Jenny’s Journies

Tuesday, 27 February 2007 @ 3:30pm.

Shifting gears from the last lighthearted blog posting…

“Musibah” = calamity or disaster

The local news programs have been chockful of information about the recent burned-and-then-sunken ferry. From what I understand, a ferry called “Levina I” caught fire last Thursday near the Jakarta coast and there were at least 42 people who died. Several National Transport Safety Commission investigators, police, and journalists boarded the damaged ferry on Sunday to check things out. The ferry ended up sinking and more people died. See The Jakarta Post for more details. Questions: Why aren’t these ferries maintained properly in the first place? Why did people board the charred ferry without lifejackets? Will this tragedy have any positive impact on future ferry transport protocol and experiences?

Also see The Jakarta Post for information related to the huge influx of patients at Jakarta hospitals. A February 15th article notes, “Hospitals in Jakarta are struggling to cope with a surge in diarrhea and dengue fever patients following this month’s devastating floods. As of Wednesday, 780 people, mostly children, were hospitalized with diarrhea, while six people have died as a result of diarrheal diseases… At the same time, Jakarta hospitals are also seeing more dengue fever patients. According to data from the Jakarta Health Agency, at least 473 people are being treated for dengue at hospitals in the capital. The majority of the dengue patients are at Fatmawati Hospital and Tarakan Hospital. The mosquito-borne disease has claimed 12 lives in Jakarta so far this year.” A February 20th articles states, “While the city’s hospitals are still reeling from a surge of flood-related dengue and diarrhea, outbreaks of leptospirosis and chikungunya are knocking on the door. Three city hospitals treated at least 30 flood victims Monday for leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted through exposure to water contaminated with rat urine. One patient died, becoming the first victim of the disease this year… Meanwhile, hospitals are still seeing increased numbers of dengue and diarrhea patients. As of Monday, 2,614 patients were being treated for diarrhea and 1,516 for dengue fever.” Unfortunately, that was quite a spike in reported patient numbers!

Check out a CNN online article titled “Concrete balls used to stem mud eruption in Indonesia.” Questions: Could the critics be correct regarding their fear that this experiment will just cause the mud flow to spread to different points? Also, is it possible for enough pressure to build that the concrete balls would just shoot out at some point and create a hail storm of sorts? The article reports that the mud flow is “surging out at a rate equivalent to about 1 million oil drums per day.” Is that actually true??? If so, that’s amazing in an “I can’t believe that is possible and how sad” kind of way.

Sunday, 25 February 2007 @ 2:15pm.

Sometimes I laugh out of frustration or confusion here; other times I laugh at something that strikes me as random or really unusual; there are the times when I laugh because others are laughing; and then occasionally I laugh because something hits that familiar American funny bone…

Today I saw something which caused me to do a double-take. A string of bicycles whizzed past me on a busy street. All of the bicyclists except for one man were dressed in regular clothes like basic t-shirts and pants. If you can believe it, one guy was actually dressed as a stereotypical cowboy! I’m talking cowboy hat, plaid shirt, a bolo tie, and blue jeans. He moved too quickly for me to notice whether he was wearing boots as well, though.

On Friday, I saw the film Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. It’s a movie based on a comic strip character and it’s good silly fun. I found myself alone in laughing out loud during some parts of the film, however, since some of the dialogue included sarcasm and a couple of scenes poked fun at some American stereotypes. One would have to know about this stuff in order to find it funny.

On Valentine’s Day, I was working at the office when I randomly heard some gamelan-type music playing outside. I went to the street to see what was happening. It turned out to be a family of street performers. The first act was not too pleasant for me or the other onlookers, but we laughed out of nervousness. A little girl of not more than 4 years old was wrapped in white cloth and then tied with red ribbon all around. She was then laid down in the middle of the street as an older man snapped a huge bull whip around her. We were scared that the girl would get hurt, but she was just fine - all part of the act apparently! The second act made me giggle more out of amusement. A firebreather spit fire into the air - pretty impressive stuff. Here’s a picture:

And finally, the day before my birthday, my friends and I ventured to Seaworld. It was very cool (and educational!) to see all the sealife in the aquariums. What I didn’t expect was the following:

I hope you all get a good chuckle today at school, work, or home!

Tuesday, 20 February 2007 @ 12:57pm. Sorry I’m a little late with this posting! I’ve been really busy at work.

Happy Lunar New Year!

I hope the Year of the Pig is very special and prosperous for you all.

(Orchid from Bogor Botanical Gardens)

Tuesday, 13 February 2007 @ 1:17pm.

Though it has raineded today, Jakarta has thankfully received a bit of a break from heavy rains during the past few days. This has allowed people to begin the difficult tasks of clean-up and rebuilding. My friend, Erick, is a photographer and you can visit his site at http://erickdanzer.com/galleries/jakartafloods/ to see images of the floods aftermath in different parts of Jakarta. The rest of his site has amazing pictures from all around Indonesia on a variety of different themes (e.g., markets, ceremonies, children, protests, etc.).

I don’t really remember what I was looking for online, but I came across this fast fact and thought I’d post it…

Distance to Jakarta from Other Parts of the World:

London, United Kingdom to Jakarta : 6,557 miles (10,552 km)
Paris, France to Jakarta : 6,483 miles (10,432 km)
Rome, Italy to Jakarta : 6,038 miles (9,716 km)
Stockholm, Sweden to Jakarta : 5,812 miles (9,353 km)
Berlin, Germany to Jakarta : 5,979 miles (9,622 km)
Madrid, Spain to Jakarta : 6,885 miles (11,079 km)
New York, USA to Jakarta : 9,400 miles (15,126 km)
Los Angeles, USA to Jakarta : 8,790 miles (14,144 km)
Vancouver, Canada to Jakarta : 7,944 miles (12,783 km)

Wednesday, 07 February 2007 @ 10:14am.

On the way home from work yesterday…
Jenny: So have the floods receded much in other parts of Jakarta?
Taxi driver: A little, but not enough.
Jenny: It’s so sad for everyone.
Taxi driver: Yeah, it’s very bad. There have been so many disasters since last year: flooding, sunken ferry, plane crash, etc.
Jenny: Why do you think these things have been happening in Indonesia?
Taxi driver: I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s because the “pejabat-pejabat tidak benar” (officials misbehave or aren’t right/honest/true).

At the gym…
Woman #1: There’s flooding everywhere. It’s terrible.
Woman #2: Yes. I read some more news on detik.com earlier about the floods. The government needs to do something now. They didn’t learn from before.
Woman #1: I heard that it’s something that happens every five years.
Woman #2: That’s *****. The governor is just making excuses.

More news on the floods…

BBC.com: Rainfall hampers Jakarta clean-up and Eyewitness Accounts

CNN.com: Flooding Toll Climbs in Indonesia

Monday, 05 February 2007 @ 2:28pm.

From a U.S. Embassy Jakarta email today:

“As of February 5, 2007, more than 400,000 people have been left homeless by flooding. Traffic in metropolitan Jakarta and on access roads into Jakarta has been seriously disrupted. Landline and cellular telephone connections are disrupted in many parts of the city. Power outages are widespread. Indonesian government meteorologists predict continued heavy rainfall over the next several days and sporadic heavy rains continuing until early March… Many government offices and commercial businesses in Jakarta are closed or operating on restricted hours due to flooding. Access to Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport is difficult, and travel between the airport and Central Jakarta is taking several hours. Taxis are in short supply and some taxi drivers have increased fares significantly.”

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped yesterday:

Jl. Wahid Hasyim near Sarinah Mall

Motorbike trying to get through the flooded Jl. Wahid Hasyim

CNN.COM International reported today that… “Jakarta’s heavily-criticized governor said he could not be held responsible for the worst floods to hit the city in living memory, saying they were a “natural phenomenon” that occur every five years. “There is no point in throwing abuse around,” Governor Sutiyoso told el-Shinta radio station. “I was up till 3:00 a.m. this morning trying to handle the refugees.” Simanjuntak [a river monitor] said just under 40 percent of the city had been flooded. Another official earlier said that 75 percent of Jakarta was affected. It was not immediately possible to resolve the discrepancy, but Indonesian officials often release different statistics during a disaster.” CNN continued, “As of Monday, 25 people had died, mostly by drowning or electrocution, officials said.”

Friday, 02 February 2007 @ 3:46pm.

Yeah, so it’s raining in Jakarta and it’s raining a lot…a whole lot…non-stop…

A picture from The Jakarta Post:

Caption: FOUR-WHEEL DIVE? A vehicle attempts to navigate a flooded section of Central Jakarta’s Jl. Sabang on Thursday. Heavy rains from Wednesday evening through Thursday afternoon caused flooding in Jakarta due to poor drainage and a lack of flood control facilities. JP/J. Adiguna/The Jakarta Post/02 February 2007.

My boarding house and work office are about a 10-minute walk from Jl. Sabang…It’s definitely no fun at all to roll up your pants and walk through dirty muddy waters having no idea what you’re stepping on or into…

One of today’s CNN (online) headlines: Jakarta: Worst floods in 5 years

“Two days of severe rains caused the worst flooding in five years in the Indonesian capital Friday, washing into thousands of homes and forcing residents to flee, witnesses and officials said. Filthy storm water inundated markets, hospitals and businesses as people used inflatable rafts to retrieve their belongings from houses. Water was four-meters (13-feet) deep in some places in Jakarta, home to some 12 million. With many of the city’s roads inaccessible, commuters spent several hours in gridlock trying to get to work. Many were unable to reach the central business district and returned home. City officials said almost 80 districts where faced with serious flooding with more rain forecast. Electricity was cut to more than 22,000 subscribers in downtown Jakarta and tap water was also shut off in some areas as a safety precaution because of possible pollution. “It has not been this bad since 2002,” when the Presidential Palace in the upscale Menteng area flooded, said Anom Nurcahyo of Jakarta’s Flood Crisis Center said “We cannot say yet if the water will get higher.” Nearly 40 centimeters (more than a foot) of rain fell overnight, submerging inner-city slum areas close to swollen rivers as well as middle-class housing complexes on the city’s outskirts, sending thousands to higher ground or to the second floor of their homes. Passengers were evacuated from a train in central Jakarta after the tracks were submerged. “The water at my house was up to my neck,” said Tina, a housekeeper who uses a single name, who had to leave her home with three young children. In her neighborhood, schools closed and children swam and played in the flooded streets. There were no reports of casualties due to the floods, a yearly occurrence in the city during the peak of the rainy season. A meteorologist forecast continued downpours over the city for the next two weeks. Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile plains.”

Um, yeah, so I’m trying to stay positive over here…