I've got an excess of downtime. Since coming back from my visa run and getting set up at my new place, the main appointments I have had have been going away parties, meetings with co-workers and such. I've had to set up the new computer so that I can download materials for future jobs, (not to mention movies for watching right now), and I've had to go a few places to get items for my room, meet people, tie up loose ends at Wall Street, etc. Don't underestimate the complications that can arise every time a person has to go somewhere in Jakarta. I went to pick up my final paycheck the other day. It took two hours to get to Wall Street by cab and two hours to get home. Missed a student's birthday party because of it. Not to mention I was paid by check. I can't cash a check without a bank account. I can't get a bank account without a proper work visa, (KITAS), I can't get a KITAS from Wall Street. So luckily Tegu, the money man at WSE Pondok Indah, cashed my check for me.
But I have had more than the usual amount of time to myself so I have started catching up on movies I missed. Downloaded the Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club, American Hustle and a few episodes of a few TV shows. It's nice to have a small computer so I can just watch while I'm in my bed.
Also, as planned, I have been able to study the language here in my downtime. My goal is to use this time MOSTly for that. But it hasn't materialized yet, though I have done some studying. If I had classes I think I'd be better off. Same thing with exercise. I planned to work out more and that hasn't happened yet either. Both require money and since it would not be wise to count my chickens here I am reluctant to spend money on those things. I looked into the gym nearby and it's 75 bucks a month. That I don't think I'd pay even in Canada unless it was a really good gym where I could just work out and GET out. It's tough to find a no nonsense gym here. All I seem to find are the "Hey everybody, look at me work out!" type of gym where you can bring your laptop and show everyone how important you are by multitasking and skyping with a client while you drink your protein shake listen to Spinal Tap volume gag-reflex testing dance tunes and carbo load with a power bar pre-training. All in the brightly coloured, predominantly glass fishbowls that allow passers-by to admire your physicl dedication. PPpppppbbbbtttthhhhhbbbbtttt! Give me a sweaty, honest, stinky gym to work out in total anonymity and I'll pay the 75 bucks. As for the Indonesian classes, I haven't even found a good book let alone a good class. I've been using my dictionary believe it or not. That and trying to pick up words from TV I watch. But I've been watching no TV lately so there ya go.
What I HAVE been doing is thinking. And because of some friends' blog and facebook posts I've been thinking a lot about one of my favourite topics: where everything came from. Some people like to think about women. I prefer the cosmos and all things in existence because I think there is a better shot of someday figuring it out. Though I seriously doubt man will ever attain the knowledge to decipher either it is really interesting to me to look into new ideas and arguments. I like to debate and discuss objectively with friends to exchange reading lists and maybe pool resources and facts to gain greater understanding, but, unfortunately, this is a topic about which I have found very few people able to have objective discourse. Everyone seems to have strong opinions even though there can be no absolute certainty in any view or opinion. So undoubtedly if I type on about some new genetic information that brings us closer to an understanding of intelligent creation, I will have detractors. And if I get into a long blog post about how I have found some new information that clarifies the theory of macro-evolution, I will also have detractors. So why do it at all? Because I have the time. Blame the Indonesian government.
Have you ever noticed that when you look at the estimated ages of various things it seems that, almost without exception, the more complex things are the younger things. For example, the Earth is believed to have originated about 5 billion years ago. Bacteria and algae - 3 billion years ago. Filamentous algae, (whatever that is) - 2 billion years ago. Marine invertebrates - 600 million years ago. Fish and land plants - 400 million. Amphibians - 300 million. Dinosaurs - 200 million. Mammals - 150 million. Primates - 20 million. I got this list from an MIT webpost so I'm hoping it is as reputable as the college. At least.
This fits the explanation of macro-evolution that has everything, presumably from the massively non-complex amoeba on up to the most complex creature, developing in order of increasing complexity. That is, the more highly complex life forms would tend to be the younger. And to throw in a complete non-sequitur this is why Eve came after Adam. Woman is to man as watch is to pebble as our friend William Paley would have said. He's the guy who, in the 1700's, gave us the watchmaker analogy in which he posited that something highly complex suggests an intelligent creator. The key part of his theory, to me, was when he said that even the simplest of natural living things are unimaginably far beyong a watch in complexity. Remember this was years before Dalton's atomic theory and QUITE a while before SUBatomic theory. As science progressed, Paley's statement just got righter and righter. Things are highly complex! And it would seem that the theory of macro-evolution, that is the idea that everything came into being by evolving through variations or "mutations," makes sense since it is theorized to have happened in order of increasing complexity.
However, the mutation, the very engine of evolution, is itself a process of DE-complexity. There have been some studies that have shown what appeared to be new genetic information being created through mutations but what was actually happening could be more accurately explained as unscrambling pre-existing information, decompressing packed information, turning on and off certain genes, or even destroying genes such as prohibitor genes so that some pre-existing material, not new material, is no longer prohibited. The vast majority, (if not all), of genetic mutations lead to a loss of genetic material, and all those that would appear to have lead to the creation of new genetic material, whether they did or did not, are not consistent with evolutionary theory. Evolutionary theorists admit this.
This could lead the reasonable thinking person to beieve that if the theory of evolution is true, and if genetic mutation is its core scientific causation, there must have been a pattern of decreasing complexity. The original being, or anti-amoeba, must have been extremely complex and through billions of years, or maybe more, of genetic mutational simplification, or loss of genetic material, we arrived at the youngest, less complex species known today. But that is the exact opposite of what the theory of evolution suggests.
At the very least it seems almost inevitable that more complex structures exist in the genome of species than the ones proposed by Darwin. https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/p320x320/10300799_866302033390809_5444026252074926043_n.jpg?oh=c26afe611a863432517a41874db1be38&oe=541EEE44&__gda__=1410825588_d8d15ae7d6c99168c3cdf4ce36384c0aThis necessitates the idea of more and more purposeful, and less and less random genetic mutations that helped evolution along. And we're back to one of the main problems I've always had with evolutionary theory. Call it purposeful, or natural selection but when you tell me that nature is an unintelligent, non-sentient, force my mind rebels at the idea of nature making selections or having purposes or goals. Mutation rates just don't correspond to evolution rates. The scientific records show that there were bursts of evolutionary mutations the rates of which defy what we have learned through scientific research of both ideas. Giving more credence to the concept that genes perform their duties with a will, not "as if they had a will," as Richard Dawkins suggested. How selfish can that gene be observed to behave before ACTUAL selfishness is attributed to it?
It is a personal theory of mine that as science progresses and we see, (or at least see the palpable plausibility of), sub-sub-sub, (and so on), atomic particles, all the while discovering, (or at least discovering evidence that would lead to a very strong belief in the theory of), ever expansive universes, one day, most likely when I am dead, science and spirituality will end their rivalry and come to the theory, (not the certainty but the theory), that infinity both directions and higher and higher complexity doesn't just suggest but it indicates and all but proves the presence of intelligence in the coming into being of all that exists. At the very least it removes all distinctions between believers in God and believers in God particles. The more science I am exposed to, the easier it becomes to think this way.
But perhaps I'm easily convinced. Perhaps it's easier for me to see that the belief in a scientific theory and a spiritual theory are, in essence, the same. Hearing old Leon Ledderman talk about aliens and soccer balls in his analogy of the theoretical sciences sounds to me remarkably similar to a poet like Sapho seeing the handiwork of God in the beauty of nature.
Now listen, I think it's wrong to believe either way without doing some research. In fact I think a person should do research in both areas. It is also wrong, in my opinion, to believe in something based on the weaknesses in the arguments for the opposition. Investigate both sides thoroughly before forming an opinion. That's what I always thought was the best way to do things. And it is how I have formed this opinion. Only it seems this opinion is getting less and less popular while I think it should be trending in the opposite direction. That to me is weird enough to blog about.
Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Singapore, Sarina, Nokia
So I wake up at 3:30 a.m. after working till 9 the day before and not doing anything to celebrate my last day at WallStreet. I got to sleep at about midnight so really it was a nap. The gate to my street was still down so the Bluebird taxi I had arranged for 4:30 couldn't get to my place. I just walked around the corner and met him. Not many taxis on the road at 4:30. Not many anythings. So we drive to the airport and get there at about 5:15 for my 7:05flight to Singapore. Plenty of time to spare. I KNOW myself!
The driver says to me, "Terminal mister?" So I sez, "Interrrnational," rolling the r in an exaggerated attempt to feign some unearned Bahasa ability. He responds in the affirmative giving me the impression that my ersatz Indonesian has done the trick and foolishly assuming that if you are flying internationally you fly out of the international terminal. He drops me off at a dark, lifeless, decidedly unbustling wing of the Jakarta airport. It definitely says "International" on the building but it gave me an Indonesian vibe. I dunno, it might have been that only one of every ten people I saw there was upright and awake. There was one guy smoking, as there always is, one guy walking around and about thirty people of varying ages, bed clothing and sleeping positions trying their best to get their 8 hours.
My driver was the third. He was working the old familiar no change gag on me. We had taken the toll road to the airport and he had instantly produced the 12,500 Rupiah or whatever it was to pay the toll. I suppose that was the last small change he had in the world because now with a bill of 119,000 Rupiah, after receiving from me three 50,000 Rp. bills he was doing the no change facial screws and gesticulations the cabbies in Jakarta probably study harder than their city maps. I, with my persisting newby thinking, stood there calculating that 150 thou is about 15 bucks and he had probably paid a buck fifty for the toll road so really he is conning me out of a buck and change here. So I gave him the three blues, (50,000 Rp notes are blue), thereby enabling the no small change ploy and increasing my, and everybody else's odds of encountering it again. Sorry all you expats in Indo.
I get into this building literally stepping over blankets, prayer rugs, tooth brushes and alarm clocks and walk the entire length of this apparently neglected Soekarno-Hatta International Airport offshoot to be met by the guy I assume to have been the lookout. If not him then the smoker. He walks the length of the hall, that's really all the place was, pointing to the ceiling saying, "Upstairs!" It takes a few minutes but I eventually realize that I have to go outside to take the elevator that leads to the outside of the inside of the upstairs where I think I might want to be. When I get there I find two pastry/coffee shops and an A&W just opening up. There were some signs for other Asian airways and a departure gate with a few security guards taking tickets and checking passports. I show him my passport and ticket printout only to be told something I had had Boston strong suspicions of already, "Terminal three," he gruffly announced to me. I do the blank stare and arms out shoulder shrug, a move that has served me well on my international travels, and it produces again. "Outside. Shuttlebus."
I go outside to get a shuttlebus and see a security guard sitting on the last, (or first), cart in the train of luggage carts having a smoke. I ask him how to get to terminal three and he says, "There. Yellow shuttlebus." See? Security guards... So I wait and wait. Still not panicky because I have given myself enough time to deal with this sort of eventuality eventuating. The shuttlebus comes and I get on. It stops at terminal "tiga" and I get off. No problem there. I know "tiga" means "three." I found an Air Asia check-in area and asked what to do. The attendant showed me that I needed to input my flight code and wait. I do so and nothing happens. Everyone is confused. Then they realize I hadn't booked a seat. If you don't book a seat you have to get your boarding pass INSIDE. Whatever! I got inside to find some lengthy line-ups. It's now getting close to boarding time. About half way through the line a lady who has an Air Asia uniform on and has been flashing me glances from time to time comes up to me and says, "Only one luggage?" I said yes. So she directs me to the very same machine I had tried before. When it doesn't work she gets confused. I tell her that I have not reserved a seat yet. She then reserves me a seat and voila the machine works. Next time I'll know.
The flight went well. I originally thought, by looking at the times on the tickets, that I'd have about 5 hours to kill in Singapore so I was planning to go to one of the really great gardens they have there. But when I got to the airport, saw the line-ups for immigration that would easily shave half an hour off my time, realized that Singapore was an hour different from Jakarta, I decided that with a max of 3 1/2 hours it wouldn't be worth it to go sightseeing. And besides, what an awesome airport to wander around in! So that's what I did. I bought a few things too. Spent a total of 50 Singaporian bucks and got a litre of gin, two decks of "I Heart Singapore" cards, a meal at Burger King and a mini Bahasa-English, (and vice versa), dictionary. All about half the price I would have paid in Jakarta. I love the Singapore airport! So clean and easy to find your way around! And so much great stuff! Some is pricey but you can find some good deals.
I then sat in a chair and watched a repeat showing of the Costa Rica/Italy game from the night before. Costa Rica is kicking ass! They were one of my randomly picked teams in the Jakarta Gentleman's Club pool and weren't supposed to do much. Beat Italy and Uruguay already. Not too shabby! I was starting to fade in and out while I watched though. Still not much of a soccer fan and it really was an early morning at 3:30. So killed some more time walking around trying to stay awake. What I should have been doing was going through customs, then coming back in. I ended up doing that at the last minute but still made the flight.
I got back to Jakarta at around 3ish in the afternoon I think. The last time I went through customs there I had an entry card but no pen. Had to ask the security guard. This time there were no pens and no CARDS! A far cry from Singapore! So again I asked the security guard. He looked around and found nothing. Then he just stopped looking. I found one that was partially filled out and just scratched out the info that had been filled in by a Mr. Leong. Not sure that would work though. Then got in a massive line-up. After about 30 minutes I was at the front. The lady in front of me was next and we were rolling our eyes at the two people in front of us. Both had not gotten their VOA from the window before standing in line. That's visa on arrival. I was pretty sure my visa was good for a year but the lady in front of me assured me I needed to get a VOA. So I got out of line and went back to get one. I asked the girl in the VOA office if I needed one and after looking at my previous visa, she assured me that I did. I paid 300,000 Rp. for it. That's about 30 bucks. Then got back in the half an hour line-up. I was the VERY last person to go through customs! The agent looked at my passport and my newly purchased visa and said, "You don't need this." He said I had a choice to use the new two-month visa or just continue using the one-year visa. So I said I wanted to keep using the one year visa. He ripped up the other one. I asked if maybe I could get my money back for it and he said, "Not now, I just ripped it up." I don't know if I could have gotten my money back anyway but, what a dick!
So then I go outside to the taxi ambush. "Mister, taxi? Taxi, mister?" All the taxi companies I've been told to avoid because they may not take you where you're going. I went to the area where we are supposed to get Bluebird taxis. Right next to the Express taxi area. Those are the two good ones I've been told. Both have a sort of ticket collector. He gives you a number and you get a taxi like you get served at the bank. I waited 20 minutes before I realized that, then waited 20 minutes AFTER I got the number but got into the taxi. Things were going fine until it started thundering, lightninging and raining. Rain has an almost miraculous effect on traffic here in Jakarta. Impossible to get a taxi too. Strange... So for no apparent reason traffic came to a grinding halt just a few minutes from my place. It was dark and the raindrops were pelting out a soft and soothing beat on the roof of the taxi and I did something you are NEVER supposed to do: I fell asleep. About 20 times. All with little mini-dreams ranging from 30 seconds to about 5 minutes. I was exhausted! It was now around supper time and I was getting a bit hungry too. I just wanted to get home, eat something and crash out for about 20 hours. And we were not moving. At ALL! One of my dreams was abruptly ended by another car "rubbing" the side of my taxi too. Scccrrrrccchhhh! Driver didn't even react. Not so uncommon here. It's already the second time for me. We finally started inching along and by about the 2 hour point of the journey I had made it back home! Success! I'm good for another two months. Hopefully by then I'll be working and able to get my KITAS, (proper visa). I called Matthew, my new boss, from the airport to confirm that renewing my original business visa instead of getting the new one was the thing to do and he verified it. He also invited me out for dinner and to meet his wife, Ati the next night. That night he was going out and he invited me but I had to give that one a miss because I was already turning into a pumpkin. Good thing. I probably wouldn't have made it with that brutal traffic.
So the next day I got up determined to shop for a laptop. I'll need it for the new job. I went to Ratu Plaza, which is a good place to look for electronics. I found a pretty good deal on an HP laptop for about 500 bucks and it comes with Windows 8 and a free printer. I was on my way to the cash machine to get the money to buy it and thought I should text Matthew and ask when he wanted to meet up for dinner. He sends a text back something like, "On the way now. Please meet us and don't be late." I had no idea where they were going so I called him. He told me where they'd be and said he'd text the location and I could just show that to the taxi driver. Then Ati mentioned that it was Jakarta's birthday and between the area where I was and the area where they were there would be a big parade so roads would be shut down completely. To add to the usual brutal traffic in Sudirman, (the name of the area). So I looked outside and sure enough - gridlock! Nothing moving. Matthew suggested I take a busway to Sarina Mall then get out there and show the text message with the directions to a taxi driver. That oughta work. So I went to the busway area. Busways are buses that can use the busway lane in the downtown area. When you are in a cab inching along and see the busway go whizzing by sometimes you wish you were on it. This would be my first try. I waited for a few buses before I was able to ruck my way onto one. I'm not exaggerating! People were actually putting their arms around each other, BINDING ON, and rucking into the door of the bus so that their momentum would allow them to cram in. Needless to say these buses were jammed to the nuts! I managed to get a spot underneath an air con vent so I had that going for me. I had a lot of money in my wallet for the computer so I had my thumb in my wallet pocket but had to hang on to the bars above with my other hand. The hand that could have been blocking my cellphone pocket.
At Sarina Mall, the stop Matthew had instructed me to get off at, I moshed my way off the bus and checked all my pockets. Keys, check, wallet, check, paper pocket, check, cellphone pocket, empty. The bus was long gone. With my phone and the directions to dinner on it. Not to mention all the numbers of everybody I know here. So I did the only thing I could. I walked out to the street and watched some of the parade. People were all dressed in traditional garments, playing traditional music, smiling, I could have taken some lovely pictures... if I'd had my phone. I decided to look for a taxi as Matthew had suggested, but not to the restaurant, to my place. There were no taxis whatsoever. Even if my phone hadn't been pickpocketed there would have been no way to take a cab to the restaurant to meet Matthew and Ati. I walked sort of aimlessly just to get out of the blocked off area. I walked and walked and sweated and sweated. Luckily I was wearing my runners and wouldn't get my feet all blistery. Or so I thought. I kept walking, not knowing if I was going in the right direction or not. I had moved into my new place less than a week before so really hadn't yet learned the way home. And certainly not from where I was. It took me about three hours to get home. I was very tired and I DID have blisters on my feet! But I had to let Matthew and Ati know what had happened. So I did the only thing I could think of: I went to the pub. Surely someone there would have a phone I could use to get in touch with them!
So I sat at the pub rehydrating after a long, sweaty walk and resting my barking dogs. I found a friend there, Darren, (also known as the Cripple in Jakarta Gentlemen's Club), and he let me get the message out that my phone was lost. Well, you see, they have about 20 different prefixes to telephone numbers here in Jakarta. And none of the numbers I've been getting told verbally or texted over the phone work. Either the person telling me is assuming I'll know the long list of possible ways to try to dial the number or by some ridiculous coincidence I've copied down and/or received about a dozen numbers wrong. The numbers for my boss and his wife I was given did not work when I dialled them the way they were given. So I waited until they called me and on my telephone screen up popped the identical phone numbers with different starting numbers. So I saved those numbers in my phone. They were working for a while but suddenly they no longer worked! I can't believe anybody would have knowingly changed from 062 to just 62 or whatever. So I called the numbers I had for Matthew and Ati, both of which had worked before, and got messages that said they were no longer in service, busy, can't be completed as dialled or something like that when all along the REAL message should have been, "We're sorry but Jakarta is still in the dark ages of cell phone service. Please re-dial with some randomly selected numbers before the actual number. You should be able to connect to the party you wish to reach in several thousand attempts. Telima Kasih!"
Telima kasih means thank you. So I didn't get ahold of anybody but I stayed up till 5 or 6 in the morning watching Korea get smoked by Algeria in World Cup action. I had a meeting the next day with a fellow employee named Dennis. He said we should get together for a coffee and a chat at 12:30 at the Circle K around the corner from where I live. So I went the the Circle K around the corner from where I live. Waited for half an hour and Dennis didn't show. Of course I have no phone to send any messages or give him a call and see what happened. Or receive a call from him explaining what had happened... I had to get a phone. I heard you can get a cheapo Nokia here, like all the other S.E. Asian countries, and it'll be like 50 bucks. I have a Nokia for Thailand and one for the Philippines. SOOOOOOOOOO much better than any other phone! Including the Samsung Galaxy and I would be willing to wager, the stupid I phone. Simple is better for me. More technology = more problems. So I went to Pondok Indah Mall because I KNOW I had seen a Nokia place there in my travels. That's where I have been working for the past two months. I couldn't find it. My feet were still blistery and I had to wear my sandals for that reason. I wasn't about to comb the entirity of Pondok Indah Mall! So I settled for a local product. It was something like 18 bucks! I couldn't beieve it! Then I went to the phone store to get a sim card for it. The sim card worked until I got out of the store. I went back and she changed it to the second sim card slot. It worked fine. Until I got to Wall Street. I was telling a few people my new number and the card wasn't being read. So I just took the thing back. They said they couldn't give me my money back. So I just explained what had happened about a dozen times before they gave me back my money. Then, pain be damned, I combed the outer reaches of Pondok Indah Mall looking for the Nokia store. It was, OF COURSE, in the very last wing, walkway, skywalk or whatever that I checked. But now it was a mission. I looked at the cheapo phones on display and picked one out. The girl says, "Out of stock." So I went up in price until I got one they HAD in stock. Only one colour though. Shockingly bright yellow! Don't care. Mission! "I'll take it!" I said and slammed a sweaty handful of Rupiah down on the counter. The gesture lost some of its finality when the girl motioned me over to another dude in the other corner who was the one taking the money.
So now I have a cheapo phone and today I spent the day getting myself a cheapo laptop. That's what I'm typing on now. It's working okay but unfortunately I will have to tweak the settings. Every third word I type is being underlined by spellcheck because I think it's an Indonesian spellcheck. So I've just disabled spellcheck. Along with the annoying mousepad. I got me a real wireless mouse because I hate typing and accidentally touching the mousepad and having your curser jump half way up the page.
The moral of the story is traffic is brutal in this country. So are cell phone service and internet. Having a smartphone or a really powerful computer here is like having a Ferrari. They're more likely to be stolen than used the way they were meant to be used. I'm a low tech. redneck. NObody wants my cheapo yellow phone or my tiny laptop. But they both seem to be working just fine for me! So far...
The driver says to me, "Terminal mister?" So I sez, "Interrrnational," rolling the r in an exaggerated attempt to feign some unearned Bahasa ability. He responds in the affirmative giving me the impression that my ersatz Indonesian has done the trick and foolishly assuming that if you are flying internationally you fly out of the international terminal. He drops me off at a dark, lifeless, decidedly unbustling wing of the Jakarta airport. It definitely says "International" on the building but it gave me an Indonesian vibe. I dunno, it might have been that only one of every ten people I saw there was upright and awake. There was one guy smoking, as there always is, one guy walking around and about thirty people of varying ages, bed clothing and sleeping positions trying their best to get their 8 hours.
My driver was the third. He was working the old familiar no change gag on me. We had taken the toll road to the airport and he had instantly produced the 12,500 Rupiah or whatever it was to pay the toll. I suppose that was the last small change he had in the world because now with a bill of 119,000 Rupiah, after receiving from me three 50,000 Rp. bills he was doing the no change facial screws and gesticulations the cabbies in Jakarta probably study harder than their city maps. I, with my persisting newby thinking, stood there calculating that 150 thou is about 15 bucks and he had probably paid a buck fifty for the toll road so really he is conning me out of a buck and change here. So I gave him the three blues, (50,000 Rp notes are blue), thereby enabling the no small change ploy and increasing my, and everybody else's odds of encountering it again. Sorry all you expats in Indo.
I get into this building literally stepping over blankets, prayer rugs, tooth brushes and alarm clocks and walk the entire length of this apparently neglected Soekarno-Hatta International Airport offshoot to be met by the guy I assume to have been the lookout. If not him then the smoker. He walks the length of the hall, that's really all the place was, pointing to the ceiling saying, "Upstairs!" It takes a few minutes but I eventually realize that I have to go outside to take the elevator that leads to the outside of the inside of the upstairs where I think I might want to be. When I get there I find two pastry/coffee shops and an A&W just opening up. There were some signs for other Asian airways and a departure gate with a few security guards taking tickets and checking passports. I show him my passport and ticket printout only to be told something I had had Boston strong suspicions of already, "Terminal three," he gruffly announced to me. I do the blank stare and arms out shoulder shrug, a move that has served me well on my international travels, and it produces again. "Outside. Shuttlebus."
I go outside to get a shuttlebus and see a security guard sitting on the last, (or first), cart in the train of luggage carts having a smoke. I ask him how to get to terminal three and he says, "There. Yellow shuttlebus." See? Security guards... So I wait and wait. Still not panicky because I have given myself enough time to deal with this sort of eventuality eventuating. The shuttlebus comes and I get on. It stops at terminal "tiga" and I get off. No problem there. I know "tiga" means "three." I found an Air Asia check-in area and asked what to do. The attendant showed me that I needed to input my flight code and wait. I do so and nothing happens. Everyone is confused. Then they realize I hadn't booked a seat. If you don't book a seat you have to get your boarding pass INSIDE. Whatever! I got inside to find some lengthy line-ups. It's now getting close to boarding time. About half way through the line a lady who has an Air Asia uniform on and has been flashing me glances from time to time comes up to me and says, "Only one luggage?" I said yes. So she directs me to the very same machine I had tried before. When it doesn't work she gets confused. I tell her that I have not reserved a seat yet. She then reserves me a seat and voila the machine works. Next time I'll know.
The flight went well. I originally thought, by looking at the times on the tickets, that I'd have about 5 hours to kill in Singapore so I was planning to go to one of the really great gardens they have there. But when I got to the airport, saw the line-ups for immigration that would easily shave half an hour off my time, realized that Singapore was an hour different from Jakarta, I decided that with a max of 3 1/2 hours it wouldn't be worth it to go sightseeing. And besides, what an awesome airport to wander around in! So that's what I did. I bought a few things too. Spent a total of 50 Singaporian bucks and got a litre of gin, two decks of "I Heart Singapore" cards, a meal at Burger King and a mini Bahasa-English, (and vice versa), dictionary. All about half the price I would have paid in Jakarta. I love the Singapore airport! So clean and easy to find your way around! And so much great stuff! Some is pricey but you can find some good deals.
I then sat in a chair and watched a repeat showing of the Costa Rica/Italy game from the night before. Costa Rica is kicking ass! They were one of my randomly picked teams in the Jakarta Gentleman's Club pool and weren't supposed to do much. Beat Italy and Uruguay already. Not too shabby! I was starting to fade in and out while I watched though. Still not much of a soccer fan and it really was an early morning at 3:30. So killed some more time walking around trying to stay awake. What I should have been doing was going through customs, then coming back in. I ended up doing that at the last minute but still made the flight.
I got back to Jakarta at around 3ish in the afternoon I think. The last time I went through customs there I had an entry card but no pen. Had to ask the security guard. This time there were no pens and no CARDS! A far cry from Singapore! So again I asked the security guard. He looked around and found nothing. Then he just stopped looking. I found one that was partially filled out and just scratched out the info that had been filled in by a Mr. Leong. Not sure that would work though. Then got in a massive line-up. After about 30 minutes I was at the front. The lady in front of me was next and we were rolling our eyes at the two people in front of us. Both had not gotten their VOA from the window before standing in line. That's visa on arrival. I was pretty sure my visa was good for a year but the lady in front of me assured me I needed to get a VOA. So I got out of line and went back to get one. I asked the girl in the VOA office if I needed one and after looking at my previous visa, she assured me that I did. I paid 300,000 Rp. for it. That's about 30 bucks. Then got back in the half an hour line-up. I was the VERY last person to go through customs! The agent looked at my passport and my newly purchased visa and said, "You don't need this." He said I had a choice to use the new two-month visa or just continue using the one-year visa. So I said I wanted to keep using the one year visa. He ripped up the other one. I asked if maybe I could get my money back for it and he said, "Not now, I just ripped it up." I don't know if I could have gotten my money back anyway but, what a dick!
So then I go outside to the taxi ambush. "Mister, taxi? Taxi, mister?" All the taxi companies I've been told to avoid because they may not take you where you're going. I went to the area where we are supposed to get Bluebird taxis. Right next to the Express taxi area. Those are the two good ones I've been told. Both have a sort of ticket collector. He gives you a number and you get a taxi like you get served at the bank. I waited 20 minutes before I realized that, then waited 20 minutes AFTER I got the number but got into the taxi. Things were going fine until it started thundering, lightninging and raining. Rain has an almost miraculous effect on traffic here in Jakarta. Impossible to get a taxi too. Strange... So for no apparent reason traffic came to a grinding halt just a few minutes from my place. It was dark and the raindrops were pelting out a soft and soothing beat on the roof of the taxi and I did something you are NEVER supposed to do: I fell asleep. About 20 times. All with little mini-dreams ranging from 30 seconds to about 5 minutes. I was exhausted! It was now around supper time and I was getting a bit hungry too. I just wanted to get home, eat something and crash out for about 20 hours. And we were not moving. At ALL! One of my dreams was abruptly ended by another car "rubbing" the side of my taxi too. Scccrrrrccchhhh! Driver didn't even react. Not so uncommon here. It's already the second time for me. We finally started inching along and by about the 2 hour point of the journey I had made it back home! Success! I'm good for another two months. Hopefully by then I'll be working and able to get my KITAS, (proper visa). I called Matthew, my new boss, from the airport to confirm that renewing my original business visa instead of getting the new one was the thing to do and he verified it. He also invited me out for dinner and to meet his wife, Ati the next night. That night he was going out and he invited me but I had to give that one a miss because I was already turning into a pumpkin. Good thing. I probably wouldn't have made it with that brutal traffic.
So the next day I got up determined to shop for a laptop. I'll need it for the new job. I went to Ratu Plaza, which is a good place to look for electronics. I found a pretty good deal on an HP laptop for about 500 bucks and it comes with Windows 8 and a free printer. I was on my way to the cash machine to get the money to buy it and thought I should text Matthew and ask when he wanted to meet up for dinner. He sends a text back something like, "On the way now. Please meet us and don't be late." I had no idea where they were going so I called him. He told me where they'd be and said he'd text the location and I could just show that to the taxi driver. Then Ati mentioned that it was Jakarta's birthday and between the area where I was and the area where they were there would be a big parade so roads would be shut down completely. To add to the usual brutal traffic in Sudirman, (the name of the area). So I looked outside and sure enough - gridlock! Nothing moving. Matthew suggested I take a busway to Sarina Mall then get out there and show the text message with the directions to a taxi driver. That oughta work. So I went to the busway area. Busways are buses that can use the busway lane in the downtown area. When you are in a cab inching along and see the busway go whizzing by sometimes you wish you were on it. This would be my first try. I waited for a few buses before I was able to ruck my way onto one. I'm not exaggerating! People were actually putting their arms around each other, BINDING ON, and rucking into the door of the bus so that their momentum would allow them to cram in. Needless to say these buses were jammed to the nuts! I managed to get a spot underneath an air con vent so I had that going for me. I had a lot of money in my wallet for the computer so I had my thumb in my wallet pocket but had to hang on to the bars above with my other hand. The hand that could have been blocking my cellphone pocket.
At Sarina Mall, the stop Matthew had instructed me to get off at, I moshed my way off the bus and checked all my pockets. Keys, check, wallet, check, paper pocket, check, cellphone pocket, empty. The bus was long gone. With my phone and the directions to dinner on it. Not to mention all the numbers of everybody I know here. So I did the only thing I could. I walked out to the street and watched some of the parade. People were all dressed in traditional garments, playing traditional music, smiling, I could have taken some lovely pictures... if I'd had my phone. I decided to look for a taxi as Matthew had suggested, but not to the restaurant, to my place. There were no taxis whatsoever. Even if my phone hadn't been pickpocketed there would have been no way to take a cab to the restaurant to meet Matthew and Ati. I walked sort of aimlessly just to get out of the blocked off area. I walked and walked and sweated and sweated. Luckily I was wearing my runners and wouldn't get my feet all blistery. Or so I thought. I kept walking, not knowing if I was going in the right direction or not. I had moved into my new place less than a week before so really hadn't yet learned the way home. And certainly not from where I was. It took me about three hours to get home. I was very tired and I DID have blisters on my feet! But I had to let Matthew and Ati know what had happened. So I did the only thing I could think of: I went to the pub. Surely someone there would have a phone I could use to get in touch with them!
So I sat at the pub rehydrating after a long, sweaty walk and resting my barking dogs. I found a friend there, Darren, (also known as the Cripple in Jakarta Gentlemen's Club), and he let me get the message out that my phone was lost. Well, you see, they have about 20 different prefixes to telephone numbers here in Jakarta. And none of the numbers I've been getting told verbally or texted over the phone work. Either the person telling me is assuming I'll know the long list of possible ways to try to dial the number or by some ridiculous coincidence I've copied down and/or received about a dozen numbers wrong. The numbers for my boss and his wife I was given did not work when I dialled them the way they were given. So I waited until they called me and on my telephone screen up popped the identical phone numbers with different starting numbers. So I saved those numbers in my phone. They were working for a while but suddenly they no longer worked! I can't believe anybody would have knowingly changed from 062 to just 62 or whatever. So I called the numbers I had for Matthew and Ati, both of which had worked before, and got messages that said they were no longer in service, busy, can't be completed as dialled or something like that when all along the REAL message should have been, "We're sorry but Jakarta is still in the dark ages of cell phone service. Please re-dial with some randomly selected numbers before the actual number. You should be able to connect to the party you wish to reach in several thousand attempts. Telima Kasih!"
Telima kasih means thank you. So I didn't get ahold of anybody but I stayed up till 5 or 6 in the morning watching Korea get smoked by Algeria in World Cup action. I had a meeting the next day with a fellow employee named Dennis. He said we should get together for a coffee and a chat at 12:30 at the Circle K around the corner from where I live. So I went the the Circle K around the corner from where I live. Waited for half an hour and Dennis didn't show. Of course I have no phone to send any messages or give him a call and see what happened. Or receive a call from him explaining what had happened... I had to get a phone. I heard you can get a cheapo Nokia here, like all the other S.E. Asian countries, and it'll be like 50 bucks. I have a Nokia for Thailand and one for the Philippines. SOOOOOOOOOO much better than any other phone! Including the Samsung Galaxy and I would be willing to wager, the stupid I phone. Simple is better for me. More technology = more problems. So I went to Pondok Indah Mall because I KNOW I had seen a Nokia place there in my travels. That's where I have been working for the past two months. I couldn't find it. My feet were still blistery and I had to wear my sandals for that reason. I wasn't about to comb the entirity of Pondok Indah Mall! So I settled for a local product. It was something like 18 bucks! I couldn't beieve it! Then I went to the phone store to get a sim card for it. The sim card worked until I got out of the store. I went back and she changed it to the second sim card slot. It worked fine. Until I got to Wall Street. I was telling a few people my new number and the card wasn't being read. So I just took the thing back. They said they couldn't give me my money back. So I just explained what had happened about a dozen times before they gave me back my money. Then, pain be damned, I combed the outer reaches of Pondok Indah Mall looking for the Nokia store. It was, OF COURSE, in the very last wing, walkway, skywalk or whatever that I checked. But now it was a mission. I looked at the cheapo phones on display and picked one out. The girl says, "Out of stock." So I went up in price until I got one they HAD in stock. Only one colour though. Shockingly bright yellow! Don't care. Mission! "I'll take it!" I said and slammed a sweaty handful of Rupiah down on the counter. The gesture lost some of its finality when the girl motioned me over to another dude in the other corner who was the one taking the money.
So now I have a cheapo phone and today I spent the day getting myself a cheapo laptop. That's what I'm typing on now. It's working okay but unfortunately I will have to tweak the settings. Every third word I type is being underlined by spellcheck because I think it's an Indonesian spellcheck. So I've just disabled spellcheck. Along with the annoying mousepad. I got me a real wireless mouse because I hate typing and accidentally touching the mousepad and having your curser jump half way up the page.
The moral of the story is traffic is brutal in this country. So are cell phone service and internet. Having a smartphone or a really powerful computer here is like having a Ferrari. They're more likely to be stolen than used the way they were meant to be used. I'm a low tech. redneck. NObody wants my cheapo yellow phone or my tiny laptop. But they both seem to be working just fine for me! So far...
Monday, June 9, 2014
Timing is errr verythang!!!
I just thought I'd update things here. I came over on a business visa. It's 8 weeks long and I was told I'd have to renew it a time or two before my work visa goes through. I wasn't aware that I would be doing things this way until it was too late to back out. I mean I think I was already on the way to the airport when I read the email telling me not to say anything about work at immigration in the Jakarta airport. That seemed sketchy. But then I thought, hey, it's Asia. I have yet to work for anyone over here who did everything above board. And once I found out Wall Street, (the company I work for), has been doing things this way for years, I figured it was just one of those ubiquitous laws that are really more like suggestions. Yeah it carries a 24-hour deportation punishment to be found working on a business visa, but that never happens. Right? And I was told that immigration officers at the Jakarta airport would probably not even ask me a question. But just in case I was prepared to lie and say that I was just here for business meetings and training. When I got to immigration the only problem I had was filling out the departure card, (which I'll be using soon). There was not a single, solitary pen in the whole airport immigration area. I had a pencil from a book of puzzles the Jacksons got me for my trip but I knew that wouldn't do. So I asked a scary looking guard if he had a pen. His scowl disappeared and he almost looked NICE. He went into an office and asked another guard for a pen. I got one from him and he was very smiley while handing it to me. The immigration officer said nothing at all to me.
I think it was in my second week of teaching here that I got called into the Ratu Plaza Wall Street headquarters. Hamish and I went there with Matthew, the SM of Wall Street in Pondok Indah where I work. It was Matthew, John, (the guy who I had communicated with to get the job), and David who I think might be head of HR. He was in another country but was explaining the situation via satellite phone. Basically I could not renew my business visa with Wall Street. The government had decided to crack down and start enforcing this previously uneforced law. The recent events a JIS, Jakarta International School, I'm guessing, played no small part in this reversal in policy.
You see, there was a 6 year old boy allegedly sexually abused by some janitors at this school. This very exclusive, expensive school. That became a big news story and while I was at the Hang Tua Hotel where I stayed my first five days in the country, I remember seeing it on the restaurant TV non stop. For some reason it came out, (phrasing...), that there had been a serial pedophile teaching at JIS for something like 10 years. No I don't know if there was ever an issue with him or what the exact sequence of thought was behind turning the top story of some Indonesian dudes raping a little white kid at JIS to a white guy who had once taught there was, but it happened. Vahey suddenly had all the press and although I heard that one of the accused janitors killed himself by drinking bleach while in police custody, I don't really know what's happening with them.
You see now, to appear to be doing something about the INDONESIANS raping the FOREIGN kid, (and I get this from Indonesian people), the Indonesian government is going to crack down on FOREIGN teachers being here illegally. Much like the old days when China and Japan had a dispute and made life miserable for their whipping boys, the Koreans, foreign teachers in Asia are constantly being cracked down on and having laws hastily enacted and enforced and pretty much all being suspected of sex crimes and to my knowledge it hasn't done any good. No sex criminals have been caught trying to get a job at a Korean hagwan since they made the new guilty until proven innocent laws there. Well I'm sure they people who started all this punishing of foreigners by inconveniencing them one Chinese water torture drop at a time, will tell you that just goes to show their methods are working. It's just driving teachers crazy, or out of the country. Perfect example: me.
We have to get fingerprint based criminal record checks despite the fact that in Canada these are only done for people whose name based criminal record checks come back as incomplete, denoting that their name is not linked to a crime but their fingerprints may be. This is done to protect the vulnerable people who may be connected with the crime. Mostly minors and sex crimes I think. So, as I said, Korea caring little of the Canadian process dictates that although it does not make their country one iota safer, they will force every Canadian through the lengthy inconvenience, (not to mention costly), of getting a fingerprint based CRC, then having it stamped by a public notary, then taking it to a Korean embassy and getting it stamped there as well. Not to mention the person's degree needs to be stamped by both the notary and Korean embassy or consulate. And some schools, just to add another inconvenience and expense, force prospective teachers to have their universities send sealed transcripts to the schools they want to work for.
Well I had to have the stamped degree couriered here. I had to get sealed transcripts mailed here. Yet I started the negotiations for this job 6 months ago and wouldn't have a proper KITAS, (it's what they call the work visa here), by now anyway. The ages it takes to get one is WHY so many places have been hiring people on business visas and just renewing them until their KITAS finally comes in. Now I'm hearing rumours that all KITAS negotiation has been put on hold while they institute a new criminal record check policy. One that would not have singled this Vahey guy out anyway. Those are just the rumours, I'm not sure of them. What I AM sure of is this is starting to look like the witchhunts I witnessed in Korea. JIS recently had 20 teachers ordered deported. But now the Jakarta police had put a hold on the deportations. See? When you make these hasty moves without considering their consequences, this is the kind of thing that happens. The police, who for some reason haven't questioned the teachers in the four months of "investigation" into this case they have been doing, say they may need to question some of them.
And of course there's Wall Street. I came at just the perfect time! Because in order to be seen as doing something Wall Street and other institutes, who employ native English speakers because everyone wants to be taught by native speakers, is gonna take a beating they might not be able to recover from. This isn't likely over. There will be other schools targeted and I am just hoping that the place I work will not be one of them. I had an interview with TBI, the British Institute and because they are well known and might be a good and well publicised example to make, I had heard that they will be targeted. I asked the guy who interviewed me if he could ensure that although they've been hiring people to work on the business visas for 5 or 6 years, the same thing that happened at Wall Street wouldn't happen to me. He said that he couldn't and actually suggested that I was better off working for a business that isn't as well known. That's what I'm going to do.
I will probably still use the tickets Wall Street bought for my first business visa renewal run to Singapore and back on June 18th. Then I'll get a new business visa with my new business. Hopefully I'll be able to slide under the radar until my KITAS goes through. THEN I'm okay.
This is the life I lead folks! Never a dull moment over here. I dunno how I put up with three years of dull, humdrum, boring stability in Canada. Well, relative stability...
Having said all that, there is an election in a month. One of the candidates, Prabowo, is a guy who is questionable at BEST! I don't even think he can leave the country without being arrested although I suppose if he becomes president bygones might become bygones. Still the guy is known to have said he'd drive the Chinese out of this country if it sets their economy back 20 or 30 years. He was married to former prez Suharto's daughter. He has strong military ties to Suharto as well. He's a lovely guy!
And to top it all off the World Cup starts on Friday the 13th, the date of the full moon!
My impeccable timing!
I think it was in my second week of teaching here that I got called into the Ratu Plaza Wall Street headquarters. Hamish and I went there with Matthew, the SM of Wall Street in Pondok Indah where I work. It was Matthew, John, (the guy who I had communicated with to get the job), and David who I think might be head of HR. He was in another country but was explaining the situation via satellite phone. Basically I could not renew my business visa with Wall Street. The government had decided to crack down and start enforcing this previously uneforced law. The recent events a JIS, Jakarta International School, I'm guessing, played no small part in this reversal in policy.
You see, there was a 6 year old boy allegedly sexually abused by some janitors at this school. This very exclusive, expensive school. That became a big news story and while I was at the Hang Tua Hotel where I stayed my first five days in the country, I remember seeing it on the restaurant TV non stop. For some reason it came out, (phrasing...), that there had been a serial pedophile teaching at JIS for something like 10 years. No I don't know if there was ever an issue with him or what the exact sequence of thought was behind turning the top story of some Indonesian dudes raping a little white kid at JIS to a white guy who had once taught there was, but it happened. Vahey suddenly had all the press and although I heard that one of the accused janitors killed himself by drinking bleach while in police custody, I don't really know what's happening with them.
You see now, to appear to be doing something about the INDONESIANS raping the FOREIGN kid, (and I get this from Indonesian people), the Indonesian government is going to crack down on FOREIGN teachers being here illegally. Much like the old days when China and Japan had a dispute and made life miserable for their whipping boys, the Koreans, foreign teachers in Asia are constantly being cracked down on and having laws hastily enacted and enforced and pretty much all being suspected of sex crimes and to my knowledge it hasn't done any good. No sex criminals have been caught trying to get a job at a Korean hagwan since they made the new guilty until proven innocent laws there. Well I'm sure they people who started all this punishing of foreigners by inconveniencing them one Chinese water torture drop at a time, will tell you that just goes to show their methods are working. It's just driving teachers crazy, or out of the country. Perfect example: me.
We have to get fingerprint based criminal record checks despite the fact that in Canada these are only done for people whose name based criminal record checks come back as incomplete, denoting that their name is not linked to a crime but their fingerprints may be. This is done to protect the vulnerable people who may be connected with the crime. Mostly minors and sex crimes I think. So, as I said, Korea caring little of the Canadian process dictates that although it does not make their country one iota safer, they will force every Canadian through the lengthy inconvenience, (not to mention costly), of getting a fingerprint based CRC, then having it stamped by a public notary, then taking it to a Korean embassy and getting it stamped there as well. Not to mention the person's degree needs to be stamped by both the notary and Korean embassy or consulate. And some schools, just to add another inconvenience and expense, force prospective teachers to have their universities send sealed transcripts to the schools they want to work for.
Well I had to have the stamped degree couriered here. I had to get sealed transcripts mailed here. Yet I started the negotiations for this job 6 months ago and wouldn't have a proper KITAS, (it's what they call the work visa here), by now anyway. The ages it takes to get one is WHY so many places have been hiring people on business visas and just renewing them until their KITAS finally comes in. Now I'm hearing rumours that all KITAS negotiation has been put on hold while they institute a new criminal record check policy. One that would not have singled this Vahey guy out anyway. Those are just the rumours, I'm not sure of them. What I AM sure of is this is starting to look like the witchhunts I witnessed in Korea. JIS recently had 20 teachers ordered deported. But now the Jakarta police had put a hold on the deportations. See? When you make these hasty moves without considering their consequences, this is the kind of thing that happens. The police, who for some reason haven't questioned the teachers in the four months of "investigation" into this case they have been doing, say they may need to question some of them.
And of course there's Wall Street. I came at just the perfect time! Because in order to be seen as doing something Wall Street and other institutes, who employ native English speakers because everyone wants to be taught by native speakers, is gonna take a beating they might not be able to recover from. This isn't likely over. There will be other schools targeted and I am just hoping that the place I work will not be one of them. I had an interview with TBI, the British Institute and because they are well known and might be a good and well publicised example to make, I had heard that they will be targeted. I asked the guy who interviewed me if he could ensure that although they've been hiring people to work on the business visas for 5 or 6 years, the same thing that happened at Wall Street wouldn't happen to me. He said that he couldn't and actually suggested that I was better off working for a business that isn't as well known. That's what I'm going to do.
I will probably still use the tickets Wall Street bought for my first business visa renewal run to Singapore and back on June 18th. Then I'll get a new business visa with my new business. Hopefully I'll be able to slide under the radar until my KITAS goes through. THEN I'm okay.
This is the life I lead folks! Never a dull moment over here. I dunno how I put up with three years of dull, humdrum, boring stability in Canada. Well, relative stability...
Having said all that, there is an election in a month. One of the candidates, Prabowo, is a guy who is questionable at BEST! I don't even think he can leave the country without being arrested although I suppose if he becomes president bygones might become bygones. Still the guy is known to have said he'd drive the Chinese out of this country if it sets their economy back 20 or 30 years. He was married to former prez Suharto's daughter. He has strong military ties to Suharto as well. He's a lovely guy!
And to top it all off the World Cup starts on Friday the 13th, the date of the full moon!
My impeccable timing!
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