Indonesia: My Distracted Country

Sorry for being absent from blog for a long time... I guess I was too sucked into micro blogging (twitter, plurk, etc) and kinda feel that nothing is capturing my interest lately. However, I do feel that I need to write about this one particular thing...

So how do you feel when you watch the news on local television recently? I am not a big fan, for sure. Being a frequent viewer for only about 4 months, I couldn't take it anymore. There are just too many CRAPS that being On-Aired. The media are constantly emphasizing on sensational things and distracting the nation from the bigger issues. We are forgetting the essence.

When you have children, you surely will not want your children to stay tuned on Reality "freak" Shows that portray a violation of human privacy (and even if they are doing something bad, it is NOT our right to condemn them and become some kind of a judge for others), including stalking, accusing, and placing a human bait. What's the point on putting fingers to other and laugh at their misery when they got caught? What could possible be learnt from that? Sometimes I even doubt if real people in real lives want those kinda publicities. God knows what a production house would do to gain viewers, maybe they even cast people to act in reality shows. It's not that hard to scream, cry, or act miserable you know...

When you have children, you surely will not want your children to hum crappy and shallow love songs, which being played over and over through the most horrible invention in movie industry, Sinetron. Sure, keep on blaming the opportunist Indian producers who had made it popular, but why not stop and create something more useful for the sake of young generation. How is stories about cruel mother-in-laws, two-face bitches at school, self-pitying lead character, or glamorous easy lifestyle gonna build their perceptions about other people and their environment. I'm not talking about those children from middle-up class who most probably being banned from watching local TV and have the facility to watch Cartoon network, Nickelodeon, and Disney channel... I'm talking about the majority of children in Indonesia.

When you have children, you surely will not want them to see, or even hear the news channels. For crying out loud, who cares if someone's daugther is missing in action and hide her family problem. Just because she is a gorgeous model doesn't mean that we have to put more sympathy on her. Maybe she even doesn't want one. For all we have and heard is that vocal mother who constantly feed us with one-way information, and wanted to pay her guilty feeling for selling out her underage daughter. Please care for the mystery of that brilliant Indonesian born Chinese who had been found dead in the next -door-country. Please care for the election. It's like two months from now, yet we still have no clue on who will be what. Perhaps by now, people know the biography of Manohara more than they know about the President candidates. No wonder on the last election, people were voting for figures such celebrities who try to switch their source of income by playing in politics world. I mean, it is just so easy to distract the nation... Just give a human bait and put an affair story somewhere in it, and suddenly the focus will be changed. It's not about "why" or "how" anymore, but more about "who" and "what else".

The nation deserves something better. Call us stupid, fine, but don't make us be more stupid than this. The only source who can change this, is the media. Stand up, and do your part. My part is just to write this and be a reminder.

The next... well, I'm getting back my cable TV. Soon.