Omelets and Modernization

In terms of illegal settlement we have to think first before we answer the question what areas should be evicted to make the city as a whole more livable. It seems an easy question. Of course, we should agree that those make-shift settlements should go. These settlements are the sour spots of every city, aesthetically speaking. But when it is a question of illegal settlement then we also should ask whether the owners of those high-rise apartment buildings and mushrooming malls (for example, the combined space of malls in Jakarta tripled from 1997 to 2005 to 4.5 million square meters) have the right to remain if they occupy space illegally? Metaphors are used to increase understanding of a situation or development. To explain the point of modernization this saying is used: one cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs. The omelet is then the culinary equivalent for the fruits of modernization. But we should not forget, though, that those eggs can be real people. People with voices, faces, aspirations, hopes and worries very much like are own.