CIPAKU, Indonesia -- It might have been just another arcadian Saturday morning on Aug. 1 in Cipaku, a farming village 240km east of Jakarta.
The recently completed Jatigede Dam in West Java (Photo by Simon Roughneen)
The dawn euphony filled the air: a chorus of songbirds, crowing roosters and dogs offering up their first soft barks of the day. Shortly after, as the sun rose and as the first wan sunlight filtered a few beams through the tree-shaded village in West Java, drowsy parents swept doorways and ushered sprucely uniformed children out the gate ahead of the 7 a.m. start of school.