H

ow is everyone? Well and dry, I dare to hope? I live in a high-rise building that — fortunately and quite rarely for Jakarta — is surrounded by enough lush greenery. There are no floods around us, yet we can sadly see from the rooftop other parts of the city that are flooded, jammed or both.

Traffic in Jakarta has been increasingly worsening and frustrating in recent years. When rising income is met with perpetually inadequate modes of mass transportation, it is no wonder that citizens have turned back to private vehicles. Add the garbage-clogged city drainage system into the mix and the city becomes a massive hub of immovable people and vehicles once rain starts to fall.

And, ladies and gentlemen, rain will always come. This fertile archipelago lies on the equator, where a six month rainy season is an ecological fact. That Jakarta is situated on a large bay that opens up to the sea is another fact. Quite how the city’s residents and its ruling government, apparently since the colonial days of the Dutch, have not been able to overcome flooding in every raining season is a tragic historical fact.

Water is a simple element. It moves from a higher to a lower point. When its path is blocked by anything, water will stop, create puddles and later, floods.

I’m not here to point fingers. I’d say any of us has at some point thrown garbage carelessly, spat in public places (euww!), chopped down a tree, covered our yards or neighborhood sewers with cement instead of bio-pores, gleefully erected a fancy villa in Puncak, or been too lazy to separate our daily thrashes (let alone recycle them). And I’m sure the list would be longer if you consulted credible environmentalists or city planners.

So we’re all guilty. We all know, without waiting for the government, what we should start doing on our own, in our household, within our neighborhood, for a much more eco-sustainable lifestyle. Now, what else can we do?

An idea that has circulated and gained enough attention recently is to work from home, or from a “common hub”. At a glimpse, it’s a tantalizing idea. You don’t have to battle through maddening traffic or brave torrential rains. Just stay in the comfort of your home with piping hot noodles at your disposal while relying on gadgets and the Internet to work.

I should know how dreamy that idea sounds. I have, after all, only done it for the past five and a half years. The consulting work I have done since leaving the corporate world is the type that enables me, most of the time, to work from almost any part of the world as long as my laptop is charged and an Internet connection is available. Still, there are moments when teleconferences are no longer effective and I actually need to meet colleagues and clients in person, even if it’s not always in the office.

Yet, as fun as that sounds, I know firsthand how the practice can only be adopted by certain types of job in certain sectors.

For example, the fast-moving consumer goods industry, where I spent most of my corporate career, requires continuous, quality contact and brainstorming between various brand team members, not to mention various employed agencies, while most of the industry’s salespeople are already on the road most of the time. Banking is another sector that needs constant liaising and teamwork to achieve optimum goals.

No matter how highly-equipped your teleconference facilities gets these days, direct human contact is still irreplaceable and better enables understanding and faster collaboration — two pivotal factors for most sectors. Working away from an office works most effectively and efficiently for jobs that rely more on the individual thinking process, presumably aided by technology, than through multi-party teamwork. Working from home or a hub because it optimizes your work performance may well be a notch closer to a first world utopia, but doing it because the city is so debilitated by traffic and flood problems is a stark reminder of true third world living. It may instantly free some people from their current headaches, but mistaking it as a long-term solution for all Jakartans is a gross and misguided generalization.

The newly-elected Jakarta governor and deputy governor have barely sat in office for 100 days. While we can’t blame this administration for our crippled city, we elected these leaders with high hopes of them finding workable and effective solutions sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, let us all look within and see what more eco-sustainable practices we can adopt at home. I’m going to start poking through my fridge and see if I can cook today, instead of calling for a delivery.

After all, after four consecutive days of working from home, trapped by the situation instead of being tempted to nestle, I think I have called every available delivery service nearby.

Should more hell and higher water come, I think I may just develop agoraphobia. Do you suppose the city of Jakarta would pay for my therapy bills?

Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer and consultant, with a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.