Plis Deh Jakarta!

So Jakarta aspires to become an international music city. It makes sense, given the amount of large-scale music events and festivals recently held in Jakarta. One thing: if Jakarta can manage to convert the howling din of daily honking from cars, buses, motorcycles and sate sellers into music, it certainly would earn that title.

Maybe Plis Deh Jakarta can start a side business selling musical car horns?

This is definitely one of the best decisions made this year, whether or not it actually gets carried out. So instead of using totally new material for road reparations, the city administration is planning to recycle basic material like asphalt from previously used material.

The amount recycled is not much, but it’s a start. Next step would be figuring out how to use the hundreds of tons of garbage Jakartans throw out each month and use it as cheap building material. I wonder if any of the distinguished universities have made any studies into this…

It’s the economic crisis, and everybody feels the pinch – hence discount events are always packed with people wanting to get branded goods. Yeah, they still want branded goods, just not the ‘branded’ price. A quote from the article:

“Before the crisis, I could change my branded hand bags once every three or four months. It’s been more than six months since the crisis hit and I’m still using my 4-month-old Guess handbag and wallet,”

Oh don’t we feel sorry for her!

The governer, in an applausable move, has rejected the lowering of automotive taxes proposed by the Finance Industry and Jakarta Revenue Agency. Why yes, it will remain a very big burden to motor vehicle owners, but see what happens when the tax is lowered:

• lower taxes means more people will buy cars or motorcycles.
• more cars and motorcycles equals worse traffic jams!
• more traffic jams actually hurt the economy more than it will impact the supposed revenue that comes from the increase of peope buying cars or motorcycles.

Note that the taxes have not been raised either. So Bang Foke has basically stated that “this is my call, not yours” to those agencies, and further pointing out that if we want to have a stimulus package for the industry, it shouldn’t be by cutting revenue here and there – it should be one that actually creates jobs.

Let me take that point a bit further – reviving the economy doesn’t mean selling more cars *winking at Gaikindo*, but it means making sure the people have enough money to spend. And for that to happen, it shouldn’t be just considering one industry out of the thousands available in Jakarta.

Maybe Gaikindo can take a hint from the telco operators, where they are actually decreasing their prices, but making money elsewhere from the same subscribers.