The Great Garuda

“Climate change, land subsidence, a desire to urbanize, and a sinking city — all these disparate influences coalescing about Jakarta, Indonesia, have resulted in a giant infrastructure project that melds the private and the public in a grand attempt to change the country as a whole.”

My final paper for World Regions and Contemporary Culture with Jared Diamond at UCLA was about a proposed seawall in Indonesia called the Great Garuda. I carried this topic over to other international development classes and cited existing UCLA scholarship from geographers Helga Leitner, Eric Sheppard, and Emma Colven.

This paper breaks down the specific stakeholders. I tracked the funding — who stands to gain or lose? Are there less costly or dramatic alternatives to ease land subsidence? The Great Garuda project also has a postcolonial dimension because a prominent Dutch engineering corporation designed and promoted it, though the scale and hardness of the proposed megaproject would be unlike any in existence domestically.

Unsung

A short film about a topic undiscussed. A first attempt documentary by Ali Khan. Bangladesh, 2017.

I edited the script and did the voiceover for a 2017 mini documentary highlighting the contributions of street vendors I passed every day on the way to school.

Criminalized by the state, these vendors shuffle their businesses from neighborhood to neighborhood, earning day-to-day cash to survive.

I wish I had edited the script with what I know now. My major, International Development Studies, crystallized what the discourse in the video was and why it felt so subversive at the time.

The economist Hernando De Soto characterized the urban poor as heroic entrepreneurs in a bottom-up, grassroots economy, casting the informal sector as the solution to poverty. He framed them as victims of an economy that kept them at the margins, vulnerable and without protections.

De Soto asserts that the urban poor are not poor at all. Their assets are illegalized — he calls it “dead capital.”

This is an optimistic framework, in diametric opposition to anything I heard growing up. The notion that the urban poor can be empowered if only the state extended a bureaucratic hand is incredibly powerful. Through surviving, these street vendors contribute to a thriving people’s economy.

There are many reasons to take issue with this proposition. For one, the process of formalizing vendors is impractical, and more broadly, capitalism requires informality and vulnerability. The urban poor aren’t just a marginal mass to be absorbed into modern economy, they’re necessary for the labor that builds a modern city.

On an individual level, especially for surveys like this, I think De Soto’s optimism is useful. His view dignifies the presence of street vendors, not justifying their conditions, but restoring humanity.

The Popcorn Man

A 400-word scener for a UCLA Communications class taught by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

The smell wafted into Bruin Plaza, turning heads as it moved past calls of “Pre-med, pre-health!” “Are you registered to vote?”, screams from children’s tour groups and student chatter.

Vinny Schutz popped on a baseball cap and turned it backward to cover a head of fine, popcorn-yellow hair. He coughed, and the remains of his chow mein shifted in his lap.

After a swig of soda, he looked through the filmy netting of his cooking tent to assess the foot traffic outside. It was right before afternoon classes begin, and it was kettle corn time.

He poured oil into a metal vat and suited up – puffed gray gloves, an industrial face shield and an apron over a grease-stained shirt he got on sale next to his stand. With the flip of a switch, a rhythmic buzz filled the air: the heralding pre-kettle corn call. Schutz swirled his spatula in the hot oil.

Seconds after he tossed in the kernels, a delicious pop pop pop pop sounded, like a soft pellet gun. Some pieces shot out of the vat and onto the floor. The sweet, nutty aroma rose like gun smoke.

He needed both hands to move the giant spatula in a figure eight to coat the kernels. Schutz said he listened for when 1,000 pops per second quieted to about 100 – only then did he tip the vat, dispatching the kernels into a tray. He seasoned, shoveling the salt and sugar to caramelize the fresh kettle corn.

The first student was waiting with an outstretched credit card in hand. Schutz ladled kernels into a cup, tapped it with his scooper three times and offered a twist tie.

“Have a good day, boss,” he sang.

He twirled the scooper.

The third customer was a woman.

“What can I get ya, sweetie?” he asked.

A man with a topknot had already grabbed one of the prepackaged bags so Schutz rang him up, complimenting his hair.

“How’s your day goin’?” the man asked.

“It’s poppin’!” he replied.

Schutz’s wide-set eyes are almost Bruin blue. When he talked, his eyes never quite focused on who he was talking to.

During lulls, he people watched. He noticed fashion. In particular, boots – low-heeled boots, high-heeled boots, boots up to your thighs, all colors and shapes.

A few kernels popped out of the overfilled brim of the last customer’s cup as Schutz watched him scurry away.