Chasing The Truth

 
Chasing the truth: Anti-graft activists (left to right) Ronald Rofiandri, Apung Widadi and Roy Salam present their findings on irregularities at several House of Representatives’ renovation projects during a press conference at the Indonesian Corruption Watch office in Jakarta on Sunday. (JP/ Jerry Adiguna) 

Source: The Jakarta Post - Sunday January 15, 2012

Not By Choice

Conversations With A Sex Worker  

A young Cambodian relates the appalling events that led her into prostitution.

It was the sort of day that made you want to really seize all opportunities.
There was a beautiful blue sky dotted with white wisps of clouds and the kind of sun benevolent enough not to burn your skin.
It was 8am in Cambodia and the adventure at hand was a trip through Angkor Archaeological Park.
My guide?
A 22-year-old sex worker named Samnang, the Cambodian word for Good Fortune.

“You can call me Sam,” she said, smiling shyly.

I had met Sam two days earlier, by accident, when I got lost meandering through the streets of Siem Reap.
At first, she tried giving me directions, but when I failed to comprehend, mostly because I’m not good with maps, Sam offered to walk me back to where I was staying during my week-long visit.

When we arrived, I asked Sam to have dinner with me, but she declined, saying she had to work.
When I asked what she worked as, she explained in halting English that she was a sex worker.
I tried to sound casual, telling her why I was in Cambodia and that I was looking for someone who could show me around.
I asked if she would be interested.

And so, two days later, on a gorgeous day in Siem Rep, Sam takes me on a journey very different from the one I had in mind.

As we walk down Sivatha Road, we talk about our lives and I ask her if she would tell her story for me to share with others.
She agrees but asks that no photographs be taken.
We find a restaurant and seat ourselves for a meal.
Spicy chicken rice at 8.30am is indeed the breakfast of champions. 

The Journey Begins

Sam’s life began as a rather happy one, but it quickly turned into a horrific series of events.
Born in Vietnam, she went to Thailand when she was 17 in search of a better life.
She found a job as a waitress.
One day, she met a foreigner named Gerard who was very pleased to learn that she was a Vietnam native.
He was a businessman who was enthusiastic about importing cheap scooters into Vietnam.

After several lunches and dinners, Sam agreed to take Gerard to Vietnam to help him start his business.
Felicitations of love followed soon after, and a promise of marriage was extended.
One thing led to another and Sam found herself pregnant two months into the relationship.
The business was also warming up.
But Gerard’s ardour toward her cooled drastically.

“He began ignoring me and wasn’t shy about doing it openly,” she shares.
Gerard also turned out to be a paedophile, having his way with many underage girls.
“In Vietnam, if you have money, you can get away with anything; you just pay the police to keep them quiet,” Sam says, frowning.
I tell her that this happens around the world.

Gerard left Sam in her third month of pregnancy.
“I tried asking him to help me and the baby with some money, but he said it’s not his problem anymore,” she says, her voice thick with emotion.
“He told me that I should get an abortion, which he was willing to pay for. I didn’t want to do this and I had nowhere to go. One day, while I was looking for odd jobs, I met an old friend who was working as a seamstress. She took me in without question.” 

On the Run

Months later, Sam gave birth to a beautiful girl and named her Maelea, which means Flower Garland.
Soon after this, she found a job as a cleaner and life seemed better for a while.

About a year later, while she was out with her baby, Sam bumped into Gerard at the local market.
The man who initially wanted to get rid of the baby now wanted her for himself when he saw how cute she was.
“I refused of course,” Sam says.
“I knew what he did with the other young girls. I didn’t trust him anymore and I was afraid that he would hurt my baby.”

But Gerard got his way through his connections and by using corrupt officials.
But after a month, Sam got Maelea back with the help of a visiting social worker from the United States.

“I cried for days after I saw what he had done to my baby. Her private parts were swollen and discoloured. She was only one year old.”
Sam’s petite body shook with heavy sobs from this terrible memory.

When confronted, Gerard rejected the accusations and threatened to hurt Sam and the baby if she continued to pester him.
But he still wanted Maelea.
“He would come to the house that I shared with my friend and send thugs over to threaten us. I was afraid for our safety and decided that I would leave and hide out in Cambodia.” 

Starting Anew

After a difficult journey, Sam found herself in a foreign country.
She couldn’t speak the language, and had a little child to feed.

“I tried for three months to find a job. No one would hire me. I had to beg on the streets with my daughter in my arms. We were staying at bus stands and wherever else that we could find shelter. I thought that if feeding my daughter and providing her with a roof over her head meant that I had to sell my body, then it was a small price to pay.”
And so she turned to prostitution.

“I will never forget the first time I did it. I just kept my mind on the food that I will be able to buy for my child and me. That made it easier.

“I have been doing this for four years now and have met many women like me. In the early days, one of them told me that I would get used to it, that it would get easier. This is not true. I have never gotten used to it and I will not be doing this for much longer.”
There was conviction in her voice.

Sam says she will give it another half a year.
“What will my daughter think?” I am stumped for a reply.

“Soon, she will be old enough to start asking me questions,” she adds.
Later, I ask her if she would ever tell Maelea of her past.
Sam takes a long pause and says, “Right now, I don’t know if I will. I want to be honest, but I also think that she doesn’t have to know the ugly side of my life.”

I ask what she would like to do for a living.

“I am saving some money to go back to school and study. I want to become a teacher.”
And then she asks shyly, “Do you think I can?”

I am too overwhelmed to say anything and I nod my answer.

At the time of writing, Sam has already started her classes.
After so much misfortune, it does look like she is going to live up to the meaning of her name after all.

Source: Cambodia Today - June 2011

Of Keep Warm And Cold-Storaged Blankets

Vox populi: An anti-government protestor, center, reacts during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday. Dozens of chiefs from Yemen's two largest and most powerful tribes called on the president to immediately step down and strip his son of control over security forces, as rival crowds of protesters took to the streets Friday. (AP/Muhammed Muheisen)

Prayers for Arrigoni: Palestinian women hold a banner with the picture of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni during a protest in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday. (AP/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Earth Day: Students attach cut-out paper leaves on a mock tree made of cardboard during their campaign to protect the environment as part of the celebration of Earth Day, Saturday, April 16, 2011 in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines. The students called on to stop commercial logging and mining. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)

 

Returning blankets: Yukari Abe, left, and her father Kazushige Hayashi return donated blankets to an evacuation center since they move out to another shelter set up at a local inn in Fukushima, northeastern Japan, Saturday. Abe said the inn prepares bedding for them. She also hopes to have more privacy at the new shelter. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) 

Source: The Jakarta Post - Sunday, April 17, 2011

******

'Corruption' Blights The Lives Of Flood-Hit Pakistanis

 

Many people say that they have been defrauded by the authorities

Millions of people in Pakistan are facing winter without proper shelter because their homes were destroyed by the recent devastating floods. Some accuse officials of mismanaging the crisis - a claim the government denies. Jill McGivering reports from southern Punjab, one of the worst affected regions.

I came across the blanket distribution late in the afternoon near the road, on the outskirts of Kot Addu. As soon I got out of the car, people surrounded me.
It's all unfair, they shouted. Officials are not giving blankets to people who need them. They are giving them to friends and supporters.
A woman in a white burka pushed forwards.
"I'm very poor," she said. "My house has been destroyed. I don't even have a tent. It's cold at night, winter is coming and the children are starting to become ill."
She had come here for help, she said, but no-one would give her anything.
'Raining corruption' One man spoke English. He had come along to support his neighbour, he said.

 

Many people are unable to get even basic medical treatment

"They've been standing here since nine in the morning," he told me. "Now it's five o'clock and they're still waiting."
"Look at her," he said. "She's pushed around by everyone and in the end she'll go home with nothing."
I headed for the brick building with the blankets, hoping to put these complaints to the officials inside.
The angry crowd moved with me. By the time I managed to enter the room where the blankets were stacked, the official had gone.
I was told that he had taken advantage of the chaos and slipped out of the back door.
I came away not knowing if the crowd's allegations were justified.
But as I travelled around the blasted landscape of southern Punjab, I was certainly struck by the mood of public frustration and repeated allegations of corruption that have been directed at the government.
It is not only about blankets.
The government is now rolling out a nationwide cash compensation scheme for flood victims. Families can apply for a special bank card and use it to withdraw compensation from cash points at local banks. But this too is proving controversial.
I visited a rich, landowning family in the area. About 40 men had come to beg for help. They said they were not getting the cash compensation they had been promised.
"Corruption, corruption, corruption," shouted one burly man. "It's raining corruption!"
Fury He showed me mini-statements from the bank.

 

The fear is that conditions will get worse as winter approaches

The first instalment of compensation had been credited to his account - but just days later, the whole sum had been withdrawn. Not by him, he insisted.
Other men shouted the same allegation, blaming government officials and the bank staff for defrauding them.
In Islamabad, I put the allegations to the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik.
It was not possible for government officials to defraud the cash compensation scheme, he said.
Thirty-eight thousand cases of fraud had already been registered, he said, but they all involved members of the public.
"This is dishonesty on the part of the people - their own friends, family members and people from their own area," he said.
"People here are very simple," he said. "They only understand the language when they get the cash. If the cash is delayed, then they'll blame the government."
I told him about the chaos at the blanket distribution and the old lady who repeatedly came away with nothing. Mr Malik said this too was the result of public fraud, not official corruption.
He related a personal experience in the field. "I spotted women coming, taking goods, like blankets, going and stuffing them somewhere and then coming back for more," he said.
"Generally some people may not get them. But other people get them five or six times and then sell them."
Winter is approaching and there is no doubt that people who have lost their homes and crops are full of fury, much of it directed at officials.
Fair or not, that's doing little to help the government's credibility here.
To listen to Jill McGivering's documentary, click here. You can also download this programme as a podcast.


Source: BBC. Co. UK - November 25, 2010

The Catalyst, Mohamed Bouazizi

A Fruitseller Ignites A Revolution

The Star visits the family and village of Mohamed Bouazizi, a poor fruit seller who set himself on fire to protest against official harassment. The incident triggered a revolution in Tunisia and also sparked off protests against autocratic governments in several Arab countries.
IT was early Friday, just before 8am. After picking olives from a farm, Manuobya looked in on her 26-year-old son Mohamed Bouazizi, who was still asleep and something stirred inside her.
“I felt a kind of love and affection that I never felt before. I said to myself: ‘Mohamed, you are so tired. May God give you a car and another job,’” she tells Sunday Star during an interview at her home in a village near Sidi Bouzid.
Just the night before, Manuobya recounts, Mohamed Bouazizi, who sold fruits from a push cart, was talking about working harder to earn enough to buy a pick-up truck which would make it easier for him to transport his produce. And that night, he gave his mother quite a lot of cash.
“He told me: ‘You know, mother, I’ve never got so much money as I have this week.’

Painful reminder: Manuobya caressing a giant poster of her late son Mohamed Bouazizi who has become a hero in his country and the Arab world.

“He told his sister Leila: ‘If you succeed in school, I will pay for your education.’
“He said to his brothers: ‘If you do well, I will buy you what you want,’” Manuobya relates, looking both sad and proud at the same time as she talks about Mohamed Bouazizi.
Her son, she remembers, was in such good spirits that Thursday night.
And he was teasing, playing and laughing with his eight-year-old half-brother Ziyad a lot more than usual before they went to sleep.
Manuobya says she even ticked them off for making “so much noise” for fear it might disturb the neighbours.
Before he went to bed, Mohamed Bouazizi told his mother of his plans for the next few days.

Where it all started: A view of the Government building in Sidi Bouzid where Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight on Dec 17.

He said he was getting nicer fruits and would work on Friday and Saturday, and rest on Sunday to go to Sfax (a town in Tunisia) to see his elder brother Salem.
But a few hours later, things changed forever for Mohamed Bouazizi, his family and Tunisia.
On that fateful Friday of Dec 17, after Mohamed Bouazizi had woken up, dressed and gone to his usual spot in the small of town of Sidi Bouzid to sell fruits from his cart, a municipal inspector, Faida Hamdi, and her three aides came after him.
Manuobya says Mohamed Bouazizi was the happy sort but the “police and the government always want money from him and won’t let him do his job”.
“They say he is selling fruits illegally. They want a rasuah (bribe) from him, so he is always fighting to do his job,” Manoubya elaborates.
When Mohamed Bouazizi refused to pay the bribe, Faida and her aides tried to seize the fruits. He then phoned his uncle, who is also his stepfather, for help.
But this angered the municipal officers even more.
“Faida told him that she would leave the other fruit sellers alone but not him and that she would come after him every day.
“She grabbed the fruits but when she wanted to remove the weighing scales, Mohamed Bouazizi wouldn’t let her because the scales were not his.
“That was when Faiza slapped him on the face, spat at him and said terrible things about his dead father,” relates Manuobya, who heard details of the incident from eye witnesses, including her son’s friends.
She believes the public humiliation – being slapped and spat on by a woman who also insulted his late father – was too much for her son to bear.
“He was so shocked and utterly humiliated. It was so shameful and, to him, a loss of dignity.”
When Mohamed Bouazizi, who wanted to seek justice, knocked on the municipal office door, the people there would not entertain him.
“Nobody would listen,” his grief-stricken mother says.
That was when Mohamed Bouazizi made his desperate and last cry for help.
He drenched himself with petrol and then lit himself up – right in front of the government building.
People rushed to douse the flames with their jackets, and someone even grabbed a fire hydrant but found it empty.
It was too late. Within seconds, Mohamed Bouazizi was charred but still alive. And that was how his stepfather Omar found him.
“I couldn’t recognise him because he was totally burnt. Then he uttered the Kalimah Shahadah (a Muslim declaration of faith).
“And I knew from the voice that it was Mohamed Bouazizi. Those were the last words he spoke,” says Omar, adding that both of them were supposed to have gone for Friday prayers that day.
Mohamed Bouazizi was rushed from one hospital to another because they could not treat the severe burns. He lived on for another 18 days and died on Jan 4.
By this time, news of what had happened to the poor fruit seller who just wanted to make a living spread through Tunisia like wildfire. His town, Sidi Bouzid, was the first to rise up.
Noha Farah left her children at home and went to the government building every day to protest and shout for change and for the president to quit.
She says she knew Mohamed Bouazizi personally.
“I always bought fruits from him. He was a very nice person. I cried when I saw what had happened,” she shares.
Through Facebook and Twitter, word spread and the protests grew all over Tunisia, shocking the world.
Here was Tunisia– an educated, moderate and stable country.
Yet its people, fed up with poverty, unemployment and a rotten corrupt system, spontaneously rose up to kick out their leader of 23 years, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
They wanted to reform their government which made it tough for people like Mohamed Bouazizi to make a living.
And soon, the Tunisian revolution caught on in other Arab countries.
Egypt managed to chuck out its strongman Hosni Mubarak who ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years.
Libya is still in the process of trying to oust its leader of 41 years, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The spark for change has also been lit in Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq and even Saudi Arabia. And although Manuobya wishes every night that Mohamed Bouazizi’s death is just a bad dream because she misses him dreadfully, she believes what he did was for a greater good.
“It is unbelievable what has happened. I thank God that things are better for all of Tunisia. I’m happy that He has opened the door for a lot of Arab countries. Freedom is a good thing,” she adds.
Manuobya followed the events in Egypt closely until Mubarak fell and her focus now is on what is happening in neighbouring Libya.
She wants the “evil” Gaddafi who has killed too many of his people to be replaced.
“God help Libya,” she says.
A neighbour, Alfiyah, tells how women, including strangers, drop by to visit Manuobya from time to time and offer words of comfort because they know how painful it is to lose a child.
“The women say ‘thank you for your son and for changing Tunisia’. The situation in Tunisia is still not all that we have hoped for but it is still early days yet,” she adds.
Noha Farah, however, feels something is still missing.
“We are happy but our happiness will not be complete until the Libyan revolution ends and the people there are also free,” she says.
Overnight, Mohamed Bouazizi has become a hero in his town, country and the Arab world.
Muhammad Han Zuli, 31, who speaks flawless English and lives in Sidi Bouzid, has tremendous respect for the fruit seller who triggered off a revolution.
“He gave us the best things in the world – freedom and democracy.”

Source: The Star - Sunday, March 14, 2011