New Zealand: A frank look at my home country after a year away

This blog is not about me hating on New Zealand. I'm just re-evaluating some things about the country with fresh eyes. It's a lovely place for the most part and where I will probably raise my kids.

I think its inevitable that when you spend a decent period of time away from where you were brought up, you will view it slightly differently when you return. That's because the more places you experience, the more points of comparison you have to your home town.

It was the rule rather than the exception that the traveller's I met abroad were a bit negative about their home city. When one compares an exciting life of travelling: meeting new people every day, partying, sightseeing and general holidaying, your life in your home city seems dull and boring.

After my first big trip abroad to Costa Rica in 2008, I returned after five weeks and remember arriving back at Auckland airport. Suddenly the flat vowels and general monotones of the New Zealand accent were deafening. Last year when I returned to NZ after being in Indonesia for two months, Christchurch really felt like a ghost town because compared to Indonesia, there are barely any people (and that was before the Earthquake). So how you perceive something is relative to other things you've seen, right?

My friend's house on the West Coast of NZ

Quiet Streets

Whereas the streets of Asia are mostly a throng of activity: food sellers, cars, motorbikes, noises, smells, people eating - Dunedin and more broadly New Zealand streets would be a welcome home for tumble weed or old newspapers blowing in the wind. There are literally nights when you can go on the streets at 7 pm and not see a single soul. If you love peace and quiet, it's right up your alley. We have small population and the climate doesn't always lend itself to being outside (it's pretty cold a lot of the time), so that's part of the reason.

Boozy Nation
The exception to the quiet streets is, of course, when people go out to drink; oh yes, Kiwis love a few ales. Binge drinking culture in New Zealand was more apparent to me after I had travelled to countries where people drink but perhaps don't have the same tolerance for projectile vomiting. I find after a certain time out on the town, say 1am, people get a bit more aggressive. Fights start breaking out (mainly with young people), people stumble about and couples often start rowing. What you see in NZ is pretty similar to Australia or Britain.

Dunedin

Some Queenstown scenery

I tend to be a bit deprecating about my little city of the South called Dunedin. It's got a population of around 120,000 but it feels quite claustrophobic because the inner city is based around one main street. About a fifth of the population are aged 18-24 because it's got a large University and Polytechnic. Returning this time to my family home after a year way is different from it has been in the past. With the exception of one or two, all my friends have left. Dunedin is the sort of city you get out of once you hit a certain age. Perhaps you return when you have kids, or maybe you don't.

It's quite a beautiful place; there's no traffic, it's peaceful and there's a lot of nature nearby. The living costs are also lower than other parts of the country. On the downside, it's small and insular; the weather is spectacularly crap and the wages are significantly lower than in other parts of NZ.

NZ is sweet as because:
The things I can definitely be grateful for about New Zealand are that it's pretty clean (although the likes of the dairy sector don't necessarily tow the clean, green line), that we get free health care and schooling, there are benefits available for those who need it and the people here are mostly friendly, humble and open minded (although there is a bit of closet racism).

Slightly rubbish news

I had always heard that the NZ news media was a bit crap but that was especially obvious when I returned from overseas. The stories that get precedence in the media are often ridiculous and I think that's just a consequence of our geographical isolation. Apart from the occasional look at what's happening with our traditional trading partners (Australia, US and UK) we are mostly inward looking.

Rugby World Cup

The RWC was on last year and it was the biggest event New Zealand had ever hosted. We had approx 100,000 foreign visitors and there was a good atmosphere throughout the country. News hour after news hour, the leading stories were about the price of rugby shirts, or how some trains were late in Auckland, or that it was raining... Presumably the news chooses to lead with what its viewers want to hear but I definitely felt that there were issues that deserved greater prominence in our media than friggin rugby. 

Globalisation has meant we are more and more affected by what goes on abroad so we should all be a bit aware of international issues so that we don't become ignorant about things that are important to both NZ and the world. If we focus too much on what is happening here we risk further irrelevance in the international arena. I think that a lot of people do travel and keep and eye to what's going on but there's also a bit of denial. Some people seem to think NZ is immune from the rest of the world's problems.

My family home (at least in the eyes of foreigners)

But NZ's great, aye?
People love to harp on about NZ is "God's own" or say we are "the best country in the world" blah blah blah.. I want to know how many people who say that have travelled beyond Australia or Fiji? It's best to remain humble about your country because it's quite natural that you would have a preference to where you're born.

NZ does have a lot going for it to be sure. The fact that we have benefits for the sick or unemployed, we have a stable, functioning and not corrupt democracy, that we don't have heavily polluted air or lots of traffic are things to celebrate. But let's not be arrogant..

Where is New Zealand again?

The reality is that a lot of people abroad know next to nothing about NZ. In international affairs, we are a minnow. We do have just four and a half million people and our influence is limited. Those who do know about us often have strange ideas like we all live on some giant farm and there are sheep living in the cities or the whole country is like Lord of the Rings. Maybe being from somewhere like Denmark is similar; small country, quite wealthy but not super-important in the world.

True

Clean and Green, yeah, right. 

I am absolutely in favour of making the best of our environmental policies and looking after this land we have (although I told that NZ has one of the most altered landscapes of any country in the world). However, even if NZ was 100 percent Pure as we claim to be and used absolutely no power or resources it would matter not a bit. All the good work we do here is undone by all the bad done by big polluters like China and the US.
Funnily enough, NZ is a prime exporter of coal one of the most dirty forms of fuel around. Maybe we don't burn it here but we do sell it to countries who do. So it's slightly contradictory. It's like being against war but then selling weapons to North Korea.

Recently our Prime Minister John Key was grilled on the BBC by Stephen Sackur about our clan, green image. Mr Sackur cited Mike Joy, a leading environmental scientist at Massey University, who recently said “we are delusional about how green and clean we are”. Mr Joy made the comment while pointing out that many New Zealand species are facing extinction and more than half the countries lakes and low-land rivers are polluted. “That might be Mike Joy’s view, but I don’t share that view,” said Mr Key when Mr Sackur presented him with the quote.

I try my best to be pro the environment and help the world etc but in fairness I have one of the largest carbon footprints round. A year of flying to different countries has meant my green credentials are not so rosy. When I was in Europe people often said things like: "Oh, you are from paradise, you're so lucky." 

Our illustrious Prime Minister

NZ is definitely a paradise compared to a lot of the world but we have many internal issues we need to look at and fix. Independence and geographical distance from other countries makes the analogy of NZ being like a life raft in the world seem appropriate but lets down blow our own horn too much, aye? 

Questions or comments welcome.

  

Couchsurfing, why it's awesome and why you should join!

 If you are planning travel, a seasoned traveller or just love meeting new people CouchSurfing is a website you should consider joining.

Without hesitation I can say it's the best website I've ever joined. I've met so many amazing people, had incredible hosts who live in interesting places and who showed me generosity and kindness. It's allowed me to experience countries through the eyes of locals rather than just other travellers. It also helped me travel for longer because the accommodation is FREE. For nearly two months in Europe I didn't pay a single penny for a bed and that helped me travel further.

At present there are more than three million couchsurfing members spread about the globe but that number grows by about 20,000 new people a month.

For those who have never heard of CS the basic concept is this: 

CouchSurfing gathering in Jakarta

If you have a spare bed or traditionally a couch in your home and you are open minded you allow travellers to stay in your home. The person will contact you by looking at your profile, then send a request which you then accept, reject or ignore. You then look at their profile and decide whether you will host them or not. The system works because you have feedback on your profile from people you've met, much like with TradeMe.  Ideally, you will get to experience both a host and a surfer.. I've even had the pleasure of staying with people who I had already hosted.

My first guest was Anna for Aachen in Germany and two years after she stayed with me in my home town in New Zealand, this year I stayed with her in her place in Cologne.

I would say that people who offer their bed to strangers are generally pretty cool and not rapists or murderers as some concerned friends have suggested to me.

Your couchsurfing profile is a bit like a facebook profile: 

You can see mine here:  http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/fei/ . 

At dinner with some Sicilians

MY BEST EXPERIENCES: 

* My girlfriend and I stayed with some wonderful Sicilian guys in Palermo.. They were funny, cooked for us, told us a lot about the local culture and we met their friends and were treated to local.

* In Brussels, Belgium I stayed with a flat full of young Dutch Belgians.. I don't think I'd ever met any Belgians before and Brussels was described as being one of the most boring cities in Europe on the forums I had read. I had a fantastic time there! I learned that Belgians love comics, at the time they didn't have a proper government and a lot of them are fluent in Dutch, English and French and are able to switch freely between the three.

* Having two cool Czech hosts in two nights in Prague, one who I shared a really good laugh with, another who
took me to watch an obscure Czech singer/ comic book artist.

* Learning a bit about Thai culture from our Mexican host in Phuket

With some Surfers and traveller's in Vietnam

MOST COMMON CONCERN AMONG POTENTIALS HOSTS: 

But you let strangers into your house!?! Isn't that dangerous?

People say this to me often. I can certainly understand why they would have their doubts. 

Well, hopefully by the time you say yes to the person coming to your house you have read their profile thoroughly, checked their references and had a few emails of correspondence. Over 99 percent of all couchsurfing references are positive so you could conclude there reference system is pretty good. 

Have you ever had a negative experience? 

Yes I have.. Not horribly negative but a bit. I've had about 70 couchsurfing experiences. Some were so-so, 2 were not so good, most were great and several were mind-blowingly awesome. I've made some really great friends too.

In Brussels for dinner with young Belgians

I did lend a Couchsurfer some money once.. I had met a Cambodian guy who ran a school for disadvantaged children in Siem Reap.. He was very nice and genuine and a friend and I organised some fundraising for the school. Anyways.. a while later he asked to borrow some money. I lent it to him and he said he would repay within two months. It ended up being six months of emails and hassling him to get the money back.. I unfortunately found that this guy had done the same thing to other couchsurfers, some who didn't get their money back. Whether he was using the money for the school or not..It wasn't honest to meet people for couchsurfing under the pretext that they might give money to him..

Me on the left with my host (South African) and 2 other surfers

Do people use couchsurfing to find hookups?/ do couch-surfers often hookup? 


Undoubtedly some people do use the website for that purpose.. When I was in Rome I struggled to find a host because nearly all the hosts were men and a lot of the Italian guys had "female only" under their preferences for guests and had profile shots showing off their abs.

It seems inevitable that when young people are using a website like Couchsurfing to meet other people, particularly travelers that some people will kiss, fuck or even find a relationship (as I did)..




Do hosts cook for the couchsurfers?


Well you can if you want to.. You can also ask that they bring their own food, it's really up to the host.. I've had all sorts of different hosts. One girl in Bristol just gave me the keys to her apartment as she went to stay at her boyfriend's place. She also lent me her camera and laptop. I already had about 50 positive references on my profile at that point so she could be pretty sure I was trust-worthy (until I stole everything!!! only kidding)

With a surfer I hosted from the States

So basically, I wholeheartedly encourage you to get involved.. It's lots of fun. It's not for everyone, you have to have time put aside.

Do some people use Couchsurfing just for free accommodation?
It's true that free accommodation is a big part of the attraction to join the website but it would be obvious if someone was using you like a hotel. I've never had that sort of experience but I've heard of people who've had. Part of the point is you spend some time with your guest and make and effort to explain the place you live or even show them some local attractions. It just depends on your level of commitment 

Does any money exchange hands during Couchsurfing? 

If a Couchsurfer offered to contribute some money towards petrol if you are driving around a lot or food if they are staying for more than 4 days then that's fine but generally no money is involved.

SO WHY SHOULD YOU JOIN? 

Arm-wrestle with surfer Lars from Germany. He's one of my good friends and
I managed to catch up with him in both U.K and Ireland

I think that the spirit of Couchsurfing is really great. It's spreading good will and helping create connections between people all around the world. If I were to suddenly think of Thailand or Belgium or Germany, I would think of the locals I met in those places and the experiences I had. Hosting or being hosted has aided me knowledge of foreign countries. And it's so bloody easy!
Increasing one's knowledge of the diverse range of people and places on planet Earth can only enable one to understand it better. CS will not be to everyone's tastes but hopefully to yours!

Hopefully that convinced you to join!


Questions? Comments? 

Advice and tips for round the world travel!

On a bridge in Prague

In a club in Liverpool 

On Tower Bridge London

In Venice

Overlooking Palermo, Sicily

In Barcelona in front of Sagrada Familia

Trying Guiness even though I hate beer

With my friend in Dublin

An amazing house near Blarney Castle in Ireland

On Koh Phi Phi with some friends and girlfriend

With my girlfriend in Thailand

With a Thai fighter in Chang Mai

With some Cambodian kids near the killing fields

Angkor Watt

In a Cambodian hotel basement with staff 

In Laos

How I looked after an eye infection from tubing in Laos

While I was working in a bank in Perth

Down town Hanoi

On August 12th I returned to New Zealand after 370 days travelling overseas.

August 5th last year I departed Christchurch to Thailand on the first leg of my multi-continent journey. I was unsure of the next stage for my career or study and in the meantime, travel seemed like the best option.

It was the longest I'd been away from my family and friends and it was incredible.

My trip was 20 countries in Oceania, South East Asia and Europe.

Here are some simple tips that I have drawn from my trip that could help you next time you are on the road.


Travel doesn't have to be expensive:


In my year travelling by far the highest expense was flights. Aside from that, travelling was cheaper than my every day life in New Zealand. I didn't have to pay regular rent (I got cheap accomodation a lot of the time and couchsurfed), I didn't have to pay car maintenance and food was generally cheaper than in NZ too.

Have a practical bag and pack light.

 If you are in a developing country and want to have a ride on the back of a scooter, a giant suitcase will be a massive pain in the arse. A comfortable and sturdy backpack is ideal. Along the journey you will inevitably collect souveineers so best plan is to leave half to three quarters empty.


Write down details of where you are going who you are meeting and try to have a map in advance.

If you're melting in the sun carrying your backpack from the airport or train station you just wanna get to your accomodation pronto. The simple step of writing down a meeting point and putting details on your phone plus carrying a map prevents needless waiting, searching and feeling pissed off.


Have a place sorted in a city before you stay

 I don't mean booking well in advance. Sometimes you can book on the very day you travel. It will make you feel better going to a city and knowing that you have a room sorted to stay. Just turning up to a hostel will often mean paying extra because the staff know you probably can't be bothered finding somewhere else. Hostelfinder and hostelworld are easy sites for booking accomodation and the advice from other backpackers is a good guide for whether a place is a shithole or not. 

Couchsurf!

I'm going to write a separate post about this later but off the bat I can honestly say that joining couchsurfing.org is one of the best things I've ever done..

 You can meet amazing people from all around the globe, you get a cultural experience from a local and free accomodation. I couldn't have stayed in Europe for so long if it wasn't for my great couchsurfing hosts. I got places in the centre of Paris, Siciliy, Brussels, Berlin etc etc.


Put your money in multiple places and carry a credit card.

When going out I tend to only take as much as I think I'll spend and leave the rest in a safe place at my residence. Having a credit card can come in handy for booking or emergency purchases. Don't put all your eggs in one basket cause if you lose your money and passport together, you will be underneath a shit volcano just as it errupts.

Dress sensibly and for the climate

There are times in the trip when I didn't have the right clothes for the environment and paid dearly. If you wear too much when it's hot you will be repelling potential friends with your body odour and feeling dredful. Flip flops are pretty good but not for climbing a hill and not on slippery rocks. A quality pair of all purpose shoes are a must.

Be respectful of the local culture

 Westerners have a bad reputation in parts of Asia because we are viewed as being loose and disrespectful. I went to Vang Vieng last year and had a blast but I can completely understand the perspective of some of the locals in Laos when I read this article:

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/5372627/Laos-tubing-craze-destroying-town

 It's fine to enjoy yourself but think about the image you convey if you are in a conservative country wearing next to nothing, especially when visiting a temple or a religious site. Determine the social norms of a country to establish whether strolling round in a group of friends staggeringly drunk is accepted or not.


Sleeping aids are your friend:

If you are crashing in noisy hostels after a long journey on a train or bus you want a good night's kip. Some earplugs and face mask will aid you especially when people in your dorm are getting up at 5am to catch their flights. A good neck pillow will come in handy many times as well so keep one on you.


Try travelling alone:

 You are never really alone while travelling because you will literally always meet people. It's much easier to make friends when you are by yourself because other travellers feel more at ease approaching you. I've had locals take me to a Vietnamese movie in Vietnam, people buy me dinner or drinks and all sorts of cool experiences which would not have happened had I been with a friend. If you suddenly have an urge to go with a new friend to a different place than you originally intended you don't have to consult another party to see if they are up for it.  Try it out, at least once..


Don't look like a tramp at customs:


Customs staff the world over are notorious fucking assholes. It's in the nature of their job to be suspicious of everyone but there's no need to wave a flag that says "I look like I'm a drug mule". If you want to be searched and delayed and the airport then don't shave for a few months and dress in your most shabby clothes.


Bring entertainment for long journey

Get as many small books crammed into your carry bag as possible, charge your Mp3 player and bring some cards or games if you've got them. 18 hours on a train through Vietnam or a 16 hour boat trip in Laos will gradually make you lose the will to live. Great scenery will only keep you entertained for so long.



Agree on a price first:

This is very important. Write the price down if the person doesn't speak English and make sure they agree to it. One of the most common things you hear travellers tell you about is "that bastard taxi driver who charged me 20 dollars when the trip usually costs 5.."


To save money:


Buy your lunches at supermarkets

If there is a water cooler at your place, fill your portable bottle.

Have a daily budget, and try hard to stick at it, unless you are loaded you can't travel long if you are shredding through 50 bucks a night on alcohol.


Know the local exchanged rate and have a rough idea of the typical price of things

In some countries, people don't look at you as a person as much as a walking, talking ATM. Be clued up on money or you will get shafted


Go to museums or shopping malls to use toilets:

Sometimes you will spend an hour looking for a loo and in some countries the restaurants wont let you use the bathroom if you don't buy something.


Try street food but be careful:

If there are flies on the food displayed, go elsewhere. If they fry the food in front of you, you should be okay.

Bring some medication and toilet paper in your carry bag because you never know when your body will say "get this crap out of me!" I had a horrible moment on a plane shortly after having food poison in Jakarta. I was talking to a nice American girl and had the sudden feeling I would explode.. Fortunately I didn't.

Living in Jakarta: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The city at night - makes the pollution less noticeable

In 2010/11  I spent five months in Jakarta, predominantly studying Indonesian language. I left Indonesia directly after my graduation ceremony and since then I've spent two weeks in Vietnam then returned to NZ.

Jakarta is a developing city in a developing country. It has about 10 million people and many issues that you would expect from a place that only emerged from brutal dictatorship in 1998. The following is my experience of Jakarta:

It's extremely important to make the point that I believe all the problems I've outlined are solvable. I won't claim to have the answers but I think solving the issues is a question of national priorities. If a big portion of Indonesia's population are struggling through life, worrying whether they will have enough food to eat then they are probably not going to be as focused on stopping corruption or rally the government to introduce tough environmental standards.

Some lovely kids I met in a poor area

THE GOOD:

FRIENDLY PEOPLE

Off the top of my head the best thing about Jakarta is the people.. If it weren't for so many kind, humble and friendly people it would have been difficult to stick around for so long. Partly by virtue of being a Westerner, most Indonesian are curious about you. I've often been able to sit down with guards, street vendors and average Indonesian and have pretty decent conversations. They love to ask about what religion you are and are often surprised to hear I'm an atheist.

A DYNAMIC, INTERESTING AND BUSY CITY

Jakarta is a big, bustling place in a country that has very strong economic growth year on year. In addition, you can pretty much walk on the street anywhere, anytime and find people eating or selling something. There are many good pubs, clubs, restaurants, street vendors and malls.  Getting to these places without mind-numbing hours of traffic is a problem.

THE FOOD:

Indonesian food is pretty damn delicious. Favourites for me are gado-gado which is a salady dish with tempe, rice, egg and a delicious peanut sauce. For sweetness, you can't go past martabak. I've probably got diabetes from the few times I've eaten this delicious deep fried chocolaty, spongy desert but it is ridiculously good.

Indo food is heavily rice and noodle orientated and spice and sugar are the overwhelming taste in a lot of dishes. When I order food there I have to specifically ask for no spice because my tongue is not so fond of the sensation of being on fire.

LOW PRICES

You can buy DVD's for about One dollar

A typical meal goes for between 80 cents and 3 dollars including drink

You can get an hour long massage for about 10 bucks

I got a month long gym membership at a decent gym for just 11USD.

Tidung Island near Jakarta.. Still a bit dirty

Prices are geared for the locals and a humble Western income can allow you a comparatively luxurious lifestyle in Indo. 

LACK OF REGULATION:

In developing countries there is often a sense of the untamed. There's usually less regulation or regulations that are very loosely enforced. You see hilarious/incredibly dangerous behaviour that you people couldn't get away with in Western countries. Examples are people carrying enormous beams of wood on their motorcycle, children as young as eight driving scooters with no helmets etc etc. I know a lot of Indonesians who have no form of driver's license but they've been driving on the road for years. I don't advocate dangerous behavior but at least Indonesia is not incredibly controlling like Singapore

THE BAD:

TOO MUCH TRAFFIC COMBINED WITH NO DECENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Jakarta has recently been ranked the second worst city in the world to work.

For anyone who has ever been here, you would quickly know why this tops my list as the worst part of Jaks. Sitting in a car, waiting to get to where you want to go and rotting away is not my idea of a good time. Sometimes journeys of just a couple of kilometers can take OVER AN HOUR!!! 

It's at these moments of extreme frustration and boredom that I want to scream obscenities at no one in particular, leave Jakarta and never return. You can't escape traffic by making a u-turn cause most of the roads have a concrete divide. The lack of public transport makes getting anywhere take a long time. If you want to take the bus way, it is fairly comfortable and decent but you have to switch buses many times and the location for the stops are limited. They need an MRT and I hope they get one built soon.

Some paper boys on my campus

NOT BEING ABLE TO BLEND IN:

Being young and white in Jakarta means a lot of attention. It is rare that I would go to an area in Jakarta and not have people whispering "bule" (basically means white person) as I walk by. There's outright staring, laughing, flattering comments, not so flattering comments. Part of it comes from the comparative lack of Westerners in Jakarta, particularly young Westerner's so you are a bit of a novelty. Most of the attention is positive but you can't feel like you really fit in a place when people so obviously treat you differently. If an Indonesian walked through the streets of most of New Zealand, I doubt kiwis would be whispering "Indo, Indo" and laughing as they walked past.

The grotty waters on North Jakarta where many people fish

PERILOUS FOOTPATHS AND SMELLY SEWERS

Trying to walk on the footpaths in a lot of parts of Jakarta is risky business. They are narrow or non-existent, have a lot of bumps, uneven ground and are packed with stalls selling stuff. Sewers are smelly by definition but generally they are hidden deep underground. In Jakarta you will inevitably walk by spots with open sewers and get a revolting waft of turd.

Needless to say, not many people walk long distances in Jaks.

An impoverished kitten that wondered round my campus

THE UGLY:

LACK OF CARE TOWARDS SOME ANIMALS:

Indonesia has an active illegal wildlife trade, particularly with exotic birds and animals that are used in Chinese medicine. I think a lot of Indonesians do care for animals but perhaps animal treatment standards aren't at the top of the country's priority list.

Reasonably often you can see performing monkeys known as "topeng monyet" (monkey with mask) on the street. Monkeys are a naturally dominant species so in order for them to perform tricks, the tamer will pull on a chain around the monkeys neck continuously so the monkey rides a bike or some other grotesque act.

 There are a lot of stray cats around the place and they are often sickly thin. People will feed them but they breed at such a rate (because very few of them are spayed or neutered). Most cats have short or broken tails. According to my friends, there is a belief that a cat with a long tail will behave naughtily.

Dogs are quite rare because most people in Jakarta are Muslim and dogs are a haram (unclean) thing in the Qur'an.

At my course graduation with some Korean classmates

POLLUTION/HEAT:

Jakarta is hot..This is true for a lot of South East Asia though. Jakarta is even more hot and humid than it should be because of the thick coating of smog surrounding the city traps heat inside. On a sunny day it is usually difficult to see the horizon and if you are outside you will almost certainly be perspiring and getting those nice cheap clothes you brought wet from sweat. I saw a statistic that shows that from 2000-2011,Jakarta went from over 30 percent of the city being Green space to just 9 percent. The main reason for the destruction of green space was for the creation of malls.

MALLS:

A two headed coin; people love to shop and some of the malls are pretty swanky and have a nice atmosphere, there's just so bloody many of them!

They create traffic because most of them are next to highways, a guy from New York told me that Jakarta has way more malls than the big apple and the population of New York is nearly double (19million) Jakarta's 10 mill.

RIDICULOUS DISPARITY BETWEEN RICH AND POOR

While there are wealth gaps between all countries, it's so frigging obvious in Jakarta. You can literally have a street full of rich people's houses and have people who sleep on that same street next to the wagon they sell drinks from. There are child beggars all over the place, some of them are part of an organised group, others are just hungry.

Indo fitness god Ade Rai

LACK OF REGULATION/ LAWLESSNESS

A downside of countries that don't strictly enforce laws is safety is not always a priority. Things that are very mundane in the West such as builders wearing safety helmets are just not followed sometimes. You see them standing atop enormous tile roofs with no harness and just a pair of sandals. In huge buildings there are sometimes just one fire exit, a sure-as-hell death-trap if one ever happens within these structures. People still die here from things that are easily preventable. The road toll is atrocious.

CORRUPTION:

Thankfully New Zealand is low on the list of corrupt countries in the world.In Indonesia on the other hand, nearly anyone you talk to is aware of how rampant corruption is. I've heard first-hand accounts from people in government about the misappropriation of funds for personal benefit. There are so many problems in Jakarta that need money to assist in fixing them people who steal so they can buy themselves a new car or holiday are particularly big scumbags. Until corruption is properly dealt with the rest of the above problems will be very difficult to rectify.

All and all, I still enjoyed a lot of Jakarta and I may spend more time living there, not long-term though!

Aku mau feedback dari orang Indonesia jadi tolong menulis kalau Anda mau!

Life in Indonesia: Taking a big spoonful of guilt...

I am most definitely someone who is prone to thinking about the future and things I would like to achieve. The general gist of my thoughts are: What countries will I go to in the future? Where will I live? What job do I want to do? Will I buy a house? So it goes.. 

Quite a few years ago, I had a realisation that these type of thoughts were the privilege of a tiny majority of the world; namely, people with disposable income. Living in Indonesian only rams home this point.

It's easy for me; I guess for all of us, to get wrapped up in our own problems without considering how very lucky we are. We can also neglect the bigger issues of the world.

Indonesia has an incredible wrap-list of problems which I will write about in a different post. These issues aren't at the top of the priority list for many Indonesians and this becomes easier to understand when you consider one of the most fundamental needs for human beings: food.

Napoleon is famously supposed to have said: "An army marches on its stomach." I feel the same holds true for a populace. Indonesia is a developing country. How can someone put energy into saving the environment and stopping corruption when they are worried about putting food in their stomach?

Recently one of Jakarta's major daily newspapers had the headline: "117 Juta Orang Indonesia, Sangat Miskin" (117 Million Indonesians Very Poor).. It takes about five seconds walking a typical street in Jakarta to confirm how commonplace poverty is.

The very poor of Indonesia come in many different forms. There are those who sit on street corners with their hands out including children carrying babies, old people with no teeth and amputees.
There are those who sell drinks and other goods at small stalls and people who collect rubbish for a pittance. What they all have in common is they make between 10,000 and 30,000 Indonesian Rupiah a day (between $1.20 and $3.50 USD).

On my campus at the University of Indonesia there is a group of about 10 boys aged between 8-15 who sell newspapers. All of them have left school already and they sell the newspapers for about 25 cents each. They want to make money and be independent but without an education, they will probably be destined to a life of menial labour. It is common for them to work six days a week, 12 hours a day.

The problems of who to give to, how much to give, and how to make a difference can at times be overwhelming. Directly across the street from my apartment is a narrow alleyway that leads to my University. There is a boy aged around 12 who always wears a black T-shirt and camo-coloured shorts.

The first time I saw him he was crying his eyes out, wailing.  It was a distressing sight. I asked him what was wrong.. "Aku lapparr" (I'm hungry) he said. I asked him where his parents were: "Nggak ada" (I don't have any) he murmured. I told him that if he had any family members I would call them for him. He just kept crying so I just gave him a bit of money and was on my way. Since then I've seen him a bunch of times and sometimes give him a bit of food or small change. He is just one of millions.

I found out that there is a bit of an organised crime element to the beggars, much like what you see in Slum Dog Millionaire. I watched as a very impoverished looking beggar who I'm used to seeing as he was handing over a small wad of notes (probably just a few dollars) to a guy who I can assume was the boss of the area.
As for stealing for a living: people who rob here and are caught are usually seriously beaten or killed by the people (seemingly anyone) who catch them, so it's not a safe option for people who are starving.

Some of the poorest people I've ever met are warm, humble and friendly. They have a very tough life though.

It's incredibly cliched' to be young and idealistic but I at least hope in my life I can do something that makes a meaningful difference to some people.  Giving some poor Indonesians a bit of money isn't going to lift them out of poverty but I'm sure some of them will use the money to buy food and that, at least, makes me feel a little better.

Questions and comments welcome