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Super interesting topic. The article starts with how Java has more people than Russia, and I immediately thought of Bangladesh, another tiny country with more p
by mcv 4y ago
Super interesting topic. The article starts with how Java has more people than Russia, and I immediately thought of Bangladesh, another tiny country with more people than Russia, and an even higher population density than Java, at 1300 people/km^2. But at least Bangladesh has the excuse of having lots of rivers. River deltas are always very fertile because of the sediment the rivers leave behind.
While the article does an excellent job diving into the topic, it still leaves some questions unanswered. Because if Sumatra has mountains and volcanos and lots of rain, why are there no rivers bring all that nutrient soil from the mountains to the plains? That still sounds like an ideal situation for agriculture to me. I guess it doesn't work like that for some reason.
But if rain at the equator flushes away all the nutrient soil, then why doesn't that happen at Java? It may not be squarely on the equator like Sumatra and Borneo, but it's still pretty close. Does that not receive a similar amount of rain?
Interesting personal detail: Years ago we've been on vacation to Java and Bali. Friends of ours were working for a couple of years in Jakarta, and we visited them, but also took the opportunity to visit the rest of the island. And Java is indeed incredibly crowded. From the train trip across the island, we saw people everywhere. Rice fields as far as the eye could see. We've been to Bandung and visited an unbelievably smelly volcano there, and even the volcano, despite it's incredible stench, was crowded.
I assumed it was mostly for political reasons that Java was so crowded, because people do tend to flock to cities, which develop faster, and attract more people. So in that sense, the Indonesian government moving to Borneo in order to avoid the overpopulation of Jakarta and draw more people to Borneo and develop that region, sounds like a great idea. But if it's really because of food production, that new capital on Borneo might become incredibly dependent on Java.
Also, my grandmother lived on Sulawesi for most of her youth. There's even a statue of her father there somewhere.
(I too expected the article to be about the peculiarities of the programming language, on which I have plenty of opinion, but I guess that's for another discussion.)
- arp242 4y agoIsn't Jakarta sinking in the sea at a phenomenal rate? I always thought that was just as much of a reason to move the capital than overpopulation (which is also a problem; as anyone stuck in Jakarta traffic can attest, and the issues are not entirely disconnected). I just hope they build a decent city and don't half-arse it, but knowing Indonesia... > But if it's really because of food production, that new capital on Borneo might become incredibly dependent on Java. This is true for a lot of places; New York City is also dependent on the rest of the United States for food, Berlin on the rest of Germany, London on the rest of the UK, Auckland on the rest of NZ, etc.
- mcv 4y ago> Isn't Jakarta sinking in the sea at a phenomenal rate? Now that you mention it, could be that that was the real reason. > This is true for a lot of places; New York City is also dependent on the rest of the United States for food, Berlin on the rest of Germany, London on the rest of the UK, Auckland on the rest of NZ, etc. Yes, but if food dependency wasn't a issue, then there would be no reason for Java to be so much more populous than anywhere else in the region. They could have settled in more strategic locations. I guess moving the food around still matters.