Saturday 6 May 2006

Brilliant Recipies

Fruit Bat Soup (Translated from Bahasa Indonesian)

Ingredients

3 Fruit bats, well washed but either skinned nor eviscerated,
Water
1 tb Finely sliced fresh ginger,
1 lg Onion, quartered, Sea salt to taste, Chopped spring onions, Soy sauce and/or coconut cream.


I knew if we were patient, this would become available. For all of you who have been waiting patiently to make your fruit bats into fruit bat soup,here's a recipe.

The following is a genuine recipe from Indonesia. Fruit bats, or flying foxes, are furry, fruit and nectar eating bats about the size of small rabbits. They make very affectionate pets.


1. Place the bats in a large kettle and add water to cover, the ginger, onion, and salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 40 minutes. Strain broth into a second kettle.

2. Take the bats, skin them and discard the skin. Remove meat from the bones and return meat, and any of the viscera you fancy, to the broth. Heat.

3. Serve liberally sprinkled with scallions and further seasoned with soy sauce and/or coconut cream.

Yield: 4 servings.

Enjoy! (Vomit later)

Friday 5 May 2006

Bali Stuff

The American Womens Association outing to Bali! Posted by Picasa

Latest TV News Channel

 Posted by Picasa

A Must Post

Could not resist this one! Posted by Picasa

Watch this space!

Nothing changes, despite many previous eruptions, the kampung residents are reluctant to move! Posted by Picasa

Kaboom

Lava is flowing from rumbling Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano.

Luckily for local people, it stopped far away from any inhabited areas on its slopes and in the foothills.

Gunung Merapi, or Fiery Mountain, is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has been rumbling for weeks. Experts have said an eruption could come anytime.

But authorities have not yet raised the alert level from two to one, which would require the immediate evacuation of people living under the volcano.

Indonesia, which has the world's highest density of volcanoes, has already moved about 1,300 people away from Merapi, but officials put the total number of residents on and near the mountain at around 14,000, which includes villages in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces.

Merapi killed 70 people in a 1994 eruption and 1,300 in 1930.

Villagers living on the slopes or in the shadows of Mount Merapi say they will stay put until nature sends signals, or the government forces them to leave. Many fear losing property and livestock if they go.

Residents say signals would include lightning around the mountain's peak or animals moving down its slopes.

And once again, many will suffer due to the ignorance and cultural problems that exist in the area!

Mt Merapi about to blow!

Amazing Stuff! Posted by Picasa

Girly Mag gets Thumbs Down

The day Playboy was published Posted by Picasa

Finally Playboy hit the streets!

For a very short time I may add! Posted by Picasa

Safe Loading in Bogor

Is there room for any more of this stuff? Posted by Picasa

Keeping Pets in Indonesia

Indonesia's great for animals, you can get all sorts here, and they don't last long, which is even better! Scabby cats are ten a penny. Who needs to take in strays, when for just a dollar you can buy a prime 'guaranteed high quality' specimen from the ojeg drivers on the corner.

You might even get lucky and buy a blind one, or one with some strangely exotic and highly contagious skin disease. And it'll help you build a bond with the local community when you go back to replace Flaky Flaps, or whatever you call it, on a monthly basis.

Dogs are a little more expensive, and they need more food, but are great fun for scaring little kids on bikes, especially if you file their teeth to razor points and shave patches of hair off.

If you some cats too, well that cuts down on the food bills... If you want to go upmarket, there're plenty of 'tropical' options. No birds fly freely here, because they've all died of bird flu. Hold on, I'm wrong... Oh yeah, they're all in cages!

The bird market is really where your bargaining skills come into play: why buy just one? Just go to the guys outside the shoppping malls with bird cages and buy five - then you'll get one for free, and maybe a sweet discount on a 30cm-square cage to put them all in!

For an extra few thousand rupiah, you might get them all colour co-ordinated in pink, blue, yellow or whatever other colours you can get permanent markers in. The lower maintenance, less contagious, though less cuddly, option is the snake. Available again from the mall-front entrepeneurs, these are the masculine alternative to kittens, and will surely dazzle all visitors to your house.

The best time to get one of these bad boys is on a Friday or Saturday evening in the city centre, when there are many Western Shrivelled Trouser Snakes (Buleus floppius) on the prowl, looking for some chicken. Be careful not to let it escape in a public area, as it is likely to be hammered flat by a scared pembantu, or have all of the blood sucked out of it by a Chinese man in search of extra 'oomph'.

The true connoiseur of the pet market will love to take the opportunity to raise a primate here. For less than a bag of monkey nuts, you can buy a whole monkey, nuts intact. THis season's monkey fashion essential is arguably the 'Spongebob Squarepants' babygro, though for a little more you can go upmarket and get one with an Air Supply t-shirt.

The life expectancy of a pet monkey is notably short here, as they seem to be bred without an immune system, though will be able to give any children nearby a good respiratory disorder as they are humping its leg. For the pet lover on a tight time-frame, goats are a good way to go. Prime goat-buying season is about a month or so after Ramadhan, and you won't have time to form too close a bond with it before you have to say goodbye.

Soon after you have named it, had the vet remove all of its expensive yet invisible parasites and got in some good goat-style quality time, your neighbours will hop the fence in the dead of night, stealthily making as much noise as possible as they wrestle it free of its chain. If you're not up by the crack of dawn the next morning, it's too late - poor Billy (I'm sure your name will be a whole pile more imaginitive) will have been chopped up and distributed to the locals. Not to worry about the boring old land-dwellers, though.

Indonesia is surrounded by water, and that water is filled with wonderful potential pets. First off is the easily-kept Jakartan Brown Trout (Turdinina turdina). To get hold of one of these friendly chaps, wait for some local boys to go swimming in the stream and carefully pluck one from their hair. Keep them in a well-ventilated pond or in a cup of tea in the staffroom fridge, if you want to extend their lifespan.

Once you have mastered the low-demand fish species, it's time for a step up into the world of turtles. Turtles are endangered everywhere in the world except Indonesia. How do I know that? Because I asked a man who was selling one. "Is it OK to sell these?" "Oh yes Mister, very OK. You want?" And that, of course, is conclusive proof of the acceptability of buying and selling turtles.

These pets will set you back a great deal, perhaps enough to feed a whole family of turtle-catchers for a month, but they will give you a free black plastic bag to carry it home in. Turtles truly are a challenge to keep alive, but don't worry - their shells make great souvenirs, and you can bulk-send stuff home for next to nothing. The perfect coffee-table ornament, next to the collection of coral.

Indonesia is truly wonderful for the pet lover.

Jakarta on Earth Day (22nd April 2006)

This was printed in the Jakarta Post. - Quite Fitting!


April 22 was Earth Day. The slogan for the event is Save Planet Earth. But do we need to save Planet Earth? It has gone through many drastic upheavals. About 60 to 70 million years ago it was hit by a large meteor which annihilated almost all life. But the planet persisted and life bounced back. Hence, it is not the safety of Planet Earth that we have to worry about, but the life of human beings on Earth. The aim of Earth Day is to improve the quality of life of humans, who require a suitable biophysical and sociocultural environment.

Let us look at Jakarta as an example. Jakarta has grown to become a strong economic pole for the country and a modern megacity. A noteworthy achievement indeed. But this achievement is not without costs. It requires an increasing use of resources. At the same time increasing amounts of waste are being released into the environment. Both have dire biogeophysical and social consequences.

Behind all the glitter Jakarta also provides a sharp contrast between the rich and the poor. Sitting adjacent to the modern buildings are the shantytowns built of cardboard and other scavenged materials, with plastic being used for roofing. Uncollected garbage lies scattered around.

In Botabek (outskirts of Jakarta) many fertile and well irrigated rice fields have been converted into industrial and residential estates. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment for Jatiluhur Dam and the accompanying irrigation canals have been wasted. Small farmers are being dispossessed and driven off their land, worsening the problem of poverty.

Surface water and aquifers are seriously polluted with domestic and industrial waste, and fish and other marine foods from Jakarta Bay contain metals and other contaminants exceeding the threshold limit for safe consumption. The World Bank has estimated the total health cost of water pollution amounts to about US$300 million per year.

Aquifers are being depleted, causing seawater intrusion and land subsidence. Seawater intrusion pollutes the aquifers. Jakarta's geographical location makes it prone to flooding. This is being exacerbated by land subsidence, the development of industrial and residential estates in upland areas and the conversion of more and more land surfaces to roads, parking lots and buildings in Jakarta. This increases the runoff of rainwater, soil erosion, which causes heavy sedimentation of the rivers, the clogging of the rivers by solid wastes and water hyacinth whose growth is being stimulated by the eutrophication of the river waters, and the narrowing of their channels due to the illegal squatters who settle on the river banks, along with global warming which has caused a rise in sea levels. In 2002 Jakarta experienced a disastrous flood.

Public transportation in Greater Jakarta (Jabotabek) is poor. Buses and trains are overcrowded, uncomfortable, unreliable and unsafe. Hence, about 750,000 motor vehicles are used to commute daily to Jakarta by about four million people, along with many more cars that are primarily private ones. It is a very inefficient way of transportation. This inefficiency is made worse by frequent traffic congestion. The economic losses due to these inefficiencies have been estimated at about Rp 14.8 billion/day in Jakarta and Rp 47 billion/day in the Jabotabek region. A further consequence is high air pollution. The World Bank estimates the economic loss due to air pollution is $220 million/year.

At the national level the centralization of both political and economic power in Jakarta is resented and has created jealousies. It strengthens anti-Java sentiment, which fuels the separatist movements in some provinces. It threatens the unity of Indonesia.

Clearly, Jakarta is on a course of unsustainable growth. Should Jakarta follow the business-as-usual scenario, very serious sociocultural and biophysical environmental degradation would follow, with dire consequences. There is urgent need to seek alternative courses, which would lead Jakarta and the whole country to a sustainable route of development.

Since the primary drive of the deterioration is the exponential growth of its economy, which in turn spurs an exponential population growth, resource consumption and waste emissions, a planned and rational policy has to be formulated to build a negative feedback loop to slow down economic growth. In the U.S., for example, the capital, which is also the center of government and politics, is Washington, D.C., but the center of business is New York. At the state level the capital of New York state is not New York, but Albany.

Hence, it is proposed to create instruments of incentives and disincentives for decentralizing the business of Jakarta by stimulating the development of business centers in the provinces, e.g. at Sabang and Medan in the west, Surabaya and Balikpapan in the center, Manado in the north, and Makassar and Biak in the east, but keeping Jakarta as the capital city.

This would distribute economic development more equitably to the outer islands. The strength of the magnetic pull of Jakarta would be weakened. People would migrate out of Jakarta to the outer islands to seek new opportunities. Instead of a net immigration Jakarta would experience a net emigration. Irrational and inefficient resource use would be dampened, which would lower air and water pollution, depletion of the aquifers, rate of land subsidence and seawater intrusion.
The city should be redesigned from a horizontal growth to a vertical one with multistoried apartment buildings for the upper, middle and lower classes. The gap between the rich and the poor would become less visible, which in turn would reduce social jealousy. The space that would become free could be allocated to parks, city forests and urban agriculture. This would reduce the intensity of the city heat island, which would reduce the need for air conditioning. The vertical growth would reduce the distances of commutes and travel time, thereby saving human energy, which in turn would increase the productivity of human resources. The development of a public transportation system would be made easier. Fuel energy would be saved.

Since Indonesia is an archipelagic country, marine transportation should be encouraged. More traffic would go through the sea lanes, which are natural highways. Traffic congestion on the turnpikes and highways would be eased. With the development of marine transportation the seas would not be seen as barrier separating Indonesia's 17,000 plus islands from each other, but would be perceived as natural bridges uniting the islands into one whole country. Marine-based industries would reduce the population pressure on land, particularly on Java, thereby reducing land degradation.

The inequitable economic growth between Jakarta and the outer islands would be reduced, if not eliminated, which would weaken separatist movements. Thus the unity of Indonesia would be better ensured. Since air and water pollution and the rates of depletion of aquifers, land subsidence and seawater intrusion would be reduced, the physical collapse of Jakarta would be prevented.

Admittedly, the change would be painful and it would be resisted by many economists, politicians and the established class who are benefiting from the high economic growth rate of Jakarta. But the plight of Jakarta has to be addressed. This is not a pessimistic view, but a realistic one.

Did the Government Hire Rainmakers?

There are those who wring their hands and pray for divine intervention, and there are others among us who are more proactive in dealing with the elements.

The government apparently falls into the latter category, after reportedly hiring 60 so-called "rainmen" -- spiritualists who can create or disperse rain -- to wash out massive labor protests Monday in the capital.

"The spiritualists, who mostly come from Greater Jakarta, are paid around Rp 1 million (about US$120) each for their services. They are coordinated by the Jakarta administration," said an official from the Vice President's office who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The spiritualists were reportedly assigned to several points to accumulate clouds and direct them to areas around the Hotel Indonesia circle, the House of Representatives compound, the Presidential Palace and the Vice President's Office, where the demonstrations were centered.
Like an answer to worried officials' prayers, the skies suddenly opened and saturated the protesters after they heard the rousing speeches of labor union leaders.

Several members of the police and the presidential guard also reportedly possess special abilities to cause or prevent rain, although it is not known if they were enlisted to the cause.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, looking out at the hot weather before the rain came, jokingly blamed Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani.

"Where is the rain? Pak Firman Gani told me that he has the best rainmakers hired to help disperse the protesters. But the weather seems to be friendly to the protesters," said Kalla, who denied later during a press conference the reports the government enlisted the aid of spiritualists

Has it really been Six Weeks

Not Lazy - Just Resting, well to be honest, kind of ran out of things to blog about. Antway, back again with a little more Indonesian stuff. Currently, we are waiting for Mount Merapi to blow its top and the Indonesian Playboy was issued. (Usual Riots and Bullshit took place).

Culinary Treat

How would you like your snake? Posted by Picasa

Mair Advertising


No answer to this one! Posted by Picasa

Advertising at its Best

Hmmm Posted by Picasa

Sumatran Storm

Time to get indoors I thought! Posted by Picasa

No Room at the Inn

Indonesian Ingenuity-Sleep Anywhere Posted by Picasa