André Vltchek Comments
I've posted the following as a comment on
Rima Fauzi's blog at André Vltchek's request because he says that where he is the internet connection is too slow. What? I thought, even slower than mine? ~ but that's not going to stop me complaining!
Anyway, both Rima
and I (as well as
Bartele) linked to the piece that André wrote entitled
Pornography Ban Ignores the Starving. Many local bloggers have expressed outrage at the recent moralising from legislators and other idiots which many of us presume is being used as a diversion from the moral corruption at the heart of the state.
André, as a full-time writer, seems able to offer his righteous rants in better, more forceful terms than the rest of us.
And here's why.
.................................
Rina and all,
Thank you for your comments regarding my piece. Please correct the spelling of my second name. This way you can google VLTCHEK and read more acid stuff that I am producing.
As Jakartass mentioned, I am not really a resident of the city ... and that's because I refuse to reside anywhere and to belong to anything. I live in Japan and Samoa and also in Jakarta, moving constantly around the globe. As a novelist and journalist I feel I have to do it - the world is evolving and I don't want to lose the beat.
I am trying to be objective about Indonesia. Although it is not easy. I witnessed some terrible things there - consequences of mass rape in small town of Ermera in East Timor (more than 10 years ago), killing in Ambon, Aceh, Papua, pogroms in Solo. I also experienced the bitterness of your greatest thinker and novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Pram wrote his last book with me. It is called "Exile" in English (Haymarket Press, Ney York) and "Saya Terbakar Amarah Sendirian" (Gramedia) in bahasa.
I also had to suck in the bitterness and pain of the victims of 1965 massacres (or call it a genocide of leftists, Chinese and non-believers) when I made a 90 minutes long documentary film "Terlena - Breaking of a Nation". There is something very, very wrong with the country.
As you probably notice, I am very tough on other nations as well. In my non-fiction book "Western Terror - From Potosi to Baghdad" I trashed our own neo-colonialism. And in my latest novel "Point of No Return" I am dealing with the confusion and disgrace of being a war correspondent in the late decades of the 20th century. As it is, I am very frustrated about the state of the world. And the more I see (I have visited more than 130 countries), the more angry I become. And when I get angry, I work. I write. That's my only weapon. Pen, computer, still camera, video camera ...
Take this as a greeting from Solomon Islands - another conflict area where I am presently stuck. Thank you for reading... And caring for what is happening around you.
Andre
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