[00:00.00]16 Business
[00:04.70]2.While you read
[00:11.18]A self-made man
[00:14.84]Damo Setiadi is one of the top thousand richest men in Indonesia-
[00:23.30]not bad for someone who was born into a huge family
[00:28.87]in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.
[00:33.12]Mr Setiadi runs his own business,
[00:38.40]importing machinery from Europe and selling it all over the country.
[00:44.85]He employs over three hundred people
[00:50.18]and lives in a mansion in a nice suburb of Jakarta.the capital city.
[00:57.05]However,as he will tell you,
[01:01.91]he had to travel down a long,hard road to get to where he is today.
[01:08.68]Building up a business takes a lot of hard work and effort.
[01:14.92]especially in a developing country.
[01:18.99]I'm a self-made man
[01:24.27]and I built this business up from nothing through my own hard work and brains.
[01:31.04]said Darno.I come from a very poor family
[01:36.91]in a rural part of Indonesia and I've got thirteen brothers and sisters.
[01:43.76]My dad died when I was only fourteen
[01:49.04]and I had to go out to work to try to support the rest of my family.
[01:55.10]To begin with,I sold ice creams in the street.
[02:00.24]then I got a job selling cloth door-to-door in my town.
[02:06.30]after that,I started travelling all over the island selling things to people
[02:13.38]and slowly I started getting ideas
[02:18.42]about what kind of products the different markets wanted,
[02:23.99]and I started making contacts.When I was twenty-one,
[02:30.23]I left my wife and two children at home
[02:34.98]and moved to Jakarta to set up my own business,
[02:40.34]selling all kinds of machines,but particularly propellers for boats.
[02:46.79]There are over thirteen thousand islands in Indonesia,
[02:52.64]so there's a huge market for that kind of thing.
[02:57.50]It was really hard work.I din't have any money of my own.
[03:04.76]So I lied and told the bank I had a contract,so that they'd lend me money.
[03:12.03]I told the companliees I wanted to order from I had money.
[03:17.59]So that they'd sell to me.
[03:21.64]I even had to tell the companies I wanted to sell to that I had supplies.
[03:28.30]so that they'd orderfrom me.
[03:32.38]I was telling so many lies that it was really difficult trying to remember who I had told what!
[03:40.32]Luckily for me.I had some friends in high places
[03:45.78]and I had a word with them and they helped me get import licences.
[03:51.65]which meant I ended up cornering the market in propellers.
[03:57.22]Business was booming and I could finally afford to bring my wife and family over to join me.
[04:05.39]That wasn't the end of the story,through.
[04:10.12]First of all.I've had to do all the things every businessman has to do:
[04:17.36]pay taxes and wage bills.meet deadlines,
[04:22.92]deal with workers and officials.On top of all that.thugh,
[04:28.77]I've also had to deal with all sorts of other problems too:
[04:34.42]my shops have been attacked and burned in anti-chinese riots
[04:41.78]and the economy hasn't been very good.either.
[04:46.64]The last ten years haven't been the most stable!
[04:51.92]We've had really high inflation
[04:56.78]and we've seen the value of our currency drop from three thousand rupiah to the dollar
[05:03.83]to eighteen thousand to the dollar!
[05:08.48]How are you supposed to run a business with things like that going on?
[05:14.72]It's madness!Anyway,here I am today-a wealthy man!
[05:22.59]The only real problem I've got now
[05:27.03]is who's going to take over the business when I retire.
[05:32.30]I'd like my son to run it.but he's not really tough enough to do it!
[05:38.83]I think perhaps his childhood was too easy,
[05:44.29]and that's made him a bit too soft to do work lke this!
[05:50.35]1 Listening
[06:06.50]So,who are you going to vote for,if you don't mind me asking?
[06:13.26]I'm not,I don't see the point.They're all as bad as each other.
[06:21.73]They're all only interested in making money for themselves.
[06:27.47]They've all corrupt.Politicians!I just don't trust any of them.
[06:33.53]Do you really believe that?
[06:37.19]Of course I do.Look at this government.
[06:42.52]At the last election.they said they would change everything,
[06:48.08]but nothing has hanged at all since they came to power.
[06:53.34]The economy's still in a mess.
[06:57.49]people are still losing their jobs and prices are still going up.
[07:03.55]In fact,I think the only thing they have done to change anything since they've been in power
[07:10.81]is to cut taxes for the rich and cut unemployment benefits for the poor.
[07:17.47]it's a disgrace.They're only interested in their friends in big business.
[07:24.32]I know,but did you vote last time?
[07:29.18]No.I told you.I don't believe in them.Yeah,but don't you see?
[07:35.34]It's because people like you don't vote that these people get in.
[07:41.58]By not voting you're really voting for them.
[07:47.64]No.look.Bob.You're not listening to me!
[07:52.50]What I'm saying is there's no alternative.Look at all the main parties-
[07:59.37]they basically all say the same things.and have the same policies.
[08:05.43]That's my point.But they're not all the same.are they?
[08:11.96]You could vote for the People's Workers Party.
[08:17.29]What?The People's Workers Party?You are joking,aren't you?
[08:24.27]All they want to do it put up taxes and re-ntionalise everything.they're mad.
[08:31.63]They're not.That's what this country needs.
[08:36.68]If the state was running things like the railways and telephones and things like that,
[08:43.62]we wouldn't have such high levels of unemployment.
[08:49.08]We shuld be putting up taxes on big business and rich people.not cutting them.
[08:55.93]Maybe.Definitely.
[08:59.56]If we did that,we could invest the money in schools and hospitals and things like that.
[09:06.93]Maybe,but the government would probably just waste it.They usually do.
[09:13.77]The other things is.If they taxed business more,
[09:18.94]then they'd just go somewhere else.or find some way of avoiding paying it.
[09:25.00]You could stop them somehow.
[09:28.53]Yeah,maybe,but let's face it.Bob,Nobody's going to vote for them.are they,
[09:35.37]so it's all a bit hypothetical!
|