The Blue Are Coming

Rant and Rave

I guess this page is for short stories. It’s all the writing I do when not writing The Blue. Don’t expect the caliber of The New Yorker or Variety. It’s really more of a blog. Set your expectations low and you might not be disappointed.

This is going to be a space for musings (holy hell, I hate that term). I often find that writers who “muse” on things are pretentious and self-absorbed. Or maybe the writer who dismisses another’s musings is pretentious and self-absorbed. Whatever. Just do me a favor, will you? Kick me in the ass if I come off that way. There’s a comment section below where you can really let me have it. You’ll have to wait for me to approve your post, though. Sorry about that, but the spambots already have my number.

I’ll prolly get political from time to time. I hate that it’s come to this, but everything is political now. If you expect me to hop on the mean-is-the-new-cool bandwagon, you can seriously fuck off. Don’t think this is some sort of safe space, either. My words and ideas will sometimes anger or offend – if I’m doing it right, anyway.

I’ll be crossposting these to my author blog on Litopia. There are lots of good writers there. You should really check them out.

I do not authorize AI or any sort of LLM to scrape my site for content. it can go fuck off along with the mean humans.

*****

We Can’t Have Nice Things

20 April 2026 – Jakarta

Today’s rant is about a specific kind of hostile architecture.

Usually the term refers to deliberate design choices made specifically to discourage certain behaviors in the public space. Putting spikes beneath bridges to prevent the homeless from sleeping there, for example.**

However, not all forms of hostile architecture are deliberate. Yet they are no less hostile.

Indonesia is not very wheelchair accessible. Here’s a typical crosswalk in Central Jakarta…

Bollards are fucking everywhere in the city. They prevent motorcycles and small, three-wheel taxis called bajaj (pronounced baa-jai ) from driving on the sidewalk to bypass traffic jams. In places where they’ve been removed, you get this…

My friend photographed this dumbass in March 2026. The pedestrian walkway is in Pancoran – a working-class, largely ethnic-Chinese neighborhood in Central Jakarta. The city left some space between bollards to improve wheelchair access. Yet because of idiots like this, they plonked a concrete barrier into the gap.

The motorbike rider forgot to smile for the photo. I don’t think she was prepared for the obstacle – although sourpuss eventually snaked her way to the other side. I hope she appreciates my effort to cover her license plate. FYI… bego is a contraction of bener goblok – true idiot.

Here’s another bit of hostile architecture, and it’s a doozy…

The ramp fronts a pedestrian walkway through a city block near the Olimo bus stop. There are a few tiny homes, a small apartment complex, and a night owl noodle house further in. The severe slope discourages motorcycles from taking the shortcut. Unfortunately, anyone craving a late-night noodle nosh with less than full mobility is SOL.

I asked an Indonesian acquaintance what she thought could be done about the systemic accessibility problems. Her response was immediate and direct. “Tear it all down.”

I was like, “Wow. You live in Indonesia, you know. And you’ll probably live here for a while. You really don’t think there’s a solution?”

Grace thought a moment before she replied. “It’s just broken. I don’t think it can be saved.”

The passive statement aligns with her defeated outlook, but I totally get it. She was born in Indonesia and spent most of her life there. Yet she cannot help but draw comparisons to other Asian countries where she has lived and worked. She’s witnessed the positive impact on quality of life when people simply follow the rules. She understands local attitudes need to change, yet knows deep down that not enough people are willing to change them. It’s frustrating.

I’m not Indonesian. Despite this – or maybe because of it – I’m not ready to throw in the towel. So here’s some tough love. More Indonesians must be willing to accept a bit of individual inconvenience for the common good. Otherwise, accessibility will not improve for those who really need it.

Scofflaws are why Indonesians can’t have nice things.

 **Bonus rant:

     I've heard a lot about why some public restrooms switch to blue lighting after the motion sensor times out. A lot of people say the blue light is to make it difficult for intravenous drug users to find a vein. Advocates for drug addicts claim this endangers users and is just plain mean.

     I'm sorry, but this is paranoid babble. The blue light is there solely to kill germs. Shorter wavelengths like blue, violet, and ultraviolet are pretty good at it. The same lighting scheme is used in aircraft bathrooms. Violet and UV would work better, but the LEDs are more expensive and the light will cause plastic or painted surfaces to fade over time.

     So, no... blue light isn't to punish addicts; it's a disinfectant. While it may hide veins in a user's arm, that was never the intended purpose.