HAPKA XIV - foresters reunion

Morning departure

Dissimilar to the normal days, after my morning pray I didn’t go to bed again. I prepared to catch a bus at 6.30 AM at Bogor Agricultural University to go to Walat Mountain. Saturday, 31st November 2009, was the day where the faculty of forestry held a big reunion for the XIV times. The big reunion itself is held every 3 years. Attending the reunion means seeing from the first graduated foresters to the youngest ones. I arrived at 6.15 AM. But the bus departed at 7 o’clock since there were not so many people appeared. If I knew this, I might have taken a short nap this morning before leaving.

In 2 hours, 12 people in the bus arrived in Walat Mt – a small hill covered with big dammar trees used by students for their field practices in the Faculty of Forestry. Though during my studying year, I went to Walat Mountain mostly for my nature lovers’ group field activities. There are tremendous changes occurred in the mountain. Students mess which normally looked like huts, at the moment they look fancier. The kitchen that almost broke down now becomes a nice dining area. But the aula has the best change. Wooden floor and beautiful wooden ceiling make the aula looks very nice. Most of these renovation activities are donation from our alumnus. I stayed in a room for lecturers with a friend. Before sleeping we tried to have a chat. But I felt that my friend was so far away and whispered chat in the midnight didn’t work at all. We just realized the next day that the room is quite a big one, 3x5 meter square.

It is only less than a year after Budi - younger generations of forestry lecturers - holds the responsibility to manage the area. Everyone knows him as a smart person though he acts and speaks like a crazy guy. I will laugh till I couldn’t breathe when I hear him make jokes. His idea to catch people attention to go the mountain is “if you want to marry secretly, the mountain is the best place to do it”. He said that we will have a free of charge rate if we can take people from the highest echelon in the ministry of forestry to do this secret marriage. It is such a crazy idea !! We do not take this seriously. No one will be brave enough to take their secret lovers to the university’s facilities – the biggest agricultural university in Indonesia. It is not going to be a secret anymore as students are everywhere. These students will watch you and your secret lovers having fun. That’s foolish!. But eventually, the idea is not a joke for our minister since he is coming from one of the religious political parties. There are two possibilities, he is a very religious person or he has no sense of humor. Perhaps in a short time, Budi should launch another catching slogan to make people to come to the mountain.

In the future, Budi has a program to make Walat Mt belongs not only to the university, but also public in general. International mountain bike race will be held soon there. Facilities provided also available for different purposes, from nature lover groups requirement, family visit to a big seminar with natural surrounding environment – big dammar trees, monkeys and bird’s song. It is a good place to spend week end with family.

Indonesian motivator

One of Indonesian famous motivators – Mario Teguh – gave his presentation that day. Everyone was waiting for him. As normal, all speeches took so much time. Especially when you used to work for the government, the longer you spend your talk, the better as people will go to sleep. But Mario is a professional. For him, if the appointment is at twelve to one o’clock, it has to be started at twelve o’clock and finished at one o’clock. His schedule was 40 minutes late which made him to have only 20 minutes left to speak. This also made his rate much higher – his normal rate is US$ 100 per minute. Though at last he added an extra 15 minutes. He said that he was very sure everyone in this room is good friends to each other since when the speeches were executed slowly, no one complained. He said this with a tone of humor. Mario may be right, or perhaps he wants to make people to become punctual. But he forgot that we are Indonesians. 30 minutes to 1 hour late is forgivable. He is the one who should make an adjustment, or he can make a life in Singapore where everyone is punctual, not in Indonesia. We can make our own self punctual, but we can’t push an event that requires people to make speeches – including the minister - to be on time. There are too many factors that make things late especially when it is held in a remote area like Walat mountain. Be flexible, and you will have a better feeling of life.

Something I like about Mario Teguh is his wife. She is calm and elegance. With her smile, she observed her husband moving around the room and shake hands with everyone. She was very sure that her husband is under her spell. Her eyes shows her confidence that whatever her husband does, he is doing it for her, wherever her husband goes, he will return back to her. I envy her power to do such a thing. Or perhaps this is the way how love works. Love will make people do great things. Love brings you not only happiness but also satisfaction of achievement, for both you and your partner. People who love their leader will give her/him their trust to do great things for the benefit of all people. The leader will have her/his satisfaction of achievement when s/he can make people happy and make them more prosperous. Mario must be happy to have such an elegant wife as she looks happy and very expensive. In another word, love works both individually and collectively. Our national leader has all the love from the middle to lower class house wives in the country. Has he done any great things? Has he made people more prosperous? I have no comment. I look forward to fall in love and see how love can influence me and my future.

Mario also told the audiences that a husband who is very stingy to his wife will never become a rich and an extraordinary person. Family is the nucleus of happiness. Why on earth a man can’t treat his wife better when it is a man ultimate goal to have a happy family’s life with his children and a loving wife. A man who can’t appreciate his source of happiness is someone who can not appreciate life itself. His words were followed by applauses from all the women. I think he is right. I observe the people around me. I see that many of them who have good positions in my office are they are who obviously love and respect their wives. At least in front of us. When they have problem with their wives, they will stuck somewhere, less than their expectations.

Mario also said that people who have a good carrier are normally they are who are not really smart during school year. I totally agree. My roommate husband is a director though everyone knows that during his time in university he took longer duration of study than any other students as he had to re-do many classes. He was a playful and cheerful student and everyone likes him. His social networking and the way he treat the others may lead him to a good carrier.

For me, Mario messages are sometime similar to preaches from religious leaders but using different approaches. He explores the philosophical side of explanation. People listen to him more as he is more rational than religious leaders. Or perhaps, people are getting sick to see religious leaders who act contrary to what they say. For example, his concept of “I+God=enough” is another way of saying that I - with all of my attributes (achievement, position, wealth, etc) - will always be under God observation and God intervention. When the “I” believes that whatever s/he gets and s/he gives, they are all for God existence, it is enough for the “I” to have a good life, as God is the owner of life. He said, appreciate and support the others and life will give you good rewards. He tries to make people to be generous, make people to always have a positive attitude of life. He mentioned, if you want to be a great person, do great things for the others, select great people as your friends, have a good communication with yourself to make you a stronger person, etc. But sometime he is predictable. If you watch his program on TV regularly, you will recognize the framework of his messages, and you can predict what he is going to say.

During his talk, he asked many questions to the audience. But mostly he went to the left wing of the room where I was sitting in the right wing of the room. When he asked “what would you do when God guarantee no failure to you”. Nobody could answer it. I raised my hand. I know my answer. But he didn’t notice me or he pretended not to see me. I hope Mario read my blog and this is my answer. “ I will make people to love their nature; make people not to make any destruction to the world; make people appreciate others and do not hurt each other and hope these will lead people – all human being – to go to heaven. And I hope God doesn’t mind to manage a crowded heaven”.

Meet friends.

It was good seeing many friends during the university. Unfortunately, there were not so many from my year - we called 19th generation of foresters – came to the reunion. I spent my time more with them from the earlier year. I met Eka, she lives in west Sumatra now. I stayed in her house when I went to Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in 1987. We have not met for more than 20 years. I met my roommate again when I was in the university’s dorm. She is a shy and nervous woman. She admitted that she was a bit unsure when she found out that she had to share a room with me – a free, active and chatty student. At last she found that our time to be together is the best time of her life. We always had something to discuss to, until more than midnight. Every single day. Though we have totally different personality, but we had a lot of fun together. She is my other sister.

On the first day of the reunion, after all of those ceremonial things, we chose our new coordinator of the alumnus. After an open screening process, in the end we had only 2 candidates and the audiences split into 2 groups. We yelled to each other for supporting our candidates. Felt like we were students again. The one who had more members of supporters then was elected as the coordinator. There were musical performances. Our former minister came to sing and dance with us in the evening on the first day. Unfortunately, on the second day - which was also Sunday where people normally have other family programs – after planting some trees and having outbound activities, people were leaving and only a few left after lunch. So for more than 2 hours, we occupied the event, a musical performance. Everyone took part by dancing and singing (see the picture). Even Odum - one of the lecturers, the most quiet and shy guy, - contributed a song. It was so fun.

An unpleasant situation occurred. On the first day, my lecture asked about my family and I said I am single. Then he asked me to marry him as he is divorced. What ? My answer was a big NO. He is an old guy. He will retire in about 3 months. Old people will die soon and I have no intention to marry a dying person. Besides, all students know that he is a womanizer. For me, marrying a womanizer is a bad idea. A few minutes later, other lecturer asked me to sit next to him. Yes Sir, what’s up? He said “Retno, Mr. X is sexually active at the moment. You should not reject him”. Oh dear ! These guys were serious. It’s OK if he is sexually active at the moment. But how about in the next 5 to 10 years? He will become an elderly person. Someone who needs somebody’s hand to walk, needs somebody’s hand to eat, even needs somebody’s hand to urinate. I’m not going to spend my future as an elderly nurse. 2 of my neighbors are doing that. The wives left their jobs as their retired husbands demand their full attention. If this happen to me, my purpose of life to make this world as a better place to live will fall into pieces. However, I’m amazed seeing those old guys during their retiring period, are thinking only about one thing. Sex. Is it the way they define a marriage? Is it the only thing they see from a woman? OMG

Finally, the reunion was good. It was fun to see old friends. Seeing the mountain again with all the big dammar trees. Musical performance is good. Although for me, it would be better to have a sport game, older generation versus younger generation. Everyone participate for playing or supporting – read yelling. May be next time, in the next 3 years. I’m looking forward to the next reunion – HAPKA XV.

Halal bi halal

No body can exactly tell the meaning of those words. Halal itself means something that religiously can be eaten or utilized, such as eating meats from animals slaughtered with Islamic way or sleeping with a woman that you have married. Halal bi halal in Indonesia means an event that we gather with people from our social networking to ask for forgiveness in relation to celebrating Lebaran day that just has past. You could see, there is no relation at all of the real meaning of Halal word with Halal bi halal activities. In an other word, we are creating our own wording for our own meaning.

Shakespeare said “what is a name?”, so whatever the meaning of Halal bi halal is, most of Indonesians love this words as we are having this kind of gathering event each year after Lebaran day. That is the time when we can meet, hug, shake hands and eat together with our friends or long unseen old friends, colleagues or ex-colleagues, business partners, bosses stored inside glassy boxes, securities and everyone that has connection with our life. The wider social networking you have, the higher status you have in your society or office or political parties, the more Halal bi halal invitations to be attended, and the more fat accumulation you have in your stomach since big feasts is a must. To date, I have attended 4 Halal bi halal events, the one with my colleagues, with other foresters, with high school friends and with my nature lover group. And there will be more to come.

Halal bi halal also functions as a reunion. It is the best reason to arrange a reunion where we can meet all of the old friends. Seeing how they change a lot. Asking how life is. In Halal bi halal with the members of my university’s nature lover group last Sunday (see the picture - these are people I have not met for about 20 years), a friend of mine was amazed seeing how I totally changed. For him, when we were in university, I was such a small, tiny, dark, ugly and smelly girl – I rarely took shower when we had a trip, walked across the jungle or climbed up a mountain. I was 18 years old that time. You could see, most girls will reach the peak of their beauties when they are teenagers. But for me, life begins at 40’s. Wait until I have a boy friend. I promise I will totally change my appearance, what ever the result is.

In the Halal bi halal with foresters from my university, I met an old guy who used to be my partner when we had meeting with other governmental institutions discussing about mining versus protection forests several years ago. As normal with a big smile I asked, “so how is life and where is your position now?”. He said” well, I’m the one who signed for your permit to extend your studying period”. What ? How come? A friend of mine whispered from behind “Retno, he is the director of HRD bureau in our ministry”. Ups. Oh no. It was so embarrassing. After these years away from my office for studying, I’m not up dating information from my office. I felt so stupid. Perhaps, for the whole Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, I’m the only one who does not know about his central position, as he is the one who decide whether we are appropriate enough to be promoted or not or decide which town in Indonesia for our official placement. Well, I hope after that day he will not consider to officially placing me in a remote area somewhere in East Indonesia. Oh dear.

However, it was not my first time of behaving stupidly. When I enjoyed painting exhibition in Erasmus Huis several years ago, an old guy approached and asked my opinion about the paintings. Frankly, I have a zero understanding how to give artistic value of a painting. But since he needed my opinion, I just said what ever in my mind. I said ”Well, I think the painter does not know how to draw perspective in his painting. All objects have similar size. The painter must be childish too, as his paintings look similar with the ones produced by children”. Suddenly that old guy gave me a lecture about painting value. Who is this guy? I was stunned when I saw from the booklet, that he was the painter who had the exhibition. Oh no. What have I done? To make up with him, I told him that his paintings had color that was different to any paintings that I have ever seen. And soon I vanished.

Back to Halal bi halal. The atmosphere of celebrating Lebaran day will last for a couple months ahead, sometime more. Every day during these months you will see people shake hands and said “How are you? Happy Lebaran day and I’m sorry for everything”, though they have not met for a decade. When formal Halal bi halal event provide food from expensive catering, the one with friends use potluck system where everyone can show off their specialties in cooking certain kind of food. But for me, thank you for the existence of coca cola company.

These couple months are the time for Indonesian people having parties every where. Eating here, eating there. Smiling to everyone. Shake hands at any time. Saying sorry for no reason to any one. I wish this happy atmosphere will remain in people’s hearts throughout the years to come.

Happy Ied Mubarak (Selamat Hari Lebaran)

After fasting for one moth during Ramadhan, on 1st Syawal, Moslem's people all over the world celebrate Ied Mubarak. We call it “the winning day”, since during the Ramadhan month, not only we are not eating during the day, but we also challenge to execute good deeds as much as we can, make gifts as many as we can, go to the mosque for praying as often as we can and say God’s name and read Koran as long as we can. We should also prevent ourselves for any bad actions such as swearing, hurting the others, etc. Ramadhan is also the month that we can make requests to God as many as we can. God promises if we can fulfill what God has ordered, God will multiply our good deeds for hundreds or even thousand times. God will approve our requests, and for sure we will receive God’s mercy. After we pass Ramadhan month, on the Lebaran day or Ied Mubarak, we would be as clean as a baby.

Indonesia, the largest Moslem country, where 90% of its populations are Moslem, off course celebrates this Ied Mubarak. It is the time when all Indonesian people, from all over the world, return to their hometown. Mostly Javanese people, they love to have family gathering during Lebaran day. Mother, father and children will go together to see grandparents and other relatives in other cities. We need to see the others since Lebaran day is the day when we ask forgiveness from others to complete what we have done during the Ramadhan month. The money that they have been collecting during a year will evaporate only for a few days. Each business in Indonesia also has an obligation to offer support funding for celebrating the day that we call THR or tunjangan hari raya.

Some people said that going home for Lebaran celebration is out of our rationalization. How come that the amount of money that they can develop as capital to build further business, use only for individual consumption. New dresses, lots of food, gifts for friends and neighbors are also the complementary things. Plus traveling expenses. It consumes a huge amount of money. Even people abroad who could not get permission to go home from their supervisors will send money to their relatives in Indonesia to celebrate the day which is about 9.1 trillion rupiah this year (MetroTv news). Nevertheless, going home is a tradition. Something that has been infiltrated into people’s mind that this behavior is a must in their society. No matter how expensive it is. Gathering with family is a relief after one stressful year working and struggling for life in other’s people areas. Not only forgiving, they are also eating together, laughing together, doing recreation together with all of the members of the beloved families. On the other hand, going home is a show off on how successful they are during these years.

People will spend money in their hometown. Transportation business will reach their peak of sales. Money itself will be distributed evenly to each corner of the country. Some economic experts say, this phenomenon will strengthen our macro economy condition. I think if we have an event as big as Lebaran day every month, Indonesia will have a stronger economic condition than today. No wonder, there are more and more holidays we have now than a few years before. This will encourage people to travel and distribute money to other places.

Jakarta will be empty during this Lebaran day. It is predicted that almost 3.2 million people will go by train, plus several other millions will take buses, airplanes and ships. Several factories such as traditional medicine factories, offer free bus ride to several towns for people who work for them. Even my office, at the ministry of forestry, offers free buses to several towns in Central Java. Maids from my office colleagues normally take the opportunity. Another phenomenon is, there will be 3.9 million people that will go by motorcycles (Tvone.come). Motorcycle is a cheap vehicle that most people afford to buy. Last year, 74% of the total road accidents were from these motorcycle riders. Irrationally, 5 people rode on it (parents and 3 little children). So you could imagine how dangerous it is, traveling for hundred kilometers with a motorcycle where the whole family are the riders, and where all of around them are giant trucks and buses. So this year, some motorcycle dealers offer a program of going home with motorcycles together. Wives and children will be put in buses where husbands are traveling with his flock of motorcycles. This hopefully will reduce the potential road accidents. Though negatively they will bring more people when they return, during the Lebaran holiday, most people will go and Jakarta will be empty. So empty.

When I was a child, my family was part of these Javanese flocks that went home from Jakarta to their hometown. Father, mother and 6 children. We were not a rich family so we took the cheap standard economic train where people can still go with the train with no seats. They are sleeping all over the train’s floor. In Malang, my mother’s hometown, we stayed at my grandparent house. Though it changes now but to date, I can still remember the old house. Old style of windows and doors, the big kitchen, railway next to the house and the smell of my grandmother medicine oil as she spent time on bed during her last days. At that time, I met all of my cousins, and traveled almost every day including visiting my father’s hometown. The last time I went back to Malang with my parents was during my high school. It was only 4 of us, both of my parents, me and my little sister. My father took us to many of his memorable places during his childhood. A house yard full of Zalacca palm and its fruit, places where my father stole the sugar cane with his friends, and the river where he swam, fished and played around with his boyfriends during his childhood. My father looked very happy showing us all of his memorable places. A few years later, he died.

Grandparents had gone. Father had gone. So far, we celebrate Lebaran day at home and visiting relatives older than my mother and late father, not far away from Jakarta. And also we have relatives visiting us during the day. There will be big feast. Everybody should eat. When the time goes by, people are getting older. Marriages make people visit their spouse’s family than their own. More people move to other towns and less and less people are visiting us. And this year, for the first time, we celebrate Lebaran day in Bogor at my sister’s house. Not in mine, since my home is too small to have the whole family’s members. This must be the most quite Lebaran that we ever have. But hopefully, this will tighten up the closeness of my family’s members.

Happy Ied Mubarak everybody. Please give forgiveness to every mistake that I make, unconsciously or intentionally. Have fun with your families and May God blesses will always be with us each day.

Friends (the CCF gang)

I have several friends during these 10 years that always spend time together. We all are people who took a French class at CCF before. It was in 1999, when I took a French language class at CCF in Kebayoran Baru. I intended to learn French since I need to have my second international language after English. Besides, French sounds so sexy. When you hear someone speak French, they will move every part of their faces. When the lips move sexily, their eyes will approve what lips say. When we say ‘no’ or ‘yes” in English, we can say it flat, but when we say ‘non’ or ‘ui’ in French, feel like my lips and eyes are working together. I am hoping, if I speak French well, I will look a bit sexier.

By the way, the language - that I think - gives the speaker no gesture is German. When I was I in Stuttgart, I went to a local castle. The guide spoke German, though I learned German during high school and but all I remember about the language is only “Ich liebe dich”. The guide made a joke, everyone was laughing. I said nothing as I saw him as a talking mannequin. No smile. No head movement. No gesture at all. What a stiff person.

Back to CCF. I first arrived in Mimma’s class. A young teacher who now works for the French embassy. I had several classes afterwards, but I ended to move back to Mimma’s class. I liked the way Mimma thought and I like her too. She is the most fun person I’ve ever known. When she is around, things will cheer up. When teaching, she played around and made learning a language became a fun thing. There was also another teacher who likes to teach us how to make French cuisines. But on top of that, I have great friends from CCF.

When I have long week end, I often ask my friends from CCF to join me exploring the nature and some are national parks. Way Kambas NP, Pulau Seribu NP, Karimun Jawa NP, Bali Barat NP, Bromo Tengger Semeru NP, Baluran NP, Kapoposang Recreation park, and many others such as exporing Lombok island. Many interesting memories we had together. I, Titis and Yance with several other friends, dived in the beautiful and clean water of Kapoposang, spent over night and had a fish as big as a baby. We barbequed it by using sea water as the ingredient. When I, Titis, Betti and Tantri went to explore Lombok island (see the picture), we ate “plecing” or leafy vegetable every day. When we could not tell the different between dogs and monkeys, we believed that because of the chemical compound of plecing that influenced our consciousness, as we ate it too much. When I and Mimma went to Karimun Jawa NP, we swam naked on the beach and the sensation was superb! Those are only a few memories that we shared together. There are a lot more !!

Our next destinations are Raja empat and Wakatobi NP. But due to my chaotic financial situation at the moment, let me finish my study first then we can have fun again. The good impact of my hobby to explore the nature is encouraging others to manage other trips. Many of them with other friends, managing several trips to Ujung Kulon NP, Ujung Genteng and others. Even Betti, Bambang and others start to travel all over the world. If you need any information about the cheap packages to different countries, ask Betti. Not only traveling, birthday party for a dinner at different restaurants is our moment to see each other. After the dinner we often move to other coffee house to finish the party. I shared my birthday party with Betti, and since Betti has many kinds of credit cards, normally I will find any restaurant that give 50% discount rate for a dinner. That’s something for a student like me, as still we split the bill afterwards. Though I could only eat at certain restaurants at the moment, but I’m glad that my friends comprehend my weaknesses.

In one period in CCF, when the class finished, sometime I and several others continued the class to a local café. Or to my renting place close to CCF at that time, for a cup of coffee or having evening meals. It was a day when I had a class mate who was a hooker. She went there because her boyfriend wanted her to speak French. I make friends with everyone. As long as they are nice to me, I will be nice to them too. I was touched when she said to us that it was the first time for her to have normal friends. I wonder how bad people were treated her. To prove my friendship, she took me to the places where she worked. Tanahmur at Tanah Abang, Jalan Jaksa, some discothèques, where most of her customers were foreigners. I didn’t change my mind. She is still my friend. For me, life is about making a choice. Some people are fortunate enough to make a good life, but some are trapped in long unavoidable misfortunes. Although she graduated from a university, drugs, bad divorce, loosing the only child and family problems were the things that dragged her to become a hooker.

One day she gave me a call wondering whether she had to take a job as a secretary. I encouraged her to take the opportunity, hoping that she would have a better life. I and several friends were also accompanied her in an in interview to become a manager at a local cafe. Good things came to her, more and more. She took an interview with Singapore airlines, and she got the job. Nowadays, she is a customer manager of Singapore airlines in one country somewhere on this globe. I lost contact with her when I lost my cell phone again (it is about 10 times now).

See how her life is changing. I’m learning a lot from her. I’m learning that we have no reason to look down the others. I knew her first as a hooker, the lowest status in our society, even some people are allergic to them. Now she is someone important in Singapore airlines, where only a few people have the quality for her position. We never know how God manages someone’s life. All we can do just appreciating the others and help when we can. Because someone who might has a lower status than us now, perhaps in the future will become someone who will rescue your life.

Everyone needs friends. There will be no life if we have no friends. But it is up to us to whom we make friends. If I have to make a choice between a fancy girl, live in an apartment, but she lies a lot and likes to compete for everything, and a nice hooker that we can spend time together, laughing at the corner of a restaurant, I choose the hooker as my friend. I could not stand with someone who lies a lot and unconsciously betrays the friendship. Whoever they are, because sincerity is something important for me in a friendship. When I have good friends, I love them and I feel that they love me too. And I hope our friendship will last forever.

“Merdeka !” (Indonesia independence day)

Merdeka means freedom. “Merdeka ! Merdeka !” the word was called by everyone that day. It was 17th August 1945, at 10 AM, by our first president – Soekarno - Indonesia declared the country’s freedom from colonialism, 350 years by the Dutch plus three and a half years by Japanese. No more colonialism, no more scares, no more suffer, no more hunger, freedom is now in our hand.

It was a day when the Japanese kidnapped all the girls, any where, every where, at any time. In front of the house, at the market, in the mosque, in the church, on the street. Dragged and compiled them into a truck and kept them in a locked room each to serve the Japanese sexual desires. Everyone was scared to death to save their daughters as well as my grand father. He had 5 girls and 3 of them were teenagers. No father in this world would like to see his daughters to become a bunch of hookers, so did my grandfather. Thus, my grandfather went to the nearest monastery asking the priest to let his daughters to stay in the monastery. He kissed the priest’s feet. He promised anything he could. He would not leave the monastery till the priest gave him his permission to let his girls to stay in.

I hate war. I hate seeing people killing to each other. I even hate war movie. For me, wars leave us nothing but pain and trauma. Why do we have to suffer other’s people life when we can make their life better?. Why do we have to hurt others when we do not want to be hurt? See war in Iraq. Who wins the war and who suffer the most? See Sierra Leone in West Africa. A country produces a high amount and the best diamond in the world. War gives their people nothing but pain and hunger. AFROL.com explains that “since 1991, the country has suffered war, terror and a deep, unrelenting humanitarian crisis which have left it devastated….Between 20,000 and 75,000 people have been killed and thousands mutilated……The worst of it might be that there do not seem to be other motives for this than maintaining control of the rich diamond fields of Sierra Leone”.

See Ethiopia. The Afrol.com says that during the civil war “hundreds of civilians have died in the fighting (the ONLF estimates 2,000 killed by the government in the past year, though one independent estimate suggests the figure is less than half that), and 1.8 million more may be at risk, as an Ethiopian blockade has cut off commercial food shipments from neighboring Somalia and prevented the region's nomadic people from selling their livestock”. The war made people suffering, made people hungry. The war gave the children no future, but instead they were junk food for the condors. You saw that picture, didn’t you? There are more and more news about wars. But I wish there will be no more wars existing in this world.

Back to Indonesia. 17th August every year, besides formal ceremonies in the presidential palace and all government institutions, is the day when people are having fun, forgetting all troubles in this life. There will be games for children and adults, finalized in the evening by musical performances or big feast with everyone in the neighborhood. People are inventing new games for more fun such as play football with wife’s house dress, pillows battle on the river, though there are similar games during these decades such as running is sack, etc. Prizes could be something simple like books and candies for children, or T-shirt for the adults. But fun is the most important thing. Look at the picture. My friend – Sabina Lucia – took the picture of a famous palm tree’s climbing race in Kali Malang. The palm was oiled and placed in the middle of Kali Malang river. There were shirts, trousers, bicycles, attached on it. People smeared sands into their bodies to beat the oil. They were holding to each other to climb the palm. It was reported that 2 hours later, no one succeeded. They kept falling down into the river. More laughing, more fun. The race attracted hundreds of people and had made a long traffic jam. Climbing the oiled palm trees is a common race during our independence day all over Indonesia.

When everyone is having fun, some people are questioning. Is that all? Is it the way we fulfill this freedom? Do we love our country enough? Make the best for it enough? The answer is may be yes, may be not. In my opinion, Indonesian people are varies. There are people who build the rules and implement it in the right ways to make this country better. There are people who play around with rules to fulfill their own ambitions for power or money. And there are people who even do not realize there are rules existed. 1998 was a critical time in the country when Soeharto’s regime - the government at that time - fell down after more than 30 years governed the country with his iron hands. Euphoria of freedom rose. Everyone was eagerly struggling to reach the goals, in the name of reformation. Chaotic situation occurred. In my working field, many national parks were invaded by people who claimed that it was their land forcedly taken by Soeharto’s before. The worst I saw when I was in Tanah Bumbu, South Borneo. Along the motorway, I saw hundreds of illegal trucks with coal inside. According to our national regulation, mining trucks should not be on the public road by any reasons. In that area illegal coal mining is the main problem but seemed no one did nothing. I heard from the TV news, a teacher was beaten to death by local gangsters as he complained about the dust and noisiness produced by the coal trucks. What a reformation.

Afterwards, people during Soeharto’s era started to gain their power again now, when things are getting worse, less money available, less jobs, less food. Reformation in reality do not give people in general a better life unless for some individuals. People are memorizing the plenty of food available during Soeharto’s era, and they selected those people again. Selecting our leaders - nationally, provincially, locally - directly is something new for us. Although, as I wrote before, people are attracted more to appearance than the quality. But this is the process of democratization. People are learning. But I remember a Malysian guy said on TV “Melayu people are people who easily forgetting things. If you make troubles. Stay away for sometime, abroad if necessary. Then people will forget your mistakes”. No wonder more and more people from the past are having their political power again now. I’m wondering, if I make mistake someday, I’ll do the same. Why not ?

With freedom in our hands in 1945, we build our country. Though we are far behind India (1947), Malaysia (1957), Singapore (1965), for the country’s economy and technology development, but we never stop to love our country. Let me quote my friend’s note – Agus Sari : “Not because we won the war. Not because we were given freedom. But because we love it. Because we can do something to it. Make it better. Love it. Short negligence or ignorance, some apparent weaknesses, are not a way to disown or to deny the love. Have a great independence day, Indonesia”. And I could not agree more.

Feel stressful ? No way

I went to see a good friend of mine today. She went to hospital for several days after having a very bad vertigo. She went through many medical checks, eg. EEG, blood check, etcetera. It was found that there is a minor imbalance in her brain which is caused by many reasons, especially her diet. But from our conversation, I found out that her burden of getting through many obstacles in her daily routine is the main cause of her sickness. Both of her children went to high school and junior high school. We all know that there is a very tight competition amongst students in Jakarta to get into a good school. This makes many parents feel worry about their children. Last year, when my niece was expelled twice from the selected high school, my mother had a very high blood pressure. There are also some issues in her office that absorbed much of her energy. All this stressful feeling mounted little by little, then it exploded till she got vertigo and went to hospital.

It is very humanly that we feel stressful. When we realize that there are so many obstacles or when things turn out to be different to our expectations, that is when this feeling begins. People will react differently to handle this stressful feeling. Some will eat a lot, sleep a lot, sing a lot, scream a lot, cry a lot or even laugh a lot. Or just like my friend, say nothing but then suddenly go to a hospital. Which one is yours ?

Long time a go, when I faced failures that made me to feel stressful, I slept a lot and I cried a lot. And I also did a lot of fasting. Fasting itself is a kind of my family rituals. Each member of my family loves fasting. But I realized that all I can do is just facing everything and hope God will always stay besides me. Though I was so nervous, but I kept pushing myself to be a strong person. When time goes by, at the moment, I don’t recognize the word “failure”. The word “failure” is no more existed in my life. When my plan does not turn out to be what I expected, it means that God says “I have a better plan for you, Retno”. At least I have 2 important events that make me behaving like this.

Faculty of forestry was my second choice when I was in the university. The first one was department of agricultural machinery. I felt so sad that time, till I had a dream. In my dream, I walked under the trees’ canopies. It was after the rain and the sun light dispersed between leaves of the canopies. Most of photos or paintings that describe the beauty of forest would have this kind of pictures. But the most important thing is, I felt so happy in that dream. When I woke up, I felt that God just had a conversation with me. And now look at me. I work for protected areas. I will do everything to keep our natural resources maintained. I will make people to realize the importance to keep this world undamaged. When all the ecosystems are in balance, so do our life. If I went to agricultural machinery, I might would have been worked in a factory now. Making pollution to this world instead of making it clean. I would have a horrible life. Thanks God for sending me to faculty of forestry.

The second event was when my plan to go to US for my master degree was cancelled. I had my flight ticket in hand already. Suddenly, things were just blown up due to some administrative reasons. I was so stressful. I even felt the pain when I touched my head. I had it for almost a year. When all problems solved, I met a friend, Prof. Charles Santiapillai. An elephant expert who was also the director of WWF Indonesia at that time. He was wondering if I would like to do my master degree in UK. I said “sure, I would like to”. Then he gave me a piece of paper to be taken to the British Council. In that office I was interviewed for about 2 hours. After the interview, the guy at the BC said “Retno, you are the luckiest person in Indonesia. We’ve been trough selections for our scholarships in all over in Indonesia since February – it was in December. But there is still one place available, and fortunately, it is exactly for your field of interest. So Retno, welcome to the BC”. What ? That easy ? Unbelievable. It seemed like that the scholarship was just there for me. It was empty until I came by to pick up what belongs to me. So God has another plan for me.

Now I understand why I have to go to UK. You know I love travelling. Studying in UK enabled me to travel to many countries in Europe. Visiting many friends. Feeling the atmosphere of different countries, different faces, different cultures ! I felt so happy. I also have a very strong British accent when I speak English. This accent makes me to be accepted in particular group of people. Paul - my best friend from RARE - said that my accent belongs to the upper class society in UK. Once people speak to me, they will recognize that I’m coming from a good family with a good education. No wonder when I was in a seminar of oil companies’ participation in environmental conservation, at Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, during the dinner I shared table with the CEO of those oil companies, when my boss was seated far away at the back of the room. I said to the committee” why should I have to sit here ? I’m not an important person”. But the British guy from the committee insisted that I was important. When I had an interview with fullbright, the interviewers were wondering why I have such a strong accent. And I said “when I was in UK, I had a British boy friend. We might kissed too much”. Studying in UK also enabled me to stop by in Mecca for my “Umroh” on the way back home to Indonesia.

So now I have no reason to feel stressful anymore. No doubt there are problems in our daily life. Financial problem, family problem, education problem – this is my main problem now. But I know that every time I successfully pass a problem, I become a stronger person. And when thing does not turn out to be what I wanted, God has a better plan for me. For my better future.

High School Reunion (again).

We had another high school reunion. It was on 2nd August 2009 at Pulau Dua Restaurant Jakarta. My sister wondering why do I have many high school reunions. Normally it is only once in a year, but we have met about 4 times now. Well, that’s because we love to see each other. We have too many good friends during high school. We feel that they are more trusted than our co-workers. And for sure, we love to behave as teenagers again.

This reunion was bigger than other meetings we had before though I did not see several familiar faces. We also had people from social science class as before we had people from natural science class only. Many of our teachers came as well. During high school, I loved mathematics, I loved physics, I loved biology but I felt sick for chemistry. I saw my mathematics teacher. After these 27 years, it is so amazing that she is not changing at all. She is still the smart Madam Kun that I knew. I saw my chemistry teacher and my biology one as well.

For the later, he was a new teacher when I was in the third grade. It was a day when I was late for school. I was just standing at the gate when he closed and locked the school gate. I said “Sir, I’m here already”. But he insisted that I was late. It was a day when students obliged to gather at an open area to hold a ceremony respecting our nation symbolized by our flag. Students are students. There were many more who were late. So we decided to get into the school from an other entrance. Climbing the wall !! Though I was the only girl, but we hold each other to climb the wall. Hoop la ! Got into my class !! When my biology teacher walked around to check the empty classes. There was me, giving him my big smile !!

The best thing of the last reunion was I found all of my shared table friends. Look at the picture. Evy in my first grade, Henny (with blue hijab) in my second grade and Ningsih (with yellow hijab) in my third grade. I’m so happy. I feel like I have found my lost sisters !! During the reunion I saw Bambang my fiend who lives in Bali. He is so dark till we call him Bambang black. I saw Nunuh as well, my good friend during high school. He is not married yet. People said why don’t we become a couple. No way. Friends are friends. Friendship should be distinguished clearly from love. For me, it is so stupid if marriage is based on who ever available. Besides love, marriage is about uniting vision and philosophy of life. Though there would be differences, but it is all about living in this world with shared values and achieving shared goals. Not only for our own happiness, but also for the benefit of this world and the human being.

Other good thing about reunion is taking pictures together. People just flocked from one group to an other, who ever taking pictures. Social science class or natural science class, who cares ! On the way back, I visited Nana’s new house. A nice house with a nice neighbourhood. We had a cup of tea and discussing about our cats. I left her house when the day was getting dark.

Commuting by train (Bogor-Jakarta)

In a train on the way back to Bogor from Jakarta yesterday, a lady with a two years old child came aboard at Gambir station. All the seats were occupied. Two ladies next to me advised her to go to the corner since there was an army who might gave up his seat for her and the baby. Out of their expectation. The army was frozen on his seat. Then they said “Oh no. Let’s close our eyes. Pretending we were sleeping”.

Well, this kind of conversation is something normal in a train between Bogor to Jakarta. Once people get their seats, they will suddenly fall asleep. Ignoring whoever standing in front of them. Whether an old lady, mother with a child, or someone standing with one leg, who cares ! Other way besides falling asleep is busy with cell phone. It was a time when my 75 years old mother was standing in front of 3 young guys who were busy sending messages with their cell phones. So busy till they did not notice an old lady was in front of them. Fortunately it was only a short trip. If it takes more than 30 minutes, I would punch the guys immediately. Back to the lady with a baby, luckily, not the army but other guy gave up his seat for her.

Contrasting to other countries, mostly in Europe, seats are prioritized for women and children. In Czech Republic, all young people are standing in the train. Leaving the seats empty with only old ladies and women with children. Plus me, off course, I’m an Indonesian. But still there are some disadvantages. During a trip in subway in London, two young ladies were having conversation. It was a bit loud since they were seating across to each other. Suddenly an old lady offered her seat to one of them. They were wondering why. She said “to stop you both making so much noise”. Then, no body moved and things returned to silence.

I’ve been taking trains in many countries. The most memorable one was on my trip from Czech Republic to Republic of Slovakia. It was a night train. The train conductor checked our tickets at about 2 AM. Not alone, an army with a big gun was standing behind him. So you could imagine, when you were still a half sleeping, opening the door and seeing a police and an army with a big gun in front of you, saying “ticket and passport please !”. I thought I was dreaming in a middle of World War I. But my dreaming had not finished yet. In Kochitzte, Slovakia, I took a cup of coffee to open up my eyes in dark chilly morning. When I paid the coffee, leaving my bag behind, in less than 2 minutes, my big wallet with passport and money was gone stolen by the gypsies. Oh no ! Fortunately, I have a very good friend, Ema, who was taking care of me. She was the one who paid for everything and took me to Indonesian embassy to get a document functioning as my passport. Thank you Ema. Some day I will visit you again and that time, I’ll be the one who pay for everything.

What about train from Bogor to Jakarta ? There are about 15 million people live in Jakarta and its sub urban area. Most people live in the sub urban area and Bogor as the housing price is much cheaper than Jakarta. That makes about 116 million people in a year commuting by train to go to Jakarta (Kompas.com). It is nothing compare to London subway where about 1 billion people a year using the service (wikipedia). But off course, the situation is also different.

London subway began to operate in 1863, during the era of the Queen Victoria. The first underground railway system in the world. As time goes by, they make more and more underground tunnels at different level of depth. If you comprehend termite’s nest, it looks like that. So during the day, people in London are termites, moving from one point to an other, using underground tunnels.

When in London, public transportation service is built for 100 years ahead vision. In Jakarta, probably there is no vision at all. At the moment, there are about 600 000 vehicles get into Jakarta daily, where only 2% are public transportation and 98% the rest are private cars (Kompas.com). No wonder why people in Jakarta prefer to take breakfast in their cars, due to the traffic jam. Then train becomes very important. No traffic light, no traffic jam, no one brave enough fighting in front of a moving train, so the train suppose to make our time more efficient. I said suppose to, because in reality it does not work like that. Unreliable departing time, regular broken machine, regular trouble on electricity, and even some people stole the bolt of railway that halt the train journey. If that happens, all we can do just wait till things are better again. Or take other alternative transportation such as bus.

But the inconveniences of the train is not only from the train itself. The passengers also play a big part of it. Pickpockets are something normal especially in the early time of the month when people just get their salary in cash. When people get off from the train and from the other side, people push in to come aboard, that’s when the pickpocket operates. But this creates solidarity amongst passengers. Once someone lost their wallet, some body will offer her/him some money for bus fare or a lift in his/her car/motorcycle at least till the pickpocket victim arrive safely at home. This happened to my little sister. The pickpocket also slices off women’s bag to take the wallet inside. One time I was a victim of pickpockets who operate with their hypnotizing skill. I felt like I just woke up from my sleep when the train hit the light after getting through a dark tunnel (under a bridge). Then I realized that my wallet was not in place. But there is a passenger’s behaviour that annoying me so much. Some guys like to do “petting” to other women passengers. When the train is full of passengers, very hard to move, then suddenly somebody rub his tool against me. Ouch, so disgusting !!

I’m taking train from Bogor to Jakarta since 1982, when I was first enrolled in Bogor Agricultural University. Though I rent a room in Bogor, I went home every week end. Until one time, I fell down from the train when I get off in Bogor. That accident made me unconscious. I was lucky that the best friend of my boy friend at that time was in the train as well. He organized people to carry me until I arrived at my rented room. If you familiar with the name of Drajat A. Wibowo, a famous economist who is the member of Indonesian house representative at the moment, that is the guy who helped me. I tell you a secret. In the university, he liked to study during the train’s trip. In one day he could take several train’s trips only for studying. But it made him graduated with “cum laude”.

But the train services is getting better now. There are more express trains “Pakuan” with air conditioner. There are also economic scale trains with air conditioners. People with children prefer the take this one. Though mostly are second hand trains from Japan – the price is one tenth compare to a new train - there are more trains available at the moment to address the increase of passengers each year. When the train make improvement, hope there would also improvement of passengers behaviour.

Home sweet home

As I mentioned before I moved house to another town. It is in Bogor, south part of Jakarta. The house is quite small but this is my own. I bought it in 2002 – paid under 10 year instalment basis - and I designed the house as I live by myself. Now, my sister and my mother joined me. My sister is OK but my mother does not like the design. I like green colour. I have green bathroom, green telephone, green calendar. But my mother likes blue, so she ordered blue curtain. Well, it’s OK as the curtain makes my house full of colour. My mother does not like my bathroom with showers. She likes the one with a tank of water. She said “if we keep the water tank full of water so do our wallet with money”. Hmm….perhaps. She also does not like my kitchen. Look at the picture. My mother hammered the kitchen. She hates it !.

What should I say ? I said nothing. Let me tell you why. Indonesian life expectancy is 70 to 72.5 years old. When you have a 75 years old mother, will you argue with her ? “No way”. I even feel happy if she would like to eat something. Because if she is eating, this means she is still alive. The rests are just bonus for me !! We need our mother because there is so much wisdom she has been teaching us. My mother keeps telling us that we have to be an honest person. Since if we keep our honesty, whatever difficult our situation is, God will always give his hand to us. I totally agree with this because it is not only conceptually God gives his hand, but I did literally see God’s hand.

It happened when I was in Edinburgh, UK when I was doing my MSc study. One night I felt so hurt on my chest. It was so hurt and I had difficulty to breath. I thought I was going to die. Then I saw my Koran on the table. I wanted to reach it. But I could not move. And I screamed “God, help me!”. You know what. I suddenly saw a very very big big hand grabbed the Koran from my table and put it on my chest. Soon after, I felt so relieved. When I opened my eyes, the Koran was still on the table. But I did believe what I saw and I remembered my mother. She said “keep being honest and God’s hand will help you”. Yes mother, I promise !.

Back to my house. I understood why my mother renovates the kitchen. In the house, there is only one bedroom. My mother sleeps there with my sister. And I ? I sleep with bicycle and all the kitchen stuff. Moving the kitchen means giving me more room to sleep. Thanks Mom, I love you !!.

Though I have a small house but I feel so grateful as I still have a place to stay. I saw many people have to rent houses that make them move often from one to another. There are also unfortunate homeless people on the street. I think everyone needs a house as home to live. Then I found out I was totally wrong. Not everyone in this world needs a house to live. My friend, Ghofur (2008) did an anthropological research on people who live in “handcart” in Jakarta. They use the cart not only for collecting materials from garbage – materials that can be sold such as cartons, plastic, bottles, etc - but they also use it as “a house”. They sit in it, eat in it, sleep in it and even make love in it. Some of his respondents said that renting a house is too expensive but most of them said that they prefer to live in cart as it gives them so much freedom.

We might think that living in a cart is a free of charge living. Ghofur found it is not, not at all. They still have to pay. If they do not want to be kicked off from the street, they have to pay to the security people, legal or illegally. If they want to keep the cart close to the good source of garbage, they have to pay to the local administrative staff in the neighbourhood, legal or illegally. Live on the street is such a wild and dangerous life. But for the sake of “freedom”, they are happy to do it.

High school reunion

It has been 27 years since I graduated from high school. Yesterday on 12th July, we had our high school reunion. About 100 people came. Some of them have similar faces in high school that I still remember. Let’s say about 50% of them. And the remaining, I totally forgot. They said “Hi Retno, do you remember me ?” and I said “Ups, I don’t”. Then s/he tried to figure out things that can make me remember again. In my opinion, I don’t really care about those memories. The most important thing is, they are my high school friends and we will remain as friends from now on.

When I arrived I met a woman going up to the same direction to the 7th floor of the Perumnas building. Not really remember her, until I recognized her lips. No one in this world has lips like that. This must be Irene !. I missed her so much. We were in the same group for a 60 km marching competition from Bogor to Jakarta and we won the trophy !. We were in a local girl magazine that time, in 1981. All the girls in the group are my best friends during high school.

At the reunion I met Agus, my classmate during my first grade in high school. At that time, I liked him and I think he liked me too :). One time, he drove me home with his motorcycle. I was so excited and I did something stupid on the way home. Normally, a girly way of sitting on motorcycle is facing to the left side of the driver. But I was sitting facing to other direction. I was facing to the right side !! On the traffic light, I was wondering why the girl in front of me was facing me. Why everyone was looking at me ? Agus – he is a very quite guy – say nothing as well. What an embarrassing memory. When I met Agus again, we were laughing together remembering the moment.

In Indonesia, during high school we have to share a table with other student. In the reunion, I met Evy - my shared table friend during the first grade – and Ningsih – my shared table friend during the third grade. All of us are chatty women and we all were clever students. I still regularly meet Ningsih for having lunch together when we have time. But I lost contact with Evy after high school graduation. I was so excited finding her name on face book and soon we made appointment to have lunch together. I’m still loosing my shared table friend during the second grade -Henny. I wish I can find her soon.

On the way back home, Ari gave me and Umar a lift in his car. I and Umar were heading to the closest train station. The last time I met Ari was during his wedding party. I used to see him also jogging at Senayan. It was 4 years ago. Time passed so fast ! Umar is a good friend of mine during high school. He is a disable person. One of his legs is shorter than the other. Sometime, when I walked with him I would imitated his walking style, I walked as I have one leg shorter that the others !. But he is very smart and he is a dentist now. We had drink together and had a small chat before taking a train at Kalibata train station. We’re going to have another high school reunion next month. Another good time since during reunion we would act as we were teenagers again.

My beloved cats

4th of July was a good day for us, I and my sister since Moche - our lost cat who been gone for 2 weeks returned back home. We both cried for happiness. 2 weeks a go we took our 3 cats into our new home in an other town 60 km from our hometown. They are :
1) Ciput - a 20 years old lady. She almost lost her fur for a half of her body. Her spirit to stay alive is protecting her only son, Oneng.
2) Moche - Ciput's sister, about 17 years old. She lost all of her teeth. A small and fat cat. An emotional cat, she might just scratch you with no reason when I pass her.
3) Oneng - an one year cute and lovely kitten. He likes to play with me by running around the house. He is too small compare to other cats.

On the second night at the new home, I let those 3 cats left the house for their big job. 2 returned home and Moche never came back. I felt so bad as I let her go and she is new in the neighbourhood. We were afraid that she might returned to our old home. It happened to our previous cat. Comeng - a naughty guy liked to pee everywhere including into a bowl of soup of our neighbour. The angry neighbour dumped him far away. 2 weeks later he came home, looked very sick and he died a day after. My mother said - he went home for his last day and he wanted to be surrounded by people who loved him.

We were very worry since Moche has no teeth at all. How can she eat ? She is very old. How can she fight back to wild cats who attack her ? Normally we are the ones who help her. Thanks God she decided to return back to our new home. She might get confused in the middle of her journey. What a smart cat, decided to return back before things were getting worst.

Indonesia’s presidential public election

On 8th July, we were in rush this morning to go to my previous home as we were going to give our votes for this year presidential election. We have three pair of candidates, Megawati-Prabowo as no. 1, Bambang Yudhoyono-Budiono as no. 2 and the last one Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto as no. 3. This presidential election is much easier than the election for the members of house representative in May. In the previous one we had 4 different levels of house representatives, from 44 parties and each party had about 0 to 15 people that we had to choose. In that election, each paper that we had to give our mark was so huge. It took time to scan the 44 parties plus small alphabets of names of the candidates. Has not mentioned how some people sang “twinkle-twinkle little stars” to choose the party randomly.

With some problems occurred including the inaccuracy of DPT (list of people who give votes), the first step of public election was done. What Indonesia !! Some people who did not get enough votes to be elected had psychological problem. In an other word they became mad !. Some of them went to hospitals for mental illness. Some went to the “traditional medicine man”. Some of them even committed suicide. Why ? Because they had spent so much money to make people vote for them. For rich people things were not that bad but some of them were drawn in a huge debt. A gift considered as a donation previously, suddenly being withdrawn as there was not enough votes given by the people who received the gift. There was also a guy who closed down the main road into his own village, as he was so disappointed to the villagers for not electing him. People just lose their mind !

Today we have to choose our president. All candidates have been through a tiring campaign for a month. From indoor campaign, outdoor campaign, all giant posters along the roads, TV advertisements, debates on TV (This is a new one. We never had it before). Every candidate tried to reach the lowest level people in our society. That’s why traditional markets became favorite sites to be visited. The no. 1 tried to prove that they pro to common people. They signed so many agreements with different groups of communities. And ready to be sued if they can not fulfill their promises. No 2 emphasized the personal attraction of SBY (at the moment he is still our president). How good looking he is (I totally disagree with this!), how he is a good father, a very polite guy, a smart guy with PhD title on his name. No 3 tried to prove that they are hard workers. And they will make Indonesia capable to develop independently. This afternoon, every TV channel does what we call a quick count. A small survey that will picture what we are going to have as the result. No 2, so far, wins. In my opinion, people just lose their mind !

Why do I say this ? I saw from the presidential debates, other candidates gave a better statements and answers than no. 2. More rational and able to cover an abstract system with real examples on the field. Everyone knew that the vice president at the moment who did more work than he is – no 3 candidate is the vice president. The president appears so often on TV in many ceremonial events. If you have miss universe or Indonesian idols, our president appears more often than them. The way he presents himself is not genuine. This is what we call “jaim” – he controls the way he speaks, the way he moves, to controlling his image as a nice, polite, and a good looking guy. Gosh, I got stomach problem every time I see him. But in fact, people are hypnotized by this. Have not mentioning how many promises he gave during the presidential election in 2004 that have not been fulfilled yet. I got headache now !

Seeing what happened during the election of house representatives and now the presidential election, it is obvious that most of Indonesian people are communities who are not rational enough. I do not say irrational ! This is a different issue !. Without detail calculation of possibility to be elected, people just put their names in for the election of house representative. No wonder they become mad after losing the election. People also elect president who has a better appearance, not because he has better programs and actions. Some Indonesians are still the traditional voters, means they prefer to have a male president than a lady one. No. 1 candidate is a lady. I had a conversation with a friend in Bogor mentioning that his big family will never elect a woman as president because in Moslem world there is no woman leader. Indonesian majority is Moslem. I said “no way”. There are too many examples that women are good leaders, but still, this is their view. I’m wondering if one of their daughters goes for the election, I’m sure they will change their mind.

All Quick counts say no 2 win. He already gave his statement – though I think this is too early and too confident because it requires formal statement from appointed body who runs the election, mentioning that he is the winner. I frankly prefer other candidates for a better Indonesia. I don’t think he will win the election that easily. There are many problems occurred during the presidential election such as the DPT problem, some people vote more than once, etc. We’ll see how other candidates do about this. Tonight the no. 2 candidate will be interviewed in many TV channels. I might spend time just reading my books and prepare some stomach medicine if I need it.