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br>In response to your editorial of Feb. 27, poverty exists everywhere and its root causes are ingrained in our human psyche. The Indonesian style of poverty is endemic to all tropical-based cultures. For thousands of years or more, tropical inhabitants had everything they needed for basic survival.
On the contrary, in most of the Northern hemisphere, the situation was totally different. People were forced to manage their lives wisely, because for some months there was not enough food and, as well as building a shelter for the freezing winter, they were forced to prepare, during summer, enough heating material for all the winter months too.
Today, we live in a globalized village. “Northern Hemisphere”’ cultures are dominant: The US, the EU, Russia, Korea, Japan and China are the leading societies in the world today. (Of course, not everyone in these societies adheres to the above values — but they are much more common there than in the tropical societies. The highest standard of living is enjoyed in countries where these values are more common, like Scandinavia).
The indigenous cultures of the tropical zones in Asia, Africa and America are lagging far behind. Singapore is a tropical country, but its culture is not. It’s a Northern hemisphere Chinese (Confucian) culture.
Two stories I heard can show the important difference of attitude. In Bangkok, I met a Chinese man who manages a guesthouse. He told me how his grandfather arrived with nothing but his bicycle from China, and sold noodles in the street for living, without a home to live in.
He saved some of the money he earned to buy land, where he continued to sell his noodles. Later, he built a restaurant and lived there. When they had more money, they built an apartment above the restaurant. Then, over the years, they continued building flats above their apartment with rooms for backpackers to rent. Now, they are relatively rich, but continue to work hard.
On the contrary, a story from Indonesia: My Indonesian brother-in-law told me that three of his wife’s brothers have a ruko (a shop-house), where they buy and sell products. One of them own his ruko, and the other two are renting their ruko. I asked him: “So the guy who owns a ruko is making more money than his two brothers?”  “No,” he answered. The brother who owns his ruko does not need much money. His brothers work harder, and earn more money because they have to pay rent.
I see rich people who are happy with the palaces they build as their home. But many of these palaces are located in ugly, stinky, polluted areas with no promenades, boulevards, parks, reliable water and electricity supplies, cultural centers, etc. It seems that not many rich people in Indonesia are willing to pay for better infrastructure for everyone in their neighborhood.
Indonesia sells mainly raw materials, like most African countries. Why not sell high added-value products from these natural resources? Most wealthy people in Indonesia, including state companies, are not investing their money in competitive industries. They do not want to develop Indonesia. They do not want challenges, prestige and pride. All they want is easy and safe (but very small) returns on their investment.
In summary, I would like to repeat the main characteristics Indonesians should embrace if they really want to emerge out of the swampy, tropical culture of poverty and negligence: Solidarity (financially), long-term planning, fairness, good management skills, efficiency, promoting sharp minds, creativity, accuracy, reliability, honesty, rule of law and accountability.
The characteristic order is not important. All of them are important. Missing one of them will cause the whole target to
be missed.
Good luck!

Ronen Skaletzky
Medan