I saw yesterday at io9.com that one of Indonesia’s oil and gas companies, Pertamina, is designing a building in Jakarta that will provide workspace for 20,000 of their employees. As with everything in Jakarta, it is built straight up because the island is so crowded. This particular tower is planned to be the tallest in the entire country and is projected to be completed by 2020.
In a failing economy, it’s hard to understand the expense. In the 15 months that I have lived here, the rupiah has lost 12% of its value. It’s not clear where in Jakarta the tower would be built, but so far as I can tell from the photos, in some sort of alternate universe Javan island.
One with grass and a what looks like a monorail train station? The train station seems particularly optimistic. There was a push many years ago to have a train system in the capital city, but the money that was loaned to Indonesia by Japan disappeared into politician’s pockets. And thus the project died.
Though, the train station doesn’t appear to be in this photo.
The comments on the io9 article were all about how they thought the building was beautiful and that they hoped that the wind harp at the top wouldn’t be too loud. I found myself frustrated that it seemed like no one understood that this wasn’t the story. It’s not about the tower, or the harp. It’s the fact that there’s no infrastructure in the country, and yet somehow there is money for window-dressing projects like this one. And yet, with Indonesia only making the news in America when it floods, or when Timur riots, how can I expect the people at io9 to know that? I certainly wouldn’t have known it two years ago. Maybe by 2020, things will be different in Jakarta and this won’t seem like a massive, glassy, slap in the face to the millions of poor who live here.
Improbable Phrases 
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