Hola, it’s been a while since I returned from the Middle-Earth. Now, I am entering a new chapter in my life. I called it a journey to the concrete and clay city. What other city in Indonesia that could be better called a concrete city (Kota Beton) than Jakarta. Yes, here I am, at the center of Indonesian political turbulence, for the next couple of months or years, who knows.

Starting in March 2016, I changed the blog name into “Concrete and Clay City”. The blog’s name is inspired by a book titled “Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City” written by Matthew Gandy, a well know geographer and urbanist. Why concrete and clay? I am not sure. Jakarta is definitely already a giant concrete jungle. But as Gandy mention, the fabric of the city is not solely made from a concrete, but also clay, a raw material that have been reworked to produce a metropolitan nature distinct from the forms of nature experienced by early Jakarta settlers.

Jakarta is a combination of number of processes, such as ecological dynamic, national political representation arena, colonial legacy, and so on. An interesting intertwined processes that could be used to examine how the city manage the dilemma between social justice and (sustainable) development. the dilemma that I use as the tagline of the blog.

By the way, the Journey to The Concrete and Clay City is a continuous journey from my previous chapters, Journey to the land of Gods, Journey to the West, Journey to the East, and Journey to the Middle Earth. I hope, I could keep writing and filling up the current journey with colorful stories.

source of featured image: www.hoganlovells.com/