BANDOENG, HOE GAAT MET U? "BANGET", U WEL?

Apa kabar, Bandung? Banget sih?

Bandung is a city of more than two and a half million in the hills east of Jakarta. The Dutch, which called the city Bandoeng (btw, mijn vrienden aus Indonesie, ik spreek nederlands... en bahasa melayu ook maar ik woon in Filippijnen), planned to transfer their capital from Batavia (now Jakarta) to Bandoeng in the 1920's so they embarked on constructions which left an impressive mark on the city's face. Unfortunately, WWII caught up with them and they got evicted. Jammer, Bandung would have looked like Den Haag, but on second thought, better that the Dutch have left or the Indonesians would have been infected by their walking-on-clouds liberal politics which has forced Europe to its knees. Indonesia will be one of the giants of the future but Netherlands is predicted to be one of the laggards, in fact, barely growing by 2050.