Morning everyone!
I was supposed to be talking about nepotism but I suppose, it’s not the right time yet to talk about it. Though I really find that topic super intriguing but we’ll save that for later. Today, I just want to talk about lifestyle vs living and some other global concerns & what not.
Welcome to my brain dump, it’s morning and when I am able to sit down, sipping a cup of coffee while contemplating about life and emptying it out a little.
Did you know that the world is currently under threat of food insecurity? While many of us might not be aware of it and the war is seemingly just another news, it might as well be affecting us sooner or later. Not only war that has been affecting our food security, the climate change has seemingly impacted yields of farming in numerous countries for example, in UK Heavy rain likely to cause low yields in Britain and other parts of Europe, with drought in Morocco hitting imports. I don’t know about other countries' solutions to this but in Indonesia itself, they are doing something called “food estate”. However, the program has received numerous criticism including how it doesn’t actually solve the problem & rather damaging the environment a lot more. Whether you believe in climate change or not, I find it fascinating how the global concern lies on food security these days.
When we look inward to our regular lives, perhaps we just don’t really care much about it other than wondering, “ why has the price gone up so much?” or perhaps, “why I hardly find X item again?” .While there are numerous reasons for this, I think as individuals, we simply have to be prepared for the worst. Sometimes when you read reports like this, you realize that the world is big and it is interconnected. The war that happens miles away could also impact your life on the other end.
Now, speaking about the war, there are a few wars going on in this world and some are waiting to explode a.k.a the time when China decides to invade Taiwan or when China is finally braving themselves to take the south china sea by all means. But at the moment, the eyes are focused on Gaza & while it is happening miles away from my country, the boycott reaches this place and I find it a little concerning.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support any type of war that is funded by taxpayer money. But I find it a little too much that it goes beyond boycotting certain products that might not even be directly affiliated themselves with Israel. Boycotting a certain product I think does harm more than good especially when the employees are locals. At the same time, they are pretty hypocritical when it comes to boycotting products because it's a pick and choose type of boycott. If they truly want to boycott anything that is affiliated with Israel including Google and Meta as a company, they could’ve easily used web 3 options that are available & decentralized. But again, people will always try to justify their reasoning even though it sounds utterly ridiculous.
I find it fascinating how we just got out of a pandemic that gave a reset but seemingly more wars are coming. First Ukraine, then Gaza, there’s also the hidden and almost unheard of war, the Myanmar war. For someone who lives in south east asia, not knowing that the burmese is fighting for their independence is quite fascinating.
Perhaps it’s just my circle of friends but they didn’t really know that there’s war brewing in Myanmar. The so-called “insurgents” are fighting the juntas for their freedom. It’s a complex problem on its own and has caused people to be displaced such as the Rohingya & burmese that fled to neighboring countries such as thailand. In case you didn’t know, there are some movies about this for example this movie titled Doi Boy that’ll give you a glimpse of how the war has impacted people from there. I personally met some people from there that are immigrants fleeing the war torn areas & they certainly wanted a better living and a country free of war. However, it is seemingly still a difficult battle to win.
Ialso found this video the other day showing how people are still doing their normal lives except the content creator of the video mentioned how some areas are heavily armed and that the overall vibe of the area is still on edge. So, if you don’t know about this “hidden” war, now you know.
Let’s go back to the simple topic... living vs lifestyle. The other day I found something unique from my visit at the local wet market. Typically, I don’t shop there and rarely go out. I rely a lot on delivery but since I want to integrate myself better in my new environment, I decided to check it out.
I was surprised at the vegetable costs. I was pretty much amazed that eating healthy is expensive, pretty much a myth around here. Fruits and vegetables are sold very cheaply and it’s mostly from the people who grow it themselves in the backyard. If you want to whip up a salad that’ll cost less than $1 to make a portion of it. However, when you go to a nice piquant cafe, that’ll cost 10x more of that price.
Same thing with coffee. I managed to find this small roastery that is managed by an elderly couple. They both are seemingly in their 60’s. The couple has a roasting & grinding machine and fresh beans that you can pick. I certainly was surprised by the price because for 1/4kg I only paid $2 and that was for freshly roasted and grinded robusta. Certainly, that much money can only get you a cup of milk coffee but at that place and if you make it at home, that’ll last for a week or two. If you’re like me, it’s probably 5-6 days.
So, that basically once again reminded me that living isn’t that expensive but lifestyle is. I suppose we are all these days influenced by social media that thinks cheap equates to low quality and we’re always chasing that aesthetic looking stuff. Anyway, that is all for my brain dump, see you around next morning!
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰. |