Rich man, poor man

Sundays are when I am forcibly reminded that tomorrow is a work day, a time to continue earning my daily crumbs from the rich man's table.*

Today is no different.

Having stayed up til midnight to watch Charlton get right royally stuffed by the aristocrats of football, the Woolwich Arsenal, I had a lazy lie-in before getting up to enjoy my first cuppa Sumatra.

Being a man of leisure and weekend ritual, I read the Sunday edition of the Jakarta Post before doing anything else. This is always a hotchpotch and today's is no exception.

News 1
SBY has set foot on a remote island, Buru, in Maluku, which experienced a tsunami on Tuesday. Buru is a newly autonomous regency about to become a net exporter of rice and other crops.

News 2
Following the deadly riots in Papua which saw the indigenous population and university students vent their anger on the military and police seen to be protecting the Freeport gold mine, the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) has been ordered to return to barracks.
NB. The military top brass who had ordered the clamp down on the demonstrators then had to clamp down on Brimob who were excessively violent.

Travel
A major feature on the Badui who I wrote about last November. You may recall that the Badui are self-sufficient in food, clothing and shelter within the structure of their modest lifestyles. They are also not consumers. Their community is divided into inner and outer. The residents of the inner badui resist outside influences and are thus guardians of their environment.

If it wasn't for the fact that they remain one of the few groups who are not despoiling this planet and are therefore worthy of emulating, I would wonder at the insensitivity of those who organise tours to the Badui domain. People do not belong in zoos.

Shopping
This feature always pisses me off as inevitably it's geared towards folk who think nothing of spending in an afternoon more than I earn in a year.

Today's fashion statement is a watch, the bigger the better, costing anywhere from $1,250 to $186,000 - Singapore dollars that is. I have very simple criteria when selecting a time piece: Is it accurate and is it easy to read?

I also have to use a battery operated one because my personal magnetism seems to screw up those wind up ones with a mainspring. Still, I now know how the expression Time is Money originated.

Excuse me, how much is the time?

Literature
News that Wayne Rooney, who's quite good at kicking balls, has landed £5m for a five-book publishing deal should not puzzle those of us who think he can only utter four-letter words. This is indeed true, but then he won't actually write anything. This will be done by his ghostwriter, Hunter Davies.

Jakartass will also be pleased to consider a book deal. Not that I'm cheap, but as I won't be using a ghostwriter I'll consider any slightly lower offers.

Letters

Dear Surfer,

Thank you for visiting xxxx.com. Indonesia has been blocked from our site due to extensive billing fraud, hacking and copyright violations.

Ho hum.

*I am not employed by the seriously rich people profiled by Yosef Ardi here and here.
 

postID=114276053586423666

¶ 4:30 pm