According to some, Jakarta sucks

So, evidently my family and I live in the 2nd worst expat city in the world. This is not counting high conflict cities such as Baghdad, but according to this report the only worse city to live in as an expat than ours is Lagos. And while I've never been to Lagos, my impression is that there would have to be a big jump from Lagos to Jakarta.

My friends and I have been discussing it and we are all quite surprised at Jakarta's low ranking. I tried to find out from the ORC Worldwide website, which conducted the survey, what all of the criteria were for the survey and who they surveyed, but I was unsuccessful. I do know from the article that the firm looked at 55 cities that could be considered "hardship posts" and considered aspects such as pollution, disease, political violence, and availability of goods and services.

I will be the first to admit that pollution is pretty bad here. While I don't see a grey cloud hanging over Jakarta, I also don't see clear blue skies all that often. I also believe that the pollution is part of the explanation as to why I've gotten sick so much here (colds and other respiratory infections) and why the illnesses hang on for seemingly ever. However, it doesn't hurt to breath and I'm sure there is worse pollution in other cities.

Jakarta is in the tropics, so with all this humidity and heat year round there is bound to be more diseases here than in many other locations. And Jakarta isn't the cleanest town, but I've seen and heard about far worse. Related to the disease criteria, I would guess that access to medical care was also one of the criteria that was considered in the survey. Again, medical care here is better than some places, and worse than others. Having lived and traveled all over Africa however, I have to say access to medical care is much better here. And, Singapore, which has premiere medical care, is only 1.5 hours away by plane.

The survey also considered political violence, and I can't believe that Jakarta would have scored poorly on this criteria. For one, Indonesians are not a violent people in general. Just last month Indonesia had elections and I heard of very few instances of violence. There are demonstrations and rallies like in any truly democratic society, but violence is rare. I imagine the threat of terrorism was also considered during the survey, and I know that the US and other governments consider Indonesia to be a high risk country for attacks. The threat of terrorist attacks does exist here, but there hasn't been a large scale attack since the Bali bombings in 2002 and no significant small attacks since 2003. All of the hotels, malls, large office buildings and some restaurants screen both cars and people for weapons and bombs. I rarely even think about the threat of terrorism here, and I honestly feel no less safe here than I did living in the D.C. area.

Jakarta must have scored well on access to goods and services. I can get almost anything I want here, and there are plenty of nice restaurants and opportunities for entertainment. The malls have Gucci stores, the movie theaters show current movies and have lounge chairs and hi def speakers, there are 2 Starbucks within a 10 minute drive of our house and several nice grocery stores where you can procure almost any ingredient. There are playgrounds and water parks and a Sea World and a zoo for children. There are first class international schools, high speed internet, and almost everyone speaks English.

All of this leads me to wonder who they asked! I'm guessing they surveyed executives of for-profit companies who have either never lived abroad or only lived in 1st world countries. They probably spend hours stuck in traffic, which is horrible here, but who don't really know Indonesians well and who may not have children. Did they survey people who work for a wide variety of companies? Did they survey the non-working spouses? Did they survey parents of young children?

All in all I think they got it wrong. Jakarta is a great place to live. Yes the pollution is pretty bad and the traffic can really suck, there are way too many people and motorcycles, and there is a small threat of terrorist attacks and a big threat of natural disasters.

But, there are so many wonderful things about Jakarta. For starters, Indonesians are really wonderful people. They are open, kind, patient and they love to laugh. Living amongst people who welcome you to their country is to me probably the most important criteria of whether a city is a good expat city or not. Did they even consider this? Furthermore, the expat community is large and diverse, there are plenty of creature comforts, domestic labor is cheap so we are well taken care of (this sounds a bit crass but so true), it is a financially advantageous place to live, we have access to good medical facilities and schools, and there are many exciting and nearby travel destinations. Basically, I think ORC Worldwide is pretty off the mark!