Tortured Minds

If you heard the term hospital (or Rumah Sakit in Indonesia), the first thing that will come up to your mind would be a place where people receive treatment for their illness. Most people will come out in a better condition compared to the condition when they come to the hospital. But that only happen for normal people (with lot of money if you're in Indonesia).

Different thing would happen if you have a mental illness. These photos are taken from one of the so-called "Rumah Sakit Jiwa", hospital for people with mental illness, in Cipayung. How can you cure someone with this kind of facility?

John Stanmayer, a reporter of the Time magazine, takes the photos. It's worst than a jail to me. Some of the patients are in shackled or chained to the window bars. It is said that there are more punitive than palliative treatment in the facility. You might see the facility as another Resident Evil's Racoon City.



The report also suggests that no other country offers less mental health care than Indonesia. Indonesia spent less than $1 per person per day. If to cure them is to far away, how about to make them feel a little bit comfort in the facility? That's too far either. Other photos are more horrifying than this one.

If the facility can't cure them so why should we call it "Rumah Sakit Jiwa"?

Maybe we should call it prison for people with mental illness. Well, in Indonesia it's a common thing to use a non-harsh term because talking too frankly is not a common thing in Indonesia. Another example is the use of "loan" instead of "debt". You will always hear "Indonesia get a loan with a soft interest" not "Indonesia make a soft interest debt".

Well, $1 per person per day is way to small. So much for a so-called "we have gone through the crisis" heh.