she went when she was sick earlier in the month. I was so dehydrated I could not stop myself from trying to sip water which I would then throw up only seconds later. The cab ride from my neighborhood to the doctor's office was lengthy and bumpy and the driver wore a sickening cologne that made me wish someone would slap him. He also had a very non-chalant demeanor for a man carrying a vomit factory in his backseat. I did my best to keep it all in for the duration of the ride but, in retrospect, may have been far too kind. As we drove well beyond the hospital I began to complain loudly to J. that this guy doesn't know where he's going. She said, "We're going to the school doctor. It's just a little further." It seemed a lot further and everything was in extrordinary discomfort. By this time I was weak from dehydration.

When we arrived at the clinic there were several people waiting. It was hot, no aircon. I was thinking that there is no way I was going to be able to wait for all these people. I was able to speed the process up by throwing up twice in the doctor's toilet--or, at least, on the way to the toilet. The toilet by the way, was the commonly seen hole in the ground--no seat; and no toilet paper; and filthy. That's the tolet available to much of the population. By way of digression, the paper said today that 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to even that. The doctor gave me oral meds that I was to take and, if I couldn't keep them down, I was to go to the hospital for the injection. I said, "let's just go to the hospital" but of course they made me try to swallow the meds. I threw up and convinced them to listen to me about this matter, if nothing else. Vomiting is really persuasive.

At the hospital the entire ward was thrilled to see the return of J. and I even if, this time, our roles were reversed. I was put on a drip and given injections and 24 hours later, released. I am better now. Food poisoning.

Last night, J. and I took a neighbor girl (a student at our school whose mother is a teacher) to the swimming pool. The clouds quickly darkened and we were not in the water long before it began to thunder. We all got out and went beneath the overhang as the rains began to pour. There was lightening flashing and some of it hit quite near where we were. The pool cleared out with exception of about 10 twentysomething men in tight swimming trunks that were a cause for universal human embarrassment. These guys continued to swim beneath a crackling sky completely unbothered by the fact that they were tempting fate, or simply unaware. We believed ourselves to be stranded as neither of us had thought to bring our phones and the one staff member we asked claimed that the pool had no phones on Sunday. We began to become irritated by the boys in the pool and their willful idiocy. J. told a security guard that they should get out as they were risking being electrocuted. His response came in one word, "No." There was nothing left to do but shrug our shoulders and sigh. As the rains showed no signs of letting up I went to ask the staff if any of them had a cell phone that I could use to call a taxi. They understood the word "taxi" and went to the office phone to call one for us. So, as usual the left hand had no idea where the right hand's phone was.