I've lived in Jakarta for about 8 years. And ever since, I've come to terms with all of its madness and hospitality and surprises. Really, it is a city that is just like a Pandora box. Once you open it, you encounter a massive amount of life problems.
What a place to live...
But I've also been learning to love living here. Loving and living it unconditionally. There's no buts. You can either love it completely or hate it absolutely. Just like a friend of mine now residing in Yogyakarta. He once tried living in Jakarta but said the city failed him. He was entitled to his own opinion.
In this city, I also learn the hard way the cost of COLLECTIVE EGO.
It occurs naturally in the civilization actually. It all starts from identification to one single concept or worldview or belief or idea.
This is the place where I see directly the war of notions in debates (mostly in politics), and the debates lead to conflicts and anger and mayhem.
The case of an ill-fated governor [Mr You-Know-Who] is just one of the turmoils I despise most. It really exhausted us as a society and questions us how far we have been but now we're drawn to the age of darkness once again.
Collective ego, regardless of the forms, is always perilous and must be controlled in such a way.
And instead of going out, exploring our external world too often, we're frequently too afraid to deal with our own Self. That's why to know ourselves is the hardest thing for human beings. The journey inside is always the hardest because every human shall see him or herself in the most raw, vulnerable, exposed, fragile state that s/he cannot endure. (*/akhlispenulis@gmail.com)
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