RIDWAN HUTASOIT WRITES BLOGS

BACK FOR GOOD

2011-08-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

It is a funny feeling when writing your thought was what you used to do and with no reason you abandoned it. Then like an old habit that can never give up on you, it just comes back.

It happened to me. I wrote everything. I wrote serious and stupid things. I remember when I could not contain myself and started writing as soon as I heard that a bunch of religious bigots took the law into their own hand because they disagreed with someone intrepreting verses in their holy book. I also tried to amuse myself and others, if it ever worked, by writing all the craze young girls are into because of what whitening lotion can do to their dark skin.

And here I am again, being ever more passionate after all this time to write again. It is not that I stopped doing what I love because I found it pointless; it was so much to write about but I did not know where to start from. Trying to find the perfect start I have been and I realized more than a year has passed; that provoking ideas have been nagging my conscience restlessly to be exposed and discussed openly.

I hope this is not another temporary demise.

BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

2010-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

...

AD ME

2010-02-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

I think you have fallen in love with some of them. I have. Every time someone asks me what makes me stay tuned, I will say that it is not the program but the commercials. I love A Mild ones as they amuse with critical display of what has been going on unresolved in our daily life. One version shows you all the daunting red tapes one would face when he has to obtain some permit or something, with all these officers' working efficiency is equivalent with how much money they are offered. How the product's another ad shows how we handle all this recurring flood also exposes the government as our best laughing stock.

Now let's get serious with those ads that pervert us, if I may say that way as they are corrupt and misleading and the government, again, has been the late party seeing it coming.

Those whitening lotions are the most troublesome, to me. I think they really need some restraints as they have been successfully encouraging ideas to women that the fairer skin they have got the better their life is. Displays like a woman having grim days when she still keeps that old dark skin and when she turns to be a joyful, more confident figure after she has used those whitening lotions (in seven days??!) are really sickening. You can imagine how their ideas would do even more to they young minds since their airing is not limited to certain hour slots like that of cigarettes. If some think that these FMG companies are wasting money airing their products, then somebody has to explain to us how they have paid and intensified the commercial.

Next are motorcycles or scooter ads. They have bombarded us with the idea that being fast is all that matters when it comes to riding this bebek. Well, the one with Valentino Rossi should tell us their message then. Everybody is being made oblivious how dangerous it is at the same time as motorcycle-related accidents just claim lives (or limbs) everyday. The simple truth is motorcycles have never been a safe mode of transportation. Come to any developed countries, or Japan, where Yamaha and Suzuki and Honda should roam the street more than they do here and you will not find only a very few ride. Mostly its use is so limited like, you know, you ran out of sugar and you feel like the Indomaret or Alfamart is not within your walking distance, though it is still in your neighborhood, then you use the motorcycle. It is nothing more than a motorized bicycle for doing stuff around your neighborhood and not for commuting nor long-distance travel.
The manufacturers may argue that it is the careless riding that causes all the accidents but when it comes to which is safer, of course, they must agree that the two-wheeled simply can not beat the four-wheeled. And so far, they have never included safety as an intrinsic property attached to motorcycle riding; they have come with one message only: SPEED.

And how about the other sickening ads? Well, we will have to wait for the 2014 general election when all political parties come up with the absurdly same message: prosperity and justice for all and of course, a clean government.

the thought you read above is also published by The Jakarta Post March 23, 2010.

HOW TO KILL THE VALENTINE

2010-02-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

I know why people love the day but what confuses me much more than anything is that it can be an excuse to generate hate for some.

You may dislike Independence Day; you've got all the reason that there is nothing so independence as you are more enslaved with life difficulties than ever before. Ten years ago, your month salary was enough to pay groceries and movies and school but now you can spend it all only for your groceries.

But to despise Valentine, it takes life. I mean, the day is like a reminder that the beast inside should be tamed or put to rest, at least for one day.Unfortunately, some just do not share the same idea and love to hate love.

Their one classic argument is that you do not need to wait for one day to love and spend the other 364 days hurting one. OK, fine. But when asked why it is wrong if I make it more special than those other special days, then they become dumb. They should have told me at the first place that they fail to express emotion for the loved one.

The next most-heard is it is a pagan practice and you are guaranteed with the eternal hell if you take part. Well, I do not understand this. Is there so called virtue exclusively owned by one faith? I mean, if you do good for someone, like a chance to telling him or her I love you, then I will just go to hell for that?! Then, it is like if you tell him I love you, you go to hell and if you tell him I hate you, you go to heaven.

The last is the notion they throw at you that it is materialistic. Again, I am confused. If I give something, in this special day, to someone to show my respect or love, then it is normal. Some may either give or may not give a gift to show the love and I am fine with that. If they say materials are not the sincere form of true love, I agree. But who are they to judge that there is no sincerity in the giving?

The Independence Gone Undelivered

2009-08-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

The problem with Independence Day is that you did something grand and you claim that there is no way you could go back to the time you were not independent. It is like a moment in time you entered, or a line you crossed, that brands you are liberated and no more enslaved.

But as it hit sixty four years last Monday, am I mentally imprisoned to think that I am more and more captivated with whatever it is not independent, that I become disillusioned with the claim “I am free”? One such is the increasing apprehension of freedom to expressing and practicing faith. Last Saturday Aug 15, 2009, the Post reported that a group of people in Tangerang threatened one minority who held their religious service move out of the area or get their consequences and this kind of anarchy seems to have just been replicated all the time with impunity. This is serious in its nature because how I express my faith does not have to be the same with another’s template for faith practices and this would not have been unbelievably prevalent were the government taking serious measure against those who threaten and vandalize in the name of God. However, here political correctness has not allowed the government to say what it has to say when it comes to the minority’s belief.

Then came security. Ten years ago, I worried the least about the security, my own security. I am not saying no muggers were lurking behind but at least I was secure to know that no one would blow off himself in a public place. With the bombing of the supposedly tight security of JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton, I, if not everybody, am made confirmed that no place is safe and now a prisoner of my thought of terror. You could never say this is Independence.

But what has been taking me away is that the so called increasing costs of living; they disown me more and more of my times as I commemorate this Independence. Prices of daily needs, health, education, and housing have gone up so sky-high they do not bother me catching up haplessly; no matter how many hours I spend making money. I found myself chained to barely survive the day by working longer hours day after day month after month. To my knowledge it takes so much more than it did to enjoy whatever level of life quality I would like to choose. Somebody raised kids and was not bothered by what I am like expensive baby diapers, expensive schools, expensive everything; some ads have even suggested that I put money down payment and make installment for my casket to anticipate my death; they say on the spot price is beyond my reach and I know they just knew how to worry me to death. This Independence is not liberating me , at t least from the anxiety about if I can live a decent life.

ILL FATED DADDY'S CADDY

2009-05-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it takes the most vulnerable to bring down the untouchable and it could not be truer than knowing Antasari, man who has seeded fears and hatred in the hearts of those embezzling Indonesia's people's money, finally went down as the Police announced that he is the one responsible for the death of one of RNI's directors.

Nobody knew this caddy Rani; nobody would want to know her either. But now she is everybody's talk of the town for she is believed to be responsible for the two married men fighting to win her that resulted in the death. Is a love game that one will always win because she or he loses? What I mean is, why should we finger point at only one of them for something that takes two?

True, the caddy should have known better that there was no way she could get into either man's life for BOTH are married. However, that knowledge too should have stopped the men from crossing the line. The men might say it was the woman who made the first move, but what counts is how they responded to it. And here we heard; one of the two won her and the other left burning and plotted his death.

My eyang Putri was right; it is always Tahta, Harta, dan Wanita.

NOW AND THEN

2009-02-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Time is a funny matter; it just moves or flows like water unstoppably nonchalantly and along with the passed time grows our comprehension of meaning, life, and meaning of life...

If you want to know how time heals wounds, try meeting your old, very old friends. I have, and what comes after it's-good-to-see-you-again! is laughable recollection. Some pasts are regrets, complete failures, unbearable pains but what happened ten or so years ago just does not matter anymore when old friends meet. I have to agree to that saying, Time Heals All Wounds. Take my (past) pain as the example. Fifteen years ago I got this she-is-more-than-just-a-friend feeling sweeping me off my feet and did whatever I could to make her mine, only to learn very clearly her choice for that Pajak boy. But now, telling her, this Stella Duce alumnus, again how I was just makes it so nostalgically laughable and sweetens up all conversation we would have. If some say that even twenty years do not change anything, then they may need twenty one or twenty five.
The bottom line is, no one can stop the time from doing the healing.

You may recall that you thought some people you know would not make a bright future and some just would have it so easily. Those, you thought they would not, were the typical hanging out of the class too much, those not scoring well in school, or not having resources. Past assessments that some who would make them ideal citizens were those going to public university, hitting four for GPA, or having the hottest boyfriends. Whatever it was, some judgments had to be there to hail or to doom.
But look, time just surprises us. Those labeled Quasimodo (the despicable-looking character in Hunchback of Notre Dame) have turned up to be the hailed Prince Charming. And at the same time, those believed to be the most settled because of their money are now struggling for their basic survival doing menial jobs.

And with all of these we have come to learn the wisdom that time really transforms people and their understanding of practically everything. And judging (someone) is like denying haplessly what time obviously can do to his or her life.

OBAMA UNLIKELY IN INDONESIA

2009-01-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

And that is it; we watched last night all the buzz going on in Barack Obama's taking oath as President of the US. Everything was grand and many are still left so impressed how come a black finally becomes Commander in Chief in a country dominated by whites and how power transition have just run that smoothly.

But all the amazement aside, here in Indonesia we are like constantly being told that the things possible in the US are impossible.

Look at how aspiring candidates have learned their loss. In too many areas in Indonesia, like East Java and Maluku, for example, whoever wins, the losing candidate surely is the first to scream that the winning opponent rigged the ballot and consequently he demands a re-election. And the expressions have always been, well, violent to show the dissatisfaction. Supporters of the loser will take it to the street and disturb the public and its facilities, damage the winner's properties, and most likely harass his or her supporters. None of these aspiring leaders would learn how to express Mc Cain's statements: "I am the only responsible for the loss and "Let's help and work together with the winner to build our country".

The second impossible is if you are not one of the majority, that you are not labeled as a brother in faith, there is no way you are equal before the law, politically. In this great country one's religion is people's god. You know,if he shares the same faith with the majority, people have always been successfully made to believe that he must possess all the needed integrity, honesty, and commitment to advance this country. Only later, very shortly, will they have been made disappointed, by themselves, that someone's religion is not a guarantee for these desired qualities as their 'brothers' would turn up to be corrupt and incompetent governors, regents, camat, etc. Surprisingly, they never learn the lesson and when a new guy comes along, their first and only question is, "Are we talking with the same God?"

Enjoy. Keep cursing.

JOBS FOR ALL SEASONS

2008-11-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

If you think everyone was bowed to the ground because of the global recession, think again.

It is true that you see the weakened economy everywhere; a bunch of indicators like layoffs, decreased productions tell us that we are bound to be more and more deprived of what healthy economy could offer.

However, this does not hold true for certain jobs as they are not affected with whatever happens to the global economy. The people occupying these jobs of course are hurt with the increased prices of imported commodities to buy especially if they earn in Rupiah which keeps weakening against the Dollar) but more than that, they can rest assured they are not going to be fired. Maybe it is because the modest incentive or salary that keep them afloat the story sea of the recession.

1. Public servants (those whose payrolls come from the government)
2. Teacher or Lecturer
3. Bus Driver
4. Garbage collector

You could add to the list but if your jobs are somewhere in Sudirman or Thamrin, or ones contributing to wants more than to needs, get prepared.

WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN THE EXECUTION

2008-11-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

The execution is over and what lies ahead for the government is not only putting to death terrorists and their bombs but more importantly, defusing ideas, thoughts that terrorism has romantic, heroic, or human sides do not exist here in Indonesia

The three bombers, Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Gufron, who had been responsible for the lost lives of hundreds of innocents in 2002 Bali bombings, were finally executed November 9, 2008. The execution has diverse mixed opinions but the opinion so prevalent and convincing is one that turns people into believing that the perpetrators are victims. Thanks to the media, especially TV stations, they have covered, on the ground they must cover all sides, acts that are branded as support to terrorism have been portrayed as positively equal significance as those (acts) denouncing it. “What the TV stations have been reporting is a free propaganda for the terrorists” says columnist Soeryo Winoto, as quoted by Time.

One of these exposures is the bombers’ interviews that their execution is hoped to trigger revenge attack in Indonesia. Another reporting is images of relatives and supporters weeping and praying that fueled sympathy. Believed to be a small number, these people were taken advantages by the media and at the same time they had their moment telling the whole world their bombers were the scapegoats. Even after they are dead, one of these bombers’ written will that all Moslems must wage a holy war against the enemy of Islam was aired like a fallen hero’s story worth rekindling.

Prominent religious figures have also aggravated the perception. One of them, leader Jammah Islamiah Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who has staunch followers, said that if they are executed that means they died in a battlefield and he said according to Islamic laws, those who die in war die as martyrs and become holy warriors and National Mandate Party’s Amien Rais was quoted in Media Indonesia saying “It is impossible for a simple santri (student at Islamic boarding school) to make bombs like those of the Bali bombings. I have asked my colleagues who have doctorates in physics, and it turns out that the powerful bombs like those of the Bali bombings must be made in a laboratory. Therefore, the government must find out the real mastermind”.

All these are serious. First, these airing would convince the majority, those already doubtful of the authority, ignorant, low educated, poor and easily manipulated, that the government has indeed always wanted to crush them whatever it takes and second, in a society where people look up to and show obedience in the religious leaders more than they do the government, what the leaders believe is what the followers believe.

And because of these reasons the government must cut off this ongoing martyrdom. First, the government must encourage, if not compel, those media they not put display this act of evil in a way that draw sympathy; the media are there promote more civilization and not to funnel the sentiments, especially the religious ones (that have always found popular ground among Indonesians). Depicting those terrorists in a way they posses all these adorable morality and politeness that the public needs to know of simply runs the greatest risk of raising sympathy that somehow their bombing is somehow understandable and forgivable.
Second, the government should do is to address publicly and continuously that there is no such thing like opposition to Islam and an act of terrorism is an act terrorism whatever the mask there are there to wear. So far, it is only MUI, Indonesia Ulema Council, that publicly denounced that the bombing an act of evil. This is not enough; like I said above here people in Indonesia see individuals more than they see institutions and because of that, it is the leaders, especially the religious ones, not the institution they are under, that state publicly that Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Gufron were terrorists though the three claimed they were Moslems. There is nothing religious or Islamic about that whatsoever.

But this is more easily said than done; these politicians know better. They know the people to be addressed with this issue are poor, low educated, ignorant and easily manipulated and they make up the majority of the population. Doing so is risking losing constituents for 2009 General Election.

WILD THOUGHTS

2008-10-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts, wild ones, tickle my mind and the harder I try to let 'em go the more often they come again to tickle...

1. Is that possible that (car) insurance companies draw clients by encouraging car theft of uninsured cars? Such companies have access to car data base and to have one uninsured stolen is a powerful message to other thousands uninsured.

2. Is that possible that utilities companies like Pertamina and PLN never mean seriously for SAVE ENERGY slogan? If it is successful, since their nature is to make as much money as they can, the this is a cutting-its-own-throat management; the success implementation of it means lowered income and lowered income is not the reason why they are there for business.

3. Is that possible that private water bottled companies in such a way I can't explain, contribute to the deterioration of the environment and tell the government to tell its people that ground water is dangerous to drink? In Jakarta, people are made to believe that ground water is no longer safe; they have no choice but buy the bottled water. Next time, we would believe that we must buy bottled oxygen. Though not directly, it is a successful privatization of basic needs.

4. Is that possible that car manufacturers are responsible for the government's ignorance on the ever bad public transportation? I am talking about the ubiquitous pick pockets, thugs, reckless drivers, uncomfortable seats, etc. It is very obvious as soon as people have excess of money they will stop using the public transportation and buy a car. A good public transportation would mean fewer sedans to buy.

5. Is that possible that I am too responsible for all these?

TEACHERS WELL TAKEN CARE OF

2008-10-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

"By 2009, teachers' minimum take home pay is Rp 2 M (around US$ 200)" says our Minister of Education Bambang Sudibyo. This statement received enthusiasticly positive response from more than 5,000 teachers attending his Halal Bihalal in Probolinggo. Before the year comes, this statement opens our eyes on how much or more appropriately, how little, our teachers especially the part timers have been paid all this time.

For us to know, part time teachers have always suffered MORE. This suffering of course is in term of how much they make every month. It does not matter where they teach, be it private or public schools, they have been disadvantaged with this part-time teacher status. However, voicing concerns to the schools they work for is unlikely as it means sacking. I have talked to them and salary conversation has always found its way to be their favorite topic. This is unavoidable; when you are being paid Rp 800,000 per month (less than what you need to survive the expensive Jakarta), then you are disposed to this salary talk.
And this is what I have found and for political correctness I am not to mention names:
1. One of Indonesia's biggest Islamic schools pays only Rp. 700,000 for its teacher every month.
2. One Catholic school pays Rp. 1,000,000 for the teachers who teach fro from morning to afternoon. Teaching has always been a ministry and someone asking more salary in this kind of school is considered out-of-mission.

For your information, each school above their students pay at least Rp 400,000 per month and each class there at least comprises of forty students.

What makes this condition prevail is that there is no mechanism that regulates these part timers; the government has not been clear-cut on this issue.

So before that day comes, I think it is better for parents to ask the school if it does not only brag about how best it can give to their children. Ask also how much it has done to its teachers; that it is doing its best to the most important element in your kid's education, the teacher.
After all, no one can't expect very much from someone whose basic rights are denied to do his or her best for their children.

NEGERI ONGOL ONGOL (A.K.A I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY)

2008-10-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

If you want to make yourself MORE convinced that it takes more than an authority to control the country and the people, then you should miss how FPI with leader Rizieq acted when they were body-searched prior to entering the court room.

This court procedure is a routine thing and everybody knows that. But yesterday, October 9, this band of people openly resisted the authority when our police beganto do the job. Instead they refused and threatened the officers. Munarman, one of FPI key persons, even singled out one officer, demanding that this officer be taken care for having dared to touch him.
Rizieq the leader also managed to demonstrate his you-can't-touch-me attitude by being refused to be searhed and made an oration that the police should not have dared to apprehend him and his followers for what they did was to promote peace when they dispersed AKBP people marching in Monas area. And as you know, when it comes to public display, you have NEVER heard that FPI come clean in their act; building torched, windows shattered, etc. And for the AKBP case that occured on June 1, 2008, FPI left them with bleeding heads, beaten women and kids and stiched heads.

And so it goes, outnumbered or for some other reason, the police yielded and let thirty of them pass the court room without having checked them. Our cops just stood still as these men in white cursed them and hailed God's name. And you are too left wondering who actually runs this country...

TV SO SMART FOR THE STUPID US

2008-10-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

I do not know what they were thinking but they sure drew a high rating since many ads were seen in between TV One's exclusive show called Ramadan With Ryan Jagal From Jombong (Butcher From Jombang).

Ryan who coldbloodedly killed a dozen people and mutilated some of them for their possessions, their money, bike, etc, had his day as TV One 'exclusively' had us watch him put on his sad face and told all who saw him how sorry he was for what he had done. I do not know at all what their point by having him on our screen for there has been no slightest idea that there had to be something good you had to see him from one different angle. For the TV it sure was as he attracted more ads. And that, was good.

As this man finished doing his part the narrator continued how Ryan's apology drew mixed feelings and this is what we had for those representing the feelings; his mother and victims' parents. The mother of course would wanted people to understand and forgive his son's mistake, and the parents, so obviously, wanted him dead.
That is how they showed us how they defined mixed feelings.

LICENCE TO KILL EXTENDED

2008-10-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

Two days ago a mutilated body was found in a Mayasari Bakti bus heading to Kali Deres and this is not the first. Others took place weeks earlier and this time the doer boiled the poor guys after killing them. Does killing now venture a new line, no longer stoppong at the point of someone's life being taken away???

It seems the law charges someone more for his planning than his executing.

If a planned murder was executed then the executor must face the death penalty. Planning and then taking someone's life is believed to be the most evil act and it deserves the direst punishment. However, one who stabbed someone else to death immediately for he couldn't take the other man's undermining joke on him will likely face a lighter sentence. It produces the same end but different legal action; the presence of foresight of the action really counts.

But what I wanna state is why mutilation cases do not produce a capital punishment? People say that one mutilation with no planning attached does not qualify for this kind of punishment. True, but does dismembering a dead body show the same sadistic stance with planning to kill one? It might be inevitable that someone lost his cool and produced a lethal action he would regret but continuing this action by butchering the dead shows that the logic or foresight of what an ordinary man would have perceived can not be certainly deemed "something unplanned".

Or could they say that whatever a living one does to a dead body is not legally the same with what he could have done to a living one? If that is so, then chopping time is like a legitimate extended pleasure.

LEBARAN TO THANK FOR MAKING IT LESS

2008-09-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Lebaran is coming and that means we are seeing all the ritual of pulang kampung,a moment to realize that Jakarta is a place we can enjoy living.

With all people heading their hometowns, what are we expecting then?

1. Less polluted air.
With more than NEW three hundred cars and bikes everyday, you have the point breathing decently fresh air in Jakarta is a rare luxury. Thank this moment; aren't you glad that most of them now have some place to pollute with the vehicles?

2. Less economy.
Gathering people is economy and as people gather, they create more warteg, more bridal salons, more papers, and in turn, they produce waste. So, with more than two million people checking out of Jakarta, you are bound to see a cleaner Jakarta.

3. Less time to go anywhere.
Lebaran is the only time you know that destination anywhere is actually shorter. Infamous for traffic jam, Jakarta streets have really made you believe that life should be spent more on them and Lebaran allows you to temporarily acknowledge there is more to life than wasting it on the road.

And knowing all this, don't you wish they were not back for good?

BEGGARS HAVE NO CHOICE

2008-09-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Isn't that twenty one enough in less than a month?

Less than two weeeks ago, we were shocked to learn that twenty one people died in their effort to claim twenty thousand Rupiah alm by one Islamic boarding school somewhere in Pasuruan East Java. This is not the first. We have often heard this thing, what is supposed to prolong life turned into death, and I have never been expecting what happened in Pasuruan would be the last. Today, the same activity turned to be the same disaster; this time it took place somewhere in Lombok.

That we are a nation of poor people is what we can not deny and being poor, it seems, is close to begging. If you walk the street, you would see more and more people doing this job (by the way, is begging a job?). In certain traffic lights you are very likely to see MORE beggars than passers-by.

However, apart from the unfavorable economic condition, I believe strongly that culture has its own share of responsibility for all this. Being poor is what you take,but what you are gonna do about it is what you choose.

Some people find themselves with no access to enjoy quality life and this is like, 'Hey, I deserve what you deserve and you gotta share it with me' and this is what happens; poverty they believe they are entitled to begging.
The other cultural reason is, it is not something to be ashamed of. I live in a community where there are many Arab descendants and they are constantly good givers on Friday (I learned that they believe they earn more pahala when they do on Friday). Having known that their Arab neighbors have this Friday rituals, 'poor' people just pop up out of nowhere, every Friday morning, swarming their houses begging money or whatever. I know these weekly beggars do not live under or on poverty line; they just exploit the situation without any sense of shame attached.

All said, is giving responsible too for this? Hmmm, iya kali ya..

KILLER FOODS

2008-09-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Three companies producing baby milk and three of them are manifestly guilty of adding melamine, the substance responsible for dysfunction in kidneys and some internal organs. Four babies are dead and hundreds are reported to have been under treatment for the melamine-induced milk.

This is not a case in a point. Some months ago kid toys, also made in China, were recalled from the market as the toys were painted with chemicals endangering anyone, not only toddlers, exposed to them.

Am I too observant or, what, my opinion says we are irrational when cheap things are their options and they seem to have never their lesson. We have been astounded repeatedly by reports that products from China shorten rather than prolong life but we have kept seeing ourselves coming to them as they are packaged in different brands and more affordable prices. Remember those candies and canned canned ready-to-eats?

I think the next time you drop by at the nearest Giant or Carrefour or Hypermarket, you know what NOT to do; for the time being, anything made from the mainland is best not to buy.

2008-09-01T01:43:00.001-07:00

PRETENDER OF THE MONTH

2008-09-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Boys,

To observe this month, let's safely stack away your porn DVDs and those skin magazines. It only takes one month before you can go back to this business of pleasure. And since un-subscribing is just a click away, I think you too can temporarily stop the mailing lists delivering those picture perfect scantily clad girls.

And maybe it is time for you NOT to see or even call the one your girlfriend or wife doesn't know or if she might have tried to, you have always successfully convinced her that the one is just a friend or business partner; you know that 'just friend' has been more than a friend and the truth about it must not leave any regret to your spouse she deserves to kill you twice. Remember, it is only a month.

This is the month you show the world you too can be out of this world. Talk and act God.
You have done more than enough the other eleven months; you've sworn and cursed even the smallest thing and in these thirty days that everything that comes out of your mouth is only utterances that make others envy for the religious you. Suffer them more by showing that I can give to the needy; you know people have always been impressed by handsome amount of giving and have never questioned how you got it. As soon as the thirtieth day is over, you can blatantly claim 'payback time you fools'.

Never has appeasing God been this easily sweet...

WHAT'S ON OUR TV TODAY?

2008-08-26T01:32:00.000-07:00

Gotta ask myself why I keep watching TV.

There are three reasons why I am not watching anything and you may add if you want to.

1. Except O Channel and Metro, all TV stations’ darling is gossip shows, successfully popularized under the name infotainment (again, I don’t know what is so informing and entertaining about knowing other people’s private business) and they behave that they are responsible to let you know why those celebrities get married and divorced, what time they have breakfast, etc. Trans TV feels it has moral obligation to update us with gossips and that is why it runs Insert Pagi, Insert (sometime at twelve), and Insert Sore, everyday.
I think the TVs know that you are not going to be more loaded and readier for life just because you are informed that Julia Perez got her period this morning but commercials have always been haplessly lured with these showings. All the defense we have got from them is this excuse “What we are doing here is to reflect what the people want”.

Before I go with Number 2, let’s picture ourselves with the common situations in those gossip shows: A mom just learned her son died in a motorcycle accident, one father is radiantly all smiles for his first baby, and parents are devastated to learn that their daughter got jailed because of drugs. When any of those situations is plainly black or white, what you will almost always hear from them is this question: “BAGAIMANA PERASAAN BAPAK/IBU SEKARANG?”.
You couldn’t help asking yourself how these media guys they live to believe they have been responsible for our improved intelligence.

2. Shows like American Idol mediocre wannabees on Indosiar and TPI run from 4 or 5 P.M and finish at 1 A.M and the programs encourage anyone to support contestants by texting KETIK REG bla bla bla. The impact has been devastating; they borrowed money (to loan sharks) and sold everything they had to smoothen their road to fame and the failed guys, most of them, have to live on the brink of survival to repay their debts. KOMPAS reported they end up being a pariah in Jakarta and do any manual job or anything to survive and pay off what they borrowed. TVs know this but they have never devised a mechanism that allows one vote from one number, let alone openly and constantly reminded participants and viewers they must not jump into crazy texting. But again, with one text deducts your phone credit Rp. 2,200 (it is fourteen times more expensive than the normal rate Rp 99), they are quite on the impact as they benefit from it. Tabloid PULSA once reports this premium texting is a business generating more than one trillion Rupiah in 2007.

3. So called mega sinetrons (what is so ‘mega’ about them anyway?) portray shows to us like, among the impossible others: SMP students acting and getting dressed like street prostitutes and the ever popular depictions of people of the mainstream religion’s superiority over the others and at the same time those people are being disadvantaged. TVs know all this and when they defend the viewings reflect what happens in our society, - that our SMP students are prostitutes and that mainstream Moslems suffer from non other non Moslems -, then they have done a very god job convincing advertisers many will surely watch the sinetrons. Here, nothing excites people more than being reminded that their God is better than those other Gods and knowing their religion is being sidelined by another.
You can not complain. Because when you do, they would laugh and say it is just a fiction put on TV and forget what they just maintain that what they are doing is to reflect the society.

WE ARE HAVING A REUNION!!

2008-08-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

“You go to a school reunion because you want to tell them, that after all these years, you made it. For whatever it is”.

I did not believe that statement. To me a reunion is a moment I always look forward to. It always excites me to acknowledge that the mighty time always has its way to beat us no matter how much we want to stay forever young. Some girls in my younger years I could not forget for their stunning looks kept convincing me that they were really the ones I had always admired. They did not look the same. Some boys I envied for their athletic builds are not now any better than me; they have developed these belies and thinned their hair on their heads. Some did manage to fool the time; they came up with lighter skins (must have been those whitenings) and darker complexions.
And for some I could not recall how they were back then, I just said to them they looked wiser. I do not know what I meant by saying that...

But the real excitement went more than skin deep. I was so thrilled to know that after all those years I could feel the glimpse of time standing still when we met. That all conversation evolved how we got punished by that teacher for not wearing black shoes and white socks; this girl cried a river because some boys (I know them) concocted a plan to give her a quick kiss on her way to the rest room (which I kept hearing that but never got the chance to ask that girl if it was true); that I erased some recorded tape for third graders’ final test and got caught by the teacher himself, Pak Amir, our guru olah-raga. The recollection went on and on and that moment made those nineteen years like yesterday.

But all that conversation that developed during the reunion got me to agree they said above. I overheard some did not come because of, you know, all these they considered failure. The reunion is such an obviously stupid declaration. One friend was not there because she said she was just a housewife and thought she would be ashamed if old friends asked what she did for a living. Though she admitted taking care of kids (and the husband, of course) was beyond how much someone can make every month, she just could not overcome the feeling that success in life must be attached with a job located somewhere in Sudirman or Thamrin or Kuningan. One failed her marriage and knowing that the ex is one of us, the classmates, gave her more reasons not to attend this get-together. She had her point: “Why would I keep hurting myself by all the reminiscing with him around?”

For some less acceptable reasons, some declined to go there because they do not have a kid yet and some because they have too many kids (more than two are deemed too many and they thought it was silly). Remarks like “Is that true you have four children now?!” or “you have no kids yet, right?”
To most, these questions are good lines to open a conversation but to those few, thinking of those questions, the questions kill even before the conversation is started.

But those old photos displayed during the reunion were the eye opener of what is larger than the excuses. Seeing some of our friends are gone forever, I had to admit that no matter happened or happens or will happen, that he or she is alive and here is more than anything to all of us, maybe to me especially. I have not been successful for what they expected me to be and neither have I been immune to those pains but I am glad to tell you that I am still here.

See you in our next reunion, nine teen years from now, in 2027...

THE READING MINDS

2008-08-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

One imaginary and impromptu QA with someone asking me how I see our periodicals, magazines and tabloids, would hopefully light up what we have known, yet.

Q: What do you think of those pretty faces on those magazines?

A: Photoshopped. And if those readers were smart enough to know, I mean what they see can’t exist, they would not die emulating them. But more importantly, they have been pretty successful in convincing girls with education to believe that life is all about cosmetics, shoes, clothes. I do not think that is the reason why parents sent them to school.

Q: How about the contents?
A: I don’t know why they are buying commercials (bundled in a magazine). That’s what I see from BAZAAR.

Q: Do you think what they say is what they do?
A: I don’t understand when one says Fun Fearless Female because every issue is headlined with sex position, sex techniques, and all the ideas that sex is all it takes to keep your man…
If Fun and Fearless means is all all about that, then it should be modified into Boring and Fearful.

Q: Let’s move on with our tabloids …

A: Why Mayang won Bambang’s heart; why Hughes has not been with child after having been married for two years; and when Ariel went to PIM with Luna Maya, etc. I don’t understand how come someone feels more loaded and readier for life just because she or he knows Julia Perez got her period today?

Q: OK. What do you want to say about men’s magazines?

A: Philip Yance has it right in his book that FHM, MAXIM, and the like are soft porn, with girls scantily clothed and their body’s statistics and worded fantasies; they keep telling why it is normal once in a while to cheat on your wife as long as you don’t get caught. Life goes around girls, sex, gadgets, cars; one says that your car is your personality. Let me tell you, I don’t have a car.

All said, does anybody see enslavement in disguise?

This is dedicated to Yvonne. Congratulations on your new job; I prayed you are going to be God’s message there.

SUPERHEROES and US

2008-08-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

There are reasons why we superheroes fly or sling. Otherwise, this is what happens:

And I think you know now why it takes only Christopher Reeve or Italian-looking can cast Superman:

And why we have to keep them busy with bad guys:

(how can I help you, Ma'am?)

And last, you know they can not be kept a bit too long together. After all, they are just human like us .....

CROOKS' NATION

2008-08-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

All the efforts to revive the pride we can wear (in the name of National Awakening and Independence Day) to show ourselves and the world that we are a great nation is a waste. And knowing what has happened all these times, you would find it hard to disagree.

It is very difficult to deny that we are so pessimistic and indifferent to what goes on in this country and if those politicians say that we can never be a nation of a great people with all this pessimism and indifference, I think they should really, really take a hard look at themselves and they would find why the rest of the people keep burned-out on everything happening. How people see themselves is equivalent to how they see their government. If it does its job to protect them well, then they will think the government secures the people and if it provides affordable education, then they will see the government concerns with their quality life.

And this is how we have gotten ourselves covered. We have the Supreme Court but the label Supreme keeps pushing us to acknowledge they are nothing but a place full of crooks and the bust of its high-rank officers like Urip who was red-handedly caught accepting moneyfrom Ayin only confirms the resentment. And when we found out that that Ayin was using the cell phone to concoct some dodging tricks for her trialwhile she was in police custody, what are we left to trust the police?
We elected those to represent us in the House of Representatives and what they have been doing is anything but to represent us. We are constantly (made) astounded these prodigal sons": we curse bad public transportation because we can barely survive it and they pass the law that enable for Alphards or Jags or Bimmers; we are indoctrinated to “hang in there’ and live frugally and what we have got here is they lead life styles that are dictated by extravagant spending. And when they are there for some sort of assignment to oversee that no regulation was bent by some bad guys, we are shown with how the members of the House keep it bent, as long as the bad guys splash them with generous (sex) entertainment and of course, money. Ask Amin; He'll tell you better.

All said, then it goes down disgustingly the same with Kelurahan, Hospital, Education, businesses, permits, and even public cemetery management.

Stars Spangled Banner sounds so nearer than Indonesia Raya...

RICHEST GUY IN THE UNIVERSE

2008-07-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

It is not he or she who is with the money that rules.

The good news is you are rich. The bad news, you just do not know it. Let me awaken you that you are.

1. You are healthy. Go to hospital and you will meet those who pay for the oxygen they breathe. You are not gonna say they are richer just because they are able to pay for it, are you? Or, are you going to crybaby because paralyzed guy can afford a wheelchair made of gold while you just go around here and there on your feet because you can not buy one? I don’t think so.
Keep looking and you can not miss being grateful for this.

2. You are a free person. Deciding over everything is a sign of freedom, a privilege a poor guy does not have. I am talking about these: I know someone who makes his fortune by working for a cigarette company and he knows there is nothing right about selling the puff but maintains he does it because he has no choice. The fact that he can not leave the job, though he knows he should, shows that he is not free (and I am not too harsh to say that he is enslaved in any kind). I too can tell you about Fitri, a doctor I know, who shows the world her freedom; she left her job as a doctor for a big hospital, saying that if she stayed there, there would be too many a practice she would have to compromise and it is all wrong and against her conscience. She was talking about “improper” deals she could not have avoided with the hospital’s management and pharmaceuticals. This freedom cuts deep on her income as she now practices in her own small clinic.
I can go on with my recollection on those others who demonstrate their richness in their ability to make a decision that paralyzes them financially but they still get on with the decision and as a result they make themselves rich in a way money can not buy.
If a rich man never worries with the money, are you not rich already because you are not worried with it?

3. You are a giver. So you still think one who makes Rp. 100 million a day is richer than you? Or one who lives in a big house in Pondok Indah? Look, they do not make any difference to those who are in need. One million Rupiahs spent by one guy for a plate of lunch does not drive away the hunger in another man’s stomach. But give this hungry man Rp. 1000, it will surely appease the hunger to some degree and it means the world to him. One guy who might have spent one billion Rupiahs for his bedroom does not make a homeless fellow sleep tight. But contribute any amount for an organization that shelters the homeless, you will have helped reduce their number on the street.
It is not how much you have, but it is how much you give that counts.

Even King Solomon would envy me..

VOTERS WAKE UP

2008-07-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

You are seeing all these banners practically defacing the already city streets and what you can do is thinking "Not again..!"

The General Election is coming and those politicians have been trying to excite us with something of no substance. In here, promises are just constructed words to complete the election. You will surely hear ALL of them say such as "I will lower oil price and liberate education so everyone will taste the prosperity".

And these promises will go together with out-of this-world encouragement with some saying "if you are a good Moslem, you must choose me", or "Let us pray that the enemy of Allah, the rest of them, will see our victory in this Election".

People enjoy these noises and hocus pocus for some reasons. Some just can not afford entertainment anymore as their existence does not allow them even to spend a dime on anything except their very survival and some are just too ignorant and stupid to admit that it is not (one) religion words that shape their better future, so they keep living with the idea that if it is not us who leads this nation then it is never them. It is neither empty promises that make everything all right when the election is over but well proposed programs of theirs they will be held accountable.

Hidup SBY!

TIREN: MATI (tidak) KEREN (banget)

2008-07-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Have not watched Indonesian movies for the past two years? I want to tell you that you have not missed anything since all of them are all the same settings: ghosts, spirits, evils and the like.

Having promised to myself that Korea’s version Grudge was my last horror film to watch because it scared me to death, I broke my promise and decided to watch some of these above, hoping I would be scared all over again. Instead, after doing so, I got irritated, confused and asked “how come I wasted my time watching these lousy films??!”

I’m referring all these Babi Ngepet, Pocong, Kuntilanak, Jalangkung, Suster Nngesot, Pulau Hantu, etc. As if difficulties in life like skyrocketing prices, almost-impossible admission to good schools were not scary enough, these films have failed to do their jobs to scare us. But to yourr dismay, you keep seeing the same theme but only with different titles showing and it leaves you wondering “Who are the sitting ducks? and “Who are responsible for all these, anyway?”

They (and their wannabes) would not have been made into production if they had not attracted a number of crowds enough to cover production costs and produce some profit. And to be scared cheaply and still ignorant of how mediocre they are, must surely take uneducated people, the sitting ducks, to watch. Of course, you would not watch them because your being educated defies any logics to do so. That’s why the movies have always been popular among the uneducated (who unfortunately make up most of our population). What is supposed to be one way to educate through viewings is the way to un-educate (them).

The answer to the question “Who is responsible?” lies, unsurprisingly, in the hands of the educated for what is happening. The clever here are those who know very well that what they are doing is driven by nothing but money. We are talking about the producer who knows too well that his funding will not go back for nothing, no matter how poor the film is; a director who knows that the movie he made is very bad (but very lucrative) by any standard but chooses to reason that what he made is karya seni; and some guys who claim they are actors and actress but do not know how to act (but keep saying they are pekerja seni), and even do not know what the film they are in is all about (I read in a paper that most of them did not read the whole script except for their parts and was handed it as they arrived on the location, but these pekerja seni opted to be in the films as they were paid handsomely,. You know, Karenina said she would not have acted in her first and only film for she had always known she was never a good actress).

Money money money ....

RIDWAN HUTASOIT WRITES BLOGS: GIRLS ONLY: WHITENINGS

2008-07-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

RIDWAN HUTASOIT WRITES BLOGS: GIRLS ONLY: WHITENINGS

DOCTOR, WHERE ART THOU?

2008-07-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

If what we are doing is driven by nothing but money, then I do not think there is reason why we are here.

Would there be any other jobs greater than this one? A banker may brag he can make Rp. 2 billion every month and a manager for an FMCG company is said to fetch Rp. 150 million monthly or a journalist who writes her minds and travel journals. But neither beats a doctor. A doctor saves, revitalizes life; even the very life of the accountant, the manager, and the journalist breathe. A doctor is there to constantly remind us of that, that without life you could not make your dime, let alone your millions; without life you could not enjoy writing your mind if there were one who fixes the constant tremors in your fingers. No job would be greater than this one...

And that is the reason, I think, this man (or woman of course) in white should not worry about the money, about the car, about the anything he can make out of his profession. A doctor living in a small humble house or going to work by angkot because he can not afford a car has always made the job the most rewarding, something those other jobs can not claim though they come in a bundle with a grand house, expensive vacations, or a SUV. By any measure the life saving by this job is incomparable.

And it is really saddening that those things coming in second places are allowed to make their positions to the first and ruthlessly set aside the life Numero Uno. Gunawan, a very good (and man, he is terribly smart!) doctor whom I know well shared with me that one doctor without any shame in his practice works like a salesman, with poor selling skills, for an MLM product; he makes patients buy this multivitamin or medicine (they do not need the stuff). Another horrid recollection is that one student of mine saw oftentimes how this doctor ignored a patient’s critical condition because he was busy dealing with a pharmaceutical rep on his cut if he recommended the drugs. The list can go on with things like unnecessary (mandatory) additional visits, prescriptions and even operations (thanks to such hospital policies turning doctors into puppets). This job has seemed to haplessly lower its divine position to such one boringly low game in which people are fighting for WHO GETS THE MOST TOYS WINS.

Socrates, raise up.

this writing is dedicated to GUNAWAN (a young doctor on his inevitable journey to be a great one) and the bunch of UMJ medical students, Novi, Anis, Mayang, Tika, Nila, and all sitting pretty in our class

HATE TO LOVE

2008-07-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

Does it take or give freedom to know how much one loves another? I know one who shows his love to his special one by allowing her to go out with anyone she wants and at the same time too I know one who demonstrates his care by not permitting his girl even to talk with any boy except him. Either, it has its own opponents and supporters and nothing is more amusing than one a good friend of mine at the Faculty of Medicine of UMJ shared with me.

She told me how her boyfriend, because well, he said he loved her, made everything so perfect for her(or for him?); he always calls her to make sure if she has had lunch or dinner; if she has prepared next day’s lesson; and if she has bought her groceries. The attention goes on further than what she could think of.

Not very long did she realize that all the attention turned into the inquiry, a checklist of don’ts and do’s and she has been there only to oblige. This means he has to know with whom she has lunch,what time and what to eat (this is something huge to me, knowing that she knows about health very, very well); . This boy even further said that doing Friendster, was no good for her as he knew it was a waste of her time

The real kicker is when with out of this world authority, he commanded her not to study English with a guy like me..
Nov, I have never felt so good-looking!

CONVERSION CONVERSATION

2008-05-16T02:56:00.000-07:00

For a God who gives the salvation, He surely fails TV ratings

Is a religion a business? If that means a religious conviction, then it so is, at least for our TV stations. Here in Indonesia it is good business as usual.

When someone takes a new religion and he makes it public, then what you see is usually the same: Before, I did not know God; he was a confusing guy but now I do; Before, I did not know the purpose of my life but now I do; Before I had no peace but now I do.

But the real kicker is when TV stations take their step further than they should. Instead of merely reporting, they are entitled to allow degrading opinions on other religions. They know everybody loves this business, one that strengthens one's faith by weakening another's. One example is when a self called actress made a public confession she embraced a new religion and those TVs started self-analyzing why it was logically and naturally understandable for others to do what she did. One TV station dedicates one program to this; with the host and all guests are converts discussing lengthily the new religion’s superiority and the old ones’ mediocrity. Mind you, all these airings are not classified for restricted audience; it is not a Mimbar Agama program usually run once a week. They are there for all to see. For a country that says religions are such a sensitive issue, it simply does not apply here.

Another too similarly annoying scene is when it bombards audience with comments and depictions that this new convert did the right and heroic thing and made those who haven’t followed suit feel guilty about it. The next too common one is reporters asking question like “Your mother said that she was no longer to do with her old faith, don’t you think you should do the same?” or, “Are you not happy knowing that your boyfriend now has God’s truest religion?, so when will you be ready to follow him?” The one being asked just smiles, knowing the answer NO is not an option they want to air.
If some say that one religion is disturbingly a missionary, then this whole thing is obviously a crusade.

Funny, no coverage with proportionally the same passion has ever been made for those converting to the other religions.

RED YELLOW GREEN, A DRIVE-IN, A PONDER

2008-05-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Traffic lights are our drive-ins for movies everyone so eager to pass by. From behind the car windshield, what I call movies are scenes of people performing the ignorance and laughable agony invading those people in front them in their cars waiting for the light to turn green.

I love the bitterness, not in terms of I enjoy it but because I know my ignorance has kept all this, by giving them money to repel them when these kids come to me. As cars stop, children barely five years old will come and start singing songs out of tune you would not have wanted to hear or they simply extend their hands asking for your money. And not very far from them, if you ever notice, some adults, acting as their protectors, make sure that they at least accumulate today’s target; Rp 20,000 for one day’s work. If these little beggars fail, they will beat them and make them promise they will perform better. It is only a matter of time before the girl beggars learn to know they can make money faster by being prostitutes and the boys by being thugs or drug dealers.

Another scene is those people selling gimmicks, cigarettes, sweets, sunscreens, ashtrays, anything to survive the day. How could they are so excited to face this life when they know what they always make is roughly around Rp 15,000 a day? I talked to many of them and when I asked them how they made it with school age children and wife depending on them, they said, “I don’t know. I think God gave us different math or something.” And in front them, people in the air conditioned cars are cursing the government for the oil price they could have paid more, grumbling for the twenty million Rupiah short out of the eleven billion profit they made for the contract they won; and whining for the increased exchange rate of US Dollar as this will disrupt their overseas vacations.

Checkered flag is waved. Another traffic light to stop for.

HEY OIL COME AND GET ME..

2008-05-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

As life did not satisfy to see you suffer for daily survival, it now comes big time with this impending increased price of the oil; one of the things the government can not stop it from being more and pricier. The consequence is clear; prices go up and all you are left wondering how you make it through. But the core of the problem, in my opinion, is that what we have done has paradoxically survived the ever increasing price; we have tried anything but kept or even made it lower. People in the higher income level start buying cars and those in the lower income buying motorcycles as soon as they hear it is hiked, thinking it costs less if they commute by theirs. This buying action on the contrary is pushing, if not keeping, rather than lowering the oil price as the new cars and motorcycles increase the total demand and deplete the oil supply. And as you know it, when the supply side is less than the demand, then the upward adjustment, a.k.a new more expensive price, takes place.

People are encouraged to buy and not to save because the economies, as we believe it, run when people keep consuming. When you buy new clothes, ready to eat food, cars, etc, you keep pumping the production of these items and their production has always involved the use of the electricity. As you know, our PLN generates the electricity by consuming the oil (supplied by Pertamina) and when you buy any of the products, you indirectly ask more of the oil. That is one more reason why you can never see the oil price go lower.

So what to do? First, live simple (for the urban and ultra chic you, this is not a good idea, I suppose). Just buy less and be content with the life you have. Besides, you are too smart not to know that you just cannot quench your thirst for more by possessing more. But when you can Second, use the public transportation (certainly, it is not a very good idea for PT Astra). I know it is not a good idea, knowing all these pickpockets, thugs, and those horrible things you'll find in there. Anything you think helps reduces the consumption of the oil is already half of this battle.

Start now with Bike To Work.

NATIONAL PLUS SCHOOLS, ANYONE?

2008-05-08T02:04:00.000-07:00

I grew up without knowing what they call now national plus schools. I did not go there; my parents would not have been able to afford them. But more importantly, such national plus schools did not exist. But with all of them boasting they do better than non-plus ones do, I started my own search to find out if they really were better. And here are some of the facts you need to know.

1. To maintain quality education, they have always selected “only the best”.
I think their statement is very delusional. This is what happens; when the number of prospective students falls below the seat capacity, all of them are surely accepted and the admission test to select “the best” students is nothing but a phony activity. With each junior or senior high student confirmed to contributing more than one hundred million for the next three years, rejecting these money machines is so uneconomic, so irrational, so un-capitalistic. These schools are no non-profit organizations; they are corporations clothed in education.

2. They are better facilitated.

They boast the swimming pools, gyms, and even equestrian activities they have. But face it; they come at the expense of exorbitant fees charged to students. Any school could do that if they charged that amount to students. Those facilities are by no means desired but not deemed necessary for the classroom learning.

3. They guarantee they make better graduates.

For the last statement, I think it is very funny. Just go to UI and other outstanding public universities and ask those college students from which senior highs they come from and what you will most probably hear is "I am from SMA 14, SMA 12, SMA 100, sekolah negeri", with no national plus string attached. You may disagree with me but Indonesian parents send their kids to schools to enhance their kids’ eligibility for public universities, since graduates from public universities are still perceived to make better employees by job markets. And to me, these so called plus schools have not done enough to secure admission to those public universities.

I quit teaching there one week after.

BUY BABY BUY

2008-05-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

Is there any moment for a pause as an economy opts for Capitalism? Capitalism has kept shareholders restless for ever increased returns in stock returns and dividends, pushing managers continually to sell more and more. As a result creative ways have been formulated to guarantee that you and I keep buying and improving the return on their equity.

Forget nine to five and Monday to Friday; now businesses run around the clock. Not so long ago, Mc Donald’s were open until 9 PM but now you can drop by there at 4 AM as they are now open twenty four hours. Malls have frequently devised so called late night shopping, enticing us to keep spending at hours we are supposed to be sleeping.

They do not stop there and I think they have been undoubtedly responsible for blinding us from wants we do not need. Ten years ago I was content with one but they have successfully persuaded me to own two or three wristwatches because I was made to believe one is not enough (to tell me time). To some greater extent, I keep replacing my cell phone with a new one, not because it is broken but because the new comes with features I do not need and I bought new shirts just because they were on sale. I was told to lighten my skin and I did with this whitening lotion, and as soon as it was lightened, I happily followed the suggestion to tan it. I knew someone who buys all Nokia series with no apparent reason and I shook my head in disbelief to find out that a woman bought two identical cell phone pouches from a boutique store; she only owned one phone and the reason why she bought two was because she loved the LV insignia too much.

And for the pursuit of higher revenue happiness in the financial statement, they have extended targets of their products. Ever noticed commercials displaying barely a junior high school girl who survives friendship thanks to the deodorant and some high school students hanging out riding their first Hondas? The message is clear; they, in the past targeting working adults, are now preying the under-aged. And you are bound to see more of it: hair colors for toddlers, lipsticks for octogenarians, and more.

Next month I will be buying a basketball cap designed specially for babies.

CUSTOMER NUMBER ONE

2008-04-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

I am going to talk about one of such jobs that has to do with maintaining a client. Maintaining a client is like, you know, he bought from you once and he will buy from you or your company again and again. And to make this happen, you must keep the client happy. However, what keeps one client happy is not what keeps another one happy too.
Below are some brief recollections regarding this maintaining activity.

To some, nothing is sweeter than money and my friend knows this conventional truth and she would comfortably start with, “Is there anything I can do to support you?” Happily this kind of client responds in varied answers; one would say about the broken sound system in his car; one would say his wife is now in the hospital; one would bluntly say “How much is my cut?”. For the last statement, he said, it is easier and time saving.

Another is playing dumb and dumber. What I mean here my friend is playing it for herself. Though she takes hold of a certain subject too well, she would let his client think he knows more of the subject. To her, this is like a free session to learning to humble oneself, suppressing the ego to let someone go on speaking of something he does not know of and learning to do more listening than talking. So, some expressions like “I see”, “And then what?”, and “No, please go on” are profusely uttered.
Sometimes the resilience of this humility was tested further in a different ground. When playing tennis with the client, she knew how to make the client feel good; she let him beat her in the game he could have never won had she meant it a little.

But nothing would have been more surprising than this following one to me. I asked her what she hated most from this job, and she did not answer immediately, fearing I was not ready to hear it. After I pushed her a bit, she was right; I would never have been prepared for this...
She said that another way to keep a client happy was a companion. To find out if he desires one is easy; for the client who enjoys this kind, what she would do is ask him what sort of entertainment he wants to have during his stay. And when the answer is someone he can talk with, then he is asking for that kind of companion to come over to his hotel. When I further asked her how she felt about setting this all up, she said she hated it as much as she did the client and felt like she was like a pimp doing a pro bono.

And that was all I got.

GOD’S APPOINTEES STRIKE AGAIN

2008-04-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

As if securing people’s physical matters is not enough, some took a step further with the spiritual one. Last month governors of Tangerang, Bandung, and Depok took the like measure on Dewi Persik, a Dangdut singer; she is not allowed to stage in their territories. Their grounds are that her stage performance is too ‘sexy’ and may lead young people into sex conducts. They said what they were doing was to voice the public and it fully supported their action.

Dewi Persik’s case is not the first of its kind. Another Dangdut singer, Inul Daratista, known for her gyrating hip moves, too was condemned for her stage performances by those public figures claiming responsible as moral guardians of people.
So far these people could not prove how the performances had been responsible for the moral decadence.

Though seen by many as nothing but a cheap fad that distracts people from more important concerns like skyrocketing daily commodities, those individuals, in the name of morality and faith, have many times successfully gotten away with that and left the other party unable to defend, let alone to retaliate.
Take for example, DEWA, Indonesia’s premier rock band, had to redesign the album cover because somebody, claiming he represented Islam, said the cover insulted Allah and thus insulted Islam. The band had it redone; they were left numb with their room for reasoning.

Unfortunately, the government has not been decisive in this matter; it seems it’s best to leave it in God’s appointee’s hand.

THE BEST JOB EVER

2008-04-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Would life be better if people were given choices for work? With jobs so difficult to come by and needs (or wants?) increasing, it is very difficult to answer YES as people are left with not so many choices and they just grab what comes before them. I think there are three typicals of jobs that people love to hate from today’s jobs but nevertheless, when they are offered with such jobs, they just can not say NO.

Some jobs simply do not do any good and this one is not far from the truth. Though justifications may there be, I know people know the cigarette is a killing business; either the selling or the production. Though WHO reports hundreds of thousands died of smoking every year, that simply does not stop people from reconsidering working for the killer puff. It is clear that to survive life some are willing to kill life.

The second is the wasted time to reach the work place. Gone is the saying Early To Bed And Early To Rise Makes a Man Wise. People wake up before the sunrise not to wise up by doing morning contemplation on life nor savor precious morning hours with loved ones but to waste these hours to get them to the workplaces. Millions living in Bogor or Sukabumi commute for more than one hundred kilometers everyday as they work in Jakarta. This means they start at 4.30 A.M and arrive at the workplaces at 8.30 A.M, leaving them, if there is any, thirty minutes before works start at 9 A.M. With more than six hours wasted and totally spent on the street, these commuters would arrive home only to bath and sleep. You may say these people are exceptions but the truth is most people waste at least two hours to commute every day. You do the math how many (hours) they will have wasted after twenty years of work.

The last one, and I think this one has become more and more common in fashion, is that people do not see work as a part of life but see it as their whole life. I do not know if the work commitment was invented by employers or somebody who loved his work too much but some just hate it to stay in the office for at least fourteen hours, and during peak seasons or book closing times, eighteen hours. But complaining is not an option; many other people are waiting to eagerly replace them if they mind. They have literally surrendered their other aspects of life to working around the clock, thinking that this is the only way they could do to show the boss they are worth the job and their commitment goes beyond those other aspects; they go home so late that they find their families have been sleeping and their families only find them sleeping on weekends to revitalize from the fatigue.

So with all these as the available options; jobs that do no good, jobs that are very distant from home and jobs that take them away from other engagements, then I think jobs have reduced people to a boring position they can not avoid.

TEMPE NATION GONE WILD

2008-01-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

To show that Indonesians were destined to be inferior, the educated labeled Indonesian Bangsa Tempe. So, when corrupt practices are there, then it is because the Tempe mentality; when an athlete lost his or her game, then it was because of his or her Tempe mentality; when you do not understand me, then it is because of the Tempe you ate, making your brain unable to understand what I mean. I was joking.

But when the Tempe was gone from the market, then the educated themselves screamed for it, deploring that, were it not because of the Tempe, what would we be as a Nation?

Let's eat burger.

AND ALL HAIL ME

2008-01-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

The big guy is dying and suddenly everybody is paying a visit. I do not know if they want to make sure that he is dying or recuperating.

Ten years have passed and this buzz, this is not the first time we heard that he was taken into that hospital, distracts the much awaited courage from the government to declare that in many parts, he too was a villain, and was not always a hero . And as planned, the moment pushes the authority to believe that forgetting the wrongs is the only choice and everybody must take the same stance.

I read all these; the world's most corrupt being, the truth manipulator, the smiling dictator.

You wouldn't want any further.

TO SURVIVE JAKARTA

2007-12-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is not for those encouraging spending as a means of survival

One friend tells me that what people need to survive life in Jakarta is more to how to take care costs than to earn so much.

So what we need is these;

1. you do not need new stuff just because they say TODAY'S SALES.

2. if what you do most with your cellphone is text-messaging, then you do not need one with camera (with those mega pixels) and mp3 player. A digital camera or an mp3 player costs a lot cheaper combined than the cellphone with the camera and the mp3 player. One simple cellphone costs you Rp. 400,000, a KODAK camera with 5 mega pixels costs you only Rp. 800 ,000, and an mp3 player with 1 GB only Rp. 120,000. Compare that with the cellphone with those features. It would at least cost you Rp. 4,0000,000.

3. one KOMPAS newspaper costs you Rp. 3,000 in the morning, but wait until 11 a.m, you will always get it for Rp. 1,000. If you think the afternoon paper is not that "fresh", then the morning one is not that fresh either. What you read there even at 5 a.m is news they collected only until 2.a.m. Real-time news is only on the Internet. Act accordingly to those 'new arrivals', in particular electronics; wait andyou will have a good price.

4. go to the traditional market for the unprocessed foods like fish, meat, or vegetables. it is always cheaper (and negotiable) but for the processed ones, buy only on Saturday and Sunday when Giant, Carrefour, Alfa Ratelindo launch their weekend price wars.

5. going by taxi because the public bus is so crowded (with pickpockets) and so life threatening?, then take PUTRA or Express Taxis. They are as comfy as the expensive BLUE BIRD one and yet forty percent cheaper.

6. do not smoke. Period.

7. buy anything cash. Anything they say it is cheaper to buy on credit or the so called zero percent credit thing is a nonsense. Credit card companies are there only to make cash. Besides, paying cash helps build the resistance (as you are not always with the extra cash in your pocket), while using the credit card enhances impulsiveness.

THOUGHT OF CHRISTMAS

2007-12-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

Let us keep Christmas beautiful without a thought of greed,

that it might live forevermore to fill our every need,

that it shall not be just a day, but last a lifetime through,

the miracle of Christmastime that brings God close to you.

Ann Schultz

MOTHER, WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?

2007-12-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

Somehow, I think, the best thing that education has done to women's mind is the entrenched belief that a stupid woman is one who chose to stay at home taking care of the house and kids and the husband despite her ability to earn her own money; a smart woman is one who is out, making money in an office, ideally somewhere on Sudirman, Thamrin or Rasuna Said.

It is education that teaches someone that what counts is what she or he can count; if what one does does not make money, then she does not do anything. A full time housewife is seen as a nobody, a somebody unemployed because the status does not give her money. And that is what happens to a woman who prepares dinner for the husband, bathe the kid, role-play live, daily, for the family on how to speak politely to older people, how to say grace before meals. And the list goes on just like what they say, "Mom's job is never done".

One smart woman told me that she could not imagine how her life would be if she chose to be like her mom, who only knew how to work around the house and raise kids.
I asked her, knowing that she is a married woman, who took care of her kids while she was working, she said it was her mom. "There is no way I should do that!"

What a smart woman!

MONEY'S GODLY FOLLOWERS

2007-12-13T19:24:00.001-08:00

money, money, money!

I do not know if these people were demonstrating their lack of ethics or their global-warming related concerns. But they have successfully told people in other countries that money is the only language Indonesians speak.

This year news has seen us some Indonesians export hair bands from China that shocked us for what these hair bands were made of: Used condoms. Now, think if your daughter or loved one comes into contact with one of these and puts it in his or her mouth before doing his or her hair. What is feared most (in addition to its being so unethical) is that the condoms might have been contaminated with STDs. So far, we have heard no further investigation on the finding. And to show how we here just love used condoms, on December 11, 2007, reported as recyclable materials, one container with more than fifteen thousand kilograms of used condoms from Germany was confiscated by the Customs.

Remember those foods sprayed, mixed or injected with formaldehyde? Though they know how deadly it is, this lethal chemical has been the common element for some (food and cosmetics) businesses and has used for years.

I know what a bad guy is. But really, to me, these people are extraordinary. You know, the only remorse they have shown for what they have done is why people are making big out of it and why they were caught while applying it on their products. They have obviously been so successful to defy the logic that money is not everything.

But come to think of it, have I been playing too in the acceptable levels of extremes? I mean, what makes me think I am right if I work for a cigarette company?; if I work for a hospital that does not allow treatment poor people?; if I work for an expensive school that dismotivates the learning of the unfortunate? if I work for a TV station that only airs gossip shows that are more attractive to advertisers?

This Mammon looks so godly.

FLYING METRO MINI

2007-12-09T21:37:00.001-08:00

Before you start your Christmas holiday, maybe it is worth it to notice what has been going on to our airlines. And nothing could be more telling than what I read from an editorial titled METRO MINI TERBANG (flying Metro Mini) on Warta Kota December 7, 2007. With all that has been going on with Indonesia's airliners, the title simply affirms how the airliners are.

Everybody knows Metro Mini. This smaller-than-the-average-bus kind of transportation, painted red, roams Jakarta streets and has developed love-hate feeling towards its passengers, with the hate side taking a much bigger proportion. It is wanted for it is cheap. That is all. And the rest is , you know, hate.
It does not mind regulations as if they were there only to be broken; Metro Mini runs like crazy when it wants to and drags like a lazy snail when it wants to for no apparent reason nor does it concern passengers, be it their safety or comfort.

Now let's see our airliners. Except their cheap tickets, these are all you have heard very recently:
1. One plane's engine cover dropped on the runway. The authority admitted that the cover
could have been very dangerous for other planes
2. One engine stopped while the plane was on the runway. Imagine if it had stopped while the plane was taking off.
3. One failed to take off because the cargo was loaded too much on that plane's tail space, making it unable to beat the gravity.
4. One plane's body cracked, making it look like a bird with a twisted neck.

Even the cat with the nine lives prays.

KICK ANDY'S CONFESSIONAL BOARD (II)

2007-12-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

One lame excuse leads to another lamer one.

I watched the first public appearance. What I expected to be a grand exit for a man fallen from grace leaves me laughing, wishing me I had the same excuse I would say to my wife.

When Andy F Noya asked him why he took another woman as his second wife, his answer, so unconvincingly was so metaphoric. He said that a child may never know why his mom takes him for immunization shot; it is painful and scary. Years later, he will know that the shot was for his own good; it protects him from diseases. Similarly, people now will never understand why he has to have two wives. Later on (which I do not know for sure when), people will understand his decision.
He later said that it is time for people to see God, not to see him instead; he was just a man delivering God's words but he was not supposed to be adhered to so much.

His answer should make people ask " Am I acting like a child when saying it is wrong for a man to have two wives?", or "Am I too young to have conviction for what (I believe) is morally right or wrong?" and his answer that God was alone to be adhered to was laughable too, forgetting that his job is one of jobs of character; a job that holds the occupant responsible for the moral integrity. I mean, if you are a a religious preacher, your success depends on how much you reflect your teaching. And when you are admired, it simply means that you are seen as someone who acts what he preaches. Now, how would you believe someone who talks differently from what he does?

Please God, beam me up.

ME AGAINST THE SUPERSTORES

2007-12-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

I am not against CARREFOUR, HERO, GIANT, ALPHA, but I must admit that traditional markets simply give me better offers. And the better offers here are the cheaper prices; something that those supermarkets have always attracted us with.

When you go to one of those, especially during weekends, you will notice that a small number of goods, are priced so low that it would be stupid if you do not buy them. But those are just the enticer for other goods you will most probably have to buy and of course, they are priced higher. You may say "I won't buy them", but your reasoning, like 'i-want-to-save-my-time' or 'i-might-be-busy-tomorrow', sometimes come up and prevail. And by the time you finish doing your grocery shopping, you would see that the amount you spend for the other (more priced) items is bigger. Big superstores are no fools; they have spent more time studying us.

When it comes to unprocessed products, such as vegetables, fruits, fish, then supermarkets can not beat traditional markets. Again, we are not talking about those promotional stuff usually offered during the weekend by the supermarkets. The reason is obvious; transaction with merchants at traditional markets is one man’s show; they are not concerned and burdened with such things like tax, air conditioning, security officers salaries, cashiers salaries, all elements that they make up the price of a product you pay for.

But if the traditional markets do not represent the smart, modern, sophisticated you, then do not go.

KICK ANDY'S CONFESSIONAL BOARD (I)

2007-12-04T01:28:00.000-08:00

I am just pathetic

December 6, 2007, METRO TV'S KICK ANDY will confront AA Gym, a man once seen the ideal example of what a man should be, particularly when it comes to man and woman relationship. A cleric, he has always delivering speeches that promote equality for men and women, a strikingly different view held by many Indonesians who practice polygamy and see women as sex objects.

Last year, he made a breaking news by taking a widow as his second wife (at the same time he still keeps the first wife). When asked why he simply did what he was against, he said that there were lots of things people should be minding rather than his OWN business. He also said this was HOW God humbled him (so people should start seeing that he was just a man).

Upon hearing that grand excuse, I feel so stupid.

GLOBAL WARMING, AGAIN

2007-12-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

Global warming is not about stopping cutting down and planting more trees but a shift to a life philosophy for living for less. In an economic system that does not relent to consuming less, some of the things here are not pretty. It is very important know that we start to revive the power of exercising the knowledge of what we need and what we want. We can live without fulfilling what we want.

Here are some of them:

1. Use public transportation. I know, with the transportion system so badly managed, any one with more money will naturally switch to private cars. But we know one car burns less (gas) than two and cars have been the number one contributor to this warming. In the meantime, persistently blame the government on the bad transportation and ask them to do something better about it.
This thought may also give you the idea of finding a job near your house. Not only will you save the environment but you will save your precious time.

2. Use paper less. Trees are chopped to provide us paper and it takes a lot of trees before they become one single sheet of paper. Many of our daily practices maintain this tree-cutting practice. For example, here in Indonesia, our education systems even encourage paper wasting so systematically unbelievable; schools demand parents to buy new textbooks every semester instead of handing down the old textbooks previously used by senior students.
Maybe we should be thinking over discontinuing subscribing the newspaper.

3. Do not buy products with plastic containers, when possible. Besides its stubborn nature to decompose, the production of products made of plastic contributes to the global warming requires a lot of energy to burn. If you think you can not live without the bottled shampoo, then I believe you can indirectly reduce significantly the production of the plastic container for shampoo conditioners (sold separately) by not buying them. How about bringing our own drinking water rather than buying cup or bottled water?

4. Only buy what you need. This is very important. As the globe embraces capitalism, this only encourages spending and more spending. If you do not need some of those products, then there is no reason for you to buy them. For me, it ranges from shaving creams, hair dyes, whitening lotions, facial foams (I use baby soap; it does all the cleaning I need), packaged or ready-to-eat foods like noodles, potato chips, etc. Make your own lists now.

I know it will surely hurt the business (these manufacturers of paper, cars, and plastic products) but this warming thing leaves us no choice.

CHILD ABUSE REVISITED

2007-12-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

I must admit that when talking about child abuse, I am inclined to thinking of those poor kids doing grown men's jobs to survive or to benefit the welfare of those grownups or corporates.

You see on the streets in Jakarta kids singing out-of- tune songs for some changes and they are being watched over not very far by adults who later collect the money these kids would receive or who later beat them if the kids have not done enough to raise people's pity showed in their giving away their money.

Many countries, in particular developing ones like China and Indonesia, have been engaged in this shameful practice, with some ignorance and nervousness. Thanks to these kids, they have help push the countries' economies upward but at the same time the source sacrificed to generate the economies is less. They know kids are inevitably cheap and employing them represses wage expenses, part of manufacturing costs, so the products the companies from which these government receive tax money would maintain competitiveness, something to strive at any cost.

These governments have never been that strict for it would hurt any body (of course, with the kids not considered as anybody); they want the companies to keep producing and grownups who are their constituents to know that they made it right to have elected them.

But enough with the above introduction.

I have come to realize that the abuse has occurred to those kids with wealthy and ambitious parents. Sad but true, any system in the world can not hold any of these wealthy and ambitious grownups accountable.

I have worked as a teacher and seen that this kind of parents have burdened kids with this silent abuse. The parents with their money would send the kids to the best school and the best school means that the kids study from 7 a.m to 5 to 6 p.m, leaving them no time to understand that there is more to life than schooling. To make sure that they do their other best, piano lesson, guitar lesson, English lesson, Mandarin lesson, and all those important lessons are taken AFTER school. Having to study in my class right after finishing school and exhausted, they had me many times lie to their parents, telling them that their kids had done okay in my class. What they did not know is that I had assured the kids that it was all right if they wanted to rest (by asking them not to follow my class and sleep at the corner of the class instead).
Who wouldn't have been torn apart when one of these kids came to you and told you if he didn't attend the class, no matter how dead tired they were from school, his parents would punish him?

But again, I will always find that anybody with money always has the reason.

WELCOME TO MOTOR BEBEK COUNTRY

2007-11-07T00:28:00.001-08:00

I want to invite you all to experience something like Fear Factor. But this time you will see no video or camera.

Let us walk the street in Jakarta. Any street. You know, it wouldn't matter which you pick, you will meet them. Yes I am talking about ubiquitous motorcycles. With more than four million units are sold every year (the 2005 sales reached five million, for your information), you have already seen them roaring the street. And because of this, they deserve all unimaginable.

Let's start the excitement with the pavement. The pavement is supposed to be a haven for pedestrians, because, you know, it is the only road parts not allowed for wheeled vehicles. But, their excuse is that the roads are not big enough to contain them and these riders are in a hurry for somewhere. It is always your fault to stand in their way. I watched RCTI reporting one man, having scolded a man on a his motorcycle for his traffic reversing attitude, and he was beaten almost to death. I don't know what happened next to him.

Crossing the street too is another you can not miss. You see the traffic coming from your right when crossing the street. But to add the excitement, the riders are entitled to come from right and your left. You can not curse because here one curse leads to another bigger curse or even black and blue on your body. I know one man was hit by a police officer and this poor man was lectured by, well, that police officer that he should have looked his right and left before crossing the street. So, if you don't want to get run down in this street game, look both ways.

Eternity and danger seem so real when you wait for the traffic (the motorcycle traffic) to relent to allow you to cross the street. Simple, they know only two speed modes; Fast and Faster. They seem so humiliated to see the road they are on and just want to get past of it, as very, very fast as they could. On the streets near Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport, on Kuningan street, every morning, you would see them run at 160 km/hr or more. All of them. And I am talking hundreds. And this is the fun; crossing means declaring you are ready to be run into, at their will. Being on foot on the street here is like a pariah who can not claim any rights as a citizen.

Only when one dignitary or a politician's son gets hit (and run down by these bikes) will this game stop. In the meantime, enjoy.

CONGRATULATE ME PLEASE. I AM A CELEBRITY

2007-11-07T00:22:00.000-08:00

I had been keeping some draft on those so called celebrities in my blogger. I had thought it was only I who made it too much. But what happened days ago really confirms the insanity.

One brawl at a nightclub here in Jakarta saw this woman much known for her scantily-dressed looking and cheap sensation not worth mentioning, who reported her case to the police and all of a sudden the WHOLE TV station here in Indonesia brought it to light. Who makes this one a celebrity??! You can not be one just because all you do draws a crowd with cameras and microphones, right?

When you come across the word celebrity, you know what it means and to whom it should address. You can not do it here. Here in Indonesia, a celebrity means anybody who has appeared, even only once as a supporting character, on one of Indonesia's sinetrons' ever-absurd series. So, somebody appeared once and she or he is entitled forever with the privilege of being one. That is it.

Anybody is a celebrity when people with camera, microphones and recorders come at her or him. And that is how our TVs choke us with; they approach someone and you must accept that that person is a celebrity. This swarming crowd determine who is a celebrity.

But all comes with a disturbing question; what have they done to deserve it? You would watch one man reporting live every detail of his divorce process (I am so embarrassed he was born male) and all the fight with his wife that comes along; one woman divorcing her third husband, etc and viewers have had no idea what made these fellows celebrities.

Having said all this, I want to say you are a celebrity in waiting. All you need now is a crowd to rave stupid things.

GOD ACCORDING TO THEM

2007-10-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

If God asks me a question "Who am I to you?", then He wants me to fully understand that how I perceive of Him is simply a personal matter, meaning I am not endowed to push people around when learning that their perception is different from mine.

But that question "Who am I to you?' does not apply to some of these people. A small group of people interpret the teaching of one of mainstream religions differently and they have received, from those who say that they understand the teaching better, heavyweight blows on them; intimidations, physical abuses, and other forms of mistreatment. And this is not the first time these Indonesian God's people came down and pulverized those who'd DARE to interpret it differently.

Two years ago, a woman declared that she was the last Messiah and found herself under heavy public judgment and police investigations, thanks to those who disagreed with her idea and said that declaration was a disturbance to the public.
Years earlier, the same thing happened with this guy saying that God understood all languages and was not bothered if you did not use Arabic. He was imprisoned for daring to say that to speak to God, for example in Bahasa Jowo or Betawi, you would not need Arabic.

I don't know much of God. He knows me. Conviction is always a serious matter but the realization of it is a more serious to Him, I think.

And before I start torching these people, He tells me, "Ridwan, love your enemy".

WANTED: new NEEDS

2007-10-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

I think the most difficult job for Webster and Oxford when they have to launch the new edition of their dictionaries is to define the word want and need.

I am sorry to say that people become more alienated with things they need to survive and things they want but of course, not anyone, that includes me, would dare to say openly that many are enslaved by wants. But the heart can tell that the ever creative ways people find to substitute need with want are so questioning.

SALE signs have absolutely been puppeteering people on this. I know. They simply put the signs and automatically it rushes people like crazy to department stores for clothes. The same attitude they demonstrate on cell phones, toiletries, hair color.

In some of the classes I teach, identity is confirmed with how new cell phones are. It is the only they communicate with each other by showing off the cell phones mostly used only for text-messaging (by the way, some of students have constantly been shy to open new messages or receive calls in front of their other friends. Later I learned that their cell phones were responsible for their shame; they are old ones and they never want to be target of questions like 'hey, are you not supposed to replace that one with newer model? I have seen that since last year')

God gave them brunette hair and they have it dyed black and they have it blackened for brunette God gave. Whatever that consummates a waste is all some will do .
It is very difficult to accept that at the same time people are dying for basic needs and it takes only one tenth of the money people spent on the hair color. You can check on those companies' fat incomes coming from their hair colors.

To save my blogger space, you could add yourselves to that list of confusion.

They say I am a saver. I think what they want to say is I am a broke cynic.
Ha.. ha...

In my defense, I don't want to forgo my weapon of choice, though it is very hard to resist the temptation to being enslaved.

GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX

2007-10-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

I believe you all have watched Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. A convincing documentary, it simply tells us how much we have been puzzled by climate changes as we keep burning fossil-based fuels to run our economy; extended dry season in one region is contrasted with flooded lands in another region and snow melts faster than it used to.
And the moral tag line that follows is that you must replace this kind fuel with another one more friendly to the environment. And yes, it is your car mostly.

But all catastrophe aside, you can't stop Global Warming by driving a more environment-friendly one, replacing your Hummer with one running on hybrid fuel, let's say this famed Toyota Prius. What global warming does not tell you is that as you replace your Hummer, you pump car production to a higher level and this is not very okay in the process.
A new one, no matter how friendly it is, is bound to deplete and hurt the Earth more; the car manufacturer uses leather, paints, plastics that leave waste, it assembles your car with machinery powered with electricity running friendly gasoline, and let's make it quick, it transports your brand new car ready at your home, uses a truck running also on not so friendly gasoline.

And that's why the poor save the day with the idea of this Global Warming.

Poor people act better and thanks to their limited access to consuming. They have less to contribute the warming. A bus packed with people in the morning is a real environmental saver. True, the bus contributes to the pollution, but imagine if each of its passengers could buy their own cars. And the rich have, for example air conditioner and air heater, waiting to warm the atmosphere even more. The rich should also be grateful for the poor's inability to buy books for books were made mostly from woods taken from the forests that keep the Earth's climate cool.

I'd better shut down my computer before the poor get me on their list as one of the those responsible.

UNGOSSIPING SHOWS

2007-10-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

If I were a celebrity of sort and approached one day by a crowd of journalists asking me what someone should do to live a healthier and happier life, I’d say people shouldn’t be reading gossip news nor watching gossip shows. I’d also add gossips and stuff don’t do any good to life.

I have no idea if they will print or air my statement.

Any idea how many gossip shows we have on our TVs? Let’s see. One TV dutifully has four for you in a day, each lasts for 30 minutes; it gives you one at 6 A.M to welcome your new day, another one at 10 AM to make sure you remember what you watched at 6 AM, another at 3 PM to tell you it is something you have watched at 6 AM and 9 AM, and the other one at 9 PM just to see you realize that you are too late to feel disgusted. Please understand that it supplies you the shows everyday, and the other eight TV stations do the same.

I gotta admit that one of the things that annoys me is gossip news or shows on TV. I know it’s a living paradox; as we live in a time when TVs have contributed to the popular creed of “just mind your own business”, they at the same time simply do the opposite.

Nobody is benefited by gossip shows. Simply uselessly informed. If one watches the news that tells him that this celebrity just delivered her first baby from her third marriage, or, one TV informs that actor lost his hair after he’d lost his girl, then how would this information benefit him?

Gossip shows are bound to make their viewers small and leave them daydreaming, making them wish their life were as easy as the celebrities’. If staying in a hotel is what they avoid the best they can, simply because it is an expensive thing to do, the shows would tell you that this actor has lived in that hotel, costing him $5,000 every night; you bought a 100-meter-square property and you told the whole world how proud you were for your hard-earned achievement, and they would tell you that none of those celebrities were even willing to occupy on a property of less than 10,000 meters square.

One of the responsibilities of those TVs is to report news, not to create it. However, you have seen it too many times they would throw a rumor “One man indeed saw this basketball player holding hands with the mysterious woman so passionately”, that set this one guy on fire and he would naturally retaliate by saying “It is not true”, “It’s so groundless and irresponsible”. The press conference for denying would be set up but of course it couldn’t make up the damage done. One news got heard and somebody got hurt. Nobody realizes how unethical this has been.

So, when those TVs have tried so successfully to replace the word gossip with the word infotainment, I find it disturbing. To me, info is information, data, from which one benefits and entertainment is a performed spectacle which a spectator enjoys, but not at the expense of the performer. To my dismay, some suggested the word edutainment for this kind of show: education and entertainment.

Mom’s right; say no evil, hear no evil, and see no evil.

GIRLS ONLY: WHITENINGS

2007-10-10T21:37:00.001-07:00

I am glad I was born a male. At least this makes less vulnerable to the never-ending commercials telling me to wear whitening creams or lotions to guarantee a happier life.

I know you KNOW. Many women have been fooled with the idea that a happier and more successful life is privileged only to those with white skins, thanks to those whitening creams and lotions (they must have been SUCCESSFULLY fooled, otherwise the companies would have stopped paying TVs to air their products).

However, since it is not politically correct, I am not allowed to name them. But you know then; one TV ad depicts a woman having been sexually disregarded by her husband (and you can blame it on her dark skin) and Voila! after using the whitening, the husband starts to be sexually attracted to her again!. Amusingly, I wonder what men would think of seeing their intelligence being lowered to this kind of bait.

Another shows one woman, wearing an evening gown, prefers on a horseback because this horse-riding will expose her white thighs to be admired (I just don't get it). Again, thanks to the whitening.

I have never known skin color dictates meaningful life. Qualities do. One may have bleached skin but I don't think this will say and save anything . Things like politeness, gentleness, respectfulness, understanding are reasons why people stick around. One with white skin doesn't guarantee how well that person holds her tongue only to say anything graceful.

Absurd but true.

But some just have less time to check what's in and more time to check what's out.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

2007-10-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

This is no Tim Burton's film, but more it is a mixed feeling I've got with all TV showings going on now. You've got everything packaged over-religiously styled as if people would've watched them like those films highlighted in Box Office America in VOA.

I am no fan of sinetrons. Period. When I started to look for some entertainment from our TVs and all was available was the same settings and situations, then I couldn't help asking "Why are they all falling into the same things??!" You know; everybody's yelling at each other for sex and money in all the time, students who never make it to the class but only talk about fancy cars and stuff having nothing to do with school, people who are good to the bone against other people bad to the bone.

So came this religious month and I thought I would've been relaxed with less absurd reality twisters because, after all, this is a religious month. But I was wrong. Then like nothing bad happened before, they start showing these settings; everybody's yelling at each other for sex and money in all the same time IN THE NAME OF GOD, students who never make it to the class but only talk about fancy cars IN THE NAME OF GOD, and people who are good to the bone against people bad to the bone IN THE NAME OF GOD.

This is what I'd see this month from those sinetrons: If you want to see yourself as a good person before God, you must resist the temptation to defend your violated rights and JUST pray for His vengeance upon the bad guys AND you are suffered by people who don't share the same belief with you.
And in addition to that, these characters keep telling me I am just forever damned since I don't believe what they believe. One sinetron's fun times is when they display you one woman (of course with her religious symbol) is being harassed with her superior who speaks with a heavy Batak accent (sometimes another unjust character with Balinese accent) and some other abuse being prosecuted by a man with names like Thomas, Alexander, Made. It doesn't take the brain of rocket scientist to assume to what religion these so 'grotesque' characters belong.

Hello Dear Noel!