Human ingenuity and skill have been poured into developing an extraordinary technological capacity to deliver information with speed and in volume, but our capacity to act on that information painfully lags behind. The tsunami showed all too starkly how we could hear of the plight of villagers long before the aid could reach them. That lag between information and action is sometimes only a few days, more often years. A flick of a switch accesses the former; the latter requires the infinitely complex task of developing forms of human cooperation between individuals and nations. Our technological ingenuity has far outstripped our skills for social organisation.
Is this true? I trust Jakartass readers will bear with me if I continue to signpost networks of social organisation and to point to those issues, particularly Indonesian, which concern us all. One look, preferably in Firefox, at my links should demonstrate my unashamed optimism that with compassion and commonsense the human spirit can overcome seemingly overwhelming traumas.
The World is changing. It can change for the better. I believe that John Aglionby feels the same way.
'I dream another wave is coming'
"I want to be a pilot. It would be a great way to see the world."
Rahmatun's ambition and self-confidence are unusual in this largely conservative society, but they are extraordinary given that she became an orphan and lost two siblings on Boxing Day when the Indian Ocean tsunami wiped her village, Bubun, off the map.
And, thanks to the rainy season, Aceh is flooded again.
Jakarta Post - Andi Hajramurni
And there are always geo-political shenanigans to bugger things up for the rest of us.
