Indonesia and that big meanie George Bush

You know, I read articles like this and I really get cheesed off.

Anti Bush Rallies Throughout Indonesia
Jakarta, NOV 18 (NNN-ANTARA) Chairman of the People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Hidayat Nur Wahid hoped US President George W Bush`s visit which has triggered nationwide massive demonstrations, would not lead to national disintegration.

National disintegration? If the mass beheading of Christians is any indication, Hidayat, you have already disintegrated.

Bush`s visit is supposed to maintain solid unity of the people to save the national sovereignty, he said, adding, "his visit should serve as a means to strive for the people`s interest like reviewing the contracts of work with Freeport, Newmount (sic) and Exxon, which have harmed Indonesia`s interests".

Let's just take a look at how these three tools of the Great Satan have harmed Indonesia's interests. In the case of Newmont they have harmed Indonesia by:

The employment of over 8000 Indonesians. The payment of taxes, non-taxes and royalties to the Indonesian government to the tune of over $40 million. The purchase of goods and services from within Indonesia amounting to more than $283 million. The payment of over $55 million to workers and the spending of $2.3 million in community development (and these are all US dollars not Indonesian funny money)

Newmont even distributed 3350 Eid Al Fitr parcels and gave the Batu Hijau Muslim Foundation (YMBH) alms donation, including fitrah and zakaat maal from PTNNT’s employees to be distributed to the community around the mine. The parcels consisted rice, cooking oil, biscuit, sugar, coffee, tea, and a bottle of syrup. In 2005 PTNNT also distributed 1800 parcels to communities.*** Read more about Newmont's community activities here.

What about Freeport?

In 2005 they paid $1,200,000,000 in Taxes, Royalties, Fees & Other Payments and $7,000,000,000 in Total Direct & Indirect Benefits. They invested nearly $4 .8 billion to build company infrastructure in Papua, including towns, electricity generation facilities, seaports and airports, roads, bridges, tunnels, waste disposal facilities, modern communications systems and other infrastructure, most of which will revert to the Indonesian government at the end of our contract term. They have spent over $425 million in social infrastructure; schools, student dormitories, hospitals, health clinics, offices, places of worship, recreational facilities and the development of small and medium-sized businesses. They employed 8,000 people in 2005 . Of these, more than 2,000, or over 25 percent, are Papuans. PT Freeport Indonesia’s payroll for its own employees has totaled more than $1 billion since 1992. They have purchased more than $3 .7 billion of domestically sourced goods and services.

Then there's big, bad Exxon. Those big meanies! In addition to contributing to the economic well-being of Indonesia, they offer special programs and provided huge amounts of tsunami disaster relief. And to prove that no good deed goes unpunished it would appear that Indonesia is trying to welsh on their deal and nationalize the Natuna D alpha gas field.

Hidayat you live in a brutally poor country shouldn't you be worried about things like food, jobs and health care???? Instead, you are talking weapons???

"...He urged the government to take bold measures like buying weapons from countries other than the United States as a stand to show national sovereignty, so that Indonesia would not be easily dictated by the US. According to him, Bush`s planned visit to Indonesia was strongly protested by the people because of his political stance and acts which have hurt humanity."

Oh that evil George W. Bush! How dare he hurt Indonesian humanity like this!!!

Remember the tsunami, people?

"Americans are a compassionate people," said President Bush in his radio address on New Year's Day, "and we are already hard at work helping those nations meet these challenges. The United States has pledged $350 million in relief assistance.... Disaster response officials are on the ground and have established a support center in Thailand that is manned and operational; more than 20 patrol and cargo aircraft have been made available to assess the disaster and deliver relief supplies.... We have dispatched the aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln, the Maritime pre-positioning squadron from Guam, and an amphibious ship carrying a Marine Expeditionary Unit...to support relief efforts, to include the generation of clean water...As of January 12, more than 15,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in providing relief support in the affected region. Twenty-five ships and 94 aircraft were participating in the effort. The U.S. military had delivered about 2.2 million pounds of relief supplies to affected nations, including 16,000 gallons of water, 113,000 pounds of food, and 140,500 pounds of relief supplies in the previous 24 hours alone. On February 9, President Bush asked Congress to increase the U.S. commitment to a total of $950 million."

Oh, the humanity!

Believe it or not, Indonesia is a US ally in the war on terror and Indonesia's leader, wants U.S. help

"in fighting poverty and a spiraling bird flu outbreak that has killed 56 people _ a third of the world's total. He is also eager to see American investors return to his country, which remains desperately poor eight years after the ouster of former dictator Suharto."

P.S. Here's a little known factoid about Barack Obama - he lived in Indonesia for two years where he attended both a madrassa and a parochial school. What's up with that I wonder?