Even castaways frown on junk mail

Even castaways frown on junk mail

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Life on a small island can be very lonesome with the only link to the outside world being the mail. I experienced this as a little girl. Mail then meant surface mail, not airmail and certainly not E-mail or facsimiles. When I speak of my childhood I refer to, as the Dutch would say, van voor de oorlog, those people who were born before World War II.

When the mail came on Thursday, along with the letters from friends and relatives there would be heaps of newspapers and magazines because my father was the distributor for the entire island. Thursday was the happiest day of the week for me because before the magazines were sent to the subscribers, my sisters and I would read them and fight over the stamps.

Now, with the advent of modern technology, there are a lot of complaints about the mail. My mailman only comes three times a week and the mail is so slow that I sometimes receive invitations for events that took place a few days earlier. A letter from South Jakarta can take two weeks to reach its destination in West Jakarta. People even complain that they don't receive some letters at all. The mailman has probably dumped them somewhere.

What has gone wrong? I looked for an answer by looking into the mail system. I even ventured into a post office to send a registered letter. Anyone wanting to follow in my footsteps, "Don't! Unless you are very brave."

You might attempt to queue up, but this just doesn't happen in Indonesian post offices. You'll be laughed at as you wait your turn in a sea of humanity. Bill Dalton wrote in the Indonesian Handbook, "Go up to the clump of people and push your letter as far as possible through the barred window to gain the attention of the postal clerk. Then try to squeeze your money into some gap between all the other hands. These are acceptable manners at an Indonesian post office." In spite of the lack of manners, Dalton says that the postal service is fairly efficient. I therefore had to look elsewhere to find why the mailman is reluctant to visit my house.

I therefore took a close look at the mail he delivers. Do I receive it all with the pleasure of my childhood? Well, some of it, like letters from friends, wedding invitations, exhibition openings and birth announcements.

There is also the mail that is less welcomed, like bills, while reminders that subscriptions are expiring can be annoying, although quite useful.

Sadly, most of the mail delivered to my house is useless. Beautifully printed ads for expensive jewelry, cars, houses and other luxuries. Offers for memberships to exclusive clubs, including golf clubs which are way beyond my budget. I receive at least four of each every day, one for each member of the family, and sometimes more because my name can be spelled different ways.

Once I received an envelope with "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN" splashed across the front. It triggered my curiosity, but I was disappointed when I saw that all the members of the family had received the same envelope. Could the whole family have been so lucky? It's strange that we get chosen again and again every month at the same time. It is all a lot of mail destined for the garbage bin.

I am quite sure that this is why the mailman has become so lazy. He has been reduced to a sort of garbage man. In fact, he wouldn't' be so lazy if he actually was a garbage man, but, as it is now, he has become a middleman. He lugs the mail to the addressee who decides which envelope to trash and which one to keep. His load is becoming heavier and heavier.

This situation should be called to an end. Advertising through the mail should be banned. Instead, people should write more letters, like R.A. Kartini, Indonesia's first woman to advocate women's rights. We know about Kartini's thoughts and life through the hundreds of letters she wrote to her friends in Holland. Virginia Woolf also left thousands of letters, and, after editing, these letters were published in six volumes.

In spite of Freud's busy schedule, he wrote thousands of letters in longhand to his friends. Researchers have been able to reconstruct his life and his thoughts from these letters. Is this not important to people today? Maybe this is why both the President and Vice President have requested Indonesians to write more letters.

Another, more romantic, way to support the mailman is to write a postcard to your lover everyday. This was done by Simon Carmiggelt, who sent a card everyday to his lover Renate Rubinstein everyday. Once, after coming home from a month long holiday, an avalanche of cards tumbled down from her mailbox. I'm sure the mailman would like this idea, he may fall for a little romance too.

In any case, advertisers must find more creative way of reaching the consumer. Only that way will the mailman retrieve his original, dignified occupation.