Progress is a long hard trek

IT has not been a good week for Indonesia by any account. But if there is any consolation to suffering natural disasters, political violence, criminal negligence and systemic chaos simultaneously, it is that none of these problems is unique to any country. 

By Friday afternoon, the death toll from the flash flood in North Sumatra, blamed on illegal logging, had risen to 125 with 132 others still missing and feared dead. On the same day, Indonesian Forest Watch announced that so far this year, 4.1 million hectares of forest in the country had disappeared – above the annual average which itself was nearly double the official figure.