Inside the Compound

There are three high-rise buildings inside my compound.  One contains my workplace, Sampoerna University, and a few other organizations.  The other two are residential buildings, one of which is where my residence is located.  

The compound itself contains almost everything one would require.  Pictured here is the supermarket, Korean restaurant, Indonesian coffee shop, and even a Krispy Kreme donut shop.  It's quite the opposite of my five years in Kyrgyzstan.  When I first arrived in the remote Kyrgyz mountain town where I lived, I discovered that I had embarked upon a journey into the distant past still deeply tied to its nomadic traditions.  Now I find myself in a global, multicultural megalopolis of 30 million, the largest Muslim city in the world. I wonder how many in the mob of domestic terrorists that stormed our Capitol would have acted in such a way if they had been exposed, for even a couple of months, to some culture other than their own? Stepping outside one's narrow world is one of the most effective antidotes to ignorance and susceptibility to following unscrupulous demagogues.