An ordinary dayLife is back to normal here in Jakarta following the A-A Conference. My pre-ordered Blue Bird taxi was half an hour late thus adding to my morning stress. How I hate getting up at 5am!
At that time, however, you'd expect to be able to log on to a local ISP.
Could I? Fat chance.
There has been a positive, rather than negative, sign of normalcy though. Pirated DVDs are back, so that's my Superman set complete, the start of my Sean Connery 007 collection, two Sean Penn films ~
The Assassination of Richard Nixon and
Interpreter ~ both recently reviewed in the
Guardian Weekly which I subscribe to, and a few other favourites. That's 13 films for c.US$7.50.
I'm not going to apologise for breaking the law. The police here are too busy trying to
kill each other to bother with the likes of any Jakartass transgressions.
In Jakarta it's
Phew, Wot a Scorcher weather. The rainy season seems to have ended. Unfortunately, that's not true in Aceh where 15 people died in
a flash flood yesterday. That the Indonesian government is establishing a
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (RRB) for Aceh, to centralise and co-ordinate the massive task ahead, is little solace for these people.
There is an Implementation Board being set up by SBY with eight tasks:
1. Formulate strategies and operational policy.
2. Prepare the implementation board's work plans and budget.
3. Prepare a detailed plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction in accordance with the government's Master Plan and taking into account the aspirations and needs of the people in affected areas.
4. Conduct rehabilitation and reconstruction activities based on documents pertaining to the implementation budgets.
5. Conduct rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in cooperation with other parties.
6. Conduct procurement of goods and services in accordance with existing regulations.
7. Coordinate the implementation of rehabilitation and reconstruction activities undertaken by the central and local governments and other parties.
8. Ensure that the utilization of funds in the rehabilitation and reconstruction is free from corruption.
This last one is going to be problematic.
A seminar yesterday was asked, "
Do you believe that the Rp. 41 trillion in funds apportioned to finance the rehabilitation and reconstruction of disaster-devastated Aceh and Nias in North Sumatra, will not be embezzled?"
Well, do you?
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