Different conditions breed different necessities<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE, Australia (JP): I keep telling myself that the
\nreason we are sent hither and thither in an Indonesian shop
\nbefore we can take home the goods we purchase is so that a fair
\nnumber of people can be employed.<\/p>\n
Thus, while it seems unnecessarily time-consuming as we try
\nour best to get things done, it ultimately has a sound reason.<\/p>\n
However, sometimes I fail to see sound reasoning behind
\nunpleasant events. At least not immediately.<\/p>\n
In a shop the other day I joined a queue in front of a cashier
\nwindow. Having been conditioned for years in Australia not to
\nintrude on other people's personal space, I left a one-person
\nspace between myself and the customer in front of me, which I
\nkept all the way to the window.<\/p>\n
When the person in front of me had completed his transactions,
\nI began to move forward. Lo and behold, a man slipped into my
\nspace out of nowhere. Feeling cheated, I told him that he had
\njumped the queue.<\/p>\n
The man turned to look briefly at me, then continued with what
\nhe was doing without even a token apology. Those who saw the
\nincident quietly looked away. I was seething and embarrassed at
\nthe same time. Not only was I cheated out of my right, I was also
\ntreated as if I were the one being presumptuous.<\/p>\n
After all, what was a few more minutes of my time when I had
\nalready been waiting for 20?<\/p>\n
It is obvious that in some aspects of life I have adopted
\nAustralian ways. While Australians are, and know they are,
\nrelatively accepting of different cultures, they normally guard
\ntheir rights and privacy.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, most Indonesians are fairly unfocused on
\nthese aspects, developing the concept of \"near enough is good
\nenough\" into a fine art. If the four seater at the back of a
\nminibus has to accommodate seven, well, so be it, other people
\nhave to get there too.<\/p>\n
And if another driver takes your right of way, for goodness
\nsake what's a few minutes difference?<\/p>\n
Australians generally understand that other cultures,
\nincluding Indonesia's, have different interpretations on
\nacceptable margins of error, and as a result are fairly tolerant
\nof lateness -- within reason -- or a change of restaurant at the
\nlast minute because of dietary requirements. That sort of thing.
\nBut life needs rules and regulations, and once we have them, we
\nneed to abide by them, they usually say.<\/p>\n
This type of \"rigidity\" does not sit well in Indonesian
\nsituations. People can come unstuck in simple daily activities
\nsuch as traffic conditions.<\/p>\n
While in Dago, Bandung, recently the driver of our hired car
\n-- a Kijang -- decided to take a shortcut. He drove into a narrow
\nlane. Unfortunately he was not the only one who knew that route.
\nThe bumper-to-bumper traffic would have made most Australians
\ngive up in horror. However, our driver, a third-year student from
\na local university, seemed unperturbed.<\/p>\n
As all the vehicles in our lane inched their way ahead, we
\ncame face-to-face with an oncoming lane of vehicles, and a number
\nof motorcycles which quickly formed an amorphous group. It was
\nobvious that the lane was not even wide enough to accommodate two
\nlanes of traffic. Some vehicles on both sides had their wheels
\nalmost flush with the edges of the monsoon drains.<\/p>\n
I had seen drivers hyperventilating and trading abuse and
\ninsults during much less hair-raising situations in Australian
\ncities, so naturally I was expecting the worst. The atmosphere
\nwas literally thick with exhaust fumes.<\/p>\n
It was impossible to move forward, backward or sideways. Yet,
\nnot only did I fail to see any angry faces, but after a few
\nminutes of this impasse which felt to me like an hour, a man
\nappeared from nowhere and began directing the traffic.<\/p>\n
It took an eternity moving the vehicles one by one, one inch
\nbackward, two inches forward, veering this way and that, and
\nmiraculously, all drivers without exception, obeyed him, who by
\nthe way was not even a traffic officer.<\/p>\n
Some time later, the traffic flowed again, no doubt until the
\nnext jam.<\/p>\n
We all felt a huge relief, but I was still shaking my head an
\nhour later. I could not see the same situation resolved so
\nquickly in Australia. Australian drivers are a lot less tolerant
\nthan those I had seen. In fact, the whole situation would be an
\nunlikely scene for that country. To begin with, Australian
\ndrivers would be unlikely to find themselves in a narrow lane
\nwhere two lanes of traffic are going in opposite directions
\nbecause town planners would have assigned one way traffic for
\nthose lanes.<\/p>\n
Different conditions breed different necessities and develop
\ndifferent temperaments. Provided we are mature enough to accept
\nthis, we should have few problems in our neighborly coexistence.<\/p>\n
-- Dewi Anggraeni<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/different-conditions-breed-different-necessities-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }