A magnificent location on planet earth

A change of pace today as I would very much like to share a story of a beautiful location on this planet. Mount Ijen towering over tropical rain forests adorned by layered or terraced rice paddies forming giant steps through the foot hills of this magical spot. A change of pace.

The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia.

It is inside a larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometres wide. The Gunung Merapi stratovolcano is the highest point of that complex. The name "Gunung Merapi" means "mountain of fire" in the Indonesian language (api being "fire"); Mount Merapi in central Java and Marapiin Sumatra have the same etymology.

West of Gunung Merapi is the Ijen volcano, which has a one-kilometre-wide turquoise-coloured acidic crater lake. The lake is the site of a labour-intensive sulfur mining operation, in which sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. The work is paid well considering the cost of living in the area, but is very onerous. Workers earn around Rp 50,000–75,000 ($5.50–$8.30) per day and once out of the crater, still need to carry their loads of sulfur chunks about three kilometers to the nearby Paltuding Valley to get paid.

Many other post-caldera cones and craters are located within the caldera or along its rim. The largest concentration of post-caldera cones run east-west across the southern side of the caldera. The active crater at Kawah Ijen has a diameter of 722 metres (2,369 ft) and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre ft).

The lake is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world.[1] It is also a source for the river Banyupahit, resulting in highly acidic and metal-enriched river water which has a significant detrimental effect on the downstream river ecosystem.[5] On July 14–15, 2008, explorer George Kourounis took a small rubber boat out onto the acid lake to measure its acidity. The pH of the water in the lake's edges was measured to be 0.5 and in the middle of the lake 0.13 due to high sulfuric acid concentration.

Blue fire crater

Since National Geographic mentioned the electric-blue flame of Ijen, tourist numbers increased.[7] The phenomenon has occurred for a long time, but beforehand there was no midnight hiking. A two-hour hike is required to reach the rim of the crater, followed by a 45-minute hike down to the bank of the crater. The blue fire is ignited sulfuric gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 °C (1,112 °F).

The flames can be up to five meters (16 feet) high; some of the gas condenses to liquid and is still ignited. It is the largest blue flame area in the world and local people refer to it as 'Blue Fire' 

Sulfur mining at Ijen

An active vent at the edge of the lake is a source of elemental sulfur, and supports a mining operation. Escaping volcanic gases are channelled through a network of ceramic pipes, resulting in condensation of molten sulfur.[10]

The sulfur, which is deep red in colour when molten, pours slowly from the ends of these pipes and pools on the ground, turning bright yellow as it cools. The miners break the cooled material into large pieces and carry it away in baskets. Miners carry loads ranging from 75 to 90 kilograms (165 to 198 lb), up 300 metres (980 ft) to the crater rim, with a gradient of 45 to 60 degrees and then 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) down the mountain for weighing. Most miners make this journey twice a day.

A nearby sulfur refinery pays the miners by the weight of sulfur transported; as of September 2010, the typical daily earnings were equivalent to approximately $13 US. The miners often receive insufficient protection while working around the volcano and complain of numerous respiratory afflictions. There are 200 miners, who extract 14 tons per day – about 20% of the continuous daily deposit.

Ijen and its sulfur mining was featured in the 1991 IMAX film Ring of Fire, and as a topic on the 5th episode of the BBC television documentary Human Planet.

In the documentary film War Photographer, journalist James Nachtwey visits Ijen and struggles with noxious fumes while trying to photograph workers. Michael Glawogger's film Workingman's Death is about sulfur workers.

A change of pace today as I would very much like to share a story of a beautiful location on this planet. Mount Ijen towering over tropical rain forests adorned by layered or terraced rice paddies forming giant steps through the foot hills of this magical spot. A change of pace.

The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia.

It is inside a larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometres wide. The Gunung Merapi stratovolcano is the highest point of that complex. The name "Gunung Merapi" means "mountain of fire" in the Indonesian language (api being "fire"); Mount Merapi in central Java and Marapiin Sumatra have the same etymology.

West of Gunung Merapi is the Ijen volcano, which has a one-kilometre-wide turquoise-coloured acidic crater lake. The lake is the site of a labour-intensive sulfur mining operation, in which sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. The work is paid well considering the cost of living in the area, but is very onerous. Workers earn around Rp 50,000–75,000 ($5.50–$8.30) per day and once out of the crater, still need to carry their loads of sulfur chunks about three kilometers to the nearby Paltuding Valley to get paid.

Many other post-caldera cones and craters are located within the caldera or along its rim. The largest concentration of post-caldera cones run east-west across the southern side of the caldera. The active crater at Kawah Ijen has a diameter of 722 metres (2,369 ft) and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre ft).

The lake is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world.[1] It is also a source for the river Banyupahit, resulting in highly acidic and metal-enriched river water which has a significant detrimental effect on the downstream river ecosystem.[5] On July 14–15, 2008, explorer George Kourounis took a small rubber boat out onto the acid lake to measure its acidity. The pH of the water in the lake's edges was measured to be 0.5 and in the middle of the lake 0.13 due to high sulfuric acid concentration.

Blue fire crater

Since National Geographic mentioned the electric-blue flame of Ijen, tourist numbers increased.[7] The phenomenon has occurred for a long time, but beforehand there was no midnight hiking. A two-hour hike is required to reach the rim of the crater, followed by a 45-minute hike down to the bank of the crater. The blue fire is ignited sulfuric gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 °C (1,112 °F).

The flames can be up to five meters (16 feet) high; some of the gas condenses to liquid and is still ignited. It is the largest blue flame area in the world and local people refer to it as 'Blue Fire' 

Sulfur mining at Ijen

An active vent at the edge of the lake is a source of elemental sulfur, and supports a mining operation. Escaping volcanic gases are channelled through a network of ceramic pipes, resulting in condensation of molten sulfur.[10]

The sulfur, which is deep red in colour when molten, pours slowly from the ends of these pipes and pools on the ground, turning bright yellow as it cools. The miners break the cooled material into large pieces and carry it away in baskets. Miners carry loads ranging from 75 to 90 kilograms (165 to 198 lb), up 300 metres (980 ft) to the crater rim, with a gradient of 45 to 60 degrees and then 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) down the mountain for weighing. Most miners make this journey twice a day.

A nearby sulfur refinery pays the miners by the weight of sulfur transported; as of September 2010, the typical daily earnings were equivalent to approximately $13 US. The miners often receive insufficient protection while working around the volcano and complain of numerous respiratory afflictions. There are 200 miners, who extract 14 tons per day – about 20% of the continuous daily deposit.

Ijen and its sulfur mining was featured in the 1991 IMAX film Ring of Fire, and as a topic on the 5th episode of the BBC television documentary Human Planet.

In the documentary film War Photographer, journalist James Nachtwey visits Ijen and struggles with noxious fumes while trying to photograph workers. Michael Glawogger's film Workingman's Death is about sulfur workers.

Asia's Century A market of 5 Billion people have awoken.

Asian economies are in some way a dichotomy of what we would call in the west Capitalism versus nationalism. I'll explain but first I'll remind myself of a claim that my first boss made back in the days of Addressograph Multigraph my first employer, he said to me “For Communism or Capitalism to survive they both need to be present”.  I never understood the value of that statement until after the wall fell. The balance to Capitalism in the west became greed with ethics and morals largely cast aside. In Asia, you have a form of checks and balance that mirror those two ideologies. Once in discussion with senior Huaweii exec I referred to their communist balance, he quickly let me know that Communism is a past term and that a more modern name should be applied, although he didn't offer an alternative, but his indignation was felt.

In previous notes I have talked about Globalization and how Asia wants no part of this. I should qualify this; Asian economies have benefited from globalization there is no doubt, but they have stopped short of totally opening up.  Perhaps for several reasons in my view, 1. They have been on the losing side of colonization along with the brutal ills that that brought. 2. The currency crisis of 1998, major corporations were saddled with US debt which they struggled to balance. Many if not all did repay suppliers, loans etc. but it cost them their place in the market. There is no better example of this than Indonesia, two destined to be conglomerates one had the incumbent fixed telecom state owned network as its partner the other Nynex out of the US. One operator XL I would say at that time was progressive dynamic and inventive, the other Telkomsel more pragmatic, harnessed by tradition, due to the 98 financial crisis the balanced shifted in favour of Telkomsel. Today Telkomsel are 3 times bigger than their nearest competitor XL, in a country of 260M 1998 was a significant handicap to XL. Globalization was seen as a western benefit, as a result what we have today is savvy ministers who were able to take the advantage of globalization but spin on a sixpence so to speak as the 2008 financial crisis hit the west, opening the door to regionalism a tried and tested system of integrated trade ties established following 1998, save that of the wave activity which has been present for 50 years as referred here in a previous post. CLICK HERE!

The mix of ideologies following savvy economic policies have put this region as the frontrunner by a furlong to be the dominating party of the 21C. 19C was dominated by the British Empire, the 20th by America and the American dream. We now have an Asia dream and it really should not be missed.

That's not to say that Asia doesn't have its issues, for sure it does. But first be mindful; they are aware of the behaviour of the globalization actors, their aggressive push to build and retain superpower status. Their overtures in seeking free trade policy backed up by neo-mercantile policy. 

Asia have to come to terms with the need to rebalance their economies, to move the power base away from family conglomerates. Large parts of a country’s listed stocks are led from family run business. In Korea, they have a term chaebol which refers to family business conglomerate, they make up 50% of the Korean stock market. We all remember I'm sure the peanut issue on a Korean airline leaving New York, these are powerful families and as such are, in the case of Asia generally able to hold direction over a countries fortunes.  For that reason Asian economic ministers look to China as to the way they have handled this issue in order to spread the wealth creating more entrepreneurialism. In Indonesia large family conglomerates control major sectors such as construction, real estate, shipping, commodities trade, banking, and telecoms. The corporate pyramid remains narrow at the top, giving individuals enormous influence over policy. According to McKinsey, family businesses across the region have been growing at more than 20 percent per year over the past decade and using their strong cash positions to invest in joint ventures and new technology that raise the productivity of their home-based workers. Some might call this Confucian capitalism, recognizing the centrality of community, it is as Chinese as the notion of guanxi, or having privileged influence through networks. 

Corruption is a scourge across the world, it has more visibility across Asia only because the money is not flowing into the pockets of the west. In Asia, particularly Indonesia there is an anti corruption unit which has made great strides to reduce this burden, as with China many official have fallen, continuing to fall, they are being jailed by the 100s. Through pragmatism, good leadership and a realization as to the handicap this practise have on future growth prospect. 

Consider: In the west Competition is freely banded around as though it is the domain of western economies. But look at the banking sector. As one executive of a European bank put it, “In the US, American banks face little competition to service wealthy clients. In Europe, both European and American banks compete for the market. And in Asia, European, American, and Asian banks are all competing for wealthy customers. All our margins get squeezed, but at the same time it unlocks trillions of dollars of savings to be profitably invested.”

All of this is fascinating but the facts remain Asia will march forward in this Century. Americanism will give way just as Colonialism gave way. Stop it you can not, participate for sure you can!

Asian economies are in some way a dichotomy of what we would call in the west Capitalism versus nationalism. I'll explain but first I'll remind myself of a claim that my first boss made back in the days of Addressograph Multigraph my first employer, he said to me “For Communism or Capitalism to survive they both need to be present”.  I never understood the value of that statement until after the wall fell. The balance to Capitalism in the west became greed with ethics and morals largely cast aside. In Asia, you have a form of checks and balance that mirror those two ideologies. Once in discussion with senior Huaweii exec I referred to their communist balance, he quickly let me know that Communism is a past term and that a more modern name should be applied, although he didn't offer an alternative, but his indignation was felt.

In previous notes I have talked about Globalization and how Asia wants no part of this. I should qualify this; Asian economies have benefited from globalization there is no doubt, but they have stopped short of totally opening up.  Perhaps for several reasons in my view, 1. They have been on the losing side of colonization along with the brutal ills that that brought. 2. The currency crisis of 1998, major corporations were saddled with US debt which they struggled to balance. Many if not all did repay suppliers, loans etc. but it cost them their place in the market. There is no better example of this than Indonesia, two destined to be conglomerates one had the incumbent fixed telecom state owned network as its partner the other Nynex out of the US. One operator XL I would say at that time was progressive dynamic and inventive, the other Telkomsel more pragmatic, harnessed by tradition, due to the 98 financial crisis the balanced shifted in favour of Telkomsel. Today Telkomsel are 3 times bigger than their nearest competitor XL, in a country of 260M 1998 was a significant handicap to XL. Globalization was seen as a western benefit, as a result what we have today is savvy ministers who were able to take the advantage of globalization but spin on a sixpence so to speak as the 2008 financial crisis hit the west, opening the door to regionalism a tried and tested system of integrated trade ties established following 1998, save that of the wave activity which has been present for 50 years as referred here in a previous post. CLICK HERE!

The mix of ideologies following savvy economic policies have put this region as the frontrunner by a furlong to be the dominating party of the 21C. 19C was dominated by the British Empire, the 20th by America and the American dream. We now have an Asia dream and it really should not be missed.

That's not to say that Asia doesn't have its issues, for sure it does. But first be mindful; they are aware of the behaviour of the globalization actors, their aggressive push to build and retain superpower status. Their overtures in seeking free trade policy backed up by neo-mercantile policy. 

Asia have to come to terms with the need to rebalance their economies, to move the power base away from family conglomerates. Large parts of a country’s listed stocks are led from family run business. In Korea, they have a term chaebol which refers to family business conglomerate, they make up 50% of the Korean stock market. We all remember I'm sure the peanut issue on a Korean airline leaving New York, these are powerful families and as such are, in the case of Asia generally able to hold direction over a countries fortunes.  For that reason Asian economic ministers look to China as to the way they have handled this issue in order to spread the wealth creating more entrepreneurialism. In Indonesia large family conglomerates control major sectors such as construction, real estate, shipping, commodities trade, banking, and telecoms. The corporate pyramid remains narrow at the top, giving individuals enormous influence over policy. According to McKinsey, family businesses across the region have been growing at more than 20 percent per year over the past decade and using their strong cash positions to invest in joint ventures and new technology that raise the productivity of their home-based workers. Some might call this Confucian capitalism, recognizing the centrality of community, it is as Chinese as the notion of guanxi, or having privileged influence through networks. 

Corruption is a scourge across the world, it has more visibility across Asia only because the money is not flowing into the pockets of the west. In Asia, particularly Indonesia there is an anti corruption unit which has made great strides to reduce this burden, as with China many official have fallen, continuing to fall, they are being jailed by the 100s. Through pragmatism, good leadership and a realization as to the handicap this practise have on future growth prospect. 

Consider: In the west Competition is freely banded around as though it is the domain of western economies. But look at the banking sector. As one executive of a European bank put it, “In the US, American banks face little competition to service wealthy clients. In Europe, both European and American banks compete for the market. And in Asia, European, American, and Asian banks are all competing for wealthy customers. All our margins get squeezed, but at the same time it unlocks trillions of dollars of savings to be profitably invested.”

All of this is fascinating but the facts remain Asia will march forward in this Century. Americanism will give way just as Colonialism gave way. Stop it you can not, participate for sure you can!

Indonesia looks to well-being, health and balance for their growth

All around the world we see today a dichotomy between wealth and poverty.  Nowhere is that scarily abject than in the so called third world economies. Historically we have all followed an American devised system of statistical measure, “GDP” Gross Domestic Product. GDP is fine when you all share in the benefit, although arguably when you tour America you could say that GDP as a measure of wealth has failed even in the US, 1 in 8 live in poverty across this great nation.

Asia does however, have a handicap which Indonesia is not immune to. Much of the economy is controlled by family conglomerates, too few of these exist. Therefore, polarizing wealth into too few hands, which of course makes the government job to assist fledgling companies more difficult.

That aside Indonesia have opened the doors to eCommerce, the digital economy as a way to encourage a paradigm shift. To some extent this is wishful thinking but all credit to them they are at the beginning of a sincere initiative.

I have for a long period argued that you can not have a system that polarizes 80% of the world's wealth, and have that system determine well-being when the money is sitting with 20% of the population. The absurdity is more acute as you reach the top 2% or 3%. It is this dichotomy that will, over what is now a short period unwind society. My guess with Brexit, Italian elections, Jaunes Gilet (yellow vest), Trump's America this is all a polite wake up call to the elites in our political class that enough is enough. Whether they are yet listening that's not so obvious.

However, one area, for me a little surprising but most welcome nonetheless is the “World Economic Forum”. Here they have discussed, debated and formed the same conclusions, the system of GDP is archaic and replaced it with an Inclusive Development Index “IDI”. This index considers well-being, life expectancy, unemployment, median income, poverty, inequality, household savings, carbon emissions plus a myriad of other issues that encompasses us all. You could argue whilst our western politicians fiddle as Rome burns, line their pockets, protect their various expense scams other more dynamic areas have embraced this revolutionary index, Indonesia being one such area. 

In Asia, Australia and New Zealand rank highest, followed by South Korea and Israel, which rank in the top twenty. The next tier of emerging Asian countries is making substantial strides in most categories of inclusive development, including Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Thailand, China, Iran, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We should be mindful that Asia is also home to countries in the bottom tier such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, and Yemen. The Asia development bank have taken a step further and published their Social Protection Index. “SPI”. This index shows South Asia, Southeast and Central Asia are lacking their Eastern Asia neighbours with their subsistence programmes. But as with the economic wave example Asia will develop together through assisting each other, I have confidence the West could learn from the East when it comes to inclusive growth. Whether, the west is open to rocking the elites’ gravy train the jury is out.

If you look to the World Economic Forum website there is a PDF file which can be downloaded, this will give more depth to the points reference IDI that I have raised above:

“The Inclusive Development Index (IDI) is an annual assessment of 103 countries’ economic performance that measures how countries perform on eleven dimensions of economic progress in addition to GDP. It has 3 pillars; growth and development; inclusion and; intergenerational equity – sustainable stewardship of natural and financial resources.

The IDI is a project of the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on the Future of Economic Progress, which aims to inform and enable sustained and inclusive economic progress through deepened public-private cooperation through thought leadership and analysis, strategic dialogue and concrete cooperation, including by accelerating social impact through corporate action.”

Bedtime reading...

All around the world we see today a dichotomy between wealth and poverty.  Nowhere is that scarily abject than in the so called third world economies. Historically we have all followed an American devised system of statistical measure, “GDP” Gross Domestic Product. GDP is fine when you all share in the benefit, although arguably when you tour America you could say that GDP as a measure of wealth has failed even in the US, 1 in 8 live in poverty across this great nation.

Asia does however, have a handicap which Indonesia is not immune to. Much of the economy is controlled by family conglomerates, too few of these exist. Therefore, polarizing wealth into too few hands, which of course makes the government job to assist fledgling companies more difficult.

That aside Indonesia have opened the doors to eCommerce, the digital economy as a way to encourage a paradigm shift. To some extent this is wishful thinking but all credit to them they are at the beginning of a sincere initiative.

I have for a long period argued that you can not have a system that polarizes 80% of the world's wealth, and have that system determine well-being when the money is sitting with 20% of the population. The absurdity is more acute as you reach the top 2% or 3%. It is this dichotomy that will, over what is now a short period unwind society. My guess with Brexit, Italian elections, Jaunes Gilet (yellow vest), Trump's America this is all a polite wake up call to the elites in our political class that enough is enough. Whether they are yet listening that's not so obvious.

However, one area, for me a little surprising but most welcome nonetheless is the “World Economic Forum”. Here they have discussed, debated and formed the same conclusions, the system of GDP is archaic and replaced it with an Inclusive Development Index “IDI”. This index considers well-being, life expectancy, unemployment, median income, poverty, inequality, household savings, carbon emissions plus a myriad of other issues that encompasses us all. You could argue whilst our western politicians fiddle as Rome burns, line their pockets, protect their various expense scams other more dynamic areas have embraced this revolutionary index, Indonesia being one such area. 

In Asia, Australia and New Zealand rank highest, followed by South Korea and Israel, which rank in the top twenty. The next tier of emerging Asian countries is making substantial strides in most categories of inclusive development, including Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Thailand, China, Iran, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We should be mindful that Asia is also home to countries in the bottom tier such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, and Yemen. The Asia development bank have taken a step further and published their Social Protection Index. “SPI”. This index shows South Asia, Southeast and Central Asia are lacking their Eastern Asia neighbours with their subsistence programmes. But as with the economic wave example Asia will develop together through assisting each other, I have confidence the West could learn from the East when it comes to inclusive growth. Whether, the west is open to rocking the elites’ gravy train the jury is out.

If you look to the World Economic Forum website there is a PDF file which can be downloaded, this will give more depth to the points reference IDI that I have raised above:

“The Inclusive Development Index (IDI) is an annual assessment of 103 countries’ economic performance that measures how countries perform on eleven dimensions of economic progress in addition to GDP. It has 3 pillars; growth and development; inclusion and; intergenerational equity – sustainable stewardship of natural and financial resources.

The IDI is a project of the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on the Future of Economic Progress, which aims to inform and enable sustained and inclusive economic progress through deepened public-private cooperation through thought leadership and analysis, strategic dialogue and concrete cooperation, including by accelerating social impact through corporate action.”

Bedtime reading...

Industrial parks, indonesia is open for business

The advances that South East Asia have made demonstrate the progressive nature of this great region. It was from SE Asia where, what is termed a prehistoric civilizations dating back to 6000 BC, first developed the ability to organize agriculture, cultivated farming growing cereal. Prior to this point they were predominantly hunter-gatherers, going in search of their food source, their food came only from the wild. It took Japan until the Jõmon period to adopt such techniques, circa 5000 BC. China came 1000 years later. You could even argue that through their achievements that SE Asia heralded in the Bronze Age. Tools much needed to sustain their advance culture.

Throughout Asia, you see evidence as to how the western societies have benefited from Asian innovation. Circa 3500 BC ancient cities emerged, wide streets, bathing platforms, drainage and reservoirs.  These were located in the Indus valley, now known as Pakistan.

Babylonians developed an alphabet which was adopted by the Greeks. Egypt relied on Babylon for trade, diplomacy the selling of cedar wood, olive oil and resins for mummification.

Asia has not emerged it has returned. Trading networks have functioned since the 8C BC, between Greece, Persia and India. India had established trading routes through South East Asia and China. China had at this time consolidated its power by possessing the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.  They had established trade routes to Southern Siberia bringing wealth to the nomadic peoples residing there.  China also, had routes to Bactria, trading freely. Bactria, an area north of the Hindu Kush, straddling parts of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. As a point of interest, it is thought that they were using single axle chariots 2000 years BC.

Greeks, by the 1ST Century BC had a vast maritime fleet.  One hundred and twenty ships per year sailed through the red sea, using monsoon winds in order to reach the ports of India. India through its own trade routes into SE Asia provided a staging post giving access to a wealth of spices, jade, beads etc.

Moving forward to today, it's fair to say that much of today's government policy comes from the many large family run corporations that have over years dominated the trade of this region. Asia is not short of family run conglomerates.  But, Indonesia’s government  are playing a key role in re-distributing wealth. Technology have opened the way for this process to start.

China's investment in sea routes East to West, their investment in the Suez Canal along with their influence over Israel. Israel have commissioned a rail network linking the Red sea with the Mediterranean sea forming an important part of the Belt and Road system. Indonesia is poised to benefit from this route looking to boost trade with Mediterranean countries.

Asian countries are increasingly looking to each other for their defence, sustainability, guidance and tolerance, they pull together. To some extent they have become immune to the western attempts at “globalization”, in 1998, the Asian crisis swept through the countries of SE Asia, they are mindful that it was an Asian contagion. In 2018, they see the west as still mired by the  financial collapse of 2008, yet Asian economies are enjoying bumper growth. A point of fact, all the major growth countries of 2018, they were from Asia.

Asian countries see the US as a facilitator of technology, innovation, but they no longer look to the US for their prosperity nor their defence. They see Trump's America as a wake up call, America can not be relied upon indeed, to do so would be a handicap. The US is now dispensable when it comes to Asia.

Indonesia is also advantaged with a vast population. The government have seen China's growth and have recognised, that China manufacturing is becoming uncompetitive. For instance China daily manufacturing salaries/pay is $30, Indonesia is still at $10.  Factories, Industrial, Science parks are emerging across this vast archipelago.