The Jakarta City Live, a short piece that describe the social-cultural aspects of Jakarta.

Essay by p4sc4lHigh School, 10th gradeA-, February 2004

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Billiard, a New Metropolis Lifestyle

During the last decade, billiard was always connected to negative sides, such as prostitution, gamble, and drugs. For the middle-high society, billiard was banned and considered as thug's game.

But now, billiard is considered as a place to express our feelings, after a long day work in the metropolis. In Jakarta, billiard has been 'hot' for about two years and attracted thousands of fans to play and invest their money to this business.

Afterhour, a bar/clubbing area in Sarinah, Menteng, claimed that young executives, from 18-30 old years range, play the game for hours, even until midnight. They said that their customers did not get any trouble of paying the Rp. 45.000.-/hour cost, which meant that they have to pay Rp. 600,- for every minute they spent, not including the drinks.

While Afterhour combines billiard with club and bar, Bengkel, the biggest billiard site in Jakarta only consists of 120 tables.

Those tables are never empty, and in weekends they claimed that their waiting list might reach 200 numbers. They also organize regular tournaments, twice a month.

Putera Astaman, an ex-Polri Chief Deputy classified that these trend as a very interesting phenomena. "Billiard has been a new lifestyle in Jakarta," he said.

It is truly beyond our expectation that billiard, which was reputed as the dark side of the city, can lift its image into a new metropolis lifestyle in Jakarta.

Prostitution in Jakarta

In Jakarta, prostitution happens everywhere; from the famous Mahakam night street, until boarding houses in Taman Sari, West Jakarta. The prostitutes, which are called PSK (Pekerja Seks Komersial- Commercial Sex Worker) are placed in a bright 5 x 10 meters living room, just like a department store where the customer can choose their own 'items'.

Tetta (not the real name) said that their client usually take them to a hotel. The hotel usually is very very crowded, and it is very hard for them even to park their car. Her payment is Rp. 150.000-300.000, and she has to give half of it to her mami (a woman that organize the prostitution).

There are many backgrounds behind the PSKs. Rida, for example, said that she had to work as a PSK because her husband left her alone. "I had to do it for living."

The poor thing about this condition is the people's attention. Nobody seems to care about prostitution; even the people in Taman Sari thought that the boarding house is just an ordinary one for workers to stay. Even the Indonesian law of human trading (RUU Perdangan Manusia) is still in progress and may take a long time to finish. While now, where is the cognition of the local people? Even a caught PSK will only be sent back to her village, and the suspect won't get a proper punishment.