Arrogance in children's pop songs

Arrogance in children's pop songs

From Media Indonesia

I am referring to Frieska, a child pop song singer who often sings the song Keliling dunia, keliling dunia sama Papa dan Mama..." (Traveling around the world with Daddy and Mom...") and televised in a video clip. Indeed, how nice to be able to go sightseeing to Rome, London, Paris, together with one's Daddy and Mom.

However, if we tried to reflect upon its impact on our children, we would find out that for the majority of Indonesian children, particularly those living in remote villages, Keliling dunia sama Papa dan Mama" would only be a dream that could never come true. Facts show that many of them have to study in a decrepit classroom and consume food that is insufficiently nutritious, so do not talk about going to Jakarta, the capital of this country, with their parents, let alone going abroad.

I do not think the composer of the song meant to cause what we call social jealousy when composing that song. He unintentionally wrote a song which could invite social jealousy. Also unintentionally, a similar song, Metropolitan Jakarta was written, which encourages people to migrate to the city exactly at the time when the Jakarta administration is busy trying to minimize migration to the nation's capital.

Clearly, a song like Keliling Dunia' can be called a form of inappropriate arrogance. Yet, I do not mean to discourage song composers from continuing to write beautiful children's songs.

Perhaps it would be nice to make such a song like Keliling Dunia more active by adding to the closing part of the video clip a scene depicting Frieska who suddenly wakes up and says: "Oh, I was only dreaming..."

SETIAWAN SALIM

Jakarta