Lamalera Whale Hunters

Many would have frown upon the notion of whale killing or even pictures of whale hunting. I even know of some who refuses to eat tuna just because certain fishing methods incurred the deaths of dolphins. In Indonesia's Nusa Tenggara archipelago, about 800 kilometers east of Bali, there is a village called Lamalera, where people have made a living from whaling for hundreds of years.

Hunting Whales and dolphins by hand is always dangerous, sometimes deadly and never pretty. During the hunting season the whale hunters sail out every day to try their luck. If they manage to get close enough to a sperm whale - often over 12 meters long - the harpooner jumps from a small boat onto the back of the victim trying to thrust his hunting weapon into it. If this is done successfully, a chase of several hours begins. In some cases though, the match is won by the whale, which can hit the harpooner fatally with its tail and even sink the boat.

The whale hunters of Lamalera undoubtedly pursue a bloody profession and the agony of the whales caught by them isn't nice to look at, not even in a documentary. But they do it to make a living; they have no choice. The area around the village isn't suitable for farming and keeping up the tradition of their ancestors is a must for these people.

Still, it may not be long that the traditional whale hunting culture of Lamalera - a sustainable economy and lifestyle - will be gone forever. The number of hunters in the village has drastically shrunk in recent years.











quoted from vanhulsenbeek:

Lamalera is a village which is perched on the rocky slopes of an active volcano on the southern coast of the island of Lembata, in Nusa Tenggara Timur in eastern Indonesia. An anonymous Portuguese document of 1624 describes the islanders as hunting whales with harpoons for their oil, and implies that they collected and sold ambergris. This report confirms that whaling took place in the waters of the Suva Sea at least two centuries before the appearance of American and English whaling ships at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

(....) The Christian Mission has been in place in the community for a hundred years, schools have been established and a training workshop teaches carpentry. It is a fishing village in a region where most communities support themselves by agriculture. Lamalera has very little productive land, so the villagers have to fish in order to survive. Their preferred quarry is sperm whale. Catching sperm whale with hand-thrown harpoons from small open boats powered by muscle and palm-leaf sail is no easy task, and the hunt is by no means uneven between man and whale. The tail flukes of a whale can smash the timbers of the boats and many boats are temporarily disabled by their prey. Harpooners have been disabled and killed. But the attraction of the whale is its size. The flesh of the whale (and shark and manta ray) is cut into strips and sun dried in the village. The meat is then carried to small markets where it is bartered with mountain villagers. One strip of dried fish or meat is equivalent to twelve ears of maize, twelve bananas, twelve pieces of dried sweet potatoes, twelve sections of sugar cane, or twelve sirih peppers plus twelve pinang nuts.

Commercial whaling is banned throughout much of the world, but subsistence whaling is permitted by International Whaling Commission regulations in Alaska, the USA, the USSR and Greenland. Indonesia is not, however, a signatory to the IWC. Seven whales were caught in Lamalera in 1987.
source: images from www.vanhulsenbeek.com

Singapore Lao Ah Beks love to go Karimun for SEX! POM POM!

Aiyoh, Singapore old men on news again. Guess what? Same thing again, sex in cheap island lor.

Tanjung Balai (Karimun), Indonesia is where they love to go. From Singapore, you can take a ferry and arrive there in about 3 hours. Eh, I not promoting the place okay. But just telling you all what they doing.

Apparently, there was a crackdown in Mid May 2007 this year, which lasted for about a month. 100 Singaporeans got caught at the scene. HAHAHAHA! (Want play kuku jiao dun scared kena. All the flowers growing on the birdy you also not scared, no need scared malu) This forced many Singaporeans to divert their attention from there, keeping their weenies small and controlled. Singaporeans always got this mentality: Dun get caught, very malu(embarrassed) one.

I think a lot of this visitors should be old people, or uncles in their mid life crisis. I suspect also most of them maybe are Taxi drivers. How not to think this way? Every time I sit Taxi, some uncles bored one will sure talk dirty with me: tell me where big where good where cheap where got many.

Occasionally some complain about the Mainland Chinese ladies who always loiter in our Geylang District. Now think back, aiyuh, all the uncles acting only.

Now their choices so many, got Tangkok-Ali, Viagra, old uncle no need scared cannot do. HAHAHAHA!

below is extracted from the straits times in regard to this post. Wah, I tell you, ST also damn good in choosing time write this kind of article one. Do on weekend news, then aunties see, then uncles hong-gan liao... LOL

source: The Strait Times

".....The Singapore men were seen walking hand-in-hand with their 'cewek' (Indonesian girls) making their way to seafood restaurants around town.

Most just smiled and refused to talk when approached by this newspaper reporter. Others shook their heads when asked if they were looking for girls and walked away.

One said: 'Sorry, I do not know anything about the raids. This trip is my first time.' But locals familiar with him said he was a regular.

Another, a widower in his 60s, said he came with a friend and worked as a lorry driver.

'I like to come to Karimun to enjoy myself. We can have a good seafood meal for $20.

'Sometimes, I try to get an Indonesian girl to keep me company. Those from Java are very pretty, and they also know how to treat men nice,' he said.

He said he had heard about the raids from a friend and avoided coming.

But now, he thinks that everything is okay.

'I am not scared because the Karimun police will only catch the types who book the young ones.'

A Singaporean who looked to be in his 50s said he had visited the island only last week.

'The usual things, makan, sleep, sing. I am not choosy. I do not need a young girl, but she must be pretty,' he said.

'We Singaporeans come here not to do bad things. We pay everything for the girl. Now, I do not go out of hotel room. I just tell my driver to take the girl to the hotel, and we stay inside. We do not need to come out; it is not safe.'

One man was even defiant about his plans. He said he was here to eat, drink and have a good time, and there was nothing wrong with that. .....

.....

When police raided the place sometime in May, close to 100 Singapore clients were at the scene.

'They were traumatised by the experience, although the police left them alone. Until today, some kept calling me to ask if it was safe to return,' he said.

........."

Aiyuh, don't disturb these old men la, Singapore. They're very lonely people. Some more standards of living in Singapore so high, want eat seafood also hard. Give them their imagined paradise for the weekend won;t hurt to much one. If you are so worried about the image of Singapore, then find some educational outreach to these old ah-beks sea whether will listen a not. They may probably visit your local turf club during the weekends and earn some short money to enjoy the trip over. Don't pour too much water on them.

Anyway, I think the local police in Karimun also trying to dig some Kopi-lui from all these, at the same time to stop all those forced prostitution and under-aged selling. So, this one we Singapore don't worry also. I think the one we most worry is scared those old uncle's wives go that island cat fight with the locals only. Socially, we all so scared die, WOMAN power very strong one. mai kia kia.