Obama's former house in Jakarta up for sale

BEWARE OF DOG: An Indonesian "Beware of Dog" sign sits in front of the two home compound of which the house where Obama lived in Indonesia, right, is part Tuesday in Jakarta. (AP/Ed Wray)

BARACK'S BARRACK: Syahhrial Rozali, the current resident of the house where U.S. Presidential Candidate Barrack Obama lived as a child, walks in front of the home Tuesday in Jakarta. (AP/Ed Wray)
Robin McDowell , The Associated Press , Jakarta | Tue, 10/28/2008 9:32 PM | Jakarta
The Jakarta Post

The small colonial-style house Barack Obama lived in as a child has received a steady stream of visitors ahead of the U.S. presidential election, from potential buyers and journalists, to a businessman who wants to turn it into the "Sweet Home Obama Bar."

Tata Aboe Bakar, the 78-year-old owner, is in little mood to sell, noting that the property, sequestered between a large mosque and park in an upscale neighborhood of the Indonesian capital, has been in the family since 1939.

Much, he said, would depend on the price.

The two-bedroom pavilion Obama lived in - initially built as a guesthouse - would be sold with the main, sprawling residence next door and the 12,900 sq. foot (1,200 sq. meter) plot of land. Together, they have an estimated market value of $3 million dollars. And that does not take into account the potential Obama-factor if the Democratic presidential candidate wins on Nov. 4.

Aboe Bakar says one broker claimed a U.S. Embassy official was ready to pay five times its worth if that happened, though Tristram Perry, the embassy's public diplomacy officer, said he was not aware of any such offer.

Obama moved to Jakarta with his American mother and Indonesian stepfather in 1967, spending the first two years in another humble home, where chickens and ducks used to cackle in the backyard and two baby crocodiles slithered around in a fenced-off pond.

They relocated to the small red-tile roofed pavilion with art deco windows on Taman Amir Hamzah Street in 1970 when Obama was 9 years old and stayed there for the next two years.
boe Bakar has few stories to tell about Obama as a child, except the time his poodle ran away, never to be seen again.

"Oh, he cried for two days," the former Navy admiral said, wearily taking a drag from his third cigarette as he showed off a long list of visitors who have knocked on his door in recent weeks.

He also flashed a photograph of the young family sitting on a wooden bench in the front yard that, like much else, remains in place nearly four decades later.
Among those who have expressed interest in the house have been Bart Bartele, a Dutchman who owns several popular pubs in Jakarta.

He says he offered to rent the smaller pavilion to open the "Sweet Home Obama Bar" - a cafe that would feature an "Obama-blend coffee," a mix of beans from Kenya and Java. He would also serve "stroopwafels," a caramel-type treat brought to Indonesia during the centuries-long occupation of the Dutch.

"The idea is to have snacks, simple food and maybe some merchandise," Bartele said, adding that he was not certain, with all the recent interest, if Aboe Bakar would go for it. "We'll see. It's mostly just for fun anyway."

SOLO, WORLD HERITAGE CITY

Performers dressed as the white monkey warrior Hanoman walk along a main road of Solo, Central Java, on Sunday. The performance was part of a street parade held to mark the opening of the World Heritage Cities Conference. JP/Blontank Poer
Antara , Solo | Wed, 08/13/2008 5:31 PM | National


Solo, a cultural city located in Central Java, will host the International Conference of World Heritage Cities for Euro-Asia from Oct. 25 to 28, 2008.

Four-hundred people will participate in the event, including 33 mayors from member cities of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) and 37 mayors from member cities of the United
Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) for Asia and the Pacific, said Sudharmono, the conference`s organizing committee secretary.

The theme of the conference will be "Safeguarding Intangible Heritage and Sustainable Urban Development".

The regional conference to be organized by OWHC, will be a symposium dedicated to safeguarding the tangible and intangible heritages of historical cities, especially those whose masterpieces are inscribed on Unesco's the World Heritage List.

It will be the first time the Organization of World Heritage Cities raises the issue of safeguarding intangible heritages and their use for the purpose of the cities` economic development.

The concept of intangible cultural heritage includes customs and ceremonies, celebrations, oral traditions and crafts recognized as a part of cultural heritage and handed down from generation to generation.

Every two years the conference gathers experts on safeguarding historical cities and their use for attracting tourists and economic development, as well as mayors of world heritage cities, politicians and statesmen, providing them with opportunities to exchange experience and discuss problems in this field.

Among the main speakers at the conference are Eugenio Yunis, sustainable development of tourism chief from the World Tourism Organization, Walter Santagata, professor of public finance from the University of Turin, Italy, Rieks Smeets, intangible cultural heritage head of Unesco, and Andi N Sommeng, intellectual properties rights director general from the Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
The Jakarta Post, October 27, 2008

Bajo people losing their identity

It was before dawn, but already a number of men were on board their boats. Some were preparing to fish in the open sea, while others cleaned their vessels for the day ahead.
This is a typical daily routine among the ethnic Bajo, or Sama, who live along the shores of Bone bay in Tanete Riattang Timur district, in Bone regency, South Sulawesi.
The cycle of cleaning and preparing their boats is an activity that has lasted generations, and has now almost become the final remaining identity of the Bajo people. Often known as boat people, this seafaring community is largely identified by its reliance on the sea for food and shelter.

Over time, the life of Bajo people in Bone regency has changed.

While still depending on boats for their livelihoods and a place to sleep, the Bajo people are adapting to and interacting with Bone's indigenous land-based ethnic group, the Bugis.

Most of the Bajo people now choose to live in wooden houses on stilts, resembling the distinctive Bugis-Makassar ethnic dwellings in South Sulawesi, and while in a simpler form, they still live near the shores.

When the tide rolls in, the space beneath their homes is flooded, providing moorings for their boats.

"Before the Bone regency administration built embankments on the bay shorelines, our homes were floating on the water, making us feel one with the sea," 57-year-old Roso, one of Bajo's community leaders, told The Jakarta Post, in Bone.

Several years ago, the regency administration built dikes along the shores of Bone bay with asphalt roads to facilitate activities leading to the local port near the Bajo settlement. The roads in particular also pave the way for tourism developments.
The paths were built with paving blocks between settlement homes to replace the wooden bridges which previously linked the housing clusters in the village. A large number of Bajo homes are no longer swamped and entirely occupy land areas.

Bone Regent Andi Idris Galigo said the development of infrastructure in the Bajo settlement was intended to prevent the ethnic group from becoming isolated and left behind.

"We don't want Bajo people to live in isolation, we want them to mingle and grow, as does the Bone community," he said.

Under this pretext, no gates have been built to mark the Bajo village, but instead the settlement is shared with residents from Bone and others from Wajo and Bulukumba regencies.

Apart from the change in living traditions, some aspects of Bajo culture handed down by their tribal ancestors have now been abandoned.

The ancient language of the Bajo people is dying out. The native Bajo tongue is spoken only by the ethnic group's elderly males, in their day-to-day communication at sea.

The young people of the Bajo tribe no longer recognize their native tongue because they associate with people from the Bone regency, who communicate largely in Buginese and Indonesian. Through daily use of these dialects, young Bajo people have slowly adapted to these other customs.

The typical Bajo dialect is a blend of five languages -- Indonesian, Malay, Buginese, Makassar and Javanese -- but sadly, it is slowing fading from usage. As a result, the traditions, ethnicity and culture it identifies are also slipping away.

"A decreasing number of people speak the Bajo language, which arouses the concern of members of Bajo's older generation. Our children no longer speak their own tongue but are more fluent in Buginese and Indonesian," Roso said.

He hopes the Bone regency administration will prepare special schools or include the Bajo language in the regular curriculum where Bajo children are educated. Then, both at school and at home, the native tongue could potentially be preserved.

Some local customs -- such as maccera tasi, a traditional ritual offering of gratitude to the Creator for the abundant fish catch throughout the year -- are no longer practiced. The ceremony was once held annually by floating prayers into the sea.

"We've had no more rituals for fear of being seen as opposing the teachings of Islam," Roso said.

The same is true of Bajo art performances.

Aruwe, for instance, is an almost forgotten traditional dance depicting the local fishermen's method of catching fish using trawl nets.

The only living art inherited from their ancestors is genrang Bajo or gendang (drum) Bajo.

However, this music, always performed at Bajo wedding ceremonies, is not as identifiable because it resembles many other slow drumming techniques.

Slowly but surely, Bajo people are blending in and are losing their identity.

The Jakarta Post. Thursday, October 23, 2008

8 Kado Terindah

Sebagai renungan...

Aneka kado ini tidak dijual di toko. Anda bisa menghadiahkannya setiap
saat,
dan tak perlu membeli!
Meski begitu, delapan macam kado ini adalah hadiah terindah dan tak
ternilai
bagi orang-orang yang Anda sayangi.

1. Kehadiran
Kehadiran orang yang dikasihi rasanya adalah kado yang tak ternilai
harganya

Memang kita bisa juga hadir di hadapannya lewat surat , telepon, foto,
faks,
e-mail atau chatting.
Namun dengan berada di sampingnya. Anda dan ia dapat berbagi perasaan,
perhatian, dan kasih sayang secara lebih utuh dan intensif. Dengan
demikian,
kualitas kehadiran juga penting. Jadikan kehadiran Anda sebagai pembawa
kebahagiaan.

2. Mendengarkan
Sedikit orang yang mampu memberikan kado ini, sebab kebanyakan orang
lebih
suka didengarkan, daripada mendengarkan.
Sudah lama diketehui bahwa keharmonisan hubungan antar-manusia amat
ditentukan oleh kesediaan saling mendengarkan.
Berikan kado ini untuknya. Dengan mencurahkan perhatian pada segala
ucapannya, secara taklangsung kita juga telah menumbuhkan kesabaran dan
kerendahan hati. Untuk bisa mendengar dengan baik, pastikan Anda dalam
keadaan betul-betul santai dan bisa menangkap utuh apa yang
disampaikannya.
Tatap wajahnya. Tak perlu menyela, mengkritik, apalagi menghakimi.
Biarkan ia menuntaskannya. Ini memudahkan Anda untuk memberi tanggapan
yang
tepat setelah itu. Tidakharus berupa diskusi atau penilaian. Sekadar
ucapan
terima kasih pun akan terdengar manis baginya.

3. Diam
Seperti kata-kata, di dalam diam juga ada kekuatan.
Diam bisa dipakai untuk menghukum, mengusir, atau membingungkan orang.
Tapi
lebih dari segalanya, diam juga bisa menunjukkan kecintaan kita pada
seseorang karena memberinya "ruang."
Terlebih jika sehari-hari kita sudah terbiasa gemar menasihati,mengatur
,
mengkritik bahkan mengomeli.

4. Kebebasan
Mencintai seseorang bukan berarti memberi kita hak penuh untuk memiliki
atau
mengatur kehidupan orang bersangkutan.
Bisakah kita mengaku mencintai seseorang jika kita selalu mengekangnya?
Memberi kebebasan adalah salah satu perwujudan cinta.
Makna kebebasan bukanlah "Kau bebas berbuat semaumu." Lebih dalam dari
itu,
memberi kebebasan adalah memberinya kepercayaan penuh untuk bertanggung
jawab atas segala hal yang ia putuskan atau lakukan.

5. Keindahan
Siapa yang tak bahagia jika orang yang disayangi tiba-tiba tampil lebih
ganteng atau cantik ? Tampil indah dan rupawan juga merupakan kado.
Bahkan
tak salah jika Anda mengkadokannya tiap hari!
Selain keindahan penampilan pribadi, Anda pun bisa menghadiahkan
keindahan
suasana di rumah. Vas dan bunga segar cantik di ruang keluarga atau meja
makan yang tertata indah, misalnya.

6. Tanggapan Positif
Tanpa sadar, sering kali kita memberikan penilaian negatif terhadap
pikiran,
sikap atau tindakan orang yang kita sayangi.
Seolah-olah tidak ada yang benar dari dirinya dan kebenaran mutlak hanya
pada kita. Kali ini, coba hadiahkan tanggapan positif. Nyatakan dengan
jelas
dan tulus.
Cobalah ingat, berapa kali dalam seminggu terakhir Anda mengucapkan
terima
kasih atas segala hal yang dilakukannya demi Anda. Ingat-ingat pula,
pernahkah Anda memujinya. Kedua hal itu, ucapan terima kasih dan pujian
(dan
juga permintaan maaf ), adalah kado cinta yang sering terlupakan.

7. Kesediaan Mengalah
Tidak semua masalah layak menjadi bahan pertengkaran. Apalagi sampai
menjadi
cekcok yang hebat.
Semestinya Anda pertimbangkan, apa iya sebuah hubungan cinta dikorbankan
jadi berantakan hanya gara-gara persoalan itu? Bila Anda memikirkan hal
ini,
berarti Anda siap memberikan kado "kesediaan mengalah."
Anda mungkin kesal atau marah karena ia terlambat datang memenuhi janji.
Tapi kalau baru sekali itu terjadi, kenapa mesti jadi pemicu
pertengkaran
yang berlarut-larut?
Kesediaan untuk mengalah juga dapat melunturkan sakit hati dan mengajak
kita
menyadari bahwa tidak ada manusia yang sempurna di dunia ini

8. Senyuman
Percaya atau tidak, kekuatan senyuman amat luar biasa..
Senyuman, terlebih yang diberikan dengan tulus, bisa menjadi pencair
hubungan yang beku, pemberi semangat dalam keputusasaan, pencerah
suasana
muram, bahkan obat penenang jiwa yang resah.
Senyuman juga merupakan isyarat untuk membuka diri dengan dunia
sekeliling
kita. Kapan terakhir kali Anda menghadiahkan senyuman manis pada orang
yang
Anda kasihi ?