"Nobody here believes in the greater good" - this, and an apparent basic lack of education.

Remember that time in western history that we learned of the benefits of washing hands for disease control? I have witnessed people in Jakarta regularly urinating into little drainage ditches just a few meters away from people who were washing their dishes. You could assume they do this because there are not better places to wash dishes (but if you've ever camped you know you can "clean" all the surface with dirt/sand and then use a small amount of less contaminated water to finish the job). You wouldn't assume the guy peeing had no other options, as there are plenty of corners of garages and sheds available. So that's one big problem.

From my admittedly limited experiences in Indonesia, I would characterize the people as positive, reasonably industrious, and friendly. When managed and directed, they can build massive structures. Jakarta has so many high rise buildings you would be shocked. But the parts that are not managed are kind of left unfinished or are poorly finished. Fittings in buildings are irregular or worse, and spaces just a hand's reach beyond one's property boundary are left full of trash or even excrement as if it didn't exist. This I cannot understand. Perhaps it's something to do with a lack of pride (which can be a positive attribute when compared to societies too full of pride, but which can also be detrimental at this low extreme).

Some other fascinating examples of strange (and collectively detrimental) behaviors... there was a stretch of major freeway that had a minimum occupancy requirement during rush hours. As I understood, you were not allowed to drive on that stretch at that time with just a single occupant. And during those times, there were (presumably poorer) people who would stand dangerously close to traffic, casually waiting for someone to stop and pick them up. They would be driven to the other end of the zone, paid a small tip, and then deposited back onto the road. Then they would somehow cross the road and ride back the other direction. Some women would do this with their small children in tow. This suggests the level of poverty and (potentially) the lack of opportunity for some people, but it also demonstrates how plans designed to improve situations can be hijacked for individual gain. And traffic was so horrendous that you really can't blame the city for trying that occupancy approach.

I was at a talk given by an engineer who was doing volunteer work to help communities be aware of floods as they were developing. It was fascinating - basically analyzing Twitter activity to determine very localized details of flooding. But during his time there, he observed layers of flood walls built that should have prevented many floods. He also observed that along these stone walls, locals had cut openings through them to facilitate easy foot passage. In case it's not clear from my description, they had cut openings in flood walls so it would be easier for them to walk. Predictably, during flash floods, the water would be a meter higher on one side and just POURING through the man-made openings here and there. Eventually it would equalize, leaving the entire area flooded. boggle

Finally, driving in the higher end shopping areas, it was not too uncommon to see $140,000 Mercedes AMG G wagons and the occasional Rolls Royce driving around. My driver explained that some of these people were government employees, and that it was well-known that government employees would receive extra payments and lavish gifts for providing beneficial opportunities to wealthy individuals or businesses. Fortunately that sort of thing doesn't happen in our developed countries.

There is no clean end to this wall of text.