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I recently got an article I wrote published in Columbia University’s Asian Pacific Affairs Council Journal. It’s my first piece of published writing on Asia. You can see the entire journal here.

Construction beckons Indonesia’s modern capital, Jakarta’s, entry as a 21st century economy – the drive from the airport into the central city is dominated by high-rise shopping and office complexes. Indonesia wants to be the second I in “BRIIC,” and is using its natural riches to become one of Asia’s newest engines of growth. It is those very natural resources that are driving economic growth both within Indonesia and in Asia; Indonesian coal powers many of China’s new power plants, and its minerals make possible Asia’s expanding tech sector. Mining alone still accounts for almost 13% of GDP, and many economists believe that a rise in commodity prices is most responsible for Indonesia’s recent growth. With shopping malls and strong consumer spending, Indonesia looks, on the surface, ready to take its place at the global economic table.

It makes sense – strong consumer spending is a sign of a developed economy. In the United States, in one of former President George W. Bush’s first statements after 9/11, he told Americans to “keep shopping,” in order to avoid a potential post-attack recession. Consumer spending forms the vast majority of the US economy. In Indonesia, it now accounts for nearly half, and a far higher portion within cities. The western model of consumer driven economic growth has been exported to Asia, and along with it, the idea that economic growth trumps other determinants of social well-being. This is not just an Indonesian phenomenon. There are now nine shopping malls in East and Southeast Asia larger than the Mall of America in Minnesota, with malls in China and the Philippines leading the way.

Though malls are being built in Indonesia, other infrastructure is not. The World Bank’s logistic performance index ranked Indonesia 75th globally – below Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Benin, all countries with higher per-capita GDP. Jakarta still lacks an effective public transit system, its port is overcrowded and inefficient, and things become worse in outlying islands. The commodity driven boom is driving consumerism, but not infrastructure, education, or health, and this has potentially devastating long-term consequences for the sustainability of Indonesia’s economy.

Raw materials were the driving force behind Dutch colonial exploitation – then, the products in demand were rubber, coffee, indigo, pepper, sugar, and tea, grown on the fertile soil of Java. These riches went to very few, and the country as a whole became poor. After independence in 1945, many thought that the country would quickly grow, and that its resources would provide a strong base for future prosperity.

Some growth did occur, but with it came civil war, population growth, cronyism, and a repressive dictatorship. Educated Indonesians lament that “we were once a colony of the Dutch – now we are a colony of America and Japan.” The Dutch profiteering has been replaced by that of foreign corporations like Freeport McMoran, Chevron, or Japanese Timber conglomerates. Some Indonesians are gaining, but Jakarta’s shopping malls, far away from the open-pit mines of Papua or the deforestation of Kalimantan, are a sign of failed priorities. A resource-driven boom should be, in theory, the most equitable, because a country’s natural wealth is supposed to be for all of its citizens.  Yet the majority of Indonesians, especially outside of Jakarta, remain only marginally better off today than before the resource boom. Indonesia ranks 105th in the United Nations Human Development Index, again far behind several countries with similar per-capita GDP.

There is little green space in Jakarta; instead, air-conditioned taxis whisk people through traffic to the new social spaces in modern Indonesia; giant shopping mall. It is western consumerism taken to its logical conclusion – shopping as the symbol of growth. But Indonesia still has a long way to go to fulfill the promise of its natural wealth to all of its citizens. If consumerism is the sole determinant of economic growth, then Indonesia is more than ready to be a global economic power, but sustainable, long-term equitable growth may be just as much of a dream today as it was after independence. The future of all of East Asia may be foreshadowed in Jakarta – only time will tell what will happen once resources begin to be depleted or global prices fall.

From KLIA LCCT, Malaysia

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This morning, I left Indonesia, and am currently in-transit to Japan.

It’s hard to put into a single post what my experience in Indonesia was. The two months were full of experiences, many personal, that forced me to think about life, love, and many other things. Korea was the beginning of my trip, and was filled with optimism that, it turned out, was misplaced. In Jakarta I had to rebuild internally, before I could enjoy the country for what it was. But one I did, I thrived, and felt that two months was far too short.

When I arrived, I had an incredibly difficult time adjusting. Indonesia felt incredibly foreign, different, and despite all my experiences abroad, I felt completely out of place. In this I learned a valuable life lesson – it’s not your ability to adjust that makes you a traveler, but your courage, and most importantly, patience in the face of difficulty. If there was no challenge in traveling or living abroad, then why would I ever want to leave home?

The warmth and kindness of Indonesians helped, from the great Couchsurfing community, to the staff at Kehati who gave me far more than I gave in return.

I learned an immense amount about development, the environment, and the complex challenges facing biodiverse developing countries. I saw the darker side of consumption and it scared me. A city where green spaces meant little. But I also saw signs of hope, in the fact that even here, there are people who care amidst overwhelming odds – the students of Teens Go Green Jakarta, the staff at Kehati, or the volunteers I met at various environmental events.

Indonesia has given me the confidence and courage to go home, work hard, and return and help make a difference. As I head to Japan to join the US Future Leaders Travel Program, I feel, for the first time, that I can be a future leader.

Will I be back? Definitely.

From my friend Sofia – check out her blog, Flex Your Voice – she posts some great images and inspiring quotes.

I post this from a heavily meat eating country, Indonesia. Vegetables don’t grow too well in tropical regions (fruit does, though) and the diet here reflects that. It also reflects the prevalent lactose intolerance in Asians with its lack of dairy products.

It’s not a huge surprise, but even at an environmental organization, there are no vegetarians. Even at environmental events, there is often no vegetarian choices. This would never happen in San Francisco.

Of course, as you all know, I’m not a vegetarian. But my diet has, naturally, gone more and more veg as I’ve gotten more and more into cooking. Indian food also has a natural vegetarian tilt – every dish can easily be made without meat. The same definitely cannot be said about Indonesian food.

And as an environmentalist, the facts are fairly clear. Meat is much worse for the environment than vegetables. Becoming a vegetarian is better, in terms of CO2 emissions reduced, than buying a hybrid car. Add in the effects of mass domestic animal farming (disease, pollution, waste, etc) versus clean, organic farming.

But facts aren’t enough to make me switch – but lately, I’m feeling a call from deeper inside. I enjoy vegetables more – I feel better when I eat them. If I truly want to be the best person possible, then meat just isn’t part of my future. My cooking skills are finally good enough that I can survive a veg-free diet.

So, I’ve pretty much decided, upon leaving Indonesia (no kitchen to placate my cooking desires here) to begin the process towards becoming a vegetarian. One caveat, is that I do plan to keep dairy in my diet. My love for cheese and ice cream is just too strong, but even that I will try to moderate. First to go – red meats such as lamb and beef.

Can I do it? I think so. Because I feel it deep inside. It feels like the right thing to do.

One of the best things about working at Kehati is being able to visit different sites and attend environmental events. In the past few weeks, I’ve attended the launching of the 5th edition of Jakarta Green Map (Peta Hijau), a Green Festival in a Betawi (native Jakartan) neighborhood, an event on the endangered Java Gibbon, and the grand opening of a new eco-theme park.

Recently, my coworkers took me to see two of Jakarta few wild areas, not far the airport. In a city with little green space, and almost no public parks, you would expect places like this to be crucial escapes for people here. Like Central Park in NY, overcrowded by people seeking some semblance of nature to balance out urban city life.

Spot #1 – Jakarta’s only protected seashore. Tucked away near one of Jakarta fanciest neighborhoods, full of mostly Chinese-Indonesians. It was eerily like the national museum I visited last month, except worse. The gate was locked, and we had to wait to enter. But once I got in, it was…lovely.

See the homes in the distant? The slums. In Jakarta, they are, well, where no one can see them. Next to nature.

But, a little further down, I saw signs of other visitors.

Come on, Jakartans. Seriously.

The second stop was a Kehati site, the ONLY mangrove site in flood-prone Jakarta. Well maintained, it was lovely.

Again, no one here except a couple getting wedding photos. Apparently, that’s the only time that Jakartans go into nature, for wedding photos. Sadly,being on the path to the airport, this land is due to be destroyed for a monorail line. Jakarta, which desperately needs mangroves to stop the cataclismic floods that seem to hit every few years, worse each time, is destroying one of its few lifelines.

Such is development, no?

More photos of Green Jakarta below!

Returning back to school, and coming to Jakarta, has really forced me to think deeply about consumerism. Jakarta is a city of shopping malls – over 140, probably more than any city in America (unless you include strip malls). New York City, my home in the states, is the capital of finance, the machines that drive the modern capitalist economy.

New York City and Jakarta often feel like two sides of the same coin – the modern, developed consumer and the developing consumer, but both want the same things. In neither city do I feel like I fit in.

Can we really buy our way to happiness? After several years of traveling, of having new experiences, I’ve really begun to see how little I need to survive, material wise, but how I can feel really empty unless I have good people around me. We’ve really changed how we perceive ourselves and the world. Even our hobbies are commodified, our interests categorized, and our lives ordered to fit the consumerist path.

But it’s all unsustainable. We’re losing not only our moral backings, but our diversity of cultures, personal relationships, families, and, what I think is the biggest thing missing in modern society. Our connection to Earth – our connection to nature, to all the living things in the world. Jakarta and New York City are both modern cities, sterile in their own way, where we life in communities constructed around time, consumption.

Cities where we can’t even see the stars anymore.

I think we as a society need to regain this connection to mother Earth, and to each other, on a natural human level. We need to reassess how we live. There is nothing natural about nation-states, about cities, about consumerism. And therein lies the problem.

This is what I’m trying to stop…

This Ted Talk motivated me this morning, reminded me that it’s not all about GDP, and also, gave some good reason to explore Costa Rica.

I’m a news buff, and probably spend about 1-3 hours of the day reading news. From blogs, mainstream, international, sometimes even foreign language (not nearly often enough), I read news.

So starting today, I’m going to share some of the best articles I run across. Credit given where applicable.

Dockets Life of Lessons – Great article about one of the participants in last week’s Super Bowl and the challenges that he’s overcome in his life.

Carl Pope (my boss) is planning to step down as Executive Director – good story about the guy who made the organization I work for.

White House Unbuttons Dress Code – Funny, I though Bush was a “people’s man,” but his White House was positively Yale aristocracratic style. Nice to see Obama doing things more midwestern.