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Jakarta, Indonesia
6° 10' S 106° 49' E
Aug 14, 2004 10:19
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Jakarta

All work and no play makes Joe a dull boy

Text written in: English

Yes it's true. I even suspected it when I didn't cotton onto the subtle hints but didn't think hard enough to realise. Yesterday I asked our secetary Carolina something about whether we'd be able to interview someone "tomorrow" and she didn't seem to quite register what I said. Or erased it quickly from her mind.

This morning I sprang out of bed and thought "shit I'm late for work", so I promptly shaved, put on a crisp shirt and wandered down to the office. The first thing I noticed was that Ari wasn't there. "Damn slacker!", I thought. Reminds me of me! After all, I had only 100 metres to the office, he had several times more distance to traverse and through the soupy traffic, steam and general chaos on Jakarta. But then neither was Eddy, or Anton... Hey Satria is isn't there, or Agung or Juno or....

Yes Ari wasn't the only one, everyone else was away from their desks. Ah of course! They must be at the morning meeting. I might as well join in and see what's new. But nobody was there. The pool outside the meeting room glistened innocently in the sunlight. Like some sort of predatory acid bath that had stealthily swallowed all our industrious employees.

Roger also had been out late last night, I assumed partying. It seemed a bit strange for mid-week but I guess we'd done that lots before too. I thought "hmmm, maybe it's an Indonesian public holiday", after all I wouldn't know. Budi the driver had asked me yesterday if I had any plans and mentioned that if it was ok, he wouldn't do any overtime and I could just call him if I needed him to take me anywhere. Perhaps that was why. Strange Indonesian holidays. I could look it up on the internet. I just need to check the date (double-click) and look it up and.... Oh it's Saturday

I felt so dumb. A couple of times when I was a kid I'd had my alarm set on the weekend and gotten out of bed, done the whole brush-teeth-have-shower routine and put on my school uniform, and just felt so dumb when someone pointed out to me that I could be in bed.

It was one of those Saturdays where you realise that you're in a strange city on your own. I might as well have been anywhere, it was as solitary as can be. I wasn't at all prepared and had nothing exciting lined up for the weekend. I mean it's cool, but shopping, boozing and having half-conversations with people whose language you don't really speak is only really satifying if you're on drugs. Funny how I've spent so much time here (comparatively) and this was the first time I've really noticed. Oh well.

I worked on video codecs (those of you who know will know what I mean), had some wine, talked to 'nique and generally hung out listening to music (list courtesy of my iPod)

R. Kelly - Thoia Thoing
System of a Down - Aerials
Usher - Yeah
The Butterfly Effect - Beautiful Mine
G-Unit - Stunt 101
Wu-Tang Clan - Gravel Pit
SUN Project - Casio-Playa
Pete Murray - So Beautiful
Lenny Kravitz - American Woman
Big L - Fall Back
Groove Armada - My Friend
Horace Brown - Shake it Up
Eat Static - Holy War
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
Scribe - Not Many
Eminem - Business
Imperial Teen - Yoo Hoo
G-Unit - Magic Stick
Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated
Brand New - Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
Brand New - I Will Play My Guitar Beneath The Spin Light
Evanescence - Whisper

Then once I decided I wasn't going out, I tried to remember the words and moves to the Haka that we learnt when I was younger. Ok I'd do anything to avoid boredom at this tage.

The Haka is a wardance and it's performed by the New Zealand All Blacks at the start of most rugby games. Kiwis are pretty peaceful, nice and almost complacent, until you really tread on their toes or come up in real opposition. Then there's not much you can do to change your cards.

The British were basically scared shitless when thousands of Maori waded out into the water doing this war-dance to 'welcome' their ships. I guess that, combined with some pretty fierce resistance is why they gave them equal status as subjects of the British crown and signed a treaty to give total equal rights. Peaceful people like the Australian Aboriginals had less of a chance and were used for target practice.

Some words:

(this bit is the intro kinda)
"Kia rite, ka rite tonu !" - Get ready, when you're ready
Hi!!! - (an exclamation)
Ringa pakia (slap your hands on your thighs like you just heard a good joke but look nasty, ok it just means slap thighs)
Uma tiraha - puff your chest out
Turi whatia - bend your knees and look staunch
Hope whai ake - let your hips follow and sit low
Waewae takahia kia kino - stamp your feet with determination

Ka mate, Ka Mate - it's death coming - we're going to die
Ka ora, Ka ora - it's life coming - we're going to live
x2

Tenei te tangata huru puru - This is the hairy man
Nana i tiki mai whaka whiti te ra - Who willed the sun to shine again

A Hupa-ne, A-Hupa-ne - One upward step, [another] step up
A Hupane, kaupane - Upward, right to the top [and]

Whiti te ra - the sun shines again
hiii! - (exclamation)

The explanation is related to a story of Chief Te Rauparaha of the Ngati Toa tribe. Te Rauparaha and a group of his men had come up the Whanganui river and were crossing the volcanic plateau heading for Kawhia. They detoured to Lake Rotoaira to get some fish as food for the journey. On the way there, his group spotted a number of Ngati Te Hou travellers, and one of his party asked, "Why go to Rotoaira when food is here?" They followed this suggestion, and attacked, killed and ate some, but not all, of the Ngati Te Hou travellers.

The survivors carried the news back to their tribe, who mounted a war party to avenge this abomination. They were in hot pursuit when Te Rauparaha reached the village of a tribe that was friendly to him and helped him hide.

He hid in a pit for storing kumara (sweet potato) and waited in the dark for his pursuers to find him. He heard sounds above and thought he was done for when the top of the pit was opened up and sunshine flooded in. He was blinded and struggled to see those about to slay him (I'm going to die!), when his sight cleared and he instead saw the hairy legs of the local chief who had hid him (I'm going to live!). Te Rauparaha climbed up out of the pit and performed his version of the old haka on the spot.

But this is apparently related to other old hakas and legends.E Schnackenburg of Kawhaia says that this haka formerly celebrated the triumph of Maui in capturing the sun, an analogy for the triumph of life over death. Margaret Orbell pointed out that 'a hairy person' symbolised strength. And that the sun symbolised light, life, peace.

"A Hupane, kaupane" (climbing up the ladder) seems to have been Te Rauparaha's modification of "Upane, ka upane" (together , all together). When men are united, all together, they became 'the hairy one,' powerful enough to bring about the transformation of life over death, ie to transform war to peace. Thus it was performed to affirm the making of the peace process between tribes. Hmmm.