Why the hidden pearl remains hidden!
"Other emerging economies are producing world-class companies by the dozen. Why aren't the countries of South-East Asia?"
There is a lot of truth to the author's analysis. But there is perhaps one more fundamental reason to it, certainly applicable to Indonesia if not the rest of SE Asia - the ready complacency to accept status quo. Just witness the paltry transport infrastructure, with most of the roads in deplorably porous shape, and the shanty shacks sprawling everywhere, what becomes immediately evident is a serious lack of town planning effort. Perhaps the cozy mentality is best reflected from the words of a senior offical in the sort of Transport Department (itself based in a clearly Third-World quality of old building where everyone has to wait for his long turn before having the chance to clamp into its dim and choking elevator cabin to be inched upward or downward), when he nicely and philosopically, with a smirk, advised me that "traffic jam is OK. It's just part of life. There is no need to be frustrated." That is, there is no need to do anything about it - just accept it.
There is a lot of truth to the author's analysis. But there is perhaps one more fundamental reason to it, certainly applicable to Indonesia if not the rest of SE Asia - the ready complacency to accept status quo. Just witness the paltry transport infrastructure, with most of the roads in deplorably porous shape, and the shanty shacks sprawling everywhere, what becomes immediately evident is a serious lack of town planning effort. Perhaps the cozy mentality is best reflected from the words of a senior offical in the sort of Transport Department (itself based in a clearly Third-World quality of old building where everyone has to wait for his long turn before having the chance to clamp into its dim and choking elevator cabin to be inched upward or downward), when he nicely and philosopically, with a smirk, advised me that "traffic jam is OK. It's just part of life. There is no need to be frustrated." That is, there is no need to do anything about it - just accept it.
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