Is here.
Jakarta is a loud city – dense with people and traffic, and lacking in green spaces, its hard to avoid noise here. The city has over 100 shopping malls, which provide artificial green space in a city where the Government decided to allow developer free range.
Hence my surprise when this Saturday, I went to the Museum Nasional, the largest and greatest museum in Jakarta, with am impressive collection of artifacts from across the archipelago. And found…this.
Probably more than half of the very few people I saw were foreigners like me.
A few hours later, I stopped by, on my way home, to Blok M mall, where I have to transfer to a city bus to get back to Kemang, my neighborhood. There was a loud commotion in the center – a small concert was going on.
Jakarta, the city where the shopping malls are packed on weekends, but no one bothers to go the museums. This is modernity right here. And its not just Jakarta, but everywhere. Consumption is the new world religion.
What do you think? Why was the museum empty, and why was the mall packed?
it’s unfortunate that it was empty, but it’s awesome that you found it!
Hey there Nithin! Long time, no see mate!
Same here in İstanbul man! I should copy the same part of your sentence: İstanbul is a loud city – dense with people and traffic is a loud city – dense with people and traffic! Crazy, over-packed, people consuming time – mind – everything so fast!
Wish you can come over here sometime, but we can go someplace else, away from touristic spots.
Take care!
İnanç out…
You are totally right about consumption as the new world religion. But, as a philosopher I like says, it shares with the museum a condition: the impossibility to use, to profane. And in that sense, all the world has also become a museum. We can consume experiences, not make them…