Watch out for the pitfalls

Watch out for the pitfalls

By David Gordon

JAKARTA (JP): Brilliant, daring and assertively intelligent,
higher education (frequently education abroad), bank checking and
saving accounts, business ventures, stock market investments,
real estate investments and speculations, BMW's and Blazers,
computers, cell phones and e-mail, hair and beauty salons, golf
and tennis clubs, gyms and aerobics for healthy mind and body,
fancy people - fancy weddings, Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood,
Jazz Club, staying in the best Hotels, Plazas, designer clothes.

That sums up Indonesia's newest up-and-comers. This is the
next generation striving to become individuals of recognition,
importance and fame.

These are days cast into demanded change and amplified visions
of growth for Indonesia, and this is also the time period for the
emergence of the Indonesian Yuppies.

You can plainly spot today's "Yuppies" cruising in and out of
high-rise buildings, in their tailored and custom-fitted business
suits and dresses, driving their cars along the streets and toll
ways -- hurrying in, out, around, and about the entire Jabotabek
(Greater Jakarta) area. You can easily glimpse Yuppies gathering
their delights at the local shopping malls, eating and drinking
in the finest restaurants, playing and scamming at the most
happening discos and nightspots. They talk Yuppie Talk, they walk
Yuppie Walk, they play Yuppie Play, and live as Yuppies Live.

Yuppies are a new variety, an unusual and unfamiliar brand of
"Indonesian Individuals", that are materializing within an age-
old Indonesian familiar society and culture. Yuppies are a
merging-sign of modern times, rapidly and radically changing
times, cross-cultural and bi-lingual times, mixed marriages
times, Internet - Networking - Website and - WebPage times.

And, many Yuppies drink alcohol and use drugs, for this also
is part of the Yuppie Culture, Persona, and Life Style. These are
young individuals -- some are still in their 20s -- who are
success-oriented and success-driven, living in a now-happening-
world of business, lofty pursuits, and pleasure-propelled frills
and thrills. This is a world of fast, faster, and fastest. If a
person is left behind, they stay behind. This is a corporate-
created idea and generated world, where the Games of Monopoly and
Dungeons and Dragons are played for real. This is a stage and
setting where a player's turn, and turn over, is based on a
seven-year make it or brake it cycle. Make it in seven years,
move ahead, or get left in yesterdays dust, past over and
forgotten forever.

Many, who will strive to become future Yuppies, begin using
alcohol and drugs while attending university (some begin in
junior high or high school). Many of these young individuals
continue using alcohol and drugs when they enter the business
world. Part of the initiation price one has to pay when aspiring
to become a Yuppie, is being part of an In-crowd. A Yuppie must
be part of some Yuppie In-group. "Connections" in the Yuppie
World cannot be side-stepped or avoided, if one wants to move
forward in the Yuppie World. The 'Game' must be played, the
connections must be made, the person must show up at the right
places at the right times, the "personal showing/act" must be in-
line and correct with the upper-echelon (and their families)
views, opinions, purposes, and goals.... A good Yuppie, on the
way up the Yuppie Ladder, is "I Must and I Should - Oriented"....
If the In-group drinks and uses drugs the Yuppie must follow,
they must show the same likes, patterns and habits.... This is
how one moves ahead in the Yuppie World....

'Truth'

Alcohol and drugs both dominate extensive periods of time,
with general public approval, and are accepted themes within the
business world, and both enjoy a leading role of popularity in
this game of chasing success, manners of socialization, and style
of livelihood. Alcohol and drugs are often viewed as part of the
most necessary tools of the trade for conducting business,
essential entertainment stimulants and enhancers for client and
customer treats, a definite must for certain types of business
clients and associates, and social lubricants -- when striving to
find out the "truth" of what is happening within organizations/
institutions, or getting on with certain people, or groups.

Also, we must not forget that both alcohol and drugs
(including pills) are used by many Yuppies (directors,
executives, bosses, managers, supervisors, foremen,
administrators, etc.) as "stress, tension, anxiety, nerve, pain,
worry, pressure, and distress reducers". Many individuals who are
in "managerial positions use alcohol and drugs to relieve their
daily aches and pains, stresses and worries". Many of these
people use "tranquilizers and barbiturates" (often these
medications are medically prescribed) to ease their daily pangs,
woe's, and afflictions.

Also, many Yuppies are drawn and firmly attracted to the
amphetamine family of drugs, such as shabu-shabu
(methamphetamine), and forms of cocaine (speed). The
"amphetamines" can help keep these individuals moving at an
"incredible pace" for many, many months, even years. In
Indonesia, currently, the Yuppie's favorite drugs of choice are
shabu-shabu and alcohol. Many Yuppies also smoke marijuana and
take Ecstasy recreationally, and regularly.

Many female Yuppies have a passion for the amphetamines,
because amphetamines also act as the "finest diet medicine on the
market today". Any person using shabu-shabu regularly will
absolutely have a tremendous amount of increased energy, and a
euphoric sensation of extra brain power and vitality, plus, as a
side benefit, the shabu will definitely take weight off, and keep
the weight off. Women in the business world, or those who are
part of the In-crowd, and are also into the drug scene are often
very attracted to amphetamines.

Burn-out

Yuppies psychologically and emotionally often verge on the
edge of "burn-out", because of the accelerated tempo at which
their lives are paced, and alcohol and drugs take the edge off
before the burn-out occurs (at least for a period of time).

Of course, not all Yuppies drink alcohol or use drugs. That
would be highly erroneous to imply. Most Yuppies are extremely
stable and solid individuals, they are genuinely responsible in
both their personal and business lives. They are loyal and
creative employees, and many make outstanding executives. And
"they" thoroughly enjoy the world and benefits of Yuppie-dom....!
Yet, alcohol and drugs are a definite and constant factor within
the Yuppie Community, and must be understood to be a "selected
element within their social structure".

An emerging Yuppie Community has been developing in Indonesia
over this last decade, and this Community will rapidly grow as
Indonesia stabilizes after the krismon (monetary crisis), our
political leadership steadies, and the International Business
Community re-invests, once again, in Indonesia. And, many Yuppies
will have problems with alcohol, drug abuse and addiction in the
future. Plus, the Yuppie Community will also be severely affected
by both HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis 'C'.

Again, many Yuppies like alcohol and drugs, also Yuppies are a
"very sexually active group of people". Sex also plays a large
role in the entertainment portion of the Yuppie Business
Community. Both viruses will travel rapidly into, and around, the
Yuppie Community unless individuals learn about how the viruses
are transmitted, how and why the viruses spread the way they
spread, and how to protect themselves by changing their patterns
and habits of behavior, and behavior-ism.

The World of Yuppies and Yuppie-dom is very rapid and
tenacious, very exhilarating and exciting, and very, very
rewarding for many. But, this Yuppie World also has its own set
of politics, authorities, games, and rules. And, the Yuppie World
is not a place for the weak of heart and mind, or amateurs. This
"game" is played fast, and played for real, and many get
swallowed alive, and are broken in the process. Many begin using
alcohol and drugs, at first because of the fun, frills and
thrills, and the follow-the-leader factor early in the game. But
many also get caught in the game, and the fame, and lose their
way and direction, many become alcoholics and drug abusers.

Being a Yuppie is often a wonderful and adventurous life, and
life style. But losing ones way and direction is anything but
wonderful. Yuppies should be aware, and careful, about the
"pitfalls" they may encounter on the Road to Yuppie-dom and
success.

The writer, a psychologist, is Program Director, Yayasan
Harapan Permata Hati Kita in Bogor.