I found this article to be highly informing and interesting. I can't recall the last time I read anything on Indonesia because it is a reporting rarity in the NYT or WSJ
Inni is a fascinating place and people. It is indeed a nation of superlatives (population, Muslims, vast archipelago, and more) that is invisible to most of the world. My first wife was Indonesian-Chinese. The reality of the Chinese in Indonesia (those who have long settled there) is always on edge beneath the surface.
I'm curious about the origin of this notion "Consider one definition of digitization: making a society, a culture, and/or a polity readable for machines, and then continuing to build that society/culture/polity around the logic of such machines." Maybe more on that pls?
As a Chinese observer of Indonesia, I have always believed that the country has enormous potential—and that this potential often reveals itself through chaos.
In China, Whoosh is commonly known as the Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Railway. China is accustomed to building megaprojects like this, partly to absorb the capacity of its vast construction industry. But there is a catch: infrastructure must be matched by local society’s ability to operate it and build economic activity around it. At a minimum, a high-speed rail corridor needs to connect major cities capable of becoming engines of growth. Indonesia does not yet seem to have fully worked that out.
I am also a fan of Indonesian actors Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais. Yet their careers seem to foreshadow Indonesia’s fate as an economy. They broke through with *The Raid*, only for Hollywood to reduce them to villainous enforcers in American action movies—Taslim in *Fast & Furious 6*, followed by more antagonist roles. Their paths to leading-man status in Hollywood quickly narrowed. Taslim was fortunate to find another opportunity in *Mortal Kombat*.
Super well written and quite nuanced to capture the local context well....and yes, for the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world and likely the highest cafe outlet by counts country, its bound to be an over-caffeinated experience in Indonesia :)!
Did you goto Braga Street in Bandung? It’s pedestrianised on weekends and is very relaxed at night time with many coffee shops, restaurants with live music and even some small bars operating until late.
I found this article to be highly informing and interesting. I can't recall the last time I read anything on Indonesia because it is a reporting rarity in the NYT or WSJ
Inni is a fascinating place and people. It is indeed a nation of superlatives (population, Muslims, vast archipelago, and more) that is invisible to most of the world. My first wife was Indonesian-Chinese. The reality of the Chinese in Indonesia (those who have long settled there) is always on edge beneath the surface.
Wonderfully succinct while v informative.
I'm curious about the origin of this notion "Consider one definition of digitization: making a society, a culture, and/or a polity readable for machines, and then continuing to build that society/culture/polity around the logic of such machines." Maybe more on that pls?
Mostly drawing from Zuboff and James Scott here! See the footnote in that paragraph
As a Chinese observer of Indonesia, I have always believed that the country has enormous potential—and that this potential often reveals itself through chaos.
In China, Whoosh is commonly known as the Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Railway. China is accustomed to building megaprojects like this, partly to absorb the capacity of its vast construction industry. But there is a catch: infrastructure must be matched by local society’s ability to operate it and build economic activity around it. At a minimum, a high-speed rail corridor needs to connect major cities capable of becoming engines of growth. Indonesia does not yet seem to have fully worked that out.
I am also a fan of Indonesian actors Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais. Yet their careers seem to foreshadow Indonesia’s fate as an economy. They broke through with *The Raid*, only for Hollywood to reduce them to villainous enforcers in American action movies—Taslim in *Fast & Furious 6*, followed by more antagonist roles. Their paths to leading-man status in Hollywood quickly narrowed. Taslim was fortunate to find another opportunity in *Mortal Kombat*.
That, too, is a subtler form of exploitation.
Love it! What an interesting country.
Super well written and quite nuanced to capture the local context well....and yes, for the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world and likely the highest cafe outlet by counts country, its bound to be an over-caffeinated experience in Indonesia :)!
next time, let me drag you around!!!
Did you goto Braga Street in Bandung? It’s pedestrianised on weekends and is very relaxed at night time with many coffee shops, restaurants with live music and even some small bars operating until late.