A letter from Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta on home assignment from Indonesia
Boston, Mass.
August 2013
Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple… (John 2:15).
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,
People who live in “developing countries” often complain about corrupt and inefficient bureaucracies. Indonesia has recently sent many corrupt politicians to jail, but it still scores high on the corruption scale. My Indonesian colleagues and I do our share of complaining and compromising. In a “gift exchange culture” the line between tips, gifts and corruption is murky. The problems are institutionalized from the bottom to the top.
Beautiful ICRS bureaucracy
For example, the National Examination, which is required to pass high school, achieved a 99 percent pass rate this year, even from remote provinces with very low-quality education. Schools are under great pressure to pass their students. Some teachers provide students with exam questions beforehand and coach them on the correct answers. Students who can barely add end up with high scores in mathematics. Government, teachers and parents all conspire to corrupt their own children, just so they can get good grades. Part of our mission is to increase the quality of learning in Indonesia, from grade school up through graduate school.
It can be hard or easy to get a driver’s license in Indonesia. One of my students, an excellent driver, could not get a new license when he moved to our province. He took the driving test six times and failed every time. But everyone knows you don’t have to be able to drive to get a license. You just pay an agent $30-40 and the agent will get you the license even without taking the test. All you have to do is come in, sign the test, and have your photo taken. The agent pays the customary “gifts” to all the bureaucrats in the police department. The biggest danger of living in Indonesia is not terrorists or volcanoes, but rather drivers who don’t know how to drive. By the grace of God, Indonesia is now beginning to clean up the process of getting a license.
If Indonesian bureaucracy is corrupted by money and poverty, U.S. bureaucracy is corrupted by fear of the “other.” Some years ago Farsijana and I waited in line as we applied for her visa in the bunker-like U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. Ten well-educated Indonesians ahead of us were all rejected (after paying hefty fees). The poor would not even get in the door. As my anxiety simmered, the words on the Statue of Liberty kept running through my mind like a bad joke:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Unfortunately America is not the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Fortunately the Kingdom of God is not guarded by a complex, expensive bureaucracy. Part of our work is to break down the walls of fear between Muslims and Christians to promote reconciliation and peace.
American bureaucracies can be mind-boggling. An American friend once asked me: “Bernie, do you think you are reasonably intelligent?” Surprised, I answered, “I guess so.” She then said, “Don’t you find it terribly difficult just to live in the U.S.A.? If an intelligent, well educated person finds it difficult, how do poor and less gifted people even survive?” Good question.
Visas to the U.S.A. are especially difficult for people from Muslim countries. Tirza and Hanna, our nieces, came with us to study for a year in the U.S.A. They were rejected on their first applications for visas and had to go through the process three times. Getting their visas cost over $1,000. Farsijana needs a Green Card so that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can legally pay her when she is in the States. After submitting countless documents with certified translations and paying hundreds of dollars, she was finally approved by the Department of Homeland Security last January. Her files were then sent to the National Visa Center (NVC). After more money and documents, she had to resubmit her application because she had not listed every place she had stayed since she was 16. She also needed security clearance from the Netherlands (where she did her Ph.D.) and health clearance from an Embassy-approved doctor. Six months later on the day of our departure, she still did not have her visa. A maze of regulations based on worst-case scenarios and “rationalized” procedures result in a Kafka-ish nightmare of soulless bureaucracy with no human conscience. It is insanely difficult to get through the maze.
Nevertheless, by the grace of God, miracles still happen. There are good people who work in complex bureaucracies. After more amazing delays, we were told it was impossible for Farsijana to get her visa in time. But sympathetic staff in the U.S. Embassy worked hard to push along the process. On June 24, just hours before our plane took off, she received her visa.
We are now in the States on Interpretation Assignment with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and also as Visiting Fellows at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. We are traveling a lot during the first six months (July–December), speaking in churches and universities. Please write to us if you would like us to visit you. From January to July 2014 we will concentrate on research and writing in Boston.
We are very grateful for all of you, both churches and individuals, who participate in our work through prayer, financial donations and letters. We need your support so that the Good News of the Kingdom of God does not fade away like the words on the Statue of Liberty, but rather spreads throughout the world.
Salam hangat (Warm peace),
Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta
Tirza and Hanna Risakotta
baryogya@gmail.com
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 199
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