Monthly Archives: August 2010

Smoking Mango Trees and Spinning Stones

Two stories here.  Each one showing the craziness that can occur when someone discovers a new ‘paranormal’ (metaphysical) concept that  captures the public’s attention. In the first part, someone in Tanggerang (West Jakarta) noticed that a kind of smoke rises from their mango trees every evening at dusk.  Personally, I don’t know if it’s normal for some trees to release [...]
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Unemployed before, now Unemployable

These two were in the news a couple of years ago.  According to the story, a village chief (kepala desa) received an sms from someone claiming to be a government officer and promising jobs for the two if they tattooed their faces with a ‘dragon’ pattern. All three of them claim to have been hypnotised by [...]
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Jakarta Street Food: Mie Goreng

Fried noodles are almost as popular as the national dish, nasi goreng.  You can see why – its cheap, delicious and easy to make. You can see from the clip how easy it is to make it.  And the main ingredient is dried noodles – cheap as chips?  Cheaper.  If you were having friends over to watch a [...]
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Indonesian Jews Suffer for Israel’s Actions

I came across this story about two Jewish brothers who had lived in Surabaya all their lives and now feel compelled to seek refuge in Israel.  They left Surabaya in October 2009 after receiving death threats.  From the story, it seems that the people making the threats agreed not to destroy the synagogue as long as [...]
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Double Celebration on Independence Day

Today marks the 65th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence as  a nation.  The photo on this site’s banner shows some girls enjoying a typical independence day game.  This year has been a comparatively quiet celebration as the day coincides with Ramadan.  Devout Muslims are fasting and have little desire to be playing games which involve food at [...]
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Jakarta Street Food – Bubur Sumsum and Potato Crisps

In Jakarta, the street vendors are entreprenuerial.  In this case, if you don’t like sweet – she can offer salty.  Although Bubur Sumsum is a bit salty too. Lucky for us, she names all the ingredients.  First is ketan hitam – black sticky rice.  Next is the sumsum – literally it means ‘bone marrow’ but they [...]
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