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High flyer
He can't help himself. Two years ago Suwandi Simatupang hitched a ride on an Airbus from Medan to Jakarta by hiding in the wheel well with a friend. To the amazement of officials, they emerged nearly frozen but alive after surviving almost without oxygen at a great height for two hours. This time Suwandi, now 17, and another friend stowed away on a cargo ship in Batam. They were armed only with some bottles of water and had no idea where the ship was going. Feeling hungry, they came out after five days and were arrested by the crew, who handed them over to police in South Africa. Back in Medan, Suwandi said he could not tell where his next adventure would take him. His mother said she would follow police advice and take him to the psychiatrist.
Mandiri 14 June 1999
Shutterbug
Kassian Cephas, the first professional Javanese photographer, was little known until his works went on display at the Yogyakarta palace on June 11. Yet Dutch historian Gerrit Knaap calls him 'one of the pioneers of modernity' (in 'Cephas, Yogyakarta', KITLV, 1999). Born in 1845, Cephas photographed the sultan and his family, buildings around the Yogyakarta palace, Javanese rituals, street scenes and much more. He was also hired to photograph the excavation of Borobudur temple. He was regarded with awe because he was the only native Javanese in the streets at the end of the 19th century with such modern equipment. He learned photography in the 1860s from a Dutchman. His photographs were first published in 1888. They were sold as souvenirs for Dutch colonial masters when they went back to Holland. Cephas was accepted into the elite circle.
Jakarta Post 24 June 1999
Dig it
Most visitors to the 13th century archaeological remains in Ciamis, West Java, come not to learn from the past but to ask for a blessing. 'I come here because I hope my goods will sell well', said Mrs Nuraeni (35) from Bandung. Others said they hoped to get an indication that would help them in the gambling now increasingly popular in Bandung. Government archaeologist Djadja Sukarja, who looks after the 25 hectares of remains of the ancient Galuh Kingdom at the foot of Mount Syawal, regretted such 'irrational' behaviour. He felt people should come here to learn about the greatness of the Indonesian people in the past. 'That's what parents and teachers should be telling their children', he said. The site also contains prehistorical remains, and three clear springs.
Kompas 17 July 1999
Gay Bali
A new documentary film by Dagoe Suharyadi depicts the life of the numerous gays in Bali. However, individuals do not dare reveal their homosexuality in public for fear of rejection. Ketut works in a restaurant in Kuta. He has a fiancee, a young Balinese girl, in his home village. In Kuta he has a boyfriend who 'is somebody to give love to and to go to with my sorrows'. Budi Adnyana, a young lawyer and an activist of a Hindu youth organisation in Bali, says: 'Equal treatment should be given to gays. The Balinese community is not ready yet to accept more, e.g. marriage between gays or the right to adopt and raise children. The reaction of traditional villagers would probably cause a violent clash.'
Jakarta Post 18 July 1999
Species watch (1)
A major component of the illegal sea turtle slaughter and trade network operates from East Java, Madura, and Bali. In the village of Penelokan, near the East Javan city of Situbondo, green and hawksbill turtles are stuffed and prepared for sale in nearby Pasir Putih. According to high-ranking Indonesian navy sources, Taiwanese operatives are the backbone and financiers of the international sea turtle trade from Indonesia. This well-orchestrated Taiwan mafia and local mostly ethnic Chinese operators are also involved in the illegal dynamite and cyanide live fish trade.
Earth Advocates, July 1999, http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/earth_advocates
Species watch (2)
Only eight new bird species have been found in Asia in the last 15 years. Three of these were found on Indonesia's Sangihe and Talaud Islands in 1996 by Dr Frank Lambert, now of BirdLife International. 'I had only been on Talaud one hour and was riding in the front of a bus when I saw a big rail casually walk across the road. Although I had only brief views I knew it was from a family unknown to the islands', Lambert says. 'A few days later, when trying to relocate the rail, I glimpsed an unknown bush hen. When I asked villagers about these birds, they told me that they occasionally caught the rail for food. A month later I visited the market in the town of Beo, and to my amazement found both species for sale.'
Jakarta Post 15 June 1999
Jakarta's floaters
Some three million Jakartans, or 30 percent of the population, do not use toilets when they relieve themselves, a city official said. Of the remaining 70% some do not own toilets and use public ones. The three million relieve themselves in rivers and canals. 'The lack of toilets, together with a lack of clean water and unhealthy habits are the biggest causes of diarrhea,' he told reporters ahead of a planned sanitation drive.
Jakarta Post 13 July 1999
Selling oxygen
Forest Minister Muslimin Nasution says Indonesia can reduce its debt by selling the oxygen produced by its 148 million hectares of tropical forests to industrial countries that consume more oxygen than is good for the planet. He said Japan had already offered the Indonesian government $1000 per tree, which would place an obligation on the government to preserve that tree for several decades to produce oxygen. Mr Muslimin Nasution said the value of Indonesia's forests lay not merely in their timber but increasingly in their capacity as the lungs of the world something that was only now being realised. (Under the Kyoto Protocol, coming out of a series of climate change conferences but still in the early stages of implementation, 'carbon credits' will become tradable commodities, designed to reduce CO2 emissions worldwide).
Mandiri 19 July 1999
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