Watch out for animals when you are driving here in the Bird’s Head particularly in the outskirts of the town. You’ll get fined, dude. Yeah, you’ve got to pay some money for compensation to the owner of the animals. The funny thing is the compensation is in proportion to the number of the animals’ tits. No kidding! The more the tits are the higher the compensation is. So there is this rather harsh joke that it’s better to run into a grandma than into a pig.
There are many compensation or fine in Papuan’s traditions. Perhaps it could be thought as penitence to your sins or wrongdoings. When you are cheating on your wife, you’ll have to pay some compensation to your wife’s family. When you impregnate a girl then you have to give some money to her family. The same thing applies when you physically hurts or hit someone until s/he bleeds. You pay for the blood. In some communities, you are even fined when you break up with your girlfriend regardless you already sleep with her or not.
They even asked for compensation when a member of their communities, especially the distinguished one, dies. As long as the person dies in a considerably young age (well let’s say not above 55 or 60 years old) then there is always this suspicion that s/he was murdered. (Well, I don't understand this suspicion.) I heard a demo took place when a native pilot crashed his plane years ago. I witnessed a protest march a few months ago asking for clarification and compensation from the government when a member of local parliament died.
It also occurs in "business" transaction. It's strange but true that when you buy a piece of land, you actually have to pay some compensation for any trees in there. This may cost you extra money because the people who own the land are not necessarily the same with those who plant the trees. This may even cost you some extra energy because you cannot cut the trees down unless you get the permission from the person who plants them. You have to negotiate for that and pay. You should hope that the trees bear no sentimental memories to the owner ;-). There are some durian trees in the land that was bought by the Diocese in Fakfak years ago. The trees are still there because the owner of the trees in the land that is not his hasn't given a permission to cut them down.
Almost everything can be settled with compensation. How big the amount of the compensation is up to the negotiation skills of the parties involved. The negotiation can be quite tricky. Often they start off with a ridiculous amount of money. But they may end up with very little or nothing. It could start from something like Rp 10 million but end up with Rp 2 million or they throw an amount of Rp 50 million but eventually are being content with Rp 5 million. In a more "serious" matter, people may ask for Rp 1 billion but agree to take Rp 60 million or bluff for Rp 15 billion and end up with nothing.
2 comments:
Wow, raising rats would make business sense there. Let them run loose on the roads and claim for compensation when they get run over. But they have to be female rats, right, because male tits are just as useless as they are on humans. Har.
what a business sense you have ;-)!
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