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