Montag, Juli 10, 2006
Aceh Journal: Don't Worry Be Happy
Dear friends,
some of you have been asking why I stopped writing Aceh Journal.
I didn't actually .. I was only out of internet connections for several months, and now I'm back with 2 journals.
I just sent the other one earlier (Aceh Journal: Presumption of Innocence).
Anyway, here's the other one I wrote last weekend.
A little update about the LOGA: just this morning people were demonstrating in front of AMM office. DUn know for sure why they did that, but I think it's because there's a concern that the LOGA will not be as they had expected. They feel that some of what's inside LOGA are contrary to the Helsinki MoU.
"Have a great weekend!" :)
That's what we all say Friday afternoon in the office, knowing that another week has passed and a new one is waiting to knock on our door. We have 2 days to take a break ... before our mind is filled with another stressful (or fun) stuffs.
What do you do on your weekend might be different from what your neighbor do on their weekend. For us here in Aceh, weekend is the time, if not the only time, to look for entertainment after a week of hard work. And last night I started my weekend with a party. Another party I should say because I've had parties like this almost a year ago. I almost forget how fun it is to meet people or just to see people meeting their old friends. Nothing fancy, just loud music and drinks. Infact .. I just got home from the party.
One thing I notice from the parties held by NGO workers here in Aceh is that most of the parties are held by bule(s).
From a conversation with friends I found out that the bules are still having parties regularly, with or without the nationals. And the parties are just like the one I had last night, a drink party.
And then the most unusual thing happened. At 3 a.m. in the morning, on my way home, when I was walking from the party place to the main street, I met these 2 teenagers. THey were riding a motorbike, going to go home from their friend's place. They went passed me and then turned back and asked if where I was heading. I told them I was heading to the main street to find a becak, and they offered me a lift. At that kind of hour I realized that trying to find a becak is amost as impossible as trying to see if the supermarket is still open. I mean at 3 a.m.? Later these kids offered not only to take me to the main street, but also dropped me off by my house. Then I offered to give them something in return for their kindness, but they refused to take any. They immediately left.
Strange? Maybe not! But I really think this is amazing because I really needed the lift.
what's funny was that one of the kid's name is Ernest. How strange is that??? :)
God is good, all the time He's good! :)
For me, what those 2 highschool students did was touching. Try finding kids like this in bigger cities ... Remember that I didn't ask for any favor, they offered me the favor. I think you'll have your beard grown first before you even find people like them. I mean in a time where people are more individualist than helping each other, people like those kids still exists. How often do you see people helping people in need without being asked to do so and without any hidden motives?
Anyway, Aceh is going to have a LOGA (Law on the Government of Aceh, if I remember correctly) soon. This LOGA has been prepared for months through many discussions and meetings. Let's hope this turns out well.
This week there was an incident in Paya Bakong, a village in North Aceh I think. An ex-GAM was shot to death by an unidentified shooter when he was inside the AMM (Aceh Monitoring Mission) car, and a police officer was also injured in that incident. This story became a headline for the local papers for several days. It is still not clear who did the shooting. Some said the TNI, others said the police or the GAM themselves. We haven't heard any more news from the authority.
hye
8 July 2K6
*Italy rocks - FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 winner* ... see ya' in another 4 years! :)
some of you have been asking why I stopped writing Aceh Journal.
I didn't actually .. I was only out of internet connections for several months, and now I'm back with 2 journals.
I just sent the other one earlier (Aceh Journal: Presumption of Innocence).
Anyway, here's the other one I wrote last weekend.
A little update about the LOGA: just this morning people were demonstrating in front of AMM office. DUn know for sure why they did that, but I think it's because there's a concern that the LOGA will not be as they had expected. They feel that some of what's inside LOGA are contrary to the Helsinki MoU.
"Have a great weekend!" :)
That's what we all say Friday afternoon in the office, knowing that another week has passed and a new one is waiting to knock on our door. We have 2 days to take a break ... before our mind is filled with another stressful (or fun) stuffs.
What do you do on your weekend might be different from what your neighbor do on their weekend. For us here in Aceh, weekend is the time, if not the only time, to look for entertainment after a week of hard work. And last night I started my weekend with a party. Another party I should say because I've had parties like this almost a year ago. I almost forget how fun it is to meet people or just to see people meeting their old friends. Nothing fancy, just loud music and drinks. Infact .. I just got home from the party.
One thing I notice from the parties held by NGO workers here in Aceh is that most of the parties are held by bule(s).
From a conversation with friends I found out that the bules are still having parties regularly, with or without the nationals. And the parties are just like the one I had last night, a drink party.
And then the most unusual thing happened. At 3 a.m. in the morning, on my way home, when I was walking from the party place to the main street, I met these 2 teenagers. THey were riding a motorbike, going to go home from their friend's place. They went passed me and then turned back and asked if where I was heading. I told them I was heading to the main street to find a becak, and they offered me a lift. At that kind of hour I realized that trying to find a becak is amost as impossible as trying to see if the supermarket is still open. I mean at 3 a.m.? Later these kids offered not only to take me to the main street, but also dropped me off by my house. Then I offered to give them something in return for their kindness, but they refused to take any. They immediately left.
Strange? Maybe not! But I really think this is amazing because I really needed the lift.
what's funny was that one of the kid's name is Ernest. How strange is that??? :)
God is good, all the time He's good! :)
For me, what those 2 highschool students did was touching. Try finding kids like this in bigger cities ... Remember that I didn't ask for any favor, they offered me the favor. I think you'll have your beard grown first before you even find people like them. I mean in a time where people are more individualist than helping each other, people like those kids still exists. How often do you see people helping people in need without being asked to do so and without any hidden motives?
Anyway, Aceh is going to have a LOGA (Law on the Government of Aceh, if I remember correctly) soon. This LOGA has been prepared for months through many discussions and meetings. Let's hope this turns out well.
This week there was an incident in Paya Bakong, a village in North Aceh I think. An ex-GAM was shot to death by an unidentified shooter when he was inside the AMM (Aceh Monitoring Mission) car, and a police officer was also injured in that incident. This story became a headline for the local papers for several days. It is still not clear who did the shooting. Some said the TNI, others said the police or the GAM themselves. We haven't heard any more news from the authority.
hye
8 July 2K6
*Italy rocks - FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 winner* ... see ya' in another 4 years! :)
Aceh journal: Presumption of Innocence
Not even a week after my last journal was posted, I received many critics for my last journal.
These came from people who read my journal in friendster blog.
They said I was too discriminating by using the words "alien" and "non-alien", and maybe too harsh in the other part of the writing.
Lesson learnt! ... and what I learnt the most of it was from a guy who demonstrated his maturity by using his brain instead of his emotion. A lesson of how age and experience influenced the way you deal with problems in front of you.
Eversince I got a case in the office, every once in a while people see me with judging eyes (God knows what's inside their mind) ... and it's never good to work with that, or even live with that! So now I know how it feels when one has a bad reputation and has to live with it. Sucks!
Story ...
a man was accused of something he didn't do. Then gossip arose and people got mad of him. The news spread quicker than the wind and it was said that anarchy was coming unless something was done immediately. Threats were thrown and things almost got out of control.
Eventually, political decision had to be taken, instead of going for the truth and nothing but the truth, the man was accused of doing things he didn't really do and they "kicked him out".
Question: does it only happen here in Indonesia? I know it doesn't only happen in Aceh because it's all the same everywhere in Indonesia. And it's sad to know that they're my people, the nation that was said to have high morale.
Even worse .. I might just be one of them .. using emotion instead of brain. Not always, but even once is enough to prove that we still don't have a full control over ourselves.
Question: does this kind of case has to be solved always with a political decision? hmm ...
I mean where's this thing they called "presumption of innocence"? Does it still exist in the society ... or do we have to "erase" it and let only the police and the court use it?
The strong becomes stronger, and the weak becomes weaker.
Well, anyway, that's just an intermezzo. One news I'm sure you all have heard in the news ... the 5.9 Richter (some said 6.2) earthquake in Yogyakarta, Central Java on May 27th. Not so big, I mean compared to the 9 Richter we had here in Aceh 2 years ago, but the effect was extraordinary! Thousand of people lost their lives and their homes.
*quake map attached*
Fortunately (they say the Javanese are always lucky because in every kind of situation they always say "fortunately" :p), we're not alone! Tens of NGOs, locals and internationals, came straight away to help the people.
On May 18th and 19 I help a friend interviewing people in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. There were 50 respondents and these are the things I found on the field. In Banda Aceh, most of the "NO IDP" people I interviewed can be considered quite rich, in a way that they have been living in a new place outside TLC since the tsunami. Yes, it’s true that they moved to other place when the tsunami happened, but they soon after they returned to their own place. It’s either their other house or their new house they are renting. Banda Aceh is quite different because most people living in this area have a business or are working as high level government officials. I found several respondents who have more than one houses, and so they moved to their other house which aren’t destroyed by the tsunami when their main house was destroyed. From 20 people I interviewed, more than 25 % opens a shop or a store and earns more than 2 millions per month. Nevertheless, these people who lost their house still receive a house from the NGO helping them in their area. In general, people living in Banda Aceh live their live out of business and full time job in offices.
In Aceh Besar people seemed to be poorer than those who live in the city. They had a settled life, but when the tsunami happened they were almost completely destroyed. They lost their house, their family, their wealth, and are too proud to live in TLCs. Thus they built another small temporary house on top of their own land while waiting for NGOs to build a new house there. Most of these people have many children, or had many children (lost due to the tsunami), and I don’t think they really care about their education. Most have only graduated high school, and then go to work somewhere else or became a peasant or a livestock rancher. The young generation, nevertheless, is different. Some did follow their parent’s step, but many have gone to study in the university. People in Aceh Besar seem poorer maybe because they do their living out of fish ponds, rice fields, or livestock. So although they have land and houses, they only get their money every 3 months or more.
The distribution of food is good. I have never heard people complaining about that. The main problem right now for people is the capital to start a new business. Most people I met in Banda Aceh asked me about money to start a new business, but people I met in Aceh Besar told me that they still need the house first before the capital. They are having a problem with the NGOs building houses there. There are more than one NGO, and almost all of them couldn’t keep their promise to finish the reconstruction. People are also asking to standardize the new house they are receiving.
About the target … I think they have done the right thing by building the new house for those who had the land before the tsunami and try to relocate those who didn’t have land to a new place. NGOs like Buddha Tzu Chi has started doing this by building a complex for people who didn’t have land before the tsunami.
Chinese people living in Banda Aceh have a different story. When things got worse, they fled to Medan for a couple of weeks. Why Medan? It’s because they have relatives there or because they have close relationship with Chinese people living in Medan. Ofcourse not all Chinese people living in Banda Aceh are rich … there are also poor Chinese people who drive a becak for a living etc. I was told that rich people living in Banda Aceh usually have another house somewhere else like in Medan, and they keep their money in the bank, that’s why they weren’t completely destroyed by the tsunami. They live just enough here in Aceh, but have a different life outside Aceh.
Health centre is another thing. Once they know that the service and the medication is for free, they go there right away. They go even if they’re not sick. I think this is a good sign … but there are also people who knows about the centre but don’t go there because they feel that they don’t have to. Or … one told me that he still goes to a clinic in town because he has the money and he doesn’t trust the free medication.
In general people are quite happy about the help they are receiving, but they ask the government/ NGOs to accelerate the reconstruction process. They are not happy about the fact that people are still living in TLCs after 1.5 years. In some areas, people are abandoning the new house they have received just because they found that the houses are not built according to the standard they are expecting.
People in Banda Aceh have a more positive thinking. They try to re-open their business once they lost it. Some of the people I interviewed told me that they had to borrow their relative’s money to re-open their business, and that they’re still hoping for NGOs to help them. So far, this is not working because NGOs see them as rich people who have money to regain what was lost through tsunami, and so they didn’t help these people. The other kind people didn’t have to bother about money because they’re government officials and so they still earn their salary and they still have their job.
Clever gains more … I don’t agree with this. I prefer saying no efforts no gain. The thing is that there are people who have the negative attitude by waiting for NGOs to come instead of keep trying to go to NGOs.
What differentiate between rich and poor? Education and how they see things. Rich people usually have higher education and so they have a more positive way of thinking.
Good news: there's a new Italian restaurant and A&W Fried Chicken in town. I even found a new fast food resto that serves Japanese foods :p
hye
June 08, 2006
These came from people who read my journal in friendster blog.
They said I was too discriminating by using the words "alien" and "non-alien", and maybe too harsh in the other part of the writing.
Lesson learnt! ... and what I learnt the most of it was from a guy who demonstrated his maturity by using his brain instead of his emotion. A lesson of how age and experience influenced the way you deal with problems in front of you.
Eversince I got a case in the office, every once in a while people see me with judging eyes (God knows what's inside their mind) ... and it's never good to work with that, or even live with that! So now I know how it feels when one has a bad reputation and has to live with it. Sucks!
Story ...
a man was accused of something he didn't do. Then gossip arose and people got mad of him. The news spread quicker than the wind and it was said that anarchy was coming unless something was done immediately. Threats were thrown and things almost got out of control.
Eventually, political decision had to be taken, instead of going for the truth and nothing but the truth, the man was accused of doing things he didn't really do and they "kicked him out".
Question: does it only happen here in Indonesia? I know it doesn't only happen in Aceh because it's all the same everywhere in Indonesia. And it's sad to know that they're my people, the nation that was said to have high morale.
Even worse .. I might just be one of them .. using emotion instead of brain. Not always, but even once is enough to prove that we still don't have a full control over ourselves.
Question: does this kind of case has to be solved always with a political decision? hmm ...
I mean where's this thing they called "presumption of innocence"? Does it still exist in the society ... or do we have to "erase" it and let only the police and the court use it?
The strong becomes stronger, and the weak becomes weaker.
Well, anyway, that's just an intermezzo. One news I'm sure you all have heard in the news ... the 5.9 Richter (some said 6.2) earthquake in Yogyakarta, Central Java on May 27th. Not so big, I mean compared to the 9 Richter we had here in Aceh 2 years ago, but the effect was extraordinary! Thousand of people lost their lives and their homes.
*quake map attached*
Fortunately (they say the Javanese are always lucky because in every kind of situation they always say "fortunately" :p), we're not alone! Tens of NGOs, locals and internationals, came straight away to help the people.
On May 18th and 19 I help a friend interviewing people in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. There were 50 respondents and these are the things I found on the field. In Banda Aceh, most of the "NO IDP" people I interviewed can be considered quite rich, in a way that they have been living in a new place outside TLC since the tsunami. Yes, it’s true that they moved to other place when the tsunami happened, but they soon after they returned to their own place. It’s either their other house or their new house they are renting. Banda Aceh is quite different because most people living in this area have a business or are working as high level government officials. I found several respondents who have more than one houses, and so they moved to their other house which aren’t destroyed by the tsunami when their main house was destroyed. From 20 people I interviewed, more than 25 % opens a shop or a store and earns more than 2 millions per month. Nevertheless, these people who lost their house still receive a house from the NGO helping them in their area. In general, people living in Banda Aceh live their live out of business and full time job in offices.
In Aceh Besar people seemed to be poorer than those who live in the city. They had a settled life, but when the tsunami happened they were almost completely destroyed. They lost their house, their family, their wealth, and are too proud to live in TLCs. Thus they built another small temporary house on top of their own land while waiting for NGOs to build a new house there. Most of these people have many children, or had many children (lost due to the tsunami), and I don’t think they really care about their education. Most have only graduated high school, and then go to work somewhere else or became a peasant or a livestock rancher. The young generation, nevertheless, is different. Some did follow their parent’s step, but many have gone to study in the university. People in Aceh Besar seem poorer maybe because they do their living out of fish ponds, rice fields, or livestock. So although they have land and houses, they only get their money every 3 months or more.
The distribution of food is good. I have never heard people complaining about that. The main problem right now for people is the capital to start a new business. Most people I met in Banda Aceh asked me about money to start a new business, but people I met in Aceh Besar told me that they still need the house first before the capital. They are having a problem with the NGOs building houses there. There are more than one NGO, and almost all of them couldn’t keep their promise to finish the reconstruction. People are also asking to standardize the new house they are receiving.
About the target … I think they have done the right thing by building the new house for those who had the land before the tsunami and try to relocate those who didn’t have land to a new place. NGOs like Buddha Tzu Chi has started doing this by building a complex for people who didn’t have land before the tsunami.
Chinese people living in Banda Aceh have a different story. When things got worse, they fled to Medan for a couple of weeks. Why Medan? It’s because they have relatives there or because they have close relationship with Chinese people living in Medan. Ofcourse not all Chinese people living in Banda Aceh are rich … there are also poor Chinese people who drive a becak for a living etc. I was told that rich people living in Banda Aceh usually have another house somewhere else like in Medan, and they keep their money in the bank, that’s why they weren’t completely destroyed by the tsunami. They live just enough here in Aceh, but have a different life outside Aceh.
Health centre is another thing. Once they know that the service and the medication is for free, they go there right away. They go even if they’re not sick. I think this is a good sign … but there are also people who knows about the centre but don’t go there because they feel that they don’t have to. Or … one told me that he still goes to a clinic in town because he has the money and he doesn’t trust the free medication.
In general people are quite happy about the help they are receiving, but they ask the government/ NGOs to accelerate the reconstruction process. They are not happy about the fact that people are still living in TLCs after 1.5 years. In some areas, people are abandoning the new house they have received just because they found that the houses are not built according to the standard they are expecting.
People in Banda Aceh have a more positive thinking. They try to re-open their business once they lost it. Some of the people I interviewed told me that they had to borrow their relative’s money to re-open their business, and that they’re still hoping for NGOs to help them. So far, this is not working because NGOs see them as rich people who have money to regain what was lost through tsunami, and so they didn’t help these people. The other kind people didn’t have to bother about money because they’re government officials and so they still earn their salary and they still have their job.
Clever gains more … I don’t agree with this. I prefer saying no efforts no gain. The thing is that there are people who have the negative attitude by waiting for NGOs to come instead of keep trying to go to NGOs.
What differentiate between rich and poor? Education and how they see things. Rich people usually have higher education and so they have a more positive way of thinking.
Good news: there's a new Italian restaurant and A&W Fried Chicken in town. I even found a new fast food resto that serves Japanese foods :p
hye
June 08, 2006
