Standards of Security, East and West, comparitively speaking

Sun May 16 14:22:13 2004

Byron,
Thanks for the walk in Jarkata. The slice of reality juxtaposed sadly with a piece on Columbine which I just read. What a contrast. Children and grandchildren of the world get a lot of lip service but the drain of war and defense spending saps any economy giving the caregivers of the children and grandchildren short shrift. Women have to attempt to be like men in order to succeed. It's why they ever aspired to be in the military in the first place, to hunt with the boys for a living. Mothers have to absent themselves from the home to contribute to the mortgage freeing the young rouge elephants to rage at will. Some follow impulses inspired by the violence and disrespect for their fellow humans which bombards us in the name of popular entertainment. With outlandish role models patterns of abuse form, unopposed and tolerated, towards one another in person in school settings. The young people in Jakarta are at least spared this disasterous societal scandal in the spotlight. It is perhaps one of the few benefits that can be laid to poverty--less access to violent imagery combined with a feeling of neighbors being neighborly. Keep that formulae going, Byron. Thanks on behalf of mothers of toddlers everywhere.
Frances

 --- On Sun 05/16, Byron Black < blacky@cbn.net.id > wrote:
From: Byron Black [mailto: blacky@cbn.net.id]
To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net, cadaobh@shentel.net
     Cc: gravity4u@aemail4u.com
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 16:46:28 +0700
Subject: Standards of Security, East and West

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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I routinely see five-year-old female children 
walking by themselves from home to school. Or alternatively, entrusted by their 
mothers to the neighborhood <EM>ojek </EM>[motorcycle taxi] riders to whisk off 
in the morning.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A fanatic walker and thirty-year-runner (now 
perhaps amended to 'hobbler') I have upon more than one occasion strolled to my 
riverside home in Condet, East Jakarta, from Semanggi (Central Business 
District, maybe 18km.) starting at 11.00pm and arriving at 01.30. In what other 
major third-world (or first-world!) urban conglomeration of 15 million 
souls could you do that, without running at least some degree of risk? 
Here, I am routinely greeted by lounging street youths or itinerant sellers 
as I bop along, with the inevitable 'Hello, Mister!' or <EM>'Mau ke 
mana?'</EM>  or 'Where are you going?' which is really a greeting, not a 
question. I must say by way of explanation that I go out of my way to be 
genial and talkative, waving and speaking to strangers, even when I'm hot and 
thirsty and it's midnight with no cold drink in sight down the darkness. 
Avoiding an arrogant stance and demonstrating simple humanity goes a <EM>long 
</EM>way toward enhancing one's security, I've found. Or acting goofy (my own 
specialty). (But not in New York, where eye contact is always avoided, one gives 
another broad surround space, locals routinely ignore requests for directions or 
assistance. I felt like I was in Robot Towne).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Crimes of property are rife in this desperately 
poor country. A guy down the way lost his motorcycle from in front of his house 
the evening before last. Parked it in front, went inside to eat, failed to lock 
it. Some enterprising thief grabbed it, hotwired it (the keys may have been in 
the ignition for all I know) and absquatulated. The bike may have been nicked by 
a guy desperate to feed his own kids, for all I know.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This motorcycle was the sole means of support for a 
family of about four. I'm pals with the elder son, for whose female toddler I 
buy milk mix, and the younger son, who has now won a scholarship to university. 
Luckily he was buying it on credit so there was some degree of coverage from 
theft insurance -- but not 100%.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Crimes of property, yes. Crimes of violence, 
exceedingly rare, considering the miseries, hardships, and cheek-by-jowl way 
most Indonesians live (as I write this, at 5.40 Sunday morning, I look out over 
a flat panoply of green, trees and banana plants, across the river. Not a soul 
to be seen, and only a couple of roofs peeping through the foliage. I consider 
myself lucky to be here).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>CNN (Chicken Noodle Network) pounces on stories 
like the continuing religious / ethnic quarrels in Ambon because they sell 
chicken noodles. If you want to see a fairly representative selection of notable 
news events from across the globe I suggest you check out <A 
href="http://www.fark.com">www.fark.com</A> and count the number of stories 
emanating from Indonesia. Very, very few, and mostly about oddities, not 
violence. Compare that with the usual stream of exciting events from Houston, 
Detroit, Washington, Miami, and so on.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The anti-Islamic rant'n'rave* is really 
unnecessary. I live almost exclusively with Muslims (a couple of Christian pals 
too, and a Balinese Hindu family I've been close with since 1991), and have yet 
to find more tolerant, philosophical, generally good-humored peoples, either in 
South America, Europe (whew) or north Asia (spent many years in Japan: 
'Moonbase'). As far as I am concerned the Big Three desert religions are all 
pretty nutty, and are led by nuts, all with crazy agendas.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, Indonesia might turn out to be one of the more 
tolerable places to ride out the merriment in coming years, if it doesn't fall 
to pieces, a la Yugo (and it very well may, alas).</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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