Tower waste of money

Tower waste of money

"Your Letters" of Sept. 18, 1995 touched on three matters of
great importance -- traffic problems, air pollution and one
other. On the first two I have contributed a number of letters
over the years, but since their message never reaches the powers
that be, it seems pointless to add to the letters from other
readers on these matters.

But the other matter is the one raised by Synka A. Tarigan
Highest tower in Kemayoran (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 18, 1995). I
am wholly in support of his views, for this is something that has
been going around in my mind for some time. First of all, the
highest tower in Southeast Asia is in Kuala Lumpur, so we must
build a taller one to be one up on our Malaysian neighbors.

No, the real point is the one that Tarigan made: If this
monstrosity is erected, what a waste of money that should far
better be directed to improving the lot of the poor people of the
world, of whom there are maybe 50 million in this country. Would
it not be far better to spend the project cost of this tower
(US$400 million) on schools, medical services, improved water,
electricity and other facilities?

We can learn many salutary lessons from history -- in this
particular instance from French history -- because history has a
way of repeating itself. Most readers will be aware of the
fateful words of Queen Marie-Antoinette of France who, when told
that the peasants had no bread and were starving, exclaimed,
"Well, let them eat cake!" Those words seem to epitomize the
attitude of those who squander untold millions of dollars on
building hideous, monolithic glass and concrete structures, and
whose Mercedes, BMWs and other luxury cars proliferate on
Jakarta's streets, thereby creating confusion worse confounded,
caring nothing for the lot of their less fortunate brothers and
sisters.

JAMES RICHARDS

Jakarta