Meeting with the Smugglers and the Smugglees – All are Victims

Al Jazeera 101 East 'The People Smugglers' - Interview with Stuart Jay Raj on working with People Smugglers in Indonesia

For those people who have been following my most recent often sporadic posts, you would know that language has taken me into the world of People Smugglers, particularly in Indonesia.

I have just spent the past month or so between Malaysia and Indonesia shooting a documentary with journalist Aela Callan for Al Jazeera’s 101 East programme that will be going to air on Thursday the 17th of May – 21:30 GMT and have several re-plays before being available for download from Al Jazeera’s website, or viewable on youtube.

In this documentary, we tried to cover many of the issues that don’t get that much coverage in the mainstream press in Australia.  From work I have been doing with lawyer David Svoboda and several other lawyers, we visited a minor who has recently been repatriated to Indonesia after being locked up in a maximum security prison in Brisbane, Australia with murderers and rapists.  He tells his story, how he was recruited, tricked,  how he told Australian authorities of his age and after first being in a juvenile center, one day out of the blue he found himself being flown to Brisbane destined for an adult prison.

We also visited target areas of the People Smuggling syndicates in some of Indonesia’s most remote islands in Nusa Tenggara, as well as tracked down a smuggler’s safe house and listened as several Afghani refugees untangled the smuggler’s web for us from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Dubai, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Some of the questions that I imagine will be being asked after the revelations are:

• How do these people pass over their passports in Malaysia to officials / handlers at Kuala Lumpur airport?
• How do these people get into Indonesia without documentation?
• Who is getting what part of the sometimes up to USD$40,000 that is paid by the refugees?
• How much money is Australia spending on incarcerating poverty stricken fishermen and juveniles?

One Indonesian senator’s take on the whole issue was quite surprising and is sure to raise several questions in Indonesia and Australia.

I will do a more detailed breakdown once the program has gone to air.

Here is the preview:

Click here to go to the 101 East site at Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera 101 East - The People Smugglers

• The Language of People Smuggling II
• The Language of People Smuggling
• Learn a Language – Change the World. Part 1 – Unchartered Waters
• Learn a Language – Change the World Part 2 – No Money No Funny
• NAUGHTY N.A.A.T.I Interpreter Exam- An Interpreter’s Nightmare

Who Wants to Be A Refugee?

This was the most challenging trip on the hunt for families of victims of People Smuggling syndicates across Indonesia. The journey left from Bangkok, Thailand, to Bali, then onto Sumba island just near Timor and Komodo Island, then onto Galesong near Makassar or Ujung Pandang on Sulawesi, then across to SE Sulawesi to Kendari, sailed down to Raha on Muna Island with a final destination of the remote 1km x 300m Maginti Island.

In Part One ‘Unchartered Waters’, I gave an overview of how language had taken me to many weird and wonderful places.  There are many programmes and groups out there fighting to help and defend the rights of refugees. My views have changed a lot since working on these people smuggling issues as to what actually constitutes a refugee? Is a Burmese person who has lived in Malaysia for 25 years and now has an Indonesian wife, children, house and has worked well enough to have USD$20,000 to make the journey a real refugee? I’m not sure.

The latest project that I have been working on is trying to help some of the families of the victims of People Smuggling gangs operating in SE Asia and particular Indonesia.  These People Smuggling gangs target the poorest of the poor in Indonesia by waving a few hundred dollars in their face to entice them to get on a fishing boat that is waiting for them and work as a chef or mechanic.  They think they will be taking foreigners around to other islands in Indonesia and will be home in around five to seven days.  Not bad work if you can get it (in their eyes), considering that the usual wages for these people would be around USD$1 per day if they’re lucky enough to get work.   Little do they know that the business model of the smugglers is to have them caught by the Australian Navy or Australian Customs so that the Australian Government are forced to accept their ‘cargo’ i.e. Iranian, Afghani, Rohingyan or Iraqi ‘refugees’ that had paid the gangs anywhere between USD$10,000 -$20,000 for their passage from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Malaysia through to Christmas Island.   The ‘refugees’ more than often gain assylum, get PR, housing and other benefits from the Australian Government and the Indonesian crew find themselves in maximum security prisons across Australia, facing the mandatory 5-year sentence for the ‘Bringing a group of five or more people to Australia, and in doing so reckless as to whether or not they had a legal right to enter Australia’ (that is my summary of the charge from memory). 

What do the Ends of the Earth actually look like?

Traveled to the ends of the earth to help these kids' daddy get home to them again. Traveling across the open ocean in a tiny fishing boat in the middle of the night, after 5 hours the rendezvouz point was finally reached.

My previous People Smuggling mission in Indonesia was a walk in the park compared to this one. On the first trip, we based ourselves out of Jakarta, stayed at nice hotels and did day trips in an air-conditioned MPV to Indramayu, Serang, then flew to Surabaya and traveled a few hours to Mount Bromo. The 4am volcano climb was quite challenging, but it was still very controled and civilised.

In this trip, we needed to travel to Sumba which is pretty much directly above Australia – a few islands away from Timor, then up to Makassar (Unjung Pandang) in Sulawesi, then across to a tiny remote island in the middle of the ocean off the island of Muna in South East Sulawesi.

Shonky Travel Agent Scams – Speaking the Language Could Save You From Getting Burnt

Based out of Bali, the first destination was Sumba. To get to the village, you need to fly into Tambolaka and then take a 2 hr drive down to Waikabubak. You'll probably have to end up staying at a hotel there as the return flights are infrequent. Many of the 'good' hotels suggested by locals are appaling - spiders, cockroaches, geckos, no running water and no air-conditioning. Luckily, I found the Manandang hotel. Compared to the other hotels, it was paradise. No hot water, but good food (for a price) and air-conditioning.

The first dilemma I faced started before I even arrived in Indonesia. After researching on the internet as much as I could about places like Sumba and Maginti Island, I realised that it was not possible to directly book any of these flights / boat tickets online directly. I had to go through a local agent. Living in Thailand, I always hear of the shonky travel agent scams but never thought that I would fall victim to such a scam. The basic scam is where a person puts up a good looking website or even hires an office and makes it look like a legitimate travel agency. Foreigners book tickets with them and pay them cash for the tickets. The agent issues them with bogus confirmation details and booking reference number, which the unwitting tourist only finds out once they arrive at the airport and discover that there wasn’t ever any booking to start with.

I had no choice. My schedule in Indonesia was very tight and I needed to plan the flights and transfers like clockwork if I was going to successfully complete the mission. I searched online and looked for the travel agency that looked as though they had the best reputation for ticketing and tours to those regions. I finally found one and contacted him by telephone from Bangkok.

Sitting with the village head on the porch of a Sumba village house, waiting for the wife of a detainee to come back from the rice-fields 6km away on foot. These villages live purely on subsistence farming. No monetary profit comes from their labour.

Speaking entirely in Indonesian, I booked the initial flights to Sumba with him. The catch was that I needed to pay him cash before the close of business to secure the seat. He said that there were limited flights to Sumba and if a flight isn’t confirmed and paid for 3 days before the flight, if there arent enough passengers, the service is more than often cancelled. Sounded dodgy, but what could I do? The next catch was that he didn’t have a secure website that i could use my credit card. He insisted that I use Paypal. I ended up making the payment via paypal. After a few minutes, he messaged me back telling me that he can’t work with the paypal method as the bank told him that it would take up to 10 days to clear! He did a paypal refund, but because this was done from my debit card, it locked away over $700 from being able to be used. I had one hour left before the close of business. He insisted that I do a Western Union money transfer. I did and he received the money and sent me the flight confirmation. I spent the next day in Bangkok feeling relieved that I had the Sumba flights settled. Come the next day, I started to question myself as to whether this was a false sense of security. I phoned the airline’s Bali office directly and the agent told me that there was no such booking reference! She even went as far as giving me a full list of the passengers for that flight. I dont know where she stands legally in doing that, but the action was appreciated. I was nowhere to be seen on the list.

I then immediately called the agent. He kept rejecting my calls. Finally he responded to a text I sent him and said he was in church as it was Christmas Day and he would call me back shortly. He finally called and I asked him what was going on? He said he too was ‘confused’ and would get on it right away. He came back after a few hours with a new booking reference. Not wanting to chance it again, I called the airline again. The airline said there was now a ONE WAY booking to Sumba, but it hadn’t been paid for and would be cancelled if not paid in full by 16:00 that day. After several calls back and forth, I finally pushed him to pay for it and get the booking confirmed … Or so I thought. He still hadn’t booked the return flight at all. I had to push and push all the way until it was done.

Language Saved me Once Again
The moral of this story is, if I was your typical tourist that could’t speak Indonesian, the situation would have ended very differently.

My Worst Travel Nightmare Realised – Selamat Datang di Bali: Welcome to Bali Hades!

Bintang Bali tank top... seems like the new Australian flag worn with pride in Baaaaaaaali

I had checked out of my hotel in Bangkok at around 3am.  I handed them my credit card (which was actually a debit card – try to avoid credit cards like the plague now) to fix the costs up.  They gave me the receipt, I left to the airport.  I was using an Australian bank’s debit card and planned to withdraw the funds in Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) when I arrived at Denpasar airport so that I didn’t have to pay double exchange fees from withdrawing Thai Baht, then changing it again to Indonesian Rupiah.

I arrived at Denpasar Airport and after an initial extortion attempt by Indonesian Customs Officials, I was able to sway them convincing them I was brought up in Indonesia and we parted laughing (on the outside). I went out to the ATM section as I needed to withdraw the equivalent of a couple of thousand dollars to cover airfares to Makassar, Kendari, hotel costs in Sumba, drivers, food and other expenses along the way.

I realised my worst fear when I opened my wallet only to see a gaping space where my Visa Debit Card should have been. Initial reaction – controlled panic. I retraced my steps in my mind and realised that the last place that I had the card was at the hotel. They had given me a receipt back but not the card. I immediately inserted my Indonesian SIM into my iPhone and hoped that I had enough credit left on it to call Thailand. I did and it was confirmed by an apologetic reception staff member. The staff member had left my card in the machine and it was only found several hours later.

What options did I have?

I had a hotel booked for one night in Bali and a one way flight booked to Sumba early the next morning. I had about $50 in cash in Thai and other currencies on me, my mobile phone battery was about to run out and had no way of getting funds.

I jumped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. As it was Boxing Day, the traffic was atrocious due to the disproportionate number of Bintang Beer singlet cladded Australians that were making their pilgramage to what seemed now like a new State of Australia … BAAAAAAAAAALI.

My first idea was to contact the Bali ANZ Bank branch to see if I could get a replacement card. I sat in bumper to bumper traffic headed for my hotel calling and calling and calling every ANZ belranch in Indonesia that I could find the number for. Each time I would sit through pages of voice menus only to finally be cut off after about 5 minutes of traversing the menu options each time. I finally got through to a human being after about an hour and a half. They told me its a Bank Holiday because of Christmas and they wouldn’t be open for another few days. BAH….HUMBUG!

How Many People Can You Trust on This Planet With Your ATM PIN?

I had one remote option left. I scavenged around in my backpack and found an old ATM card from a Thai bank account that I hadn’t used in a long time. My plan was to get someone to pick up my card from the hotel, withdraw money from my Australian account and deposit it into my Thai account where I could withdraw the money in Indonesia. The transaction fees would be very expensive, but it was my last option. The problem was, who do I know back home in Bangkok that I trust enough to give them my ATM card AND my PIN? There was only one friend I could think of that fit the bill. Just then, my phone’s credit ran out. I had the driver take me to a money exchange agent (most were closed) and I changed the few Thai Baht I had to buy some water and put credit (Indonesians call it ‘pulsa’) on my phone. I finally managed to get through to my friend and as he has done so many times previously in my life, he came to the rescue once again.

I was able to withdraw enough money to pay for the remaining airfares and get me to Sumba…. A place that changed my life … but I’ll leave that for the next installment.

The thing to take home from all of this is that through language, I am able to live life to the fullest and should the situation arise, language can really save your life. Speaking another language opens your eyes (ears) up to the world that is REALLY going on around you.

In the next sections on Sumba, Makassar and Maginti, I’ll show you how language can save other people’s lives!

Btw – thank you for all your emails from the past post on this issue. I will try to respond to all of them. There has been an overwhelming response from people from all backgrounds – NGO’s, governments, UN agencies and TV producers. I hope we can work together to help these people. You can follow me on twitter at @stu_jaySimilar Posts:

• Stuart Jay Raj – 101 East ‘The People Smugglers’ on Al Jazeera
• Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek – Thai TV Show – Ep 2 Bali Indonesia – Trunyan Dead Bodies – No Smell
• Learn a Language – Change the World. Part 1 – Unchartered Waters
• The Language of People Smuggling II
• Stuart Jay Raj’s New TV Show – เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก ‘Neua Chan Phan Plaek’ – ‘The Amazing, The Extraordinary and the Downright Weird!’ Thai Ch.5

What Would YOU Do?

Wife of Indonesian fisherman breaks down in tears as she finds out that people are trying to help her husband be released from prison after he had been tricked by People Smuggling rings to jump onto a boat that turned out to be a one-way ticket to Australia

What would you do if you landed in a foreign country and realized that you had left your ATM / Credit card back home and only had a few dollars cash on you?

What would you do if you were offered BBQ dog as your welcome dinner? … the same cute dog that you were admiring as he was just hopping and playing around the local market?

I have just had one of the most amazing, scary, dangerous, amusing and enriching experiences of my life as I spent 11 days trekking across some of the most beautiful, but often inhospitible and often dangerous places in Indonesia.  With just four photos and a few village names in hand, we set out to find the families of four Indonesian fisherman to bring them hope.

Change the World!?

I have to thank my dear friend and mentor Andrew Stotz for inspiration for the title of this blog post series.  Not only is Andrew in my mind one of the most brilliant financial minds in Asia, but he is also one of the most grounded human beings I know as well.  We were talking about a new presentation workshop that he had put together that inspires people to develop superior skills of presentation and persuasion so that they can in turn go out, inspire people en masse and change the world.

Local villages in Sumba look like they've seen a ghost as they view the picture of their brother that they thought must have been long dead ... he was actually sitting in an Australian prison and couldnt call home as there are no phones in the village and even if there were, the prison charges around 2 weeks prisoner wages for around a 5 minute call back to Indonesia

As a polyglot, I would like to take it even a step further.  The number one question that I get asked is ‘How do you learn so many languages?’  I think the real question should be ‘

Why

do you learn so many languages?‘

The answer is simple.  Just think of how many more lives you can influence  if you can communicate with them in their own language.  For me, even more importantly, think of how many millions of more interesting, brilliant, fascinating and colourful lives can influence my life if they are able to communicate with me?

People Smuggling Rings Affect More People than you Think

I posted a few weeks ago about my recent trip across Java, Indonesia with Australian lawyer David Svoboda, where we tracked down the families of several Indonesian men that had fallen victim to People Smuggling ring recruiters and subsequently found themselves sitting in maximum detention prisons across Australia for years on end.  I am happy to say that four Indonesian fishermen (including one child) have won their trials in the Australian Supreme Court and have been or are in the process of being repatriated with their families in Indonesia thanks to David and his amazing team’s efforts.

Australia’s mandatory 5 year sentences for these Indonesian crew members are hurting more people than one would expect at first glance. There are repercussions to having the sole bread winner of a poverty stricken family incarcerated in a foreign land. Such pressures might lead other family members into prostitution, drug trafficking and slave labour both domestically and internationally just to help make ends meet. Hopefully our small efforts can bring a small ray of light to a few families at least.

Language Takes you to some Wild Places

14 family members trekked across the open ocean for hours in the middle of the night in a tiny fishing boat in hope of helping their loved ones return home from Australia

I was initially exposed to these People Smuggling cases through being employed as an Indonesian interpreter for the detainees back in 2010.  I have been involved with over 50 of them from their first arrival at the Brisbane Watch House, to their first court appearences, prison inductions, interviews, legal meetings right up until sitting with them through their often weeks long Supreme Court trials.  I was only interpreting in Australia as a stop-gap after I migrated back to Australia from Thailand and needed something to do. 

As I was getting more and more involved with the cases and the clients, I couldn’t just sit there in the role of ‘interpreter’ anymore and see these guys suffer and seeing people within the system profit from their suffering while I knew exactly what they were coming from and what the circumstances would have been like to drive them to a point where they jumped on a boat full of Iranian, Afghani, Iraqi or Rohingyan refugees and sailed right into the arms of Australian authorities only to be incarcerated for a mandatory 5 years.

At least  I thought I knew what their circumstances were like.  Thanks to the faith placed in me by my lawyer friend, I was brought in to help track over 10 of these guys’ families down right across the Indonesian archipelago over the past 3 months, I can honestly say that the circumstances that these gentlemen are coming from are in many cases far worse than what I could have ever imagined.  These people come from a world that many of the people who are fortunate to have access to the media and are reading this article might not ever have the chance to encounter in their lifetime.

These people live on dirt floors, most have no electricity, no knowledge of their own country’s current affairs let alone Australia’s latest foreign policy issues, they have in many cases never traveled further than 60km away from their own village and most have accepted jobs as crew members as either mechanics or cooks having been told that they would be working with ‘foreigners’ that had money – a once in a lifetime opportunity. In one village I visited, the hottest issue that consumed everyone’s thoughts besides what was going to feed them for the day and how they would get it, was whether or not corrogated iron should be banned from substituting the traditional thatched grass roofs on their huts. The iron was seen as technology eating away at their culture and traditional ways of life.

It’s all about the Money, Money, Money

During the journey, there were extortion attempts by immigration officials, gangs, fishermen, up-country hoteliers, taxi drivers and your general person on the street. I found myself sleeping in mosquito, spider and gecko laden hotels and sometimes having to sleep in cars as the more luxurious option, taken into villages where BBQ K-9 was the order of the day and raced against the clock in the middle of the night to trek across jungles and the pitch black ocean lit only by a half-moon to an uncertain destination with a complete stranger in a tiny leaking fishing boat. 

I’m happy to say that the trip was a success in that we completed the mission and I will be writing a series of articles over the coming days recounting our adventures that I hope will not only be educational and give a new perspective to the whole topic of People Smuggling and Human Trafficking, but will also be inspiration to people who love languages, but don’t see any other career options other than being an interpreter, translator or language teacher. 

If you learn a language, you really can help change the world… sounds corny, but true.  Stay tuned!Similar Posts:

• The Language of People Smuggling
• Stuart Jay Raj – 101 East ‘The People Smugglers’ on Al Jazeera
• The Language of People Smuggling II
• Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek – Thai TV Show – Ep 2 Bali Indonesia – Trunyan Dead Bodies – No Smell
• Learn a Language – Change the World Part 2 – No Money No Funny

After realizing that I had become OBESE on the 13th of Sept 2011, I tackled my fight against obesity in the same way I approach language learning. Following the Dukan programme, I lost 18kg in just over 8 weeks without once feeling hungry, having to count calories or feel sick and lethargic.

Too Fat to Flip

On the 1st of September 2011, I touched down back home in Thailand to run a training workshop with one of my clients. The workshop was at Phuket’s Club Med resort, and part of the training involved all the participants having to climb up onto a trapeze high off of the ground, swing out on it and flip upside down, followed by a back-somersault dismount. As a child, I was a keen gymnast and used to pride myself on my agility and ability to flip and tumble. When it came to my turn on the trapeze however, the trouble all started even before I could scale the tower. I had to fit a special size harness on, because the normal one wouldn’t wrap around me properly. I reached the top of the platform and I was puffed. I then swung out on the trapeze and on the call of the coach, attempted to bring my legs up so that I could latch the bar under them and hang upside down. I tried once. I tried twice. I tried three times. I failed. Why? Because I was TOO FAT and couldn’t for the life of me bring my legs up above my stomach.

Political Correctness? What’s That?

It was wonderful to be back in Thailand. I was able to catch up with many of my old friends, go to some of my favourite restaurants and do some shopping in my favourite areas. No matter where I went though, the conversation usually went something like this:

“หวัดดีพี่เจ อ้วนขึ้นนะ”
“(Sa)Watdee Pee Jay, you’re FAT!”
OR
“โหพี่เจ อ้วนเป็นหมูนะ”
“Wow Pee Jay, you’re as fat as a pig!”

• Language notes: 
• In Thailand and Indonesia, I’m known by my middle name ‘Jay’ – เจ;
•  พี่ ‘Pee’is the term used to address an older brother / male;
• Sawatdee สวัสดี is often shortened to หวัดดี ‘watdee’ in spoken Thai which is a general greeting word for meeting and departing

I walked into some of my favourite clothes stores and the shop attendants that greeted me with:

“Wow, you know you won’t be able to fit into our clothes anymore don’t you?”

This is the thing that I had really missed about Thailand.  That is, the apparent complete void of western Political Correctness.  Almost in a child-like fashion, if someone meets you, whether they are a stranger or not, chances are they will be very straight forward and honest with you.  If you have a big ugly mole on your face, they will say “You know you have a big ugly mole on your face”.  If you have dark skin, they will say “Wow, you’re black.” This might be followed up by (if not out loud, definitely in the mind) “Are you doing anything about it?”.  If you have a flat nose, they’ll say “You look like a hillbilly” and if you’re fat they’ll say you’re fat.  Actually, if you’re the right body size for your height and frame, they’ll also say you’re fat.  It’s probably only if you’re skin and bones that they will say “You look look wonderful”.

It was then that I realized.  I had actually become a big, bona fide, fat, lard-ass!

Why is the West Obese?

Before moving to Australia in 2010, I was on a good food and exercise regime in Bangkok.  My weight had come down and I was hovering around 76kg-78kg.  I was still heavier than what I would have liked to be, but I was on a good track.

Moving to Australia was a shock to the system in many senses.  It was culturally very difficult to adjust and still is.  We couldn’t bring our maid or nanny with us, and so ended up taking the easy way out when it came to meal time – FAST FOOD.  In Australia, it seems whatever you order, it always ends up coming with a side of French Fries and a soft-drink.

Within around six months, I had put on over 18kg without realizing it.  One by one, I would have to stop wearing clothes from my old wardrobe.  I was burning holes in the bum of all the jeans I owned through too much rubbing when I walked (I guess) and none of my belts would fit me anymore.

 Political Correctness Blinds us from the Obvious

One of the first things that strikes you moving from Thailand to a western country is the jump in the amount of obese people you see walking around.  Kids, teenagers, mums, dads, grandparents.  There are fat people everywhere.  So why don’t they get up off of their butts and do something about it?  My theory is that political correctness could be one reason why many people are staying fat.

The lack of people telling me every day that I was getting ‘fat’ let me become complacent and feel a false sense of satisfaction with my self-image.  It’s an image that I would have never allowed of myself back in Thailand. You meet people everyday, and although you’re bloating up, they won’t say a thing.  Chances are, they are probably bloating up themselves, so saying something about my being fat would probably mean that they have to do something to address their own problem.  In the end, we all walk around getting fatter and fatter, lazier and lazier until we reach a point that seems too far gone to ever be able to return from.

If I was going to get serious about losing weight, I knew that I needed to get back into a Thai state of mind.  I needed to leverage culture to fight obesity!

No Support From Loved Ones

When I arrived back in Australia on the 11th of September, I thought enough was enough.  I was FAT.  My wife actually didn’t want me to lose weight, and fought with me to try and convince me that I was crazy for wanting to lose weight.  I realized that this was probably selfishness on her part as she too has put on weight, and for other reasons that might make her insecure about me losing weight.

The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan

Dukan Diet Comes to the Rescue

That just made me even more determined.  I saw a segment on the Dukan diet, and saw how much Princess Kate had lost before the Royal wedding a few months back.  I figured, if she could do it, then so could I.  I got the e-book of the Dukan diet, loaded it into my Kindle and read it all that night.  The next day, I went out and prepared everything I needed – my proteins, oat bran, yoghurt etc.  This is the KEY to being able to follow through.  You need to prepare stuff so that you’re not tempted to go out and buy crap from outside.

In saying that, if you have no choice but to have to buy food outside, I’ve realised that high protein foods are all around and actually make your eating out bill a lot cheaper than if you were eating regular food!.

 Falling in Love with Good Food – Similar to Falling in Love with a Language

One of the bits I love is having Oat Bran and Greek Non Fat yoghurt mixed together in the morning. Tastes great and gives a lot of energy – for the next couple of hours until I have another high protein hit.  I don’t know how do describe the change in mind-set that I’ve gone through.  It’s very similar to the feeling I get when I’m learning a new language.  When I’m learning, I can’t get enough of the language.  I almost consume dictionaries, grammars and other language books trying to get more and more linguistic ‘nutrition’ into me.  This time, the words were healthy foods.

 Where to Find the Food

In most supermarkets here, you can find ‘heart smart’ meat – that is that have very low fat contents.  These are great. I have also bought some really nice cuts of meat from a Hormone Free Butchery near my place.  I use a lot of chilli, garlic, ginger and other non-sweet / low salt condiments to marinade / cook my meat in.

 Burger King Helped me Lose Almost 20kg!

If you’re on the run, I have found going to Burger King and asking for a non salted Angus Burger patty is great – especially at only $1.30 each.  I drain any oil off of them for about 3 minutes before eating them.  Diet drinks are also allowed.  I’m not a big fan of aspartame, but I must admit, I have been enjoying Diet Ginger Beer – tastes like the real thing and keeps me from craving sugary drinks.

For in between snacks if I’m in court, I will often take a non-sugar, lo-carb, high-protein chocolate bar with me.

My favourite vegetable dish is คะน้า(ลวก)น้ำมันหอย  蠔油芥蘭菜 – Boiled Kailan with oyster sauce.

What About Exercise?

I must say that in the Dukan diet, there is an emphasis on walking every day, but not on full exercise workouts.  I have had so much energy since starting it and have been working out every day too.  I bought a weights set, pilates ball and other workout equipment and do it while I watch TV of an evening.

 Anti-Ageing 

Another bonus is that recently I have had a lot more grey hairs popping up (I’m 36) – but since doing this, the colour has been coming back!  I have a whole bunch of hairs that are grey at the tips, but have colour come back at the roots.  I figure I must be doing something right

Oh yeah … prepare to have your libido go into overdrive .

 Criticisms

I have heard a lot of criticism about it – I don’t know where this has come from (from friends).  They say ‘bahhh… no fad diets… I don’t believe it’, or they have the opinion that weightloss should be done with blood sweat and tears.  This has literally been one of the most enjoyable experiences for me, I’m never hungry, I feel like I’m in top health, never had a headache and am eating awesome food.  Where’s the down side?

 Is it only a Temporary Thing?

Will I yo-yo?  That’s part of the psychological game.  I think that the programme sets out to re-train your eating habits, and that’s what I intend to do.  The fact that I’m making it so public will force me to keep me in shape and not slip up by falling into crappy eating habits in the future.

The Diet is broken into 4 phases:

• Attack Phase 5-7 days
• Cruise Phase – as long as it takes to reach your target weight
• Consolidation Phase – Depends on how much weight you lost
• Stabilization / Consolidation

Here is a detailed review -

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/04/21/how-the-dukan-diet-works/

And here is one where he debunks some of the ‘warnings’.

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/06/28/all-the-dire-warnings-i-have-gotten-about-the-dukan-diet-have-turned-out-to-be-wrong/

You can download the e-book from Amazon.

From Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit

This is FIT Drew on May 7, 2011, and FAT Drew on Nov 5, 2011

Another interesting project that’s going on which adds an extra ‘twist’ to the whole weight-loss story is being done by a guy named ‘Drew’ who has been updating his progress on a website called ‘Fit2Fat2Fit.com‘

Can this work for You?

All I know is that this has worked for me, I feel great, my body has turned into a fat burning machine and I can fit into clothes that I could never wear 2 months ago.  I find that now I’m losing on average 300g-500g per day.

On September 13, 2011 I weighed 91kg.  On November 26, 2011, I weigh 73kg.   I actually lost 16kg in 6 weeks.  I have been stabilizing since then as well as doing a lot of weights work to help me tone up.  My goal is for a 2012 New Year 6-Pack.  I’ll keep you posted!

Oh yeah … and one last thing that I think has made it work for me…

DRINK LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of WATER!!!!

This helps your kidneys, hydration and works as a natural laxative.  I have never had troubles going to the bathroom as other people on high protein diets have – Dukan suggests that drinking lots of water acts as a natural laxative.  He is correct – it really keeps you regular.   He suggest having around 1.5L per day – I think I have closer to 5L a day!  Can’t get enough water.

I hope that I have been able to be some inspiration for some others of you out there.  Let me know how you go!

Stuart Jay RajSimilar Posts:

• Stu Jay Raj appears on Tom Mintier’s Tonight Show
• A Time to Blog
• Librarything.com – A Godsend of a Site that can only Get Better
• ‘stujay.com’ My New Language / Polyglot Website – inspired by Benny the Irish Polyglot (Thanks Benny!)
• A Polyglot’s Secret for squeazing More Out of Los Libros

Spending time with kids in a West Javanese village whose father has been charged with People Smuggling and sitting in an Australian Prison. They have not seen their father in over 18 months

An historical decision was made in Queensland today in regard to one of the cases that is mentioned below.  The Supreme Court judge threw the case out of court due to what he believed to be a lack of evidence to support the Crown’s case. It’s a small light at the end of a long tunnel after some very tiring days trekking across Indonesia gathering evidence to help repatriate some of the hundreds of poor Indonesian fisherman and unwitting laborers (including minors, some of whom tell stories of rape in Australian detention) that are sitting in maximum security Australian prisons, facing 5 years mandatory incarceration (eligible for parole after 3 years).  Most of these Indonesians have fallen victim to agents working for smuggling rings that target the poorest villages in Indonesia, making them a ‘once in a lifetime offer’ to do a ‘fishing’ job.  A ‘fishing job’ that unbeknownst to them was planned to go awry from the get-go.  The average Indonesian fisherman / rice-farmer ends up sitting in Australian prisons for over 18 months and will have wasted millions of Australian’s tax-dollars before they even get to take their case to trial.  

Should you have any questions, I welcome your contact: http://stujay.com/contact/.

Stuart Jay Raj on top of the recently active volcano Mt. Bromo in East Java in search of people smugglers

This post is going to take you on a journey that not many people have had the chance to take.  From my experience spending time with people smugglers in prison, the courts and tracking their families down back in Indonesia, you will have a chance to take a glimpse into the mind of a people smuggler, understand the smuggling business model and smuggling routes, get an insight into the money and business generated from people smuggling and learn how to speak their language.

The Exodus

In 2010 in the midst of the political turmoil that was paralyzing Bangkok, I made the reluctant call to move my family to Australia.  It was a tough call. I had my TV show and other work in the media in Thailand, I was on the board of the Foreign Correspondents Club, my consulting and training business was going well across the region and almost everything aside from politics looked like it was on the up and up.   On the down side, my two kids then aged 5 and 6 didn’t speak a word of English and I was spending  long stretches of time away from them … and ‘Bangkok Life’ was beginning to become just a little ‘too’ crazy – now that’s saying something!

In the end, we decided that Australia was the best solution.  We sold our house, furniture and the kids parted with their nanny, maid and beloved Shitzu named Kung-Fu.  We moved to Australia and I unknowingly began my journey into the murky world of People Smuggling and the Escheresque labyrinth that they call the Australian Legal System.

Everybody Needs an Interpreter

Life in Australia was a big reverse cultural shock for me, and I was getting desperate to get a taste of my ‘old’ life back.  Over the past 16 years, I had worked as a simultaneous interpreter in Indonesian, Mandarin and Thai for the UN, government agencies, NGO’s and companies across Asia.  90% of the interpreting work I did was conference interpreting and had a particular ‘glamour’ factor.  I figured that getting into the interpreting scene in Australia would be the best way to hit the ground running.  What I soon found out was that the interpreting scene in Australia was very different to what I was used to… and very un-glamorous.  Where I would normally be with delegations, diplomats, CEO’s and Miss Universe, in Australia I found myself  interpreting for mothers that had just given birth, teaching them how to breast feed correctly, and describing where middle aged ladies’ rashes came from to doctors.  I also interpreted for the courts, normally for drunk driving charges against foreign students run amok  and even for one lady that had brought in illegal seed specimens into Australia from Thailand and was under threat of imprisonment.  This was the world of ‘Community Interpreting’.

The Australian Labour Government’s Warm Welcome to People Smugglers

Just when I thought that breast feeding and festering rashes was becoming a little too much, interpreting started to become interesting.  I had arrived in Australia just as the number of boat people arriving at Christmas island was beginning to soar.

Here is a table of the boats of asylum seekers arriving in Australia between 2002 and 2011 (taken from http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/sp/boatarrivals.htm)

Under the previous Howard government, asylum seeker boats dropped from 5516 people in 2001 to only 1 boat arrival in all of 2002 under what was called ‘The Pacific Solution‘.  The Labour government came into power under Kevin Rudd in 2007.  The number of asylum seekers jumped from 6 boats (60 people) in 2006 to 134 boats (6879 people) in 2010.  There are many reasons put forward by all sides as to why the number of boat arrivals has risen so high.  After getting to know all the players involved, I think I’m in a unique position to understand why the numbers are the way they are and what might be done to put the breaks on.

Coming Face to Face with People Smugglers

Whether working for the AFP, DPP, Legal aid or Corrective Services, all roads led prison - where I got to really know many of the Indonesian People Smugglers as people.

In June 2010, I was called into Brisbane Magistrates Court to interpret Indonesian for my first of what would be many people smuggling cases.  Over the following months, I worked with the courts, Legal Aid / lawyers from assorted law firms, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Corrective Services Queensland,  SERCO (Private organization that runs detention centres), GEO Group (Private organization that runs the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Facility in Brisbane), other government agencies and media / news organizations.

The ‘Sandiwara’ of the Australian Legal System

Definition of ‘Sandiwara’: play, drama, theatrical troupe, pretend, play-act

Sitting with Indonesian boat crew prisoners day in day out in court and in prison has some lighter moments.  They often manage to find humour in what is going on around them and many of them have described the whole process that they’re going through as a ‘Sandiwara’.  Many of them can’t believe that this whole performance has been put on in their honour.  To truly appreciate why they feel this way, you have to for a moment at least, put yourself in their shoes.

An Indonesian 'Wayang Kulit' Shadow Puppet. Many of the Indonesian prisoners are gob-smacked by the 'Sandiwara' that is being put on all because of them.

The Anatomy of a People Smuggler’s Journey

1. Poor villager living below poverty line as a farmer or fisherman making around USD$1.00 – $1.50 per day (when there’s work) to support an extended family, often living in squalor with communal toilets, open sewers, no running water, no clean water and sick children to take care of;
2. An ‘agent’ either introduces themselves to the men in the village, or to a respected person in the village and tells them that they work with foreigners who of course have money and is looking for people to help out on a fishing and / or tour boat crew (often to ‘Pulau Pasir’ which is the Indonesian name for ‘Ashmore Island’.  Most Indonesians are unaware that Pulau Pasir is actually Australian territory);
3. The ‘respected’ people or the agent, recruit men in the village.  Villages have a very structured hierarchy and to reject an offer made to you by an elder would be an insult and for most would be unthinkable.  The average villager is offered between 3 million and 10 million Indonesian Rupiah (between USD$300-$1000) for what is anticipated to be a 5-7 day job taking the foreigners around.
4. The boat is often waiting fully stocked with fuel, noodles and water while the offer is being made and in many cases, the villagers have a window of only a few hours between agreeing to the deal and having to set sail.
5. A portion of the money is paid to them upon departure which is often left with a family friend to take to the family, or they will drop off the money themselves before the journey.  In many cases, they don’t have a chance to say goodbye to their wives and children.
6. In many cases, the full amount of money is not paid to the family as the full amount was dependent on them making a round trip.  This was never to be the case, as the ultimate goal for the organizers of the smuggling rings is to intentionally have Australian Customs or the Australian Navy intercept the boat in the contiguous zone (zone where both Indonesia and Australia have dual authority), or in Australian waters, so that the asylum seekers will be taken into custody and the Australian government will be forced to process their refugee asylum applications due to Australia’s international obligations.
7. The boat will often leave from South / South East Sulawesi (Muna), Surabaya (East Java), Tanjung Pinang (Sumatera) and make their way to Kupang (West Timor) and / or Roti just near Kupang.  In many cases, their ‘minders’ jump ship at these last ports and I have worked on a few cases where the ‘minder’ has literally jumped ship in the middle of the ocean just after leaving Roti and telling the Indonesian cook / mechanic to take the rudder and just keep driving the boat straight for another 7 hours or so.   In this particular case, the Burmese / Rohingyan crew were said to have threatened the man left holding the rudder saying they had paid good money for the journey and they intended to reach their destination (which in many cases was made aware to the crew members only after the journey had commenced).  The routes taken by the smugglers vary.  Afghanis have often been living in Pakistan for many years.  They organize the trip with an agent in Pakistan and then take a route either back through Afghanistan, or fly to Dubai, then onto Thailand or Malaysia.  If flying into Thailand, they make their way to Malaysia by car or boat.  In Malaysia their passports / ID are collected and they lay low in a safe house waiting for the connection to Indonesia.  They might go to one of many places in Indonesia.  Often by boat, then a long bus / van ride.  They usually end up at another holding / safe house for several days until they get word in the middle of the night that the boat has arrived.  They then wade out into the water, take small boats in the darkness out to the boat that will take them on to Australia.   For many of the Indonesian crew, they start to smell that something is fishy when they realise that their ‘minders’ have anchored the boat offshore and don’t go into the port that they were told was their destination.  By this time, they have already received a portion of their money for the job.  Between having received the money already and through the cultural trait of not questioning orders from people higher up the food chain, they are compelled to go along with the show.
8. The boats often have severe leaks and often need one crew member dedicated to pumping the water out of the bilge.  Bad weather makes this even worse.  While these boats are seen as being in bad condition when compared to western standards, they are seen as being quite good vessels in the eyes of the crew – often in much better condition than the boats that they’re used to sailing or paddling on.
9. After several days of traveling, the boats will see an airplane flying above them.  This is a sign that Australian customs / navy will soon intercept them.
10. Customs or the Australian navy sends a boat out to intercept the smuggler’s boat.  They board the boat and transfer the passengers to the navy / customs vessel.
11. The passengers and crew are then taken to a larger Navy ship that travels for a few days to Christmas Island.
12. Passengers and crew are detained at Christmas Island.  Asylum seekers, usually from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Burma (Rohingyans) are detained separately from the crew.  The asylum seekers’ applications for asylum are made and processed.  A high percentage of them are successful allowing them to live in Australia legally and receive benefits from the Australian government
13. Boat crew (Indonesians) are transferred from Christmas Island to Darwin Detention Centre.   They stay here for a while and receive new clothes and ‘welcome packages’.  The smuggler’s boat is usually destroyed.
14. Indonesian boat crew are then dispersed to different capital cities’ police ‘watch houses’ in capital cities across Australia.  The watch-houses are very cold places – both physically and emotionally.  It is here that they are officially charged by the Australian Federal Police.  Once charged and their possessions are taken, they appear immediately in the Magistrates Court.  The Magistrate reads the charge to them and remands them (without bail – as they have nowhere to stay and no legal right to stay) to a maximum security prison to await trial and / or sentencing if a guilty plea is made first.
15. Indonesians are sent to maximum security prison.  Two Indonesians were beaten within an inch of their lives by Australian prisoners in late 2010 at a maximum security prison in Brisbane, so for a time, the prison had to go on lockdown while Indonesians were walked through the prison.  Upon entry at the prison, they go through a ‘welcome’ interview in the ‘tissues and tears’ room at the prison, then go through a psychological examination and a health examination.  Many of the Indonesians have found out about health conditions like diabetes and TB during this time and are treated for it in prison.
16. The prisoners are given a ‘welcome’ pack of bedding, clothes and cigarettes
17. They make AUD$16 per week in prison that is used to by toothpaste, cigarettes etc.
    1. Because of the secure phone system used by the prison where all phone conversations have to be monitored and recorded – which they say is especially expensive for international calls, the Indonesians don’t have the luxury of speaking regularly with their families.  It costs around AUD$23 for about a 5 minute conversation back home.  This is out of the budget for nearly everyone, so most lose contact with their wives and children.  According to Muslim law, many of the wives legally divorce their husbands after not having been supported for over one year.  Many of the prisoner’s family members have become ill, moved overseas or died unbeknownst to the prisoners.  There are no books or reading materials in Indonesian in prison.
18. If the prisoners plead guilty, or are found guilty they will receive a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years with opportunity for probation after 3 years under a charge like “Facilitating the bringing to Australia of 5 or more people with reckless disregard as to whether they have a legal right to be in Australia”.
19. In Brisbane, once a guilty plea is made, or they are found guilty, they are moved to a different facility (usually Brisbane Corectional Centre) which is often a very different environment to Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.  There is the opportunity to work and make a little more money at BCC, though I have spoken to some prisoners there who have gone from good spirits weeks before to suicidal.
20. Their final detention centre is determined and they are sent to that centre for the duration of their detention.
21. In the case that they do not plead guilty, there are many more court appearances as they move up the different courts until they finally reach the District Court where it goes to trial.  If it goes to trial, a jury is chosen with all the players in ‘full costume’ (according to the Indonesians…. It’s quite a spectacle seeing everyone in robes, wigs and shouting out at each other).
22. If they are found guilty, same process happens as if pleaded guilty.  There might be a chance that because it was taken to trial and wasted more money and time, that a longer sentence is given.

Detaining Indonesian People Smugglers Does Have its $$UP-Side$$

"I know it's tough that they go to jail and all, but just think of how many people that their imprisonment is helping"

When some of the people involved in the people smuggling cases have heard that I have started to do things to address the issue outside of just being an interpreter, I have received from more than one person (in jest of course) a comment along the lines of “Don’t do that, if you stop the boats coming, we’ll all be out of a job!”

Remember that these Indonesians are paid around $300-$1000 for the whole ordeal.

Each passenger from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or Burma will have paid on average $10,000 – $15,000 for the journey.  This fee covers the bribes, costs of the ‘legal’ travel documents that they carry all the way to Malaysia where they are ‘collected’, the airfares and other travel costs from their place of origin, the fees paid to the agents and recruiters and lastly, the wages paid to the boat crew or ‘mules’ which are at the lowest rung of the ladder.

Now compare that to the costs that the Australian government pays for:

• Navy, customs intercepts and transfers
• Detaining them on Christmas Island
• Transfers to Darwin
• Transfers to Capital City Watch-houses (SERCO) across Australia
• Detention Centre keep – have guards, Correctional Services officers, nutritionalists, doctors etc
• Judges, Barristers, lawyers
• Other Legal fees
• Interpreters
• Chartered flights – By Australian Law, no more than 2 detainees may fly on a commercial flight, so often planes are chartered to take detainees around.  The detainees might be the defendants themselves, or may be the asylum seekers that are being flown in from all parts of Australia as witnesses to give evidence at hearings and / or trials
• Catering
• Hotels to hold up the witnesses who are giving evidence.  There was an issue several months ago where a group of Afghan asylum seekers wanted to protest and not give evidence after they were upset because the Crown refused to pay for 6 porno films that one Afghan gentleman had watched on the 4-5 star Hotel’s PAY-TV system the night before.   I am uncertain who ended up paying the bill, but the Afghanis did end up testifying.
• Logistics Companies
• Specialist testimonies
• Other Miscellaneous costs

Is Mandatory Detention the Solution?

Refusing to Leech off of Others’ Misery

Traveling to the Ends of the Earth to Track People Smugglers’ Families Down

I didn't realize my hunt for People Smugglers' families would take me on a hike to the top of a Volcano. I was ill-prepared, wearing only my recently purchased Colorado Memory-Foam Flip-Flops. I am happy to say that they passed the test of fire and made it all the way up and down the mountain. Language certainly takes you to some amazing places!

How to Locate People Smugglers Without an Address

Outside the home of one Indonesian People Smuggler being detained in Australia. There is no running water, the toilets are bamboo raised stalls above the canal that supplies water for cleaning and washing to all the houses. There are open sewers all around the house, people sleep on the dirt and since the husband has been in prison, this particular mother wakes at 11pm, waits for work at the rice mill from midnight to 7am. If work is available, she makes $1.00 per day, then goes home to send her kids to school and look after another sick child. Despite this, this was one of the happiest places I have been in a long time with villagers giving us a warm welcome. The jokes and laughter didn't stop.

"Why on earth would I want to travel to Australia? If you gave me that much money, I would buy a buffalo of course! ... or at least a goat"

This goes to show you the world view of these people.  They are poor and just living everyday is full of risks that normal people in the west wouldn’t have to face in a lifetime.  They understand that in Indonesia alone, there is such a disparity between the rich and the poor, if someone came and offered them a job with ‘foreigners’ that had money, most would jump at the chance.  It’s all part of Rezeki – the income or benefit / sustenance one receives in one’s lifetime due to work, luck or other reason.

Underage Prisoners and Rape

Are they Really Refugees?

Rick McPhee's 'Go Back To Where You Came From' Programme on SBS

Similar Posts:

• The Language of People Smuggling
• Learn a Language – Change the World. Part 1 – Unchartered Waters
• Stuart Jay Raj – 101 East ‘The People Smugglers’ on Al Jazeera
• Learn a Language – Change the World Part 2 – No Money No Funny

My apologies to those who have arrived at this link for my article ‘The Language of People Smuggling‘ and weren’t able to read the article. Due to legal reasons, I was required to pull the story until the case was over.

The case is now over, and you can read the full updated article here: http://stujay.com/2011/11/21/the-language-of-people-smuggling-ii/

I didn't realize my hunt for People Smugglers' families would take me on a hike to the top of a Volcano. I was ill-prepared, wearing only my recently purchased Colorado Memory-Foam Flip-Flops. I am happy to say that they passed the test of fire and made it all the way up and down the mountain. Language certainly takes you to some amazing places!

This post is going to take you on a journey that not many people have had the chance to take.  From my experience spending time with people smugglers in prison, the courts and tracking their families down back in Indonesia, you will have a chance to take a glimpse into the mind of a people smuggler, understand the smuggling business model and smuggling routes, get an insight into the money and business generated from people smuggling and learn how to speak their language.

This article has been temporarily retracted.  For more information, I welcome your contact:  http://stujay.com/contact/

Similar Posts:

• The Language of People Smuggling II
• Stuart Jay Raj – 101 East ‘The People Smugglers’ on Al Jazeera
• Learn a Language – Change the World Part 2 – No Money No Funny
• Producing the Initial ‘Ng’ /ŋ/ in Asian Languages
• Turning a Love for Language into a Career – Stuart Jay Raj’s Response to a Letter from a Frustrated Polyglot

Stuart Jay Raj examines the pros and cons of the Kindle Vs. the iPad. Can these electronic devices ever be as effective as good old "real" books?

I Love my Books and They Love Me

It all started with an email from a fellow linguaphile in Bangkok back in 2009  - “Jay, you have to get an Amazon Kindle e-Book reader.  For someone who loves reading and learning languages, you’re going to love it!”

I appreciated the notion, but over the past 10 years I have developed a disdain for e-books.

When learning a language, books are like the life blood of my language learning process.  When I’m not ‘out in the field’ using the language with people, I will be constantly reading books to build up vocabulary, get exposed to literature in the language and learn the grammar.  I love the feel of books in my hands and the ability to go back and forth between different sections in a book in an instant.  For me this is a crucial part of the language learning process.  For anyone familiar with language learning books, you will normally have something like this:

• Introduction
• Contents
• Glossary of terms and symbols used in the book (especially during early stages needs constant referencing – e.g. ‘tone symbols’, phonetic transcription system, abbreviations etc)
• Sound System of Language and Transcription
• Lessons – Dialogues / Glossary of Dialogues / Explanations
• Appendices – Including Keys to Questions in Each lesson, numbers, alphabets / writing systems, days of week, declension tables and other goodies
• Dictionary – Language I –> Language II | Language II –> Language I

When reading a normal book for enjoyment, while you might take a peek at the end of the book before you actually get to it, the reading experience is a pretty linear experience.  In order to get the most coherent experience out of it, you would want to read it from the beginning to the end in one direction.

This is how good language books are supposed to look

When reading a language book however, I will first open up to the sound system, then flick through to some of the dialogues to see if I can work out how to pronounce them first.  I’ll then look at the glossary for a given dialogue (not necessarily the dialogue from the first lesson) and I’ll learn it as best as I can and then go back to the sample dialogue.  There might be words that I hadn’t come across yet, so I will jump to the Dictionary / Glossary at the back to search for the word.  I will then spend time actually going through each lesson, doing the exercises, reading the grammatical points etc.  While doing this, I’ll be sneaking into the Appendices to look for tables and hints to help me construct (and deconstruct) the language faster than the book is trying to present to me.

Eventually, I will finish all the lessons in the book, but that doesn’t mean that I’m done with the book.  I will be constantly going back and forward through it as a reference and refreshing the different grammatical points when they start to fade.

This is one of the reasons why I have been such a proponent of ‘real life books’ when it comes to language learning.  There are a series of criteria that I need when it comes to a language book:

• Portable – able to be read anywhere
• Easy to hold / lightweight
• Easy on the eyes
• Contain clear Tables and Charts of data
• Present information in foreign writing systems / fonts
• Allow me to make notes on the fly
• Multiple bookmarks
• Ability to quickly cross-reference other sections in the book
• Ability to quickly search glossaries and Indexes
• Long Lasting

Here is my personal assessment of Normal Books:

How Do Real Life ‘Physical’ Books Weigh Up?

Enter – The Kindle

Right up until the beginning of 2011, I was divided as to whether I should give into the movement toward e-books or not.  While I would often make PDF files up on the fly from information I found around the place on a certain language to help me learn that language, if I was at all serious about using that PDF file, I would normally take it down to the print shop on the corner of my Soi in Bangkok, have them print it out and bind it for me so that I could access it like a real book.  Otherwise, using PDF files or other formats on a normal PC or laptop would be a cumbersome experience.  You couldn’t read for long periods on end – eyes would strain with the back-light from the monitor, jumping back and forth between the document would be more trouble that what it’s worth, making notes was a frustrating experience, having to ‘change tools’ to jot something down and then it was just as much of a chore to retrieve the information.  The reader didn’t remember the place I was up to and all in all it wasn’t an enjoyable experience.

When the iPhone came along, reading PDF books in iBooks was ok, but I mainly used it for a quick reference.  The screen was way too small to have any meaningful learning experience with the book.

People were telling me to hold out on getting the iPad as the ‘new version’ was just around the corner.  In Feb 2011, I found myself having to go into hospital for about a week.  Not wanting to be forced into watching mindless TV shows during my stay, I ordered a Kindle 3 from Amazon for $138.  In the end, I thought that if I bought an iPad, I would start reading for a few minutes, then jump to use other apps, surf the net, respond to email etc.  I didn’t want those temptations / distractions while reading.

It arrived from the US on my 2nd day in hospital (only took 4 days to get to me).   I had a collection of about 700 language PDF files / e-books on my hard-disk.  I quickly loaded them into the Kindle and that was that.  For the next week in hospital and even up until now, I have turned back into a Booky Monster (a Biblio version of Cookie Monster).  I went through book after book – my surgeon was from Sri Lanka, so while I was in hospital, I did a course in Sinhalese and learned how to read and write the Sinhala Alphabet all from my Kindle.

The Kindle is amazing.  The first thing that strikes you is that the e-ink display is like no other electronic device’s display I’ve ever seen.  It’s just like reading something from real paper.  The downside as an electronic device is that you can’t read it in the dark like a computer screen or iPad screen, but that’s nothing a small clip on light can’t fix.  The upside is that there is zero glare or reflection on the screen, so I can take it to the beach and have it in the blazing sun and read it just as I would a normal book.  My polarized sunglasses won’t make the screen turn black either as they do to other LCD screens like that of the iPad.

Here are some other things about the Kindle that I love:

Kindle Pros and Cons

Enter – The iPad

People were still telling me that I was crazy not to have just paid a little bit more and get an iPad.  Other members of my family were also nagging me to get an iPad.  A couple of months after the iPad 2 came out, I finally gave in and bought the iPad.

I have no regrets.

The iPad is an amazing little piece of technology.  The title of this post might be a little misleading, as I have mainly been comparing the e-book functionality of both the Kindle and iPad.  While the Kindle can browse the internet, do email etc, it’s not really designed for it and isn’t a very pleasant experience.  It’s there in case of emergencies.  I chose the WiFi only version of the Kindle so that when I was out, there again was no temptation to go and play with other stuff on the internet.

First I will cover the iPad’s e-book experience.

The iPad’s E-Book Experience

My family ended up using the iPad more than me.  The kids play educational games (and some not so educational ones), they watch youtube and my wife keeps all the Thai TV stations streaming in and keeps up to date with Thai news from the many Thai sites designed for the iPad / iPhone.

So What’s better for Language Learning – The Kindle or the iPad?

My conclusion – they’re both amazing tools for language learning that will serve different purposes and even complement each other.

I find that I am now using the iPad in tandem with the Kindle.  I use the Kindle as the eBook base reference and then use the iPad to google things on grammar, scripts etc.  What’s more, there are hundreds of apps out there for the iPad that have really helped me hone my skills in different areas of language for different languages that I speak.

In my next post, I will talk about what apps are out there that I have been using and show you some amazing stuff that you can do with the iPad to help ‘lock’ new languages away in your body.

I look forward to your comments and to hear your experiences of using e-book readers / iPads / Android devices etc for learning language.

Stu Jay Raj.

 Similar Posts:

• A Polyglot’s Secret for squeazing More Out of Los Libros
• Learn Braille on Your Way Home from Work
• Part 1 – Vietnamese – Learning a New Language from Scratch (Kinda)
• Language – Weapon of Choice for Propaganda and Disinformation

Stuart Jay Raj teaming up with Andovar to provided a complete package of language and cultural localization solutions to Oil and Gas, E-Learning, Gaming, Modern Trade, Travel and other industries around the world

This blog is officially revived!

My apologies to those subscribers that have been waiting anxiously for the elusive ‘next’ post.  When I posted my last post on the preparation that I was doing for a project in Indonesia, little did I know what was waiting for me down the pipeline.

The past six months have been absolutely amazing and I have been on many language based escapades that I’m busting to tell you about. Needless to say I have so much that I want to blog about and need to get my thoughts together to be able to do it well.  The topics that I will be covering over the upcoming posts based on my experiences over the past six months include:

• People Smuggling and International Crime Syndicates – The places languages can take you
• Challenges Western Intelligence Agencies face in Recruiting Linguists – How much is language worth?
• Falling in Love with Farsi and Urdu – How to get all sides of the news
• Amazon’s Kindle – Getting the most out of it for learning languages
• iPad – an invaluable language learning tool (how I’ve been using it to accelerate my foreign language skills)
• A Transition from ‘Native’ Thai to ‘Native’ English – How my kids went from hating speaking and learning English to now having to be forced not to speak it all in the space of 1 year
• How to Create a Hostile, Unsafe Workplace (and lose Billions) in 5 Easy steps – The disastrous repercussions of Western Policies forced onto their Asian Businesses

Stuart Jay Raj, Andovar and Localization – a Perfect Match

Finally, I’m really excited about a new area that I’m moving into.  Towards the end of last year, I was looking to start focusing on a long term business plan that would complement what I already do in the area of media, training, language, interpreting and Cross Cultural Business consultancy.

I’m very excited to announce that I have teamed up with Andovar – one of the top localization houses in the region with offices in Bangkok, Singapore, Columbia and now Australia.  Andovar is a perfect fit with what I do and I’m proud to be able to associate my name with them.

While still traveling back and forth in the region, I am now based in Australia.  My personal goal is to raise the profile of language, language learning and cultural awareness right across Australia.  The Australian population is made up of an amazing mix of people from hundreds of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.  It’s therefore surprising to find that the LOTE (learning languages other than English) situation in Australia is way below what I would have anticipated.  I hope that I can be a catalyst here to inspire more people to get into their neighbours’ (and their own) languages and cultures and turn Australia into a linguistic and cultural powerhouse on the underbelly of the planet.

In the future I will be sharing a lot of stories that cross over into the world of localization, translation and interpreting.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the posts … and if you see me start to become lax again in my blogging habits, shoot me across an email and tell me to get up off of my butt and start blogging again already!Similar Posts:

• NAUGHTY N.A.A.T.I Interpreter Exam- An Interpreter’s Nightmare
• Stuart Jay Raj – Joh Jai เจาะใจ TV Appearance 1 Mar 2007
• Profile
• Cracking Thai Fundamentals Bangkok Workshop October 2010
• CTF 2 Day BKK Intensive Workshop Oct 5-6, 2010

DEFINITION: bule \bʊ-le\ - westerner, neutral culture, more developed, open minded, long pointy nose, blue eyes, good looking, speaks English, likes to be practical, rich, smart, live for the future, selfish, look down on other cultures, arrogant, proud, albino - pigment deficiency, don't like to learn language or culture of host country, doesnt like washing, dirty, smells, has free sex, afraid of commitment to marriage, atheist, egotistical, only eats bland food, cannot eat chilli or hot and spicy food, alcoholic, refuse to try and understand Indonesian culture, don't try to see things through the eyes of Indonesians, dress inappropriately, too much emphasis on personal privacy, doesnt respect the past

Time for a Fresh Look on Indonesia

I have been running Cross Cultural workshops and working as a cross-cultural / cross-linguistic buffer in Asia for over 12 years now. Growing up in a mixed up cultural background and spending time constantly working between different cultural groups, I feel that over the years, the contrast between different cultures working and living together in Asia has become not as crisp as it was when I first started. I get so used to jumping between languages and cultures in my professional and personal lives, that the ‘mind set shift’ becomes automatic to the point that I often don’t realise what the ‘shifts’ are.

In a few weeks I will be running a Cross Cultural / Cross Linguistic workshop for large western company that will be sending many expats into work with and manage several thousand Indonesians. I thought it would be a good opportunity to put a survey out to my networks in Indonesia and hear from the horse’s mouth what their CURRENT opinions are on themselves, their own country’s culture, languages and how they view westerners in their country.

If you are Indonesian and still haven’t shared your thoughts with me by filling out the survey, there’s good news!… I will be leaving the survey open indefinitely.  You can access it here: http://stujay.com/indonesian-culture-survey/ .

Questions

Here is a list of the questions asked in the survey:

I chose these questions to specifically address areas that we’d been asked to cover in the workshop.  The initial questions on the speaking of regional Indonesian languages was also for my personal interest, as I wanted to know whether there had been any shift over the past 15 years or so.

Speaking Regional Languages

I’ve found from the responses to the survey, the situation in regard to regional languages is slightly different to the situation in Thailand.  In Thailand, especially in Bangkok, there is a certain stigma that’s attached to people speaking non-central Thai.  The main dialect regions in Thailand are Northern, Isaan (Northeast), Central and Southern.  There are many shades in each of these and some are thought to sound more refined than others.  I have even seen people on the skytrain, subway, restaurants and other places with ‘people’ in downtown Bangkok receive a call on their mobile phone only to quickly hang-up on the caller saying something to the extent of  ‘I’ll call you back soon’ in their local dialect trying not to be heard.  I find this happen mostly with people who speak Isaan.

From the results from the Indonesian survey, I get the feeling that people are a lot more proud to use their local languages in public, as long as they are with people who speak the same language /dialect.  One of the reasons that people would choose to switch to standard Bahasa Indonesia would be to release them from the hierarchical bonds that languages like Balinese, Javanese and Sunda put on them.  Javanese for example has several levels of speech – Krama (High), Krama Inggil (High Krama), Krama Andhap (Low Krama), Madya (Middle), Ngoko (Low).  In any interaction in Javanese, someone would have to have a full grasp on the nuances of all these registers of speech / vocabulary to be able to competently communicate in a respectable / appropriate manner. Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia to a great extent strips away many of those levels and gives a ‘vanilla flavoured’ language where people’s statuses are to a good extent flattened (though not to the extent of English).

Many of the responders mentioned that their level of their local language isn’t where they would like it to be.  Many who speak Javanese speak mainly in the low level and are embarrassed of their lack of ability.  Using standard Bahasa Indonesia is a safe alternative for them.

‘Bahasa Indonesia’ or ‘Indonesian’- Not just ‘Bahasa’

While we’re on the point of ‘Bahasa Indonesia’, I’d like to address a pet gripe of mine.  Many of my clients will send me an email or call me up and ask if I’m free to do a job in ‘Bahasa’.  ‘Bahasa’ is a Sanskrit based word – भाषा ‘Bhasha’ that just means ‘language’.  So ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ mean ‘Indonesian Language’.  The same word is used in many other languages like Thai  ภาษาไทย ‘Phasa Thai’. If you’re going to use the term Bahasa when speaking English, say ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ or ‘Bahasa Melayu’ etc … otherwise it’s just like saying “Are you free to do a job in ‘language’?”

Bule… Bule Bule Bule

As you travel throughout Asia, you’ll find that most countries have their own ‘endearing’ term for ‘westerners’. In Hong Kong it’s 鬼佬 ‘Gwai’Lo’, in Mandarin it’s 老外 ‘lao wai’, in Japanese it’s 外人 ‘gai jin’, Tagalog it’s ‘puti’, Thai is ฝรั่ง ‘Farang’, Malay it’s ‘Mat Salleh’ and in Indonesian it’s BULE (pronounced ‘boo-leh’).

I often read forums from all these countries in both English and in the local languages and the feelings vary.  Some will say that these are derogatory terms for foreigners, some will say that they’re neutral and others will say that they’re terms of endearment.  I’ll let you decide.  Most of the responses were in Bahasa Indonesia, so I have translated all the responses and deleted any repetition.  I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not you’d like to be considered a ‘bule’.

Many locals will be reluctant to mention what the ‘real’ feelings are about the term ‘bule’ as they think that it would be disrespectful. I have run workshops with expats in Indonesia and Thailand that have said ‘Some people might think those things, but they don’t think that about me – it’s not a negative term in my mind’. My response to that is that perhaps you are in denial.

Core Indonesian Values

Even though I asked for 3 of the core values that they thought were most important, many of the respondents gave more than 3.  The answers all hovered around similar points. It would seem that knowing the appropriate protocols is paramount.  The other major concept to embrace is that of family and society / the workplace as an extended family.  We will see in a later question that part of showing respect and getting into the ‘culture’ and showing that you ‘care’ is learning how to address people properly.  Not just by their name, but by the kinship title that an Indonesian version of you would address them in in Indonesia.

Respect / Politeness - Using appropriate greeting protocols 71%, Friendly 67%, Gotong Royong' - Mutual Assistance and Repect 63%, Family 54%, Respect Elders 46%, Caring for each other 42%, Tolerance 42%, Cooperation 42%, Importance of Religion 29%, Social Solidarity 25%, Humility 21%, Maintaining Good Relations / Networks of Influence 17%, Dilligence 13%, Forgiveness 13%

What do Westerners Need to Understand about Indonesia when Living and Working in Indonesia?

Answers were very long and descriptive here.  In the following chart, I’ve translated the answers and categorized them under just a few major headings.  From right across the board, nearly everyone unanimously said that learning the Indonesian language and learning about Indonesian culture is THE most important thing for foreigners to do when working in Indonesia.   Not just learn about the culture, but to implement what was learned too.

Many foreigners may think that the linguistic side isn’t important and that they are there just to do business.  The fact is though, in order to do business well, the foreigners need to work with and motivate local teams.  To truly do that effectively, language and being able to speak to and understand the heart of the people is a vital ingredient.

Learn Indonesian 96%, Learn about Indonesian culture and do what you've learned 96%, Listen 79%, Don't come across as thinking you are superior 79%, Don't cause people to lose face 75%, Don't appear arrogant 63%, Don't Speak too much 21%, Don't just treat everything as business 21%, Don't think of Indonesia as a terrorist country 13%

One response stood out in regard to language and culture:

Tidak Tahu Unggah Ungguh

Depending on what ethnic group and what part of Indonesia you are in, the terms used to address people can vary. There are a standard set of terms you can learn though that should get you by in most places. Stay tuned for an article covering these terms.

How do you feel about foreign men dating Indonesian women? (without the intent of marrying them).

The answer to this one was divided, though still weighted about 70% towards the ‘do not approve’ answer.  The main difference was that from the ‘do not approve’ group, about a third of those people did not approve, but thought that it was up to the individual’s involved.  Everyone is different, so if the girl makes a decision to do that, it’s her decision.

The majority however did not like the idea of western men dating Indonesian women without the intent of marrying them and said that it just reinforced the negative connotations of ‘bule’.  That is that they are dirty, immoral, non God fearing people that are just after free sex and to take advantage of people.

How do you feel about cross-cultural / cross-religious relationships? Would you allow your child marry a foreigner or someone of a different religion?

The answers here were varied, though the majority of respondents when it came down to it did not approve of people marrying across cultures and especially not across religions.

I have translated 3 responses below to show the gradient of opinions.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Note that this last response was submitted in English

How Well do Foreigners Understand Indonesia?

The final question was to get a general picture of how Indonesians perceive foreigners living in Indonesia:

From the foreigners in Indonesia that you either know or have observed, how would you rate foreigners living in Indonesia’s overall understanding of Indonesian culture

(Don’t understand at all, Insufficient Understanding, Sufficient Understanding, Extreme Understnding)

The results are as follows:

Don't Understand at all 0%, Understanding Not Sufficient 58%, Understanding Sufficient 42%, Understand Very Well 0%

There is obviously a long way to go in developing a better cross-cultural understanding between foreigners living in Indonesia and Indonesians.  I will continue to hone my cross cultural programmes to address all of these issues and more.  One take-home from this survey is that in the programme that I will be running for one of my oil and gas clients in a couple of weeks is that ‘language’ is a ‘need to know’, not just a ‘nice to know’.  I will incorporate fundamental language learning within the cultural programme in a fun way to at least equip the expats with enough to make a good impression and start building bridges with their Indonesian team-mates.

Take the Survey! (If you’re Indonesian)

At the time of writing this article, there have been a total of 51 respondents.  I will be leaving the survey form open indefinitely and encourage all Indonesians out there to share your own views.  Do you agree with these findings? Do you disagree? Let me know what you think.

You can access the survey on a separate page here:

http://stujay.com/indonesian-culture-survey/

Similar Posts:

• Producing the Initial ‘Ng’ /ŋ/ in Asian Languages
• Getting Past the Squiggles – Hanacaraka
• Indonesian Culture Survey
• Stu Jay Raj appears on Tom Mintier’s Tonight Show
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Claudio Sennhauser's review of Cracking Thai Fundamentals from an interview conducted by Cat at http://womenlearnthai.com

Claudio on Stu’s Cracking Thai Fundamentals…

The first day of the Cracking Thai Fundamentals workshop started out with the obligatory introductions. I realized during the introduction that even foreigners who have been living in Thailand already for quite some time still seem to struggle with the same aspects of the language as I did: tonality, vocabulary, reading and writing. I was in good company!

To get the workshop started, Stu Jay set the stage by getting our minds to think outside of words. He made us aware that learning a new language is slowed down when we focus on literal translations, because meaning of words is relative. Stu Jay asked us to “never let words limit our thoughts” and led us through an exercise in which we color-coded a list of words based on how they feel, rather than focusing on their specific meanings. All participants quickly got a better feeling of words as a result of this color-coding exercise.

It then was time for Stu Jay to teach us some basic semantic building blocks of the Thai language. We learned 11 essential words without having them translated into English. We internalized their meaning through gestures and full body motions. I found this highly effective, as it pulled us away from the writing and sound system of our mother tongue. With these building blocks in place, and only two hours into the program, each student was already able to produce complete and proper sentences in Thai.

Next, we learned the Thai vowels. We had lots of good laughs, as Stu Jay taught each of the vowels with a corresponding hand sign. It is impossible, for example, to ever forget the sara aa (า) the way Stu Jay teaches it. These hand signs have been developed by Stu Jay as a way to “lock” the vowels into our body, mind, and throat. This module of the workshop is available on YouTube (Part 1 and Part 2). You will see that you feel quite comfortable with all the vowels in less than 30 minutes.

We then learned about the different consonant classes and the role tone markers play in the Thai alphabet. Stu Jay got us to visualize vivid scenarios and repeat his sounds, body movements, and gestures to ensure the highest possible retention of the learned material. As a result, I will forever know what the low, middle, and high classes are doing in the Thai alphabet, as I vividly remember the funny stories and images Stu Jay used during this module.

After we all had a solid understanding of the classes, we tackled the Thai consonants. As with the vowels, Stu Jay developed a system that teaches these vowels in a fun and easy way. We used his Thai Consonant Map to gain an understanding of each consonant’s class, sound, and where in the mouth it is produced. Through many engaging exercises, we gradually became aware of the muscles used to produce each consonant. Stu Jay ensured that the participants remember each of these consonants by using stories, analogies and metaphors with humor. I now won’t be confusing ผ, ฝ, พ, ฟ anymore and remember how they sound and to what class they belong.

Throughout the entire workshop, Stu Jay taught us not only the Fundamentals of Thai, but also many aspects of Thai culture not typically taught during a language (or even Thai culture) course. Getting such a deep insight into Thai culture has provided many “AHA!” experiences for all participants of the workshop.

Cracking Thai Fundamentals has been an outstanding experience for me. I’m now confident and convinced that I can master the Thai language. I feel Stu Jay has given each participant a very powerful language seed and it is now up to us to make it grow.

Claudio Sennhauser
Claudio Sennhauser | twitter: @DemoWell

More on Stu and Cracking Thai Fundamentals…

Around the Internet:
Twitter: @stu_jay
Facebook: Stu Jay Raj
YouTube Channel: stujaystujay
Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Language and Mind Mastery
Bangkok Radio: Cracking Thai Fundamentals

On WLT:
Mnidcraft: The Art of Language
Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part One
Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part Two
Successful Thai Language Learner: Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj
Cracking Thai Fundamentals Meets Mnidcraft Over Songkran
Stu Jay Raj is Back in Bangkok with Cracking Thai Fundamentals
Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Interview With Scott Eddy

Read more: http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/claudio-on-stus-cracking-thai-fundamentals/#ixzz12h48oHrw
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