Volcano Ash & Dust Disrupts European Air Traffic - An Excerpt

Airport Crisis Frustrates Travelers, and Airlines

By STEVEN ERLANGER, JACK EWING and NICOLA CLARK
Published: April 18, 2010 ( New York Times)

PARIS — As a large part of European airspace remained shut down for the fourth day Sunday and the towering fountain of ash from an Icelandic volcano showed no signs of letting up, questions about the long-term impact of the eruption were being raised in a continent trying to recover from recession.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services extended its ban on flights across its airspace until at least 1 a.m. Monday, prompting the country’s flag carrier, British Airways, to announce the cancellation of all of its flights scheduled for Monday.
Airline officials were having a hard time hiding their frustration with the situation. On a conference call Sunday with airlines hosted by Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based agency that coordinates air traffic management across the region, one airline representative sharply chastised national civil aviation authorities for being inconsistent in applying flight restrictions and stressed that the flight bans were creating “a serious economic issue for us.”

With airlines eager to reposition aircraft and flight crews scattered across the region, some governments began allowing limited, low-altitude flights without passengers. Germany’s civil aviation authority said it had allowed several such ferry flights by Lufthansa, Air Berlin and Condor airlines overnight. Such flights are being operated under so-called visual flight rules, whereby pilots navigate by sight, rather than relying on their cockpit instrument panels.
Britain’s Met Office meteorological agency said that the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano was continuing as of early Sunday morning “and possibly intensifying,” with the ash plume rising to 30,000 feet.

The cloud had extended as far south as Spain overnight, prompting the closure of airspace in the northern part of that country, according to Eurocontrol. Airports across most of the continent were expected to remain shuttered at least into Sunday afternoon, though a few countries, including France and Switzerland, had opened at least parts of their airspace to allow overflights above 35,000 feet.
While the closing of the airways has already laid waste to the immediate plans and business of industry, the arts and world leaders, the possibility that it could drag on for days, if not weeks, is raising concerns about the longer term consequences for public health, military operations and the world economy.

The disaster is estimated to be costing airlines $200 million a day, but the economic damage will roll through to farms, retail establishments and nearly any other business that depends on air cargo shipments. Fresh produce will spoil, and supermarkets in Europe, used to year-round supplies, will begin to run out.
But unless flights are disrupted for weeks, threatening factories’ supply chains, economists do not think the crisis will significantly affect gross domestic product.
“If it really drags on another week that could be really serious,” said Peter Westaway, chief economist for Europe at the Nomura investment bank. The air travel shutdown could affect productivity, he said, if hundreds of thousands of people miss work or are not able to do business because they are stuck in limbo somewhere.
He would know. He was speaking by cellphone from Tokyo where he was watching British soccer on a barroom TV at 3 a.m. and waiting for news of when he might be able to get back to his office in London.

“We don’t understand how interconnected we are until you can’t do it anymore,” he said.
The shutdown has also affected American military operations. Military supplies for operations in Afghanistan have been disrupted, and a spokeswoman for the Pentagon said that all medical evacuation flights from Iraq and Afghanistan to Germany, where most injured soldiers are typically treated, were being diverted directly to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

Within the European Command, some routine resupply missions and movement of personnel missions have been diverted or delayed, she said.
The World Health Organization issued an advisory saying that as long as the ash remains in the upper atmosphere, there is not likely to be increased health risk. So far, analysis of the ash shows that about a quarter of the particles are smaller than 10 microns, making them more dangerous because they can penetrate more deeply into the lungs, the W.H.O. said.

In Britain, where a layer of fine dust is already covering large areas of the country, the authorities are advising those with respiratory problems to stay indoors or wear masks out of doors.

But experts said most people had no reason to be alarmed. Dr. Neil W. Schluger, chief scientific officer for the World Lung Foundation, said people with asthma or lung disease could stay indoors or wear a mask to avoid irritation, but that there was little real danger, especially with the ash falling so far from the source.
“The bottom line,” said Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chief of pulmonology at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital, “is there’s no longterm health effect from volcanic ash.”

International transportation, however, was still what the front page of the French newspaper Le Parisien called “La Grande Pagaille” — the big mess.
The ash cloud scuttled routine diplomacy, an effect most evident in the dwindling guest list of dignitaries planning to attend the state funeral on Sunday for President Lech Kaczynski of Poland and his wife, who died in a plane crash last week. On Saturday, at least a dozen delegations canceled plans to attend, including those of President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prince Charles of Britain.

President Valdis Zatlers of Latvia embarked Saturday on a 14-hour car trip so he could attend.
Mrs. Merkel had to spend Friday night in Lisbon after returning from the United States. She made it to Rome on Saturday and was expected to continue her journey by bus after spending the night in northern Italy, The Associated Press reported.
The airline industry was the first economic casualty. Steve Lott, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, said that with the conservative estimate of a $200 million loss in revenue per day, “we could easily hit a billion dollars’ loss in revenue next week.”

“The bottom line is that it could not have happened at a more difficult time for airlines that are trying to climb out of the global recession,” he said. “It’s been that way, many airlines feel like they take one step forward, two steps back.”
At Air France, Hervé Erschler, a company spokesman, sounded exhausted. “We don’t know exactly how many of our flights got canceled,” he admitted, “but I can tell you that right now there is literally no traffic.”
Even FedEx abandoned its pledge to absolutely, positively get it there overnight, if “there” meant northern Europe. More than 100 FedEx flights have been rerouted, diverted or canceled, said Carla Boyd, a company spokeswoman. She said 15 airports that FedEx serves directly have been closed.

At least one major airline, Lufthansa, expressed frustration at what it suggested was excessive caution by the German authorities, who kept every German airport closed to air traffic for a second day. Amélie Schwierholz, a Lufthansa spokeswoman in Frankfurt, said the company had flown a large jet from Munich to Frankfurt on Saturday without passengers but without incident, although at a lower altitude than normal.

But German officials defended their decision. “What’s more important, the safety of passengers or business?” asked Helmut Malewski, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service. “No one knows how to deal with this situation. We’re erring on the side of safety.”

“I understand the requirement for safety,” said Dale Moss, the chief executive of OpenSkies, the Paris-based, all-business-class subsidiary of British Airways. “But the level of frustration is painfully high” for both airlines and passengers, he said.

OpenSkies, which began daily services between Paris and New York in 2008, just before the start of the economic downturn, had begun to see a return of premium-class travelers in recent months and is preparing to start flights to Washington, D.C. next month. Mr. Moss said he did not think the restrictions would be life-threatening to his airline in the short term, but said he would be concerned if they continued for several weeks.

“We need some scientific data quick, so that we can start projecting and putting contingency plans in place,” he said.Cathay Pacific said it would stop taking such reservations for several days, while Qantas encouraged “customers who have somewhere to stay to remain where they are.” But Thai Airways said Sunday that it would add extra flights from Bangkok to Rome and Madrid, which remain open, in order to compensate for cancellations on other routes to Europe.The volcano, meanwhile, continued to defy predictions. Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist at the University of Cambridge, said the average span of a volcanic eruption is a month or two. In the case of this volcano, he said, scientists need to know more about how much molten rock is beneath it, but concluded, “We could see intermittent activity over the coming months.”

But Leo Liao, a Hong Kong businessman who was stranded at the Frankfurt airport, was cheerful and philosophical. “It’s a natural issue,” he said. “Never complain. You can’t change this.”

Steven Erlanger and Nicola Clark reported from Paris, and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt. Reporting was contributed by Julia Werdigier from London, Nadim Audi from Paris, Nicholas Kulish from Warsaw, Bettina Wassener from Hong Kong, Ian Urbina from Washington, and Liz Robbins and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York.

Christianity's Surge in Indonesia - A Times Excerpt

A statue of Jesus Christ inside a Jakarta church ground - Photo credit : Oxymanus


Christianity's Surge in Indonesia
By Hannah Beech / Temanggung Monday, Apr. 26, 2010

They flocked to the open field by the hundreds to praise Allah. In a village in central Java, just a few miles from where Indonesian special forces shot dead an Islamic terrorist linked to the fatal July bombings of two hotels in Jakarta, worshippers raised their hands to the heavens. But this ceremony, which took place as the call of the muezzin echoed in the sultry air, was not a celebration of Islam. Instead, in the heart of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, Christians held a Pentecostal revival, complete with faith healing and speaking in tongues. As a tropical downpour fell, believers' tears mixed with rain — and a line of sick and disabled took to the stage to claim they had been cured by a God they, like Indonesian Muslims, call Allah. "People think Indonesia is just a Muslim country, but look at all these people," says pastor David Nugroho, whose Gesing church boasts a congregation of 400 worshippers today, up from 30 when it was founded in 1967. "We are not afraid to show our faith."

A religious revolution is transforming Indonesia. Part of the spiritual blossoming entails Muslims embracing a more conservative form of faith, mirroring global trends that have meant a proliferation of headscarves and beards in modern Islamic capitals. More surprising, though, is the boom in Christianity — officially Indonesia's second largest faith and a growing force throughout Asia. Indeed, the number of Asian Christian faithful exploded to 351 million adherents in 2005, up from 101 million in 1970, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, based in Washington, D.C. (See pictures of spiritual healing around the world.)

Much of the growth comes from Pentecostal and evangelical conversions, which have spread charismatic Christianity across the globe and are a large reason for estimates that by 2050 a majority of Christians will be living in developing nations. Already, less than a quarter of the world's 600 million Pentecostals reside in the West, where the modern movement has its roots. Indeed, Pentecostalism is believed by some to be the fastest-growing faith in the world, if measured by conversions as opposed to births.

Because of the relative youth of these evangelical sects, they are less bound by the history of colonial conversion that has complicated the legacy of, say, Roman Catholicism or mainstream Protestantism. Instead, by focusing on personal salvation adapted to local environments, evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, have found great success across Asia in recent years, from Indian metropolises like Chennai to rural China where homegrown sects are drawing in tens of thousands of people each year. The world's largest megachurch is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, which claims a membership of 830,000 people. Its Pentecostal Sunday services regularly attract a quarter of a million people to an upscale neighborhood of Seoul. In poorer regions of Asia, as well as within many ethnic Chinese communities, converts are lured by the so-called prosperity gospel, an American theology linked to charismatic Christianity that promises riches to those who follow a moral path. (Read "The Biology of Belief.")

For many in the global evangelical community, though, it is the faith's inroads in Indonesia — a nation with some 215 million Muslim adherents — that are most riveting. Exact figures are hard to gather in a country where conversions from Islam to Christianity face a stigma and likely lead to an underreporting of Christian believers. The 2000 census counted just under 10% of Indonesians as Christians, a figure many Christian leaders believe is too low. Anecdotal evidence paints a compelling picture of the faith's rapid rise. In the early 1960s, for instance, there were no evangelical churches in Temanggung, where the soccer-field revival took place; now there are more than 40. In the capital Jakarta, newly built megachurches that might seem more at home in Texas send steeples into the sky. Other Christians worship at unofficial churches based in hotels and malls, where Sunday services rival shopping as a popular weekend activity. Asia's tallest statue of Jesus Christ, built in 2007, presides over Manado city in eastern Indonesia, while Indonesian cable TV beams 24-hour Christian channels.

State of Grace — and Disgrace
What is it about evangelical Christianity that has so resonated in Indonesia? As in many other crowded, developing-world countries where a person can feel lost in a teeming slum, the concept of individual salvation is a powerful one. At the same time, the attempted hijacking of Muslim theology by a small band of homegrown terrorists who have killed hundreds of Indonesians in recent years has led some to question their nation's majority faith. So, too, has the general trend toward a more conservative Islam that has given rise to hundreds of religiously inspired bylaws, from caning for beer-drinking to enforced dress codes for women.

Not everyone, though, is celebrating Christianity's boom. Some Muslims view the faith as an unwanted foreign influence, even though Islam, too, is an imported religion. Since the country exchanged dictatorship for democracy more than a decade ago, a great diversity of voices has arisen. But an unfortunate by-product of this pluralism has been an uptick in religious conflict, which has affected unorthodox offshoots of Islam and Christian sects alike. Although bloody outpourings — like the communal riots that claimed more than 1,000 Christian and Muslim lives in Poso and Ambon around a decade ago — have ceased, spasms of violence are still occurring.

Over the past couple of years, Christian groups say, dozens of churches and theological academies have been destroyed or forced to shut by Islamic groups who accuse Christians of stealing believers from Muslim ranks. Despite appointing prominent Christians to his Cabinet, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said little to defend religious minorities, and has remained silent as dozens of local governments pass Islamic-based laws that threaten Christian rights. Such moves "conflict with the constitution and have the potential to threaten freedom of religion in this country," according to Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute, a Jakarta-based NGO that promotes pluralism.

Last year, the Indonesia Ulema Council, an influential Islamic clerical body, sounded the alarm about Christian proselytization and called on Muslims to more staunchly guard their faith. The pace with which unlicensed churches are being shut down by local authorities is also increasing. Christians complain that gaining official sanction to build a mosque is easy while getting similar permission for churches is glacial. As a consequence, most Christian houses of worship are unofficial. "There is a real fear that Christianity is on the march," says Mike Hilliard, a Scottish minister who with his Indonesian wife runs an orphanage outside Jakarta that has been targeted by militant Muslims. "Because of this fear, emotions are easily stirred up and mobs can form quickly." (See pictures of colorful religious festivals.)

Defenders of faith have mobilized in neighboring Malaysia too. After a local court ruled on Dec. 31 that a Malaysian Christian newspaper could refer to the Christian deity as Allah, many Muslims, who constitute the multiethnic country's majority, protested. Christians professed puzzlement: when speaking Malay, they had used the word Allah for centuries — why the sudden outrage now? Prominent Islamic activists responded by saying that sharing one word for two different gods could lead some Muslims to unwittingly stray to Christianity. By January, passions had spilled onto holy turf, with around a dozen churches, one mosque and a Sikh temple attacked. Late that month, eight people were arrested for suspected roles in the firebombing of a Pentecostal church in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

As both Muslims and Christians more fervently express their faith, a kind of spiritual siloing is developing in Southeast Asia, in contrast to the sectarian mixing that often characterized relations in previous generations. "Even compared to five years ago, relations between Christians and Muslims have worsened," says Father Andang Binawan, a Roman Catholic priest in Jakarta who holds a Ph.D. in theology from a Belgian university. "Many people now, including government officials, feel pressure by society to identify themselves as good Muslims and they worry that by associating with people of other religions, they will be seen as less pious. Even saying 'Merry Christmas' to a Christian can be seen as a problem." (Read "Indonesia Faces Muslim Pressure.")

At the same time, aggressive proselytization by evangelical groups, both foreign and local, leads to accusations that Christians are hungry for souls — and church donations. Website and sermon invectives, in which some Christian preachers dismiss Muslims as terrorists, also feed a prejudicial cycle that is spinning both sides away from Indonesia's pluralistic underpinnings. (Unlike neighboring Malaysia, which was set up as a Muslim state — although one that guarantees minority religious rights — Indonesia recognizes six official faiths: Islam, Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.) "We have many [religions] and they all coexist peacefully," President Yudhoyono told TIME last November. "This is the capital we will use to show that a clash of civilizations can be prevented." But even as he spoke, Christian theological students were staging a sit-in on a busy Jakarta street to protest having been intimidated into evacuating their campus after threats from Muslim mobs. A clash of civilizations seemed to be exactly what was taking place.

Raising Spirits
To get to the hip-hop concert, you have to walk through a five-star hotel's lobby, go past a parking lot and take a cramped elevator ride to the 12th floor. There, in an anonymous Jakarta annex syncopated by a purple strobe light, Indonesian youths dance for Jesus. The congregation bops to the beat, waving their arms in the air as the lyrics implore them to let their "lives be a celebration" of Jesus' love. After pastor Jose Carol takes to the stage, some worshippers whip out their iPhones, onto which they have loaded electronic copies of the Bible. Back when the Jakarta Praise Community Church formed a decade ago, only a couple hundred people attended its services; today the congregation has grown to 5,500 mostly young urbanites.

A few hours earlier, in Jakarta's Kemayoran business district, parishioners gathered in the main auditorium of the evangelical Reformed Millennium Center, which seats more than 4,500 people. Above the crowds, a pair of giant TV screens broadcast the sermon of Stephen Tong, an Indonesian pastor who conducts weekly services throughout Asia — including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong — and ministers to a regional congregation that has grown to 15,000 in just two decades. Opened in 2008, the church complex cost $30 million to build — and it took 17 years to obtain permission from local authorities. The privately funded church is the largest licensed one in the capital, although an unofficial megachurch with space for 10,000 faithful is nearing completion in a Jakarta suburb. When Tong, 69, raised a crucifix onto the church's massive steeple, worshippers at a nearby mosque complained. Tong didn't back down. "Jakarta has 1.2 million Christians, so a church for 4,000 people is nothing," he says. "We did this all legally, so why can't we put a cross on our church, just like mosques have their symbol?"

Other Indonesian Christians worry that such towering icons will only serve to inflame Muslim sentiment. The dangers are all too real. Take the hundreds of students from the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology, who staged the November sit-in. They were subsisting in refugee-like conditions, sleeping on thin mats in an abandoned Jakarta building with no electricity or running water. Before that, the beleaguered students lived for months in a park, 35 to a tent. Yet on the outskirts of east Jakarta, the Christian college actually had a handsome campus. In July 2008, hundreds of Islamic extremists crowded the school's gates, accusing students of proselytizing among the local Muslim community — a charge the institute's leaders deny. When three students tried to escape, thugs threw acid in their faces. With local government officials advising the student population to decamp because of continuing danger, Arastamar officials had no choice but to accept the government's proposal for makeshift housing. "How can you say there is true freedom of religion here if things like this can happen to us?" asks school principal Jusup Lifire. (See 10 surprising facts about the world's oldest Bible.)

Muslim converts to Christianity are also targets, their apostasy viewed by some radical Islamic scholars as deserving of execution. Syaiful Hamzah grew up as the madrasah-attending son of a Muslim family in Jakarta that helped build the neighborhood mosque. But while working in eastern Indonesia's Maluku archipelago, which has a substantial Christian population, he was swayed by evangelical teachings. By 2000, he had been baptized at a Pentecostal church and returned to Jakarta to begin theological studies. His family cut him off; one brother threatened to burn his house down. Undeterred, he began lay-preaching to a house-church congregation in his modest home near Jakarta's port. In 2008, a mob armed with clubs showed up and demanded Syaiful stop. He shuttered his church but still guides Muslim converts to Christianity, the number of which he says is growing, in part, because of the terror attacks unleashed in Indonesia in the name of Islam. "So many have converted," he says, "but they are afraid to say so publicly because Muslims will harass them."

The numbers of converts may not be as high as Islamic groups fear. Some so-called converts were Christians all along. In the 1960s, a government anticommunist drive forced each citizen to pick a religion for inclusion on their national ID card. (Suspected communists were quick to pick a religion to convince authorities they were not atheist Marxists.) Worried about future persecution and loath to give up the chance for certain career opportunities reserved for Muslims, some Christians chose Islam for their ID cards, even though they quietly kept going to church. Now they're officially switching to their true religion, seeing safety in growing numbers. Another significant group of Indonesian converts to charismatic sects is ethnic Chinese. But they are abandoning Chinese religions or mainline Protestantism, not Islam. (Read "Indonesia's Fatwa Against Yoga.")

still, it's hard to ignore the power of a revival like the one held in Temanggung — and easy to understand why some Muslims have reservations about encroaching Christianity. Permission to hold the meeting was only granted after the organizers put up a sign forbidding Muslims from entering. Nevertheless, among the line of sick and suffering hoping to be healed was an elderly Muslim man who others said was blind. After fervent prayers from worshippers in the driving rain, he suddenly blinked and gazed at the gathered crowd. "A Muslim who can now see," said pastor Jason Balompapueng, tears rising in his eyes. "It is a miracle." The faithful urged the tottering man onstage to bear witness to his regained sight. As the man clambered up the stairs, he removed his peci, an Indonesian fezlike hat often associated with Islam. A visiting minister from Jakarta blessed him. Another soul was saved, the Christian pastor rejoiced. Tomorrow, he vowed, there would be more.

—with reporting by Jason Tedjasukmana / Jakarta
_______________________________________________________

Letters: Be fair in reporting religious issue

Sat, 04/17/2010 12:19 PM | Readers Forum

Even though it is the right of every religion to have their place of worship, The Jakarta Post are reporting unfairly regarding the Bogor Church issue. (the Post, April 13)

How many permits for mosque constructions are rejected in the Christian majority areas? Why doesn't the Post mention that? Is it because they are located in areas that you do not cover?

Send your research teams to fined similar problems in many locations in Maluku Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, west Kalimantan, Bali, among others.

You will find many similar issues where Muslims are a minority and are not permitted to build mosques.

When Christians object to the construction of mosques, it isn't reported, because it is "as per the law". However, when Muslims object to the construction of a Church (especially in major cosmopolitan areas), the Post makes a big to show that the "law is wrong", and Churches should be constructed.

Be fair, don't spoil the image of Indonesian Muslims and favor another religion. Indonesians should be united and correct their mistakes together, not create tension among Indonesians over such a sensitive issue.

Mohamed
Jakarta

The Next Aquino: Can Noynoy Save The Philippines? - A Times Excerpt

The Next Aquino: Can Noynoy Save The Philippines?
By Ishaan Tharoor / Zamboanga City Monday, Apr. 26, 2010

It's past midnight in Zamboanga and Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III slouches in his chair, a glass of Coke in one hand and a cigarette in another. He's tired and bleary-eyed and wracked by a cold. A grueling day of audiences, processions and interviews in three different provinces across the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is drawing to a close in the hotel lobby. While aides and well-wishers murmur around him, Aquino stands and holds out his arms as if awaiting handcuffs. They are lined with scratches and bruises — the toll of ceaseless hours of plunging into throngs of supporters and pressing the flesh. He grins: "It's another demonstration of people power."

For the Philippines, Aquino is an unlikely man of the moment. At a rally earlier in the day, tens of thousands had crammed into a stadium to hear the presidential candidate speak. Kris Aquino, his youngest sister and a celebrity talk-show host, revved up the crowd alongside her husband, an equally telegenic basketball star. High-school dance troupes garbed in yellow — the Aquino colors — spun cartwheels on stage. Yet when 50-year-old Noynoy emerged, hunched and bespectacled, amid blaring music and streams of confetti, he cut an awkward figure. Shirt loose, pants baggy and hair thinning, he looked more an abashed computer nerd than the sort of brash, swaggering politician that has become the stock-in-trade in the Philippines. (See pictures of Corazon Aquino's Life.)

The movement that has swelled around Aquino in the past year, launching him as chief contender for the Philippine presidency ahead of the May 10 general elections, hinges on a legacy far larger than his own. His charismatic father, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino Jr., was the country's greatest champion of democracy before being gunned down in 1983, presumably by agents of the ruling dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Then his mother, Corazon (Cory) Aquino, a once meek housewife, became the figurehead of a popular rebellion in 1986 that toppled Marcos and gifted to the global lexicon the now immortal phrase of democratic revolution — people power. Not for nothing is Nelson Mandela said to have praised Noynoy Aquino when they once met, quipping, "You chose your parents well."

By his own admission, Aquino would not be running at all had it not been for the massive outpouring of public grief and affection that followed his mother's death from cancer last August. He says he now walks the same path first trod by his revered parents. "They made automatic in me the preference to take up the cudgels for those who have less in life, for the powerless," he says. "Why should I veer away from their footprints?" (Read "Corazon Aquino 1933-2009: The Saint of Democracy.")

This moral mandate has proven especially poignant ahead of the elections — winning Aquino a lead in opinion polls despite a relatively undistinguished political career (he's currently a member of the Philippine Senate). Popular opinion turned long ago against the current President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been in power for nearly a decade. Her administration is mired in sundry allegations of graft and electoral fraud. The law bars Arroyo from seeking re-election, but many critics see in her reign traces of the nation's authoritarian past. Analysts point to a decline in the independence of institutions like the judiciary and an increasing gap between the wealthy few and the 30% of the population living below the poverty line. Says Aquino: "It's as if we've backslid to the days of Marcos."

Aquino's campaign has styled itself as the panacea for an afflicted country. If you listen to his supporters, he is the righteous change candidate, destined to overhaul a stagnant status quo and redeem democracy, which has had a long and torturous history in the Philippines. While his opponents — including a wealthy billionaire — draw their funds from a coterie of vested interests, Aquino claims to be operating on a shoestring budget. Perhaps overstating the point, Aquino staffers in Manila display dozens of piggy banks filled with coins pooled together by schoolchildren. Chris Tio, a Cebu businessman who has left his work and family behind to volunteer for the campaign, shakes with emotion when recounting the virtues of the Aquino cause. "The Senator is a humble man at an extraordinary moment," he says. "We're in a fight for the soul of this nation."
Frozen in Time
Yet, for all the zeal he inspires, aquino himself is also a product of the status quo. Both his parents, Ninoy and Cory, came from pedigreed stock — landed, aristocratic families that have long been part of the ruling establishment. Similarly, Aquino's vice-presidential running mate, Mar Roxas, is the grandson of Manuel Roxas, the country's first President. Arroyo, their erstwhile foe, is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal, another President from the early days of the republic. And though they eventually faced each other as enemies, Ninoy and Marcos were members of the same fraternity at an elite Philippine university. Like a pantomime of ancient Rome, Manila's political landscape has been shaped for generations by the intimacies and vendettas of an entrenched rank of patricians.
That, ultimately, has been more of a bane than a boon for the Philippines. From being the second richest country in Asia in the 1950s, it has dropped to among the continent's poorest and least dynamic. During the Marcos years, key industries were turned into monopolies run by friends and allies, creating a culture of crony capitalism that still lingers. While Arroyo is generally praised for guiding the economy to stability during the recession, much of the growth in the country is the result of remittances sent back by a legion of Filipinos encouraged to work abroad — currently an estimated 9 million to 11 million people, or roughly 10% of the country's total population. With little job creation at home, analysts point to the Philippines' inability to grow its middle class. "The basics for success are here, at least in terms of human capital," says Greg Rushford, a Washington-based expert on trade who has monitored the Philippines for over 30 years. "But there is a lack of seriousness in the political leadership — institutions are dominated by an uncaring wealthy class."
Aquino says he cares: he speaks eagerly and repeatedly about empowering the people by delivering them "freedom from hunger." His campaign has made curbing corruption its No. 1 goal; translated from Tagalog, its main slogan reads, "With No Corruption, There's No Poverty." Aquino says some $6 billion would return to the national budget each year were it not for graft in the system. But he and his nine rival candidates (who all, to varying degrees, have spoken out against corruption) are going up against a problem that is hardwired into the country's politics — one whose American-style democracy echoes the cutthroat days of Tammany Hall and whose hacienda culture of feudal oligarchs would seem familiar to much of Latin America. "There are ties of clan, family and region that are stronger than the nation," says Ramon Casiple, a leading political commentator in Manila. "To this day, it's all about patronage."
The rot in the Philippine system was perfectly illustrated last November, when gunmen in the service of the Ampatuans, a powerful ruling family in the Mindanao province of Maguindanao, ambushed the entourage of a rival politician, killing 57 people, including over two dozen journalists. The grisly massacre — some bodies were grotesquely mutilated and defiled — shocked the country and made global headlines. But while Arroyo has arrested leading Ampatuans and called for a ban on guns ahead of the polls, her opponents cite the clan's long-standing ties to her administration, which, they say, doled out generous state funding from Manila in exchange for support during local elections. "The incident dramatized the way feudal politics play out in the Philippines," says Marites Vitug, editor of Newsbreak, a respected Manila newsweekly.
What enraged many observers, beyond just the prevalence of naked warlordism in some of the poorer reaches of the country, was the audacity of the attack. It's a symptom, say Vitug and others, of a culture of impunity that has cemented itself in the Philippines over the decades and become exacerbated under the present government. A 2009 U.S. State Department report chronicled widespread extrajudicial killings and the disappearances of human-rights activists and leftist journalists, as well as the mistreatment of Muslims in the country's insurgency-ravaged south. It called corruption in the Philippines "endemic."
Rumors of politicians abusing their power swirl constantly in the voluble Philippine media, but little gets done to bring anyone to justice in a country whose courts are infamous for their low conviction rates. Arroyo became President in 2001 after being at the forefront of mass protests against perceived corruption in the administration of Joseph Estrada, a populist former movie star. In a rare instance of prosecution, Estrada was convicted of "plunder" in 2007, only to be pardoned by Arroyo months later. He's now among the front-runners in this May's presidential polls.
Like Mother, Like Son
Aquino is not the only candidate promising social renewal, but he seems well suited for the part — carrying himself with an air of almost Gandhian simplicity and uprightness. Ahead of his decision to run, he consulted in seclusion with the nuns of a Carmelite convent. He later exasperated aides by sending back shoes purchased for the campaign trail because they were too expensive. Unmarried, he leans on his four sisters for support. "Someone had to tell him that a shirt has to fit in a certain way," sighs Kris. "That his jeans can't have pleats."
But this modesty has not won over all. Aquino's chief rival in the elections, Manuel Villar, is a suave, smiling businessman with a rags-to-riches story, rising from a Manila slum to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country. He scoffs at Aquino's thin political record: "Has he done anything?" Villar himself has held influential seats in the Philippine Congress for over a decade and some accuse of him of using his political clout to grow his own real estate fortune, a charge Villar dismisses. His campaign spending has dwarfed that of other candidates, funding lavish TV ads and radio jingles, and he's associated with a roster of big-ticket allies, including world-champion boxer Manny Pacquiao. "I am not a movie star. My parents weren't heroes," Villar tells TIME. "The playing field needs to be leveled somehow."
Observers say the presidential race has become a contest between Villar's populism (and deep pockets) and the Aquino family legacy. The battle bears the echo of an earlier rivalry: like Marcos, Villar is running at the head of the Nacionalista Party, which vied in the past with the Aquinos' Liberal Party. (He is also backed by Marcos' son, Bongbong.) Marcos' refusal to accept an electoral loss to Cory triggered the People Power movement and catapulted her into the presidency in 1986. Her administration is credited with doing much to pull the Philippines away from the dark years of Marcos' martial law, bringing back foreign investors and rewriting the country's constitution. But, unlike her husband Ninoy, Cory was never a natural politician and was seen by critics at times to be weak and indecisive. She was also beset by the conspiracies of pro-Marcos forces and victim to three failed coup attempts. Shrapnel from a 1987 attack by rebellious troops is still lodged in her son's neck.
Noynoy Aquino says he has forgiven the soldiers who once sought to kill him — some are now in politics as well — and is not concerned about the threat of an interfering military. (Mutinous officers in 2006 also sought to oust Arroyo.) He talks with ease and intelligence about his plans to expand the country's middle class with microcredit programs, to boost industry, universalize health care, fix education and shake up the judiciary. But there are doubts about how savvy an operator he will be when thrown deep into the murky world of Philippine politics — one, by his own admission, that he has considered forsaking in the past "so not to be compromised anymore." Winnie Monsod, a prominent TV pundit who once served in Cory's administration, says Aquino "doesn't have his father's charisma, but he has his mother's sincerity. Whether that's enough, I don't know." (See pictures of a deadly massacre in the Philippines.)
Keeping Hope Alive
There's a cautious optimism that it just might be. "People sometimes don't see it," says Maria Elena, Aquino's eldest sister, widely known by her nickname "Ballsy." "But Noynoy's very stubborn. He knows what's right and what's wrong." Executive power in the Philippines is far-reaching — by some counts, Arroyo made thousands of government appointments — and experts hope the next administration will build up the stability and independence of the country's frail political institutions. Aquino is seen to be surrounding himself with a team of largely honest, well-intentioned politicos. "He may not be the ultimate architect of change, but he could push open the door for real reform," says the commentator Casiple.
Vitug, the magazine editor, says Aquino's promise lies in his incorruptible image. "Our trust in politics has been so eroded that people just want a new leader who will do the very basic — who will not be corrupt, who will be good," she says. But this is also tethered to a far deeper affection. "The people remember his parents," says Monsod. "For them it's like going back to Camelot."
Aquino is more humble about his role, fitting for a person who has lived quietly for much of his life in the shadow of his parents' legend. "We are just instruments put in the right position to execute God's will," he says with the sort of religious solemnity his mother became famous for. After leaving office, Cory had turned to painting. The walls of her old Manila home are lined with watercolors of flowers, rosaries and scenes of sylvan idyll far from the tumult and violence that often filled her political life. Aquino's rise follows his mother's retreat from the maelstrom and there's a palpable steeliness beneath his unimposing demeanor. "I crossed my Rubicon in 1983," says Aquino, referring to the year his father was assassinated. "I cannot accept that he would die for nothing."
Neither can countless Filipinos. As Aquino's convoy heads to the rally in Zamboanga, the city nearly empties out entirely onto the streets to greet him. Yellow banners and ribbons — first popularized by Ninoy's love for the 1970s pop song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Ole Oak Tree" — festoon almost every rickety fence and street light in a town governed by politicians aligned against the Aquinos. The roads teem with Zamboangans of all walks of life, barefoot street kids and housewives holding parasols, all clad in their own makeshift yellow Aquino gear (the campaign didn't at the time have a budget to mass-produce T-shirts). The procession teeters to a snail's pace for over three hours, as thousands swarm around, their hands held up forming Cory's famed L sign — meaning laban, or "fight." So much confetti and shredded paper billows out of office buildings that, over the wail of sirens and the ceaseless chanting of "Noynoy!," tropical Zamboanga looks like it's covered in a layer of snow.
Romy Mercado, a friend of Aquino's since high school and a close aide, says they have been received in such fashion nearly everywhere. The campaign, according to Aquino himself, is quickening something "dormant" in the Filipino people. "I haven't seen anything like it since the days of Cory and People Power," Mercado shouts over the din, sitting one vehicle behind Aquino's. But when asked to talk more about his experience of that now faraway time, Mercado is unable to respond. Head in his hands, he's too busy wiping away the tears.
—with reporting by Sunshine De Leon / Manila

The Best & Worst of Moms - A Times Excerpt

Full List
10 Worst Moms Ever

1. Mom on Futurama
2. The Mother in Pink Floyd's The Wall
3. Mrs. Robinson
4. Gertrude from Hamlet
5. Sophie Portnoy
6. Livia Soprano from The Sopranos
7. Medea
8. Enid Lambert in The Corrections
9. Margaret White in Carrie
10. Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest

10 Best Moms Ever

1. Dumbo's Mom
2. Moms of The Joy Luck Club
3. Gaia
4. Rusty Dennis in Mask
5. Jochabed, Mother of Moses
6. Florida Evans
7. Whistler's Mother
8. Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter
9. Marge Simpson
10. The Queen Mother, From Aliens

Why has Israel banned the iPad? -An Excerpt

Why has Israel banned the iPad? By Bar Ben-Ari

The Communications Ministry announced Tuesday that it was imposing a blanket ban on the import of Apple's new tablet computer, the iPad, citing incompatibility with the European Wi-Fi standard, which is used in Israel. For this reason, several such computers have been confiscated by customs officials at Ben-Gurion Airport. Eden Bar Tal, director of the Communications Ministry, defends the ban.

The public is angry following your ban on importing the iPad. Why didn't you announce this earlier? The ban was only revealed when several of the devices were confiscated by customs officials.

The ministry does not deal in brands and packaging. In this case, customs identified the import of a wireless device, and it had to determine whether it was appropriate for Israel. It's true that there is something exotic about the name iPad, but this changes nothing. The goal is that all citizens enjoy the use of wireless networks in this country; importation of a device which is not suited to local standards is likely to cause them harm. Apple itself decided to postpone the release of the iPad into international markets. These are Apple's business decisions and not ours. We are concerned with one thing only: that no wireless technology will trample the wireless connections of other users. If the iPad meets the standards set in Europe, everyone will be able to enjoy them, and we won't be forced to block their entry.


Wasn't it possible to issue a warning earlier and prevent confiscation by the customs authorities?

There was no way at all. Apple's representative in Israel, iDigital, had no information; we tried ourselves to get the specifications from Apple engineers about the frequencies and transmission strength. We worked relatively quickly. Only a few people reached customs with them. It's new in the United States too, and I imagine that despite Apple's delay, there will soon be an iPad which meets European specifications.

Israelis who acquired the iPad abroad feel that the communications ministry is sticking its nose into their private shopping cart.

People who bought the device in America can't force their needs on other people. I don't get involved in what individuals do at their own expense, but you can't only be concerned about yourself. If I let transmitters in freely, that would be against the law and also an injury to the devices operating according to European standards in Israel.

But doesn't banning an electronic device that is much in demand constitute an injury to the rights of the individual?

I state unequivocally: The individual benefits from the fact that we regulate the importation of transmission devices so that it does no harm to general use.

High-tech entrepreneurs claim that the iPad's delayed arrival places Israel behind the United States in everything connected to the development of appropriate applications.

This is cheap demagoguery. Not one representative of a high-tech development enterprise came here with an iPad; we are talking about private consumers only. If someone wants to bring in a device in order to examine it in a laboratory, we check it out and give permission.

What is your opinion of the level of competition in the mobile phone market in Israel today?

In objective terms, based on foreign price indexes, Israel is not in a bad position. I would say that there could be more competition in the private sector. But the picture is brighter in the business market, and we are working to increase competition further. We are doing this with a double-edged strategy. One: more cellular operators. Two: expanded infrastructure. This includes landlines as well as mobile phones. Today the ministry is working on a tender for the physical infrastructure for another cellular operator [to work on the same model as the three current cellular providers - Cellcom, Partner and Pelephone], alongside virtual cellular operators [who provide service on the basis of the existing infrastructure of competing companies]. In the world there are those who take road A or road B, and those who take neither. We are working on both; more than that would be hard to find.

When will we get to the stage of more competition in the market?

At the beginning of this year we formally authorized the entry of virtual providers. Meanwhile, two companies have filed requests to take part in bidding and we expect more requests soon. There are two possibilities. From the moment we grant a license to a company it can go out and work with a cellular company on the condition that it uses its infrastructure. If the two sides do not reach an agreement, we can step in and dictate conditions. In my opinion, because the cellular companies know that we can intervene within six months, they will consider whether it is worth their while to delay the process. And even in the slowest forecast, we are talking about months and not years.

Do you think that plans for unlimited minutes or all-inclusive packages, such as exist in the United States, will suit Israeli consumers?

Competition is what suits consumers. Marketing in the absence of competition will not work in their favor. No imaginable offer will be worthwhile to the consumer without competition, and we are doing everything we can to have more service suppliers enter the market. This is the way the regulator can have an affect in the field.

Doesn't this call for a new player - smaller than those currently in the market - in order to offer plans with greater risks to the company?

It's hard to see such a thing happening in a place like Israel with three companies all the same size. Market evolution usually leads to one big player and two smaller ones. Israel is a special place with special behavior. When 5 percent of cellular subscribers represent more than 450,000 people, every percentage point counts. For us it's important to offer more possibilities to private customers, and that more companies will join the market and compete for their pockets.

Amsterdam in three parts: crazy, cultured and classic - An Excerpt

By : Ellen Creager McClatchy-Tribune

Amsterdam in three parts: crazy, cultured and classic

It's crazy, cultured and classic, a triptych, a puzzle. Some of it is sketchy. Most of it is culturally rich.

Which is the "real" Amsterdam? Take your pick.

On one hand, with its wafting pot smoke and bored prostitutes under glass, the city's infamous Red Light District is still a prude's nightmare and a rebel's dream.

On the other hand, any city that can claim Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Anne Frank is a must-see for even the most staid travelers.

Then again, Amsterdammers seem like the coolest people on the planet, not staid at all. Citizens ride their bicycles with a tidy grace around the town, some toting briefcases, some in green high heels, some on bikes they fold and carry right onto the trains.

Except ... tidy, the town is not. Too much enthusiastic renovation has stripped the "pretty" from the city. Scaffolding mars the Royal Palace on the shabby Dam Square. Construction blights the Rijksmuseum (the city's premier museum), the historic train station, the harbor and other landmarks. One can only hope the eventual result will be worth the long wait.

Bottom line? Come to Amsterdam expecting tradition, and you'll find it. Come expecting sex and drugs, and the city will oblige -- but know the scene is changing. Come expecting history, architecture and the chance to see paintings that make you glad to be alive, and you'll find that, too. Whatever you want, Amsterdam will be.

Go ahead, go crazy. Just use common sense.

"If you are alone and stoned and it's 2 in the morning, don't go in the parks at night. Don't walk around alone in the Red Light," said Aaron James Cole, sitting at the Basjoe Coffeehouse on a sunny morning, smoking hash.

In Amsterdam, it is legal to buy and smoke small amounts of pot and hash at coffeehouses. Prostitution in the city's Red Light District is also legal. About 25 percent of foreign tourists visit specifically to partake in these pastimes, according to Amsterdam's Mayor Job Cohen.

And that's the audience for Cole's new book, the 11th Edition of "Get Lost! -- The Cool Guide to Amsterdam" (Get Lost Publishing, $14.50, www.getlostguide.com). It reads like advice from a friend -- a literate friend who knows a lot about drugs.

"In the book, we tell them what the locals know," said Cole, 37, breaking off bits of hash and rolling them into a joint while pedestrians outside stroll past the coffee shop window.

For instance, the book explains the difference between a coffeehouse (pot and hash and coffee), a cafe (coffee and food) and a smart shop (plants and herbs that give a high).

The book also gives tips on everything from underground nightclubs to cheap lodging and food to prostitute protocol.

The biggest mistake tourists make, Cole says, is stopping to smoke the strongest joints they can buy before figuring out where their hotel is.

Second biggest mistake? Wandering alone at night in the Red Light, where pickpockets and drug dealers prey on the doped up and the dopes.

Oddly, it's the Red Light District's beauty and central location that confuses visitors into taking less care than they should.

"It's the center of the trash and the tackiness and sleaziness, but it's also the oldest neighborhood in Amsterdam and the most beautiful," says Cole, a Californian who has lived in Amsterdam 15 years.

The scene is changing, however.

The number of coffeehouses and prostitutes are being cut to combat organized crime.

In September, the Dutch government proposed barring foreign tourists from coffeehouses entirely and reducing the amount of pot one can legally buy. That hasn't happened yet, but it's possible in 2010.

Under one proposal, patrons would need a Dutch bank debit card to buy pot.

And get this -- a new health law bans tobacco smoking inside businesses. Patrons now have to hide cigarettes in coffeehouses but not their joints, which are not considered health risks.

Cole can feel Amsterdam becoming more conservative.

"It's very much retro thinking. They're tightening the grips here," said Cole, who also is a drummer, professional stilt walker and father of a toddler. On the other hand, compared with other world cities, Amsterdam remains incredibly liberal.

The book's editor, John Sinclair, wishes he'd had a coffeehouse guidebook when he first went to Amsterdam.

He is best known for his 1960s years as a pot-promoting Ann Arbor, Mich., political activist. He's now a poet, editor and grandfather.

"It usually takes about three to four times there to really know what you're doing," said Sinclair. "We remember going to Amsterdam and not knowing anything."

------

It's not easy for an upstart museum to compete with Amsterdam's famous halls of masterpieces.

But the czars are the stars at Amsterdam's newest museum, the Hermitage Amsterdam, which opened in June.

"At the Russian Court: Palace and Protocol in the Nineteenth Century" is its rapturous first exhibit.

One wing shows the royal Romanov family's daily life -- I mean, if your daily life included shimmering robes and solid silver hairbrushes. (One cool item: Czarina Alexandra's pregnancy dress in striped pink.)

Another wing shows the public face of the royals, including phenomenal gowns, shoes, bags, thrones and jewels.

The main floor showcases opulent ball gowns and men's formal dress displayed in cases that revolve as grand dance music plays. A gimmick? Yes, but it sparks excitement.

To an American, it may seem odd that an ode to the Russian royal family should be showcased in Amsterdam, a city that gained power through the efforts of merchants, not kings. But the Netherlands had a Russian queen in the 1840s -- Anna Pavlovna. And recent arts contacts between the countries sparked interest to open a Hermitage in the Dutch city.

Housed in a 17th-century building that served as a senior citizens home until 2007, the museum is on the Amstel canal near the Magere bridge. Already drawing 3,000 visitors a day, the museum was extremely busy when I visited, but it didn't diminish the pleasure of seeing so enjoyable a show.

This particular exhibit (www.hermitage.nl, admission $21) runs through Jan. 31. After that, two major exhibits per year will be mounted.

Most of the 1,800 items in this Dutch show had been packed away in the vaults of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. That museum has 3 million items and can display only 65,000 at a time.

Heaven only knows what other goodies they've got in storage just waiting to make an appearance in Amsterdam.

------

I'm sorry to be such a conventional tourist, but my visit to Amsterdam required windmills, Rembrandt and Anne Frank -- in other words, the classics.

Windmills: I'm not talking about those boring white wind turbines. I'm talking the real thing. From Amsterdam's Centraal Station it was a quick 15-minute train ride to Zaanse Schans (www.zaanseschans.nl) in Zaandam. The historic district has eight of the last working windmills in Holland. One makes paint. One cuts lumber. One mills grain with a thunk, thunk, thunk.

Zaanse Schans also has a tourist-friendly cheese farm, farm animals, shops, little museums and restaurants; I especially liked the Antiek & Curiosa antiques shop for one-of-a-kind souvenirs.

Zaanse Schans is not modern. It's not hip. Tough. I wanted to see it.

Super famous paintings: My highlights? The original of "The Bedroom" by Vincent Van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum, which contains the world's most amazing and bittersweet collection of the painter's work (www.vangoghmuseum.com, $18 ).

At the Rijksmuseum next door, the stars are "The Nightwatch" by Rembrandt and "The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer -- which I saw two days before they lent it to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it will hang through Nov. 29.

The Rijksmuseum is undergoing a snail's pace 10-year renovation. The good news is it's crammed the best stuff into a single exhibit so hurried tourists can see highlights quickly (www.rijksmuseum.nl, $15.50).

Anne Frank: From 1942 to 1944, Jewish businessman Otto Frank hid his family in the secret annex of his Amsterdam office building -- until the Gestapo came. His daughter's diary was found after the war and turned into an international best seller.

You'll walk through the Anne Frank House (www.annefrank.org, $12.25) with a lump in your throat. Most moving to me was Anne's bedroom, with its faded magazine movie star photos and little postcards pasted up on the walls, a sign of the young teen she was.

The other thing that got to me? Seeing her original diary with its little red plaid cover.

------

IF YOU GO:

GETTING THERE: From Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, take one of the frequent trains to Centraal Station, which deposits you in downtown Amsterdam within 20 minutes.

LODGING: Try the Grand Hotel Amrath. It's in a historic building with a pool, free mini-bar and free wireless and is within walking distance of most attractions. (About $260 per night at www.amrathamsterdam.com; Expedia sometimes has deals on this hotel.)

MONEY: The Netherlands uses the euro ($1.45 equals 1 euro). Get the best exchange rate by using a bank card or credit card to withdraw euros at an ATM at Schiphol Airport when you arrive.

GETTING AROUND: Most locals walk or ride a bicycle. Wear good walking shoes for the cobblestone streets or rent a bike from one of the many rental spots.

To get to the big museums or parks in the south of town, use the tram (about $4 per ride; pay on the tram).

The train to Zaanse Schans mentioned in the story, left, is about $19 round-trip.

FOR MORE:

www.iamsterdam.com

www.getlostguide.com

------

Ellen Creager: ecreager@freepress.com

------ © 2009, Detroit Free Press.

Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Jakarta hit by worst violence in decades - An Excerpt

Photo credit : Oxymanus

Jakarta hit by worst violence in decades
Anne Barrowclough - From: The Times April 15, 2010 2:04PM

HUNDREDS of rioters have clashed with police over a sacred Muslim cleric's tomb in Indonesia, killing two policemen and injuring at least 145.
Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono immediately ordered an investigation into the worst civil unrest for decades in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, which left one police officer with his hand sliced off.
The riots began over an apparent misunderstanding over the fate of the tomb of Habib Hasan bin Muhammed Al Hadad, a revered 18th century Arab cleric known to Indonesians as Mbah Priok.

Shortly after dawn members of the public order branch of the police, known as Satpol, arrived to evict squatters and remove illegal buildings on the land surrounding the tomb. But residents of Tanjung Priok port, where the tomb is located, believed the police and city officials were there to tear it down and attacked them, spurring running battles that lasted for several hours.
Around 2,600 police and security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and batons to beat back the protesters who retaliated with rocks and petrol bombs.
Television footage showed chaotic scenes. Satpol officers armed with shields and batons were filmed repeatedly beating a resident, while other images showed residents kicking and throwing rocks at an injured police officer lying on the ground.

A reporter said he saw several protesters, including teenagers, being beaten by police and dragged away bleeding.

By nightfall the situation was so tense that 500 security forces had to be evacuated to a nearby police station because leaving by road was seen to be too dangerous. Just after midnight, with the rioters’ numbers swollen to 1000, they attacked and set fire to five police cars parked outside a hospital where the injured had been taken, and patrolled the surrounding hills searching for wounded policemen.
“The mass anger was horrible and beyond our expectation for what was a simple case,” said Jakarta city spokesman Cucu Kurnia. He said seven of the 130 wounded were in critical condition, including a security officer who had his stomach slashed open with a machete and another whose hand was cut off.

Mr Kurnia insisted the officials and police were not there to destroy the tomb.”We did not intend to demolish the tomb, but we want to evict the illegal settlers,” he said.

Both sides blamed the other for the violence. Demonstrators claimed that Satpol officers targeted two teenagers who broke from their ranks, while police claimed the protesters attacked first.

But officals joined protesters in accusing Satpol of excessive violence. Last week, a number of organisations had demanded that the controversial force be disbanded, blaming it for repeated human rights violations.

Mr Kurnia told a news conference that Satpol officers could not restrain themselves after they were attacked. Wanda Hamida, a member of the Jakarta Provincial Legislative council, said that Satpol officers were out of control, even attacking city officials. “If a (council) member can get punched by Satpol, how about the people? Satpol was just so brutal,” Ms Hamida told the Jakarta Globe newspaper.
Local resident Amin told the newspaper he and his father and brother were delivering water to friends guarding the tomb site when they were attacked by police officers. He said first his father was punched and when he tried to protect him he too was attacked. “They pulled off my clothes until I was almost naked. Then they tied a rope around my hands so I could not do anything while they kicked and punched me,” he said.

But other rioters, armed with wooden sticks, beat any wounded police officers they could find in the streets while others searched cars in the area for fugitive police, ordering motorists to show their identity cards.

By early this morning, relative calm had settled over the area.
Mr Yudhoyono has ordered Jakarta’s governor to meet all parties involved and put any evictions on hold until a solution can be reached

____________________________________________________________
Officers strive to polish brutal image

Indah Setiawati , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 04/16/2010 10:46 AM | City

The city’s public order officers, widely known as Satpol PP, have long been an unpopular arm of Jakarta’s law enforcement structure.

The force is made up of around 10,000 officers, who are the foot-men tasked with the administration’s dirty jobs, be it cracking down on street vendors, demolishing illegal billboards and buildings, or policing beggars and street musicians.

In the wake of Wednesday’s riot at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, these officers again took center stage, only this time they have received wide public sympathy.

Three were killed while another 59 were injured attempting to disperse a crowd of people and clear land owned by the city authority.

Sudi Sastrorejo, 60, said his son-in-law, Urip Widodo, had worked as public order officer for five years.

“Contrary to what people think of Satpol PP, my son-in-law is a good person.

“He always tries to help others and has many friends,” he said of Urip, who was severely injured on Wednesday.

Urip is currently being treated at Tarakan hospital, Central Jakarta.

Sudi said that after five years with the force, his son-in-law was still employed as a contract worker.

Public Order officers come from various background aside from the regular high-school graduates.

They are recruited from pockets of Jakarta’s poorest neighborhoods and all are employed as contract workers rather than permanent civil servants.

The contract-based officers are paid less than Rp 1.2 million a month, while the civil servants who organize the officers and drive the patrol trucks can earn more than Rp 2 million.

“Compared with the job’s risks, it’s not worth it,” said Tomi Chayono, an officer with the Central Jakarta municipality.

Tomi is currently recovering from an injury after he was hit by a motorcycle while chasing a 3-in-1 car jockey.

Higher ranked officers in the squad are usually senior civil servants or retired low-ranking military or police officers.

Senior officer Boman, for example, is a retired Army officer who joined the force in 2000 to supplement his pension and support his family.

Public order officers are no different from other impoverished Jakartans, but the squad has to bear the burden of squashing fellow citizens as part of their duty.

Hambali, who has served the squad for 10 years, voiced the job’s internal conflict.

“When it comes to work, it is a burden on my conscience. It’s a dilemma. The vendors are looking for money to eat, and so am I,” he said.

“But since they don’t comply with the rules, it is my job to put them in order,” Public Order division has a long history, stretching since the Dutch colonial in 1620.

The Dutch established the so called BAILLUW, an agency consisting of policemen who also function as judge and prosecutor handling disputes between the residents.

Yogyakarta was the first to establish Public Order officer Detasemen Polisi Pamong Praja on Oct. 30, 1948. On March 3, 1950 the whole Java and Madura had set up the squad following an enactment of Public Order Agency Law in 1947. (map)