Jakarta (Bill Gates, food, OPEC, the tallest building in SE Asia)

Jakarta

From CNET Asia

Bill Gates scheduled to visit Jakarta on May 8 …> go to article

Budi Putra

May 7, 2008 16:59

“Microsoft Corporation founder and chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to visit Indonesia on May 8 to 9, 2008. According to Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Barkrie, Gates will be visiting Indonesia to reciprocate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s tour of the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle last year.

Gates will address a plenum of the GLF (Government Leaders Forum) along with Yudhoyono on Friday, May 9. Besides attending the GLF, Gates is also expected to become a speaker at the Presidential Lecture program at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday. GLF Asia 2008 will discuss about the “Serving the Citizen: The Transformative Power of Information Technology in Delivering Government Services”.

As reported by Antara News Agency, Gates will also talk to the Indonesian Government about the development of bird flu vaccines in Indonesia. He will also endorse the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 campaign, according to news portal Detik. This plan was revealed by Minister Aburizal during a press conference with Trade Minister Marie E. Pangestu and Microsoft Indonesia president director Tony Chen.

“We hope Gates’s presence here will give a positive image for the country’s tourism,” Aburizal said.

But the bird flu vaccines and tourism issue are not top priorities that I want to hear from Gates during his visit here. I want to know his answers to:

1. How much he (or his company) will invest here in supporting Indonesia’s next digital decade.
2. What the future projects are which fit in with his ideas on creating the Asian Miracle.
3. Whether he thinks Indonesia can be the next Asian miracle in terms of a digital world.
4. What Microsoft’s solutions and approaches are in combatting software piracy in Indonesia. (Indonesia has long been fighting software piracy problems. As written by The Jakarta Post, IDC reported that Indonesia had reduced its software piracy rate by 2 percent from 87 percent in 2003 to 85 percent in 2006).
5. Can his foundation support, well, the country’s open source movement?

I am not sure I can attend all his lectures and sessions because until today, my name was still on the waiting list to get an official badge to enter the forum.

But no problem. At least, I hope other participants will ask (if possible) the above questions I have.

Welcome to Indonesia, Mr Gates! Selamat datang”.

Yes, welcome to Indonesia Mr. Gates.  I hope you take the time to at least get out of the air conditioning for an hour or two and REALLY see Jakarta.  Why not cut away from hanging out with government elites and head down one Jalan Tikus to a kampung in West Jakarta, one by the canal? Try to find some clean drinking water. Or why not visit a school? Try to find one that is not in disrepair, has books, has chalk for the blackboards, or has a computer, even just an old one, that is connected to the internet with more than the ability to download 1MB in an hour. Of course there is plenty of MS sofware at hand. It’s cheap and generally unlicensed in Indonesia. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE keep a safe distance from that Bakrie fellow.

Or why not take the time to listen to Rebcca Henschke’s excellent report  on Public Radio International on how the food crisis is effecting the urban poor in Jakarta.  You can listen to this broadcast here …>go to boradcast   This report will freeze you in your tracks and make you wonder where your moral compass went astray.  Or here is an article from the AFP which might be of interest.

Rising food, fuel prices drive Indonesian May Day rallies
May 1, 2008

JAKARTA (AFP) - Thousands of Indonesians took to the streets of the capital Jakarta for Labour Day rallies on Thursday, with rising food prices and an expected cut in fuel subsidies weighing heavily on workers’ minds.

Police said about 10,000 people gathered in the city centre and at the presidential palace.

Carrying banners reading “Lower Food Prices Now” and “More Pay for Workers and Farmers,” many of the demonstrators said they were alarmed at soaring inflation and the prospect of sharply higher fuel bills.

“If they keep increasing the price of food, maybe we’ll have to eat less,” factory worker Lia said.

“The price of formula milk for the baby has gone up. It’s now 36,000 rupiah (nearly four dollars) for a can of 600 grams and the baby drinks it up in two days,” she said”. …> go to article

But don’t worry, on the upside Indonesia has plenty of oil… or…

From The Times of India …> go to article

JAKARTA (INDONESIA): “President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday that Indonesia was considering of quitting the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) because it was no longer a net oil exporter.

“Our wells are drying,” he said, adding that the country needs to concentrate on increasing domestic production, which has dropped to less than a million barrels a day even as consumption is rising.

The government opened talks on Monday on whether it “should continue to stay with OPEC or withdraw its membership until it reaches a point where it deserves to rejoin that organization again,” Yudhoyono told agencies around Indonesia.

The country of 235 million people is Southeast Asia’s only OPEC member. But it has to import oil because of decades of declining investment in exploration and extraction due to corruption and a weak legal system that makes oil companies wary of doing business here. Indonesia’s oil output has declined steadily from oil production of 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels a day in the mid-1990s. It produced around 860,000 barrels a day of crude oil last month and recorded a deficit of $794 million in its oil trade accounts.

It is not the first time the country has re-evaluated its OPEC membership, but in past years teams commissioned by the government have recommended staying in the grouping to maintain good relations with other oil producers”.

 But with Lion Air purchasing 56 new Boeing 737s, a growth rate running at 7% in 2007, Jakarta accounting for half of Indonesia’s GNP,  building construction booming in the city, and global oil demand skyrocketing,  is it no wonder the wells are drying up?

And so this just what  Jakarta REALLY needs…

From Asia Propety Report

Jakarta to get SE Asia’s tallest tower …> go to article
by Asia Pulse

“Dubai-based real estate giant Emaar Properties plans to build a landmark tower in Jakarta, to be the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia, a presidential envoy said. Special envoy for Middle East Alwi Shihab said on Monday Emaar Chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar had proposed the project to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during an informal meeting Saturday. At the moment, we are still looking for the right location in Jakarta for the project, Alwi told the newspaper The Jakarta Post.

Emaar, the largest land and real estate developer in the Gulf is famed for its on going construction in Dubai of the 718-meter tall Burj Dubai, which would be the tallest skyscraper in the world. In March, Emaar signed a joint venture agreement with state-owned Bali Tourism Development Corp. to build an integrated tourism project in southern Lombok, Bali´s neighboring island”.

 

 

Jakarta (trends and emergent properties again)

 Photo: Jakarta Daily Photo

Let’s start out with this, it’s a conversation I found on a web site called topix which has an Indonesian Forum.

Indonesia; The Most Sucks Place I Ever Visited …>go to discussion

This broadside begins with a post from Kore, who resides in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

“I must say that Indonesia is not a country worth visiting … sorry about this… For starter, Jakarta is very dirty, you’ll see trash and litter everywhere you go. I just can’t imagine a capital city with this poor level of cleanliness…  …you’ll feel like that you’re in some third-world country with poor people and trash everywhere (I think Indonesia is still considered a third-world?)…

…I was lucky I have a friend in Jakarta, otherwise I wouldn’t dare goind around in public transportation… …I certainly didn’t want to take the public busses. Wait until you see them yourselves, and I bet you wouldn’t want to ride in one either. The busses are so dirty, so packed with people and the vehicles themselves look as if they’re very poorly taken care of. I couldn’t even find a decent information of which bus should I take if I would want to go somewhere, and what is the fare… …Not to mention the streets from hell. The traffic in Jakarta beats the hell out of any traffic I’ve ever seen in the world. Traffic jams everywhere. People driving with only one or two inches away from each other. The worse of all is the motorcycles. I even said to my friend that they are like motorcycles from hell. They squeezed their way to very small gaps between cars, sometimes even hit our rearview mirrors. They constantly cut your way, so my friend always to be extra careful with them and sometime he even had to hit the brake brutely to avoid collisions. What an experience … I must say. I sometimes jumped from my seat when suddenly a motorcycle speeding through our side of the cars with just few inches away, in a traffic jam, with their loud noises …. a hell indeed. Andy even told me that be very careful not to hit a motorcycle, since even that you’re not the one causing the collision, the car driver would be the one blamed and they could go rough on you asking for money. I said “what the hell …. what kind of people are they … we’re not living in the dark ages are we?” … and Andy could just shrugged with bitter smile.

Another important thing … be careful of the food. I got stomachache for 3 days because Andy took me to this food stall that he said very delicious. Well the food was alright … but I got diarrhea the next day. Well, if you go to this food stall, you wouldn’t be surprised why I got the diarrhea. It was a very small food stall, on a pedestrian. Just next to the pedestrian was this open sewer, and guess what … people threw away trash into that sewer. Not to mention flies everywhere and I could have sworn a saw a cockroach running around…”

There are a few choice words in the discussion line which followed but SoRaYa from Jakarta sets everything right with this final post.

“Malaysian has no brain to be creative, they only can insulting Indonesian and stealing Indonesian’s traditionals.

Hey u, KORE…
If u don’t like Indonesia, why ur country steal Indonesian’s traditional dancer n many more?????

If u don’t have mirror @ur house, i suggest u to BUY IT!!!! N take a good damn look to ur ashamed UGLY FACE as they r UGLY MIND&SOUL u have indeed..”

Moving on… 

Rising Food Prices in Indonesia Raise Security Concerns …>go to article
Voice of America

Nancy-Amelia Collins
Jarkata
19 March 2008

“…According to government statistics, in the past year cooking oil has risen nearly 40 percent, rice is up 25 percent and tofu, a staple of the Indonesian diet, has gone up by 50 percent.

Bayu Krisnamurti, the deputy minister for agriculture, says the government is concerned the high price of basic commodities has the capability of fueling social unrest, similar to the 1965 coup that led to the rise of the dictator Suharto and the 1998 protests that toppled the former president.

“We are worried. In 1965 we faced a very, very depressing situation to make social unrest,” said Krisnamurti. “Even in a more recent history, in 1998, it’s also a similar situation. We do hope that 2008 is not another situation like that because the cost to the economy is too high.”

Sensitive to price-related unrest, the government continues to spend about 35 percent of its entire budget on fuel and electricity subsidies to keep those commodities affordable for the poor.

The World Bank estimates about half of Indonesia’s population of 220 million lives in poverty, on around $2 a day.

The rising cost of food has raised concerns even more people will slip into poverty.

Agricultural analyst H.S. Dillon says this is a recipe for disaster.

“What is the prognosis? High food prices amidst poverty? I see nothing and I don’t have a crystal ball, I see nothing but social unrest,” said Dillon”.

If this was not bad enough…

Rice supplies set to fall to 25-year low …>go to article

Times On Line March 13, 2008

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

“World supplies of rice are reaching dangerously low levels after stores of South Asia’s staple food fell to a 25-year low and governments battled to stabilise domestic markets.

The US Department of Agriculture is predicting global rice stocks will fall to about 70 million tons this year, the lowest level since the early 1980s and half the level in 2000.

Earlier this week, the Philippines failed in an attempt to buy rice to boost its inventories.

Traders offered to sell the country only 325,000 tonnes when it wanted to buy 550,000 tonnes. The average offered price, of nearly $680 a tonne was up more than 40 per cent from January…

…Despite a tenfold hike in rice prices in some local markets over the past year, social unrest has been kept at bay partly because most of the increases have been gradual, analysts say.

However, most of the world’s rice crops are consumed by the countries that produce them, which means the global market in rice is relatively thin and prone to violent swings.

Jonathan Pincus, the UN Development Programme’s chief economist in Vietnam, said: “One big increase in imports from a large country such as India could lead to a big spike in prices. This is the danger.”

He said: “Historically, every Asian government has shown it is very aware of the close relationship between political stability and the stability of the rice market.”

Then one more incremental click foward…

Bird flu in Indonesia could mutate into human form: UN agency …>go to article
From AFP 4 days ago

ROME (AFP) - The bird flu situation is “critical” in Indonesia, where the virus could mutate and cause a human pandemic, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday.

“The prevalence of avian influenza in Indonesia remains serious despite (national and international) containment efforts,” the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a statement.

The FAO’s chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, said he was “deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic.”

UN: Indonesia Failing in Bird Flu Fight …>go to article
AP 3 days ago

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - “Efforts to contain bird flu are failing in Indonesia, increasing the possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form, the leading U.N. veterinary health body warned.

The H5N1 bird flu virus is entrenched in 31 of the country’s 33 provinces and will cause more human deaths, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement released late Tuesday.

“I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic,” FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said.

Indonesia “has not succeeded in containing the spread of avian influenza,” Domenech said, adding that there must be “major human and financial resources, stronger political commitment and strengthened coordination.”

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 236 people in a dozen countries worldwide since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. It has been found in birds in more than 60 countries, but Indonesia has recorded 105 deaths, almost half the global tally, according to the World Health Organization”.

And so it goes…