Forum: Sinking this low?

Mon, 10/06/2008 9:52 AM  |  Reader's Forum

Don't despair, get simple statistics and not from our Central Statistics Agency but from someplace like the World Bank, some good NGOs, or the like. These will confirm how low we did go.

Other indicators show: During the past four-five years, the number of F cars increased from 17 to 100 and the number of luxury high-rise apartments increased by some 11,000 with still more to come. Where does the money come from, first to build and then to buy?

(Economist) Faisal Basri said recently 30 percent of the Rp 1,000 trillion state budget will evaporate. That's Rp 300 trillion. This is the missing link for combating or reducing poverty.
YOUSOEF SANTO
Jakarta

Why are people poor? If you ask yourself that question and really try to understand it, everything looks so different. In Indonesia more money goes for fuel subsidies than for education. Legislation is passed forcing companies to engage in corporate social responsibility, which in reality turn out to be just handouts to poor people.

As long as reality escapes the large middle class, the de facto ruling class in this democracy, we will continue to see a charity mentality, where poor people are fed in hopes the donor will secure a ticket to heaven.

People need jobs, a means to earn their own living and support themselves. You don't give poor people a fish to eat, you give them a fishing rod and the education to use it.

You can't legislate poverty away as they've tried to do in Jakarta. It's time for Indonesia to be realistic and stop feeling sorry for poor people. Employ them instead. Let them earn their own money and get their pride back.
BOB HOPE
Jakarta

Anyone who is prepared to set up a business to profit in this way is quite simply a disgusting human being. Unfortunately these people exist everywhere, not just in Indonesia and not just in countries with high proportions of desperate, hungry people.

Where Indonesia does rank pretty low, though, is in the ability to uphold its rules and regulations. I presume somewhere there is a rule book governing health and hygiene in Indonesia, and there are people whose sole job it is to promote good health and hygiene and to protect people against those who break the rules. Yet, as I understand, the people who ran this dirty business had been at it for a number of years without detection.

I presume these are the same authorities who are tasked with maintaining health standards in restaurants, both up market and down market. We don't have to go too far to see this area gets more or less no monitoring.

So, sadly, this incident coming to light is hardly surprising. Maybe a good place to start would be to have a way for the public to report establishments who have bad standards directly to authorities, but of course with an assurance of anonymity.

Sadly, very few people in Indonesia feel good about sticking their heads above the parapet, also part of the problem.
MIKE
Jakarta

Well, I'm not surprised at all. In countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Vietnam and many other countries where the population is dense and resources are limited, incidents like this happen. It happens in the United States, too.

Survival is the name of the game. This is how the world functions. It's what comes from the mistakes we and our predecessors have committed. What you sow is what you reap. That's the law of the universe. Be aware of it always before you act.

Your Indonesia is not dirt poor. Be proud of yourself for being one of the spokes of the wheel of Indonesia, ask yourself what you have done to improve the situation and stop blaming others. Change your vision and act from now on. Look at and do things with the awareness you are the provider for a better tomorrow. Ask yourself what you really want from life?
SIWA
Jakarta

Why don't we create a food bank? It could start with a few people with vehicles collecting untouched but still edible food from hotels and restaurants and then distributing it to the needy.
DWIBOWO
Jakarta

You imply if poverty exists in "far-flung" provinces, it matters less than if it exists in Java, and Jakarta in particular.

As in other large, federal countries, including my country, Canada, what happens in the far-flung provinces is just as important as what happens in the capital. Indonesia is much more than just Jalan Sudirman.
STUART SHAW
Jakarta

You can be sure Indonesia did sink, and what's more, it's still sinking, from what I hear and read about the country in general.

You have leaders who are paid to get into office. So what's the use for people to vote, if the whole system is corrupt? Ah, there's the rub.
B.B. LEO
Jakarta

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