Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Papuans in remote areas prefer `noken' to ballot box

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Papuans in remote areas prefer `noken' to ballot box

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Thu, 02/05/2009 6:12 PM

The voting process in a number of remote villages in easternmost province of Papua will be somewhat different from that in other areas of Indonesia.

The difference is that ballots will not be placed in ballot boxes, but instead in a noken.

A noken is a bag made of woven tree bark or orchid plant stems generally used by the women in outlying areas of Papua to carry things such as groceries, or garden harvests of vegetables and bananas, and even piglets.

Villages in Puncak Jaya, Paniai and Yahukimo regencies still use noken as a substitute for ballot boxes.

"Not all polling stations in those regencies use noken, only a few hamlets," Hasjim Sangadji from the Electoral Division of the Papua General Elections Commission (KPUD) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

A rather unique point is that the number of noken at a polling booth is equivalent to the number of ballots received by a voter. It could even be more than the usual four ballots provided to voters. A political party can even provide noken based on the number of its candidates.

The noken is hung around the neck of a person or on tree branches and is marked based on the respective parties and candidates.

"A noken represents a candidate. For example, a voter chooses a candidate from party No.1, so the voter will place the ballot in the noken he or she represents," Hasjim said.

"Voters do not mark or tick the ballot papers, but by placing them in a particular noken, it would be obvious who they have voted for. So a party could provide more than one noken, based on the number of candidates."

Such a procedure, he explained, did not meet principles of confidentiality because everyone present at the polling booth would know who the voters had picked, adding that local wisdom was called for in this situation.

"If voters are required to tick the ballots and place them in ballot boxes, no one would come to cast their votes, so the most important thing is for people to exercise their political rights," Hasjim said.

Hasjim maintained that people in remote areas of Papua were unfamiliar with ballot boxes and marking ballots, such as in previous elections, so it would be easier for them to use noken rather than boxes.

"Besides, people in remote areas are more confident of their choices and more convinced of election results if they vote using noken," he said.

He added the Papua KPUD would publicize the noken version of the election process in early March in districts where residents still use the noken, to prevent cheating.

"Usually, ballot papers are sent to the villages for counting as soon as voting closes. This is when rigging could occur as ballots could be handed over to another person and marked because they had not been ticked and were still clean before being put inside the noken, as poll workers would only mark them later in accordance with voters' choices," he said.

Papua has 2,063,122 eligible voters who will cast their votes in 6,570 polling stations. More than 50 percent of them live in the Pegunungan Tengah mountainous region, where most of them prefer to use noken instead of ballot boxes.