Eid and Going Home for the Holidays

Jakarta is a much quieter place during the Eid celebration that takes place at the end of the fasting month. It is a much quieter place because the vast majority of residents return back to their home villages in the days before Eid and for a week or so after.

Although Jakarta is much quieter, everywhere else suddenly gets a whole lot less quite and sees a significant spike in traffic and the associated problems.

I read in today's Kompas Newspaper (the photo is from Kompas) that the 267 km trip from Jakarta to Cirebon was taking about 19 hours to complete. For my mind that means that you really must want to go home for the holidays. Apparently, on a 'normal' day this trip would take a leisurely 6 hours. This still seems like a long time to travel less than 300 km all the same.

Skating Police

An article on the latest creative attempt by police to tame Jakarta's unruly traffic appeared in the Jakarta Post by way of the Associated Press last week that highlights the benefits of an innovative inline skating police force. This force is going to skate into heavily jammed areas and start directing traffic. It is expected that this will enable police to get to trouble spots quicker than they could if they were in vehicles or motor bikes.

For my mind mountain bikes might have been a wiser choice for this purpose. Any resident of Jakarta will readily and quickly tell you that the condition of roads leaves a lot to be desired and the footpaths are not any better. Most people can close their eyes and see the images now; police officers falling over all over the place, going feet first into uncovered storm water drains, and getting smashed by cars or buses running red lights. This just does not seem like that good idea on second thoughts!

The inline skating force will initially be 20 officers. These officers are undergoing specialized training and the police have hired a qualified and professional inline skating instructor to put the force through its paces. The force is expected to deploy on 1 July.

I am a bit of a skeptic on this one but would be happy to be proven wrong!