Jacque in Jakarta: Cultural Pollution

Eight months ago yesterday, we landed in Jakarta. The only other place I had visited in Southeast Asia was Singapore, which is nothing like Jakarta. In Singapore, there is hardly any pollution and people are actually fined for littering. In Jakarta, we wear a mask because of the pollution and witness people throwing trash on the ground everyday.

Jakarta is home to one of the most polluted rivers in the world, Citarum (pronounced "Chi-ta-room"). People who used to fish for fish are now forced to fish for plastic because all the fish have died. There has been a push to clean-up Citarum, but simply clearing the debris is not going to address the root of the problem. In order to solve the issue of pollution, the mindset of the people must be changed.

During my first week in Jakarta, I was astonished to see a taxi driver roll down his window and throw a plastic wrapper out his window. I was surprised to see an elderly woman throw her trash on the floor of an angkot. I was disappointed to see children throwing emply soda bottles onto the road. As long as these occurances are deemed normal, there will not be a solution to the ever-increasing problem of pollution.

It might not be popular to voice this opinion, but the people of Jakarta have to open their eyes and see they are destroying themselves. The people have to realize that constantly littering leads to the numerous, damaging, sometimes deadly, floods. If Indonesia wants to participate on a world scale, then they have to make progress concerning their outlook on pollution. Just because your grandmother did it, doesn't mean it is right. Come into the twenty-first century, Jakarta. Stand up for your city, tell people to stop littering now. Stop littering before more lives are needlessly lost.

Jacque in Jakarta: My walk to work

This past month has been a bit hectic, so I'm just doing my best to try to write a post twice a month. Exciting news: Alexander and I have decided to renew our contracts for another year, meaning we won't be leaving Jakarta until October 2014 at the earliest. Thus, the longer we live here, the fewer things I'll be able to comment on, so I might eventually only write once a month.

For my topic today, I decided to write about my walk to work. I have previously written about my commute to work, but that was when we were living at a different place. Since we moved, our new commute to work is only a walk of just under 10 minutes. This might sound like a pleasant improvement from the terrors of the angkot, however, there are still plenty of...what should I say...challenging aspects of getting to work.

To start with, our apartment is still a construction site. That means there are quite often cranes suspended in the air which we have to walk under and there isn't really a place for pedestrians to walk. They seem to only take motor traffic into consideration.

Then, as I have discussed in a previous post, the sidewalks in Jakarta are, to say the least, difficult to walk on. The sidewalks between my apartment and work pose a few additional hazards, which include: An exposed and dirty river, dodgy coverings for said river, motor vehicles on the sidewalk, and parts of the sidewalk missing.

I think Jakarta without human influence would actually be a beautiful place with lovely canals. However, Jakarta is known for its pollution, thus the canals aren't that lovely. Imagine walking next to this everyday with the fear of falling in:

As you can see, there have been a few attempts to cover the river, but I don't trust the stability of wood that has been exposed to the monsoon rains of Jakarta.

Then of course there is the issue of where to walk, when it seems that cars and trucks have taken up all the possible space you could use to avoid walking on the road.

And finally, it wouldn't be a Jakarta sidewalk if there wasn't damage to it.

If I think of it imaginatively, walking to work is really an exciting adventure. It's like mixture of an obstacle course and kind of the opposite of "Hole in the Wall"....don't fall in the hole!

Jacque in Jakarta: A Trip to Bogor

On Good Friday after church, Alexander and I took a trip to a town called Bogor. We needed a break from the city (Jakarta can be quite overwhelming at times) and Bogor seemed to be a very quick escape (only an hour away), so we decided to hop on a train and spend a night in a "cooler" and "smaller" place. Oh the surprise we had at expectations versus reality.

To start off, we did research on the internet and decided that a train would be the easiest way to get to Bogor. As per our information, a train left from Gambir station quite often. That worked perfectly for us, seeing as Gambir is less than a 10 minute walk from our church and it's quite a nice station. So we brought our bag with us to church and headed over to the station after the service. Once we arrived, we tried to determine which line we had to get in to purchase the ticket for the "nicer" train to Bogor. Much to our astonishment, there wasn't actually a train from Gambir to Bogor. The man at the ticket counter informed us that instead we had to go to Juanda station. Luckily for us, Juanda was only a ten minute taxi ride. Unluckily for us, the station was less than desireable for Westerners who appeared to have money. We were harrassed by a beggar and Alex was actually physically assaulted. Fortunately, we were able to jump out of that fire....and into a frying pan, or so it seemed. We were packed on the train like sardines and the "AC" was actually just oscillating fans. We had to stand for the entirity of our journey to Bogor.

Once we got to Bogor, we discovered that "cooler" for an Indonesian, doesn't quite mean the same thing as it does for a Westerner. A normal temperature here in Jakarta is about 30 Celsius and Bogor was probably a mere 28 Celsius. So, we didn't get a break from the heat, but we did get a wonderful, relaxing bathtub:

Besides the bathtub, the hotel we stayed at was quite nice and quite close to the famous botanical gardens, or Kebun Raya. So, after having two baths on Friday evening, we spent Saturday exploring the gardens. It was nice to smell grass and fresh air. But, there was still plenty of litter....and not the best use of English.

The red thing isn't a rock...

Who knew that plants needed to work on progress?

Once we had our fill of the gardens, we returned home to Jakarta. The trip home wasn't much better than the trip there, so the mini-vacation turned out to be more of a stressful experience as opposed to a relaxing get-away. However, we discovered that we could have taken a train that has overflow passengers on the roof!

Even though it was nice to get out of Jakarta for a bit, we decided that next time we will leave it to the professionals. Better to pay extra than to have faulty information about non-existant trains.

Jacque in Jakarta: Pollution and Political Correctness

Since I haven't written in nearly a month, I decided I would catch up by giving a double dose of insights.

After the floods last month, we had an interesting point of view from our apartment. Once the water had finally receded, it left the river looking like this:

Yes, that pile of trash is actually the river. The heavy rains pushed all of the litter into the river, and the river carried it to this bridge. The next logical question is, 'Where did all the litter come from?'

The answer is that here in Jakarta, people have a different idea about littering. In the West, we are given fines if we throw trash on the ground, and even if we're not caught, the people around us think we are slobs. Here in Jakarta, there doesn't seem to be fines for littering and, in general, it seems to be a natural way of life. I've seen children throwing candy wrappers on the sidewalks, taxi drivers throwing bottles out of their windows and even an elderly women of about 70 throwing her used tissue on the floor of the angkot.

My students seem to realize that this isn't healthy for their environment, but when asked about it they simply accept defeat. They complain about people littering, but say nothing about it. It's as if they have accepted that this is the way it is, and therefore it's the way it always will be. Speaking of 'the way it is' leads me to my next topic.

In the West, it is generally understood that you never ask a person, especially a lady, the person's age. Additionally, marital status is something you find out from general conversation as opposed to flat out asking if someone is married. In Jakarta, the first question people ask upon meeting you is your age. The second question is about your marital status. If you are not married, they ask why you're not married. If you are married, they ask how many children you have. If you are married and don't have children, they ask why you don't have children.

Here, it seems to be understood that people, especially women, get married in their early twenties and start having babies in their first year of marriage. If you are single or childless, there's something wrong with you. This Western idea of having a career before thinking about marriage or saving money to have children seems to be lost here.

Whether or not I agree is another matter. It is simply a different way of thinking, and I suppose as long as I am a Jakartan resident I have to accept 'the way it is'. But no worries to my Western friends and family. I won't be practicing littering and I don't intend to pick up the habit of asking taboo questions any time soon.