I don't want to walk while sleeping...

There is always one short phrase that I always remember from ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’: ..kebanyakan dari kita melakukan sesuatu dengan setengah sadar, seperti berjalan sambil tidur..That is more or less what I can recall. It’s not this short phrase being right or wrong, but the point is that we must fully sober when we are to make decisions, especially about something that there is a good chance we will do for the rest of our lives. In the case of my present life, it is my job.

I by all means agree to it and decided to follow it. I got a golden opportunity to work with the second most powerful person in this country just after I graduated. I was very happy and, not to be naïve, a little proud. But the most essential thing is not that I could sit in the same room and listen to him talking. It is the chance to learn from the real policy makers and visit such beautiful places. I might have never dreamed of putting my feet on the magnificent Banda Naira or Merauke and having some conversations with boys living there, contemplating why the socio-economic condition is like this and that.

Nevertheless, I realize that it is not one of my goals, not in my early career. The required capabilities are yet to come. Indeed, it will not come if I am still there by now. I don’t want to be the person Professor Morrie talks about. I insist on being a person to walk his life soberly, not caused by temporary pride but lasting regrets. However, what I can remember up to now is that I do not remember having some regrets to have worked for my nation (almost) directly.

Are you capable?

Today, I was upset looking at a picture of a low class porter at a port carrying bags of chemical powders. But, this is not the main cause why I was so upset. They just got Rp 10,000/day for being exposed to risk taking danger to their health. Why do they want to take such risks? There are two quite obvious answers to this. First, they don't get sufficient sheer of knowledge about being exposed to sickness they may get, so due to lack of and their capacity to get jobs , they decided to take the jobs. Second, they have found out what danger that they may take, but daily bread plays its role.

The next question springs on my mind is, why they just get Rp 10,000/day, while it literally takes muscles and dangers to their health? The most likely answer is that because company/people, if any, who hires them would maximize profits by suppressing their cost! Profit is the name! Yet, I don't know if they get other benefits and fringes.

I just realized that why people are so mad at capitalism is that those capitalists would hire labors with as lowest salary as possible so that they can maximize profit. However, I wonder if those protesters wouldn't do the same things as the others do since slight rise in labor salary, would reduce employers' profit at quite amount. I, myself, doubt if I can attain this goal.

There is only one most feasible guideline to attain this noble goal. That is, they should grip to the moral rod. Would you be eating till you're full up, whereas the others' even can't eat a bite of bread? If this sentence has already been ingrained in one's mind, I do believe that this noble goal is not impossible to attain...But, can human beings carry this out? I hope so, but it's hard to tell...

Comfort View Vs Humanity: Comfort View Wins!

Yesterday, I went to my parents’ shop to assist them, once in a while. In my way to home we passed along a traditional market, I suppose. However, I was surprised that a beautiful public park I found, instead. I said “where the hell are they (fruit sellers, vegetable sellers, coconuts peelers, and their friends)?” It was there a year ago. My parents said that it was no longer there since several months ago, if they aren’t mistaken. Facts given were quite reliable since they regularly pass the street.

I just couldn’t stop shaking my head. I can’t imagine how many people must struggle to get some money just to live after their asses being kicked? This (forced movement a.k.a ‘penggusuran’) happened (again!). I don’t know how many traditional markets or illegal market have been swept out. I have no idea what have happened to other regions in Indonesia, but in Jakarta, at least on what I have seen by far, a comfort view like this is common. Jakarta, in my opinion, has been too busy to manage its make-up to look gorgeous as the capital city, without ever concerning on poverty rate, except for BOS or other significant yet I don't know.

I don’t know what’s in the authorities’ heads. They don’t seem to consider poor people as a part of Jakarta. I suppose they just consider poor people as a burden to wipe out. Look at those ‘penggusuran’ and Perda Tibum authorized. I know that sometimes PKLs break the rules, but the govt officials can’t put mere blames on them. They can’t find the legal ones because of lack of capital, neither physical nor intelligence.

They place those poor people as a scapegoat to conceal their incompetent, impotent, low quality, you name it works. It’s obvious and undisputable, I think. They have not provided reliable solutions. During analyzing and concerning this issue, I wonder if this is a problem of their hearts of inadequate incentive to develop competitiveness of poor people?

However, I don't know ‘till when this drama, where the fatty govt officials and other corruptive local representatives play unbeaten role and the poor people play the suffered ones, would end. Let ‘comfort view’ is Mike Tyson and ‘humanity’ is Chris John. If they fight in an occasion, it’s clearly Mike Tyson will be the absolute winner. Hope not always!

Peeping Through The Veil of Poverty

A few days ago, on December 20th specifically, me and a friend of mine, Azionk, sometimes he would refer himself as Adi, went to one of most famous malls in northern Jakarta. We got a lot of courage and willingness to go through a pouring rain just to see our friend who has just got a job at Oakley.

At a parking lot, my friend asked me if I perceive Indonesia as a rich country or not, looking at cars and expensive motorcycles taking a ‘rest’ at mall’s parking lot. Well, if a foreigner who arrives in Indonesia and lives near this mall just for a week, I think he would consider Indonesia as one of developed countries and he will not see some traces of economic crisis then.

However, I said gently to Azionk that I would not perceive Indonesia to have escaped perceptions of developing country since those are just a part of Indonesian, Jakartanese for more specific term. That was a simple answer yet obvious one, I think.