Sunday, October 4, 2009

“Indonesians blame earthquake on 'unlucky president' - Daily Telegraph” plus 4 more

“Indonesians blame earthquake on 'unlucky president' - Daily Telegraph” plus 4 more

Indonesians blame earthquake on 'unlucky president' - Daily Telegraph

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 05:34 AM PDT

Published: 1:24PM BST 04 Oct 2009

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known by his initials SBY, has long been burdened by suggestions his birth date carries the shadow of "cosmic misfortune".

A string of disasters both natural and man-made since his election in 2004, including the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 220,000 across Asia, has seen quips that SBY stands for "Selalu Bencana Ya", meaning "Always A Disaster".

The number nine is considered unlucky by many and the latest catastrophe is viewed by many as proof that his birthday - September 9, 1949 - means his stars are crossed.

Permadi, a veteran politician from the opposition Gerindra party and practising shaman, said: "SBY, because of his birth date, will always attract disasters to this country, according to the Primbon (a Javanese almanac of mysticism)"

"Just look at the numbers of his birth date – the ninth of the ninth, '49 – that's unlucky. The more he holds on to power, the more great disasters will happen," he said.

If Yudhoyono stays president, "a much bigger disaster will strike Jakarta for sure," Permadi said, referring to the Indonesian capital. "If SBY had a big heart, he would step down."

Not everyone believes this theory – and many see SBY's birthday as enviably lucky – but such talk of supernatural misfortune has deep resonance in Indonesia, where Islam and Christianity are often merged with older traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism.

The criticism has been long-standing enough that Yudhoyono lectured local government heads in the quake-hit region of West Sumatra two years ago that they should blame the region's volatile geology, and not him.

"Magma doesn't move because SBY has become president. It's malicious to link it to me being president," he was quoted as saying at the time.

Even the Jakarta Post, one of the top-selling English dailies, suggested a link between the disaster and the extravagance of politicians in a Sunday editorial entitled "The Gods Must Be Angry".

It read: "Whether you subscribe to the theological or secular explanation, the 7.6-magnitude quake that killed more than 1,100 people came on the eve of the multi-billion-rupiah inauguration ball for newly elected members of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council in Jakarta."

Indonesian media have carried accounts of divine symbols in the aftermath of the quake, including a ring-shaped sun surrounded by a rainbow and God's name inscribed in Arabic calligraphy in the clouds.

In the devastated city of Padang, a commonly heard refrain has been that the quake is a test, or a punishment, ordained by God.

"I think the quake happened because many of the youths in Padang commit sins, especially during Ramadan," chicken-feed factory worker Yasrizat, 36, said near a mosque in the city.

"They've been engaging in sinful activities by the beach. I think God is punishing us with this quake."

The almanac - United Press International

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 12:33 AM PDT

Today is Sunday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2009 with 88 to follow.

The moon is full. The morning stars are Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States, in 1822; Frederic Remington, painter of the American West, in 1861; journalist/author Damon Runyon in 1884; pioneer movie comedian Buster Keaton in 1895; actors Charlton Heston in 1924, Clifton Davis in 1945 (age 64), Susan Sarandon in 1946 (age 63), Armand Assante in 1949 (age 60) and Liev Schreiber in 1967 (age 42); authors Jackie Collins in 1937 (72) and Anne Rice in 1941 (age 68); and actresses Alicia Silverstone in 1976 (age 33) and Rachel Leigh Cook in 1979 (age 30).

On this date in history:

In 1777, American forces under Gen. George Washington were defeated by the British in a battle at Germantown, Pa.

In 1890, Mormons in Utah renounced polygamy.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made space satellite, Sputnik 1.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York on the first visit by a reigning pope to the United States.

In 1976, Earl Butz resigned as U.S. agriculture secretary with an apology for what he called the "gross indiscretion" of uttering a racist remark.

In 1989, Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders as the first black head coach in the modern NFL.

In 1991, the United States and 23 other countries signed an agreement banning mineral and oil exploration in Antarctica for 50 years.

In 1992, as many as 250 people were killed when an El Al 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Also in 1992, the Mozambique government and RENAMO rebels signed a historic peace accord, ending 16 years of civil war in the southeast African nation.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered several hundred more U.S. troops to Somalia one day after the deaths of three U.S. Marines in Mogadishu.

In 2001, a Siberian Airlines jetliner exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 64 passengers and 12 crew members. The United States said evidence showed the plane had been hit by a missile fired during a Ukrainian military training exercise.

And in 2001 sports, Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres scored his 2,246th run, breaking Ty Cobb's Major League Baseball record.

In 2002, the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, pleaded guilty to charges against him stemming from his alleged effort to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers during a 2001 Paris-to-Miami flight.

In 2003, a suicide bomber killed herself and 19 others in an attack on a crowded restaurant in the northern Israeli port of Haifa.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded rocket to reach the edge of space, flew to an altitude above 62 miles over the California desert.

Also in 2004, Gordon Cooper, one of the first U.S. astronauts, who logged more than 225 hours in space, died at his California home. He was 77.

In 2006, U.S. President George Bush signed into law a bill allocating funds for a 700-mile bridge on the United States-Mexico border to help control immigration.

Also in 2006, Iraq suspended a brigade of 800 Baghdad policemen and arrested their commander on charges of aiding sectarian death squads, U.S. officials said.

In 2007, the U.S. Justice Department issued a secret, so-called "torture memo" endorsing harsh interrogation techniques, The New York Times reported. It said techniques were permissible by law so long as they didn't result in pain comparable to organ failure or death.

Also in 2007, at least 30 people died in a plane crash shortly after takeoff from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said. All 22 aboard the plane died, as did eight others on the ground.

In 2008, the Labor Department announced the United States lost 159,000 jobs in September, the most in five years.

A thought for the day: Damon Runyon wrote, "... always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you."

Indonesia's 'unlucky' president blamed for quake - Hindustan Times

Posted: 03 Oct 2009 11:43 PM PDT

Some superstitious Indonesians are blaming a supposedly "unlucky" president -- and not shifting tectonic plates -- for the latest earthquake in this disaster-prone country.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known by his initials SBY, has long been burdened by murmurs that he carries with him the shadow of cosmic misfortune.

A string of disasters both natural and man-made since his election in 2004, including the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 220,000 across Asia, has seen quips that SBY stands for "Selalu Bencana Ya", roughly meaning "Always A Disaster".

The latest catastrophe, believed to have killed upwards of 1,100 people with another buried 4,000 under rubble, is viewed by many in this Muslim-majority country of 234 million as yet more proof that SBY's stars are crossed.

"SBY, because of his birth date, will always attract disasters to this country, according to the Primbon (a Javanese almanac of mysticism)" Permadi, a veteran politician from the opposition Gerindra party and practising shaman said.

"Just look at the numbers of his birth date -- the ninth of the ninth, '49 -- that's unlucky. The more he holds on to power, the more great disasters will happen," he said.

If Yudhoyono stays president, "a much bigger disaster will strike Jakarta for sure," Permadi said, referring to the Indonesian capital.

"If SBY had a big heart, he would step down." (AFP)

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Montana history almanac: Late goods delay treaty with Indians - Missoulian

Posted: 03 Oct 2009 11:14 PM PDT

Oct. 10, 1855

An exasperated Isaac Stevens, governor of Washington Territory, leaves Fort Benton for the mouth of the Judith River.

Stevens has spent the past few months placating Indian tribes with whom he plans to treat to designate hunting grounds in the plains of what will become Montana. The council has been delayed by the late arrival of U.S. Indian agent Alfred Cumming with the treaty supplies and rations.

Cumming, who has voiced his opposition to treating with the tribes, got a late-season start up the Missouri by steamboat and could make it no further than Fort Union. The goods have had to be towed up the river by cordon. Stevens has sent runners to restless tribes in their various buffalo ranges advising that the council would be moved from Benton to the Judith, 100 miles downstream, to meet the towboats.

Stevens will arrive tomorrow at Judith Landing, a mile below the mouth of the Judith. Some 3,500 Indians from tribes west of the mountains as well as the Blackfeet and Gros Ventres will show up. That's far fewer than the 12,000 Stevens had hoped for. The Lame Bull (Blackfeet) treaty will be signed one week from today.

Oct. 6, 1885

A crew of 50 French-Canadian loggers hired by Bill Thompson, the future mayor of Butte, hike up a wooded canyon above the Hell Gate River and start felling trees. It sparks the bloodless Cramer Gulch war.

The Hammond brothers, who operate mills in the vicinity, have already established a camp in the gulch near Beavertail Hill to help feed their new operation in Bonner which will open next year. Robert Coombs, Hammonds' manager at the Bonita mill at the mouth of Cramer Creek, leads a gang of men up the gulch to confront Thompson's "invaders."

"The Thompson crowd didn't take kindly to the invitation which Coombs gave them to get out of the gulch; perhaps it was not courteous enough," Missoulian editor

Arthur Stone will relate in 1912.

A Thompson foreman named Miles offers to fight Coombs or any one of his men to decide who gets to log the gulch. Hand-to-hand fights break out as Thompson's men attempt to load some logs they've cut.

Eventually Coombs retreats. Tomorrow he'll order a "fighting lumberjack" named Bill Harris to address the situation. Harris will offer to fight any one of Thompson's crowd, then two, then three, but there are no takers. A tense bushwacking contest will develop over the next weeks as both companies battle for the trees. Foremen will wear guns on their hips, and small acts of sabotage are rampant until company heads reach a compromise. It's agreed that both groups will log in peace.

"There were few gulches in Montana which were stripped of their timber faster than was Cramer gulch that winter," Stone is to write.

Oct. 8, 1921

Whiskey, moonshine, gin, wines, sherry and home brew are among the booty displayed in the automobile of Lloyd Wallace, assistant county attorney of Missoula. A truck is called in later to haul several other cases of liquors to county attorney Campbell's cache in the courthouse after the second day of raids on illicit bootlegging operations. The biggest haul is seized from the home of Oscar Engstrom at 410 E. Cedar (Broadway).

Engstrom and 10 others are arrested on this Saturday, the second day of the first concerted attempt to clean Missoula of "dry law" violations, more than two years after the law went into effect. Until now it has been regarded as a joke.

The raids allow Campbell and Police Chief W.J. Moore to distance themselves from charges of colluding with the bootleggers. "A distinct relief of the pressure of suspicion that has been directed for months against (Campbell) was evident," the Daily Missoulian reports. Moore issues a statement that says he has been trying for a year to get help and funds to enforce the liquor law, with no response until recently.

"When it comes to the questions of dishonesty, I wish to state that I am willing to face any evidence which may be produced," he says.

Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.

Yudhoyono takes quake blame - Skynews.com

Posted: 03 Oct 2009 11:22 PM PDT

Updated: 17:23, Sunday October 4, 2009

Some superstitious Indonesians are blaming a supposedly 'unlucky' president - and not shifting tectonic plates - for the latest earthquake in this disaster-prone country.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known by his initials SBY, has long been burdened by murmurs that he carries with him the shadow of cosmic misfortune.

A string of disasters both natural and man-made since his election in 2004, including the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 220,000 across Asia, has seen quips that SBY stands for 'Selalu Bencana Ya', roughly meaning 'Always A Disaster'.

The latest catastrophe, believed to have killed upwards of 1,100 people with another buried 4,000 under rubble, is viewed by many in this Muslim-majority country of 234 million as yet more proof that SBY's stars are crossed.

'SBY, because of his birth date, will always attract disasters to this country, according to the Primbon (a Javanese almanac of mysticism)' Permadi, a veteran politician from the opposition Gerindra party and practising shaman, told AFP.

'Just look at the numbers of his birth date - the ninth of the ninth, '49 - that's unlucky. The more he holds on to power, the more great disasters will happen,' he said.

If Yudhoyono stays president, 'a much bigger disaster will strike Jakarta for sure,' Permadi said, referring to the Indonesian capital.

'If SBY had a big heart, he would step down.'

Not everyone believes this theory - and many see SBY's birthday as enviably lucky - but such talk of supernatural misfortune has deep resonance in Indonesia, where Islam and Christianity are for many merged with older traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism.

The criticism has been long-standing enough that Yudhoyono lectured local government heads in the quake-hit region of West Sumatra two years ago that they should blame the region's volatile geology, and not him.

'Magma doesn't move because SBY has become president. It's malicious to link it to me being president,' he was quoted as saying at the time.

Even the Jakarta Post, one of the top-selling English dailies, suggested a link between the disaster and the extravagance of politicians in a Sunday editorial entitled 'The Gods Must Be Angry'.

'Whether you subscribe to the theological or secular explanation, the 7.6-magnitude quake that killed more than 1,100 people came on the eve of the multi-billion-rupiah inauguration ball for newly elected members of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council in Jakarta,' it said.

Political analyst Bima Arya Sugiarto said that while some, particularly opposition politicians, try to paint the president as a spiritual liability, there are benefits for him in Indonesians' gaze beyond the physical world.

Criticism of the often slow aid response, and the poor planning that allowed shoddy buildings to spring up in the first place, has been muted by fatalism and a widespread belief that the disaster is God's will, Sugiarto said.

'The mystical perspective or the religious perspective is more dominant than public criticism of government policies,' he said.

Indonesian media have carried accounts of divine symbols in the aftermath of the quake, including a ring-shaped sun surrounded by a rainbow and God's name inscribed in Arabic calligraphy in the clouds.

In the devastated city of Padang, a commonly heard refrain has been that the quake is a test, or a punishment, ordained by God.

'I think the quake happened because many of the youths in Padang commit sins, especially during Ramadan,' chicken-feed factory worker Yasrizat, 36, said near a mosque in the city.

'They've been engaging in sinful activities by the beach. I think God is punishing us with this quake.'
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