8/6/2019 081211_cerebral Palsy II

1/1

C2 Jakarta Globe Thursday, December 11, 2008Features

Subscribe now and get anextra month absolutely ree!

We have two subscription ofers that will let you receive the

paper home-delivered or FREE rom now until December 31

beore the ull period o your paid subscription begins!

Just fill in this coupon and ax it to us at +62 21 2553 9351

together with proo o the subscription payment...

Tick the ofer you preer:

Id like to subscribe to the Jakarta Globe at a special

discount rate o Rp 468,000 or three months, a

saving o 30% rom the newsstand price.

I would like to get the Jakarta Globe at a special

discount rate o Rp 1,404,000 or 12 months,

a saving o 45% rom the newsstand price.

Name:

Address:

Telephone:

E-mail:

Please transer the amount or your preerred

subscription ofer into Lippo Bank Gatot Subroto,

account No. 738-30-09173-1 PT Jakarta Globe Media

...Or you can send us an SMSJust send us your details, telling us whetheryoud like the 3-month or 12-month subscription,

and well reply immediately with payment details.

SMS the ollowing message to +62 838 9002 3653:

NAME TJG STREET ADDRESS

POSTAL CODE 3 or 12

For assistance or enquiries...We will process your request as soon as we can.I you have any queries, or or urther inormation,

please call our customer care staf at +62 21 2553 5055

or e-mail us at customercare@thejakartaglobe.com

NB Please allow 10% extra or delivery outside greater Jakarta.

Yes! Id like to bea subscriber toJakarta Globe ...

1997The worlds first treaty to reducegreenhouse gases is finally agreed onater marathon talks in Kyoto, Japan

1901: Italian Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlanticradio signal rom Poldhu, in southwestern England, to St.Johns, Newoundland, in Canada

1941: Italy and Germanydeclare war on the UnitedStates; the US Congressdeclares war on both, as doesCuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua,the Dominican Republic andGuatemala, while Polanddeclares war on Japan

1946The United Nations General Assemblycreates the UN InternationalChildrens Emergency Fund, or Unice,to provide relie to children in wartorncountries

1973: West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and CzechPrime Minister Lubomir Strougal ormally sign a treatynulliying the 1938 Munich pact, which sanctioned Hitlersseizure o Czechoslovakias Sudetenland

1990: Albanias ruling Communist Party authorizes theormation o opposition political parties

1993: Ater 45 years o talks, a United Nations panelapproves the creation o a new Commissioner or HumanRights to respond quickly to major human rights crisesaround the world

1994: Russia pours tanks andtroops into Chechnya to endthe rebel territorys three-yeardrive or independence

2001China becomes a member o theWorld Trade Organization

2006: Iran stages a conerence to debate the Holocaust andquestion whether Nazi Germany used gas chambers,prompting charges it is encouraging the denial o the killingo 6 million Jews during World War II, and leading Israel, theUnited States and a leader o Irans own 25,000-strongJewish community to condemn the conerence

Reuters

This Day in HistoryDecember 11

A Chinese City Where theUS Is Forever the Enemy

Here at the Museum of theWar to Resist American

Aggression and Aid Korea,in Dandong, China, it is as ifthe clock stopped 55 yearsago.

I feel like I am rightthere on the front lines,

said Wang Binyan, a 23-year-old teacher.I can feel what the Chinese soldiers felt.

In this place, Americans are the enemy.The museum in this provincial city on the

North Korean border tells a personal versionof the Korean War, one that casts US foreignpolicy and military tactics in a decidedlynegative light. Hundreds of historicalphotographs and exhibits present a pro-Beijing side of a conflict that saw Chineseforces rush to the aid of North Korea.

There are photos of glum-lookingAmerican prisoners of war, accusations of USgerm warfare as well as maps and picturesthat purportedly show evidence ofwidespread civilian damage from American

bombs.The commentaries with each exhibit are

often heated, using phrases such asAmerican imperialists, wanton US

bombing and despise and hate to describeChinas view of the United States.

Even now, in an era of more cordia lSino-US relations, many in this city of 2.4million cannot forget the conflict on t heKorean Peninsula that ended in 1953:reminders are all around.

A hillside cemetery contains rows of whitemarkers memorializing local soldiers whodied in the conflict. Each carries the red starof Communist China, with name, rank andhometown.

A solemn stone monument declares,Long, long lives to those soldiers who died inthe war to resist US aggression.

Not far away, along the Yalu River, whichseparates Dandong from North Korea, sitswhat locals call the Broken Bridge, a span thatabruptly ends in the middle of the waterway.The original bridge was nearly destroyedduring US bombing raids. The Chinese rebuilttheir side of the structure and turned it into aliving history museum.

At the end of the span, visitors run theirhands along the iron girders that were leftgnarled and twisted by the US attack inNovember 1950. Nearby are full-size replicasof the bombs that wreaked the damage. Eventhe smallest bullet holes and shrapnel dentsare marked with red circles, lest they beoverlooked.

As he snapped photographs, one Chinesetourist paused to address a Westerner. Seethis damaged bridge? he said. Americansdid this.

But the hilltop museum, built in 1958 at thesite of a high-command bunker, is where the

Americans take their biggest beating. Here,the war was won by countless brave Chinese

volunteers.After fighting a bloody war for two years

and nine months, one sign in Chinese and

English reads, the Korean and Chinesepeoples army defeated the agg ressors withmodern technical equipment [led] by the USwith inferior equipment. The US was unableto achieve its goal of rapid occupation of thewhole Korea.

Dandong riverboat pilot Zhou Naiying, 47,

was too young to fight in the war. But he hasbeen among the thousands who visit themuseum each year.

All humans with flesh and bones wouldfeel angry that such a t hing happened to theirown countrymen, he said. You cant forgetthe past. History is forever.

The war started when Northern soldiers ina divided Korea entered the South on June 25,1950. Under the aegis of the United Nations,the United States and its allies i ntervened on

behalf of South Korea.After South Korea made rapid advances in

a counterattack, Chinese forces intervened onbehalf of communist ally North Korea, t hatled to an armistice July 27, 1953, thatapproximately restored the original

boundaries between North and South Koreaalong the 38th parallel.

Many Chinese academics now adopt asofter stance toward the US agenda duringthe bloody skirmish.

Most scholars dont refer to the museumby its formal name, said Shen Zhihua, aprofessor at the Center for Cold War Studiesat East China Normal University. We now

know North Korea stirred up the whole thing.We know who fired the f irst gun. The

Americans entered the war authorized by theUN. It was a legal war.

Museum officials say the tone of thedisplays is set by the central government,which prefers the harder-line rhetoric.

Director Zhao Yejun said that in 2004 themuseum tried to soften the commentaries.The phrase American imperialism, forexample, is not used unless in a direct quote.We no longer use the phrases our side andthe enemy, he said.

Now, we just say the US A rmy.The museum once featured a marble

placard that included the phrase Defeatwolf-hearted America! Zhao said that nolonger existed.

Still, the museums name will not bechanged, he said, because it is a di rect quotefrom Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of internationalpolitics at Beijings Renmin University, saidthere were reasons the government had nottempered the museums rhetoric.

Dandong is far from Beijing and so fewChinese or foreign guests visit, he said.

If this museum was in a big city, theres agreater possibility officials would modernizethe language.

There are less practical reasons as well.Some authorities think we should keep

this past perception of the war, Shi said.If they changed it too much, people would

criticize them, because some still believeAmerica was wrong.

Some Western analysts say all museumscarry their own bias.

Our version of history is also one-sided,said Leon V. Sigal, author of DisarmingStrangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with NorthKorea.

Los Angeles Times

With reminders of the Korean Warall around, it is hard for the residentsof the border town of Dandong to let goReport John M. Glionna

The Broken Bridge in Dandong is a permanent reminder o the conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The bridge was nearly destroyed during US raids and has since be en partly restored. LA Times Photo

You cant forgetthe past. Historyis forever.Zhou Naiying, Dandong riverboat pilot

upright arms at the scene around her, slowlymoving her head from left to right.

Rizka has another go at the snacks. Shetakes a few nuts then throws them on thefloor.

Leave it, she will eat them from there,says a caretaker as Rizka picks a nut off thetile.

Buck-toothed and sporting blue socksfeaturing a superhero, Nanda is out of hershackles and is being trained to sit on apadded seat. She curls her head down andpurrs in delight when someone rubs the backof her neck. After sitting for a while, she

belches and throws up. A caretaker rushesover to clean her and rub minyak kayu putih,or cajuput oil, on her stomach.

Were going to lie you down on the floor,OK? she says to Nanda.

Meanwhile, Dimas runs around the roomcreating havoc, pushing an empty standingframe and swinging the support straps.Physically he is in fine form but Dimas isautistic and cannot speak. He starts yellingand pulls people toward a hanging strap,wanting to play.

Lunchtime rolls around. All the children aretaken off the standing frames and are left lyingon the floor in various distorted positions asthe caretakers prepare the food. Dani,effervescent, keeps laughing as a caretakerremoves her splints. Vivi is spoon-fed on her

back, her head propped up. The mashed upmeal dribbles down her chin. Yellow and soft,her lunch also lands on her nose.

Putri sits upright beside her, solemnlyflattening her rice before slowly bringing it toher mouth. A tiny dark-skinned girl by her feetstretches an arm toward her, eyeing her plate.

Dimas swoops in and steals her prawncracker. Her reaction to catch him was tooslow. She resumes her meal without a fuss.

On the opposite side of the room, Ichasneezes and looks surprised. Dani breaks outin laughter. Vivi, clean after her meal,suddenly throws open her sticks of arms, herhuge eyes bulging toward the ceiling. Shelooks like a crucified child.

In the main house, the air is calmer and theatmosphere somber. Here lie the children tooill to move, in beds that have bars to preventthem from falling out. Above each bed is awooden board listing each childs name, birthdate, origin, date of entry and ailments.

Tiffany, 6, is the frailest and the worst case.Blind, spastic, mute, paralyzed, Kristanti reads.

In the dark, the whites of her wide eyesglow like sunken torchlights as a caretaker

brings a spoonful of tomato soup to hermouth.

Yunas, 18, has been living at Wisma TunaGanda for 13 years. Although mute, he has fullcomprehension skills and responds with signlanguage and gestures. He often acts as aguide for visitors.

Upstairs, in the girls and womens

quarters, is Teresia. The T-shirt she iswearing says Dyna but Yunas knows it is her.

Aged and lined, with bony bent limbscurved like a meditating yogi, Teresia is theoldest resident. She arr ived five years afterthe place opened in 1975. In the bed nearby, agirl squeals, happy to be playing with ahandful of black pebbles.

There has only been one recorded case ofadoption since the institutions inception.

It was in 1975 and a Dutch person adopteda boy. Of course, the child was active andcould be independent, Kristanti says. Noone would take a child who couldnt move. Itis too much hassle.

Rare is the occasion when a child is takenback by their families. The fortunate few whoare able to be productive are placed in otherinstitutions to learn trade skills which are notprovided here. But most residents die in theinstitution, often forgotten or abandoned bytheir families.

An institution like this is not a place tobreak ties. A child has a right to be loved andcared for, here or at home, Kristanti says.But most people abandon their responsibilityonce they give their child over to us. Parentsdont realize they cannot forget theirchildren.

A Home for the Unwanted

Wisma Tuna Ganda

Jl. Raya Bogor km 28.5, Cimanggis, West Java

Phone: 021 871 0063 or 021 922 5184

> Continued rom C1

3yearold Icha strapped to a standing rame to

straighten her limbs. JG Photo/Titania Veda