Category: General

Inget gak, dulu kita suka bikin lelucon semisal “Eh, tau gak di kampung xx ada mayat diloncati kucing idup”. Maksudnya sih mayatnya tetep mati dan kucingnya yang hidup. Tentu saja, kucing mati gak bisa meloncat. Tapi kalau membaca kisah kucing yang membawa kematian, rada syerem juga.

Aku sih pernah membaca “Oscar the socialite cat” yang dikisahkan James Herriot, dimana si kucing doyan bersosialisasi dengan manusia. Oscar yang “the socialite cat” rutin datang ke tempat arisan ibu-ibu, dia juga rutin mengunjungi kelas yoga. Tapi tak kusangka kalau Oscar yang satu ini gemar berkeliaran di rumah sakit. Rada weird memang. Baca kisahnya deh. And what do you think if you have him as your pet ?

“Stop adding new debt…” published by one of the english news papers in Indonesia. One of the NGO’s who addresses it self as anti-debt group, urges the govt to stop adding new debt to fund the state budget due to the high amount of un disbursed loan commitments. Their main concern is that the budget for commitment fee as a consequence of not disbursing the amount of loan commitment can be allocated to help the govt in financing budget deficit. In other words, education budget which was previously promised to be increased to 20% would at least becomes viable. I, by no means, disagree that the govt should eliminate undisbursed loans in order to minimize commitment fee. However, it doesn’t necessarily associate with the govt’s initiation for adding new loan. As the new playing rule has been in place, the govt will not sign the agreement of new project loan unless the readiness criteria of the project has been fulfilled.

Furthermore, commitment fee does not directly link with program loan, as the report might assume. Program loan, by design, is fast-disbursed loan. It means once the agreement has been signed the commitment can be disbursed. Thus, commitment fee may not be applicable.

“Adding more debts makes the government unable to formulate adequate state budget”, the coordinator of the NGO said. To be honest, our government now relies more on debt financing, since raising tax ration will not be politically sound. However there has been a shifting of types of instrument which can obviously seen from the composition of government loan and securities. Government loan tend to decrease while government debt securities is in increasing trend. The high amount, in my opinion, does not matter. What matters here is the debt to GDP ratio in which, in this case, Indonesia has the decreasing trend. In 2000, the number was 88 % while last year it accounted for 39%. This year, using new revised budget assumption, the debt to GDP ratio is projected to be around 37%. Sounds optimistic, isn’t it ?

Well I guess I have to stop now. I need to discuss with my colleague about the new scheme of remunerations in my office, which potentially increases my spending budget for …. mmm the next holiday 🙂 … escape from managing govt debt for a while.

What is in your mind after knowing the announcement of new 7 wonders of the world? Are you wondering about the result which may not match to your expectation? Perhaps you first need to check this before arguing the result.

Well… pagi pagi sekali aku telah mendapati, email David, Agusto en Paola yang Peruvian meramaikan inboxku. “Thanks for your vote” David said, while referring to his previous email which had provoked some of us to vote for Machu Picchu.

To be honest, aku tidak ikutan memilih. Bukan karena kecewa Borobudur tidak masuk dalam nominasi tapi karena – menurutku – ini sama halnya dengan pemilihan idol yang subyektivitas akan mendominasi keputusan untuk memilih. I might vote for Mahu Picchu for a friendship reason, or Eiffel tower or Neuschwanstein Castle or Stonehenge for a historical reason related to my personal experiences.

I don’t mind really, Borobudur – the Biggest Buddhist Temple isn’t included on the list. As Dr. Zahi Hawass, leading ancient archeologist in Egypt, refuses to include Giza Pyramid to the competition list. Copying his underlying reason, Borobudur is not comparable to those nominated objects. He questioned about the people who do not have experience or any knowledge of history who vote on sites. Well, the vote should be restricted to archaeologists, historians and scientists if I may add for the argument of the absence of Borobudur from the nominated list. Mmm kind of alasan pembenaran. Oh ya at the end, Giza Pyramid was removed from the nominated list and was announced as honorary candidate.

I know there are so many arguments in place either prior to or after the announcement. Well, lets take it as is and let David, Agusto and Paola enjoy their euphoria upon the announcement of Machu Picchu as one of the new seven wonders.

For us, Indonesian citizen, tak perlu reesau. We have more than 7 of wondering sites. I.e Candi Loro Jongrang. Coba sebutkan candi mana yang dibangun hanya dalam satu malam. Bahkan Neuschwanstein, setelah 17 tahun peletakan batu pondasi, masih left unfinished. Lalu Tangkuban Perahu. Coba sebutkan site mana yang ditendang langsung jadi gunung sebagus itu. Namun yang lebih wondering lagi, seonggok batu karang di Pantai Aia Manih di Sumatera Barat yang berasal dari seorang anak kualat bernama Malin Kundang. Hey … lagi mikir yach, mana lagi yang bisa masuk list 7 wonders ala Indo ? I’m wondering 🙂 what in your mind is.

3 days ago, when Mijn SVN told me that he spent 3 hours laying on the grassy ground gazing at the star without knowing the name even one star, I suddenly think it was a pity.

Don’t you know it’s June, meaning that the night sky will be flowered by Scorpius, my constellation. Though the best time to enjoy the constellation is July and August. You may also find Crux and Centaurus tonight. But , how can we recognize Scorpius? It’s easy, at 6.30 pm when the dark has come , try to seek the constellation at South East. You may easily find Scorpius as described in the picture bellow. Afterward, you can point out Antares, the red one which is in the heart of Scorpius. I always name it as Red Antares as it is red and very obvious to our naked eyes. Then you can follow by grabbing Shaula and Lesath, all together. They occupy the stinger of the Scorpius. Shaula which is twice wider than our Sun, has blue color. What about Lesath, Shaulas’s soulmate. It is 7 times wider than our Sun. They always look together in our eyes, so that I recognize them as a couple of soulmate . In fact, they stay further away from each other. Shaula, the light that we see now is actually existed 280 ago, while Lesath is existed 1600 years ago. Perhaps they’re gone now and becoming star dust. Well i wont argue for this. I have no exact explanation.

So tonight, if the night is clear and you don’t have anything to do. Why don’t you try to take a peek at ‘my lovely Antares, Shaula and Lesath. Let me know if you have found them :).

Mengatur rana… menahan detak jantungku… dan kupeluk malam.
Lokasi: di sebuah hotel, di suatu kota, di sebuah pulau … yang tak kecil.

“Anda telah sampai pada persepsi atas keindahan?”
“Ya, tetapi saya kurang paham artinya.”
“Persepsi atas keindahan merupakan semacam barometer yang menunjuk kepada kita masing-masing seberapa dekat kita sebenarnya dengan pencerapan energi. Ini jelas, karena segera setelah Anda mengamati energi ini, Anda menyadari energi berada dalam satu kesatuan dengan keindahan.”
“Kedengarannya seperti Anda melihat energi itu”
“Ya, betul, tetapi hal pertama yang saya kembangkan ialah apresiasi yang lebih mendalam terhadap keindahan”
“Tetapi bagaimana caranya? Bukankah keindahan itu relatif?”
“Benda-benda yang kita persepsikan indah mungkin berbeda, tetapi ciri khas aktual yang kita lalui ada pada benda-benda indah adalah sama. Berpikirlah tentang itu. Bila sesuatu tampak indah di mata kita, ia lebih menunjukkan kehadiran, ketajaman bentuk, dan kecerahan warna, bukan? Ia mencuat. Ia bersinar. Ia tampak hampir seperti pelangi berwarna-warni dibandingkan dengan kepudaran benda-benda lain yang kurang menarik”
Aku mengangguk.

Aku bergumam …YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL … yes, YOU ARE!