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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Chris Michael, Nick Van Mead, Gadi Makitan, Francesca Perry and Mike Herd

Guardian Jakarta week live – one day in the life of a megalopolis

Even Jakarta’s street food sellers need to rest sometimes.
Even Jakarta’s street food sellers need to rest sometimes. Photograph: jonartho/GuardianWitness

Over and out

That’s it from us for today – we’ve enjoyed hearing all your wise and hilarious suggestions (yes, I’ll definitely try eating the artificial foam food, what a good idea), and hope you enjoy the rest of the content we’ve got planned for this week ... which starts tomorrow with Philip Sherwell’s expose, months in the making, on what must be the most ambitious project on earth to stop a city from literally sinking into the ocean: the Great Sea Wall...

In the meantime, notwithstanding some brilliant and edifying updates from around the city from our correspondents David Munk, Kate Lamb and Jamie Wilson, I leave the last word to south-east Asia correspondent Oliver Holmes, who just wins on style. That’s it from the Guardian Cities team, see you tomorrow.

Jakarta at 30 Million live event: "If Indonesia is dysfunctional, Jakarta is the neglected stepchild who learns to do everything herself"

Tonight’s sold-out event at the Goethe-Institut, brilliantly hosted by Marco Kusumawijaya, was a roaring success, one that felt at times more like a TV comedy variety show – due in no small part to David Nurbianto, the 26-year-old comedian who was a fountain of wit and wisdom.

As David said, Jakarta is suffering from an identity crisis, its Betawi roots lost – “Even on the rare occasion that we have a smart Betawi like JJ Rizal [the historian and fellow guest], we stereotype him as being less good” – and he urged Jakartans to learn about their history and beware their civic duty. “People come to Jakarta only to earn money, but I hope they don’t just exploit the city and then leave because they can afford to live somewhere else nice. What about us, who have an emotional connection to Jakarta? Where can we go if they ruin it for us?”

Gugun Muhammad, meanwhile, whose kampung cleanup project David Munk wrote about earlier in this blog, brought down the house with his rousing calls for the poor to rise up.

“Jakarta now is like Seoul in the 1970s,” he said, citing the Cheonggyecheon river revitalisation that has transformed it into a thriving destination. “Here, people get sick and die alone in apartments because everyone’s cut off from community. The only way to improve the city is for people to get together, to organise, to form urban villages. Who cares about the city – the people or the government?”

Evi Mariani, the Jakarta Post city editor whose assistance to Guardian Cities has proven absolutely invaluable so far this week, put the boot into Jakartans’ shallow imagination.

“Why do we always look to Singapore as the model? Why is that our dream, the only way we think a good city can look?” She explained she was worried about a life for her 3-year-old son, Kun-Kun. “I want to send him to a secular school, but the only ones are private and too expensive – and so I worry he won’t have the diverse background I want for him. I can’t imagine the future: it makes me depressed.”

Kartika Jahja, musician and cafe owner (who Mike Herd interviewed earlier in this blog) agreed. “If Indonesia is a dysfunctional family, then Jakarta is the neglected stepchild. We’ll never get any help from above – so we’ve had to get used to doing everything ourselves. When there’s an accident, do we call the cops? No. When there’s a theft, we hit the perpetrator ourselves. Because government is dysfunctional, Jakartans have had to develop a DIY culture.”

Amid all the clear-eyed (if slightly grim) reality, environmental scientist Alan Koropitan added a rare positive note, pointing out that Vietnamese cities’ efforts to turn their waterfronts into tourist attractions and economic drivers could be replicated in Jakarta ... if only the authorities don’t screw up the Great Seawall project. (More on that tomorrow.)

And Ign Susiadi Wibowo, whose vision of a “zero waste” Jakarta seems a long way off, pointed out at that these things often do. “We just start with ourselves: could you live without a bin for two weeks? What would you do differently?”

To a final question from the audience asking what kind of leader Jakarta needed, Marco concluded the panel by bringing down the house:

“Haven’t you been listening? Everything we’ve said here today has answered that question – Jakarta doesn’t need any leader at all!”

Updated

And relax...

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed today and please keep sharing photos and stories with us throughout the week – here’s how.

To ease you in to the Jakartan night-time, here’s a break from all the chaos: sunset pictures shared by our community on the Guardian Jakarta live Whatsapp list ... and tips on staying sane in the city’s non-stop traffic jams, or avoiding them altogether, from our Twitter followers. Bye from me!

A sunset in Kampung Bandan in northern Jakarta.
A sunset in Kampung Bandan in northern Jakarta. Photograph: Aditya via Whatsapp
Thamrin road in central Jakarta.
Thamrin road in central Jakarta. Photograph: Dwiyanto via Whatsapp
sunset jakarta
‘Like a spaceship hovering over the city.’ Photograph: Triyanto via Whatsapp

Updated

Sport gets the army treatment

In May, Indonesian football finally had its ban lifted by world governing body Fifa (itself no stranger to controversy), after the national government agreed to stop interfering too much in the game’s affairs. Or something like that.

Indonesia triumps in yesterday’s China Open men’s doubles final.
Indonesia triumps in yesterday’s China Open men’s doubles final. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

Then, earlier this month, the Football Association of Indonesia (known by its initials PSSI), elected a new president in Jakarta: Edy Rahmayadi, an army lieutenant general who is currently chief of the Army Strategic Reserve Command.

Meanwhile, in the world of badminton – which rivals football in the popularity stakes here – the Indonesian Badminton Federation only recently named its new leader: Wiranto, a retired army general who is thought to have his eye on the nation’s presidency.

Coincidence? Well, the appointments certainly reminds one of sport in the Suharto era, when soldiers often ran such organisations. However, after lengthy allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the PSSI, these elections are being interpreted simply as a vote for stability and trust ... something Fifa itself could do with in spades. Gadi Makitan and Mike Herd

Updated

Fishermen need friends

I visited the port at the northern-most tip of the city this afternoon. The fishermen here, about 15 per boat, say they go out for two to three months and then spend a couple days onshore to offload fish and make repairs.

A big issue for the smaller-scale fishermen is a reclamation project that is currently on hold but with plans to develop 17 Dubai-style islands, with luxury developments on top.

Tahir, a 62-year-old former fisherman who now owns a restaurant, says several fishing neighbourhoods near the port have already been destroyed to make way for a park.


He’s concerned about other fishing communities affected by the reclamation. Some living on islands will be moved off and the works could lessen the daily catch, he says.

“But the government can push it through. Who can beat the government?”

Updated

The future of Jakarta

Some highlights from tonight’s Jakarta at 30 Million debate …

Jakarta’s hooliganism problem

Our collaboration with Tempo has also borne fruit in the shape of a fascinating investigation by their reporter, Larissa Huda, into the ongoing issue of football hooliganism in Jakarta.

Larissa’s report reveals the stories behind a number of chilling incidents between ‘Jakmania’ – as supporters of the capital’s leading football club, Persija, are known – and other fans, as well as the police. Since the Indonesian Football League started in 1993-1994, at least 54 football-related deaths were found to have occurred.

Jakmania fans protest following violent clashes with the police.
Jakmania fans protest following violent clashes with the police. Photograph: M Iqbal Ichsan/Tempo

Larissa also visits one of Jakmania’s strongholds – the district of Manggarai, also known as ‘Jakarta’s ghetto’ – to try to better understand the deep-rooted social factors that can trigger hooliganism, and asks what, if anything, can be done to eradicate this vicious, sometimes deadly violence from the game.

Updated

Share your favourite view of Jakarta

Jakarta is quite a flat city: there aren’t steep streets or hillside neighbourhoods. So where do you go to get a great view over the city? Share your photos of your favourite views in Jakarta and where you can see them from. You can share pictures on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #GuardianJakarta or Whatsapp us on +447881337758.
Jakarta adalah kota yang rata: tidak ada jalan yang curam atau lingkungan yang berbukit. Jadi di mana kamu pergi untuk mendapatkan pemandangan kota ini? Bagi foto-foto pemandangan Jakarta favoritmu dan di mana kamu bisa melihatnya. Kamu bisa bagi lewat Twitter dan Instagram dengan tagar #GuardianJakarta atau Whatsapp kami di +447881337758.

Magic moments

I just finished a meeting with M’bah P’ea Ki Nogo Koro, a self proclaimed dukun, or witchdoctor. Each week, he says, he receives dozens of customers seeking help with their love life, or remedies for problems with their health or career.

The 33-year-old cleanses people’s auras and gives them medicines to take. He has practised white magic for 18 years and gets custom through word of mouth.

I met M’bah P’ea to ask him about the government’s plans to introduce more stringent penalties for the use of black magic, which is used for malignant purposes.

“With ilmu [magic] there is the black and the white kind and I only use white,” he says.

Don’t rain on my parade …

Jakartans and Indonesians can be superstitious. That’s where dukun, or witchdoctors, mystics and paranormals come in. Advertising their services in the local papers across Jakarta, local paranormals say they can ward off black magic, heal lunacy, cleanse your aura, or that of your home or office. Oh, and for important events, a wedding or film shoot for example, people also hire pawan hujan, or rainstoppers, to make sure it doesn’t rain on your event …

Spiritual consultant and paranormal M’Bah Pe’a Ki Nogo-Rogo
Spiritual consultant and paranormal M’Bah Pe’a Ki Nogo-Rogo. Photograph: Dukun Pelet

Although there are more Muslims in Indonesia than any other country in the world – there are six official religions – many pre-Islamic, animist beliefs and superstitions coexist with modern life and religion.

And that includes the elite too. Former president Suharto, who led the country for more than three decades until 1998, was himself a committed mystic, known to regularly visit sacred caves and tombs believed to hold special powers.

Black magic of ilmu hitam is already illegal in Indonesia, but the Indonesian parliament plans to bring in harsher penalties, including for people who merely declare or promise they have black magic skills that can cause sickness, death, or physical and mental illness. The amended law would make such a crime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

Updated

Two feet/wheels good

The every-form-of-transport-in-one-afternoon mission draws to a close …

Get snapping!

For our week of reporting from Jakarta, we’ve asked a team of great Instagrammers (including @sam_otitt, @indostreets, @liewielliam and @aditpk) to take photos all around the city and tag them with #GuardianJakarta. Tag your own photos of the Indonesian capital this week and a selection will be featured in a gallery on Guardian Cities.

We also have the brilliant @ijoeel taking over our Instagram account to give his own unique view of the city. Follow the action @guardiancities!

The Jakarta conundrum

Leading urbanist Marco Kusumawijaya of the city’s Rujak Centre explains the key struggle for Jakartans: how to imagine the future of their city.

Unlike other megalopolises across the world, and in sharp contrast to the trend of global urbanisation, more people are actually leaving Jakarta than arriving. The city’s net migration rate has been negative since at least 1990.

Imagining a future for this chaotic metropolis is very difficult for most people who live and work here. If they imagine anything, it’s to detach their own future from the city.

Read his piece here – and tune in at 7pm for a livestream of the Guardian Cities and Rujak Centre live panel discussion: Jakarta at 30 Million

Tidak seperti megalopolitan di berbagai belahan dunia, dan berbeda dari tren urbanisasi global, lebih banyak orang meninggalkan Jakarta ketimbang pindah ke kota ini. Angka bersih migrasi ke Jakarta menunjukkan nilai negatif sejak 1990.

Amat sulit bagi mereka yang tinggal dan bekerja di Jakarta untuk membayangkan masa depan metropolitan yang semrawut ini. Jika mereka merenungkan masa depan, yang kerap terpikir adalah meninggalkan kota ini.

Updated

Tempo + Guardian Cities

As part of Guardian Jakarta Week, we have joined forces with Tempo, Indonesia’s leading source for investigative journalism, on several special reports, as well as a live event this Wednesday entitled Indonesia and the Media.

The newspaper was banned under Suharto and firebombed after a police corruption story in 2010. I asked Wahyu Dyatmika, Tempo news editor and Indonesia lead on the Panama Papers tax haven expose, why he thinks their mission is of increasing importance in 2016.

Tempo has been and will always be about independent reporting and quality journalism. These are the qualities that we – as Jakartans and Indonesians – desperately need more and more in the media now, especially when we see there is no sign of abating corruption while sectarianism and intolerance are on the rise.

What does Tempo see as their role in Jakarta’s media landscape?

We want to remain the voice of reason in this city. That is why we are joyful to be invited to collaborate with the Guardian, and to discuss Indonesia and the international media [at the event on Wednesday 23 November]. Hopefully the forum will shed some lights on some of the concern people have about Indonesia’s image abroad, and how journalists can do a better job in reporting the facts.

Stay tuned throughout the week for more on the collaboration.

Updated

Snakes in the water

I’ve met up with the men who clean Jakarta’s rivers, balancing on foam rafts and scooping up the rubbish with a giant stick that also works as an oar.

Sariyono, 56, has been doing this job for two years. He was on his break when I arrived (his buddy was down in the water wearing a orange life jacket) so I got to ask about his time on the green-coloured river.

“One part of it is cleaning up the rubbish,” he said. “But it’s important that we make sure the canals don’t get blocked, because that’s when the floods happen.”
He said he doesn’t depend on his job, although the local government provides a salary, medical care and a pension. His kids are already grown up and independent.

“I like the idea of cleaning up the city,” he said, adding that he heard Kuala Lumpur and Singapore have harsher laws for littering. “I wish they’d implement them in Jakarta.”
Worst thing he’s ever seen in the water? “Snakes. And monitor lizards.”

The longest lunch

Updated

We’re going on a rat hunt …

Jakarta’s deputy governor has come up with a programme to control the city’s expanding rat population – a cash bounty of 20,000 rupiahs for each live rat handed in. That’s about $1.50, which is generous in a country where many live on $2 a day.

Djarot is trying to organise private funding for the scheme long term, but a series of pilots are under way and I went along to one in Cakung, in the east of the city.

People turn up at the Cakung administrative office with live rats.
People turn up at the Cakung administrative office with live rats. Photograph: Berty Octavia

A curious crowd gathered as cleaning workers from surrounding areas turned up with 650 rats in an assortment of old birdcages and other containers. Workers in protective clothing tipped them into steel drums and they were gassed.

Screams went up whenever a rat made a bid for freedom. Some made it back to the sewer …

A rat eradication pilot programme in Cakung district, East Jakarta
A rat eradication pilot programme in Cakung district, East Jakarta Photograph: Berty Octavia

Here’s the full story …

Updated

Traffic truths

This week we’re asking you what the best and worst things abut life in Jakarta are, and what you would change to improve the city. Already over 130 people have contributed – thank you! – and if you want to add your voice, you can by contributing here.

It’s interesting to see the same things emerging again and again in the feedback. What’s good about the city? The hustle and bustle, the fact you can get anything at any time. The downsides? Traffic, traffic, traffic – which is unsurprising considering Jakarta has been named the most gridlocked city on the planet. Here’s the local view...

The worst city traffic in the world? Rainy rush hour in Jakarta.
The worst city traffic in the world? Rainy rush hour in Jakarta. Photograph: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images

“The traffic is just so so so so bad. People tell me ‘Bangkok’s traffic is crazy’, ‘Manila’s traffic is terrible’, ‘You don’t even want to know about Beijing’s traffic’, and all I can say is ‘Have you been to Jakarta? Then you still don’t know what traffic is.’

I love Jakarta. I always do. Even with the crazy traffic. The most amazing feeling is to drive around Central Jakarta at 3am, when the road is clear and the tall buildings are around you. The city lights, the night sky, everything feels so right. In those moments you’ll forget all the craziness from the day, and you’ll love Jakarta again.” (Jeehan R Fadila, resident for 23 years)

“The worst thing about Jakarta is it’s hard to build a social life because it is hard to meet due to traffic!” (Anonymous resident)

“My childhood memories of this place – the pleasant mornings with dragonflies and views of a mountain, ice cream vendors strolling through neighbourhoods on late afternoons – have all been replaced by the current reality: a maddening amount of dead time spent inside our cars. It is getting harder to reconcile the fact that this place is my home.” (Farid Hamka, resident for 18 years)

“Sometimes I fantasise that the streets are lonely, and cars don’t exist. I know Jakarta will be Jakarta, it will never be like London or New York, but enough with cars!” (Alwinsyah, resident for 21 years)

Earlier this morning we asked for your tips on how to survive the endless Jakartan traffic jams. Share your suggestions in the comments below or on Twitter using #GuardianJakarta

In search of Obama

The every-form-of-transport-in-one-afternoon mission continues...

(The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, lived in Jakarta from 1967-71.)

An oasis the city wants to destroy

Peaceful, shady, green spaces are an all-too precious commodity in Jakarta. So the haven of eco-friendliness that residents of Tongkol and its neighbouring kampungs have created along their riverbanks would, you might imagine, be held up as a rare example of good urban practice in this rubbish-clogged, highly polluted city.

You’d be wrong.

More than 250 families – some of whom have lived here more than 40 years – are being threatened with eviction from these riverbanks. The city’s administrators claim they require a swathe of land each side of the river for an inspection road, to monitor the floods that frequently stop Jakarta in its tracks.

Instead of waiting for demolition, however, the kampungs’ residents took matters into their own hands.

Threatened with eviction, the residents of kampung Tongkol revitalised their own homes.
Threatened with eviction, the residents of kampung Tongkol revitalised their own homes. Photograph: Francesca Perry

They took the remarkable step of demolishing parts of their own houses, using sledgehammers to knock off the front of their homes in order to move them back five metres from the waterway. In some cases that halved their floor space.

They also set about a wholescale clean-up of their environment. They built rafts to collect rubbish from the river (in part to counter unfair accusations that they were wholly responsible for its polluted state). They planted trees on its banks, set up a community-wide recycling and composting system, and encouraged self-sufficiency with vegetable gardens.

Green and precious space: the Tongkol kampung in northern Jakarta.
Green and precious space ... the Tongkol kampung in north Jakarta. Photograph: Francesca Perry

Gugun Muhammad, a resident and community organiser who also works for the Urban Poor Consortium, admits that while this transformation has benefitted the quality of life here no end, the project is also an advertisement – a demonstration to the city’s leaders of what can be achieved by some of their poorest communities, and why they should be allowed to remain, rather than forced out to faraway, soulless suburbs.

The question is, will Jakarta authorities take any notice? After a delightful afternoon spent with Gugun and his fellow residents, we certainly hope so. If you can, go see for yourself.

Updated

Jamie’s Indonesian: the street food sleuth

They say to get to know a city you really need to get to know its food – and in Jakarta that means heading to the street. Here’s some of what I’ve found so far.

Chinatown, Jakarta-style

Mr Udin, 52, owns a Chinese medicine shop in Glodok. It has been boiling up roots, flowers and herbs for 25 years.

When we arrived, he was making a mix that helps men with prostrate problems, using a handheld scales to measure it all out.

He told me his customers come in for high blood pressure, flu and diabetes. While we were talking, a man walked in to ask for something for his daughter’s recent cesarean.

Behind him is a wall of wooden and plastic containers. I can see bamboo shavings, cinnamon, mushroom and “unripe bitter orange”.

Mr Udin’s boss is giving me a dirty look after I asked to take a photo of the handwritten recipe book. Family secret.

Updated

Humans of the Kampung

Today I’m meeting people in Jakarta’s tight-knit neighbourhoods, known as kampungs, starting with the one I used to live in.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad City

My mission to take every form of transport Jakarta has to offer continues...

Meet singer-activist Kartika Jahja

We’re in Jakarta this week to listen and learn – not least tonight, at the first of our live events, entitled “Jakarta at 30 million: where does the city go next?”

Held in conjunction with the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, the event (now fully booked) starts at 7pm local time at the Goethe-Institut in central Jakarta; follow it on Twitter using our hashtag #Guardian Jakarta, and we’ll be livestreaming it as well. Watch this space.

Among the panel of Jakarta luminaries discussing the future of the city will be Kartika Jahja – singer, songwriter, columnist, actress, activist and even cafe owner …

The name of her band, Tika and the Dissidents, gives a clue to Kartika’s commitment to challenging the status quo – not least regarding gender equality in Indonesia and beyond.

So how is life changing for women who live and work in Jakarta?

It’s an interesting time to be an Indonesian woman – particularly in Jakarta, where women have more freedom to access education, information and technology. On the one hand, we are more aware than ever of our potentials and our rights as women. On the other, we are still chained to a lot of traditional or religious norms that are holding us back.”

Do you feel women have enough of a say in how the city is run?

No, I don’t. Like almost everything else in the world, the people who run the show are men. Which means plans and policies only consider the male perspective, without attending to women’s needs.”

‘I’m still here’ ... Kartika Jahja
‘I’m still here’ ... Kartika Jahja

What do you love most about this city?

It takes a special set of eyes to see the beauty of Jakarta. But once you see it, you’ll fall in love. Jakarta people have a sense of resilience and spirit I don’t find anywhere else. Almost everything you see in the city is expensive and less-than-decent – from public facilities to law enforcement to education – yet we celebrate life in our own Jakarta way every day. I don’t know how we do it.”

Are you feeling optimistic about the city’s future?

I’m not. But I’m still here.”

The Great Correspondents’ Race continues

Our team of intrepid reporters is currently getting soaked, live, from around the city. Tell them what to do and where to go in the comments below or on Twitter using #GuardianJakarta

David Munk tries every form of transport...

Jamie Wilson hunts the best street food...

Kate Lamb on the humans of the kampung...

Oliver Holmes in Jakarta’s Chinese north...

Updated

In today’s papers

A country that revels in free speech, Indonesia has almost a dozen daily newspapers.
A country that revels in free speech, Indonesia has almost a dozen daily newspapers. Photograph: Chris Michael for the Guardian

Indonesia is a country that revels in free speech, and across Jakarta there are roughly a dozen daily national newspapers vying for your rupiah.

Guardian Cities is partnering on several special reports with Tempo, the country’s most esteemed and independent investigative journalism outlet.

Here’s Tempo reporter Gadi Makitan with a roundup of what’s happening in today’s papers...

Republika leads with a grim story of violence against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine, Myanmar. Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s minister of foreign affairs, has said that the Indonesian Embassy at Yangon is keeping a close eye on developments: Indonesia is the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation and takes a keen interest on how Muslims in the region are treated. The Jakarta Post, meanwhile, has a feature on the Indonesian government’s efforts to team up with the World Bank to attract foreign investors for its toll roads.

Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir celebrate their badminton victory in the China Open on 20 November 2016.
Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir celebrate their badminton victory in the China Open on 20 November 2016. Photograph: Nafielah M/PP PBSI

Good news, meanwhile, for Indonesian sports fans. Kompas Newspaper has splashed a photo of the Indonesian badminton men’s double players Marcus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya, celebrating their victory in the China Open Super Series Premier yesterday. Indonesians love badminton, and the pair’s victory has sparked hope for a new star in men’s doubles after the country’s hero, Hendra Setiawan, quit the national team. Along with Fernaldi and Sanjaya, Olympic mixed double gold medalists Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir also won big. Gadi Makitan

For more on Indonesia’s role on the global stage, Elisabeth Pisani – author of the well-received Indonesia, Etc – has weighed in on the sleeping giant that is the world’s fourth-largest country:

Updated

Out of breath in Jakarta

The never-ending flood of motorbikes, cars and minibuses belching black smoke mean Jakarta city centre is not renowned for its clean air, nor as a prime running location.

That didn’t stop hundreds joining the Jakarta Ultra 100K, though, a night-time run along busy highways last Saturday night. The course follows four 25K loops to the east, south, west and north of the city so runners could choose a 4x25K relay, 2x50K or the full 100K. The end of each section brought us back to one of the city’s ubiquitous shopping malls, where running clubs gave enthusiastic support.

Vehicle emissions account for 70% of Jakarta’s air pollution and – although it doesn’t reach the levels experienced in Beijing or Delhi – it doesn’t feel too healthy running through an underpass beside a battered Kopaja minibus with a poorly maintained diesel engine. The high humidity and the temperature, which can’t have dropped much below 30C all night, didn’t help.

Even if a road in Jakarta does have is a pavement it’s likely to be blocked by parked cars and street-food stalls, or feature a gaping hole to the sewer below, so everybody ran on the road. If you left more than a couple of feet between you and the kerb a motorbike would soon squeeze past.

As the sun came up I found myself running along Sudirman avenue towards the finish with thousands of cyclists, walkers, skateboarders and runners enjoying the city’s weekly car-free morning. Fourteen hours on inner-city tarmac may not be everyone’s idea of fun but the Jakarta Ultra 100 was a friendly, positive event – and an unusual introduction to a new city.

Welcome to Twitter City: is there no limit to Jakarta's social media obsession?

What do you do when your president gives an important press conference wearing a fly bomber?

If you’re Jakartan, you start a hashtag, of course ... and within days the bomber sells out at Zara.

But it’s not just silly fashion memes. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, and you might expect a worried or even terrified reaction to the election in the US of a man who has threatened to create a Muslim registry.

Instead, Kate Lamb found a country that is quick to turn to viral humour when things go wrong. From Trump memes to Isis jokes, check out the very best of Jakarta’s unique obsession with social media in her special report:

Updated

The Great Correspondents' Race

Throughout the day, our correspondents are reporting from around the city. Tell them what to do! Either in the comments below or via #guardianjakarta

David Munk’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad City

So, I’m going to be whizzing – if that is the right word – around Jakarta using as many different transport forms I can find. Jakarta is notorious for its dreadful traffic and Indonesians have embraced the latest techno fixes to assuage this – mainly with apps for taxis and motorcycle rides. But still an average commute into the city can last a couple of hours, if not more. Follow me on @davidmunk and on the blog to see how I get on. David Munk, international news editor for Asia-Pacific

Jamie’s Indonesian: the street food sleuth

They say to get to know a city you really need to get to know its food – and in Jakarta that means heading to the street. While the city has lots of restaurants – from Michelin-starred fine dining to burger bars and local neighbourhood joints – most of Jakarta’s estimated 10 million inhabitants will rarely, if ever, set foot in any of them. Instead, eating out will usually mean a plate of nasi goreng (fried rice) perched on a stool at a rickety table on the pavement or grabbing a bag of bakso (meatballs) from one of the ubiquitous wooden food carts plying their trade on every street corner. Jamie Wilson, international news editor

Kate Lamb’s Humans of the Kampung

I’m spending time today in the kampungs – the local neighbourhoods – of Jakarta, reporting on the fascinating characters who live and work there: from mobile playground operators to octogenarian chess stars and a real-life practitioner of the (illegal) arts of black magic. Kate Lamb, Jakarta stringer

Oliver Holmes: Teach a man to fish...

I’m working the north Jakarta beat – starting in Glodok, the capital’s Chinatown since the 17th century, when the Dutch were in control. I’ll work my way north, through the oldest parts of the city, to the port and meet fishermen who are concerned that plans to reclaim parts of the bay will destroy the livelihood on which their families have depended for centuries. Oliver Holmes, south-east Asian correspondent

Follow along with them here and at #GuardianJakarta

Updated

How do you survive Jakarta’s traffic?

Our question for Monday morning is: what are your top tips for staying sane in the rush hour traffic? Do you listen to music or play games? How do you spend all those hours – and can they be fun? Share your tips and stories in the comments below, or on Twitter using #GuardianJakarta.

Retno says food and music is the answer...

Are some Jakarta traffic jams worse than others? If you think you’re stuck in the worst congestion, tweet or Instagram a photo using #GuardianJakarta. The picture showing the craziest traffic jam will get featured in the blog!

Pertanyaan kami untuk Senin pagi: Apa sajakah saran kamu yang paling utama untuk bisa tetap waras di kemacetan jalan di jam sibuk? Apakah kamu mendengar musik atau bermain games? Bagaimana kamu menghabiskan jam-jam itu – bisakah kegiatan itu menyenangkan? Bagi saran-saran dan ceritamu di bagian komentar di bawah ini, atau melalui Twitter dengan tagar #GuardianJakarta.

Apakah kemacetan jalanan di bagian tertentu Jakarta lebih parah daripada di bagian lain? Kalau menurutmu kamu terjebak dikemacetan terparah, twit atau pajang fotonya di Instagram menggunakan #GuardianJakarta. Gambar-gambar yang menunjukkan kemacetan tergila akan ditampilkan di blog ini!

Jakarta by numbers

Around 10 million people live in the City of Jakarta itself – but the wider metropolitan area is home to an estimated 30 million.

Much recent growth has been adding to this wider sprawl, with predictions that Greater Jakarta’s population could swell to 40 million by 2040. That could make it the biggest metropolitan area in the world.

Motorcycle use is on the rise, as shown by the graphic below, which uses data from the last comprehensive transport survey in 2010.

Jakarta transport graphic

Because much of new development on the edge of the city is low density – and has poor or non-existent public transport connections – critics worry Jakarta’s famously bad traffic could get even worse.

Yoga Adiwinarto, country director of ITDP-Indonesia, the local branch of the non-profit Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, says:

The government is allowing low-density development outside the city, and the wider metro area is spreading. That makes it difficult for public transport because there isn’t the coverage. We need high density development where your first option is walking or cycling, and for longer journeys you can use the bus or metro.

Updated

Welcome to Guardian Cities – live in Jakarta!

It’s 10am, the heat is already sweltering, and we’re about to kick off a week of stories, photojournalism and live events exploring all aspects of life here in the capital of Indonesia.

In partnership with local Jakarta journalists, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the stories that tend to go under-reported even in the city itself – from malls, to rats, to the city’s controversial new flood defence scheme (which, if the pop-up lake outside our office last night was any indication, is desperately needed).

With its reputation as the world’s most active city for social media, we’re excited to hear from Jakartans – so get involved!

Today, stay with us on the liveblog over the next 12 hours – as I type this, our Jakartan correspondents are braving the traffic to report from across this hazy, chaotic metropolis. There will be loads to come through the day, including a Q+A with 17-year-old rap sensation Rich Chigga on fame, kush and living with his mom, and Kate Lamb’s live session with a suburban black magic practitioner.

In the meantime, I personally am haunted by the following uncanny display, spotted at the Grand Indonesia. (As with rats in New York, in Jakarta you’re never far from a mall.)

The venn diagram where food and kitchen magnets meet
Spotted at the Grand Indonesia ... where food meets magnets.

At first, I thought it was a collection of funny kitchen magnets, or maybe “display food”, like you might see outside a Japanese restaurant.

But it appears to be actual food. Shrinkwrapped. Magnetised. And stuck to a metal cabinet.

Jakartans ... explain? Tweet us at #GuardianJakarta

Selamat datang di siaran langsung Guardian Cities Week dari Jakarta!

Sekarang pukul 10.00 WIB di ibukota Indonesia, dan selama sepekan kami akan mulai dengan serangkaian cerita, beberapa acara, dan juga liputan langsung jelajah berbagai aspek kehidupan di Jakarta – dari proyek reklamasi yang kontroversial, beragam budaya di Jakarta, sampai reputasi bahwa Jakarta adalah salah satu kota pengguna sosial media teraktif di dunia.

Bekerja sama dengan wartawan lokal, kami akan mendalami kisah-kisah yang cenderung kurang terceritakan. Kami juga akan meliput kisah orang-orang yang jaranf terdengar.

Ikut blog siaran langsung kami selama 12 jam kedepan selagi kami menjelajahi kota yang megah namun semrawut ini.

Updated

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