"FUEL HIKE PROTEST -- Student demonstrators burned tires and clashed with police in Indonesia Tuesday during a rally against the government's plan to raise fuel prices by about 33 percent. Rallies were held all over the country, and police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters. Several people were injured and rushed to hospitals (Boston Globe March 28 2012)."
"FUEL PRICES PROMPT DEMONSTRATIONS -- Thousands of Indonesians rallied nationwide Thursday against a planned fuel price increase they say will cause great hardship, as Parliament prepared to vote on the proposal. At a demonstration in the city of Surabaya, in East Java Province, a student faced off against police officers with riot shields (Boston Globe March 30 2012)."
"FIGHTING FUEL PRICE HIKE -- Protesters in Jakarta, Indonesia, pulled down a Parliament building fence at a rally Friday against fuel price increases. The government plans to raise prices by 33 percent next month in an effort to avoid a budget deficit linked to expensive fuel subsidies (Boston Globe March 31 2012)."
And I never would have known about them reading the web version of the paper. Wouldn't want to give Americans any ideas as the price of a gallon of gas heads over $4, 'eh?
What you web-heads did get:
"Obama’s former nanny overwhelmed by new celebrity; Indonesian is overwhelmed by new celebrity" by Niniek Karmini | Associated Press, March 09, 2012
JAKARTA, Indonesia - President Obama’s former nanny, Evie, is overwhelmed by her jolt from transgender slum-dweller to local celebrity. TV crews troop in and out of her tiny concrete hovel. Estranged relatives finally want to meet. She even has a promising job offer.
Evie, who was born male but considers herself a woman, decided after enduring years of abuse and ridicule she would be better off trying to just fit in. She stopped cross-dressing and has since eked out a living hand-washing clothes.
But since being the subject of a recent article about the struggles of transgender people in this predominantly Muslim nation, the 66-year-old has been showered with attention. It is mostly because of her long-ago connection to the now-US president - though she hopes it might generate more openness on gender issues.
“Even my relatives who never cared about me are now coming to see me.’’
Though many newcomers to Indonesia are surprised by the quasi-acceptance and pervasiveness of transgenders - seen on television, working in salons - they are usually the object of scorn.
“I realize this won’t last long,’’ she said. “But I think my story might help open people’s eyes so they will respect us more.’’
An American teacher at Saint Peter’s Catholic School in Jakarta, Philip Myers, was so touched by Evie’s story when he saw it earlier this week that he offered her a job as a cook and a maid.
“I really don’t care if she wants to come in wearing a dress, or pants,’’ Myers said. “The outward appearance is not the issue. Her heart is what’s important.’’
Evie was excited by the idea. But for now, she is too overwhelmed to think about it. During a break between TV interviews at her home in a Jakarta slum on Thursday, piled high with dirty laundry she has collected from neighbors, she said she hoped he would be patient.
She also said she would love to hear from her former charge - but there has been no outreach from the White House.
Evie started caring for 8-year-old “Barry’’ Obama in 1969 when he lived in Indonesia’s capital with his mother, Ann Dunham, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro.
Evie played with Obama and picked him up from school. She worked in the home as a man and says she never let young Barry see her in women’s clothes, though neighbors remember seeing her leave the home in the evening dressed in drag.
The TV crews have been primarily interested in that brief period, Evie said, before Obama’s family left Indonesia in the early 1970s and before she resorted to prostitution when work as household help dried up.
In the years that followed, she and her friends faced regular beatings from security guards and soldiers. They were often rounded up, loaded into trucks, and taken to a field where they were kicked, hit, and otherwise abused.
When one day, nearly 20 years ago now, she saw the body of one of her friends in a sewage canal, her beautiful face bashed in, she decided enough was enough.
She gave away all of her dresses, colorful pants, and bras: She was ready to live as a man.
She kept to a quiet existence on the margins of the Indonesian capital, where neighbors have been flabbergasted by all of this week’s fuss.
“They came with TV cameras and interviewed her as though she is a star,’’ said Ayi Hasanah, a 50-year-old housewife who lives nearby. “Hopefully this can change her life. Because as far as I can see, her life is very hard.’’
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"Back-to-back earthquakes spark tsunami alerts in Indonesia; Panic follows but no casualty reports or heavy damage" by Thomas Fuller | New York Times, April 12, 2012
BANGKOK - Two powerful earthquakes struck about two hours apart off the coast of Sumatra on Wednesday afternoon, spreading panic among residents of the Indonesian island and reviving memories of the devastating 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the same area.
There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, and the tsunami warnings that were widely broadcast on television, cellphones, and the Internet were called off a few hours later....
--more--"
"Indonesians thank waves that never came" Associated Press, April 13, 2012
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Residents surveying damage from two powerful earthquakes that reignited memories of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami said Thursday they could hardly believe their luck.
Five people died from heart attacks, and a few others were injured as mobs used cars and motorcycles to flee to high ground Wednesday in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh - closest to the epicenters.
But aside from cracks in the walls of houses and structural damage to one bridge, you would hardly know anything happened, said Usman Basyah, smiling as he handed change to customers at his street stall.
“I really feel my prayers were answered this time,’’ said Basyah, who lost one of his sons in the disaster eight years ago. “I’m so grateful. We’ve gone through enough trauma already.’’
The first quake Wednesday, measuring 8.6, triggered a tsunami watch in more than two dozen nations and island territories, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa.
--more--"
Also see: Giraffe death latest in zoo's atrocities
"Presidential vote could test stability
DILI - East Timor voted for a new president Saturday in an election that tested the young nation’s political stability ahead of the planned departure of UN troops later this year. Incumbent Jose Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, faced off against 11 others, including former military chief Taur Matan Ruak and opposition leader Francisco Guterres (AP)."
Actually, genocide not such a good idea.
Update:
"In a separate, apparently unconnected, development, Indonesia’s antiterrorism chief said a French militant is the chief suspect in last week’s blast at Indonesia’s Embassy in Paris.
The suspect is Frederic C. Jean Salvi, who allegedly spent several years studying with Islamic militants in Indonesia, antiterrorism agency chief Ansyaad Mbai said.
--more--"
