Is there anything sadder than a dead blog? Someone has actually started a Graveyard of Dead Blogs, a site where people can drop off links to dead blogs (defined as blogs that have been inactive for more than three months) so that they have a final resting place. Here is the link.I don't want my blog to end up there and so it must live on, at least while I remain in Jakarta. There's no shortage of interesting news, that's for sure, and the most interesting is a plan to raise the price of fuel by 25 or 30% in July. The fuel subsidy within the country in blowing the budget out of the water because of the soaring price of oil but reducing the subsidy will be deeply unpopular and a rash of demonstrations can be expected over the next couple of months in the lead up to it. Electricity prices are also expected to rise shortly and food prices have been soaring all year. More and more people are slipping below the poverty line and the government seems oblivious.
The Vice President recently got annoyed when questioned about rising poverty rates and countered with the observation that all the malls were still full of shoppers. Indeed they are and more luxury malls are being built and more are planned. These ground water guzzling, electricity hungry, green space swallowing malls are lasting monuments to rampant corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility. Needless to say, the Vice President is a businessman. Away from the shopping malls however, all is not well and these monuments to Mammon may end up as smoking shells if the peasants decide to revolt.
The VP is also a politician of course and lately he's been seen almost daily in photographs on the pages of The Jakarta Post, doing the sorts of things politicians do to get noticed. Clearly, he has an eye on the presidency but his popularity is low and he is unlikely to be a serious contender. The President remains the most popular choice for voters by a long margin in spite of a demonstrated lack of leadership and a well-established reputation for indecision. The run-up to next year's election should be interesting with the VP and his Golkar Party desperate to regain the glory days they enjoyed under Suharto. To this end, they are certainly working on "strategies" but further speculation on this subject is subject to self-imposed censorship.
The Vice President recently got annoyed when questioned about rising poverty rates and countered with the observation that all the malls were still full of shoppers. Indeed they are and more luxury malls are being built and more are planned. These ground water guzzling, electricity hungry, green space swallowing malls are lasting monuments to rampant corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility. Needless to say, the Vice President is a businessman. Away from the shopping malls however, all is not well and these monuments to Mammon may end up as smoking shells if the peasants decide to revolt.
The VP is also a politician of course and lately he's been seen almost daily in photographs on the pages of The Jakarta Post, doing the sorts of things politicians do to get noticed. Clearly, he has an eye on the presidency but his popularity is low and he is unlikely to be a serious contender. The President remains the most popular choice for voters by a long margin in spite of a demonstrated lack of leadership and a well-established reputation for indecision. The run-up to next year's election should be interesting with the VP and his Golkar Party desperate to regain the glory days they enjoyed under Suharto. To this end, they are certainly working on "strategies" but further speculation on this subject is subject to self-imposed censorship.
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