Just Accept It

Keeping this blog up has been much more challenging than I anticipated.  On my first trip to Indonesia I wrote so many entries that I still have 5 or 6 that I never published.  The blog proved to be very therapeutic; it gave me an outlet for what I was thinking at any given time, and allowed me to share my experiences, positive & negative.  I had assumed it would be the same this time around, but so far, I’ve had a really hard time committing myself to keep it up.

 

Even now, as I type these words, they feel forced.  I’m writing now out of a sense of guilt.  I wonder why that is.

 

Jakarta has failed to inspire me, that’s for sure.  The city is large, hectic, polluted, congested, and confusing.  There isn’t much else to write about Jakarta that can’t be summarized in a Facebook update or two, which I think I’ve done.  I just finished looking through my camera roll on my iPhone, hoping a picture that I took in the past few weeks would inspire a blog post, but nothing really jumped out at me.  What I will try to do, then, is try to think about my experience thus far in Jakarta and tell you a little bit about it.

 

In Indonesia, the dominant culture is Javanese.  The island of Java, roughly the same size as Vancouver Island, has approximately 120 million people, half the population of the entire country.  The Javanese dominate business, government, and influence.  It is said that a non-Javanese will never be president (which is interesting, in that Indonesia may have never had a non-Javanese president, but it did briefly have a woman president).

 

Part of my work here is to engage with the people in Indonesian companies that are responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility.  VSO is trying to unlock the potential of the Indonesian people with a spirit of volunteerism and what it calls “Active Citizenship.”  This is not a huge leap for Indonesians, and Javanese in particular, the majority of which are Muslim, because giving and philanthropy are central themes in Islam.  Giving back is culturally-ingrained, so to speak.  As a result, my work, and the promotion of active citizenship should be easy.  However, the ‘system’ in Indonesia, to my frustration, seems to exist solely to maintain the ‘system.’  Why change anything?  Why question anything?  Why strive?  Why challenge?  People within the system expel great amounts of energy to maintain it, regardless of whether it truly works.  I didn’t (and still don’t) get it.

 

My colleague Naidi, who was hired by VSO in a business development / marketing capacity, and started a few days before me, finally shed some light on it for me when I expressed my frustration with encouraging people to think differently and creatively.

 

There is a concept in Javanese culture called “nrimo.”  Naidi explained to me, that loosely translated, nrimo means “just accept it.”  There is no point in questioning why something is, or whether there is a better way, because one should “just accept it.”  There is no reason to change the system, or look for efficiency, because one should “just accept it.”  Anyone who knows me will understand that this makes absolutely no sense to me, as someone who challenges nearly everything just to be the Devil’s Advocate.  I find myself biting my tongue quite a bit!

 

Another result of this is that it’s leaving me feeling a little bit jaded about my work, as most companies here view CSR as a chore, something that is imposed on them.  Indeed, there is a law that companies must spend a particular percentage of their revenue on CSR activities.  It’s usually superficial at best, normally no more than a photo-op, or an opportunity for a long, drawn-out, painfully boring ceremony.  Having said that there are some very interesting and meaningful schemes that I’ve researched, which can potentially have real impact on peoples’ lives.  Too bad they are in the minority.

 

I have just over a week left in Jakarta, and then I return to Bali to finalize and present my findings to VSO.  I have been in Jakarta for about 6 weeks, not yet long enough for me to feel my own nrimo.  I refuse to just accept it.