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!
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