Thursday, 21Sep06
Highlights: last day of class, lunch with Irfan, dinner at American restaurant with the funny & wild TNI guys.
Today was our wrap-up day. One thing I’ve noticed & appreciated about this week was the sincerity of questions & interest in us being here. A helpful dynamic was the lack of “too” senior officers. Since we were all mid-grade officers- the guys could air their thoughts & questions out, without muffling themselves in front of their superiors (LtCols & Colonels…).
One of the last controversial topics was James Lee’s book. “Was there was a conspiracy by the U.S. government against one of it’s Muslim Army Chaplains at Guantanamo?” (as the book apparently suggests). None of us had read it, but I’ve seen it a lot at the front of bookstores. Conspiracy theory sells, and in the Islamic world, a U.S. Chaplain who writes a book about being mistreated at the hands of his own government is a plausible concept.
It had little-to nothing to do with class today,, but for some of our friends, it was a chance to hear what 6 American military guys would say, as if we had some secret knowledge of the subject.
I think in both countries there is a general assumption that if you see something in writing, it must be true. There may be a stronger tradition in the U.S. of taking things with the proverbial “grain of salt” than there is here.
Over lunch today, I got to eat with my good friend Kapten Irfan Siddiq, whom I met & had classes with at the Navy Postgrad School (NPS) in Monterey 2 years ago. Irfan was my first Indonesian friend (= and happens to be stationed here in Bogor. He’s going through advanced Engineering school. Real nice guy. Irfan is originally from Aceh, and we were in school together when the tsunami hit. His mom opened the front door to her home, saving at least 15 people who ran in & upstairs. They all survived.
Highlights: last day of class, lunch with Irfan, dinner at American restaurant with the funny & wild TNI guys.
Today was our wrap-up day. One thing I’ve noticed & appreciated about this week was the sincerity of questions & interest in us being here. A helpful dynamic was the lack of “too” senior officers. Since we were all mid-grade officers- the guys could air their thoughts & questions out, without muffling themselves in front of their superiors (LtCols & Colonels…).
One of the last controversial topics was James Lee’s book. “Was there was a conspiracy by the U.S. government against one of it’s Muslim Army Chaplains at Guantanamo?” (as the book apparently suggests). None of us had read it, but I’ve seen it a lot at the front of bookstores. Conspiracy theory sells, and in the Islamic world, a U.S. Chaplain who writes a book about being mistreated at the hands of his own government is a plausible concept.
It had little-to nothing to do with class today,, but for some of our friends, it was a chance to hear what 6 American military guys would say, as if we had some secret knowledge of the subject.
I think in both countries there is a general assumption that if you see something in writing, it must be true. There may be a stronger tradition in the U.S. of taking things with the proverbial “grain of salt” than there is here.
Over lunch today, I got to eat with my good friend Kapten Irfan Siddiq, whom I met & had classes with at the Navy Postgrad School (NPS) in Monterey 2 years ago. Irfan was my first Indonesian friend (= and happens to be stationed here in Bogor. He’s going through advanced Engineering school. Real nice guy. Irfan is originally from Aceh, and we were in school together when the tsunami hit. His mom opened the front door to her home, saving at least 15 people who ran in & upstairs. They all survived.
posted by jonathan adventures at 12:30 AM
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