Such Is The Reach Of The US Democratic Party

I Guess It’s The Intention That Counts…

… even if the helmet is on backwards and not properly tied to the head.

But We Practice This Circus Act Every day

A family of four on a motorcycle whizzing through the streets of Jakarta on Thursday. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

There is a new rule which bans people from riding motorcycles with more than one passenger. The rule also applies for carrying oversize luggage on a motorcycle. But apparently, the rule will only apply for people going home in the Lebaran season.So, safety first only applies in the holidays?

Roads Repaired With Recycled Material

This is definitely one of the best decisions made this year, whether or not it actually gets carried out. So instead of using totally new material for road reparations, the city administration is planning to recycle basic material like asphalt from previously used material.The amount recycled is not much, but it’s a start. Next step would be figuring out how to use the hundreds of tons of garbage Jakartans throw out each month and use it as cheap building material. I wonder if any of the distinguished universities have made any studies into this…

Here’s A Great Way To Spend Your Spare Time

About a week ago, Tangerang residents protesting the disrepair of a long-ignored, damaged part of road, took one of the larger potholes, and turned it into a pond.And when the authorities were asked of their response to the citizen’s protest? “We sent three letters.”Well at least Tangerang gets a new lake/pond to replace their missing ones.

Nobody Goes This Way

Vehicles passing a partly subsided stretch of Jl. Ciputat Raya near the Pondok Pinang intersection in South Jakarta on Monday. Antara state news agency reported that the road has been in this condition for quite some time. Antara/Paramayuda

We Love Our Potholes, We Just Have To Keep Them

Andi Saputra/detikcom

Walhi: Car-Free Days A Waste

The environmentally-friendly NGO has stated that the monthly ‘car-free’ days are a waste – of effort, I suppose – and has urged the government to halt this activity and reevaluate the actual effectiveness of the program. My take? I agree.The car-free day only clears up certain main roads in the city, which only displaces traffic, not stop it. This is similar to the bright idea of moving school hours half an hour earlier, without really attacking the root of traffic and pollution problems – too many cars and motorcycles!Maybe the car-free days should be extended to cover all of Jakarta, with the exception of public transport. Oh, I forget, those smoke-spewing buses are part of the problem…

Rise And Shine… Before The Sun Comes Up

Finally ‘experts’, whoever they are, are saying the new school hours are not effective in decreasing traffic congestion. Well, you don’t really need to be an expert to judge that, seeing as that only 1 week after the new rule, traffic was as bad as always (perhaps worse).Some supposedly important guy from the Secondary and Higher Education Agency says children need to adapt. The morning air is fresh, so that the students can concentrate better, thus increasing the quality of education. This guy must be really old to forget how hard it is to think in the morning in a 7 am class to understand derivatives and logarithms, let alone 6.30.So now the kids have to get up at 4 am to go to school, and have to go to bed by 8 pm for enough sleep. Meanwhile, the parents leave home at 7 am, and reach home at 8 pm. So, goodbye, quality time with family, at least my kids can breath fresh air and concentrate better in the morning, and there are less traffic jams. Oh… none of that actually happened?Even the non-obligatory new office hours don’t do anything to help. Let’s see what other bright ideas will come along later…

Oh No, Not More Work!

The government has instituted an interesting program on a few public streets, where if a driver parks there for five times, they get one day parking free. All they have to do is show the parking stubs, which they will have to ask from the parking attendants.The move is supposedly to see how much actual parking money is made from those streets, as it is suspected a lot of the money is not submitted to the government.Parking attendants are not welcome to the new rule, because it entails more work, like handing out and punching parking stubs.Oh yes, how tiresome. Not only do they have to guard all the cars (erm… do they?), blow on a whistle loudly, now they have to hand out small pieces of paper.