Author: tompepinsky

This earthquake business is nuts.  President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has declared a three-day national mourning period for the victims.  In our apartment complex we saw the Indonesian flag at half-mast–we thought that was only a Western thing, but apparently not.  There is still no word on what the situation is for many villages in Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, and no news is not good news in this situation.  The news we saw this morning suggests that the worst damage anywhere, though, is on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, some low-lying Indian islands south of Bangladesh.  Tens of thousands of people missing.

But again, business as usual in Jakarta, although things seem less frantic than normal because a lot of people seem to be taking time off for the Christmas holiday.  We are, yet again, involved in immigration haggling.  Yesterday we went to the Indonesian Academy of Sciences to get a letter to deliver to the immigration office to ask for yet another visa extension.  Strike one: the only person in the Indonesian government able to authorize such a letter was on vacation.  We’re about to go try again.  Can you imagine this level of incompetence?  It’s like the one person who issues driver’s licenses at the DMV calls in sick, so no one can get a driver’s license that day.  "That probably happens here too," JM mutters.

Primus has a song called "DMV," and in its lyrics, you might replace "DMV" with "kantor imigrasi" (immigration office).

"I’ve been to hell, I spell it, it’s kantor imigrasi. Anyone who’s been there knows precisely what I mean.  I’ve sat there and I’ve waited and choked back the urge to scream…"

We are fine and safe here in Jakarta after yesterday’s earthquake off the coast of Sumatra.  It’s about 1000 miles away from where we are, and we didn’t feel a thing.  Also, the island of Sumatra blocked any waves that might have been headed our way. 

We’re not sure what the coverage has been like at home, but it’s the only story on all the local and international news stations.  Every time  we check the number of dead rises which is very depressing.

Here in Indonesia, the problem has been communicating with the worst hit areas.  The epicenter was off the coast of Aceh, the region at the northern tip of Sumatra.  This area has had considerable unrest amidst the separatist movement that has been active over the last decade, and thus there is not much in the way of an established communications infrastructure.  So the news is slowly trickling out, and government officials were rushing there yesterday to try and asses the damage.  This morning the news was reporting about 4000 dead there, but this could be a gross underestimate.   

But we’re fine here, business as usual in Jakarta.