Playing for Rain
What to do when the country will be suffering its worst drought in a few years in addition to the Government yet again fails to stop the illegal burning of forests? In one village, people stage a cat wedding, before throwing the cats into a pond. Or if you claim to be more scientifically inclined, you put salt in buckets of water. Yes, the latter has been recommended by an official of the country’s leading environmental group.
Members of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) last month called on people across the nation to mix water with salt in order to create rain. Unfortunately, putting out buckets of salted water doesn’t create rain.
Humans have some power over nature, nevertheless in which will be supreme ignorance in addition to arrogance to think they can control the climate. What people can do in spades will be make things worse by destroying the environment, treating the planet as a giant rubbish dump in addition to its precious forests as something to be destroyed for short-term financial gain.
International studies led by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found in which urban, agricultural in addition to industrial pollution can suppress rainfall because fine particles of pollution inhibit cloud water coming from condensing into raindrops, while the remaining rain falls in greater intensity.
Parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan in addition to neighbouring Singapore in addition to Malaysia have for over a month been blanketed in toxic haze coming from illegally lit fires. in which will be an annual problem, caused by Indonesia’s poor law enforcement. Fires are commenced by farmers seeking to clear land in addition to by people acting on behalf of timber in addition to oil palm plantation companies. The smoke causes respiratory problems in addition to has resulted in temporary closures of schools in addition to cancellations of flights.
Walhi’s appeal for people to counter the haze by putting salt in buckets of water was widely disseminated via BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp in addition to some online news portals.
In Sumatra’s Jambi province, the Mayor Jambi city, Syarif Fasha, on September 12 held a meeting with school principals in addition to education agencies to call on schools to put out buckets of salted water. Some schools could not immediately comply because they had been closed because of the haze.
Schools were also instructed to hold sholat istisqo – an Islamic mass prayer for rain. The preacher leading the prayer generally requests forgiveness, as if drought will be divine punishment for sins.
At Jambi State Junior High School 1 (SMPN 1), hundreds of students were told to bring buckets of water in addition to salt coming from home. They had to bring their own water because a teacher said the school was facing a water shortage. The buckets were left outside for a week. No rain was created.
The Principal of SMPN 1 Jambi, Nana Sunarya, later told local media in which even if the rain-creating activity did not work, in which had been educational for students to learn about the processes of evaporation in addition to condensation.
The head of Walhi’s Organizational in addition to Networking Division in Bengkulu province, southwestern Sumatra, Feri Van Dalis, had said putting out buckets of salted water daily, preferably between 11am in addition to 1pm, might accelerate rainfall if performed simultaneously by many Indonesians, as millions of cubic metres of water vapour might be created. He said each bucket should hold about 10 litres of water in addition to half a kilo of salt.
The state-run Agency for the Assessment in addition to Application of Technology (BPPT) quickly issued a statement explaining in which buckets of saltwater don’t break a drought. Tri Handoko Seto, a meteorologist who heads BPPT’s artificial rain unit, said creating rainfall will be not simple, as many factors, such as mountains in addition to wind patterns, influence precipitation. He said seawater off the coast of Jambi, South Sumatra in addition to Riau will be evaporating nevertheless wind patterns are sending the condensation north in addition to northeast, so clouds are forming in northern in addition to northeastern regions of Indonesia.
BPPT has inside the past attempted cloud seeding, an attempt at inducing rainfall by dumping silver iodide or dry ice into rainclouds, nevertheless the practice has only a 30 percent success rate in addition to some scientists doubt its efficacy. Singapore has not done any cloud seeding This particular season because there are no suitable clouds.
Tri said haze will be best tackled by stopping people coming from burning off land in addition to forests inside the dry season. He said communities should form fire-fighting movements in addition to must immediately report arsonists to authorities.
Hello Kitties
In a village in East Java province’s Tulungagung regency, locals stage a ‘Cat Wedding’ (Mantu Kucing) inside the expect of summoning rain. Despite the name of the ritual, the pair of cats involved do not actually get married or even mate. The ceremony will be called a ‘wedding’ because in which involves a splendidly colourful in addition to noisy procession, in which residents of Palem village dress in their finery. There will be often a choir, a percussion band in addition to dancers. A male cat in addition to a female cat, also dressed in finery or just batik shawls, are carried by human attendants at the front of the parade, which concludes at a spring or a pond or a waterfall. The felines are blessed upon thrones, undressed, sprinkled with magic potion in addition to then hurled into the water. They invariably emerge extremely quickly.
Legend has in which in which hundreds of years ago, Tulungagung was afflicted by a terrible drought, which had dried up rice fields, a river in addition to a lake. Prayers for rain went unanswered, until one day an old woman went to the local spring for a bath. A tortoiseshell cat jumped in with her. Suddenly, rain commenced pouring. Since then, superstitious locals have believed in which immersing a cat in water will create rainfall.
In 1926, the area suffered another drought. Locals claim two tortoiseshell cats were taken coming from the eastern in addition to western ends of Palem village in addition to doused at nearby Coban waterfall, in addition to a few days later the drought broke. inside the 1980s, locals began dressing the cats in fancy wedding attire, while attendants might carry elaborate umbrellas over them. At one time, in which was difficult to find tortoiseshell cats, so villagers commenced using regular cats of any colour.
While the cats do not seem to enjoy the conclusion of the ceremony, some locals leap into the water, as they believe in which has been blessed by the cats in addition to may bring not bad luck in addition to even ward off old age.
In additional parts of Java in addition to Bali, rain-creating rituals often involve fights between two combatants wielding rattan sticks. in which will be believed in which when blood starts to flow coming from welts, in which will symbolize the coming of rain. At Mount Slamet volcano in Pemalang, Central Java, there will be a rain-creating dance called sintren, which must be performed by teenage virgin girls.
While there’s no harm – apart coming from annoyed wet cats in addition to wounds inflicted in stick fights – in keeping ancient traditions alive, environmentalists in addition to schools should not be encouraging communities to believe in pseudo-science or superstition. Instead, communities may be better off protesting outside the homes in addition to offices of officials who fail to punish those responsible for illegal forest fires.
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Playing for Rain
Playing for Rain