Mental Problem
If your'e an Indonesian reading this, you must have heard somebody asked this question before:
Indonesian land is so rich, but why are we so poor?
After reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, I must say that the answer lies within the question. Let me quote the book:
The ideal country in a flat world is the one with no natural resources, because countries with no natural resources tend to dig deep inside themselves. They try to tap the energy, entrepreneurship, creativity, and intelligence of their own people - men and women - rather than drill an oil well.
I think this is definitely right if we use our easy-money to get lazy, but it can be really wrong if we use it to get the best of our people. This is a mental problem. The jealous always said that the rich is very lucky when it is not always true, because it's harder to dream when we are rich.
I am a good example of this mental problem. Remember when our gas price almost doubled to Rp4500. Before the gas price was increased, most of the time I had use my car to travel. When the gas price was increased it was hard for me to change my habit to use motorcycle. I was really angry with the situation at that time. But now I realize that the rising of the gas price is a blessing in disguise. By riding a motorcycle I can go anywhere faster, I can save money, and I can use the money to buy more books. I was being a lazy Indonesian at that time. The one that wanted a subsidize gas (when the government use profit from gas export to subsidize the gas) so I can use my car.
We can't rely everything on our government. Our government can't rely everything on the exploitation of our natural resources. Because all that is just being lazy. And being lazy is a mental problem.












