A dream of a better future - I

This is a story I sent to my friends months ago. Now I want to share it with you. It is about my friend and her dream of a better generation. A long story divided into three parts.

Earlier today I went to Puncak, a resort area that is about one or two hours away from Jakarta, Indonesia. I wanted to visit an informal school for needy children that my friend organizes. That friend was with me in the car.

Along the way, she passionately talked about this five years old project. It started with the thought that not all children are able to go to school due to economic reason and that not all things can be taught in school. There are a lot of values that need to be planted from early years if we want to have better generations in the future.

‘We cannot change a child 100% right away. But perhaps they could be 30% better than their parents. Their children will be 50% better. Their grandchildren will be 75% better and so on. By the end of the fifth generation, they will be 100% better than our generation,” she said. “This is a long term project, but it needs to start now.”

We passed by a group small simple houses that basically did not have any space in between them. My friend continued, “Look at this. Right to left, front to the end, all we can see are houses. Where can the children play? There are gardens but they are private property of the city people and very few children can play there. Where can they play?”

Then we passed by a bunch of street hawkers and motor-taxi. She said. “We cannot expect those people to think far. Their thoughts are limited to what my family can eat today, what they can eat tomorrow. They simply think that their children are going to take over their work someday. Not more than that. The children are shaped to take over their job. (Without any meaning to undermine their job at all). How can the children develop themselves? I told the children, you can be somebody who sell simple things as fried tofu, but be a business owner of the fried tofu like Yun Yi (a famous tofu brand in Indonesia).”

“So not only they are poor economically, they also lack of information, they do not have a wider view of life. If they come face to face with ‘us’ the city people, we tend to undermine them. They too think of themselves as ‘lower’ than us. A status quo.”

Through a narrow street, my car came face to face with another car. I could not get through because there was a motorcycle parked in the middle of the street. The owner just sat by the street, indifferent to what happened. My friend commented, “You see, they do not feel the need or are not aware that they should move their motorcycle. Can we be angry at them? Not really, right? It is rooted within them. Nobody has taught them that it is not appropriate to do that.”

She continued, “That is why we should not teach them just science. We should also teach them how to socialize and to develop their self confidence, so that they will be respected. But respect is earned. We cannot respect another person just because we are fellow human. We should, but it does not work that way. We have to prove that we are worth respecting.”