Have we lost our sense of numbers?

Have we lost our sense of numbers?

BANDUNG (JP): My roommate has given up news. Well, I don't
blame him. It's the time where getting the news actually is more
confusing than not getting it.

The only interesting thing about the news today is the fact
that most of the cases featured are never solved. There are too
many stories featured so that keeping in touch with one is very
difficult.

This country is really a news factory, in fact. If only Chris
Carter, the creator and writer of The X-Files, ever came to live
in Indonesia, he would have a lot of inspiration for the series
ranging from unsolved manslaughter cases to "Are Riots in
Indonesia Really the Work of Satan?" type of premises.

Ten years ago, the Dunia Dalam Berita news program seemed
gripping and interesting for the conflicts it featured that
happened in other countries, wars, famine, riots in some African
country or other, all played like a very involved drama, while
for domestic news, TVRI would feature some ministerial department
meetings, or how to plow your field of rice right or what
fertilizer to use.

But today, when all kinds of disasters in Indonesia are being
broadcast in news programs, a news update every hour, printed in
newspapers and magazines, and you realize all this is happening
in this very country, suddenly you just feel nauseated. And
suddenly, news programs become mind-numbing, too.

Especially when they show some bureaucrat saying something
really stupid as they try to calm people, "Oh, the situation in
the city is under control" while people are trying to kill each
other in the street. Or as when the prosecutor in the Soeharto
case says something like "so far we don't have any proof that
Soeharto really is guilty in this case".

Well, excuse me, Mr. Prosecutor, the last time I checked it
out, I learned that a prosecutor should say something attacking
the defendant not soothing them.

Some news programs can also be retitled The Faces of Death for
they show the actual corpses and even mutilation, body parts,
still very bloody.

They picture a stillborn baby dumped in a sewer, or fire
victims, in a distasteful manner. Hey, we got snuff TV here! I
mean, people have right to know but, puhlease. (And you thought
Hollywood was cruel for turning tragedies such as Titanic into
huge summer entertainment.)

And I thought all this was the reason my roommate gave up
news. "No, I just... I think I've lost my sense of numbers," he
said to me sadly.

It all began six years ago when Eddy Tansil carried off a bank
scam that cost this country 1.3 (some magazines then said 1.7)
trillion rupiah and got away with it. Nobody tried to wake him
(or us) up and said that it was an awful lot of money until
somebody wrote in Tempo's letters column about how many
kilometers you would have to park your vehicles in if you spent
all the Eddy Tansil money on cars.

And now, that my roommate's monthly allowance (and mine) from
his parents will only last for 15 days, he has become more
transfixed by how numbers are playing games with his mind.

I have been shocked by the effect of what happens to me on
him. Numbers are essential in news. Five students were killed by
gunshots in May 1998. A few da ys later hundreds were roasted in
the still controversial attempts at looting convenience stores
and other buildings during riots.

One cameraman for one no-good gossip show attacked (he might
as well deserve it) by Camelia Malik for invasion of privacy made
quite a big deal while the fact that hundreds or maybe thousands
were abused, disappeared, killed, during years of military
operations in Aceh has never yet got the publicity it deserves.

Then in the same province, seven military personnel were
killed and nine civilians were murdered in revenge.

How's that for equity. Two people got into a fight in Ambon
with the result that the masses started to fight; thousands of
people, many deaths, thousands losing their homes. How's that for
equity. And much more, if you realize it, every day you are
attacked by numbers.

But then I sensed some changes in my roommate's behavior. For
instance, he rarely eats breakfast or dinner. Actually, he only
eats when he's very hungry. His weight has dropped and he's not
as cheerful as he used to be.

Then I notice some changes in our room, many little additions
on the floor: small items crafted from bamboo and clay usually as
souvenirs.

"Where did all this come from?" I asked him. "I bought it. You
see all this pretty little stuff only cost me one thousand rupiah
apiece. One breakfast itself costs three times as much." So he
just gave up eating properly to buy stuff he doesn't even need.
He's losing it. This is not right. There's something wrong about
this scene.

But then I came to a conclusion. We're not losing our sense of
numbers. But numbers have killed our sense! It is not about how
to find equity on how many deaths should occur as revenge.

And it is not right to reduce the numbers of victims killed in
riots as many military leaders do for the news. Are we supposed
to be worried if the numbers of victims is one hundred and not if
it's 50? This is wrong. One single human life is too precious to
be sacrificed for anything. How can we lose our respect for life?
Have we really gone that far? Have we decided to live with
humanity erased from our senses?

Today time is at its strangest. People are losing direction.
Many people now believe the end of the world is near. Well, if
that's a fact, can we try not speed it up?

-- Jokoanwar Dekan