Jakarta's main challenges include rapid urban growth, ecological breakdown, air pollution, gridlocked traffic, congestion, and flooding due to subsidence (sea level rise is relative, not absolute). Jakarta is sinking up to 17cm (6.7inches) annually, which has made the city more prone to flooding and one of the fastest-sinking capitals in the world. In response to these challenges, in August 2019, President Joko Widodo announced plans to move the capital from Jakarta to the planned city of Nusantara, in the province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The MPR approved the move on 18 January 2022. (Full article...)
The Jakarta Post started as a collaboration between four Indonesian media groups at the urging of Information Minister Ali Murtopo and politician Jusuf Wanandi. After the first issue was printed on 25 April 1983, it spent several years with minimal advertisements and increasing circulation. After a change in chief editors in 1991, it began to take a more vocal pro-democracy point of view. The paper was one of the few Indonesian English-language dailies to survive the 1997 Asian financial crisis and currently has a circulation of about 40,000. (Full article...)
22 June 1527– Fatahillah, on behalf of the Demak attacked and conquered the Portuguese in Sunda Kelapa (in present-day North Jakarta), after which it was renamed Jayakarta.
Anies Rasyid Baswedan (Indonesian pronunciation:[ˈanɪsbaˈswɛdan], born 7 May 1969) is an Indonesian academic, activist, and politician who served as the Governor of Jakarta from 2017 to 2022. A student activist and political analyst before entering public service, he served as the Rector of Paramadina University before being appointed to be Minister of Education and Culture in Joko Widodo administration. He is also the founder of Indonesia Mengajar, a program that selects, trains, and assigns university graduates to serve in a one-year teaching mission across the country. He is the grandson of nationalist, journalist, and freedom fighter Abdurrahman Baswedan, and the cousin of Novel Baswedan. He was a candidate for President of Indonesia in the 2024 election. (Full article...)
Image 29Jakarta pedestrians, joggers and bicyclists take over the main avenue during Car-Free Day (from Transport in Jakarta)
Image 30Glodok commercial area. The area of Kota and Glodok remained Jakarta's central business and banking district during the 1950s. (from History of Jakarta)
Image 33Ondel-ondel puppet performance attraction on the street of Jakarta (from Jakarta)
Image 34Map of the administrative cities (Kota administratif) in Jakarta province; the Thousand Islands Regency (which is to the north) is shown on in the inset to the lower left. Each administrative city is further divided into districts (Kecamatan). (from Jakarta)
Image 46Jayakarta circa 1605–8, before its complete destruction by the Dutch, showing earlier pre-colonial structures before Batavia was founded (from Colonial architecture in Jakarta)
... that the architect Friedrich Silaban submitted his design for the Istiqlal Mosque pseudonymously in order to conceal his Christian identity?
... that Indonesian politician Gembong Warsono criticized the governor of Jakarta over municipally owned companies, sidewalk use, and imported dumpsters?