Visiting friends in Jakarta!

Indonesia is amazing -- in so many ways. After our brief but memorable layover in Korea we arrive d on Friday evening in sprawling Jakarta. Fortunately our friend Hamid is a VIP here --former government minister of human rights and ambassador to Russia and we were taken care of incredibly well. In fact,we were quite spoiled by him and his lovely family. We enjoyed our guided tours, complete with inside information on the state of democracy. After years of brutal dictatorship and communism, in 1998, the country had a peaceful revolution. With lots of bumps and hiccups the country has inched toward democracy and disorder ever since. Apparently., the people are so fearful of authoritarianism and society so infused with western money and NGO influence it is almost impossible to get things done. Protests are commonplace; in fact we saw a peaceful march of some sort in downtown Jakarta in front on one of the city's exclusive malls -- of which there are no shortage. The gap between the rich and poor is striking if not downright depressing. This is not new to us or any developing country but at least in
China the contrasts were less pronounced. We got the full tour --
$8 coffee from the undigested coffee beans of some Sumatran squirrel to the shacks of the Dutch harbor. What a weekend! Hamid and I so missed our friend malia. It was great to reminisce about our days at The American university.