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.
A man shows his inked finger — proof he voted in today’s presidential election — as he leaves a polling station in Jakarta.
A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Jakarta.
It’s always a little sobering to hear about bombs going off in places I’ve recently been.
Khan al Khalili, January 2009.
Al Hussein Mosque
Al-Azhar area
It’s interesting, though, that because I subscribe to the Jaiku feeds of several Cairo-based journalists and bloggers, by the time I woke up this morning I had more detailed and complete news sitting in my cellphone inbox than was available through the mainstream media.
I’m not entirely certain what winding mental path led me to the rectory of St. Catherine’s Church in Carcar, Cebu. Some of it has to do with reading for a course on literature of social movements in the Philippines — it was to Carcar that the Visayan revolutionary Leon Kilat went seeking reinforcements for his stand against the Spanish army in Cebu city, only to be betrayed and murdered.
And I’m thinking, more generally, about where historical research and investigative journalism intersect and overlap. More on that later, perhaps. In the meantime, some photos from this summer:
On my last day in Egypt, I finally made it to the pyramids at Giza. (I had seen them on the way to an interview, but only through the window of a moving car, which doesn’t quite do them justice.)
The whole scene is a rather unpleasant mix of corrupt police, touts, and tour busses, but the pyramids themselves, somehow, are magnificent and massive enough to stand above it all.
I got back to California this afternoon, and am busy adapting to a 10 hour time change, long hot showers, and cars that stop for me when I want to cross the street.
My multimedia slideshow on the Jack London Aquatic Center’s crew team for Oakland youth is now up at OaklandNorth.net.
More to come…
After days spent immersed in the arcane minutiae of municipal bond markets, it was nice to take a short day assignment that basically involved hanging out with kids in a neighborhood park.
(Of course, I do still have to write the bond piece.)
Breakdancers, rocking it for the camera on Dipolog beach.I’m leaving again for the mountains early tomorrow morning. This time, I’ll be well and truly off the grid — 12 km hike in, no cellphone signal — so I’ll be out of touch for at least the next 2 days.
Geeky digression: the only Tagalog word, to my knowledge, that has become completely integrated into English is bundok, aka Boondock, which means mountain. During the Philippine-American War (and ever since) the mountainous hinterlands were tactical centers for resistance. When asked where the rebels were, locals would respond “sa bundok,” which entered military slang, and from there vernacular english.
More, and more to come, on my flickr account
The (semi)final cut of my series on the drag show at Marlena’s Bar in Hayes Valley:
Check out a few more from the series on my flickr acount
