Bouncy Town

Sunday is normally a holiday for me but for some reason I decided to volunteer to help man a promotional booth that my school had set up in Bouncy Town. I had no idea where Bouncy Town was but I assumed it would be located inside an air-conditioned mall (all such previous promotions have taken place within malls). Nobody ever mentioned the word OUTDOOR and so it was with a sense of growing apprehension that I found myself sitting in a tent watching a blazing sun climb towards its zenith. I was still sitting there four and a half sweltering hours later.

If I do venture outdoors during the day in Jakarta, it is only for the purpose of moving from one air-conditioned environment to another. I can't believe I sat where I did for as long as I did. Sitting here writing this in my air-conditioned study, I still feel hot. Worse still, the booth was a marketing disaster, because there were hardly any visitors, apart from the one or two that my more enthusiastic Indonesian colleagues managed to drag in.

I was the token expatriate face that parents of prospective students supposedly like to see. This day however, it was a very sweaty face and the beaming smile ;-) that normally adorns it was gone. The smile still hasn't returned and it will take some time for the memories of my meltdown at Bouncy Town to fade.

The Misguided Sects Investigation Team

A couple of days ago, when I was on my way to work, I decided to slightly reposition the wooden statue of Ganesh that sits outside our front door. I was shocked to discover a mother cat and her three kittens nestled behind it. The family is still there and a towel has been added to make them a little more comfortable. According to Wikipedia:

Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. He is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions.

I'm hoping this is an omen of good luck signifying the imminent removal of any obstacles to my remaining in Indonesia and the prelude to a new beginning. I brought this Ganesh back from Bangalore during my last visit to India a couple of years ago and he's guarded the entrance to our home ever since.

Meanwhile, the most newsworthy story in Indonesia at the moment is the crackdown on another deviant Islamic sect. This particular one, Al Quran Suci, is questioning aspects of the Hadith, a compilation of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings and actions. As the compilation took place about a hundred years after Muhammad's death, there would seem to be some basis for this reassessment. The Misguided Sects Investigation Team (seriously, that's its name), led by Heddy Muhammad (again I'm serious), does not agree however, and has reported them to the police who have rounded up some of the ringleaders.

This sect is only the latest in a rash of such deviancy and the members of the Misguided Sects Investigation Team are certainly being kept busy. Leaders of deviant sects are regularly jailed and their followers harassed by the locals who ransack and burn their residences and places of worship. Freedom of religion in Indonesia means the freedom to choose from a very short list of approved religions and no freedom at all to deviate from religious orthodoxy. There is a National Commission of Human Rights in the country and its chairman does raise objections but all to zero effect.

It all goes to show that if you want to be happy here then it's simple, don't rock the boat (by standing up when everyone else is sitting down). I'd like to see more Misguided Investigation Teams set up such as a Misguided Dietary Habits Investigation Team to flush out those pesky vegetarians and vegans who continue to threaten the livelihoods of abattoir workers throughout the country. The Misguided Interpretation of History Investigation Team could track down those stubborn citizens who still question official versions of national history, such as what really happened back in 1965. In a country of over 200 million, there are lots of citizens who are "misguided" in various ways and this "us and them" approach, reinforced by various investigatory teams, is the best way to bring down the numbers of "them" and ensure nationwide harmony.