Please help us! Donate

Forgot username or password?

Vote Smart Just The Facts

"Experts nearly all recommend Vote Smart."

"Vote Smart is a bright light in an often desultory civic culture."

- Bill Moyers

"We think so highly of Vote Smart that we are distributing their materials to all of our affiliates."

Media

Indonesian Update #3

2007 August 09 - Media

Good Morning, Vote-Smarters!

I'm writing this update from Indonesia early Thursday morning (1 a.m.) after I was woken up by a 7.5 earthquake! We always thought that the news for tomorrow would be the reporting of the gubernatorial election results here in Jakarta. Instead, all the news coverage may instead focus on the rather large earthquake. This is the largest earthquake in Jakarta in many, many years, so it really grabbed everyone's attention. Thankfully, it seems that there is no tsunami warning associated with this quake, but I must say the popping, grinding and swaying in my room on the 21st floor of the Marriott downtown was something that really got my heart beating. I'm not sure how much sleep I'll get tonight since I feel like I just rode on 10 scary roller-coasters simultaneously.

During the day (yesterday) Wednesday, I spent the entire day in a conference with professors at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture in Bogor, Indonesia discussing the work the university there is doing on many different environmental problems. I was able to deliver a lecture to the students of the university on my research associated with the environment and democracy. We then had time for a roundtable discussion with professors from the university in which we talked about environmental policies like organic farming, pollution, recycling as well as important related issues like political and economic development as well as international aid.

In driving back and forth to Bogor, it was great to see so many ...