ALL THAT CONFIRMATION LATER

With all the credits given to Jokowi administration by the IMF and the like, it is nice to look back and see how the administration had planned the economy well and put everything almost right. Below are two excerpts from one of Bank Indonesia’s 2018 Quarterly Reports I translated into English. The original version in Indonesian comes in the last two paragraphs below. By taking into account last year's and ongoing conditions, prospect and risk of the economy ahead, on February 14 and 15, 2018, the Board of Bank Indonesia decided to maintain the 7-day Reverse Repo Rate at 4.25%, the Deposit Facility rate at 3.50%, and the Lending Facility rate at 5.50%, all effective as of February 19, 2018. The decision was consistent with efforts by Bank Indonesia to maintain stability in the macro economy and the financial system and at the same time to support the momentum for economic recovery. The central bank understands that having loosened the monetary policy proved necessary to push the momentum for domestic economic recovery. Ahead, Bank Indonesia believes that a stable economy is the main foundation for stronger and sustainable growth. Several risks, external and internal, still need monitoring. The external risks include an unexpected increase in the FFR and the global oil price. The internal risks include the ongoing corporate consolidation, sluggish banking intermediacy, and inflation. Bearing that in mind, Bank Indonesia will optimize mix of the monetary policy, the macro prudentials, and the payment system to keep both the macro economy and financial system balanced with regard to the ongoing economic recovery. Berdasarkan kondisi perekonomian terkini serta prospek dan risiko ke depan, Rapat Dewan Gubernur (RDG) Bank Indonesia pada 14-15 Februari 2018 memutuskan untuk mempertahankan BI 7-day Reverse Repo Rate tetap sebesar 4,25%, dengan suku bunga Deposit Facility tetap sebesar 3,50% dan Lending Facility tetap sebesar 5,00%, berlaku efektif sejak 19 Februari 2018. Kebijakan tersebut konsisten dengan upaya menjaga stabilitas makroekonomi dan sistem keuangan serta turut mendukung pemulihan ekonomi domestik. Bank Indonesia memandang bahwa pelonggaran kebijakan moneter yang telah ditempuh sebelumnya telah memadai untuk terus mendorong momentum pemulihan ekonomi domestik. Ke depan, Bank Indonesia meyakini bahwa terjaganya stabilitas perekonomian menjadi landasan utama bagi terciptanya pertumbuhan ekonomi yang lebih kuat dan berkelanjutan. Sejumlah risiko tetap perlu diwaspadai, baik yang bersumber dari eksternal seperti peningkatan ketidakpastian pasar keuangan global terkait ekspektasi kenaikan Fed Fund Rate (FFR) yang lebih tinggi dari perkiraan dan peningkatan harga minyak dunia, maupun dari dalam negeri terkait konsolidasi korporasi yang terus berlanjut, intermediasi perbankan yang belum kuat dan risiko inflasi. Untuk itu, Bank Indonesia akan terus mengoptimalkan bauran kebijakan moneter, makroprudensial, dan sistem pembayaran untuk menjaga keseimbangan antara stabilitas makroekonomi dan sistem keuangan dengan proses pemulihan ekonomi yang sedang berlangsung.

WHERE WAS I LAST YEAR?

I always love this blogger.com. I don't know why. Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of social medias have successfully turned me away from it but they have so far never made me more passionate to tell more of myself than this blog. I was burnt with all noises I found and made on Blackberry Messenger and suddenly I was like I wanted to be alone, away from those and to be closer to my own self. Like now. Looking back, I know that I did not do enough in 2012 to do so. This blog shows.

BACK FOR GOOD

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

...

AD ME

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

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

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

Sometimes it takes the most vulnerable to bring down the untouchable and it could not be truer than knowing Antasari, the man who has seeded fears and hatred in the hearts of those embezzling 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 have wanted 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 dead body found. 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 were married men. However, that knowledge too should have stopped the same 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 men won and the loser was left burning and plotted for his death.

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

NOW AND THEN

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 and life. If you want to know how time heals wounds, try meeting your very old friends. I have, and what comes after it's-good-to-see-you-again! is recollection of laughs. Some pasts are regrets, complete failures, unbearable pains but what happened ten or so years ago just does not matter anymore when we 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 those typical ones 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 are now struggling for their basic survivalm doing menial jobs.

OBAMA UNLIKELY IN INDONESIA

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

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

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

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

"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)

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

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

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

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

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

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.