As I sit on the floor in this netcafe cubicle, with the computer mounted close to the floor and no chair; while I move my body into different positions every few minutes in order to get some comfort; I have been thinking about interesting observations thus far:
Muslim people are required to pray 5 times a day, each time there are loudspeakers set up eevverrywhere blasting out the praises to Allah; I have noticed is that a lot of indonesian people sleep very heavy, on the bus people’s phones would go off, sometimes for minutes, with loud ringtones until the call drops; many people blast out music from their mp3 players (never seen anyone using headphones) which doesnt seem to wake the sleeping people.
I believe there are two reasons for this:
1) Most people work hard for long hours and are extremely exhausted when it comes to sleep time
2) They are so used to sleeping through the loud 5am prayer that their brains are conditioned to ignore loud noise when sleeping
A member of the malang family I was staying with, mentioned to me one night that he has to go see his second wife. I was a little taken back, I heard about this kind of thing in islamic culture but never would have thought it actually happens today. He invited me to go with him to a semi-primitive village in a jungle near a nice isolated beach about 4hrs travel from malang; I was tempted to go but I really needed to hit the road, the family were being far too hospitable that I felt like I had to leave else I’ll lose my independence each day, slip into a comfort zone, plus it was a little weird. I’m thinking back now that it would have been a pretty interesting experience. He mentioned that he feels a bit weird about the two wives situation and sometimes finds it difficult to manage; however, from what I could gather from the broken english, it strengthens the first marriage as it is an occasional break when needed. He has two children with the first wife and one child with the other wife. Cultural difference.
Another member of the family showed me his ~7 credit cards, which he was able to acquire due to having a registered graphic design business. He admitted that he is the cause of the financial crisis and understands he shouldnt have spent so much money which didnt exist :P He bought flash cars with it, you’ll often find the roads full of fancy new cars which i assume large savings or debt have been thrown into, value systems changing rapidly. Could also be that new flash cars are really cheap here :P
From what I can gather (as in, this is my biased opinion) developing countries are trying so hard to be materialistic from what they can see on american TV and movies, they are trying to live a comfortable life away from the smog and dirt outside which they feel as if they have deserved for such a long time, unfortunately the approach is dangerous in this current age; just as the western world is becoming less materialistic due to the age of awareness of the environmental impact that the unsustainable lifestyle holds. I can foresee difficult global challenges in the future.
Nothing to blog about jogja yet, nothing interesting enough happenin’ – maybe tomorrow :)
The 5000 Project 