Warung Tegal (Warteg)

Warung Tegal or Warteg can literally be translated as Tegal Kiosk. Warung is an Indonesian word of Javanese origin for kiosk or shop, and Tegal is the name of a city and regency in the north-western coast of the Province of Central Java.

As a term, however, Warung Tegal (warteg) refers to an eating place that provides a variety of inexpensive food of rice and its side dishes. It's named Warug Tegal because this kind of restaurants originally comes from Tegal and are owned and operated by people from that area.



Warung Tegal can be found almost anywhere in the country, especially in big cities. This one is on Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi in the north of Bandung. It's very popular among students and low income workers.

Mourning for The West Sumatra Earth Quake Victims

As some of you may already know, a 7.6 on Richter Scale earthquake hit West Sumatra on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009. At least 788 people have been reported killed, thousands more are still trapped under the rubbles of destroyed buildings. Indonesians from other parts of the country have organized and conducted fund raising and relief efforts for the victims of the quake. Generous solidarity has also been shown by our friends from many parts of the world. All out rescue and relief efforts are continuing.

If you would like to help, donation for the relief efforts of the 2009 Sumatra Earthquake can be made through Indonesian Red Cross/Crescent or Red Cross/Crescent in your respective countries or any other relevant agencies near you.

Thank you. God bless you.

The Voice of Free Speech

Last week, I walked to the Department of Fine Art studio building of the Indonesia University of Education, which is located just next to the Faculty of Language and Arts building where I work. There were quite a few things that attracted my attention. One of them was this poster that contains a sharp criticism to the the government and capitalism.

Here is what the poster says (my translation):
(On the picture)

Your leaders cannot save you. THEY CAN ONLY TERRORIZE YOU.

(The text)

Terrorism: Terror committed systematically, in the form of violence or intimidation, with the purpose of creataing fear. A technique used by the government to manipulate the views of the people with the goal of running an agenda.

And so on and so forth ...

The fear of terror is worse than terror itself. (Anonymous)

This poster is published by ...

KLANDESTIN
TOP SECRET COMMUNIQUE

Eleven years ago, we would not have been able to see this kind of posters anywhere. If any, the freedom of speech we had was very limited. It was unthinkable to criticize the government as directly and sharply as this. But all this changed in 1998 with the advent of Gerakan Reformasi (Reform Movement). Since then our Constitution has been amended four times, new democratic institutions instituted, and freedom of speech guaranteed.

But is the freedom of speech always good? Supposedly it is. But it all depends on what you believe in and how it is exercised.