GeSMOGraphy! Jakarta's Smog Problem and the Temperature Inversion

Sitting here in the bubble waiting on papers to clear, I was at something of a loss as to what to write about. Then it hit me, like a ton of particulate matter suspended in the lower atmosphere: I’ll write about the dense layer of smog that perpetually blankets the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan area. I noticed a layer of low-lying clouds on the plane ride from Jogja to Jakarta last week extended out 20-30 minutes of flight time, which must be around 100 miles (on approach). I’m hesitant to say with certainty that this regional cover is smog rather than something natural, but it wouldn’t surprise me. The megacity of 20 million belches out so much pollution on a daily basis that it obviates the need for sunscreen on “clear” days.

To give you an idea of the amount of crud, I walked barefoot outside on my friend's 32nd-floor terrace here in the heart of Jakarta. I counted the steps required to get the bottom of my feet covered with urban grime (see photo to the right) which, due to the height of the terrace, can only have been deposited via settling. It took a mere 17 steps to accumulate the filth you see in the photo, and a full 3 minutes to scrub my feet clean.

What is smog, you ask? “Smog” is a combination of the words smoke and fog and refers to air pollution from cars, coal burning for electricity generation and other industrial sources. There are several different types of smog, but among the most common are photochemical (1) smog, which results from the reaction of some industrial pollutants and sunlight. There is also particulate smog, which consists of the dirt, soot, dust, and other crud that makes it into the air.

Smog is a fundamentally geographic phenomenon because it is trans-regional in effects and the severity of smog is influenced by a number of factors including topography, latitude, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Smog is also a factor of development and counter-intuitively can give us clues as to the prosperity of a city. A significant percentage of smog comes from cars, which are relatively expensive goods. As people make more money in the developing world, one of the first things they buy is a car or motorcycle. Thus more smog might suggest that more people are making the leap into car ownership. In addition, bigger cities produce more smog, and in places where rural-to-urban migration is significant the problem is compounded. Rural-urban migration is seen by development geographers as part of the process whereby countries become rich, and so smog is an unfortunate byproduct of this process.

But smog can gives us clues about the climatological characteristics of a region as well. In the US the place most known for smog is Los Angeles. While it’s true that Los Angeles is a sprawling city with millions of cars (2) traveling millions of miles, there are natural factors at work as well. When the air quality is at its worst in LA it signals the presence of an inversion layer. Normally in the lowest layer of the atmosphere (3) the air temperature decreases as your elevation increases. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve ever been hiking in the mountains. Under normal circumstances warm air at the surface of the earth can rise up through the atmosphere, where it cools down and is blown out by upper level winds. If there is pollution it will be carried away. However, when a temperature inversion is present it means there is a layer of warmer air higher in the atmosphere. Cool air won’t rise through warmer air, and so the inversion layer acts as a lid on the cooler, and in the case of LA, dirtier air below. Since the air can’t circulate, it accumulates smog (4). At night the air cools thus breaking the inversion layer barrier and allowing the pollutants to dissipate.

Landforms also contribute to smog problems. Another city known for its smog, Mexico City, also periodically experiences an inversion layer. However, Mexico City is in a valley (5) surrounded by high mountains (see the satellite image to the left). The mountains trap the polluted air. The problem is much worse in Mexico City than Los Angeles because there are so many more people and the government has been less able to implement measures to alleviate the problem.

Jakarta's smog is mainly produced by automobiles (70%) and is exacerbated by a temperature inversion and relatively light winds attributable to its location close to the equator. The air doesn't really circulate much here, and so the pollution tends to accumulate. Being close to the equator also ensures that there is a lot of sunlight year-round, which fuels the chemical reactions that lead to photochemical smog.

As yet another demonstration of how much crud there is in the atmosphere, I set up a little experiment. Out on the aforementioned terrace I scrubbed two of the "white" floor tiles as clean as I could get them. You can see the tiles to the right. The letters I taped on the tiles stand for "control" (C) and "experimental" (E). While I'm here in Jakarta I'll check the tiles on a daily basis. I'll clean the control tile daily to serve as a contrast; the experimental tile will be left to accumulate grime. We'll see if there is a noticeable accumulation after a couple of days.

In Hawaii we sometimes experience air pollution as well, but ours is a result of the volcanoes on the Big Island. You’ve probably noticed that on some days this “vog” (volcanic fog) is worse than other days. This is due to geographic factors as well. As you probably know, most of the time the weather in Hawaii is pretty breezy. This is caused by the trade winds, part of the global atmospheric circulation described in a previous post. The trade winds blow the vog away, but when the trades die down the air tends to become stagnant. This is a more frequent occurrence in the winter months. These are the days when it's most humid and hazy outside.

(1) The prefix photo means "light". Can you think of some other "photo" words? What do they have to do with light?

(2) I read once that one-quarter of the surface area of Los Angeles is covered with cars.

(3) The troposphere….I’ll write a future post about the vertical layers of the atmosphere when I can figure out a way to relate it to Indonesia. But for now you can see for yourself in the diagrams below. I took these from Texas A&M's Oceanworld site. The first graph shows the decreasing temperature with elevation in three US cities. Temperature is on the x-axis; elevation is on the y-axis. As you can see, the temperature decreases as you go higher in the troposphere. The second graph is a close-up of the first. Notice on the Dallas and San Diego plots that temperature actually increases with altitude. This is an inversion layer.



The inversion layer in San Diego is caused by an upwelling of cool water in the ocean near the city. The cool water in turn cools the air closest to the ground.

(4) Hawai'i frequently experiences an inversion layer as well. Hawai'i inversion layer is associated with a consistent area of high pressure (sinking air) in the eastern Pacific that is part of the global atmospheric circulation system.

(5) The mountains around Los Angeles also contribute to the smog problems there.

REFERENCES:

Suhadi, D., Awang, M., Hassan, M., Abdullah, R., and Muda, A. 2005. Review of Photochemicla Smog Pollution in Jakarta Metropolitan, Indonesia. American Journal of Environmental Sciences 1:2, pp110-118.

I've Got the KPK on Speed-Dial!

I knew it was just a matter of time before it happened. One of the people I encountered in my dealings with the state apparatus here asked me for a bribe! I’m not going to say who it was or what department was involved, but the experience provides the opportunity to address probably the most important issue facing Indonesia: official corruption. Normally I try not to dwell on the negative aspects of Indonesia because there are so many positive things to focus on, but being here in Jakarta brings out the worst in me.

Corruption in Indonesia is a fact of life. The country routinely ranks near the bottom of corruption surveys. From what I’ve seen, though, not all corruption is created equal. The most pernicious form of corruption is that afflicting the highest levels of government. This includes rigging the bidding process for government contracts, siphoning money from the treasury, and tampering with elections. This type of high-level corruption has been a feature of governance in the archipelago even before there was such a thing as Indonesia., but it really took hold during the last part of the 20th century (see below).

On the other hand, everyday corruption affects the average Dewi and Joko on an almost daily basis. This takes the form of bribes (suap) and unofficial taxes and fees or pungli (short for pungutan liar). I call this structural corruption. Much of this type of corruption stems from the early days of Indonesia, when the future of the nation was all but certain. In an effort to gain support the government dramatically increased the number of people employed in the civil service. The ranks of the bureaucracy swelled faster than the ability of the government to pay, and so enterprising government officials began to pad their incomes by accepting bribes (2). Thus this type of corruption has to be understood as a type of payment for services, and although it is damaging to public trust and the overall health of the nation, it is at least partially rooted in exigency.

THE KPK TOOK MY BABY AWAY!

In an effort to combat the problem, the government established the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantas Korupsi, KPK) as an independent body with enforcement and adjudication powers. The ambit of powers granted to the KPK is really astonishing; they pretty much exist outside the existing legal and political framework and can do just about anything they want. They can recruit officers from any branch of government, they can seize assets, and they can initiate electronic surveillance.

The KPK has experienced a 100% success rate in the cases it has taken to trial. Between 2004 and 2009, the KPK prosecuted a number of high-level government officials, including

• 17 members of parliament
• 5 ministers and other cabinet level officers
• 5 provincial governors
• 18 mayors and district heads
• 3 ambassadors and 4 consul generals

Opinions are mixed as to the efficacy of the KPK. Many people think that the whole organization is window dressing and aims at middle level corruptors. These folks feel that corruption is such a large part of the political culture here that there is no way to address it. Part of this is due to the sheer scale of the problem. The KPK has limited staff and limited budget, but the complaints are limitless. The KPK also goes after very powerful people; one high-level police official investigated by the KPK likened the agency’s crusade to “a gecko fighting a crocodile” (1). Several plots including very high-level government officials aimed at undermining the credibility of the KPK have been uncovered, and president Susilo Bambang Yudhayono (SBY) has even claimed to have received anonymous messages on his personal cell phone demanding he end the crusade against corruption.

Most foreigners I meet are very pessimistic about corruption here. It’s easy to be gloomy about it when …. However, I have a different view. The rapacious corruption I alluded to earlier really blossomed during the 30-year “New Order” (Orde Baru) rule of strongman president Suharto. Between 1965 and 1998 Suharto used his position to channel money and contracts to his family and close friends, creating a nepotistic oligarchy that essentially controlled the nation’s economy. Because of the authoritarian character of the regime, most people were afraid to speak out, and those that did were quickly silenced or marginalized. Suharto resigned in 1998 amidst social unrest triggered by the Asian Financial Crisis. Now, little more than a decade after Suharto’s fall, it seems to me that people are starting to recover. People are free to speak their minds and civil society is growing rapidly. In my mind all this bodes well for the struggle against corruption here; not only are people waking up but a non-governmental institutional structure is developing. Thus I think it’s just a matter of time before people start challenging structural corruption, and once that process starts I believe it will rapidly gain momentum. All it takes is for one person to stand up in the government office and announce that they refuse to pay the bribe, and others will follow. People are tired of corruption here their willingness to passively accept it is ending.

And there are efforts to clean up government apart from the KPK as well. Solo and Jogja in Central Java are good examples. Jogja's squeaky-clean mayor Herry Zudianto has introduced one-stop shops for business permits the streamlines the process and eliminates opportunities for small-scale graft. Solo mayor Joko Widodo has followed this example and has further changed the relationship between bureaucrats and citizens; previously customers at government offices would meet with officials in private booths, which provides an easy environment for the taking of bribes. Now, though, clerks serve customers from open counters in full view, which literally improves transparency. When interviewed by the Economist, mayor Widodo said that the cost (with bribes) of getting an id card used to range between 25,000-100,000 rupiah ($3-$12); now it's 5,000 rupiah. But more remains to be done. Indonesia needs to increase salaries for civil servants so they aren't under pressure to pad their incomes. The recruiting process also needs to be reformed so that the best and brightest rather than those most willing and able to pay make the ranks.

(1) The police official was denigrating the KPK with this remark, but KPK supporters turned the slogan around, using the Indonesian word for gecko (cicak) as an acronym for "Love Indonesia, Love the KPK" (cinta Indonesia, cinta KPK).

(2) In addition to this, the poor economic policies of the Sukarno regime (Sukarno was president before Suharto) spurred a high rate of inflation while the national debt spiraled. Under these circumstances, the real wages of government employees were no where near the level required to meet household needs.

An Afternoon With An Artist...

This weekend one of my friends and a rag-tag mob composed of folks from Singapore and Jakarta descended upon my temporary home here in Jogjakarta for a couple of days of culinary tourism, so I decided to tag along. A couple of the retinue desired to "buy some art", so we stopped by the studio/home of S Teddy D, a famous contemporary Indonesian artist. Teddy was one of the founding members of the Taring Padi group of artists, which formed in the late 1990s in Jogja. The Taring Padi artists are known for their politically-themed art and their commitment to use their art as a medium for social critique. The movement grew out of the social and political unrest that ultimately led to the downfall of longtime strongman president Suharto in 1998.

Teddy's new studio/house is called "Art Merdeka" (Freedom Art) and is located on the outskirts of Jogja. Next to the house is a workshop that Teddy has given to his friends as a refuge to work on art projects. His "Art Merdeka" company is a kind of coop that provides services to artists, including packing, metal casting, studio space, and assistance getting into local and international expositions. Teddy is a very welcoming person and is down-to-earth, friendly, and easy to talk to. His celebrity doesn't seem to have gone to his head, and he has an obvious commitment to take advantage of his success to assist his fellow artists. He seemed to be pretty proud of his new digs and jokingly told us "now I'm rich". After serving us some Acehnese coffee Teddy introduced us to his wife, Theresia Agustina, who is also an artist. He told his mission as an artist was to raise awareness about social issues, and while he started as a political artist his work over the past several years deals with environmental themes as well. Teddy also said that there's been a transformation in Indonesia since the fall of Suharto. Before the fall, people were afraid to talk about politics, and so there wasn't a great deal of political expression. "But now anyone can scream anything", he said. Thus Teddy is concerned with how people in smaller cities and towns can find a voice amidst the noise. One way is through "Forest Art Festivals", like the one held in Blora in 2005. Teddy and some fellow artists organized this 5-week multimedia exposition for local youth and invited performers from as far away as Australia, Italy, and the US. This festival was a kind of celebration of forest resources, which had suffered from neglect and exploitation over the past 30 years around Blora. The artists and other participants planted new trees to replace those that had been cut. Another art festival took place in Salatiga and celebrated the natural springs of the area. Teddy told us he was really interested in local stories about the springs because these contain a lot of knowledge about how to maintain and care for the springs as natural resources.

Teddy gave us all some books and showed us around the studio. The following excerpt, in typical artbook language, vaguely hints at something than might be, under certain specific circumstances, as something resembling a lucid description of the artist's work:

It is also important to underline Teddy's attitude when he does exploration in art. He does not want to be trapped within dichotomy between two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, or between fine art and applied art. According to him, in two-dimensional painting there are still many things and many imaginary spaces that can be explored; and in three-dimensional artwork there are also many technical challenges and opportunities that need to be responded. What is always important to be done, according to him, is never-ending experiment to keep questioning everything through his artworks, which often are absurd, weird, unreasonable, eccentric, fantastic, imaginative, and even very vulgar.

I've included some photographs to the right to give you an idea of some of his current projects. Teddy does painting, drawing, sculpture, and installations, and even has a musical group that does "sound performance". He's had solo expositions in Singapore, China and Hong Kong has participated in dozens of group shows throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

We also got a chance to see some of his wife's work, which was more in line with my taste. Theresa (Tere for short) works with a range of media as well, including sculpture, drawing, and video art. Stylized figures are a major feature of Tere's art, but the themes vary. In 2010 she had a show in Jakarta called "Happyartland" with figures designed to illustrate various aspects of life in Blora. The current work around the studio takes Noah's Ark as its theme and definitely has an environmental message. Tere has made some very detailed etchings of plant seeds with the idea that these seeds will be transported on a new ark to save traces of this world. She also has a series of stylized figures representing the next generation. To the left you can see a picture of the wooden ark that Tere designed and had built. The piece is about 3 feet long and 2 feet high and has working parts, including the rudder and the vents. In addition it can be closed or opened to reveal or conceal the cross section. The submarine ark is really cool and I had an overwhelming desire to play with it.

All in all I had a pretty good time hanging out with Teddy. He graciously invited me back to stay at his place, and I think he meant it.

You can see some more of Teddy's work here, here, and here.

A Capital On The Move?

A topic that emerges from time to time in Indonesia is the possibility of moving the capital from Jakarta to someplace in the hinterlands. The potential move cropped up in the news again late last year when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono endorsed the notion first forwarded by the Home Affairs Ministry. Although this debate has died down a little bit over the past few months, it’s certain to emerge again. Besides, it provides an opportunity to explore and apply a couple of interesting geographical concepts relating to city size and function.

2 BASIC MODELS

The Rank-Size rule (Zipf’s law) is often used in geography classes to predict the size of cities in a country. Zipf's rule shows a general pattern of populations of cities according to rank. According to the rank-size rule, if you list the cities according to population you should notice that the second largest city has half the population of the largest, the third largest has a third the population of the largest, and so on. Thus according to the rank-size rule, if the largest city has 1 million people, the second should have around 500,000, the third 333,333, the forth 250,000, the fifth largest 200,000, etc (1). This rule is very useful in some situations because it matches up well with population data. But does it work for Indonesia? Well, let's take a look at the populations of Indonesia's 11 largest cities (2):

Jakarta 9,588,198
Surabaya 2,765,908
Bandung 2,393,633
Medan 2,109,330
Berkasi 1,993,478
Serang 1,786,000
Depok 1,751,696
Tangerang 1,537,244
Palembang 1,441,500
Semarang 1,438,733
Makassar 1,334,090
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_cities_in_Indonesia

If we applied the rank-size rule to Indonesia and round Jakarta’s population to 10 million, then we would expect the population of Surabaya to be 5,000,000, and Bandung to be 3,333,333. But isn’t consistent with the figures. This is especially so since Berkasi, Depok, and Tagerang are all considered to be part of the Jakarta regional urban agglomeration. Thus we have to use a different model for explanation.

This is where the concept of the primate city comes in handy. A primate city is far larger than other cities in the nation and, the words of Mark Jefferson, who came up with the idea, “is always disproportionately large and exceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling”. Another condition of the primate city is that it is more than twice as large as the next biggest city. Usually the primate city is also the capital city. Paris is the most commonly cited example (3). Several factors contribute to the disparity between the primate city and the second city. Since it is so big, the primate city acts as a magnate for both migration and investment. This means that new talent, new ideas, and new opportunities are constantly flowing into the city, creating a positive feedback loop. But there are negative aspects as well. The prosperity of the primate city comes at the expense of other cities. Moreover, primate cities are often characterized by a wide range of urban problems: traffic jams, floods, poor sanitation, crime, slums, to name just a few (4).

Moving the Capital

So why move the capital? And is it even possible? Let’s take each of these questions in turn starting with the second question first. It certainly is possible to move the capital. In the past several countries have moved their capital cities, including the United States. But more recently, Brazil, Pakistan, and several others have moved their administrative capitals to new locations. In some cases the move involves only some administrative functions, as is the case with Malaysia’s administrative city of Putra Jaya. Reasons for moving the capital city vary. In the case of the United States, Washington DC was planned and built as a special district in part to prevent bickering between the several states over which one would enjoy the prestige of hosting the national capital. In other cases the capital is moved to an isolated or peripheral region (Brasilia) to balance out development and population. These are sometimes called “forward capitals” because of the intention to move the area “forward” using the new capital city as a springboard.

A more nefarious explanation comes from one of my favorite geographers, James Scott. He writes in “Seeing Like A State” that the “gridded urban order” of the planned capital city is a form of state simplification envisioned to make controlling the population easier. Pretty sneaky, eh? According to Scott (and other geographers), states in general try to address problems by simplifying them. They do this by using statistics and measurements, and translating very complex social problems into a few key explanatory variables. Another geographer, Tanya Li, refers to this as “rendering technical”, whereas Arun Agrawal and some others call it “legibility”. Anyway, if you happen to be looking for a good read, check out the Scott reference in the references.

In Indonesia advocates of moving the capital city cite all of the reason I mentioned above (of course, no one has explicit said that a new, orderly capital will enable increased surveillance of the population). For example, in Jakarta the number of vehicles is increasing 10 to 15% per year, while roads are being built at a rate of .01% per year. There is also the risk of various types of disasters, including floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Lastly moving the capital would enable the government to start from scratch, thereby increasing both efficiency and prestige.

Proposed destinations range from Jonggol on the outskirts of Jakarta to places as far away as Palangkaraya on the island of Borneo and Jayapura in Papua. The big obstacle is the expense involved. Many experts argue that moving the capital will do nothing to ease the congestion and environmental problems, because Jakarta will remain the commercial center of the nation. Government officials have proposed moving the commercial center as well, but exactly how that will be accomplished is unclear. It's one thing to move government offices and personnel, it's a completely different task to shift the entire commercial and financial apparatus of a nation.

For now the debate seems to have cooled a little. But it's certain to come up again, especially since there is no relief in site for Jakarta.

(1) Let’s practice. Say you have a country, we’ll call it Keithopia, which adheres to the rank-size rule. If the capital city (Keithopolis) has 1,600,000 people, how many people will the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th largest cities have?

(2) These numbers are only for the city proper, not the entire metropolitan area.

(3) A starker example comes from Thailand, where the largest city (Bangkok), is far larger than the second city, Ratchasima. The population of Bangkok is “everyone in Thailand”, whereas Ratchasima has around 300,000 inhabitants.

(4) Can you use population data found on the internet or in another source to find additional examples of both primate city countries and countries that follow the rank-size rule? Next see if you can find out what major problems these primate cities face.

REFERENCES

Jefferson, Mark. 1939. The Law of the Primate City. Geographical Review 29.

Scott, James. 1998. Seeing Like A State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

The Cacophony of Commerce...

Following up on my last post on the informal economy in Indonesia, I decided to introduce my readers to some examples in a fun kinda way. For this post I biked around a couple of neighborhoods in Jogja looking for mobile street vendors selling various types of food from bicycles or pushcarts (pedagang kaki lima). Here in Indonesia food vendors circulate through neighborhoods selling their delicacies. They use sounds to attract customers and wake up sleeping foreigners. The sounds are associated with specific food products, so locals instantly know who's coming around the corner. I find this to be an interesting form of communication that really adds to the atmosphere of the kampung (neighborhood), especially when I'm not trying to sleep.

Your task is to match each of the following sounds with the pictures below. Don't scroll down too far, because I put the answers at the bottom of the post. I bought something from each of the vendors in exchange for them allowing me to photograph and record them, so this counts as a culinary adventure as well. They were all very entertained at the notion of some weirdo foreigner recording them.

I uploaded each of the sounds to youtube, so you should be able to listen to them using the embedded players below. I'm sorry about the bulkiness, but I couldn't get any of the html code mp3 players to actually work. The Blogger software makes it very difficult to include audio files in a post. If you know how to embed mp3 files with individual players please let me know. I spent a couple of hours trying, though, and I'm not exactly "gaptek", as the Indonesians say.



This first sound is the only one that is electronically generated. It's pretty gloomy, actually, but it never plays all the way through. I think the recording must be powered by a dynamo driven by the tires of the bicycle. Anyway, this tune sounds like it belongs in the cut scene of one of the original nintendo games where a princess is abducted by evil mushrooms or something like that.



The recording isn't a very good one because I recorded it on a busy street. But it's the sound of a woodblock, which is very distinctive and can be differentiated from the rest of the sounds pretty easily.



The third sound is made by tapping on a ceramic bowl and is instantly recognizable. I saw several pushcarts serving up this food in during my field trip, and they all used the same sound to attract customers.



The sound in the forth clip is made by tapping a metal pot lid with a fork or other utensil. This one also is clearly recognizable by people in the area.



The fifth sound is pretty obviously a gong. Very easy to differentiate from others.



Lastly we have a horn. You can hear this one from a long way off.

Now for the pictures. The first vendor featured below sells bakso, a delicious meatball and noodle stew I described in a previous post. He's found a steady clientele at Wisma Bahasa, so he stops by almost everyday. In the picture you can also see one of my former teachers, the lovely and talented Roro.


Next is the Swiss Roti (bread) vendor. He usually comes through my neighborhood twice daily; once at the crack of dawn and again as the sun is setting. There are several bread vendors that make the rounds.


The third picture is of a rujak vendor. Rujak is a snack of chopped mixed fruit served with a sweet peanut sauce. It's quite delicious, and healthy too.


In the next photo below we have a siomay vendor. Siomay is a popular street food that originates from Bandung in West Java. It's a type of fish dumpling served with peanut sauce, and is usually pretty good. The taste of this particular siomay bore a striking resemblance to dog food, however.


In the fifth picture we've got an ice cream salesman. There are also ice cream salesmen that subcontract with the larger suppliers, like Walls, and they have a music track all their own, but this is a do-it-yourself guy.


Last is the bak pao salesman. Bak pao is a steamed pasty that I assume is an adaptation of a Chinese dish. Here it's generally filled with chicken, green peas, or chocolate. I much prefer the chocolate ones.




ANSWERS:

Sound 1 Picture 2
Sound 2 Picture 4
Sound 3 Picture 1
Sound 4 Picture 3
Sound 5 Picture 6
Sound 6 Picture 5

Update July 2011:  Below is another video of a putu vendor provided by my friend and fellow geographile at UH, Wendy Miles.  Thanks much Wendy for the awesome video.

Indonesia's Informal Economy...

In the US we're used to heading to the mall, big-box store, or supermarket to do our shopping. However, commerce takes a different form here in Indonesia and other countries in the "developing" world. Although there are malls and supermarkets here, you're more likely to to business with a small-scale neighborhood enterprises, pushcart vendors, and a variety of service providers that carry their shops on their backs and bicycles. Most of these small businesses are part of the informal economy. The informal economy covers a wide range of economic activity that takes place beyond the reach of government regulations and tax collection (1). Informal employment is generally non-contractual and employment is often based on kinship and social relations. Although this off-the-books type of business has been around for a long time, the term "informal economy" was born from an International Labor Organization (ILO) report on Kenya in 1972. Since that time analysis of the informal sector has grown quite a bit, but the original characteristics are still valid:

• ease of entry into the market place: there are few or no regulatory barriers in terms of permits and licenses that have to be obtained. Moreover, it doesn't require a lot of money to start up a business.
  
• reliance on local resources, including labor and materials
• family ownership
• small-scale operations
• labor intensive activities (2)
  
• utilizes skills acquired outside the educational system
  
• markets are unregulated and competitive

There are good and bad aspects to the informal economy. On the plus side, the informal economy absorbs people that can't find work in the formal sector, and thus cuts down on unemployment. This is really important in developing countries where rural-to-urban migration swells the population of cities; people moving to Jakarta from the countryside have the opportunity to work in the informal sector until they find their way in the city and land a "regular" job. It also enables people to independently identify and take advantage of opportunities, and in this way it helps develop the entrepreneurial skills of the population. Additionally, the informal sector provides a buffer in harder economic times. This was demonstrated here in Indonesia after the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, when formal jobs declined dramatically. Many people moved over to the informal economy to make ends meet.

However, there are drawbacks as well. Among the largest of these is the inability of the government to collect income taxes from the tens of thousands of small businesses in the informal economy. This means less money to provide public services, such as health and education. Moreover, most informal sector enterprises are beyond the reach of government regulators, so the gado-gado you buy off the street, while cheaper, is not subject to the same health codes and standards that govern restaurants. People working in the informal sector are affected as well; they typically have little or no job security, and regulations governing safety in the workplace are frequently ignored. And most of the positive aspects of the informal sector are negated if the informal sector functions as a final destination for laborers and entrepreneurs, rather than as a temporary "holding tank" until they find opportunities in the formal sector.

You can see the percentages for formal and informal sectors around the world on the map below. I took this from a site called "Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis". It's the only map I could find without doing some scanning, so sorry about the superfluous notes.



It's traditionally been very difficult to get accurate statistics on the informal economy because of its under-the-table and off-the-record nature. However, it is generally accepted that more than 50% of the workforce in developing countries is employed in the informal sector. In some countries it can be as high as 90%. Compare this to 4-6% in wealthy countries and you have quite a contrast. Estimates for Indonesia are that 70% of the workforce is in the informal sector, with a higher proportion in the countryside compared to the cities (80% to 25%). There is also a gender component here; women are more likely to be engaged in informal employment than men (2:1), and they are also paid less. The large informal sector (and lack of information about it) makes it difficult to create policies to protect workers, provide services, and encourage economic development.

Recently I spent a day chatting with people employed in the informal sector around Jogjakarta. Though they all expressed the same concerns about healthcare, they seemed to appreciate the open nature of the informal economy. The tailor working at the stall in the picture to the right told me that in a day he and his partner make about 50,000 rupiah ($6 or so) which they split. He said he usually sleeps in the stall. He told me there are no regulations governing his business and that they don't pay taxes, so overhead is low. Also the machines they use are pedal-powered, so there is no electrical bill. He said that anyone could start up a business like this one. The drink vendor in the second picture to the right told me that he did a pretty good business because he has a regular clientele. He has two pushcarts; one he operates during the day in a business district, while at night he sells sweet drinks at the Alun-Alun, a large park area south in the Kraton where people congregate in the evening. He told me that it wasn't hard to start up a business, but he did have to be inspected periodically by the health department. He also told me that sometimes there can be fierce competition because so many people move to the city and start small businesses like his.

Household helpers (pembantu rumah) also form a significant part of informal employment here. However, they have different circumstances than the folks described above. In many cases the employer provides lodging and meals for the pembantu, but the pay is significantly lower. However, the employer also assumes some responsibility for the pembantu and has certain obligations, sometimes including providing education and money for the pembantu's family in case of emergency. And while can't state this as fact, it seems to me that there is an expectation that well-off people will employ household helpers, which provides jobs for a significant number of low-skilled people.

Anyway, that's a wrap for today.

(1) Some economists differentiate between the "informal sector" and "informal employment". The first term refers to businesses that are not formally registered with the government, whereas the second term refers to all the people that are employed on a "casual" basis. This includes people working for established companies without contracts and benefits.

(2) "Labor intensive" means that the production process relies more on human labor than machines.

Acknowledgments:

Graph of supply and demand of labor from Food Policy Analysis, 1983 World Bank and Stanford University. Click on the graph and your computer should show it to you against a white background so you can examine it.

Kruizin' the Kraton...

One of the neat things you can do when you're in Jogjakarta is to stroll through the Sultan's palace and surrounding walled district, known locally as the Kraton (or more specifically, the Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat). The Kraton is the royal residence of the family that rules the Jogja Special Region (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta) along with the mini-city which traditionally housed the people that worked for the Sultan, including servants, artisans, and soldiers. The current Sultan is the 10th from his dynasty, the Hamengku Buwono dynasty. The Kraton sits in the middle of town, and is easily accessible. You'll find that you can walk, ride a bike, or, if your one of those lazy ones, you can ride a horse-drawn carriage (andong). You'll find the residents cheerful and welcoming. Below I've included a map I lifted from this site. The map doesn't show all the little alleys, but you can get the idea of the organization of the Kraton, along with the mini-districts within the walled city originally set aside for specific professions.



Today I spent a few hours riding my bike through the winding back alleys (gang) of the Kraton. For me this is really relaxing, and there are all sorts of day-to-day things that catch your eye. But before I mounted up I began with a walk through the actual palace, which seems to be open only towards the middle of the day. They have displays of all sorts of Jogja-type stuff and assorted royal accouterments and appurtenances, including the ultra-rare relic featured in the picture to the right: a gas burning stove used by one of the royal wives to cook fried instant noodles or some such. If you're lucky, the gamelan orchestra will be playing when you get there.

The Kraton's also filled with traditional artisans plying their trade both for the tourist market and the "culture industry" that thrives in Jogja. I stopped to talk with a couple of guys making puppets and props for wayang kulit (shadow puppet shows). They emboss and carve intricate designs into dried buffalo leather, creating a variety of stylized puppets which are then painted. There are also folks that make batik and do wood carvings. After a bit of wandering through the gangs you're bound to stumble onto Taman Sari, the water palace. This complex originally functioned as the Sultan's seraglio (1), but it fell into disrepair or was destroyed for some reason or another. It's been restored over the past few years, and the Sultan is working to convert the area into a park. I included a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first is a view from the back of the palace. From this angle it looks like something that belongs on Tatoinne. Inside Taman Sari has reflecting ponds and a number of chambers for the ladies to occupy and entertain themselves when they weren't otherwise occupied. The last picture is just a general view of one of the gangs. These winding ways are narrow and densely populated, but their clean and quiet.

The Jogja region is unique in Indonesia in that its leader isn't elected; Sultan Hamengkubuwono is the administrative head, and this office is passed down through the family. The Sultan is known as very progressive and is highly respected around Jogja and Indonesia in general. The Sultanate has in fact played a very important role in Indonesian history, both in the colonial era and since independence. In the early 1800s, Prince Diponegoro, the first son of Hamengkubuwono III, was past over for succession to the throne in favor of his younger brother, who was supported by the Dutch. Eventually Diponegoro would lead the most successful (though failed) revolt against the Dutch colonial masters. He is still viewed as a hero today. In the early 1900s Budi Oetomo, regarded as the first Indonesian nationalist movement, had its first major meetings in Jogja. The region, under Hamengkubuwono IX, also played a leading role in the war of liberation from the Dutch. The Sultan's contribution was recognized when Jogja was declared a special administrative region after independence was won. The Jogja region is also the birthplace of Indonesia's second president and longtime authoritarian ruler, Suharto.

The Kraton area is also a place where you can see Java's unique system of community organization. Indonesia has 5 levels of government extending from the central government down through the provinces, regions (kabupaten), subregions (kecamatan), and wards (keluruhan). Below the ward are two further administrative divisions, but these aren't part of the official state apparatus. Rather they are headed by volunteers from the community. The upper division is the rukun warga (RW). The head of the RW is elected by residents and functions like a magistrate; he/she signs and stamps papers related to marriages, moves, deaths, and births. Below the RW is the rukun tetangga (RT), which might be translated as "neighborhood association". The numbers vary, but here in Jogja the RT consists of around 40-50 households. The head of the RT is elected by residents and serves as the eyes and ears of the government; it is the RT's job to know what's going on in the neighborhood. The RT also disseminates information concerning public health, elections, and community events. It's a pretty neat system if you can get over the "big brother" feeling of a creeping state intruding on every aspect of public life.

Well, that's it for today. In the coming weeks I'll dedicate posts to other interesting aspects of Jogja, including gamelan music and batik design and manufacture.

(1) A seraglio is where you stow your ladies.