The Ukulele Guys on Jakarta’s Buses
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Predicting 2030
 September 01 2023
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    Just for fun:

     

    one of the interesting things about ‘the information environment’ in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1997, when I was living there, was the simple fact that everyone who wasn’t a card-carrying member of The Party of The Dictatorship knew that everything was a sham.

     

    The vaunted ‘tiger nations’ economy, the press, the tedious speeches, the parliamentary proceedings, the flags and songs, the wide range of pro-regime organizations – all bogus.

     

    But as you were getting about on the smoke-belching wrecks of buses that plied the city center, Ukulele Guy would hop aboard.

     

    Ukulele Guy was usually a ragged uni student. He’d flit aboard at the back of the bus while it was stopped at the lights.

     

    Then, as the bus lurched off, he’d sing a little ditty, something like:

     

    “It’s all bogus!

    Indonesia corrupt.

    President corrupt.

    President family corrupt.

    Bogus bogus!

    Gotta have change now.”

     

    Then he’d zip up and down the aisle, collecting a rupiah or two in an empty crisps packet, and step down into the crowd the moment the bus stopped at the next lights.

     

    The fantastic reality of the republic at that time – thirty-two years into the dictatorship – was that everyone knew that whispers and gossip and Ukulele Guy were as good as it got.

     

    PS

    Google: ‘Film Dokumenter Tragedi Jakarta 1998 Gerakan Mahasiswa’


    Although it was only a baby riot – there are no camera men or ambulances at real riots -- from 19:20 to 19:40 is not a bad insight.

    At 17:44 there’s a shot of the fence of the university. I’m on the inside, about twenty feet to the right of the guys in the shot. Was there all afternoon and evening.

    Wrote up my journal at about two a.m. the next morning, still on campus. Here’s the page:

    https://imgur.com/WDh3Ns1


    political theory political history trans gender postmodernism
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