KICK ANDY'S CONFESSIONAL BOARD (II)

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

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)

I am just pathetic

December 6, 2007, METRO TV'S KICK ANDY confronts 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 delivered speeches that promote equality for men and women, a strikingly different view held by many Indonesians who practice polygamy and see women as sex object Last year, however, he made a breaking news by taking a widow as his second wife (at the same time he is still legally married to first wife). When asked why he simply did what he had openly condemned, a polygamy practice, he answered that people should be minding their own business rather than his. He also said this was how God humbled him, by having two wives. Upon hearing that grand excuse, I have never felt so stupid all my life.

GLOBAL WARMING, AGAIN

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

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

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

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.