Greetings, loyal readers. TP here, back again in Jakarta for the majority of this month. Unfortunately, JMP is not joining me this time, as she is busy working and preparing for the arrival of the first of the next generation of indolaysia authors. I'm here doing the final bit of field research for my next big project, on the politics and economics of Islamic political movements in democratic Indonesia. This is the project that brought me here for the last two trips. If any readers are interested in seeing the first results of this research, you can check them out here. Pretty much the main argument can be summed up here:

Incidentally, the whole reason why we stared this blog is because I was out here to work on my dissertation. That dissertation is now just months away from being totally completed. Check it out.

Today is dedicated to the many tasks inherent in arriving for field research: getting a new cell phone number, figuring out where my research affiliate's new office is, contacting interviewees to set up times, buying a bathing suit because I forgot to pack one, etc.