Consumer Stroller
Grocery shopping. Though the eyes of Eastern masculinity is an unacceptable behavior, although it sure is a well-established chore for other groups. Opposing the view above, I actually consider grocery shopping as a neutral activity, without any impositions from gender roles. And please, don't argue that at a certain age you have to actually follow those perscribed roles. Buying something for yourself surely can't imply your level of machoism.
Back in Jakarta, I was really a big fan of accompanying Mom or Grandma into supermarket chains when the ritual family outing day to mall came. When the rest of the male species in my family (dad, bro, grandpa) seemed to scramble to other directions, I stood my ground. It was really fun for me. I could grab everything from the rack, mostly I choose imported stuff that was way too expensive thanks to our dears tax officials. I did this maybe, since I was 4/5 years old until now. So, when I moved to Brisbane it was quite fun doing the shopping myself. Well, there are some downsides since I no longer can take anything in the store and not to mention having to arrange my own budget. But, overall it was great. Picking the kinds of meat, the spices, and creatively thinking how to create an edible dish out of that.
Today was another day of grocery shopping. We grab everything we needed and even some (a lot) that we wanted but did'nt need. After nauseating a bit thanks to the "Proudly Made In Australia" stickers on the labels, me and my housemate went to the cashier. We were quite shocked when the digital display showed a 3 digit number when our trolly still was half full. In the end, a brand new record was spent: A$142.21. Okay, let ask an expert on foreign exchange (www.oanda.com) how many rupiah I spent today. What? Oh, Rp. 970. 364. What? Are you trying to be funny? I could employ someone for a month in Indonesia for that price. Ok, no offence man. Thought, you were joking.
Damn. I gotta make an asertion here.
Now, is it the price of retail supermarkets chain in Aussie that's unreasonable or is the cost of human capital in Indo downright absurd?
Now, now. I'm no Marxist so Indonesian police please don't imprison me for asking such provocative question (You know the drill: "Hey he's a Communist. Throw him with the lions."). The best answer I could give for question number one. Yes, because they put heavy tax on imported products and give protection fees to local ones. Also they put high premium to employ their staff. The answer for the second question. Ermmm. Relative. Because, my family pays someone the A$142.21 for a month work. Although, food and accomodation is provided with better quality than their village. See, I guess both are good in some ways.
Wow, another added quota for positive reasoning. Yipieee.
Back in Jakarta, I was really a big fan of accompanying Mom or Grandma into supermarket chains when the ritual family outing day to mall came. When the rest of the male species in my family (dad, bro, grandpa) seemed to scramble to other directions, I stood my ground. It was really fun for me. I could grab everything from the rack, mostly I choose imported stuff that was way too expensive thanks to our dears tax officials. I did this maybe, since I was 4/5 years old until now. So, when I moved to Brisbane it was quite fun doing the shopping myself. Well, there are some downsides since I no longer can take anything in the store and not to mention having to arrange my own budget. But, overall it was great. Picking the kinds of meat, the spices, and creatively thinking how to create an edible dish out of that.
Today was another day of grocery shopping. We grab everything we needed and even some (a lot) that we wanted but did'nt need. After nauseating a bit thanks to the "Proudly Made In Australia" stickers on the labels, me and my housemate went to the cashier. We were quite shocked when the digital display showed a 3 digit number when our trolly still was half full. In the end, a brand new record was spent: A$142.21. Okay, let ask an expert on foreign exchange (www.oanda.com) how many rupiah I spent today. What? Oh, Rp. 970. 364. What? Are you trying to be funny? I could employ someone for a month in Indonesia for that price. Ok, no offence man. Thought, you were joking.
Damn. I gotta make an asertion here.
Now, is it the price of retail supermarkets chain in Aussie that's unreasonable or is the cost of human capital in Indo downright absurd?
Now, now. I'm no Marxist so Indonesian police please don't imprison me for asking such provocative question (You know the drill: "Hey he's a Communist. Throw him with the lions."). The best answer I could give for question number one. Yes, because they put heavy tax on imported products and give protection fees to local ones. Also they put high premium to employ their staff. The answer for the second question. Ermmm. Relative. Because, my family pays someone the A$142.21 for a month work. Although, food and accomodation is provided with better quality than their village. See, I guess both are good in some ways.
Wow, another added quota for positive reasoning. Yipieee.
posted by the one beneath your hair above your eyebrows @ 6:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home