I'm going home for 2 weeks in 2 weeks! Just bought my tickets, it's a done deal!
I'll be in SF from Sept 10 - 12 and DC from 13 - 24. I'm also hoping to make it up to New York for a day or two. Drop me an email if you want to be included on the social calendar :)
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Tension
First the 1-year anniversary of the Peace Agreement (August 15), then followed by Independence day (August 17) and the religious police raiding an UN compound (also August 17), tension in Banda is a little high right now. It'll probably remain high until the provincial election that is scheduled for December 11.
On Tuesday, there was a large rally in Banda Aceh in front of the Grand Mosque. The crowd was mostly from outside the city. I was headed to Lhokseumawe that day; on the road we saw caravans of large trucks filled full of demonstrators who were making their way to the provincial capital.
What has been a bigger headache for the international community has been the religious police.
Here's the article from Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
Jakarta- The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through windows at sleeping foreign diplomats, an official confirmed Wednesday. The late-night raid, which violated international conventions on diplomatic privilege and immunity, was the latest incident involving Aceh's controversial "Sharia police," who have illegally detained women for not wearing headscarves and publicly flogged people for drinking alcohol.
The incident occurred at 11 p.m. last Thursday night when 30 men, both Sharia officers and regular city policemen, forced their way into the compound of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, despite protests from UN guards.
"It's a violation of diplomatic rules - a clear violation," Barry Cane, a WFP spokesman, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Cane said the Sharia police, who are civil servants charged with enforcing a controversial Islamic law statute in Aceh, wandered around the compound, which contains both offices and residences for foreign UN workers.
He acknowledged that the policemen peered into the bedroom windows of UN diplomats while they were sleeping.
"I don't even want to speculate" on their motives, Cane said, although another foreign aid worker familiar with the raid told dpa they were hoping to catch the Westerners drinking at their private bar.
"The matter was taken up with the provincial government, which apologized," Cane said, adding that a UN security official was in Aceh investigating the incident, and that the WFP filed a protest with the Aceh police department.
However, Cane said the WFP remained concerned that the Sharia police, who are apparently operating out of control of any authority in Aceh, would attempt to raid the compound again, even though they know it's a diplomatic mission protected by international convention.
The Indonesian parliament allowed Aceh to implement Sharia, or Islamic law, in 2003, despite the rest of the Muslim-majority nation being secular.
Since then, the Sharia police have become a law unto themselves, dragging women off of motorcycles and out of hotel lobbies for not wearing headscarves, making lewd sexual references, and illegally detaining them.
The group's antics have infuriated both Acehnese citizens and foreign relief agencies, which are spending billions of dollars helping Aceh recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami as well as a recently-finished 29-year separatist war.
It remains unknown why the UN or Indonesia's Foreign Ministry did not publicly acknowledge the incident, which occurred on the country's August 17 Independence Day.
"No one wants to make a big deal about it publicly at the moment," one UN official, speaking on background, told dpa. "It's a very sensitive issue, but there was no attempt to cover it up."
Sharia police officials in Aceh could not be reached for comment.
© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
On Tuesday, there was a large rally in Banda Aceh in front of the Grand Mosque. The crowd was mostly from outside the city. I was headed to Lhokseumawe that day; on the road we saw caravans of large trucks filled full of demonstrators who were making their way to the provincial capital.
Photo from the Serambi Indonesia newspaper
The center part of the town as well as the University area were closed down, causing major traffic detours. However, the rally was peaceful.What has been a bigger headache for the international community has been the religious police.
Here's the article from Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
Jakarta- The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through windows at sleeping foreign diplomats, an official confirmed Wednesday. The late-night raid, which violated international conventions on diplomatic privilege and immunity, was the latest incident involving Aceh's controversial "Sharia police," who have illegally detained women for not wearing headscarves and publicly flogged people for drinking alcohol.
The incident occurred at 11 p.m. last Thursday night when 30 men, both Sharia officers and regular city policemen, forced their way into the compound of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, despite protests from UN guards.
"It's a violation of diplomatic rules - a clear violation," Barry Cane, a WFP spokesman, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Cane said the Sharia police, who are civil servants charged with enforcing a controversial Islamic law statute in Aceh, wandered around the compound, which contains both offices and residences for foreign UN workers.
He acknowledged that the policemen peered into the bedroom windows of UN diplomats while they were sleeping.
"I don't even want to speculate" on their motives, Cane said, although another foreign aid worker familiar with the raid told dpa they were hoping to catch the Westerners drinking at their private bar.
"The matter was taken up with the provincial government, which apologized," Cane said, adding that a UN security official was in Aceh investigating the incident, and that the WFP filed a protest with the Aceh police department.
However, Cane said the WFP remained concerned that the Sharia police, who are apparently operating out of control of any authority in Aceh, would attempt to raid the compound again, even though they know it's a diplomatic mission protected by international convention.
The Indonesian parliament allowed Aceh to implement Sharia, or Islamic law, in 2003, despite the rest of the Muslim-majority nation being secular.
Since then, the Sharia police have become a law unto themselves, dragging women off of motorcycles and out of hotel lobbies for not wearing headscarves, making lewd sexual references, and illegally detaining them.
The group's antics have infuriated both Acehnese citizens and foreign relief agencies, which are spending billions of dollars helping Aceh recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami as well as a recently-finished 29-year separatist war.
It remains unknown why the UN or Indonesia's Foreign Ministry did not publicly acknowledge the incident, which occurred on the country's August 17 Independence Day.
"No one wants to make a big deal about it publicly at the moment," one UN official, speaking on background, told dpa. "It's a very sensitive issue, but there was no attempt to cover it up."
Sharia police officials in Aceh could not be reached for comment.
© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
Shake Shake Shake!
Earthquake #19
Magnitude? 5.2
Date? Thursday, 24 August, 01:31:51 AM local time
Epicenter? 55 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.721°N, 95.083°E
What was I doing? Sleeping
There was another earthquake Wednesday afternoon aruond 6pm, a pretty good jolt. But it wasn't on the USGS website!
Magnitude? 5.2
Date? Thursday, 24 August, 01:31:51 AM local time
Epicenter? 55 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.721°N, 95.083°E
What was I doing? Sleeping
There was another earthquake Wednesday afternoon aruond 6pm, a pretty good jolt. But it wasn't on the USGS website!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Decisions Decisions
Monday night had finally rolled around in KL. I had been there for 3 full days and had tried to do as many non-Aceh things as possible. I watched 2 movies (bad ones), went to an orchestral concert, took public transit, ate scallops, oysters, cherries, roasted chestnuts and pork, and walked and walked and walked.
Then it came to my last meal in a civilzed world and I was just completely overwhelemed with the decision making process. I was at the Suria KLCC, which is the uber-mall underneath the Petronas Twin Towers. It's got a super foodcourt and a multitude of restaurants. What do I have? Do I have some Chicken Shwarma at the Lebanese place in the food court? How about some Beef Fajita at Chili's, or do I go for some sushi at one of the Japanese places? Or maybe some Green Curry with Shrimp at the chic Thai restaurant? Or a lamb chop from the San Francisco Steakhouse. What I really wanted was a couple of fish tacos, Baja style. Unfortunately, Chili's didn't have that on the menu. Oh so sad.
I ended up having a BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad with extra avocado and a bowl of Potato and Leek Soup at the California Pizza Kitchen. HA.
Click here for KL photos.
Then it came to my last meal in a civilzed world and I was just completely overwhelemed with the decision making process. I was at the Suria KLCC, which is the uber-mall underneath the Petronas Twin Towers. It's got a super foodcourt and a multitude of restaurants. What do I have? Do I have some Chicken Shwarma at the Lebanese place in the food court? How about some Beef Fajita at Chili's, or do I go for some sushi at one of the Japanese places? Or maybe some Green Curry with Shrimp at the chic Thai restaurant? Or a lamb chop from the San Francisco Steakhouse. What I really wanted was a couple of fish tacos, Baja style. Unfortunately, Chili's didn't have that on the menu. Oh so sad.
I ended up having a BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad with extra avocado and a bowl of Potato and Leek Soup at the California Pizza Kitchen. HA.
Click here for KL photos.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Greetings from Kuala Lumpur
I've got a long weekend. Thursday was Indonesia Independence Day (61 years!) and Monday's the Ascension of Muhammad. I took the opportunity and skipped town for a much needed mental break. I arrived in KL last night. What a lovely city! I love how the people here speak pretty good English, Malay (which is 80% similar to Indonesian) and Chinese...so I can get around with no problems at all!
I found a great deal online for a 5-star hotel for about $70 per night and decided to pamper myself. The hotel is located about 2 min away from one of KL's monorail lines, so it's super easy to get around. However, the Monorail/subway systems are owned by several different companies, so transitting between lines is kind of a pain and you have to buy separate tickets. Oh well. It's still nice to be able to take public transit though.
I went shopping at the mall that's at the base of the Patronas Towers this morning. Caught a movie - Mistress of Spices...thumbs down. Then, walked over to the Bukit Bintang area of town and just bought myself a 100GB harddrive for about $100. Not bad! Tonight I'm going to hit up the Chinatown night market.
Sunday is the opening day of the Malaysia Philaharmonic Orchestra, so I'm hoping to catch one of the four free concerts that will be going on during the day. Gotta soak in all that cultural stuff!!!
I found a great deal online for a 5-star hotel for about $70 per night and decided to pamper myself. The hotel is located about 2 min away from one of KL's monorail lines, so it's super easy to get around. However, the Monorail/subway systems are owned by several different companies, so transitting between lines is kind of a pain and you have to buy separate tickets. Oh well. It's still nice to be able to take public transit though.
I went shopping at the mall that's at the base of the Patronas Towers this morning. Caught a movie - Mistress of Spices...thumbs down. Then, walked over to the Bukit Bintang area of town and just bought myself a 100GB harddrive for about $100. Not bad! Tonight I'm going to hit up the Chinatown night market.
Sunday is the opening day of the Malaysia Philaharmonic Orchestra, so I'm hoping to catch one of the four free concerts that will be going on during the day. Gotta soak in all that cultural stuff!!!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Shake Shake Shake!
Earthquake #18
Magnitude? 5.4
Date? Sunday, 13 August, 03:41:46 PM local time
Epicenter? 40 miles W of Banda Aceh or 5.520°N, 94.732°E
What was I doing? Laying in bed, finishing disc 8 of Grey's Anatomy* Season 2.
I'm totally addicted to this show. I bought Season 2 on Tuesday. I finished it this afternoon. 8 discs in 5 days. Nuts!
Magnitude? 5.4
Date? Sunday, 13 August, 03:41:46 PM local time
Epicenter? 40 miles W of Banda Aceh or 5.520°N, 94.732°E
What was I doing? Laying in bed, finishing disc 8 of Grey's Anatomy* Season 2.
I'm totally addicted to this show. I bought Season 2 on Tuesday. I finished it this afternoon. 8 discs in 5 days. Nuts!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Protest in my backyard
A protest organized by the Students Care for Palestine and Lebanon Movement marched upon The European Union house and the UN Compound on Tuesday afternoon. There were about 90 of them. I think this was by far the largest and well-organized protest in Banda Aceh since the conflict between
They burned an Israeli flag, scaled the fence and mounted a banner at both the UN and the EU. They also demanded admission for 10 of it's members to enter the compound and air their grievances. This was refused. They then burned banners at the gate and marched away before dispersing.
On their leaflets, the protesters:
- Urges the UN to make a concrete solution to save the civilian in
- Urges the UN to put
- Urges the UN and EU to draw/pull out the
- Stated to support the Peace troops which prepared by TNI to
- Asks all the Muslim in
- Boycott the
The UN and EU compounds are about a 5 min walk from my office but I was no where near the protest. These photos are from the ADB photographer.
I feel like I'm in
Climbing the EU Fence
Kind of a cool picture huh?
The banner says: UN should charge Israel;
UN must respond fast, resolute, neutral;
No US veto in UN; UN must prove it's not a US puppet;
Send peacekeepers
UN must respond fast, resolute, neutral;
No US veto in UN; UN must prove it's not a US puppet;
Send peacekeepers
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Finished!!!
The rain stayed away, the girls played with big smiles, the boys played their hearts out (5 setter) and the crowed was wild (the home team won). The congressman and family seemed happy which made USAID happy (plus we branded like hell).
So glad it's over. Well, I still got 200+ balls sitting in my office waiting to be picked up and the final reports that need to be turned in. But so glad it's over!
Here are some pictures from the event
Traditional ceremony of blessing the court and the players before the match.
The winning team
So glad it's over. Well, I still got 200+ balls sitting in my office waiting to be picked up and the final reports that need to be turned in. But so glad it's over!
Here are some pictures from the event
Traditional ceremony of blessing the court and the players before the match.
The winning team
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Life or No Life?
How important is your job to you? I have encountered plenty of workaholics in my life. I have close friends back at home who have worked at investment banks where working back-to-back 100 hours a week is not unusual. I’ve had bosses who call me at 10 pm on a Saturday while on vacation to discuss the next site visit. I have friends in Aceh who work six-and-half days a week and toil until 2am revising work plans. With the tsunami rebuilding process being one of the most highly scrutinized humanitarian recovery efforts in history, organizations are under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver deliver deliver – from the number of houses that are under construction, to how many latrines you’ve built, to how many coconut seedlings you’ve provided, to how many temporary employment opportunities you’ve created. The monitoring indicators are endless and the pressure is often intense from headquarters and donors.
Most people are well informed of the level of pressure involved in the job before signing their name on that contract. But what happens when you have an intense workload and want a life too? Or do you instead feel like you’ve overcommitted yourself and find yourself not doing either very well? Waking up at 3am worrying if you did your best on that proposal because you feel guilty for going out for beers? Cancel dinner plans with friends because you have to submit that report to that demanding 50-yr divorced workaholic boss who doesn’t have a life?
Is it possible to be successful at both?
Friday, August 04, 2006
Sharia Law in Aceh
In response to fahdp's comment about punishment of adultery in Aceh, International Crisis Group (ICG) has just published a really good article titled Islamic Law and Criminal Justice in Aceh.
The article gives a brief history of how sharia law evolved in Aceh and the issues in enforcement.
The article gives a brief history of how sharia law evolved in Aceh and the issues in enforcement.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Shake Shake Shake!
Earthquake #17
Magnitude? 4.9
Date? Wednesday, 2 August, 12:26:42 AM local time
Epicenter? 70 miles SE of Banda Aceh or 4.878°N, 96.135°E
What was I doing? Trying not to think about volleyball
This one was one quick jolt followed by some pretty big sways - like I was on a boat.
Magnitude? 4.9
Date? Wednesday, 2 August, 12:26:42 AM local time
Epicenter? 70 miles SE of Banda Aceh or 4.878°N, 96.135°E
What was I doing? Trying not to think about volleyball
This one was one quick jolt followed by some pretty big sways - like I was on a boat.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Balled Out
My life has been taken over by volleyball. Saturday at 7am, I'm crawling out of bed to give an opening speech at the girls tournament. Monday night at 2am, I'm waking up worrying if my additional 270 balls will arrive on time. Wednesday night at 5am, I'm panicking if it'll rain on Saturday afternoon and the whole thing would have to be scrapped!
Most people don't understand how much preparation goes behind organizing an event this size. I've got 16 villages and 8 schools participating in this 10-day tournament that is sponsored by USAID, Nike and APL, a shipping company. That's 24 teams of 12 players each. The finals will be on this Saturday and the event will be attended by an US Congressman who's decided to drag out his entire family (wife + 3 kids) to Aceh for a 3-day visit as well as the Governor of Aceh Province and a bunch of local officials. I've had to work with Nike on getting their products shipped here (they were suppose to send out 12 balls PER participating team = 288, instead they shipped out 18!), work with the shipping company on getting their money transferred to our village that's hosting the tournament, coming up with a budget that is all encompassing, work with my procurement and accounting staff to make sure that village is spending every dime properly, take care press releases, go on-site to make sure the banners are hung up correctly, make sure the village will prepare enough food for 400 people for the BBQ that's following the awards...OK, my head is beginning to spin just writing this. So I think I better stop.
I plan on getting very drunk on Saturday night. Either celebrating the success of the tournament or the fiasco it might turn out to be.
Most people don't understand how much preparation goes behind organizing an event this size. I've got 16 villages and 8 schools participating in this 10-day tournament that is sponsored by USAID, Nike and APL, a shipping company. That's 24 teams of 12 players each. The finals will be on this Saturday and the event will be attended by an US Congressman who's decided to drag out his entire family (wife + 3 kids) to Aceh for a 3-day visit as well as the Governor of Aceh Province and a bunch of local officials. I've had to work with Nike on getting their products shipped here (they were suppose to send out 12 balls PER participating team = 288, instead they shipped out 18!), work with the shipping company on getting their money transferred to our village that's hosting the tournament, coming up with a budget that is all encompassing, work with my procurement and accounting staff to make sure that village is spending every dime properly, take care press releases, go on-site to make sure the banners are hung up correctly, make sure the village will prepare enough food for 400 people for the BBQ that's following the awards...OK, my head is beginning to spin just writing this. So I think I better stop.
I plan on getting very drunk on Saturday night. Either celebrating the success of the tournament or the fiasco it might turn out to be.
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