Extra! Extra!

I’ve been MIA from my blog for a while! Fortunately, I’ve been busy traveling, which means I’ll have lots to write about in the next few days. But first, I wanted to share these articles.

First, from a conference in Medan last week (more coming on that later). This was published in the April 4 edition of Waspada:

The newspaper in Depok printed an article about Christine a few weeks ago which included quotations and facts that were completely fabricated. It’s not anything she was upset about; it’s just funny. The story basically explained how Depok had been such a struggle at first, and then she’d fallen in love with the city and its people. Hmm.

When I returned from the conference in Medan, the teachers said there had been an article about me in the April 6 edition of Sumatera Ekspres. My school took the pictures weeks ago, but I thought they were just for memory’s sake. The article even includes direct quotes from me in Bahasa Indonesian! (There’s no way I said those things. But I think given the opportunity, I might have said what they printed anyway, so all’s fair.)

Sadly, while IGM has official school make-up and traditional costumes, we do not have a scanner. So you’ll have to settle for a picture. I’m feeling awfully special, given all this hot-off-the-press attention.

I'm too sexy for the gym.

Well, this is as good an excuse as any not to work out. I wouldn’t want to arouse any “sexual desires.”

Here’s an article from today’s Jakarta Post, forwarded to me by the lovely Andrea Reichert, with a warning for those headed to the gym or planning to celebrate the upcoming holiday. Yup, this is right in my hometown of Palembang.

I wonder if this will affect my students’ reactions to the Valentine’s Day lesson I already planned. Nothing says debauchery like candy conversation hearts.

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Indonesian Muslim Organization Cracks Down on Tight Gym Clothes and Valentine’s Day

Nurfika Osman

The head of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Palembang, South Sumatra, has warned people, especially women, not to wear sexy and tight attire when they undertake aerobic exercise as it might arouse sexual desire.



Sodikun said that most aerobic clothing was not in line with Islamic cultural values the issue needed to be resolved. 



But leggings and tank tops are not the only sexual temptation at the gym, according to Sodikun. He warned that aerobics class moves could also spark sexual desire.



“Exercise is recommended to maintain physical fitness and health, but it must be conducted in accordance with our existing social norms and culture,” Sodikun said. “Aerobic exercise must also avoid the use of transparent suits as it does more harm than good.”



At the same time, the MUI in Pamekasan, East Java, called on the Muslim community to refrain from celebrating Valentine’s Day, stating that it was not a Muslim tradition.



The clerics issued the call because in past years certain segments of the population in Pamekasan had taken part in activities to celebrate the day.



“After all, Valentine’s Day is not an Islamic tradition,” said Lailurrahman, chairman of the MUI’s Pamekasan branch.



“Also, Valentine’s Day celebrations tend to be marked by frivolous, extravagant behavior or even improper activities,” he added.



He said that filling one’s life with love was actually in accordance with Allah’s commands. But Valentine’s Day, which falls on February 14, had pagan connotations, and therefore celebrating it would be a deviation from the Islamic faith, he said.



In Indonesia, the day is mainly observed among young people living in urban centers.



But Lailurrahman said that when one studied the origins of Valentine’s Day, it was obvious that it had nothing to do at all with Islam and Islamic cultural values. 



“So, it is only proper for the MUI to forbid Muslim youths from observing the day,” he said.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Guess what I should be doing?

Packing.

(That's the answer about 85% of the time when I'm procrastinating.)

I have to set my luggage outside my door at 5:00am, and the bus for the Jakarta airport leaves at 6:30am. So I need to wrestle all my new clothes and old clothes and books and medicine bottles and shower stuff into two suitcases. And I need to shower. And sleep. All within the next 5 1/2 hours. Yes, this seems like a smart time to write a blog.

Tomorrow I will arrive in Palembang, and I'll stay there for the next eight months. I won't have the internet right away, but I'm hoping to get it set up on Wednesday. Tonight I'll take my last hot shower in who knows how long. This is what I signed up for... here we go. I'll also step back an hour, so I'll be 10 hours ahead of EST.

I remember staying at Samantha's house in St. Mary's, Ohio this summer for a few days. I checked my email one morning, and I had a message from AMINEF. It said I'd been placed in Palembang, South Sumatra for the 2009-2010 school year. I looked it up when I got back to Muncie. Then, it was just a little dot on a map of a country I knew hardly anything about. In 12 hours, I'LL be on that little dot.

And take a look at this beluga whale of a baby!

It even made the front page of the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum.

This is from the island where I'm headed:

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200909250730/UPDATES01/90925004

A Post on The Jakarta Post

The Jakarta Post is the English newspaper published in Indonesia's capital. I've been working on the crossword puzzles during breaks between classes. (Yeah, why NOT waste time improving my English skills when I could be learning new words in Bahasa Indonesia?) I've also been reading the stories, and there are a few topics I want to share with you...

Selamat Idul Fitri!

Idul Fitri is the Muslim equivalent of Christmas, and it starts tomorrow. It's the end of Ramadhan, a whole month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. In fact, as I type, I hear the constant sound of fireworks and excited Indonesians screaming into loudspeakers outside on the street. Not shockingly, some of these explosives look a little shady. And considering my 11th floor hotel room is one of the tallest spots in the city, I'm staring them all in the face.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/19/muslims-celebrate-idul-fitri-same-date.html

Anyway, something rather interesting to note is that Indonesian Muslims didn't know until today WHEN they would be celebrating their biggest holiday; they just knew it would be sometime in the next few days. This is a completely foreign concept to me. (Pun!) I guess it has to do with coordinating the lunar calendar and the approval of the government. So they literally found out today that tomorrow is their biggest holiday. I can just imagine if we in the US found out when Christmas was on Christmas Eve. Regardless, I seem to be the only one who's confused by this. Everyone else is out in the street with a bottle rocket and bull horn.

Aceh and Stoning Laws

In the honors humanities classes I took my freshman year, our professors always stressed how important it is to use our "lenses" when we're trying to understand the lives of people who are very different than we are. Basically, that means not judging something or someone as wrong or ridiculous because it's so different from the way we think now. I suppose this same concept should apply to Aceh's government's latest attempt to sentence all adulterers to public stoning, but it's awfully hard to even understand what they're trying to do.

In a nutshell, the outgoing government in Banda Aceh (like Bahnd-uh Atch-uh) is trying to sneak through this stoning law before they're out of office. Only, they aren't sneaking it through at all because everyone is upset about it. Under the new law, married adulterers would be stoned 100 times or until they died and unmarried adulterers would be caned up to 100 times. And here's a catch: adulterers can only be women.

It also categorizes homosexuality and public displays of affection as crimes. To be fair, most of Indonesia is very opposed to the ordinance, and hopefully, it will never actually become a law.

Here's a really good opinion column about a 13-year-old girl who was sentenced to death because she was raped by a married man:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/18/commentary-aceh-between-tale-two-aishas.html

Aceh is at the very top of Sumatra, many hours away from Palembang but still on the same island. The Jakarta Post also featured a great editorial about the issue, saying that a law like this would only set back the country as a whole, which has come so far politically in the last decade.

And here's one of the craziest parts to me, and I am TRYING to not to just look at this as a Western feminist-- at the top of the front page, there's a section offering readers a chance to "Text your say" to "Aceh's Stoning Bylaw." Really? We can use our cell phones to text opinions to our online and print newspaper... and we're still stoning people?

Polluted Palembang

I officially have less than a week left in Bandung before I head to Palembang. So imagine my excitement when this fun little headline is splashed across the page: Haze Forces Airport Closure in Palembang.

Gulp.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/14/respiratory-complaints-rise-palembang.html

Forest fires around Palembang have made the air so polluted that officials are literally handing out masks to people on the street as they drive by. All the pollution in the air is causing respiratory infections, eye and skin irritation, and diarrhea. Luckily, I think I'll be a little bit outside of the city.

Well, this post didn't end up being a happy one, did it? Whoopsie. I promise I'll have more stories with a much more positive outlook on life in Indo coming up very soon.

Article in the Telegraph Forum

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200909010730/NEWS01/90831010

Above is the link to an article just printed in the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum...

Isn't my Callie beautiful?