Progress... What Progress?

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

If we could turn back the clock, perhaps events would have turned out differently on that Monday, May 29, 2006. That was when the hot, stinking mud first started spewing from a hole in the ground, in the area of Porong in Sidoarjo, East Java province. The rest has been reported in great detail: eight villages submerged in mud, along with hundreds of hectares of rice paddies and scores of factories.

Various efforts have been made to stem the mudflow, such as building a massive series of embankments. But the results have been insufficient. It is a disheartening image: residents packed in evacuation centers, some of them with severe stress problems or even mental illness. People have lost their livelihoods. Gloomy skies paint a desolate picture above a murky sea of mud.

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THAT’S my house,” said Nasiruddin, Wednesday afternoon two weeks ago. The 45-year-old resident of Jatirejo, Porong district, Sidoarjo, pointed to the middle of a drying lake of mud. There is no visible trace of his two-story home, just a dried-up tree or two.

“Wait! I think it’s over there,” he said, pointing a few centimeters to the left, his forehead dripping with sweat. He stopped for a moment, trying hard to remember. A moment late

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