When you visit a new place, you will leave an impression on everything you encounter. But make no mistake, new places and everything you encounter will also leave a memory for you.
At least that's what I learned from my almost eight-month journey. I have visited many places, met all new things. Most of them are things that I can only see on the screen, from books, or from the voices of other people who have visited those places. Basically, we are just animals who have the privilege to tell stories and understand stories.
However, when you return to your hometown, a place that has been familiar to you all this time, there will be a little turmoil. I don't know what to call this situation, but what is clear is that our basic reasoning as humans will at least compare the various experiences we have had in other places with places that are familiar to us. Because that is part of our way as humans to make sense of our existence and identity.
After returning from Europe for a few months, the thing I observed the most was about food and awareness of a healthy environment. But returning to Indonesia, I found that experience to be something else meaningful.
While in Europe, I missed Indonesian cuisine that has strong spices. I even told and asked my friends there who are also from Asia, all my friends said that the food in Europe tastes bland. And that's what I felt too, so I often bought MSG while cooking in Europe. The second thing is, many people choose vegetarian food or don't eat meat. From what I learned briefly, the reasons for vegetarian food are related to health, ethics towards animals, and climate change.
Related to awareness of a healthy environment, I noticed that cleanliness is important. Not only that, pollution is also something that is very much considered. Still related to that, I saw many people including my friends who are also diligent in exercising. I myself don't do sports, but since being in Europe I have become very happy to walk. Usually in Indonesia I am lazy to walk, but when I was in Europe I could walk an average of 4-5 km every day.
But, now I see
First, vegetarian food is a privilege.
Not everyone has access to enjoy healthy vegetarian food. I will give you the context, since I was born until I finished elementary school, I followed the new order education curriculum. The government policy at that time was a healthy food campaign, namely four healthy five perfect. In addition to vegetables, the government campaigned for eating protein from meat and would be perfect if added with cow's or goat's milk. But today, the concept of "healthy food" has undergone various criticisms and adjustments, especially related to ethics towards animals and climate change.
Capitalist economics often makes animal farming unethical. Thousands of chickens are placed in one narrow cage with poor air circulation. When I visited one of the chicken farms in Europe, the farmer said that he installed a special red light. According to him, the light is very effective for two things, namely calming the anger of chickens that often fight with other chickens and the second is to disguise the color of blood if they fight. The red blood color will trigger conflict between chickens faster and traumatize them. The farmer did not explain the reason why the chickens fought, but he had said that the chickens were easily stressed and very sensitive to sound. In my mind I thought of course the chickens fight easily, and are also stressed because their space is very limited or even though the space is considered sufficient, but meeting thousands of other chickens in one cage might make them have their own stress.
Thousands of chickens in the cage remind me of the dense settlements in urban areas like in Jakarta. People in the city are always known for their less friendly attitude compared to people from the village, maybe people in the city are also easily stressed and often fight because of the same thing as the chickens.
In addition to ethics, climate change is also a basis that I often hear why vegetarian food is popular here. Red meat from cows, goats, or white meat from chickens on an industrial farm scale is considered to contribute to carbon emissions from production, transportation to consumption.
Slowly I also enjoyed eating vegetables, at first I still ate meat. Honestly, I didn't think too much about climate change, but more for ethical reasons. I thought it was true, seeing sophisticated chicken farms based on ethical rules in Europe I could feel sorry for the chickens, what about farms that are managed haphazardly in developing countries like Indonesia? It must be even more chaotic. My second reason was very naive, I ate vegetables just to lose weight.
When I returned to Indonesia, I tried to do the same thing: eating vegetables. But I just realized that the food in Indonesia is not fresh, at least in Java. The taste of the food here is food that is cooked slowly and with strong spices. And rice is a must. When I looked for vegetable-based food, I only found a few such as gado-gado, lothek, and salad. The salads I found in Java were typical western salads, with expensive prices of course. If I could buy gado-gado and lothek for around 1-2CHF, then the salads sold here are around 3-4CHF. Of course it's a high price to pay here.
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| Gado-gado, my favourite lunch menu at the moment. |
So, healthy food choices are of course a social construct, but the fact that being able to choose healthy food is something that is out of reach for most people here, is a form of privilege.
One afternoon I was walking around campus with my friend looking for dinner. I asked my friend if he wanted to eat at a row of street stalls, he said "no, the food there is too Bronx" - meaning, too dirty and unhygienic. My friend also had a long experience in other countries that were better. At that time we also ate at a food stall of his choice, we had dinner ordering rice and fried fish, while I ordered rice, fried eggplant and fried tofu. Unfortunately, he didn't want to eat at all and chose to take it away. He said he wanted to eat it with his wife at home. But I don't think that's the main reason, this food stall is very small and the sink is close to the kitchen, the pile of plates and leftover food was there, I think my friend didn't want to eat there because it was unhygienic for him. I myself didn't finish it, I only ate a little.
Food vendors like that are often found in campus environments, because they are cheap for students.
I went back to my memories and memories while in Europe. The canteen for students was kept clean, and everything was healthy food. There were always two menus there, vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
Here, there is no such choice.
That difference made me think... access and exclusion become easily visible when we are distant from what is close to us. I could only see it all because I had the privilege to study in another country. Meanwhile, for millions of other people, they would consider that food, a food stall on the side of the road full of pollution, all of that is something normal. I think the narrative of storytelling might be able to open the eyes of others a little, and I think that is a responsibility for the privilege that I get.
It is normal for developed countries in Europe, Asia, and America, for example, if they have a better quality of life. I think all of this is related to the narrative of the history of colonialism.
Second, walking comfortably and safely is a privilege.
While there I could walk 4-5 km every day, I can still walk the same distance in Indonesia. The difference is, while walking in Indonesia I often cursed and got angry at the situation. This city and other cities in Indonesia are not friendly to pedestrians. On the pedestrian path you will find many traders so you have to walk in the vehicle lane. But the vehicle lane is also full of noisy motorbikes and cars and spread strong pollution. All of that, again, is considered normal and ordinary.
When I told my friend here about my experience walking in Europe, I told him that it was comfortable there, I could even walk at 2-3 am alone without fear. My friend said quickly "of course, there it is a developed country, security and comfort are guaranteed". That's where my ears were tickled, while in developed countries the aspect of security and comfort is mandatory, in Indonesia it is carelessly ignored. Where is the role of the state?
I stood in front of one of the campuses, and saw traders, pedestrians, motorbikes and car users. Cheap motorbikes and cars are in demand here, factories produce millions of them every year. But who is responsible for the pollution, for clearing land for roads, for all the chaos that comes with it - accidents for example? Who?
I can't help but recall Max Liboiron's ethnography "Pollution is colonialism". Two years ago I contacted him on Twitter, and he gave me access to his book. Thank you, Max.
Walking, became a strange thing. I walked from my boarding house to campus, along the way people looked at me as if I was seeing a strange activity. That's not surprising, because Indonesians are indeed ranked high on the scale of lazy pedestrians. So lazy, I saw my boarding house friend using a motorbike just to buy something at a shop only 300 meters away. The motorbike totally changed people's mobility.
When I was 16 years old, I still lived in the village. I often drank coffee in front of the house, and greeted dozens of grandmothers carrying vegetables and other goods with wooden baskets on their backs. They walked from the village near the mountain to the market. At 1-2 am they had arrived in front of my house and still needed to walk maybe 1-2 hours to get to the market. I also remember the story of my grandparents, they also did the same thing to go to the market in the past. They used to walk tens of kilometers. That situation has changed at least since the 80s-90s when motorbikes became cheaply accessible goods for all groups.
Two weeks ago, I was annoyed with a car user. When it was raining, the pedestrian path was covered by traders' stalls so I had to get off and walk in the vehicle lane. Suddenly the car passed through a puddle of water and hit my body, I who was already using an umbrella still got wet. I protested about it, but the car user scolded me "that's why you walk on the pedestrian lane" then I said to him "where is the lane?". The car user looked at the traders on the pedestrian lane, then with a sour face said to me "That's why if you want to walk, wait for the rain to stop!" then he left in his car. It was an absurd experience, between being annoyed, funny and ironic.
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| Sunday morning market. Pedestrians only has a piece of space to walk. |
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| A day before Ied Al Adha, peoples sells goats on the street, and yes they occupied the pedestrians lane. |
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| Where should I walk? |
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| Me walking with my little umbrella during the rainy hours , just before the annoying car incident. |