I just got back late last night from Jakarta — my first business trip for 2009. My schedule’s been hectic, hence I haven’t had the chance to write anything for the past couple days, despite my having already secured a replacement for my now-good-as-dead Sony VAIO.

With the worldwide economic downturn far from over, companies all over the world are downsizing, reviewing, scrambling to survive, cutting budgets, re-evaluating new office furniture purchases. Our company is no different. There’s a lot more to be done this year and, like everyone else in the company, I expect to be busier than I was last year. In addition to a wider scope of work, there will be a lot more travel in store for me — perhaps every week, perhaps once a fortnight.

But this does not mean the end to my blogging. If need be, I’ll write my blog posts in the airport. That would be way more productive than simply staring at my shoes, newly polished or not.

Which brings me to my main topic: the shoe-shine boys at Jakarta’s Cengkareng Airport.If you hang around the airport, just before checking in, you might find yourself being approached timidly by these shoe-shine boys. They vary in age and size, but they’re all small, of primary school age, easily identifiable by the ragged clothes they wear, the pitiable (almost resigned) look in their faces, and by the small tin of shoe polish and small shoe brush that they’d hold out in their smudgy hands as they ask you if you’d like to avail of their services.

They’d offer you the use of their slippers as they hobble off to a corner on their bare feet to do their task. They’d wipe the polish on your shoes using only their bare fingers. You’d be surprised at how thorough they can be, making the shabbiest pair of shoes look passable and the good ones look almost new. Just take note of the colour of the shoe polish before agreeing to their services, as they only have one each, usually black.

Believe it or not, these boys won’t mind a bit getting paid a measly Rp1,000 to Rp2,000. That’s less than RM1, or approximately an American nickel (current exchange rate is Rp3,100:RM1 and Rp10,800:USD1). It’s simply heart-wrenching and just makes me want to have my shoes polished every time I see one of these boys.

The sad thing is — the security guards chase them out of the airport building, even though they’re just trying to make a decent living, which is a lot more noble than begging!