Friday, April 15, 2005

Indonesia: The Land of Money Making Opportunities 

for those who havent been to Indo and don't know what traffic is like, this is just a simple example.

At every U-turn, there will always be a young teenage boy, or an adult male standing at the bend of the turn controlling the traffic for those who are U-turning. Before these cars move off, they "tip" him with either 100 rupiah (approx SGD $0.20) or some even 200-500, what ever shillings they have basically. so can u imagine how many cars use that U-turn a day and how much he can earn in a day? Lets say 2000 cars pass that U-turn a day, thats
100*2000 = 200 000 (eq to SGD $40) so in a month, he earns Rp 600,000 which is SGD $1200. Thats probably what an office job would bring you. And its considered A LOT in Indo.

So last Dec when i went back, my family and i were on the way to the CBD area where my Aunt office is. She had to go back to the office to get something important, so the driver took the normal route they would take to work. This is really interesting. The main road led to a 1 lane side road, there was this young man standing on the road divider, and there was a medium size rock, probably about the size of 2 bricks, in the middle of the road. Then the car stopped. I asked my auntie what happened and why did the car stop? She told me that we have to wait for the man to roll the rock away so that cars could pass. Before the car moved off, the driver tipped the man off. My aunt told me that this young man stands there every single day, sometimes with a different rock. So, he earns money from rolling away rocks. Interesting.

Yes, this "job" involves standing there rain or shine. But can u imagine how many thousand cars pass that road every day since it is within the CBD area? You can surely earn a decent living out of that. I salute this man for his clever idea. I mean, since you can make a living out of practically ANYTHING in Indo, i think thats a pretty clever way to do so. Yet i don't see other people copying this idea. Some are just plain lazy to move a limb. They just sit there on the streets and stretch their hands out. Some are worse. They lie there, cover their faces with newspaper, sleep, have a small woven basket between their legs and expect money to drop into their basket.

tw|nKled by t|aRa on 11:28 PM