Spent the weekend
in Batam again.
This time a real
eye-opening experience.
Met a frightfully smart
3 year old Sundanese girl.
She is everything I want
in a daughter.
Doting,
pampering,
mollycoddling,
affectionate.
I just had to indulge,
bought her a teddy bear
and a rag doll.
Breaks my heart
to think,
her probable future
is either
a domestic maid,
or a prostitute.
Even more shocking,
when I sent her home.
Parent's live in a plywood hut,
with no furniture,
just a floor space,
no bigger
than my storeroom.
They cook there,
they eat there,
they shit there,
they sleep there,
they fuck there.
Right next to
a construction yard.
Anytime now,
their home will be
razed down,
to build a new building.
And the family,
will have to find
a new plot of land,
and start over.
Such is a squatter's existence.
It makes me want,
to make a difference,
in the lives,
of such people.
It makes me want,
to aim for a higher purpose,
in my business venture.
Perhaps commercial considerations
is the chief overriding factor,
but I would want
my company
to have social responsibilities
as well.
I would provide for my employees,
employment that pays reasonably well,
accomodation with modern amenities,
food that nourishes health,
education to secure a future
for their children,
a benign boss
that provides
a decent communal life,
within company premises,
such that the well being
of the company
is in everyone's
interests.
I feel energised,
just visualising it.
