Another Item For Your Boycott List – Dud Bud!

Here in Indonesia, we have several perfectly acceptable brands of beer that are brewed at various cities in the archipelago –

Bigot Ban Hurts Jakarta Business – Creeping Shariah Continues! 

 – or at least we have for the time being, until the intolerant Islamist elements impose their killjoy agenda.

So there’s little scope for us to strike back against the insidious left-liberal management of Budweiser.

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Hence it’s up to patriots in the USA to keep the boycott bandwagon rolling. Skip Starbucks! Avoid Airbrib! Don’t Accept Lyfts From Strange Men!\

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Budweiser has chosen the charged political issue of immigration as the subject of its Super Bowl LI commercial.

Budweiser Debuts Pro-Immigration Super Bowl Ad – Breitbart

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One might not mind quite so much if their spokesman, Victor Marques, would say what he thinks instead of engaging in self-contradictory gobble-de-gook.

“Even though it happened in the 1850s, it’s a story that is super relevant today. …

Oh yeah?

“There’s really no correlation with anything else that’s happening in the country,” he said.

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Super relevant today but with no correlation with anything else that’s happening?

GO FIGURE!

Then go buy another kind of beer.

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And don’t let your pets drink Bud either!

Minol Dilarang? Bright Morning Here But Dark Age Looms!

It’s a fine morning out there, and in here breakfast is being prepared.

Later I must get going and find a computer store, to install my latest Kapersky anti-virus. These modern computers don’t have a slot into which the disk fits, so I need the assistance of somebody who knows his (or preferably her!) way around technology.

However, before heading out, a word on some news spotted in Republika.com.

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Although I’m sure there are some sensible people among the ranks of Indonesia’s PPP  – United Development Party  – (the current Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman, is a member and he’s a vast improvement on his predecessor, the unspeakable Suryadharma Ali, who was and is also PPP) its followers rarely say things which meet with my approval.

Thus no surprise to read the outburst from Arwani Thomafi, who sits on the House of Representatives Commission V.

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Arwani

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Arwani has just declared that the introduction of nationwide prohibition is the responsibility of the public and law enforcement officials.

Infantilising the population, denying that they are mature enough to decide for themseleves what they wish to drink, is, alas, only to be expected from the political establishment here.

We have, even in Jakarta, civic leaders who reckon all good little boys and girls, including adults, should be tucked up in their cosy wee beds by midnight! 

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‘You’re Only An Adult! It’s Past Your Bedtime!’ Jakarta Rules, OK? 

But Arwani did surprise me by denying that the Prohibition Bill, now reaching its final stage in committee, is sectarian.

The principle of the prohibition of minol by Parliament is not because of the religious aspect, but in of health, social and economic terms.

( minol  = minuman alkohol = alcoholic beverages)

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• “The impact of these negative effects, in the field of criminality, that is what concerns us, not a matter of Islam and non-Islam... 

‘Larangan Minol Itu Bukan Islam dan tidak Islam’

Well, that’s like banning cars because some drivers are reckless!

So that’s not how others see this pending legislation.

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Creeping Shariah is one alternative perception, dragooning grown-ups by a Big Brother state which perceives a glass of cold beer on a hot day as haram – and is not satisfied with the normal age-restrictions on beer-sales and the already draconian restrictions on where we can buy such appealing products.

‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims! 

And thanks to Arwani, we learn that it’s not so ‘creeping.’ He boasts that there are numerous regencies (local government areas) all over the archipelago that have introduced such intolerant diktats, including Papua Manokwari,  South Jogjakarta, Sleman, South Kalimantan Banjarbaru…and provinces...

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The Sharia Hell of Aceh!

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…and of course let’s not forget the focus of brutal bigotry in Indonesia, Aceh, where the joys of shariah law are displayed to perfection in our photograph of a cowardly masked fanatic beating a young girl before an audience of baying savages. 

Bir! Diskon! Cheap Beer, Jakarta, till 14th February!

Just another public service announcement, nice discounts on beer at Lotte Mart. After last night’s party, it’s only now, mid-evening, that my thoughts feel like straying towards the amber nectar! But on the way to the party, I did a quick bit of shopping and saw the deal at Ratu Plaza, but I assume other branches too have the same discounts.

WARNING – it expires this Sunday, 14th. 

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 Ratu Plaza

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• Of course you need to buy 48 cans to get the 25% discount, so hauling that home on public transport might be a challenging chore. Best buy 480 and find a friendly kopaja driver!

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But there are smaller discounts on a minimum purchase of four bottles – of most brands – and that can’t be bad!

Regular price for a big bottle of Bintang is under Rp.28K – cheaper than most, including Prost, which had good inaugural prices, but has now become dearer than Bintang!

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Warung Nuka, Tuban, Bali

Firstly, don’t confuse this place with at least one other with a similar name on the Isle of the Gods.

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It’s just across the road from the Hotel Harris, which is a familiar sight to all who travel from Ngurah Rai Airport towards Kuta and Legian.

Both the beer and the fish n chips are supplied by very cheerful, pretty waitresses – one of whom reminded me incredibly of a friend of mine who hails from Malang, East Java.

But since the Warung Nuka was the scene of a reunion with important people I’d not seen for some time, there wasn’t much opportunity to chat with the staff, delightful though that prospect seemed.

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A large Bintang was just Rp.45,000, and my chosen meal cost Rp.60,000. It wasn’t quite what you find in chippers British or Australian, but it was very edible. Meanwhile, my companions opted for Indonesian food, since they don’t live here, and both praised the meals they had.

The menu includes a wide variety of Western and local dishes, Friendly, speedy service and fair prices. I recommend this place.

Blok M, Jakarta – Bye-Bye Highway, Hello Moon Rider!

That’s a sight you won’t be seeing again, since the Highway has changed its name.

I used to drop by there, especially on Wednesdays ,when the then managment showed lots of smarts by pouring free beer till ( I think) 8pm.

After guzzling a copious quantity, of course, nobody felt any overpowering urge to go home early, and we continued slaking our gargantuan thirsts till midnight or later, paying full whack with no complaints, certainly not to the lovely lasses behind the bar.

I haven’t been there for a year or two – why?

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Blok M’s Jalan Falatehan is now a pricey place, among other reasons.  

But from a friend I hear the new name is Moon Rider, and checking out their website…  http://www.highwaytoelle.com/ …it seems they still have quite a good deal, on Thursdays, FROM 8pm!

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‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free!’ 

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Moreover, from the illustrations on that website, there are still lots of lovelies around!

I can’t find any recent reviews, but there’s one on http://www.jakarta100bars.com/2010/04/highway-to-elle-bar-blok-m.html from the old days when the late Daryl  ran the place.

It sings the bar’s praises – one can’t fault the mellifluous prose!  

 

Prohibition Indonesia – Bali Exempt…Sort Of!

Had to get out and about last night to survey the expat reaction to the embryonic ‘creeping shariah’ diktat we’ve already covered here.

.No More Drink? Jakarta on Brink of Prohibition…

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Also to preempt the decree, by sinking as much vin rouge as possible – hence my delayed home-coming (fell asleep on the busway and ended up in Pluit) and my very late emergence today. 

Not hard to gauge opinion – it was the first thing just about EVERYBODY at the party spoke about. My fellow-attendees included Brits, Canadians, Germans, French and Australians – there was a mood of restrained alarm, many a finger crossed that sanity might yet prevail.

Some drew consolation from the fact that even government ministers must soon grasp that any such nationwide ban on booze would devastate Bali’s tourist trade.

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•  That’s Bondi beach, not Bali’s – but a nice photo, yeah?
• —————–

• And sure enough, a small grain of sense has percolated through. However, the ‘exemption’ of the Isle of the Gods is not as sensible as the Jakarta Post headline might lead us to hope.

Instead of leaving well enough alone, the ‘exemption’ ensures that minimarkets, food stalls, street vendors and beachside vendors will no longer be allowed to sell beer or other beverages with an alcohol content of between 1 and 5 percent. Thirsty tourists will thus no longer be able to walk out of their hotels or flop-houses and buy a beer two yards  from the door. That’s how densely populated Kuta and Legian, at least, are, in terms of mini-marts.

Instead, a cumbersome network of local government meddling is to be imposed. In Kuta, for example, six customary villages would establish village-owned enterprises to manage the hundreds of beachside beer vendors…

Wayan Swarsa, chairman of the customary village council (MADP) is planning to establish an enterprise for Kuta, Legian, Tuban, Kerobokan and Kedonganan.

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 Kuta Square

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No disrespect to Pak Wayan, but what benefits accrue from local councils running a business already running perfectly well in the hands of free enterprise?  The more state bureaucracies get involved – and I’m not singling out Bali here; it’s a nationwide problem – then the greater the risk of corruption.

Of course by making these arrangements for Bali, the Government is displaying a clear disregard for all those other areas in the archipelago which aspire to attract tourists.

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 Borobudur, Jogja

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Jogjakarta, with its magnificent architectural heritage, Lombok, Flores, not to mention Jakarta itself, are eager to bring tourists and their money to boost local economies.

President Jokowi was Jakarta’s Governor, for pity’s sake, and knows this to be true.

Meanwhile, back at the party, one Canadian demurred from the chorus of condemnation, reminding us that Ontario too has archaic, backward regulation of alcohol.

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Very true!

But it is nothing like the nightmare vision the Indonesian Government offers us, not just the kind of priggish restrictions residents of Stratford, Kitchener and Mississauga must deal with, but a ban on the very act of pouring a beer down your throat on a tropical Sunday arvo.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/17/bali-tourist-areas-exempt-beer-ban.html

First They Came for the Beer…Now It’s the WATER? Jakarta Jitters…

‘Incompetent’ Ruling Threatens to Leave Indonesia Without Bottled Water

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Alarming?

If the headline turns out to be prophetic, yes, indeed, because if you choose to drink the tap-water here…

• 

• Well, it’s true that God gave us the water, but He probably meant us to use our brains to ponder what’s in store if we don’t make it drinkable before we drink it. It remains to be seen if the JG story really does mean our  Aqua deliveries are under threat. 

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/incompetent-ruling-threatens-leave-indonesia-without-bottled-water/

But after the latest infantile prohibitionism we’ve reported…

Bali Beer Ban Looms – Why Pander to Intolerance? 

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‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims! 

…it’s gonna be tough to find anything to slake our thirsts…

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…especially if you’re a good conservative.

Jangan Ke Starbucks Lagi! Tolak ‘Gay’ Marriage! (Bahasa Inggris/Bahasa Indonesia) 

Best to look for coffee in your local warteg.  

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It’ll be a lot cheaper too!

‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims!

‘Creeping shariah!’ 

That’s how an Indonesian Professor of Islamic Studies, named Muhammed Ali, describes the demented decree against beer sales in minimarts, which we have railed about before.

Bali Beer Ban Looms – Why Pander to Intolerance? 

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Luckily for the Prof, he teaches at the University of California. Otherwise he might be at risk of unwelcome attention from the IslamoNazi thug gangs. The same sectarian louts we’ve shown you before but show you again today.

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• The same bigot hoodlums whose violence taints both the creed they claim to represent and the reputation of this otherwise lovely country. Their hooligan antics were mentioned by one of Jakarta’s senior Islamic ‘scholars,’ Amidhan, when he said –

Islamist ‘Scholars’ – “Don’t Complain if You’re Attacked!” 

 Amidhan

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Nor is Amidhan the only one of his kind who thinks like that.

Islamist ‘Scholars’ Disown Thuggery – But We Gotta Behave! 

Thanks be the real Muslim scholar-man in California takes a more perceptive view of what’s going on. 

“This is creeping shariah, slow but steady, using legal and constitutional means,” said Ali. 

• 

• The Jakarta Globe blames President Jokowi, since this intolerant diktat runs counter to the pro-business messages he presented while campaigning for office last year.

But it’s not only intolerant!

It’s heedless of its consequences, driving otherwise law-abiding people to seek out more accessible, and cheaper, alternatives, the hooch that kills, sold in back-street dives. The Jakarta Globe quotes Diageo chief executive Ivan Menezes – “There is also the risk of illicit alcohol growing again, and that is in nobody’s interest.”

But who’s concerned in the corridors of power?

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Rachmat Gobel

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The above very well-fed man is the Minister who issued the diktat, and it sounds like he has a low opinion of us foreigners –   “Tourism is not a problem. Do we want to protect Indonesian citizens or tourists?”

A rational government would wish to protect both, I’d have thought.

Anyway, Gobel evidently has not much interest in giving his fellow-citizens the right to shop for a cold beer on a hot day! Like today, tonight even, and I have just finished the second bottle whilst relaxing at home – no need to go out, after two seriously enjoyable parties during the week! 

We can still go shopping for our ale, to the big hypermarkets, but that can be a lengthy trek. It’s much easier to walk five mins to Indomaret or Alfamart.

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 Mal Ciputra aka Citraland

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Curiously, I was in Mal Ciputra earlier today, searching vigorously in the Hero store for a couple of bottles to enjoy with my tv viewing tonight. It used to be found beside the soft drinks and similar stuff, but no longer.

I had to ask an assistant. She pointed to the area behind the cashier in the corner, and there was the beer, segregated beside the cigarettes, a sanctum of sin. 

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Thus the bright, lively city of Jakarta grows dimmer.

Hard to understand why the government wants to make a cheerful nation gloomy, but I guess there are electoral debts owed.

However, there are grounds for optimism, albeit in unsatisfactory ways, according to an English academic, who of course doesn’t live here in Indonesia, and, while aware of the vigilante terrorism, perhaps underestimates its pervasive nature. He reckons that old-fashioned sloppy enforcement and corruption will see us through. 

“This is purely the politics of symbols,” he said.

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• But in most cases, the poor little minimarts have already stopped selling. I tried three minimarts along Fatmawati a month or more ago, to get a carry-out for a party – no joy!
• Scared of raids by rabids?
• The white-shirt boot-boys are rarely arrested by the cops – inexplicably, after around twenty officers were injured in an IslamoNazi riot in downtown Jakarta late last year – and there are a lot of those white-shirt rats crawling around the city gutters.  .

Those of us who had hoped SBY’s departure from the State Palace and the inauguration of Jokowi would mean an end to IslamoNazi intimidation are undergoing an agonising reappraisal of our optimism.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/beer-today-gone-tomorrow-indonesia-targets-sales-ale/

Beer-Battered Fish and Chips…in Jakarta?!?

Just got back from a meander round the bookstores in Jakarta’s Central Park mall,and have a nice paperback to read if the sun returns.

It began to rain as I left my fave warteg after a yummy lunch – one pound sterling for a big plate of tahu, tempe, cap cay and perkadel, and that included es teh and nasi putih, plus three fritters to take away for a snack later – so I’m happy to have made it home undrenched!

• 

• But that otherwise agreeable outing was not without health hazards – I almost had a heart attack going through the tunnel that takes you from the mall to the nearby side street, having passed a barber shop which advertised a simple hair-cut for RP.80,000 – that’s damn near EIGHT DOLLARS US. (at this point some over-paid expat NGO snob will blast off a salvo to my comments column saying how disgusting it is that I don’t waste money like him, and how can I POSSIBLY use the same eateries and services that ordinary Indonesians use!)

Shocking – where I go, in fact almost anywhere in Jakarta, the standard trim costs between 8K and 12K.

Were one to seek a more self-indulgent experience, a fine idea is to pop into one of the salons that sprout all over the place, staffed by aromatic wenches, who will do much the same job…

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 This is probably a year or two ago, but prices have not rocketed

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…and charge you Rp. 25 – 30,000, a price the paying of which is eased by the charm and warmth of the cutter. (Health warning -beware, some are operated by poofters!)

Some salon staff are even said to offer massages, for a little extra cash, but that is not a ubiquitous extra service – you need to suss out how friendly your salonette is before you ask!

 

And check she’s not a well-disguised trannie!

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Anyway, from one delight to another.

Beer-battered fish and chips!

I left the mall via that tunnel and walked down to Tanjung Duren Barat Satu, my aim being to grab an angkot home…

 angkots

…via the warteg.

But what should I see when I reached that busy thoroughfare but a resto named Serassa, with a big sign outside advertising its various specialties.

One of which was the aforesaid BBFnC! 

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I didn’t eat there, because the dish costs Rp. 39,000, almost three times as much as I later paid in the place I like best (and that’s without the drink and probably the service ++)

But I’m tempted to try it on some special occasion.

Given the moronic regulation I posted on recently, the ban on mini-marts selling beer…

Bali Beer Ban Looms – Why Pander to Intolerance? 

…inaugurated by a millionaire minister just to make life awkward for us haram-addicted humans) it is reassuring that normal tastes are catered for here in Jakarta – you just have to know where to look!

 

Bali Beer Ban Looms – Why Pander to Intolerance?

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Last week I cheered Jakarta Governor Ahok’s stand against the fanatics who want to ban beer from all those handy little mini-markets that seem to sprout on every other corner of the capital.

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 Ahok

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Alas, I spoke to soon. His stand, for sanity and free choice, has been over-ruled by the national government, which, in a move which makes no sense at all, is set to enforce a blanket-ban, NATIONWIDE!

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Indonesia to Outlaw Sale of Alcohol at Minimarkets and Convenience Stores Effective April 16, 2015.

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Rachmat Gobel

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This antedeluvian decree emerges from the office of one of President Jokowi’s team, Rachmat Gobel, who’s a big business tycoon himself, so ought to have some grasp of the modern world.

But it’s not just his whim – it’s endorsed both by parliament and government, heedless of the inconvenience and annoyance it will cause among the many tourists from Australia (and elsewhere) who like to buy a few bottles to drink on the beach or on their hotel balconies in Bali.

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• And all the Indonesians and foreign residents, like me, who enjoy sitting in their front- or back-yards with a six-pack of a weekend arvo. No more ten minute walk for supplies – instead, a lengthy trip to a distant hypermarket. 

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• No wonder that Tutum Rahanta, vice-chairman of the Indonesian Retail Association (Aprindo), said he regretted the Minister’s decision..

“These retail outlets sell alcoholic beverages to meet the needs of foreign tourists,” said Tatum.  http://www.balidiscovery.com

In fact, the sale of these needful products was already hedged around with all kinds of restrictions, some sensible, others less so.

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 Sectarian sticky-beaks disrupt normal folks’ fun

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But this outright verbot will only please the white-shirt gangsters who have long hit the headlines here for their vigilante vandalism against anywhere that offers simple pleasures like a cold Bintang on a sultry evening.

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And those intolerant uptights will only be happy when total prohibition is imposed.

April 16th  – a dark day for Indonesia.