Random Acts of Kindness Are Pointless
...in Indonesia, that is!
Last night I was at Plaza Indonesia and I saw these 3 kids going up the escalator right in front of me. One of the kids was older than the other 2, he looked like he was in his teens, say maybe around 14-15? I noticed that the bigger kid's shoelaces were untied and it really could just get caught in the escalator, and KNOWING how many freak incidents had happened in Jakarta with kids getting their shoes caught in the escalator creaks and all the bloodbath and crap, so when I got to the top of the escalator, I just kindly pointed to the boy that his shoelaces are untied and he should be careful so not to get them caught while going up and down the escalator you know?
And you know what? That ungrateful kid first made like a kind of annoyed face at me, then he ignored me and looked away while pulling the other 2 kids away like, oh, lets get away from the crazy lady who should mind her own ffffing business. OMGWTF! SERIOUSLY, KID??!?!?! I AM ACTUALLY POINTING SOMETHING OUT FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!!! Why do I even care in the first place? Must've been because I totally forgot that I'm back in Indonesia! Must've been the effect of being NOT BEING IN INDONESIA for more than a week, outside Indonesia where people actually exhibit proper manners when exiting an elevator or the MRT, or point out to you that your handbag is unzipped, or ran after you if you dropped something.
Here? When you do some random act of kindness what do you get? You get annoyed faces, people ignoring you, and some probably mutter something along the lines of MYOB under their breath.
Even MY MOTHER, my good ol' bless-her-soul kind-hearted mother had stopped to even BOTHER at all when it comes to Indonesians. Few weeks back we were in Dharmawangsa Square and she saw a foreigner drop a piece of paper, which turned out to be a credit card receipt. And she quickly said to me, "Quick! Pick it up and give it back to him! He's a foreigner, he'll appreciate it!"
What that sentence describes is just so disturbingly RIGHT. A majority of Indonesians just can't appreciate KINDNESS. I don't know what the hell is wrong with them? Are we that jaded due to the so many EVIL that Indonesians do that we just get so freakin' paranoid everytime someone does something nice, thinking it's probably a scam in disguise? I've tried to be helpful and nice to a lot of people on random days where I RANDOMLY felt like being nice, and almost every single time, I get a freaked out/annoyed/pissy look or just get plain rude ignorance (seriously, Indonesians are very capable of looking RUDE even while ignoring people), and then I'm back to my bitter old uncaring self.
Why bother AT ALL?!
Needless to say, my mother was right. When I ran up to the foreigner and told him that he dropped his credit card receipt, he was like thanking me profusely like there was no tomorrow. Now THAT is a normal, civilized reaction to a random act of kindness. Coz you don't come across it every day, and when you do, you best be grateful so the person will continue being nice to other people, NOT make them feel like it's totally pointless to be nice!
I hope that stupid ungrateful kid gets his shoelaces caught in the escalator and GOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEE!!!!!! Yes, heartless bitch I am. The country made me this way. From now on, I'm only gonna be nice to foreigners, period.
Last night I was at Plaza Indonesia and I saw these 3 kids going up the escalator right in front of me. One of the kids was older than the other 2, he looked like he was in his teens, say maybe around 14-15? I noticed that the bigger kid's shoelaces were untied and it really could just get caught in the escalator, and KNOWING how many freak incidents had happened in Jakarta with kids getting their shoes caught in the escalator creaks and all the bloodbath and crap, so when I got to the top of the escalator, I just kindly pointed to the boy that his shoelaces are untied and he should be careful so not to get them caught while going up and down the escalator you know?
And you know what? That ungrateful kid first made like a kind of annoyed face at me, then he ignored me and looked away while pulling the other 2 kids away like, oh, lets get away from the crazy lady who should mind her own ffffing business. OMGWTF! SERIOUSLY, KID??!?!?! I AM ACTUALLY POINTING SOMETHING OUT FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!!! Why do I even care in the first place? Must've been because I totally forgot that I'm back in Indonesia! Must've been the effect of being NOT BEING IN INDONESIA for more than a week, outside Indonesia where people actually exhibit proper manners when exiting an elevator or the MRT, or point out to you that your handbag is unzipped, or ran after you if you dropped something.
Here? When you do some random act of kindness what do you get? You get annoyed faces, people ignoring you, and some probably mutter something along the lines of MYOB under their breath.
Even MY MOTHER, my good ol' bless-her-soul kind-hearted mother had stopped to even BOTHER at all when it comes to Indonesians. Few weeks back we were in Dharmawangsa Square and she saw a foreigner drop a piece of paper, which turned out to be a credit card receipt. And she quickly said to me, "Quick! Pick it up and give it back to him! He's a foreigner, he'll appreciate it!"
What that sentence describes is just so disturbingly RIGHT. A majority of Indonesians just can't appreciate KINDNESS. I don't know what the hell is wrong with them? Are we that jaded due to the so many EVIL that Indonesians do that we just get so freakin' paranoid everytime someone does something nice, thinking it's probably a scam in disguise? I've tried to be helpful and nice to a lot of people on random days where I RANDOMLY felt like being nice, and almost every single time, I get a freaked out/annoyed/pissy look or just get plain rude ignorance (seriously, Indonesians are very capable of looking RUDE even while ignoring people), and then I'm back to my bitter old uncaring self.
Why bother AT ALL?!
Needless to say, my mother was right. When I ran up to the foreigner and told him that he dropped his credit card receipt, he was like thanking me profusely like there was no tomorrow. Now THAT is a normal, civilized reaction to a random act of kindness. Coz you don't come across it every day, and when you do, you best be grateful so the person will continue being nice to other people, NOT make them feel like it's totally pointless to be nice!
I hope that stupid ungrateful kid gets his shoelaces caught in the escalator and GOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEE!!!!!! Yes, heartless bitch I am. The country made me this way. From now on, I'm only gonna be nice to foreigners, period.