I was so happy when I got to know that I will work here. Everyone knows that Jakarta is like center of everything in Indonesia. Jakarta is the biggest city in Indonesia with 10 millions citizen and center for business and entertainment.
One day, my boss asked me to do some research for CSR project that he wants to be involved. He wants something creative. Something that really matter for people in Indonesia.
I do not have any idea actually, so I just meandering, take a walk around my office and then, bam! I found something that really interesting.
My office is located in Kuningan. An elite area for business. Everyone knows that. But I found that behind my office building, there is a small village where people live in waste disposal.
I walked through the street and the smell was overwhelming (because of the disposal). I saw children playing around with the disposal. I came to that village at 9 a.m. and seemed that there's a lot of children who was playing. I was wondering, don't they should be in the school this morning?
Their house was miserable. I do not know that they can live like that. Dirty, really small, and definitely unhealthy.
So, I took some pictures of them and in the morning I made a presentation for my boss.
He seemed pretty shocked. He asked me, Really? I just nodded. He was in silent for a minute.
In the lunch time, both of us went to that village. My boss decided to give them some money.
I do not know. Really do not know. There's no reason that people should live like that. But that's the fact.
I was wondering, how much money did we spend for shopping in a month. I do believe that in Jakarta, shopping centre is a business worth billion rupiah each months.
And then, how much did we spend for the lifestyle? I knew that some restaurant in Jakarta sell steak for more than 250 thousands rupiah each plate. And a glass of wine, the cheapest can be worth 150 thousands rupiah each glass. So how much money do you spend only for weekend.
You bought your clothes in famous boutique. You ate your steak and drink your wine in the fancy restaurant but you did close your eyes to the reality that happens in Jakarta.
I know that we all have rights to spend the money that we work hard for. We spend more than 8 hours sometimes each days in working so we have any right to have some pleasure.
My point is do not ever forget that behind all of the good things that this city offers to us, there're a lot of problem that we need to solve together.
You might said that, that's all happen all around Jakarta. Not something big to think. But really? The fact that there are more people in Jakarta live like that should make us even sadder. How come? Ignorance. An ugly thing. Martin Luther King Jr said that nothing in all the world more dangerous than sincere ignorance.
I believe that love is the biggest thing in this world. One thing that make this world still worth for living.
So let's take a baby step and be an agent of change. Help others to have a better path of life. And it can start with our neighbour. The ones who live nearest from us.
