Again a bit of a do-nothing day, so forewarned etc etc
I slept in today, after a reasonably good slumber uninterrupted by the general Jakartan back ground noises. (Jakartan??) But I think the previous couple of nights caught up with me, plus the midnight karaoke, so I ended up lounging around in bed until 8 am, ignoring the frantic knocks of Moko that prompted Helena to explain to him my predicament: "Dia tidur!" (She's sleeping!) Helena and I have prompted social networking and interpersonal isolation to the point that we now Facebook and text each other in the next room. Utterly sad, but it DID save me getting out of bed to confront Moko in a FOUL mood, and explaining to Helena that maybe I wouldn't quite make it to Uni...
Anyway, any concerned parents, teachers or nerdilicious friends should know that I DID get up and make it to class and was only about 15 minutes late, so learning did occur today, although not much before my THREE cups of coffee at break (yes, my dependancy grows). We got let out early today and I said goodbye to Tash, who is flying back home to NZ, having fallen ill/not enjoyed Jakarta. We took a fancy bus to the Independent Journalists Association, one of two associations in Indonesia and the only one that says that pocket journalism, or journalism conducted with bribery and blackmail, is unethical. It is consequently very poor. It is involved with advocacy for under-siege journalists, with awareness, and with campaigning the government, but mostly employers, to raise issues like pay - journalists in Indonesia (if they're not ex-pats) get paid around $50 US a month - even with Indonesia's lower living costs, this is not enough to live on, which is why pocket journalism is rife and somewhat expected in Indonesia - it just happens to be completely unethical and not at all objective etc. Sadness! The IJA are definitely some worthy journalists chock-full of integrity - many of them were arrested in 1998 for publishing then-illegal magazines (since the Soeharto government used to control all the press licenses and only allowed pro-govt media) and spent several years in prison!
On the walk to the IJA we all passed an old man, lying on the side of the street. He moved as I walked by, but he was just lying on his side, next to a warung, and no one was helping him. He was gone when we came back, but I was struck again with my helplessness and the fact that I didn't even stop - except I don't know what to do! I had an orange on me, but didn't think about it until too late. A really disturbing experience. On the way back to the bus, I took a bottle of water with me but he had disappeared, hopefully with someone who was helping him. On the bridge this morning, I saw the man many of the students had been talking about - he has a HUGE gaping leg wound, about the size of a CD, which is very deep - it goes to the bone, apparently - from what I could see it was about half an index finger deep, and is full of pus. Again, I have no idea what to do - medical attention seems to be the main area where I feel helpless, because there's no one to ring and doctor's visits cost around 2,000,000 rupiah, or my the cost of my accommodation for 6 weeks.
We hopped off the bus early as it was passing our kos, and just ended up relaxing, talking to friends back home, talking to the Australians, eating crackers with tomatoes and Nutella sandwiches (healthy eating out the window) and trying to get our business cards made - we've been told that business cards are pretty essential here in Indonesia and there's a big Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club talk tomorrow where everyone is hoping to network. I designed mine and tried to get it printed but the line was too long and I'm pretty tired (again!) Helena had more luck, although she did get accosted with hilarious results...for more, go to her blog at www.news-weasel.blogspot.com
Until tomorrow mes amis, when I should have a stock of better tales - I might go get a massage at this place all the Ozzies are talking about, and try to sort out this weekend island! In the meantime, I'll have to come up with story ideas for next week, and, of course, study my Bahasa!
A bientot!
LESSONS LEARNT 13:
- Medecins sans frontieres do an amazing job, one of the most important in the world - go Gen!
- Integrity is a hard thing to maintain
- Integrity doesn't pay, but it's do-able
- Journalism can be one of the most important jobs in the world too, and one of the most despicable
- Friends, they be awesome
- Karaoke should be a major at all Universities but should ideally be conducted when you have a recovery period the next day
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