On Memories

Just like books in libraries, I like to think that memories come with their own unique Dewey code. With this you can easily find the books you want at the right shelves. For instance, 900 is History & Geography; 950 is General History of Asia, Far East; 959 is General History of Asia: South Asia and so on. Now, erase the Dewey code from one book and it’s not so easy to find it anymore within the immensity of library shelving system, although that book is still there somewhere. Just like memories.

How do you erase memories? By erasing their identities, their Dewey code. You work from outside, the outer shell—the colors, features, elements and most importantly: association—erasing them one by one until you cannot recognize those particular memories anymore. Once the identities gone they become generic. You then store them back in random shelves and they’re lost within rows and rows and rows of other inconspicuous memories. And you will think that you’ve got rid of them forever.

Except that you have not. The content is still intact. From time to time it resurfaces and seamlessly blends with our everyday life. Only, without familiar label you won’t recognize it. Perhaps it morphs into a feeling of desolation when the rain is pouring down. Or it merges in the glowing warmth whenever you read a certain poem. Maybe the bitterness of a cup of black coffee in one morning concurs at the same time with a pang of sorrow. A déjà vu as you watch one scene in an episode of comedy series.

Those feelings you can’t understand? Must be reminiscence of a certain past, a relic of seemingly not-so-distant fragment of life’s long narration.

***

From Manchester United Kit to Communism and Vice Versa

The latest Manchester United’s kit has created quite an uproar, even among its ardent fans. In a nutshell: it’s ugly.

With its chequered pattern, most people compared it to a tablecloth or tea towel. Indeed, the only sport’s uniform uglier than this is the Norwegian Olympic curling team’s pants.

Luckily, they improved the design…or not.

I mean, people already have difficulties believing that curling is a legitimate Olympic sport event—with the broom and its sweeping action. So it’s even harder to respect the athletes—or anyone!—wearing THAT kind of pants.

Anyway, back to Manchester United’s kit. According to Nike, its manufacturer, the chequered pattern called Gingham style is a tribute to the 19th century famous cotton mill industry which made Manchester one of the richest city in England, Europe even, during the industrial revolution. The cotton industry defined Manchester at that time. So thoroughly was the life in Manchester depended on cotton, it was colloquially known as Cottonopolis.

However, life was not that rosy for the workers of the cotton mills. The working condition was appalling, the usage of child labors was unchecked, and the state of the environment was disquieting. One of an eyewitness account on Manchester at that time:

A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth...the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Journeys to England and Ireland, 1835

Into this kind of scenery that in November 1842 a young German man came into the city. His father was a co-owner of Ermen & Engels at Weaste, in Salford. He sent the young man to Manchester in the hope that he would leave his radicalism behind and started to learn business. Alas for the father, the workers’ working condition in Manchester seems to drive the young man more to radical socialism. Yes, he would spend the next 2 years studying business first hand, but he also wrote a book titled “the Condition of the Working Class in England” (1844) based on his exposure and observation of the workers’ condition. That, and later his introduction to Karl Marx was the basis of long productive years in building the foundation for Communist ideology. His name is Friedrich Engels.

Even today, the book is considered as “the most eloquent and powerful critique of society in early Victorian Manchester” [Roy Whitfield: The Double Life of Friedrich Engels, MRHR Summer 1988]. The book is important because it “was not merely a survey of working-class conditions, but [also] a general analysis of the evolution of industrial capitalism, of the social impact of the industrialization and it political and social consequences…” [Eric Hobsbawm: How To Change the World, Abacus London 2012]

One of his analysis is on the creation of the working class, and how the terrible working condition was in fact a systematic dehumanization imposed by the bourgeoisie class to create class discrimination. It is only through class struggle, fight against the bourgeoisie, the workers can find back their humanity and dignity. [Hobsbawm; idem]. This is one of the earliest attempt to apply Marxist method to the study of a society, and a basic framework that Marx and Engels would continuously use in their future works.

Later in his life, Engels benefitted considerably from the renewed contract in the Ermen & Engels partnership. He saw his income rose by almost 4 times due to that. This enabled him to live comfortably while dedicating his life to Communist movement. Also, using his wealth he would supporting his friend Karl Marx who was formally unemployed until the end of his life. This so called “Engels’ double life” and a historical study about his life especially during his time in Manchester can be read thoroughly in Whitfield’s paper here.

The circle is complete: industrial revolution has created both wealth and misery to humanity. The misery triggered the raise of Communism as an ideology, while the wealth provided Marx & Engels with resources to complete their works. Now, the Gingham pattern, the tribute to Manchester’s cotton industry those days, has made a comeback through Manchester United kit, made by Nike, the embodiment of global capitalism.

And for you fellow comrades, just throw away your old Guevara and retro CCCP’s hammer & sickle T-Shirts. To show your revolutionary spirits just wear the current Manchester United kit. After all, it’s also the embodiment of the misery of those Manchester’s cotton workers during the industrial revolution…

***

Patriotic Consumerism

A friend was stunned to hear BMW is about to lunch its new model in Indonesia while in the same time he also learned that thousands lost their job amid the weakening economic condition. The fact that they continue to launch their product here only means that they still see Indonesia as potential target market, that there’s a sizeable part of the population who still want and can disperse their disposable income to purchase luxurious-non-productive items. At the same time, others still dwell in great poverty.

Disrespectful, insulting, vulgar, he said something to that effect. I remained—those who know me—uncharacteristically silent. In any case, it’s hard to sip this wonderfully tasted cup of coffee, trying not to take my eyes off the dazzling view of the Jakarta’s traffic from the top of this building, while at the same time thinking about the right response for his view. After a while, he let a long sigh, took a deep draw of his cigarette and somehow lost in his thought. I hoped that’s because he was realizing that the very fact we’re discussing THAT topic in THIS place was as absurd as his narrative. Not to worry though, I know for sure it’s not going to stop us to speak about injustice any other time in any other place. That or we simply love to argue…

Which bring us to an early 20th century American economist / sociologist Thorstein Veblen. I have an old copy of Veblen’s book “The Theory of the Leisure Class” but the book is so difficult to read due to its archaic English, let alone to grab the concept. In fact, Veblen had not learned English until his teens when he self-taught himself via intensive readings, which may explain his style. Trust me, just refer to the reliable Heilbroner’s Wordly Philosoper to describe Veblen’s thought.

Basically Veblen renounces the traditional view of the neo classical economist that people are merely motivated by desire to maximize utility. He postulates that instead people are driven by the pursuit of social status. This is base in his observation on the behaviour of the New-Rich class who spend money for luxurious goods which have no intrinsic value added compared to their regular substitution. A BMW I mentioned earlier for instance will function as well as a Kijang. Since no economic value is apparent, the only motive left for the purchase of these luxurious items must be social: the ‘need’ to climb ups the social ladder by the way of displaying wealth.

Veblen coined the term ‘conspicuous consumption’ to describe that. A ‘conspicuous leisure’ is a similar term to describe time consumed for non-economical value adding activities. Hence, those indulge in a conspicuous leisure actually want to show others that they don’t need to work long hours to fulfil their basic needs and since time is money, burning time equals burning money. Discussing world’s injustice in a café like we did earlier is one example. So now you can see how absurd it is to denounce conspicuous consumption while having a conspicuous leisure.

But this is the point where I should depart from Veblen, and that friend of mine earlier, especially when explaining what to do during this time of global malaise. Most of time, the cause of current global economic crisis is attributed to excessive consumerism leveraged by imprudent consumer credit dispersal. When the foundation collapsed, the whole intertwining economic structure built upon it was also tumbled.

As usual, experts differ on the most effective way to turnover the situation. But one thing is clear: consumers are now cutting down consumption. When in crisis turn to Keynes, hence now Governments taking over by increasing the spending. Does it help? We don’t know yet. The fact is China’s economy which relies heavily on export and investment, and until last year the fastest growing major economy, dwindled and slows down to 6.1% growth in Q1 2009 (9% in 2008, 12% in 2007).

No difference, Indonesia is also hit by the crisis. But let’s be fair: it’s a far cry from the annus horribilis of 1997 – 1998. This in part is due to the fact that our economy’s structure has changed a lot in the past decade: it used to be export that drives the economy but now the proportion of consumption is bigger. Turns out, it makes our economy more resilience during a global crisis. Other nations have also tried to spur local consumption directly. Taiwan for instance, distributed shopping vouchers and it seems to work albeit in a short time.

Which brings us back to Indonesia, where we finally found other virtue of BLT (Bantuan Langsung Tunai): it stimulates consumption during the crisis. The most adverse critics say it’s disgracing to the poor and it’s better to give the bait rather than the fish. But who are they to say? Is it bad if the recipients want to use the money for pure consumption rather than productive investment? I’m just a simpleton but don’t you think consumption drives production which eventually also drives the economy? Forget indirect stimulus package which will end up in those riches’ pockets and they will save rather than give back to the community through spending.

What about us? To those out there who are still not affected by crisis, this is the time when I plead: let’s spend. Be it conspicuous consumption or conspicuous leisure, at the end the money will trickle down to those who need it by way of taxes or their direct income. Think about it: we’re doing service to the community, to this country, isn’t it a noble cause? We don’t need the government to make us do it, when our country needs us we will answer the call, and that makes us…a patriot. As Stanley Bing put it succinctly in his Fortune’s column, “…never before consumerism and patriotism united under one glorious flag”. Yes, we can call our endeavour a Patriotic Consumerism.

***

Vindicating Jealousy

By now you must have been familiar with Marcella Zelayanti’s story. She has given a new meaning to the expression ‘Femme Fatale’. That is: a woman who will send thugs when her wish doesn’t materialize. I always love to see a woman who can stand for her principle. Hey, money is money you know. But miss Zelayanti has taken it a bit too far. From now on be very careful with your date and make sure it’s still alright with her to split the bill sometimes…

Anyway, in the those past few weeks the media has bombarded us with miss Zelayanti’s story. Sometimes take the side of the victim, another day the opposite. It’s perplexing to see the staggering amount of attention given to this case. But after some moments I can understand why the media behave in such way: there’s demand and here’s supply. Media at the end is merely reacting to the basic law of demand and supply.

The question is why so much demand? Come to think of it miss Zelayanti is not the first—certainly will not be the last—public figure whose scandalous affair has drawn so much interest. In fact, any scandal involving celebrities gets pretty much high public’s attention, the racier the better. Remember Ahmad Albar, Marshia etc.

I think this is because deep down we do like to see other people—in politically correct terms—fare less favourably than they used to. That feeling is especially accentuated towards those we consider far exceeding us in certain social indicators. Those in show biz industries, with their snobbish life style, apparent lack of hard work, sometimes limited talent and yet propelled solely by their beautiful appearance manage to reach the apex of stardom, are particularly prone to such a feeling.

This hypothesis is actually supported by a research, but don’t quote me on this as I can’t find where I actually read the article. In this study a group of white collar workers were asked: do you feel better off when (a) you are paid $70,000 and your colleagues are paid less than you or (b) you are paid $80,000 and your colleagues are paid more than you. The majority answers (a) . This shows that happiness can not be achieved in isolation. Instead, comparison with others plays an important role in how most people see how they fare. Rather than having others richer than us, we’d prefer to be slightly poorer but on top of the pack. In lay man terms: jealousy is vindicated.

Now it comes to the message for the media: don’t hesitate. Bad news about celebrities shows that they are mortals too. It shows that not everything alright up there and this thought somehow appease that powerless feeling in being a victim of this life’s great injustice—oh that sinking feeling. Hence, send your snooping paparazzi and your nosy reporters, give us the news and I don’t mean the good news—I want the hardcore! And since infotainment is always a good business, don’t you feel good reaping the money while servicing the community at the same time?

***

The Police Concert: February 4, 2008 (Part 2)

Ah ya, konsernya sendiri. Enam sekawan menempati posisi sayap kiri sekitar 50 meter dari panggung. Tidak paling bagus, tapi cukuplah mengingat inipun sudah posisi nomor 2 termahal. Lalu setelah menunggu sekitar ½ jam, panggung menggelap, lampu sorot menyala dan tampillah... band pembuka. Ehm.

Baiklah band tersebut, Fiction Plane, tidak jelek. Vokalisnya Joe Sumner, anak dari Gordon Sumner (kalau Anda tidak tahu siapa si bapak, musnahlah! Anda tidak pantas jadi penggemar the Police). Namun maafkan, sehebat apapun band pembuka tetap hanya band pembuka. Penonton memang bertepuk sopan setiap akhir lagu yang dibawakan. Tetapi bagaimana perasaan mereka yang di panggung? Apa mereka tidak tahu kalau setiap tepukan sebenarnya adalah harapan penampilan cepat selesai? Mungkin tidak lebih dari 7 lagu dibawakan, tidak bisa ingat tepatnya berapa. Namun itu sudah terlalu lama bagi penonton yang mendamba menu utama.

Yah, akhirnya toh berlalu sudah band pembuka diiringi sorak histeris bahagia: pergilah kau! Panggung kembali gelap sekitar 15 menit dan jantung berdebar menanti, tahu kalau yang berikut bukan basa basi lagi. Ini pastilah mereka! Dan panggungpun terang benderang...


“Just a cast away, an Island lost at sea...” dan gemuruhlah stadium dengan teriakan histeris penonton. Seperti penderita lumpuh yang secara ajaib tersembuhkan cipratan air suci Lourdess, begitu pula 10,000 penonton yang tadinya duduk malas mendadak langsung berdiri melompat-lompat. Suasana yang luar biasa. Dan dengan demikian dimulailah ritual upacara sekte pemuja 3 dewa Sting, Steward Copeland dan Andy Summers. Langkah pertama: melompat-lompat gembira, kedua: nyanyikan setiap bait lirik sampai tenggorokan kering dan parau, ketiga: bertepuk tangan sampai lengan pegal dan telapak kapalan. Ulangi sampai 2 jam.

Kemudian satu per satu keluarlah lagu wajib yang sudah pasti dihafal mati oleh anggota sekte pemuja the Police. De do do do de da da da, Invisible Sun, Synchonicity II, Walking on the Moon, Roxanne, King of Pain, Can’t Stand Losing You dst. Dibawakan nyaris tanpa jeda, Sting hanya sesekali berkomunikasi dengan penonton. Bukan hal yang penting memang karena yang diharapkan keluar dari kerongkongannya adalah lagu-lagu lawas the Police untuk dinyanyikan bersama. Andy Summers tampil santai, kontras dengan raungan gitarnya tapi kadang selaras dengan kocokan reggae-nya. Steward Copeland tampak beringas di belakang drum set, memungkiri kenyataan usianya yang sudah kepala 6. Dan Sting... yah, adakah yang masih perlu dikatakan tentang dia? Singkatnya, energi yang luar biasa.

Ritual pemujaan hanya sesekali berhenti untuk duduk istirahat, misalnya pada lagu Voices Inside My Head, Hole in My Life, Driven to Tears yang sedikit santai. Pada Wrapped Around Your Fingers, Steward Copeland khusus memainkan gong raksasa (apa itu namanya ya?) dan perkusi, dan untuk sementara meninggalkan drum setnya. Aransemen yang membuat sektor ritme lebih menonjol dari lainnya, tapi justru makin apik terdengar.

Setelah hampir dari 2 jam, ketiga dewa pamit mundur. Taktik biasa, untuk istirahat sebelum menggelar encore. Sesuai skenario, butuh suntikan tepuk tangan dan siulan tak henti selama 5 menit dari penonton agar mereka tampil lagi. Semua anggota sekte tahu, ada beberapa lagu wajib yang belum mereka bawakan seperti...

“Well someone told me yesterday...” dan dengan So Lonely mereka kembali menggebrak panggung. Histeria penonton meningkat, tahu bahwa ini sudah di ujung acara. Dan memang setelah beberapa lagu, konserpun ditutup dengan hit terbesar mereka: Every Breath You Take.

Dan selesailah semua. Kepuasan tidak terperi, mati esokpun rela sebab hidup terasa lengkap sudah. Apa lagi yang harus dicari? Kecuali mungkin...seteguk minuman segar (atau jadikan saja satu botol)...dan sesuap makanan pengganjal perut (sudahlah satu piring saja sekalian)...dan beberapa buku yang masih harus dibeli besok. Ah, nyatanya urusan duniawi masih padat, urungkan dulu kerelaan untuk mati besok.

Rombonganpun kemudian menghabiskan malam dengan nongkrong di pinggir kali, sambil makan sandwich dan minum Jack Daniel Cola yang dibeli di warung 7-11. Encore yang sempurna sungguh.

***

The Police Concert: February 4, 2008 (Part 1)

Hujan deras dan banjir di Jakarta, 3 hari jelang konser benar-benar mencemaskan. Bagaimana bila pesawat terhalang pada hari yang dijadwalkan? Menjadi pengamat langit, setiap saat melihat ke luar, tapi langit gelap malah balas menertawai. Kita pastikan saja kalau ini canda yang tidak lucu.

Terus berharap, bahkan nyaris berdoa, sesuatu yang sudah lama tidak dilakukan. Jadi tertawa getir sendiri, mengapa jadi hampir relijius begini?

Tidak ada yang bisa dilakukan selain merutuki sendiri keputusan yang sudah dibuat. Dadu sudah dilempar, memang. Tapi kenapa sih mau sok berhemat untuk kesempatan yang mahalangka ini? Mengapa berangkat pada hari konser digelar? Mengapa tidak 1 hari sebelumnya? Biaya hotel semalam ditanggung renteng cuma 300,000 rupiah per orang! Lain kali perhitungan biaya-manfaat memang harus memasukkan faktor non-ekonomi.

Tapi misteri alam semesta sungguh: hari keberangkatan cuaca cerah secerah-cerahnya. Tidak ada biar sedikit awan gelap menggelayut di langit. Terang! Jadinya berangkat dengan ria, percaya kalau tujuan sudah di genggaman. Wrapped around my fingers… begitu kira-kira.


Lalu tentang kawan seperjalanan. Tidak lengkap kalau tidak menceritakan mereka di sini. Percayalah, mereka bukan sekedar latar belakang cerita, sebaliknya bahkan. Merenungkan kembali setelahnya, perjalanannya sendiri sudah menjadi tujuan, alih-alih sekedar proses untuk mencapai tujuan. Dan ini semua karena ada 5 pria paruh baya menjawab “iya” pada sebuah SMS pemberitahuan: “the police konser di singapur, mau nonton nggak?”

Jadinya ini adalah tentang perjalanan 6 sekawan yang lebih dari 10 tahun lalu pernah sebangku kuliah. Dilengkapi bercandaan dan gaya gembel mahasiswa tak berduit yang pernah dilakoni dulu. Dibumbui gosip terakhir kawan-kawan seangkatan, dari nomor absen 91-001 sampai 91-7xx sekian. Ini memang jadi ziarah ke masa lalu, pas sudah dengan the police, band kenangan untuk mereka yang tumbuh di zaman emas 80an.

Sekarang menuju Indoor Stadium tempat acara berlangsung. Siapa yang terlihat di situ? Statistik tidak tersedia, namun berdasarkan pengamatan kasat mata dan pasang kuping untuk dialek Jakartaan, tampaknya 50% pengunjung adalah orang Jakarta. Reuni teman-teman kuliah lagi, teman-teman dari dunia kerja, saudara, sebutkan saja semua ada di sana.

Tambahan: daftar ABC pesohor dari yang penting sampai yang tidak penting. Penggemar sungguhankah sebagian dari mereka, pesohor yang lebih banyak terlihat di acara pesta-pesta musik elektronik? Gigi, Samsons, Padi mungkin iya. Yang lain tampaknya hanya mencari keriaan saja. Sudah jadi agenda budaya yang penting buat warga Jakarta rupanya konser ini! Biarkan sajalah, tidak ada yang bisa mengatur bagaimana orang menghabiskan uang mereka.

(bersambung)

Violence: Beyond Good and Evil

My alma mater, SMA 34 Jakarta, got a lot of publicity lately. Not because of the intellectual achievement of its students, but due to the case of bullying of junior students by other students. I feel sorry for that, not that I have sentimental attachment to my school whatsoever, but more to the fact that this increasingly aggressive society of ours has seemingly corrupted the mind of the young.

It makes me think whether evil actually lure behind human’s mind causing their violent conduct. Or is it a well calculated step taken for a specific purpose.

My friend the economist from café salemba has a theory about this. (As usual, economist can always come up with some sort of rational explanation about humans’ behaviour. What you need is the imagination to ask the right kind of question). Asked about the reason behind mass lynching for petty theft for instance, he postulated that this is because it’s the most economic way in finding justice. When the law process is perceived as costly (time consuming or uncertain) people tend to rely on alternative way to get what they value as justice. Say the petty theft is caught and brought to police for further process. People have no incentive in terms of certainty that the petty theft will get a well deserved punishment. So why don’t they take the law into their own hands and presto, instant result.

You can have it the other way around too: there’s no disincentive for people who take the law into their own hands. We rarely seen people get punished because of their involvement in mass lynching. Maybe my friend is right, because I feel the law enforcers see it’s easier to let the mass do their own justice. They might have limited resources to take care of insignificant crimes.

Now that’s an example of violence as a well calculated measure: the means to reach some ends. But what is perceived as a well deserved punishment? Is it worth to kill a man because he steals a hen or a cloth? Well, my friend the economist might answer that it’s not the value of stolen goods but the value of security lost that conjures the act. The bottom line: it’s about the incentive to do or not to do certain action. In economics term what all homo economicus doing is merely maximizing his / her utility, in spite of limited resources.

Other friend of mine who’s trained as psychologist, explained to me that mass violence happens because of its promiscuity nature. I mean, since everybody openly does it, those who are not involved initially, would think that it’s okay to do it. The absence of social restriction will unleash the beast inside the man, and make them a wolf against their own.

Again, that only explains the circumstances in which act of violence can happen at all. But what about this: I asked someone who in the past involved in this kind of thing, beating a petty theft—not to the death luckily—why did he do that? Didn’t you feel sorry for the guy? Do you have any remorse at all? It’s a combination of things, he said. I had nothing personal against him per se. My car’s stereo was stolen in the past, it could be his friend. I had a really bad day at that time. I was carried away by the situation. He deserved it. I can feel he’s looking for a justification, which was none. Basically he just feels like it.

For sure the economist can say he’s still maximizing his utility, albeit in a peculiar kind of way. But what utility he’s maximizing?

This leads me to a conclusion that violence is actually inherent in us. Basically, if unchecked, we, humans, like to see the others suffer. It can be a manifestation of other urges, for the use of violence often is a source of pride and a defense of honor, especially among males who often believe violence defines manhood. But in reality, everything is blurred and the act of violence itself has become the purpose.

We despise violence not because it’s against our philosophy of love, but because uncontrolled violence is unproductive for the society as a whole. That’s why humans created law, morality code & norms so limited violence can be justified if used to achieve some common objectives. It’s useless to think we can eliminate violence completely.

The book A Clockwork Orange tells a vile adventure of a young delinquent named Alex and his friends. At the end he’s apprehended by the authority and subjected to an experiment which makes him nauseated at any impulse towards violence.

Can the world be a better place when everyone is incapacitated from their violent urge? Well, I believe at the end it’s all up to us to choose between good and evil, and even to define what actually is good and evil. It seems that world in which evil can be freely chosen might still be preferable to one in which goodness is forced. After all, only when we can use our capacity to decide, rather than driven by our impulse or forced by the others, that we can term ourselves a free man.

***

Global Warming Impact on Daily Activities: A Descriptive Analysis Based on 3 Case Studies

I was asked by the management the other day to check a peculiar movement in one of our brand. It is not a big skin care product hence no marketing support is put behind it. From the beginning we were expecting only a flat growth for it; the brand is managed for cash, so to speak. So we are quite astonished to see that it actually is growing.

Time to check Nielsen’s Retail Audit. Competitors – check, market – check, distribution – check. There’s nothing extraordinary about them, except a slight increase in total market. But then again nobody really increase media spending for the category, if not nothing at all. So what cause the growth in consumption?

Having no explanations at hand, and no budget to spend for consumer research, the only thing I can do is to do desk research. And after googling for a while I realized one thing: it’s Global Warming. The higher temperature across the earth has caused certain people to sweat more. This phenomenon in turn caused skin irritation. To eradicate this problem more people buy skin care product, hence: the increase in total consumption for skin care category. Voila, a fool-proof analysis…

But back home I found out that it’s not only me who’s affected by this global warming craze. It’s been raining for few days in Jakarta and one day I found ponds of water in front of my house. This is odd because there’s none in front of my neighbours’. Must be the drainage, I thought.

I called my gardener because it’s his responsibility to clean the drainage. Soon we were involved in discussion why he didn’t do his job keeping the drainage unclogged, especially since it’s rainy season already. At one point he evasively said, “it’s not the drainage pak, it’s just too much water. Maybe because of global warming pak”. I rolled my eyes.

Last case. Again in the office, I was discussing operational performance of the sales force with one Sales Area Manager over the phone. The sales force performance in one of his area out of Java is not so encouraging, particularly due to lower-than-average numbers of sales visit. He could not immediately find out why the numbers of sales visit are low, so he asked whether he can discuss this with his team and call me back in the afternoon.

When he rang back he said that it’s true his team could not meet the sales visit quota. I asked whether it’s due to operational, people or territorial problem. No he said, my sales force simply could not visit that many outlets. He continued, it’s simply too hot, they can’t stand the heat so they have to go back to the office earlier at 4. And guess what he said when I inquired why is it so. Right. Global warming.

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