Archive for January 2011
Little Jockeys....Desa Moyo, Sumbawa Utara
26 January 2011 § 0
In traditional Sumbawanese horse racing, the jockeys are usually about five or six years old. If you question the safety of this practice, someone will quickly assure you that the kids are in perfectly good hands: there is a wizard (my friend Aan used Harry Potter as an example, in order to clarify his explanation in Indonesian) in attendance at every race; the wizard will ensure the well being of each very small jockey by harnessing some kind of mystical ancient force.
$125,000,000 Per Annum....Tanjung Luar, Lombok Timur
13 January 2011 § 0
Shark fin is highly coveted in some global gastronomic circles as both a natural aphrodisiac and a seasoning that rivals even MSG: though shark fin cartilage is relatively flavorless on its own, many an online cache of chinese recipes credits the shark fin with the power to bring forth unprecedented levels of deliciousness from the ingredients with which it is stewed.
The legitimacy of these claims—dubious as they may sound to this ETA—seem to be supported by a persistent demand for shark products: the annual trade in shark parts is worth an estimated $310,000,000; fins represent about seven percent of the yearly catch by volume, but generate nearly half of the shark market profit each year. There is, however, something of a hole in the statistics.
Shark finning is the process by which a shark is caught on the high seas, reeled onto the deck of an industrial fishing vessel and relieved, via a few decisive chops of a machete, of its fins; note the shark is still alive and, you might imagine, a bit confused. This shark-turned-shark-log is then rolled—or slipped, rather, in a slick of its own ooze—back into the watery depths from whence it came.
Sworn protector of the natural world that it is, Indonesia hauls in more sharks each year than any other country in the world.
Pasar Ikan Hiu....Tanjung Luar, Lombok Timur
09 January 2011 § 2
About this time last week, I read about the famed fish market of Tanjung Luar—a small town on the southeast coast of Lombok—in a TransNusa in-flight magazine; you can’t go far without bumping into a fish market of one sort or another in Nusa Tenggara, yet this place is special: every morning, small fishing boats return from the waters around Sumba to haul a catch of sharks into the rank yet endearing seaside stalls of Tanjung Luar.
One rented motorbike and a night nearly spent in a brothel somewhere on the east coast of the island later found Alison and I rolling into the stinky gates of the Tanjung Luar fish market around quarter to six in the morning. As the sun climbed through the haze that cradles this corner of the earth, we set to work asking stellar investigative questions such as, “Good morning, we are looking for sharks. Sharks?” This worked faster than I’d expected when one guy answered knowingly in the affirmative: “Ya, ya, ya, tentu, sebentar lagi.” Which means, “Yes, of course, hang on a minute.”
Although I was admittedly skeptical about our odds of actually tracking down a shark trade, man, did this place deliver: over one hundred sharks were auctioned off for export to Surabaya for roughly $4,000 on this morning alone. We’re heading back in a few months for “shark season,” when the deadly specimens for sale almost double in size when compared with those seen here.
Although I was admittedly skeptical about our odds of actually tracking down a shark trade, man, did this place deliver: over one hundred sharks were auctioned off for export to Surabaya for roughly $4,000 on this morning alone. We’re heading back in a few months for “shark season,” when the deadly specimens for sale almost double in size when compared with those seen here.