Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

It was a rare outing for me, but worth it for the few hours I spent on the slopes of Gunung Salak yesterday. Although I didn't make it to the top – that wasn't the point for me – others did.

The value for me was in the time I let them walk on, when I sat under a natural shelter for the light rain and listened.

As my heart rate sank to its regular rhythm, I was able to tune into my surroundings. I admired the intricacies of the ferns, and other primaeval plants which were here before we came and will outlast all future generations of humanity. As much as we try, we can't destroy everything.

I listened to the soft drips off the foliage I sat beneath; a bird here trilled, another there answered, somewhere yonder a wood pigeon woo'd. Maybe it wasn't a pigeon, and I certainly didn't know what the others were; Dave would have done, but it didn't matter to me. There was the rhythm of a life almost beyond my knowing.

From dust to dust we come and go, but whilst we are here it is salutory to be reminded that there are matters beyond our control, that we are part of an infinity of life forms.

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Getting back into Jakarta was yet another journey from hell; it took us five hours when it should have been a shade under two.

As Dan Pearson says, "I would find it impossible to live in the city without engaging with something living and green and ever-changing in this hostile setting." So I gaze at this picture of his garden in south London.

How stupid can we humans be?

Regarding the tsunami which hit the Mentawai islands off the coast of West Sumatra last November, and based on my stay on Siberut island nearly 20 years ago, I conjectured that most of the 400+ deaths …. were of coastal dwellers, poor immigrants from the mainland of West Sumatra. The Mentawai indigenous forest dwellers have developed their 'lifestyle' over 4,000 years living inland in the uphill forests where they have achieved a level of harmony with their environment.

A couple of weeks ago, the Sunday Post had a fascinating two page spread about Mentawai folklore. One tale conveyed from generation to another in [a] hamlet – located in the heart of a forest with plenty of big trees – advises people to head to a banana plantation, considered safer than the hardwood trees, when an earthquake struck.

Although a hundred years ago Dutch Protestant missionaries tried to move the Mentawi out of the forest hinterlands, presumably to boost converts to their congregations, it was not until the 1970s that the villagers were coerced into moving to coastal areas during the government’s welfare supervision project for isolated communities.

That might have been the supposedly benign intent, but it also opened the forests to logging by companies owned by the likes of Tommy Suharto.*

Whilst the survivors of the tsunami now cope with benign neglect, elsewhere in Indonesia six siblings have died through a lack of proper nutrition due to their family's acute poverty, an income of about Rp.200,000 ($21) a week to feed af family of nine. Due to the ever-increasing price of rice, they were forced to eat tiwul, cassava mixed with palm sugar, which can produce toxins such as cyanide,

The now thankfully deceased dictator Suharto set in motion a policy to encourage Indonesians to eat rice. This benefitted his cohorts who, through vast landgrabs and their links with agribusiness companies which embrace fertiliser production and sterile genetically modified food crops, removed farmers from their land. The real tragedy is that this process means that local knowledge of the land, with its varied topography and climatic conditions, which enabled sustainable farming, is dying out. (I've previously written extensively about this topic here.)

Indonesians love chillis because rice is rather a bland tasting staple food. However, a 500% rise in the cost of chillis due to crop failures (and hoarding by wholesalers?) has boosted the inflation rate so that it's not just those living below the official poverty line who are grumbling.

At least the current food crisis has brought forward the long suppressed notion of not only having a diversification of staple foods but also, as Arum Atmawikarta from the National Planning Development Board says, “We should let people eat foods produced locally. Rice is high maintenance; it requires good irrigation and fertilizer, yet it is vulnerable to climate change.”

SBY's solution, incidentally, is to encourage folk to grow chillis in their gardens.

A limited solution, maybe, but at least he acknowledges that his government doesn't have all the answers.

The country's macro-economy is said to be doing well but all I see is nothing of value.
 

Forever Silent

Stiil, at least climate change will bring one benefit to Indonesia: western countries such as the UK will be able to have their own palm oil plantations.
 

I'm getting bored with having to continually return to this topic, but I'm sure I will because it's going to take much longer than what's left of my life span for the human race en masse to recognise that messing around with Mother Nature is wrong: she will always beat us.

The BBC agrees with me.

* Native Planet is dedicated to helping the Mentawai preserve their culture and human rights, and to giving them a choice to decide which aspects (if any) of modern society they want to embrace.

Today is Blog Action Day 2010 and the topic you'll read about on hundreds of blogs worldwide is water.

Why?

Very simply because clean water is essential for our survival, but dangerously scarce. Nearly one billion people in the world today don't have access to clean water and 42,000 people (including about 31,500 children) die each week from water-borne diseases. And the issue doesn't stop there – water availability impacts a wide variety of issues from the environment to women's rights and from technology to fashion.

Although Indonesia is a predominantly a maritime nation, inland its citizens regularly suffer from flooding and droughts, thanks in a big part to deforestation and rapid urbanisation.

Water supply in Jakarta
Barely 12% of the city's population has access to treated and supposedly potable water.

In 2001, the Jakarta Water Supply Regulation Body (JWSRB) was established with members directly appointed by the Governor for a term of office of 3 years "selected through an open and accountable selection process". Through a 'Governor Regulation' it is supposed to "ensure a reasonable balance between the interest of consumer and water services providers in DKI Jakarta Province."

Three companies, PAM Jaya, PAM Lyonnaise Jaya and PT Aetra, are responsible for meeting the city's needs, but you can't really blame them for not succeeding in their mandated task, even though it's a human rights issue;  as much as words dribble from the mouths of experts in the form of discussions and academic documents, the infrastructure is sadly lacking.

And where it exists, it isn't maintained because the bureaucrats only budget to patch up botched jobs.

A statement issued by Winarno, the director of PT Bina Marga Area II overseeing road construction, that the collapse of Jl. R.E. Martadinata connecting Tanjung Priok and Ancol, North Jakarta, was caused by land subsidence resulting from recent dredging of the canal running parallel to the road, confirms that the construction of the newly completed road and dredging activities in the area failed to satisfy standards of prudence, accuracy and thoroughness.

I've written at length many times over the years about Jakarta's water supply so I need not bore you with the reasons why even here in Jakartass Towers we have a bore hole and jet pump to meet our daily water needs.

The following are some relevant links: my posts are in purple and the others are news items, mainly from the last month.

Where Jakarta's water comes from
Note: Recent geological 'evidence' suggests that Jakarta's water does not emanate from Bogor, as outlined in my post above, but from Depok, a township some 40 kilometres closer to the city centre.

In 2006, the then State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar expressed concern over a report showing that Jakartans living in slums have to allocate a larger portion of their income for clean water than people in high-income areas in the capital.

He said that uncontrolled development in Jakarta and its upstream areas were the main cause of poor supply and quality of water forcing residents to spend more on clean water.

Jakarta has long experienced a water crisis since it has no control over supply of raw water which comes mostly from its upstream areas in Bogor, Depok, Bekasi and Tangerang.

Jakarta’s tap water supply is 4,000 liters per second, which is less than the demand in 2010 based on an assumed population growth of 0.3 percent per year. The Jakarta Statistics Agency recently announced that the population of the city was growing on average at a rate of 1.3 percent per year.

The city's water companies supply water to only half (actually less) of Jakarta residents, while millions of others still rely on groundwater. However, due to the poor quality of water, residents use it only for bathing or washing clothes. They have to buy water sold in jerry cans for cooking or drinking.

Jakarta is sinking
Water crisis looms as groundwater dries up
Commercial buildings 'likely rely on groundwater'

Firdaus Ali, a board member of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body, said it would be difficult for a commercial building to rely entirely on tap water.

“Thirteen rivers passing through Jakarta are heavily polluted… and could not supply enough clean water for the growing population and development in the city.”

Firdaus said that almost all commercial buildings used groundwater not only because they lacked required resources for the city supply but because the city’s tap water piping system was inadequate.

A recent study found that since 2002 Muara Baru in North Jakarta has sunk 116 centimeters, West Cengkareng in West Jakarta has sunk 65 centimeters, Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta 47 centimeters and the Thamrin area in Central Jakarta 15 centimeters.

Herry Andreas, the researcher from the Bandung Institute of Technology who conducted the study, said excessive use of groundwater was behind 17.5 percent of land subsidence cases.

Floods
Danger of dams collapsing
40% of Jakarta below sea level
Jakarta's disappearing coastline
Flood waters choke underpasses

Overflowing rivers

Jakarta is doomed
Jakartass BBC Interview re 2007 floods (available as ringtone!)

Weather
Heavy rain causes Jakarta jam
Freak weather in Jakarta

All over the world
Angkor Wat
Fatal floods hit Vietnam (video)
Vicious rains kill hundreds in Asia

Rivers
Human impact on world's rivers 'threatens water security of 5 billion'
UK's Environment Agency admitted that only five of 6,114 rivers in England and Wales were considered pristine last year.
Toxic spill reaches branch of Danube (video)

80% of UK ponds in "terrible state"

What we can do
Firstly, all those of us who can need to change our lifestyles.

• Create gardens rather than carports
• Reduce the capacity of toilet cisterns.
• Replace leaking taps and pipes immediately.
• Use buckets rather than hose pipes to wash vehicles.
• Dig biopores to capture rainwater, thus replenishing the water table.

Please add further suggestions in the comments

Finally, join millions worldwide in helping to build a movement of people across the world calling on UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to accelerate the UN's work to supply clean, safe drinking water to the world's poorest populations.

Start by signing this petition.

According to Dr. Eeva Karjalainen and colleagues at the Finnish Forest Research Institute, a walk in the woods is one of the most enjoyable activities around because it can reduce stress and depression, ease muscle tension, counter attention deficit disorder, even calm an erratic heart.

I have never understood why 'Man' thinks that it is possible to 'own', let alone 'tame' nature. As the ruins of ancient civilisations, should remind us, generations come and go; Mother Nature has only so much tolerance for our greed. All we can do – should do – is safeguard what we borrow and seek to work with, rather than against, our temporary residence.

The collapse of the empires of the Khymer who built Angkor Wat, and of the Incas who built Manu Picchu is attributed to environmental degradation.

The decline of the Roman Empire is also attributed to this and a number of other reasons, such as decaying infrastructure and that "it fell to Islam", a decline in morals, including a rise in corruption among the rich and powerful. It's all inter-related.

Sound familiar?

Planet Earth vs. Man
One winner, billions of losers.

Surely we hold Planet Earth in trust for future generations. This has belatedly been recognised here in Indonesia with such legislation as Law No. 41/1999 regarding protected forests .

Unfortunately, as is recognised worldwide, law enforcement is weak, particularly among civil authorities. This may explain why 100 hectares of protected, but now severely damaged, forest in South Sumatra has ended up in the greasy and greedy hands of local officials.

But even access to areas of relatively untouched nature is limited, not so much by ever-spreading urban areas and privatisation as by the attitudes of 'government'.

According to Dan Quinn, 'gunung bagger' extraordinaire, this hampers access to Jakarta's nearest national parks.

When dealing with gaining access to a peak within the limits of a national park, the process becomes hopelessly complicated. There is a ludicrous obsession with permits – in the notable case of Gede Pangrango – and an advance reservation is sometimes required.

There is a case to be made for limiting damage, but the park's guardians don't actually do this.

It is necessary to let the terrain recover from the thousands of boot prints and mounds of discarded Pop Mie cartons.

Like me, he is originally from Great Britain, where there is a legal 'right to roam', that is, hikers are allowed unfettered access to most mountain areas except, quite understandably, if it involves walking through somebody’s private property.

But this may soon be lost as the new "laissez-faire government", with massive budget cuts in the pipeline, may be planning to sell off nature reserves.

I have already written extensively about how children have rare opportunities to get in touch with nature, for example, both here in Indonesia and back in Blighty .

"More kids today are interested in the natural world than ever before; but far fewer are experiencing it directly, on their own or with their friends, and that's what counts: this is about more than nature."

Yes, attitudes must change. It's surely time that a course on How To Live On Planet Earth is included in the national curriculum and concurrently taught to elected legislators, appointed lecturers, recruited bureaucrats, and business executives – why should Bakrie be the country's largest landowner?
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BTW. Other animals are cleaner defecators.
Look at the picture of a Solo loo on this site – and shudder!

I don't like Coca Cola, nor Pepsi come to think of it. Both are too sweet and far from refreshing, but, hey, I'm not going to tell Our Kid to stop drinking it while I'm downing a bottle or two of Bintang Pilsener during our regular sessions at Ya Udah.

Several years ago, because I thought that things went better without Coke, contrary to their then advertising slogan, and having no intention of teaching the world to sing, I went on several treks hoping to actually reach a place where I couldn't actually get a Coke, even if I had wanted one. I failed; I found it in tea stalls outside monasteries in the Karakoram range of the Himalayas, on the Burmese border of the northern hills of Thailand, and at the top of Gunung Batur in Bali.

Although I personally believe that their whole marketing strategy is one of cultural imperialism, what concerns me at the moment is their sheer cynicism – hypocrisy even – when it comes to their 'corporate social responsibility'. I'll explain this in a further post. First read this email I received yesterday from my favourite trough here in Jakarta.

Is Idiot Stencilled Across Consumers' Foreheads?

For over 10 years the Ya Udah Bistro has had on its drinks list Coca Cola products, such as Cola Original, Sprite, Fanta Red and soda water as well as Diet – now Zero – Cola. With the exception of Diet Cola, which always comes in a can, all others have been offered in 295 ml glass bottles. Recently, running low on Sprite, we placed an order with the Cola Company, but did not receive any delivery as they claimed that the 295 ml bottles 'tidak ada stock, i.e. not in stock.

After repeated orders and no delivery we contacted Coca Cola Sales and we were informed that not only Sprite but all other drinks in 295 ml glass bottles have been discontinued and only the baby 200 ml size is still available in glass bottles. There are now only their so-called PET plastic bottles and cans available.

Obviously we are not happy. Firstly, serving drinks in a can or a plastic bottle does not look great in a restaurant.

But what's more, Coca Cola are using this the size reduction as a reason to jack up its prices. After all, even a blind man on a galloping horse can see that one-way cans and plastic bottles cost extra which, alas, the consumer will pay for. With no need to collect and wash the glass bottles, it makes things easier for the Coca Cola Company. They can simply dump the stuff on consumers and have no further responsibility. We wonder if we just paid and did not get supplies, would that make it even easier for them?

And take this quoted comment from the Cola company for good measure: …Our suggestion is moving to can 250 ml which is more efficient because it is a one-way-package thus you don't need a large storage for our product. Plus an added value for our cans which are made by aluminum (Al Who?) and could be re-sold per kg in the market….

We do wonder what happened to avoiding waste, saving energy and all that stuff.

What are we going to do? Well, we have no other alternative but to serve the products in the baby size 200 ml glass bottle, but we shall not, cannot, lower the price. However, dear reader, we will try and discourage the consumption of these products and suggest that you consider an iced lemon tea, a milk shake or a smoothie instead.

One thing is for sure: we shall take the promo banner for Cola Zero off our website.

The Ya Udah would very much welcome it if you would let us know your comments and views on this.

Comment
Apart from continuing to personally boycott Coca Cola, I wonder if a possible alternative for Ya 'Udah and other like-minded establishments is Coke on draft.

Views
My views follow in a separate post – Hokey Pokey Coca Cola.

If you’ve read Okey Dokey Coca Cola?, the post above, you know that I don’t think that things go better with Coke.

However, in the interest of balance, it’s only fair to find out what Coca Cola-Indonesia has to say. Although I can find nothing more recent than this page from Coca-Cola Foundation Indonesia (CCFI) and Coca Cola’s Corporate Responsibility Report 2008 (.pdf), they do say a lot.

Live Positively is our commitment to make a positive difference in the world by redesigning the way we work and live so sustainability is part of everything we do.

Really, Coca Cola? “Everything“? Really?

Why is there no mention in the letter to Ya ‘Udah of Coca Cola’s commitment to recycle the aluminum cans which “could be re-sold per kg in the market.” Are they going to collect them from Ya ‘Udah and their other outlets? And if so, what do they plan to do with them? I doubt that they’ve established a network among the omnipresent scavengers and NGOs.

If they haven’t, they could try the XS Project who inform me that they “are now working with corporations to turn their trash into treasures.”

And what of PET bottles which are being churned out in their billions, yet Ya ‘Udah et al are expected to deal with?

Polyethylene terephthalate (sometimes written polyethylene terephthalate, commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination with glass fiber.

One problem with PET is that although these drinks bottles are recyclable, the material itself may be toxic. I also wonder if the process of manufacture along with the recycling process has a smaller carbon footprint than simply reusing glass bottles.

They say that they see packaging as a resource, not waste. We will continue to find ways to reduce the amount of
packaging we use and ensure it is recyclable. CCA has consistently improved rates of packaging waste sent to recycling in our manufacturing plants in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Strangely, it seems that those companies in Indonesia which recycle PET have to also import the material in order to have a viable volume of production.

Back in February 2006 I quoted the following from a now forgotten source: Plastic water bottles can take 1,000 years to biodegrade. Nine out of 10 water bottles end up as garbage or litter, and that means 30 million per day. Only a small percentage are recycled.

Adding soft drinks bottles to that number, however biodegradable they may be, and then considering the Indonesian habit of discarding litter wherever they may be and it seems fairly obvious that Coca Cola has not considered the consequences of their discarding glass bottles, except in a small way in Bali.

As part of [the} ongoing, year-round campaign to clean up Bali’s major beaches and waterways, we installed 200 public place recycling bins on Kuta, Legian and Sanur beaches, strategically located next to vendors’ ice chests.

And in Jakarta? What is the programme which ensures that their fine words aren't hollow? What is Ya 'Udah to do with their recyclable waste? As they haven't been informed, we may presume that neither have the umpteen bars, warungs, shops and other outlets for Coca Cola products.

Ah, but Coca Cola does have a Corporate Bullshit Policy. They have philanthropic Foundations in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea [which] distribute in total more than $1.5 million dollars annually to projects which assist local communities in Indonesia [including] micro-loans for people to start their own businesses.

Is this really an appropriate project for Coca Cola? To me, it appears that for all its vast reach, Coca Cola does little for Indonesia. It may well gloat that in 2007(?) Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia was awarded a certificate for environmentally responsible companies from Environment Minister, Rachmat Witoelar.

That may look good hanging on an office wall, but it doesn’t look good from where I’m sitting and you can be sure that Ya ‘Udah doesn’t want a copy. Why is there a Coca-Cola Indonesia Eco-bus, powered with bio-diesel, touring schools educating students about recycling, energy saving and waste processing when they don’t seem to practice what they preach?
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Coca-Cola Foundation Indonesia (CCFI) est. 2000.
Contact Information:
Ms. Titie Sadarini
Wisma GKBI, 8th Floor
JI. Jenderal Sudirman No. 28
Jakarta 10210
Email: ccfi@apac.ko.com

I subscribe to the weekly email sent out by to Eco Geek. I'm particularly interested in small scale inventions and developments which could, with a little will, be applied here in Indonesia.

Street Lamps Powered by Garbage

A cool new design concept marries composting with clean energy: garbage-powered street lamps. The Gaon Street Light from designer Haneum Lee keeps food waste out of landfills while keeping streets illuminated. The street lamp features a garbage bin at its base where food products can be deposited. The waste is then composted and the methane from the waste powers the lamp at the top.

A No-Draw Charger

AT&T has just announced a USB-based telephone charger that does not pull electricity from the wall when it's not charging a phone. I don't know about you, but my charger is plugged in 100% of the time. That charger pulls a tiny amount of energy from the wall 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Multiply that by 100 million chargers in Indonesia and there's probably at least one coal-fired power plant dedicated entirely to that wasted power.

Better yet is a charger which doesn't draw any energy at all from the grid.

Pedal Your Way to a Charged Cell Phone

Nokia has just unveiled a way to charge your cell phone without hitting up the grid – a bicycle charger kit. Dedicated cyclists may never have to plug a phone into a wall again. The Bicycle Charger Kit mounts onto the handlebars of your bike and includes a holder for your cell phone. The charger plugs into the phone and then your pedaling does the work. The faster you pedal, the faster the phone charges. At just shy of 4 mph, the charging starts and if you can up your speed to 8 mph, the phone will charge as fast as being plugged into a wall outlet.

Going at 8 mph (13 kph) is rarely possible in Jakarta, but perhaps they can be installed in fitness centre machines.

Bead-Filled Washing Machine Uses 90% Less Water

A new washing machine design uses 90 percent less water and reduces utility bills by 30 percent by cleaning clothes with tiny plastic beads. The machine by UK company Xeros Ltd uses 3mm-long nylon beads that can get into all crevices and folds of clothing and absorb stains and dirt. Stephen Burkinshaw, a polymer chemist at Leeds University, discovered that nylon beads at 100 percent humidity could attract stains away from clothing and into the center of the beads, preventing deposition back onto the clothes.

Solar Refrigerators Save Lives
The distribution of vaccines through the developing world is sometimes limited by a lack of available refrigeration for the storage of the vaccines. In some parts of the world, more than half of the vaccines spoil before they can be administered. Millions of lives and billions of dollars are lost due to a lack of refrigeration. A new solar refrigerator developed by the Appropriate Technology Collaborative can provide lifesaving cold storage for vaccines with an inexpensive system that can be built from locally available materials. The refrigerator needs no electricity and should require only minimal maintenance since it has no valves or moving parts.

There are of course other bits of Green Stuff which may otherwise be overlooked.

Such as Whale Poo.
Australian scientists have discovered that whale poo is not only helping ocean plant life to flourish, but also increasing the ocean's ability to absorb CO2. Because whales' diets are made up largely of iron-rich krill (small crustaceans), their droppings are a great fertilizer for marine plants, helping them to grow like weeds (or algae). These plants then do their part by absorbing CO2 as they grow, a process that scientists have tried to amp up (unsuccessfully) in Antarctic waters with iron fertilization.

It makes sense, therefore, to sign the latest petition being organised by Avaaz.org.

In one week, the International Whaling Commission will hold its final vote on a proposal to legalize commercial whale hunting for the first time in a generation. The outcome rests on whose voices are heard most clearly in the final hours: the pro-whaling lobby – or the world's people?