Recently, an image and a video popped up in a group chat—it’s a puppy!
I never envisioned a day when my family home would have a dog.
You might think that’s no big deal since it’s something so commonplace in Australia. But not so in our home. I’m not personally a pet lover by any means, nor is Mom. She thinks people who are pet lovers are slightly crazy. And my friends used to ask me to stay away from their pets.
Anyway, my nephew who is an animal lover has won the day and we’ve got a dog in our house in Indonesia.
So, I met Coco the Burrito for the first time. And I have to admit, I already see the good she brings.
When my nephew first told me he named her Coco the Burrito, I asked, ‘Is the breed burrito?’
He said, ‘No, it’s a poodle.’
Well, you can tell how clueless I am with dogs 😆
The amazing thing about Coco is she does not bark, so she’s like on silent mode all the time—while running, hopping around and full of energy, yet makes no sound. How cool is that. A puppy of few (no) barks. And her breed doesn’t shed fur too, that helps.
This new addition feels like a new world order in the family home. And perhaps not a bad one. This is the second case in a month where I’ve seen a puppy become the occasion for people to gather more often.
But Coco isn’t the only thing that has caught my attention while being back in Indonesia. There are other changes too, some much less cheerful.
The not-so-good
Something else that isn’t so good a change here is the political, social and economic situation in Indo. It’s been brewing for awhile, and it keeps getting worse from the sound of it. Every conversation I have with anyone at all locally indicates it’s going downhill and going fast. People come to see you can’t rely on your profitable business to keep at it (well, what’s actually new with the fleeting nature of anything we place our security in in this life?). But here, it is because the government will come for you to squeeze you dry where they can. The police and military and judiciary are the mafia and gangsters of the land, so not seeing any sign of them around is good.
One of my Australian nephews who’s with me on this trip told me not to drive like this in Melbourne because I will get arrested. He always puts on his seat belt out of good habit, even while in the back passenger seat (people only put on seat belts when they are on the front seats). I asked , ‘but you feel safe being in my car though?’ He replied, ‘um .. I don’t feel safe in Indonesia in general. I haven’t seen any police or security around yet so far, the only security I see here is the private security.’ I said, ‘well, actually when you don’t see the police here, it’s a good thing!’
What’s normal, what’s crazy? 😵💫
Talking about driving, I recall someone said, ‘the motorists here are risking their lives all the time on the road riding like that—I don’t understand!’
Come to think about it, it’s actually just what you are used to, and different ways of how things work here. The way I drive here is the way I drive here. In Melbourne, I drive like Melbournians drive (nothing like here anyway).
You’re terrified of the roads here because you’re not used to it and do not understand how to navigate through the traffic the way the locals do. They may look scary on the surface, but what’s the rate of people getting into accident really (and how bad are they when it happens)? I am thinking it’s no worse than the road accident rates and severity in a country like Australia (if anything, it is fewer and less).
The motorcyclists and drivers here look like a bunch of crazy daredevils 🤸 to us Melbournians, but they are actually moving about with calculated risks in their local context. Isn’t it also the case where places with compulsory helmets for cyclists do not directly correlate with lower crash rates than those in countries without? It might also be that when you do not wear a helmet you ride more carefully. Not sure, but something to think about. We often interpret things in a different context through the lens of our own.
If anything, I think in the West we have grown an overkill of a gargantuan size for anything quite normal and alright a thing to manage. The kind of compliance and governance and the whole risk management and plan and control and contingency and safety guard is a luxury only the first world kind of countries can create a whole workforce for. Not that there is no risk of danger, but you don’t need a bazooka to kill an ant. That’s how it feels to me sometimes. 💣🐜
Anyway, I no longer think they’re crazy drivers here, they’re normal people who’ve figured this is how it is to drive from one place to another in a country and road conditions like theirs. And I’ve adapted as just another normal driver while being here.
What’s commendable and recommendable?
Instead, from my viewpoint now, I think it’s quite amazing how people figure out systems that work in such a messy place where many systems simply don’t work neatly.
Have I mentioned the fly swat lookalike that people use here to tap their payment card at the gates of tollways and car park entrances? It’s funny but something unique that works (and necessary!) here.
Likewise the parking assitants (I would have damaged the car ten times more if weren’t for their directives of, ‘kiri kiri! kanan kanan! mundur mundur! maju maju! oop, oop! stop stop! terus terus, lagi lagi! lurus lurus..!’*
* They direct your parking by shouting ,’left left! right right! reverse reverse! forward forward! enough ! stop! keep going keep going! straighten straighten!’ It can be quite dramatic, my brother was annoyed one time, sliding down his window saying, ‘Just tell me where you want my car to end up.’ But that’s because he’s exceptionally good in parking. As for me, this is seriously the only way I can park nicely in the ridiculously challenging space.
One unrelated thing I also appreciate here and will definitely recommend if you’re in Jakarta is The Chinese National restaurant. I think they have the best Peking duck I’ve ever tasted (and I don’t even like Peking duck 🦆). All the other dishes were likewise really delicious, fresh, and the portions don’t make you feel like you need to take a few months break after eating.
I always go there when I come back to Indo, as do many regular visitors from overseas. One of them this time said that he found Australians get angry easyly, and that people in Indo don’t. I realised he is right. People here generally take things quite forthrightly and patiently, in the hardship, mess and chaos of life the way it is here, with very little for much of the population. Content with little, having realistic expectations because they live in the face of broken reality everyday, struggling with the basics of survival.
Meanwhile in Australia, the sense of entitlement is so prevalent. Many live with such abundance they have no inkling of. I hear people complaining of the very things they have much of — as though we’re in such an affluence we have nothing else to pick on. The very people who kept saying everything is too expensive nowadays never have to ever worry about their next meal. We live in a place where many could be out of job for months on end and will still not only survive, but live comfortably.
It is true that regardless of any place in the world, the deeper struggles of life don’t go away, and that the heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart, and that the greatest need isn’t physical but spiritual. However, it is still a fact a place like Melbourne is rife with first world problems. 🐨🦘
Someone here just told me this morning at breakfast that he still doesn’t understand what’s with the toilet rolls in Australia during the Covid pandemic 🧻🧻🧻🚽. Exactly right, out of all things, that’s what we’re fighting for. He said it should be survival, well yes, we’re in a land where survival means having a year supply of toilet rolls instead of securing the next meal. We can laugh, and really, cry about it.
One more good thing I note here is there is a general culture of respecting the authority and elderly. People are selfish at heart, yes, and things people do can be very transactional. Yet there is a general sense here that you owe respect to those of the older generation, and that’s a good thing. Like the other day, I heard someone said, ‘but they are the elders (older generation), and so it befits a visit to check on their wellbeing.’ That’s something good to keep, hopefully for the younger generations in this country too.
Travelling (between Australia and Indonesia mostly) often reminds me what seems normal, sensible or ridiculous often depends on where you’re standing.
What looks crazy to outsiders is often simply normal life to insiders—and sometimes the things we assume are signs of progress are not necessarily the things that matter most.
In any case, this trip back reminds me that there is more than one way to organise a society, navigate everyday life, and make sense of the world. And perhaps more things worth learning from the people around us than we first assume.