Indian workers in Batam

I suppose most of Indonesian knows what happened in Batam. For those who got left out, here’s an English article.

A thread in Detik Forum got my attention that there are lots of comments agreeing that the Indians deserve those attacks and injuring four of them.

I can’t see through what they were thinking.. and on top of that, many (educated and Internet literate) people seems to be supporting the riot. In every conflict, it is rare that only one side makes mistake. Most of them are basically accumulation of mistakes from both sides, discarding who started in the first place.

One thing I just knew that there are such thing as War Risk Zone and several places in Indonesia are included in it. This attitude will surely bring no good to the public. This article is outdated, but it seems that the call was not granted.

I have been insulted no less than people around, and I haven’t got the grudge that I’ve been insulted and never got the intention of bringing harm to those insulted me.

[well to be frank I’ve got this wild imagination that I’d scare the guy off me with some cool moves or words, but that was simply to relief my mind]

Violence does not bring more good than harm, especially in larger scope like what had been going on in Batam. I do hope and pray that people would realize, aware of their surroundings; or at least think out of the box that every action bears consequences.

High level meeting

Sometimes.. it's rather embarrassing to see the so called best people of my country screwing around during plenary meeting.

I was somehow reminded of such uncivilized meetings in other countries (Taiwan if not mistaken) years ago.

Disagreements surely exist, but as representative of the people, they should at least be civilized. Welcome to Indonesia.

Internet search on Omni International Hospital

It has been quite some time since the case of Prita and Omni International Hospital and I wonder how the hospital has been viewed from the Internet.

A Google Search of "Omni International Hospital" returns only 3 links (2 official website and 1 from Wikipedia) of information about the hospital, while 9 others are simply news and blogs of what has happened between the hospital and Prita. 9 out of 11 means 81.81% information are simply not in favour of the hospital. All search results return pages from Indonesia (perhaps Google is smart enough to identify my location)

A Bing Search of "Omni International Hospital" returns 2 links of the official website, 2 not-relevant information about the hospital, and 6 news and blogs talking about the case; which makes it 60% information from the first page of the search engine not in favour of the hospital.

A Yahoo Search of "Omni International Hospital" returns 3 official websites, 2 job-related information in the hospital, and 5 news and blogs about the case; which makes it 50% information from the first page of the search not in favour of the hospital.

All Google search returns pages from Indonesia, Bing and Yahoo searches return some entries of the news from international.

For those who don't know what's going on in Indonesia, please do a search on any search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing) for Omni International Hospital Prita.

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is obviously not good for the hospital.

Clean toilet @ Indonesian airport

Detik.com gave out a rather interesting news about given to 19 cleanest Indonesian airports.

1.	Juanda, Surabaya	78,54 points
2.	Soekarno-Hatta, Jakarta	76,62 points
3.	Hussein Sastranegara, Bandung	75,26 points
4.	Ngurah Rai, Denpasar	74,52 points
5.	Adi Sumarmo, Solo	74,30 points
6.	Adi Sutjipto, Yogyakarta	73,88 points
7.	Bumi Minangkabau, Padang	72,58 points
8.	Mahmud Badaruddin, Palembang	72,17 points
9.	Sultan Hasanuddin, Makassar	70,89 points
10.	Selaparang, Lombok	69,93 points
11.	Sam Ratulangi, Manado	69,35 points
12.	Sultan Syarif Kasim, Pekanbaru	69,25 points
13.	Hang Nadim, Batam	68,32 points
14.	Ahmad Yani, Semarang	67,73 points
15.	Eltari, Kupang	64,71 points
16.	Polonia, Medan	64,42 points
17.	Sepinggan, Balikpapan	63,10 points
18.	Supadio, Pontianak	61,73 points
19.	Halim Perdana Kusuma, Jakarta, (special award)	73,37 points

I haven't been much to most of the airports mentioned apart from Polonia, Medan and Soekarno Hatta, Jakarta (and perhaps Ngurah Rai, Denpasar once in 2001).

Rather disappointed not seeing the standards set for the awards, but I wonder how Polonia could have got that point; knowing that it wasn't even clean (at least not when I was there last month sending my friends to the airport). Is it clean now? or the is it the standard being set by government? -_-

Halo @ Medan

I had a lunch appointment with an old friend and waiting for his pick-up at the office gate and saw something remarkable optical phenomenon. At first I thought it was a rainbow, but a halo would fit it better.

So I took the chance of taking the picture of it with the phone.




This one was taken by another colleage.

Fuel price is up

Yeah.. the title says it out. The fuel price is up.. again. Effective tonight at 00:00 hours. I totally forgot that there were gonna be a long line for refueling, but the bad news was my car had been out of gas.. I had to refuel no matter what..

I recall 2 years ago on October 1st, 2006 when I was still in Serpong working for Sigma, the government did cut off some amount of fuel subsidies.. resulting the increasing price.. My bike was running out of fuel too. And I had to queue for half an hour for some petrol to get home.

What a deja vu. -_^

the Cross and the Crescent Moon

I've been seeing provocative sites lately and I feel sorry for them; both sides. -_-'

Here's some of them that attack Christianity

• Data Kristen and many more in the links section
  
• mostmerciful
• Answering Christianity
  

Here's some of them that attack Islam

• TheReligionofPeace and many more in the links section
  

My opinion? Don't believe what people say.. and stay out of the war. We should respect each other. If you think what you believe is true, do what you can to tell the others while at the same time respect their beliefs! It's their right to accept or reject.

The Indon haters

I came across this site that expresses deep hatred towards Indonesia(ns). But it seems that it's rather too far to say it that way.

This guy is insulting a country's attribute; the symbol of a country, which everyone should always respect. Even a sovereign country do not insult the symbol of rebel forces in it's country.

But still, I'm not surprised on how the world thinks. Why can't people just accept their differences?
Hope this tense does not continue for long though.

I've lived in Malaysia and it has been a wonderful time. I urge the Indonesians to not provoke themselves or others.

Do farmers need the Internet?

Yesterday the former president of Indonesia Megawati publicly suggested that farmers in Indonesia should learn to user the Internet to know the market price and marketing their crops.

This obviously doesn't sound right.. Come on.. here in Indonesia? farmers? The Detik Forum made tonnes of critics on this dumb idea.

Imagine the (operational) cost of maintaining computer and Internet connection in Indonesia just to know the price of tomato; or maybe the better question is, "where can I find the market price for tomato in one area?"

I bet those farmers (mostly happen to be less formally-educated) end up in porn sites instead of searching for information. Such info like market price can easily be gathered via phone call (how hard is it to call a dealer in the nearest town and ask him how much a kilo of tomato is worth today?) than dialing to ISP (if there is one around).

Perhaps this idea derived from the success story of India and those are successful farmers that can afford computers. I think what Mega said was ok, but still she needed to explain more things like how those things are going to be done, any plans whatsoever. It just seems that she suddenly popped that idea during lunch hour thinking what to say; without much preparation.

I did some searching and found out that countries have implemented this idea successfully. Indonesia is just moving on. And I think that the Internet can be an excellent source of information on how to do things (like seeding, planting, etc) and also knowing possibly better alternative ways to do those things like plantation solutions and technology.

But for this years, the farmers can still get their critical info (commodity prices) from the radio every morning. Other more important things should be prioritized before like providing seeds, and taking out those middle persons who bullies the farmers.

initConflict(Indonesia, Malaysia)

I first noticed the conflict since the Rasa Sayange being used in Commercial Website of Visit Malaysia.

So what? Even the Indonesian cannot prove that the song belong to Indonesia.

But from many problems that Malaysian has caused towards Indonesia, I now have the thinking that Malaysia is trying to cause trouble.

Links:

• Isteri atase pendidikan KBRI ditahan RELA [perkara remeh?]
• Malaysia: Disband Abusive Volunteer Corps
• Indonesia Lodges Protest Over New Malaysia Arrest
• House mulls reporting Malaysia to UN Human Rights Commission
• Indonesia protests to Malaysia over detention of diplomat's wife

"We assure you.. no more blackout!" is not an assurance

Heard from the radio this morning saying that the electricity company (PT. PLN) (which is monopolized by the government) is almost assured to not able to keep their promise to keep the light on as power outage is still going on in the area.

Previously, they had stated publicly their apologize and promised to ensure that electricity will be fulfilled before and during this Ramadan.

And now they're saying that they won't keep that promise.. again..

Mayor?

On the transport this morning, I was awakened by the siren sound of the mayor candidate of Medan Ali Umri's convoy.

The traffic was fairly ok, not jammed, but still vehicles are running slow. And out of nowhere these convoy simply rushing over the crowds like he owns the road or something.

One point I feel the officials should notice is that they should live their life as normal citizens so that they would know what's wrong with their area. If they simply put a loud siren on their car and have police escorting their way, they'd not know if that road is actually so bad, or at least the traffic.

Definitely not the type of guy I would choose to run the government, but who knows.. :-P

The first Indonesia Raya

Found this video on YouTube of the first Indonesian National Anthem released.
It's still in the old spelling of Indonesian.

This video has been quite some stories since it was discovered few weeks ago in some server located in Dutch.

My Indonesia

Happy independence day for my beloved country of Indonesia. 62 years after the proclamation of the independence.
Came across this song "Bendera" (Flag) by Cokelat on TV.

I can't seem to find the video clip that I saw on TV, but I found this on YouTube.

Here is the lyric:
{Biar saja ku tak sehebat matahari
Tapi ku slalu mencoba tuk menghangatkanmu
Biar saja ku tak setegar batu karang
Tapi ku slalu mencoba tuk melindungimu

Biar saja ku tak seharum bunga mawar
Tapi slalu kucoba tuk mengharumkanmu
Biar saja ku tak seelok langit sore
Tapi slalu kucoba tuk mengindahkanmu

Kupertahankan kau demi kehormatan bangsa
Kupertahankan kau demi tumpah darah
Semua pahlawan-pahlawanku

Merah putih teruslah kau berkibar
Di ujung tiang tertinggi di Indonesiaku ini
Merah putih teruslah kau berkibar
Di ujung tiang tertinggi di Indonesiaku ini
Merah putih teruslah kau berkibar
Ku kan selalu menjagamu}

Translation:
{
though I am not as great as the sun
but I always try to make you warm
though I am not as strong as rock
but I always try to protect you

though I am not as fragrant as rose
but I always try to [make you smell good]*
though I am not as beautiful as sunset sky
but I always try to [make you look good]*

I protect you for the honor of the country
I protect you for the blood of all my heroes

Red and White may you keep waving
in the top of the highest pole in my Indonesia
Red and White may you keep waving
in the top of the highest pole in my Indonesia
I will always take care of you
}
* some words might not be appropriate, but those are the best I can do for now

I'm not into Indonesian Idol, but they appeared to sing this song too and inspired many people in the country.

If u happen to have an account in fotografer.net, u might want to check out this picture.

May this country become greater and greater in God's way, so do the others.
Happy independence day.

Garuda Indonesia Incident

Another catastrophe occurs in the beginning of the day.
A Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 flight GA 200 crashed during landing, setting fire off on board.


















Here is the list of accidents of Garuda Indonesia since 1950.

Pak Tung-Tung

Check out what the daily cartoon of the local newspaper is trying to say.

The road home

Ever wonder why it takes a damn long time to get to Medan from Binjai? or vica versa?



This picture was taken in front of Makro, Medan; where I would say that this is one of the source of traffic. Once it rains, u'd better think of another alternative ways, which not many knows.. ^_^

Quite strange why the government doesn't really fix this. Well they did fix it and the same shit appears again in less than a month. They simply just not fixing the root problem.

As my dad's short singing: "itulah Indonesia..."

Licensing the Republic of Indonesia

Have u all heard of the government have signed an MoU with Microsoft regarding licensing legal software in (all) government institution?

This means the government will be paying Microsoft lots of money just for the license. In conjunction, Microsoft will also give away 35,496 MS Windows 177,480 MS Office license worth 676 billion Rupiah (US$ 1=Rp 9,065)

However the lisences are valid ONLY if the software is installed in a Intel Pentium III class processors. That means if they upgrade the hardware, the lisence is not valid anymore. At present time, how long would u think a P3 computer can last? Running Windows XP?

And still the gift from Microsoft will not cover all PCs in the government. It is estimated that the government will spend another Rp 400 billion for the lisence of the rest of the PCs for the next 2 years.

I personally find this ridiculous...
If I am allowed to ask the question "What are the primary functions of computer in (most) government agencies?" I would say office use.. And I bet that almost all users have no idea how to make use most of the great features of MS Office or Windows for all it matters.

They are just typing reports, making calculations in word processor and spreadsheet; some (and little if I may say) use it for presentations (in a bad design). In which all of it can be found in OpenOffice.org. I'm not against Microsoft as I say they make good products, but considering that the people (who work their asses to live AND pay tax) are still suffering in this country. That tons of money can be diverted to other aspects. It makes more sense buying a nuclear warhead to protect this country than spending on lisence... (It's just a joke.. haha..)

Almost all (or should I say "all") features in MS Office that the government officials are using are in OpenOffice.org. They don't know macro or .NET integration for all that matter; they're just using it to type letters.

Get half of the lisencing fund to train all the users is enough I suppose. Or perhaps throw a US$ 3 million dollars to a professional developers to make a much better Linux operating system in Indonesian?

Can it be that even Microsoft has learned how to bribe in this country? That it has been in the blood of the government to be bribed to get something? Who knows.. ^_^

Protests on Bush's visit

The US President George W Bush is coming to Bogor to meet the Indonesian President SBY on this coming 20th November. However, as many of the Indonesians have noticed, that protests and demonstrations have been going on rejecting Bush's visit. Despite of the only 10 hours being in Bogor, there has been relatively big budget projected for his visit.

What I'm trying to point out is that the number of protests going on across the country; that I have no idea what on earth they are thinking of condemning Bush for coming to Indonesia. I've seen on the news people using the name of Islam to say inappropriate words towards the guest, even some are trying to use spiritual powers to deal with Bush upon his visit. This is ridiculous.

Haven't we been taught to respect our guests? President SBY visit the US last May and September and he was greeted very well, and with not a small budget from the US government if I may say. But why would these Indonesians trouble about it? I could even see the leaders of some Islamic political party, the members of the House of Representative are condemning. I wonder how this country would ruin should they lead the government.

How many productive hours these people have wasted by just going to the streets protesting such useless thing? They could have done more important things than telling what the president should do while they are not doing their part themselves.

Boikot of US products
And here is a more ridiculous part of the demonstration; some people wants to boikot all US products. These guys obviously can't think and should they lead a country, it would be off the map in no time. Let's take a simple example of our living products; what can be done without anything made or initiated by the US scientists? Say computers? U don't want to use DELL, let's use computers made in Taiwan then, OK.. Fair enough, what operating system? Windows is obviously a US product and I say it's bullshit if the government wants to erase Microsoft from Indonesia..

Personal or Religion
I don't understand why most (all if I may say, because that is what I have been seeing all this while) of the wild and nonsense protests are from people who take Islam. I believe Islam is a peaceful religion; I have wonderful Muslim friends who I think are much better than my Christian friends. I suppose it's just people misinterpret things a lot.

btw, hope Bush is coming to bring a better situation for both countries.

Mad policeman

Another day is in progress..

This morning when I was in the bus (felt asleep), suddenly the car was stopped by a man with motorbike shouting rudely to the driver telling him to pull over. When the driver asked him gently if anything had happened, but what he got was another impolite answer.

The guy with the bike happened to be a policeman claiming that the driver gave him a splash of water when he drove (it has been raining recently, and the road is wet; in case that u guys don't know, the physical conditions of some (many if I may say) of the roads would allow ducks to swim due to the holes. (please don't take the words literally)

It really ruined my day.. Such a bad attitude of a police officer; as a matter of fact, he wasn't even in duty but still demanding the license and registration in a very rude way.

If he doesn't want to get splashes, then don't ride near the watery road. And what good is a car if one just drive it 5 km/hour? This is totally ridiculous..

I really hope that people like that would get the lesson.. For it matters, I just recall that people are vasting; so regardless if u r a Muslim or not, u should respect them (at least try not to yell at them especially when they're not guilty).