I Love Footpaths
For many, Jakarta is a city of kampung, and in the kampung, roads quickly become winding, one-lane tracks, with a...
Observations
Fire and Flood
This bule went home for Christmas. I was aware bushfires were burning in Australia and I was, in a slightly...
Welcome to the Roaring Twenties
It’s the start of a new decade and it looks like it’s going to be a prosperous one for Indonesia....
Social Jakartans
Until I came to Jakarta, social media was a foreign country for this bule. I only had one screen of...
Getting Indonesia to Work
Nigel Carpenter is a serious guy involved in important work. He’s also getting a tad frustrated. For the past three...
How to Fail Successfully
No matter who we are, where we come from, or whatever our age, we have all failed at something at...
Isn?t Rural Bali Nothing Else than a Long-Gone Myth?
Governor Wayan Koster is a Bali leader who got elected on identity politics. This kind of regional campaigning is relatively...
You Can Tell the Difference, But A Turtle Can’t
We all have to admit that we are trapped in a world littered with plastic. From plastic straws to many...
Greetings on Cakes are Inappropriate?
Finding a gift for that special person as an act of compassion, to congratulate them on a life achievement, to...
Happy Red Day
The Christmas and New Year holiday period is approaching. It’s time to deactivate the morning alarm and enjoy a few...
Australian Alert! Your Neighbor Has Changed
Telling Australians their ideas about Indonesia are out-of-date can be a head-banging exercise. Ambassador Gary Quinlan knows this well. The...
Prabowo in Jokowi’ New Cabinet: Has Indonesian Democracy Gone Astray?
It might have surprised many of Indonesia’s foreign residents, but newly reelected President Joko Widodo has just appointed his former...
Bubbles & Piazzas
Like most Jakartans, if I have to go less than 200 metres, I walk. Now I have my Scoopy motorbike,...
Death Machines
This bule is in a dilemma. I hate motorbikes. But I think I need to get one. The swarms of...
Is It Wrong to Eat Pussy?
Kenneth Yeung examines why consumption of pussycats is unpopular in Indonesia. Cats tend to enjoy a relatively exalted status in...
Global Advancements in Immersive Dining
Immersive dining has evolved since the days of “dinner and a show,” which often meant mediocre dinner and tacky theatre...
No, Students are Not All Out for Casual Sex but?
No, Indonesian students have not taken to the streets and almost besieged the parliament on several occasions in the last...
New Bule Leaves Town
I’ve just celebrated the third anniversary of my arrival in Jakarta. Three months. It feels like I have been here...
The First 1,000 Days: A Child’ Window of Opportunity
It is no longer a secret that the air quality in Jakarta is fairly bad. In fact, in the past...
Fifty Shades of Green
THERE MAY BE CLEANER STREETS IN THE HILL TOWN OF MALANG THAN THIS EAST JAVA NOOK, THOUGH THEY’D BE HARD...
New Bule in Town
I’m a new arrival in the least-known major city in the world, the capital of the least-known major country in...