Jakarta's Epidemic

Jakarta sucks..., the traffic sucks,... the pollution sucks,...  Jakarta is hell hole,... etc - is something that i hear quite often from different people in different age groups, occupation, gender, or even religion.

One evening i was driving home from north of jakarta and i was sitting patiently on a red light in a big junction, when i noticed that there was many road users that comes in different sizes, there's the Trailer-truck, buses, smaller trucks, pick up trucks, minibuses, sedans, and of course motorcycles.
What struck my mind was that at one point, there was this massive trailer who wanted to turn left, and knowing the size of it he had to make a pretty big turn on a junction that allows left-turns-go-ahead. At the time he's turning slowly there were many cars and bikes coming from the other direction and this leads to, i would say a small chaotic situation, as the truck tries to make its way, he had to battle his way with the other incoming cars that somehow didnt want to give way, and as few cars did, the motorcycles tried hard, .. i repeat "Tried Hard" to still sneak in between 50cm gaps just to be ahead of this trailer.

That whole process took maybe around 30-60 seconds at roughly around midnight-weekdays, imagine how long it will take during peak hours? this really bothers me somehow, to see the high level of in-efficiency that these road users create within the traffic. And this epidemic is spreading all over town, and it created,.. i think the most un-sustainable thing ever.

First you use more fuel because you dont drive at a constant speed, because you have to accelerate whenever someone else wants to change lanes and that you will try hard not to give that lane.
second, you will use more of your brakes, just in case that person gets your lane, or if somebody else cuts your lane. Third you will use more of your clutch (if ure driving manual) as people here tries HARD  to keep themselves very close to the car in front of them during traffic jam. Fourth you will lose patience as some nutter will push his-her way through a small gap, which have a possibilities on scratching your car or knocked your side mirrors, Fifth if you didnt end up hitting anybody or no motorcycles hits you, you will loose a bit of your time, just to fight for a lane.

So in the end your car will use more fuel, more brakes, and more clutch, and you will be pissed...

Just because,.... there are no rules, on who is allowed to go first in an open junction, T-junction, round abouts, or any intersection,...

I saw in Karawaci where they students crosses the street when the traffic light turns red and the Walking-sign turns green, they have to put TWO guards to make sure that during people crossing there are no motorcycles or minibuses jumped and drives through. And that when the cars sees that there are no people crossing EVEN when the lights are RED, they will just drive pass.

So,,... let me get it straight, so the council, or the conglomerate or whoever has the money, puts a traffic light, and a zebra-cross for people to cross the road, and after that they put 2 guards just to make sure that there are no cars driving pass,...??? why have the traffic light in the first place? just put 2 or 4 guards then?

Another example, a round about in Pondok Indah, after years and years of increasing traffic, the police experimented by putting 4 policemans in 4 corners to control the flow of the traffic, and then they or whoever decided to put a traffic light, for people to go around the round-about, and during the early months they even have the traffic lights aaaaaannnddd 4 cops! ... does anybody know the purpose of a round about? to have a junction working without using traffic light!

So after all this,... ( i dont even know what this is,..) well rant i guess,
it is proven its better to install policemans or Human beings than street signs, or traffic lights, or zebracrosses, or... no-stopping signs, etc...
but then again you have to install good quality policemans, not the one you give 1000 rups and he will stop the traffic from the MAIN road for you to go into a small alley,.... there's a reason why a MAIN road is called the MAIN road,..

Now the question is,.. who's to blame?


a

Quick, simple, and easy “return”

Pernahkah Anda berbelanja di sebuah pusat perbelanjaan, katakanlah sebuah supermarket ternama di ibukota yg setiap harinya bahkan di akhir pekan selalu penuh dengan pengunjungnya?
Ya, dengan jujur saja saja saya pernah dan SELALU terjebak dalam situasi penuh lautan manusia pd akhir pkean dikarenakan satu hal yaitu promosi minyak goreng besar2an yg dilakukan sang supermarket yg secara tidak masuk akal menghipnotis akal sehat para ibu rmh tangga untuk membelanjakan sebagian dr kebutuhan uang rumah tangga hanya untuk menyetok berliter2 minyak goreng.

Ibu saya masuk ke dalam kategori “ibu rumah tangga yg terhipnotis” atau secara kasarnya “kehilangan akal sehat”. Lupakan strategi marketing supermarket tersebut karena yg namanya bisnis marketing di tanah air jauh lebih kejam daripada bisnis warung tegal di pinggir jalan. Saya saja yg suka makan pecel lele di warung tidak pernah terhipnotis untuk membelanjakan budget uang saya untuk 3 ekor lele goreng. Heran seribu heran tapi itulah Indonesia…mari kita fokuskan kepada apa yg terjadi di suatu akhir pekan di supermarket ternama di Jakarta itu..
Sebagai seorang perempuan dewasa makalah wajarlah bagi saya untuk melihat2 produk2 kecantikan di supermarket tersebut. Katakanlah saya seorang perempuan yg mencintai hasil produk dalam negeri, maka saya putuskan untuk membeli sebuah produk lipstick local dengan catatan harga yg tercantum di produk dengan nominal 28,500 rupiah. Dalam pikiran saya, untuk apalah menggunakan kartu kredit kalau hanya membelanjakan sekian rupiah, maka saya segera mengambil uang dengan nominal 30,000 rupiah. Menghamipiri kasir khusus untuk barang kecantikan, terjadilah transaksi yg membuat saya diam seribu bahasa. Bukan karena keahlian make up sang SPG yg bikin mata silau, tetapi apa yg diberikan ke dalam telapak tangan saya..3 buah permen relaxa.
Pertama, ekspresi saya otomatis langsung bengong.
Kedua, saya berpikir “gua gk doyan sweets, masa gua kasi ke bonyok? Mo bikin mereka tambah gendut???”

Ketiga, emangnya gk ada uang receh dalam nominal 500 rupiah?
Ya itulah metode quick, simple, and easy “return” ala Indonesia.
Saya gak mau cari ribut dengan pelayanan supermarket ternama itu, karena saya tau customer service di Indonesia sangat amat parah. Mau ngomel sama siapa? Tukang bakso? Tukang bakso saja kalau diomelin masih mau tambahain daun bawang…biar tambah wangi kuahnya katanya…
Lain kali saya mau bertanya sama pabrik produsen permen relaxa (PT. Agel Langgeng bermarkas di Bekasi). Apakah nilai harga eceran tertinggi untuk sebuah permen relaxa itu sama dengan 500 rupiah??
Kalau misalnya begitu, saya bisa katakan di Indonesia secara tidak langsung kita balik lagi ke jaman batu, yaitu jaman tukar menukar barang alias barter.
Sungguh ironis sistem perdagangan di Indonesia.
Saya sempat berimajinasi…
Saya stock banyak indomie di rumah..
Kalau mau bayar tol, cukup 2 bungkus indomie rasa sotomie (tol dalam kota loh..)
Kalau beli satu mangkok bakmi GM Special, cukup 6 bungkus indomie rasa kari ayam.
Kalau mau berlangganan harian Kompas sebulan, cukup dengan 1 box indomie rasa apa saja.
Kalau…kalau…kalau..



Itulah Indonesia kalau begini susah ya kita balik ke solusi terdekat yaitu;
Quick, simple, and easy “return”






kc

But they are our everyday heroes

So I was at senayan all morning 
and ada ibu pemulung collecting plastic bottles. 


I had put some empty water bottles in my bag as I couldn't find a bin. 


Me: ini bu saya ada botol2 kosong. 


Ibu pemulung: wah mbak mau belajar jadi pemulung juga ya? 
Setiap minggu aja kesini. 


:D


tw

A 'fair' Obsession

It boggles my mind whenever i see a commercial ad on local television channels. 

They always portray that being dark-skinned is always a bad thing (less of a beautiful thing), 

or never been a cool thing. And when their skin got whiter all of a sudden they feel more beautiful. 

Who claims white skinned beings are more beautiful? 

Where did they get that kind of understanding from? 

Why? we are Asian, yet alone south east Asian people, we were born with beautiful tanned skin, something that the European or Australian can only dream to have.

But why does people (well some people) are obsessed with getting their skin whiter and whiter? And do you know what? 

if you want to have an obsession to be white, you will tend to cover your self from the sun, and your skin actually needs the UV rays to toughen the bones (vitamin D). The body also need the sunlight, so if you desire to be white, you automatically will inhibit yourself from the daily sun requirement, which so you will have (vitamin D) deficiency.

I always believe that being 100% natural is the best way to live, and you will last longer anyways if you're whole body is natural.  

Its the same thing like modified cars, when you start modifying the exhaust, change the engines, put turbos in etc, it will basically shorten the life of the car, and it will be much more expensive to maintain.

Maybe,...  

Well in the end its up to the owner of the car or the person, i just believe that natural Indonesian-tan-skin is beautiful! it looks healthy, durable somehow. Just because during the dutch colonialism era white people reign over the dark-skinned people, which probably gives that lasting impression to us that people who has fair skin somehow looks… more beautiful, 

I wouldn't say so.

atj

Monkey Suit Supremacy

One day i was driving back home from work and noticed that there was 3 Fire-trucks screaming loud with the sirens and with firemen hanging from the door yelling and some even knocked on people's windows, and other cars to make way for it. So, i as good citizen then pull over to make way for the firetruck to go pass. 

Thank to the heavy traffic i could see where the truck was going, and you know what…!!?!? 

He didn't bloody go to save a bloody building on fire or a poor chap's house burning down or something, he just went back to the Firestation. 

That's it! .. that's it???? 

All that commotion just to go back to the station. 

what the fuck! what the fuck were they thinking? 

come on man, if you were rushing to save many people in trouble then yeah please,.. but just to go home to your station you have to abuse all that temporary authority that was given in a form of red colored truck, and of course the uniform. 

The uniform, a layer of piece of clothing with a few emblems and logos that when a person with low education wears them, they think it automatically gives them unlimited authority and power. 

i wonder where did they learn that from? who taught us that uniforms gives us more power? instead of meaningful responsibility?

A uniform,.. a uniform should be something that the wearer should be proud wearing them because they are participating into something that is meaningful, for many people or to the country, not just plainly taking advantage or yet abusing them for personal gratification.

Jesus.. 

aT

Transfartation in Jakarta

On one monday morning i had a meeting appointment that took me around 2 hours to travel 16 kilometers between 8-10am, that's an 8km/h average speed, roughly as fast as a medium-pace jog on a treadmill. 

Now, if i travel bit over midnight it takes me around 25 minutes to travel 28 kilometers that is an average speed of slightly over 60km/h, which is almost 8 times faster than if i travel in the morning. 

So if for an example if you live in the south and works in the north of the town or west part of the town, you will spend 3-4 hours a day just to get there and home, which is 20 hours a week, that is 80 hours a month, and 960 hours a year or 40 days! 

So, out of a year of your Life, you will lose more than a month just sitting on your car, fiddling with your blackberry, cursing motorcyclists, thinking of how useless the police and the government are in organizing the traffic. Some of the more fortunate can stretch their legs in their captain's seat or watch america's next top model on DVD in your luxurious wheely box.

lets say if you don't kill yourself or others by working in the same place for 10 years or more, than you will waste,… yeah waste, i think that's the most appropriate word to describe this, waste one whole year just sitting in traffic. One whole year! you can learn a language in one whole year, you can set up a restaurant in a year, or can get a diploma in a year! 

So if you are now 60 years old, and have been living in Jakarta, and you have been working somewhere in a traffic-crap-pot area, then you probably have wasted around 5 years of your life. 

5 years!, i can watch my kid grow, … well when i have one, i can travel the world, learn 3 or more languages, have 3-5 different relationships with different girlfriends,.. or ten or more, if i get lucky.

i can teach a whole design degree, well it takes less than 5 years to finish anyways. I can, or you can do a lot of things in 5 whole years! 

And the other thing that i want to point out is that within that whole ball-suckin time sitting in hell hole of polluted air, noise, and visual (since most of the time we don't have excellent sceneries of lovely rice fields, or nice store front, or sidewalk) we complain about the traffic, we head but with other people on the road, we honk loudly to motorcycles, we shout to them, give them angry looks, drives aggressively and so on. I would call sitting in traffic or just plainly driving during rush hour in jakarta is a world and human deforestation, it pollutes the air, it creates noise, it makes the city looks ugly, and it makes us unhappy. 

its the most unsustainable thing that's possibly happening in our lovely-yet much hated J-topolis.

Jakarta should just disintegrate i say, just break into smaller pieces, decentralize, home-office is the way to go, mobile offices. 

oor ooorrrr oorrrr..... Maybe the government should bring becak back i reckon, put all the becaks in the business district, its quitter, it doesn't pollute, its friendlier to the both environment and the people. 

People who pedals becaks in Jogjakarta greet one another whenever they pass another becak. what strikes me is the level of stillness and somewhat peaceful sensation it creates. 

Maybe we should just bring the becak back? how if we can replace the smoke-choking metro mini and kopaja, and replace them with becaks again? in the end you will be traveling on a speed that doesn't exceed 10-15km/h anyways. 

Why not sit next to your friend (make the becak wider to accommodate 2 modern sized people) and feel the breeze in your face, see the vista not through a tinted window. Have a friendly chat over today's life, politics, and weather or what's up in town with the Becak driver.

Greet people as you drive pass them, or have a quick Teh-botol stop if the drive is more than 10mins. 

Imagine to have this just in the business district? if Jalan Sudirman or Kuningan has a backroad 10-20meters wide, only to accommodate pedestrian and a controlled number of Becaks., then they shold create a route that goes to shopping malls apart from the office buildings.

Design a modern Becak, one with enough roof to cover the passenger from the hot sun or the rain, a cup holder at the sides next to the arm rest to accommodate your needed Late or Frapuchino. Make the seat slightly wider and bigger to accommodate larger people or so that they can carry 2 people in comfort. Design the exterior nicely or just improvise from the existing Becak from Jogja which already has a nice design. 

Add a small compartment at the back for small luggage or laptop bags, and an attached solar powered light and fan would do the job, or even an additional radio just for the news or small Javanese gamelan? instead of the trashy top 40s that we can hear everywhere. 

Anyways, sometime when we're thinking far ahead to be better and better, looking back can always be a good option.

At

Get his friends to Fine this motorcyclist!