Jakarta gearing up

With the 18th Asian Games on the doorstep, co-hosts Jakarta is gearing up for the second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympics as well as it can. The other host city of Palembang being a bit of a backwater town, both literally and figuratively, the spotlight will be squarely on this megacity, which is going to host the event for the first time since 1962.

The extravaganza will officially get underway on August 18 and curtains will fall on September 2 -- both at the iconic Gelora Bung Karno Stadium -- and during those two weeks, medals in 482 events of 42 disciplines will be settled by athletes from 45 Asian countries.

The streets and sporting establishments have been adorned with massive banners and posters, welcoming the games to these shores for the second time.

The games have their obvious challenges though, not the least of which comes in the form of traffic control. Jakarta is notorious for its traffic, and the main streets turn into gridlocks on working days. However, it must be said that the traffic is maintained in a disciplined and systematic way, with various options available, quite unlike some of the megacities of South Asia. There have been major projects taken just to make sure that these Games are held without any major blips as far as communication and transportation for around 17,000 athletes, officials and media personnel is concerned.

These games were supposed to be held in Hanoi, but the inability of the Vietnamese government gave Indonesia the opportunity to attract the attention of Asia, which it grabbed with both hands. There is a national election coming up early next year, and a smooth completion of the Games is what incumbent president Joko Widodo is striving for.

Otherwise, life here seems pretty hectic and the people are hard-working and dignified. Centuries of ruling by outside powers -- Hindus, Buddhists, Christian Europeans and Muslims, have all left their indelible marks on the life and culture of this city, not to mention the sporadic development that has taken place due to a fragile political system in the country since its independence from Dutch colonialism in 1945. There are great divisions of ethnicity and geographical distance as well as political ideology among the people, but it seems those issues have been swept under the carpet, at least for the time being, with the 'Energy of Asia' ruling the roost.

And that was the emotion that was laid bare on the street sides and even on the small tea shops on Sunday night, when the hosts got off to a flying start in the football event of the games with a rampaging 4-0 win over Chinese Taipei. The expressions of emotion were difficult to decipher for an outsider, but they were pretty engaging and uplifting all the same.