It's a strange world

A and B are at loggerheads; C who has nothing to do with A and B's dispute becomes the victim: His possessions are vandalized. Whenever social disturbances and riots occur, this happens again.

Naturally, such behavior drives rational people to exasperation and dismay. Let us take for example the incident at Jl. Ketapang: The bouncers from a large casino quarreled with the local residents.

The casino was destroyed by the locals, but so was the nearby church. Only the scorched pillars remained, and everything inside was reduced to charcoal.

What has the church to do with the dispute, for heaven's sake? And to top this off, a Catholic school and another church, which are, note well, located six kilometers south and east of Jl. Ketapang, were also vandalized. This is absurd and outrageous. A few months earlier, two marketplaces in downtown Kota were torched and until now only the scorched black walls remain.

It is absurd that the marketplaces, which were built with taxpayers' money, were destroyed by the people who paid for them. It is tantamount to burning one's own house for no plausible reason. No wonder a prominent figure spontaneously remarked that there are many people in the community who should have their heads examined, meaning he thinks they're crazy.

It seems to me that the word "compassion" is nonexistent nowadays. What about the shopkeepers, whose small shops in the marketplace are their only means of livelihood. And who must stand helplessly aside when their shops are vandalized and their goods destroyed or stolen. No wonder the average man in the street describes the present situation as jaman edan (crazy era).

A. DJUANA

Jakarta