Recently I stayed in a hotel for a freelance job. My almamater paid for it. When my boyfriend asked, "How much it cost per one night?" my broke ass soul jilted and said, "Oh I'm not paying for this. I will never ever pay for a hotel, that'd be like burning all my money then crying afterwards." Then I told him the university paid for it. Then he asked again, "Yes, but how much does it cost per one night?" So I told him the name of the hotel and we looked it up. Apparently it cost around half a million per night.
"That's pretty expensive for you."
"Well it's not pretty expensive for me, it's very expensive."
The boyfriend said he just wanted to know hotel prices here (in case of future visits).
I never felt comfortable being in a hotel, especially when I see hotel employees, because they probably came from the same socioeconomic background as me, but here I was being the guest, and they were the server. It makes me feel like a fraud. Sometimes I wonder what's going on their head, because they always treat us very kindly. It's part of their job, ofc, but what if they have a really bad day--maybe their mother is dying or they broke up with their partner--then they get scolded by their manager (I saw an employee getting 'kinda scolded' by the manager in the dining room), but they continued smiling and serving the clients.
That's an impeccable work ethics. But also very sad at the same time.
I think hotels are one of the weirdest places humanity has ever invented. Hotel buildings are usually very tall, with so many rooms, which makes me think very very hard, "Why are there so many hotels and hotel rooms in Surabaya? Are there so many rich people that will stay in those rooms everyday every time of the year?"
Also hotel buildings seem to occupy a lot of space in strategic locations. Like if hotels didn't exist, we could've built a man-made forest in the middle of downtown area to absorb carbon, or build houses for 300 families, or anything more useful, really. I mean it's not just hotel fault, it's also unnecessarily big company buildings and unnecessarily big shopping malls and unnecessary big government offices. Like why the fuck are we reserving so much space for 'exclusive' buildings that majority of people would never step foot in.
Meanwhile on the train from my hometown to Surabaya, there are a bunch of families living literally 5 meters away from railway, in their triplex houses and rusted metal plates roofs. How do you even live in that? Imagine all the rats, the cockroaches, floods, and noises from the trains.
Meanwhile in the hotel they have so many space, like 50 meters square of marble floor that doesn't serve any purpose other than 'to create spacious and luxurious feels to our hotel'. What the actual fuck. And they seem to have endless supplies of food, many of which would end up in the trash because the rich folks 'don't feel like finishing this meal'.
This isn't fair and we shouldn't be okay with this. But as I looked at people living their life and minding their own business, accepting inequality and justifying it with "What do you expect? Life is hard. Shut up and stop complaining. Just suck it up and work hard so you can get a convenient life."
I think there is something inherently wrong with our society, that we allow this to happen. Ever since humanity created money, we have become slaves of our own creation.
And I'm not saying this because I'm a communist or anything, but I'm just really really sad by what's happening around me.
When I was in the hotel room, we turned on the TV and saw a weird show where a rich woman was trying to buy an island in Canada. They were guided by a marketing guy who claimed himself as an 'Island Expert' (like wtf is an island expert? that's not a real job. his real job is 'marketing and advertising' not 'island expert'. even if 'island expert' exist as real job, the title should belong to geologists or scientists from such fields).
The woman said, "I want an island with a mansion in it that can host 20 people. A mansion that's a bit rustic, but still glamorous. I don't want a rustic island, I don't want to do camping, I don't camp, that's not what I do".
Her words realistically potray the general stereotype of rich people. They want to be seem as 'humble, back to nature' but they only want the convenient beauty of nature, not the reality of being in the nature.
To make it even more despicable, they showed an island with a mansion and saltwater pool in it. The saltwater pool located near the beach.
They built a saltwater pool right next to a beach.
That's like building a greenhouse in a forest.
Like why?
So the guests can bathe in saltwater while sipping champagne comfortably without having to deal with ocean waves and sand and corals?
What the actual fuck.
Me and my roommate laughed so hard about it. Money gave so much power to some people, they became out of touch with reality.
Also I've always wondered how is it possible for people to buy an island. Like how? Does it mean they also own all the vegetations and crabs and sea turtles laying eggs on the island beach? Why do governments allow it? Since when is it okay to privately own an island? Who decided that it's okay to let people own an island? Under what consideration?
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