Continuity and change in Java: a few photos

Lunch at a farmer's home near Bogor, Java, including tofu and tempeh.

At the Taipei airport waiting for the flight to Jakarta I noted that the passengers were primarily young women wearing what I think of as Western dress -- exactly like the models in Canadian magazines. Fashionable knee-high leather boots were a popular option. That and the ubiquitous cellphone had me wondering what kind of culture we might meet in Java.

But it is a deeper and richer culture than I could imagine; adapting and changing, but in its own way. Here are some of the photos I tried to take of the changes, stability and innovation that is happening everywhere.

(hard to see, but worth it)

On the way to a village in Java, our driver stopped to ask directions, frequently. At one long stop we watched this woman pack up her entire sidewalk kitchen, including stove and stool, all the time chatting and laughing with the store owner. One part is hoisted on her back, another will be carried in her arms, and the final basket will go on her head. She walked away straight-backed and cheerful. Later, in an airport, leafing through a picture book, I saw a photo from the late 1800s of a woman with exactly the same sidewalk kitchen, which she carried the same way.

A family out for a Sunday drive. You see this everywhere, in multiples.

In the cities you rarely see traditional dress, unless as a staff uniform at the big hotels. But as we drove deeper into the villages, away from the cities in Java, we saw more and more elderly people, and also more and more traditional dress: like this woman's batik wrap, blouse, jacket and scarf. All kinds of variations exist comfortably side by side in the countryside, on all ages.

These handy baskets have been adapted from bicyles to motorbikes.

Bye-bye water buffalo, hello machine.

Motorbikes rule, seriously, even in this hamlet.

The closer to the villages, the quieter the roads. More people walking with harvests.

Javanese farmers, including organic farmers. At the beginning of each meeting with Javanese farmers all pulled out a pack of cigarettes and furiously smoked a few in a row (everything from Pall Mall to, rarely, traditional ciggies). When our partners hold trainings for farmers there is no non-smoking rule. My yoga friends will appreciate how easily these men sit cross-legged for long periods of time. I wasn't able to.

I only saw this form of transport used by locals in Solo, a smaller city towards East Java.

Offerings

What a trip! Three different islands on the archipelago, each defined by a very different religion, culture and history. Java is predominantly Muslim, but its own Java-style form that is at about 600 years old. East Timor became predominantly Catholic during the Indonesian occupation, as the Church offered protection to the people and their culture. And now Bali...

:

Bali is  visibly religious, in its own unique, Hindu-Buddhist fashion. Every morning and evening elegantly dressed women in traditional sarongs and lace blouses make offerings in fron of their doors, at shrines and temples, before sacred trees, at wells and other places of worship. The waitresses at the restaurant at our hotel do the same thing at the edge of the swimming pool. There are so many places of worship and they are so integrated into daily life that I am having trouble distinguishing homes from temples.

Entrance to a house? A temple?

Offering at the pool of our hotel.

 In Ubud yesterday morning I saw a woman making an offering on the hood of a Land Rover, pouring the oil on the ground at her feet. I badly wanted to take a photo, both of her and the woman I later saw carrying offerings of fruit on a basket on her head, but these are intensely private moments, if acted out in public. While waiting for a flight at the Bali airport, I saw one of the women working at the Polo store, dressed in a business suit, spreading incense through the small boutique before laying it on the small shrine at the door.

The woman in the upper LH corner makes an offering.

With Bali coffee, yum.

Monkeys at Ubud's Sacred Monkey Forest enjoying the offerings. The Monkeys are considered sacred.

Some gestures are common across religions, if done in different ways and coming from different contexts. In East Timor, Sunday Mass is a major social as well as spiritual event. Here are photos of the delegation making the offering at Mass that was co-celebrated by Development and Peace  in Dili:

John and Linda: present part of the offering.

Jess and Roberta also involved in the offering.

IWD: East Timorese women lead the way

Maria Paixao da Costa, Vice-President of East Timor's National Parliament

On Thursday the delegation met with Maria da Costa of the Parliamentary Women's Caucus. The Timor Leste Parliament has a goal of 30 percent women representatives. Right now women make up 27 percent. Compare both the goal and the reality with Canada's statistics -- 22 percent, I believe. The women parliamentarians have formed a caucus to forward women's rights, including the Domestic Violence Law. This law has taken five years to wend its way through approvals. Word is some of the male parliamentarians fought against it.

The law, when finally approved, will allow abusers to be removed from the family. There will also be the provision of state support for those families that lose a breadwinner as a result. Domestic violence will go from being a "private" to a "public" issue, meaning that complaints can be laid not just by the victims, but also by concerned family, neighbours or community. There are provisions for reconciliation as well. What it provides is a clear law for law enforcers, families and communities to follow in an area where there was much confusion and little enforcement. Becuase of the overwhelmingly Catholic nature of the country, with 80 percent of the population being Catholic, and because of the Church's influence, medical termination of pregnancy is limited to situations where the mother's health is threatened, and only with the approval of 3 doctors. There was a proposal to have rape and incest included as valid reasons, but this was overruled.

Xenana Gusmao (L) and Ramos Horta (R): two of a number of male parliamentarians featured in posters saying "stop violence against women." The hope is that an appeal to men by men will be effective.

The Women's Caucus, which receives support from Development and Peace, has worked with other Development and Peace partners in formulating the Domestic Violence law and getting it approved. Fokupers, which focusses on domestic violence is one.  Rede Foto,another, is a network of women's organizations.   FKSH, a third, works with young rural women. All are intimately aware of the subservient role that East Timorese women have traditionally played in this society, and talk to the women about their right to human dignity. 

What we've heard repeatedly is that women's work, including around the house and raising children, is not seen as work.  It's definitely not valued. Women, especially those in the districts, live in ignorance of basic things that Canadians learn in school. Our partners work with midwives and nurses to introduce concepts that most Canadian teens learn in high school, but which are not discussed in East Timorese villages, either in schools or between mother and daughter: things like the the right to respect your one body and how it is used, how reproduction happens, and maintaining one's reproductive health. They also talk with men about how helping the woman with childcare and house work allows women more energy for them, the family, the community, and not least, for the women themselves.

Poster and testimony of  an East Timor "comfort woman" of World War II. Shame leads to silence; a culture of silence allows future abuse.

As we celebrate International Women's Day around the world, I for one am thinking of how much needs to be done for women around the world, and how East Timorese women are showing what CAN be done with few resources and against overwhelming odds.  The domestic violence law is a major inspiration.

Memorable moments in East Timor

So many; here are just a few. The Catholic church, and Bishop Belo, played an important role in sustaining the people of East Timor in their struggle for independence. Development and Peace was able in turn to support the East Timorese church in these efforts even prior to independence.

Edna, D&P's in-country support, who set up our schedule,and organized transportation for the group, with Jess Agustin, D&P's program officer for the country. Edna supports our ET partners, and Jess spent two years in Timor following the independence vote.

Bishop Ricardo of Dili welcomes the delegation to his house. The peace accords were negotiated in the kitchen of the Bishop's residence. At the end of the meeting the Bishop will present a plaque of thanks to Development and Peace for its support in East Timor during the past 10 years. Development and Peace was one of the first NGOs involved in the newly-independent country, because of our connection with the Catholic Church and Bishop Belo's role in supporting the people in their movement to independence. See the D&P blog on our website: http://www.devp.org/, for pictures of the presentation.

260 unarmed students involved in a peaceful demonstration against the Indonesian occupation were shot to death in this cemetery in 1991. It became one of the defining moments of the movement to independence. We pay our respects.

When the Indonesian army left after the independence vote was succesful in 1999, they were determined to destroy all that they could of the new country. For several days they terrorized the population, killing people in Dili and destroying buildings. We stand before the well of the former governor's house. The governor and his family were massacred and thrown in the well along with others who had sought refuge at his house. D&P program officer, Jess, was in Dili at the time, and with one of the priests, managed to save some lives.

Father Domingo (left) chats with members of the delegation at RPK radio station, a Church project. It seems that every adult who has survived the violence of the Portuguese and Indonesian occupations, and subsequent internal strife, has a story to tell, and Father Domingo's is exceptional. In 1999 (or was it 2006, when the army and the police had a showdown over old greivances?) he and everyone else at the seminary were woken by shelling and gunfire aimed at them. On his knees, about to be executed, he asked for a moment to pray. The soldier it turns out wasn't all that keen on killing him, and as soon as there was a distraction, urged him to run.

Into the district

Yesterday we made our first trip out of Dili, to the nearby district of Ermera. It took us about 3 hours to get there. While it's not far on the map, it is in the mountains. The roads are slowly ascending switchbacks. Washed out roads, dramatic vistas, wide valleys, and two complete changes in vegetation were all part of the journey. We noted wild coffee trees at the edge of the road, corn being grown on steep hills, and small patches of gourds and vegetables being grown wherever possible. Much of the time our truck was only inches from the edge of a steep cliff.

(looking down at a washout from the car window)

And everywhere, we saw people working. Women walking with heavy loads on their heads and backs. Childen colllecting branches of wood that are then carefully stacked by the side of the road to be bought by someone from Dili. People selling vegetables at roadside stalls and central markets. Children carrying heavy water jugs.

RoadsideMarket stall, Ermera

When we reached our destination, we were greeted by about a hundred people. Children did a traditional dance, accompanied on drums by the women, and each of us was presented with a Tais (woven scarf) with our name on it.

The dancers led us to the Centre where our partner FKSH has been working with young women on income-generating projects. It has also been training the young women in public speaking and making presentations.

Welcome to the DandP (DNP) Team

Gisella of FKSH

Two of the young women leaders trained by FKSH in the group's store which sells traditional herbal medicines and handicrafts the young women have made.

Maria Helena Sores, 68, mother of 15, grandmother of 80, town councillor. Eloquently told us that "Since the Indonesian occupation, we really need to buld the country. Our women's group is not young, but we really want to develop our country."

Fokupers: Shelter and a future for even the youngest victims of domestic violence

Today we met with Fokupers, a Development and Peace partner that helps women escape domestic violence.

(Picture: staff of Fokupers)

This is a big problem in East Timor, although one that is not unique to this country. One part of Fokupers work has been advocating for a domestic violence law which is currently going through approvals in Parliament. When passed the law will ensure that police and courts know how to respond to domestic violence cases (what they call here "socializing" the law), and that women will have access to some state support if the breadwinner is removed from the family. There have been many different laws applied in the past, from the Australian (throw the perpetrator in jail) to the "Thai" or "Filipino" method (beat him up so he knows how it feels and return him to the home). The result is a great deal of confusion and the need for a law that protects those who have been abused.

Fokupers also runs a creche and a women's shelter in Dili. Six of us, all women, were able to visit the shelter, although asked not to take any photos. There we met women ranging in age from 16 to 45, who stay up to 8 months. Most were with their children, in fact, some children have been born in the Fokupers shelter. Fokupers helps with counselling and stress relief, and, where appropriate, with reintegrating families.

I was struck by the two youngest women, 16 and 17 years old, each of whom had a infant of 1 year. One of them looked only 13. Neither of their babies looked really healthy, but their mothers were taking good care of them. We found out later that both young women were victims of incest, and that their babies were the result.  They were still children themselves.

The youngest woman had been raped by her father; her mother also abused. She gave birth at home at 15. Members of the community got her to a shelter in another part of the country, but her father found her, so she was spirited away to this safe house in Dili. The workers told us that she could not relate to the child at first, and also that when she arrived at the Dili shelter she would not speak. The whole time we were there, the child was on her hip, and the workers tell us she now talks of a future for herself: of going to school. She cannot return to her family. Her father is still at home, and if she were to return there, he would kill her. He accuses her of bringing shame to the family. Meanwhile,  two younger sisters still live at home, but there is no law that allows them to be removed for their own safety.

Fokupers hopes to help her achieve her dream. In the past, two young women in similar situations were able to study at a school run by the nuns once their children were old enough. With enough funding, Fokupers can support young women like this through school.

The 17 -year-old girl had a child in exactly the same circumstances, but her father has left the home. Fokupers is helping her reconcile with her mother, and she may be able to return home in safety.

It was a sobering visit. Fokupers is hoping to have its Development and Peace funding restored so that it can continue to support women in these situations.I think we were all impressed by the brave work Fokupers does on a shoestring.

Goodbye Indonesia; hello East Timor

We met the Development and Peace BC solidarity tour group last week in Bali and are now travelling with them in East Timor.

Here is John Gabor saying goodbye to a friend in Bali:

And here are Dick and Dorothy Mynen of Prince George arriving in East Timor, which we all now refer to by its name: Timor Leste.

After we get through immigration, we're are greeted by the partners with Tais, traditional woven scarves:

Dorothy and Gail wearing ceremonial Tais that have just been presented to them.

In leaving Indonesia and entering East Timor we have moved from a predominantly Muslim country to one that is predominantly Roman Catholic. East Timor suffered under Portuguese rule until 1975, when the Portuguese left, finding the cost of maintaining a military presence in East Timor to be too expensive. Short days later, Indonesia invaded, and stayed until 1999. When an independence vote proved the East Timorese were massively in favour of independence, the Indonesians left, destroying people and buildings in a massive display of violence. The East Timorese have been trying to build a country ever since. "It's as if everything started in 2000," says one of the many foreign consultants assisting in that rebuilding. "There are few cohesive communities because of the massive human displacements of the last century."

The level of rural development is visibly different between Indonesia and East Timor: the difference in what people can achieve given stability and peace, and what happens in conflict.