The Jakarta Post
It has been more than a decade since her neighborhood turned into a land of skyscrapers. While all of her neighbors have been forced out or voluntarily moved out of the neighborhood, Elis, 60, is the only one to have rejected the transformation. All these years later she is still holding out. Her 40-square-meter house stands firmly next to the 45-story Thamrin Executive Residence apartments on Jl. Kebon Kacang, Kebon Melati, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. From the apartment building' s entry gate, the house is seen "buried" with just its old red roof tiles sticking out above road level. A half-meter wide ramp stretches from the house's terrace to ground level. The terrace is humid and packed with objects, mostly empty water dispenser bottles. On a still Friday morning, the shadows of people walking past swept the house's front wall and the low-pitched ...