On Adversity

The Situ Gintung tragedy, as with other events of adversity, reveals many aspects of human traits and behaviors. There are those who are quick in providing any form of assistance without being so fussy about everything else, those who are quick in throwing out words, pointing fingers and put all the blames to whoever and whatever they are, except themselves, or those who use disastrous event like this to do business or build names or for things that would give benefit to them, and so forth. There are plenty of choices, and people have freedom to choose.

The Path

It was just a few weeks back when someone asked a seemingly simple question, and yet it's so damn difficult for me to find a good answer for it. It's mainly because I haven't put enough thought about it again, and I my inner state was far different from the last time I gave reply to the same question. Hence I was frozen for a few moments. The fact is that simple things all of sudden can be very complicated and on the other hand complicated matters can also be astonishingly simple ones.

Alternative to LinkWithin

It's been a while that I was looking for alternative to LinkWithin. LinkWithin is actually cool and very useful plugin, until you made changes to your blog. I recall that a few days after using the plugin, the bounce rate dropped significantly. It means that it worked as it supposed to.

Tweetback Button Inside Post

I didn't touch my Twitter account for months, was not aware that it could be used to promote a new posting to fellow users, and didn't know that it could also be used to measure a posting popularity, until the day I found out that the Indonesia Matters has changed its blog ranks criteria to include Twitter Back Tweets.

Fight!

Disbelief and humiliated, those were among the first responses that came into everybody's mind on hearing the news of bomb explosion at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, on Friday morning. Deep sympathy to the victims and their families, who were killed and wounded in the blast, were poured. The Jakartans and the Indonesian people in general were deeply wounded again with this act of violence.

On Acceptance

Acceptance of circumstances and realities that one faces in life certainly is a choice, and so is refusal or denial. Whether acceptance is better or worse than, or equally the same as refusal, depends on the person's MiHeS (mind, heart, soul) set, then on plan of action and execution that follow. What more important is to consider things that matter to the subject and the stakeholder involved, and everything else should come second or third.

Shift Happens

This is my first post at The Aroengbinang Project, fulfilling my promise to the blog's owner, as one of TAP's contributors. I've been living abroad for several years, and since a few months back I've been busy attending a class to get a certification. Thanks that at last I completed my final term exams and hence I can find more time to write. This time I'd like to share with you of what my instructor shared with our class. It has nothing to do with the subject he was teaching, yet with awesome energy, it captured the attention of the whole class.

Talkers

Last week, right after the unofficial announcement by PD that Boediono would be selected as SBY's running mate for the upcoming Presidential election in July 8, leaders from PD's coalition parties, especially PKS and PAN, voiced out their disappointment, suspicion, accusation and even threatened to quit the coalition with PD, if SBY didn't change his preference. We know that PKS finally stayed with PD, while PAN showed their half-hearted support to the pair. I am no politician, and never want to be one, but a few thoughts below may be worth to consider.

C'est la vie

I happened to read this phrase of C'est la vie yesterday and my memory warped back to the end of 1970s. Memory of an old beautiful song with the same title. I even forgot who played it until several hits on Youtube search engine brought me a name, and it was Greg Lake, the vocalist of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Another search using Google engine, reveals the meaning of the phrase that I had never taken attention on it before.

The Break Up

In general people do not like surprises and uncertainties, business and common people alike, and hence things that will ensure stability and continuity will get support from the majority of the people. That's what exactly happened in the Indonesian politics these days, when the break up of the coalition between Partai Demokrat and Golkar, SBY - JK in particular, received negative reactions by the business community in particular. For common people, however, there were mixed reactions.

Statesmanship

Every person, institution or government has some blind spots, areas where the span of vision and control of the person could just not reach, and the person remains ill-informed until somebody be kind enough to share their observations in the form of critics, suggestions or in harsher forms of feedbacks. One should remember, however, critics may backfire to the senders when there are imbalances in the assessments.

Vote with MiHeS

Thursday, April 9, 2009, is the day of General Election for the Indonesians. People cast vote to select candidates to be entitled for seats in the parliament. They are the lawmakers who suppose to represent people's interests and aspirations, both at regional and national levels. Many of the Indonesian people, however, will likely choose party, instead of persons, who have shown their strong allegiance to their favorite candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Some people probably have already lost their trust to the lawmakers, but not to the person who would be the president.

The Living Death of Artists

It was not the first time I saw them sitting on the dirty floor, right in front of Sroto Eling-Eling at Jl. Lapangan Roos Raya, Tebet, performing traditional Javanese songs, but at that time after finishing my affair with the delicious Sroto (I skipped the hot and oily mendoan), I decided to greet them, asked a few short questions and took their photos. Photos of the living death of old traditional Javanese artists.

List of Blog Directories

Traffic is certainly important for your blog, as no matter how good your articles are, you still need to attract readers to come to your blog so that they can read and appreciate your works. To be listed in as many blog directories as possible is one of the common strategies to increase blog traffic, and here what the post is all about.

Longing for the Past

For those of you who were born in the 50s and early 60s, this is for you. There are a couple of very special songs and lyrics that will bring you back to and refresh your aging memories of the good old days. Just as what the Alan Parson Project says: Time, flowing like a river; Time, beckoning me; Who knows when we shall meet again, if ever; But time, keeps flowing like a river, to the sea.

Happy Lunar New Year

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous Lunar New Year! The first day of the new year of the Earth Ox falls on Monday, January 26, the same day when some of the Indonesian people can observe annular solar eclipse, i.e. the moon will be right in front of the sun but it won't cover the sun completely. A ring of fire will appear.

Wishing You A Happy 2009

One way or the other, people around the world celebrate the coming of a new year. The celebrations are not necessarily held at the same time as others, they often include the adaptation of traditions or religions. Some also include putting on “lucky” attire with the hope of luck throughout the coming year.

On the Brink of Recession

In the last few days the world financial systems were shaken badly. Bankruptcies sent thousands of people to the streets. Share prices tumbled and investors lost their savings. Jakarta Stock Exchange activities were suspended for two and half days due to steep drop in the stock index. People were concern of the weakening currency. We were entering a period of severe economic turbulence.

Tentang Penelitian Itu

Pernyataan ini sudah lapuk, namun tetap saja layak di ulang, bahwa tidak ada negara, masyarakat, perusahaan atau perseorangan yang maju tanpa landasan pendidikan dan penelitian yang kuat. Jika pun ada, hanyalah berkah sesaat dari langit, dan karunia itu tidak bertahan lama jika kekayaan yang diperoleh tidak ditanam kembali untuk memperkuat pendidikan, penelitian, pengembangan produk dan jasa, dan lalu memperdagangkannya.

On Correctional Facility

Correctional Facility, as it is called, is a strictly guarded place where unfortunate convicted individuals are physically confined for certain period of times or even for life. Their lack of personal freedoms, the minimum standard of living conditions they receive and the lack of personal safety they sometimes have to face, are parts of the consequences they have to deal with in places that are also widely known as prisons.