Ari’s Corner

“Why do you want to be an Indonesian? The Indonesians won’t treat you as one of them” said a friend I met in Singapore (I’m a bit reluctant to say the name due to all the dramas we had because of a photo) “It doesn’t matter whether they think I’m one of them or not, what matters is that I am an Indonesian, my ancestors help fought for the country’s independence and I intent to be remembered as an Indonesian than an Arab” I answered, sorry for getting a bit emotional when answering it as we drove past JL Rasuna Said in Jakarta.

Before leaving to Indonesia, Joko and I had similar conversation regarding our identities. I always consider myself an Indonesian so is Joko with different background. We devised a hypothetical scenario to test our identity. 
Joko: “Ri, kalo Arab ama Indo perang loe ada dipihak mana?”
Ari : “Indo lah, lagipula loe ga specific arabnya mana, bangsa arab khan banyak negaranya”
Joko: “Yaaah tempat nenek moyang loe lah, Yaman gimana? Khan tampangnya mirip2 tuch, apa ga susah kalo loe ada difrontline harus membunuh atau dibunuh orang yang mirip ama elu”
Ari: “Ga lah, bukannya udah kewajiban gw untuk ngebela Negara? Mungkin malahan gw bisa jadi mata2 karena mukanya mirip bener ga?”
Joko: “Ntar kalo tentara Indonesia malah nganggap loe bukan bagian dari mereka gimana?”
Ari: “Ya itu sich urusan belakangan, apa yang ngebuat loe mikir kalo kita join pihak lawan kita bakalan diterima? Sekarang kalo loe taro diri loe di posisi yang sama dan loe balik ke Cina apakah mereka bakalan nerima elo? Terus kalo udah begitu apa loe mau pasif dan lari khan itu malah ga nyelesain masalah”
Joko: “Ngga sich, tapi susah yach jadi warga keturunan hehehehe”
Ari: “hehehehehehe”

However for some reason, when my Singaporean-born friend declared that she is an Arab Just for the record, for some reason I don’t really feel the same sadness as I do when an Indonesian-born person say that they are Arab not Indos.  I just get a bit emotional when someone else dictates who I am, once again I am sorry.  I guess it’s the same for every race in Indonesia.  I say these people are all backward, clinging to the past.  Retaining your old tradition and heritage is all good but starting to bring them out into real life by abandoning what you are for something in the past, that’s another matter.

Just a point to ponder for warga keturunan in Indonesia, Don’t live in the past – exist in the present and embrace the future, keep your traditions and norms alive but blend in don’t keep exclusive groups, you will be surprised with the amount of similarities we have to each other. And for the so-called pribumi – stop using that term to differentiate yourself.  Anyone who calls Indonesia their home is an Indonesian regardless of race or skin colour. Have we all forgotten the beauty of Bhineka Tunggal Ika?

It all started 2 months ago. I read an article on The Age Melbourne Magazine about a guy who survives a week without a single penny.  So there my journey begins, trying to find some social experiment to try.  So I followed that guy, trying to spend $0 for a week, but failed miserably on the first day.  So after a month of finding something to try, on the eve of 10th of August 2007, right after Mika warned me not to go to the loft, I lost my phone.

I treat this misfortune as an opportunity to do my social experiment – 1 month without a mobile phone.  Now the hardest thing is that this incident took place right before kafe art. This compounds my problem, due to the necessity nature of a cell phone in event planning.  First week without a phone, combined with kafe art makes my life an absolute hell.  Luckily I’ve backed up most of my contacts online (Thank you google)so I was still able to make contact to a lot of people. 

Now, the second week is OK, nothing is going on. I’m starting to get used to not having a mobile phone. After all, I did go through an era where not everyone have mobile phone and still managed to survive. In this second week I learn to communicate via email and responding them as soon as I read them. There were time where there is multiple email messages, but once again thanks to google, it organizes them into conversation that is so simple to read.  The third week… I’m 100% used to it.  I realized that a mobile phone is not a necessity; it’s just another luxury item.  One of my workmate got his first mobile phone 2 months ago after 27 years without one.  So it’s not really a necessity.  The world around us makes us think it’s a necessity, but it’s nothing more than an overrated luxury.

Fourth week, the final week, another observation is that people can’t take other people’s word.  People always try to call to confirm appointment, and if they can’t contact you, they leave you. I must say my only bad experience was with watching Ratatouile, I promised that I’d come and watch movie, but I was running late due to serving nature’s call, but I did my best and came 5 minute late, but I was ditched.  I remember back in SMP, we would wait for the other party to show up before watching a movie because we have confidence in the other party’s word. Has the world now become such dependent on mobile phone, that even if the other party already said that they are coming, the words have no values unless they can contact you?

Now my concluding remark for the matter is that we don’t really need a mobile phone if only we can trust someone’s words.  When you said you’ll be there, please be there. Don’t change plans in the last minute especially if the reason for changing it is not satisfactory for the counter party. Dont think that you can just change plan in the last minute because you can call them. I realized that it is hard for some of you to contact me and I do apologize, but it’s all for the sake of experiment.  I also apologize for coming in late when I already promise to be there on time.

In the midst of US sub-prime mortgage crisis.  People blame the credit rating companies for not being able to foresee this.  I personally thought that it’s the investors’ fault for believing them. Rating companies does provide a sense of security to investor. Having a myriad of tools and data at their disposal to analyze the risk of a particular treasury bonds they really should have known better. I give my sympathy to my friends who receive a blow on their portfolio because they believe in these rating companies.

Anyhow, I would like to tell you why I don’t take what these rating companies (the World Bank included) say 100%.  The first one is the most crucial one.  2 years ago they underestimated Indonesia’s economic growth by 0.35%.  6 months ago Sarapan Ekonomi commented again that they also underestimated Indonesia’s growth by 0.25 %. Which I think is quite embarrassing.  Is that really the quality we are looking for in a rating company and/or forecasters?

Second of all is my purely personal thought without any evidence. These rating companies are complicit at being biased.  Most of the big names in Rating/ forecast providers are US based.  Although one might argue that their loyalties lay with the dollar not the country.  I think that it’s not 100% true.  Their sense of patriotism (arrogance) is what makes overestimating their own economy and other estimating other economy, more specifically in the ASEAN region. To make matter worse, these ratings are what investors are looking at before they decide to invest.

You might say that the second reason might apply to me as well, and I don’t deny it, I might be biased to the ASEAN region.  But let’s face it, America’s economy is in a downward spiral, they are experiencing a continuous deficit, their interest rates are climbing.  Isn’t it time to call their bluff and become a more rational investor?  In Indonesia, people are crying that foreign ownership have taken over, but its our own fault for not believing in our own economy.  SBY once said “Kalo investor dalam negeri aja ga mau menanamkan modal di Indonesia, gimana investor asing bisa percaya” But now foreign investors have seen Indonesia’s potential, it is now time to build up our economy.

My ramblings for today will concern one of the most notorious ‘urban
legend’ in Indonesia. Its called leaking battery. The story goes like
this, one day, I just got home from work, and there I found my sister
studying on her laptop. So being a nice brother I approach her and talk
about the day. BUT then I noticed something, Theres a black bar next to
her laptop. So I asked her "Itu apa?". "Batere" she replied.  "Emang kamu ada 2 batere?". "Ngga, cuma satu tapi khan ini lagi dipake." she said. That got me thinking, I wasn’t sure what she meant.  Once again I asked "Emang kenapa dicopot kalo lagi dipake?  Khan bisa langsung ngecharge." She stared at me and goes "Lho kalo dipake khan bisa bocor?"
I was dumbfounded with that answer, So I checked the battery its a
Lithium-Ion. It makes sense for her not to know any difference in
batteries, but for other people who told her about , especially the
engineers, I was shocked. Any engineers more specifically electronic
engineers that survives first year should know the difference in
batteries. ‘Batere Bocor’ literally means leaking battery, but I think
they meant ‘Memory Effect’ (Otherwise known as Voltage Depression) in
batteries where the battery cant be used as long as it used to. But the
thing is… LITHIUM BATTERIES DO NOT SUFFER FROM MEMORY EFFECT!!!

Now
I will try to give a concise explanation of NiCd, NiMh and Lithium
battery with respect to both Leaking in literal term and ‘Memory
Effect’ and to hopefully rebut the concept of ‘Leaking Battery’. I’ll
try not to be too technical and give you some references at the end of
the article if you want to pursue this further. (For the technically
adept, the memory effect I am discussing is Strictly Voltage Depression
and nothing else)

I’ll start my discussion with NiCd otherwise
known as Nickel Cadmium. This is the type of rechargeable battery that
suffers from ‘Memory Effect’. Memory effect happens due to
over-charging in NiCd which creates an extra resistance of the battery,
which is why my sister took her battery out every time its fully
charged. In terms of literal leaking, as the name implies, NiCd
contains cadmium, a kind of heavy metal toxic material. Constant
exposure to Cadmium may cause cancer or other diseases.

Second,
NiMh, Otherwise known as Nickel Metal Hydride. One thing to mention is
that the memory effect in NiMh batteries are more obtuse than than
NiCd. Which means that although the battery can decrease in performance
it can be fixed by doing some discharge-recharge cycles. So still no
harms done, It can easily be fixed. Regarding literal leaking. I cant
find any reference to the toxicity of NiMh So I wont be able to comment
on it.

Third, Lithium batteries the one that my sister is using.  This is taken from wikipedia "Lithium-ion batteries (sometimes abbreviated Li-ion batteries) are a type of rechargeable battery commonly used in consumer electronics. They are currently one of the most popular types of battery for portable electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use." There you go… And also true leakage in Lithium batteries can cause explosion.

In
short, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEAVING YOUR BATTERY IN YOUR LAPTOP
WHILE USING IT AS LONG AS THEY ARE LITHIUM ION. The only caused of it
not as good as it was originally is the obvious, Which is "Older
battery will NOT last as long as new batteries" If anything, the cause
of it the degradation in performance is the heat of the laptop, but
most modern laptop are well ventilated so this is not an issue. I hope
that clear something up

A couple of days back, I had quite a thorough discussion with a number of my friends. Ufo, Tyo and Joko about opportunity in other countries, more specifically Indonesia compared to Australia.  I’ve been having this urge to go back to Indonesia as soon as possible.  I personally think, looking at the economic growth, that this time is the best time for me to go back and attempt something to capitalise the growing economy.

On Sunday, after not attending FA for a couple of weeks, I decided to have lunch with Tyo.  He told me that he’s quiting his full time job and going back to full time study and going to looking at the outside market for his next career step.  He already told me a couple of months back, but I didnt think he would do it, considering that he has already have quite a good position at his current company.  But then again it boils down to ambition.  Quoting Mr. Joko Tasman "Di company bule, middle management keatas, semua kena bleach" (No Racist remarks intended) which I think is quite true to some extent

With all fairness, I dont think its all about ‘opportunity vs security’.  I think its more in depth than that.  One of my Indonesian colleagues had no intention of going back to Indonesia at all, but I dont doubt that he is VERY ambitious in every respects and I do wish him all the best, after all I will still be working in Dominos Pizza if it wasn’t for him (Thanks wan). 

But isnt it interesting, there are some individuals including me who wants to go back and make a difference in the mother-land, but there are also people who wants to make a difference here.  This brings me to the point of the post.  I will start my own mid-year-research-project about this behaviour, what determine it, and what are the deciding factors.  To do this, I will need at least 200+ data from diffent people in the near future, and hopefully construct a conclusion based on it.

This is just an ad of what I’ll be doing when this semester is over, I’ll be needing a some help from many of you to fill out a survey.  This could lead to some interesting findings.  Maybe could also explain why Billy and Thinker went back for good. Thank you.

I had just recently ate at rose garden, Melbourne, a place which is famous for its spicy crispy skin pork (I had to substitute it with chicken).  but anyway, thats not the point. During this time at the restaurant, I had to go serve nature’s call.  After I finish doing my business at the back of the restaurant (shown on the map)  I went to wash my hand, as it is NORMAL to wash your hand whenever you finish doing something in the little room (intended sarcasm directed at people who laughed at me when I wash my hand)

To my surprise, the tap was horrible.  It has 2 taps one is cold one is hot and the separation distance was huge. I’m not entirely sure who came up with the design but its an absolute crack-up.  I couldn’t even wash my hand with ease since I have to switch from left to right quickly to get the warmth that I needed. Anyway I ended up just using cold water.

Now in contrast, this is my tap at home, compared to the other one this is is the epitome of engineering perfection. First of all, its ergonomic, second of all, I’m not sure about this, but it just seem natural to have the hot water turn counter-clockwise and the cold water turning clockwise.  I’m not sure how other taps work.  this thing is really good.

I also did a rough calculation (using retail prices) of everything to get a rough idea of how much each designs cost.  It doesn’t seem to be much different. provided we use the same quality basket, pipes and the only difference is the tap itself and the installation. ceteris paribus  I found that using a bad design saves approximately $10 since the good design need a better tap and more complicated piping. 

All in all, I just like to share this with you guys, especially my chemical engineer friends, who will be calculating pipe strengths in the future

Greetings fellow
bloggers, today I would like to present something that has been on my mind for
the last 5 years. In my first year in
RMIT I met a very straightforward individual with the initial BH. One of the first stories that BH told me was
his experience with a Surabayans (people from Surabaya). Here goes the story.

S: Kenalan dong, namamu siapa?
B: *****
S: Ooooo, bias bahasa jawa ga?
B: Ga Bisa
S: Waaaah kenapa? Padahal bahasa jawa is the best 

Bear in mind that this
conversation occurred between people who were just introduced. It’s no wonder that BH felt ‘gondok’ after
hearing this.

I also noticed 90% of
the Surabayans I met seems to think that their city is better than Jakarta, which I found
amusing. Im sure they can probably
justify a few bad points about Jakarta but, I
also want to list a few bad points about Surabaya:

• One way streets everywhere… if you missed a turn, you have to do a whole rotation of the city.
• Bad Madurans, this is a factor that even Surabayans themselves cannot deny.
• A unique combination of Becak, Angkot, Cars, Bus combined together to form a traffic that definitely beats Jakarta.

This got me thinking,
what makes them think like this. They
are indeed in the second
biggest city in Indonesia. Is this trend occurring in other countries as
well? Is this some sort of narcissism (Strict definition of narcissism from Stephen M Johnson)
that occurred to cope with the disappointment of being second, and to increase
their self-esteem? 

Looking at this I
found the trend in most second-biggest cities. I asked my friend from Lebanon who lives in Tripoli, he seems to think that Tripoli is the centre of Lebanon. Even Melbournians, although Melbourne is more livable than Sydney (so they said), you can’t argue
that entertainment wise, Sydney is better than Melbourne. So it is the
same in other countries as well.

Ah well, this is just
something I think about before going to sleep. My post is in no way an attempt to provoke anything, I have a Surabayan
grand dad. I also do admit that some
biggest-city people do have a superiority complex, including me:) But still in the Republic of Indonesia, our blood
is still red and our bones are still white…. Take care

Hello there, welcome
to my ramblings once again… today I would like to talk about something that happened
to me just recently. Due to PPIA Makrab,
I was forced to have a sleepless night and day trying to finish my 2000 words
essay, which I finish in 2 hours by the way after a long night reading many
freaking business papers. How did I do
that? With the help of V, the energy drink that has taken quite a large chunk of market
share in Australia.

So there I was staring
at the content of the drink in my idle time spending 2 hours trying to find out
whether the effect I feel from drinking it or whether it is from some chemicals
in it. They really stress out the Guarana
content which differentiates them from other energy drink which only contains Taurine. So I looked up wikipedia for Guarana. Everything single entry refers to guaranine,
which is a concentration, found in Guarana, to be beneficial to our health, at
the same time they are saying that the chemical in guaranine are exactly the
same as in normal coffee based caffeine.

So I was still
pondering why they put a limit of 2 cans a day and to not let children drink it
(although I still wonder how you would classify someone to be children). By following the link to guaranine on
wikipedia, I found out all the side effects of caffeine. The following is
excerpt from wikipedia: 

An overdose of caffeine can result in a
state termed caffeine intoxication or caffeine poisoning. Its
symptoms are both physiological and psychological. Symptoms of caffeine
intoxication include: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia,
flushed face, diuresis,
muscle
twitching, rambling flow of thought and speech, paranoia, cardiac arrhythmia or tachycardia,
and psychomotor agitation, gastrointestinal
complaints, increased blood pressure, rapid pulse,
vasoconstriction
(tightening or constricting of superficial blood vessels) sometimes resulting
in cold hands or fingers, increased amounts of fatty acids
in the blood, and an increased production of gastric
acid. In extreme cases mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation,
loss of social inhibition, delusions, hallucinations
and psychosis
may occur. (Wikipedia)

Individuals who consume caffeine regularly
develop a reduction in sensitivity to caffeine; when such individuals reduce
their caffeine intake, their body becomes oversensitive to adenosine,
with the result that blood pressure drops dramatically, leading to an excess of
blood in the head (though not necessarily on the brain), causing a headache. Other
symptoms may include nausea, fatigue, drowsiness, anxiety and irritability; in
extreme cases symptoms may include depression, inability to concentrate and
diminished motivation to initiate or to complete daily tasks at home or at work.
(Wikipedia)

Wow… this thing is dangerous…. and it doesn’t
get any better… apparently all drinks with taurine has been banned in Denmark, Norway
and France due to death cases. After all there are
side effects for consuming taurine

People who consume the beverage in excess
(more than 2-5 8 fl oz cans in a 24-hour period) have been known to express
discomfort, such as nausea, stomach pains, gas, and/or sleeplessness. (Wikipedia)

Anyway, its not like people
such as me are going to be deterred by all that… After all I needed the energy to
finish my assignment, but I thought it was useful information for everyone to
find out. One last thing, a ‘Pletok’,
which is a mixture of alcohol and taurine also poses risks.  For those who drank the pletok at Makrab… this is important

Many studies have been performed to
determine the actual effects on the human body after consumption of Red Bull
with alcohol: most finding solely that the mixing of a depressant with an energy
drink can lead to abnormal heart rhythms and future heart problems.(Wikipedia)

Thank you, I hope it is useful

One month of no posting, and since shallow wisdom is becoming active again… I will start posting as well.  A couple of days ago I was doing strawberry picking with the Bandungers.  The conversation led us to talk about the movie "Ungu Violet" that I watched while I was in indo and apparently according to Vincent, it is based on a Korean video clip (it has the same storyline).

Couple of months earlier, I was in a car with some friends. We were listening to a song by Tofu - Cinta Abadi.  Again we were having a discussion that the song is apparently copied from some Chinese song. That time a statement from one of my friends in the car surfaced.  A statement, which is the reason I made this posting "Ah Indo mah bisanya ngopi doang".

Another example is the movie Mengejar Matahari. In July last year, I found out that this movie is actually copied from some south american movie (not confirmed).

My opinion to the statement, there is nothing wrong with the copying on this scale.  Indonesia’s film and music industry is still at its infancy.  Lets take Japan’s electronic Industry post WW2.  Back then Japanese cars and electronics were considered an inferior substitute to the US product, because what they did were to take US product and copy it.  However look at Japan now… Toyota is on the way of becoming #1 car manufacturer in the world. Sony is head to head with Microsoft to rule the Console market. Both of them started by copying other products.

In media, Im not sure how it works, can the above examples be attributed as plagiarism?  I dont think so… Afterall Hollywood is doing the same thing up to this day.  I was watching the ad for world movies on SBS where it has a LONG list of blockbuster hollywood movies, which apparently is an adaptation of other international movies.  Does the original movie get any credit? If yes its probably very little.  How many of you know that Vanilla Sky is in fact a Chilean movie (Shown below)? not many… 

In the end, Its the same as Ungu violet (taken from a korean video clip), Tofu (Only the music is the same, but the lyrics are different), Mengejar Matahari (direct copy but unconfirmed).  They tried to make an enjoyable media for the majority of Indonesians to experience.  The side effect is that not many Indonesians will get to know the original.  However we are Indonesians, >95% of the population dont even speak Chinese or understand Korean for that matter.  I think we should support them instead of saying bad things about them.  Maybe one day our media industry will be as big as the US or India.

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow."  A phrase from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.  This line took place when Juliet is parting with Romeo.  I think it basically means that although the sorrowness of parting is great, it is at the same time sweet since they will think about the next time they meet again.

Early this month some of my friends actually went back to Indonesia for good.  One I’ve known for 5 years (Billy), less than a year (Thingker) and less than a month (Riko).  I could somehow feel the kind of sorrowness that Juliet was experiencing although not in any kinds of romantic ways.

One thing I realised is that we cannot turn back the hands of time, that being said, I have regreted for sometimes taking them for granted when they were here.  They are good friends.  After all, even if we meet again in the future, it would be a totally different story.  We would probably have other commitment with other things in life and there is NO way we can spend time together the way we used to.  (eg. I cant imagine myself playing Magic after I start working) I guess thats just the way things works.

I guess if you look it from the bright side, we can still meet again in the future.  Unlike the not-so-fortunate people who can only see their friends in the afterlife.   In the end I can say that its been both a pleasure and an honour to have known you guys.  You’ve added some colours to my grey and dull life. (kok cheeky banget yach… tapi bodo amat).  After all as Aristotle once wrote "Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods."