Background: Traditionally, markets in Indonesia were not just places to trade goods and services, but also a place of cultural and social exchange. In the ancient days, markets open once a week (the Javanese calendar only has 5 days in a week; Pahing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon, and Legi) because the population was not as dense as today. The day on which the market is open is known as “dina pasaran” (market day). More over, every village had their own market day. This meant that anyone from a particular village, who …

A reservoir near Jakarta has recently overly flooded and not just some flood, it raised and overflowed the dam, cracked it widely, putting up all the concrete and soil from the side reservoir, 20 meters tall, tumbling to the surrounding, which unfortunately was overcrowded with human settlements. As seen on the picture, the damage was vast and so far a hundred lives were gone, houses shattered, body parts missing, pets dead, and illness sprouted.

Since the world is now discussing about the so-called Global Economic Crisis, we thought it would be appropriate if we discussed a little bit about abandoned projects in the metropolitan. In this case, we take a look at two abandoned projects in Surabaya. What has these abandoned projects to do with global economics? Well, one of them, Adistana (the reddish tower on the right), has been abandoned since the monetary crisis that had hit Indonesia in the late 90’s. While the other project (Carrefour, right next to Adistana – on …

Indonesia had almost 9 million motorized vehicles in 1990, of which 70% were motorcycles and 15% were cars. The motorized vehicle fleet increased in line with the urban population. There were 5 motorized vehicles for every 100 persons in 1990. The percentage of urban households owning a non-motorized vehicle in 1989 was only slightly higher (35%) than those owning a motorized vehicle (29%). By 2015, it is forecasted that about 2.5 million cars and 1.2 million motorcycles will crowd the roads of Jabotabek.
-BPPT, 1992
Rapid increases in car and …

“It is predicted that without the 3R program, by 2012 Surabaya’s landfills will be totally paralyzed by the enormous amount of trash produced per day. Thus a zero waste solution must be devised; preferably a simple, cost-efficient, and community-based method.”
Everyone knows that trash, rubbish, garbage; whatever you want to call it, society’s refuse is a problem to practically every city in the world. A city has faced waste-related problems at least once during its existence. Failure to treat waste can lead to the genesis of an unhealthy environment, …