Dateline 21st September 2007

The news in Indonesia.
On this day 21st September sport made the front page of the Jawa Pos. It was not an Indonesian winning a medal, or an Indonesian team winning a championship. It was the resignation of the Chelsea manager.
The ‘Java Post’ is one of the largest newspapers in Indonesia. It has three sections everyday, the Jawa Pos itself, Metropolis, a section devoted to the city of publication, and Olahraga the sports section.
Indonesia is obsessed with football. The strange part about this obsession is that they are obsessed with football in Europe. The pages of the Olahraga section are full of the Italian, Spanish, and English leagues. It is quite possible to read a report about Reading, or Watford in the Jawa Pos.
On TV we can watch endless English football league matches. In fact the coverage is better here than on domestic TV in the UK.

Teachers Transport

Several of the teachers at EF Kayun travel to work by motorbike. Here we see two prime examples, nearest the camera is Kenny's ratbike. A very elderly moped whose plastics are held in place by tie-wraps. It is unclear whether it uses more petrol from the various drips and leaks, or from its noisy backfiring smoking engine. The brakes need warning before they are applied. Beyond that is Chung's Suzuki, eighteen months old and better than the day it left the showroom.

Out on the street all manner of machines can be seen. Bikes all under 200cc, provide the bulk of the cities transport. Often carrying three or four people, all manner of luggage, scaffolding, wardrobes, computers, and every type of food. Riding here reminds me most of the first corner, first lap of an eight lap sprint at Mallory Park.
Everyone determined to get wherever they are going now irrespective of the other road users, traffic, or physical obstructions. This is not to say people ride fast, some do, but most ride a a steady speed. The problem is they ride a constant speed, and on a fixed track irrespective of obstacles. People ride right up to cars, lorries, vehicles that are pulling out, and at the very last moment brake or swerve to avoid a collision appearing most suprised that something is blocking their path.