Read and comment on this story from the Savannah Morning News on Colombia RPCV Jim Hutton and what he saw after a bomb attack ripped through Bali. Jim was in Bali as part of the International City Managers Association.
He says the nature of the Indonesian people, who are considered moderate Muslims, is very non-confrontational. They don't stand up and holler. They don't fuss and fight. They discuss.
"There is no such thing as a single mother with three children," he continued. "They would say there was a mother surrounded by brothers and sisters. To me, the whole experience was sort of like the Peace Corps. I think their concept of neighborhood planning and awareness might have an application here."
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Back to work, city official considers what he saw after bomb rips Bali
Jane Fishman
Savannah Morning News
Jane Fishman
Morning News Columnist Three days after returning from a bomb-shaken Indonesia, John Hutton looked relaxed, sounded enthused and waxed rhapsodically about his trip halfway around the world.
Yes, after hearing about the violent explosion in a nightclub, he and two other cohorts from the city of Savannah's finance and budget department were given a choice. They could have reversed their 15-hour trip and headed back to Hong Kong, flown past Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, through Siberia and China, around the North Pole and returned home.
But no, they elected to stay on to talk about the nitty-gritty of running a city, about building permits, fee collections, two-and five-year projections.
"Frankly, it was a no-brainer," said Hutton, knee deep in back-work, with maps, charts, permits and rolled-up schematics crowding the office he occupies in the Metropolitan Planning Commission building.
The group was traveling as part of the International City Managers Association, which financed the trip. Savannah is the only East Coast city to be selected.
When the bomb hit Bali, which is in Indonesia, one of the largest Muslim countries in the world, the three city officials had just landed in Hong Kong. The next day, Sunday morning, they flew to their designated city of Yogyakarta, one hour from Bali, where 10 or 15 local officials met them and assured their safety.
"You know when you are safe," Hutton said. "And by looking at them and hearing what they had to say, we felt we were OK."
It's not as if Hutton is any stranger to danger. As a member of the Peace Corps, he and his wife, Jeannie, spent nearly three years in Colombia, South America, trying to avoid the guerrilla army. When the Watts neighborhood erupted, he was teaching English in Los Angeles. The day Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed, he was living one block away from the Black Panther Party in Berkeley, Calif.
The protection of the Indonesians, through undercover agents acting as baggage handlers, translators or bus drivers, was low-key and very professional, he said.
But their outrage and embarrassment was obvious.
"They couldn't believe that anyone could do this, and/or in their country," he said.
The nature of the Indonesian people, who are considered moderate Muslims, is very non-confrontational. They don't stand up and holler. They don't fuss and fight. They discuss.
"That's their big word," Hutton said. "Discuss."
For instance, he continued, before someone can get a building permit from the city officials he or she has to get written approval from the people living to the north, south, east and west of the person.
"Of course my big question was, 'What if I didn't like the guy? What if he cheated me in some business deal?' " Hutton said.
In the rare instance that someone does object, then both parties have to go to the building commission to work it out. To confer. To discuss.
"What a contrast to our way of doing things," Hutton said. "We get the plans, send them to the Planning Commission and if a neighbor happens to see the posted sign or hear about it they come down to the meeting."
When an earlier group of Indonesians visiting Savannah attended a meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, "they were astonished at the way people decimated each other," Hutton said.
To mitigate the effects of the bomb and "make peace with the earth" the Indonesians performed several rituals in Bali. In one instance, people representing Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam stood in the ocean, where they held hands and said prayers.
They have a strong sense of community.
"There is no such thing as a single mother with three children," he continued. "They would say there was a mother surrounded by brothers and sisters. To me, the whole experience was sort of like the Peace Corps. I think their concept of neighborhood planning and awareness might have an application here."
Jane Fishman's column runs Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. She can be reached at gofish5@earthlink.net or 652-0313.
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