Java just got rocked by an earthquake tha killed over 6,200 people and now Merapi an active volcano on Java in Indonesia is getting ready to blow. This could be a big one. Volcanologists have had their eye ion it for some time and it is looking more active than ever.

The people in Yogyakarta where the earthquake caused the damage are lining up for rice and food but there is not a whole lote to go around. Local corruption is taking its toll as well and things are not good at this time.

dutchpickle

There are motorbikes everywhere in Bali. There are up to 4 or 5 people on some of them so be extra careful if you are driving there. They will let a 2 year old stand and hold on to the handlebars while they drive along the narrow roads. It would make a cute picture but the kid has no protection if they crash.

Usually it is the mother and father and a couple of kids and maybe their pet dog and a bag of groceries on one bike.

Last night a friend grabbed his 1 1/2 year old daughter and held her under his left arm while zipping up a one way street against traffic to drop her off with her mother. It is common here.

Once you get used to it everything seems normal and seems to flow smoothly even though ar first glance it appears to be total chaos.

Stop signs don’t mean a whole lot and one way is considered to be just for large vehicles. The biggest vehicle always has the right of way. Stick to the left side of the road but someone comming at you making a right turn might squeeze between you and the curb if the traffic is heavy.

It’s normal.

The death toll is at 5,700 now in Yogyakarta in Java. Now the beureaucratic wrangling is starting even before the dust settles. Some politicians don’t want to declare a national emergency and keep it local. It might have something to do with relief funding.

Kind of like the the wankers in charge of the Hurricane Katrina relief in New Orleans.

I read in the Jakarta post that documents pertaining to the prosecution of the ones in charge of the rampage in Timor in 1999 have all been stolen. There are a lot of shifty things going on at the moment in East Timor and the bad guys are using the turmoil to cover their tracks.

I think that quite a few hoods are using the political tension as cover to loot and and take care of grudges before things settle down again. The east end and the west end within East Timor have some Hatfield and Macoy type of thing going on that doesn’t help matters either.

And of course where would we be without the bird flu. A couple of cases showed up in Indonesia afew days ago that might have been human to human transmission.