Indonesian Diary Entry

25 November 2001.

I am writing this from my sometimes home away from home, the Cemara Hotel in Jakarta.

This is/was Thanksgiving Weekend. The Fulbrighters, students and researchers, got together in Jakarta for the holiday. It was a delightful party and the kind of thing one reads about but rarely experiences. We came back here from our various “homes” and had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one of the Board members of AMINEF, the organization responsible for Fulbright in Indonesia. There was one amusing contrast – the holiday falls this year during Ramadhan. Fortunately, our dinner was held after the end of the fasting day, Maghrib, so we were not stuffing ourselves with all the goodies at the same time that hunger pangs were affecting most of the population. Still, the coincidence was obvious to all of us.

The dinner itself was put together by people living here in Jakarta. The Embassy people enjoy a few privileges, and somehow were able to obtain turkeys from abroad. I think they came from Australia. (“How did the turkeys get here? They flew, of course.”) Everything was cooked specially for the dinner, and it included all of everyone’s favorites. The total attending the party was about 30, and it was not only delightful to be with friends, but stimulating to be with all of those in the group. I spent a little time with some people from the Asia Foundation, who were fascinating. One fellow is a specialist in local religious practices, so I was able to get more of an understanding of the relationship between Islam and politics. A woman I spent some time with had recently moved here from Mongolia, and after we got over my immense ignorance (I know the lack of something shouldn’t be immense, but that was certainly my feeling about that vacuum) of the country and the area I got a wonderful primer on the land, its people and its economy. I never thought I could be interested in going to Mongolia, and Outer Mongolia at that, but after the discussion I wanted to book a flight. So you get the idea: a terrific dinner with wonderful dinner partners.

Most of the rest of the weekend I have spent with other Fulbrighters. We have done some fun things but the real fun has been to be together, talk about our experiences, and compare notes. The timing could not be better as I believe that for all of us we have hit something of an emotional dip. We have gotten past the anxiety of living in such a different place, have passed through the trauma of September 11, and its aftermath, and now are leading somewhat humdrum and routine lives. The opportunity to gather together, and to combine it with Thanksgiving, was a rich one. A number of us have trips planned over the next month or so, and I know that life after the first of the year will be completely different.

Everyone says that after the novelty wears off, things can be trying. I was not surprised, but relieved, to hear from others that this was the case for them.

One thing about being here (Jakarta) at this time of year is that the stories I’ve been reading about poor people coming to the city (a.k.a. Ibu Kota) come to life. In the past trips here I have been aware that many people are around doing marginal tasks, such as carting food around and “helping” one to find a parking space. This time it is clear that the number of such people as grown appreciably. In addition, the number of various stalls selling not just prepared food, but unprepared food, trinkets, clothing, and so on, have multiplied. There are certain areas where auto traffic is out of the question. We got into one such area when we were leaving a museum by taxi, and it was a little scary. Faces can get pressed up against the car windows in ways that are disconcerting. There are so many beggars that one finds oneself making policy decisions on just what kinds of beggars will one give to. Without premeditation I found myself giving to amputees and maimed beggars, but not to others. I don’t even want to mention the others, as to highlight other categories is to demean them, and I don’t think that any of these beggars are doing it because it’s a pretty good line of work. However, I am told that at the end of Ramadhan these beggars will leave the city and return to their villages. Some of the itinerant merchants will return for other holidays, including Christmas. For them, this is just part of the cycle of the selling year. The estimated numbers for these internal migrants seem to change daily, but the number of estimated additional beggars is something like 50,000.

There is one strange thing about the perception of this phenomenon, at least as it comes across in the newspaper, and the ubiquitous experts quoted in the paper. That is that Jakarta is somehow special in its attraction of people from the villages and towns, who come here looking for a better life, and then wind up in squalor. The sad truth is that Jakarta is by no means special. This has been a theme for city life, as long as there have been cities. Stories of medieval London are scary, in the very same way as stories of people living lives of desperation here are frightening. Cities have always been a magnet for the poor, and for those who see an opportunity to escape the confines of the familiar. And the consequence has always been the same – more poverty, more squalor, more trouble. So, Ramadhan or not, economic crisis or not, this is the way things work.

At Christmas time in the States, there is the conflict of the rushing about to buy things, to do things, to finish up projects and assignments, and on the other side the beauty of the holidays that lurks beneath the tinsel and glitter. I think that is true here. But the beauty of the holiday that will come at the end of Ramadhan is more apparent. Christmas comes, ready or not, and pounces on us all. Idul Fitri is different. For the believers, it is something that is earned. It caps off a month of denial. It is the culmination of a period that combines denial with achievement. One fasts for a month, and at the end one can celebrate that accomplishment. That is a beautiful thought. As one who is wont to engage in denial, it has a lot of appeal. I wouldn’t want to be so coarse as to say one earns the parties and gifts at the end of Ramadhan, but I wouldn’t disagree with someone who described it that way. But Idul Fitri is still weeks away, so the fast continues.

There was one other thing that happened this weekend that brought special pleasure to me. Trudy called this morning, with the surprise vocal appearance of Rebecca and Zoe. What joy in the morning to hear the voices of such wonderful women. The distance to the other side of the globe became very short, and very great, at one and the same time.