Page 151: This City

Last week, I heard the news about a taxi driver who died because a motorcycle driver beaten him up. What caused this was because the taxi accidentally grazed the motorcycle, but instead of arguing on the street like people whose emotions ignited on the road usually do, the motor driver chose to follow the taxi down to some place, made him to stop the car, asked him to get out, and the brutality began. The motor driver repeatedly struck the taxi driver with a wooden stick until he passed away and no longer breathe.

An issue that can be resolved without hurting anyone ended up with a blood bath. I couldn’t understand what made the motorcycle driver beat someone with that amount of rage. Was he literary crazy, or was the city that kept him out of his mind? Moreover, at that time, why was no one willing to break up the fight? (The police finally caught the defendant based on witness’ statement.) My friend said that the witness(es) seek their own safety. Somehow, it fits the mentality of Jakarta. It is sad, but true. This city, this super-duper-effin'-snob-bitch, has infected its citizens some kind of horrible individualism, little by little.

Not long after that, we discussed about Jakarta governor election. I declared aloud whom I would choose, since there was no reason to hide it anyway, because I think this candidate had great vision and mission to Jakarta. Candidates who would rather fix public transportation instead of build five layers highway. IMHO, fixing public transportation is much more realistic, important, and effective than the five layers highway. The streets in this city, like many things that make Jakarta an uncomfortable and arrogant place, is one of the examples of chaotic rules and did not focus on things that actually need to be handle promptly. This is the kind of disease that infecting people in Jakarta, the inability to see which ones need to be fixed first.

And before I went to bed that day, I couldn’t help myself but thinking, “What a fucked up city I live in.”