Sausage campaigns

A restaurant near our gym is advertising a Sausage Campaign. I'm not sure what that means. Bangers vs. blood sausage? Hot dogs vs. the exceedingly tasty Catalonian butifarra? And is this to be a straight-up, single vote, or will there be a runoff if people deadlock between breakfast patties and bratwurst?


It won't be the first sausage campaign in the world. My sister tells me when McDonald's tried to open in Barcelona, people marched in the streets chanting "Butifarras yes, hamburgers no!" Which leads me to belive Barcelona is my kind of town.

I'm not sure if the Sausage Campaign is somehow related to the Jakarta gubernatorial campaign, which is also underway. After all, it's laws and sausages you don't want to see being made, right?

Two Jakartas: A Fauzi banner hangs between gleaming high-rises and ancient three-wheeled public transit vehicles in Benhill Market

One of the lead contenders for governor is Fauzi Bowo. I don't know anything about Fauzi firsthand. He may be a man of Solomonic wisdom, and as honest as the day is long. He is, however, the current Vice-Governor, which makes him part of an administration that:

a. Presided over the most catastrophic flooding in Jakarta's history, and

b. Tried to blame it on anybody and everybody else.

So when I eye the Fauzi posters and banners that have sprung up around town, I can't help musing, as I might about a sausage: I think I know what you're made of, my friend ... and it's not an appetizing picture.