Poverty's grip on Kurnia Belawan village, Medan, North Sumatra, grows ever tighter. Located by a toll road along the river in Deli, the tiny row houses look increasingly dilapidated. With wooden planks for walls and palm thatch roofing, it's in these "houses" that the fishermen and their families live, squeezed tightly together like the rows of salted fish hanging out to dry in the yard.

"Since the arrival of trawlers several y