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Sunda Kelapa

March 16, 2010 By Isabel Esterman Leave a Comment

Sunda Kelapa
Jakarta’s 800-year-old port. Still a working cargo port, Sunda Kelapa only allows piring, traditional two-masted sailing ships.

Sunda Kelapa
Cargo is still loaded manually. Interestingly (though not terribly surprisingly) most of the workers in the port and on the ships are Bugis — the seafaring ethnic group that earned notoriety in the English language as “Bogeymen.”

Sunda Kelapa
I felt a bit bad actually. Sunda Kelapa is a big tourist attraction (by Jakarta standards, at least), but the people in the harbor have nothing to do with the tourist industry. They’re just putting in a very, very hard day’s work, and have to deal with dozens of cameras trained on them. Granted, this is not their biggest problem, by a long shot. But I still felt like I should hang back much more than I usually would, and it shows in the photos. I’m not too worried though — if I missed anything, I can always buy a post card.
Sunda Kelapa

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How to extend a Visa in Jakarta (if you’re me)

July 29, 2009 By Isabel Esterman 3 Comments

Procrastinate. Everything is more fun at the last minute, right? Plus, you’ve got the election and the bomb and the odd spot of food poisoning to attend to.

Gather the requisite documents: a sponsorship letter, photocopies of your passport and visa. Proof you do actually plan to leave the country relatively soon can’t hurt either.

Attempt to locate a coherent set of instructions on the process. Fail.

Notice in passing something about needing to extend at least seven days before your visa expires. Wonder if you should be concerned you only have two days. Be concerned.

Finally locate the address of the immigration office closest to your house. Be vaguely irritated that the Department of Immigration’s webpage has not been translated into any foreign languages. (Including English.) Because, clearly, no-one looking for information about visas would have any use for such a thing.

***

After fitful sleep, drag yourself out as early as you can manage. (Not very, sad to say) Head through Jakarta’s hellish traffic to the immigration office closest to your place of residence and your visa sponsor’s address.

Upon arrival, be told you’re in the wrong office. And, consequently, your paperwork can’t be processed. Get directed to an office twice as far from home and work, that is technically in the right district.

A long, expensive taxi ride later, arrive at an office in a part of Jakarta you were previously unaware even existed. [Read more...]

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Attracting a Crowd

July 29, 2009 By Isabel Esterman Leave a Comment

I had a chance to escape from the office for a few hours yesterday and accompany friends from Voice of Human Rights Media to Klender, a kampung in East Jakarta. They were shooting footage for a documentary about efforts to provide kampung youth with basic legal training to protect themselves and their neighbors against police abuses, especially in drug-related arrests. Bringing a video camera onto the street invariably attracts a little bit of attention:

Supervisor

and then a little more:

And then there were two...

and then some more:

...and a few more

(But not, on the whole, as much attention as I attracted when I inadvertently stumbled into a nest of fire ants while trying to get a better angle on a shot. My feet are still stinging and covered in dozens of teeny little welts.)

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Election Day in Jakarta

July 8, 2009 By Isabel Esterman 3 Comments

Despite warnings from police that Jakarta might face election riots, today’s vote seems to have gone quietly in the city, with all exit polls showing incumbent president SBY giving the competition a solid trouncing.

Jakarta Voter

A man shows his inked finger — proof he voted in today’s presidential election — as he leaves a polling station in Jakarta.

Election in Indonesia

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Jakarta.

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Day & Night in Jakarta

June 11, 2009 By Isabel Esterman Leave a Comment

Gado Gado Lontong

Gado-Gado vendor in BenHil, Jakarta. On a heated stone, he mixes together peanut, citrus, sugar, chili, and your choice of vegetables, rice cakes, tofu and tempeh to make a delicious lunch.

Motos - Rumah Kost

Hallway of a Rumah Kost in Tebet, Jakarta.

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Settled in Jakarta

May 31, 2009 By Isabel Esterman 2 Comments

I’m settled into a room now, thanks to the kind and patient help of my friends here.   It’s humbling how quickly traveling to an unfamiliar place renders me completely dependent on the goodwill of others.

BenHil

It’s a bit like being a small child.  My Indonesian is sufficient to convey basic information and hold simple conversations, but I’m almost completely incapable of expressing nuanced or abstract thoughts.  I don’t know quite how things work — from table manners to activating a cellphone.  I just have to smile a lot, make very descriptive hand gestures, and hope people think I’m cute rather than irritating.

So far, it’s been an effective strategy.  Today was my first day really on my own, and I’ve racked up a few small victories — getting sandals fixed (This shoe is broken. Can you fix it?), getting pants tailored (These are too big, can you make them smaller?), ordering food (Gado-gado, please.  Without egg or shrimp crackers), actually remembering the word for scissors (gunting).

It’s my day to run small errands, because I start at the Jakarta Post tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

(p.s. I’ve been having trouble uploading photographs.  But I’ll keep trying.)

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The Lapindo Disaster

July 13, 2008 By Isabel Esterman Leave a Comment
Ibu Kurniati

On May 28, 2006, Ibu Kurniati’s world exploded.
“For us, it was like a small apocolypse. We saw huge fires, and the hot mud, and the strong smell of gas was everywhere,”

The previous day, natural gas prospectors Lapindo Brantas hit something soft while drilling nearly 3 km below the surface in East Java. When hot mud and toxic gasses began gushing out of the hole, Lapindo and local authorities were unable to stem the flow, or to organize an orderly evacuation. “It was total chaos,” recalls Korniati.

Two years later, the situation has hardly improved. The mud continues to flow, and has repeatedly breached embankments put in place to contain it. Sludge has oozed over fields, factories and villages, and into canals and groundwater, displacing more than 11,000 people.

Hundreds are still in a nearby evacuation center, which Korniati likens to a prison, living without private quarters, lining up three times a day for food that is often rotten.

Before the disaster, Korniati ran her own small business as a food vendor, but now she’s forced to depend on her children for support. Many, she says, have it even worse, turning to begging, prostitution or suicide. “The mud ruined everything.”

Lapindo denies responsibility for the eruption, ignoring independent geological surveys and blaming an earthquake that struck Java on May 26. However, it has offered limited compensation to villagers who agree to release the company from further liability.

Unsatisfied with this deal — which offers compensation only for loss of material property — Kurniati and other villagers continue to agitate for a more just settlement. They’ve occupied the local parliament, blocked the highway and staged a hunger strike — succeeding in getting promises, but so far nothing more. “They give lots of promises, but what they promise never comes. They just give us words. Until my hair turns white, they’ll never be realized.”
—-

The whole situation is more disgusting, and more complicated, than I can fully explain. Go here and here for more information. Despite all the setbacks, though, the people seem determined to keep fighting.

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July 11, 2008 By Isabel Esterman 1 Comment
Irham, Jakarta

Bush has never been a popular figure in Indonesia — a Muslim country with a strong history of anti-imperial struggle (notwithstanding of course, its own colonial adventures in East Timor and Papua) — and his re-election ensured that dislike of Bush would extend to the American people.

Recently, though, it’s once again become cool to be American. “From Amerika? Barack Obama, Ya!”

What can I do but smile and shrug my shoulders?

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