life's like this - avianto's journal

Media is Life

2008-11-15T18:18:28+07:00

It’s been a while, isn’t it? It is not because real life™ is taking over but there are many exciting things happened around the online environment too.

Microblogging

Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku and even Facebook’s status are becoming my main vent of online presence. Writing in those so-called microblog platform is so convenient and easy, so writing a long article in this blog seems like a very challenging task.

Not to mention nowadays I rarely had time to think and analyze things thoughtfully. Instead of writing a half-thought entry, I rather wrote a simple and direct thought about… well, everything in those platform.

Of course keeping all of those microblogs is a challenge itself. Using Ping.fm really helped me with updating my entries but not really helping in keeping my conversation with others. Basically, I paid more attention to Plurk’s conversation than any other services. So if you want to catch me, check my Plurk.

Work

Practically, I am swamped. It is not easy to become one man show army supporting the entire office. Not to mention the regional requests and inquiries as a consequences working within a multinational company.

Especially during these late of year months where all the pitches for next year strategies on media are happening. My work lately had been rotating between one pitch to another and another. Working on Saturday and Sunday is becoming a routine. And that’s not entirely agreeable. At least with me.

Life

What life? Really, for the last couple of months, my life had been reduced into work and rest. Thankfully I still have teaching activity which I put as a ‘break and charge’ activity. I am not complaining because despite all of this and that, my life is quite satisfactory.

Of course I missed a lot of things. I rarely watched cinema, barely played games on my PSP, painfully missed hangout with friends and any others non working activity. But I guess that was the risk I had to take when I accepted this job and I had to do it until I am tired of this and ready to move on.

For now, I let myself become a corporate drone.

Others

There are many things to share, many thoughts to write and many experiences to tell. Maybe later. I am not giving any promise.

Until then, I am still be around and post my small and simple thought on those microblogging platform.

33

2008-04-12T00:14:34+07:00

is the number that has the meaning “good will always triumph over evil”
is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to France
is the age of Alexander the Great when he died
is the atomic number of arsenic
is a significant number in modern numerology, one of the master numbers along with 11 and 22
is the title of the first episode of the new Battlestar Galactica television series
is the number of vertebrae in a normal human spine
is not the answer to life, the universe and everything. It’s still 42.

is also the number of years I’ve been breathing on this planet today.

Re-quoted my favorite poem:

“As through the calendar I delve
I pause to rejoice in April twelve.
Yea, be I in sickness or be I in health
My favorite date is April twealth.
…”
“Lines in Praise of a Date Made Praiseworthy Solely by Something Very Nice That Happened to It”,
by Ogden Nash

Commander

2008-04-08T14:22:08+07:00

After a meeting with Ministry of Communication and Informatics yesterday night, I am still amazed about how linear, short-sighted, narrow minded and low self-esteem my government is. From the discussion, all of those attributes were coming out one by one and it scared me. A lot.

Self-Esteem

If I burn the barn just because I can not catch one rat, I believe people will call me stupid, absurd or even idiot. But that was what happened with YouTube case. I don’t know who was behind the idea of blocking YouTube, the Minister said it was coming from the President, just because one crappy movie. Yes, the movie insulted the religion of the majority of Indonesian, no doubt about it, but the way Indonesian government reacted was totally over reacting.

Let me turn my flashback engine. Indonesian government told YouTube to takedown a movie, I don’t have to tell you what movie it is - if you don’t know what movie I am talking about, just help yourself with Google. YouTube didn’t respond because well, it’s YouTube, all of the content were user generated content. But instead of following the spirit of the web by flagging the movie as negative or offensive, the government grumpily chosed to block the entire YouTube. Yeah, I said grumpily because the government thought that YouTube didn’t respect Indonesian government request. So low self-esteem. So low that the government didn’t have guts to create a creative way to counter the movie on the content level. So low that instead of encouraging its own people to create a counter movie, the government chosed to close down the infrastructure. It’s pathetic, really.

That action was also very New Orderly. In the New Order era, if the government did not like one article then the government would ban the newspaper that have the article. The history repeated itself. Welcome to the New Order 2.0.

Narrow Minded

It’s clear that the intention of the Ministry to invite the community was to ask how to block a certain movie discussed above. Nothing else. So no matter how the community screamed out their heart out and even offered brilliant alternative solution other than blocking, the Ministry simply shrugged those off. The Ministry only want to hear the solution for their solution which was the blocking, imagine how strange it was.

Who put us into this mess first time? Who brilliant enough to come out with the idea of blocking the whole website, without even knowing the essence of user generated content, just because of one content? Then when they realized it was not so easy, they were asking help for their problem and closed their eyes and mind for any other better and yet smart alternatives. They can not even solved their own solution. Nice work.

Xenophobic

One of the department staff continuously talking about xenophobic and racism toward us in the international world. As if Indonesian were not xenophobic and racist toward others? I always said this and people kept getting angry with my statement: “Indonesian are one of the most xenophobic and racist people in the world”. Do you think it’s not true?

Even worse, Indonesian are just not racist, Indonesian are tribalist. How many times we hear: “Javanesse vs. Sundanesse”, “Sumatra people are better than Java people”, “Where are you come from? Java? Solo? Jogja?”, “You don’t look like Batak”, “Are you Chinese? So you must be very rich”, “Indonesian girls who are dating foreigners are only looking for money” and other racist/tribalist comments? Don’t say you never heard it or even don’t say you never said it, because that will be a lie.

Putting the blame to the international world for being xenophobic and racist against us was like a childish act. We are racist, we are xenophobic, we are tribalist - even I sometime fallen into that trap, not just toward the international world but toward our own community, our own country.

Commander

I saw yesterday meeting as a step forward for the government to listen the voice of its people directly. I appreciated the effort, really I did. It’s just a shame that the government was only looking for one track solution. There were other inspirations, other ideas and other things that could become a better solution without losing our dignity as a nation.

International world treated us with xenophobic and racism. Fine, that’s already happened. Are we stand still? Of course not. But not in the level of forbidding access, not in the level of an undemocratic country (yeah, some of you probably laugh about this), not in the level of a security personal. We showed them that we are great. We are creative. We are proud of our identity. We are able to compete on the same level with them. That will be a very smart and dignified solution.

Somehow the word ‘Government’ made me wonder. It means ‘someone to govern’. While it translated into Indonesian as “Pemerintah” which actually means “someone who command”. Commanding vs. Governing. Is that what the Indonesian government all about? I command thee to block YouTube - no other option! I didn’t want to believe that it was true but it seems like the truth.

Epilogue

It was clear that the commander er… government only could think of one solution. Blocking (or in the milder term: filtering). That’s all. They want to control the information again. I was joking around and said that the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Depkominfo in Indonesian abbreviation) should probably changed its name into ‘Departemen Kompilasi Informasi’ (Department of Information Compilation) - it still retain the name ‘Depkominfo’ but with a different meaning because that’s what they did right now. They decided and compiled which were the best content for their people - for some it was an insult for an intelligence, of course, but those ‘some’ are not majority, so don’t worry.

There you have it.

Additional Note (April 9, 2008 - 0:23):

I just watched this movie. This is an example of a smart way to deal with the issue. This is what I was trying to tell the Ministry - which of course, like shouting against the wind. This is the mature solution. This is what I called “playing on the same level”. This is a high self-esteem. This is a broad-minded view. This is what our government lack of…

Dengue

2008-02-02T18:42:53+07:00

According to Wikipedia:

Dengue fever (IPA: /ˈdɛŋgeɪ/) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics and Africa, with a geographical spread similar to malaria. One major difference, however, is that malaria is often eradicated in major cities, whereas dengue is often found in urban areas of developed tropical nations, including Singapore, Taiwan and Brazil. Caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae, each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyperendemicity) can occur. Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti (rarely Aedes albopictus) mosquito, which feeds during the day.

According to me:

Dengue fever is a very frustrated sickness. Not only you will need constant supply of fluids, either using intravenous theraphy or drinking a lot, more than 2 litres a day, you also will have to stay still most of the time in bed and do nothing. It will take more than 3 days to feel better and it will take more than a week to really recover but after that you will still feel really weak. No direct medication available too, the only way to fight the virus is using the above methods and wait for your own body to fight back the disease.

No Direct Medication?

True. Only supportive therapy. During my hospitalization because of dengue at the late January 2008, I didn’t get any specific medication to counter the dengue virus. The only official medicines were vitamin, paracetamol (as analgesic) and a medicine to counter my queasy. Intravenous therapy was also part of the medication to prevent dehydration and blood coagulation.

One of the distinguished feature of dengue was the rapid drop of thrombocytes from their normal value between 150.000 - 400.000 per mm³ (Mine was dropped to 45.000 on the day the first blood test was taken and keep dropping until the lowest 13.000 before they hiked up again). So the major aim of the therapy is to boost the amount of thrombocytes back into their normal range.

The Danger

Dengue fever could be very dangerous if the detection was too late. Dengue started with a very high fever for 2-3 days and the fever rapidly dropped on the 3^rd day. Most of the fatal cases happened because during the drop of the fever, the thrombocytes were dropping too, very rapidly and because of the lowest amount of thrombocytes, if there were any bleeding happened - the bleeding was having a hard time to stop (thrombocytes responsible to stop the bleeding) and it could be very fatal.

So, if you were having a high fever, please do a blood check when the fever stopped. It could be only a normal fever but if it was dengue fever at least you’ll find out soon enough to get a proper treatment.

Traditional Methods

There are some traditional methods, which not medically proven yet but really does not hurt to try, to boost the amount of thrombocytes. There is a traditional Chinese medicine called Angkak, the highest recommendation from everybody, which said will boost the amount of thrombocytes very rapidly. Guava juice also said to boost the amount of thrombocytes. Honey from dates also one of the traditional medicine recommended. Isotonic drink, not a traditional method but a convenient, also helps to prevent dehydration. Which one is actually proven to be the best? I have no idea since I used all of the above methods to rapidly boost the amount of thrombocytes.

I was hospitalized for 6 days and these were the amount of my thrombocytes for each day: 45.000 (dropped to 37.000 on the first day), 13.000, 15.000, 34.000, 67.000 and 122.000. When the thrombocytes passed the 100.000 barriers, I was allowed to went home but still need to rest and drinks a lot of fluids (but no intravenous therapy needed anymore, what a relief).

For a week after my release from the hospital, I was still drinking all of the traditional methods mentioned above. After a week, I was checking up to the doctor again to see how was my current health. Well, the thrombocytes were counted as high as 413.000, the doctor said it was called the ‘bouncing effect’ since previously the thrombocytes was pressurized to reduce themselves, now with the pressure factor gone, they were boosting up themselves beyond the necessary amount.

Health

So yeah, I was officially healthy again. But the medical advice still the same: Slow down a bit and get a lot of rest for at least a month because my body still need to adjust itself before it will tune in a full gear.

I missed a lot of deadline and currently tried to catch up all of those without extorting myself. It was difficult but well, it’s time to move back into normal life, right?

And Justice is for Who?

2008-01-16T12:36:34+07:00

Here’s a long and true story… happened on Tuesday, 15 January 2008 from around noon until late night. The locations and events were true.

Around lunch time, a rather old citizen mechanic was asked by a car owner to fix and get the owner’s car which was stranded somewhere in a public parking lot. Unfortunately, a miscommunication happened and the mechanic accidentally tried to open another car with the same look just across the street. Guess what happened next…

South Jakarta Prosecutor Office (Kantor Kejaksaan Jakarta Selatan, Velbak)

The mistaken car park in the South Jakarta Prosecutor office. Before the mechanic realized his error, one of the prosecutor official yelled “Car thief!” at the mechanic and dozen of prosecutor official in their official uniform punched and kicked the mechanic. Now, try to imagine this: prosecutors, part of the Justice Department, wearing their uniform, punching and kicking a senior citizen who accused stealing a car without even gave the mechanic a chance to explain himself and they are supposed to be the one who make sure that justice was served in this country. Great.

The mechanic bad day was not ending yet. After being punched and kicked brutally, they (prosecutors in uniform) dragged him to the security room and questioning the mechanic. Then, the mechanic was sent to the police station.

South Jakarta Sector Police Headquarter (Polsek Jakarta Selatan, Taman Puring)

Police. The arm of justice. Yeah, right. What happened in the police office was more mind blowing. The mechanic was dragged into the interrogation room and, this one was pathetic, tasered again and again to force the mechanic to confess. Tasered… taser was created to defend oneself, not as the torture device, right? Yeah, right. And to confess, confessed what exactly? That the mechanic was a car thief? He’s not. He was simply mistaken the car. OK, the mechanic had his own fault for not checking the car plate first. But according to the mechanic, which he told later, he already asked permission to the parking guard and got the parking guard permission. Well, no use. Still the police tasered, punched and threaten the mechanic to get his ‘confession’.

Procedures

The car owner finally get notified about the accident (but not the beating and torturing part) in the afternoon. He thought lightly about the issue at the moment because well, it was a simple mistake, right? A couple of ID checks, few phone calls should made everything all right. Right?

It turned out the police made things complicated than that. They said the mechanic was not supposed to be release because:

He got to be contained for 24 hours OR,
The owner of the mistaken car filed a complain if the mechanic accidentally broke the car lock OR,
The family of the mechanic ‘bailed’ him OR,
Whatever… No idea.

So there were many and different reasons for the mechanic’s contained situation. Most of them were ridiculous anyway but how about made things more interesting? Read it until the end then, it will get more absurd as ever.

Reasoning

The car owner arrived at the police station after dark. He felt like a moron because he was believing that the police would treat the mechanic well and humanly. He had a good faith with the police. He used to be a ‘school security patrol’ when he was at school. He knew there were a lot of corrupt police but this case was not about money - it was about mistake. He got to admit that he was wrong. Wrong about the police and especially wrong about the justice.

When he came to the police station, the mechanic was sitting in the office of one of the officer with one officer. The mechanic looked stressful but physically quite well except for a couple of bruises in his face. The police was acting like he was the ruler of the world. Arrogant, full of pride and snobbish. Typical.

So, the car owner directly asked what should be done in this particular situation. Before the officer started talking, the car owner put a tape recorder and took out the notepad to write important things. The police officer gave a long speech about this and that, how things were really put the mechanic in a very deep trouble and so on. The office even emphasized about the owner of the mistaken car, he said the owner was one of the highest rank in the prosecutor office as if that fact will add some value other than a fact that a high rank of public servant was allowing an innocent man to be beaten and contained?

The car owner was furious and irritated of the officer’s answer. But he thought anger would not solve the problem, so he took a deep breath and started talking about the facts.

Absurd Facts

Now, here comes the most absurd parts:

When asked about the name of the high rank prosecutor, the officer said he did not know and did not care. He just wait for that prosecutor to come to the police station to file a complain.
When asked about the car plate number of the mistaken car, the officer said he did not know and did not care. So the car which was about to be stolen, an evidence, was not identified and was out there somewhere.
When asked about how long the mechanic would be held, the office said he did not know and reasoned it was depend on the ‘situation’. He asked if someone would like to take responsibility if the mistaken car owner filed a complain then he would try to release the mechanic as soon as possible.

So, the owner of mistaken car was not identified, the identity of the mistaken car was not identified - only the color and the brand (even with the brand, the same kind of car had 3 types, which of course was not identified either) and the time of containment was not rigidly set. A really great situation.

The car owner told the officer that he would be the one who will take the responsibility if there were any damage to the mistaken car’s lock. The officer told the car owner to write down the note of responsibility. The car owner wrote the note himself, these are the quotes:

… Will took responsibility if the mistaken car’s lock of the car, which plate number was not known, was broken because of the mechanic’s act and the mistaken car owner, which was unidentified, asked for a compensation…

It was a ghost car with a ghost owner.

The officer read it and made remark about maybe sometime will visit the car owner when he was in the neighborhood. Politeness or a threat? Nobody knows, just wait and see. The officer then told the car owner that he would need to contact his superior for the approval of the note. He said he could not guarantee the time since probably the superior was not at the office. It could take 5 minutes to the whole day, according to him. The car owner said he would wait until the mechanic released. So the officer went out for about 10 minutes.

After the Note

When he returned, he said everything was fine, the mechanic would be released right away. Great, except one thing. All of the belonging of the mechanic (ID card, some money and his motorcycle’s key) was confiscated and stored in the drawer of one of the officer and he was away. The officer told the mechanic to retrieve his belonging on the next morning. The car owner said he would be the one to retrieve it but he need the name of the officer who held it. The officer refused to tell the name of the other officer but suddenly a person came into the room and asking for that particular officer while mentioning the name, great. The car owner wrote down the name of all three officers in that room. It could come in handy one day.

Couple of minutes later, the drawer’s officer came in with a polite behavior and a very bright smile. He tried to be friendly while later on, the car owner learned that officer was the one who tasering the most and even spoke the harshest threat to the mechanic. The office then opened his drawer and handed out all of the mechanic’s belonging.

After some chit chat about everything, including marriage life and so on (Yeah, that was pointless, wasn’t it?), the car owner and the mechanic walked out of the room, walked out of the police station, get the mechanic’s motorcycle and went home.

Epilogue

During the fiasco, the car owner wondered, what was the point of all this hullabaloo. The prosecutor officers were brutally oppressive, the police officers were tasering people around, the mistaken car and its owner were not around and not filing anything yet, the mechanic was held up and get tortured, the car owner time was wasted, the energy was depleted and the point was?

Some people pointed out that these were strategies used by the police officer to extort some money. Well, in this case no money was spent useless - except maybe the taxi fare. The officer did not ask for money at all. Maybe they just enjoyed tasering people.

Is there anyway to file a complain if we experienced this things? Especially about the brutality of the prosecutor officers. Indonesian already knew the police corp is the most corrupted and brutal institution in this country. Where we supposed to report about this incident? The police? The court? Or these kind of accidents just happened and we just have to forget it? Seems like my last writing foreshadowing these kind of accidents.

To make things fair: The beating was witnessed by a lot of people but the tasering was told by the mechanic only. As far his relatives and friends knew, the mechanic was an honest man.

Note: Bringing a tape recorder and a notepad were a good way to deal with government or public official like police officers. Mentioning the word “journalist” also helps especially if you had press contact or a press corp yourself. Had a connection with Committee of Law Support and Corruption Eradication Committee was also a great assets.