One thing that needs to be considered is the fact that many countries in the southern hemisphere are byproducts of colonialism. Colonial legacies pretty much play a major part in how once colonized countries such as Indonesia turn out.
I agree with Ronen's ideas ("The real root causes of poverty", The Jakarta Post, March 2) about how people living in tropical countries are pretty much endowed with natural resources and how those living in the northern hemisphere must struggle to get resources.
But, I think, weather plays only a small part in determining the trajectory of a country. There's more to it. One needs to learn some history, and how the predominant culture has been shaped in Indonesia. Colonialism itself has engendered a system that perpetuates poverty itself. Such a system is what we today call capitalism.
The plundering of the New World, the battles between the colonizers and the colonized, etc, all of these examples are still translated into today's society in a sense that they still work under the political, economic and social clouts of capitalism.
Companies hiring unskilled low-paid workers; politicians working for their own party's interests; etc, all of these are geared towards the mushrooming of new capital, of new power.
Ronen said "solidarity *financially*, long-term planning, fairness, good management skills, efficiency, the promotion of sharp minds, creativity, accuracy, reliability, honesty, the rule of law and accountability" were parts of the formula for Indonesia to somehow eradicate poverty.
I do agree with this, but again, only those with educated minds and with decision-making positions are equipped with the above faculties, and we can't eradicate poverty if we don't tackle it from its roots, which I think lies in the exploitation of humans and their relative happiness - based on materialistic measurements.
Our current capitalistic system has to be deconstructed and reconstructed if we want to eradicate poverty, that is, by changing its paradigm that embraces a concept called "humanitarian competition".
If you are interested in such a concept, you can read an essay by the Japanese philosopher Daisaku Ikeda. He says:
"As a concept, it *humanitarian competition* allows us first to directly confront the reality of competition while ensuring that it is conducted firmly on the basis of humane values, thus bringing forth a synergistic reaction between the values of humanitarian concerns and competitive energies.
"It is this that qualifies it to be a key paradigm for the 21st century. In our quest for new paradigms, it is crucial that we heed Gabriel Marcel's warning always to keep concrete realities firmly in view. The impatience and arrogance of people who think they know all the answers and are ready to offer a grand design toward which human history should advance, demonstrates that they have fallen victim to the negative aspects of the spirit of abstraction."
James S.
Jakarta
