Arson to evict slums and illegal buildings

It's an Indonesian "tradition", really.

I don't know if this kind of arson also exists in other countries as well, so forgive my cultural unawareness, everyone. But for writing's sake, let's just appellate it as an Indonesian one (albeit not necessarily unique).

In Indonesian urban, if you happen to have your building permits expired or own a shack located near a department store or a mall or any other strategic locations, chances run high that you are asked to relocate building/rundown dwelling somewhere else by some Big Brother.

That Big Brother gives you some sort of compensation in the form of money. Then you'll start lingering over the old memories you have spent in that shack/market stall of yours, with all the decades you have gone thru and perspirations you have toiled.

But for goodness sake, I advice you not to be so sentimental about it. Just take the money and leave your building/dwelling/whatever it is!

Because if you insist on staying, you will get NOTHING in the end.

Yes, you read it right...NOTHING.

Here's a case scenario:

Not long after you reject the compensation offered by Big Brother, you need to leave your building/dwelling for a holiday or Lebaran trip to your hometown.

Then you come back to your city, to find that your building/dwelling is simply....no longer there.

Or rather, it's still there, yet it is reduced to ashes and rubbles.

Nothing; absolutely nothing could be saved, not your furniture, not your TV set (let's hope it's not an LCD), not your daughter's teddy bear.

Your beloved place has already burnt into some "charcoal castle".

Then you ask yourself, how did your place catch fire? Newspapers report it that there might have been electrical fault somewhere, but as your neighbour's buildings/dwellings have also turned into "charcoal castle", there must have been a larger story to that.

Now I leave you my blog readers to take your own conclusions.