Still only part of the way through the arduous process of ditching overcrowded, polluted, and sea level rise-prone Jakarta for a new capital they’re building from scratch in the jungles of Borneo, Indonesia’s leaders – outgoing President Joko Widodo and President-elect Prabowo Subianto – on Saturday rang in the nation’s independence day in the new seat of Nusantara, the AP reports.
“The celebration was initially planned to inaugurate Nusantara as the country’s new capital, but with construction behind schedule it’s not clear when the transfer will take place,” the AP writes, almost as if moving the national capital of a vast archipelago of 280 million people scattered across more than 17,000 islands pockmarked with explosive volcanoes and prone to apocalyptic earthquakes isn’t especially more complicated than following the building instructions on your typical LEGO set.
Of course it’s going to be a messy affair. Nobody with a functioning brain should think such a project would be. “Widodo said earlier in the week that 8,000 guests would be invited, but the number was later reduced to 1,300 because adequate infrastructure was not yet in place,” for the celebration ceremony in Nusantara, the AP writes. Okay, that sucks. It’s also 1,300 more than were there a few years ago. The coverage is like this at every outlet, and that’s not just fair but entirely necessary to report that there’s been a number of issues with getting the job done, but like what the fuck? Can’t anyone in the media at least make an attempt to appreciate that it was pretty freaking ballsy and that they’re well along the way to pulling it off despite the headwinds? How’s Elon’s Mars colony coming along? Is he still making moves like Indonesia is with Nunsatara?