Diverse Just Like Me

You know what I can't stand?  People who run around wailing and gnashing their teeth about 'tolerance' and 'diversity'.  For one thing, they have no clue what they are talking about, and for another, they just irritate me.
These knee-jerk, bleeding heart liberal fools who flog people with their tolerant and divere propaganda should crack a dictionary every now and then, because when I look up those words, I don't see goose-stepping followers anywhere in the definition.  You see, diversity means you tolerate my differing opinion, and if you don't like it, then there's plenty of other square meters in the world to go stand in.

Don't get me wrong.  The goose-stepping conservatives are just as bad.  If they had their way, the whole world would look like pablum, and I can't tolerate that either.


You see
Here's the deal - if I happen to not like green people with zits, then that's my opinion.  You are welcome to try to convince me otherwise, if I want to listen, but the world is made up of millions of opinions and this is mine.  In the name of diversity, you have to accept that I have an opinion that is different from yours.  You also have to accept that I am right and you are wrong.

Diversity does not mean I have to accept the laundry list of idiotic jerks someone holds out as being today's list of acceptable different people.  How in the hell can someone call it diversity if there is a list of things that are and are not acceptable?  That, in point of fact, is the antithesis of diversity.  Frankly, I have spent half a century developing my prejudices and I like them. 

If I see someone dressed like a gang-banger on a dark street in LA, I'm not going to try to hold hands with him and sing Kumbaya.  I assume, due to my prejudices, that he is trouble and I will take the appropriate counter-action.

If drama queens make me crazy and I dont' want to be in the same room with one because I will throttle him after about 2 1/2 seconds, then in the interest of diversity, you must tolerate my wish.

That's the whole thing about all this 'political correctness', 'diversity' and 'tolerance' crap - it is the exact opposite of what they are supposedly preaching.  Here's what I've found:

Those who hide behind "political correctness' are often blithering idiots whose arguments are so indefensible that they must force the rest of the world to accept their non-sense at the point of a gun.  They can't argue their case, so they force you to swallow the rubbish whole.

Those who hide behind 'diversity' are usually such offensive nutballs that they must force the rest of us to hang around them in the name of being diverse because they can't get friends any other way.

As for 'tolerance', well those are just those mental ants with the giant sound systems in their cars who drive around at 3am with the volume at ear-bleed levels because their manhood is so shriveled and decayed.

If anyone really believed any of this crap, they wouldn't need little terms and thought-police to make us all conform to their idea of diversity.

Here's an idea: why don't all the people of like mind hang out together and leave the rest of us the hell alone?  Go play with your unborn gay baby whales, while I eat my bar-b-qued seal pups.  If you're into obese nudity while flogging yourself with endangered California rock eels, then please go right ahead...just close the door so I don't have to see it from my window at dinner time.

And really, that's what all this silliness comes down to.  Some slimeball wants to parade his perversions in the public sphere and he wants you not only to have to accept it, but to be forced to watch it.  A handful of freaks have hijacked the public discourse and have implanted trigger words like 'tolerance' and 'diversity' so they can force all of us to accept that they are moral degenerates.  If has nothing to do with dogs and cats living together.

I'm hereby starting my own social movement.  It's called eschewal.  From now on, anyone who says I need to be diverse and tolerant will be shunned and avoided.  I can no longer tolerate those who can't tolerate me.  Think how much happier the world will be with eschewal.  Little green people with zits can hang out with people who like to squeeze zits, and none of them will be forced to hang out with Clearasil sniffers.

I am all for discussion in the public sphere, but don't parade your perversions and peccadilloes in front of me and expect me to put up with it.  As part of the deal, I will respect your private space to be just as weird and flaky as you want to be.  If you try to force me to accept or watch your strangeness, I will eschew you.  Fair enough?

I am one of the most diverse and tolerant people you'd ever want to meet, but if you force me to believe the way you do, you will quickly find the limits of my tolerance.  The real meaning of diversity is that we are all different, and the real meaning of tolerance is vive la difference!

In parts of India, 5- and 6-year-old girls are pushed into prostitution and at 12 or 13, are given away as second and third wives.  The alternative is mass starvation in the streets.  Stick that in your diversity and tolerate it.  Until you can figure out a way to solve something like that, which is a centuries-old lifestyle, then I don't want to hear a single word about putting up with your desire to tie your nipple rings to your nostrils.  I just don't have the patience to listen to that crap.

Chili Today, Hot Tamale

There's a crisis in Indonesia!

The price of chili peppers has soared in the past month. The government blames bad weather and volcanoes, but regardless of the reason, the peppers have hit Rp.100,000/kilo ($5/lb)! And it looks to keep going...

Indonesians love a little spice in their food, and some of the local cultures go pretty far with the practice. No matter how much, though, some amount of chili finds its way into the average diet.

The price of chili, however, is just one symptom of an overall trend in rising prices for all food staples. The cost of rice, vegetables and certainly meats have all been going up precipitously of late. Recently, an incident in a small east Java village has drawn national attention to the problem.

A family with six children, ranging in age from early 20s to toddler, experienced the death of all of the children. They had eaten a local casava dish. Casava is a high-carbohydrate tuber that is sometimes used as a substitute for rice, because it is so cheap. There are two primary varieties, 'sweet' and 'sour,' with sour being quite poisonous if not prepared correctly. Naturally, it is also the cheapest variety. The family had been forced to eat casava for two weeks because of the rising prices and the family's low income, which is reported to be around $16-$20 per week.

The Indonesian government measures the poverty line in calories rather than income. Poverty is considered less than 2100 calories per day. Casava, being high in carbs, can technically raise a family above the poverty level, though the quality of their food, and certainly the amount, would hardly qualify as eating for even a street bum in downtown America.

At the moment, Jakarta is the only place in Indonesia that has a minimum wage, which is around $300/month. Other areas are debating the merits of creating one, but it is rather difficult in a country where the cost of living can vary quite widely. In some areas, people are able to fish, farm and collect enough to eat well at a monetary cost of almost nothing. Other places, like the major cities, prices can be quite high, even though to an outsider, they may appear to be ridiculously cheap. For a recent college graduate, living at home, $300/month is a decent starting salary. However, even with a degree and a few years of experience, a salary over $1,000/month is very rare. For the vast majority of Jakartans, earning $5/day is about all they can expect.

The an American, the prices here look like a joke. A decent 3-bedroom/2 bath house rents for about $2,000/year. Water and electric, if you are careful, runs around $5-$10/month. If you confine your food shopping to the traditional market and avoid the supermarket chains, the average monthly food bill for one person is around $150/month.

If you are European or American, your eyes are probably bugging out about now. But go back and look at how much a great number of people earn here: $100-$200/month. Divide all the costs above into 12 months, and you get about $200/month for a basic Western lifestyle, before things like clothes, transportation, luxuries (TV, cable, internet, etc.). The standard American middle-class lifestyle requires two to three generations of a family living together and combining their incomes, substitute motorcycles for cars.

So, with all that in mind, you can imagine that when the price of basic foods like rice and chilis start going up, along with the price of gasoline and other basic modern needs, it can start to crimp a wallet pretty darned fast. You may think that, well, they can do without chilis and cut back on rice, but both are signatures of the Indonesian diet. it's like telling Americans to get by without sandwiches.

A very popular snack here is something called gorengan, which simply means 'fries.' It consists of bananas, carrots, potatoes, egg rolls, and other finger foods that are battered and deep fried. They are, without exception, served with a handful of fresh cabe rawit, which some might know as Thai peppers. Right now, you are lucky if the vendor throws 2 or 3 cabe in with your order. Normal is a handful.

There is no such thing as a dinner table in Indonesia without sambal. Sambal is made with chili peppers and the result is somewhat like ketchup that makes your eyes water and your mouth burn. To ask an Indoensian to set a table without it would be equivalent to an American home without salt and pepper.

Rice is king! One simply doesn't eat without rice. It is the Indonesian version of bread with your meal. Ask an American to eat his burger without a bun, or a hogie, for that matter. Rice is the primary carb that is used to sop up the juice and pack the corners of the stomach. It is why I consider this past Thanksgiving such a victory. I was able to get 20 Indonesians to eat an entire meal and not one grain of rice was eaten.

When one lives in Jakarta and makes a decent living, it is hard to remember that this country has, according to one report, 2.3 million people living below the poverty line. It's why the case of the six children dying from casava poinsoning has become such an issue. It has reminded people that even though Indonesia's economy is one of the fastest growing in the world right now, there are still many folks who are suffering from the expansion and the resulting inflation in core necessities. And everyone is feeling the pinch when it comes to cabe rawit.

One thing that can endanger Indonesia's explosive growth in the past few years, and the relative social order and peace that comes with it, is a rapid rise in inflation without a concomitant adjustment in earnings. In 2010, inflation ran at 7%, which doubled the rate in 2009. However, there has been no significant rise in overall incomes in that period. Ultimately, this will swell the ranks of the disaffected, destroy a newly empowered middle-class and undo a decade of properity that has seen Indonesia enter the world stage as an economic power to be reckoned with.

The symptoms are on the table, in the gas tank and in a dozen other places. If action isn't taken quickly to control the situation, the disease will over-take the body. Along with Indonesia's rise in power and prestige, it has gotten the same illnesses that have so deeply infected the Western world. Indonesia should learn from the experience of Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, and of course America.

The casava deaths and the rapid rise in rice and chili prices is just the beginning, unless Indonesia takes a pro-active stance immediately. It must reduce corruption, control inflation and give particular attention to agriculture. Like all governments and societies, there's a tendency to procrastinate until the crisis is in full bloom. By then, it's too late and the solutions are years away. Indoneisa has the benefit of being at an early stage, and being able to so the results of inaction in many other countries worldwide.

The deaths of six children is a tragedy, but it can be turned to good use if everyone wakes up and takes action now. I would compound the tragedy if those six lives only became the first of many.

Besides, I miss my chilis!