"if ibu greets the people at the markets,
 

all party's members are expected to do the same...."

Soetjipto, Secretary General of PDI-P

Quoting Megawati to support her bid on election run-off.
 

U.S. mining firm denies causing pollution deaths

A U.S.-based mining company denied accusations that its gold mining operations in Central Indonesia contaminated a nearby bay, causing the deaths of 30 people from mercury poisoning. (Yahoo)

Five die after eating puffer fish

A family of five died and nine others were sickened in Indonesia after eating parts of a puffer fish during a communal cookout. Soon after consuming the fish, the five - including a 9-year-old boy, his father and grandfather - began vomiting and died on the scene. (The Star)

Woman priest slain in church raid

A woman priest was shot dead and four people were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a church service. The attack occurred late on Sunday as Christians gathered at the church in the city of Palu near the town of Poso -- the site of bloody Muslim-Christian clashes that have killed some 2,000 people since 1999. (CNN)

Ex-dictator's party likely to team up with Megawati

Golkar says it's likely to support Megawati in September's run-off elections _ a linkup that would boost her prospects of keeping the top job. Akbar Tandjung said a coalition with Megawati was likely because their two parties "have a very special chemistry," (Yahoo)

FROM THE EDITOR:

After some discussion around the bar with some regulars I decided not to continue the Idol election and just hire the most popular candidate so far, namely candidate D. One reader found the public selection a bit too indiscrete for the candidates involved, and I slightly agree to that. Before upsetting any more readers, meet the winner of the BuGils Idols: Nonie Jane. Nonie is a Christian of 24 years, born in Surabaya. She studied at the Tourism Academy Trisakti and speaks fluently English. She will start working tomorrow at 17.00 O'clock. We welcome her in the BuGils group and hope she will enjoy working with us.

The Outing to Yogyakarta

The first night of the staff outing to Yogyakarta almost turned into a nightmare. With 7 or 8 of the female BuGils staff , I went to this little cozy bar in Jl. Prawirotaman. We tried all the different cocktails on the menu, hoping to discover some new recipes for our own bar. Not before long, the girls starting singing and dancing and in between even dared to challenge me for a few bottoms up (huh!?). It was not my intention to get everybody drunk, but we had fun and the drinks in Yogya were cheap anyway. Late in the night we returned singing in becaks to the old Dutch Hotel Garuda. I went straight to my room while the hotel management tried to calm the girls down. I could still hear them singing and laughing an hour later. Suddenly, from the 5th floor a loud scream. A short silence followed by another scream! Now it turned into a panic and all the girls -obvious the BuGils staff - were shouting loud! These were screams of fear!  In room 516 one of my staff had turned into a wild aggressive trance as if she was possessed! I admit that she had quite a few drinks but this was not the act of drunkenness or an act she did to scare everybody. She had absolutely no control over her howling and wild movements. With her hands she tried to claw the other girls. They were in total panic! Our ‘company dukun’, cook Arif came to rescue. He took his little keris in both hands and went into trance. He then managed  to calm down our waitress (the calendar girl March/April) but at the same moment –when she returned to normal and not realizing what had happened – the spell moved to one of the other girls! By now all 23 staff and many guests were awake and all were witness of this scary situation in room 516 of Hotel Garuda in Yogyakarta.

Also this second BuGils waitress started wildly swinging her arms in the air and shouted angry at the people around her. Arif was now in such a tense hypnose that the sweat was rolling over his face. He held his  keris fiercely in front of her while he was swearing heavily in the old Javanese language. When she finally cooled down, one of the other girls started vomiting and for a second it looked if she was going in some kind of devil possession as well, but probably because Arif swiftly moved his keris in her direction he prevented worse. Now they all cooled down. The kitchen boys started making jokes again, the girls moved quickly and relieved back to their rooms. The spirit in room 516 was disturbed by the noise and should be left alone, according to Arif. Nobody dared to stay in room 516 for the remaining nights… 

Whatever it was, I don’t think we will put the cocktails we had that night on the BuGils menu.…

And our newspaper salesman Birman (A profile in a March Edition) suddenly turned up in Yogya. I thought it would be a good laugh to use him for a mystery guest appearance, where the staff would be blindfolded and should guess his identity by touching him. I asked Birman to come secretly to my room in the Garuda hotel that evening, but the hotel guards arrested him in the lobby. He was black dirty and smelly as always and why would a bule ask him to come to his room, they thought. Police came and it was not until a few of my staff came to witness (I wasn’t there yet) that they believed him. Obvious in no time all the staff knew Birman was in town and the mystery guest idea was aborted ….   -- Bartele

(Note: It turned out that Birman is traveling every week back and forth to Yogya to sell an estimated 15 Dutch newspapers there to tourists. In Jakarta he sells on average 40 newspapers a week which he collects from the cleaners of the KLM planes)

ELSEWHERE IN ASIA:  Monkey Rescued From Menu

A monkey was recuperating at a wildlife park in Taiwan after being rescued from a restaurant that planned to sell slices of the animal's brain while he was alive in a cage. A tourist in the area of Nantou bought the monkey, Formosan macaque, after he saw that customers at a restaurant were about to eat its brains. (Yahoo)

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD:  Crazy bit of surgery

A Romanian surgeon underwent a fit of madness while operating on a patient's testicles and instead cut off the man's penis and sliced it into three pieces. The patient was rushed for emergency reconstructive surgery, entrusted to a highly respected plastic surgeon, who said he would try to restore the man's urinary function but that he was unlikely to recover normal sexual activity. (SMH)

Man Jailed for Allegedly Sucking Toes

A 12-year-old told police that she was reading at the library when James M. Kilpatrick, 21, of Greensburg, started kissing her feet, then offered her 22-year-old sister a dollar to let him do the same to her. (AP)

BI: Primary money supply down to Rp 171.37 trillion  - The central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), on Wednesday reported that the country's primary money supply in the second week of July had dropped to Rp 171.37 trillion, down by Rp 3.85 trillion from the position on July 7. BI communications bureau director, Rizal A Djaafara, said the decline was connected with a drop in the value of bills and coins in circulation. Foreign exchange reserves in the second week of July stood at US$34.87 billion, marking a decrease of about US$216.2 million compared to the previous week. The decline was caused by sovereign debt repayments. Meanwhile, BI's net claims on the government ranged between Rp 1.54 trillion and Rp 192.14 trillion. BI liquidity credit underwent no change, while open market operations experienced a contraction of about Rp 113 billion. (*)

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Ex-General Uses People's Music to Shore Up Lead

When Artine Utomo, the chief executive of  'TPI' invited Susilio Bambang Yudhoyono to a show hosted by her TV station, little did she realise that his popularity would leave an impressionable mark on her. When Yudhoyono entered the contest venue, he received a standing ovation from the hundreds of 'dangdut' fans in the audience who chanted ''SBY...SBY...SBY'' (IPS)

Cleaning up Indonesia

With his slight frame, easy smile and self-deprecating manner, Teten Masduki would seem to pose little danger to political establishment. Masduki runs Indonesia Corruption Watch that scours government and military agencies for signs of dirty dealings. Some locals see Masduki as Indonesia's answer to Sherlock Holmes - or perhaps Eliot Ness. (Herald Tribune)

100 Lawyers ready to defend SBY-JK

At least 100 members of the the Association of Lawyers for Presidential Election Solidarity (SIGAPP) were ready to defend the Democrats Party`s presidential and vice presidential candidates Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla if they found black campaigns. Among the SIGAPP members are noted lawyers including Elsa Syarief and Mahendratta. (Antara)

FROM A READER:
 

Hi Bart,

FOR SALE: Belle-Vue Beers    ( Belgium )

Belle-Vue is the world's leading producer of lambic beers and their blends - spontaneously fermented and aged for two or three years in wooden casks.

Belle-Vue Kriek is made by macerating fresh cherries in the lambic, which gives a burgundy hue and a refreshingly fruity taste to the beer.  Belle-Vue Framboise is made with another fruit lambic and is characterised by the elegant and sweet taste of raspberries. The Belle-Vue beers have an alcohol content of 5.2% vol.   FOR HOME DELIVERY email roos@bugils.com or SMS 08129491351 (Also available: Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe and Duvel)

FOR SALE: Expat moving back to Australia for university. 6 year old female Golden Retriever dog called Mutzi I want to find a new home for. Friendly, non aggressive, and kid-compatible. Please ring Tony Wylde at 7891726 or 08161810808.

FOR SALE :

Product Information:  Extron NetServer 3500TA
Pentium4 2.8 GHz, FSB 800 HT, L2 Cache 512Kb, 256MB DDR ECC PC-3200, 80GB HDD 7200rpm SATA, 52x CD, 8MB ATI VGA, 1x Intel NIC, 1x Intel GbE NIC, Tower Case 360W, Server Management.

Bought for Rp 6,940,000 in April 2004 through Bhinneka.com. Intended as server for Restaurant POS system but computer did not have a parallel port for Software Key (Dongle). Separately installed PCI Parallel Card (value Rp 100,000 included with computer) works with printer but not with Dongle. Additional 1 GB RAM (Value Rp 2M) installed for a total RAM of 1.2GB. Total new value Rp 8,940,000. Selling for Rp 7,500,000.  Contact: zwienen@cbn.net.id
 

--------

ADVENTURE INDONESIA proud to be The Leading Local Adventure Tour Operator, with zero accident reputation, to all parts of Indonesia archipelago.

ADVENTURE INDONESIA operating CULTURAL, WILDLIFE, ADVENTURE tours packages and OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES for : Family Holidays, Honeymooners, Individual and Corporate, such as : Orangutan and Komodo Dragon Tours, Toraja Highland Tour, Baliem Valley Irian Jaya, Borobudur, Cross Borneo, Mahakam River Cruise, Ujungkulon and Cracatoa Volcano Camp, Mountain & Jungle Trek, Company Outing, Corporate Outbound Training.

--------------------

FOR RENT:   COOL MIST BLOWER - ideal for garden parties, BBQ's, Sport events etc. Rp. 350.000 / evening - Email bartele@bugils.com or call Bart 0811169234

PREVIOUS EDITIONS:

OZZY JI LEADER IN INDONESIA FREE AGAIN
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jul16nl2004.htm

Bule Gila on TV in Indonesia
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jul12nl2004.htm

Gus Dur: A Friend of Israel
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jul07nl2004.htm

Hawaii Beach at Bali: Myth or Reality?
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jul02nl2004.htm

Parties Offer Free Circumcisions Ahead of Vote
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun30nl2004.htm

Anti-trafficking drive targets men using brothels
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun28nl2004.htm

BuGils Cook Shows Value as Shaman
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun25nl2004.htm

Jakarta Bar Lets Customers Choose its Staff
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun21nl2004.htm

Expat Manager Battles Complaining Customers
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun18nl2004.htm

The Origin of Bule Gila or BuGil
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun16nl2004.htm

Expat Considers Using Rain Doctors Risky
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun14nl2004.htm

Indonesia's shameful export
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun09nl2004.htm

Bar Manager in Ambassador Role for one Night
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun07nl2004.htm

Rupiah falls sharply vs dollar, breaks 9,500 level
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/Jun02nl2004.htm

Does Jakarta Need More Shopping Malls?
http://www.bartele.com/newsletters/May25nl2004.htm

SILADEN RESORT & SPA

www.siladen.com
Tlp/fax: 0431 856820
ADVENTURE INDONESIA - Jakarta Office:
Wisma 31, Jalan Kemang Raya No.31
advindo@cbn.net.id
Tlp/fax: 62-21-7182250, 7182256 /Fax.7180438