Tuesday 8 December 2009

Who Ya Gonna Call?

It’s all gone supernatural in Indonesia this week with two stories hitting the press showing how deep seated the beliefs in Animism and the Afterlife sit within the peoples psyche.

Firstly, there were ghosts nicking TV sets, presumably to watch pirated copies of 2012 and Twilight – New Moon.

As reported in the Jakarta Globe…..

The pocong, a ghost clad in a white burial shroud, has reportedly been preying on the village of Dramaga Tengah in West Java, which is home to more than 150 families, for the past month. But in the past two weeks, it has begun to steal personal property.

The spate of ghostly thefts, according to detik.com, prompted about 30 armed villagers to attempt to lure the pocong out from hiding using a fake pocong — essentially a man dressed in a shroud who jumps around the village.

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“The people initiated the search for the pocong because many homes reported they had lost their television sets,” Wawak, one of the villagers, told the news portal on Wednesday. The operation lasted several hours but failed to capture any apparition.

In folk mythology, particularly in Java and Sumatra, a dead person will transform into a pocong if the bounds of its shroud become untied after the body is buried. This is related to a Muslim tradition that requires the deceased to be wrapped in a cloth when they are buried.

Because pocong are completely bound, they can only move around by jumping or flying.

One would think that in the 21st Century that these beliefs may have been swept away with science and modern ideologies, but, it appears not and, to cap it all off there’s more!

Today, the 9th of December is World Anti-Corruption Day and there are threats of protests, even riots supposed to take place on the streets of Jakarta amid scandals, assassinations and even “hand jobs” all linked in one way or another to corruption.

Among the demonstrators are a group from an Islamic Boarding School who do not believe that the 13,000 police who have been deployed to ensure that there are no troubles will be able to do their job properly.

I don’t know about you but I would have thought that 13,000 of Jakarta’s finest, most probably dickied up with riot gear should be able to contain most anything, but, they are not capable of fighting the biggest threat – BLACK MAGIC.

Accordingly, the head cleric of this particular school has re-inforcements consisting of GENIES!

As reported by KOMPAS news agency!

A thousand djinns have been summoned to escort the demonstrations of the world antigraft day in Jakarta, Wednesday. The head cleric of Islamic Boarding-school Dzikrus Syifa' Brojomusti, in Lamongan, K.M. Muzakkin, claims to have a Moslem devout djinn that offers alternative ways to assist the antigraft day celebration going in Jakarta.

"This morning we have sent a thousand djinns to the demonstration areas in Jakarta, led by Ghulam Akhmad, a djinn from Egypt who once possessed one of my demented subordinate. This effort is merely to participate and support the demonstrants and the government through another dimension to fight corruption in Indonesia."

The deployed djinns are all trained and professionals, in social sciences, politics, law, security, theology, medication and other fields. So if a demonstrant is possessed or if there is black magic impeding the situation then the djinns from Dzikrus Syifa' school is ready to anticipate the situation.

"We don't want this celebration and endeavor to be ruined by other parties that might provoke and cause riots. The 1,000 Islamic djinns are all ready to secure the great demonstration today."

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Way to go! Visions of Ghostbusters, Gremlins and a Thousand Horsemen of the Apocalypse are filling my mind. Despite the fact that I vowed to avoid the town today I think I’ll take a spin down to demonstration central just in case I miss the deployment of the ephemeral armies commanded by Ghulam Akhmad running amuck outside the Presidential Palace.

Indonesia…don’t you just love it!