think archipelago V8 Nov 2014

think!archipelago
human interest I cityscape I landscape I architecture I art
BRAVE THE WORLD
V8 NOV
2014

P1 Contents
EDITORS
NOTE
Writers and
Photographers
QUARTERLY
REVIEW
The maritime axis power
Not just a market
Fa Zhu Gong parade
ARCHIPELAGO
SECTION
Brave the world
Diana Ria
East and west collaboration
WORLD
SECTION
A haunting vision
Go south
THE ROAD
LEAST TRAVELED
Hidden tea hills
As I walked across the blocks outside
the Beijing fourth ring road, the
freezing winds on the winter swept over
my face. It made a painfully burning
sensation on my hands, to which I
quickly put on a pair gloves in a panic
attempt to restore them from
excruciating numbness. At a particular
time, the rampant televised news about
pollution in the capital and on the
rest of the urban areas in China to the
extent that it caused hazy days during
spring to summer seemed overblown.
Unlike what is seen on tv, in winter
the clear air does not stifle as
feared. The tormenting gush of wind
seemed to blow away the emission.
However, the situation in the
atmosphere says a contradicting
assumption. The smokes coming out
relentlessly from the chimneys of
China’s old era went to every
direction. The air up in the bright sky
is blanketed in white. Regardless the
wind direction or the currents, the
pollution coming from industrial output
stays up there. The chimneys present a
contrast view among the new zoning
system in Beijing. It can only serve
the grand vision of the past nation
founders. Now it is a problem. And
solving it takes more than just
shutdown or relocation.
Purnadi Phan
Editor
We thank
these terrific people
whose contributions
have helped make
the volume possible
Yenny Wongso is a bachelor
of Chinese Language in
Beijing who now pursues
another degree in English
Education. In her recent
tour to Western Europe
and Italy, she captured
many remarkable pictures.
She now works and studies
in Jakarta.
Mikhail Surjadi is a food
traveler, photography
enthusiast, gadget freak,
he is known for his love
towards these things.
Follow his tweets on
@mikhailsurjadi

P2 Quarterly review
AUG SEP OCT
The maritime axis power Not just a market Fa Zhu Gong parade
Text and
photography I
Mikhail Surjadi
Celebrating the National
Independence Day at sea, which
makes up over two thirds of 5.1
million square kilometers of
Indonesia’s total area, was an
awe in silence. The national
flag waived through the strong
wind currents on the ship’s
tail, suggesting that this
country has sovereignty in the
mostly uninhabitated area for
humans. But the natural
recources deep under the waters
is what makes its people rich,
more than enough for the next
generations, if well-sustained.
With over 1.3 million people
working in automotive industry,
Indonesia has after a steady
growth in recent years
simultaneously become a
lucrative market for world
automakers and a labor-intensive
country in the region in which
production facilities and the
wide range of its peripheral
indutries flourish. To these
importance, the annual Indonesia
International Motor Show tells
how big and fast this prime
sector is developing.
Not only us humans, gods have
birthdays too. True, Chinese
deities have birthdays to
celebrate annually. And not
only humans who attended the
party, but also the gods and
their heavenly followers.
Read the full story with more
pictures on think archipelago
website. Click here.

INDONESIA JAZZ REVIEW
Album and artist
Click to enter

P5 Archipelago section
BRAVE THE WORLD

Reviving Indonesia’s past glory as the
world’s biggest archipelagic state,
then called Nusantara in pre-colonial
era, is the newly elected Indonesian
President Joko Widodo’s keynote in
terms of economic development. In what
his administration touted as the
maritime axis power, Indonesia is going
to build its economy with much larger
proportion coming from the waters.
Pushing renewable resources would mean
a boost in fishing output, and the
vision to increase sea trade would
translate into an ambitious plan of
ports building. To this extent, the
government has a huge task of making a
headstart. Some analysts said the
country is not by any means close to
the bold terms of the maritime axis
power, and the vision far-flung. Like
in this lagging port infrastructure in
Bojonegara, Banten, the decade-old
vision to transform this shore into

a port in West Java that will overtake
Tanjung Priok in Jakarta as the hub
for Sumatra-Java sea trade, let alone
an important regional port on par with
Singapore lacks every indication. The
service boat operated by Kadiman,
among other small number of crews as
seen on this page clearly suggests
that Bojonegara has a long way to go.
Its inability to handle large vessels
is the reason Kadiman still works
there. He and his small boat carries
passengers and goods from and to the
ships anchoring off the waters.
Since Bojonegara is close to the
Merak, one of the busiest ports in
Indonesia, it has seen heavy traffic
of cargos, tankers, and other large
utility vessels such as dredging
ships. Some shipping companies have
made Bojonegara their home port. But
Kadiman does not get a lot of money
there. The absence of infrastructure,
especially the docks, is now certainly
something he is grateful of, and also
to some dozen other boat crews.
7,900,000
The number of Indonesian people
as of 2013 who lives in coastal
areas with less than USD2
of earnings per day
Bojonegara remains trapped in
visionary rhetorics, and it has not
transformed into reality. Maritime
power is not only limited to trades,
but also the sovereignty over waters.
The newly appointed Foreign Affair
Minister Retno Marsudi underlines her
agenda settling disputed claims with
neighboring countries, and bolstering
cooperation. The Joko Widodo-led new
administration marks a dawn where
Indonesia braves the world.

Location Related article See it online
Bojonegara Intl. Port Sunda Kelapa Port The photoessay Brave the world is
Serang regency See it on Flickr available on think archipelago special
Banten province Click here black and white photography medium MONOMAT

P10 Archipelago section
DIANA RIA
Photography I Erwin Supandii

Diana Ria, the traveling
group of temporary funfairs
stopped at Solo as part of
their regular tour across
cities in Java. The setup in
the city square took only
several days to complete, and
it opened for one full month.
Despite the outdated and
makeshift devices, tours like
Diana Ria still wins people’s
heart, as is the case for the
majority who are budget-wise.
For a meager price of a
little more than one dollar
in admission ticket, visitors
get to see everything Diana
Ria could offer, excluding
some main attractions that
would cost another dollar
each. Diana Ria and other
groups of similar amusement
rides business showed that it
is not always the race for
fanciful innovation or the
spectacular size that lead to
survival. There is always
enough demand in the market
for something simple
mechanism, albeit
compromising the standards.
Yet the safety standard
affects less to the visitors
and more to the operators.
Their devices were fully
mechanical moved manually by
manpower. It is astonishing
to see some type of rides
carrying over 20 people such
as the Pendulum Rides were
operated by a handful crews.

Location More articles by Erwin Supandi More photos
Alun-Alun Utara Borobudur See more Erwin Supandi’s
Solo/Surakarta Betaria photo works on his Flickr account
Central Java www.thinkarchipelago.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/erwinsupandi/

P14 Archipelago section
EAST & WEST COLLABORATION

Goethe Haus Jakarta’s regular agenda
of setting up international jazz
musicians under the now familiar
event Serambi Jazz continued to
please the audience whom mostly long
for an experimental type of music out
of the industrialized music on the
market. The play on Thursday, 16
October, not only showing the fresh
compositions made by each side, the
European represented by Benny Lacker
and the band, the French Karim, and
the Indonesian guitarist who had
appeared several times in Goethe
Haus, Johanes Radianto, but they also
brought a mixture of songs in their
list from different places of origin.
In their own twists, tunes such as
Jimy Hendrix’s From 6 to 9 to
Indonesian folk song Gundul Pacul
were surprising enough that by the
end they were applauded by standing
audience across the auditorium.

As the third time of such anticipated music
project, the involved musicians have more
confidence to introduce new forms and
possibilities which are non-existent in mainstream
music. Some instances were the screeches of string
bass that created the sense of slowly receding
creepiness in one of the trio’s composition, or
the creation of sounds from Karim’s keyboard that
played out well with his composition.
Location See online More jazz review
Goethe Haus Jakarta East & west collaboration on Indonesia Jazz Review
Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15 in exclusive layout only on Album & artist catalogue
Menteng, Jakarta Be Bright. www.be-bright.me Click here

P17 World section
A HAUNTING VISION

sk
The cold of winter in Beijing gets
harsher as it is usually followed by
persistent windblows night and day.
The undulating smokes coming out of old
chimneys on a freezing noon is an
evidence of the windswept cosmopolitant
area. The sky is bright, but not clear.
This suggests heavy air pollution.
Regardless the wind currents or to
which direction it blows, the constant
smokes from numerous industrial
chimneys scattered across the capital—
the founder of People’s Republic of
China Mao Zedong’s criterium of
economic prowess in early 50s—have
never got away anywhere outside the
city. Mao’s vision of the future strong
China has transformed into a haunting
amount of carbon dioxide and dust that
linger up there in the sky through
changing seasons. There have been
systematic attempts to drive the
industrial output away from the
capital, long marred by pollution
issue. Since the enactment, the
relocation decree of dirty industry to
neighboring cities such as Hebei have
made the chimneys dissappeared from

city skyline. Ageing factories,
commonly steel and chemical processing
facilities were forced to move out of
the high density zones into some other
sattelite cities in-the-making. Over
the years, the Beijing municipalities
clean-air act have worked as planned,
except that the ultimate goal of
improving the air quality have yet to
materialize. Now a third of Beijing
emission record comes from outside
Beijing. This issue challenges urban
population in China about how they
perceived the air they breathe. Will
farther industrial zone relocation
solve the problem Or should the
Chinese nation come to terms with their
mind that it is a necessity to accept
environmental compromise in exchange
for prosperous economic growth
Currently, perhaps it is both.
500
The number of factories closed
in Beijing by the end of 2014 as a
result of relocation decree.

Location Related article from China See online slideshow
Various districts in NCPA Beijing See Beijing Urban Planning slideshow
Beijing, China WTC Shanghai on purnadiphanphotography website
Go to website
Click here

P21 World section
GO SOUTH
Photography I Yenny Wongso

The clear blue sky as the backdrop of the
chains of mountain—part of the giant
Southern Alps—welcomed the plane when it
landed on the south island of New Zealand.
The Queenstown International Airport was
flanked by a fraction of 50 volcanic
mountains in the country. White clouds
blanketed most of its long summit, a
beautiful scenery to begin the journey on
this resort destination. For Asian tourists
coming from the typical densely populated
home city, the south island would have
certainly made them dumbfounded with the
least appearance of humans. It is one of
the less inhabitated lands on earth in
comparison with the modern world that is
crowded by over 6 billion people.

32
years since the last earthquake
occured in south island in 1968
The ultimate stop on the visit to the
south island of New Zealand is
Christchurch, the third most populous
city in the country after Auckland and
Wellington in the north island, with just
over 340,000 inhabitants. Over 30 per
cent of the south island population lived
in Christchurch. As the history of the
European settlement in New Zealand
started in the south island during the
goldrush that culminated in the 19 th
century, Christchurch is the country’s
first established city. Frequent series
of earthquakes over two years since 2010
had changed its outlook into even more
vibrant and new. Rapid and thorough
restoration that took place in the past
two years made the traces of destructive
impact of earthquakes dissapeared.

New Zealand was one of the last stops
of human migration in the prehistoric
era. Its indigeneous Eastern Polynesian
people, the Maoris, settled long before
the Dutch and British voyagers found
the island in the 17 th century, calling
it Autearoa, meaning the land of the
long white cloud. The country’s name
refers to the Abel Tasman-led Dutch
explorers who called it upon discovery
in 1642 Nova Zeelandia. The British
explorers anglicised the name to New
Zealand, and unanimously agreed by
consesus for use until today.
Location
Queensland, Christchurch
South Island
New Zealand
See online
Yenny Wongso’s article
in Switzerland Elevation
Go to website

P25 The road least traveled
HIDDEN TEA HILLS

65%
export percentage out of
Indonesia’s total 150,000 tons
of tea production each year
There are 11 major tea-producing
provinces in Indonesia that contribute
to the country’s seventh place in the
world’s biggest tea exporters. At the
top spot of these provinces is West
Java with nearly ten thousand hectares
of lands in total for tea plantations.
The province’s green scenery dominated
by plantation in relatively high
altitude is a correct assumption. But
some are off-limits to the public, as
they belonged to a privately-invested
lands. But given its large size, it is
quite impossible to hide it from
travellers sight. This one, for
instance, is situated on the outskirts
of the province’s capital city,
Bandung. It hides behind Setu
Patenggang, a natural spot popular for
its sulfuric lake on a white crater at
the top of an inactive volcanic
mountain, Mount Patuha. By continuing
the uphill tracks beyond the crowded
meeting point at the entrance of the
sightseeing place, the stony path leads
to the remainings of what used to be a
lush West Java forest, before it
shrinks to its current condition to
make way for expanding population and
the living space. Beyond these trees is
an abrupt change of scenery.

An unhindered vista of flat and
green tea leafs blanketing the
surrounding hills was worth half
an hour lonely walks from what was
initially supposed to be a typical
tourist visit to the white crater.
With a little sense of intuition,
an adventure-seeking traveler is
more likely to get what he/she
wishes for, more than just seeing
a crowded places on guidebooks.
But this gem could have been more
available to public when the
demand is as popular a commodity
as it is in Britain, for example.
With a population four times less
than Indonesia, the per capita tea
consumption is ten times more.
Although Indonesia is traditionally
among the top ten tea
producers globally, its national
consumption ranked 46. Given the
topographical suitability to plant
tea leaves and the enormous size
of land, West Java has a far way
to get anywhere near its full
potential, but the downside it
brings is apparent. Forest
diminishes in favor of plantation.
And as fast as the rate of
deforestation, people must be
aware of the price to be the first
in agricultural commodity.

Eeriness crept as one took a walk down
the narrow path that only fitted one
body, and added by the mountain breeze
that brought cold air at noon. The thick
fog at the top of the mountains and the
gloomy weather made it seemingly hard to
tell the time. Heart raced when the
sound of approaching vehicle was heard
from the distance, for fear of being
caught by the patroling staff. This
piece of land, after all, serves for
business purpose, hence those who are
not employees are barred from entering.
Location Related article See online pictures
Northwest of White Crater The White Crater See more related
Ciwidey, Bandung Available on website pictures in Flickr.
West Java Click here Click here

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