Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the pillage-and-burn dept.

How a country suddenly went 'crazy rich'

Indonesia, the nation with the world's largest Muslim population, is home to a rapidly growing middle class. As Rebecca Henschke reports from Jakarta, this has given rise to a striking phenomenon - the so-called "Crazy Rich" Indonesians.

[...] The hashtag #crazyrichsurabayans started trending on social media after a local teacher at an elite school shared anecdotes about the family of one of her students - tales of them travelling to get their vaccinations done in Japan and of holidays in Europe. She is now writing a book about it and there is talk of a movie.

Recently, the luxurious lavish wedding of a couple from Surabaya was dubbed the ultimate Crazy Rich Surabayans event by local media. Hundreds of guests from Indonesia and abroad attended, it was reported, and all were said to have been entered into a prize draw for a Jaguar sports car. The groom, it's understood, had proposed with the assistance of a flash mob in front of hundreds of total strangers at the Venetian Macao resort. Many members of Indonesia's growing upper-middle class, concentrated solely in the west of the country, have money their parents would never have dreamed of - and most think it's normal, and perhaps even essential, to show it off.

Following a massive reduction in the country's poverty rate in the last two decades, one in every five Indonesians now belongs to the middle class. They're riding a commodities boom - the burning and churning-up of this vast archipelago's rich natural resources, including logging, palm oil, coal, gold and copper. This, combined with aggressive domestic spending, low taxes and little enforcement of labour laws, means that those who know how to play the system are raking it in.

"Surabaya is the capital of East Java province in Indonesia. Surabaya is the second-largest city in Indonesia with a population of over 3 million within the city proper and over 10 million in the Greater Surabaya metropolitan area, known as Gerbangkertosusila."

Indonesia is the world's 4th most populous country with over 261 million people as of 2016.

Recently:
Palm Oil was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead it Unleashed a Catastrophe


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by corey on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:36AM (4 children)

    by corey (2202) on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:36AM (#776137)

    Every time I see an article about Indonesia, it starts with "Indonesia, the nation with the world's largest Muslim population". I'm not sure why this needs pointed out. Should they not be rich? Is the author trying to direct the thoughts of the reader to some built in conclusion about the country? What's religion got to do with it? Why not, Indonesia, the world's biggest archipelago dotted with rich rainforest and volcanoes?

    There's a lot wrong with this article. I've been to Jakarta a few times. It's a lot like any other big Asian City. Yeah, there's indications of the rich people here and there but everywhere else you have poor people living in squalor. I had a guy with a monkey in the middle of an intersection try to make the monkey dance or something to get me to give him a few coins. Then during Ramadan there were beggars everywhere and the taxi driver said don't give anything because they prey on the fact that it'sa time to share with others and give to those in need. And that there are cops everywhere to catch you because donating to beggars is apparently illegal.

    The article is a bit of an exaggeration, the country is not rich. Go to India and you'll see polarised rich and poor even worse.
    The article should focus on the fact that Indonesia harbours most of the world's orangutans and they are destroying the habitat to plant lucrative palm. Not to mention Javan Rhino and Sumatran tigers.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:19AM (#776144)

    Are these crazy rich Indonesians all Chinese, the Jews of Asia?

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:13PM (#776288)

    Islam destroys culture, creativity, and productivity; for instance, the local Chinese in Indonesia were legally forced to adopt non-Asiany names so that Muslims would stop killing them.

    As the other poster points out, the wealth being generated is probably due to the Chinese population there.

    This is why it's worth pointing out that Indonesia is a Muslim country: Their sudden rise in middle-class wealth is exceptional; the exception proves the rule.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:06PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:06PM (#776485)

    And so finding out the largest group of Muslims on the planet isn't a bunch of Arabs is probably surprising to many people in the West?

    If you compared countries around the world, I think you would find the majority with an ultra-wealthy upper class, and a above average wealth middle class are in fact all Muslim countries. Whether that is due to the religion or in spite of it could be debated, but it is true that many developing nations with large amounts of natural resources are Muslim Majority now.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:32PM (#776545)

      Those people in the Muslim world became wealthy almost exclusively because of the West's insatiable appetite for petroleum.

      Add to this the fact that the West has developed innumerable technologies for improving the quality of life for the average individual (including petroleum-based products), and you have your explanation: The West made the Muslim world great, and the West will just as easily leave them behind if the Muslims choose to let go of the West's coattails.