Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Ah, just say it, Mister!

I couldn't help laughing as I was reading Kompas this morning. It has a new section named Klass, supposedly a derivative of Klasika, its ads section. Today it runs a head titled "Opportunity Behind Consumerism" written by its chief, Suryopratomo.

Suryopratomo basically said consumerism is only for developed countries, not for developing countries. It's a bad idea if people from the latter group join this wave of consumerism.

Nevertheless, Klass is promoting it, yes the consumerism. What do you think if a newspaper displays ads and features of prestigious Banyan Tree property, Colnago bike, Nokia's Sirocco 8800 (yes, it has diamonds), Convergent Audio JL3, Flybook Dialogue, and of course Gc watches?

But, Suryopratomo said,
If Kompas now brings to you these high life style products, is that part of consumerism? Of course not. Kompas is only capturing the phenomena around us.
Yeah, right.

(By the way, the picture in the background of Suryopratomo's note is Lexus).

4 comments:

  1. Ah yes, who cares about debts, as long we can take credit as much as we can with our limited income, we have to live in style!! ;)

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  2. Consumerism might be good for the economy as accelerating GDP growth and money creation. Eg, with a deposit of Rp 100 as security you can borrow another Rp 100 for purchasing something, as rusdy said. The issue in Indonesia is the unsecured loans.

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  3. Thanks for the comments, Rusdy and Anymatters. I think consumerism is good and Kompas hypocritical position is a laughing stock.

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  4. I have never heard something as ridiculous as the inappropriate application of the 'development' country argument against consumerism....what a hypocrite.

    Consumerism is neither good nor bad, I think, it's just a social reality...whether it's good or not depends on the angle from which u're viewing it...

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