Fresh intelligence brings people together

Fresh intelligence brings people together

by Wimar Witoelar, wimar@perspektif.net

 

On a long stretch of highway between Jakarta and off-the-beaten-path
Cirebon, a text message appeared on my mobile phone. It was my daughter-in-law in
Holland. “Dad, are you on the way to
Cirebon?” I replied in the affirmative and asked her how she knew. “Well, from your website. So who is traveling with you?” I have been making frequent trips this past month with my staff on book promotion tours, and the trips are announced and reported on my blog www.perspektif.net. So I texted my reply, “Rizka and Melda.” To which the reply came, “Oh Rizka with her new hairdo? And Melda, is she now a full employee, no longer an intern?”  I turned around to Rizka in the back seat and paid her a compliment on her hair. She smiled and said, “I have had it since yesterday, thank you for noticing.” I told her about the text message and she was very impressed. A person in
Holland notices her hair much earlier than a person in the same car, thanks to Flickr photo sharing. Here we are in a very remote area in Java, but we are globally connected by everyday technology.

 

You can have long technical discussions on global communication and Web2.0 social networks, but the simple fact is that people are being brought together in large numbers more than ever before. When we meet young people in the course of public events, introductions are no longer limited to names, phone numbers and business cards. Phone numbers may be too personal and business cards too formal, but a friendster address or a blog name is personal without being intrusive and official without being restrictive. Internet browsing replaces application letters in selecting fresh intelligent recruits.

 

In
Indonesia where people come from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, it is surprising how cross-cultural we have become. When people overcome the language barrier the coming together is international in nature. Skipping scientific figures, the feeling is that the younger work force is cosmopolitan in the sense that they do not identify strongly with any particular country. They listen to world music, watch world television, and follow world fashions. Higher-ups in the business and academic world are tuned in to global discussions everytime they turn on their laptops or PDAs.

 

As a person working with the media, it is amusing sometimes to meet journalists who seek an Indonesian viewpoint when there is none. Nationalism, while certainly still existing, is seen as decreasing in importance. People consciously choose a more personal and relevant frame of reference to public issues. It is only when challenged that the nationalist in us comes to the foreground.

 

One may have profound doubts about the commercial modes of modern living, but there should be nothing wrong with shopping malls which are clones of one another. It is brash globalism that makes people comfortable to live in a common world. Visit the Siam Paragon in Bangkok, the Pondok Indah Mall in Jakarta and Highpoint Mall in
Melbourne, and you feel you are in the same place. You really are in the same place, connected and wired as never before.

 

A comment came on my blog from a person whom I had last seen as a contestant in the Miss Indonesia pageant. Brushing away the myth that beauty queens are below average in intelligence, her comments showed elegance of thought. This happy revelation was followed later by discovering that her corner of the blogosphere reveals fresh intelligence you do not readily sense through the conventional media.

 

We now have worldwide communities and collective intelligence accessible on the internet through Web2.0, instant messaging, email and e-commerce. The youth of today are fortunate to be part of the process of cultural integration. The generation in political power must not subvert this process by hanging on to their divisive national interests.

 

The process is complex and challenged by different values and pressures. Conservative groups will be defensive of their power. As social change is always difficult to fathom, we should remember the words of the sixties: ‘Don’t criticize what you don’t understand.’