Depressing traffic. Bad public transportation. Multiplyingly polluted air (hell, even the pollution here is polluted). Random weather. Countless corruption. Both undependable and complicated bureaucratic system. Overrated shopping mall. Thoughtless high consumerism. Government's administrative officials who love to talk round yet doesnt help to resolve your problems/complaints. Yadda yadda yadda political campaigns which only waste money yet no promises delivered. Weak & breakable law & regulation system (meaning: money frees you from any charge).
Stupid IT technicians who call themselves the skillful experts, whom we pay for the service, but can only give shitty advices and turn out to be as clueless as you are - mind, sometimes you manage to solve the problem, proving that you are actually more capable then they are.
Natural disaster & climate change: can you believe that the awareness is shockingly low in this country? People talk about going green, yet i dont really see any significant changes. There's even no government's special institution for the fight against global warming. Not yet at least (heard that they're working on it to save their face since Indonesia has been invited to the G8 meeting).
Flood hitting Jakarta so often whenever the rain season comes: please dont blame the nature, it's mainly a result of the way people treat the environment and thus affecting the nature's behavior.
The latest crisis: increasing energy & electricity demand VS growing-limited energy supply. "Dear sirs & madams, please blame those luxurious shopping malls that waste our energy supply, instead of 'providing' electricity black outs frequently.
Lapindo catastrophe. No need to explain more about the disaster. It's a national disaster indeed, but i still can't believe how they managed to acknowledge it as national responsibility. I mean, ask and sue those high-flying companies who started the careless project.
Judgmental society judging you based on what you wear, how much it costs, who your friends are. One too many glossy magazines reporting socialites' activities and featuring their pompous poses with over-the-top made up face.
Student demonstrating in bad manners: demonstrants VS police officers. Am sick of it!. I dont care if they said that the 'demo' was intruded by strange bad people. All i know is that students are supposed to be a bunch of educated and talented young people whose fresh minds should have logical sense to know that there are many ways to express their thoughts rather than standing, crowding, and yelling like morons. "Dear students, do you know that you're all only making the traffic worse and thus hindering people from doing their activities on time?. Why not find a more civilised yet innovative method to get their message across? Do that, and people will surely be more appreciate of your ideas. Trust me".
Oil & fuel price issues... I've had enough of it. Government has done the right thing to diminish the oil subsidy (i hope they'll do it more firmly with gradual efficiency instead of 'walking' slowly in delivering the policy), but they should've prepared a real budget-allocation to provide effective subsidy for the poor: infrastructure. They're indeed wrong to never build the much-needed infrastructure (especially physical ones) so the public would be provided a sound wealth and free-services and not be troubled with money problem if they hadnt to deal with costs of education and health. Let the fuel price be high, but provide sound and well-managed public transportion so people wouldnt have the need to use personal transport (lessening pollution, wouldnt it?). Provide government-paid education and health services. So people would only have to worry about spending money on day-to-day basis, not on sky-scrapping education costs or expensive-yet-unreliable medical care.
*Sigh*. I could go on and on. But it would only make me rambling on like a moron. And i am sure i dont want to be one. Besides, it's starting to depress me.
Whatever happens to the country? What ever happens to the beloved Jakarta? What those powerful people in government have in mind? Why the society is becoming more and more pretentious and superficial instead of caring about what's been happening with the country, the cities, and the faith of the poor and homeless? Sheesshhh...why am i torturing my mind with all these questions? I know why. Because, despite all those complaints above, am still optimist that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We actually have chances to right the wrongs. some if not all. That's not impossible. It's our choice, dear Indonesian fellows. Do it, people! do it! Optimism indeed.
Stupid IT technicians who call themselves the skillful experts, whom we pay for the service, but can only give shitty advices and turn out to be as clueless as you are - mind, sometimes you manage to solve the problem, proving that you are actually more capable then they are.
Natural disaster & climate change: can you believe that the awareness is shockingly low in this country? People talk about going green, yet i dont really see any significant changes. There's even no government's special institution for the fight against global warming. Not yet at least (heard that they're working on it to save their face since Indonesia has been invited to the G8 meeting).
Flood hitting Jakarta so often whenever the rain season comes: please dont blame the nature, it's mainly a result of the way people treat the environment and thus affecting the nature's behavior.
The latest crisis: increasing energy & electricity demand VS growing-limited energy supply. "Dear sirs & madams, please blame those luxurious shopping malls that waste our energy supply, instead of 'providing' electricity black outs frequently.
Lapindo catastrophe. No need to explain more about the disaster. It's a national disaster indeed, but i still can't believe how they managed to acknowledge it as national responsibility. I mean, ask and sue those high-flying companies who started the careless project.
Judgmental society judging you based on what you wear, how much it costs, who your friends are. One too many glossy magazines reporting socialites' activities and featuring their pompous poses with over-the-top made up face.
Student demonstrating in bad manners: demonstrants VS police officers. Am sick of it!. I dont care if they said that the 'demo' was intruded by strange bad people. All i know is that students are supposed to be a bunch of educated and talented young people whose fresh minds should have logical sense to know that there are many ways to express their thoughts rather than standing, crowding, and yelling like morons. "Dear students, do you know that you're all only making the traffic worse and thus hindering people from doing their activities on time?. Why not find a more civilised yet innovative method to get their message across? Do that, and people will surely be more appreciate of your ideas. Trust me".
Oil & fuel price issues... I've had enough of it. Government has done the right thing to diminish the oil subsidy (i hope they'll do it more firmly with gradual efficiency instead of 'walking' slowly in delivering the policy), but they should've prepared a real budget-allocation to provide effective subsidy for the poor: infrastructure. They're indeed wrong to never build the much-needed infrastructure (especially physical ones) so the public would be provided a sound wealth and free-services and not be troubled with money problem if they hadnt to deal with costs of education and health. Let the fuel price be high, but provide sound and well-managed public transportion so people wouldnt have the need to use personal transport (lessening pollution, wouldnt it?). Provide government-paid education and health services. So people would only have to worry about spending money on day-to-day basis, not on sky-scrapping education costs or expensive-yet-unreliable medical care.
*Sigh*. I could go on and on. But it would only make me rambling on like a moron. And i am sure i dont want to be one. Besides, it's starting to depress me.
Whatever happens to the country? What ever happens to the beloved Jakarta? What those powerful people in government have in mind? Why the society is becoming more and more pretentious and superficial instead of caring about what's been happening with the country, the cities, and the faith of the poor and homeless? Sheesshhh...why am i torturing my mind with all these questions? I know why. Because, despite all those complaints above, am still optimist that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We actually have chances to right the wrongs. some if not all. That's not impossible. It's our choice, dear Indonesian fellows. Do it, people! do it! Optimism indeed.
9 comments:
Well, I am totaly agree with you. You just arrive here. I have stay here longer than you since back from UK.
The positive of it, maybe better development (more properties build) :-? but i think is worse than before for every sector.
The point is how you gonna change this?
I hope you not only criticize the problem but how you to overcome this, by using all your knowledge :D
Good blog ci ;)
Thanks!. We need better development indeed, but not just in the form of "plans", it has to come into realisation with physical proof. I badly voluntarily want to involve in the changing process. Hence where i am working for ;). So, no...am not planning to stop at criticizing, but am wanting to do something indeed. You've to participate as well. Lose you cynical pessimism, matey! Like Mr. David always reminding you. HAHA.
who are u calling "stupid IT technicians?" the guys at ambassador / ratu plaza who suppose to fix your toshi? they give a bad name to IT practitioners everywhere. They don't even qualified to use the word IT in their job tittle, please refer to them as "stupid hardware technicians" instead.
Other than that, i love this article, especially about the student's demo. The real student movement end in 98.
hahahah. am so sorry Mr. IT expert. I wasnt talking about people working in IT literally. Nor i was talking about Toshiba technicians at Ratu Plaza (they were nice people, actually). I was talking about those technicians from services sector (telkom, speedy, indovision etc). hmmm...perhaps i shouldve not put the "IT" part and left it at "technicians" instead. Didnt think 'anyone' would be a bit 'sensitive' about that part *wink*. Dasar kepiting hahah.
Hi, this is my first visit to your blog and am really amazed at the story you left at my blog. Maybe our parents are friends, who knows! I've met quite a few bloggers that actually connected with my parents and one of them became my real good friend :D
Did you really have my Vila Merah book? That is sooo strange :D
Nice to have heard from you and I'm gonna spend tonight reading your blog :)
*to Miund:
Thank you for visiting my blog! And for replying my comment. I'd expect critiques from you, the expert blogger heheh.
Yes yes i did have your villa merah book. still remember your mom's note for my dad sticked to that book, writing about "her tizia". I just told my dad about this, actually. They story was that my dad and your mom used to work together in the same company back then, Johnson n Johnson i guess. But he knows your dad too. He actually asked me a favor if i could ask you to find out your parents' contact numbers. I think they've been losing contact for years. So, if you could ask your mom, my dad's name is Fauzy. Hope she remembers. this is amazingly weird, isnt it? haha.
Thanks for surfing in my blog! ive been spending some times reading your blog as well :).
My view on the issue of unemployment and its correlation to the addiction to energy and how to manage it: I think that it is plausible and inevitable for a big city, especially the capital of a country like Jakarta, to be addicted to energy. A lot of people all across the country migrate to the capital seeking job opportunities with the idea of creating a better way of living for themselves by deploying their trades and skills in various sectors. This isn't necessarily bad, because it creates a certain trade flow, which to some extent would benefit our economy. However, since everything is too centralized, mainly in Jakarta, this most certainly has put a heavy burden on our government especially in providing us with a wider labor market so that everyone can make their ends meet, and providing us with more and more energy so that we can have the adequate means to keep the trade flow going. This situation alone has created a lot of problems for our government because of the overflow of demands of jobs and energy, which it entails. Like you said, increasing energy & electricity demand VS growing-limited energy supply has indeed become a problematic issue that needs to be resolved promptly. The increase of unemployment and usage of energy vis-à-vis the decrease of energy supply would not only harm our economy but also the state of our country as a whole/"status quo", in which the people that are already employed will keep on working and making money and the less-fortunate unemployed people will become poorer and poorer, whilst the demand for energy keeps on rising. In addition, the excessive use of energy in concentrated areas such as in Jakarta, also mentioned in your Blog, has also caused the increase of high pollution and emission levels, which would not provide us with any favors against the fight on global warming. The aforementioned situation is basically one of the situations that our country has to deal with and really has to endeavor a solution in order to achieve “at least some” sustainability in our social and economic development. I think that first of all the decentralization of autonomy plays a big part in our development. Decentralized autonomy enables minor regions and cities across the nation to invest into their own regional development and to build their own infrastructure. They therefore have the opportunity to create their own trade areas and own local labor markets, hence the people from those regions and cities would not have the need to migrate to the already-overpopulated capital because they are provided with an opportunity to seek a job in their own city. This would certainly help decrease the unemployment rate. The determining factor to make this plan feasible would depend on the discretion of the autonomy districts, how and on what they spend their annual budget on is essential. This implies that a discreet and “clean” autonomy district would contribute immensely to our development, and on the other hand, the corrupted ones would only benefit themselves thus leaving the issue at hand unresolved. Touching upon the second issue, i.e. the excessive use of energy causing the increase of high pollution and emission levels, I agree with you that our government needs to provide us with better public transportation which in theory would help us with the traffic jams and pollution. However, I must add that you also need to focus on changing the people’s psyche and mentality on their addiction to energy, in this case, the use of automobiles. It is obvious that the upper-class people or families that have high incomes would most likely prefer to use their own luxurious cars even if the government provides them with good public transport. This is because, no matter how high the prices of oil & gas are, they still can afford it. And as long as they can afford it, the more energy they will spend and the less aware they will become. A lot of middle class people that live in Jakarta, especially the younger generation, I think, would also still prefer using their own vehicles instead of public transportation. I think this has to do with something you pointed out in your Blog, concerning the existence of a “judgmental society ” especially in Jakarta and how you are perceived by “them” based on what you wear, how much it costs, who your friends are, and in this case what car you drive. Nevertheless, it would be easier to persuade a middle-class person to use public transportation than a high-class person merely based on their capability to buy gas for their cars. In this case, the inflation of oil and gas prices might be good after all, as it at least serves as a pretext for the government to create better public transportation and therefore persuading the majority of the middle-class whom cannot afford the gas for their cars to use public transportation instead. Another solution to decrease the pollution and emission level is by preserving our rain forests and wild life, and to impose heavier sanctions and penalties on illegal loggers.
The land of optimism, which you already know by now Leitizia, is Canada...Where grass is green, snow, beloved snow, is white, and where, as Guns & Roses sing, girls are pretty!
More seriously, ever read the NY Times article by Friedman back in the Fall, when India's Tata motors lauched it's US $2,500 car? He wondered why India was making the mistake of venturing into the trap of mass production cars, leading to heavy pollution and traffic. He suggested that India should leap frog into public transit which is a zillion times more clean and sustainable.
Apply this leap frog rule - to avoid the mistakes the western world is experiencing - to all areas of life within Jakarta and Indonesia and you guys will be the next wealthy country, not in the sense of material wealth, but in the sense of sustainable wealth, which will soon enough become a new standard.
En direct de Montréal, c'était Alex
What should change is the root of the problem...PERCEPTIONS AND EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. Not only in Jakarta, but everywhere! We should stop wanting more goods, more consumerism, mass production...and start being content with some of the things we have in our lives, that we take for granted all too often. Soon, those will be gone and it will be too late...Western Countries' development patterns that 'developing' countries are trying to copy are toxic to humanity and our planet...that is one of the fundamental things that should be changed in our perceptions, and that of governments!
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