Schlock-Fest Jakarta
Every August, the 50th Ward of Chicago where I grew up had a big outdoor festival in the nearby gigantor Warren Park. Carnivalish atmosphere. In the evening half a mile away you could hear the barker encouraging people to make noise while they rode those untrustworthy carnival rides. And they sold a lot of crap. Sometimes it was called "The Taste of the 50th" (riffing off of the much larger and more food-centered "Taste of Chicago" around the 4th of July every year in Grant Park). Later on it was called the "50-Fest."
My father always had a more appropos name for it: "Schlock-Fest." Because, you know, basically everything there was kind of overpriced, and not really that great, and kind of annoying. You know, schlocky. Or as one Yiddish-English dictionary phrases it, "schlock" describes "Anything cheap or inferor; junk; trash."
Maybe in Indonesia it’s hard to translate - "sampah" means "garbage" but usually just refers to what you throw away - Indonesians tend to say things are "not quite nice" instead of saying they are bad, so perhaps "schlock" would be "kurang halus" - "not well made."
But, it turns out that Indonesia has its own name for its was Schlock-Fest Jakarta: the annual "Pekan Raya Jakarta" or colloquially "Jakarta Fair." All over the city right now there are elaborate, lit-up signs in front of all of the buildingds that read "Dirgahayu Kota Jakarta ke-478" - basically a celebration of the founding of Jakarta’s 478th anniversary. PRJ, Jakarta Fair, is the main event - a big outdoor fair.
Maybe the government news agency’s description takes us a little bit further, in which President SBY explains his hope that:
"…the exhibition would also help investors to indentify (sic) the products that attracted the public the most.
The government, he said, was resolved to revitalize all economic
sectors to spur growth that would eventually promote the people`s
welfare.
Economic growth would help create employment and thus reduce poverty, he noted."
Nowe we can see why SBY got that PhD in Agricultural Economics two days before he was elected.
From what I could see, the key products displayed for investors to focus on were:
1. Motor oil, or maybe it was the girls in short dresses who appeared to be promoting it
2. Motorcycle helmets
3. Cheap flip-flops
4. Dunkin Donuts
5. Things to which you can add hot water and mix and then consume
Anna Fewell and I managed to connect up on a crowded street corner in North Jakarta and work our way to Arena PRJ where the event was being held. After paying Rp. 15,000 for our entrance, we navigated our way through all manner of chaos.
Anna made a friend, for instance.
But I showed him an old fashion American carnival tradition - beating on anything in a costume!
Shortly after finishing our photography, a girl with a t-shirt for the candy company ran up to me and handed me a sample "This is the candy you just took picture of." How sweet it was…
Later on, we saw some of Indonesia’s culinary output. Although not really the type you would imagine being crucial to a country’s image. For instance, there was the whole principle of "One Nation Under Instant Noodles."
There was also "One Nation Under Shitty Instant Coffee Because We Exported All the Good Stuff to Starbucks" but I won’t go too far into that right here.
After all this we were kind of hungry (lapar sekali!), so we walked into the food area. In this photo, I am thinking to myself "Okay bapak-bapak (gentlemen), which of these 17 different menus that you’ve just shoved into our faces do you want us to order from?"
But we got fed. Let’s face it: fairground food in Indonesia kicks fairground food in America’s ass. A fairground in the US sells elephant ears and expensive lemonade that’s such as made from Country Time powder. You go to a posh restaurant, you get satay chicken for like $20. Here, it’s at the fair, and so is the Avocado Juice with chocalate syrup.
Okay, now I am a little bit happier. Anna is already eating.
Oh yeah, there was some driver’s education at the Jakarta Fair, too. Cuz, you know, that’s pretty much how traffic looks in Jakarta most of the time.
And, finally, here is a photo with some more gaudiness. Maybe Anna can fill in the gap on who this is - I don’t know. There was a second one with a guy in red and a scarier mask, but it didn’t come out so good. This was near the "traditional Betawai Village" which seemed neither traditional, nor Betawai, nor photo-worthy.
We choked our way through the air pollution of the motorcycle parking area to a taxi and made our ways home, all the richer from having wandered through the schlock of Indonesian commercial output, and more headachy than before we left. Hurrah!
