A COMMUNIST, A MUSLIM, AND A TOBACCO MERCHANT ENTERED A BAR...

This morning one of the mailing lists yielded the claim that Obama is a Muslim, because he attended a madrassa years ago.
It is an absurd assertion, given that the word 'madrasa' in Indonesian merely implies school (much like 'academy' usually means the same in English), and the actual madrassa in question was Besuki in Jakarta (Sekolah Dasar Nasional Menteng 01), a grammar school which he attended from 1969 till 1971. There were Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist children at that school.
I doubt that it EVER yielded a religious fanatic.

For the next two years after Besuki he went to a Catholic school (Sekolah Fransiskus Assisis). Which was also in Indonesia.
To the best of my knowledge, that particular Catholic school has not produced a single crusader, witchburner, or professional daemonologist.


Seeing as he also spent twenty years listening to the fire and brimstone preaching of a rather poisonous branch of Christianity while in Chicago, one should not be concerned with any lingering Muslim influences, but rather with the distinct possibility of fragile and fading sanity.
As far as I can tell, he is (still) sane.
As sane as anybody in Washington.

However, Obama's sanity and religion are not the point of this post. The term 'Besuki' is.


To anyone familiar with the former Dutch East Indies, especially if they lived in a town which once boasted five cigar factories, the term Besuki is richly evocative.



FRAGRANT LEAVES

During the colonial period, Besuki was a residency in Eastern java, comprised of four regencies: Panarukan, Djember, Bondowoso, and Banyuwangi.
The two agricultural products for which Besuki was known were tobacco and sugar cane.

[Note: Originally, Panarukan (now subsumed in the administrative district Situbondo) was the easternmost extent of the Great Post Road (Grote Postweg), built by governor Daendels at the behest of king Louis Napoleon. The road is a monument to efficient murder, but ensured Daendels lasting fame as a civil administrator, organizer, and a man who got things done.
It was built within budget and under deadline - a remarkable praestation.]


The famous Besuki tobacco came mostly from Jember and Bondowoso. Both Dutch and Indonesian cigar companies still utilize the na-oogst (late harvest) of this excellent crop.
Zandblad (the leaf at the bottom of the plant), and some of the leaves immediately above it, are used for wrapper (the outer surface of the cigar), hang-krosok (the middle leaves) with damaged zandblad and other wrapper blad are used for filler. The topmost leaves (daun putjok) are only used for filler. Voor-oogst (early harvest) of whatever type is almost exclusively destined for the cigarette industry.
Tobacco from Besuki, both top quality and Regie, are shipped in bales to Bremen, where they are inspected by buyers, who will decide which plantation, which grade and harvest, which colour of leaf they shall purchase for their factories.

Many cigars made of Besuki tobaccos will, however, have a wrapper made of Deli leaf from Sumatra.

Java leaf, whether Besuki or Vorstenlanden (“Royal Domains” – four principalities in Central Java), tends toward a full reddish brown hue (twixt yellow ochre and a medium Siena with only a light touch of umber) and a mild flavour, whereas Sumatra will be a lighter shade, a more silky surface, and a sharper taste. Hence the tendency to use Sumatra leaf for its pleasing appearance, while tempering it with a Java filler and binder.

It should be noted, however, that some leaf from Central Java is bright, and makes a fine wrapper for exquisite cigars.


Famous companies that use Besuki leaf are Oud Kampen, De Olifant, and La Paz.
I believe that Justus van Maurik and Heren van Ruysdaal also use Besuki leaf – it would be queer if they didn’t - but I have not been able to confirm that.
In Indonesia, PT Gelora Djaja (Wismilak Premium Cigars) represents the genre.



THE CANE FIELDS

As for the sugar cane, that too is still grown in Besuki, but it has faded quite considerably in importance. The great depression proved an economic blow from which the plantations did not fully recover, and after the war returnees to the Netherlands still remembered the reek of sugar factories torched by labour agitators and starving workers. For two decades, the depressed local economy spurred social disruption and political activism.
Eastern Java, at one point, had more convinced Marxists than any other part of Indonesia.

The student of history will recall that between 1965 and 1967 the Indonesians slaughtered over a million communists...... along with ethnic Chinese (mercantile class) and Arabs (venal moneylenders).