This reminds me of my sister and I visiting slums in Jakarta and handing out simple shoes, school bags and whatnot with a friend's charity. They were jumping with joy!
Trust me, if you want your money to stretch a long way in these hard economic times, there's no better way than donating a little to Indonesian kids.
There is a fine line between pluralism and the approval of bunkum, and only a brave and foolish individual is always sure what lies on one side rather than the other. Pluralism is the mark of intellectual seriousness: recognition of the force of a wide range of arguments with which one does not agree. This intellectual tolerance is a rarer commodity than it should be. Both campuses and trading floors contain high concentrations of people with common values and views. The internet and the polarisation of the media have made it easier to confine your sources of information to what you already know, and the opinions you hear to those you already hold.
Don’t hang on exclusively to any particular creed so that you disbelieve the rest, or you will disregard much that is good and miss the real Truth. Allah is omnipotent and omnipresent and is not contained by any one religion, for he says in the Qur’an “Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah”
Ibn Arabi
[...] the hardest part of building the cataract program was not the fund-raising for mobile buses to get operating clinics into the remote areas of Bali, but getting people on the bus for treatment. There is such a strong belief that cataract blindness is their fate.
All of the above aside, one item which worried me was the fact that one of Jakarta’s busiest Malls was the site of a gangland turf war with members of “Basri” and a rival gang “Milton” hammering it out with each other in Cilandak Town Square, otherwise known a CITOS.
Samurai Swords, Cleavers and other assorted weaponry were used as what was termed a gathering at the Brew & Co Cafe to celebrate their peace agreement erupted into a scene from Apocalypse Now.
"Misplaced fears about terror, privacy and child protection are preventing amateur photographers from enjoying their hobby, say campaigners."I am pretty self conscious about taking pictures in public, way too self conscious, I definitely need to loosen up! But hearing stories like these make me think twice again :/:/ OTOH, I think Ireland and Indonesia are probably more relaxed than the UK.
"My family and others were forced out of the house at gunpoint and we walked and walked under the hot and burning sun (100F) for miles and miles with no food or water. Along the road leading us to hell on earth, I saw thousands of decomposed bodies, particularly a very young child trying to get milk from his mother but she died already and he was crying and crying of hunger."[Link]
... the impact on Africa of Europe's cocaine habit an echo of that of slavery. 'In the 19th century, Europe's hunger for slaves devastated West Africa. Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same.'Reminds me of another public campaign here last year. The equality authority had slick posters up everywhere "marketing" equality in the workplace. The fact is religion, skin colour, sex, language and culture pale into insignificance compared to place of birth.
