Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

When the wealth of a few depends on the misery of the many, what is it about humans which makes us seek more than we need?

Although guardians of our hard-earned cash and savings continue to demonstrate that they want more than what we entrust them with, wealth is not always a matter of bank balances. For some, such as Imelda Marcos, it was a collection of shoes as if she were a centipede. For others, as demonstrated by alarming levels of obesity in 'rich' countries, including the urban centres of Indonesia, it's super-sized portions of unhealthy food.

And in Indonesia, it's access to power.

For three days, we are witnessing a splendiferous display of consumption as President SBY spends nigh on a million dollars, not taken from the state's coffers, he assures us, on the marriage between his youngest son, Edhie Baskoro “Ibas” Yudhoyono, with Siti Ruby Aliya Rajasa, daughter of Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa.

Mind you, in using Cipanas Presidential Palace in West Java for the wedding venue, the use of state cars, and the security provided by the National Police and National Army, it does look as much of the cost comes out of taxpayers' pockets.

That the wedding is a match between the scions of the leaders of two major political parties, SBY's Partai Demokrat and Hatta's National Mandate Party (PAN) has naturally lead to speculation that Hatta could be in line to succeed SBY as President. Consumate politician that he is, SBY has denied that his youngest son’s pending marriage was intended to create a “love coalition” between his Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party.

What is a major concern, however, is that whatever the source of the funding, this is whole shebang is a slap in the face to the workers demanding that employers increase the minimum wage, set annually at provincial level. (This is c.Rp.1.4 million = $100 per month for a family of four.)

Some 13.33% of the population (c.27 million) officially survive on even less, and although they may watch TV coverage of the wedding, as well as a cinetron (soap opera) or three about the lifestyles of the rich and infamous, they can only dream of the handouts they'll receive during future election campaigns.

Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips says that excesses of appetite are self-cures for feelings of helplessness. He says a lot more too, but perhaps that simple sentence may offer a clue to why SBY is often criticised for doing very little to ameliorate the many problems this country has. He's seemingly still trapped in a military mindset (vide Papua) beholden to oligarchs, and in a coalition of his making which does best by doing little.

I'm not privy to palace intrigue, so I cannot but conjecture that the timing of the wedding may have been set to capitalise on the hoped for, and achieved, feel good factor following the ASEAN games. Alternatively, the gods which govern the Javanese may have come to the conclusion that these three days were propitious according to the Javanese Calendar.

What I do know is that flaunting one's wealth, source unknown but guessed at, is bad timing when elsewhere it is Buy Nothing Day which has … been connected with massive Indonesian labor riots in the past; the Buy Nothing Day Indonesia website has since been taken down.

That explains why I couldn't find it, although I really don't recall any riots being associated with non-consumerism, although I mentioned the annual day in 2007 and 2008.

However, there are demonstrations this year by workers who don't have enough to buy nothing, not when some 40-50% of their income goes on food.

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A Raspberry Coda – 4.30pm.

Hundreds of impatient BlackBerry fans broke through a barricade to get their hands on the latest smartphone during a discount promotion in the Pacific Place mall in Jakarta mall earlier today.

The crowd surged forward a protective barrier, with reports saying that as many as 90 people needing treatment for a range of minor injuries, from losing consciousness to broken bones.

Ambulances and paramedics were rushed to the scene, with at least three people taken to hospital with fractured or broken bones.