Aduh! Adieu Kali Jodo?

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Jakarta’s Governor Ahok is one of the good guys.

Jakarta Jew-Haters Boo Chinese Christian Candidate 

But even good guys don’t always get it right. Heck, even here on RRA blog, I’ve been known to commit occasional errors!

So what are we to make of the news from Kali Jodoh, which I once described as that delightfully down-market poor cousin of the Nice Promenade, a series of small watering-holes along a canal bank, where most things are cheap – some say life is too. 

I have to say I rather liked the Ojo Lali bar the last time I ventured there, but that was not late at night. Jakarta’s IslamoNazis Threaten More Thuggery    March 2, 2014

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•  Jakarta FPI Gauleiter Habib Alatas
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•  Back then, the threat was an IslamoNazi thug gang – self-styled ‘Islamic Defenders Front,’ the FPI, which wants Kali Jodo, in West Jakarta, eradicated!!

Habib Salim Alatas, their Jakarta Gauleiter, was fretting; Kali Jodo, he reckoned, would again become a hotbed of prostitution.

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But now we read that Kali Jodo faces a threat from the fiercest foe of the IslamoNazis, yes, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

He has announced that the city planned to develop green areas in Kali Jodo. “We must evict people from the area since it is located on the banks of a flood canal. We want to develop green areas.”

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Kali Jodoh

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Actually, it’s a site with tremendous potential; I wasn’t kidding when I compared it in our previous post to a Mediterranean promenade.

The city authorities could do worse than to provide loans or grants to the owners of the Ojo Lali – and the rest – to upgrade their premises and get some new oases developed along that canal-shore.

NOT big business watering-holes for the elite – I had to reprove the authorities for similar intentions towards Kota Tua a while ago. 

https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/jakarta-kota-tua-a-jewel-worth-polishing/

We – and I mean all Jakarta residents of modest means – do not want the capital  improved only for the affluent, who have too many opulent places to enjoy already.

What Jakarta misses out on are nice, modest hang-outs, like Jalan Jaksa used to be, before the greed spread and began that street’s downwards transformation into upmarket condo-land..

However, according to the Jakarta Post, the city administration plans to evict squatters in Kali Jodo..and shut down the area’s red-light district.

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This draconian move is scheduled for next month.

And again, the odour of class distinction hangs like a pall of dark smoke over these developments. 

It was City Secretary Saefullah who revealed that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had asked the city administration to clear Kali Jodo of prostitution. “Therefore, we will shut down the red-light district as well,” he said.  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/28/city-evict-kali-jodo-squatters-build-green-area.html

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Non-affluent hookers get hounded –  five-star floozies don’t!

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 If Kali Jodo is marked for a blitz due to the phenomenon of prostitution, how about almost all of the five-star hotels in Jakarta?

I can’t say all, because I don’t frequent them all.

But I’ve been to various functions in many of them, and you’d need to be blind and deaf, or pretty dumb, not to observe the rampant prostitution in their bars. After 10pm, when the Blok M over-spill arrives, they get VERY lively.

Of course, if I’m in those bars, I talk to the girls – what else are attractive and approachable ladies for, if not to chat with?

(Before that queer commenter starts in on me for being immoral, let me add that the five-star fees they quote ensure no naughty sequels to my conversational dalliance with the gals!)

But the point is. why hound out the poor cheap slappers of Kali Jodo when these glittery gals in posh hotels are seemingly untouchable (by the authorities, not their clients!)