THE sky was still rather dark when Mariano da Costa awoke. He folded the old mat made of woven lontar (palm) leaves, then walked to the corner of the room to blow out the flame of a candlenut on palm leaf rib, which functioned as a lamp at night.

The 5-year-old boy took a breath, snatched a plastic bucket from the dirt-covered floor and wet his face with brownish water. From the kitchen the aroma of maize porridge excited his stomach, as his mothe