THE SECOND Karbonjournal.org’s postcard presents the story of Toib, a vendor of the traditional Betawi dish of ketoprak, which gave his cart the name of “Ketoprak.Cell.” The picture of this ketoprak seller in Tebet, South Jakarta, was taken by Ardi Yunanto and published for the first time on the Photo page on Karbonjournal.org in May 2009. Upon seeing the picture, Jakarta Post’s reporter Prodita Sabarini became intrigued and went out to know more about the ketoprak seller. Her article was then published on The Jakarta Post on May 16, 2009. With the picture and the article as its basis, the postcard was thus produced, with an accompanying text written in collaboration by Prodita Sabarini and Ardi Yunanto.
On the opening night as well as during the event of OK. Video: Comedy – Jakarta International Video Festival 2009 held by ruangrupa at the Indonesian National Gallery, Central Jakarta, the postcards were distributed. The postcards, which can also be considered as flyers as it has no place on which we can stick the stamp, are also distributed in a number of venues, moving from one hand to the next. With the help from Barbara Smeenk, the Dutch artist whose work was also screened in OK. Video Comedy Festival, the postcards are also distributed in The Netherlands and stored in the Stroom library in The Hague. We plan to distribute the postcards in some other places in Jakarta and other cities. You can participate in this effort, as well as enjoy the content of the postcard here on the site. You can also get it for free by contacting us.
Ketoprak.Cell
Ketoprak.Cell
Anyone can sell mobile phone vouchers nowadays. The ketoprak seller in Tebet, South Jakarta, even named his cart “Ketoprak.Cell”—ketoprak being the name of the special Jakartan food of rice cakes and bean sprouts with peanuts sauce. Toib (41), or Tommy for his loyal customers, is a proof of how the use of mobile phones has become so prevalent that even road-side food vendors like Toib can easily enter the “open market.”
Toib has been expanding his wares since 2007. He had the idea after a customer asked him to buy a mobile phone voucher for her. He then realized that he could use his savings for his business capital instead of leaving it in the bank and earning a very low interest rate. In a day, Toib can sell around thirty vouchers and gains an extra income of Rp800 thousands to Rp1 million per month.
According to the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Agency, there are around 150 million mobile phone users in Indonesia. Naturally, it is not only Toib who profits from the promising market. One can find vendors of cellular phone vouchers in the roadside stalls selling cigarettes; some even selling them using their push-bikes, using a glass box on the back of the bike. Toib, however, is perhaps the only roadside food vendors that use the combination of his wares as his business name: “Ketoprak.Cell.”
Photo by: Ardi Yunanto
Text by: Prodita Sabarini & Ardi Yunanto
Translated by: Rani Elsanti
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