Going Local

We've been in Jakarta long enough that we are living like and experiencing things like the locals.  A few examples:

1)  When we first moved to Jakarta, our "culture shock" class instructor informed us that the city shut down over Idul Fitri.  The help returns to their villages, the Muslims gather with their families, and the non-Muslims move into hotels because they don't have any help around the house.  Our first two years we "toughed it out" by staying at home without any help.  That's when we learned that Idul Fitri celebrations include fireworks until 4 AM.

This year, we planned to go to Singapore for the five days (Sat - Wed) that would represent the Idul Fitri holiday.  Our emergency trip to the US kibashed that plan.  Instead, we've checked into the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta.  The only downside is the spa is closed for the holidays.

2)  More nanny issues.  In May, we brought back the nanny who left us on the last Idul Fitri holiday.  Losing staff during this time is quite common.  They go home to their village and decide to stay, or just use it as an excuse to change employment.  In our case, it was presumably the result of our nanny's husband finding employment and deciding he no longer wanted his wife to work.  In any event, my wife convinced her to come back for the birth of our new child.

There were a few what can only be described as "power plays" early after her arrival that we should have taken as a warning sign.  Instead, we overlooked it and wrote it off as our lack of understanding of the culture.  So she joins us in May.  We pay her for May, June, July and her Idul Fitri bonus.  Because we moved to Singapore at the end of May, she worked just three weeks in May, a week in June, and a week in August - 5 weeks.  Received 4 months of pay.  Then tells us the Saturday after we we return from the US her husband doesn't want her to come back after Idul Fitri.

That was enough for me.  I told her she was done that day and to leave.  I did not pay her for August or her severance.  I'd like to see her try to collect.


The longer we are here, the more we understand many of the comments we heard when we first arrived that we used to consider stereotypical, even bordering on racist.   The comments come from the frustration of experience.

I think every expat comes here thinking they will be different.  They will show all other expats how to treat people with respect and welcome cultural differences.  Then the reality of poverty hits them.

For the most part, I've been insulated from it during my time in Jakarta.  My direct reports at work are all smart, college educated, and, by Indonesian standards, well paid people.  They've been great to work with.  As I've ventured out and interacted more with the people who are struggling, I've experienced the same complaints I hear from other expats and successful locals, alike.

The adage says that money changes people.  Lack of money does, too.

Lebaran Annoyances

I've said multiple times on this blog that I believe Indonesia does a better job assimilating and accepting religious differences than any other country in the world.  I still believe that.  And in my efforts to fit in, I've worked very hard to be accommodating with the various religious and cultural differences we've encountered.  This Ramadan season has been a challenge.

Indonesia operates on a 13-month payroll system consisting of the standard 12 calendar months, and an extra month's pay for the Lebaron (Idul Fitri) holiday.  This is the Muslim holy month with fasting all month and a large celebration at the end.  It's the time when all the domestic staff return to their villages for a week to celebrate with their families.  It's a time when those who have are required to give to those who have not. 

 

 

I had no issue giving our domestic staff - nannies, drivers, maid, security and gardener - an Idul Fitri bonus, even though it was $1,000 out of my pocket.  It's in their contracts.  I didn't like paying extra to the trash collector or the "neighborhood security" (whom I think just collects money without providing any service), but I paid them anyway.  I did have problems with:

 

 

1)  The pool company adding an Idul Fitri bonus to their invoice.  I refused to pay this one.  I had my secretary call them and tell them that I considered it inappropriate for a vendor to charge me for the bonuses for their employees.  If I want to tip our pool guy over the holidays, that's my choice.  Trying to formalize it in the invoice from the vendor was ridiculous.  I half expected to see a charge on my cable and electric bills.

2)  We purchased some stone carvings from a "friend" of our driver.  One of the carvings had a splash of white paint on it.  I told the vendor I didn't want them unless they were clean.  He agreed to come back the next day to clean them, but wanted me to pay him today.  Reluctantly, I agreed and paid him.  The next day he did return to clean them, but brought someone with him to do it.  When finished, he asked me to pay the man.  I told him no way.  I wasn't buying a dirty statue and it wasn't my problem he had to pay someone else to clean it.  Then he said I should help him out and pay as part of an Idul Fitri bonus.  He became so insistent, and had been such a pain over the last few days, I finally asked security to remove him and ban him from returning.

 

 

3)  Our staff get this next week off.  It's the norm in Indonesia, and it's in their contracts.  They all asked for additional time off - with pay - and without wanting to makeup the hours somewhere else.  As expats, we pay our staff twice what they would make working for a local.  We just paid them two months of wages while we were in Singapore and the US (meaning, they didn't work).  Our generosity is tapped out.  I felt this request was out of line (the locals I spoke with agreed and were surprised I paid them while I was gone).

Maybe I'm just cranky.  Traffic this time of year is horrendous.  During the fasting month, Muslims get up very early and have a huge meal before sunrise.  This means most of them also come into work earlier than normal.  Then they don't eat or drink all day.  At 6 PM, they can break the fast (buka puasa).  Everyone wants to be home by 6 PM.  My 45 minute commute is now 2.5 hours - and that isn't fun.

Bottom line - I'm glad the season ends on Wednesday.

Culture Differences Work Both Ways

Over the past year, my company has been working on a major project involving all facets of the business, including technology.  This is a global project managed and driven from our corporate headquarters.  The project has afforded several members of my staff to make their first ever trip to the US; for some, it was their first time ever leaving Indonesia.  This week, I held a team meeting to announce some promotions and hand out awards for a program I initiated at the beginning of the year.  We took the opportunity to ask our global travelers to share anecdotes from their trips to the US.  Here are three of the funnier ones:

1)  In Indonesia, like Britain and Australia, traffic drives on the left side of the street, not the right.  This is more pervasive than you would ever imagine.  For example, next time you're walking towards someone in the hallway, move left instead of right and watch their reaction.  It isn't natural.  One of my staff had a layover in San Francisco and needed to catch a shuttle bus to the hotel.  He stood on the curb for nearly an hour and didn't understand why the bus wasn't coming.  Then he realized, he was on the wrong side of the street.  Similar problem when he walked up to the bus and didn't understand why there wasn't a door.

2)  Live in Phoenix long enough and you're sure to hear someone complain about how bad the traffic is.  Having a twenty minute commute is often grounds for bragging rights at a social event.  By US standards, Phoenix traffic is bad.  It's usually in the top 10 of national surveys for bad traffic.  One of the things that EVERY member of my staff said the liked so much about Phoenix?  No traffic.  When you are comparing it to Jakarta, where a 7 mile drive can take 90 minutes on a good day, Phoenix traffic is heavenly.

3)  Language is another interesting challenge.  My good friend, Pete Faur, discusses on his blog the difficulties foreigners have with the word "fix".  Add the phrase "to go" to this list.  In Jakarta, if you plan to eat somewhere other than the restaurant, or you want a doggie bag, you use the phrase "take away".  One of my employees approached the counter at McDonald's and placed his order.  As is customary, the person behind the counter asked:  "Here or to go?"  He had no idea what she meant so he replied:  "I want to eat.  If not here, where should I go?"

I feel their pain.  It's also why I have much more sympathy for the immigrants who come to our country and struggle to learn our language. It isn't easy.  It's so idiomatic, so full of slang, even when you think you grasp it, you don't.  And when it comes to something as important as legal rights, medical care, or the democratic process, I would prefer new citizens to have the option of fully understanding their rights through use of their native language.  I don't think this is too much to ask.

International Trade

Spending three days in Singapore reminded me how much there is to like about the city.  Some, like cleanliness, are quite basic.  Others demonstrate thought processes advanced enough that we should view Singapore as an example to the world of how a nation can be run.

Below are three things I would import from Singapore:

Grocery carts.  It is difficult to imagine, indeed, that something as mundane and uninteresting as a grocery cart would be worthy of global emulation, yet it is so.  All my life I have heard comedians mock the one wheel of the grocery cart that wobbles when in use.  In Singapore, and in Jakarta as well, the wheels rotate 360 degrees.  In a society that heralds community, that grocery carts possess the ability to quickly move out of the way of someone navigating down the aisle should come as no surprise.  But Singapore takes it one step further.  In several of the books I have read, most notably those by Gladwell, there is mention that supermarkets are always looking for ways to cover the cost of corralling grocery carts after customers bring the groceries to their cars.  Paying lot attendants to gather them periodically throughout the day costs grocery stores millions of dollars per year.  How does Singapore address this expense?  Much the same way as airports do luggage carriers.  To use a grocery cart, a patron must place a $1 coin into a slot do dislodge it from the other carts.  Upon return to the cart corral, you can then retrieve your dollar by reconnecting your cart to the others gathered there.  I would love to see the US grocery stores implement this using a quarter.  Give the homeless something to do other than ask me for change as I exit the store.

Assigned seats in movie theaters.  If you've ever attempted to see a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, you know the importance of not just buying your ticket early, but also standing in line long before other customers to have your choice of seats.  If you are a late arrival, be prepared to sit separate from your date (God forbid anyone slide to the center) or sit in the second row and leave the show with a sore neck.  Singapore theaters have solved this problem by requiring you to select your seat at the time of purchase.  This is such a simple difference that I am surprised that no theaters (of which I am aware) have begun to do this in the US.  As we push more and more people to buy their tickets in advance online, having them select their seat at time of purchase is an idea whose time has arrived.

Medical system.  Last, but certainly not least, as I've mentioned several times before on this blog, the US should implement Singapore's medical system.  So much health care debate in the US centers around what it would cost to insure everyone.  People assume that, if everyone is covered, the country would go broke.  A 2004 Kaiser commission study concluded it would increase existing government expense by $48 billion.  The study neglects to recognize what a CBS investigation found in the same year:  hospitals charge 2.5x more to uninsured than what they charge insurance companies. 

In reality, as Singapore demonstrates, insuring everyone will drive costs DOWN, not up, especially if we use the Singapore system, for two reasons.  First, medical facilities, specifically those who, by law, cannot turn anyone away, set prices according to their ability to recover.  Most hospitals, in addition to providing care, need to make a profit.  They are bound by the same laws of economics as a traditional business - marginal revenue must equal marginal cost.  This means those that CAN pay, will pay a price high enough to cover for those who CANNOT pay.  Otherwise, hospitals go out of business.  When everyone CAN pay, marginal cost (the cost of servicing one more patient) will drop, which will cause the price to drop. 

The second reason is the result of a more fundamental law of economics:  supply and demand.  Today, because copays hide the actual cost of service from anyone with insurance, we live in an environment with what is known as a "moral hazard".  Meaning, we will consume as much as health care services as our ability to pay the copay amount:  we're price insensitive.  Think of it this way, if you had insurance for purchasing diamonds, and you only ever had to pay $25 to buy a diamond, would you stop after you had purchased the two you needed for your earrings, or would you load up?  Singapore's universal coverage also has a copay, but in a different way.  Each person, according to their income, has a medical expense cap.  Once you've reached that cap, the government picks up the remaining cost of services.  This approach removes the moral hazard and forces patients to be price-sensitive.  If you know that you have to spend $2,000 out of your own pocket before the government picks up the tab, are you having your procedure at a facility that charges $100 or $50, assuming equal quality?  Obviously, you'll go to the $50 facility - it's your money.  When medical providers compete on price and quality, instead of paying marketing expenses to get on the "preferred vendor list" of an insurance company cost of service goes down and quality goes up.  It's really quite simple.


Unfortunately, I don't think any of the above will occur in the near future.  The medical changes, especially, are unlikely.  Medical insurance is a multi-billion dollar industry, with a very strong lobbying presence, and politicians who want to gain re-election don't walk away from that kind of funding.  Doesn't stop me from hoping.  Who knows, if enough of us write letters to our representatives, maybe we can make it happen.

Very Annoying Things

Over the past week, we've had, in quick succession, three things occur to remind us why we will be happy when it is time to return home.  File this under stereotypes and keep in mind this is not a reflection on Indonesians or Indonesia.  They are, however, far too common experiences.

1)  One of the symptoms my wife experiences with pregnancy is "blond moments".  She gets forgetful, especially in the later stages of pregnancy.  This week, she bought a bunch of new clothes for our kids prior to joining me for lunch.  After a nice lunch, she forgets the bag of clothes she set on the chair next to her.  We don't remember it until later that night when we go looking for them.  We call the restaurant who informs us they do not have a bag and no one turned it in.  Now, we know that they cleared our table immediately because the bus boy was standing next to the table as we left.  Did he think the clothes were a tip?  A similar situation happened to me last year when I visited the spa at our old residence.  I left my watch in the locker and didn't realize it until a few hours after I returned home.  At the restaurant, it is entirely possible no one on staff at the restaurant saw our bag sitting on the chair and a later patron decided to keep it for themselves.  At the spa, however, I locked the locker when I was done and returned the key to the cashier.  The next person in that locker would have cleaned it from top to bottom to prepare it for the next guest.  Again, did he think my watch was a tip for having such a clean locker?  In Indonesia, there is no such thing as a "Lost and Found".  Here they have a "Found and Kept".

2)  When we were preparing to move to Singapore for the birth of our first son, we were advised we needed to fill out a bunch of paperwork before we would be permitted to give birth there.  They even indicated we would need copies of our birth certificates - documents we left in Arizona.  Now that we are preparing to move there again next Saturday, the same company that assisted us two years ago asked us to fill out the same paperwork.  I reminded them of our prior experience and asked them to confirm if we needed to fill it out.  They said no.  While I'm in China, they send me another email saying we do need to fill it out and then sent me the forms and once again requested birth certificates for my wife and I.  I send them a link from the Singapore immigration website and ask them to explain where it asks for birth certificates.  A few days later they forward me an email explaining we don't need to fill anything out.  Attached to their email is an email from Singapore immigration confirming what I had already told them - US citizens are exempt from the process.  Too often I've encountered people here who just blindly follow a process they do not understand or even truly know.  At this point, I've learned to do my own research and not rely on the people who are supposed to be helping me.  They tend to get in the way more often than they help.

3)  Lack of urgency is a major problem.  Traffic is so bad that tardiness is expected.  If any obstacle presents itself, that's seen as a mutually agreed upon reason to miss a deadline or not complete a task - not as something that needs to be mitigated and resolved so things can move forward.  I tend to take it in stride, unless it really is urgent.  Earlier this week we had a minor health emergency with my son.  I'm holding him limp in my arms as we walk into a Starbucks and I say:  "I need ice quickly, please".  I even said it in Indonesian with the words "Cepat, Cepat", which, loosely translated, means "Hurry the F up!".  The guy behind the counter saunters back to the ice chest like he's making an iced frappuccino for a regular who's planning to take a seat and read the paper for the next hour.  I wanted to jump the counter and strangle the guy.  I settled for glaring at him incredulously.

Overall, my experience in Indonesia has been positive - especially with the people.  I'm going to mark this week down as bad karma and a series of unfortunate events, not as emblematic of the people here....though you have to admit, they didn't do themselves any favors this week!

A little bit of everything

I have so many different topics I want to write about I don't know where to start.  I could write an entire post on each of them.  Instead, since I have limited time, let me just hit on the key items:

1)  I'm ecstatic that Congress is focusing on the elimination of earmarks.  I really hope it sticks.  Earmarks are how we get 5-lane highways in rural Alabama that have never seen a traffic jam while Los Angeles and Phoenix suffer gridlock.  Earmarks are the result of backroom handshakes on how to spend federal dollars - and it needs to stop.  A better approach:  appropriate funds to broad categories - transportation, energy, medical research, military, etc.  Define a set of objective criteria with which to judge projects.  The projects that have the highest match are the projects that get done.  If it works for corporate America, it can work for our government.

2)  I'm very curious to see the downstream effects of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  The implications are far broader than many realize.  For example, spousal benefits, marriage ceremonies.  With military bases in nearly every state, I wonder how quickly federal law will begin to supersede state law and how quickly this will cause problems.  With 70% of America supporting gays in the military, I think it's the right thing to do and the right time to do it.  I'm interested to see how it plays out.

3)  Jakarta is absolutely empty at Christmastime.  I showed up for rugby on Thursday and I was the only one there.  My normal 45 minute commute has been a mere 20 minutes.  Except for the day Indonesia played Malaysia for the soccer championship.  That took me over two hours.  Inopportune time for traffic, too.  We were supposed to pay a visit to what we hope will be our new house.

4)  Did I mention we're moving?  Since we will be in Jakarta for another 18 months, we want to move to a location more amenable to our lifestyle.  Climbing up and down four flights of stairs with two children, and a third on the way, is not ideal.  We found a one storey house that we like a lot.  It's very similar to our home in Arizona (though about 50% larger).  It also has a backyard, a nice long driveway, and a private pool.  Next step is to negotiate rent and furnishings.  We hope to move in sometime in February.

5)  2010 was an excellent year for us - and full of travels.  We went to Yogyakarta, Paris, Barcelona, Austria, Florence, Rome, Singapore several times and even back to the US.  I don't expect as much travel in 2011, however.  2011 promises to start with a bang.  We bought a franchise in 2010 and, as soon as we can find a location that can sign a lease without a bankruptcy judge, we'll be opening our doors to business.  Hopefully in April.  Before that, we should be launching my game for the iPod/Phone/Pad.  Quality Assurance is complete and we just need to finalize the graphics.  We're targeting a mid-January release.  In July, we'll welcome another addition to our family (again in Singapore).  Who knows?  Maybe I'll even get one of my books published.  2011 is looking like it will be a great year.

6)  My team at work has had a tremendous year, and I'm not the only one who noticed.  Our management team in Phoenix has recognized the value our team in Indonesia provides and is doling out assignments accordingly.  I am incredibly proud of the effort my team has put in the last 18 months to achieve our success.  I expect more of the same in 2011.

7)  The rain here has been relentless.  It's rained nearly everyday, and rained hard.  I've lost track of what should or should not be the wet season.  No one here seems to know.  What I do know, it is raining a lot now.  Three floods in my neighborhood since October.  I'm glad we're on high ground.

8)  I am having far too much fun with two of my Christmas gifts: Madden NFL and Mario Kart for the Wii.  I spent much of my childhood conquering games on the Atari 2600 and Nintendo, and then far too much of my college days conquering worlds on the PC (Civilization and SimCity).  The Wii tops them all.  I wish I had invented it.

9)  It's fascinating watching our two kids develop.  They are such different people already.  For example, they both play with my daughter's dollhouse.  But they play with it in different ways.  Our daughter creates stories - mostly involving Peter Pan - and uses her characters to play out her stories.  Our son likes putting things in order - the kitchen pieces must be in the same room as all the other kitchen pieces.  They've developed different skills at different rates.  By the age of one, our daughter was already communicating her needs quite clearly, but struggled with dexterity.  Our son can throw a ball, climb stairs (up and down), and use a magnet on a string to pick up objects, but is still learning to communicate.  It will be fun to see how they both are in elementary school.

10)  Children say the darndest things.  Our daughter's dollhouse came with a catalog of all the other accessories you can buy.  She's flipping through it and sees an African American family.  The dad is sitting in the office and the mom is playing with the kids.  She remarks:  "Look!  You can get them a nanny!"  When friends of ours returned to New Zealand for the holidays, the wife drove.  Their 4 year old son remarked:  "Why are you driving?  Women don't drive."  It's amazing how much kids assume based on the world around them.  Our son has never really known anything other than Jakarta.  I'm curious to hear his comments when return to our normal life in Arizona.