From stepping off the plane the first day and being greeted
with the warm sour stench of open sewers mixed with the unrelenting tropical
heat to climbing Mt. Batur and experiencing the sublime in Bali to a whole new
degree, Indonesia has both assaulted and caressed the senses. There is a common
theme of extremes in Indonesia. The disparity in wealth is amazing. Shopping
centers like massive consumer temples attended by throngs of pilgrims are
juxtaposed to concrete shacks with corrugated steel roofs. I have had the
opportunity to meet business men and women who by any standards are wealthy
beyond reason. This country offers so much to the world but little to the vast
majority of the population who live on 2 dollars a day. I cannot help but ask
myself what the American landscape looked like 16 years after our independence.
We were a country based on unalienable and God-given rights…if you were a white
protestant. In an effort to fight my growing ethnocentricity I have to remind
myself democracy, civil rights, and happiness takes time. Well after that bit
of rather uncomfortable introspection there is a comical relief. My taxi cab
driver fell asleep during rush hour traffic! Like I said extremes, the world
around us is in a mad rush while my driver calmly takes a little snooze.
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