REFUELING is the most time-consuming activity in Kupang. At 11am, Antonius Manaf, an intercity transport driver plying Kupang-Oepura, is still stuck in an Oebobo gas station. He has been queuing in a 5-kilometer line for seven hours.

Antonius should not have come at dawn. Hundreds of his competitors had been there since the night before, just to get several liters of the black gold. At Oebufu gas station, the line consists of hundreds of peo