A Whack on the Head: Reflections on the "Bule Price"

My fellow PCV Joe is a very reflective young man (see his blog here: Joe's Blog) who makes us think, and for that I am very grateful. Last month, he wrote about why we should pay "Bule Prices" aka "foreigner prices." When I came across this passage in a book, I shared it with Joe, along with my own reflections.

Indonesian Rupiah. Picture credit: PCV Maurice

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Playing with Fire: Adventures Indonesia, travelogue by Nick Langston-Able (British guy, book published in 2007)

“Squabbling over 10 pence is one of those travelling cliches that is difficult to understand until you’ve been in the situation. In some cases, it can be the traveler simply being tight but I think that generally it is the acknowledgement of the value of money in the country you are in and an awareness of the relative prices of things.

For example, paying an untrained guide more money in a day than a policeman may get paid in a week only helps encourage more untrained people to become guides, and corruption in the police force. Any tourist who thinks that they should pay local people extra money because they can afford it should think more about the effects on the local economy and the view that this gives of Westerners.”

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My letter to Joe: 

I have been in a couple various situations in which your blog post about paying the bule price has wandered into my mind.

Last week, I was going from TP mall in Surabaya to the terminal. I decided to splurge and take a taxi, assuming it’d be around 50k. At rush hour. In the rain. The taxi driver suggested taking the longer but faster, less traffic-y way. Vaguely knowing the outlay of Surabaya, I agreed. Lots of traffic and over an hour later, we finally arrived. I was foaming at the mouth that it took so long and the bill was 85k, way more than I wanted so spend. After 45 minutes in the taxi, I’d asked him if the traffic was usually like this, he said no. Originally, I wanted to trust him; eventually, I was furious, assuming he knew the situation would pan out like this. Did he see that I was white and just want more money out of me?

I tried deep breathing and putting it into perspective. $8.50. I could absolutely pay that. And this is Surabaya, in rush hour. And tons of rain. But still!! I tried to think about the fact that yeah, I could afford it. I am a Westerner. But I was also a little hurt to feel as though I was being taken advantage of. People see white skin and make so many assumptions. (Though upon further reflection, I make countless assumptions about Indonesians every day).

Well wouldn’t you believe it, as I got out of the taxi after angrily thrusting the money at the driver, he apologized. He said truly, the traffic usually is not like that. I gave a curt nod and got the heck out of there. But all the blood was rushing to my head and I couldn’t believe how “kurang ajar” I’d been. Here I am, in the midst of Lent and reading the Bible (almost) every day. Trying to be a better person. What happened to “Give freely and expect nothing in return?” ("Lend, expect nothing in return" Luke 6:35). And this was how I’d treated someone. I’d just gotten a good smack in the head and heart from God.

As if this wasn’t enough, then I wanted to board a bus, but it was pouring rain. A bunch of young boys were running back and forth in the rain with umbrellas, shepherding people to the buses for a quick buck. Though I was already an hour later leaving Surabaya than I’d planned, I refused to pay for a 25-meter walk under an umbrella that I’d have to pay for. I watched person after person take the boys up on their offer. A terminal guard came by and literally, literally kicked a boy for trying to enter the terminal. Basically he shoved them out into the rain, as if to say, “Wait there, street rats. Don’t enter my terminal.” I was shocked at this lack of recognition that they are human, for gosh sakes.

While I still didn’t want to cough up the money, I got to thinking, really, was it so bad that these middle school/high school-aged boys were taking advantage of the weather and travelers to make a quick buck? Isn’t that how capitalism works? Finding (or creating) a need and meeting the demand…

After waiting 15 minutes and the rain’s relentless downfall, I finally asked an approaching woman if she could check the umbrella price for me. Perhaps we could share an umbrella, I suggested. I didn’t want to pay the bule price. She checked with a boy and then waved me over. We crossed together and as I went to pull out seribu or two, she shooed away my money and handed the boy a 10,000 Rp note, along with a  pinch on the cheek, as if to say, “Take care of  yourself.”

Well, for the second time in ½ hour, God smacked me again and was like, “Quit being so stingy. What didn’t I give for you?? And you won’t give a dollar?” I felt so ashamed.

I’m still figuring all these racial and cultural experiences out, but I guess I’m trying to more deeply consider how my physical difference as a white American shapes my Indonesian experience. I think my desire to blend in is always at the forefront of my mind, but I’m ever so slowly realizing that I simply never will.

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As for the excerpt above, what are your thoughts, Joe? I definitely sympathize with the author's idea that we recognize  “the value of money in the country [we] are in and [have] an awareness of the relative prices of things.” I’m a human who doesn’t want to be treated differently just because of what I look like, and I tend to believe that I should not have to pay more.

On the other hand, I can afford more.

Joe's response: "So it is hard for us, especially coming from a culture where virtually everything is fixed price. I think that's a large part of what offends us here, we just aren't used to arbitrary pricing. It's funny though, our take on the morality of it. We think charging us a little extra is immoral, but is it moral that our stomachs are guaranteed to be full each night and theirs aren't? Can I really be offended that some poor guy charges me a little extra so he can feed his family? It's not like the people who "take advantage of us" (not your words) are doing so in order to buy massage chairs or jet skis. These are people who are scraping by, and our extra money will enable them to buy some meat for dinner or purchase school supplies for their kid.

"Then obviously, being white foreigners puts a massive target on our backs. I've found in my village nobody overprices me, which brings me to my next point. I think for PCV's it's hard because we aren't just tourists, we are largely living at the local level. My village sees this, so they charge me the same as others. But a becak driver in Sbya doesn't know my story, so he will overcharge me assuming that I'm making an American wage.

"I try to look at it a couple other ways too. 1) Like you mentioned, it's really not all that much money to us as Americans. I've wasted a lot more money on god knows what. 2) Like you also mentioned, back in the States you'd pay far more for a cab ride than you do here. Sure gas might be a little higher priced at home, but other than that you pay drastically less here for the same service. It's really not fair, especially when you consider how many important things are globally priced and not locally priced (like electronics, airfare, etc.) " 

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Back to me!

I guess that this is like rich Americans not wanting to be taxed a larger percentage of their income simply because they are rich; that’s called “progressive taxing,” right? Usually in response to that, I would counter that a lot of rich people aren’t necessarily physically working harder or longer hours than a poor person to get their money, so really it’s not fair they have more money. Make them pay more! But putting that idea into the Indonesian context forces to reflect on my own privilege; why should I as a white American have more money than an Indonesian? Do I really work harder and longer? Why do I “deserve” more? Or don't I? Why shouldn’t I pay more?

As for the author’s idea that the policeman makes less money than the guide, that seems to point to capitalism again. It’s not really fair, it’s a system based on some skill, luck, marketing…at the end of the day, should a policeman be paid more and why? I’d probably have to argue that they are trained, they are there to help people at a moment’s notice, etc.

But a guide is also knowledgeable about his/her trade, isn’t he/she? Perhaps she/he couldn’t afford a fancy school for a diploma/certificate like the policeman, but the guide was making the best of his/her situation and sought out knowledge about something. They certainly have marketing skills. English skills. They are friendly…why should this service be devalued simply because they didn’t have enough money for higher education (or simply didn’t want to go to the university because they were smart and saw they could make just as much money doing something that didn’t require a diploma.)

Courtesy of google images

Makes me think about American higher education. Only the rich or the smartest can afford it, even though there are so many more people who would benefit from and want to attend college. Shouldn’t education be free and accessible to all? I’d love to see college prices drastically decrease in the US, but again, capitalism prevents that…the rich go to great schools, get better jobs, and get richer.

A final note, I do not in any way deny how much I have benefitted from capitalism.