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18 October 2010

Nazi Goreng

There are no sacred cows in Indonesia.

In July I showed a picture I'd taken in a restaurant near my gym. This restaurant inexplicably uses the Ku Klux Klan to promote its noodles.

I heard from a colleague that the image had finally been taken down.

He turned out to be accurate.

This painting is now hanging in its place:


As far as genocide-aligned food marketing goes, it's quite the upgrade.

Indonesian Non Sequitur Number 12

Many foreigners work in our Indonesian office.

The 2 of us who are white received this email back on September 9th, from my boss:

You may be aware that an obscure church in Florida plans to burn a copy of the Koran on the 11/9.

Should this occur, I caution everyone to take extra care when travelling around Jakarta as there is the possibility of random acts of violent behaviour against Caucasians.

This is a matter of concern for some embassies and security firms.

Any issues please let me know, contact our security department or the local police.

Hopefully sanity will prevail in Florida....

I remember thinking "... and in Jakarta, for that matter." before shrugging my shoulders and forgetting all about it.

I blame the publishers. Korans and bibles should be made out of non-flammable materials. Otherwise it's just too tempting, like a religious version of ice cream in the fridge.