Author: yosefardi.com

On Monday (Dec. 15) Australians were shocked by a hostage-taking situation that took place at a cafe in Sydney, Australia. The hostage taker was identified as Man Haron Monis, a supposedly troubled, self-radicalized person with a deep history of violence. It was a tragedy that sparked a discussion on self-radicalization and its threat to national security. This led our thoughts closer to home as we began pondering about self-radicalization in Indonesia.

Repsol, the Spanish giant, has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Canadian oil company Talisman Energy Ltd for US$8.3 billion plus assumed debt of US$4.7 billion. The acquisition bolsters Repsol’s profile in Indonesian oil and gas industry.

The Jakarta Tourism Board held a Lanterns Festival over last weekend. The Lapangan Banteng park situated across the Borobudur Hotel was packed with visitors keen on taking their pictures between the thousands of colorful lanterns in the park. We went there to check on the event and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of music performance provided for the event. It was a truly exciting experience. We thoroughly enjoyed documenting the event. We hope that the City Government would continue holding such events in the future to add into Jakarta’s rich festival repertoire. Enjoy our pictures.

Pasar Santa is a traditional market with a twist. We have written a lot about this phenomenon, but today we’ll give you more. These are photographs we took on our last visit to the trending market. Enjoy the images.