Family Values

Family values play vital roles in our social interco--uh, interaction. For instance, many Javanese families share one similar tradition with the Italians: reporting every major occurences to the elder(s).

The difference is there's no Godfather. We do need to touch the elder's hand or cheek to show respect. But failure to do so doesn't result in dramatic consequences. It's pure social relationship. We do it because we think it's natural. Sometimes the situation is far lighter than we expect.

Like the story of a friend of mine, Arga. He had recently got his postgraduate title. They attended a family gathering at his uncle's house. The eldest one present was his grandfather, 93 year old of age. So his parents urged him, "You must convey the good news to your grandfather."

Arga was reluctant. "I don't think it's necessary," he said. "Grandpa won't even remember it."

Yet his parents insisted. "Don't be silly," they said.

Knowing he couldn't convince them otherwise, Arga approached the elder, who was sitting in a comfy chair, "Grandpa?"

"Yes?" his grandfather answered. Suddenly, he looked around in amazement. "What hotel am I at?"

***

Another friend of mine, Andry, experienced similar thing with Arga's grandfather. During one occurence, the grandfather beckoned Andry and asked, "So you're a friend of Arga?"

It took Andry a while before answering, "Yes."

A long silence passed. Then the grandfather frowned, "I've asked that question before, haven't I?"

"Yes," nodded Andry immediately.

I Want to Ride My Bacangcycle

Many food peddlers offer their wares around my neighborhood. They usually push around a cart, carry their stuff on foot or bring them on their bikes.

One particular peddler rides around on his bicycle, selling bacangs.^[1] He shouts about his wares with a certain rhythm, like a chant, "Bacang, baaacaaaang. Caaaang, baaaacang!" He has a lot of customers in my hood. I'm not sure whether his chant works the charm or his bacangs are that good.

He got so successful, three months ago he rode in a brand new motorcycle. Yet, his sales dropped. Because then, every time a neighbor heard his "Bacang, baaa--" and came out of the house, he only saw flying dust and heard a faint "caaaaang...." somewhere.

In the distance. Out of sight.

Yesterday I saw the bacang peddler, back on his old bicycle.

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[1]: A traditional Chinese food which is popular in Indonesia. Read: bah-cahng. Some people spell it as bakcang, but it's still pronounced the same way. This makes bacang a wonderful entry for a spelling bee.

Here's a nice site with its recipe.

Greet, Shake Hands, Score!

A nationwide publication submitted an English article about Dos and Don'ts in Indonesia for the development of a certain tourism site. The poorly translated article betrayed their reputation. One of the insiders (who will remain anonymous for the obvious reason) sent me the exhibit A below.


This gives the phrase "socialize with the locals" a broader definition.

On the other hand, "Toast Is Not Generally Accepted" is a good name for a movie by Garin Nugroho.

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UPDATE: Another anonymous person objected that "social intercourse" is an acceptable term. Apparently he's right (judging by the amount of popular searches on Google) and I'm just an ignoramus on this term.

The joke's on me.

Dogs Will Be Dogs

When I visited Bukittinggi, a small, beautiful town in West Sumatra, last December, I noticed an unusually large amount of dogs being walked around by their owners.



Why unusual? The majority of local residents are Muslims, who normally don't keep dogs as pets. For the unenlightened, a dog's saliva is considered haram (in a dirty kind of sense) in Muslim teachings. Not that we'd be so eager to kiss those dogs in the lips if we were taught otherwise.

This phenomenon piqued my interests enough to ask around. And I got a straight and simple answer.

Apparently, they use dogs to sniff out and hunt for wild boars. These boars might attack people and destroy crops. And using attack dogs is the most efficient way to hunt them down, since using firearms is illegal. Fighting wild boars head on with sharp weapons like spears may sound cool. But not if you know that it will make your chance to survive become lower than doing Russian Roulette.

For your information: boars are also considered haram. So in a way, it's like choosing a lesser evil.

Okay, that answered one part of the questions. There was this other part that still haunted me: but why so many dogs around? Are there also that many wild boars? A native answered, "No." Why, then?

The answer proved to be simpler:

Boars aren't the only things these dogs sniff.

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Photo credits: the ever observant Adhi Rachdian.

Meet the Elite Book Reader

Real-life Stories from the Open Source Software Frontline

I spoke at the Open Source Software (OSS) Week seminar yesterday (December 6th). At Auditorium IPTEKS Institut Teknologi Bandung, four speakers, including yours truly, shared their experiences in OSS socialization.

Two cases worth noted (the dialogs and scenes are imaginary, but the situations were real):

#1: The Police are holding sudden inspections; sometimes so sudden, they forgot to give proper know-hows to their own officers. An OSS-using guy got dragged in such inspection. His notebook used Linux as its operating system. The officer gave a hard look and asked, "Where's the license?"

The guy was taken aback, "License? You mean like an authentication label? It's Linux. An open source software. You don't need that."

"Sorry. You've got to have a license." Thus the officer took the notebook as evidence.


#2: Another guy brought his friend some CDs containing applications. The friend noticed some of the applications are proprietary. He warned, "You might get in trouble if you install these in your notebook, y'know?"

"Why?"

"Well, they're pirated, for one."

The guy took it personally, "They ARE NOT! They're legal! I bought them fair and square! I even got the receipt right here!"

The friend took a glance. It was a receipt for "3 CDs - Rp15,000." (Below US$1.5).

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If you're among the OSS socialization frontliners, you might laugh. But the joke's on you: these are the guys you should aim your campaigns at.