Mudflow LUSI between Malang and Surabaya

Once upon a time there was a village in Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java. It is not the most beautiful village in Porong, not even beautiful. It was just ok. People went to work or have field to cultivate. They have house, children went to school, it is just like a normal life in our place.

The end of year 2005 came. The people there celebrated it as well although not in the same way as ours. But one thing for sure. All people in the world have the same wish for the New Year. A prosperity.

Six months of 2006 passed and one day they heard the news. There was a fountain discovered in their village. But it was an unusual fountain. A company named Lapindo Brantas had done a drilling to find the source of oil. This is not a young company and it was not their first time to drill. They must have had a list of procedure for drilling. To everyone’s surprise they did not find a single drop of oil but plenty of mud which is still coming up until the moment I am writing this.

One of the owners of this company is the Indonesian Coordinating minister for People’s welfare, Aburizal Bakrie. According to Forbes magazine he was the country’s richest man with a net worth of US$ 5.4 billion as of 2007!

Years passed by. Like the mud, the suffer of the people increase but the attention and effort from the company to help the people decrease and the solution of the mudflow becomes something impossible. It does not happen to just one but more villages. Adults who call themselves people’s representatives show their childish behavior. They just blame each other and avoid their responsibilities. The solution never comes.

The disaster is known as Lusi, Lumpur Sidoarjo or Sidoarjo mud.

It is said the mudflow lies too far from the capital so the powerful people do not know how it is to be forced to leave your home and live in the shelter with so many people. Maybe they cannot imagine how the mud looks like. To help them realize, the victims of the mudflow collected money for transportation to Jakarta and brought the mud to the boss of the company. In Jakarta they only could put the mud in front of his office and this important person never appeared. The victims had to go back to their muddy village with no success.

They were taken out of their safe house and village and lost their jobs, activities, privacy and even rights for security. Their children cannot attend the school anymore and they have to demonstrate their anger to get compensation. After a lot of demonstrations and waiting for so long, they got 20% of the total amount of money they have been promised.

To get more money the people does other things, begging money, selling drinking water, snacks, even they charge people who want to see the mud lake from the top of the dyke. To my surprise a lot of people likes this new entertainment. Although it means that they have to inhale unhealthy gas. Also with a small payment they offer to lead you through another way to avoid the traffic jam there which takes at the end the same time as if you ride the normal way.

Some days ago the people blocked a road between Surabaya and Malang. They demanded the rest of the money. Yes, two years later they still have not received the total amount. So you can imagine how they “celebrate’ the other two New Year’s Eves. It was very different from the one of 2006. From then they have to spend their time out of their house.

This time they get another 20%. When would they get it if they did not block the road? Why didn’t the company pay them properly as promised? Do the victims have to demonstrate first to get the money?

The mudflow is indeed so far away from the powerful people in Jakarta. Those who get affected are the people of East Java. Previously it took maximal two hours from Malang to Surabaya. Now you are lucky if you can do it in two and a half hours. It happened several times that people from Surabaya couldn’t go to Malang and vice versa due to the demonstrations those village people made.

Of course it is understandable that they are angry. But at the other hand it also gives a negative effect to public interest because Malang and other cities around get a lot of supply through Surabaya. Not only the mud flow is dangerous but also the temporary “solution” the government makes. To hold the mud they built dyke around it. It seems that they just piled the ground, so the dyke becomes every time higher. People are wondering how strong and how long it can hold the mud especially during the rainy season. Along the dyke is the way people use from Surabaya to Malang and vice versa. There often occurs traffic jam. If a dyke which holds the water breaks, the people could swim to survive. But how could you swim in the mud?

In the newspaper of Jakarta Post, December 9th, I read “No longer the richest: Aburizal Bakrie”. Due to US-originated financial meltdown the share price of his most valuable company has shrunk more than 800%. The collapse of Bakrie’s business should not decrease the right of the mudflow victims. They still have the responsibility to the victims. The victims did not ask the company to do the drilling in their village. The money cannot bring their old life. I am sure they prefer to keep their old life as before the disaster rather than taking the money.

It is said, since the company has showed deaf ears to the voice of the victims, now they get the chance to suffer from a loss. But still they do not have to seek refuge place, they do not have to beg along the dusty street and inhale stinky and dirty gas and they still can celebrate the New Year’s Eve in a luxurious way even spent US$200.000 for their daughter’s wedding!

Everything what we have now is entrusted goods. We should handle it with responsibility. If we cannot, they will be taken away. At the end of our life there is an important question. Have we done our responsibilities well? Read more!

Putu Vendor in Malang

A couple days ago around 8 p.m. in my house I was helping Pelangi doing her homework and Anugerah laid down on the bench. He always wants to have me lying beside him until he falls asleep. This time he knew that it would take a time when he saw me busy with Pelangi.

When Pelangi was writing the answers I went outside. There was calmness, no people, no voice but drizzling sound. Then I went inside but I heard from the distance a whistling sound.

“Putu!” said Pelangi.

That is a traditional Indonesian cake made of rice flour with brown sugar inside and covered with shredded young coconut. The way of making it is very simple. You put the flour in a bamboo with a hole inside, fill the brown sugar and flour again. You do not need an oven to bake it. You just need a hot vapor to cook it. After a while turn it on the other side. It just takes two minutes to bake each side. Due to the hot vapor the brown sugar melts.


Pelangi and I went out and called the vendor. Previous time most of Putu vendors walked and carried his “kitchen”. But this vendor brings his “kitchen” on a bike.

He stopped in front of our house and stepped out of his bike. I asked him the price. He said Rupiah 5,000 for 10 pieces. It is less than USD 50 cent. I ordered 20 pieces. He prepared to make it and sometimes looked at us.

“I think, I have seen you before but do not know where”, he said.
“Maybe in our previous home. We often bought Putu there but the vendor came around 4p.m.” He laughed. “Yes, now I remember”.

He was working further but then looked worried.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
He nodded. “I am running out of gas”.
He just could make 10 pieces while he still had a lot of material. After this he had to go home.

“What time did you go from home for this work?” I asked.
“I am leaving by 10 a.m. and go home once it is finished, mostly by 11 p.m.”
It touched my heart. More than 12 hours working and how much money does he get? How about his family, his wife and children? Is his wife waiting for him at the door every evening? Maybe her first question is, is it finished? So today she would be sad and disappointed because her husband got home earlier due to the lack of gas. Does he still have time with their children? Do they have time to talk about something else than working for money? I could give him water or sugar but gas? I wish I could!

This man (and a lot of people) has no choice. If they do not make 12 hours working a day or longer, there will be no food for tomorrow. It seems that they have to live to work for their whole life. Ironically there are also people who love to live to work. These people would still have food and money if they work less than 12hours a day or take a day off but they would not have life.

Anyway the cakes are good especially when it is still warm. The soft rice flour and shredded coconut mixed with soft sweet brown sugar. Uhmmm, yummy!

After finishing this story, I laid on my bed. Then I heard the whistling sound again, several times in front of our house. Now he had enough gas but we were so powerless to get up. Next time I am sure, we will buy 20 pieces. Read more!

Coban Rondo waterfall

Like Cangar, this waterfall is also located in the middle of the forest in a mountain and it takes about 20 minutes driving from Batu. The road to get there is not wide and has many curves. The first time I went there, I needed to ask people on the way because it was difficult to turn back if I had passed the turn. Luckily we were on the good track.

Finally we saw the cow statue on the left side. Here I had to turn to the left. Leaving the main street we entered a smaller road with less curves. First we drove along the houses on both sides of the road, then we just saw trees and the road has curves again and suddenly we reached an open area which is a parking area. From there you need to walk for about 400 meters to get to a small forest. You can see the monkeys there, if you’re lucky. When I was there one weekend, there were lots of visitors but no monkey came out at all. Then from a distance, you would hear the sound of waterfall. The farther you walk in, the clearer it will be. Within minutes, you would see the waterfall which height is about 80 m.

I have seen lots of waterfalls on television, magazines, and photos. But once you stand in front of the real one, especially when there were not lots of visitors, you would keep looking at it, feel the splash, hear the sound and adore the beauty of it. You get hypnotized. You get the feeling to become one with the nature.

No matter how important and famous you are, how much money you earn and how much power you have, you would realize how small you are in compare to such a big nature. This is a good place to think about what you would do to your problems, your dreams and for sure to the contents of your blog(s).

Too bad that I don’t have a laptop yet. But paper and pen are much easier. You just put them in your pocket and they don’t contribute to global warming. As well, way so much less than a laptop.

You can go to the pool under the water fall and swim there. The water is refreshing. It is not cold but with the breeze, it will be. Go sit on one of the big rocks there, close your eyes and listen to the voice of nature. You would be calm and get more energy (to face your next problems).

The best time to go there is on the weekdays and better in the morning, so you would have more time to enjoy it. On the weekend it would be very crowded. In the parking area you’ll find lots of vendors of (Indonesian) food and souvenirs. The grilled corn is pretty good. There are also bathrooms and change rooms. Don’t forget your swimsuit and change clothes if you want to swim but more importantly, don’t forget your camera. Read more!