Villa Incognito

 

As of midnight on 3 July 2021, Jakarta will be surrounded with military and national police blocking all the exits, supposedly until 20 July.  No one will be allowed to enter or exit the city.  Folks will be allowed out of their houses to go to the supermarket, but nothing else.  To avoid being hassled, folks are encouraged to have as much as possible delivered - because, um, that doesn't spread viruses, I guess.

The Tempo article notes, "Specific Jakarta protocols "the police would bar people from conducting outdoor activities following the imposition of the policy. People are only allowed outside of their home for emergency and essential purposes. "

We chose to bug out rather than live through the sequel to The Year of Living Dangerously.  We brought our daughter, her husband and our granddaughter to the mountain house 100km south of the city.  It is difficult to express the joy at being free of masks and constant pressure to get vaccinated, where the air is fresh and a full 10 degrees cooler than Jakarta.

Here's an example of the insane rubbish being foisted on Indonesians by the President's personal physician:

 "Dapat konfirmasi dari pak Martiono Hadianto (mantan Dirut Pertamina), bhw betul beliau terpapar Covid dan saat ini sedang isolasi di RSPP.
Dari hasil analisa medis, beliau terpapar Covid varian Delta (India), beliau sudah vaksin 2 kali (selesai). Beliau tidak tahu kira2 kapan & dimana terpaparnya. Namun dari penjelasan dr Muthalib (salah seorang dokter Presiden), kondisi di Jakarta spt dibawah ini.
Pak Martiono memberi saran:
1. Dalam rumah agar secara rutin disemprot disinfektan.
2. Keluar rumah, walaupun hanya dihalaman agar menggunakan masker dua lapis.
3. Menurut dr Muthalib, ukuran virus varian Delta ini jauh lebih kecil dp varian sebelumnya, sehingga virus varian delta ini bisa melayang bebas diudara. Sedangkan varian sebelumnya melayang mengikuti droplet ludah dari orang yang sedang berbicara (jarak 1,5 meter dari lawan bicara droplet sdh jatuh ketanah).
4. Saya serahkan pada masing² individu utk mencernakan saran pak Martiono, apakah diterima dan dilaksana kan seluruhnya, dilaksanakan sebagian, atau diabaikan. Monggo saja, karena itu hak masing2 individu.
Saya mohon kalau teman2 berkenan utk mendoakan kesembuhan pak Martiono.
Terima kasih.
Wass ww. Samto Utomo

Dr. Muthalib :*
✅Minggu 27.6.21 Dihimbau jangan buka masker di manapun, Varian Covid Delta sudah rata di udara kota Jakarta, penangkalnya hanya pakai masker double."

"I can confirm from Mr. Martiono Hadianto (former Pertamina Managing Director), that he was really exposed to Covid and is currently isolated at RSPP  [Ed. Pertamina Hospital]. From the results of medical analysis, he was exposed to Covid Delta (India) variant, He was vaccinated twice (finished). He doesn't know about when & where he was exposed. However, from Dr. Muthalib's statement (one of the presidential doctors), the condition in Jakarta was below. Mr. Martono gives this advice: 1. In the home, routinely spray disinfectant. 2. Outside the house, despite lack of evidence use a two-layer mask. 3. According to Dr. Muthalib, the size of the Delta variant virus is much smaller than the previous variant, so that the Delta variant virus can float free in the air. Whereas the previous variant floated on saliva droplets from people talking (a distance of 1.5 meters from the origin of the droplets. 4. I submit to each individual to decide whether Mr. Martiono's suggestion is accepted and carried out and entirely, partially or partially carried out, or ignored. Just so, as is the right of individuals. I beg for friends to pray for Mr. Martiono's healing. Thank you. from WW. Samo Utomo Hansel Muthalib: * week 27.21 is encouraged to not open your mask anywhere, the Covid Delta variant has been flat in the air in Jakarta, using a double mask."

 

So here we have  a supposed :expert" first using fear (former employee of the national oil company getting "exposed to a supposed "variant").  Then, he tells us that the "sick" person was vaccinated and has no idea where or how.  Then he appeals to authority, a formal fallacy, by quoting the President's personal doctor, who says the "Delta variant" is "smaller" and so floats easier on the breeze.  Then the"doctor," who has offered no science or reference for the ridiculous assertions, to continuously disinfect our homes and wear two masks at all times (24/7), despite the provable fact that masks do nothing to stop the older, "larger" virus.

All of the statement are speculative, anecdotal and completely devoid of any evidence whatsoever that the information is true or based on any objective facts, or that the recommendations have any efficacy against any virus, much less against a supposed COVID or any variant by any name or "size".

That this "doctor" would assert that the "smaller" size of the Delta variant more easly floats on the wind is so utterly devoid of rationality as to make one question his sanity, much less his accumen.  The average size of the hundreds of types of corona viruses is around 0.125 micrometers.  That is hardly an impediment to "wafting".  Furthermore, there is no mention of the sanitizing effect of UV-A light (sunshine), nor the fact that virus density in open air can practicaly never approach infectious levels (viral load). 

Either this "doctor" is a complete babbling idiot, or he is a fear monger trying to drive the masses to PCR tests and vaccines, which have vast financial benefit for the Insiders, who are skimming off the top of all this money being sloshed around.

In addtion, having a military deployment pays soldiers active-duty bonuses, keeping the military placated and compliant to the political PTB.

What I hear is that an "authority" figure "tested positive" using PCR tests that have been widely proven to be cheap knock-offs, with people rinsing the swabs to pocket the money used to purchase them, and the "authority can not think of any risk factors or possible sources for his "positive" result?  In one question, I drove an entire fleet of trucks through the gaping hole in logic.  The only exposure mentioned is the fact that the former Pertamina Big Wig has been vaccinated twice, which must be assumed to be the most likely source of any exposure.  We are not told which vaccine the "authority" used.

Given Indonesians' unwillingness to read or research for themselves - much less use critical thinking - and their seeming innate credulity of anyone with a title or position of "authority," they actually circulate this silliness like passages from the Koran.

Based on wholly unscientific information and completely speculative and anecdotal information like this, the president has shut down the two most populous islands in the country, and conveniently the capital city.  The "authorities" are now considering expaning martial law outside Java and Bali, given the unmitigated and abject failure of the effort so far.

My use of the term "martial law" has been challenged, but when the militiary is deployed for civil enforcement, it implies that the civil authority has failed and the only option to maintain order is deployment of military on the streets - martical law.  In other words, the civil authority has declared itself incompetant.

I have had two colleagues independently mention the similarities with current events to those under Soeharto, when he assumed power in the 1960s, a parallel that echoed my own personal thoughts.

A president issuing edicts with punitive consequences without the issuance of laws from the Parliament is a dictatorship under any definition of the term.  As Mark Twain warned us, history seldomly repeats, but it often rhymes.

At the moment, the current situation here is rhyming like a fascist dysfunctional Dr. Seuss..