The Black Swan of Me
On a lazy afternoon before working hour finished, I joined a gathering in our office’s smoking room, which we usually call it as gas chamber of torture. Usually we just do chitchat with very light topic to take as light as Sampoerna cigarette. Then one guy joined in the gas chamber, start to smoke, and throw a heavy topic as heavy as his big fat body. This big guy talked about the rise of China and India as two new economic and technology super power.
For China, it has always mattered, even when it was at it’s weakest and most vulnerable. Not so surprising that today’s China does not only matter a great deal. Whether you like it or not, China is on center stage and under a hot limelight.
On the other hand, India, despite its huge and diverse land, population, and cultural heritage, it was never really a great influence for world economic in so many decades. India was always associated to troubles such as poverty, suicide bomber, natural disaster and so on.
Nowadays, India is the most appealing powerhouse for Information Communication Technology (ICT) outsourcing in the world. It also world’s second largest manufacturer after China. Also it has put some of India’s top businessmen on the world’s richest chart. You can find Ratan Tata or Mahindra name there.
These phenomena were never considered before and we call it as black swan phenomena. People were thought that all swan have bright white color. There is no single black swan in this world, but actually there is.
Currently I’m reading Globe Asia magazine which main headline is Indonesia’s 150 Richest. I see most of people on the list are Indonesian Chinese descent. It is probably prove of a say that Indonesian Chinese is only 7% of all Indonesia’s population but they hold almost 70% of Indonesia economy.
And what about a stupid and lazy Javanese like me. My blood and my skin is belong to the biggest ethnic of this archipelago but they are usually also lies in the bottom of economic layer. Yes maybe we can name Aburizal Bakrie or Jusuf Kalla there as examples of Indonesian original that usually called pribumi, but the number is to few. Moreover, both JK and Bakrie are not Javanese. There is Sultan of Yogyakarta on the chart, but his wealth is inherited not as a result of business. Can I be the black swan by putting my name someday in Indonesia’s 150 richest?
Truly I do not mean to be racist here but I think if the biggest part of this nation, which is pribumi like me, can run as fast as their Chinese descent brothers, Indonesia could be more than what China or India achieve today.
Tags: Economy, nationalism, technology
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