Amok! Amok!

2021-03-31T06:42:27+02:00

In the village, further down the coast, there is a guardhouse, and in it a hollowed-out tree trunk instead of a gong. The rumble of that drum can be heard very far: punk-tak, punk-tak. Slowly, without excitement. It’s nothing serious, just a fire. But who cares about the fire in the Malay village? Dry palm leaves started burning, as well as the bamboo sticks that support the hut, and between them, mats started curling from the heat. The fire in the village is fireworks, a joke. In fourteen days the natives built a new hut; and with less lice. No, fire is not a serious case for a guard. A serious case is called: amok.

When one meets the Malays, he thinks at first that they are never nervous. They are always smiling, always busy with something, and they are so patient that we can't understand it at all. In temperament they are quite opposite of the wild and insidious Papuans, who live farther east. But still every man gets nervous from time to time, every nation and every race does. They all know about misery, anger, pain and rage. It's just a matter of whether they show it like Papuans, let it half-erupt, like we do, or suppress it, like the Malays. They are commanded by the custom of smiling, but in their hearts they also suffer. They suppress anger, collect it and pile it up - until it breaks them.

For many years, pain can accumulate in a Malay, maybe even all his life. As a camel carries a burden, so he carries the burden of his feelings. As long as he can. Until it becomes too much. Until the patient camel breaks under the last straw. It can be a tiny insult, which clenches his jaw and makes him foam at the mouth. Amok! Amok! The gong in the guardhouse thunders wildly and quickly: Trrrr! Prrr! Yes! - "Run, who knows!"

The Malay word amok, which means "attack of uncontrolled anger", entered the English language as an expression to run amok, which means a sudden, unexpected attack of madness, or a situation that suddenly, inexplicably goes wrong.

There he is, already running: a small brown man with a sickle or a knife in his hand. He waves his weapon in a wide circle, with insane speed, but he hits accurately and deadly. The buffalo, grazing calmly, falls to its knees with its gut out; a woman, a dog, two men and one child are left dead in his trail. Amok! Amok! Where is the wooden pitchfork from the watchtower? A long pole with two prongs, with which he could be stopped. Where is it? And who would dare take it? From a distance they throw stones at him as he runs; now he stabs at the coconut palm, and will not separate from it, furious that there is no blood flowing from it. Amok! Amok! This kind of lunatic can kill many people. Until he collapses in spasms. Or until others reach for the rifle and shoot him down. Amok-runner can be killed by anyone.

Sometimes it's not just nerves and accumulated, repressed anger. Sometimes it is malaria tropica with forty and a half degrees and delirium. And sometimes, a mutual suggestion. So sit two, three in company, hungry, worried, limp. One says, "We're going to die." "We all have to die," another joins him. - "We will die" - "To die" - "We must die" - "To die" - "To die!" - To die!" Or to run. Running is better than dying!

From Surabaya to Flores I wanted to sail on the “De Clerk”. And then I didn’t have time, so I took the next steamer. So I missed the amok, a Malay from Timor who got crazy while sailing on the "De Clerk". That is why I am not recounting it from my experience, but recounting what a passenger from "De Clerk", a Dutch supervisor, whom I met on Flores, told me.

'At one o'clock in the afternoon we were attacked by that sailor in his twenties, a native of Timor, an almost weak boy. We sat on the back deck for lunch: the captain, the chief helmsman, the first officer and three passengers, and talked about the war. In general. The first machinist said that war was a crime because no one was allowed to kill their neighbor, and then the Timor man came out of the kitchen with his head thrown back, rolling his eyes and with a knife in his hand. The knife was red. We later saw that he had already stabbed a Javanese cook and a Malay passenger under the deck. He flew across the deck, and the assistant helmsman, not knowing exactly what had happened, wanted to grab him by the shoulder. Amok! The second helmsman is called Buteling. Or rather, he was. When he was later taken ashore, he was unconscious, with three terrible stab wounds to his chest. The Malay stabbed him with lightning speed. Like a snake. Captain Van der Meyden noticed this from the front, understood what it was about, and got up from his chair on time. But the Malay had already thrust a knife into his shoulder. The fourth officer, Clerq, pounced on him from the side and stumbled back with an open gash on his arm. Now the first machinist and the first officer started chasing after him. The machinist took an the iron bar and fell a little behind.

Amok Syndrome is also included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR).

So the first officer reached him alone, hit him in the lower back with his knee, knocked him down and waved his knife at him. But the Malay turned around, pulled the first officer's knife through his fist, and cut four of the officer’s fingers, through the tendons all the way to his wrist. He wont have much use of that hand in the future, the first officer. Now the chief machinist Bit Zegfeld, he is a strong fat man. One who spoke about war and said that one should not kill. He hit the Malay on the head with an iron rod and knocked him down. That blow would smash the ox's skull, but it only stunned the Malay, because he jerked his head at the last minute, so the rod only grazed him. The main thing is that they caught him and tied him up, and now he's in jail.

"Isn't he in a madhouse?" I asked. "He should be put there, because in this case he did what he did due to insanity, not because he wanted to commit a crime. He was suffering from malaria.” “But when he stabbed the cook, he was still conscious.""And why did he blow up in the first place?" "Because the cook had denied him a cup of coffee."

That was the last straw, under which the smile of that Malay from Timor turned into rage. A trifle thing. A cup of coffee. You wont give it to me? Amok! Amok! Two dead and four mortally wounded…

But who knows what kind of burden that last straw fell on?

Flores Island, Indonesia, 1929.

House For Everyone: Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2015-03-17T00:50:40+01:00

House for Everyone is currently located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and it will be open for 3 months, until May 25, 2015.

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RULES of the House

Composed on the base of the Rules of AVP House in Dushanbe–2010, Istanbul–2012, Krasnoyarsk–2012,Sevastopol -2014, Berlin–2014... Written by experience and life of hundreds of people in AVP Houses! Version from 5 of March 2015. Will have add-ons, look for a new version on the wall of the House.

COMMON REGULATIONS

House For Everybody is not a hotel. Organizers of the House are not obliged to provide you any service, conveniences, beds, will not take you to museums of Yogyakarta, volcanoes and other cities. You should sleep on the floor, take a shower according to common order, walk through the city or travel through the country according to your ideas, routes, and self-independence. If you want - organize somebody and go together, don't want - go on your own, don't want to go – don't go. Self-organizing is a key to your happiness!

In the House – it is strictly prohibited to drink alcohol. It is prohibited to bring alcohol, beer, drugs into the House. If the person is caught drinking alcohol or smoking weed he/she should be removed from the House. You shouldn't smoke tobacco in the House and in the nearby territory.

House management: Director is Anton Krotov as usual and you should listen to him; deputies director – Alexey Kuleshov, Ekaterina Boyarova, Ilnur Sharafutdinov. If they are absent, supervision after the House continue wise man, friends of A.Krotov. House management, collaborating with person on duty, accept new guests, determine the place for them to sleep, remove those, who are staying too long, determine the time go to sleep (usually 22.00) etc. You should listen to House Management.

We respect our neighborhood, don't walk very often in our street here and there, do not walk in the nearby streets without t-shirt, with naked belly, in beach clothes. We don't smoke in our neighborhood, don't force our neighbors to invite us to stay at their houses. We greet them politely. We spread peace and friendship between our nations, create in the House For Everybody example of united living, unity and love between different people, between different nations.

According to the agreement with the head of our neighborhood we keep silence from 21.00 till 6.00 am! In dark time we don't shout and run around! Don't frighten locals with the quantity of the people in our house, don't crowd on the street in front of the door, don't wait for someone on the street, if you want to go – just go.

There is a shared kitchen in the House, especially in the evening. It is happening by efforts of everybody including you, reading this. Try to do your best and do not wait for a command. If something is absent, don't complain, but go and buy it urgently, as much as possible. It is useful to buy cakes and cookies from the women, living in front of our house. Food is being cooked by the person on duty or by anyone who is willing to do so.

Every man and even you (!) is in charge of what is happening around, in the House. If it is dirty – make it clean! If it is wet – make it dry! If it is broken – repair it or attract the person, who can do it! If you are hungry – make the food for everyone! Everybody is responsible for the world to become a better place and we have no servants.

House For Everybody exists: a) with help of enthusiasm and time of those people who are renting it, and also: b) with help of donations of the people who wants to donate. All received donations (list of them you can read in internet) is not a payment for living, but a common contribution to the development of the project "House For Everybody". Leaving donations is voluntary; everybody in the House is equal, who leaves donations and who doesn't leave.

Our House is not a place for your domestic animals, leave them at home. Bringing of little children (who cannot read the rules and realize it) is possible as an exception. You should discuss it before your arrival with Management.

Your first arrival to our House is only possible during hours convenient for us — from 18.00 till 20.00. House is not a hotel with day-and-night reception of guests. Please call the telephone numbers, indicated in internet. Later, when you get accustomed, you can come here on your own.

The place, where we will meet you: railway station Lempuyangan, the main entrance (to the south) in the gates or in the tea stall in front of the gates. We don't reveal GPS coordinates of the House in internet.

You shouldn't scatter your stuff throughout the House. Keep your things in your backpack. Sign it and things which is easy to mix up. Only you are in charge of keeping your stuff safe. It is recommended to keep your passport and money always with you, not in the backpack.

In our Indonesian House there are two main languages for communicating – Russian and English. Now you can read the rules in both Russian and English language, soon we will translate them to Bahasa. You should get familiar with the rules and understand what it is about.

Your Indonesian visa and its extension is your personal care. Organizers of the house have no connections to visa people or any opportunities to extend your visa!

Everybody can join us and stay in our house. If you want it, you should know this phone numbers :

0812-8685-6289, Ekaterina
0813-2978-7700, Anton
0813-2911-8901, Alexey
0821-3850-9604, Ilnur.

Please, write all the numbers.

When you want to stay in our house, please come to the main gate of Lempuyangan station in the evening (approx. from 17.00), and call to one of this numbers. If the person doesn't answer, it means he is in mosque, or in toilet, or somewhere else, or on top of mountain... — try another number. Call and speak, for example:

— I am Johnie from Shanghai city! I at Lempuyangan station! Please, come and meet me!

We will appear shortly and bring you to the House, later you will be able to find it yourself. Don't try to find the House independently, disturb other locals and give them idea "here many strange peoples going".

You not need to make any reservation before, and do not come at night time (after 21-00).

Additional rules you can read below!

ABOUT THE MAIN FOOD

In the evening we make food for all. To avoid hungriness in House, here is list of main food components, which must be always here:

1) SUGAR.
2) TEA.
3) RICE.
4) SOAP.
5) KETCHUP.
6) SOYA SOUS.

Everybody, who found absence of any of these items, — should inform all other people and immediately go and buy it. If you have no money, you must inform all people immediately about absence of some strategic components!

You can buy also other components.

KITCHEN : every evening about 17.00 we started to prepare FOOD for all people (usually rice-based).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Here is chief (director) of the House, Anton Krotov, and some vice-directors – Alexey Kuleshov, Ekaterina Boyarova, Ilnur Sharafutdinov.

Director has written Rules of the House, has paid the rent fee for the House (5 million Rupiah), has paid for most kitchen and house equipment (2,5 million Rupiah) and will pay for electricity. So, anybody can give the donation directly to Director Anton Krotov, or to other vice-directors. List of money spent and received are shown at the piece of paper on the wall.

All people who are staying in the House must follow the rules and instructions of Director. If Director is not here, — follow the instructions of vice-directors, and other persons, appointed by the Director.

Only the Director or authorized people can contact the owner of the House or local chiefs

If you want to make here some lectures (about your traveling or something else), please inform the Director about it. And make sure the date and time of lecture can be easily found by others.

HOW TO BE A GOOD MAN

Owr house – place for good people, not for sinners.

So, strictly PROHIBITED :

Strictly prohibited - Drinking alcohol, using narcotics, beers, vine, in the House and around it.

Those who was found drunk or drinking alcohol anywhere on the street, holding bottle of alcohol in his backpack or in his hands in the city limits will be prohibited from entering the House forever.

Strictly prohibited any drugs (narcotics), including marijuana.

Indonesia applies death penalty for drugs! House management is holding rights to treat suspicious items to check it for any forbidden substances.

Do not put any tents or sleep on the streets around the House.

Smoking tobacco anywhere in or around the House is also prohibited. Smokers, who can't survive a day without tobacco shouldn't stay in the House, but can visit us for events or meetings

Do not throw toilet paper into canalization or it will be blocked. For ass cleaning you can use water or put toilet paper into some bag and take care yourself to take it out of the house from time to time.

If you are accused in doing troubles from clause 1-3, you will be prohibited from entering the house and its region.

Other penalties will be issued by House management.

Important! It is important not to distribute negative attitude to different nations or groups, loud discussions about politics or religions is not what we want. Our house is not a political meeting, but place to create friendship, relaxation and mutual understanding of people with different citizenships and beliefs.

ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Our House is a place, where many people live together. It is open for everybody, and here is no staff or servants. So, you must be responsible for your behavior and all your stuff e.g. sleeping bag, money, passport, spoon, cup, socks, knife, charging device... All these things may be mixed together, or thrown away, or change the place or simply get missed if you wouldn't take care of them.

We advise to keep your Passport and money with you in all times.

If you leave us for a long time and want to leave something here, please put it all in plastic bag and write your name and city.

All the nameless stuff can be given to someone or sold to someone or just thrown away. Nobody will send you by post any lost items. When you go somewhere – check carefully and don't forget your items!

These Rules can be changed due to current situation and the newest version will be written on Russian language and will be shown in the wall of the House.

Anton Krotov, 07 march 2015. Jogyakarta.

Indonesian Travel Dictionary

2021-03-22T14:33:42+01:00

Download our free Indonesian Travel Dictionary, print it out, make a booklet, stick the Indonesian phrasebook into your back pocket – and you're good to go. Enjoy traveling in Indonesia!

Indonesian dictionary was made by:
Hristina Nikolić Murti

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