Sulawasi Surprise! : Makasar, where?

One morning, when I was still deep in my slumber, my handphone rang. Shah was on the other end of the line and he had asked me if I would like to join him to Makassar. Okay, okay, I just replied and went back to sleep. Days later when I was more alert, I started to wonder where Makassar is. Where is Makasar? I asked Shah. It is in Sulawesi, that K-shaped island in the Indonesia archipelego formerly known as the Celebes. Are there any cannibals there? I then asked, half in jest, thinking more of Papua New Guinea, the island that got separated from Australia by the Torres Strait after the last glacial period. At one time, I remember there was a movie, a documentary maybe that went round the local theatres, Darkest New Guinea, that depicted the second largest island of the world as a haven for cannibals. Cannibals in this modern age? I'd be damned! The ticket to Makassar had already been bought and cannibals or not, I would be flying to Makassar. If there is anything to be worried about, it should be the Muslim-Christian violence that had plagued the island. Between 1998 and 2001, over 1,000 people were killed in violence, riots, and ethnic cleansing especially in Central Sulawesi. Christian villagers were killed in the Poso District by unknown masked gunmen in 2003 and in 2005 three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded in Poso by Islamic militants. One of the girls' heads was dumped outside a church. A note left with the severed heads in plastic bags in the girls' village, stated: Wanted: 100 more heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head...

Now, where is Makassar?


Tip: You wouldn't know, would you? - Not unless you know that Makassar is also known as Ujung Pandang...