Thursday Thirteen - Headlines

Even though I rarely read the papers here, we do get it delivered daily for the driver. Anyway, he left it out a few days ago and headline #1 caught my attention. I was quite surprised by it but maybe it does reflect the mentality/attitudes of the people here. I flipped through the papers from the past week to see what else is out there.

#1 & #2 : Its sad to see this sort of attitude towards the gay community.


"Being Gay is like being a drug addict."


"A pair of homosexuals caught Karaoke-ing." The body of the article was somewhat descriptive and even I could understand the part about "their lips were still wet...". Isn't that just too much and also unnecessary information?

#3 :


"13.8 tons of pangolines to be destroyed." No, not live ones. There has been illegal smuggling of pangoline meat to China and recently, they've started doing something about it.

#4 :


"Entertainment venues at hotels may open." The month of Ramadan starts next Tuesday and all "entertainment venues" (inclusive of cafes, karaoke bars and my foot massage place) are closed except from 9pm-12 midnight. No enjoying yourself for one month!

#5 :


"MSG is safe in moderation." You wouldn't believe the amount of MSG that is used here!

#6 :


"Use your minds and instincts to vote". Thats the gist of the headline. The literal translation would be something like "Use a healthy mind". There will be elections for the governor of southern Sumatra next Thursday.

#7 :


Here's a picture of Hilary and Chelsea Clinton but no mention of what the Democratic convention is about or what had taken place.

#8 :


I don't know what "gelar" means but the article was all about how Honda is conducting classes to teach people how to ride their bikes "responsibly". I wonder how successful they will be because the bikes here are just CRAZY!

#9 :


"John Doe's Body Bitten by dogs" I found out that John Doe here is called Mr X.

#10 :


"Debt not paid, child taken as collateral". Supposedly, this is quite a common occurance.

#11 & #12 : Both of the following articles mention something about Ramadan coming up. Maybe the police are doing some sort of "cleanup" before the month of abstinence starts.


"Tens of couples apprehended". They mean unmarried couples that are getting together, presumably for sex. Not allowed!


"8 sex workers and hundreds of bottles of hard liquor snared". "PSK" translates literally to Naughty Woman and is the term they use for prostitutes here.

#13 :
After reading about all the "clean up" activities prior to the start of Ramadan, I came across this advertisement.


"Psst! My husband went for three rounds last night" There's more there but I find it too crude for me to translate! Just go imagine.