I tried to rescue my Thai basil plant and I put it on the sill of my kitchen’s small window. My dill plants, however, are a different matter since they won’t fit in there. So here they are… Taking so much beating from the heatwave we are experiencing.

Hopefully, the occasional rainshowers we’re having will save the plants. My forest is still alive, a cooling agent in these trying times.

Our Indonesia reporter was telling me this morning about the VC and startup event he was invited to attend in Jakarta last night. He said he and another banker almost died with “so much cringe” at the level of kayabangan (arrogance) of the VC and startup guys. He said, the lower you are in the pyramid, the more yabang you are. He told his Indonesian boyfriend about this and the latter said he is correct in his observation.

The bf said: The lower the life form, the higher the yabang. The noisier, the emptier. That’s the coping mechanism of Indonesians who have no contribution to society.

Hubris. Our Indonesia reporter, who pursued a master’s degree in sociology there, said this came from the Dutch.

I reminded him that this also stemmed from the numerous barriers to social mobility put up in Indonesia. A superficial example of this is Jakarta mall operators’ refusal to make malls accessible to the masses. They refused to integrate mass transport into the equation and they only want people with cars to enter their malls, unlike in Singapore (Jurong, Clark Quay, and City Hall come to mind) and Philippines. SM and Ayala are developing malls around transport hubs or they’re making transport hubs around their malls to make it more accessible to everybody. They integrated walkways along Dela Rosa Ave from Greebelt to Makati Medical and connected it to Ayala North Exchange Mall.

He agreed. They love exclusivity.

It was only recently that Indonesian Chinese are living freely in their society. During Suharto’s time they had anti-enthnic Chinese riots. One former Indonesia reporter of ours told us about the fears their parents had, that being ethnic Chinese is enough to get you killed. She is ethnic Chinese.

I also reminded him about Indonesians’ pride over their identity (that is, the predominant Muslim identity) that is perpetuated systematically by their government. Example of this is the requirement that all corporations should register under an Indonesian name. More often than not, they have a different corporate name and trade name.

Nothing is wrong with that per se, but it shouldn’t be weaponized against other cultures who do not ascribe to the same thinking.

I told him about one thread about how these Indonesians insulted some Filipinos, saying we don’t have any identity and why don’t we change our country’s name when that was the one given to us by the colonial masters. One Pinoy in that thread said: why would we wipe out our history? We are the sum of all of those.

Yes, we don’t have one unified identity to be called Filipino as we disappear into the cultures of our host country/society. We needed to adapt. We are flexible because the harsh environment we live in here required us to be like that. We don’t have a clear identity, like the one the Indonesians often wave in our faces. We don’t have anything distinct because we are all these: the Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and American cultures mixed together to form what the Filipinos are now.

If Indonesians from lower income strata get more arrogant the lower you go, then the Filipinos who have gone abroad are more arrogant than those who chose who stay at home. These Filipinos who have gone abroad think they are high and mighty and we who are left in the country by choice or by circumstances are inferior to them.

You can see and feel that in the numerous networking events I’ve been to.

But that’s another story for another day.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that Tabby kitty is well now after being very sick before I left for Singapore. I was syringe-feeding her with reconstituted filled milk and giving her vitamins daily. She had flu I think because she constantly sneezed, was hot like she had a fever, and lethargic.

While I was in Singapore, Twin I continued syringe-feeding her with milk and vitamins. Twin I also made hot water bottles for her in the cat carrier where she slept with Socks. Somehow she got better and recovered from that nasty flu or whatever she got.

These days it makes me happy to see that Tabby a.k.a. Tiger is eating voraciously, especially if we give them chicken bones. They have their own kibbles that I buy from the local pet supplies shop. Kimchi and Sushi’s kibbles and wet food are bought from Lazada every month.

Black Panther a.k.a. Ninja (our little void) is hiding somewhere. He loves climbing trees.