#west jakarta

[maulanamharis]

Banyak pelajaran yang tidak boleh terlewatkan dari negeri seberang sana.

[mothmiso]

Java, Indonesia (2) (3) (4) by Caspar Tromp

Via Flickr:

(1) (2) Kota Tua, Jakarta (3) (4) Bandung    

[13thdoodle]

There's probably other Indonesian Miku already so

~JakSel Miku~ with local high school uniforms tm :3c

JakSel (Jakarta Selatan) means South Jakarta, is the southern part of jakarta city in Indonesia. It kinda seperated into east, west, south, north, and center Jakarta bc it's a big big capital city tm

(or.. former.. capital city now? but yea anyway)

my house is in South Jakarta so im biased lol

[reasonsforhope]

"A 2019 sighting by five witnesses indicates that the long-extinct Javan tiger may still be alive, a new study suggests.

A single strand of hair recovered from that encounter is a close genetic match to hair from a Javan tiger pelt from 1930 kept at a museum, the study shows.

“Through this research, we have determined that the Javan tiger still exists in the wild,” says Wirdateti, a government researcher and lead author of the study.

The Javan tiger was believed to have gone extinct in the 1980s but only officially declared as such in 2008...

Ripi Yanuar Fajar and his four friends say they’ll never forget that evening after Indonesia’s Independence Day celebration in 2019 when they encountered a big cat roaming a community plantation in Sukabumi, West Java province.

Immediately after the brief encounter, Ripi, who happens to be a local conservationist, reached out to Kalih Raksasewu, a researcher at the country’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), saying he and his friends had seen either a Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas), a critically endangered animal, or a Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica), a subspecies believed to have gone extinct in the 1980s but only officially declared so in 2008.

About 10 days later, Kalih visited the site of the encounter with Ripi and his friends. There, Kalih found a strand of hair snagged on a plantation fence that the unknown creature was believed to have jumped over. She also recorded footprints and claw marks that she thought resembled those of a tiger.

Kalih then sent the hair sample and other records to the West Java provincial conservation agency, or BKSDA, for further investigation. She also sent a formal letter to the provincial government to follow up on the investigation request. The matter eventually landed at BRIN, where a team of researchers ran genetic analyses to compare the single strand of hair with known samples of other tiger subspecies, such as the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and a nearly century-old Javan tiger pelt kept at a museum in the West Java city of Bogor.

“After going through various process of laboratory tests, the results showed that the hair sample had 97.8% similarities to the Javan tiger,” Wirdateti, a researcher with BRIN’s Biosystemic and Evolutionary Research Center, said at an online discussion hosted by Mongabay Indonesia on March 28.

The discussion centered on a study published March 21 in the journal Oryx in which Wirdateti and colleagues presented their findings that suggested that the long-extinct Javan tiger may somehow — miraculously — still be prowling parts of one of the most densely populated islands on Earth.

Their testing compared the Sukabumi hair sample with hair from the museum specimen collected in 1930, as well as with other tigers, Javan leopards and several sequences from GenBank, a publicly accessible database of genetic sequences overseen by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The study noted that the supposed tiger hair had a sequence similarity of 97.06% with Sumatran tigers and 96.87% with Bengal tigers. Wirdateti also conducted additional interviews with Ripi and his friends about the encounter they’d had.

“I wanted to emphasize that this wasn’t just about finding a strand of hair, but an encounter with the Javan tiger in which five people saw it,” Kalih said.

“There’s still a possibility that the Javan tiger is in the Sukabumi forest,” she added. “If it’s coming down to the village or community plantation, it could be because its habitat has been disturbed. In 2019, when the hair was found, the Sukabumi region had been affected by drought for almost a year.” ...

Didik Raharyono, a Javan tiger expert who wasn’t involved in the study but has conducted voluntary expeditions with local wildlife awareness groups since 1997, said the number of previous reported sightings coupled with the new scientific findings must be taken seriously. He called on the environment ministry to draft and issue a policy on measures to find and conserve the Javan tiger.

“What’s most important is the next steps that we take in the future,” Didik said."

-via Mongabay, April 4, 2024

[kropotkindersurprise]

Escalating Insurgency: An Interview with the Spokesperson of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB)

The decades-long insurgency in the Papuan provinces has been intensifying. The TPNPB has now become a significant security threat for Jakarta. In this interview from late January, Militant Wire speaks (again) to Sebby Sambom, the spokesperson of the TPNPB.

[hussyknee]

Unrolled twitter thread by Progressive International (@ProgIntl)

30 Sept 24 • 4 minute read • Read on X

On 30 September 1965, the Indonesian military, working closely with the US government, initiated a coup that would depose President Sukarno and install the brutal, 30-year dictatorship of General Suharto.

In the dark years that followed, the dictatorship massacred over a million Indonesian communists, with the CIA and US diplomats drawing up “kill lists” for the Indonesian military. The operation would become a template for the US’s regime change operations for decades to come.

Major-General Suharto with Indonesian Army in 1966

In 1945, President Sukarno led Indonesia to independence from Dutch colonial rule. He championed the Non-Aligned Movement and hosted the historic Bandung Conference, a meeting of Afro-Asian states, in 1955.

First President of Indonesia Sukarno making a speech circa 1945

Opening the conference and forecasting what was to come, Sukarno said: “We are often told ‘Colonialism is dead’. Let us not be deceived or even soothed by that… Colonialism also has its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control, actual physical control by a small, but alien community within a nation.”

Leaders attending the Bandung Conference 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. From left: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ghanian Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser, President Sukarno, and Yugoslavian Prime Minister Josip Broz Tito.

By 1965, Indonesia possessed one of the world's largest communist parties, the PKI. The PKI had a mass membership and mobilized vast numbers of people in the battle against Indonesia’s ruling class.

Campaign of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in September 1955.

Terrified by the strength and organization of Indonesia’s people, the Indonesian military’s 30th September Movement began to purge the PKI.

Men suspected of being IPK members being transported under guard by an armed Indonesian soldier

In the early hours of 1 October, a group of military conscripts murdered six high-ranking generals. Blaming the deaths on the PKI, Suharto used the attacks as a pretext to seize power. CIA communications equipment allowed him to spread false reports around the country and begin a long campaign of anti-communist propaganda.

The US had tried to overthrow Sukarno for years; in 1958, the CIA backed armed regional rebellions against the central government. In 1965, they did all they could to aid Suharto’s murderous power grab.

The campaign soon became genocidal. On islands like Bali, up to 10% of the population was massacred — and luxury hotels soon began to appear over the killing fields.

One US embassy staffer told the US press that Suharto’s military “probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that's not all bad.”

Time Magazine referred to the killings as “the West’s best news for years in Asia”.

A cable from the US embassy’s first secretary, Mary Vance Trent, to the State Department referred to events in Indonesia as a “fantastic switch which has occurred over 10 short weeks”. It also included an estimate that 100,000 people had been slaughtered.

Cementing his power, Suharto became president in 1967. His ‘New Order’ policy allowed Western capitalism to exploit Indonesia’s cheap labour and plunder its natural resources. Civil rights and dissent were suppressed.

In one of the world’s most populous countries, any possibility for the emergence of a new, democratic political project was eliminated. Richard Nixon described Indonesia as “the greatest prize in Southeast Asia”. Suharto would not leave office until 1998.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan stands with Indonesian President Suharto in the White House South Lawn at the arrival ceremony for Suharto's State Visit. Oct 12, 1982

CIA officers described Suharto’s rise to power and anti-communist purge as the “model operation” and “Jakarta” soon became the codeword for anti-communist extermination programs in Latin America, where hundreds of thousands were massacred in regime change efforts engineered by Washington.

[radicalgraff]

ACAB spotted in West Jakarta, Indonesia.

[earlycuntsets]

mcr shows on youtube pt. 3 (2007 - 2011)

-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)

-> pt. 2 (2005 - 2007)

-> pt. 4 (2011 - 2023)

07/31/2007 coors amphitheater chula vista ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/03/2007 verizon wireless amphitheater selma tx - effvee

08/04/2007 smirnoff music center dallas tx - mrsmoore710

08/05/2007 cynthia woods mitchell pavilion the woodlands tx - allyhr80

08/11/2007 ford amphitheater tampa fl - DAK

08/13/2007 walnut creek amphitheater raleigh nc - ddr2nite

08/18/2007 darien lake performing arts center darian lake ny - megaphone25

08/19/2007 nissan pavilion bristow va - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/21/2007 molson amphitheater toronto ca - Taylor & saofan20

08/22/2007 dte energy music center clarkston mi - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/24/2007 tweeter center for the performing arts bostom ma - ricola7 & the academy is my beautiful romance

08/25/2007 tweeter center camden nj - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/26/2007 new england dodge music center hartford ct - blackmariah224

08/28/2007 mohigan sun grandstand new york state fair syracuse ny - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/29/2007 pnc bank arts center holmdale nj - darkxdisco

09/01/2007 first midwest bank amphitheater tinley park il - jeana k

10/04/2007 coca cola auditorio monterrey mexico - stagglp

10/07/2007 palacio de los deportes mexico city mexico - my chemical romance official youtube

10/24/2007 maxwells hoboken nj - my chemical romance official youtube

10/30/2007 sportová hala pasienky, bratislava, slovakia - kiss955

11/04/2007 x-tray zurich switzerland - waylien87

11/11/2007 metro radio arena newcastle upon tyne england - moshmocyanide

11/12/2007 aberdeen exhibition and conference centre aberdeen scotland - t3hOutlaw

11/15/2007 o2 arena london england - the academy is my beautiful romance

11/17/2007 king's hall belfast northern ireland - xxeternalflamexx

11/28/2007 brisbane entertainment centre brisbane australia - skejemer281

12/03/2007 adelaide entertainment centre adelaide australia - zsazsalahore

12/09/2007 stadium merdeka kuala lumpur malaysia - ffillusionseb

12/11/2007 singapore expo max pavilion singapore - msliveformusic

12/14/2007 neal s.blaisdell arena honolulu - xdegrassilover92x

1/25/2008 eastwood open park manila phillipines - the academy is my beautiful romance

1/27/2008 national taiwan university sports center taipeh taiwan - the academy is my beautiful romance

1/29/2008 asia world expo hall 10 hong kong china - MCRThePatient

01/31/2008 plenary hall jakarta convention center kota administrasi jakarta pusat indonesia - mhit2

02/15/2008 vio rio rio de janiero brazil - the academy is my beautiful romance

02/17/2008  hellooch curitiba brazil - elle10one

02/19/2008  via funchal são paulo brazil - hicao182

03/29/2008 rialto theater tuscon arizona - raven pictures

03/30/2008 the joint at the hard rock hotel las vegas nv - Biancha Hidalgo

03/31/2008 the joint at the hard rock hotel las vegas nv - Donanae Dunwoody & rnm1947ebe & nachocheesechips & justsleeep

04/02/2008 san jose civic center san jose ca - daylinmychemrocks

04/06/2008 bamboozle left verizon wireless amphitheater irvine ca - jackiejackiebootysmackie

04/09/2008 crystal ballroom portland oregon - mcdreamysgirlXOXO

04/12/2008 autodromo hermanos rodriguez coca cola zero festival mexico city mexico - the academy is my beautiful romance

04/18/2008 congress theater chicago il - Ashley Tara

04/19/2008 the fillmore detriot mi - stephanie roose

04/24/2008 house of blues new orleans la - megan williams

04/25/2008 baton rouge river center baton rouge la - sam

04/28/2008 stubb's bar b cue austin tx - sue nellis

05/02/2008 beale street music festival tom lee park memphis tn - the academy is my beautiful romance

05/04/2008 lifestyle communities pavilion columbus oh - christine steele

07/31/2009 the roxy west hollywood ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/08/2009 maishima osaka japan - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/26/2010 backstage werk munich germany - song des tages

10/30/2010 melkweg the max amsterdam netherlands - the academy is my beautiful romance

11/22/2010 house of blues west hollywood ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

11/30/2010 p.c. richard & son theater nyc ny - the academy is my beautiful romance

12/1/2010 maida vale studios london england - the academy is my beautiful romance

12/2/2010 fuse tv studio nyc ny - koi no yokan

12/05/2010 1-800-ask-gary amphitheater tampa fl - the academy is my beautiful romance

12/06/2010 rockefeller plaza nyc ny - heather the human

12/08/2010 the midland by amc kansas city mo - the academy is my beautiful romance

12/09/2010 the daily habit los angeles ca - koi no yokan

12/11/2010 spike tv video game awards la convention center la - hidden gems & the academy is my beautiful romance

12/11/2010 kroq almost acoustic christmas gibson amphitheater universal city ca - kroq

12/15/2010 q101 twisted christmas house of blues chicago il - the academy is my beautiful romance

1/17/2011 conan burbank ca - JuanPI

1/21/2011 lopez tonight burbank ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

01/21/2011 the hollywood tower hollywood ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

02/10/2011 xfm radio studios london uk - the academy is my beautiful romance

02/22/2011 metro radio arena newcastle on tyne england - ZoneMum

02/23/2011 o2 academy brixton uk - emzlouise90

02/24/2011 o2 academy islington uk - emziixmcr

03/09/2011 kesselhaus munich germany - the academy is my beautiful romance

03.12.2011 ciutat de les artes i les ciencies valencia spain - CarlosCapBlanc3

03/20/2011 hartwall areena helsinki finland - the academy is my beautiful romance

04/23/2011 terminal 5 new york city ny - the academy is my beautiful romance

05/15/2011 carlisle lake district airport carlisle england - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/24/2011 universidad complutense de madrid madrid spain - pamyale24

06/26/2011 autodromo internazionale enzo e dino ferrara imoli italy - denis rossi

07/02/2011 coke sound up stuttgart germany - the academy is my beautiful romance

07/03/2011 dyrskuepladsen roskilde denmark - søren thomsen

07/07/2011 passeio marítimo de algés oeiras portugal - the academy is my beautiful romance

07/09/2011 roundhouse london england - slavka941

-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)

-> pt. 2 (2005 - 2007)

-> pt. 4 (2011 - 2023)

[pattern-recognition]

Good starting points for socialist reading? Detailed medium form summaries? Skeptic debate between various forms, and between other theoretical systems? Please do recommend

For introductory texts, start with the basics. That means starting with the foundation laid out by Marx and Engels themselves, not some abridged text or modern compilation that seeks to re-explain scientific socialism out of a lack of agency for the modern reader (though some of these type are good, but I digress.)

For this i’d recommend:

- Marx, Engels. The Communist Manifesto (obviously)

- Engels. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

- Marx, Engels. Wage-Labour and Capital/Value, Price, and Profit

The above three are very short, succinct, and informative. The latter two are woefully unrecognized as ideal texts for introductory socialism, and they were written for that explicit purpose.

After that, move on to more wholistic works that flesh out and elaborate upon the historical, material, circumstances that gave rise to the capitalist epoch and how and why they furnish the future conditions for a socialist system.

- Engels. Origin of the Family, State, and Private Property (Whatever copy you’ll procure will probably include his complimentary essay, The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, which isn’t hugely beneficial for most discursive purposes but interesting, nonetheless.)

- Lenin. The State and Revolution

- Bukharin. Historical Materialism - A System of Sociology

All of Engels’ work, from his introductions to Marx’s texts, his input on the former, and his original treatises, are a wealth of information.

After the structure of dialectical materialism and the capitalist system are understood, I’d recommend works on how the former can/should be implemented and the latter’s historical reign of misery, as well as works addressing the pressing contradiction of imperialism and core-periphery subjugation. (You won’t find vocabulary like core/periphery/semi periphery in texts like this though, that wouldn’t come about until Immanuel Wallerstein outlined the World Systems Theory in his eponymous book. It’s not strictly a historical materialist work, and made by a bourgeois academic (who was the sociology professor of my sociology professor, which is fun I suppose) but is formative for much of contemporary sociological discourse).

- Lenin. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

- Lenin. What is to Be Done?

- Galeano. Open Viens of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

- Said. Orientalism

Along the way, I strongly suggest you actually read Marx’s Capital in full, at least the first volume. It’s not as monolithic and inaccessible as some would lead you to believe, quite the opposite, and cannot be understated in its utility and insight.

- Marx. Capital: A Critique of the Political Economy, Volume I

Other recommendations:

- Marx. Critique of the Gotha Programme

- Marx. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

- Bevins. The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

- Bevins. If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

- Lenin. Critical Remarks on the National Question (1913) (Also, can be found in the recent compilation of Lenin’s work on the subject called Imperialism and the National Question)

- Debord. The Society if the Spectacle

- Benjamin. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

- Mishra. From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia

Truth be told, I’m a grievously under-read marxist, and there are others on this site who could provide a more comprehensive syllabus. To half-assedly make up for it, here are some books i’ve been meaning to read/finish but haven’t gotten to it yet:

- Adorno, Horkheimer. Dialect of Enlightenment

- Marx. Capital, Volumes 2 and 3

- Strong. The Soviets Expected It

- Adorno, Bernstein. The Culture Industry

- Adorno. Minima Moralia

- Mao. On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

- Mao. On Protracted War

All of the aforementioned reading can be found online, for free and readily accessible, on places like Marxists.org, or as downloads from places like Libgen. If you want to read on your phone, download the file as an epub and use your device’s proprietary Books app or similar. If you want to read on a PC, I’d recommend a PDF for easiest navigation. If you want to pursue the latter but can only procure the former, you can use a epub reading program like SumatraPDF. If you’re a person who values a physical copy highly enough to warrant a purchase, I’d recommend ThriftBooks, though do be attentive to buying the most suitable copy of whatever material. Also, I’d be happy to send my copies to you or anyone else, via a google drive or telegram, if you feel like coming off anon.

As for “skeptic debate between various forms, and between various systems,” I can’t think of a standalone work with the principle task of dissecting and contrasting various stripes of marxism, but you’ll find as such permeating throughout almost all of these texts. The thing is, the fundamental material conditions haven’t shifted substantially since these were written, wether it be in Marx’s 19th century, Lenin’s 20th, or Bevins’ 21st. The old enemies remain enemies, the old arguments remain true. Dialectical materialism, scientific socialism, is a malleable system. It is a scientific method by which one can analyze the world, understand it with rational clarity, and come to conclusions on how to react to it and make predictions as to how things may unfold. This is the task assigned to any student of marxism. It is not dogma or a ecclesiastical canon, it is a tool.

After you’ve garnered your bachelor’s degree in scientific socialism you can move on to the postgraduate courses, such as chainsmoking cigarettes, caffeine and amphetamine addiction, alcoholism, and playing Disco Elysium.

[mothmiso]

Java, Indonesia (2) (3) (4) by Caspar Tromp

Via Flickr:

(1) Sunda Kelapa or old colonial port area. The Dutch colonial architecture is very reminiscent of those in Aruba and Curaçao in the Caribbean. (2) Old Dutch bridge at Sunda Kelapa. (3) This magnificent art-deco building "De Majestic" dates to the 1920s and was the favourite cinema for the Dutch colonial elite, playing mostly western films. It was designed by the famous Dutch architect Schoemaker. On top, the Javanese Batara Kala or God of the Underworld looks straight into your soul. (4) Café in the famous Braga street, Bandung. The café is, like most buildings in the street and in the city centre, built in the colonial Dutch-Indies Art-Deco style.    

[tropic-havens]

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, or shoeblackplant, in West Jakarta, Indonesia.

[sixcostumerefs]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Month to our queens!

In the US May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander month, so this month I'm spotlighting all the global Asian and Pacific Islander queens!

Pictured: Aragon: Nicole Kyoung-mi Lambert (Korean, pre-Broadway tour and Broadway), Jasmine Shen (Chinese/Hong Konger, Breakaway 1.0), Chloe Zuel (Mauritian, 2020 Sydney), Phoenix Jackson Mendoza (Filipino, 2021-23 Aus Tour), 이아름솔/Lee Arum-soul (Korean, South Korea), 손승연/Sonnet (Korean, South Korea) Boleyn: Andrea Macasaet (Filipino, pre-Broadway tour and Broadway), Amanda Lindgren (South Korean, West End), Danielle Mendoza (Filipino, Breakaway 3.0), Sunayna Smith (Indian, Breakaway 3.0 and 5.0), 김지우/Kim Ji-woo (Korean, South Korea), 배수정/Pae Su-jeong (Korean, South Korea) Seymour: Jasmine Forsberg (Filipino, Aragon Tour), Kristina Leopold (Chinese/Thai/Indian, Broadway), 박가람 /Park Ga-ram (Korean, South Korea), 박혜나/Park Hye-na (Korean, South Korea) Cleves: 김지선/Kim Ji-sun (Korean, South Korea), 최현선/Choi Hyun-sun (Korean, South Korea) Howard: Jaina Brock-Patel (Desi/Indian, 2nd UK Tour), Zoe Jensen (Filipino, Broadway), 김려원/Kim Ryeo-won (Korean, South Korea), 솔지/Solji (Korean, South Korea) Parr: Shimali de Silva (Hong Konger/Sri Lankan, original student cast), Vidya Makan (Desi/Indian heritage, 2020 and 2021-23 Australian Tours), Megan Leung (Chinese/Hong Konger, Bliss 2.0 and Breakaway 5.0), Joy N Woods (Southeast Asian and/or Pacific Islander, Broadway), Elena Breschi (Filipino, Breakaway 4.0), Roxanne Couch (Maori/New Zealander, West End), 홍지희/Hong Ji-hee (Korean, South Korea), 유주혜/Yoo Ju-hye (Korean, South Korea), Aoife Haakenson (Taiwanese and also lived in Jakarta and Hong Kong, UK Tour) Alts: Grace Mouat (Burmese, 1st UK Tour and West End), Cherelle Jay (West End and 2nd UK Tour), Karis Oka (2020 and 2021-23 Australian Tours), Shannen Alyce Quan (Eurasian, 2020 and 2021-23 Australian Tours), Alizé Ke'Aloha Cruz (Filipina, Bliss 3.0) Notes: All information is from this post. There may be additional info or queens missing, as it's only information I specifically have been able to verify. This list also doesn't encompass the full breadth of many queens' identities; many of them are of mixed race and ethnicity, or of several nationalities. For more information on any given queen, check that same post. Also note that Izi Maxwell (alt, 2nd UK Tour) was born in Hong Kong. However, she lists herself as British and white on her Spotlight. Additionally, Fia Houston-Hamilton (Cleves, original Breakaway 2.0) is Indian but was never officially announced. Credits below.

-------------------- Aragon: Lloyd Bishop; _jasmine_shen_; jamesmorganphoto; sixthemusicalau, unsure of origin; ymduck_pic; _young_img Boleyn: Sara Crulwich; Pamela Raith; raisaroni10; sunaynasmith; _young_img; _shannon1025_, unsure of origin Seymour: Joan Marcus; Joan Marcus; hbiiii._.iin; jjang_beautiful Cleves: hbiiii._.iin; gren_pic Howard: Pamela Raith, Joan Marcus, day_star_._, 890110kr Parr: sixthemusical, unsure of origin; sixthemusicalau, unsure of origin; meganswleung; michaelah.jpg; elenabreschi; Pamela Raith; jjang_beautiful; yoozuyoozu, unsure of origin; emilyshows Alts: anniekwithacamera; jonalderson_; daynaransleyphoto; daynaransleyphoto; alize.kealoha

[bumblebeeappletree]

We've travelled to Indonesia to showcase spectacular gardens, stunning nature and passionate growers. Sean Salim from ‪@onlyplants‬ introduces us to a particularly stunning garden today. On the outskirts of Jakarta is a luxurious garden full of life. There are crickets, frogs, birds and many sorts of insects.

Plant breeder Chandra Hendarto aimed to create an ecosystem in the space around his house to welcome in visiting wildlife. He was especially keen to attract dragonflies, which he says are a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem. There are now lots of dragonflies in his lush, naturalistic garden, which features a swimming pool that sits alongside fishponds and a waterfall surrounded by dense, tropical foliage and tall trees.

While his garden is large, he says even if you only have a few square metres, it’s possible to contribute oxygen to the world by adding a few plants.

He says the garden has changed his life.

Filmed in Depok, West Java

[helloofromthewired]

No Matter Where You Go, Everyone's Connected

At its very core, SEL is about connection, I think.

SEL was originally created by aBe to appeal to both Western and Eastern audiences, but for Western and Eastern fans to have very different views on it. It was kind of meant as an attempt to show how different West and East (specifically America and Japan) are, but I think it kind of backfired for the exact same reason it succeeded at the same time. Contradictory, I know, but stay with me here.

Lain has many connections across the series: some personal, but the vast, vast, vast, vast majority are impersonal. They're connections that exist, but that she doesn't necessarily feel connected to; they're the billions of people in and connecting with the Wired, which thanks to Protocol 7 has implanted itself in the subconscious mind of humanity as a whole. These connections aren't as important to Lain as her personal connections are; or, to expand on that a bit, the connections she wants to have.

Alice is a key example of this, and I think that she's Lain's most important relationship: Lain loves Alice from the bottom of her heart. It's a very deep and very important love for Lain; it's the only thing that could've realistically broken her from Masami's control, and we see it happen. Likewise, Alice loves Lain; if not loves, then at least has incredibly deep, caring, and complex feelings for her. Throughout the entire series, Alice is the only person we see actually care for Lain Iwakura: not Lain of the Wired, or Lain-as-God, or "Lain". Even her own father kind of kind of haphazardly dismisses her, her mother downright hates her, and Mika couldn't care less about her. Taro is interested in Lain, primarily for the Lain of the Wired as well as his role as a servant of the Knights, but I can't say he actually cares about her. Alice's friends more or less hang out with Lain because Alice does. Masami doesn't care about Lain in the same way that Alice does; his "care" is incredibly selfish, incredibly toxic, and incredibly abusive.

(TL;DR: they're lesbians, your honor)

At the same time, though, is the connection that Lain has with the rest of the world not important? In that vein, not potentially more important? We can comprehend Dunbar's Number: we can maintain social relationships with about 150 people. We can't comprehend the millions of people we connect with every day; we watch the same videos, we look at the same images, read the same books, watch/read the same news, laugh at the same jokes, play the same games, and so on. Even since the beginning of widespread international... well, connection after the Agricultural Revolution, humanity has been interconnected in some way or form.

It's not a direct connection. I know jack shit about any random 30 year old living in Jakarta or a 13 year old living in Tehran, aside from the fact that they live in Indonesia and Iran. But it's still a connection: it's a connection across time, across borders, across nations. When I'm reading, say, Marx, I'm reading the same books that people in the 1800s read; that inspired Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Luxemburg, Foster, and others (some of whom weren't even socialists, like Ataturk or Mussolini); that changed western philosophy in the last two centuries. I'm connecting with the millions, if not billions of people who have also read Marx; be they from 1856, 1917, or 2024. When I watch a video with 30 million views, I'm connecting with 30 million people; it's an indirect and impersonal connection, but we're all connected through watching that video.

The internet connects billions of people simply by its very existence. When you log into an internet connection, you are connecting to 5.35 billion other people. SEL understands that. Everybody in SEL is connected to the Wired; not just through hooking into it, but through Protocol 7 connecting all of humanity subconsciously, as well. Lain herself is the amalgam of that; she is not just a product of the Wired, or the God of the Wired, or God at all: she is the output, the child of that connection. In a sense, the connection itself.

That's what "Let's all love Lain!" really means, I think. It's a meme; an idea spreading from person to person in a culture. Or, contrary to what aBe might've expected, multiple cultures. It took over MAL about a year back, and it's become popular in both Japan and the States. "Let's all love Lain!" is the ultimate meme in SEL; it is the connection point, ultimately what connects everybody together in the end; their connection to the Wired, their love for Lain, their link to all other 8 billion people in the world.

"Protocol 7 is expected to allow the seamless transfer of information between the Wired and the real world." The message immediately after that?

[shehzadi]

Indonesia, despite (rightfully) going against Israel in the ICJ, is continuing its ongoing occupation and genocide in West Papua. They have killed 500,000 indigenous West Papuans and forced 100,000 off of their ancestral lands. May Jakarta get the same treatment as the Saudis.

ameen !!! i didn’t even know about this so thank you for telling me. may the people of west papua and all other oppressed people be free soon inshallah 🤲🏽

[toasteloo]

found something cool and exciting on twitter that i must scream about it somewhere

you might ask, what the hell is this?

well this is the current active public transport in the entire greater jakarta metropolitan area, seems a bit sad right?

recently they talked about the proposed plan for 2045 and beyond for the expansion of the public transport in that area and LOOK AT THIS

a LOT more crowded, with a lot more proposed stations coming (though they are not final as stated in the website but its exciting regardless) most notably here is the massive expansion of mrt and lrt, as for the commuter line trains there is a HUGE expansion going from the lower east to west with nambo line is expanded all the way to cikarang

why is this exciting for me at least? specifically for the commuter trains now its a lot more evenly distributed! with nambo line now goes all the way to the east people will rely less on bogor red line and start going to nambo to lessen their transfers! now instead of going only one line from the south and have a lot of people jammed in the transit, now its a lot more even!

and personally for me if you notice the green lines and dots on the most southern part, thats my hometown (hi yes i just doxxed myself) they are planning to make a bogor lrt loop line, loop line!! which means now the public transport in this city will be better than ever and getting around places will be stupid easy

for the bogor lrt i thought it will be only one station because its the one they mentioned before its cancelled because reasons but having multiple stops there and with most of them is in the more dense residential area, thats fantastic news

also i just realized the red line is gonna be the longest line holy shit, they might replace that with something else but damn

fingers crossed that all of these will be a reality in 20 years!

in case someone that somehow read all of this want even more details, they have a github link for the interactive proposed map (its the one that i use for the pictures)