• Violence, Racial Discrimination & Calls for Separatism: What Happened in Papua?

    While Indonesian President Joko Widodo emphasized the importance of unity among the Indonesian people on the latest Independence Day (17 August 2019), developments in East Java – that occurred several days before Indonesia’s Independence Day – and subsequent protests and violence in Papua had the exact opposite effect. What explains the upsurge in tensions between Papua and Indonesia?

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  • Massive Electricity Blackouts in Java; A look at Indonesia’s Electrification Ratio & PLN's Performance

    On Sunday 4 August 2019 and Monday 5 August 2019 the capital city of Jakarta, a large part of West Java, and parts of Central Java were without electricity. On Sunday the power outage lasted from around noon to 21:00 pm, an unusually long period, while the following day the outage lasted for approximately six hours (depending on the exact location); also an unusually long period albeit not as long as on the preceding day.

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  • Jakarta; the Sinking, Choking Metropolitan Capital City of Indonesia

    It was reported in media around the globe near the end of July 2019 that Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta has been constantly ranked in the top 10 of the world's most polluted cities over the past two months (based on AirVisual’s World Air Quality Index, AQI). And, for several days in July 2019 this mega-city was even ranked as the world's smoggiest city.

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