Billy Pappas>Andy Warhol>Marilyn Monroe (2012)

Reductio ad absurdum?
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Read Billy Pappas and the art of zooming in by Daniel P. Quinn, recently of this parish.

——————If an expatriate is, as I believe, someone
——————who never forgets for an instant
——————being one,
——————then, no.

——————But, if knowing that you always
——————tote your country around
——————with you, your roots,
——————a lump

——————like a soul that will never leave you
——————stranded in alien subsets of
——————yourself, or your wild
——————entire;

——————that being elsewhere packs a vertigo,
——————a tightrope side you cannot
——————pass up, another way
——————to show

——————how not to break your pretty neck
——————falling on skylights:
——————reward-laden
——————mirages;

——————then, yes. All homes are home; mirages
——————everywhere. Aside from
——————gravity, there are no
——————limits,

——————never were, nor will there ever be,
——————no here and there to foil
——————your lotus-dreaming
——————legend.

——————Stay on the planet, if you can. It isn't
——————all that chilly and what's more,
——————grows warmer by the
——————minute.

——————Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012)

‘Hundreds of individuals, and at the same time one line, a single body: it’s a walking definition of humanity.’
But where are they going?

I seem to have less time to write specifically as Jakartass, for which I should be grateful because it generally means that I’ve been commissioned – for the necessary wherewithal, money – to change my ‘voice’.

I remain an avid reader, which is so important in framing thoughts for later articulation, and assembling a book review, with a short deadline, will obviously eat into time allocated for other tasks.

So I’ve come up with a wizard wheeze (and, no, I haven’t read any Harry Potter books). Visitors to Jakartass Towers will know that a former artistic outlet of mine was painting, not walls but landscapes. However, not a lot of them know that my major at university during my three years of teacher training was art. I have retained this interest and curiosity, and, thanks to lasik operations, my keen visual sense, .

That is why I have decided to post an image a week, something which draws the eye and exercises the imagination, and leaves me more time for …….  

Actually, that wasn't 100% true last year as it was a "luxury housing complex" in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta that bore the brunt of an overflowing River Krukut. The cause was not so much the heavy rain as that in March last year the marines reduced the width of the river from six metres to two in order to expand their shooting range.

Still, although more than 250 families have had to evacuate their homes, City Hall assured them that work to demolish the culvert would commence in late December and would be completed "before Jan. 30.” Except work wasn't started because the Public Works Agency said, "We are afraid that if we tear down the culvert, the houses will be damaged."

This seems to sum up the laissez-faire attitude of City Hall; their Public Works Dept. schedules 'flood prevention' work for the usual peak of the rainy season.

Storm drains are being left uncovered as apparently "they perform better." After a 55-year old woman died after falling in one in front of the Cempak Putih Carrefour, the head of the Public Works Dept stated, “We encourage people to step carefully.” This isn't the place to bemoan the lack of adequate sidewalks or street lighting but …

I'm writing this in advance of the expected "exceptional" floods caused by La Nina which may, or may not according to Sri Woro Harijono, the head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), occur in a five yearly cycle, exacerbated by climate change. The UN World Meteorological Organization has stated that it's already here. However, Ibu Sri has warned City Hall that in January, "there will be a high potential for flooding because nearly all areas in Jakarta are at high risk."

Indeed. Some 40% of the city lies below sea level and it is sinking at a rate of up to 3 centimetres a year thanks to the uncontrolled extraction of groundwater and the weight of new buildings. Add to this the rising sea level, at about 3mm a year, neap tides which the talkfest in Copenhagen next month won't do a thing to 'solve', as King Canute (985 – 1035) demonstrated.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo recently called on everyone to stop scaring people with predictions of massive floods this year, but I started a long tme ago and I'm not going to stop now!

Unless the lowlanders of Holland were to return and govern the city I can't see any other solution but to abandon it to Mother Nature.

Historic floods in Jakarta
1621 First recorded major flood, although construction of canals had started two years earlier.
1654 Flood ruined most mulberry groves causing shortage of Tonkinese silk.

1699 Ciliwung river floods old Batavia after Mount Salak erupts.
1714 Ciliwung river overflows after clearing forest areas in Puncak.
1854 New Batavia is a meter under water, caused by the raging Ciliwung.
1918 Extensive flooding. The Dutch colonial government begins work on the Western Flood Canal (West Banjir Canal).
1932 Flood caused by conversion of Puncak forest into tea and rubber plantations sweeps away houses in Sabang and Jl. Thamrin.

Governor Ali Sadikin (1966-77) kept the city virtually flood-free through a programme of cleaning, maintenance and construction of water channels with funds drawn from legal gambling.

1973 Sadikin's administration completes the Master Plan for Drainage and Flood Control of Jakarta, which includes the East Flood Canal.

Since the 1990's ……..
1996 A flood sweeps through the capital and approximately 10 people die.
2000 Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso spoke about the need to dredge the West Canal and to build the East Canal. "Although we have had the master plan of the canals since 1975, due to budget problems (corruption?) we could not build them."
2002 The Dartmouth Flood Observatory notes it as the largest flood in Jakarta’s history. 25 people died.
2007 The greatest flood in the last three centuries inundates about 40% of the city, killing 80 people and forcing about 340,000 to flee.

….. and poor alike!

The then Vice Governor Fauzi Bowo offered the excuse that there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it because "Floods happen everywhere in the world."

2012 The East Banjir Canal is completed and ….?

The Post reported in the first week of this year that City Hall had finally woken up to "the extraordinary risk that disastrous flooding poses to the capital" and was "drafting a contingency plan."

“We are planning to provide evacuation maps and flooding-mitigation guides in each community unit across the city.”

"Drafting"? "Planning"? Are they referring to this year or to a 5, 10, or 30 Strategic Plan?
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This is a slightly edited version of an article published in the Jakarta Expat magazine 61st edition.
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References
Climate Change, Disaster Risk and the Urban Poor (Jakarta Case Study Overview) (pub. World Bank 2011)
"There is very little quantified, centralized information about the most vulnerable communities in Jakarta, the urban poor and informal settlements."

"Jakarta Coastal Sea Defense [is] coupled with land reclamation and improved pumping capacity. This is still in the design stages."

"Plans have been developed for some time to expand the capacity of the pipes to increase [potable] water supply to Jakarta, and therefore ease the causes of subsidence, but they are not yet underway."

Jakarta Flood Hazard Mapping Framework (.pdf) by Jan Jaap Brinkman and Marco Hartman
The Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe, Bisnis Indonesia
Jakartass BBC Radio 5 Live Interview 2007

This is the traditional greeting at the start of the Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival welcoming the end of Winter.

“Congratulations” for surviving a non-existent winter in Indonesia seems incongruous, and if “be prosperous” is a wish that the recipient should get a lot of money, then that seems inappropriate given the inequalities that money brings.

If, however, the greeting can mean that one hopes that recipients will have a successful year in terms of doing good for the community at large by not exploiting anyone and thus achieving good karma, then that is what I wish for the many students and colleagues who are celebrating today.

However, in labelling 40 year old Jim Keady as “a Crusader”, I am referring to the fourteen (count ‘em!) years of his single-minded efforts to achieve basic human rights for the workers in the Indonesia’s sweat shops producing Nike sports goods for export, goods that the workers cannot afford on their earned income. As I will point out a bit further on, it is worth noting that many of the companies sub-contracted to Nike are Korean, albeit with Indonesian partners.

The workers are mostly Muslims whereas Jim is a committed Christian and sometime teacher of religious education to American high school students.

Having supported Jim’s work through this blog for a few years, we finally met up last Sunday for a couple of hours. Much of what follows is gleaned from our chat, as well as the immense coverage on the internet of his fine work.

I knew that he was forced to resign from his New York university; he was studying for his master’s degree in pastoral theology) when he refused to wear the sponsored sports gear from Nike because of their operation of sweat shops, i.e. cheap labour working onerous hours. Also exacerbating matters was the title of his thesis: “Nike and Catholic Social Teaching: A Challenge to the Christian Mission at St. John’s University,” examining the company’s business practices and challenging the university’s sponsorship agreement with Nike.

He was also not given a renewed contract by his semi-professional football club where, he told me, he was ‘understudy’ to Tim Howard, the current Everton FC goalkeeper, as well as being an assistant coach. Jim told me that he would have been satisfied to have been on the bench as reserve goalie at a major match, but it was not to be. He also told me that, unlike me, he had visited Charlton’s new stadium at the Valley and was a fan of Charlton, having also visited their training ground.

He still looks very fit; he had been for a workout that morning and was tucking in to a substantial meal at Ya ‘Udah when I arrived.

With a core of supporters who donate to Team Sweat, a not-for-profit organisation, Jim works alone, highlighting the appalling conditions endured by workers in factories in Indonesia sub-contracted to Nike, albeit with an expanding group of supporters who through their donations support him. I asked a number of questions, which arose through our conversation rather than having been thought out beforehand.

For example, I wondered whether there were any prominent sports stars prepared to be associated with him. Tiger Woods of Planet Golf and Roger Federer wear Nike gear, but neither were doing very well in June 2010 when I listed the football stars featured in TV ads coinciding with the World Cup in South Africa. None of them did very well: Theo Walcott of England and Ronaldinho of Brazil didn’t get to go and Cesc Fábregas played just 59 minutes of Spain’s four matches.

But I digress, and my question was somewhat naive anyway. After all, who’d want to bad-mouth their kit sponsor when they’re paid vast sums to wear it? In 1998, for example, Nike paid Tiger Woods $28 million. (Contrast that with the $100,000 spent in Indonesia from 1998 to 2000 on continuing education programmes for Nike workers and $150,000 on small loans to unemployed and disadvantaged people.)

I did wonder why Jim works alone and also why he focusses on the Nike sub-contractors in Indonesia; wouldn’t a broad coalition be more effective? As the Nike Anti-Sweatshop campaign says, it is but “one branch of a larger global movement aimed at raising awareness about labor conditions in manufacturing zones of developing nations where major global corporations increasingly contract for the manufacture of their products. There are hundreds of web sites concerning these issues.” (Actually, many thousands.)

Furthermore, Nike isn’t the only American corporation whose products are produced in factories abroad which operate free of the health, safety and labour laws in force, but not always enforced, in the USA. (Think Apple: they knowingly used child labour and outsourced workers in China whose “horrendous” working conditions were such that at least 19 were driven to suicide.)

One factor Jim mentioned to me was that it is common for NGO’s to be sucked in by the perks offered by such conglomerates as Nike. Offers of all-expenses paid factory tours abroad and round table meetings can be seductive. You can see that first hand here in Jakarta. I’ve often thought it strange that I should be paid no more than an adequate amount for teaching the children of rich parents, whilst international NGO staff obstensibly working on behalf of the downtrodden masses live in upmarket areas with the usual expat perks.

Jim’s approach is radically different from the better financed and/or sponsored NGOs: he spends time living with Nike factory workers on a typical wage of c.Rp.44,000 ($4.70) per day, which, pegged against inflation, is less in real terms than the c.Rp.11,500 (c.$1.25) a day they earned in 2000 when Jim first came here.

He has had meetings with union officials such as Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB), who is deeply appreciative of Jim’s efforts, as this letter makes clear.

Union officials at PT SM Global, managed by Koreans, in Tangerang, “received pressure, repeated rotation of their positions, [were] downgraded, and [were] blamed by the management of the factory in front of all the workers saying that the factory will be closed as a result of the action of union officials … [thus] … making the union officials as the public enemy for the workers.”

The “workers were requested to sign a pre-arranged statement stating that they were in good condition, have no problem, and will not demanding anything.”

“Good conditions”? Only if the workers were prepared to accept an obligatory three hours of overtime per day, and that the women workers would show blood-stained sanitary towels when seeking their mandatory two days menstrual leave.

That last degrading action has long been a practice in factories managed by Koreans. I first heard of it during a football match some 20 years ago when one of the opposing team highlighted the issue, and stated that the women were forced to stand in the open, under the tropical sun, whilst undergoing the inspection. On that occasion, the managers were deported.

Maybe that is also the standard practice in Korea; Koreans are not noted here for much beyond their kimchi, and brutality which I witnessed at first hand when a teacher at the Jakarta Korean International School (JIKS) for three years until Xmas 2003. I was horrified at their use of the euphemistically named “love stick” (and occasional fists) to administer corporal punishments.

As for focussing on Nike, Jim says that if the market leaders change then others will have to follow.

Indonesia is Nike’s third largest manufacturing base, behind China and Vietnam, with 140,000 workers in 14 factories, and productivity is high. For example, 18,000 workers at PT Nikomas in Serang produce more than 2,000,000 pairs of Nike sneakers per month. If you discount the administrative and warehouse staff, drivers, security guards, and other non-assembly line staff, that’s c.four+ pairs a day per worker sold retail for anywhere between $50 to $500.
(See comments for updated stats.)

For 18 years workers at Nikomas complained about forced overtime and wage cheating, but it is only now, after a year’s hard work of research, lobbying and negotiations that a breakthrough has been achieved with Jim Keady’s help, lobbying and single-minded focus.

He is now proud to report that following almost a year of investigation and negotiation, 4,437 Nike factory workers will be paid $1 million dollars for overtime they were forced to do without payment. The settlement between SPN and the factory management reflects 593,468 of unpaid overtime hours that workers put in sewing Nike sneakers at the plant during the past two years.

But his work is not done yet; Indonesian law only allows redress for the past two years so that’s 16 years of unpaid overtime owed by Nikomas, with a further few thousand workers who are not part of the deal. There are also another 42 factories which are not yet party to such a deal.

I’m not a psychoanalyst, nor am I particularly enamoured of the notion of having another’s hang ups hung on you, so I can only surmise that Jim’s single minded-focus and self-sacrifice comes from his wellspring of Christian faith. That may be why his chosen position in a football team was goalkeeper, a position which demands the utmost concentration and patience, with a readiness to spring into action when required.

I’ve generally played as a defender, and I’m happy to have such a role supporting Jim in his humanitarian crusade.

One further point, as friend Oigal asked in a previous post of mine about Nike’s lack of oversight of their sub-contractors here: When do countries like Indonesia have to take responsibility for their own affairs?

Whilst employers here often ignore the prevailing labour law,Act No 13, 2003, and seek amendments to their advantage regarding severance pay,  this week the Constitutional Court annulled Articles 59, 64-66 regarding contract and outsourced workers, stating that “every company carrying out short-term projects had an obligation to treat their contract workers and permanent staff equally.“

I’ll leave it to Jim and the union representatives to examine the ramifications, if any, for the workers they are trying to help.

And I wonder if that ruling will be of any benefit to expatriates on fixed-term contracts?

PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) says it's installing barricades in the form of hanging concrete balls that will knock off anyone sitting on top of an accelerating train.

PT KAI operation area 1 order manager Akhmad Suyadi said that the move was intended to provide safety and comfort to passengers and not to cause harm.

At the last count, Avaaz had 10,580,054 members who receive email notifications from a dedicated team funded by donations from the members. Our concerted voices do have an impact, yet I feel that the suggested action requested from "friends across Indonesia" may be counter-productive.

The suggested petition is worded thus:

To President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:

In the wake of the A.A.L. sandal scandal, we call on you to end the criminalisation of children, initiate a fundamental review of the police, and devise urgent reform programmes so that our police carry out their civic duties repsonsibly (sic). This is a time for you to stand with Indonesian citizens — we count on you to take all necessary steps to bring about a police force that works for the people, not against them.

Yes, I am in whole-hearted support of the message, and have already drawn attention to it in my last post. However, Avaaz has the following on the petition page: Since police in Palu brutally beat fifteen year-old A.A.L. and threatened him with a 5 year jail sentence in the 'sandal scandal', citizens across the country are standing up against police brutality. If we can ramp up public pressure now we could end this abuse.

'Torture' is ingrained in the mindset of the police, and was throughout colonial Dutch times and the Suharto era. A mere petition will do nothing to change it, nor will SBY be swayed, as he will surely refer to foreign-funded NGO's interfering in Indonesian affairs, as he did recently.

Let the pressure mount from within is what I've suggested  A petition will do nothing, but making monkeys out of the police by presenting them with bananas is not an arrestable offence, but they will surely take note. Non-violent yet upfront demonstrations can be effective and media-worthy events.

Mweanwhile, the case for police reform is already a media topic, as this recent opinion article in the Post  clearly shows.

Punishment for children should provide strong educational and deterrent effects instead of merely throwing them in jail. Civility is supposed to be a yardstick when it comes to dealing out punishment for kids.

Hence, the need for Juvenile Court legislation that really makes sense, that would prevent children from being detained in prison. There must be correction houses, such as boarding schools or special dorms, for children with legal problems.

The government and the House of Representatives need to say yes to pass the bill without delay. The bill must give an ear to a restorative justice approach with a view to prioritizing mediation and rehabilitation over penalties.

The absence of the country’s justice system in dealing with young delinquents frequently makes law enforcers take a punitive approach.

I would add that civilian control of the police is of paramount urgency.. Although it will probably take a generation for critical reasoning to be engrained in the rakyat, there are signs that it is beginning to take hold. AAL is an unfortunate victim, a martyr to the cause, and there will be more resulting in an even gretaer pressure for true reformasi to take hold.

So, my message to Avaaz is simple: Sabar aja, dong!

Some think that SBY deserves the appellation Pak Bumble because his slow response to every conflict in the country [has] contributed to the weakening of state authority in the country.

This character analysis of Mr. Bumble from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist says that he has a heart for the poor. But the trouble is he doesn’t act on his pity – he seems to feel like it’s a weakness, and he doesn’t want to lose face. He seems to think that he won’t be respected if he shows pity to anyone.

State authority at most levels has always been subject to, or in league with, forces beyond public control, be they strategic alliances with the Muslim bloc or rapacious foreign based conglomerates seeking land to deforest and supplant with palm oil plantations or destroy with coal and gold mines.

One can but agree that if SBY is the ultimate authority in Indonesia, then he seems to lack the gravitas to exercise it. Contrarian that I am, although one may think that I’m cynical, history may yet judge SBY to be the true architect of reformasi, the word coined in the latter months of the Suharto era  by the proponents of demokrasi. There are signs that we are on the threshold of achieving a country governed by the people for the people.

There is increasing disgust at the antics of small fundamentalist Islamic groups, at the rapaciousness of oligarchs who think little of grabbing the nation’s resources without a by-your-leave, let alone compensation, and at the incompetence and corruption of self-elected politicians and bureaucrats who believe that being a public servant means that the public are there to serve them.

The rakyat are beginning to recognise that if they want something done, then perhaps they should do something about it themselves.

Hence the co-ordinated demonstrations this week by farmers protesting land grabs without financial or legal redress.

Note: whereas the 1960 Agrarian Law states that the state should respect the land owners’ rights over their lands, the 2009 Law on Minerals, Energy and Coal stipulates that owners of land known to have potential deposits should allow their land to be explored and exploited – and their refusal may result in imprisonment.

Other signs of public discontent include the rallying for victims of insensitive law enforcement agencies. This has seen a 15 year old boy accused of stealing a policeman’s worn out flip-flops, beaten up, and prosecuted as an adult and facing a five year jail sentence. Although the flip-flops presented as evidence were not those he allegedly stole, the judge found him guilty but set him free. This inconsistency was no doubt due to the public furore over the case, and that 5,000 pairs of (used) flip-flops were donated to the police on the grounds that they must be impoverished. One would have thought that the cost of bribes would have kept pace with inflation, but I could be wrong about this.

Another case in the news is of two “mentally retarded” 20-something guys kept in detention from 11th November last year charged with stealing 15 bunches of bananas. Although prosecuters originally refused to accept the case, once they had done, on Friday last week, they immediately freed the suspects in a bid to close the case. Meanwhile, student activists organised a collection of 1,000 bunches of bananas to give to the police, thus making monkeys out of them.

These are not the first examples of a sense of humour coming to the fore in Indonesia when addressing grievances. It’s been two years since I wrote about a batch of cases including Prita Mulyasari’s fine for defaming the hospital which maltreated her which was paid through a public coin collection.

Confrontation can only be met with more violence, so this week of civil disobedience has been welcome. But I do wish these demonstrators outside the legislature hadn’t blocked the toll road which is part of my route home!

Remember: Get Angry, but Have Fun.