Reflections of Joanne

ACCIDENTS

It hadn't been a terribly good couple of months for Indonesia. On Friday 26th September a Garuda airbus plying the Jakarta-Medan route had crashed into a ravine, killing 234 people in Indonesia's worst ever plane disaster: the blame was put on bad air traffic control, with the pilot and the ground staff reaching a misunderstanding on the meaning of 'left' and 'right'. At around the same time the currency slump in southeast Asia was devaluing the Thai Baht, the Malaysian Ringgit, the Filipino Peso and the Indonesian Rupiah, and to cap it all, bush fires started raging in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Plane crashes and currency slides are fairly common round these parts, but the bush fires are among the worst ever seen: at the time I was there a smoky haze was covering northern and western Borneo, Sumatra, most of Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, and Indonesia was being squarely blamed. The smoke was posing a serious health hazard to people in affected areas, tourists were being warned off the area, airports were being closed, and the monsoon season was late, with rain not expected for months. Back in 1982 fires in Kalimantan had spread to the peat beds underneath the forest, and had continued to burn for two years, and concerns were rife that a similar disaster would happen this time. More affluent Malaysia and Singapore had had 'several sunless weeks', according to The Indonesia Times, and were evacuating their residents to better areas.


just experience \| just sights \| just blah \| just write all photos, travelogues and journals are made available for non-commercial use only. © 2000 JSL
*INDONESIA, JOURNEY UNTOLD*
Ujung Pandang \| Accidents \| Bush Fires \| Preparation
	ACCIDENTS It hadn't been a terribly good couple of months for Indonesia. On Friday 26th September a Garuda airbus plying the Jakarta-Medan route had crashed into a ravine, killing 234 people in Indonesia's worst ever plane disaster: the blame was put on bad air traffic control, with the pilot and the ground staff reaching a misunderstanding on the meaning of 'left' and 'right'. At around the same time the currency slump in southeast Asia was devaluing the Thai Baht, the Malaysian Ringgit, the Filipino Peso and the Indonesian Rupiah, and to cap it all, bush fires started raging in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Plane crashes and currency slides are fairly common round these parts, but the bush fires are among the worst ever seen: at the time I was there a smoky haze was covering northern and western Borneo, Sumatra, most of Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, and Indonesia was being squarely blamed. The smoke was posing a serious health hazard to people in affected areas, tourists were being warned off the area, airports were being closed, and the monsoon season was late, with rain not expected for months. Back in 1982 fires in Kalimantan had spread to the peat beds underneath the forest, and had continued to burn for two years, and concerns were rife that a similar disaster would happen this time. More affluent Malaysia and Singapore had had 'several sunless weeks', according to The Indonesia Times, and were evacuating their residents to better areas.