Importance of Art

On Words

Importance of Art

By ANDREW GREENE

Jakarta – When school budgets are cut, art is often the first class to go.

The groupthink seems to be that studying art is fine as long as time and other resources allow. Otherwise, it is treated as if it were a disposable subject; something that is at its heart little more than an entertainment that can be guiltlessly thrown away.

True, most students do not grow up to be professional artists. But then again most do not become mathematicians, authors or scientists either. However, since we understand how the macro skills taught through math, language and science instruction spread into all areas of our lives, those later subjects remain untouchable.

What we fail to keep in mind is that when we study art we discover new ways of looking. Art opens our eyes. Without fresh perspectives there will be few new ideas in math, science, literature, business or life. A background in art gives us the ability to see the world from different angles. This is a skill that colors all that we do.

One of the best ways parents can foster their children’s natural love of art is to introduce them to museums and clubs that stimulate their interests. In Jakarta, we are fortunate to live in close proximity to all sorts of galleries, art clubs and art schools. One such club, profiled in the last OnWords, Jakarta Art Teachers and I, offers art workshops. I was fortunate to be able to discuss one of these workshops with the participants of a recent gathering.

Consisting of a variety of workshops and instructed by 15 art teachers, the workshop gave students the opportunity to learn from new friends. Teacher Judi Harwin says that although the students started off a little shy they were eager to learn new skills and "were extremely motivated by working alongside students from different schools."

Participant eleventh-grader Satoshi agrees saying, “It’s a good idea to have this kind of event, because we were able to learn lots of art techniques from different teachers and share our knowledge of art with other students.”

Tuktik, another eleventh-grader, was also pleased with her experience. "I’ve learnt new things,” she recalls, “gained new skills, experienced new styles of teaching. It seems to me the world is wider.”

Art workshops provide students safe places from which to address difficult subjects. Satoshi is especially proud of his work on racism saying, "I did nine paintings of students' faces. It was a bit hard, but it was fun as well… I used black, white and gray for the painting on canvas in a black frame. The idea is to show that if you take the color out people, we are all the same."

An additional beaming participant, tenth-grade student Hana, says about her project, "I wanted to focus on an Indonesian concern. I picked the Bird of Paradise because the bird is only found in Indonesia. I wanted to make the style of my art unique by using spices as a painting material. Spices symbolize Indonesia. The colors of spices are limited and I struggled hard to find a perfect match for the plumage of the bird. This project has been a real challenge for me as I had never drawn with spices before, and I had to do lots of trial before the final piece."

Learning from others is one the keys to the success of these workshops. Simon Mortimer, the leader of the workshop's etching work station, says, "The focus was on giving students from different schools the same collective artistic experience, but more importantly, to allow them to have fun experimenting with different media and techniques."

Harwin agrees adding that she believes that both teachers and students got the chance to grow. She says, "There is a great diversity of international and national teachers, different ages, yet with a common focus… We all have our own individual strengths and weaknesses, so we pick up lots of helpful advice.”

For further information about joining an art club or school contact JATI at jati_contact@yahoo.com, Mitra Rahardi Prana Art School at 719-4715 or Kelas Melukis Yudacitra Art Classes at 719-1042.

Until next column,

Happy Creating,

AG

This article was originally published Nov. 11, 2007 in The Jakarta Post.

Six Alternatives to Television

OnWords

Six Alternatives to Television

By ANDREW GREENE

Jakarta – Television watching is the stinking ashtray on the dining room table. Though most profess to believe it is detrimental to our well-being, we refuse to turn our TVs off.

True, there are benefits to having a television. After all, it provides us with the cultural images that bind us to our communities. The Challenger exploding, O.J.’s white Bronco chase, the subsequent L.A. riots and the more-recent toppling of the Saddam statue are all events that I have, at least, virtually experienced.

Also, of course, there are sports to consider. Without television most of us would never be part of a World Cup or even, more importantly, the scrumptious shirtless-Beckham post-match interview. For many, sports are the main reason to have a television.

But, all of that notwithstanding, once we have made the decision to live a telly-free life, we need to think about how to fill the void. After much thought and research at sites such as www.squidoo.com/notv, www.thesimpledollar.com, www.whitedot.org plus other publications, I have assembled a selection of half-a-dozen activities that I myself start today as my own television-less existence commences.

Read it. Most of us have those books that we have always wanted to read. Ulysses and Under the Volcano head my list. I have started and quit both on numerous occasions and now that I have shut my box, I will open the first again and, this time, finish it.

Connect it. Sit down with your family. Have focused conversations and learn about one another. Go out, meet your neighbors, join clubs. The Living in Indonesia website at www.expat.or.id/ has a list of clubs that can help you connect with people who have the same interests as you do. Go nuts and use your free evenings to start dating your spouse or partner again.

Play it. The classic games of Monopoly and Uno never, in my opinion, go out of style. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my family and I playing Risk, Monopoly, Spoons, and Uno.

Chess is a game I came to appreciate once I moved to Indonesia. This is a wonderful place to hone your game. Most drivers and security guards are willing to school you free of charge.

For card enthusiasts, the websites at www.pagat.com and www.cardgamerules.homestead.com are stocked with rules of games you have probably long forgotten how to play along with many you most likely have never heard of.

Learn it. Many universities now offer online degree and certificate programs. These can make productive use of your newly-found surplus time and hopefully even help you secure that next promotion.

Closer to home, many schools and institutions in Jakarta offer evening and weekend classes that will help you learn that skill you have always wanted to pick up. Mandarin, oil painting, creative writing and pasta making classes are just a sampling of what is available here.

Move it. Use that evening television time to go for walks. Sure, the Big Smoke is not exactly foot-friendly, but deep within the city’s neighborhoods and winding gangs, the roads are less-heavily mechanized and full of interesting sights and people. Walking is also a great way to spend time with your family and a fine way to meet your neighbors. In addition to walking, this evening time would also be nice for starting any fitness plan you are interested in.

Box and Eat it. Start a picnic day. Be creative and get the whole family involved. Each week, another person can select the picnic’s menu and setting. An eating blanket can be spread anywhere, from your master bedroom’s balcony to the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

As I reread the above six thoughts, I realized that they all possess a common thread. They are about paying more attention to those two things that matter most: you and the people around you.

That, to me, is not a bad trade off.

Good luck,

AG

This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post.

Doctor H. Arief Rachman on Education: Part One

On Words

Doctor H. Arief Rachman – part one

By ANDREW GREENE

Tuesday, 17 June, 2007, 8:17 PM Local Time

JAKARTA – Deep into his fifth decade of educating, Doctor H. Arief Rachman has no plans of slowing down.

In fact, with his recent appointment to Diponegoro junior, high, and vocational schools adding to his work as a Universitas Negeri Jakarta (State University of Jakarta) lecturer along with his duties as the Executive Chairman of the Indonesia National Commission of UNESCO, his frankness is clear as he claims the word retirement holds scant desirability for him.

He says, “I do not understand the meaning. Perhaps there is status in the word. For me, I think I will be busier in my old days, because at that age it isn’t just about implementation, but about inspiration.”

Sleep, at times, does not find the grandfather of three easily. Thirty-six of his high school senior students had recently failed their national examinations and he says, “I couldn’t anticipate whether I’d have the courage or not to face them. I knew it was to be hard and it kept me awake at night.”

However, meet them he did, saying, “I am trying to build a system that teaches honesty is most important. When you fail, you fail.”

This commitment to integrity is important to the man. Before he joined Diponegoro half a year back, he declared “if I am wanted in this school, honesty is on top of everything. True, the final exam results are sad and quite low but… you’ve got to perform according to what you are and failing is OK.”

Rachman believes dishonesty is rampant in lower-income schools with tests being marked up and reports falsified. He does not understand how the schools can have 99% or 100% final examination pass rates.

“Corruption in education is largely uncontrolled,” he says, “lots of teachers enjoy doing wrong practices. We’ve got to keep echoing to everybody that this is wrong. I’d like to call on my fellow teachers to be honest. Do not make up scores or reports.”

The educator feels that it is the final examinations that breed problems and dishonesty. “We need to go back to the essential and ask what we are evaluating. Marks, final exams or students progress over the years? A student’s continuous evaluation should be considered as a basic criterion of passing. So no national government rules should be the only criteria for passing.”

Explaining, Rachman continues, “In Banda Aceh, 32 teachers were killed in the tsunami and entire schools destroyed. The students were living in tents and suddenly it was demanded that they meet the same criteria as those in Block M. This is very illogical.”

The youthful-looking, eternally-smiling lecturer is a realist and understands the need for examinations. He says he knows there is a need for student evaluation, but believes the examinations “are causing people to worry, and does not make them aware. Our education is fonder of competition with ranking, putting people in blocks, not together as one.”

He warns, “Unless the government gives realistic criteria for passing grades, people will try to find shortcuts instead of being true; people will try to be safe. This principal has got to be abolished. I’d like to change it by giving guidelines to schools and then letting the teachers and headmasters decide who’ll pass and then demand all teachers and headmasters are honest.”

Rachman believes that this desire to be safe at the expense of being true “comes from the discrepancy between the haves and have nots, [from] the big gorge growing between the clever and the slow learners. I am afraid,” he says, “the clever and the rich will have better facilities and will go up and up while the slow and poor will sink down and down, although our constitution and our laws of education do not agree with this.”

“Our philosophy in Indonesia,” he elaborates further, “Unity in Diversity, is an excellent philosophy and we should go in that direction. We should be more consistent with what’s in our constitution. It is said we’ve got to believe in God, humanity, nationalism, social justice, democracy and being humane. [But] How can you be humane if you are cornered by a situation in which you are forced to steal and to lie? I think education should come into that area and teach that no matter how poor you are, you have no justification to steal, to lie. You must be strong no matter what you face.”

Rachman says he was drawn to Diponegoro for the opportunity to assist those that face such dilemmas. He says that 75% of his students come from poor families, the children of our maids, guards, laundresses, walking food hawkers.

“It attracted me,” he says, “because the students come from the lower financial classes and I’ve discovered that although intellectual input is not very high, financial input is not very high and the salaries of our teachers average just five to six hundred thousand rupiah a month, the schools have about 3,000 students in total.”

“I am also attracted to the schools because the students are so enthusiastic to go to school, although I do not think many of them have healthy support at home. They’ve got to fight for their lives.”

He leans back, pushes his fingers through his full-head of salted hair and remembers, “I asked one student why he wasn’t wearing a belt and he replied, ‘This is Tuesday. It’s my father’s day to wear the belt.’” During the interview the professor shares similar one-belt family stories about shoes and study materials.

“I do not feel we have addressed them well and I do not think we have paid enough attention to these kinds of schools. I imagine these types dominate all schools in Indonesia.”

He is proud of Diponegoro’s progress thus far. “When our students finish they have strong confidence to face all our challenges.”

The good doctor was gracious enough to invite me into his Rawamangun home for more than an hour as he readily shared his thoughts. On Words next installment will continue the interview, with the professor’s words about building a progressive school culture, the role of indigenous and foreign languages in Indonesia, his decade as a English quiz show host on television, and the two times he was imprisoned.

This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post.

On Words: The Boy Poet Abdurahman Faiz

On Words

The Boy Poet Abdurahman Faiz

By ANDREW GREENE

Friday, 15 June, 2007, 12:52 PM Local Time

JAKARTA –Poet Abdurahman Faiz will be busy this summer. His sixth book, Nadya, Kisah Dari Negeri Yang Menggigil (Nadya, Stories from a Shivering Nation), comes out in July.

Once the book is released, he will travel about Jakarta the rest of the month, meeting his fans and signing their purchases. Faiz has got just a few weeks to promote this latest work, for in August he begins the sixth grade.

To read a Faiz collection is to walk Jakarta’s streets. It is to ponder headlines, to question, to belong. Family, beggars, God, war, faith, disaster, and hope are just a sampling of the topics living within his pages. His sixth book deals with Indonesian society and politics and is, according to the author, infused with optimism.

Faiz says he is drawn to poetry because poems are short, meaningful and can often be spontaneously finished at one go. Some he completes within minutes, while his more stubborn pieces can demand a month or two. His Javanese father, Tomi, explains in English, “He doesn’t have a finishing target, so he just writes when he has ideas.”

The poet says he does not worry about writer’s block. When the affliction hits him, Faiz simply goes and plays, confident that the ideas will return. They always do.

He says that he finds ideas everywhere, from all that he sees and all that he hears. He is primarily driven to the keyboard by social problems that he witnesses or reads or hears about. When an idea comes, he records it in his cell phone for later retrieval.

Faiz writes with a clear vision. He knows what needs to be said and will not be satisfied until his message is lucid and strong. He recalls that he has had to fight his editors in order to maintain the integrity and precision of his work. If even a single word is altered, he feels the work is no longer his and does not accept it. His Acehnese mother, Helvi, a university lecturer, says Faiz remembers every word he writes and is tenacious when it comes to protecting each and everyone of them.

On the surface, Faiz is a rather ordinary soon-to-be 12-year-old child. Though smiling and friendly, he is noticeably less-than-comfortable as we talk in his family’s modest living room. He frequently pauses and looks towards the ceiling in search of words. His fingers twist and knot together between his rocking knees. He explains, in Indonesian, that he writes better than he speaks.

When not writing, he is just a boy. He enjoys playing basketball, riding his bike around his Depok neighborhood, reading automobile magazines and books such as Harry Potter and playing computer games.

He spends a lot of time at the computer. Never having liked writing by hand, he took to the keyboard at the age of five. Now he writes poems and updates his blog just about daily. Tomi, a television-news producer, says in English that Faiz is a “completely modern boy.”

Readers of his work come from all walks of life, politicians, fellow-writers, academics and the public at large. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono considers Faiz’s work to be “very touching.” Political and religious leader Amien Rais calls Faiz “a deeply thoughtful writer,” while former president Megawati Soekarnoputri hopes his work will “inspire and give spirit to future generations.”

Poet Agus R Sarjono says that Faiz’s “worry about social situations is his fresh style.” Professor Riris T. Sarumpaet finds Faiz’s “concern to be pure, simple, transparent, and deeply sensitive.”

One of his poems so clearly demonstrates the need for governmental transparency that it is used by Masyarakat Transparasi Indonesia (the Society for Transparency of Indonesia), in its anti-corruption campaign.

Faiz’s first book, Untuk Bunda dan Dunia (For Mother and Earth), has been reprinted ten times since it came out in 2004. All of his books together have sold around 80,000 copies.

Later in the interview, Faiz relaxes and shows me around the family’s upstairs office. The wall next to the computer is nearly completely covered with writing and poetry awards the he has won and framed clippings from newspapers and magazines that have featured the boy poet.

Faiz says that he wishes there were more young authors in Indonesia. He suggests that children who would like to write keep diaries, play scrabble, read a lot, observe their surroundings and always ask questions. He believes it is vital that writers are sensitive to the surrounding world.

Faiz possesses that sensitivity. He suffers from it. Helvi says that her son is so painfully aware that he used to cry whenever he witnessed or learned of sorrow. Now, he crafts that raw openness into his art and uses it to affect change. He donates half of each royalty check to his two foster brothers in North Jakarta and Aceh’s tsunami victims.

As he shows me his blog, I think to myself that he is fortunate the room still has three bare walls. I get the feeling he is going to need them.

Abdurahman Faiz’s blog is at http://masfaiz.multiply.com.

(Sidebar, one of two)

Doaku Hari Ini

My Prayer for Today

My Lord

Give me your time

To grow in the road of love

A seedling

In all along the road of my parents

In all along the road of my Indonesia

In all along the road to you

Amen

July 2003

(translated by Rafi Hayati and Andrew Greene)

(Sidebar, two of two)

Pengungsi di Negeri Sendiri

Refugee in Their Own Country

No one dances any longer

Between the filthy tents

Over here

Only suffering

Caught in our eye

And our ear

Not even one song

We ever sing anymore

Only teardrops sing

Between hunger, thirst

Changing seasons

Have you noticed this, my brother?

October, 2003

(translated by Rafi Hayati and Andrew Greene)

The Recorder of Secret Worlds

The Recorder of Secret Worlds

By ANDREW GREENE

Saturday, December 16, 2006, 5:57 PM Local Time

JAKARTA –Don Hasman is an enthusiastic man. When he speaks, his entire body pops and bubbles with excitement.

The 66-year-old Jakarta native is a journalist, anthropology writer, explorer, mountain climber, bicycler, lecturer, and author. As he talks, his compact frame leans forward over his cup of hot chocolate, his widening eyes draw wrinkles across his forehead. His hands remain clasped under the table but his shoulders jump as if they, the hidden hands, want to fly free. He is bursting.

He says when he was a young man he studied law and decided to become a journalist for the chance to see the world. “A journalist doesn’t need to pay to travel,” he explains. “The company pays.” Following his interests, he has mainly written about exploration, the environment, and culture.

Being a journalist in Indonesia has not always been easy. Hasman was working for the daily newspaper Sinar Harapan in October 1986 when it was closed down by the Suharto, Indonesia's president from 1967 to 1998, regime. “The reporters waited a year before the company shifted us to the weekly tabloid Mutiara and the newspaper Suara Pembaruan,” he says. The three publications are owned by the same company.

“During the Suharto era, one had to be an acrobat to write,” the father of two teenaged girls remembers. “The army, the special forces, thought that no one else was clever, but we were clever too.”

Despite the freedom reporters currently enjoy in Indonesia, Hasman says, there are important topics that remain unexplored. “Things done by the former government are not being investigated. It’ll be like opening a Pandora’s Box.”

“The Marsinah case, where she was tortured and killed [in 1993 after trying to assist colleagues who had been arrested following a strike at the Catur Putra Surya watch factory in Sidoarjo where they worked] is one example,” he explains.

“The journalist in Yoga [Syafruddin, a correspondent for the Yogyakarta daily Bernas], who was killed [in 1996] by the Bantul Regency for writing a critical story is another. More recently, [civil rights campaigner] Munir was poisoned and killed on a flight.” Hasman says many know who killed these people, but the stories are not told.

“In Indonesia it is easy to hire a murderer for three million rupiah [$330 USD],” Hasman adds. “Before, maybe ten years ago, it was just one million. Many people are eager to do it.”

Hasman says technology has had a positive effect on Indonesian journalism. “It saves time and money and we can send reports from anywhere. But Indonesians use technology to show off too. We are still in an agricultural era but waste time and energy on things like airplanes as [Suharto’s crony and Indonesia’s third president] Habibie did in Bandung,” says Hasman referring to the government-sponsored, failed aircraft production company in West Java’s capital.

Low salaries are another problem many Indonesian journalists face according to Hasman. “The publishing business here is worse, more evil than in capitalistic countries,” he says. “The top get more money, they are sharks, while those who face the sticks and rocks, the reporters earn less and less. That is why reporters ask for money from sources although it is illegal to do so.”

“Except for those from Tempo Magazine and Kompas [daily newspaper], many journalists do this,” continues Hasman. “According to [the Indonesian Journalists Association] PWI regulations, they face two years in prison for this, though I do not think anyone has ever been charged. It is like the 1974 polygamy ban, never enforced.”

Hasman acknowledges there have been some positive players in Indonesian journalism over the decades. “Goenawan Mohamad, [founder and editor of Tempo Magazine] has had a great influence on Indonesia. During his most productive time when he was blooming the greatest, like a flower, a cherry tree, he also faced his worst threats from the government.”

“Without him and others, most of Indonesia would not have had good information. He is very honest, a good person, and generous. His art helped him from going mad during the Suharto period,” says Hasman about Mohamad’s interest in music, theater, and opera.

Hasman is pleased with the country’s present direction but says he is aware there remain many hurdles to overcome. “The more you know about Indonesia, the more you want to vomit. Corruption is mass here. It is as [Muslim activist] Amien Rais calls it, ‘corruption together.’”

“People start being corrupt at school,” says Hasman, “when they begin looking at their schoolmates’ tests. Parents and teachers do not teach them. This situation will not improve until the rule of law is implemented.”

According to Hasman, religion and the war on terror present his nation with some further difficulties. “Islam is a very sensitive part of life in Indonesia. The West, not the people but the governments, need an enemy now that communism is no longer. And Indonesia with the planet’s largest Muslim population has many fanatics and they are being used. Some Indonesians think that the West is in the background [to the bombings in Bali and Jakarta].”

“Ujung ujungnya duit, UUD. It all ends up with money,” he continues. “The fanatics are being used. Where is their money coming from? The Middle East? The West?”

Journalism has enabled Hasman to travel as he has wished. He has been part of expeditions to Irian Jaya, Kalimantan, Wakatobi, and Indonesia’s northernmost islands, Manore and Miangas. In 1964, he traced 19^th-century explorer Alfred Russel Wallace’s path through Indonesia.

The people of Papua are among Hasman’s favorite to visit. “They’re very fragile,” he says. “They change their minds quickly because they’re not yet stable. The jump from the stone age to the modern age is too high for them.”

One of his greatest adventures was in 1993 when he was part of a group of journalists who bicycled across Tibet. “There were riders from the U.S., Syria, Israel, China, Europe, and two Indonesians, about 200 of us in total. We rode 2,000 kilometers and at elevations of up to 5,000 meters.”

In addition to the bicycling and expeditions, Hasman says he has climbed peaks around the world including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Blanc, Mount Etna, and 40 Indonesian volcanoes.

As an anthropology writer, he says he has studied the Badui, Kanekes and Kasepuhan of West Java, along with the Asmat, Dani, Yali of Irian Jaya, the Tengger people of the Mount Bromo region of Java, and the hunter-gatherers Kubu of Sumatra.

Much of his anthropological writing and work has been about the Badui. He says this is because of their proximity to Jakarta and his fondness for the people. He considers them to be reflections of past Indonesians and says that they are “straight, honest, and have their own identity.”

Hasman says that he has visited the Badui more than 500 times over the last 31 years. This makes him one of the world’s foremost experts on the tribe that has lived largely unchanged in the highlands of West Java since the time of Muhammad.

Budi Hartono, an Anthropology and Tourism lecturer from the University of Indonesia, says, “Hasman is a journalist whose work on the Badui brings out what’s good and interesting about the people.”

The Badui live in 40 villages, on 5,000 hectares in the hills around Kendeng Mountain, 120 kilometers from Jakarta. There are about 1,080 Inner Badui in three inner villages and 9,100 Outer Badui in 37 outer villages according to Hasman.

The Inner Badui are only permitted to wear home-spun and woven white cloth. They are forbidden from growing cash crops, eating four-legged animals, taking modern medicine, using electricity or any form of transportation. Due to their strict mores they are often called “The Amish of Java.”

The Outer Badui, says Hasman, follow the same traditions and norms as the inner but are less strict in their adherence.

Hasman says it is difficult to get information on the Badui and anthropologists have published papers containing numerous mistakes.

“The more you want to squeeze them, the more they try to mislead you. That’s the way their brains are,” Hasman says. “They [the observers] do not spend long enough, nor come often enough. Five to ten years is nothing. That is just enough to study the cover. You must get their confidence, but, even then, they’ll still try to hide things.”

Hasman has no plans of slowing down. He is half finished writing a book about the Badui for the Indonesian Heritage Society. Ro King, the heritage’s chairman, says, “Don has been a friend of the Indonesian Heritage Society for many years. He has given three Evening Lectures on the Badui people… Don is truly our link to these wonderful people [the Badui].”

Next year he is planning a journey to the world’s seven deadliest volcanoes. For this trip he will travel to two sites in Indonesia, plus one each in Japan, Iceland, Italy, Columbia, and Martinique in the Caribbean. He says in October he will walk the 800-kilometer Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He will write books about each adventure.

Powered by his enthusiasm, Hasman hopes to continue bringing the stories of hidden worlds to his readers for years to come.

This article was published in The Jakarta Post’s Weekender Magazine, March 2007.

Teaching to Fight

Teaching to fight

By ANDREW GREENE

October 23, 2006

America

Books aren’t just for learning anymore. Hardcovers and paperbacks along with pens, scissors, pencils, chairs, and desks are being turned into weapons in some American schools.

Recent attacks in Pennsylvania and Colorado in which lone gunmen singled out school girls for sexual assault before killing themselves are the impetus for the aggressive new stance that some schools are taking.

In Texas, The Independent School District of Burleson has hired the security company Response Options to train students to take control of school siege situations. The students are learning to throw chairs, stab with pencils, and rush attackers.

“What we are teaching here is for the children to not allow the predator to take control,” Robin Browne, a major with the British Army, who helped design the training, was quoted on freerepublic.com as having said. “They actually become the superior, the dominant party in the room, and it is actually the gunman who becomes the prey. If you have got 15 sixth, seventh and eighth graders, they can be an incredibly effective weapon."

In Oklahoma City, a candidate for state superintendent of schools along with some aides produced a 10-minute video in which they shot textbooks and telephone books with an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol.

Republican Bill Crozier was quoted by Associated Press as saying, "People might think it's kind of weird, crazy. It is a practical thing; it's something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there."

Crozier, according to the AP, has promised that if he is elected he will mandate that used textbooks be stored under every student’s desk for self-defense purposes. In Crozier’s video, pistol bullets were stopped by a single book while the rifle bullets were able to penetrate two books.

Indonesia

Concern about school safety is not solely an American concern.

Although there is not the same history of school violence in Indonesia as there is in America, there are child abductions and bullying.

In Jakarta some feel the schools need to consider implementing self-defense training policies.

Benefits

Antonious Sunaryo, the head police officer of Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta, says that such training would be beneficial for children. “Self-defense training is advantageous for children in both the short term and the long term,” the officer said in Indonesian. “Immediately, the students would be better prepared to defend themselves. At the same time they would gain a confidence that lasts a lifetime.”

Martial arts and self-defense trainer Yuri Amadin agrees, “Yes, but we must be realistic. For real life situations the basic skills of the three Olympic combat sports, boxing, wrestling, and judo will need to be taught. Once the concepts of punching, kicking, clinching, and ground grappling have been learned the children can graduate to impact and blade weapons.”

Amadin says that six to nine months would be required before the students were skilled enough to move onto weapons, “People think it is easy to learn how to defend against a weapon. They’re completely wrong. Try it yourself, give a five year old a marker and ask them to try to ‘stab’ and ‘slice’ you. You’ll end up with ink all over yourself.”

“The children have got to get the concepts of fighting down,” the American trained instructor continued. “Many people are technique collectors. They collect techniques as if they were collecting electronic gadgets. But when they are faced with a real confrontation they fall apart. People need to focus on the concepts, not the techniques.”

Likewise, Indonesian mother Rafi Hayati likes the idea of her nine-year-old daughter being taught self defense. “I’d love for her to learn it for protection. I worry. I’ve already taught Tika how to kick and punch a man in the penis. It would also be good for her to learn how to remain calm in stressful situations.”

Age restrictions

Students of different ages will require different training according to the experts. Officer Sunaryo says that children from kindergarten to grade four should not be taught any fighting skills. Instead they can learn other self-defense skills.

“The younger children need to learn how to avoid attacks and how to survive them, if need be,” he said. “We need to teach them how to recognize dangerous situations and how to scream as loud as they can and find a person of authority when they need help.”

Amadin agrees that the children below 14 years of age should not be taught too many attacking skills. “They can’t be taught submissions, such as bone breaking bone, but they can learn defensive skills and positional concepts so that they will be able to avoid attacks and hold and control the attacker until help arrives.”

“Once someone reaches 15 or so they can be taught submissions and other more aggressive techniques,” Amadin said. “These can be added to the foundation that the students have previously built.”

Though targeting younger learners Sunaryo too believes in building upon previously acquired skills. “In grade five the students can begin to learn fighting skills.”

The coaching team

Sunaryo, Amadin, and Hayati all emphasized that parents and the police need to be involved in students’ self-defense training.

Amadin said, “In order to teach some advanced techniques a parent’s permission is needed. Also, parents are very important in helping the students steer clear of irresponsible behavior with the fighting skills they are learning.”

“Parents must instill good values by being role models: teaching the kids not to have excuses and reasons as a victim does, but instead giving them the ownership of a victor.”

Hayati would like the parents to be notified of any such training, saying, “I understand that this may be controversial for some families, so the school should let the parents know about the training and not make it mandatory.”

Sunaryo says that the police are instrumental to the success of this training. He believes that the police know how to spot the patterns of kidnappers and other criminals. The police, he says, are able to help children and their parents acquire this skill.

Amadin would like to see police involvement too, believing that they would be able to help the students become familiar with various firearms. “If we are to train students how to overcome a person with a gun, we need to teach them how guns operate. They need to not freeze up when they see one and they need to understand how they fire and where the safeties are.”

Repairing the Faces of Indonesia

Repairing the Faces of Indonesia

By ANDREW GREENE

JAKARTA – His eye strengthened by a jeweler’s loupe, his body clad in blue, and his learned hands gloved in lemon, the recreational jazz guitarist needs just 45 minutes to close a cleft and bring confidence to the indigent.

In seven years, Dr. Theddeus O.H. Prasetyono has notched close to 400 cleft surgeries in his scalpel and the Surabaya native plans on performing thousands more.

“I am fortunate to be a plastic surgeon,” the right-handed 39 year-old says in English. “I feel there needs to be a built-in motivation for every plastic surgeon working in Indonesia to help our nation’s high number of cleft patients. Both the adults and the infants”

The still single surgeon, who goes by Teddy, is the Secretary General of the Indonesian Association of Plastic Surgeons. The IAPS works with the government run Jaring Pengaman Sosial (Social Safety Net) and the Dharmais Foundation to assist such patients.

“Our strength is helping those who have congenital disfigurements such as cleft lip or palette,” the Airlangga University graduate explained. “We educate parents and families about feeding difficulties babies with cleft have, potential ear problems due to their Eustachian tubes not draining properly, and social challenges those with cleft face. To receive funding, JPS and the Dharmais Foundation require that the patients obtain a letter verifying their low economic status from their local administrator.”

Currently, there are approximately 285,000 Indonesians who have a cleft lip, cleft palette, or both. With 1.25 per 1,000 Indonesian births being affected by CL/CP, the archipelago is home to nearly 6,000 new cases every year. The rate of occurrence for Indonesians, and for Asians in general, is 20 percent higher than that for Caucasians and more than double that for those of African ancestry

While the fetus is developing, the right and left sides of the lip and the roof of the mouth normally grow together. However, for some, the sections do not come together and a separation remains. This is a cleft.

An infant with a separation in the upper lip has a cleft lip while one with the defect in the roof of the mouth has a cleft palette. Since the lip and the palette develop independently of one another, a child may be born with a cleft in the lip, the palette, or both.

Teddy, who has trained in Australia and America, believes life has improved for those with a cleft. “In the larger cities,” the doctor said. “Adults with cleft are socialized though they normally have a low-economic status due to their poor education. Kids with cleft are teased at school and therefore, academically, they perform poorly.”

Outside the cities the condition is much darker. “Many remain superstitious in the villages and believe that babies with cleft are cursed,” the diminutive man who has always wanted to be a doctor elaborated. “I’ve heard that some parents still hide their children in their homes if this happens.”

To combat this situation, IAPS sends Teddy and others on nationwide surgery tours. “We travel together in teams of 11 to 13 people,” he explained. “There are six plastic surgeons, two or three anesthesiologists, and four nurses. Local personnel also commonly work with us. During such tours we can operate on 80 to 120 patients in four days.”

Like most doctors, Teddy works long hours.

By day he works at the University of Indonesia. From within the depths of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, UI’s teaching hospital, Teddy leads a team made up of an anesthesiologist, a pair of nurses, and himself. With the work of jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour drifting through the operating theater’s air, the surgeon operates twice daily, six days a week.

Teddy feels that everything he does at UI, from the counseling to the surgery to the follow-up, is teaching. There are currently 25 residents learning their craft from the doctor.

By night he builds his private practice from room 105 at Mitra Kemayoran Hospital in North Jakarta. The doctor says half of his clients come to him with purely aesthetic desires. These types of patients are often the most complicated for him due to their psychological demands.

“Counseling is very important for patients who are within the so-called ‘normal range,’ Teddy said. “Through counseling, I turn down perhaps two of these patients a month. Not every condition will be overcome through surgery.”

The other half of the patients requires reconstructive surgery. Surgically speaking, burn victims are the greatest test. “After their lives have been saved, plastic surgery becomes very important for them,” he explained. “Tendons in the hand are often destroyed by the fire and donated tendons are nearly always rejected so we must rely on transferring tendons from the same hand. Unfortunately, most of the time all of the tendons have been burnt.”

The 70-hour work weeks do not trouble Teddy. He is passionate about his profession, saying, “It was like falling in love the first time observing my teacher help burn patients. I saw there is a sense of art to it. That’s when I knew I was to be a plastic surgeon.”

This article was first published in KABAR Magazine which can be found at bookstores throughout Jakarta. It is a fine magazine that deserves a look at.

Life at the Fire Post

Life at the Fire Post

By ANDREW GREENE

Friday, November 17, 2006, 12:45 PM Local Time

MAMPANG, JAKARTA – For the five members of Mampang Fire Post’s Team A, battling the residents whom they are trying to help is sometimes tougher than fighting the fires.

Ladio, Team A’s leader, remembers a fire in Manggarai, South Jakarta in 2002 in which, he says, one man’s house had already been destroyed by the time the fire truck arrived on the scene. “He was very angry and wanted everyone else’s house to burn too. He blocked our truck’s path.”

“After we were eventually able to connect our hose, he cut it. Fifteen to 20 houses ended up being destroyed and all the residents were enraged. By the time we returned to the fire post we had been attacked with fists, knives and sticks and all of truck’s windows had been smashed.”

Even when not facing the wrath of the people, fighting fires can be tough and dangerous work. Last year a Block M market burned for three days, killing South Jakarta’s Tebet Zone Sector Head, before being extinguished. All three of Mampang’s five-man teams joined that battle along with the teams from 31 other fire posts. Ladio considers it to be the most difficult fire he has ever faced.

The city’s lack of firefighting infrastructure also presents the team with a variety of challenges. Though some of Jakarta’s streets are protected by a fire hydrant every 200 meters, this is dependant upon population density and is not always the case.

When hydrants are not accessible, other sources of water must be found. Firefighter Ahmad Gozali says, “In many areas we’re forced to pump water from the canals or from anywhere we can find it. As a last resort, we carry foam that is normally used for fighting oil-based fires.”

Getting to the fires can be difficult too. The standard for all of Jakarta is for a firefighting team to be on the road within nine minutes of the first emergency call being received. There is no standard for how long a team has in which to navigate its way through the capital city’s congested and narrow streets.

Ladio says Team A averages less than 15 minutes arrival time adding, “I wish that other drivers would respect the siren more and make way for our truck.”

Ordinarily, Team A does not fight many fires. They have not been on a call since late October and average only one or two responses a month.

Calls do not often come in. “I would like people to know that they need to call us on 113 when there is a fire,” says Gozali, 22, a second-generation firefighter originally from the Thousand Islands. “Don’t hesitate to call. People think they must pay, but we are free 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Three teams, A, B, and C, work out of the Mampang Fire Post. Each team consists of a leader, a driver, and three fighters. The teams work 24-hour shifts starting at nine each morning before receiving 48 hours off.

Ladio, the only married member of his squad, has been a firefighter for nearly two decades and A’s leader for five years. Their driver is 23-year-old Denny Wahyudi, a Sukabumi native and a rookie with a year’s experience. The firefighters are Rahmat, 26, Ahmad Gozali, 22, and Rizal, 20, who have all been in the profession for less than three years.

Ladio explained that Jakarta is divvied up between five firefighting centers, North, West, East, Central and South. South Jakarta is divided into 11 sectors which are further split into 17 posts. Mampang Fire Post, part of the Lebak Bulus Sector, is one of these posts.

Unfortunately for the posts, only the firefighting centers and sector houses are equipped with traditional fireman poles.

When not out on calls, Team A keeps busy doing physical fitness, training, cleaning and performing maintenance on the fire post and their equipment, watching TV, and teaching the community about fire prevention.

“People need to use standard electrical cables and not to overload household sockets,” says the Yogyakarta-born, 42-year-old father of two, Ladio. “Also, many fires are caused by the careless use of cooking fires and kerosene lamps. We try to spread awareness about how dangerous these items are.”

The Jakarta Fire Agency was quoted by The Jakarta Post as having recorded nearly 500 fires last year, “mostly caused by electrical short circuits or stove explosions.”

About twice monthly, kindergarten and elementary school children visit the fire post. “The children love visiting,” says Ladio, his youthful face lighting up with the memory. “They love to climb aboard the truck and it is good for us and society for them to learn about fire safety and how to contact us.”

There are numerous obstacles to becoming a firefighter in Jakarta. IQ tests, physical challenges, psychological evaluations, and interviews await want-to-be firefighters. Three-quarters of the candidates do not get through this initial stage. This screening is so effective that virtually everyone who survives it passes the subsequent nine months of firefighting training.

The actual training begins with three-months of theoretical and practical firefighting education. “Learning to survive and work in a smoke-filled room is the most difficult,” says Gozali. “It’s dark, hot, and even with the breathing apparatus, very hard to breathe. Mentally, it’s very stressful.”

Following this training the candidates are assigned to a fire post where they are given half a year’s worth of on-the-job experience. Once this is finished, they officially become firefighters.

With the amount of time off that firefighters get, it is not uncommon for them to have second jobs. Rizal says that many firefighters, though reportedly no one from Team A, work as fire security personnel for hotels and other private companies.

Today, Mampang Fire Post waits for its call. The five-year-old Isuzu Ziegler fire truck, smaller than a London city bus, sits polished and ready for action. The team’s heavy black boots are lined up, toes to the wall, beneath the thick folds of hanging reflective jackets. Three team members joke with one another and watch soccer on the television. The other two personnel sleep in the post’s dormitory-style bedroom.

Ignoring the televised game, Ladio reflects for a moment, leans back, grins, and answers that he is satisfied with his career. “I joined because I wanted to help people. And, I know that we are doing just that.”

This article was first published in The Jakarta Post 20 November, 2006.