From DVD Rental to Kapolri

I am actually very tired at the moment, but determined to write these stuffs that have been bothering my mind for a couple of days. Three stories..and can get to four, if I'm not too tired.

First of all is my sympathy to a DVD rental shop near my house. It is a DVD rental brand franchised from Australia. I have been its customer since I was in undergraduate school. What was a two-storey shop selling all kinds of audio and video recording on the lower floor and video recording for rent on the upper floor is now a dimly lit shop. During the day, the lights may be off at all. I am angry and sad. I believe the business have gone bad for this type of shop and it is now taking cost-cutting measures. The culprit is the high level of piracy in Indonesia. People prefer to spend Rp 7000 for a pirated DVD than Rp 5000 to rent a DVD. Why should they? The pirated quality is not that bad, although far from Blu-Ray and they can own recently released movies (sometimes even before it is played in theatres) and watch them over and over again. Bah! Lame excuses of shameless people. If nobody wants to change for the better then we are all going to sink to the bottom of the sea.

Second story...
Yesterday my family and I were driving back home through one side of the two-way packed street in Pondok Indah (Jl. Kartika Utama, for you who knows the area). Suddenly, on the other side of the road (which goes to the opposite direction), a police motorcycle, followed by a police car were honking with their sirens blinking. The next in line were a fancy sedan and another police car with siren. Turns out our national police chief was returning to his home. Yes, the national police chief of Indonesia lives in Pondok Indah, one of the most prestigious residency area in Jakarta . And even worse, this parade went to the same direction as us except that they were on the other side of the road (which supposed to go to the opposite direction). After the procession passed, civilian motorcycles and cars closely trailing behind, challenging the traffic from opposite direction. Seriously, do you think it is appropriate for the national chief of police dept to give such a disgraceful example of power abuse and law offense? I think it is repulsive and someone should have take the picture and put it as a headline of a major newsletter. Shame shame shame on you, Mr.National Police Chief!

Third story...
So sick and tired of this messy country. The busway is under renovation. It is now rainy season. The renovation got halted and one side of several bus stops are out of function. The buses cannot stop at the side of the terminal where the construction is under way, so there are lots of change of routes. Not any different from some primary school riddle on how a turtle should take a sheep and a tiger across a river where crocodiles live..or something like that (hope you know what I mean). What I want to focus here is in the midst of contingent events, people become more and more absurdly uncoordinated, making the bus stop a total chaos. Nobody seems to care of other people's needs, not to mention the complete absence of queue. It's just like a bunch of people competing for BLT (cash subsidy given to the poor). It's lucky that I haven't seen anyone got stamped. The people have no self-awareness of a civilized queue and the authority is not taking any action.

Fourth story. Now that I reach the 4th story, I think might have a 5th one..but will keep it for tomorrow. Anyway, the 4th one is about the pathetic absence of law enforcement and law consistency in Indonesia. We have heard of high profile individuals, political leaders, high level military officers abuse their power and popularity for their own advantage. One of the example is my second story above. A recent article in the major newsletter analyzed that the constant change of rules and absence of law enforcement have fueled people's distrust to law, forcing them to aggresively take part in the-so-called law enforcement. The law standard and definition of right and wrong certainly will varies. The result: chaotic sick society decorated by mutilation, vandalistic mass organizations, etc.

Oooh...I'm scared and disgusted in the same time. How can I escape this situation?