If Indonesia were a horse .....
.... Jakarta would be its arsehole.

That is a quote from Monkeys In The Dark by Blanche d'Alpuget, a novel set in Djakarta in 1966 in the interregnum between the 'communist coup' and the New Order of Suharto sending Bung Soekarno into exile.

I've been asked by my editor at Marshall Cavendish to provide some quotations for Culture Shock - Jakarta which is due to be published later this year. So far I've come up with the following from my personal 'library' and I'd like some help to fill in the blanks.

Also, if you can provide better quotations than those you see, in terms of appropriacy, wryness or just because you like them, please leave a comment or email them to me. Due acknowledgements will be made with our profuse thanks.

1. First Impressions
"So, what's Jakarta like?" I asked the Australian behind me. "Well, mate," he said, breathing in sharply, "it's no oil painting - I'll tell you that for nothing."
- Derek Bacon, the original and now co-author.

2. Land and History

3. People

4. Fitting Into Society

5. Settling In & Transport
Because of the city's outdated sewerage and drainage system, two-thirds of Jakarta is inundated each rainy season when all municipal and central government offices close down, there are traffic snarls and stranded vehicles, and up to 250,000 people in need of shelter.
- Bill Dalton's Indonesian Handbook 1980 pub. Moon Publications

6. Food and Entertaining
For the novice, one word is vital: pedas. It means the spicy and pungent hotness that burns the beginner's mouth. Remember that Indonesians chewed chillies when you sucked boiled lollies.
- Ivan Southall Indonesia Face To Face c.1964 pub. Malaya Publishing House, Singapore

7. Enjoying The Culture
In all probability, Indonesia can still offer the greatest variety of primitive scenes and entertainments of any country on earth.
- Norman Lewis An Empire Of The East 1995 pub. Picador

8. Learning the language
... it's a profitable language; for French translation exercises at school you got marks, sometimes for Indonesian translations you get rupiahs.
- Ivan Southall ibid.

9. Doing Business
"If you have knowledge of good and bad, then logically you know that corruption is bad.
But in Indonesia, sometimes corruption is considered a good thing ..."
- Emha Ainun Najib, preacher and poet

10. Fast Facts
 

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