A friend once said “You wanna know the most superficial statement a person can make? It’s someone saying ‘I’m gonna fast today’ only after he realizes the fridge is empty.”
Damn straight.
The easiest time to say “I’m through with drugs” is right after you’ve had your fix. Or “I’m done with porn” right after you’ve finished gratifying yourself. Or “No more junk food” right before you burp and fall asleep holding an empty Coke can on top of scattered crumbs of chips and fries.
These days I wonder if we really do have what it takes to finish the race toward something noble we had set out to do in the first place. To stick to a commitment and, in the process, exert the staying power to endure the withdrawal symptoms.
Take Garuda for instance. After the European Union lifted its two-year ban to fly to Europe last July, word goes around saying Garuda has wised up by all of its flights, both domestic and international, being punctual.
But just five months later, it is back to its old ways again. I have started reading so many tweets complaining about delays. My wife was stranded for two hours in Pekanbaru waiting for a flight back to Jakarta. When boarding, she asked the flight attendant the reason. The answer: “We had to return to Jakarta to switch aircrafts to get here. Otherwise, we might not even be having this conversation.”
Yikes!
And so the adventurous takeoffs and landings have returned. Whereas, a couple of months ago, the Jakarta anti-smoking law eventually became the “missing” tobacco article. While several years back, there were some who even longed for the good old days of Soeharto’s New Order, when prices were more stable and life felt more secure.
What’s next? Back to selling spices while hoping for the Dutch ships to come in?
We are creatures of habit. And that’s exactly where the problem lies.
Habit.
Get rid of the “h”, “a bit” remains.
Remove the “a”, “bit” is left.
Wipe out the “b”, “it” is still there.
And it just won’t go away.
The writer is a news anchor at MetroTV. You can catch him on Indonesia This Morning
at 9 a.m. Jakarta time Monday to Friday and Sundays.
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