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Inequality in Indonesia and Hemingway's Paradise

Karishma Vaswani reflects on how Indonesians feel about their country's wealth gap - and whether it's widening; and Hugh Schofield revisits Ernest Hemingway's Parisian haunts.

Our correspondents reflect on how real life, news reportare, and art can end up influencing each other.

Recently Karishma Vaswani reported on the wealth gap in Jakarta - and the very different lives enjoyed by the city's socialites and its slum dwellers. Her perspective sparked many responses on social media and began a debate about whether Indoneisa's richest people are sufficiently aware of others' suffering - or doing enough to help them.

Paris is another great world city with a divide between the haves and have-nots, and it's most renowned for its cultural life. During the 1920s artists from around the world flocked there to work, to study and to write - and one whose name is synonymous with this era is the American novelist Ernest Hemingway. His account of his Parisian sojourn grew so famous that a whole tourist trail grew up around his old haunts. There's less of that kind of homage these days, finds Hugh Schofield, but the city and the writer are still inextricably linked.

Producer: Polly Hope
Photo: Mega Kuningan area, Ritz Carlton Jakarta hotel. (Andrea Pistolesi/Getty Images)

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10 minutes

Last on

Fri 5 Sep 2014 19:50GMT

Broadcast

  • Fri 5 Sep 2014 19:50GMT