Monthly Archives: September 2010

Buddha Bar Ordered to Close – What’s in a Name?

As if to prove that it’s not only Muslims who can cause a stir over religious matters, after two years a group of indignant Indonesian Buddhists  succeeded in winning a court order to close down the Jakarta branch of Buddha Bar.  In addition, the group which brought the action was awarded 1billion Rupiah (=$US111,000) for ‘mental distress’.  The [...]
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Sex and Government Agencies

Three stories came to my attention today.  Each one seems to illustrate a slightly different facet of how the Indonesian bureaucracy is trying to come to terms with the sexual revolution that is raging through the country.  The government sector shows an unhealthy willingness to regulate this part of people’s lives.  First, we have the Ministry [...]
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Rhoma Irama: Satria Bergitar

I’ve blogged about Rhoma Irama before.  Like many in the entertainment industry, he’s one of those people who has never allowed a lack of talent and ability to stop him from becoming a success. Satria Bergitar is too dreadful to watch in its entirity.  There is far too much talking and pantomime acting.  In this film [...]
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Comparing Nigeria with Indonesia

An opinion article on BBC Africa points out that both countries have similar resources (large size, big population, good resource base including oil) and similar histories (former colonies liberated after  WW2, military coup in mid 1960’s, military dictatorships ofterthrown in late 1990’s).  Yet Indonesia has prospered so that the life expectancy is now around 70 [...]
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Jakarta Street Food: Roti Goreng (fried bread)

Basically it’s a chocolate sandwich in batter, deep fried.  A very simple and popular snack.  What’s not to like about it? Other than consideration for your arteries?
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Richard Branson to Visit Indonesia

Billionaire businessman Richard Branson is to give a public lecture on entrepreneurship next week in Jakarta.  Tempointeractive gave the news but no details of how to get a seat.  It would be well worth hearing what he has to say.  If you have any more information than I, please tell us. I wonder whether he is [...]
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Thoughtless Slur on Dutch Voters by Indo Ambassador

Dutchnews reports that the Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands, Yunus Habibie, has retracted part of his criticism of the Dutch political party PVV, which has a policy to ban immigration from Islamic countries. Habibie had said that people who voted PVV were ‘anxiety psychotic’. I wonder if the PVV paid Habibie to make those comments, because [...]
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New Species of Orchid Found

The JakartaGlobe reports on the discovery of two new species of orchid in Kalimantan.  The one pictured is dendrobium flos-wanua.  The other species is dendrobium dianae, which is pale green to a shiny deep yellow – perhaps a little more vibrant than the flos-wanua. The article says that only 60% of Indonesia’s flora has been described [...]
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Plane Crash at Jakarta Air Show

This happened on Friday.  The pilot is in hospital with critical injuries.  Considering the number of flights and the environment (small islands, mountains, volcanoes), there are very few air catastrophes in Indonesia, despite criticism of its safety procedures.  Hopefully this is another area where things will continue to improve.
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