shemp
24th July 2006, 12:28 PM
linky linky (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/24/world/main1829158.shtml)
Shock waves from the string of natural disasters over the past 19 months, including numerous earthquakes, two tsunamis, and an imminent volcanic eruption, have reached even Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the state palace.
Irked by nationwide whisperings that the calamities were a divine statement against his rule, Mr. Yudhoyono told state meteorologists Thursday to explain the science behind the disasters on radio and television.
"Superstition and mysticism is a factor in Indonesia," says Dino Patti Djalal, a presidential spokesman. "But it's the last thing we need when facing natural disasters."
That is true. But, as usual, mostly what we get is stupidity and nonsense.
The president's political opponents, such as the well-known soothsayer Permadi, have eagerly spread the notion of a divine warning. Speaking on Metro-TV Wednesday, he warned that the president was angering nature. "He [the president] has 'hot hands' which are causing these calamities," said Permadi, a legislator in the national parliament. In the late 1990s, Permadi, of Yudhoyono's rival political party the PDI-P, also foretold that aliens in UFOs would arrive to save Earth.
According to the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), a national polling agency, the president has reason to be worried. The LSI released a survey in July based on a sample of 440 people in earthquake-afflicted Yogyakarta concluding that the public had begun to interpret the natural disasters "mystically, irrationally, or spiritually."
Henri Siregar, a Catholic business executive in his 30s, says, "The earthquake is a warning to the central government." Decrying Indonesia's widespread corruption, Mr. Siregar says: "I think a lot of people are screwed up.* Of course we'll get a slap on the wrist [from God]."
*Well, I can't deny that!
I think this is both funny and pathetic:
In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, all citizens by law must subscribe to at least one of five state-sanctioned religions.
And:
In the scramble to explain the apparent wrath of nature, science is jostling against religion and even supernatural beliefs. National newspapers have carried full front-page color diagrams of the crashing tectonic plates beneath the 17,000-island Indonesian archipelago. On the editorial pages, writers have called for "national introspection," quoting religious leaders calling for repentance.
I guess the Weekly World News is big over there.
Shock waves from the string of natural disasters over the past 19 months, including numerous earthquakes, two tsunamis, and an imminent volcanic eruption, have reached even Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the state palace.
Irked by nationwide whisperings that the calamities were a divine statement against his rule, Mr. Yudhoyono told state meteorologists Thursday to explain the science behind the disasters on radio and television.
"Superstition and mysticism is a factor in Indonesia," says Dino Patti Djalal, a presidential spokesman. "But it's the last thing we need when facing natural disasters."
That is true. But, as usual, mostly what we get is stupidity and nonsense.
The president's political opponents, such as the well-known soothsayer Permadi, have eagerly spread the notion of a divine warning. Speaking on Metro-TV Wednesday, he warned that the president was angering nature. "He [the president] has 'hot hands' which are causing these calamities," said Permadi, a legislator in the national parliament. In the late 1990s, Permadi, of Yudhoyono's rival political party the PDI-P, also foretold that aliens in UFOs would arrive to save Earth.
According to the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), a national polling agency, the president has reason to be worried. The LSI released a survey in July based on a sample of 440 people in earthquake-afflicted Yogyakarta concluding that the public had begun to interpret the natural disasters "mystically, irrationally, or spiritually."
Henri Siregar, a Catholic business executive in his 30s, says, "The earthquake is a warning to the central government." Decrying Indonesia's widespread corruption, Mr. Siregar says: "I think a lot of people are screwed up.* Of course we'll get a slap on the wrist [from God]."
*Well, I can't deny that!
I think this is both funny and pathetic:
In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, all citizens by law must subscribe to at least one of five state-sanctioned religions.
And:
In the scramble to explain the apparent wrath of nature, science is jostling against religion and even supernatural beliefs. National newspapers have carried full front-page color diagrams of the crashing tectonic plates beneath the 17,000-island Indonesian archipelago. On the editorial pages, writers have called for "national introspection," quoting religious leaders calling for repentance.
I guess the Weekly World News is big over there.