Common courtesy

I have now lived in Jakarta for over nine years. Certain facets of life are, indeed, much better now than when I arrived. For example, the phone system generally connects, Garuda usually flies to schedule, taxis all have air conditioning and there are fewer electricity power cuts.

However, I rarely detect what the British refer to as common courtesy. Garuda, as recent correspondence has indicated, still fail to inform delayed passengers as to why they have to twiddle their thumbs for hours on end.

And the electricity company (PLN) consistently cuts off power supplies without warning, even when those power cuts are planned.

On Jan. 17, 1997, at about 10:28 p.m., I had just returned home after a hard week's work and an end-of-the-week restaurant meal with my wife. We had noted a PLN Toyota Kijang in Jl. Asem Baris Raya because, as it arrived, it prevented our taxi from turning into our street.

I was taking a shower, my wife was carrying our three month old son and my neighbor, who has a computer programming business, was working. The power went off. I, covered in soap, slipped, fell and bruised myself. My wife dropped the baby. and our neighbor's computer "crashed" and she lost a day's business.

So why, we would like to know, didn't PLN have the courtesy to inform the neighborhood of their repair, or whatever they were doing, before they started? A message via the neighborhood chief would have been sufficient.

To conclude, in nine years I have seen little evidence of the notion of either the assumption of responsibility for one's actions and their subsequent consequences or the heightening of communal awareness. In short, who cares?

TERRY COLLINS

Jakarta