Common courtesy

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