Dryxanne’s Confessions

It is definitely.

I know you people out there would scream at me, Helloooo…where have you been these 8 years??? Yeah, I admit, during my early years occupying this both pretty and messy city, I didn’t go around much. In other word, call me "kuper", short for "kurang pergaulan", more or less means I didn’t hang out much, didn’t have wide social acquaintances, etc, etc. I never went to clubs or cafes until 2002. God, I never even went out more than 8 PM unless with my cousins. I’m so pathetic…

Anyway, back to the topic.

Jakarta definitely adds most of the stress you go through everyday. With its traffic jam, its enormous vehicles, and its "terrifically clean" air. And it seems that the traffic rules don’t apply on certain hours in the morning. This morning I witnessed a bus (in which I was sitting, calmly in unsurprising coolness) changed lane right before the traffic light, and since the space in front of the bus was not much, the bus fee-collector (it’s "kondektur" in Indonesian) went down and asked a motorbike rider in front of the bus to move forward to provide more space for the bus to insert itself to the left lane. Which still wasn’t enough, that left the bus a little bit "unhorizontal", if you know what I mean… Way to go..!!!

That’s not all.

Plus a bunch (and I mean, A BUNCH!!) of motorbikes, any types of cars (again in large numbers) jammed on the traffic light, and all the street-sellers that most of the time climb into the bus trying to sell some things - like this morning one of them tried to sell a 10-digit calculator with only IDR 10.000 -, plus street singers (or "pengamen"), in a supposed-to-be-air conditioned-but-it’s-actually-not bus, you can imagine what kind of days that most people in Jakarta go through everyday. Not to mention the never-in-time busses, the always packed-like canned-meat TransJakarta buses, and the single-fee they collected for regular bus, no matter whether you ride it from starting point to the end point, or you just hop in somewhere in the middle and get off before the end point.

Reminds me of one particular blog someone wrote few months ago, about Why People want to live in (the messy) Jakarta. More or less, that was the topic.

If you ask me, yes I’m so sick with Jakarta and its traffic and the jams as well. The messy transportation system that causes me to wake up early if I don’t want to come late to office (which I never succeed to do, that’s why I always come late…*sigh*…blame me for being quite a heavy sleeper…), the "pengamen" that can be seen everywhere that don’t even sing in correct tunes sometimes, the pickpocketeers, the beggars (both polite ones or scary ones or even threatening ones), the lame police officers that would catch people for trespassing the 3-in-1 regulation rather than catching those threateners in the buses, the black air caused by the "ink" exhaled from the almost similar to octopus buses.

Pheeww…that’s quite a lot to take everyday, isn’t it?

On the other side, Jakarta has some very entertaining sides. You can find any types of restaurants, ALMOST ANY types of entertainments, and any types of people. (It has a cozy 24-hours Starbucks, my most fave hang out place…). It has the beat of a giant, a growing city, that keeps pampering itself but not most of its inhabitants. A rapid pulse it has, but it causes most ot the other parts of itself left behind. It’s like, the feet want to move faster but the head won’t, as a result, the whole body falls to the floor.

It’s a big homework to us all, isn’t it? To find ways out of these problems. Is it obligations of government only? Well I’m not sure…but I think each of us has a part to contribute to make Jakarta a better city.

And maybe we can start by not bringing some more relatives to Jakarta, unless we have certain chances and places for them. Otherwise, it’ll just end up with homeless people, more criminals (for those who can’t hold on to being on the straight lines anymore…), and jobless everywhere. Perhaps it can reduce the rapidly growing population, thus reduce the people on the streets, thus reduce the numbers of people and vehicles, and reduce the packed buses. Errr…maybe the correlation is a bit far, but you all get what I mean, right? Right…?

Despite of its nature as stressing city, it’s a glowing city too, a capital city that attracts thousands and more to come every year to seek and take part and gain a little bit from its glory. I myself admit that I still try to survive in this city, mostly because I’m still attracted to its rapid beat. For naturally I’m a slow, lazy, inertial, I need outside influences to shock me.

And in Indonesia, the most suitable city for that purpose, is certainly the messy Jakarta. *grin*