Exploitant : Transdev Montesson La Boucle

Réseau : Bus en Seine

Lieu : Gare de Houilles – Carrières-sur-Seine (Houilles, F-78)

Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/42485

Kelsey, D. M. Deeds of Daring by Both Blue and Gray: Thrilling Narratives of Personal Adventure, Exploits of Scouts and Spies, Forlorn Hopes, Heroic Bravery… Philadelphia: Scammell & Company, Publishers, 1891.

973.78 K29d0

 

330-CFD-DN-SN-91-04377: A chief petty officer uses a sound-powered phone to communicate with crew members aboard the ocean minesweeper USS Exploit (MSO-440) as the vessel travels to Naval Amphibious Base, Norfolk, Va. While the Exploit remains at the base, its 82 crew members and officers will deploy to the Middle East to replace the crew of the ocean minesweeper USS Adroit (MSO-509). Adroit's current crew has been operating in support of Operation Desert Shield since September, 1/1/1991. Photographed by Ron Fontaine. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. (2016/08/29).

Not that it did a lot of good, I guess. There's not a lot of cotton left but there's still lots of oppression

. . . 2. 3. 2007 - this is the first day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week. Today we will see the showing of the water buffalos, pigs, cow, horse, deer and chicken. All these animals are offered to be the servants of the died woman in her new life after death in Puya. We will see buffalo fighting. Men bet for the winner of those fightings. Two buffalos fight each other - the one running away lost the fight!

If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.

_____________________________________

 

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

 

The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

 

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.

 

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).

 

HISTORY

From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.

 

Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.

 

In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to

 

CHRISTIANITY

Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.

 

SOCIETY

There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

 

FAMILY AFFILIATION

Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.

 

Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.

 

Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.

 

CLASS AFFILIATION

In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.

 

Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.

 

Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.

 

The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.

 

CULTURE

TONGKONAN

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").

 

Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.

 

The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

 

WOOD CARVINGS

To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.

 

Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.

 

Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

 

FUNERAL RITES

In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.

 

The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.

 

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.

 

There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

 

In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.

 

DANCE AND MUSIC

Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.

 

As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.

 

A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.

 

LANGUAGE

The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.

 

ECONOMY

Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .

 

With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.

 

Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.

 

TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.

 

In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.

 

Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.

 

A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.

 

Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.

 

WIKIPEDIA

WASHINGTON, DC: National Center for Missing & Exploited (NCMEC) 2022 Hope Gala, Oct. 20, 2022

 

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) Hope Gala held on Oct. 20, 2022 at the District Pier at The Wharf, Washington, D.C. The event is a celebration of the inspiring work being done globally to protect children. We recognized leaders in child safety, honor survivors, and remember the families and victims who are still seeking justice and safety. Claire Edkins /NCMEC

22-09-2019

 

[order] Charadriiformes | [family] Laridae | [latin] Larus ridibundus | [UK] Black-Headed Gull | [FR] Mouette rieuse | [DE] Lachmöwe | [ES] Gaviota Reidora | [IT] Gabbiano comune | [NL] Kokmeeuw

 

Measurements

spanwidth min.: 86 cm

spanwidth max.: 99 cm

size min.: 35 cm

size max.: 39 cm

Breeding

incubation min.: 23 days

incubation max.: 26 days

fledging min.: 33 days

fledging max.: 37 days

broods 1

eggs min.: 1

eggs max.: 3

 

Larus ridibundus

 

Sléibhín

 

Status: Resident along all Irish coasts, with significant numbers arriving from the Continent in winter. Breeds in small numbers on islands in larger lakes in western Ireland.

 

Conservation Concern: Red-listed due to its rapidly declining and localised breeding population. The European population is regarded as Secure, despite declines in several countries.

 

Identification: A small gull, slightly smaller than Common Gull. Adults are pale grey above and white below. Adults are easily told apart from other common gull species by the thick white leading edge to outer wing, which can be seen at some distance. A blackish area bordering the white leading edge of the underwing is also evident. Pointed wings, and a small tail and head in proportion to the body, along with a long neck give a distinctive profile compared to other gulls. Adults have red legs, and in summer plumage, a dark brown hood on the head; in the winter, the hood in absent and is replaced by a dark spot behind the eye. Black-headed Gulls have two age groups, and attains adult plumage after one year when it moults into adult winter plumage. Young birds just out of the nest are called juveniles and are finely patterned on the upperparts in ginger and brown and show a black tail band. First winter and first summer birds retain the wing and tail markings of the juvenile bird, but show grey on the mantle and in the first summer, a hood with a variable amount of white mixed in with the brown. Just after the bird is one year old it moults into adult winter plumage.

 

Similar Species: Mediterranean and Common Gulls, Kittiwake.

 

Call: Strident, down slurred call. Can be very noisy at colonies.

 

Diet: Feeds on insects especially in arable fields. Will also exploit domestic and fisheries waste.

 

Breeding: Breeds both on the coast and inland where they will often nest in colonies. Usually, nests on the ground in wetland areas, such as bogs and marshes and will also use man made lakes. Numbers breeding inland have declined dramatically, probably due to predation by the American Mink, which is an able swimmer and is able to access previously inaccessible nesting areas. The largest colonies in Ireland are in Northern Ireland on Lough Neagh. Colonies in the republic are not widespread, the largest are found inland in Counties Galway, Monaghan and Mayo. and at coastal sites in Counties Wexford and Donegal.

 

Wintering: Irish birds are augmented by wintering birds from northern and eastern Europe and can are widespread on both on the coast and inland.

 

Where to See: An easy species to see, especially in the winter. Can be seen on ploughed fields and in towns and cities.

Exploitants : STAVO + SAVAC

Réseau : Versailles Grand Parc

Lignes : 40 + 261

Lieu : Gare de Versailles – Château – Rive Gauche (Versailles, F-78)

Liens TC Infos :

S89 : tc-infos.fr/id/36933

Here is the remainder of the photos of my shoe exploits from the past few months.

Acquired these sandals for the summer. Unfortunately, these should have been named "Tight Fit", as they are very tight for size 4 1/2. Also the strap is very short. But they seem to be stretching, so hopefully I'll be ble to wear them for more than an hour.

 

Sadistic Exploits gig somewhere in Philly circa 1981.

Don Edmonds was one of the original "grindhouse" directors. His ILSA: SHE-WOLF OF THE SS and ILSA: HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS were archetypal '70s exploitation flicks. This was at an event in Long Beach in the late '90s.

The London School of Exploitation Under Occupation: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Students Stand Against Exploitation and Corporate Education: Vera Anstey Suite: Old Building, London School of Economics, London, March 20, 2015.

 

Statement from the Occupation:

 

Why we are occupying

 

We have have occupied the Vera Anstey Suite, the central meeting room of the university administration, to demand a change to the current university system.

 

LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. Universities are increasingly implementing the privatised, profit-driven, and bureaucratic ‘business model’ of higher education, which locks students into huge debts and turns the university into a degree-factory and students into consumers. LSE has become the model for the transformation of the other university systems in Britain and beyond. Massive indebtedness, market-driven benchmarks, and subordination to corporate interests have deeply perverted what we think university and education should be about.

 

We demand an education that is liberating – which does not have a price tag. We want a university run by students, lecturers and workers.

 

When a University becomes a business the whole of student life is transformed. When a university is more concerned with its image, its marketability and the ‘added value’ of its degrees, the student is no longer a student - they become a commodity and education becomes a service. Institutional sexism and racism, as well as conditions of work for staff and lecturers, becomes a distraction for an institution geared to profit.

 

We join the ongoing struggles in the UK, Europe and the world to reject this system that has changed not only our education but our entire society. From the occupations in Sheffield, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford, to the ongoing collective takeover of the University of Amsterdam– students have made clear that the current system simply cannot continue.

 

We are not alone in this struggle.

 

Why Occupy?

 

In this occupation we aim to create an open, creative and liberated space, where all are free to participate in the building of a new directly democratic, non-hierarchical and universally accessible education: The Free University of London.

 

The space will be organized around the creation of workshops, discussions and meetings to share ideas freely. Knowledge is not a commodity but something precious and valuable in its own right. And we hope to prove, if only within a limited time and space, that education can be free.This liberated space should also be a space for an open discussion on the direction this university and our educational system as a whole is heading. We want to emphasise that this process is not only for students, and we encourage the participation of all LSE staff, non-academic and academic.

 

We base our struggle on principles of equality, direct democracy, solidarity, mutual care and support. These are our current demands which we invite all to openly discuss, debate and add to.

 

1 - Free and universally accessible education not geared to making profit

 

We demand that the management of LSE lobby the government to scrap tuition fees for both domestic and international students.

 

2 - Workers Rights

 

In solidarity with the LSE workers, we demand real job security, an end to zero-hour contracts, fair remuneration and a drastic reduction in the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees.

 

3 - Genuine University Democracy

 

We demand a student-staff council, directly elected by students and academic and non-academic staff, responsible for making all managerial decisions of the institution.

 

4 - Divestment

 

We demand that the school cuts its ties to exploitative and destructive organisations, such as those involved in wars, military occupations and the destruction of the planet. This includes but is not limited to immediate divestment from the fossil fuel industry and from all companies which make a profit from the Israeli state’s occupation of Palestine.

 

5 - Liberation

 

We demand that LSE changes its harassment policy, and to have zero tolerance to harassment.

 

We demand that LSE does not implement the Counter Terrorism Bill that criminalises dissent, particularly targeting Muslim students and staff.

 

We demand that the police are not allowed on campus.

 

We demand that LSE becomes a liberated space free of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and religious discrimination.

 

We demand that the school immediately reinstates the old ethics code and makes it legally binding, in line with the recently passed SU motion.

 

We demand that the school ensures the security and equality of international students, particularly with regards to their precarious visa status, and fully include them in our project for a free university.

 

occupylse.tumblr.com/

 

Was walking in a part of town where on Sundays they had sort of a flea market. Was looking for a decent breakfast with some buddies when we passed this travelling circus-like show. Here it's called "Kuda Lumping" it's a show where it involves certain degrees of "cult" "mystique" and such, and there's some parts where they sort of whiplash each other, which is the photo you're seeing here.. and yes, they're kids!

The London School of Exploitation Under Occupation: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Students Stand Against Exploitation and Corporate Education: Vera Anstey Suite: Old Building, London School of Economics, London, March 20, 2015.

 

Statement from the Occupation:

 

Why we are occupying

 

We have have occupied the Vera Anstey Suite, the central meeting room of the university administration, to demand a change to the current university system.

 

LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. Universities are increasingly implementing the privatised, profit-driven, and bureaucratic ‘business model’ of higher education, which locks students into huge debts and turns the university into a degree-factory and students into consumers. LSE has become the model for the transformation of the other university systems in Britain and beyond. Massive indebtedness, market-driven benchmarks, and subordination to corporate interests have deeply perverted what we think university and education should be about.

 

We demand an education that is liberating – which does not have a price tag. We want a university run by students, lecturers and workers.

 

When a University becomes a business the whole of student life is transformed. When a university is more concerned with its image, its marketability and the ‘added value’ of its degrees, the student is no longer a student - they become a commodity and education becomes a service. Institutional sexism and racism, as well as conditions of work for staff and lecturers, becomes a distraction for an institution geared to profit.

 

We join the ongoing struggles in the UK, Europe and the world to reject this system that has changed not only our education but our entire society. From the occupations in Sheffield, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford, to the ongoing collective takeover of the University of Amsterdam– students have made clear that the current system simply cannot continue.

 

We are not alone in this struggle.

 

Why Occupy?

 

In this occupation we aim to create an open, creative and liberated space, where all are free to participate in the building of a new directly democratic, non-hierarchical and universally accessible education: The Free University of London.

 

The space will be organized around the creation of workshops, discussions and meetings to share ideas freely. Knowledge is not a commodity but something precious and valuable in its own right. And we hope to prove, if only within a limited time and space, that education can be free.This liberated space should also be a space for an open discussion on the direction this university and our educational system as a whole is heading. We want to emphasise that this process is not only for students, and we encourage the participation of all LSE staff, non-academic and academic.

 

We base our struggle on principles of equality, direct democracy, solidarity, mutual care and support. These are our current demands which we invite all to openly discuss, debate and add to.

 

1 - Free and universally accessible education not geared to making profit

 

We demand that the management of LSE lobby the government to scrap tuition fees for both domestic and international students.

 

2 - Workers Rights

 

In solidarity with the LSE workers, we demand real job security, an end to zero-hour contracts, fair remuneration and a drastic reduction in the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees.

 

3 - Genuine University Democracy

 

We demand a student-staff council, directly elected by students and academic and non-academic staff, responsible for making all managerial decisions of the institution.

 

4 - Divestment

 

We demand that the school cuts its ties to exploitative and destructive organisations, such as those involved in wars, military occupations and the destruction of the planet. This includes but is not limited to immediate divestment from the fossil fuel industry and from all companies which make a profit from the Israeli state’s occupation of Palestine.

 

5 - Liberation

 

We demand that LSE changes its harassment policy, and to have zero tolerance to harassment.

 

We demand that LSE does not implement the Counter Terrorism Bill that criminalises dissent, particularly targeting Muslim students and staff.

 

We demand that the police are not allowed on campus.

 

We demand that LSE becomes a liberated space free of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and religious discrimination.

 

We demand that the school immediately reinstates the old ethics code and makes it legally binding, in line with the recently passed SU motion.

 

We demand that the school ensures the security and equality of international students, particularly with regards to their precarious visa status, and fully include them in our project for a free university.

 

occupylse.tumblr.com/

The London School of Exploitation Under Occupation: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Students Stand Against Exploitation and Corporate Education: Vera Anstey Suite: Old Building, London School of Economics, London, March 20, 2015.

 

Statement from the Occupation:

 

Why we are occupying

 

We have have occupied the Vera Anstey Suite, the central meeting room of the university administration, to demand a change to the current university system.

 

LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. Universities are increasingly implementing the privatised, profit-driven, and bureaucratic ‘business model’ of higher education, which locks students into huge debts and turns the university into a degree-factory and students into consumers. LSE has become the model for the transformation of the other university systems in Britain and beyond. Massive indebtedness, market-driven benchmarks, and subordination to corporate interests have deeply perverted what we think university and education should be about.

 

We demand an education that is liberating – which does not have a price tag. We want a university run by students, lecturers and workers.

 

When a University becomes a business the whole of student life is transformed. When a university is more concerned with its image, its marketability and the ‘added value’ of its degrees, the student is no longer a student - they become a commodity and education becomes a service. Institutional sexism and racism, as well as conditions of work for staff and lecturers, becomes a distraction for an institution geared to profit.

 

We join the ongoing struggles in the UK, Europe and the world to reject this system that has changed not only our education but our entire society. From the occupations in Sheffield, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford, to the ongoing collective takeover of the University of Amsterdam– students have made clear that the current system simply cannot continue.

 

We are not alone in this struggle.

 

Why Occupy?

 

In this occupation we aim to create an open, creative and liberated space, where all are free to participate in the building of a new directly democratic, non-hierarchical and universally accessible education: The Free University of London.

 

The space will be organized around the creation of workshops, discussions and meetings to share ideas freely. Knowledge is not a commodity but something precious and valuable in its own right. And we hope to prove, if only within a limited time and space, that education can be free.This liberated space should also be a space for an open discussion on the direction this university and our educational system as a whole is heading. We want to emphasise that this process is not only for students, and we encourage the participation of all LSE staff, non-academic and academic.

 

We base our struggle on principles of equality, direct democracy, solidarity, mutual care and support. These are our current demands which we invite all to openly discuss, debate and add to.

 

1 - Free and universally accessible education not geared to making profit

 

We demand that the management of LSE lobby the government to scrap tuition fees for both domestic and international students.

 

2 - Workers Rights

 

In solidarity with the LSE workers, we demand real job security, an end to zero-hour contracts, fair remuneration and a drastic reduction in the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees.

 

3 - Genuine University Democracy

 

We demand a student-staff council, directly elected by students and academic and non-academic staff, responsible for making all managerial decisions of the institution.

 

4 - Divestment

 

We demand that the school cuts its ties to exploitative and destructive organisations, such as those involved in wars, military occupations and the destruction of the planet. This includes but is not limited to immediate divestment from the fossil fuel industry and from all companies which make a profit from the Israeli state’s occupation of Palestine.

 

5 - Liberation

 

We demand that LSE changes its harassment policy, and to have zero tolerance to harassment.

 

We demand that LSE does not implement the Counter Terrorism Bill that criminalises dissent, particularly targeting Muslim students and staff.

 

We demand that the police are not allowed on campus.

 

We demand that LSE becomes a liberated space free of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and religious discrimination.

 

We demand that the school immediately reinstates the old ethics code and makes it legally binding, in line with the recently passed SU motion.

 

We demand that the school ensures the security and equality of international students, particularly with regards to their precarious visa status, and fully include them in our project for a free university.

 

occupylse.tumblr.com/

 

Ligne 78 - Arrêt : Villejean-Université

Exploitant : Keolis Armor

Réseau STAR - Rennes

It's cheap to buy in the market on Saturdays. For a couple of euros, I can buy a pound of steak, and for another couple of euros, another pound of cheese. Eggs price today is 1,90 euros the dozen.

 

Some people are willing to pay more if the pig whose muscles are sold at the butchers, or the cow who milked her calf or the hen who lay the eggs are reared in better conditions. As for me, I don't believe there is an acceptable price for exploitation. It will always be very expensive for them.

 

I could fill my cart with products derived from non-human exploitation for a few euros. On saturdays, animal exploitation is on offer.

P2000 Royal Navy

Mir (du russe : Мир signifiant « paix » et « monde ») était une station spatiale russe placée en orbite terrestre basse par l'Union soviétique. Mise en orbite le 19 février 1986 et détruite volontairement le 23 mars 2001, elle fut assemblée en orbite entre 1986 et 1996. Mir était la première station spatiale composée de plusieurs modules, possédait une masse supérieure à celle de n'importe quel satellite précédent et détenait le record du plus grand satellite artificiel en orbite autour de la Terre jusqu'à sa désorbitation le 21 mars 2001 (record aujourd'hui détenu par la Station spatiale internationale). Mir a servi de laboratoire de recherche en micropesanteur. Des équipages y ont mené des expériences en biologie, biologie humaine, physique, astronomie, météorologie et sur les systèmes spatiaux afin de développer les technologies nécessaires à l'occupation permanente de l'espace.

 

Mir fut la première station spatiale permettant l'exploitation spatiale habitée à long terme et était occupée par une série d'équipages effectuant des séjours de longue durée. Le programme Mir détenait le record de la plus longue présence humaine ininterrompue dans l'espace, de 3644 jours, jusqu'au 23 octobre 2010 (quand il a été dépassé par l'ISS)1, et il détient actuellement le record du plus long vol spatial d'un être humain sans interruption, de 437 jours et 18 heures, effectué par Valeri Polyakov. Mir a été occupée pendant un total de douze ans et demi durant ses quinze années d'existence. Elle pouvait accueillir un équipage résident de trois cosmonautes et plus lors de séjours de courte-durée.

 

Après le succès du programme Saliout, Mir représentait l’étape suivante du programme de station spatiale de l'Union soviétique. Le premier module de la station, connu sous le nom de module de base ou module central, a été lancé en 1986, et a été suivi par six autres modules, tous lancés par des fusées Proton (à l'exception du module d'amarrage, lancé par la navette spatiale Atlantis). Une fois terminée, la station se composait de sept modules pressurisés et de plusieurs autres éléments non pressurisés. L'énergie de la station était fournie par plusieurs panneaux photovoltaïques montés directement sur les modules. La station était maintenue à une orbite comprise entre 296 km et 421 km d'altitude et orbitait à une vitesse moyenne de 27 700 km/h, complétant 15,7 orbites par jour.

 

La station a été lancée par l'Union soviétique dans le cadre de ses efforts pour maintenir un avant-poste de recherche à long terme dans l'espace, et après l'effondrement de l'URSS, elle fut opérée par la nouvelle Agence spatiale fédérale russe (RKA). En conséquence, la grande majorité de l'équipage de la station était soviétique ou russe, mais, grâce à des collaborations internationales comme les programmes Intercosmos et Shuttle-Mir, la station a été rendue accessible aux astronautes nord-américains, européens, japonais et venant d'autres pays comme l'Inde ou la Slovaquie. Le coût du programme Mir a été estimé en 2001 par l'ancien directeur général de la RKA, Koptev Yuri, à 4,2 milliards de dollars sur toute la durée de vie de la station (y compris les opérations de développement, d'assemblage et d'orbitage)2. La station était desservie par des vaisseaux spatiaux Soyouz et Progress ainsi que par les navettes spatiales américaines, après la dissolution de l'Union soviétique

 

Mir (Russian: Мир, IPA: [ˈmʲir]; lit. Peace or World) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, owned by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. Until 21 March 2001 it was the largest satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space.

 

Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and set the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days until 23 October 2010 when it was surpassed by the ISS. It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short term visits.

 

Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986, and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for the docking module, which was installed by space shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km (184 mi) and 421 km (262 mi) altitude and traveled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.

 

The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union's manned spaceflight programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and, following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). As a result, the vast majority of the station's crew were Russian; however, through international collaborations such as the Intercosmos, Euromir and Shuttle-Mir programmes, the station was made accessible to astronauts from North America, several European nations and Japan. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 because of a lack of funding. The cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation)

. . . 3. 3. 2007 - this is the second day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week.

If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.

_____________________________________

 

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

 

The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

 

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.

 

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).

 

HISTORY

From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.

 

Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.

 

In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to

 

CHRISTIANITY

Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.

 

SOCIETY

There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

 

FAMILY AFFILIATION

Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.

 

Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.

 

Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.

 

CLASS AFFILIATION

In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.

 

Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.

 

Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.

 

The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.

 

CULTURE

TONGKONAN

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").

 

Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.

 

The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

 

WOOD CARVINGS

To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.

 

Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.

 

Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

 

FUNERAL RITES

In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.

 

The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.

 

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.

 

There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

 

In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.

 

DANCE AND MUSIC

Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.

 

As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.

 

A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.

 

LANGUAGE

The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.

 

ECONOMY

Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .

 

With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.

 

Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.

 

TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.

 

In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.

 

Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.

 

A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.

 

Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Exploitant : Transdev Les Cars d'Orsay

Réseau : Albatrans

Ligne : Express 91-08

Lieu : Université Paris-Saclay (Orsay, F-91)

Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/41478

Exploitant : Transdev Poitou Charente

Réseau Tourisme

This is the only photo I took today, and one which is more complex than it first appears. Seems Topman gets most of their T-shirts made in Mauritius, and H&M in Bangladesh. I wonder how little people are paid to make these :(

Points to be noted

 

* There are still hundreds of thousands of Web pages serving up buggy Shockwave Flash (.swf) files that could be exploited by hackers.

* Google dealt with its old buggy files by moving all Flash animation to Web servers that used numerical IP addresses rather than the Google.com domain. This made the cross-site scripting attack impossible on the Google.com Web site. Engineers there didn't even try to repair the buggy Flash files because it's "such a pain" to fix them.

* For Web sites like Google that contain sensitive customer information, they are a very serious problem, but they are not as critical as, say, remote-code execution flaws that would allow unauthorized software to run on a victim's PC.

* At least 10,000 buggy Web sites were still serving up buggy Flash files around mid-March, as developers worked to fix the problem.

 

Though adobe has upgraded its Flash Player to fix seven vulnerabilities in the graphics and video software widely used for interactive Web pages and banner advertisements.Adobe classifies the patches as "critical" and advises people upgrade to the latest version , 9.0.124.0. All of the vulnerabilities could allow a hacker to execute code on a machine.

 

One of the vulnerabilities allowed Shane Macaulay to win a laptop in the PWN 2 OWN hacking contest at last month's CanSecWest conference in Vancouver.Macaulay, a researcher with the Security Objectives consultancy, used the Flash flaw to break into a machine running Windows Vista. He later said 90 percent of computers worldwide were vulnerable.

 

Exploiting vulnerabilities in Flash software has become an increasingly popular vector for hackers to compromise machines for two reasons. Most Web browsers have the Flash Player installed, and malicious banner advertisements -- which can achieve wide distribution on Web sites pulling ads from a network -- can take advantage of those vulnerabilities.

 

"These vulnerabilities could be accessed through content delivered from a remote location via the user's web browser, e-mail client, or other applications that include or reference the Flash Player," Adobe wrote in its advisory.

 

If a malicious banner advertisement is widely distributed, a hacker has the potential to take control of many PCs. Lately, these "malvertisements" have been popping up everywhere, wrote Sandi Hardmeier, a Microsoft Most Valued Professional and security blogger.

 

On Sunday, Hardmeier wrote that she observed a fake FedEx banner ad that causes a user to be redirected to a Web site selling dodgy security software.

 

On Tuesday, security vendor Websense blogged about a malicious banner ad on the Web site of USA Today, a national U.S. newspaper. Websense wrote that if a user simply viewed the malicious ad, the person's browser window is immediately minimized, and a warning appears saying the computer is infected with malware, according to a description of the attack. Even if the user hits "cancel," the browser is redirected to another Web site selling spyware, which tries to download code to the PC.

 

In January, Adobe and other software vendors fixed some of their Flash development tools to stop hackers from creating malicious Shockwave Flash (.swf) files that enabled cross-site scripting attacks. That style of attack makes a browser execute malicious code via security weaknesses in a Web site.

 

The latest fixes focus solely on the Flash Player. One fix adds a feature Adobe calls a "cross-domain policy check." The Flash Player uses policy files, which allow it to use content from other domains. The feature allows for more richer capabilities in the player, wrote Deneb Meketa, a Flash engineer for Adobe, on the company's developer site.

 

But hackers can also build a policy file. If the policy file is accepted by the server, the hacker can then write a ".swf" file and load other data from outside the particular server's domain, which could lead to a security problem.

www.honeytechblog.com

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

 

The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

 

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.

 

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).

 

HISTORY

From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.

 

Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.

 

In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to

 

CHRISTIANITY

Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.

 

SOCIETY

There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

 

FAMILY AFFILIATION

Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.

 

Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.

 

Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.

 

CLASS AFFILIATION

In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.

 

Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.

 

Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.

 

The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.

 

CULTURE

TONGKONAN

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").

 

Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.

 

The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

 

WOOD CARVINGS

To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.

 

Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.

 

Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

 

FUNERAL RITES

In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.

 

The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.

 

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.

 

There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

 

In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.

 

DANCE AND MUSIC

Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.

 

As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.

 

A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.

 

LANGUAGE

The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.

 

ECONOMY

Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .

 

With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.

 

Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.

 

TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.

 

In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.

 

Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.

 

A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.

 

Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The London School of Exploitation Under Occupation: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Students Stand Against Exploitation and Corporate Education: Vera Anstey Suite: Old Building, London School of Economics, London, March 20, 2015.

 

Statement from the Occupation:

 

Why we are occupying

 

We have have occupied the Vera Anstey Suite, the central meeting room of the university administration, to demand a change to the current university system.

 

LSE is the epitome of the neoliberal university. Universities are increasingly implementing the privatised, profit-driven, and bureaucratic ‘business model’ of higher education, which locks students into huge debts and turns the university into a degree-factory and students into consumers. LSE has become the model for the transformation of the other university systems in Britain and beyond. Massive indebtedness, market-driven benchmarks, and subordination to corporate interests have deeply perverted what we think university and education should be about.

 

We demand an education that is liberating – which does not have a price tag. We want a university run by students, lecturers and workers.

 

When a University becomes a business the whole of student life is transformed. When a university is more concerned with its image, its marketability and the ‘added value’ of its degrees, the student is no longer a student - they become a commodity and education becomes a service. Institutional sexism and racism, as well as conditions of work for staff and lecturers, becomes a distraction for an institution geared to profit.

 

We join the ongoing struggles in the UK, Europe and the world to reject this system that has changed not only our education but our entire society. From the occupations in Sheffield, Warwick, Birmingham and Oxford, to the ongoing collective takeover of the University of Amsterdam– students have made clear that the current system simply cannot continue.

 

We are not alone in this struggle.

 

Why Occupy?

 

In this occupation we aim to create an open, creative and liberated space, where all are free to participate in the building of a new directly democratic, non-hierarchical and universally accessible education: The Free University of London.

 

The space will be organized around the creation of workshops, discussions and meetings to share ideas freely. Knowledge is not a commodity but something precious and valuable in its own right. And we hope to prove, if only within a limited time and space, that education can be free.This liberated space should also be a space for an open discussion on the direction this university and our educational system as a whole is heading. We want to emphasise that this process is not only for students, and we encourage the participation of all LSE staff, non-academic and academic.

 

We base our struggle on principles of equality, direct democracy, solidarity, mutual care and support. These are our current demands which we invite all to openly discuss, debate and add to.

 

1 - Free and universally accessible education not geared to making profit

 

We demand that the management of LSE lobby the government to scrap tuition fees for both domestic and international students.

 

2 - Workers Rights

 

In solidarity with the LSE workers, we demand real job security, an end to zero-hour contracts, fair remuneration and a drastic reduction in the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees.

 

3 - Genuine University Democracy

 

We demand a student-staff council, directly elected by students and academic and non-academic staff, responsible for making all managerial decisions of the institution.

 

4 - Divestment

 

We demand that the school cuts its ties to exploitative and destructive organisations, such as those involved in wars, military occupations and the destruction of the planet. This includes but is not limited to immediate divestment from the fossil fuel industry and from all companies which make a profit from the Israeli state’s occupation of Palestine.

 

5 - Liberation

 

We demand that LSE changes its harassment policy, and to have zero tolerance to harassment.

 

We demand that LSE does not implement the Counter Terrorism Bill that criminalises dissent, particularly targeting Muslim students and staff.

 

We demand that the police are not allowed on campus.

 

We demand that LSE becomes a liberated space free of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and religious discrimination.

 

We demand that the school immediately reinstates the old ethics code and makes it legally binding, in line with the recently passed SU motion.

 

We demand that the school ensures the security and equality of international students, particularly with regards to their precarious visa status, and fully include them in our project for a free university.

 

occupylse.tumblr.com/

 

Photo André Knoerr, Genève. Reproduction autorisée avec mention de la source.

Utilisation commerciale soumise à autorisation spéciale préalable.

 

Information coronavirus COVID-19

Rappel: A partir du 23 mars 2020, les TPG circulent selon l'horaire du samedi en semaine et selon l'horaire du dimanche le week-end. Les services nocturnes et les lignes Noctambus sont supprimés.

Les lignes transfrontalières connaissent des sorts différents: suppression, exploitation sur parcours suisse ou normale en fonction des douanes ouvertes.

 

Une distribution de "chiffons savon antiseptique" aux conducteurs et conductrices a été organisée à partir du 20 mars.

Utile certes, mais pas très pratique à transporter.

 

22050

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, used a hearing today to examine the financial exploitation of seniors and the difficulty of prosecuting family members who exploit and defraud their elderly family members.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, used a hearing today to examine the financial exploitation of seniors and the difficulty of prosecuting family members who exploit and defraud their elderly family members.

Exploitant : Transdev Marne et Morin

Réseau : Pays de Meaux

Ligne : 03

Lieu : Gare de Meaux (Meaux, F-77)

Liens TC Infos :

94560 : tc-infos.fr/id/51908

"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality."

 

- Albert Einstein

Exploitant : Transdev Les Cars d'Orsay

Réseau : Albatrans

Ligne : Express 91-03

Lieu : Gare de Massy – Palaiseau (Massy, F-91)

  

2018

Francis Joyon (Fra) IDEC Sport 7j 14h 21min 47sec

2014

Loïck Peyron (Fra) Banque populaire 7 7j 15h 08min 32sec

2010

Franck Cammas (Fra) Groupama 3 9j 03h 14min 47sec

2006

Lionel Lemonchois (Fra) Gitana 11 7j 17h 19min 06sec

2002

Michel Desjoyeaux (Fra) Géant 13j 07h 53min

1998

Laurent Bourgnon (Sui) Primagaz 12j 08h 41min

1994

Laurent Bourgnon (Sui) Primagaz 14j 06h 28min

1990

Florence Arthaud (Fra) Pierre 1er 14j 10h 08min

1986

Philippe Poupon (Fra) Fleury Michon 14j 15h 57min

1982

Marc Pajot (Fra) Elf Aquitaine 18j 01h 38min

1978

Mike Birch (Can) Olympus 23j 06h 59min 35sec

  

1

Francis Joyon 7j 14h 21min 47sec

2018

2

François Gabart 7j 14h 28min 55sec 2018

3

Loïck Peyron 7j 15h 08min 32sec 2014

4

Lionel Lemonchois 7j 17h 19min 06sec 2006

5

Pascal Bidégorry 8j 04h 25min 07sec 2006

6

Yann Guichard 8j 05h 18min 46sec 2014

7

Thomas Coville 8j 13h 39min 02sec 2006

8

Michel Desjoyeaux 8j 13h 48min 24sec 2006

9

Sébastien Josse 8j 14h 47min 09sec 2014

10

Lionel Lemonchois 8j 17h 44min 50sec 2014

 

Créée en 1978 par Michel Etevenon, La Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe est la reine des courses transatlantiques en solitaire. Depuis 44 ans, elle relie Saint-Malo en Bretagne à Pointe-à-Pitre en Guadeloupe, et regroupe sur une même ligne de départ le plus grand plateau de la voile océanique. Cette transatlantique, d’une distance totale de 3 542 milles (soit 6 562 kilomètres) est devenue mythique et sa magie opère dans la diversité des classes et le mélange des genres. Grandes figures de la voile, professionnels et amateurs se retrouvent tous les 4 ans pour goûter à « la magie du Rhum »

Séries open et classes en vogue

Dès sa première édition et la victoire aux 98 secondes historiques du petit trimaran de Mike Birch face au long cigare de Michel Malinovsky, la Route du Rhum braque ses projecteurs médiatiques sur les couples formés par un bateau et un solitaire pour braver les mers et affoler les compteurs. Il n’est donc pas étonnant que la transatlantique à destination de la Guadeloupe devienne, à travers la participation d’une multitude de navires, les plus en vogue sur la crête des vagues, le témoin des avancées architecturales et technologiques de la voile de compétition.

Grandes figures et visages amateurs

Côté skippers aussi, la diversité et le mélange de genres sont toujours de mise entre Saint-Malo et Pointe-à-Pitre. Tous les quatre ans, des marins venus de tous horizons se rassemblent pour goûter et se ressourcer à la magie du Rhum. La transat accueille en effet sur la même ligne de départ les skippers professionnels et les amateurs. Le temps d’un face-à-face avec l’océan où l’intensité de la course se mêle à la richesse de l’aventure humaine, elle met des visages anonymes et des grandes figures sur un même pied d’égalité. De quoi écrire parmi les plus belles pages de la course au large.

Images planétaires

Le public ne s’y laisse pas tromper, toujours plus nombreux pour se laisser griser par les exploits de Mike Birch, premier héros de la course, de Florence Arthaud fiancée pour toujours avec l’Atlantique, de Laurent Bourgnon au doublé inégalé, ou encore de Lionel Lemonchois qui a traversé l’Océan à pas-de-géant. La “ magie du Rhum ” est là, dans des images de mer qui font le tour de la planète et n’ont pas fini d’enivrer toutes les têtes à terre...

HISTORIQUE

1978

La Transat de la Liberté !

En réponse à la limitation de la taille maximale des bateaux suite à la Transat Anglaise de 1976, Michel Etevenon, publicitaire parisien, présente officiellement en mai 1978 le parcours de la Route du Rhum, première transatlantique française en solitaire qui s’élancera de Saint-Malo pour rejoindre Pointe-à-Pitre. L’épreuve est ouverte aux monocoques et aux multicoques et n’impose aucune limite de taille pour les navires. Au total, ce sont 38 marins, professionnels comme amateurs, qui seront inscrits sur cette première édition. Parmi eux, on retrouve des grands noms de la course au large et des jeunes prometteurs : Mike Birch, Alain Colas, Florence Arthaud, Michel Malinovsky, Olivier de Kersauson, Philippe Poupon, Marc Pajot, Bruno Peyron… Le célèbre Éric Tabarly sera le grand absent cette année-là, faute d’avoir trouvé à temps les financements nécessaires à sa participation.

Le 5 novembre 1978, sonne le jour du grand départ, et le public est au rendez-vous. La ville de Saint-Malo est en effervescence, et le cap Fréhel, tout comme le plan d'eau, sont pris d’assaut. La suite de la course va susciter la curiosité du grand public, mais ce qui fera entrer cette première édition dans la légende, c’est ce finish entre Mike Birch et Michel Malinovsky, voyant Birch s’imposer avec un écart infime de 98 secondes après 23 jours de mer et 3 500 milles de course.

Florence Arthaud, 21 ans, qui avait tout plaqué un an auparavant, arrive onzième après 27 jours de mer, elle sera la première femme classée, et sera surnommée “la petite fiancée de l’Atlantique”, formulation qu’elle detestera.

Sur un plan plus tragique, cette édition verra aussi disparaître en mer Alain Colas, à bord de son bateau Manureva. À la suite d’une ultime vacation pendant laquelle le navigateur indiquait être pris au centre d’un typhon, on ne retrouvera ni le marin, ni le bateau après plus de 250 heures de recherches.

Le podium :

1. Mike Birch (en 23 jours, 6 heures, 59 minutes)

2. Michel Malinovsky

3. Philip S. Weld

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1978 :

La première transatlantique bouleverse les idées reçues. 38 concurrents sont au départ, à peine un quart d’entre eux sont sur des bateaux de course. Olivier de Kersauson, Philippe Poupon, Florence Arthaud et Bruno Peyron sont parmi les inscrits.

Manureva ne répond plus, le navigateur Alain Colas disparaît en mer.

Olympus Photo, le petit trimaran jaune de Mike Birch devance de 98 secondes le Kriter V de Michel Malinovsky, après 23 jours de course.

L’édition de 1978 a marqué les esprits et entraînera un engouement certain chez les marins qui se presseront pour participer à cette deuxième édition en 1982. Ils seront 52 à prendre le départ, dont une part significative de marins professionnels, et bien connus du grand public : Tabarly, Birch, Malinovsky, Peyron, Poupon,...

La nouveauté réside dans l’équipement d’une balise Argos de tous les bateaux, ainsi que la création d’un PC presse au pied de la Tour Montparnasse qui permettra de suivre la compétition au plus près. Cette édition sera marquée par des conditions particulièrement difficiles qui obligent Éric Tabarly à abandonner. Marc Pajot arrivera en vainqueur de l’autre côté de l’atlantique, suivi de près par Bruno Peyron, et enfin Mike Birch. Tous trois compléteront le podium en multicoques. Fait notable, sur les 10 premiers bateaux en Guadeloupe, 9 sont des multicoques.

Le podium :

1. Marc Pajot (en 18 jours 01 heure et 38 minutes)

2. Bruno Peyron

3. Mike Birch

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1982 :

Les grands multicoques font leur apparition avec William-Saurin d’Eugène Riguidel (27 mètres) ou encore Elf Aquitaine de Marc Pajot. Ils sont trois à mesurer plus de 20 mètres.

Marc Pajot ménage le suspense : poutre centrale fendue à la limite de la rupture, le Baulois va mener tambour battant la course et la gagner avec 10 heures d’avance sur Jaz de Bruno Peyron.

19 abandons lors de cette deuxième édition dont Ian Johnston sur son trimaran Rennie (chavirage), Jean-Yves Terlain sur Gauthier III (démâtage), Éric Tabarly sur Paul Ricard et Daniel Gillard sur BAI Brittany Ferries.

Ils sont 33 à prendre le départ de cette édition 1986. Les meilleurs skippers sont toujours au rendez-vous même si le nombre de participants est en baisse par rapport à 1982. La taille des bateaux, elle, est toujours plus gigantesque : 13 bateaux mesurent plus de 23 mètres. Jamais la course au large n’avait réuni un tel plateau de géants. Parmi les inscrits, la tendance est résolument aux catamarans avec pas moins de 13 en lice, contre 9 trimarans dont certains sont dotés de nouveaux appendices : les foils. Les dépressions se succèdent sur l’Atlantique et portent un lourd tribu à la flotte de La Route du Rhum. Les conditions météo des premiers jours mettent à rude épreuve les concurrents ; abandons et avaries s’enchaînent. Loïc Caradec, qui navigue à bord de son imposant trimaran Royale II (22,60 mètres), ne donne plus signe de vie.Florence Arthaud se déroute sur sa position et découvre l’épave retournée sans aucun signe de vie. On ne retrouvera jamais Loïc Caradec. Ce sera le deuxième drame de l’histoire de la Route du Rhum, huit ans après la disparition d’Alain Colas.

Malgré ce bouleversement évident, Philippe Poupon s’impose devant Bruno Peyron et Lionel Péan.

Le podium :

1. Philippe Poupon (en 14 jours 15 heures et 57 minutes)

2. Bruno Peyron

3. Lionel Péan

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1986 :

Les grands multicoques marquent cette cuvée 1986 : pas moins de 13 bateaux de plus de 23 mètres en classe 1.

Avec 48 heures d’avance sur ses concurrents directs, Philippe Poupon sur Fleury Michon VIII, coupe la ligne d’arrivée. Son trimaran à foils a fait des merveilles sur la route du Sud et a creusé l’écart avec ses poursuivants. Une victoire qu’il dédiera à la mémoire de son ami Loïc Caradec.

1990 marque l’année du changement. De l’eau a coulé sous les coques en quatre ans et la flotte est en pleine mutation. Les trimarans semblent s’être définitivement imposés pour la course en solitaire et la limitation à 60 pieds fait à peu près l’unanimité. Mis au pied du mur, Bruno Peyron, Francis Joyon et Hervé Laurent se voient refuser l’entrée de La Route du Rhum avec leurs bateaux de 65 pieds. Joyon réduira la taille de sa coque en tronçonnant un morceau quelques jours seulement avant le départ, Peyron et Laurent s’élanceront, eux, en « pirates », c’est-à-dire sans figurer au classement officiel.

31 concurrents se présenteront tout de même à Saint-Malo parmi lesquels de nouveaux bateaux comme Pierre 1er (Florence Arthaud), Fujichrome (Mike Birch), RMO (Laurent Bourgnon) ou encore Fleury Michon IX (Philippe Poupon). Laurent Bourgnon passera la bouée du cap Fréhel en tête. Le ton est donné : il faudra tenir le rythme imposé par ces nouvelles Formule 1 des mers. Mois de novembre oblige, les dépressions s’abattent sur la flotte et les avaries entrent en scène : Jean Maurel (Elf Aquitaine III) démâte et Laurent Bourgnon explose sa dérive occasionnant une voie d’eau. Il ne dit rien, mais pompe… À Pointe-à-Pitre, Florence Arthaud, à bout de forces et après avoir été privée d’électronique et de communication depuis les Açores, entrera dans la légende du Rhum en étant la première femme à s’imposer sur une course au large en solitaire.

Le podium en multicoque :

1. Florence Arthaud (en 14 jours 10 heures 8 minutes)

2. Philippe Poupon

3. Laurent Bourgnon

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1990 :

La limitation de la taille des bateaux à 60 pieds devient la norme.

Les trimarans s’imposent. De nouvelles unités, tout carbone, apparaissent : gain de poids, raideur et résistance semblent être le cocktail gagnant.

La grande nouveauté de l'édition 1990 est l’arrivée du GPS (Global Positionning System) qui permettra à chaque marin de connaître sa position en temps réel et d’importer des fichiers météo qui, après avoir été brassés avec les polaires, la vitesse et le cap du bateau, propose plusieurs types de routes aux marins.

Florence Arthaud sur Pierre 1er réalise une course incroyable. Elle gagne cette Route du Rhum, seule face à l’océan et à une meute de poursuivants.

Si le deuxième est Philippe Poupon, le troisième est un petit nouveau : Laurent Bourgnon.

Ils ne sont que 24 à prendre le départ de cette cinquième édition, mais grande nouveauté, il y aura bien deux courses dans la course : une chez les multicoques et une chez les monocoques. Hasard des choses, ils sont le même nombre d’inscrits dans chacune des catégories. Et si beaucoup ont les images de Florence Arthaud ancrées dans les esprits, elle ne sera pas là pour défendre son titre. Seul son bateau sera présent, racheté par le milliardaire Steve Fossett sous le nom de Lakota.

Mais la bataille du plateau n’en est pas moins superbe, alors que du côté des multicoques, Loïck Peron démâtera, Paul Vatine deviendra le principal concurrent de Laurent Bourgnon qui remportera sa première Route du Rhum. ; du côté des monocoques, Yves Parlier, Alain Gautier et Halvard Mabire sont les grands favoris. Mabire va perdre sa quille, se retourner et déclencher sa balise de détresse. Il sera secouru après être resté dans l’eau glacée plus d’une dizaine d’heures. Yves Parlier et Alain Gautier termineront juste derrière les deux trimarans de tête, ce qui n’en restera pas moins qu’une performance remarquable.

Le podium :

1. Laurent Bourgnon (en 14 jours 06 heures et 28 minutes)

2. Paul Vatine

3. Yves Parlier (premier monocoque)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1994 :

Outre le combat des marins sur l’eau, les conseils des routeurs à terre ont pris une incroyable dimension avec, entre autres, Richard Silvani pour Laurent Bourgnon ou encore Jean-Yves Bernot et Louis Bodin pour Paul Vatine.

Les monocoques 60 pieds nouvelle génération avec leurs ballasts montrent un potentiel incroyable. S’ils peuvent faire jeu égal avec les trimarans à certaines allures, ils ont pu faire face aux éléments plus facilement et peuvent se permettre de tenir plus de toile qu’auparavant.

19 multicoques pour 18 monocoques : un beau plateau d’anniversaire pour les vingt ans de La Route du Rhum. En six éditions, cette transat est devenue une grande classique, incontournable pour tous les marins professionnels. Laurent Bourgnon vient remettre son titre en jeu à bord d’un trimaran fiabilisé à l’extrême, avec une mécanique physiologique parfaitement maîtrisée, des analyses météo françaises et américaines 24h/24 via Richard Silvani et Bob Rice et un esprit de compétition des plus exacerbés. Son principal concurrent, qui garde en ligne de mire une première victoire sur la Route du Rhum, n'est autre que Loïck Peyron. L’ Atlantique se mue en véritable échiquier sur lequel les plus grands solitaires avancent leurs options : Francis Joyon, Paul Vatine, Alain Gautier, Marc Guillemot et Franck Cammas tiendront leur monde en haleine.

À son arrivée en Guadeloupe, Laurent Bourgnon devient le premier marin de l’histoire de la course à réaliser le doublé et établit un nouveau record de temps de traversée : 12 jours, 8 heures, et 41 minutes. Alain Gautier prend la deuxième place, puis Franck Cammas vient achever le classement du podium en coupant la ligne seulement huit minutes devant Marc Guillemot. Du côté des monocoques, Thomas Coville, appelé à remplacer Yves Parlier à la dernière minute à la suite d’un accident de parapente de ce dernier, s’impose face à Jean-Luc Van Den Heede. Ellen MacArthur, âgée de 22 ans à l’époque, remportera l’épreuve de monocoque sur son navire de 50 pieds, laissant présager une magnifique carrière.

 

Le podium en multicoque :

1. Laurent Bourgnon (en 12 jours 8 heures et 41 minutes)

2. Alain Gautier

3. Franck Cammas

Premier en monocoque :

Thomas Coville (en 18 jours 7 heures et 53 minutes)

Premier en monocoque de 50 pieds :

Ellen MacArthur (en 20 jours 11 heures et 44 minutes)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 1998 :

Yves Parlier, sérieusement blessé lors d’une chute de parapente, confie son 60 pieds Aquitaine Innovations à Thomas Coville. Ce dernier gagne en monocoque, routé par Yves Parlier lui-même. Un grand marin est né !

La victoire en monocoque d’Ellen MacArthur à bord de son Kingfisher. Malgré les problèmes techniques à répétition, la jeune anglaise va taquiner les 60 pieds et passionner le grand public.

Ils sont quatre à arriver collés-serrés en vue de la Guadeloupe : Laurent Bourgnon, Alain Gautier, Marc Guillemot et Franck Cammas. Qui va gagner ? Celui qui aura commis le moins d’erreurs selon Alain Gautier. Laurent Bourgnon signe ainsi sa deuxième victoire consécutive sur La Route du Rhum.

Avec 58 concurrents au départ, 2002 est une année record. En termes de participations d’abord, mais hélas aussi en termes d’abandons, car si 28 bateaux finissent l’épreuve, seulement 3 sur 18 arrivent aux Antilles dans la classe ORMA, reine des 60 pieds multicoques.

C’est Franck Cammas, qui fera en premier les frais de la dépression qui a balayé la flotte dès le début de la course, et seuls trois d’entre eux arriveront de l’autre côté de l’Atlantique : Michel Desjoyeaux, en vainqueur, devant Marc Guillemot et Lalou Roucayrol (seul skipper à terminer sans faire escale).

Première historique également, l’arrivée en temps réel de deux monocoques IMOCA devant les multicoques, dont celui d’Ellen MacArthur et Mike Golding, conséquence du départ décalé des monocoques partis un jour avant les multicoques, et des chavirages et avaries dues aux conditions météo dantesques rencontrées au large de La Corogne.

Le podium en trimaran Orma :

1. Michel Desjoyeaux (en 13 jours 7 heures et 53 minutes)

2. Marc Guillemot

3. Lalou Roucayrol

Le podium en monocoque IMOCA :

1. Ellen MacArthur (en 13 jours 13 heures et 31 minutes)

2. Mike Golding

3. Joé Seeten

Premier en multicoque de 50 pieds :

Franck-Yves Escoffier

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 2002 :

La septième édition aura été marquée par le passage d’une dépression très creuse à l’origine de l’hécatombe survenue chez les multicoques ORMA. Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant), Marc Guillemot (Biscuits La Trinitaine) et Lalou Roucayrol (Banque Populaire) seront les trois seuls à arriver sur les 18 partants.

Michel Etevenon, décédé un an auparavant, n’est plus. La nouvelle équipe d’organisation de course, décide de proposer deux départs décalés : un pour les monocoques et un pour les multicoques.

Steve Ravussin, skipper Suisse, seul marin sorti de la tempête sans la moindre avarie ou presque filait vers une arrivée victorieuse en Guadeloupe, avant de se faire piéger par un grain. Il chavirera à seulement 734 milles (1360 kms) de Pointe-à-Pitre.

Cette édition consacre la victoire d’Ellen MacArthur en monocoque IMOCA et celle de Michel Desjoyeaux en trimaran ORMA, qui, après trois escales techniques, a pris la tête du classement dans une lutte acharnée avec ses poursuivants.

Ce huitième épisode de la célèbre transatlantique en solitaire restera marqué par le sprint époustouflant de Lionel Lemonchois, vainqueur de la catégorie reine des multicoques 60 pieds à bord de Gitana 11. Ralliant Saint-Malo à Pointe-à-Pitre en 7 jours 17 heures et 19 minutes, le Normand pulvérise l’ancien record de Laurent Bourgnon de plus de 4 jours, à la moyenne vertigineuse de 19,11 nœuds en solitaire ! L’autre fait d’arme de cette édition fût le duel épique entre Roland Jourdain (Sill et Véolia) et Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) en IMOCA, donnant lieu à un final à suspens. Après 3 543 milles, 28 minutes seulement les séparent, permettant à Jourdain de rentrer dans la légende du Rhum. Aussi, pour la première fois dans l’histoire de la Route du Rhum, les Class40 participent à la course, au nombre de 25, et permettent de mélanger professionnels et amateurs. C’est Phil Sharp qui arrivera premier de cette catégorie.

Le podium en trimaran ORMA :

1. Lionel Lemonchois (en 7 jours 17 heures et 19 minutes)

2. Pascal Bidégorry

3. Thomas Coville

Le podium en monocoque IMOCA :

1. Roland Jourdain (en 12 jours 11 heures et 58 minutes)

2. Jean Le Cam

3. Jean-Pierre Dick

Premier en Class40 :

Phil Sharp (en 18 jours 10 heures et 21 minutes)

Premier en multicoque de 50 pieds :

Franck-Yves Escoffier (en 11 jours 17 heures et 28 minutes)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 2006 :

74 skippers se sont alignés au départ, une affluence qui fera date dans l’histoire de la course, dont 25 inscrits en Class40, pour sa première introduction dans la course. 62 bateaux ont rejoint la Guadeloupe dont 61 classés, illustrant une très belle réussite sportive.

1,2 million de visiteurs s’étaient massés sur les quais pendant les dix jours précédant le départ.

La limitation de taille des bateaux imposée depuis 1990 à 60 pieds (18,28 mètres) est abandonnée pour renouer avec le concept du “no limit” qui avait guidé la création de la course en 1978.

85 solitaires au départ, près de 2 millions de visiteurs, dès le départ de Saint-Malo, le cru 2010 du Rhum s’est imposé comme celui de tous les records. Ils sont ​​neuf dans la catégorie des Ultim, pour appuyer un retour tant attendu. Il y a aussi neuf IMOCA, douze Multi 50, quarante-quatre Class40 et onze voiliers de catégorie « Rhum ». Sur l’eau, le spectacle n’a pas déçu les attentes. Vainqueur à Pointe-à-Pitre à bord de son trimaran de 31,50 mètres, Franck Cammas, skipper de Groupama 3, entre dans la légende, mais ne bat pas le temps de référence en mettant 9 jours 3 heures 14 minutes 47 secondes pour traverser l’Atlantique. Francis Joyon (Idec) et Thomas Coville (Sodebo) complètent le podium. Deux marins s’illustrent particulièrement en réalisant le doublé, Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) vainqueur en IMOCA pour la deuxième édition consécutive et Lionel Lemonchois (Prince de Bretagne), qui réédite l’exploit de 2006 en s’imposant cette fois sur un multicoque de 50 pieds. En Class40, Thomas Ruyant sera le premier dans sa catégorie, tandis que l’Italien Andrea Mura l’emporte en catégorie Rhum.

Le podium en Ultime :

1. Franck Cammas (en 9 jours 3 heures et 14 minutes)

2. Francis Joyon

3. Thomas Coville

Premier en IMOCA :

Roland Jourdain (en 13 jours 17 heures et 10 minutes)

Premier en Multi 50 :

Lionel Lemonchois (en 15 jours 04 heures et 50 minutes)

Premier en Class40 :

Thomas Ruyant (en 17 jours 23 heures et 10 minutes)

Premier en catégorie Rhum :

Andrea Mura (en 19 jours 09 heures et 40 minutes)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 2010

9 Ultimes, 9 Imoca, 12 Multi50, 11 « Rhum » et 44 Class40 soit 85 concurrents au départ pour un casting de choix.

2 millions de visiteurs avaient salué les marins de La Route du Rhum

Franck Cammas rentre dans le cercle fermé des vainqueurs de la reine des transatlantiques et célèbre à sa manière le retour des géants de la course au large.

Pour sa dixième édition en 2014, La Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe continue d’affoler les compteurs. Sur le plan sportif d’abord, avec 91 voiliers réunis sur une même ligne de départ au large de Saint-Malo le 2 novembre à 14h00, et à l’arrivée en Guadeloupe, un magnifique vainqueur, Loïck Peyron, qui établissait un nouveau temps de référence, bouclant les 3 542 milles du parcours en 7 jours 15 heures 08 minutes et 32 secondes.

Sur le plan médiatique ensuite, avec une couverture sans précédent avec plus de 67 heures de retombées télévisuelles, plus de 44 heures de reportages radio, plus de 5 500 articles de presse, plus de 900 journalistes accrédités ou encore plus de 12 000 sujets web. Enfin, entre le départ de la cité corsaire et la place de la Victoire à Pointe-à-Pitre, plus de 2 200 000 de personnes sont venues arpenter les villages départ et arrivée et goûter à la magie du Rhum !

Le podium en Ultime :

1. Loïck Peyron (en 7 jours 15 heures et 8 minutes)

2. Yann Guichard

3. Sébastien Josse

Premier en IMOCA :

François Gabart (en 12 jours 04 heures et 38 minutes)

Premier en Multi 50 :

Erwan Le Roux (en 11 jours 05 heures et 13 minutes)

Premier en Class40 :

Alex Pella (en 16 jours 17 heures et 47 minutes)

Première en catégorie Rhum :

Anne Caseneuve (en 17 jours 07 heures et 06 minutes)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 2014 :

8 Ultimes, 9 Imoca, 11 Multi50, 20 « Rhum » et 43 Class40 soit 91 concurrents au départ pour un casting de choix.

Yann Guichard, s’est engagé sur la transatlantique à bord de Spindrift 2 son trimaran de 40 mètres de long et 23 mètres de large pour 800 m2 de voilure. Il arrivera seulement quelques heures après le vainqueur.

François Gabart pulvérise le record en monocoque en 12 jours et 4 heures, en menant la course du début à la fin.

1,35 millions de visiteurs se sont rendus sur les villages de course.

Un anniversaire pour fêter ses quarante ans, un public venu en nombre à Saint-Malo. Un départ spectaculaire entre la pointe du Grouin et le cap Fréhel. Un engouement exceptionnel des internautes et des réseaux sociaux. Un final entre Ultims à rebondissements et un retournement de situation incroyable chez les monocoques IMOCA. Des records de traversée pulvérisés dans quatre catégories sur six, un nouveau classement avec les Rhum Mono, des étrangers en force et un parcours de 3 542 milles devenu légendaire…

Un nombre de participants record avec 123 bateaux et une fréquentation accrue par rapport à 2014 : 1,35 millions de personnes ! Douze jours d’animations qui se sont conclus par le mythique passage des écluses, pour rallier un plan d’eau balayé dimanche 4 novembre 2018 à 14h00 par une jolie brise d’une quinzaine de nœuds de Sud-Est, conditions idéales pour s’élancer vers la Région Guadeloupe.

La onzième édition de la Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe restera ancrée dans les mémoires. L’arrivée des Ultims fut palpitante, avec le duel Francis Joyon vs François Gabart, qui a fini par voir s’imposer Francis Joyon de quelques centaines de mètres face à François Gabart avec un delta temps de 428 secondes. Alex Thomson, en IMOCA, lui qui menait la flotte, s’est endormi à quelques mètres de la pointe Guadeloupéenne et c’est, épuisé, qu’il s’est drossé sur les rochers à 60 milles de l’arrivée. Arrivé premier sur la ligne d’arrivée, mais obligé de s’extirper à la force de son moteur, il écope d’une pénalité de 24 heures. La victoire revient finalement à Paul Meilhat devant Yann Éliès et Alex Thomson.

Le podium en Ultim :

1. Francis Joyon (en 7 jours 14 heures et 21 minutes)

2. François Gabart

3. Thomas Coville

Premier en IMOCA :

Paul Meilhat (en 12 jours 11 heures et 23 minutes)

Premier en Multi 50 :

Armel Tripon (en 11 jours 7 heures et 32 minutes)

Premier en Class40 :

Yoann Richomme (en 16 jours 3 heures et 22 minutes)

Premier en catégorie Rhum Multi :

Pierre Antoine (en 15 jours 1 heure et 15 minutes)

Premier en catégorie Rhum Mono :

Sidney Gavignet (en 16 jours 11 heures et 18 minutes)

Ce qu’il faut retenir de 2018 :

Une année anniversaire qui bat tous les records de participation depuis la création de la course : 123 marins sont inscrits.

Les architectes Marc Van Pethegem et Vincent Lauriot-Prévost (VPLP) signent leur huitième succès consécutif avec leurs plans de multicoque. Après le triomphe de Florence Arthaud en 1990, ils ont créé sans pauses, les plans de tous les vainqueurs de la Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe. Et pour la troisième fois d’affilée, le maxi trimaran skippé par Franck Cammas en 2010, Loïck Peyron en 2014 se voit victorieux à l’arrivée aussi avec Francis Joyon en 2018 !

  

Carrière de calcaire argileux (pierre à ciment)

Les petites et moyennes exploitations agricoles tunisiennes sont souvent caractérisées par un capital très faible et par un niveau de risque financier très élevé à cause des risques climatiques et de l’endettement récurrent. Dans la majorité des exploitations, on constate aussi une confusion entre les comptes de l’exploitation agricole proprement dite et ceux de la famille du chef d’exploitation, tant au niveau des recettes qu’à celui des dépenses.

 

agridurable.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/comment-assurer-une-...

 

Sexual exploitation case: Jury retires #Middlesbrough #Teesside #Boro #bbcqt #bbcdp #Newsnight #skypapers #bbcpapers ow.ly/rqKzC The jury in the trial of three men and a youth who are accused of sexually exploiting underage girls on Teesside has retired to consider its...

Exploitant : SAVAC

Réseau : Transilien SNCF

Ligne : Navette Transilien L

Lieu : Gaudines (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, F-78)

Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/vehicule/58885

Campaign against shale gas production, Marseille, France.

 

Campagne contre l'exploitation du gaz de schiste, Marseille Vieux Port.

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

 

The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

 

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.

 

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).

 

HISTORY

From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.

 

Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.

 

In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to

 

CHRISTIANITY

Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.

 

SOCIETY

There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

 

FAMILY AFFILIATION

Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.

 

Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.

 

Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.

 

CLASS AFFILIATION

In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.

 

Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.

 

Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.

 

The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.

 

CULTURE

TONGKONAN

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").

 

Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.

 

The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

 

WOOD CARVINGS

To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.

 

Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.

 

Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

 

FUNERAL RITES

In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.

 

The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.

 

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.

 

There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

 

In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.

 

DANCE AND MUSIC

Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.

 

As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.

 

A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.

 

LANGUAGE

The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.

 

ECONOMY

Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .

 

With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.

 

Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.

 

TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.

 

In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.

 

Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.

 

A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.

 

Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Ligne 147 - Arrêt : Toutes Aides

Exploitant : Keolis Atlantique

Réseau TAN - Nantes

HMS Exploit is an Archer-class (or P2000) patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy, built in Woolston by Vosper Thornycroft and commissioned in 1988. She is attached to Birmingham University Royal Naval Unit (URNU), which exists to provide training to undergraduate students in a wide range of naval skills and to provide opportunities for personal development. Here members of her crew prepares to tie her up to one of the pontoons.

Pour assurer les dispositions de la convention du 15 janvier 1881 qui a créée la ligne d'Australie et qui prévoie un départ de Marseille toutes les 4 semaines avec des paquebots assurant une traversée avec une vitesse de 15 nœuds aux essais et une vitesse d'exploitation de 13 nœuds, la Compagnie des Services Contractuels des Messageries Maritimes fera construire 7 paquebots aux chantiers navals de La Ciotat entre 1881 et 1884.

Les coques auront les mêmes dimensions que celle du SAGHALIEN construit en 1880 sur les plans de Vésigné pour la ligne de Chine. Par contre la machine aura une puissance de 500 cv de plus. Ces paquebots seront gréés en 3 mâts barque, puis par la suite transformés en 3 mâts goélette en perdant leurs vergues et leurs guis avant la 1ère guerre mondiale de 1914 à laquelle seul le SALAZIE ne participera pas car perdu par échouage à Madagascar en 1912.

SALAZIE sera lancé le 8 avril 1883 sous le contrôle de l'ingénieur Risbec. Il porte le nom d'une région de l'île de La Réunion

--------------

Caractéristiques :

Paquebot poste à hélice avec 2 cheminées. Avant droit et long gaillard, roof arrière entre les 2èmes et 3èmes mâts. Gréé en 3 mâts barque à l'origine.

Longueur : 130,75 mHT – 126,15 mPP

Largeur : 12,6 m

Jauge brute : 4256 tjb

Port en lourd : 2450 tonnes

Déplacement : 6900 tonnes avec 6.75 m de TE

-------------------------

Propulsion et installations :

Une machine compound à 3 cylindres HPØ 1,10m - MP Ø 1.53m- HP Ø 1.53m - Course 1.10m

8 chaudières cylindriques à 6 kg/cm²

Chauffe au charbon

Puissance : 3400 CV

Vitesse : 15,6 nœuds aux essais.

1 hélice

2 cheminées

1885/1886 – Installation d'un salon de musique

1886/1887 – Installation à La Ciotat d'un éclairage électrique par lampes à incandescences

1895 Modification de la propulsion. Machine à triple expansion

Puissance portée à 4000 cv

Vitesse passant à 16 nœuds aux essais

------------------------

Personnel :

État-major : 11 officiers

Équipage : 185 Maitres, matelots et ADSG

-------------------

Passagers

90 en premières classes

44 en secondes classes

75 en troisièmes classes

-------------------

LIGNES :

1883 le 23 novembre Premier départ de Marseille pour l'Extrême-Orient, il inaugure la nouvelle ligne Suez – Mahé des Seychelles – La Réunion – Maurice – Australie – Nouvelle Calédonie. Il effectuera un second voyage sur la même ligne.

1983 le 27 septembre première traversée de nuit du canal de Suez avec un projecteur

1882-1890, assure la ligne Marseille-Nouméa par la Réunion et Sydney.

-----------------------

Événements remarquables :

1886, il gagne de vitesse le HOHENSTAUFEN de la Norddeutscher Lloyd entre Adélaïde et Melbourne.

1889 (d'aucuns donnent la date de 1888) Il gagne de vitesse le VALETTA de la P&O entre Suez et Aden.

1891, il passe sur la ligne de Chine et subit des transformations (reçoit une machine à triple expansion, plus puissante).

1896 le 3 mai, s'échoue pendant 24 heures devant Djibouti.

1904 Il assure après cette date les lignes d’Égypte, d'Extrême Orient ou de Madagascar, selon les besoins.

1912 le 23 novembre: Il quitte Diégo-Suarez pour Tamatave. A 100 milles au sud il est pris dans un cyclone exceptionnel. Après 24h de lutte il se retrouve désemparé par des amarres balayées du pont et qui vont se prendre dans l'hélice. Dans la soirée du 24 novembre, il finit par s'échouer sur l'ilot de ''Nosy Akoumby'' au nord de ''Vohémar'' (Madagascar). Les passagers doivent camper pendant 3 jours sur l'îlot avant d'être rapatriés par l'EUGENE GROSOS de la Compagnie Havraise Péninsulaire. L'épave est irrécupérable et sera vendue sur place.

  

NB: Sur le site de Monsieur Philippe Ramona '' www.messageries-maritimes.org/salazie.htm'' Vous pouvez lire ''un voyage de Colombo à Nagasaki à bord du SALAZIE en 1901'', et ''un voyage de Marseille à Shangai à bord du SALAZIE en 1902''

 

Animals have the right to not be treated as property. Go Vegan!

 

From Animal Rights and Domesticated Nonhumans by Gary L Francione

(www.abolitionistapproach.com/animal-rights-and-domesticat...):

 

"One aspect of my theory of animal rights, as articulated in Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? and other places, that troubles some animal advocates, is that if we accept the rights position, we ought not to bring any more domesticated nonhumans into existence. I apply this not only to animals we use for food, experiments, clothing, etc., but also to our nonhuman companions.

 

I can certainly understand that if you embrace the welfarist approach, which says that the use of nonhumans is morally acceptable as long as you treat them “humanely” and which sees the goal as better regulating animal use, you would reject my view. But if you, as I, see the primary problem of animal exploitation to be our use of nonhumans irrespective of whether we are “humane,” and regard the goal as the abolition of animal exploitation, then it is not clear to me why this position would cause you any difficulty.

 

The logic is simple. We treat animals as our property, as resources that we can use for our purposes. We bring billions of them into existence for the sole purpose of using and killing them. We have bred these animals to be dependent on us for their survival.

 

The central position of my rights theory is that we have no justification for treating animals as our property just as we had no justification for treating other humans as slaves. We have abolished human chattel slavery in most parts of the world; similarly, we should abolish animal slavery.

 

But what does that mean in the context of nonhumans? Should we “liberate” animals and let them wander freely in the streets? No, of course not. That would be as irresponsible as allowing small children to wander around. We should certainly care for those nonhumans whom we have already brought into existence but we should stop causing any more to come into existence. We have no justification for using nonhumans—however “humanely” we treat them.

 

There are two objections that I have heard in connection with this view.

 

First, there is the concern that we will lose “diversity” if we no longer have these domesticated nonhumans.

 

Even if continued domestication were necessary for biological diversity, that would not mean that it would be morally acceptable. We do not, however, have to address that issue. There is nothing “natural” about domesticated animals. They are creatures that we have created through selective breeding and confinement. To the extent that they have undomesticated relatives living in nature, we should certainly seek to protect those nonhumans first and foremost for their own sake and secondarily for the purposes of biological diversity. But our protection of presently existing domesticated nonhumans is not necessary for any sort of biological diversity.

 

Second, and more often, animal advocates express a difficulty with my view about domestication because they point to the fact that many of us live with nonhumans and treat them as members of our families. This arrangement, they argue, must certainly be morally acceptable.

 

As far as companion animals are concerned, some of us treat them as family members and some of us do not. But however we treat our dogs, cats, etc., they are property as far as the law is concerned. If you regard your dog as a member of your family and treat her well, the law will protect your decision just as the law will protect your decision to change the oil in your car every 1000 miles—the dog and the car are your property and if you wish to accord a higher value to your property, the law will protect your decision. But if you wish to accord your property a lower value and, for instance, have a guard dog who you keep chained in your yard and to whom you provide minimal food, water, and shelter—and no companionship or affection—the law will protect that decision as well.

 

The reality is that in the United States, most dogs and cats do not end up dying of old age in loving homes. Most have homes for a relatively short period of time before they are transferred to another owner, taken to a shelter, dumped, or taken to a veterinarian to be killed.

 

It does not matter whether we characterize an owner as a “guardian,” as some advocates urge. Such a characterization is meaningless. Those of us who live with companion animals are owners as far as the law is concerned and we have the legal right to treat our animals as we see fit with few limitations. Anticruelty laws do not even apply to the vast majority of instances in which humans inflict cruel treatment on nonhumans.

 

But, these advocates respond, we could, at least in theory, have a different and morally acceptable relationship with nonhumans. What if we abolished the property status of animals and required that we treat dogs and cats similar to the way we treat human children? What if humans who lived with dogs could no longer treat them instrumentally (e.g., as guard dogs, “show” dogs or cats, etc.) but had to treat them as family members? What if humans could not kill nonhuman companions except in instances in which at least some of us regard it as acceptable to allow assisted suicide in the human context (e.g., when the human is incurably ill and in great pain, etc.). Would it be acceptable to continue to breed nonhumans to be our companions then?

 

The answer is no.

 

Putting aside that the development of general standards of what would constitute treating nonhumans as “family members,” and the resolution of all the related issues, would be impossible as a practical matter, this position neglects to recognize that domestication itself raises serious moral issues irrespective of how the nonhumans involved are treated.

 

Domestic animals are dependent on us for when and whether they eat, whether they have water, where and when they relieve themselves, when they sleep, whether they get any exercise, etc. Unlike human children, who, except in unusual cases, will become independent and functioning members of human society, domestic animals are neither part of the nonhuman world nor fully part of our world. They remain forever in a netherworld of vulnerability, dependent on us for everything that is of relevance to them. We have bred them to be compliant and servile, or to have characteristics that are actually harmful to them but are pleasing to us. We may make them happy in one sense, but the relationship can never be “natural” or “normal.” They do not belong stuck in our world irrespective of how well we treat them.

 

This is more or less true of all domesticated nonhumans. They are perpetually dependent on us. We control their lives forever. They truly are “animal slaves.” We may be benevolent “masters,” but we really aren’t anything more than that. And that cannot be right.

 

My partner and I live with five rescued dogs. All five would be dead if we did not adopt them. We love them very much and try very hard to provide them the best of care and treatment. (And before anyone asks, all seven of us are vegans!) You would probably not find two people on the planet who enjoy living with dogs more than we do.

 

But if there were two dogs left in the universe and it were up to us as to whether they were allowed to breed so that we could continue to live with dogs, and even if we could guarantee that all dogs would have homes as loving as the one that we provide, we would not hesitate for a second to bring the whole institution of “pet” ownership to an end. We regard the dogs who live with us as refugees of sorts, and although we enjoy caring for them, it is clear that humans have no business continuing to bring these creatures into a world in which they simply do not fit.

 

There are some advocates who think that “animal rights” means that nonhumans have some sort of right to reproduce, so that it is wrong to sterilize nonhumans. If that view is correct, then we would be morally committed to allowing all domesticated species to continue to reproduce indefinitely. We cannot limit this “right of reproduction” to dogs and cats alone. Moreover, it makes no sense to say that we have acted immorally in domesticating nonhuman animals but we are now committed to allowing them to continue to breed. We made a moral mistake by domesticating nonhumans in the first place; what sense does it make to perpetuate it?

 

In sum, I can understand that welfarists, for whom treatment and not use is the primary moral issue, think that domestication and continued animal use is acceptable as long as we treat animals “humanely.” But I cannot understand why anyone who regards herself as an abolitionist thinks that the continued domestication of any nonhumans could be justified provided that we treat those animals well—any more than I can understand how anyone who regards herself as an abolitionist can be anything other than a vegan.

 

The subtitle of my book—Your Child or the Dog?—the notion of the child and the dog in the burning house (or on the lifeboat, or wherever) is meant to focus our attention on the fact that we seek to resolve moral conflicts between humans and animals. But we create those conflicts by, as it were, dragging the animal into the burning house by bringing her into existence as a resource for our use. We then wonder about how to resolve the conflict that we have created! That makes no sense.

 

If we took animals seriously, we would stop treating them as our resources, as our property. But that would mean an end to bringing nonhumans into existence so that we can use them for food, clothing, vivisection, or any other purpose, including for companionship.

 

Gary L. Francione"

Pintails are small headed long necked ducks that feed in shallow waters by upending showing the pointed tail feathers that gives the bird its name, This shot shows the power that the webbed feet generate when feeding in this manner. Pintail do not dive but their long necks mean that they can exploit deeper waters than some other species so avoiding competition.