Street Jockeys - How to beat the traffic

Though many people consider Jakarta’s traffic a necessary evil, people like Martini look forward to their daily commute. For the past 13 years, Martini has made a living helping drivers meet the city’s ‘three-in-one’ rule that requires private vehicles to have at least three people to access some major roads during rush hour.

As a joki, or jockey, every morning and afternoon Martini heads to the Plaza Semanggi area and helps office workers to work or home by hopping a ride with them. The job is illegal and Martini has been arrested twice, but she insists the three-in-one jockeys are providing a valuable service, not disturbing public order. In any case, the former maid has no intention 
of leaving her post, unless it’s to hasten someone’s commute while making some small talk along the way.

How much do you get paid for being a three-in-one jockey?

I get Rp 10,000 [$1.10] to ride from Plaza Semanggi to Ratu Plaza and Rp 20,000 if the driver wants me to stay until Blok M. Sometimes I also go back from Blok M to Monas [the National Monument] for another Rp 20,000. You actually get paid for having a free ride around Jakarta.

How many rides do you take in a day and how much do you earn?

I arrive early at my station around the Semanggi area on Jalan Prof. Dr. Satrio, or as people call it, Casablanca. In the early three-in-one round, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., I can get two cars at most. Later, during my afternoon round from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., I can get up to four drivers in need of my service. So on average I usually make Rp 40,000 to Rp 80,000 a day. Definitely not a bad way to earn extra cash for my family.

Is this the only job you have?

Yes. I need the extra money for my family. I have three children and my previous job as a maid wasn’t able to put enough food on the table. So when my younger sister asked me to join her out here doing this in 1999, me and my husband definitely jumped at the opportunity with no hesitation.

You know that working as a three-in-one jockey is illegal, right? Have you been arrested?

Sure, I got arrested twice last year by public order officers. They said I was violating local laws and was therefore disturbing public order. They made a record of my identity and took me to a shelter and locked me in there for the whole day.

I felt lucky because I heard another jockey got locked up there for a week, maybe because he had been arrested a number of times before.

On one memorable occasion, a traffic police officer stopped the car I was in. The officer asked the driver to open the side window and told me to get out. He threatened to turn me over to the public order officers if I didn’t admit that I was a jockey. I was afraid so I admitted it and the officer let me go while the driver got a ticket.

Knowing the consequences, why you still do it?

I know that my job is illegal, but I have never understood why the government thinks that we disturb public order. Drivers need us to use the major streets after work. Without us, lots of drivers would have to take long detours to get home, and that’s before even mentioning the traffic. Besides, the money I get from being a jockey helps my family survive in Jakarta, and is better than the other jobs that people like me usually do. We never chose to be poor, and the government hasn’t done anything to help us survive or make our lives better. So we take any opportunity that presents itself.

It seems like you have met lots of different kinds of people in your line of work. Have you ever met any ‘naughty’ drivers?

I haven’t met anyone who’s done anything indecent. Most of them are office workers who drive alone. Many of them like to make small talk with me. They ask me where I live and how many kids I have. One or two have even shared with me problems they are having with their work or family. But there are times when it’s just quiet in the car.

Do you ever get a good tip for just being nice to a driver?

Some nice drivers have paid me more than the usual rate. Others sometimes pay more because they’ve just gotten a big bonus or promotion at work.

Martini was talking to Carlos Situmeang.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/myjakarta/my-jakarta-martini-three-in-one-jockey/491081

Two Dead After Plane Hits Motorcycle

Read this in the news this morning....

Two Dead After Plane Hits Motorcycle

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation launched an investigation on Monday after a training aircraft landing at the Curug Airport in Tangerang hit a motorcycle and killed its two passengers who may have been using the runway as a short-cut.

The two occupants of the Socata TB-10 Tobago training aircraft were injured and have been rushed to Siloam Hospital in Karawaci for treatment.

Darwis Amini, chairman of the Indonesian Aviation Institute (STPI) in Curug, said that the single-engine plane was landing when the motorcycle drove across the runway.

“It is illegal for motorcycles to enter the runway,” he said.

The driver and his passenger were killed instantly, he said.

Ministry of Transportation spokesman Bambang Ervan said that bikers often used the runway as a shortcut, even though it was illegal to do so.

“There are wire fences and gutters installed around the airport,” Bambang said, “but people still manage to find ways to break in.”
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/two-dead-after-plane-hits-motorcycle/370254



Of course they were and of course they did ! Bike riders hear are the pits!

topeng monyet or performing street monkeys

I saw this article in the Jakarta post today, made me sad. But that's life.


Much-abused macaques may soon face extinction

Anissa S. Febrina , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 04/21/2009 2:26 PM | Lifestyle

They entertain children, feed those with unusual appetites and sacrifice their freedom for the sake of science.

Humans are indebted to the long-tailed macaques, possibly familiar to locals as street entertainment topeng monyet, who are now endangered due to unmonitored exploitation.

A recent investigation by UK-based pro-animal group, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), has raised concerns of the exploitation of Macaca fascicularis, as exports of the animal have not been in line with international trade regulations.

The BUAV report stated while the long-tailed macaques were not necessarily threatened with extinction, they could soon be at risk unless their export was more strictly regulated.

The trade of the animal is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which Indonesia ratified in 1978.

CITES bans the international trade of wild-caught macaques and only allows those that have been captive-bred to be sold.

BUAV accused Indonesia of exporting wild-caught macaques under the guise of captive breeding.

The export of macaques is lucrative and the country has exported a total of 24,811 macaques worldwide between 1997 and 2006.

Indonesia is the United States' third largest supplier, after the Philippines and Mauritius.

Most animals end up in laboratories, as they are among the five species of Macaca suitable for biomedical research test subjects.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 long-tailed macaques are exported from Indonesia every year. According to data obtained from CITES, 6,078 long-tailed macaques were exported in 2005 and 2006 alone.

The country exported 4,007 captive-bred long-tailed macaques last year, data from the Forestry Ministry's directorate of biodiversity conservation revealed.

But are the so-called captive-bred macaques actually bred?

Captive breeding in Indonesia can involve setting free wild-caught long-tailed macaques on remote islands. One of the most famous is Tinjil Island in Banten, where the captive breeding of long-tailed macaques started in 1988, with 520 animals brought to the island from the wild. BUAV argued such breeding could not be categorized as captive breeding as the monkeys roam free and are intertwined in a living ecosystem.

The Forestry Ministry's director general for forest protection and nature conservation, Darori said it was debatable whether captive breeding systems, such as that on Tinjil Island, violated CITES regulations.

Setting debates aside, the increasing quota for captured monkeys is also concerning environmentalists.

NGO ProFauna reported the number of captured long-tailed macaques had continuously increased from 2,000 in 2006 to 4,100 in 2007 and 5,100 in 2008.

According to the Schmutzer Primate Center, there was no valid data on the current population of long-tailed macaques.

Meanwhile, the BUAV investigation revealed population surveys of the monkeys by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) were conducted by third parties and based on invalid extrapolation methods. The quota for captured monkeys is based on these population surveys.

Such continuously increasing quotas also raised concerns of captive breeding centers becoming a pool for wild-caught macaques later on sold as bred ones.

"Captive breeding centers in Indonesia have always been a failure as they always need a new supply of wild-caught macaques," ProFauna activist Asep R. Purnama said.

In 2008 alone, the Forestry Ministry allocated 2,000 wild-caught macaques to captive breeding centers. The monkeys were caught in North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bali and Central Kalimantan.

Without detailed and accurate measures of macaques' population and a strict monitoring on captive breeding centers, Indonesia could risk completely eradicating the species, Asep added.

For pro-animal activists, it was not only the numbers that mattered, but also how the animals would be treated once their fate as an internationally traded species was decided.

Macaques are subjected to mental and physical abuse, particularly during capture and during transportation between breeding centers.

Hunters usually capture infant macaques after chasing away their mothers with rifle shots.

Arriving safe and uninjured in the breeding centers does not guarantee a comfortable life for the macaques. They are often cramped in cages to be later on transported in small wooden crates. If they are meant for export, they will be kept in the cages for a long time.

For those destined to be test subjects in research laboratories, the suffering continues as medicines are tested on them. Sometimes the primates are intentionally hurt during behavioral observations.

As they are the closest known primates to humans, they are used extensively in medical experiments, particularly those connected with neuroscience.

Since the human race is obviously able to benefit from nature, we should bear in mind that making the most of nature should not involve exploiting it.