The Gap

So, several weeks ago i bought some apet/cucur cake. Indonesian traditional light meal. The seller, an elderly figure, gave me 7 cakes for the price of 6. Imagine that. 1$ roughly equals idr 10.000 nowadays. 1 cake costs just idr 500. What fortune he'd make with such price?

I started asking myself then. That kind of small time vendor. An another sandal and shoe repairer who charged me for just idr 7000, while the same kind of repair would take idr 50.000 in malls. A fried bean curd seller gave me extra for already cheap fried bean curd and other fried snacks. Those people...The small time people, the have not, the way we call them worldwide, ordinary people, they gave their service or sell their goods for such low price, in this harsh economic time. While the rich ones, especially the ones who take selling, be it goods or services, as their occupation, ever you looked at them? Not all of them, but as days go by more and more of them...selling their goods, sometimes goods or services of luxuries, not the ones classified as main or even secondary necessities, at such a high price that everybody with a bit clean consciousness would see it as improper. And even still they strive to gain more and more fortune by cheating people if necessary and possible. By tripling the real price, by not telling the truth to the buyers, etc.

The small people, whose life is logically harsher and harder than us...how could they be more sincere? And they who gain enormous fortune and still feel not enough...what are those fortunes for? For example, a friend told me of this luxurious apartment in Jakarta where one day rent goes for idr 2 million or roughly $200. One day rent. RENT, not sold. Where did they get those money? It might not be kosher/halal money after all. Please notice, hereby i refer to people who rent excessively expensive appartments in pursue of luxury, lifestyle, etc. Not the ones who have small choices in choosing living place, if they stll have any. Like the owner of the company handling the Nike license here, while Nike, if it was true, employed under age children! They are just like those army and rebel in Latin America and Africa! Employing underage children, for, of course, under standard salary...!?! They got those money from abusing people!

And those money, which might not give them the "enough" feeling...to hire that kind of apartment, for example...? Do you know how un-healthy living in an apartment is? Mentally, you don't communicate enough in healthy manner. Grooming individualism. Physically, you don't get in touch with enough sunshine, fresh air...Not to mention apartments are under constant danger from earthquake. Imagine, about 6 Richter scale and everybody come tumbling down in not so funny fashion.

Hey, i received a news. Staying for suspended time i any place far from the ground will weaken our bones, because we become separated by quite a distance from earth's center of gravity.

Won't it be better to look at the small people? Taking them as reminder, that God permits, we can AND SHOULD do better in and for this life. We can employ them, if we're that powerful. We might have to give them education courses first, but in the end we won't just have some new dependable employees, we'll also be diminishing un-employment in our own nation!

With the fortune we make, we can spare some amount to help others with their education and businesses, provided they are small and medium ones. We help others empower themselves, in turn they will help us too, God permits, with God knows what way. Will be a sweet surprise.

Sincerity. To erase the gap. Clarity of goal in our life. Let's do it.