OK fellow Jakartans--are we doing any better in 2013? (A History of Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles, commenting ~1811) "Of the splendour and magnificence which procured for this capital the title of the Queen of the East, little is now to be found. Streets have been pulled down, canals half filled up, forts demolished, and palaces levelled with the dust. The stad-house, where the supreme court of justice and magistracy still resides, remains; merchants transact their business in the town during the day, and its warehouses still contain the richest productions of the island, but few Europeans of respectability still sleep within its limits....History attests, that this city has been highly pernicious to health of both Europeans and Natives almost since its foundation."
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 18:52:00 +0000