Courtesy of facebookSocial media recently demonstrated its potent powers again
Social media recently demonstrated its potent powers again. Eight years after Indonesian netizens joined forces to donate money to support a housewife named Prita Mulyasari when she faced a libel suit from OMNI Hospitals Group in Tangerang, Banten, over her Facebook post, they have now helped to raise funds for a 94-year-old banana seller named Suratman in Jambi, who lost more than Rp 1 million (US$80) during a robbery.
It all started with a Facebook post by a user named Tommy Reza Chokolatoz, who uploaded a moving series of pictures and videos of the old man weeping and telling the story of how he got robbed. The post instantly became viral, resulting in more than Rp 37 million being raised for the senescent man. The local governor also donated Rp 5 million and bought his remaining banana stocks. The story was even mentioned on BBC.
According to tribunnews.com, the incident happened on June 7 in broad daylight when the man was approached by two people, aged approximately 27 and 40, in a car. They said they wanted to buy bananas from Suratman, yet they refused to get out of their car because they said they were embarrassed to buy bananas during the fasting hours in Ramadhan. Suratman went into their car to make the transaction. Instead, they took all of his money before they kicked him, along with his fruit, back out of the car.
The incident has provoked outrage and resulted in an outpouring of donations and support.
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