Be happy for being fortunate

Here in Asia it is very common for high income families to have at least one maid depending on the country of residence. In Singapore it is often one while in Jakarta it is often 3 or 4 depending on the number of children that the family has. Often in Jakarta one child gets a maid for his or her own agenda (Talk about getting spoiled eh?) however that is only for the highest of income families. This is because of the low labour costs in many Asian countries due to high population density and the level of unequal income distribution that often follows due to things such as corruption which is rampant in places like Indonesia. So in essence the reason for multiple maids in Indonesia also makes sense... in a way.

Like every Asian family, we have a maid who is very special in a sense. She's peculiar yet special in the sense that she is one of few Indonesian maids who has had the opportunity to leave the country and go  to another place very different from her own, primarily caused by the huge rift in GDP per capita: Singapore. Obviously due to low incomes many people cannot leave the country and unfortunately the internet can only supply so much information to those who even have access to it. Take my driver for example. He has never had the opportunity to leave the country. According to him the furthest he's ever been from the city is Bandung, which is located South East of Jakarta. Refer to the map below.

To give you a sense of the distance, it's only about 100 to 200 kilometers away from the city, and a 1 to 2 hour trip would suffice to get you to the area. With his internet connection being available to him through an internet cafe called "Warnet", which allows internet access for people with low incomes which he can access only with enough funds or more importantly with more free time, he only has limited knowledge about Singapore. Just to justify the knowledge gained from the internet, he often justifies what he has learned about it with me. Often enough he is wrong (only God knows what he searches to get the results he asks me about). He seems to be 100% certain that Singapore is exactly the same as in Jakarta. 

                                                  

Of course there are certain things that he is correct about, such as things like franchises being available there and roads and buses but that is unfortunately as far as it goes. He is totally unaware of the size of Singapore at all! Of course I think nothing less of his intelligence based on that (other factors though, we might talk about although I am not implicating that it his fault alone) but it sometimes makes me wonder "if I never had the opportunity to leave the country would I think in the same way?".

My maid on the other hand, has been able to travel across waters, to a land a polar opposite from hers. Singapore is fast, small and highly regulated (not to mention expensive), everything that Jakarta is not. It's slow (with huge congestion issues), huge (see last post about urban sprawl) with little regulation (corruption issues... huge black and informal market). She sees the world in a different light, and you can tell by the way she answers questions or work things out. She can see things logically and explain solutions (on a basic level of course) for some of Jakarta's major issues, something that most uneducated people will be unable to do. Of course, the atmosphere in Singapore often trains this naturally to its citizens, and I see that my maid is no different. 

Unfortunately, she has developed a fear of Jakarta (ironically) due to its insecurity, after living in Singapore for over 10 years. Often she hardly leaves the house and only goes out to the nearby market to get fresh food and vegetables (surprisingly clean may I add) even after a few years of living in Jakarta. However the magic only comes whenever she returns home. She sees things that change in Jakarta, all the huge buildings and roads and of course, having never seen Jakarta in a long time, she questions many things she sees on the road and my driver would answer them with the most stupid answers I can come up with (once again I do not blame him). However often you can see the glint in her eyes, as if a baby seeing the world for the first time and sometimes it is at these points that I look at myself and see how lucky I am to be able to travel overseas, or to have the courage to step out of my house to have the opportunity do something amazing or learn something new.

So live life, happy that you have the opportunity to do many things that other's want to do but can't. The fact that you are reading this shows that you already have the power to do so much more than many others.

Cheers,

Matthew Tan.