Jakarta – American Expats Kow-Tow to Kill-Joys!
Sad to see that the voice of American expats in Indonesia has been raised in favour of kow-towing to sectarian kill-joys.
I refer to AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce, which has its HQ here in Jakarta and which does much good work in the fields of business and commerce between the USA and this lovely archipelago.
They have issued a statement saying that their monthly networking social evening ain’t happening!
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In recognition of the Holy Month of Ramadan, there will be no AmCham Networking Event in June.
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I wonder who put them up to that?
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When I heard of this, I promptly inspected What’s New Jakarta http://www.whatsnewjakarta.com/and quickly learned that other expat organisations in the capital are NOT sinking to this level of grovel.
it appears that the Australians, Brits and Canadians are going ahead with their monthly socials.
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- Good for them!
Having attended a number of these little parties, including during previous Ramadhans, I know that everybody – and they’re a good mix of nationalities and creeds – enjoys them.
I also recall they provided a pleasant opportunity for Muslim guests to break their daily fasting as the sun went down. That’s what makes the American kow-tow all the more inexplicable!
These parties don’t begin till 6pm or later, so people can leave work at 5pm and still have a chance of reaching the venues through Jakarta’s traffic.
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And that’s the time of day when all fasting Muslims stop fasting and tuck in vigorously! As we know, even more is devoured during Ramadhan than in the other months of the year.
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Of course alcohol is served at all these occasions – but ONLY to those who ask for it. Decent Muslims may take their own abstention seriously but they don’t begrudge other people their customary choices.
So who took the decision to drag AmCham down into dhimmitude? Was it a directive from Obama’s Embassy flunkeys?
Eleven states sue White House over schools’ ‘bathroom law’
And if Obama directives are now to form the basis of AmCham practice, will their future socials exhort men to invade women”s toilets?
leonard, 
JazPen, 
Rick, and 1 other are discussing. 
rossrightangle 
Earl D C 14:50 on June 3, 2016 Permalink |
So ALL the major English-speaking countries are carrying on with their normal routines EXCEPT America? This makes me sick, same as that stunt the US Embassy pulled last year, changing our Independence Day celebrations so as not to upset the ‘Religion of Peace.’
Ordinary Americans don’t like this kind of what you rightly call appeasement so I bet it’s one of Obama’s Embassy appointees put in a quiet word to the Amcham organisers.
I am going to email my friends back home to take this up with the head offices of the companies whose Jakarta branches are Amcham members and ask them to get this crap decision reversed, if there’s time.
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Rick 17:22 on June 3, 2016 Permalink |
I was at an AmCham event a while ago and met a lot of nice people, and that means Indonesians who were probably mostly Muslims. ‘
I treated them with respect same as they did to me, so I just cannot imagine them asking for this kind of ‘kowtow’ so who made this call?
It reflects very badly on all concerned and I appreciate your action in letting us know about it.
Maybe ‘non-kowtow’ Americans should come together and start a new organization if AmCham doesn’t represent American thinking..
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JazPen 20:10 on June 3, 2016 Permalink |
I am with you on this, Ross, its terrible! I hope all the expats go to the Australian or British or Canadian events and skip the American ones for the rest of the year..
Amcham can invite the FPI along if thats how they feel and wont that be a fun night out/
.
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leonard 04:14 on June 4, 2016 Permalink |
WTF?
What’s wrong with these people?
Are they American or Arabs?
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