Sabang Street in Jakarta, where you see hawkers lining up their mobile stalls selling Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Bebek (duck), Bakmi (noodles) and other local delicacies, is near my project site. Sabang Street is also where lots of people come to you while you’re eating, and “ask” for small donations of money. Some boys and men will come right next to you and strum their guitars, singing at the top of their voices, just so you can give them some money. A physically challenged old man will push his wheelchair next to your table and ask for some money. Some transvestites will jiggle their wares at you and cry, “Aiyo, why don’t they give me money?”, when you shoo them away with a polite wave of the hand.
Right smack in the middle of Sabang Street, is a western restaurant named American Grill, where I never once felt like having a meal due to the relatively steep pricing. Tonight, in celebration for getting our UAT sign-off, the project manager got a small budget from management and he brought us to The American Grill. This place has the same concept as Sizzler, but probably situated in the wrong part of Jakarta in my opinion. Understandably, few people around these parts step into the restaurant, perhaps only on special occassions.
We sat down at a table next to the glass window facing Sabang Street (big mistake I realized on hindsight) and proceeded to help ourselves to the salad bar. If you thought the ugly Singaporeans who used to stack up their plates at buffets were a disgrace, my Indonesian colleagues were not much better. After placing our orders, they helped themselves to two “free” servings of salad, french toasts, and some soup, while waiting for the main course. And after the meal, they helped themselves to the ice cream as well. Moderation is obviously not a feature when it comes to food.
The highlight of the meal, however, happened while I was about to eat my salad. A very young, dirty and skinny boy stuck his face into the glass window right beside me and stared at our food. And the next moment, he started licking the window! He must have been really hungry, but all he could do was to watch from the other side of the glass. As I watched him, my attention was also drawn to his siblings and a woman whom I can only presume to be his mother. One of his brother was sitting on the ground, slowly picking off pieces of meat from the remains of a piece of bebek. The mother was just looking around for rubbish and I suppose collecting them.
Scenes like these are actually pretty common sights here in Jakarta. It saddens you, yet makes you feel fortunate. Man, I wish this will not happen in Singapore, nor any other place for that matter. And I sure wish the little boy could have stuck his face in the window after I had at least eaten my main course.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:03 am
I know how you feel. I used to see all these scenes of poverty in Bangkok and in Jakarta and in some other places. I often encourage Singaporeans to get out of Singapore and expand their horizon.
And that makes me wonder, what are their governments doing to help these people?
My uncle did exactly what that little boy did when he was in Paris – right after Vietnam war and he sought asylum with the French. Not a single franc in his pocket, all he could see was food on the other side of the window.
And there are a lot more stories like that … and a lot more rather sad things to see … in this world.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think the Indonesian government is doing abolutely nothing. One of the problems in Indonesia is that there isn’t enough spending power among the middle class to support the economy. The other big problem is that they have not gotten their education system right yet. Look at India and Pakistan, they have gotten their education system spot on, and their citizens are all over the world now.
In Indonesia they have this 3-in-1 policy where certain roads cannot be entered by vehicles unless there are like 3 people in the car. Some locals will thus stand by the road side, be picked up by some drivers, and be paid to make the numbers. Some students will spend their morning doing that to make some money. I once told a colleague that the way out of poverty for these students is for them to stay in school, and not spend their time doing these things. He gave me a look like I was mental. I can imagine the thought going through his head, “What does this foreigner know? How to go to school when there is no food on the table?”.
I think the government needs to look into providing free education for the poor. Otherwise it’s a chicken and egg thing. No food, no education. No education, no food.