Life in the fast lane

Recently the whole of Jakarta came to a standstill due to heavy rains and floods which caused the traffic unbearable. Most commuter were outraged by the fact that it took most two to six hours to get home. For obvious reasons, the governor of Jakarta came under severe attack from all Jakartans but those who are most critical were the vocal minority in Twitter and other social media including Blackberry Messenger.

This tweetactivitsm is on a rise in Indonesia, people feel compelled to RT (Retweet) for a cause or convey a strong criticism in 140 characters. However, their complaints are often because most lack real action in their lives to actually make a difference so they turn to the world of digital to satisfy their ego and I am guilty of that to an extent. If one can see how they can make a difference in the real society perhaps digitally should only be temporary outlet. Ask yourself, what am I doing to make a real difference?

The fact is that the weather is dynamic, and we have very little control over this fact. But if people think that the rain is to blame for traffic in Jakarta that is an idiotic statement. The facts are as follows, there is 6 million vehicles in the greater Jakarta Area (JABODETABEK) and 27 million people reside in this megapolis. With only 9 million people who actually reside with in the DKI Jakarta area. 900 vehicles are sold per day, which 200 are cars, and the rest are motorcycle. So with this many vehicles on the road, do we really have enough roads?

Second fact, is that we have bad habits as citizens of the city and the surrounding area. One of which is throwing garbage not in the right place, and covering any soil with concrete when building anything. Yes we blame the government, rightly so, but we also need to blame ourselves for all this.

As cars and people increase, garbage and pollution also increase, but roads and land does not increase much. Traffic, well suck it up and smile, unless you are one who can truly say that you are making a difference.