Poverty, cryology, and Christmas in Jakarta

After a prolific posting period, my submissions have suddenly slowed. To some extent, this is because the perfunctory aspects of life lack entertainment value. How interesting is to hear we woke up, prepared for work/school, completed our day, and then went to bed? It's not. After nine months of being here, any groundbreaking, culturally revealing events are also likely to be fewer.

That said, I am going to try and post more often. At least 3 times per week.

As anyone who has visited a developing nation, or read my blog for any length of time, knows, beggars are a common sight on the streets. I've heard all sides of the debate on whether or not one should reward their begging behavior. If your incentive is to give your "spare" money to those less fortunate while simultaneously encouraging positive behavior, the best thing to do is give a known beggar some money when they are not begging - for example, while they sit on the sidewalk taking a break. This rewards the behavior we want - no begging.

For the most part, that is what I do. It is more difficult when the beggar is a 5-year-old child standing at your door singing or, as in the case of last week, standing in front of your car pointing at you so they know you see them. When two young girls, no older than seven, approached our car, I gave one the folded up bills of spare change I typically have on me (about $2 USD worth) and the other a bag of candy. That's when it got interesting.

While we still waited for traffic to start moving again, we were able to observe their behavior given the new situation they found themselves in. One had cash, the other had a good that could be exchanged for cash. The rational thing to do would be to evenly split the cash and the candy. That's not how it went down. The child who had received the cash obviously placed a larger value on the candy than did the child who had received the candy (that, or she did not know the value of the money she had received). It was also obvious the one who received the candy was more interested in obtaining the cash than having the sweets.

They conversed. They examined the contents of the bag. They negotiated. The young child with money reached in, grabbed the entire wad of cash I had given her, gave it to the other girl, and then they split the candy. Economic theory at work. It was fascinating to watch.



While my family was visiting, I took time off work. This afforded me the opportunity to do some of the daily activities with my daughter that I am not normally able to do. Walking her to school, going to swim lessons. Her swim lessons are at the only one of the three pools in our complex I had never been to. It also is the only pool with a diving board. I was surprised to see my daughter jumping from the diving board without fear. Head first, feet first - it doesn't matter to her. It's just water, after all. I have some video of it that I will post once I have time to edit it so it is small enough to post.



Christmastime in Jakarta is surprisingly festive. They have decked the malls with boughs of holly, Christmas trees, and even have parades through hall. Santa Claus is omnipresent. At Pacific Place, one of the many high-end malls, they had carolers singing while a snow machine dropped snow flakes from the skylights on the eighth floor. It made for a beautiful, wintry moment in Jakarta.


Finally, I'm going to agree with my friend at Right Point that you should buy and read Robert Begam's new courtroom thriller Long Life?: A Journey into the Unknown World of Cryonics puts an interesting spin on the topic of cryology. If you have someone join Walt Disney in the freezer, before they have died of natural causes, have you committed murder? Is the person truly dead if you can bring them back to life? Read the book for the answer (buy it using the link provided).