I was reading an article in the Jakarta Post about urban development and the problem of finding suitable places for the poor to live. 20 years ago, former President Suharto put up low-income housing in the outskirts of Jakarta, as far away as Bogor (1 hour south). Seemed like a good idea at the time, I’m sure. Just like suburbanization in the states, most workers now have to commute to their jobs,,, and the volume of traffic has skyrocketed. Road infrastructure has been slow to keep up with the pace of change, and Jakarta is now known for two unmistakable byproducts: gridlock traffic and thick air pollution. I got a good picture of that. You’ll see why the air is like this in the video,,, taken on a random Thursday (today) in the middle of the day.
Aside from that, I got my plane tickets to Surabaya for next week, Marine Corps ball tickets, and ran a few more errands through Blok M.
Ahh,,, one of the guards at the embassy pissed me off a little bit. She didn’t believe a westerner is REALLY fasting. I’ve got 19 days of hunger pains & dehydration under my belt, not that I have to prove it to her… but I could point to the new belt holes I had to have punched yesterday, because my belt doesn’t go tight enough anymore to really do the job. I don’t weigh myself ever, but if the fit of my pants is any measure,, I’ve lost a few pounds. No worries. I’ll get them back next month.
Today is the 4-year anniversary of the 1st Bali bombing in 2002. Brook & I watched a Discovery Channel report about it. Sad. It’s upsetting to watch innocent people hurt for one thing, but the professed motivation behind it is equally frustrating.
It was purportedly done in the name of Islam, as a way of lashing out against westerners who flaunt a loose, easy & “immoral” spring-break lifestyle in what some consider Muslim territory. (that’s my best summary). I’ve got several problems with that, from what I’ve been learning & observing here.
None of the attackers were from Bali, they were all from Java. So they went & pissed in someone else’s backyard, far from any of their own families.
Bali is predominantly Hindu, not Muslim. None of the Balinese asked the Muslims to come impose their values or views on their island, to the best of my knowledge. (that’s already happened through a different context of Pancasila, but that’s conversation for another day)
The most frustrating point is this: generalizations are so easy to make & believe, and this pushes ugly stereotypes to the extreme, unfairly painting the people it claims to be acting in the name of. I imagine Nazis claiming to act for the best interests of all Christians. Or White Supremacists, claiming to act in the best interests of all Americans. That sounds ridiculous to me, but “Muslims” are being categorically painted as a violence-prone group of people… the evidence is indisputable, but the conclusion couldn’t be farther from the truth here, based on my experience with the people I am surrounded by.
I think one of the naïveté-isms that I often hear from friends (and the books I’m reading) is how peaceful Islam is as a world religion and way of life. I can’t argue against that. The Islam I’m learning about is a set of revelations which is meant to be interpreted on a personal level,,, and the Indonesians I meet here all extol their faith’s peaceful qualities.
So how do they respond to terrorism that’s purportedly done in the name of their religion? With the same difficulty that I would respond to ugly things done in the name of,,, pick one: Christianity, Democracy, being American, black rights, voting with one political party or another, being a soccer player instead of a football player, being a Colorado fan instead of a Nebraska fan,,,
Anyone describing a whole group of people all feeling one way or another is viewing the world through colored glass, in my opinion.
From a western perspective, Islam sounds much more utopian on paper than it often appears in practice, especially when splashed across newspapers these days. Violence over Muhammad cartoons in Denmark, violence over writers releasing controversial books in Britain (Rushdie), violence over handling of prisoners or the Koran in Guantanamo, terrorism (which is not new, nor limited to Islamic terrorism). And that’s one of the most difficult problems: how to reconcile what’s supposed to be with what is.
Ok. I’ve blown enough hot air today. There’s always something interesting to talk about around here! (= I enjoy it.
Aside from that, I got my plane tickets to Surabaya for next week, Marine Corps ball tickets, and ran a few more errands through Blok M.
Ahh,,, one of the guards at the embassy pissed me off a little bit. She didn’t believe a westerner is REALLY fasting. I’ve got 19 days of hunger pains & dehydration under my belt, not that I have to prove it to her… but I could point to the new belt holes I had to have punched yesterday, because my belt doesn’t go tight enough anymore to really do the job. I don’t weigh myself ever, but if the fit of my pants is any measure,, I’ve lost a few pounds. No worries. I’ll get them back next month.
Today is the 4-year anniversary of the 1st Bali bombing in 2002. Brook & I watched a Discovery Channel report about it. Sad. It’s upsetting to watch innocent people hurt for one thing, but the professed motivation behind it is equally frustrating.
It was purportedly done in the name of Islam, as a way of lashing out against westerners who flaunt a loose, easy & “immoral” spring-break lifestyle in what some consider Muslim territory. (that’s my best summary). I’ve got several problems with that, from what I’ve been learning & observing here.
None of the attackers were from Bali, they were all from Java. So they went & pissed in someone else’s backyard, far from any of their own families.
Bali is predominantly Hindu, not Muslim. None of the Balinese asked the Muslims to come impose their values or views on their island, to the best of my knowledge. (that’s already happened through a different context of Pancasila, but that’s conversation for another day)
The most frustrating point is this: generalizations are so easy to make & believe, and this pushes ugly stereotypes to the extreme, unfairly painting the people it claims to be acting in the name of. I imagine Nazis claiming to act for the best interests of all Christians. Or White Supremacists, claiming to act in the best interests of all Americans. That sounds ridiculous to me, but “Muslims” are being categorically painted as a violence-prone group of people… the evidence is indisputable, but the conclusion couldn’t be farther from the truth here, based on my experience with the people I am surrounded by.
I think one of the naïveté-isms that I often hear from friends (and the books I’m reading) is how peaceful Islam is as a world religion and way of life. I can’t argue against that. The Islam I’m learning about is a set of revelations which is meant to be interpreted on a personal level,,, and the Indonesians I meet here all extol their faith’s peaceful qualities.
So how do they respond to terrorism that’s purportedly done in the name of their religion? With the same difficulty that I would respond to ugly things done in the name of,,, pick one: Christianity, Democracy, being American, black rights, voting with one political party or another, being a soccer player instead of a football player, being a Colorado fan instead of a Nebraska fan,,,
Anyone describing a whole group of people all feeling one way or another is viewing the world through colored glass, in my opinion.
From a western perspective, Islam sounds much more utopian on paper than it often appears in practice, especially when splashed across newspapers these days. Violence over Muhammad cartoons in Denmark, violence over writers releasing controversial books in Britain (Rushdie), violence over handling of prisoners or the Koran in Guantanamo, terrorism (which is not new, nor limited to Islamic terrorism). And that’s one of the most difficult problems: how to reconcile what’s supposed to be with what is.
Ok. I’ve blown enough hot air today. There’s always something interesting to talk about around here! (= I enjoy it.
posted by jonathan adventures at 4:35 PM
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