Leisure turns to tragedy

Leisure turns to tragedy

The death of the spokesman for Indonesian Bank Restructuring
Agency (IBRA), Raymond van Beekum apparently shocked the media.
As most of IBRA activities relating with media had been handled
by Raymond and his colleague.

Raymond's death also related to media activity. He invited
journalists to join a kind of workshop at a hotel in Lido, Ciawi,
West Java. After the workshop Raymond, and other IBRA staff as
well as journalists chose rafting in the Cisadane river at the
Genteng village, Bogor, as an outdoor sport.

No one expected that the leisure would turn into a fatal
tragedy. The flash flood suddenly hit the rafts, and almost
everybody, including Raymond, was thrown into the river.

Raymond had been missing for three days, before he was found
dead on Sunday.

The nature is always unpredictable. When people think that
they can control the nature, the nature shows its power.
Therefore, we - human beings - must be able to read the signals
of the nature.

We just want to those arranging rafting in Ciawi, Bogor, must
be better prepared with a monitoring team at the upstream, who
provide with any signals of (possible) dangers at anytime.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta