think!archipelago human interest I cityscape I landscape I architecture I art
BRAVE THE WORLD
V8
NOV 2014
P1 Contents EDITORS NOTE Writers and Photographers
QUARTERLY REVIEW The maritime axis power Not just a market Fa Zhu Gong parade
ARCHIPELAGO SECTION Brave the world Diana Ria East and west collaboration
WORLD SECTION A haunting vision Go south
As I walked across the blocks outside the Beijing fourth ring road, the freezing winds on the winter swept over my face. It made a painfully burning sensation on my hands, to which I quickly put on a pair gloves in a panic attempt to restore them from excruciating numbness. At a particular time, the rampant televised news about pollution in the capital and on the rest of the urban areas in China to the extent that it caused hazy days during spring to summer seemed overblown. Unlike what is seen on tv, in winter the clear air does not stifle as feared. The tormenting gush of wind seemed to blow away the emission. However, the situation in the atmosphere says a contradicting assumption. The smokes coming out relentlessly from the chimneys of China’s old era went to every direction. The air up in the bright sky is blanketed in white. Regardless the wind direction or the currents, the pollution coming from industrial output stays up there. The chimneys present a contrast view among the new zoning system in Beijing. It can only serve the grand vision of the past nation founders. Now it is a problem. And solving it takes more than just shutdown or relocation.
THE ROAD LEAST TRAVELED Hidden tea hills Purnadi Phan Editor
We thank these terrific people whose contributions have helped make the volume possible Yenny Wongso is a bachelor of Chinese Language in Beijing who now pursues another degree in English Education. In her recent tour to Western Europe and Italy, she captured many remarkable pictures. She now works and studies in Jakarta.
Mikhail Surjadi is a food traveler, photography enthusiast, gadget freak, he is known for his love towards these things. Follow his tweets on @mikhailsurjadi
P2 Quarterly review
AUG
SEP
OCT
The maritime axis power
Not just a market
Fa Zhu Gong parade
Celebrating the National Independence Day at sea, which makes up over two thirds of 5.1 million square kilometers of Indonesia’s total area, was an awe in silence. The national flag waived through the strong wind currents on the ship’s tail, suggesting that this country has sovereignty in the mostly uninhabitated area for humans. But the natural recources deep under the waters is what makes its people rich, more than enough for the next generations, if well-sustained.
With over 1.3 million people working in automotive industry, Indonesia has after a steady growth in recent years simultaneously become a lucrative market for world automakers and a labor-intensive country in the region in which production facilities and the wide range of its peripheral indutries flourish. To these importance, the annual Indonesia International Motor Show tells how big and fast this prime sector is developing.
Text and photography I Mikhail Surjadi
Not only us humans, gods have birthdays too. True, Chinese deities have birthdays to celebrate annually. And not only humans who attended the party, but also the gods and their heavenly followers. Read the full story with more pictures on think archipelago website. Click here.
INDONESIA JAZZ REVIEW Album and artist
Click to enter
P5 Archipelago section
BRAVE THE WORLD
Reviving Indonesia’s past glory as the world’s biggest archipelagic state, then called Nusantara in pre-colonial era, is the newly elected Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s keynote in terms of economic development. In what his administration touted as the maritime axis power, Indonesia is going to build its economy with much larger proportion coming from the waters. Pushing renewable resources would mean a boost in fishing output, and the vision to increase sea trade would translate into an ambitious plan of ports building. To this extent, the government has a huge task of making a headstart. Some analysts said the country is not by any means close to the bold terms of the maritime axis power, and the vision far-flung. Like in this lagging port infrastructure in Bojonegara, Banten, the decade-old vision to transform this shore into
a port in West Java that will overtake Tanjung Priok in Jakarta as the hub for Sumatra-Java sea trade, let alone an important regional port on par with Singapore lacks every indication. The service boat operated by Kadiman, among other small number of crews as seen on this page clearly suggests that Bojonegara has a long way to go. Its inability to handle large vessels is the reason Kadiman still works there. He and his small boat carries passengers and goods from and to the ships anchoring off the waters. Since Bojonegara is close to the Merak, one of the busiest ports in Indonesia, it has seen heavy traffic of cargos, tankers, and other large utility vessels such as dredging ships. Some shipping companies have made Bojonegara their home port. But Kadiman does not get a lot of money there. The absence of infrastructure, especially the docks, is now certainly something he is grateful of, and also to some dozen other boat crews.
7,900,000 The number of Indonesian people as of 2013 who lives in coastal areas with less than USD2 of earnings per day
Bojonegara remains trapped in visionary rhetorics, and it has not transformed into reality. Maritime power is not only limited to trades, but also the sovereignty over waters. The newly appointed Foreign Affair Minister Retno Marsudi underlines her agenda settling disputed claims with neighboring countries, and bolstering cooperation. The Joko Widodo-led new administration marks a dawn where Indonesia braves the world.
Location
Related article
See it online
Bojonegara Intl. Port Serang regency Banten province
Sunda Kelapa Port See it on Flickr Click here
The photoessay Brave the world is available on think archipelago special black and white photography medium MONOMAT
P10 Archipelago section
DIANA RIA
Photography
I
Erwin Supandii
Diana Ria, the traveling group of temporary funfairs stopped at Solo as part of their regular tour across cities in Java. The setup in the city square took only several days to complete, and it opened for one full month. Despite the outdated and makeshift devices, tours like Diana Ria still wins people’s heart, as is the case for the majority who are budget-wise. For a meager price of a little more than one dollar in admission ticket, visitors get to see everything Diana Ria could offer, excluding some main attractions that would cost another dollar each. Diana Ria and other groups of similar amusement rides business showed that it is not always the race for fanciful innovation or the spectacular size that lead to survival. There is always enough demand in the market for something simple mechanism, albeit compromising the standards. Yet the safety standard affects less to the visitors and more to the operators. Their devices were fully mechanical moved manually by manpower. It is astonishing to see some type of rides carrying over 20 people such as the Pendulum Rides were operated by a handful crews.
Location
More articles by Erwin Supandi
More photos
Alun-Alun Utara Solo/Surakarta Central Java
Borobudur Betaria www.thinkarchipelago.com
See more Erwin Supandi’s photo works on his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/erwinsupandi/
P14 Archipelago section
EAST & WEST COLLABORATION
Goethe Haus Jakarta’s regular agenda of setting up international jazz musicians under the now familiar event Serambi Jazz continued to please the audience whom mostly long for an experimental type of music out of the industrialized music on the market. The play on Thursday, 16 October, not only showing the fresh compositions made by each side, the European represented by Benny Lacker and the band, the French Karim, and the Indonesian guitarist who had appeared several times in Goethe Haus, Johanes Radianto, but they also brought a mixture of songs in their list from different places of origin. In their own twists, tunes such as Jimy Hendrix’s From 6 to 9 to Indonesian folk song Gundul Pacul were surprising enough that by the end they were applauded by standing audience across the auditorium.
As the third time of such anticipated music project, the involved musicians have more confidence to introduce new forms and possibilities which are non-existent in mainstream music. Some instances were the screeches of string bass that created the sense of slowly receding creepiness in one of the trio’s composition, or the creation of sounds from Karim’s keyboard that played out well with his composition.
Location
See online
More jazz review
Goethe Haus Jakarta Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15 Menteng, Jakarta
East & west collaboration in exclusive layout only on Be Bright. www.be-bright.me
on Indonesia Jazz Review Album & artist catalogue Click here
P17 World section
A HAUNTING VISION
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The cold of winter in Beijing gets harsher as it is usually followed by persistent windblows night and day. The undulating smokes coming out of old chimneys on a freezing noon is an evidence of the windswept cosmopolitant area. The sky is bright, but not clear. This suggests heavy air pollution. Regardless the wind currents or to which direction it blows, the constant smokes from numerous industrial chimneys scattered across the capital— the founder of People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong’s criterium of economic prowess in early 50s—have never got away anywhere outside the city. Mao’s vision of the future strong China has transformed into a haunting amount of carbon dioxide and dust that linger up there in the sky through changing seasons. There have been systematic attempts to drive the industrial output away from the capital, long marred by pollution issue. Since the enactment, the relocation decree of dirty industry to neighboring cities such as Hebei have made the chimneys dissappeared from
city skyline. Ageing factories, commonly steel and chemical processing facilities were forced to move out of the high density zones into some other sattelite cities in-the-making. Over the years, the Beijing municipalities clean-air act have worked as planned, except that the ultimate goal of improving the air quality have yet to materialize. Now a third of Beijing emission record comes from outside Beijing. This issue challenges urban population in China about how they perceived the air they breathe. Will farther industrial zone relocation solve the problem? Or should the Chinese nation come to terms with their mind that it is a necessity to accept environmental compromise in exchange for prosperous economic growth? Currently, perhaps it is both.
500 The number of factories closed in Beijing by the end of 2014 as a result of relocation decree.
Location
Related article from China
See online slideshow
Various districts in Beijing, China
NCPA Beijing WTC Shanghai Go to website
See Beijing Urban Planning slideshow on purnadiphanphotography website Click here
P21 World section
GO SOUTH
Photography
I
Yenny Wongso
The clear blue sky as the backdrop of the chains of mountain—part of the giant Southern Alps—welcomed the plane when it landed on the south island of New Zealand. The Queenstown International Airport was flanked by a fraction of 50 volcanic mountains in the country. White clouds blanketed most of its long summit, a beautiful scenery to begin the journey on this resort destination. For Asian tourists coming from the typical densely populated home city, the south island would have certainly made them dumbfounded with the least appearance of humans. It is one of the less inhabitated lands on earth in comparison with the modern world that is crowded by over 6 billion people.
32 years since the last earthquake occured in south island in 1968
The ultimate stop on the visit to the south island of New Zealand is Christchurch, the third most populous city in the country after Auckland and Wellington in the north island, with just over 340,000 inhabitants. Over 30 per cent of the south island population lived in Christchurch. As the history of the European settlement in New Zealand started in the south island during the goldrush that culminated in the 19th century, Christchurch is the country’s first established city. Frequent series of earthquakes over two years since 2010 had changed its outlook into even more vibrant and new. Rapid and thorough restoration that took place in the past two years made the traces of destructive impact of earthquakes dissapeared.
New Zealand was one of the last stops of human migration in the prehistoric era. Its indigeneous Eastern Polynesian people, the Maoris, settled long before the Dutch and British voyagers found the island in the 17th century, calling it Autearoa, meaning the land of the long white cloud. The country’s name refers to the Abel Tasman-led Dutch explorers who called it upon discovery in 1642 Nova Zeelandia. The British explorers anglicised the name to New Zealand, and unanimously agreed by consesus for use until today.
Location
See online
Queensland, Christchurch South Island New Zealand
Yenny Wongso’s article in Switzerland Elevation Go to website
P25 The road least traveled
HIDDEN TEA HILLS
There are 11 major tea-producing provinces in Indonesia that contribute to the country’s seventh place in the world’s biggest tea exporters. At the top spot of these provinces is West Java with nearly ten thousand hectares of lands in total for tea plantations. The province’s green scenery dominated by plantation in relatively high altitude is a correct assumption. But some are off-limits to the public, as they belonged to a privately-invested lands. But given its large size, it is quite impossible to hide it from travellers sight. This one, for instance, is situated on the outskirts of the province’s capital city, Bandung. It hides behind Setu Patenggang, a natural spot popular for its sulfuric lake on a white crater at the top of an inactive volcanic mountain, Mount Patuha. By continuing the uphill tracks beyond the crowded meeting point at the entrance of the sightseeing place, the stony path leads to the remainings of what used to be a lush West Java forest, before it shrinks to its current condition to make way for expanding population and the living space. Beyond these trees is an abrupt change of scenery.
65% export percentage out of Indonesia’s total 150,000 tons of tea production each year
An unhindered vista of flat and green tea leafs blanketing the surrounding hills was worth half an hour lonely walks from what was initially supposed to be a typical tourist visit to the white crater. With a little sense of intuition, an adventure-seeking traveler is more likely to get what he/she wishes for, more than just seeing a crowded places on guidebooks. But this gem could have been more available to public when the demand is as popular a commodity as it is in Britain, for example. With a population four times less than Indonesia, the per capita tea consumption is ten times more. Although Indonesia is traditionally among the top ten tea producers globally, its national consumption ranked 46. Given the topographical suitability to plant tea leaves and the enormous size of land, West Java has a far way to get anywhere near its full potential, but the downside it brings is apparent. Forest diminishes in favor of plantation. And as fast as the rate of deforestation, people must be aware of the price to be the first in agricultural commodity.
Eeriness crept as one took a walk down the narrow path that only fitted one body, and added by the mountain breeze that brought cold air at noon. The thick fog at the top of the mountains and the gloomy weather made it seemingly hard to tell the time. Heart raced when the sound of approaching vehicle was heard from the distance, for fear of being caught by the patroling staff. This piece of land, after all, serves for business purpose, hence those who are not employees are barred from entering.
Location
Related article
See online pictures
Northwest of White Crater Ciwidey, Bandung West Java
The White Crater Available on website Click here
See more related pictures in Flickr. Click here
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