Jakarta (children’s day, financial reform, sex work, and malnutrition)

Blowing away Ambition by renegade 150

Note: Italics added for emphasis.

Children’s Day turns sour in Jakarta
Fri, Jul 25, 2008
Jakarta Post /ANN

ACOMMEMORATION of Indonesia’s National Children’s Day turned sour on Wednesday, when the government refused to allow children to publicly read out their demand for a special ministry of their own.

The request was the last point of a six-point declaration drafted during the recent 7th Indonesian Children’s Congress in Bogor, West Java.

Children aged between 12 and 18 had taken part in the event organised by the Social Services Ministry.

The restriction, which the children took to be a denial of freedom of expression, took place right under the nose of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was at the park in East Jakarta, along with dignitaries and 15,000 children.

It is unclear if the President knew about the censorship.

The children’s representatives said the event organisers had forbidden them from making the demand for “political reasons”.

“We feel hurt by the restriction. The declaration is just an expression of our ideas, so we should have been allowed to speak out,” said Ajat Sudrajat, who had signed the declaration.

“We don’t care if the ministry can be established only in the next 10 years or so. We just want to be heard.”

Other points in the declaration, “Voice of Indonesian Children”, included the aspiration to be creative and intelligent children, protected from violence or exploitation, and a desire to be protected from “the dangers of tobacco in order to grow and develop as naturally as possible”.

Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah defended the restriction.

“I explained to (the children) the condition of our country. It is impossible for the government to set up the ministry because it would increase the burden on the state budget.

“Maybe we can make it come true only within the next 20 years, when our country’s economy has improved.”

It is unclear why this meant the children could not declare their wish.

Mr Bachtiar also asked the children to stop demanding their own rights.

National Commission for Child Protection secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait said the restriction showed the government’s lack of commitment to addressing the problems Indonesian children face.

“We urgently need a ministry that deals with children’s affairs, as the government has failed to address their problems, such as violence and child labour,” he said.

The commission estimated that 6.5 million children in the country were forced to quit school last year in order to work. …> go to article

OECD urges anti-poverty reform on Jakarta
By Lisa Murray in Jakarta Published: July 24 2008

Indonesia needs to overhaul its labour laws and remove foreign ownership restrictions to help raise economic growth to levels that would have an impact on poverty, Angel Gurría, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said on Thursday.

Mr Gurría was in Jakarta to release the OECD’s first comprehensive study of the Indonesian economy. Its report recommended Indonesia introduce a mechanism linking increases in local fuel prices to world energy markets, with a view to obviating politically motivated adjustments and eventually wiping out all subsidies.

In spite of a 30 per cent rise in fuel prices in May, Indonesia’s government is still expected to spend a quarter of its budget, about $30bn, on fuel and electricity subsidies this year.

“It’s just a huge amount,” Mr Gurría said in an interview with the Financial Times. “We think we’re making a contribution by coming and saying: ‘For heaven’s sake, do you realise what you could do with this money?’ ”

The OECD expects Indonesia’s economy to grow by more than 6 per cent this year but says it needs to boost that rate to about 8 per cent to reduce poverty and unemployment. The organisation advised the central bank to act “resolutely” and “pre-emptively” to stave off inflation, which hit a 21-month high of more than 11 per cent in June.

Boediono, the central bank governor appointed in May, said this week he believed inflation had peaked but the bank would use gradual rate increases to keep it under control.

The OECD said Indonesia should review its labour laws because complicated dismissal procedures and hefty severance and long-service leave payments discouraged companies from investing and hiring. It also recommended reducing the minimum wage, which, at about 65 per cent of median pay, was “too high” and “out of step with productivity gains”. Rather than protecting workers, the high minimum wage forced people into the informal sector, where there was little regulation and poor pay, it said.

Asked whether the government would follow up the recommendations, Mahendra Siregar from the Co-ordinating Ministry for the Economy said only that it would “study them further”. “Whether our particular policy formation requires further engagement or discussion with the OECD, we will inform them later,” he said.

Mr Gurría conceded that labour reform and changes to fuel price subsidies were difficult to introduce nine months from an election.

The OECD is looking to develop what it terms an “enhanced engagement” with Indonesia as a first step towards full membership. The same approach is being taken with Brazil, China, India and South Africa. …> go to article

INDONESIA: Poverty at root of commercial sex work

 

 Photo: A. Mirza/ILO

JAKARTA, 24 July 2008 (IRIN) – In a district of the northeastern part of West Java, commercial sex workers are touting for business right outside the mosque. Bandungwangi, a local NGO working against trafficking, says half the women and children it rescues from prostitution in Jakarta come from this district.

“The root of the problem is poverty, but in some areas – like that district [child protection agencies have asked that its name not be revealed] in West Java – prostitution is accepted. It’s the culture,” explains Arum Ratnawati of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, with people so poor they are forced to sell or send their children into commercial sex work to earn income for the family.”  …>go to article

 

INDONESIA: Child malnutrition aggravated by food, oil price rises

JAKARTA, 21 July 2008 (IRIN) – Thirteen toddlers are fighting for their lives in Ba’a hospital in a remote village in Nusa Tenggara Province, eastern Indonesia. All of them are suffering from malnutrition. “They are very weak – only skin and bones and swollen stomachs,” Dr Rina Sudjiawati told IRIN. “Because of their condition they are very vulnerable to other serious illnesses.”Dozens of Indonesian children under five died of malnutrition in the first six months of 2008, according to the health authorities, although no accurate figure can be determined.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates 13 million children in Indonesia suffer from malnutrition. In some Indonesian districts about 50 percent of infants and young children are underweight.

“Some parts of this country have even worse data than sub-Saharan Africa,” said Anne Vincent, head of the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) health and nutrition section in Indonesia. Vincent is “appalled” by eating habits in Indonesia. “Sometimes they give their children only rice with water. Kids don’t grow on that.” …> go to article

 

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Jakarta (news, books, and sex, news)

Nites  Photo by =Geiss

News

How the wheels of justice turn so very slowly… still, better late than never (with some qualifications)…

From Reuters 6/16/2008

Top court won’t review Exxon Indonesia lawsuit

Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by David Alexander and Sandra Maler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal by Exxon Mobil Corp. seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by 11 Indonesian villagers who claim the company’s security forces committed human rights abuses at a natural gas processing plant in the Aceh province.

The high court followed the recommendation of the U.S. government and it turned down the company’s appeal without any comment. The Supreme Court’s action does not set any precedent and does not represent a ruling on the merits of the dispute.

The lawsuit, filed in 2001 in federal court in Washington claimed the security forces at the facility were comprised exclusively of members of the Indonesian military and that Exxon retained them even though it had been aware the Indonesian army had committed human rights abuses in the past. … go to article

 Books

I recently received, showing up in my mail box, Celebrating 60 Years – 1948 – 2008 TUTTLE, A Memeber of the Periplus Publishing Group, New Titles and Complete Backlist, Fall 2008.

Periplus, of course, has bookshops throughout Jakarta. Their site is found here.  Over the years I have purchased many of their publications which include Tuttle’s Concise Indonesian Dictionary and the Periplus wall map of Indonesia(71 cm X 118 cm), a beautiful full color map of the archipelago which is a work of art in itself.  I have on order the Jakarta Street Atlas 2nd. Ed.(don’t leave home without it). Tuttle is famous for its Asian language dictionaries, Periplus for its maps and travel books. And much, much more.

From Tuttle

“2008 marks a milestone for Tuttle Publishing. Originally established in 1948 in Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Japan, this year we are fortunate and honored to be celebrating our 60th anniversary. Since its inception, Tuttle Publishing has been a leading publisher of books on Asia. We are extremely pleased to be able to continue this tradition, and invite you to explore the rich cultural heritage of Asia through this website”.

The catalog is full of beautiful books, of that there is no doubt, and if I had deeper bank account than I currently have there certainly would be several new titles appearing on my bookshelves. Here are five below which caught my eye (not including Straits and Narrow by Grace McClurg, The Rain Tree by Sylvie Phillips, and Unhooking a DD-cup Bra without Fumbling by Adam Adams (a book which claims to be written without the use of the letter “E”, now that is something!). 

Well, it is summer in Hawaii, so it is not just a question of my bank account but also the time, the hammock strung between two shade trees, and the large glasses of iced tea necessary to address this stack of books.

     

    

 

 

Sex

Two things come to mind here.  You can’t judge a book by its cover. Sex sells.  Unfortunately, I have not read the books which I have mentioned here. Not yet anyway. So I cannot make a fair comment. 

The Asian Review of Books panned Jakarta Undercover writing that, “The blurb on the back of JAKARTA UNDERCOVER claims it as Indonesia’s answer to America’s ‘Sex and the City’. It has sold over 200,000 copies in Indonesia, and proved something of a sensation, lifting the lid on the sexual adventures to be had in the world’s fourth largest capital, and giving the lie to the image of a puritanical Muslim nation.

But MOAMMAR EMKA’s book probably proves the truth of a different adage: that one country’s erotica is another’s turn-off. The exploits chronicled here are described in a spare, bland style, both slightly cold and offputting. Emka talks about the services available for the rich and favoured in the new Jakarta — expats, the wealthy business people, some politicians, the elite — and only once or twice does he does mention that Indonesia is still one of the poorest countries in the world, where the sort of prices he mentions here for nights of wild excess would add up to earnings for a year or more”.

Monsoon Books wrote of Jakarta Undercover II, “After the enormous success of Jakarta Undercover, Moammar Emka is back with more on the seedy nightlife and underground sex servics of modern, hip Jakarta. Delving deep into the city’s karaoke clubs, massage parlours and transit hotels, the author takes it upon himself to experience first-hand the tasty delights on offer and what exactly they involve.

What is a cat-bath massage? Who are the Mickey Mouse girls? How much does an all-night gigolo really cost? How popular is the after-lunch hand-roll service?

From swingers parties to midnight lesbian packages, Jakarta seems to have it all when it comes to sexual services. And if you thought the first book was explosive, Jakarta Undercover II will leave your imagination running wild. 

Indonesia’s bestselling series—over half a million copies sold!”

Not much of a real review.  But something to think over at any rate.

Gerrie Lim’s The Invisible Trade is altogether something different as reviewed by the Asian Sex Gazette

“Welcome to the very real, largely hidden, and often surreal world of high-class sex for sale in Singapore, where the sexual desires of this tiny island run the gamut from simple missionary zeal to the cracking of the whip. Never before have outsiders been offered such a fascinating look into the weird and wonderful, delightful and sometimes depraved world of five-star, high-class prostitutes that operate in Singapores flourishing sex trade.

For those writing about the sex industry, there is always the danger that the story will become as exploitative as its subject matter. In this survey of high-end sex workers in Singapore, Lim (Inside the Outsider) manages to avoid this trap by giving the workers space to speak for themselves.

Emily, one of Lim’s subjects, describes her first time with a client: “On my first job I was very frightened and didn’t know what to do… I didn’t know how to do a massage or how to talk to a strange guy.” But now, she says, “If you think about the money you can do anything.” …> go to review

“If you think about the money you can do anything.”

I can’t see how Lim’s Part II can beat that quote.

Erotica Revealed has a good review of The Best of Singapore Erotica.

“What I discovered was a collection of stories, essays and poems that help clarify why Singapore has a sex-hostile reputation. Legal restrictions on homosexuality and other “deviant” sexual acts are only the beginning. The obstacles to satisfying sex in the city-state appear to be many and formidable: ferocious upward mobility and a punishing work ethic; shortage of affordable housing, which leads to young adults living with their parents in situations with little privacy; traditional values that favor security over romance; and finally, a complex, multi-racial class hierarchy with social distances that are near-impossible to bridge.

In spite of, perhaps even because of, all these barriers, some of the authors represented in this volume do succeed in creating arousing and emotionally involving tales that I would classify as erotica. One of my favorites is Ricky Low’s “Clean Sex,” in which a successful young Chinese businessman falls in love with an Indonesian housemaid, only to lose her when she’s accused of stealing the expensive presents he has bought for her. Another highlight is “Naked Screw” by Alison Lester, which portrays an initially confrontational but ultimately sensual encounter between a free-spirited ex-pat who likes to walk around her apartment without clothing, and a traditional South Asian laborer who claims that her nakedness offends him. Meihan Boey’s “A Dummy’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity,” in which she chronicles her methodical approach to finding and bedding her first lover, is a clever comic gem:

“Feel free to fit us both into any convenient category of human behavior. Rest assured, I will not complain. Complaining, I find, is the refuge of the weak and unimaginative who have neither the courage to put up with shit nor the wherewithal to get out of it.”

“And Then She Came,” by Jonathan Lim, is a creepy yet unquestionably sexy story of a helpless student “not sober enough to be superstitious,” who attracts the attention of a voracious female ghost. Aaron Ang’s “A Perfect Exit” is a sweet, sentimental and finally surprising story of geriatric lust. I also enjoyed “Self-Portrait with Three Monkeys,” by Chris Mooney-Singh, although it is more a character study than a story, the heroine a middle-aged career woman who consoles herself for her loveless couplings with an orgy of art. Another notable contribution is Weston Sun Wensheng’s “An MRT Chronicle,” a wry commentary on the trials of being young and horny in a society that offers no privacy at all”.

 Jakarta Urban Blog has previously posted on human trafficking in Asia and Indonesia.  

March 7, 2008 Jakarta (informal) part 2

 

And so here is the flip side to all of this…

 News

From The National (United Arab Emirates)

 Illegal logging trade forces jungle brothel in Indonesia

Marianne Kearney, foreign correspondent
Last Updated: May 24. 2008 5:39PM UAE / May 24. 2008 1:39PM GMT

JAKARTA // The illegal logging destroying Indonesia’s tropical forests is fuelling another illicit trade: the trafficking of girls as sex slaves.

Girls as young as 13 are being lured from their homes with promises of employment as waitresses or maids, and then pressed into servicing loggers, their bosses and forestry officials deep within the jungles of West Kalimantan, on Indonesia’s side of Borneo island.

Maria, a child’s rights activist, stumbled upon the jungle brothel during a trip to West Kalimantan to rescue teenagers in illegal gold mines.

The girls, many of them between 13 and 17, had been trafficked from within West Kalimantan, or Indonesia’s main island of Java, 920km away, she said.

“If they want to run, they’re in the middle of the forest, living beside a river, which is too deep and dangerous to swim,” said Maria, who asked that her real name not be used for fear of being tracked down by the traffickers.

The girls were paid as little as 300,000 rupiah per month (Dh118), and forced to live in appalling conditions, she said.

“They didn’t even have simple houses; they were living in huts or just tents made of plastic, with thatch roofs. There were no facilities for them,” Maria said. …> go to article

 Destroy a forest. Destroy a people. 

 “If you think about the money you can do anything”.

 

 

 

 

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Jakarta (informal) part 2

Photo by Quiseng 

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Greek for oikos (house) and nomos (custom or law), hence “rules of the house(hold).” …> go to site

Economics at its most basic might be thought of as the ways in which we make a living. The economy can also be described in terms  of the relationships between supply and demand.

 The rules of the household (a few examples)

Begging

One evening while taking the new communter train from Jakarta to Depok with my friend Budi I noticed a man several cars down crawling along the floor of the train carriage. He would stop occasionally and collect a few coins or rupiah form the commuters. Others ignorded him.  As he approached where we were sitting I reached into my pocket for the stack of coins which I had been accumulating through the day.  He held out his hand and I gave him the coins.  Budi did nothing. The man moved on.  Budi then told me, “Maybe if you follow him home you will see what a nice house he lives in“.  I took this to mean that the man was either faking his disability or he was some sort of professional beggar working his audience.  Shortly after that the train made a stop and a young blind man with his mother walked on board.  He had strapped on his back a small portable karioki machine and proceeded to sing into his microphone with a very good voice.  At this Budi reached into his pocket and handed over his coins.  Budi could tell the difference.  I could not. It is still hard to this day.

There are an estimated 200,000 street vendors in Jakarta each month they pay out about $1.5 billion rupiah for protection, in extortion, or for illegal fees. There are perhaps 80,000 street kids who make their living by begging.

In Spetmeber 2007, the Jakarta City Council approved a bylaw that bans busking, begging and street hawking as well as banning people from giving money to beggars, vendors and hawkers.

Initiated by the city’s departing governor, Sutioyoso, the bylaw says that anyone who is caught giving money to beggars, and others of their ilk, will be fined of 50 million rupiah.From World Street Children News …>go to site 

Mohammad Yazid, Jakarta

“A beggar recently scolded my wife for refusing to give him some money at a busy intersection in Cempaka Putih (famously known as Coca-Cola intersection), Central Jakarta.

“How stingy, so what’s the headscarf for?” he said to my wife. I told my wife not to roll down the car window because I was afraid he was a crook.

Bluffing and smirking have become forms of pressure exerted by beggars operating at nearly every crossroad in Jakarta.

They employ various other methods at other places such as public transportation and residential areas. Some use the conventional style of pretending to be starving or seriously ill, while others apply the criminal way of extorting money from passengers by appearing as alcoholics or newly released convicts.

Women have an effective trick of approaching benevolent people and exploiting the innocent looks of children under the age of five and carrying “hired infants” at Jakarta intersections.

There is no official data on the total number of beggars in Jakarta, but according to Suciardi, head of the commercial sex rehabilitation service at the Jakarta Social Welfare Office, their numbers increase by 40 percent during Ramadhan through Idul Fitri, from the 2,295 normally found in the city.

Chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection, Seto Mulyadi, said the number of street children in Greater Jakarta reached 80,000.

Amid the prevailing economic difficulties and different mishaps affecting Indonesia, many people choose begging as their profession, because they often make more than those who work at government offices or private businesses. Earning about Rp 50,000 to Rp 75,000 daily on average, in a month a beggar can make Rp 1.5 million, far more than Jakarta’s minimum wage of Rp 900,000″.

 Black Markets

Begging, of course, is small change compared to Jakarta’s black markets. Havoscope Global Black Market Indexes lists  the market value of Indonesia’s black market at $3.32 billion (US). The counterfeit goods market value (books, cable, music, movies, and computer software) is listed at $458 million (US).  Black market handphone sales may be as high as $370 million (US). The value of the illegal drug trade is not listed but may also be in the millions of dollars as is indicated by the  recent incident of 600,000 ecstasy pills seized from a shop-house in Cengkareng, Tangerang district, Banten province, last February 26.

Human Trafficking

 from Human Trafficking.org

“Indonesia is primarily a source, but also a transit and destination country for human trafficking. UNICEF estimates that 100,000 women and children are trafficked annually for commercial sexual exploitation in Indonesia and abroad, 30 percent of the female prostitutes in Indonesia are below 18, and 40,000-70,000 Indonesian children are victims of sexual exploitation. The East Java Children’s Protection Agency estimates that at least 100,000 women and children are trafficked annually from, through, and to East Java.

Indonesian women and children are trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Middle East.  A significant number of Indonesian women voluntarily migrate to work as domestic servants but are later coerced into abusive conditions. Some Indonesian women are recruited by false promises of employment and are later coerced into prostitution or forced labor. Ethnic Chinese women and teenage girls in the West Kalimantan district are recruited as mail-order brides for men in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Indonesian women from the Riau Islands, Bali, and Lombok are used for sex tourists from Malaysia and Singapore”.

 from Fact book on Global Sexual Exploitation – Indonesia

“A 1992 survey showed that one out of 10 prostituted persons was under age 17, and that one out of five of those older than that age said they took up prostitution before they reached 17. Dario Agnote, “Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says,” Kyodo News, 18 August 1998

The sex industry accounts for an estimated 1.2 billion dollars to 3.3 billion dollars in annual earnings, or between 0.8 and 2.4% of the country’s GDP, the study said. In Jakarta alone, prostitution-related activities are estimated to be worth 91 million dollars annually. Dario Agnote, “Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says,” Kyodo News, 18 August 1998

There are between 140,000 and 230,000 prostituted persons in Indonesia (1993-1994 estimates). Prostituted persons are mainly adult women, but there are also male, transvestite and child prostitutes, both girls and boys. International Labor Organization. Dario Agnote, “Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says,” Kyodo News, 18 August 1998

There are at least 650,000 prostitutes in Indonesia. In 1998 there were 150,000 registered prostitutes compared to 72,000 in 1995. 30 percent are children. (Yogyakarta Free Children Society, Mohammad Farid, “Indonesian economic crisis boosts prostitution,” Reuters, 26 July 1998

There were 65,582 registered prostitutes in 1994. The highest estimate is 500,000 women in prostitution. CATW – Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific

About 200 prostituted women in Jakarta, Indonesia, protesting plans by the mayor to close down their complex carried signs stating “I did not want to become a prostitute. The economic difficulties have made me a prostitute.” “Indonesian prostitutes join wave of protests,” Reuters, 2 July 1998

Earnings from prostitution average $600 a month in Indonesia and are higher than in other unskilled jobs. International Labor Organization, Elif Kaban, “UN labour body urges recognition of sex industry,” Reuters, 18 August 1998

Particularly because of the economic crises in Asia, women in Thailand and Indonesia are increasingly forced into prostitution as the only means of survival. “Women Workers Are Last in, First Out,” Associated Press, 30 April 1998

In Indonesia the economic crisis has driven thousands of women into prostitution for economic survival. Although “streetwalkers” are prohibited in Jakarta, there is no law prohibiting the sale of sexual services. Yogyakarta Free Children Society, Mohammad Farid, “Indonesian economic crisis boosts prostitution,” Reuters, 26 July 1998

The sex industry takes in US$ 1.2 – US$ 3.6 billion. CATW – Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific

The city of Surbaya, with tens of thousands of prostitutes, is the largest sex industry center in South East Asia, which consists of hectares and hectares of modest houses with large, plate-glass windows where bored girls sit waiting: “streets full of human aquariums”. It is also a magnet for the divorced and dispossessed women of the strict Islamic villages. The sex industry serves as a source of women for prostitution in provincial towns, through a black market network of pimps. Louise Williams, “Sex in the Cemetary,” Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 1997

30% of the girls in Semarang, Indonesia who are homeless are forced into prostitution for survival. University Diponegoro study, Nicholas D. Kristof “Asian Crisis Deals Setbacks to Women”.

Other sites (grim and enlightening) addressing this issue are at:

 Child Prostituion - Indonesia

Intersections: Traditional and Emergent Sex Work in Urban Indonesia

Then there are these sites. 

Best Ladies Escort Agency in Jakarta

Travel Sex Guide Indonesia

Jakarta After Dark

And…finally

from AFP Penises and Prayer Mats: Its Sexual Healing Indonesian Style

“A consultation with Haji Baban is an encounter with the arcane. Sitting cross-legged in semi-darkness, the patient is asked to detail his wishes with the visual aid of a selection of carved wooden phalluses.

Then comes the diagnosis, delivered after a contemplative silence.

Solemnly, Haji Baban intones that the client’s appendage is “fairly average,” and offers to conjour up a six-centimetre (2.3-inch) extension.

The prescription for such whopping growth is a 10-day course of eating and drinking mystery concoctions and secret potions, with the first dose of bitter berries to be taken immediately, washed down with dark brown liquid.

An assistant then brings a phallus-shaped bamboo tube containing a roll of sticky coconut rice that has to be swallowed whole to avoid what Haji Baban describes ominously as “terrible genital consequences”.

Haji Baban ends the consultation with a vegetable oil that the client must promise to apply daily with a specific hand action from base to tip. And no eating green bananas or citronella, he orders.

The daily cost for treatment is between 700,000 and one million rupees (70-100 dollars), depending on the options selected.

This is a hefty sum for many in Indonesia but the imposing mansions being built around Caringin seem to indicate that plenty of men are willing to pay.

A local motorcycle taxi driver gestures to the newly-built homes and says: “They belong to Mak Erot.”

A Last Note

From begging to the black market to human trafficking to penis enlargement. Such are the rules of the Indonesian household. 

I suppose I should be editorializing or moralizing at this point.  In this post I have moved from  the lighter side (is there one?) to the darker side (most certainly there is one) of the informal economies of Jakarta.   I now see that this was sort of an inevitable progression. As it is with all households everything is connected to everything else. It is there in the tension between the rich and poor, the politics and economics of gender, the educated and the uneducated, those with power and those who are disenfranchised. 

As Mary S. Zurbuchen writes in Images of Culture and National Development in Indonesia: The Cockroach Opera, “if the poor of Jakarta are like cockroaches, then these purportedly disgusting insects, instead of signifying filth and being driven from sight, must be welcomed. Victorious and pervasive, they persist everywhere, from the sprawling marbel villas of luxury housing estates like Pondok Indah to the immense slums of Tanjung Priok. The roach should not be counted a symbol of the lowlife here but rather a ubiquitous survivor of thousands of fantasies of ultimate extermination”.   

And still, time after time Susan Abeyasekere’s words from Jakarta: A History just won’t go away, “the central fallacy [of Jakarta] which has persisted from 1619 to the present is that it is possible to create a city for the privileged few, cut off from the countryside and the majority of the poor”.  

This goes to the who, what, why, and where of Jakarta’s informal economies. And it is clear, as the reality of the city declares,  that it is not possible to create a city for “the privileged few”.

It is true for Jakarta as it is for any place else you can point to on the planet.