An expat is essentially an observer, so I generally refrain from deep and meaningless analyses of the political fray, which is not to say that I am uninterested. It's just that others seem able to provide them better.
Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Monday and Thursday by Simon World, providing links to Asian blogs and their views on the news in this fascinating region. Previous editions can be found here.
The current edition contains Afghan's President at 30, questions over control North Korea if it collapses, China's lack of progress in fighting poverty, is OBL in China and plenty on Indonesia's new President, just for starters...
SE and Other Asia
Megawati's sulking. Myrick is not impressed. More importantly is what will SBY do now? Pieter wants him to tackle the economy and corruption first, not terror. Winston has a very thorough look at the task ahead and Jakartass has a poll of what the public want him to do. Agam was on the ground during the inauguration. Macam looks at SBY's cabinet.
In 1800, 10% of the world's population lived in cities. Nowadays that figure is around 50% and growing, helped by relentless migration to places such as Jakarta and São Paulo. Inequality, disease and environmental degradation seem to be everywhere, which makes it odd that the city is still the place where most people choose to live.
This is from a review in the Economist of a recently published tome, Cities by John Reader. The Guardian says: Polluting, parasitic, overcrowded and violent: cities have always been popular with humans.
Fellow expats here are cordially invited to have a look at and contribute to Jalan-Jalan Jakarta, the Jakarta-specific blog. This has been set up by the Reveller and Jakartass in order to provide a forum for constructive criticism and an index of possibilities towards making the Big Durian a better place for us all.
