The bureaucracy is easy bypassed with good personal relations and problems are managed through old respected family chiefs. More important to the locals is that coconut oil, rice, fish and chilli peppers are not expensive, but are easy to find and buy. As soon as a little money is in the pocket of most Manadonese, you can be sure that the money will run out in one day. He or she, will run to the local Matahari department store and buy whatever attracts his or her attention. The Manadonese guide their lives by stories they hear of the lifestyles in Singapore and Jakarta.
Fashions come here a couple of years later than in the rest of the world.
For example, recently thousands of hand phones have been sold. Most middle class people live in town, or live within 5-10 kilometres of the town of Manado. Poorer people live around the river that divides the town in two. Nicer neighborhoods are up in the hills, where the politicians and government officials live. Most of the middle and upper class Manadonese have relatives in the villages near the plantations.