Ted Meinhover Tedericco

And Everything Was Not Alright

ya, it's a good friday here in indonesia. such an exciting couple days for me. awesome experience yesterday, imam has turned into an amazing friend. him slowly revealing his broad network of researchers, gov't officials, activists, islamic leaders, journalists and businessmen, a network built over his years of activism and journalism. we are also discovering together, with some awesome help from people back at the university, some possibilities that could bring him to minnesota to study more. he and his family have no extra resources, for sure, but they're certainly smart enough and motivated enough. I had a great time with my friend yesterday, as he brought me round the city of Jakarta to various slums and fancy malls, and into the offices of the important people that have become a part of his network over his years of activism and journalism. Breaking the fast with him, watching the amazing and almost spontaneous swell of people as they flood into every pubic space, around 6pm, to eat and drink and smoke; just sitting and talking as this huge bulge of people fades away into groups of people just being friends, enjoying their friendships that have been strengthened through the solidarity of the day's shared physical and spiritual struggle, whether they won or lost that struggle.

The haze is worsening by the day. Oil companies are being sold overseas. Cellular phone sales continue to skyrocket. The recently published list of Indonesia’s richest businessmen exemplifies how 95% of this country’s wealth is centered in a tiny geographical area, with a tiny number of people, while the worsening state of so many is contributing to social instability. There is a rally today on campus in support of the Palestinian cause, one of the groups attending waving a banner that says “Dunia Damai Tampa Israel,” a Beautiful World Without Israel. The number of bird flu casualties continues to rise, now in possible clusters. My Catholic friend from Sumatra is afraid that the country is being overrun by gangs of radical and violent Muslims that want nothing but to hancur, destroy her and her kind.

And yet as much fun as it would be to indulge in a fear inducing pessimism, to recognize nothing but an unstoppable trend that will result, probably sooner than later, in the destruction of all that is good and beautiful, I find that this does little to accomplish anything.  While my Catholic friend may have a defensive point of view, I think it is fair to draw a parrellel with the mentality of minority groups in the US or other countries.

Yesterday I also visited the office of the Center of Moderate Islam, a think tank in Jakarta founded my the former Minister of Religion of Indonesia. Unceasingly interesting, as with all of my amazing encounters this week. I asked them about the cliche and more than a little biased topic of the "radicalization" of Islam in Indonesia. They cited groups like FPI, which has sometimes been called an independent military as well as a group of thugs. These Islamic scholars referred to groups such as this that commit violence in the name of religion as "criminals," saying that, in a country that was 90% Muslim, there was very little support for such elements.

While they did not necessarily agree with the foreign policy of the United States at the moment, they went out of their way make clear their understanding that an administration does not necessarily represent every citizen of a country, an experience that they definitely share as Indonesians.