The Call of Modern Living

By: Emma Kwee

A man with a strong resemblance to Elton John strokes the hair of his son, while his other kid sits on a bicycle wearing a protective helmet (a dead giveaway that this is not a real life scene). The house is an ultra modern minimalist building with two floors. It has 4 bedrooms, a pond and an open air dining space. It is one of 22 similar houses, in a tree lined street. There is no traffic, no kaki lima's, no trash on the street. Another couple walks hand in hand toward the horizon.

Such is life, or so will life be, in Kota Baru Parahyangan, near Bandung."

On the backside of the brochure, the facilities of this new town to be a listed: a hospital, international school, Islamic school, Western language academy, mosque, hotel, bicycle lanes, fire department, shuttle bus service, a sundial and a 4D theater will be ready to complete this oasis of modern living.

Win+ a Step further!

Dear Win + friend,

Since a year and a half now  Latitudes.nu provides information for everyone who feels connected to Indonesia and Southeast Asia. We bring news, interviews, as well as highlighting welfare initiatives from all over Southeast Asia. We strongly believe in the exchange of information, opinions and culture. With the Win + section we support initiatives concerning welfare, sustainability and green development. Visitors of the website and members of the online community can support the Win+ projects by sharing their knowledge and network with these projects, to be the link to a better world.

Leasing Culture: from Cars to Sunglasses

By: Emma Kwee

Malls are the playground for most Indonesians. families, teenagers and couples spend their free time increasingly indoors, (window) shopping, lounging around at foodcourts or loitering around at arcade halls. It's not just window shopping though these days. Those who have visited Indonesia recently will probably have noticed the shiny, spanking brand new wagonpark that cruises the cities' congested thoroughfares. Small Japanese hatchbacks overtake imported 5-door Mercedes Benz, while bajaj (the traditional three wheeled taxi) seem to have become a rare sight.

What has happened? Have Indonesians suddenly all become rich?

Mixed Marriage? Try brokerage!

By: Sita van Bemmelen

There are a thousand ways of falling into the abyss, dividing people of different cultures. But you can also view being of different countries and cultures as an opportunity and try capitalizing on it. Over the years in Bali, my husband has become a trusted partner of several Dutch businessmen or people who wanted to build a villa in Bali. Oka has five assets that make him ideally situated for this role: his accounting skills, his mastery of the Dutch and English language, his Indonesian way of dealing with people who work for him, his access to the Indonesian bureaucracy (partly due to his family background) and, last but not least, his honesty.

One often finds, that foreigners like to work with locally based foreigners because they are inclined to trust a fellow-country man or woman more than a local. However, foreigners rarely possess all five assets mentioned. Of course, at first foreigners do not always realize the benefit of working with a local person like Oka. It takes time and word of mouth to build a good name. I do not know whether the fact that Oka has a Dutch wife, has helped him gaining trust. But I am sure, that it has not played a significant role, because I have never been part of his projects with foreigners, let alone interfere with it.

Resource War in Burma

By: Zach Goldman

Burma has always been a source for bad news, and unfortunately this year is no different. In June of 2011 fighting between the KIA (Kachin Independence Army) and the Burmese Military erupted after 17 years of an unsteady ceasefire. Fighting within Kachin state has since increased into a full scale cross border guerrilla war with (reportedly) the KIA having the upper hand and the Burmese Military using more and more desperate means to dislodge them from their border region hideouts.

The reasons for the fighting are many including everything from opportunities in government positions to recognition of Christianity as the state religion, perhaps the most prominent reason is the plan for a dam to be built at the headwaters of the Irrawaddy river.

The influence of different legal systems on a mixed marriage

By: Sita van Bemmelen

Mixed couples often have to deal with overcoming cultural, religious and economical differences. Read all about my marriage to my Balinese husband my interview for the Latitudes Cross-Cultural Couples series.

Another problem that may trouble the relationship is the fact that societies do not necessarily grant rights to women and men in the same way. For example, Bali is a patrilineal society. This means that daughters do not have the right to inherit and that children are conceived of as belonging to the husband and his family. In case of divorce, the children are usually allocated to the husband, and if a widow wishes to remarry, the children are often claimed by the family of her deceased husband.

Bali sets the stage for ASEAN

By: Ed Caffin

From November 19-21, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will have it’s 19th summit. In several meetings on Bali, the ten memberstates and 5 gueststates discuss the regions economic and cultural issues. As the chair of ASEAN in 2011, Indonesia also hosted a summit last May in Jakarta. Now, for the third time in ASEAN-history, Bali sets the stage for a giant logistic operation.

It isn’t easy to organize a summit with 15 heads of state. Especially not when the president of the United States is one of them. Logistic material required for president Obama’s vist only, required no less than 40 U.S. government flights (!) arriving on Ngurah Rai international airport this week. With the arrival of these planes and these of other heads of state, delays of commercial flights are expected.

Jakarta Traffic Horror

By: Ed Caffin

Whoever has been to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta must agree: the city’s traffic ‘situation’ is a real disaster. To put it simply: there are just too many vehicles on too little road. Matters become extremely grim at rush hours when hundreds of thousands of motorised vehicles spill onto the streets to create one giant traffic jam. It is hard to imagine what that means, but stepping on the back of an ojek at rush hour might just be the best way to find out.

Not that I needed to know, but hey, do you want to get to know a city, or not? The ojek-trip started around 16:00 in the afternoon from Pasar Senen in the center of the city and ended in Lebak Bulus, roughly 17 kilometers towards the southwest. The driving skills of the ojek driver and the traffic jams could have hardly been worse.

Win+ weblog I

Dear Win + Friends,
Welcome to the Win+ weblog.

Latitudes,nu has been online now for a few months and I'd like to introduce myself properly, although I contacted most of you individually.10 years ago I visited Indonesia for the first time, together with Peter van Riel. Since then I’m a regular visitor of Indonesia and I have been involved in Latitudes the last 5 years. Latitudes.nu is a webportal that focuses on everything Southeast Asian. We hope to bring East and West together with articles, discussions and images on culture, travel, economy, news and more. My special interests are the Win+ projects.