The Eureka Reporter seems to think so. In today’s paper, they give front-page coverage to a meeting that took place yesterday between Deddy Saiful Hadi, head of Chancery/Consul for Economics with the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, and the City of Eureka.
According to the report, the meeting was a success. Hadi, unprompted, said “Eureka is a ‘leading’ Northern California city ‘in a very strategic location, being on the bay.'”
He then added that the “ports in Los Angeles and also in Oakland are near capacity, so although Humboldt Bay’s port is small by comparison, it is in a pivotal position.”
Pivotal position? Hurrah! Humboldt Bay is saved!
But wait, I thought it was China the Bay was looking to for salvation. Is Indonesia really in a position to pull the region out of its economic doldrums?
Once again, the Reporter seems to think the answer is yes.
But a Sept. 2006 article in the Economist paints a less optimistic picture of Indonesia. When that article was written, some 39m Indonesians, 18% of the population of 220m, were officially poor. That number was up 4m from the year before. (In China, on the other hand, the poverty rate is steadily decreasing.)
Government officials admit their target, a poverty level of 8.2% by 2009, is anyway unattainable. The current economic growth rate of around 5% is insufficient to provide all new job-seekers with employment, let alone dent Indonesia’s huge unemployment tally. Ministers did announce earlier this month an extra $1.4 billion for poverty alleviation in 2007, 18% up on 2006.
For many Indonesians, according to the article, “the future remains pretty bleak.”
Hadi, it seems, forgot to mention this at yesterday’s meeting, but his Economic Affairs Vice Consul Khasan Ashari, did tell participants that “My country is one of the biggest producers of pearls.”
Pearls? No matter how many Indonesia produces, one thing is for sure, that industry won’t ever increase cargo ship traffic in the Bay.
UPDATE: Indonesia is also the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. For more info check out the U.S. Department of Energy‘s LNG page and this 2003 article from the Asia Times.
This article appears in Rural and Rebellious.
Ah but they export LNG.
Whatever happened to the Polynesian cultural center on Samoa? I remember them draping Harvey Rose with some sort of necklace years ago at the Eureka Inn.
This is from an e-mail fwd to me:
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. A couple of Indonesian trade reps
come up from SF to promote their country and a trade show to Tyson and Hochaday. The
Eureka Reporter then contacts Hull and Lacy at the Harbor District to alert them to
the meeting. This is followed by pronouncements such as:
“This is consistent with what the Harbor District and the city have been saying,”
Tyson said. “We can be competitive with these other ports.”
“I think we’re positioning ourselves to do exactly that,” Harbor District Chief
Executive Officer David Hull said.
“To have that echoed back to me over lunch was an interesting fact for me,” Tyson
said (after claiming “the city hadn’t prompted Hadi’s comments about the port”).
Are these officials that naive or do they really think folks are that stupid?!
Hank – you (again) missed a good Bay District meeting tonight.
SRO with celebrity crowd.
Byarg, When are they going to start offering child care at those things?
Well they had cake for Ollivier.