REMNANT OF AGES

On a windy morning on May this year, a wheeled tractor pull strange objects of the same size with a fridge through the rows of lettuce shoots in Salinas Valley of California. Nearby, still the same location and separated by only several meters, the Silicon Valley engineers are working on their laptops to make sure the machine has separate leafy lettuce shoots properly. The engineers were employed by a large company who owns the most Salinas farm to examine the Lettuce Bot, a machine device that can harvest lettuce field which is usually getting done by the hands of 20 workers approximately.

In an area known as the America's Salad Bowl, fruits and vegetables have been planted, nurtured and harvested by a group of immigrant workers over the centuries, so that the use of the machine can bring some revolutionary progress. Although the project has provided millions of dollars, the land owners say that machinery is preferable in term of investments and production cost savings, so that they can be free from short-term workers, and reduce the number of illegal immigrants into the United States (which mostly comes from Mexico).

One of the company's chief executive of lettuce bot designers say, they have to take a long road to bring the robot into real life, which would not being introduced to the market by any commercial ways. Companies also have to face rejection from the local union, due to agricultural mechanization will make workers lost their jobs immediately and food became more unsafe for consumption due to excessive use of pesticides. But the chief executive refuted, "That's the great things that robots and automation do. They can take over the tedious and repetitive tasks that are too simple for humans, and do it effectively, quickly and accurately. "

Remains of the Past
It indeed would need few years ahead for similar agricultural mechanization technology to settle down in Indonesia, after a compromise with the wave of protests which are predicted to emerge from the related workers. But in the other hand, any automation policies are company’s right to decide, and we cannot blame the owner of the industrial production as they maintain a strategy for efficiency and enhance product competitiveness in the free market. Any voices of rejection can be the end of the relevant company's commitment in terms of cooperation that would be very detrimental to workers and related agencies. Instead, we should accept it as the bitter fruit of investment and consumption-based economy which is currently being implemented by the Indonesian government in the last few years.


Wheel of time moves forward to change the face of the work, creativity and human initiative into a more modern, sophisticated, cool and anti slow things. Of course this is a quite encouraging excess for the civilization, because people will waste their most precious ages and life if  they could not managed to create a little different progress than previous generations. Something new is certainly more interesting than something that has aged and offer limited capabilities. So that new products will always managed to dominate the market and dethrone the predecessor of the throne. However, did you ever wonder where are those old school stuff  been gone?

Developed countries like USA, UK, Germany and their colleagues are already claiming their success in terms of recycling different types of waste, including electronic waste. But, a few years ago ABC.com reported a large amount of electronic waste containers sent to a number of Third World countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, a number of African countries and, of course, Indonesia. I do not intent to underestimate they who earn their life as garbage-collector and get their pocket money by take down every pieces of old computer parts that can be resold. But we need to estimate the extent of the impact of electronic waste on human health, also the resulting impact on fertility of soil and air quality.

That’s it, changes not only bring convenience to human life but also the high price that must be paid by most others. Ease credit vehicle ownership makes drivers and owners of public transportation being left off miserably. The invasion of low-price Chinese mobile phones making everyone can afford to buy a new cell phone or smartphone, and left the paid public-telephone kiosk owner in loneliness. Similarly, 3 kg LPG conversion policy in Indonesia has marginalized kerosene from the market, left the kerosene stoves and make kerosene stove home industry end their existence directly. Parents would also be stroking their chest facing young people who no longer to speak in old-polite manners, listening to the elders’ good advice and lose their enthusiasm to attend family gathering. Why changes always fail to reduce and avoid casualties? As we saw in the Arab Spring endless turmoil in the land of Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, and Bahrain.

Dig a Same Hole
Rural communities in the south of Jogjakarta has a unique method to cope with household waste (which has been done long ago, and perhaps because of the absence of the janitor ), i.e throw it in a deep and wide hole in their front or back yard. When the hole has been filled with so they would cover it with soil dug a pit former landfills that are not very far from its original location. But times have changed. Food and beverage plastic packaging increase in circulation, lead to the massive consumption and earthworms have to work overtime and threatened homeless. A research states, it took up to 6 months for your cigarette butts to blend with soil, 12 years for a plastic bag and millions of years for styrofoam.
Well, at least time failed to change one thing, human rubbish.

Is kerosene stove also includes garbage? Yes, because it is no longer used when its price was getting soared. Is the 1997 education curriculum and competency-based curriculum is garbage too? Yes, because they are no longer used when government replace the previous minister with a new one, according to the recent winner political party of the general election. Is the convex television screen is also consider as garbage? And what about the former officers, crew, assistants, staff experts and even country former leader? I suppose you already know the answer. Then why the man loved to make waste, accumulate and hoard something that already and eventually become useless? We did have to admit human intelligence in terms of designing a device that has never existed before. But unfortunately they are not looking ahead to the future possibilities.

Human beings are indeed most greedy, as compared to other creatures on Earth, and even more voraciously than vultures though. If there is lack of bread or rice, they can still eat the leaves. No leaves, they can still eat locusts, or worms, or crickets. No money means no problem while they may owe. Heavily indebted, once again, is not a big problem, because a debt still can be paid off with another debts. Dig a hole for debts is not a problem as long as we can close it again, and then dug up again when the time comes. Is that such a poor standard wage workers in Indonesia? Not really. In addition to do a jihad facing the head of the company, work desks, machinery and cement mix, it turns out the workers also have to fight another war, the consumptive lifestyle that has been legitimized through the ease mortgages submission, motor vehicles, electronic equipment, gadgets and other installment . And they are, usually, more often fail than win.  (Swastantika)