Thursday, 14Dec06

Highlights: embassy, Maj Behel & TNI AL dinner, CJs

I dutifully made my trip back up to the embassy today and re-submitted all of my travel claims (9 trips worth). Hopefully this goes through… right format… all my T’s crossed,, dotted “I’s”, etc…

Finishing that up, I met Maj Behel across town to join him and a series of TNI Navy Colonels for dinner, as they were wrapping up some international training & idea sharing, similar to what we did in Bogor in September. It’s always good to meet a few U.S. Marines coming to Indonesia, and great to see Maj Behel again.

I enjoy meeting the Indonesian TNI officers as well, and demonstrating to them that there are U.S. Marines making an effort to learn their language and culture. It’s a token of respect and interest, but one that goes a long ways in bridging cultural gaps. All of the Indonesian officers were friendly and happy to welcome me to the dinner they sponsored.

Women in the military is always an interesting subject, and indeed, there are not many here in Indonesia. At tonight’s dinner,however, there were about 15 young ladies (mostly between 20-24 years old), who had either juuuuuust enlisted (4 months ago), or had been enlisted Corporals & Sergeants for 2-4 years now. All of them conspicuously single, attractive, evenly spaced at each table for light conversation, and all of them available for dragging somebody onto the dance floor for line dancing.

Women in today’s Indonesian armed forces, as far as I’ve seen, are limited to staff positions, and making sure social/ceremonial events run smoothly. I may be missing something- but it looked odd to me that such junior enlisted women would be invited/ordered to socialize at an event like this with such senior officers (Lt.Colonels & Colonels). You would never see that in the U.S.

I told a few of them that women in the U.S. Marines can become helicopter & jet pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, public affairs officers, logistics officers; the Captain of my last ship (USS Peleliu) was a woman Navy officer… They seemed shocked.
Eh,,, just one example of different provisions/expectations of women in America and Indonesia.

Indonesian military officers are also some of the most educated in Indonesia, especially the 40-50 year old Colonels & above. For all the attention, emotion & controversy that the Middle East conjures up, for example, it’s impressive how little many Indonesians know about it.
I am certainly no expert on Middle East history or politics myself, but I did know that there was a difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims. And I had read that there are significant non-Muslim communities in the Middle East (ie. half of Lebanon is Christian; Armenians are mostly Christian, etc), and that America has not always blindly defended Israel against all the Muslim countries in the neighborhood (U.S. Marines protecting Lebanon in Beirut 1983). This was news to many Colonels here.

And if this is new revelation to Indonesian colonels,,, there’s a better than average chance most Indonesians on the street don’t know this either.
These would be the same Indonesians who are fond of picking up banners & marching in the street, demonstrating about why everything wrong in the Middle East is America’s fault.

While I was on a roll of making cultural observations, and happened to be at the fancy Mulia hotel in South Jakarta, I went up to CJs, their up-scale bar/club to check-out the acclaimed night life in Jakarta.

After buying a $4 glass of water, it didn’t take long to notice a few trends.
First of all, CJs is a high-end, modern place with at least 4 plasma screen TVs, hard-wood floors, internally lit marble tables, a highly respectable liquor collection behind 2 bars, couches, and a big stage with a funky band playing. Cool place to hang out.

By 11 it was getting packed, and one detail about that was inescapable. 85% of the guys in there were mid 30s through mid 50s, Western/Chinese/Japanese, and looked well heeled. 99% of the girls in there were early-mid 20s & gorgeous, wearing high heels, mini skirts, sexy tops… and usually doing one of 3 things: playing with their cell phones, whispering with their friends, or walking around the room flirting from guy to guy.

I counted 9 Indonesian guys in the room at one point, and every single one of them had a uniform on (sweeping the floor, working behind the bar, or club security).

One 24 year old girl, studying to be a secretary in Bandung, came over to flirt. I shared my observation with her… she shrugged & responded, “this is where people come to meet”. 15 minutes later she was dancing & kissing on some German guy.

The thing I don’t like about this scene is,,, this doesn’t resemble 98% of Indonesia. This place, these people, the $12 drinks… you don’t see any of this outside of metropolis cities like Jakarta, because Indonesia is a poor country. And yet plenty of money is flowing freely from the tap amongst the elite here in the capital city.

My friends Troy, Brook & Lydia have met some party-hound Indonesian friends here in Jakarta,, and a good portion of them are sons & daughters of Indonesian generals who rose to power under the Suharto era. They pity the poor as they jump in their Beamers & rush off to the next party or grand opening.
It’s getting under my skin tonight. Time to go home.

I think this officially constitutes a rant,,, right? Sorry about that!