Of People and Their Suit

Several weeks ago, I met an old friend. We were sort of best buddies way back then. Since junior high, we went to different high school. After a good 18 years, we meet again in Jakarta. He was always of the brash kind, never shy to speak his mind out of anything.

The meeting went as usual. Although, there are some excerpts of the conversation that was rather disconcerting for me. Here it goes:

Him: Do you go to the office everyday dress like that, Her?
Me: Yep, why?

Him: I don’t know, don’t you think people won’t look down on you?

This was where I felt slightly uneasy. I may not be a very trendy person. However, in my opinion, there’s nothing too wrong with the way I dress. Regular cotton shirt, black pants, no ties and suit but everything was quite clean and comfortable.

Therefore, I ask him to elaborate.

Him: Your bag! Isn’t that akin to what high school kids wear? And, why would you have to fold your sleeve like that? I don’t mean to brag, but when people look at me, they know I meant business. They always think I’m the boss even though I’m only a supervisor in my company.

I was just smiling, completely devoid of any answers on how to respond to that. I was also not in the mood to argue.

Anyhow, I guess it’s perfectly normal that people judge a book by its cover. It happened to us plenty of times, in the mall for example. There’s an apparent distinction of treatment when I walk in wearing a casual dress compared to strolling with a power suit. Sales suddenly started being friendlier and the security guys loosen up.

I just didn’t expect an old friend to be that superficial. He even had the temerity to ask how much I earn in one month! Well, he may look like the boss but perhaps tact and discretion is not his forte.

If I’m being honest, I have been guilty being rather superficial too from time to time. The reason I bought my current gadgets because I wouldn’t want to be the guy who comes in a reunion (be it high school or college) with the lamest hand phone.

It would help a lot if I could just rent suits and gadgets whenever I need it. That way gaining respect would be much cheaper.

On a different note, my wife and I were in an angkot the other day. The driver was this reckless young punk who drives like a drunkard. We spent a good five minutes cussing the driver and praying for our life when all of a sudden the driver stopped.

Afterward he stepped out of the angkot and crossed the road. He then gently took a blind man’s hand and slowly guided him to the other side of the road and under the bus shelter. He even gave that poor blind man some spare change.

This driver was a young chap, with hair like a Mohawk and a torn t-shirt with Rage Against the Machine written on its dirty top.

Me and the missus were sitting there silenced and just stared at each other. Apparently, we have underestimated the man. Although, subsequently, the now highly esteemed driver went on with his brutal way of driving. We didn’t use any bad language this time, we were just praying.

Up until now, I have to remind my self, time and time again, not to judge a person by their dress, their gadget, or by their haircut.

PS:

• Angkot is an abbreviation of Angkutan Kota (City Transportation Mode). Usually it's an MPV Cars such as Toyota Kijang colour coded and numbered based on directions.
  

Of Watching TV

The description of couch potato suits me very well. I spend more than half time of the week to watch any kind of stuff from that idiot box.

I used to read a lot, not anymore.

Although I’m OK with watching the TV by myself, it could be fun watching it with the wife. She is not the type who asks who is the bad guy in The Matrix, however she has a pretty eclectic and difficult taste of her own.

Friends, Scrubs, and Desperate Housewives are certainly her picks. It’s not difficult as they have ‘chick flick’ theme written all over them. Not that I don’t like them, mind you.

I have managed to make her mildly interested in The X Files, by picking some of the best episodes from the saga, which have nothing to do with the main story arc. The X Files for me still reigns as the best program of all time.

Prison Break was a gamble, and it largely succeeded due to the fact that Michael Scofield is a pretty good looking chap. The story being totally intoxicating was also helpful. She was hooked and became a major fan of the series since day one.

She hates 24 and The Office with a passion, while I love both of them with a passion. I mean, Jack Bauer kicking major butts, need I say more? Also, the cringe worthy antics from David Brent and Gareth Keenan are some of the most hilarious comedy in the business.

She’s still lost on Lost. Every time I watch the award-winning sci-fi, she goes browsing over the net or watching some sinetron on terrestrial TV. It is very difficult for me to explain the beauty of flash back and flash forward method they intricately use in Lost. In addition, the love triangle between Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, what’s not to like?

For her, Grey’s Anatomy is just another Melrose Place. For me the interrelationships between the characters serve merely as a spice for the complexity of drama that touches patients and doctors when dealing with a matter of life and death. Granted there’s one too many McCheesy moments in between, but there are riveting storylines in most episodes.

House MD is just brilliant, there’s no question about it and she agrees.

The genius diagnostician’s sarcastic way of dealing with his patients while solving some of the mysterious medical cases ala Sherlock Holmes is indeed the greatest show around these days.

With the three CSI series, there are no problems.

It’s just a matter of who’s the best between Gill Grissom, Horatio Caine, and Mac Taylor. I picked Grissom while she’s smitten with Horatio, which is mind boggling in it self. Because I’m totally fed up with Caruso’s ultra cool way of putting his sunglasses while staring blankly in slow motion.

Yesterday though was a major coup in our TV watching history. I managed to literally drag and shackle my wife to watch Dexter.

I’ve been telling her how awesome this new series this past two months. She just won’t budge. Not only because the star is that quirky gay dude from Six Feet Under, but the opening sequences involving Dexter grinding someone’s skull opened.

Yes, Dexter is a serial killer. Nevertheless, he has a code, a moral fiber, which has been instilled on him by his late foster father to channel his urge to kill, into something worthy for the society.

Not often I can say that people may relate to a sadistic serial killer. However, Dexter, I am sure will be able to steal your heart and in the end cheer for him when he sticks that 6 inches blade in the chest of his victims.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a gory stuff alright. It’s definitely not for the squeamish kind. In fairness, there is humor inside, albeit a dark one, with perfect comedic timing from Michael Hall.

If you haven’t watch it, I suggest you do. You will be entrapped in an absorbing story and end up wanting to see more from our friendly neighborhood serial killer.

Now I only need to rack my brain on ways to get my wife watching organized sports programs.

Of General Sudirman

Baptism by fire is what we call it. Every year our high school orders the students to march 40 km following the footsteps of the Late General Sudirman during our struggle for Independence in 1948.

It was a gruelling task. We stopped only at nights and slept in some tents deep inside the forest. Yet we marched on, motivating each other all the way. We were only young and full of spirit.

To be honest, I didn't really understand the true meaning behind the whole trip at that time. It dawned to us all right, but somehow it got lost due to tiredness and naivety. In my recent surge of patriotism (pardon the sarcastic tone), I started to learn more about this great man and why he's considered as one of the best sons these shores ever produced.

Sudirman is the first Commander-in-chief of Indonesia Armed Forces. It is an even greater achievement considering he was merely 30 years old when President Soekarno appointed him in 1945.

Just like Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) in Saving Private Ryan, Sudirman was a simple schoolteacher. He got his reputation when he organized a guerilla attack against the British and the Dutch in Ambarawa, forcing them to move away towards Semarang.

Back then, in a vacuum of power after Emperor Hirohito acknowledged defeat, the British and Dutch army tried to wrestle Indonesia as their colony once more.

The recently declared independence made thousands of young men euphoric. They fought hard and long against enemy with a more powerful arsenal. However, these are young untrained fighter. There was an urgent need to elect a leader to coordinate the battle.

Fresh out of big combat, and in control of the largest soldiers with weapons seized from the Japan, Sudirman was chosen unanimously by his peers. Those days were very different. People are able to cooperate with each other and the spirit was awe-inspiring.

It was an interesting choice, because Sudirman have this very unimpressive appearance. He was a thin and quiet man. Yet the other commanders saw in him a mental toughness, charisma, and bravery exceeding that of his compatriots.

Theodore Friend who wrote Indonesia: Peoples and Histories describes him as having "A strangely blended samurai discipline, Marxist disposition, and raw courage." It’s quite a fearsome combination of characters.

“I do love peace, but I love freedom so much more!”
That is the code Sudirman lived and die for.

That quote maybe overused in recent decades, but I always shiver at the thought of those words coming out of this once great General. Just like my eyes glistening every time I watched the end of Braveheart when William Wallace shouted out “Freedom!”

Tuberculosis hampered Sudirman’s effectiveness in battle. Because he was so important to the army morale, his men had to carry him on a legendary palanquin, walking through a hidden route from Jogjakarta to Magelang for hundreds of kilometers. Imagine the hardship. Those men who carried him on their shoulders are also heroes in my eyes.

On the 29 January 1950, Indonesia lost one of her greatest defender. He was buried in Jogjakarta where the government bestowed the National Hero status he thoroughly deserves.

Now I know why my high school ordered us to walk through his footsteps. Now I also know why almost every city in Indonesia have a major street named after him.

PS:

• Jejak Langkah Panglima Besar Sudirman
  

Mom & Pops Store

Trying to avoid post power syndrome, my parents decided to open a tiny Mom & Pops Store following their retirement. It’s rather fortunate that we have a corner house back in Makassar. Soon after finishing renovation the little store ready to sell random stuffs from butter and eggs, to tooth picks.

They were running pretty OK during the first couple of years. Since Dad still has his pension from Aneka Tambang, the store merely serve as something to keep them occupied. Not much profit taking, they don't open in late hours, and the customers are mainly our neighbors.

Recently, as the effect of globalization, lots of Multinational Corporation opens their business everywhere. The result was evident in the wholesale and retail industry. Its growth brings plenty of employment opportunities, generating income for the government, and doing pretty good at moving the wheel of economy in these difficult years.

The flipside of the coin is the expansion of these behemoth businesses engulfed lots of smaller establishments like The Mom & Pops Stores in many places.

Take an example from the tug of war between Carrefour and Hero group. In their effort to increase their business, they open branches far into the rural areas. This ‘invasion’ will eventually swallow millions of small business that has been striving in the neighborhood.

Let’s face it The Mom & Pops Stores tend to cost a bit more due to their inability to purchase a million shampoo at once from the principal distributor. Many people including me prefer anonymous shopping for a lot of things at once. We have to admit that walking in the cool aisle surrounded by gazillion selection of almost everything makes shopping a lot more comfortable.

Recent survey from AC Nielsen shows that people, especially in the big cities, prefer shopping their groceries in modern shopping centre. Traditional markets have count that hundreds of shop closed each year. That would mean, even though plenty of employment opportunities arise from supermarket and hypermarket chain, there are many business closed as the indirect result.

I think it’s about time government regulate the license of opening store chain in hope to level the playing field between major players and the little people. We might want to remember that when we shop in large chain store our money goes to some rich CEO who already makes hundreds of billions rupiah. Not that it’s wrong, mind you.

One thing that could keep these smaller ventures is if and when they can excel in their uniqueness: Their closeness to their market base and customer. The hospitality of the owner is important to keep people coming back. They maybe are 100 or 500 IDR pricier, yet the personal touch, the small talk, and the warm welcome are what separate them from the cold shoulder people get in huge retail store.

If they can keep their edge, they might survive this onslaught of free trade.

We are a bit lucky because my mom, bless her, is a very hospitable woman. It helps a lot to keep the Mom & Pops Store afloat, at least for now.

PS:

• The picture above is of David and Goliath's tale.
• A colleague in the office has Mum who cooks delicious cake.
  Please visit her blog if you want to take a look and maybe order some tasty and yummy cake.
  

Quo Vadis Democracy?

My mind was perplexed reading about Hillary Clinton’s 20 million USD of personal debt. Now there’s this call from Obama asking his party member to donate their hard earned cash for the already wealthy Clinton family.

Further reading about election, I found out that around 200 trillion IDR from the national budget would be used for 33 Governors and 473 Mayors and Regents Election.

That is an astronomical amount of money by any standard! We can build a lot of schools and hospitals in the entire archipelago for that bewitching sum.

Moreover, the number merely represents the formal cost of election. We can be sure there’s a lot more invisible outlay during the campaign process.

One easy example is; for any candidate to step forward, he or she would have to pocket endorsement from the local parliament and party. These are not free. One article mentions that the going rate is around 75 million IDR per endorsement. That means the candidate would have to provide capital in the range of 1 to 3 billion IDR.

There is no guarantee that after spending that money they would end up victorious. Consequently, they would do 'anything' to maximize their chance of winning.

It’s obvious that as soon as they win, first thing they would do is to make sure the capital they’ve spent will return some handsome profit. That’s not a good news for their constituent.

Usually people who benefit from this scheme are their inner circle. Now that’s why there are plenty of middlemen circling around government projects. Like any good vulture they are.

During our process to learn democracy, we also harbor potential conflict. Any sort of differences will be nurtured and escalated into a weapon for the candidates to win these gullible people’s support.

Almost no parties are able to lose gracefully. Maluku, West Java, and South Sulawesi are some of the cases proving this.

More often than not, the candidates are a collection of sleazy politicians and dodgy religious characters. Hence, for us it feels a lot like choosing the lesser evil.

I wonder what happens in other country. Is there any true democracy around?

From my understanding of American brand of democracy, their policies mostly influenced by lobbyists and wealthy industrialists (weapons and oil). People who back up the politicians financially in the first place.

The difference is most of its citizens are educated enough not too fight in the street during a campaign.

I understand that democracy in Indonesia is only young. I’m not suggesting that we should scrap the system altogether. However, any discourse about an alternative civil society in the end would prove whether democracy is the one and only proper way of nationhood.

After doing some research, we can divide the alternatives into two categories:

Anarchism; this includes Anarchist-communism, Anarcho-capitalism, Anarcho-primitivism, Libertarian socialism, etc.

Authoritarianism; are Autocracy, Aristocracy, Communist state, Corporatism, Despotism, Dictatorship, Monarchy, Theocracy, etc.

None of the above sounds too promising.

How about Pancasila’s type of Democracy, is there such a thing? This is the task for our bureaucrats and technocrats to ponder. When they have finished pondering, I’d hope they enlighten us little people. As, in my observation, very few of us live by the way of Pancasila these days.

Maybe democracy is indeed expensive and we all have to pay for it, at least for now.

In the mean time, we can always muse and blog.

Pomalaa

Two years ago out of boredom, I look up and tag some special places on Google-Earth. Surprisingly the data is still there and wikimapia.org. Seeing all these places from above is like seeing through a porthole into our past. Where did we grow up? What is it like now? How did it shape us as a person?

I was born in this very remote and dusty little town called Pomalaa, south east of Sulawesi. Primarily it is a ferro-nickel mining complex for Aneka Tambang, a state owned company. It’s a rather calm and peaceful little city with around 2000 families.

That’s my old house in the center of the picture. We had a spacious backyard, and we grew a lot of plants. Papaya, mango, rambutan, and bananas are among others. Naughty monkeys from the forest behind our house steal them fruits from time to time. They were pretty smart.

Elementary school was over at 2 pm. I usually shepherd my two goats around the neighborhood looking for leaves of Kembang Sepatu (hibiscus rosa-sinensis) for them to eat. My handsome and sprightly dog always kept me company, keeping those goats on track.

One night all of a sudden a giant snake from the dark forest ate those goats.

We were woken up over some noise from behind the yard. When my dad turned on the flashlight, we were all shocked to see a python the size of a trunk entwined and ruthlessly strangled the poor animals. It injected some sort of poison into the goat’s buttock like a scene in one scary movie.

Oddly, the snake wasn’t injured at all when dad use a regular machete to cut it over and over. Like it’s impervious. Only when our neighbor came with his Toraja machete they can wound and scare the snake away.

The goats were all fried, blackened and dead. It was quite sad really.

Many kinds of snakes had been frequently spotted in the area. Apparently, in the past the housing complex was one large swamp.

Apart from occasional horrors, my childhood in Pomalaa was quite fun. Us little kids, playing Tarzan, dives into the muddy river. Weeks went fishing in the sea with The Wajo people. In addition to many more adventures.

Anyway, it is nice to be able to observe the dusty little town grow. Now there is a lot of golf course opened around the housing complex. It seems that, the good people in Pomalaa found a new hobby in that ‘trendy’ sport.

Well, that is a little bits and pieces of the place where I grew up. Good job Google for the excellent application. Have you tagged your old houses? Here is the URL to do so.

Tangkuban Perahu - Sangkuriang's Forbidden Love

There was this gorgeous babe living in the Citarum’s riverbank. Dayang Sumbi was her name. She has a hobby of knitting beautiful stuff for her father, The Emperor.

One day her tool fell down and rolled outside the house. Out of laziness, she swore to the Almighty that whomever kind enough to bring her that precious tool back, she would give a fantastic reward.

The promise was to marry the person if it was a male. If it turns out it was a female, she'd make a sister out of her.

Anyway, as it happened, a male dog named Tumang came to her aid. She collapsed and fainted out of shock. However, as she is one proud chick with integrity, she kept her promise.

It was quite sketchy on how they consummate their marriages, but some months later a handsome baby boy was born, with five-finger and all. The odd couple decided to give the boy name Sangkuriang.

Sangkuriang grew up into this agile teenager and a pretty good hunter too. He and the dog hunt together all the time. At some point, they met this fat pig and decided to hunt her. It turns out that this fat pig was Sangkuriang’s grandmother and Tumang hesitated.

There’s a rumor circling around animal kingdom that the Emperor dated this pig for a while, back then. I know things are a little weird but please bear with me.

Because Tumang didn’t want to run the pig down, Sangkuriang saw red. Out of rage, he shot his arrow towards Tumang. The brave and loyal dog died instantly. He cut Tumang to pieces and brought back the poor canine for his mother to cook.

Upon learning that the menu of the day was her beloved hubby, Dayang Sumbi fainted again. As soon as she gained consciousness, she yelled at Sangkuriang and banished him, forever.

Sangkuriang limped out of the kingdom and walked all the way to the west. The teenager met many dark wizards and gained plenty of great magical power. He has changed into an awesome and dashing warrior.

Years of traveling around the globe brought him back to the kingdom near Citarum River. He was intrigued to hear about the story of the hottest lass in the village. He then met her and electricity sparked all over the place. The chemistry was apparent as they were instantly attracted to each other.

After some romantic date by the countryside, they decided to get hitched. It was gonna be the biggest wedding of the era.

When they’re about to do it, this woman, who turns out to be Dayang Sumbi, notice the birthmark on Sangkuriang’s neck. She screamed and kicked Sangkuriang out of the bed. A ‘No’ means ‘No’, said the bewildered woman.

Dazed, horny and confused Sangkuriang zip his pants and asked her what he should do to win her heart back. Seeing a way out this, Sumbi smile and said that it would be divine if they could make love inside a large boat roaming a huge lake.

However, the stipulation is both the lake and the boat has to be made in one night and one night only.

The adrenaline rushed towards Sangkuriang’s head and he dashed toward Citarum River. By his great magical power, he summoned thousands of minions to dam up the water stream forming an enormous lake. He summoned another thousand for good measure to build this large and strong wooden boat.

Confounded by the latest development Dayang Sumbi racked her brain for counter measure. The morning has yet to come and both the lake and boat is in near completion. Using her cunning feminine instinct, she decided to take matters into her own hand.

She and some of her sorority sisters made some racket and woke up the village roosters. They also put large orange sheets into the eastside made it look like the dawn has arrived. The roosters cock-a-doodle-doo and all hell broke loose. The thousands minions scrambled to their hidings and left the unfinished tasks in tatters.

Sangkuriang saw red again. Seething out of his lost, he kicked the large boat far away to the sky. With a loud bang it landed up side down.

Thousands of years have passed; the upturned boat was covered in thick layered dirt, trees have grown on top of it, forming a mountain. The locals now called it Gunung Tangkuban Perahu – The Mountain of Upturned Boat.

Whatever happened to Dayang Sumbi and Sangkuriang no one really knows. Some said that Sumbi runs to a cave and turned herself into a rare flower. While Sangkuriang, our very own Oedipus, walked and vanished into the west.