Fags not Shags

Malang regency public order officers banned sex workers from operating during the recent Ramadan and are made efforts to secure them jobs in cigarette factories as an alternative means of income.

Investigation and disciplinary division head of the public order police unit Ihavenodick Fuckwit said the initiative was aimed at minimizing the number of sex workers in the regency.

It would also equip them with the necessary skills to seek other means of income so they do not return to sex work, he said.

"We can't ask them to stop operating during Ramadan without giving them an alternative means of income, as this is our moral obligation.

"The closure of brothels should be followed up with solutions. Sex workers should be introduced to positive activities, at least during the month of Ramadan, so they can live a more meaningful life and (hopefully) not return to their old trade," said Ihavenodick at a press conference.

The regency administration will provide training and capital to sex workers to buy tobacco and paper so they can produce hand-rolled cigarettes, which will then be supplied to cigarette factories.

Malang regency is home to 321 large and small scale cigarette factories, 193 of which are currently operational and located in 33 of the regency's districts.

Data at the Malang regency Health Office shows that at least 486 sex workers currently operate in several red-light districts in the regency.

Observations conducted by officers and activists in the field indicate that a sex worker who usually serves two to three customers per day can earn Rp 50,000 (approximately US$5.50) daily, after deducting lodging and meal expenses and payment to pimps.

Meanwhile, a cigarette factory worker can earn Rp 40,000 a day.

"This program will be carried out not only during Ramadan, but also after the holy month," Ihavenodick said. (I cannot see this working somehow)

He added the program, which had been ongoing for the past year, was initially strongly rejected by various parties, such as pimps and others who felt they would be deprived of their incomes.

As a consequence, many cigarette companies -- which were initially willing to employ the sex workers -- retreated as they, as well as the sex workers, received threats.

Last year, the regency administration introduced the program at a brothel in Suko village, Sumberpucung district, where around 70 sex workers operated. Only around 15 percent of the sex workers were willing to take part in the program and were hired by three factories.

Ihavenodick then familiarized the public with the program and coordinated with cigarette companies, the Malang regency police, the local social welfare office and community figures to help sex workers who wished to leave their old profession.

"Three factories have stated their cooperation and will accept the sex workers. They will be chosen from the red-light areas nearest to the factories so they don't have to spend extra money on transportation."

The regency administration's policy to close down brothels and entertainment establishments during Ramadan is also aimed at minimizing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

While this is an interesting concept, time will tell whether the girls will continue rolling fags or go back to smoking beef!

Never mind the bollocks, here's the busway!

Jakarta has decided after nearly 500 years to consider an integrated mass rapid transportation system.

City inhabitants -- seeing plans for busways, monorails, subways and water taxis -- are dreaming of a future of roads unplagued by run-down city buses.

But then the TransJakarta busway arrived, and it was goodbye Kopaja. (Kopaja is responsible for ½ the shit on the road and, in fairness about 80% of vehicle emissions)

In a time when becak (mini buses) and bajaj (three wheeled death traps) still thrived in a less-sprawled Jakarta, city buses were the way of the future.

But when the MRT finally kicks in, most of the older forms of transport will be politely told to “get the fuck out of here”!

Around 6,500 buses have been, and will be, affected by the introduction of TransJakarta busway alone.

Of course, this will mean unemployment as there are currently about 13,000 workers, since one bus is often staffed by two alternating drivers.

The administration has included the current bus operators in its TransBatavia consortium, a joint cooperation to manage the city's busway corridors. (read corruption)

Prior to the introduction of TransJakarta, city public transportation was basic with Pak and Ibu Fuckwit having no option but to hop on the notorious buses and minivans.

The existing fleet still consists of street devils by all definitions: unsafe, uncomfortable and unfriendly to the environment. In addition, hawkers, musicians and beggars are using them as work areas and your ride, uncomfortable to start with is fraught with these additional parasites from start to finish!

Pak Onan, a bus owner stated "What do you expect when people are only paying Rp 1,000 or Rp 2,000 for the ride? Bus owners don't have the resources to maintain or revamp their old buses."

Similar responses also come from other bus owners, drivers and sometimes even passengers. But there is more to it than that.

For the owners, problems only come twice a year when the buses require their official safety and quality tests at the Pulogadung center for public transportation.

"A healthy bus could pass with Rp 400,000. But failure to meet one of the requirements costs another Rp 50,000," said Dul Bastard a colleague of Onan who specializes in making sure that the buses pass the tests. (read corruption)

An observation at the Pulogadung testing center backs up Dul's story, with drivers queuing their buses for the test familiar with the "special handshake."

The result is apparent in the buses that freely roam the streets with brakes that often fail and thick smoke coming from their exhausts.

"Paying those fees is already a burden. You can't expect us to take the buses to the garage every month for maintenance," said Toupe adding that he had to come up with (steal) Rp 40 million to start operating his buses.

"For route fees and all. You know, that sort of thing," he said. (Read kickbacks)

And with that investment, he collects Rp 200,000 a day from his drivers. (Read he is also being ripped off by his drivers)

With the special handshake available to waive maintenance problems, there are no incentives or disincentives for him to spend more on maintenance or revamp his fleet.

The chaos of the industry is in turn made more complex by the erratic and dangerous behavior of drivers and passengers.

Fucking nightmare is about the only description for it, however, it looks as if despite the best intentions, the nightmare will last for at least another 500 years!

Music

Dilligaf Jakarta's Showcase

A little Update

Yup, Lazy as I am I put a few up. Thankfully it's Id Al Fitri here which means "time off". I'll get round to a more complete update over the next few days!

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

Recently the Indonesian president visited the site of the “mud volcano” and was said to have been “moved to tears over the devastated lives of the thousands of families affected by the mudflow delivered to their homes courtesy of Bakrie-owned Lapindo Brantas Inc” After the visit in July he decided to order the company to do the what they should have done months ago.





The Jakarta Post, the premier English language rag in Jakarta (better be careful, I get a lot of my material from this paper) stated:

“Even the Indonesian President must be convinced by now that Aburizal Bakrie is more of a liability to the nation than he is an asset. Bakrie's continued presence in the post of Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare clearly does not serve the interests of the cabinet, the government, or the people of Indonesia.

The only interests served by the continued presence of Bakrie in that senior and completely inappropriate post are Bakrie's own and, to a rapidly diminishing degree, the partisan political interests that saw him appointed in the first place. “

Says it all. Bakrie does not appear to be a very nice man!

For a bit of background, Bakrie ran the economics portfolio during Abdurrahman (Gus Dur) Wahid's presidency and performed magnificently as the skipper of the ship which guided Indonesia to the worst economic performance (read total fucking meltdown) in the country's history.

A Political Party (Golkar) executive and a mega millionaire (US$ not Indonesian Rupiah) he joined the current government and appears to be on course to give a convincing repeat performance off his inability to rise to the standards and levels of integrity required to be an honest politician. (But what the fuck, we are in Indonesia, honest politicians have never existed here).

Bakrie’s main problem is that he ignores his social responsibilities and has an entirely “I don’t give a fuck” attitude to the conflict of interests that is well recognised by other political forces outwith Indonesia.

Bakrie as the senior cabinet member responsible for the welfare of the thousands upon thousands of people whose homes, villages, and livelihoods have been wiped out by a disaster caused by a company he controls, would be unthinkable in most democratic countries.

So as you can see, once again, the nepotistic, cronyfied (is it a word) values entrenched within the Indonesian system still work as effectively as they have done since independence, and as always, it’s only the little people who suffer.

Oh, nearly forgot, the instructions to tidy up the mud-flow, ease the suffering that the President was said to have given, I think they were ignored!

Bogor Days

My driver calls it Bogor Day, it happens twice a week, Monday’s and Friday’s. Bogor Day is a result of the Friday exodus to Bogor and the return on Monday of those who are rich enough to own property in Bogor, or those who live in Bogor returning home for the weekend.

The Jagorawi Toll road is chock a block, all access from PK Rambutan until Cawang is slow and the result is a tortuous crawl to work.

This however need not be the case, the construction of a toll road from Rambutan to Bekasi has been underway for two years now and, much like the new channels needed to control the flooding, cannot be completed until certain sections of land can be purchased.

Speculators, squatters, tenants and fraudster’s all own paper showing the land to be theirs! Trying to ascertain who the true owners are is like finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack” Even after this has been firmly identified in court, things are not always simple in clearing the land to allow construction to progress.

This can be a very real winners and losers situation as, more often than not the Police and Military are called in to remove the residents, many of whom have paid for their title deed’s only to find out that they are worthless.

In the dog eat dog world of Jakartan Land deals, even hotels, shopping malls, high rise offices and apartment complexes have been caught up in the land wars. There are in fact reported case off buildings being erected in designated catchments whose function is to control the annual floods.


Pak Fuckwit A “This flooding should never have happened, we have designated catchments to curtail the inflow of water from Bogor”

Pak Fuckwit B “No we don’t, there’ a shopping mall and an apartment complex in that area”

Pak Fuckwit A “How did that happen, no planning permission was given?”

Pak Fuckwit B “ They don’t need planning permission, the company concerned is above the law, and anyway, it’s too late now, it has been completed and the apartments are full”

Pak Fuckwit A “Better leave it as it is then, don’t want to upset PT Dontgiveafuck”

And so it goes on….methinks Bogor Days will be continuing for a while!

Correction. Being the lazy bastard that I am I did not post this when I wrote it. The new Toll Road opened about a month ago! Only takes 35 minutes to get to work now instead of 1 hour and ten minutes. Only problem is the Toll Fee’s increased and everyone stopped using the tolls and now the artery roads are choked.

Ho Fucking Hum!

Just around the corner!

With most of us barely shaken by the last two earthquakes, we can look forward to our next set of calamities. It’s almost upon us, that time of the year when it starts to piss down big style, and yet again, no-one seems to give a fuck.

The big question is whether the city fathers can arouse enough activity to have the residents clean up the shit that they have dumped into the water ways and gutters over the summer and get these rubbish choked flow paths cleaned before the next floods come?

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (read woefully ineffective bunch of twats) have issued a warning “that heavy rainfall expected in November could result in flooding in a number of regions in the country”. Funny old thing that: this crap happens every year and they issue warnings, however, that may be due to the lack off memory retention in the area. (It’s known as the “Lupa” effect, Lupa being a uniquely Indonesian term for “I’ve forgotten” or “I do not want to do this so I will just ignore it and tell you I forgot”)

"The cause of flooding will be heavier rainfall than usual in these areas during the coming months," Hery Fuckwit, deputy assistant supervisor manager head of the observation division at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, was claimed to have said.

No shit Sherlock! Hery, I have some news for you, the rains are the same, it’s just the drainage is getting worse.

It is estimated that about 80 percent of the total 220 'periodical zones' in Indonesia will start entering the rainy season in October and November. A periodical zone is an area with consistency between the season and the actual climate, for the layman wet and dry seasons are as suggested “wet and dry”.

In fairness the BMG, along with the Public Works Ministry and the National Coordination Agency for Surveying and Mapping, has marked the potential flood areas into sub districts, which can assist in a measure of preparation for the onslaught. (And there are “bucket loads” of them.)

"We made the predictions based on our study of the global climate," Hery said, carefully wiping his crystal ball and putting the Ouji board back in his drawer.

A climate expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Zadrach L. Dupe (No shit, real name), said the warning from BMG should help people begin preparing now for possible flooding.

"We only have a few weeks left. If we want to prevent floods we have to engage in community services, such as cleaning up gutter and improving drainage systems."

Alternatively, how about teaching people where to dispose of their garbage, request the Jakartan authorities create a Waste Disposal Agency which works, build the proposed flood canal’s which would handle the excess waters and consider land management systems which prevent natures natural barriers from being developed for more high rise apartments and malls.

Seems pretty fucking straightforward to me!