Indonesia in food, fuel, and compassion crises

by Jennie S. Bev

I live in Northern California, considered one of the wealthiest regions in the United States, where the global intellectual hub of Silicon Valley neighbors the panoramic San Francisco Bay area and where luminaries like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the “Google Guys”), writer Amy Tan, and comedian Robin Williams call home. Here, millionaires oftentimes still go to work and live in cramped houses due to skyrocketing housing prices. A decent dim sum meal costs at least $20 per person and a modest one-bedroom apartment rental costs about $1,500 per month. A dollar can probably buy you one can of soda in a deli, but not in a movie theater, where it might be four times as much.

While homelessness is an ongoing and often stagnant issue in downtown San Francisco, 8,675 miles across the Pacific Ocean in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, 23 million people live packed into 290 square miles - extreme poverty is an everyday sight. Amongst Jalan Thamrin skyscrapers, slums weave through the city with their cardboard huts, stinky sewers, and annual floods. The haves and have-nots live side-by-side, oftentimes even sharing the same wall. A few of the privileged dine at five-star hotels, while those selling cigarettes and magazines on foot must live with a mere $2 per day, or even less.

What a contrast. What a divided world we live in.