(de-)construction

The Agung Podomoro Group - allegedly headed by Tomy Winata - is building Central Park Residences, of which Mediterania Garden Residences 2 at Tanjung Duren Raya, West Jakarta, is a part. I was not allowed to take this picture and a security guard sent me away. This construction site is supposed to be a green area so that it could have functioned as a water catching area. The hinterland of this site is prone to floods during the rain season, up to two meters, and most likely this mega construction is not making matters any better. I took this picture because I think it is ironic if a lack of green is covered-up by a photo of trees on a building.

urban anxiety

Peter Nas and Pratiwo write: “uncertainty has become a certainty […].”[1] The gated communities in suburbia symbolize the fear of the stranger, where homogeneity symbolizes the need for security. Nas and Pratiwo call this the ‘architecture of fear’.[2] The walls, gates, barbed wire and guards symbolize the graving for security while not providing real safety. Abidin Kusno comments: “They [the fences] no longer seem to connote power. They do not have any real power to exclude. Rather, these enclosures signify defense, fear, and abandonment. They keep things inside […].”[3]

[1] See p289, Nas, P.J.M., Pratiwo, ‘The streets of Jakarta, Fear, trust and amnesia in urban development’, in: Nas, P.J.M., Persoon, G., and Jaffe, R. (eds.), Framing Indonesian realities: Essays in symbolic anthropology in honour of Reimar Schefold, Leiden: KITLV Press, 2003.
[2] See p292, idem.
[3] See p176, Kusno, A., ‘Remembering/Forgetting the May Riots: Architecture, Violence, and the Making of ‘Chinese Cultures’ in Post-1998 Jakarta’, in: Public Culture, Vol.15, no.1 (2003): pp149-177.

hilarious prejudices

anger

moods and weather

child

elderly

way of life

the boss

party

contacts

punctuality

problem solving

queuing

Blue are the Westerners and red are the Asians; a playful way of making fun of prejudices. However, as Edward Said writes in 'Orientalism' (p4-5): "the Orient is not an inner fact of nature. It is not merely there, just as the Occident itself is not there either [...] - such locales, regions, geographical sectors as 'Orient' and 'Occident' are man-made."

PP

In the second banner from the left Pemuda Pancasila wishes success to newly elect mayor of Bandung, Dada. Pemuda Pancasila advertises itself as a youth organization, but by most it is viewed as a government backed group of thugs or a para militairy organization. Why does the mayor want to have this public show of support?

Grounded

Adam Air has grounded itself after another of its planes crashed. The EU has decided to ban Indonesian airline companies of entering its airspace because their planes have proven to be too often in a fatal state. The Indonesian elite has responded in a nationalistic way, it is seen as a form of neo-colonialism.

Gambir, Jakarta