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By the way ... Where are the chickens?
A couple of months ago, I received a WhatsApp message from my 10 year old niece in Jakarta, telling me she and her older brother are raising a pair of bantam chickens and letting the chickens wander around my parentsâ backyard
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couple of months ago, I received a WhatsApp message from my 10 year old niece in Jakarta, telling me she and her older brother are raising a pair of bantam chickens and letting the chickens wander around my parents' backyard. And recently, she sent another message: 'Oom (uncle), ten chicks have hatched!'
My niece and nephew live at my parents' house in Menteng Dalam, South Jakarta, the same neighborhood where I spent my childhood. Today, obviously, it is difficult to find children their age, or even other people who raise chickens in the neighborhood.
As I recall, 30 years ago it was easy to find poultry such as turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens wandering around the neighborhood. It was also easy to find open green spaces, such as gardens in our neighborhood where the birds could freely scavenge through the soil and peck at the plants.
Back then, some people even grew herbs, coconut trees and various fruit trees, while others had milk cows and ornamental fish.
It was easy for the farmers to find grass in the neighborhood to feed the cows.
But today, many gardens and yards are being converted into houses. No more cow farms, no more wandering chickens and it is difficult to find trees. There are almost no more open spaces left. The air becomes hot and stuffy.
I believe I am not the only one who is witnessing the environmental changes in Jakarta. My neighborhood is just one out of many places in town that is experiencing such change.
All over Jakarta, gardens and other open green spaces have been converted into housing, industrial zones, apartments as well as offices, roads and shopping malls.
It's not clear whether the conversions have taken place through 'the right process' but the fact is that such conversion has created many problems in Jakarta ' air pollution, saltwater intrusion along with a lack of fresh water sources and annual floods have claimed lives and caused billions in losses.
While some may argue that those problems already existed, I think most of people who grew up in Jakarta like me will agree the problems are continually getting worse.
Of course, it is impossible to go back in time and bring back the ambiance of a kampung with gardens, open spaces and wandering chickens in Jakarta. But it is 100 percent possible to make Jakarta green.
In February this year, when I came back for two weeks to Jakarta from Geneva, Switzerland where I now live, I found green walls built on the sidewalks of Jl. Menteng Raya, Central Jakarta. Well, actually green walls are not a new thing for Jakarta, but I still rarely see them in the city.
Those walls with plants are just one of the many ways to make Jakarta green despite space limitations. Although they do not serve as water catchments, as horizontal gardens they can at least help to reduce pollution and cover pedestrians from the sun's heat.
It is probably still a long way for Jakarta to meet its 30 percent open space target by 2030, while currently it has only about 10 percent.
Recently, I read an online news article about the controversial plan of the Jakarta administration to purchase illegal villas in Puncak, West Java. Under the plan, the villas will be demolished and the land will be converted into an open green space. To me, such a plan sounds 'radical', but Jakarta may actually need radical steps to save the city.
The plan sounds similar to controversial steps taken by the former mayor of the South Korean capital Seoul, Lee Myung-bak (now President of South Korea), to revitalize the Cheonggyecheon River by demolishing elevated highways above the stream of the buried river. Later, it was proven the policy had succeeded in revitalizing the river.
But, if Jakarta's administration is serious about allocating budgets for such a policy, why don't they purchase plots of land in Jakarta first and convert them into green spaces so that Jakarta will directly benefit?
Well, the government may formulate a number of policies. However, Jakartans should contribute to efforts to regreen this city, even by doing simple things like growing ornamental plants in pots or fruit trees on remaining vacant lands in our neighborhoods.
Yesterday, Jakartans celebrated the city's 486th anniversary. Suddenly, I remember words in Betawi on banners that I often saw around Jakarta many years ago: Kampung kite, kalau bukan kite, siape lagi yang jaga? (If not us, who else will take care of our village?).
' Muhammad Farid
