Liverpool FC

1) Rafa Benitez is the new Gerard Houllier

2) Liverpool is a player graveyard. Most talented players that go there, go on to do nothing much really

3) Robbie Keane is the new Dirk Kuyt

Just spotted this story from the Guardian too.

Ass Kicking Mulyani

She's taking stolen money back from Tommy Suharto.

She's going mano-el-mano against the Chinese, looking for a better gas deal.

23rd most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes.

What next? Running for pres??? Somehow I think she'd take that in her stride also!

Cuba punk rocker spared jail term

A court in Havana, Cuba, has ordered a punk rock musician to pay a fine of $30 (£15) for public disorder for playing his band's music too loud.

Stuff

Got my US work visa yesterday.

Everything was a breeze. My interview, docs submissions at the embassy took 10 minutes all in all. Then it took a day for them to return my passport.

Ultra efficient.

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Started crossing roads here Indonesian style.

Just start walking into the road, arm up. And... am still alive!!! It's good to keep the Indo-road-crossing-skillz up, but probably not good for my long term health ; )

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If my last trip to Indo was being adapted for a movie, the theme would b cynicism. Indonesian's are soooooooooo cynical toward each other (or maybe it's just my pals(?)). It's a pity, cos, to be honest in all my times going to Indo, I never had any problems...

Maybe it's like all the people who loudly thanked god for so generously saving them from the Titanic; but of course most passengers died grim deaths. The corpses, unfortunately, couldn't enjoin god's praises.

Nevertheless such high levels of cynicism in any society are very unhealthy, no more trust means no more society, community etc.

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Therry has an excellent post up! The best I've read so far from her!

Lalita - Beautiful Converging Paths: Accident, Hospital and The News .. in Indonesian way

Lalita - Beautiful Converging Paths: Accident, Hospital and The News .. in Indonesian way

/Shiver/! So now I shouldn't trust Indonesian Docs OR the Jakarta Post!?? What is the world coming to...

McDonald's Burbur Ayam

It don't exist. Everyone knows that!!

Aceh Post

Am whiling away time b4 going to Bandung... Zippo inspiration for a blog post, but not much else to do at the mo...

Just got back from Banda Aceh. As I said previously it's expensive. There's more jilbabs around than other places in Indo, less beer, funny names for stuff (lili is angkot for example) but at least it's superficially similar to other parts of Indo...

Went to the Raya mosque, and a gay guy asked for my number -- surprising in the Sharia part of Indo eh?

Asked a waitress to recommend a drink (all non-alcoholic on the menus up there) and she suggested Bintang (nice!).

All the Independence day paraphernalia was out in force. They held their parade on Wednesday instead of Sunday though (why??).

Quite a few backpackers about. All looking quite nervous and smelly with their greasy and or dreadlocked hair. Not a fan of the backpackers.

I went to Sabang island. It's a vv beautiful place! I took an executive VIP boat over, the girl sold it to me by saying that there was karaoke, tidur and snack on board. Think was the comfy seats were also next to the megawatt karaoke machine.

Once I got to Sabang I realised however that there were no boats back for the rest of the day. Got a real bad sinking feeling, cos my flight back to the big durian was the next morning. So I raced over to the other side of an island and rented a fisherman's boat for the 3 hour trip back to Banda Aceh.

The views from from that little 5 or 6m boat which circumnavigating Sabang islands were truly phenomenal. I was nervous as hell, not knowing what the waters might be like, and never having had much to do with the sea -- I can't even swim!! The captain / fisherman just puffed away on cigarette after cigarette hand on the rudder. Probably a veteran arms smuggler or drugs trafficker for GAM I thought.

When it got dark, I could see lighting storms on the left and right of us. The milky way was clear up above. Got an odd splash of water. The trickiest part was finding the right part of the harbour to anchor off. Banda Aceh harbour is segmented into 4 or 5 parts. We went into one segment after an other, not sure how the fisherman knew which was the correct one, but eventually he sai "Allah, Allah [something soemthing]" and I knew we'd hit on the right part.

Luckily a becak was close by and I got back to my hotel wedged in next to another passenger. Drank a really nice can of Bintang beer and probably the best Satay I've ever eaten back at the hotel.

I should've taken pictures, but I don't think they'd have done Sabang justice. It's a must see place! Just take care of the bloody ferry schedules!!

Aceh

Just arrived in Aceh. First thing that strikes you is that it's a couple of times more expensive than anywhere in RI.

Answers on a postcard pls!

Seks Gratis

Free sex, free sex, free sex. I hear it again and again in Indonesia.

It's interesting, cos although it sounds like an English phrase, but I don't think I've ever actually heard it spoken in Ireland.

So I hereby request all Indonesians, to say something like "seks gratis" instead - my Indonesian is awful, so feel free to suggest a better phrase : ) Seks gratis is an Indonesian hang-up not a Western one, so stop using English to describe it!! : )

Paid-for-sex is actually the more important issue here (because of rather than in spite of this seks gratis taboo). Theoretically I have few problems with prostitution, what I do have a problem with is all the heinous trappings that often come with it. Yet free sex hogs the mind share. Bonkers. Talk about not seeing the elephant in the room.

The Discriminative State and the Compulsory Faith

When it comes to religion I'm highly sceptical. Very fscking highly sceptical in fact!

But it's still interesting, cos so many ppl are wrapped up in the large knot of beliefs which some people call religion and others call insanity.

Anyway, this is an excellent article about Islam, by an Islamic scholar who (to my mind) seems to know his stuff.

No More Foreigners in malaysian Football

Jakarta Casual has the deets.

Another example of Malaysian officialdom's wrong-mindedness. I'll bet anyone €50 that the ban lasts no longer than one season.

Papua Compo

Great post about Papua. Kinda Coasian (if I remember my economics correctly...).

Dumbing Down Doha

World trade talks have failed.

Basically lotsa countries get together and "try" to strike a deal which frees up free trade.

Thing is, getting so many countries to agree on such a deal is nigh on impossible -- especially when countries like France and Italy start meddling.

Multilateral trade agreements end up being one of two things, a stalemate where nothing is actually agreed, or a watered down waste of everyone's time. And they're done this way on purpose so the EU and the US can say they're open to free trade and inclusion on the one hand, but knowing that things will be too tough to disentangle.

Bilateral agreements are the way to go -- such as the one recently struck between Chile and Indonesia.

The Jilbab Thing

OK, big confession here. I always wanted to date a girl that wears a Jilbab!!

Dunno why. Unfortunately they're real thin on the ground over here, other than some nerdy malay students that is...

Everything u wanted to know about Jilbabs but were too afraid to ask

Pt1, pt2.

Civil Servants

Don't like 'em!

White Wedding

Marriage is like starting a hard drug habit.

A friend of mine was bemoaning her marriage the other day. She said she didn't marry her "true love" cos of religion, now it sounds like she's in a loveless marriage. Maybe it'll get better, maybe worse, who knows. End of the day, I feel real sorry for her.

In the UK 40%+ of marriages end in divorce. What a number eh? Now some of you may say, that the UK is a real liberal country and that maybe people divorce too easy; but then I may say that there are still loadsa couples that stay in unhappy marriages cos of their kids etc etc. So I suspect 40% of unhappy marriages hits the mark just about right.

Somehow I don't think the unhappy marriage ratio in Indo would differ too much from the UK, it's just harder to measure cos I suspect divorce is kinda taboo.

Starting out, most of those 40% of couples probably feel they have a good a chance as any, relationships are complicated things, NO couple knows whether they'll be one of the 40% or not; and whether they'll open themselves up to some of the most harrowing experiences people can subject themselves to.

It's like trying hard drugs for the first time. Maybe you want to experiment just once (or twice) yada yada yada, but that's how terminal addicts started off too. I wonder what percentage of experimenters ruin their lives through drug use? 5%? 10%? 20%?

Marriage or experimenting with drugs is basically the same problem, you may have the best of intentions, but so did all those miserable couples and all those wretched junkies on the streets.

All I can say (as a hedge fund risk analyst) is bon chance!

Remixing Culture, Design & Technology

Interesting job for someone in Indonesia!

Australia's Role in Indonesia's Independence

[David's published this on his blog, go over there and check it out!]

[I'm republishing a blogging pal's post. Not sure why you deleted it D, but I read it, and thought it should be out there.

By the way, although some ppl probably find it uncomfortable, as far as I am aware it was the US who was THE big backer of Indonesian independence. Without the US things could've go on longer and been much bloodier -- having said that I am no expert.]

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Back in 1999 at the height of the troubles in East Timor over its vote for independence, I posted a request on an Indonesian Studies mailing list for information about Australia's role in Indonesia's struggle for independence. I received the following reply from one Waruno Mahdi who was five years old at the time and communicated some of his memories -

there was both an official and an inofficial role of Australia, but I unfortunately do not have the literature sources, mostly fragmentary memmories....

Official: On July 39 1947, Australia and India brought the question of the situation in Indonesia before the UN Security Council. The Australian representative stated, that his country considered that "the hostilities in progress in Java and Sumatra constituted a breach of the peace under Article 39 of the Charter..." and proposed that "the Security Council should call upon the Governments of the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia to cease hostilities and to settle their dispute by arbitration in accordance with the Linggadjati Agreement" (UN Department of Public Information Research Section Background Paper No. 58 [ST/DPI/SER.A/58], Lake Success, New York; see there pp. 2-3).

Considering that hostilities had resumed as result of a renewed Dutch "police action", the Australian and Indian initiative in the UN had the effect of profiting the Indonesian side.

I have no concrete knowledge of Australian territory being directly used as base for outward communication from Yogya (provisional capital of the Republic), but seem to vaguely recall having heard something about a Catalina (an amphibean airplane) flying to-and-fro to Darwin (breaking the Dutch blockade). What I do know for sure is only that we had Dakotas (DC-2 cargo-and-passenger planes) flying likewise through the blockade to Manila over an eastern route, and to Bangkok in roundabout route over the Indian Ocean with stop-over in Medan in Sumatra. The pilots of the Dakotas were American volunteers. Those that got shot down (most were shot down, typically over Sumatra, where they were easy prey for Dutch Spitfires based in Palembang) contributed their lives for the cause of Indonesian independence. Who flew the Catalina, and what happenned with him I don't know.

Inofficial: Australian dockers (particularly, if I remember correctly, in Melbourne) boycotted Dutch ships. This must have been around 1948. I remember my father taking me on his lap - I was 5 years old then - and showing me a newspaper with a large photo of a freighter at a pier and telling me that people in many countries were helping us in our fight for independence. Later when I was older I saw that picture again in some publication, and it was a Dutch ship at an Australian pier, being boycotted - at 5 years my grasp of geography had been somewhat hazy...... (hence, when Aussy dockers boycotted Indonesian ships in solidarity with East Timor recently, that was in faithful continuation of a long and laudable tradition).

I gather, however, that your present interest is motivated by recent anti-Australian remonstrations in Jakarta in connection with developments in TimTim. That's very good of course, I mean both in being concerned about sustainment of Indonesian-Australian good relations, and in contributing to enlightening the remonstrators....., but essentially one needn't be too upset or worried about them.

The Army is kicking a tantrum for having been rapped on the knuckles, and in a frantic all-out campaign to save face, it is mobilising every trick it has up its sleeves. This includes spreading disinformation about Australia to impressible youth gangs, and particularly hiring demonstrators for money. But the period of Soeharto-style total censorship is thank goodness behind us for good. Indonesians are now exposed to a free press, and military propaganda lies sooner or later get exposed for what they are.

Indonesian relations to Australia have a much too deep footing, to be so easily disrupted. For people of my father's generation, who experienced World War 2 and took active part in the Perjuangan, our fight for independence, Australia is our back country, the last retreat. Even today still, my mother cannot listen to "Waltzing Matilda" without flutters in the heart. That had been the signal tune of Radio Australia during the period of Japanese occupation, when just listening to it could earn one the death sentence if one were caught.

To be frank, it very much hurt my feelings of propriety, when official Australia solidarised with Soeharto Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. So, you can imagine that I feel particularly gratified by your present engagement in helping keep the peace there. It's indeed more than just keeping the peace in East Timor, it's also contributing to the re-establishment of democracy in Indonesia itself. So we owe you our thanks for that.....

How to Look Good Naked

For all those average Indonesian women out there with low self esteem may I suggest checking out this show: How to Look Good Naked!

Weird show, I thought there was enough naked women with low self esteem on Playboy channel etc.