Tom Pepinsky

Category: Indonesia

  • Seriously, Another Holiday?

    Today is another holiday, one that I had not only no reasonable ability to foresee but also which I had never even heard of before. It’s Ascension Day, or as they say here, Kenaikan Isa Almasih. Ascension Day. I had to look that one up to make sure I was getting this right, but of course it’s not hard to figure out, it celebrates the ascension of Jesus into heaven forty days after Easter. According to Wikipedia, it is celebrated as a public holiday in Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Vanuatu…and the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia.

    I’m not in principle opposed to holidays, but I do believe that two in the space of three weeks is too many. This has practical consequences, ranging from the slightly annoying to the truly inconvenient. Slightly annoying: no newspaper this morning, which forces me to read my pleasure book (Infinite Jest) over breakfast, which is only a problem in the sense that I don’t have much of it left and I’m trying to save enough to keep myself distracted on the plane rides home. Truly inconvenient: I have an interview way down in the southern outskirts of Jakarta today, in a satellite city known as Depok. Depok is far, far enough that when I go there I prefer to take a train rather than a cab (the cab’s just too expensive). But of course, on a public holiday like today the train schedules are totally unpredictable. So that will force me to take a cab anyway. But the real kicker, of course, is that since it’s a holiday the traffic will be in all likelihood pretty light, which means that the cab ride might not take nearly as long, and accordingly might not be quite so expensive.

    More food pictures are available here. As always, click Next to get to the new ones. Today I bring you gurame goreng, ayam bakar, buntil, es alpukat, and some famous nasi goreng kambing.

  • Mixed Bag

    A Recent Sample of Thoughts

    1. *Ahem.* What did I tell you about the problems of lax copyright enforcement? They make it hard for people to know which are the authentic restaurants. The Jakarta Globe has a story that not only touches on the same topics, but also uses many of the same examples that I do.
    2. Sometimes I wonder about the logic behind the naming of establishments. It seems like I've seen a number of stores in the past couple of days that have store names that don't seem so germane to the things that they sell. Or I guess I mean, "that's not the first word that comes to mind when I think of how to think of a snappy name to sell that product." Examples: Pro Steak. Groovy Pet Supplies. Hong Kong Family Travel Shop & Fun. Town Hall Cassette and CD. Big Top #1 Interior Design. Ritual Coffee to Go.
    3. I saw a law firm yesterday with the following sign: Assiddique and Ass. I know what they mean, and probably you know what they mean, but that sign probably doesn't help much to increase credibility among foreigners.
    4. If I were a graduate student in anthropology, looking to do field research in Indonesia, what would I study? I've thought about this topic from time to time. (EDIT: I realize what this means. Not only am I a professional dork, I daydream about being a dork in my spare time.) Here are my ideas.
      • The spiritual/cultural meaning underlying the decorations that people put on buses and bajajs (three-wheeled motor carts). (cultural anthropology)
      • The consequences of the Western obsession with "organic" and "local" food for farmers in a tourism-focused and export-dependent developing country. (economic anthropology)
      • How wealthy neighborhoods organize to provide themselves with physical security after the breakdown of a highly coercive authoritarian regime (political anthropology)
      • The strategic use of Islamic messages (rather than Western-inspired ones) by feminists agitating for equal protection and social justice in a patriarchal society. (political anthropology plus religious studies)