Jakartans protesting against Street Monkey Abuse (Topeng Monyet)

Jakarta Animal Aid activists protest the treatment of monkeys in ‘topeng monyet’ shows during a demonstration at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Jakarta on Sunday. (Antara Photo)

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GWK : Garuda Wisnu Kencana (Huge Balinese Temple)

The beautiful and serene park, overlooking Jimbaran Bay, was originally meant to be the best cultural park in Indonesia, and maybe, one day, the world.

The 100 or so visitors milling around the 20-hectare Garuda Winsu Kencana cultural park in Jimbaran looked small in comparison to their surroundings. “It’s like visiting a cemetery,” said a young girl watching the sunset from the park, which sits on a hill south of Denpasar.

But now it is just another remnant of the New Order regime, part of an ambition to build world-class landmarks to compete with iconic structures like the Statue of Liberty in New York. Under the auspices of Soeharto, local artist I Nyoman Nuarta was commissioned to create a huge statue of Wisnu, the god of creation, sitting on Garuda, the mythical bird that carries him, with a final height greater than that of the Statue of Liberty. The project was started in 1996-7 and came to an abrupt halt on the 14th of May 1998 when the Rp collapsed along with the government.

The park was also to be equipped with a performance center with 7,500 seats, and ampitheather, a street theater, galleries, restaurants and other artistic attractions. Problems began to emerge almost as soon as construction started in 1997, with the budget ballooning to hundreds of billions of rupiah.

The park was initially the idea of the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Foundation, a grouping that included then minister of tourism and telecommunications Joop Ave, then mining and energy minister IB Sudjana, along with Nuarta and several other influential individuals and businessmen close to Soeharto.

It was to be built in the rocky and hilly area of Jimbaran, which present new logistical problems. The hills had to be cut flat to create the area required for the statue, which is still not finished today. Only the head and torso of Wisnu have been completed.

Land clearing was also an early problem. A 250-hectare plot of land, 100 hectares of which belonged to Badung regency, and the rest to residents, was required. Ten years later, there are still disputes over the matter.

“The clearing program with the local residents has not yet been solved properly,” said Anak Agung Ngurah Rai Riauadi, the park’s public relations manager.
Management of the park’s construction was not effective because so many people shared their ideas and wanted to see them put in place, “which were of course very difficult to accommodate,” he added.

The monetary, social and political crises between l997 and l998 worsened the situation. The fall of the Soeharto administration badly affected the project badly. Today, only 20 percent of the original project has been completed, and construction was halted entirely in September 2004.

Only a few years ago, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to find investors to continue the project. “I promise to you that we will finish the project. It is the pride of the nation,” the President said in a speech. Nothing has happened since then.

I Made Mangku Pastika, former head of the Bali Police, was then appointed chairman of the foundation, while Edi Sukamto, owner of the Kuta Galeria Shopping center, was made the park’s director. “We will continue building the park in May 2008 to commemorate National Awakening Day,” said Mangku Pastika.

However, money will always be a lingering problem for the project. Only a very few investors are eager to invest in cultural projects.

The Use of Shoes Made in Indonesia Campaign

Bandung. Some civil servants in West Java are welcoming a proposal barring foreign-brand shoes at work — even if the provincial governor floored others by proposing push-ups as a penalty for defying the rule.


The plan, set to take effect on July 1, was meant to encourage the use of locally made footwear at government offices, based on a 2009 presidential decree promoting domestic products.

“I am [not afraid of the] sanctions that come with the rule because I already use locally made shoes every day. I have three pairs,” said Nana Adnan, secretary of the province’s animal husbandry office.

“There are many upsides to the policy — helping entrepreneurs, encouraging purchases just right for civil servants’ pockets,” he said. “And quality-wise, they are not inferior to imported products.”

Ade Sukarsah, employed at the provincial headquarters in Bandung, also said he was in the habit of going to work in plain-toes from Cibaduyut — a shoe-producing subdistrict.

“I don’t have many [foreign-label] shoes, maybe only two pairs,” he said on Saturday, a day after the proposal was announced.

“But if it’s for work, I only wear shoes made in the country,” the officer added.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan had said on Friday that routine shoe checks would be conducted at government offices once the plan was implemented to ensure that the thousands of provincial-level employees would abide by the new policy.

The newly launched campaign was dubbed “The Use of Shoes Made in Indonesia.”

But the exact punishment for violating the rule had yet to be worked out, he said.

“The penalty can take various forms, including push-ups,” Heryawan said. “What is important is that there will be sanctions.

“This way, we are asking all people, especially civil servants, to side with the people” who work in local shoe manufacturing, the governor had said.

He said it would be up to officers-in-charge to ensure that their employees were toeing the line, adding that checking shoe brands would be “easy.”

However, Heryawan said district- and municipality-level officers will not be required — but encouraged — to follow the rule.

Ali Rahman Sidik, a cobbler in Cibaduyut, said he supported the initiative, but lamented that the government could have helped the industry more by specifying shoemaking districts where civil servants could buy shoes.

“I expect revenues [for Cibaduyut producers] to rise by around 25 percent [with the new rule],” he said.

“But if our subdistrict had been specifically mentioned in the circular as a place to support, revenues could rise by up to 75 percent,” Ali added.

Cibaduyut has 460 shoemaking businesses which produce an average of 4 million pairs of shoes a year and employ around 3,500 workers.

The shoemaker also said he hoped the same policy would be implemented at schools in the province and nationwide because this could boost the domestic shoe industry further.

Jakarta Animal Aid Network

New story in the news about Jakarta's monkey's.


SBS Dateline | Monkey Business

Posted by Administrator on 5/02/11 • Categorized as Jaan News,JAAN on Media

Source : SBS Dateline | Monkey Business

Link : http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/transcript/id/601091/n/Monkey-Business

There is a common sight on the streets of Jakarta, trained monkeys who beg for food for their often impoverished handlers. It is a trade that seems harmless enough until you realise that the primates were not long ago swinging free in the jungles of Sumatra. David O’Shea has been examining the monkey business that has animal rights activists up in arms.



REPORTER: David O’Shea





It is a new day in the Indonesian capital and for millions of people struggling to eke out a living here, it is back to the daily grind. In the procession of human commuters this long-tailed macaque is off to work as well.

Born wild in the jungles of Sumatra, she is now forced to beg by the side of the road. Her handler, who makes her wear a doll’s mask, targets the areas with the worst traffic jams, and then waits for passing motorists to give money. There is little reward for effort in this business, so far only a mandarin.

REPORTER (Translation): No one’s giving you any money.

HANDLER (Translation): I have to be patient when it is like this.



REPORTER (Translation): Is it usually like this?

HANDLER (Translation): Yes it is but one or two people are sure to give me something.



Not far away, another long-tailed macaque is getting ready for work. To get there, Atun and her handlers have to dice with death on this chaotic streets. Atun is not a roadside beggar, but instead, works the neighbourhoods performing for children. She is reluctant to get started though, and needs to be egged on with a yank on the chain.



FEMKE DEN HAAS, JAKARTA ANIMAL AID NETWORK: In Indonesia, the attitude to animals in general is that you can do anything with them that you want, what life is there for us to use.



Femke Den Haas is from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, she is campaigning to have the macaques listed as endangered and to stop them being used in this way.



FEMKE DEN HAAS: Macaques are just like great apes. – they are self-aware and they are highly intelligent and social. We do not have to look at the data on are they endangered or not. Just for ethical reasons, they should not be used on the street and going through so much cruelty. They should be living in the wild.



The whole dancing monkey’s performance is a wrong type of education. It is showing children that it is OK to exploit animals, to beat animals, to put them in chains and to use them as a toy. They are being used as a puppet. These monkeys are so frightened that they would do anything their owners ask them. You see their frustration – sometimes they are biting themselves. Children think that is funny – they say look they are biting themselves because they see them as puppets. They never get any education that this is a living being – they used to live in a family and has feelings or nothing.



Today’s performance finishes early because a link in the chain has broken and they do not want to risk her escaping.

REPORTER (Translation): Is there a danger that she will bite someone?

HANDLER (Translation): Yes, when she is not chained up she bites a lot of kids. It’s tiring work, we are out in the heat and we earn at most Rp 10,000. We go home and spend it and do the same again the next day. It’s like this every day.

They earn only a little over a dollar a day but the boys say they do not have other options. They are both orphans and this is the only life they know. They have been working with monkeys since they were just three years old.

HANDLER (Translation): We have no parents, so we earn money for food, now we are grown up we still work with the monkey. We earn Rp 1000 or 2000 so we can eat.



They tell me that Atun is like an old friend.



HANDLER (Translation): We played together as kids and now we are grown up, we have never changed monkeys, we always work with this one – she’s our mate, a real mate we are a family.



Not all monkeys there are as lucky as Atun. Femke Den Haas tells me that the Jakarta Animal Aid Network is desperate to stop street kids using monkeys to beg. And this means stopping those people who prey on the street children by renting them the trained monkeys as begging props.



FEMKE DEN HAAS: The children have to pay a certain amount of money each day to the owner of the monkey. The owner is just this guy that keeps monkeys in poor conditions next to his house in different locations in Jakarta and he brings them out to these poor street children and if the street children do not come back with enough money, or if there is a problem with the monkey, or if the monkey escapes or whatever, the street children have a problem.



Hartono is one of the men she is talking about. He has been in the monkey business for 14 years. He keeps them in cages next to his house and rents them out at a day rate. He even has baby monkeys, born here in a cage, although I’m told the survival rate is not good.



REPORTER (Translation): I hear they often die, why is that?

HARTONO (Translation): They get old and sick.



REPORTER (Translation): But young ones die too.

HARTONO (Translation): Sometimes it is stress or they are fed the wrong thing, sometimes they find leftover mosquito coils, they eat it and die.

Hartono buys monkeys which have already been trained by this man, Panjul, I joined him at the animal market in East Jakarta. He is on the hunt for new stock. He looks for monkeys which are about 3-4 months old, because he says they are the easiest to train.

PANJUL (Translation): This one is already too old, the one down there is an adult – it would be difficult.



For a country with so many endangered and protected animals, it is incredible that they are all for sale down these side streets. Panjul eventually finds a suitable monkey but because the vendor did not want to be filmed making the sale he only shows me once we have moved away. In four months’ time, once he has taught him a repertoire of tricks, this monkey will be worth five times what he just paid. So now it is off home to start the training.



The first thing the new monkey has to learn is to stand like a human, with his hands tied behind his back so he cannot climb the chain, he will be kept like this until his leg muscles develop.



PANJUL (Translation): We hand them up like this for a week to ten days so they can stand up and walk like humans – it is the first stage of training. When they are strong enough, I hang them up overnight. They are fine, they can cope.



Panjul starts them off like this for two hours and then gradually increases it to five and then 10 hours a day. At that point the chain will be so tight he will be standing on tiptoes.

REPORTER (Translation): Don’t their legs hurt when they are like that, monkeys are not used to standing like that, are they?

PANJUL (Translation): No, they are not used to it, they just get stiff, it doesn’t hurt.



He says he understands why people think it is cruel. Panjul has monkeys at various stages of training. This one has been learning the ropes for a month now, it will take another three or four months before it is ready to work.

PANJUL (Translation): I’ve been introducing him to different toys, but he is still stressed and crying out because he hasn’t been doing it for long.



He is currently learning to do a somersault and to salute, eventually he will be as competent as Panjul’s smartest monkeys. He can be easily distinguished by the boot polish that Panjul has painted on his head. He knows the whole routine and can do all the tricks, including the military commander pose, but best of all he is not frightened of the children. In short, for the man who rents him out for the day, he is a money-making machine.



REPORTER (Translation): Do some people complain “The poor thing belongs in the jungle.” What do you tell them?

MAN (Translation): I tell them it’s terrible in the jungle, here they are tamed.



REPORTER (Translation): Why is it terrible in the jungle?

MAN (Translation): They haven’t been trained.



The long-tailed macaque is not yet listed as an endangered species even though the Jakarta Animal Aid Network has lobbied for this. Femke Den Haas is so frustrated with the lack of progress she is about to broaden the campaign.



FEMKE DEN HAAS: We really wanted to solve this locally. We never wanted to set up a big campaign, but now we are – now we are at the point of saying – we have tried everything on a local level – it is all empty promises – nothing is changing – more and more monkeys are being used. We see baby monkeys, we see mothers with weaning babies on the streets. It is unacceptable and we do need international pressure to end this.



But for Atun’s controllers, this is just the way it is done.

REPORTER (Translation): Do some people get angry and say “poor monkey”.

HANDLER (Translation): Yes, sometimes when we perform people say “Be careful. Poor monkey. Don’t torture it.” But she is a performing monkey and it’s a tradition. This is how we do it.





MARK DAVIS: David O’Shea filming and reporting there. Go to our website to tell us your thoughts on that story, and any of tonight’s other reports. And there is a link to more information on the Jakarta animal aid network at sbs.com.au/dateline.

Reporter/Camera

DAVID O’SHEA



Producer

VICTORIA STROBL



Fixer

Kanthi Andayani



Editor

NICK O’BRIEN

MICAH MCGOWN

Translation/Subtitling

ROBYN FALLICK

Original Music composed by

VICKI HANSEN

1st May 2011



here.

Special Report: Cruelty Behind the Mask of Jakarta’s Monkey Circuses

It is a pitiful sight, but one that Jakarta residents are used to and that tourists encounter within days or even hours of arriving.

By the side of the road, a small, skinny monkey, sometimes fitted with a grotesque mask and garish costume, juggles or rides a toy bicycle or rocking horse, all the while tethered by a chain to a handler squatting in the shade a meter or two away, waiting for the occasional coin tossed from a car window.

In one South Jakarta spot, a nursing monkey is forced to perform, her infant clinging to her desperately while suckling, as motorists line up to enter the toll road. Every minute or two, her leash is yanked and she remembers that it’s time to change the act.

The sight of topeng monyet, or masked monkeys, is so familiar, and the long-tailed macaques trained to perform like this often seem so world-weary, that it is tempting to imagine that they have always been around.

But the monkey acts really only began in the 1980s as traveling shows to entertain poor kids in the kampungs. Only in recent years have monkeys been seen in the city center.

Since then their numbers have grown steadily, and as their visibility has increased, so too have concerns about the welfare of the monkeys.

For this special report, the Jakarta Globe looks behind the mask and investigates the hidden suffering and torture that the monkeys endure — suffering that becomes more and more entrenched with every Rp 1,000 note that passing drivers hand over.

Where It All Begins

The story behind the often light-hearted shows starts in the East Jakarta slum area of South Cipinang Besar, famously known as Kampung Monyet, or Monkey Village, where at least 150 macaques are kept in cramped wooden cages.

After having endured hours of agonizing “training,” the monkeys sit stuck in cages, waiting for their turn to be taken out to the street to perform. They live among the roughly 200 households in a shantytown built on disputed land behind the Prumpung toy market. The majority of residents in the area work as monkey handlers.

Cecep, one such resident, shows the Globe the grotesque way that a monkey that normally walks on four legs is taught to stand upright.

Behind a shanty on a riverbank filled with garbage, Cecep puts a metal ring around the neck of Toal, a male macaque with a broken arm from a previous training incident. Two ropes tether the ring to poles erected on either side of the monkey. Cecep also ties Toal’s arms behind his back while the monkey screeches in pain.

This “hanging the monkey” method, Cecep says, forces the animal to rely only on its feet to get better footing on the ground, strengthening the monkey’s leg muscles and giving it an erect, human-like posture.

“We usually hang the monkeys for half a day before we release them for a few hours to feed them and let them rest,” says Nanang, another handler.

“After that, we hang them again for a few hours until the day’s training is over and we put them back in their cages.

“But we have to hit them, too, sometimes.”

Cecep says some handlers let their monkeys hang all day without feeding them or giving them breaks, risking medical problems or even death.

The hanging training begins as soon as a monkey stops nursing, or when it is at least a year old. It takes a week to a month for a monkey to get through this basic training, the handlers say.

Cecep, who has been in the trade since 1999, says peranakan monkeys, those born to performing monkeys, have a better chance of surviving the training than monyet pasar, or those caught in the wild by poachers.

“The peranakan ones can take a week to train while the monyet pasar take at least a month,” he says. “Sometimes they don’t make it and they die.”

The peranakan monkeys are considered more hardy than the pasar monkeys because trainers can be sure they have finished nursing. Monyet pasar, on the other hand, might not have had the chance before they were snatched by poachers. As a result, they tend to have less strength and stamina.

Once the monkeys have passed the hanging training and can walk upright, the handlers train them to use various toys and props, such as a toy motorcycle, for their performance.

“We also train them to lift toy weights to check if they can really stand erect,” Cecep says. “If they can’t, the toy training period takes longer.

“We don’t teach them to use all the toys at the same time,” he adds. “Once the monkey knows what to do with a toy gun, for example, we start training it with another toy.”

Dying in Training

Cecep and Nanang both claim a success rate of 60 percent in getting monkeys to complete the two phases of training.

“The other 40 percent [of monkeys] end up dead,” Cecep says. “If they’re not physically strong enough, they die during the basic training, though some die later in the toy training phase.”

Cecep thinks of himself as being gentler with his animals than the other handlers.

“If I fail and one of my monkeys dies during training, I give it a proper burial,” he says.

“Many others just toss the monkey’s body into the river or a garbage dump.”

He adds that he has had two monkeys die on him during training. Then there are the non-lethal training accidents, like the broken arm he gave Toal.

Cecep demonstrates how he has trained another of his monkeys, Odon, to ride a small wooden motorcycle and salute a flag.

As Odon walks back and forth with the toy motorcycle, Cecep gives the command for it to perform by yanking on the chain attached to a collar around the monkey’s neck.

It’s “normal” to pull hard, he says, and there’s a certain way to do it without breaking the animal’s neck. “I don’t give a sudden jerk while the chain is lax,” he says.

“I pull the chain straight first and then I slowly yank it to signal to him to start. That way, it doesn’t hurt his neck and he doesn’t lose his balance.”

Cecep and the other handlers train their monkeys to play with the props or perform other stunts in whatever free space they can find. Often this means the training occurs in the narrow alleyways of their neighborhood, among residents milling about and stacks of monkey cages.

Some of the smaller cages house two or more monkeys each, while the larger ones cram up to 15 monkeys together.

One of the caged animals is a female macaque named Atun. She is carrying a nursing infant on her neck.

“Atun is probably eight years old and she has had three babies, but one of them died after it got sick from being bitten by another monkey,” says another handler, Dede Irfan Saputra, who has just returned from panhandling with another monkey and is undressing it before caging it.

Cecep says the bigger cages are owned by the local “monkey bosses” who rent out the primates to handlers for Rp 15,000 ($1.70) per monkey per day, with the basic props of a mask and a costume.

The monkey owners charge an additional Rp 20,000 to rent out extra props such as a toy bicycle or musical instrument.

Handlers like Cecep and Nanang can expect to take home Rp 50,000 to Rp 70,000 after several hours of daytime performance on the sides of some of Jakarta’s busiest roads.

“That’s the net amount I get after transportation and monkey rental,” Cecep says, adding that he can make a little more during weekends.

Most of the time, the macaques’ diet consists solely of plain white rice. During performances, however, their handlers give them pieces of fruit or snacks that passersby hand out.

Both Cecep and Nanang say a distressed monkey poses some level of danger to the humans around it.

“The monkey can be dangerous if it’s handled by an unfamiliar handler who doesn’t deal with it on a daily basis like we do,” Cecep says.

“Unlike us, the foreign handler won’t know if the monkey is stressed, hungry or tired,” he adds. “Sometimes the monkeys can get irritated when children make fun of them. If we understand the monkeys, they will understand us back.”

Ending the Cruelty?

Pramudya Harzani, a spokesman for animal rights and welfare group Jakarta Animal Aid Network, is campaigning to put an end to the cruelty.

Pramudya says JAAN is frequently contacted by animal lovers indignant about the way the monkeys are being exploited in what is essentially a panhandling scheme.

Members of the group have traced the monkeys and their handlers to Kampung Monyet and identified at least three major bosses who own several monkeys that they rent out.

“Those monkeys go through hell to be trained to perform,” Pramudya says.

“They’re even poached from their mothers while they’re very young. This is obviously against the five principles of animal welfare,” he adds.

These five principles are guidelines relating to freedom from thirst and hunger, freedom from pain and disease, freedom to live in a suitable environment, freedom to express normal behaviors and freedom from fear and distress.

“We are very concerned about this situation. This is not entertainment, this is cruelty to animals,” Pramudya says.

He says it is important that people stop giving money to the monkeys or their handlers because doing so only encourages the practice.

He adds that JAAN has tried to raise the issue with the government by pointing out that ignoring this situation could have an adverse effect on human health, given that monkeys are potential carriers of numerous infectious diseases.

The long-tail macaques are not categorized as a protected or endangered species in Indonesia, but Pramudya says this is no excuse to overlook the trade and leave it unregulated.

“Don’t wait for them to become endangered or to cause a bigger problem before regulating them,” he says.

source

Domodedovo blast: Explosion rocks Moscow's main airport

Moscow's Domodedovo airport - the busiest in the Russian capital - has been rocked by an explosion that has reportedly killed 31 people.
More than 100 more are thought to have been injured in the blast, which reports suggest may have been the work of a suicide bomber.
Russia's chief investigator said the explosion was the work of terrorists.
The airport is 40km (25 miles) south-east of the city centre, and is popular with foreign workers and tourists.
Police have stepped up security across Russia's capital and at other airports, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.
Dozens of ambulances Early local reports suggested Monday's blast had hit the baggage reclaim area of the international arrivals hall.
Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene where emergency services are tending to the wounded.
A RIA Novosti news agency correspondent at the scene reported that a lot of smoke could be seen in the area, and there was a smell of burning.
The UK's Foreign Office said it was checking if any Britons were involved.
Last March the Russian capital's underground system was rocked by two female suicide bombers from Russia's volatile Dagestan region, who detonated their explosives on the busy metro system during rush hour, killing 40 people and injuring more than 80.

VIDEO REPORT

Yogyakarta Crop Circle Stirs Curiosity, But Experts Rule Out Aliens

Yogyakarta Crop Circle Stirs Curiosity, But Experts Rule Out Aliens


Hundreds of curious visitors have flocked to a small rice field in Yogyakarta to witness what could be Indonesia’s first documented crop circle, an occurrence attributed by some to close encounters of the alien kind.

Ngadiran, one of six farmers who owns the land in Sleman district where the crop circle, measuring 70 meters in diameter, was found on Sunday afternoon, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that he had not seen what had caused the distinctive pattern but others may have.

“According to several residents, they saw a tornado on Saturday evening,” he said.

“On Sunday afternoon, we saw the design in our fields.”

He would not say if he believed that an unidentified flying object was behind the crop circle, which contains a number of symbols.

The farmers have fenced off the area to prevent their fields from being trampled by sightseers, while police have cordoned off the area.

The latter have declined to speculate on how the circle was made.

“We photographed the trace evidence found in the rice field, but we’d rather not comment on that yet because the case requires further research,” said Sr. Comr. Anny Pudjiastuti, a spokeswoman for the Yogyakarta Police.

Thomas Djamaluddin, the head of atmospheric sciences and chief of astronomy research at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan), doubted, however, that the Sleman crop circles were an indication that humankind had been visited by aliens.

“We won’t be sending investigators to the scene because we suspect the crop circle involves human invention.

“It’s not a natural phenomena nor the non-scientific phenomena associated with outer space creatures commonly referred to as aliens,” Thomas said.

“The existence of aliens is unconfirmed and cannot be proved scientifically.”

Budi Waluyo, head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geology Agency (BMKG) in Yogyakarta, said the agency had no reports of a tornado in the province or its surrounding areas on Saturday or Sunday.

He said even if a tornado did occur, it would leave a distinctive snaking trail, not a crop circle.

He added the two closest weather systems — Tropical Storm Vince in the Java Sea and Hurricane Anthony in Australia — were not effecting the weather in the area.

“We always communicate with aviation authorities at the Adi Sucipto Airport in Yogyakarta, a few kilometers from the site,” Budi said.

“If anything suspicious was caught on radar, we’d have been notified, but the fact is that there were no reports.”

Thomas said crop circles had been — what else? — cropping up since the mid-1600s all over the world.

“However, the facts show that the majority of crop circles can be attributed to human activity,” he said.

“The motives for creating crop circles are many, ranging from fun, to attention-seeking, to art and for commercial purposes.

“I believe what happened in Sleman was similar to the phenomena we’ve been seeing for centuries. There’s no scientific development or new facts to be drawn from it.”

Thomas said there were several reasons why aliens or other phenomena could be ruled out as being behind the crop circles.

First, he said, the existence of extraterrestrial life on Earth could not be scientifically proven, with no traces ever found of a spaceship landing.

Second, any spaceship hovering over a crop field would leave behind telltale signs such as a crater or residual radiation.

Third, the crop circle in Sleman was found to be almost perfectly symmetrical, indicating it was made by humans rather than a landing UFO or a tornado.

Thomas added that speculation high voltage power transmission lines above the field had created the circle were absurd because it was not possible for an electromagnetic field to effect rice stalks.

“We’ll wait and see,” he said. “Hopefully, someone will come forward to claim responsibility for the crop circle.”

He said the hubbub surrounding the discovery was the results of being accustomed to “a delusion generated by movies.”

“In England in the 1990s, two young men admitted to making crop circles, which reinforces our views that there’s a human hand behind all this,” Thomas said.

from here

Komodo Out of Favor With Voters in 7 Wonders Polling

C'mon Indonesia, get those votes in! I read this article in the Jakarta Globe recently.

Indonesia’s Komodo Island is currently sitting at 26th place on the list of 28 finalists in a competition to name the seven natural wonders of the world, a tourism official said.

“Among international votes, over the past four weeks, Komodo has only been able to reach a 60.28 percent support level, ranking it at 26 of the 28 finalists,” said Ubaldus Gogi, the head of promotions at the East Nusa Tenggara tourism office.

The New7Wonders competition ranks the entries according to how many votes they receive from outside of their country of origin.

Speaking in Kupang on Sunday, Ubaldus said that the two finalists coming in below Komodo were Jeju Island in South Korea and the Sundarbans mangrove forest, which is located between Bangladesh and India.

Topping the votes was Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, with 99.96 percent of its votes coming from outside of the country.

Rounding out the top three were the Mud Volcanos of Azerbaijan, and the Galapagos Islands.

Ubaldus said that rankings continued to change with time and Komodo could still hope to get more votes before the seven finalists are named at the end of the year.

He called on all Indonesians to campaign both at home and overseas to gather support for Komodo in the New7Wonders poll.

“The organizers are targeting a total of one billion votes for this event, so we should aim to get at least 200 million votes for Komodo,” Ubaldi said.

On Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would also take part in promoting Komodo. He said he would call for more votes during National Press Day celebrations in Kupang on Feb. 9.

The first round of the competition narrowed the list of 440 participants down to a shortlist of 77 entries. After a public online vote the list was again whittled down to just 28. The winner of the contest will be announced on Nov. 11.

The tourism ministry estimated that 25 percent of Indonesians who had access to the Internet had voted for the national park.

Antara.

Source

Floods in Australia

Just a small comparison to show you how extensive these floods in Australia really are!

Floods in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belmont Common flood, Belmont, 1952. Flooding in Newcastle. QLD 2010-2011 floods. This is a list of notable recorded floods that have occurred in Australia. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_Australia

BBC News - Floods force mass evacuations in Queensland, Australia
29 Dec 2010 ... About 1000 people are evacuated as the worst flooding in decades wreaks havoc across north-eastern Australia.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12087870

Australian floods may boost RIs coal sales |
7 Jan 2011 ... Floods inundating Queensland have disrupted Australian coal production, and in turn may offer opportunities for Indonesia to boost coal ...
arsipberita.com/.../australian-floods-may-boost-ris-coal-sales-132714.html

Australian floods look set to get worse | euronews, world news
29 Dec 2010 ... world news - The worst flooding for decades in northeastern Australia has turned towns into lakes – and there are warnings that the worst is ...
www.euronews.net/2010/.../australian-floods-look-set-to-get-worse/

More Topeng Monyet (Street Monkeys)

You can see topeng monyet on the streets in Jakarta, almost everyday begging for some money for their owners. Their life is but a pale significance of what they once where. I feel sorry for them, but do not know what I can do to help them.

Once they were part of Javanese culture, traveling around neighbourhoods performing tricks and shows for admiring children. Now they are stuck on a chain, at a smoky, polluted and hot traffic intersection.

The Ashes Cricket Jokes

Boxing Day at the MCG. Australia's lowest ever score against England in an Ashes series.

A guy walks into a brothel, and says:
'I am a bit kinky- how much for total humiliation?'
The madam replies $60
'Wow, what do I get for that?' he says.
'A baggy green cap and an Australian cricket shirt'.


What do you call an Australian who can handle a bat?
A Vet!
Ho Ho.


What is the difference between Cinderella and the Australian cricketers?
Cinderella knew when to leave the ball


And why isn`t there anybody drinking bottles of wine in Oz right now ?
Because they don`t have any openers..


Q what do you get if you cross the Australian cricket team with an Oxo cube?
A A laughing stock!


Q. What is the height of optimism?
A. An Australian batsman putting on sunscreen.


Q. What would Jimmy Anderson be if he was Australian?
A. An all rounder.


Q. What is the main function of the Australian coach?
A. To transport the team from the hotel to the ground.


Q. Why don't Australian fielders need pre tour travel injections?
A. Because they never catch anything.


Q. What's the Australian version of LBW?
A. Lost, Beaten and Walloped.


Q. What do you call an Australian with 100 runs against his name?
A. A bowler.


Q. What's the most proficient form of footwork displayed by Ponting?
A. The walk back to the pavilion.


Q. Who has the easiest job in the Australian squad?
A. The guy who removes the red ball marks from the bats.


Q. What do Australian batsmen and drug addicts have in common?
A. Both spend most of their time wondering where their next score will come
from.


Q. Why are Australian cricketers cleverer than Houdini?
A. Because they can get out without even trying.


Q. What does Ryan Harris put in his hands to make sure the next ball almost
always takes a wicket?
A. A bat