Jakarta

Imagine the entire population of Malaysia living in one city. That's Jakarta. In the daytime the population escalates to about 24 million, in the nighttime it shrinks to 18 million. From the 14th floor balcony of the apartment where we stayed, the vibrant energy, sights and sounds of the city resonates. The city is very much alive, every single square inch of it. On every street corner, vendors sell their wares trying to eke out a living. As if there weren't enough street corner vendors, mobile street vendors on foot peddle anything from cigarettes to carbonated drinks. The sheer numbers of people in the city, let alone the entire country poses a major problem for the government to create jobs for a lot of its people. Hence the lax laws on street vendors and peddlers. There are even stalls that sell gasoline and diesel in plastic bottles. Anything to make that few thousand rupiahs to survive the day. On the other side of the fence, the economy of Indonesia seem to be chugging along at a very healthy pace, the GDP growth for 2007 has been forcasted at a 10-year high of 6.1-6.4%. Although the pre-financial crisis level was at 7.8% in 1996. Forecast for 2008 is at 6.8% From the look of things, what's definite is that there will be growth coming from the world's fourth most populous nation. The question is whether the super rich will spread it around to benefit its people or they continue to indulge in themselves in uptown Jakarta.