Independence Day Celebration

It's 17 August 2009, for most of the people on the street it has other meanings than just “simply” being independent: it is just a few moments after the bad days of economy, and some have not yet recovered, it is just a few weeks after schools enrolment and people came to grasps with the reality that there are no such thing as free education that has been ingratiated in every election seasons, and it's just a few days away from the fasting month for Moslems, the holy month Ramadhan, which means more and more expenses as the price of basic provisions rises.

In this year's Independence Day, there are less and less celebrations. Most people take this chance to rest, some decided to open their shops and continue working, and the decorations that one can see at about every alleys now almost absent entirely.

But there are sporadic celebrations, more in the spirit of amusement rather than nationalism. Anton a festival coordinator in RW IV, Tanjung Pura street, Pontianak said that it was all funded collectively by the local residents. More of an entertainment form to deviate people from the monotonous daily life.

And people took utmost advantage of it, as there are only three palm pillars raised along the sub-river of Kapuas in western part of Pontianak – contrary to many pillars and pillow battle stages constructed in the previous years – people amassed around them, and created about a half kilometer of traffic jam, something that doesn't happen every day in this region.