As a middle aged man I don’t mind admitting I have no idea what wellness is. Then again I don’t know how to use leverage as a verb and I don’t get excited about gadgets named after fruit. So when the Editor told me Wellness was the theme for this issue I had visions of [...]

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“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” – Abraham Lincoln- On National Education Day, May 2nd, Minister of Education and Culture, Mohammad Nuh, said: “The national exam plays only a little part in the country’s education system. The most important thing is to ensure [...]

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“Where are you originally from?” is a question new people often ask me. The simple answer is “Indonesia,” but then comes the follow-up question, “Whereabouts in Indonesia?” whose answer I could write a book out of. In short, both my parents have different ethnicities and origins, but I was neither born nor raised in their [...]

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Have you been frustrated lately sitting in your car and not moving? I’m sure you have as these endless traffic jams are getting worse by the day. And a real solution definitely does not appear to be in sight. With the awful state of the public transport system, who wants to voluntarily leave the car [...]

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“The success of Homo Sapiens rests primarily with our capacity for empathy and our urge to understand and appreciate others” From a review of The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans De Waal Indonesia is often cited by those governments and businessmen wishing to garner the country’s resources as being [...]

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With a reputation for hands on leadership, in less than a decade Joko Widodo has risen to become Indonesia’s most popular politician with political capital by the bucket load. The good news is he seems to be using that capital wisely. The bad news is we don’t know how long he’ll stay. If all goes [...]

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I don’t know about others, but for me one of the joys of living in Indonesia is its people. Not the unthinking drivers who don’t know basic road etiquette or the coiffured Ibus who trip round the high end malls but the folks who you come into contact with as individuals. Yes there are good [...]

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Every so often the local English language media throws out a story so lacking in credibility no one could ever believe it. But believe it people do and many inches of cyber space soon fill up with people venting their spleen at the latest piece of nonsense. It doesn’t matter that the story lacks credible [...]

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During the 2nd half of 2012, the whole of Jakarta was plastered with banners and posters of potential candidates all vying for Jakarta’s top position. The election had largely been a referendum on proposed solutions to the chronic traffic conditions – one of the major daily issues faced by Jakartans. The Capital’s citizens wanted a [...]

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Was it a coincidence or something more? Our Editor emailed me with a list of upcoming themes and said that she thought that I might “have something up [my] sleeve for Ghosts, Magic and Mystery.” How strange, I thought, what should make her think that? After all, I don’t have any skeletons in my cupboard, [...]

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Sightings of ghosts have plummeted in number over the past decade. Are mobile phones responsible for their demise? It may seem crazy but paranormal investigators are starting to take the idea seriously. “Until a few years ago we’d receive reports of two new ghosts every week,” says Tony Cornell, a scientific investigator for the Society [...]

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The scene is all too familiar; the waving of a pocket-watch back and forth, followed by the mumblings of ‘Yes, Master!’  While it was popularized by Hollywood and comic books, this representation bears little resemblance to actual hypnotism as performed by today’s practitioners. The use of hypnotism was mainly for good purposes such as to [...]

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Green is not just another colour, these days everyone’s talking green; not US Dollar-green but green as a synonym for the environment. Property developers are selling the concept of ‘green’ living while retailers are marketing their line of ‘green’ products. Unless you’ve been living under a shell, you would have at some point read or [...]

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8 months ago, after my controversial column about Bali, I received some very nice emails from you guys. Thanks a lot. Some others were pleasant too, like, “Sebastien Laurent, you are a f***ing French bastard!” or, “Sebastien Laurent, don’t even try to land in Bali if you want to stay alive!” One email was a [...]

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