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April 20, 2005

Trip to Jakarta

So the trip to Jakarta was, I believe, a great success. Ms. Hasnah Gasim, the National Coordinator for the Commission to UNESCO put aside the whole day to help plan our schools' visits throughout the archipelago and arrange the paperwork for our all-important visas. We also laid plans to put the funds raised for Tsunami relief victims towards the building of a youth recreation centre for the children of Banda Aceh, who currently have nowhere to go for after school recreation and further education activities. More about this program in another post. Suffice to say I think this will be a great use of the funds, as Ms. Gasim said herself, 'We need to rebuild the buildings, but we also need to rebuild the people'.

banda_aceh_map.jpg

The 2-days spend in Jakarta also allowed me a tiny insight into this incredible country that we're about to launch into with the next leg of Expedition 360. I was able to get a small feel for the psyche of these people: very formal, potentially suspicious of outsiders (they have had colonial outside forces in the form of the Dutch and Portugese meddling in their affairs for many centuries) but behind the facade very friendly and willing to help if you smile first! So I'm glad I remembered to take my long trousers, posh shirt and black shoes. My mum would have been proud!

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Even the plane ride from Darwin to Kupang and up the island chain to Bali and finally to Jakarta allowed me a bird's eye view of the terrain we'll be encountering; the changing vegetation from semi-arid Nusa Tenggara on the eastern side, to the island of Komodo with it's flesh-eating dragons, the volcanoes and lush vegetation of Lombok and eastern Java and the polluted, overcrowded bustling city of Jakarta that is home to over 20 million.

After meeting with Ms. Gasim I had an opportunity to walk a little around the streets, taking in as much as I could in the little time I had. Let me say that, having been to several central American cities I have witnessed a certain level of poverty amongst people. But they did not prepare me for Jakarta. I was shocked. The stench from raw sewage running through the streets, the pollution, the confusion, traffic congestion and the constant, overwhelming heat and noise. And every person I made eye contact with had the same void-like expression that you see in people who have had a seriously hard life. A face chiseled by the constant struggle of the poverty cycle and just surviving from one day to the next.

slum.jpg

So it was a wake up call from me, having lived in relative comfort in Colorado the past 3-years. The really horrifying thing (for me at least) is that in 2005, when we have the technology and know-how to move resources around the planet so easily and efficiently (as least in comparison to just a century ago), that we still have a few people in one corner with alot, and loads of people in the other corner with basically nothing.

There are some of you that will say that I'm naive and that global and regional economics just doesn't work like that. And I do understand that that's the way it is because of modern polical and free-market economic forces. But the fundamental fact remains that in these modern times, with the resources available to us, that we can't cover the most BASIC needs of every person on the planet leads me to realise that as a species we're still not very intelligent at all.

On a lighter note, a big congratulations to the classes posting work to the educational section. I read your comments posted to the maths and science blogs - excellent stuff!

Posted on April 20, 2005 8:39 AM

Comments

We saw the picture of the little boy's neighborhood and wish we could go there to help clean it up for him. We picked up trash from around the school for Earth Day, but want to help where he is. Can we send any books for his school?

Posted by: Ms.S's&Ms.A's classes at April 22, 2005 10:36 PM