Jakarta (banjir)

Flooding in North Jarkart has been going on since the Dutch built all those canals in old Batavia.  They are as predictable as clockwork and today is no exception as The Jakarta Post reports :

Flights were delayed, thousands of passengers were left stranded and the toll road to and from the airport was impassable as floodwaters from the sea off North Jakarta inundated parts of the city Monday.

An ignored warning of a cyclical high tide and a neglected sea barrier, which broke over a week ago, contributed to the congestion and confusion at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport.

Floodwaters submerged Pluit and Penjaringan subdistricts, disrupting traffic and forcing residents to flee their homes in North Jakarta’s coastal areas.

Traffic was paralyzed with congestion stretching from the Soekarno-Hatta tollgate to Slipi in Central Jakarta at around 8 p.m.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta (Punk is better that religion)

The music scene in Jakarta is no doubt a vibrant cultural force (visit Equinox DMD).  And the word from the street is that “punk is better than religion”.

Jakarta: Where Punk Lives

It’s after midnight in Jakarta and, below a highway overpass, a party is just getting started. Students and the unemployed are listening to well-worn cassette tapes, swigging from bottles filled with a cocktail of beer and local wine and loitering in front of Movement Records — a punk-music shop that has become a nexus for local youths. It is also home to Onie, one of Jakarta’s self-proclaimed original street punks, who both works and sleeps on the premises. “It is very quiet at night,” Onie says. “The shops are closed, so society is O.K. with us being here. My friends can come at night and argue, laugh and fight for as long as they want.” … > read full article

Thursday, Nov. 22, 2007 By Maria Bakkalapuki / Jakarta

Jakarta (Jakarta dimana)

Take it easy

“Unity in diversity,” Indonesia’s national motto (the capital is a microcosm of the country’s 17,500 islands and 300 ethnic groups).

For many visitors Jakarta is at best a cesspit of life. But once one gets behind the facade of a riot-ravaged, wannabe modern metropolis that isn’t quite likely to make it anytime soon, Indonesia’s capital quickly gets under one’s skin in a hard-to-explain sort of way. …> go to site

Guardian Unlimited  travel Beenthere

Jakarta (In case you missed it)

World Population Becomes More Urban Than Rural

ScienceDaily (2007-05-25) — There’s no big countdown billboard or sign in Times Square to denote it, but Wednesday, May 23, 2007, represents a major demographic shift, according to scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia: For the first time in human history, the earth’s population will be more urban than rural. … > read full article

(Jakarta) Get off to a flying start

This is a becak…

And not a becak to be found…

“In 1970, there were 92,650 becak officially registered in Jakarta; unofficially this was estimated at 150,000. Propelled by at least two shifts per day, this would provide jobs for about 300,000 men, who could conservatively be expected to support another 900,000 people: altogether about 1,200,000 people were dependent on becak-driving.”

-S. Abeyasekere in Jakarta: A History.

Becak were banned in Jakarta in 1994.

That was then… this is now…

JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) – Gridlock getting you down? Join a new breed of wealthy commuters in Jakarta who are hopping onto helicopter taxis to chop hours off their journey… > read full article

Reuters  By Mita Valina Liem