Villagers come up with disturbing way to enforce social distancing

Villagers come up with disturbing way to enforce social distancing

A number of Indonesian villagers have takenmatters into their own hands when it comes tosocial distancing, the Jakarta Post reports.While 34 million people in Jakartacivilly comply with the government’ssocial distancing guidelines amida global health crisis.young villagers in the Kesongo hamletof Kepuh village in Central Java’s Sukoharjoregency have resorted to dressing up as pocong —  or Indonesian shroud ghosts.— and standing guard in front of thegated entrance to enforce those rules.“The pocong is not to scare residents;instead, we want to educate residentson the fact that coronavirus causes death,”Anjar Panca, the keeper of Kesongo’sAl Himmah mosque, explained.“It is a shock therapy, as peopleusually [pay more attention] toanything related to death”.The “guards” wrap themselves inall white, akin to a mummy, andput on makeup, as a video fromoutlet Inews Jogja shows.According to the Post, they havebeen closely monitoring guests whocome in and out of the hamlet.Karno Supadmo, the head of thehamlet’s neighborhood unit, revealedthat residents had actually requestedthat guards keep watch.because they were concerned aboutthe virus potentially spreading.Across the water, in the village of Galangin the Welak district of West Manggarairegency in East Nusa Tenggara, officialshave been employing similar tactics.The newspaper reports that theyhave been using local folklores toscare residents into staying in.“Our ancestors used to do it toscare children to prevent them fromgoing out at night,” village headMarianus Samsung told the Post.According to folklore, a pocong issupposedly the soul of the deceasedthat has been trapped in a shroud