Suta'll Never Walk Alone

Love as a Belief, My Belief

2010-06-15T17:57:00.007+07:00

Since the topic of conversations in my life has been revolving around marriage for the last few weeks (don’t ask me why), I believe it worth a solid one hour of my time to write a thoughtful blog post regarding my view on love. I dedicate this writing to all my friends who have been involved with that kind of conversation with me.

Ps: if you think love is the thing that makes butterflies fly in your stomach, your feet flying off the ground, your head turned upside-down, you might not want to read the rest of the post.

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Inspired by my friend’s blog post, Adelia Putri. The original post can be seen directly here

"No matter how much someone loves you and how much you love someone, or even how much you're meant for each other, if you don't work out on your relationship, it won’t last long, or even if it does, it won’t stay good, it won’t go well."--- Adel’s fairy godmother, Oshin.

One of my closest friends said this to me almost exactly 2 years ago, “what matters in a relationship is that you both feel happy in it. Once you don’t feel that happiness anymore, it becomes a relationship not worth living in anymore.” That surely makes sense to most people, at least at its first hearing. But I beg to differ.

Let us first think about this, what makes most people like the Disney’s way of ending fairytale? The happily-ever-after way, in case you haven’t watched any Disney’s movies. It’s exactly because how too good to be true it is. Yet people never really want to accept the reality that something that is too good to be true is actually too good to be true, if you know what I mean.

That’s the same way with people who believe that love in its worldly-and-loosely translated sense is enough to make all relationship works. It’s just too good to be true.

I believe the world (esp. the movie industry) has been doing injustice with defining and picturing “love” ONLY as a form of emotion.

Love, in my view, has never been something that is being given to or destined for a particular couple, that the world famously describes as ‘soul mate’. I never believe with the concept of love as a form of emotion is enough to make or break a relationship.

Ravi Zacharias once said that love is not supposed to be just an emotional thing. It will never be pure until it comes with the will to be committed as well.

“Love without emotion is a drudgery, love without will is a mockery.” – Ravi Zacharias

Let me quote one paragraph from the Bible that has been famously quoted by one of the most romantic movie of all time “A Walk to Remember.”

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

That repetition of “always” word in the final sentence always reminds me that love is indeed far from what the world has always been trying to put in our mind as a picture of love.

So there you have it, my belief of love.

I believe in a love that needs to be done, not only said; needs to be lived, not only told; needs to be nurtured, not to be left; needs to be worked on, not to be searched for.

Soul mates do exist. But a soul mate is earned, not found. nothing comes for free. – Adelia Putri

Love only as an emotion will bring you a wonderful 1 or 2 years of relationship if you’re lucky, but love as a mixture of will and emotion will bring you a wonderful relationship. Not a relationship that’s happily ever after but a relationship that always stand up and refuses to be brought down by anything whenever wherever and for whatever reasons.

However, truth be told that I still believe God prepares someone for me like the old fairy tale, the only difference is that I need to work on finding, getting, and keeping that someone.

iPad un(chocolate)boxing

2010-06-14T10:06:00.001+07:00

This is what surprise is all about!!

AMAZING!!

Credit to Stefan Magdalinski!!

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iPad un(chocolate)boxing

by smagdali (taken from http://aheadrobot.com/2010/06/12/ipad-unchocolateboxing/)

Right, this is the rebirth of my blogging. My first post in at least 5 years, with a new domain and a new title.

Anyone who knows my wife, @kerrching, knows that she’s a Apple nut. Also, with a June birthday, she has conveniently positioned herself perfectly for the Apple release cycle. An iPad was inevitable for her birthday, but I knew that if I just delivered a wrapped box, there wouldn’t be much of a surprise. Where’s the fun in that? So I rang my friends James and Paul, who happens to run the finest chocolate shop in London, and said “Could you freeze an iPad in chocolate carbonite, and have it survive?”. They weren’t sure, but were willing to give it a go.

Additionally, iPads aren’t available yet in South Africa, so it had to smuggled over from London, without Kay finding out what was going on.

The prepared product:

Unwrapping begins:

The “I like chocolate, but you gave me 2 kg of it for my birthday, are you a bit nuts? look”:

Why don’t you pull on that little ribbon embedded in the chocolate?

Realisation!

Revelation:

Acceptance:

Success!!!!!!!!

With many many thanks to all the wonderful people who helped this to happen:

Simon , who waited in line forever at the London Apple Store to source the machine itself.

James and Paul, for successfully performing the carbon-freezing process, and

Karen, who went through a couple of hours of hell trying to explain what was going on to the South African customs people.

Oh, and just in case you’re worried: no iPads were harmed in this production :)

ACFTA, It Certainly Sounds Better Without the 'C', Doesn't It?

2010-06-10T14:09:00.003+07:00

Written by Sutayasa. Edited by Putra Muskita. Published at http://heydiaspora.com/acfta-it-certainly-sounds-better-without-the-c-doesnt-it/

After a few days trying to find someone to accompany me to the economic seminar, I finally gave up and ended up going by myself on a fine Saturday morning to a seminar titled “ACFTA (ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement) Indonesia’s Economic Challenges.” It was held in the Dhanapala Ballroom, the biggest room in the complex of Ministry of Finance, on 22^nd May 2010 and organized by Reformed Center for Religion and Society (RCRS). The speakers are prominent people in their area: Dr. Mari E. Pangestu, Indonesia’s Trade Minister; Prof. Dr. Ir. Alex S.W. Retraubun, M.Sc., Indonesia’s Vice Industrial Minister; and Sofjan Wanandi, Chairman of Indonesia Trader Association (APINDO).

Dr. Stephen Tong, the founder of RCRS, opened the seminar by mentioning that Indonesia’s most precious resource is the intelligence of its people, while its biggest challenge is actually the people’s stewardship skills. Not so much on how good they manage Indonesia’s natural resources, but more on how good they slip some government money into their own pockets. It is the moral issue that should be given extra focus in order to turn the country’s fate around.

Mari Pangestu

After Dr. Tong finished, the moderators invited all of the speakers to stage, each of them given 15 minutes to present their case. The first speaker was Dr. Mari E. Pangestu. Eager to set a positive tone, she started presenting her case by listing Indonesia’s strengths:

Indonesia is the third largest democratic country in the world,
It is also the biggest economy in South East Asia
It has the highest economic growth (4.5%) in the world after China and India in 2009.

A less important fact that she mentioned, however, was that Indonesia is the second biggest Facebook user in the world after USA with a staggering 24 million people or 10% of Indonesia’s population. Not very relevant for her argument, but she managed to get some chuckles out of this one.

After setting the tone positively, she started organizing some arguments against ACFTA. Indonesia has a demographic advantage that it can enjoy over China for the next 15 years due to China’s one-child policy: 50% of Indonesia’s population are between 15 to 65 year old. Dr Pangestu displayed a chart showing Indonesia’s trade with China, positive on the overall until the 2008-2009 turning point. However, she did ay that the turning point was due to the steel imported from China for the Suramadu bridge project, the 10 megawatts project, and the cost of importing laptops and mobile phones produced in China.

Some other points that she brought up were that:

South of China’s regional minimum wage is about twice that of East Java
China is Indonesia’s second largest export destination after Japan and it’s higher than USA
More than 70% of goods that Indonesia imported from China are actually capital goods and the rest are dominated by foods, toys, and garment.

Those facts basically mean that China is getting more expensive for manufacturing, it is not Indonesia’s competitor, they are more of like Indonesia’s buyer and supplier.

She continued by arguing that ACFTA shall be the stimulus to increase our competitiveness, not to be a competitor that might negatively impact the local industry. However she reminded us that we can never compete head-on with China in goods that are being mass produced extremely cheaply. We should focus more on three key points: technology, quality, and productivity. “Target the mid-to-high market,” she said. And that marked the end of her 15 minutes.

Alex Retraubun

Prof. Dr. Ir. Alex S.W. Retraubun, M.Sc., Indonesia’s Vice Industrial Minister, chose a different approach. Instead of sitting behind the table and reading the speech that was prepared for him by Ministry of Industrial staff, he walked to the podium and talked confidently without a script. He is surely one of the bluntest people I’ve ever seen working in a ministry – I’ve seen plenty of them before. He was a Professor at Pattimura University, Ambon and he was a scholar when he studied for his Graduate and Postgraduate degree in Newcastle University, UK.

Prof. Retraubun started his speech by saying that he was shocked when news about ACFTA started populating headlines of all newspapers in this country early this year: on average there were about 30 articles each day regarding ACFTA for the whole month of January. What was shocking for him, however, is not the frequency of ACFTA articles, but rather how the real sector and the government have done nothing but argue ever since the idea of this free trade agreement arose 14 years ago.

He continued with saying that he was not going to read anything from the speech prepared by his staff in Ministry of Industry. “Don’t worry, the concept in this speech is perfectly good. If you talk about concept, no one can beat Indonesia in this world, but yes, it’s only on concept,” he said. He also pitied his ministry albeit the fact that it’s one of the only five ministries that has Vice Minister because of its strategic nature, especially since the budget for Ministry of Industry is only 1.6 trillion Rupiah, lower as compared to, for example, Ministry of Ocean Affairs and Fisheries is 3 trillion Rupiah. Incidentally, he was the General Director of Ocean Affairs, Coasts, and Small Islands in Ministry of Ocean Affairs and Fisheries before he became the Vice Minister in Ministry of Industry.

Too bad I didn’t find a lot of relevant material in his speech outside of him saying that the sole purpose of having a Free Trade Agreement is to open the access to the market and by doing that we have to be fair, if we want them to allow us to sell our stuff we should let them sell their stuff too.

Sofyan Wanandi

Not long after that is the time for Mr. Sofjan Wanandi, Chairman of Indonesia’s Trader Association (APINDO), to deliver his points. He preferred to say the other side of the coin that Indonesia is not ready and is not able to compete with China in a free trade market.

However he wasn’t fully pessimistic of Indonesia’s future; he laid out some problems with some possible solutions. He believed that economic growth based on consumerism culture is nothing that we should be proud of. It’s “not healthy,” he said. “Nothing better than increasing the gap between the rich and the poor that will come out of it. Nevertheless 4.5% (economic growth) is magnificent for a government that was practically sleeping,” he said.

He also mentioned that this country has taken its democracy out of control. “For the last 7 months there were no economic policy breakthrough because of people busy discussing cicak, buaya, and the Century Bank,” he added.

He believed the solutions are in:

Stop selling raw material abroad,
Process raw material locally like what Malaysia did,
Invest in labor-intensive industry, which started to leave China lately because of increasing cost there,
Invest in infrastructure,
Reform taxation,
Give tax amnesty like what South Africa and Italy did, stop looking back and try to find other people’s mistakes and start looking forward.

The seminars ended with questions and answers session, which seemed more like a moment for the traders to cry their heart out. All in all, I am glad that I finally came even though I was alone. Who knows all those insightful thoughts will affect my or your business decision in the future.

The Return of the Writer - 2nd excerpt of Have a Little Faith

2010-05-22T21:33:00.004+07:00

Not much to say about my return. Actually I have much to say, but let's save it for later.

I once dreamed that I would be a good writer one day, but I'm not, even updating my own blog is not something I am keen on doing for the last 1 year. At least I perfectly know what I'm capable of: dreaming.

"Some men dream the future. He built it" - Aviator tagline

Never mind about that. For this post, I'm not gonna say much first about myself or even my life. Soon. That's all I'm going to say.

So, I still miss one interesting part of the Mitch Albom's book. If you read the first excerpt, you know it's long but I promise you, it's worth it; no matter what faith do you have nor whether you have any faith or not.

Here it goes:

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S E P T E M B E R

Happiness

The Reb opened his eyes.

He was in the hospital.

It was not the first time. Although he often hid his ailments from me, I learned that in recent months, staying upright had become a problem. He had slipped on the pavement and cut open his forehead. He had slipped in the house and banged his neck and cheek. Now he had fallen getting up from his chair and slammed his rib cage against a desk. It was either syncope, a temporary loss of consciousness, or small strokes, transient attacks that left him dizzy and disoriented.

Either way, it was not good.

Now I expected the worst. A hospital. The portal to the end. I had called and asked if it was all right to visit, and Sarah kindly said I could come.

I braced myself at the front entrance. I am haunted by hospital visits and their familiar, depressing cues. The antiseptic smell. The low drone of TV sets. The drawn curtains. The occasional moaning from another bed. I had been to too many hospitals for too many people.

For the first time in a while, I thought about our agreement.

Will you do my eulogy?

I entered the Reb’s room.

“Ah,” he smiled, looking up from the bed, “a visitor from afar . . .”

I stopped thinking about it.

We hugged——or, I should say, I hugged his shoulders and he touched my head-—and we both agreed that this was a first, a hospital conversation. I—lis robe fell open slightly and I caught a glance at his bare chest, soft, loose flesh with a few silver hairs. I felt a rush of shame and looked away.

A nurse breezed in.

“How are you doing today?” she asked.

“I’m dooooing,” the Reb lilted. “I’m dooooing . . .”

She laughed. “He sings all the time, this one.”

Yes, he does, I said.

It amazed me how consistently the Reb could summon his good nature. To sing to the nurses. To kid around with the physicians. The previous day, while waiting in a wheelchair in the hallway, he was asked by a hospital worker for a blessing. So the Reb put his hands on the man’s head and gave him one.

He refused to wallow in self-pity. In fact, the worse things got for him, the more intent he seemed on making sure no one around him was saddened by it.

As we sat in the room, a commercial for an antidepressant drug flashed across the TV screen. It showed people looking forlorn, alone on a bench or staring out a window.

"I keep feeling something bad is going to happen . . . ," the TV voice said.

Then, after showing the pill and some graphics, those same people appeared again, looking happier.

The Reb and I watched in silence. After it ended, he asked, “Do you think those pills work?”

Not like that, I said.

“No,” he agreed. “Not like that.”
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Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Paxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions more are spent purchasing them. You don’t even need a specific trauma; just "general depression” or “anxiety,” as if sadness were as treatable as the common cold.

I knew depression was real, and in many cases required medical attention. I also knew we overused the word. Much of what we called “depression” was really dissatisfaction, a result of setting a bar impossibly high or expecting treasures that we weren’t willing to work for. I knew people whose unbearable source of misery was their weight, their baldness, their lack of advancement in a workplace, or their inability to find the perfect mate, even if they themselves didnot behave like one. To these people, unhappiness was a condition, an intolerable state of affairs. If pills could help, pills were taken.

But pills were not going to change the fundamental problem in the construction. Wanting what you can’t have. Looking for self-worth in the mirror. Layering work on top of work and still wondering why you weren’t satisfied—before working some more.

I knew. I had done all that. There was a stretch where I could not have worked more hours in the day without eliminating sleep altogether. I piled on accomplishments. I made money. I earned accolades. And the longer I went at it, the emptier I began to feel, like pumping air faster and faster into a torn tire.

The time I spent with Morrie, my old professor, had tapped my brakes on much of that. After watching him die, and seeing what mattered to him at the end, I cut back. I limited my schedule.

But I still kept my hands on my own wheel. I didn’t turn things over to fate or faith. I recoiled from people who put their daily affairs in divine hands, saying, “If God wants it, it will happen.” I kept silent when people said all that mattered was their personal relationship with Jesus. Such surrender seemed silly to me. I felt like I knew better. But privately, I couldn’t say I felt any happier than they did.

So I noted how, for all the milligrams of medication he required, the Reb never popped a pill for his peace of mind. He loved to smile. He avoided anger. He was never haunted by “Why am I here?” He knew why he was here, he said: to give to others, to celebrate God, and to enjoy and honor the world he was put in. His morning prayers began with “Thank you, Lord, for returning my soul to me."

When you start that way, the rest of the day is a bonus.
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Can I ask you something?

“Yes," he said.

What makes a man happy?

“Well . . .” He rolled his eyes around the hospital room.

“This may not be the best setting for that question.”

Yeah, you’re right.

"On the other hand . . He took a deep breath. "On the other hand, here in this building, we must face the real issues, some people will get better. Some will not. So it may be a good place to define what that word means."

Happiness?

"That’s right. The things society tells us we must have to be happy - a new this or that, a bigger house, a better job. I know the falsity of it. I have counseled many people who have all these things, and I can tell you they are not happy because of them.

"The number of marriages that have disintegrated when they had all the stuff in the world. The lamilies who fought and argued all the time, when they had money and health. Having more does not keep you from wanting more. And if you always want more--to be richer, more beautiful, more well known-—you are missing the bigger picture, and I can tell you from experience, happiness will never come.”

You’re not going to tell me to stop and smell the roses, are you?

He chuckled. "Roses would smell better than this place."

Suddenly, out in the hall, I heard an infant scream, followed by a quick “shhh!” presumably from its mother. The Reb heard it, too.

“Now, that child,” he said, “reminds me of something our sages taught. When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched, right? Like this?”

He made a fist.

"Why? Because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say, “The whole world is mine.’

"But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned the lesson."

What lesson? I asked.

He stretched open his empty fingers.

“We can take nothing with us."
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For a moment we both stared at his hand. It was trembling.

"Ach, you see this?" he said.

Yeah.

"I can’t make it stop.”

He dropped the hand to his chest. I heard a cart being wheeled down the hall. I-Ie spoke so wisely, with such passion, that for a moment I’d forgotten where we were.

“Anyhow," he said, his voice trailing off.

I hated seeing him in that bed. I wanted him home, with the messy desk and the mismatched clothes. I forced a smile.

So, have we solved the secret of happiness?

“I believe so,” he said.

Are you going to tell me?

"Yes. Ready?”

Ready.

"Be satisfied."

That’s it?

"Be grateful?

That’s it?

“For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you.”

That’s it?

He looked me in the eye. Then he sighed deeply.

”That’s it.”

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Page 96-102

How much good have you done simply by the bad we have not?

Inactivity of This Blog

2010-04-13T20:01:00.003+07:00

I know I should have written this months ago, alas, you know how busyness can eat up your thought and life right? Yup, with this, I officially announce that this blog is inactive until I finish all my exams, retreat, community service project, and having everything I need to graduate with BSc. (ISM) degree.

In other words, that might be another 1.5 month from now.
I don't want to promise, because I know I've broken some.
Let's see.
I hope to see you back again on this blog once I settled everything and start writing again.

Catch myself later,
Suta

The Greatest Question of All

2009-12-15T15:17:00.001+07:00

The below story is being taken from page 77-82 of a book called “Have a Little Faith – A True Story” written by Mitch Albom.

“Have a Little Faith is a book about life’s purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all.

It is one man’s journey, but it’s everyone’s story.”

I really like this part of the book, and that’s why I want to share it here.

In case you are not familiar with Mitch Albom, he is a sports journalist and the writer of these famous books: “Tuesday with Morrie,” “Five people you meet in heaven,” “For one more day.”
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The Greatest Question of All

In any conversation, I was taught, there are at least three parties: you, the other person, and the Lord.

I recalled that lesson on a summer day in the small office when both the Reb and I wore shorts. My bare leg stuck with perspiration to the green leather chair, and I raised it with a small thwock.

The Reb was looking for a letter. He lifted a pad, then an envelope, then a newspaper. I knew he’d never find it. I think the mess in his office was almost a way of life now, a game that kept the world interesting. As I waited, I glanced at the file on the lower shelf the one marked “God." We still hadn`t opened it.

“Ach," he said, giving up.

Can I ask you something?

"Ask away, young scholar," he crowed.

How do you know God exists?

He stopped. A smile crept across his face.

“An excellent question.”

He pressed his fingers into his chin.

And the answer? I said

“First, make the case against Him.”

Okay, I said, taking his challenge. How about this? We live in a world where your genes can be mapped, where your cells can be copied, where your face can be altered. Heck, with surgery, you can go from being a man to being a woman. We have science to tell us of the earth’s creation; rocket probes explore the universe. The sun is no longer a mystery. And the moon—which people used to worship? We brought some of it home in a pouch, right?

“Go on,” he said.

So why, in such a place, where the once-great mysteries have been solved, does anyone still believe in God or Jesus or Allah or a Supreme Being of any kind? Haven’t we outgrown it? Isn’t it like Pinocchio, the puppet? When he found he could move without his strings, did he still look the same way at Geppetto?
The Reb tapped his fingers together.

“That’s some speech."

You said make a case.

“Ah.”

He leaned in. "Now. My turn. Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can’t explain, something that created it all at the end of the search.

"And no matter how far they try to go the other way—to extend life, play around with the genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty—at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When life comes to an end?"

I shrugged.

“You see?"

He leaned back. He smiled.

"When you come to the end, that’s where God begins."

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Many great minds have set out to disprove God’s existence. Sometimes, they retreat to the opposite view. C. S. Lewis, who wrote so eloquently of faith, initially wrestled with the very concept of God and called himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England." Louis Pasteur, the great scientist, tried to disprove a divine existence through facts and research; in the end, the grand design of man convinced him otherwise.

A spate of recent books had declared God a fool’s notion, hocus-pocus, a panacea for weak minds. I thought the Reb would find these offensive, but he never did. He understood that the journey to belief was not straight, easy, or even always logical. He respected an educated argument, even if he didn’t agree with it.

Personally, I always wondered about authors and celebrities who loudly declared there was no God. It was usually when they were healthy and popular and being listened to by crowds. What happens, l wondered, in the quiet moments before death? By then, they have lost the stage, the world has moved on. If suddenly, in their last gasping moments, through fear, a vision, a late enlightenment, they change their minds about God, who would know?

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The Reb was a believer from the start, that was clear, but I also knew that he was not crazy about some things God allowed on this earth. He had lost a daughter, many years ago. That had shaken his world. And he regularly cried after visiting once—robust members of the congregation who now lay helpless in hospital beds.

“Why so much pain?” he would say, looking to the heavens. “Take them already. What is the point?”

I once asked the Reb that most common of faith questions; why do bad things happen to good people? It had been answered countless times in countless ways; in books, in sermons, on Web sites, in tear-filled hugs. The Lord wanted her with him . . . He died doing what he loved . . . She was a gift . . .This is a test . . .

I remember a family friend whose son was struck with a terrible medical affliction. After that, at any religious ceremony—•even a wedding•-I would see the man out in the hallway, refusing to enter the service. "I just can’t listen to it anymore,” he would say. His faith had been lost.

When I asked the Reb, Why do bad things happen to good people?, he gave none of the standard answers. He quietly said, “No one knows." I admired that. But when I asked if that ever shook his belief in God, he was firm.

“I cannot waver," he said.

Well, you could, if you didn’t believe in something all-powerful.

"An atheist,” he said.

Yes.

“And then I could explain why my prayers were not answered.”

Right.

He studied me carefully. He drew in his breath.

“I had a doctor once who was an atheist. Did I ever tell you about him?"

No.

“This doctor, he liked to jab me and my beliefs. He used to schedule my appointments deliberately on Saturdays, so I would have to call the receptionist and explain why, because of my religion, that wouldn’t work."

Nice guy, I said.

"Anyhow, one day, I read in the paper that his brother had died. So I made a condolence call.”

After the way he treated you?

"In this job," the Reb said, "you don’t retaliate."

I laughed.

"So I go to his house, and he sees me. I can tell he is upset.

I tell him I am sorry for his loss. And he says, with an angry face, 'I envy you.’

“’'Why do you envy me?’ I said.

“ ‘Because when you lose someone you love, you can curse God. You can yell. You can blame him. You can demand to know why. But I don’t believe in God. I’m a doctor! And I couldn’t help my brother!’

“He was near tears. ‘Who do I blame?’ he kept asking me. ‘There is no God. I can only blame myself.’ "

The Reb’s face tightened, as if in pain.

“That,” he said, softly, “is a terrible self-indictment."

Worse than an unanswered prayer?

“Oh yes It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody’s out there."

Page 77-82, Have a Little Faith – A True Story, Mitch Albom

My Choice

2009-11-01T20:55:00.000+07:00

I want my breakfast served at “eight”, with ham and eggs upon the plate;
A well-broiled steak I’ll eat at “one”; and dine again when day is done.

I want an ultramodern home, and in each room a telephone;
Soft carpets, too, upon the floors, and pretty drapes to grace the doors.

A cosy place of lovely things, like easy chairs and inner springs,
And then I’ll get a small TV - of course, “I’m careful what I see.”

I want my wardrobe, too, to be of neatest, finest quality.
With latest style of suit and vest, why shouldn’t Christians have the best?

But then the Master I can hear, in no uncertain voice, so clear,
“I bid you come and follow Me, the lonely Man of Galilee.”

“Birds of the air have made their nest, and foxes in their holes find rest;
But I can offer you no bed; no place have I to lay My head.”

In shame I hung my head and cried. How could I spurn the Crucified?
Could I forget the way He went, the sleepless nights in prayer He spent?

For forty days without a bit, alone He fasted day and night;
Despised, rejected - on he went, and did not stop till veil He rent.

A man of sorrows and of grief, no earthly friend to bring relief -
“Smitten of God,” the prophet said - Mocked, beaten, bruised, His blood ran red.

If He be God and died for me, no sacrifice too great can be
For me, a mortal man, to make; I’ll do it all for Jesus’ sake.

Yes, I will tread the path He trod. No other way will please my God;
So, henceforth, this my choice shall be, my choice for all eternity.

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by Bill McChesney

This poem, entitled My Choice, was written by Bill McChesney around 1960 at the age of 25 in the World Evangelization Magazine.

Bill McChesney was a missionary in the Congo in Africa. He was brutally murdered at the age of 28 along with hundreds of other missionaries by the rebels in the Stanleyville area. He had been beaten on a truck and his back was bleeding. Then he was speared to death by the “Simbas.”

This poem has been a blessing for me and what could be more gratifying than sharing it to the people I always regard as my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Blessing shared is blessing doubled.
Burden shared is burden halved.

Hope you are blessed by it. :)

The banker with God on his side

2009-10-28T23:27:00.005+07:00

I'm sorry for being MIA for the last couple of months. Honestly there was a culture shock going on because I didn't thought it would be that hard to go back to the Singaporean culture which is quite fast paced.

Meanwhile, I came across this below article which is quite inspiring to me and he will be coming to Singapore for the APEC CEO Summit and will be one of the keynote speaker in the event. He will also talk at the Trinity Theological College Singapore about his book because he is also a minister. I'll be there and if I don't forget, I'll post something about it after I attend it on 12 November 2009.

See you around.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6571529.ece

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June 25, 2009

The banker with God on his side

Are Christian values at odds with the discredited world of banking? Not according to Stephen Green, the church minister who’s head of HSBC

by Ruth Gledhill
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Pope Benedict XVI is about to publish a radical new document on social and economic affairs, Caritas in veritate or Love in Truth, in which he is expected to challenge the financial and economic models that he believes are responsible for the financial crisis in the West. He will draw on the full history of the Church’s social teaching to emphasise again the abiding theme of the “common good”. By contrast, the Church of England, which does not even have the recession in a slot for debate at its General Synod in York next month, seems to have left it up to Stephen Green, the chairman of the HSBC bank, to set the moral lead for the nation.

His new book, Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World, is a detailed analysis of the ethical and moral issues arising from the present economic crisis. It is not remotely didactic and it is mercifully free from the self-righteous pomposity that you might expect from a banker who is also an ordained clergyman.

Green is an NSM, a non-stipendiary minister or a “Not Short of Money”, as they have been described. As a result, he is able to mediate between the god of money, our society’s natural deity, and the biblical pretender to that role, the Christian God, from an elevated position — the 42nd floor of the HSBC building in Canada Square at Canary Wharf, East London.

“The banking industry has not covered itself in glory, to say the least, in recent years,” he admits at his penthouse office. “But I think that’s quite a different thing to saying that all banking is corrupt or is there for personal enrichment. It’s not true. What’s more, you can’t have a smoothly functioning modern economy without efficient, effective, well-run banking.” That said, Green acknowledges several times that “there are plenty of lessons to be learnt” and to fix “the breakdown of trust” that is now pervasive across business will require a lot of hard graft.

The industrious message and the almost Victorian rectitude and probity of what he says is reinforced by our surroundings. The 60-year-old’s office oozes asceticism. Images of working-class life adorn its walls. Admittedly, they are original Lowry paintings, but one bears on its back the £35 price tag for which it was acquired by a parsimonious banker many years ago.

Green admits that the underlying issue of “for want of a better word, morality in the markets” needs to be addressed. Like John Bercow, the newly elected Speaker, praising the “upright, decent, honourable” majority in the Commons, or police commissioners rooting around for those few bad apples in the barrel, the HSBC chairman says that he believes “more than 90 per cent of people working in banks have been doing a perfectly honest solid job”. He concedes that “a relatively small number of people were involved in the areas of excess and greed”.

“There was a culture, there was a climate that developed where it’s as if you would say to yourself, ‘If there’s a contract, if it’s legal, if there’s a market, then I’ll do the deal, I don’t have to ask any questions, I don’t have to ask whether it’s right or suitable’. And I do think that we need to get back to that sense of what’s right and suitable and not merely, here’s something that’s a profitable transaction.”

How do we find these elusive rogue bankers, and hold them to account? The answer, apparently, is quite technical. “One way of putting this is that we employ 330,000 people roughly speaking around the world. No senior management group, no board, can guarantee the mode of behaviour in every country, every time zone, every time there’s a transaction with a customer — you can’t set rules that guarantee all the right behaviour all the time. You certainly can’t personally supervise the right behaviour all of the time. You have to make sure there’s a standard of integrity, a standard of culture, a standard of commitment that informs recruitment decisions, that informs training and development programmes, that informs the way people are appraised and rewarded too. This is lots and lots of detailed work and it’s consistent reinforcement. This is the Forth Bridge exercise with a vengeance.

“One of the things that the Christian faith perspective does tell you is that nothing is perfect and that we all know that for any institution any individual — that includes the Church, needless to say. This is about shades of grey.”

Green remains wary of excessive regulation and cites St Paul, who spoke of the limits of the law. “He may have meant this in a slightly different context, but the point is a very well-taken one. No amount of rule making can ensure that the spirit’s there. Some rules may well be necessary but they are never going to be sufficient.”

This is Green’s second book. The first, Serving God? Serving Mammon? was an explicitly Christian book written by a man trying to answer the question of whether a person can, with integrity, have faith and be working in the financial markets. “I don’t think there’s anything different about being in a bank or other kinds of business or in the public sector,” he says. “The fact is if you are where you are and you do have a sense that you have got whatever resources, talents, whatever, the question does stare you in the face: ‘How am I going to contribute to the common good?’ We all, I think, face that question.”

When faced with the question himself, Green’s answer wasn’t simply financial, although he gives away a large proportion of his £1.25 million salary (he and all HSBC directors waived their bonuses last year). He also talks of “servant leadership”, as it is known as in the Church. This, draws on the image of the “servant king” in which the best rulers regard themselves as at the service of their people. It is fundamental to the concept of service in work, an ethic that theologians from the Pope down believe is crucial to the common good.Green thinks “service leadership” might be a better way of putting it for his industry, which he admits has fallen woefully short. “We’ve all become painfully aware of it in the past couple of years.”

Although HSBC received no government cash and said publicly that it can envisage no circumstances in which it will need to accept such help, it wasn’t unscathed by the credit crunch. Its acquisition of the US sub-prime lenders Household International in 2003 was an expensive mistake, especially for the 6,000 people made redundant earlier this year. Green, though, defends his “colleagues in America who’ve borne the brunt of this”, and praises them for the way in which they addressed and tackled the issue once it was recognised. “We don’t feel that this was inappropriate business. I don’t feel that we’ve got any apologies to make for the way in which we faced up to that problem. Indeed, I’m actually rather proud of the institution.”

In spite of the parable of the rich man condemned to eternity in Hades while the beggar Lazarus goes to bliss in Paradise, Christ is more sympathetic to the predicament of the rich than is often thought. Green does not want to address what Christ would think of where we are now.

“It is rather presumptuous to answer the question. Any reasonable reading of the Gospels will tell you that Christ was not automatically hostile to people who are in wealthy occupations.” In the Bible, the rich young man went away “sorrowful” when Jesus told him to give all he had to the poor. Green argues in his book that for the affluent, the biblical practice of tithing, or giving 10 per cent, is “not nearly enough”. As a litmus test, he suggests giving that is both material and “feels like real sacrifice”. And he speaks of the example he has witnessed of people who have tried out the St Francis prayer, “to give as to receive”, and discovered it works. “You hear this phrase all the time: ‘I want to give something back to the community’. It’s an interesting phrase because it bespeaks a sense that somewhere in the person is a recognition that there’s an obligation that he or she owes. That the wealth has imposed an obligation on them, a responsibility on them. Then people can either face their responsibility constructively and with enthusiasm even. Or there are people who don’t. And I think I would argue that the way of spiritual enrichment is to face that challenge and not to duck it.” It may be the way of spiritual enrichment but the question remains whether other, less God-fearing, financiers will ever see the light.

He admits in a rare unguarded moment, “One of my daughters once said, ‘Dad, you are a man of the Nineties, which I thought doesn’t sound too bad, until I realised she meant the 1890s.” Green is personally “well formed” as Christians say, having done a retreat on Mount Athos, and being familiar with the work of Marx, Frankl and most important philosophers, theologians, economists and political writers of the recent and not-so-recent past. One passage that leaps out of his book is where he talks of money in terms of Faust and the demon Mephistopheles.

“No, I don’t believe money is evil, of course I don’t. I believe in the economist’s definition. But as St Paul said, the love of money is the root of all evil. I think that’s probably going some, but it’s clearly a significant temptation and distortion. The rich young man’s story tells you, not that money is, per se, evil, but that you can become spiritually obsessed by it. And there’s ample evidence of that.”

Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World by Stephen Green is published by Allen Lane at £25.

Merdeka?

2009-08-19T02:24:00.000+07:00

Di tengah gegap gempita perayaan kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia yang ke-64, saya teringat akan perkataan Presiden pertama dan pendiri negara kita tercinta, Ir. Soekarno, "Bangsa yang besar adalah bangsa yang menghargai jasa pahlawannya." Sayangnya, kita tahu jelas bahwa yang beliau maksud dengan kata "menghargai" mempunyai makna yang luas dan dalam.

Saya percaya bahwa Kemerdekaan adalah kemewahan yang dibeli dengan darah para pahlawan. Perjuangan dan pengorbanan mereka lah yang membuat kita semua dapat mencicipi hidup seperti ini. Setidaknya Anda dapat menikmati internet untuk dapat membaca tulisan ini. Apa jadinya bila kemerdekaan yang diproklamasikan pada tanggal 17 Agustus 1945 hanyalah sebuah halusinasi bangsa kita?

Sayangnya bangsa ini telah hidup dengan layaknya menghalusinasikan kemerdekaan hasil perjuangan tersebut.

Tiga alinea pertama Mukadimah Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 dengan jelas mengatakan:

Bahwa sesungguhnya Kemerdekaan itu ialah hak segala bangsa dan oleh sebab itu, maka penjajahan di atas dunia harus dihapuskan, karena tidak sesuai dengan peri-kemanusiaan dan peri-keadilan.

Dan perjuangan kemerdekaan Indonesia telah sampailah kepada saat yang berbahagia dengan selamat sentausa mengantarkan rakyat Indonesia ke depan pintu gerbang kemerdekaan Negara Indonesia yang merdeka, bersatu, berdaulat, adil dan makmur.

Atas berkat rahmat Tuhan Yang Maha Kuasa dan dengan didorongkan oleh keinginan luhur, supaya berkehidupan kebangsaan yang bebas, maka rakyat Indonesia menyatakan dengan ini kemerdekaannya.

Sudahkah perjuangan kemerdekaan Indonesia sampai ke depan pintu gerbang kemerdekaan bila kita menggunakan standar yang dicetuskan oleh konstitusi negara kita sendiri?

Teman-teman, kitalah generasi penerus bangsa ini dan kepada kitalah bangsa ini akan diwariskan.

Sampai kapan kemerdekaan terus menjadi sesuatu yang diperdagangkan oleh para koruptor, dan dipermainkan oleh pemerintahan yang tak bertanggung jawab?

Saya berani bilang, sampai kita sadar bahwa bukan hanya mereka yang salah, kita pun juga.
Kitalah yang bertanggung jawab atas semua itu.

Lalu apa bedanya kita dengan mereka?
Tidak ada, jika kita memilih diam.

Lifeology & Loveology

2009-08-15T02:34:00.006+07:00

What makes one alive is love.
Love for a life one living in and the people inside it.

What makes one remains alive is hope.
Hope for there is life worth living in, now or hereafter.

What makes one lives forever is faith.
Faith for the One giving man the life itself.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)

For me, the goal is not to live forever in Earth, it's to create something that will;
it can only be done through love.

6 Years ago in SMAN 8 Jakarta

2009-08-07T01:56:00.003+07:00

Dedicated to my brothers and sisters in Perwakilan Kelas SMAN 8 Jakarta (Student Representative Council of my high school). Sorry for writing in Bahasa Indonesia, but you won't understand anyway if you are not one of us, so you can skip this part, hehe.

--------------------

**Mengalun dengan nada soundtrack Mojacko**
Sabtu pagi ke sekolah
dengan wajah gembira
untuk ikut pentaru
Perwakilan Kelas
teng..tereng..
Pita, Name tag, Amanat
sudah dibawa..... HAP!!....

Begitulah bait-bait awal dari yel-yel yang diajarkan kepada angkatan kami (PK XI) oleh PK X. Tidak terasa oleh saya, sudah 6 tahun semenjak saya diminta maju ke depan untuk mengulang gaya-gaya yel-yel yang cuma diperagakan 2x oleh kakak2nya. Hingga saat ini, yel2 pentaru masih terngiang di telinga saya dengan background suara teriakan Kak Prabu yang legendaris beserta trik segitiga dan lingkarannya.

Masih sangat debatable dalam pikiran saya apakah memori itu indah atau....... sangat indah, tetapi di luar pikiran itu saya percaya kita semua bisa menorehkan memori yang sama atau bahkan lebih indah lagi kepada calon adik2 kita sekarang yang mungkin 1, 6, atau 16 tahun lebih muda dari kita.

Lembaran baru telah tercipta, lembaran lama telah terganti
namun smuanya masih tertulis dalam suatu bab indah yang kita semua punya dan kita semua panggil dengan nama Perwakilan Kelas.

Biarlah hadiah doktrin dari kakak kelas bahwa PK adalah keluarga terlupa, biarlah sebuah pin merah ber-roda gigi hilang, biarlah smuanya itu kita panggil sekarang dengan memori. Tetapi apa artinya memori jika tidak untuk diingat.

Tanpa maksud untuk mewakili ataupun melangkahi adik2 paling kecil kita yang sekarang sedang mempersiapkan acara pentaru ini, saya mengajak kakak-kakak dan adik-adik yang mau bersama-sama membangkitkan memori masa lalu kita dan menorehkan memori yang lebih indah lagi kepada calon adik-adik kita untuk menghadiri Pentaru PK XVI yg akan diadakan pada:

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time: 11:00am - 4:00pm
Location: SMAN 8 Jakarta

Sampai ketemu semuanya!!

ps: PK XI itu angkatan 2006, jadi kakak-kakak bisa memulai membangkitkan memori dengan mengingat-ingat angkatan PK kakak sekarang, hehe

Rise and Shine Indonesia!!

2009-07-18T00:30:00.006+07:00

People said that when the night is in its darkest hour, it's when the stars shine the brightest. INDONESIA, it's time to RISE and SHINE!!!

We've been through churches, First and Second Bali, First Marriott, BEJ (Jakarta Stock Exchange), Philippine and Australian Embassy Bombings successfully, this is just another chance for us to SHINE brighter.
KUTAHU KITA PASTI BISA

17.07.09 will be the day that will not be forgotten in Indonesia's history.
For the terrorists out there
This will only be regarded as the time for us to show to the world again that we can keep on rising through all the bad things that happening here.

One of the things that I love the most from Indonesian: WE ARE A THRIVING SOCIETY
There will never be 'enough' for us.
There will never be 'satisfaction' for us.
There will never be 'giving up' for us.

You can keep on torturing us with everything you have.
We will still be the same 'thriving' Indonesians.

For all the people everywhere around the world
Please look beyond the headlines.
Our country is a country that had survived more than 3 centuries colonizations under Dutch, a lot of years under British and Portuguese, and 3 years under Japanese and still be the leader in anti-colonizations and non-aligned movement in the world directly after that.

Ours is a country that had survived:
- Philippine Embassy Bombing on Aug 1, 2000;
- September 2000 car bomb at the Jakarta Stock Exchange;
- Bombs exploded outside 6 churches on Dec 24, 2000;
- 1st Bali bombing on Oct 12, 2002
- 1st Marriott hotel bombing on Aug 5, 2003
- Australian embassy bombing on Sept 9, 2004
- 2nd Bali bombing on Oct 1, 2005
and still have our best year in tourism last year when global financial crisis was looming everywhere around the world.

To CNN, ABC, MSNBC, BBC, AP, CNA, Reuters: no matter what bad things you wrote about our country, believe me, people will still be coming here and we (at least I) will still be proud of our country.

For all of us Indonesians
This is not a time for us to condemn anyone (except the people behind the bombing of course).

Believe me on this, condemning our government, panicking, cursing our country, swearing about anything, fearing unreasonably ARE EXACTLY the reactions that the terrorists want.

This is a time for us to unite.
To unite and hope that we can find people behind these bombings and bring them to the face of just law.

I know it's just an abstract thing that you all doubt that we can do it.
But we can start by at least reacting wisely and do not spread the panic.

I believe yesterday won't be the last case of bombing in Indonesia although I hope it is, but that's just a prove that we're progressing and some people hate that. Why would people care with useless country anyway? They know that we're doing well and they didn't like it.

Yesterday is just a phase in our history that's although dark but reminds us that we should keep on thriving. Only this time, we should do it more vigilantly and with the higher degree of unity among us.

Tomorrow in Indonesia depends on you and me.
And don't worry, we can start preparing for it TODAY.

With faith, hope, and love,
Sutayasa
A mere citizen of Jakarta, Indonesia

Office 2010: The Movie trailer

2009-07-10T10:47:00.004+07:00

This is what happened when Microsoft started to enter the movie business, it's only understandable by the geeks.

We are going to see a new Microsoft Office soon after this movie trailer but the reality unchanged by this is that IT world is not filled with those beautiful people. Want to know more? Come to Stamford Road 80, hahahaha

My Big 5 Personality Profile

2009-07-09T00:20:00.006+07:00

My loyal readers. Forgive me that I haven't continued the story of my journey. I somewhat felt that I am in a not good condition to do anything really serious for the last couples of days. Is it turning-legal-age syndrome or just a condition of fatigue accumulated for years after my last holiday in December 2007 (really, it was my last holiday and to tell you the truth, I never think that my Euro trip was a holiday. It's more of a mission for me that I need to conquer. I know you might think I am stupid but that's the way I felt for it)?

I am still not too sure what's the real cause but I did make a decision to do a personality profile to understand myself better. (Is it a reasonable "but"? hahaha)

This is a real Personality Profile test according to Psychology method. It's not the average 2-minute test in Facebook. It's long and tiring, and I hope the result is accurate (Yup, I haven't read it when I write this post). So here you go. (if you want to take this test, you can take it at http://test.personality-project.org/survey/consentform.html, thanks to my Globalization and Human Resources Professor in HEC Paris who introduced me to it)
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Personality Profile

What follows is the results of your survey responses. The results here are grouped into five categories: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness. These categories represent the way that most people talk about personality and so they may reflect cultural or social biases.

The descriptions used here are borrowed from John Johnson, who hosts a page of descriptions .

Extraversion Report

Extraversion is marked by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy being with people, are full of energy, and often experience positive emotions. They tend to be enthusiastic, action-oriented, individuals who are likely to say "Yes!" or "Let's go!" to opportunities for excitement. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to themselves.

Introverts lack the exuberance, energy, and activity levels of extraverts. They tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and disengaged from the social world. Their lack of social involvement should not be interpreted as shyness or depression; the introvert simply needs less stimulation than an extravert and prefers to be alone. The independence and reserve of the introvert is sometimes mistaken as unfriendliness or arrogance. In reality, an introvert who scores high on the agreeableness dimension will not seek others out but will be quite pleasant when approached.

Score at a Glance
Total Score	62
Avg Response	4

Your average score on extraversion was 4, which is considered average. It is in approximately the 62nd percentile for males over the age of 21.

Your score on Extraversion is average, indicating you are neither a subdued loner nor a jovial chatterbox. You enjoy time with others but also time alone.

Agreeableness Report

Agreeableness reflects individual differences in concern with cooperation and social harmony. Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. They are therefore considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with others'. Agreeable people also have an optimistic view of human nature. They believe people are basically honest, decent, and trustworthy.

Disagreeable individuals place self-interest above getting along with others. They are generally unconcerned with others' well-being, and therefore are unlikely to extend themselves for other people. Sometimes their skepticism about others' motives causes them to be suspicious, unfriendly, and uncooperative.

Agreeableness is obviously advantageous for attaining and maintaining popularity. Agreeable people are better liked than disagreeable people. On the other hand, agreeableness is not useful in situations that require tough or absolute objective decisions. Disagreeable people can make excellent scientists, critics, or soldiers.

Score at a Glance
Total Score	92
Avg Response	4.8

Your average score on agreeableness was 4.8, which is considered high. It is in approximately the 92nd percentile for males over the age of 21.

Your high level of Agreeableness indicates a strong interest in others' needs and well-being. You are pleasant, sympathetic, and cooperative.

Conscientiousness Report

Conscientiousness concerns the way in which we control, regulate, and direct our impulses. Impulses are not inherently bad; occasionally time constraints require a snap decision, and acting on our first impulse can be an effective response. Also, in times of play rather than work, acting spontaneously and impulsively can be fun. Impulsive individuals can be seen by others as colorful, fun-to-be-with, and zany.

Nonetheless, acting on impulse can lead to trouble in a number of ways. Some impulses are antisocial. Uncontrolled antisocial acts not only harm other members of society, but also can result in retribution toward the perpetrator of such impulsive acts. Another problem with impulsive acts is that they often produce immediate rewards but undesirable, long-term consequences. Examples include excessive socializing that leads to being fired from one's job, hurling an insult that causes the breakup of an important relationship, or using pleasure-inducing drugs that eventually destroy one's health.

Impulsive behavior, even when not seriously destructive, diminishes a person's effectiveness in significant ways. Acting impulsively disallows contemplating alternative courses of action, some of which would have been wiser than the impulsive choice. Impulsivity also sidetracks people during projects that require organized sequences of steps or stages. Accomplishments of an impulsive person are therefore small, scattered, and inconsistent.

A hallmark of intelligence, what potentially separates human beings from earlier life forms, is the ability to think about future consequences before acting on an impulse. Intelligent activity involves contemplation of long-range goals, organizing and planning routes to these goals, and persisting toward one's goals in the face of short-lived impulses to the contrary. The idea that intelligence involves impulse control is nicely captured by the term prudence, an alternative label for the Conscientiousness domain. Prudent means both wise and cautious. Persons who score high on the Conscientiousness scale are, in fact, perceived by others as intelligent.

The benefits of high conscientiousness are obvious. Conscientious individuals avoid trouble and achieve high levels of success through purposeful planning and persistence. They are also positively regarded by others as intelligent and reliable. On the negative side, they can be compulsive perfectionists and workaholics. Furthermore, extremely conscientious individuals might be regarded as stuffy and boring. Unconscientious people may be criticized for their unreliability, lack of ambition, and failure to stay within the lines, but they will experience many short-lived pleasures and they will never be called stuffy.

Score at a Glance
Total Score	82
Avg Response	4.8

Your average score on conscientiousness was 4.8, which is considered high. It is in approximately the 82nd percentile for males over the age of 21.

Your score on Conscientiousness is high. This means you set clear goals and pursue them with determination. People regard you as reliable and hard-working.

Emotional Stability Report

Emotional stability is the opposite of emotional reactivity, which is the tendency to experience negative feelings. Those who score low on emotional stability may experience primarily one specific negative feeling such as anxiety, anger, or depression, but are likely to experience several of these emotions. People low in emotional stability are emotionally reactive. They respond emotionally to events that would not affect most people, and their reactions tend to be more intense than normal. They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional regulation can diminish a ones ability to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.

At the other end of the scale, individuals who score high in emotional stability are less easily upset and are less emotionally reactive. They tend to be calm, emotionally stable, and free from persistent negative feelings. Freedom from negative feelings does not mean that high scorers experience a lot of positive feelings; frequency of positive emotions is a component of the Extraversion domain.

Score at a Glance
Total Score	84
Avg Response	4.7

Your average score on emotional stability was 4.7, which is considered high. It is in approximately the 84th percentile for males over the age of 21.

Your score on Emotional Stability is high indicating that you are exceptionally calm, composed and unflappable. You do not react with intense emotions, even to situations that most people would describe as stressful.

Openness Report

Openness to Experience describes a dimension of cognitive style that distinguishes imaginative, creative people from down-to-earth, conventional people. Open people are intellectually curious, appreciative of art, and sensitive to beauty. They tend to be, compared to closed people, more aware of their feelings. They tend to think and act in individualistic and nonconforming ways. Intellectuals typically score high on Openness to Experience; consequently, this factor has also been called Culture or Intellect. Nonetheless, Intellect is probably best regarded as one aspect of openness to experience. Scores on Openness to Experience are only modestly related to years of education and scores on standard intelligent tests.

Another characteristic of the open cognitive style is a facility for thinking in symbols and abstractions far removed from concrete experience. Depending on the individual's specific intellectual abilities, this symbolic cognition may take the form of mathematical, logical, or geometric thinking, artistic and metaphorical use of language, music composition or performance, or one of the many visual or performing arts. People with low scores on openness to experience tend to have narrow, common interests. They prefer the plain, straightforward, and obvious over the complex, ambiguous, and subtle. They may regard the arts and sciences with suspicion, regarding these endeavors as abstruse or of no practical use. Closed people prefer familiarity over novelty; they are conservative and resistant to change.

Openness is often presented as healthier or more mature by psychologists, who are often themselves open to experience. However, open and closed styles of thinking are useful in different environments. The intellectual style of the open person may serve a professor well, but research has shown that closed thinking is related to superior job performance in police work, sales, and a number of service occupations.

Score at a Glance
Total Score	99
Avg Response	5.6

Your average score on openness was 5.6, which is considered high. It is in approximately the 99th percentile for males over the age of 21.

Your score on Openness to Experience is high, indicating you enjoy novelty, variety, and change. You are curious, imaginative, and creative.

DAY 1 - Netherlands - Amsterdam and The Hague

2009-06-30T02:19:00.002+07:00

I'm BACK!!
Safe, sound, and steady

It's been 1 week (+couples (or maybe tens) of hours) in Jakarta now, the city that has a special intrique with me. It's kind of Love/Hate relationship with it but no matter how much I hate it for its pollutions, traffic jam, criminal records, poverty exhibition (spending 1 day around Jakarta's protocol street is enough for anyone to really see about the poverty here I guess), etc. I still consider it as the city I love the most and the city that I consider as my first and only home.

Ok, before I go longer and longer about how much I love Jakarta, I will go back to the long awaited post about my travels in Europe. I am aware that I have not posted anything about my second trip in France but I think I will bring something that is fresh from the oven, my groundbreaking (at least my shoes' ground, cause it's literally breaking, hehe) 26-cities-in-26-days trip.

I'll do it like a diary, so we'll start with Day 1 in Amsterdam and The Hague (Den Haag) in this blog post!!

DAY 1 - Netherlands - Amsterdam and The Hague
We'll start the story 8 hours before the Day 1. It's really the perfect way to start a long journey!!

I planned to bring all my belongings in a HUGE (it's that huge that you can even put Hugh Grant in it) luggage. My housemate, Gabriel, kindly brought it from my room (the room on the farthest corner at the highest level of a building that is the furthest to the source of food (Restaurants des Etudiants a.k.a. Restaurant Universitaire)!! I perfectly understand that man can't live by bread alone as being said by the bible, but this is a bit too much especially for a man who loves anything as long as it's edible and has a taste that we all use to call Suta) to the bus station which is about 100 metres away from my apartment building door. FYI the luggage was about 35 kg.

I planned to catch a bus at around 6 PM and I already know the exact time when the bus would depart from HEC (my school name) bus station. Just a note, in developed country we have exact timing for bus departure and arrival, so Indonesian people who are reading this should understand that I don't have to be a magician to know when the bus is going. My friend hold the bus while I forgot something and ran back to my room to get it. The funny thing was the bus kept insisting on leaving but my huge luggage is already inside. I didn't know that, but I knew that I have to run as fast as Speedy Gonzalez (fyi, I know some Mexicans, none of them can run as fast as Speedy Gonzalez, I start to feel that the name of that character should be changed to Speedy Bolt. Once you've seen Usain Bolt running, you'll know what I'm talking about) with a bag that is about 16 KG!! I had no option, so I did that and thanks God I catched the bus (literally catch because the bus was about to leave).

To cut the story short, I did manage to leave the luggage at Rudi's house (my friend from my church in Paris) and went to the bus station on time.

I arrived around 1 hour earlier than the schedule and it was 6 AM in the morning in Amsterdam (anyway, I learned that night bus almost always arrive earlier than the schedule). I straight away go to the famous Dam Square, the heart of Amsterdam with my 15 KG bag on my back, haha (not a happy laugh). I saw the Nieuwe Kerk (15th century) which is used for royal coronations and royal weddings.

Other than that, you have Madame Tussaud (the famous wax museum),

Royal Palace (former City Hall, built in 1651, mainly used for diplomatic receptions and to welcome visiting heads of state, not as a royal residence),

and National Monument (erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II)

Then I continued to Rembrandtplein, which is obviously about Rembrandt, Netherlands' most famous name in painting. You must have seen Rembrandt's The Night Watch before either unconsciously or consciously.

Then I just walked around Amsterdam like a hunchback of Notre Dame (believe me, there is no hunchback at the Notre Dame of Paris, hehe) with that bag to see all these interesting things

A bike that is specially designed for carrying children

I don't exactly know what this is but it has big clocks on all its directions, so let's just call it a clock tower with a chicken on top of it, hehe

Stads schouw burgamsterdam (the "Yes we're open, Are you?" banner, and don't ask me to translate it for you please,hehe)

A floating chinese restaurant, looks like in Hong Kong, haha

This man has a very special boat. Click the picture to see the big version one.
Could somebody tell me what's the name of that musical instrument that he played with rolling the steer??

And guess what, this is what happened when you have too many museums.
You have Museum of Bags and Purses which I think could be the heaven museum for girls

You also have a SexMuseum which I think could be the heaven museum for boys

Not only that, Amsterdam even has Museumplein (Museum Square) where it has
Rijksmuseum (State Museum), the biggest and the richest, it's the one hosting Rembrandt's The Night Watch

Van Gogh Museum, which is self-explanotory

The Concertgebouw, which is consi dered one of the finest concert halls in the world, along with places such as Boston's Symphony Hall and the Musikverein in Vienna.

The Uber famous I amsterdam monument (I don't have any idea of what other word I should call it). I know what you are thinking. Nope, there is not any statue with a face like me standing in the centre of Museumplein. It's me, and it's the end of my Amsterdam trip.

Arghhhh, I know what you're thinking again. YES, I did went to the Red Light District, but NO!!! I didn't take any pictures and I didn't do anything there, just walk passing by the most exhibitionist group of people you can find in one district, hahaha. And trust me the district is small.

After that I straightly went to Amsterdam Centraal (train station, not mall, hehe)

and went to Den Haag where I would stay for the night. My senior in high school, Aryo (of course it's a real name, this is not a criminal story, haha), kindly 'offered' (or rather me asking for help, haha) me his living room for me to stay for 2 nights. I still remembered the 'Ayam Gulai' and 'Tempe cah Sapi' which he cooked for me and his other guests. IT WAS DELICIOUS!! Especially after a while of not seeing Indonesian food, haha.

Since Aryo also has PS3, I played Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for the first time there, haha. Not bad for someone who hasn't played for almost half a year, I won 4 matches and lost only 1 to Aryo, hehe.

Update on My Trip from Prague

2009-06-09T03:44:00.002+07:00

Europe is almost done for me guys!!

There are some changes to my plan before.

First part - 8 cities in 5 days
21-23 May - Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Delft
23-25 May - Belgium - Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels

Second part - 10 cities in 14 days
27-31 May - Italy - Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice
1-2 June - Austria - Salzburg
2-6 June - Germany - Munchen, Wittenburg, Berlin
7-8 June - Austria - Vienna
8-9 June - Czech - Prague

So far, I like Florence, Salzburg, and Berlin the most
I haven't finished Prague though, just arriving this afternoon and now having one of the best and the cheapest hostel in my trip with free internet use, so I am pretty happy now, hahahha

I don't feel like a backpacker in Prague because everything is so cheap that it's close to Singapore's prices (not cheap at all for Indonesian though,hahaha).

The next one week of my trip will be a bit fast and need to be done carefully though because UK is so expensive, hehehe.

Just a preview for my UK trip - 7 cities in 7 days
10-11 June - London (I'll be watching England vs Andorra at the closest part to the field in Wembley Stadium, don't be jealous until I post the picture though, hehe)
12 June - Oxford, Birmingham
12-14 June - Liverpool
14 June - Manchester
15 June - Edinburgh
16 June - Glasgow, Paris

All in all, it will be 26 cities in 26 days including back to Paris on my last day. It's getting a bit tired now but it's worth the effort.

More pictures and stories will be coming after 19 June 2009 when I arrive in Singapore.

Meanwhile, wish me luck for the rest of my journey.

Btw, I want to thank Sharleen and Sarah for hosting me in Vienna and bring me around to all palaces in Vienna also. Thanks very much, but after all I should say that Vienna wouldn't be fun without you two, especially when you two started to tease on each other, hahaha

FYI, Sharleen is my primary school friend. We hadn´t met each other since 9 years ago and only God knows that we met again after 9 years in Vienna instead of Jakarta. Sarah is her witty housemate.

GBU Sharleen, Sarah and all the readers, hehe.

My Eurotrip

2009-05-24T03:35:00.004+07:00

This blog will be undergoing maintenance work for 1 month because the owner will be traveling all the time, haha.

Just for a preview for my lovely readers.

21-23 May - Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Delft
23-25 May - Belgium - Antwerp, Ghent, Brugges, Brussels
27-31 May - Italy - Rome, Florence (and maybe Pompei and Pisa too), Venice
31 May-1 June - Austria - Salzburg
1-6 June - Germany - Munchen, Wittenburg (the start of reformation from Luther), Berlin
6-7 June - Austria - Vienna
7-8 June - Poland - Krakow
8-10 June - Czech - Praque
10-16 June - UK (England and Scotland only) - London, Oxford, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow

16-18 June - France - Paris (back home, stay at Rudi´s lovely place)
18 June - Qatar - Doha (transit for few hours)
19 June - Singpapore - arriving at 3 PM local time at Terminal 3 Changi Airport by QR638, in case you want to pick me up
22 June - Indonesia - Jakarta - finally back at home after about 5 weeks of traveling. 11 AM ValueAir Flight from Singapore

for the whole summer, I´ll bring all of you through the stories of my eurotrip journey, meanwhile let me do the trip first, haha. I´ll keep you all updated if I have anything urgent coming up in the next one month.

This post is being written in my friend´s house in Ghent, Belgium. I met him through Couchsurfing, a website that can change the world, at least some people´s world.

Au revoir.

Indonesia, the country which smiles most

2009-05-19T15:56:00.004+07:00

It's the final one week I'm in HEC Paris now. I'm really busy with everything but to keep my reader occupied, I have this interesting article below. I'm sorry that it's in Bahasa Indonesia but you can use the below part to know the translation. CAUTION, I didn't have time to check the translation because it's being done by Google Translate, hehe. If you know Bahasa better, it's better to read the Bahasa version. You can click on the title to get the original article.

Indonesia Negara Paling Tersenyum

LONDON,KOMPAS.com-Beberapa media massa Swedia selama beberapa pekan terakhir ini menuliskan laporannya bahwa Indonesia berada di tingkat pertama dalam urutan negara dengan masyarakatnya tersenyum paling tinggi di dunia dibandingkan dengan negara lainnya.

Mengutip laporan The Smiling Report 2009 yang dilakukan salah satu Provider Misteri Belanja yang berada di Swedia justru menempatkan masyarakat Swedia berada di urutan ke 24. Demikian diungkapkan Sekretaris Satu KBRI Stockholm, Swedia Dody Kusumonegoro kepada koresponden Antara London, Minggu (17/5).

Dalam jajak pendapat yang dilakukan tahun 2008 yang berisi lebih dari 2,5 juta pertanyaan mengenai Senyum (Smile) dan Salam (Add-Greeting) pada penjualan di 66 negara, Swedia menempatkan Indonesia pada bagian atas daftar.

Media Swedia melaporkan Indonesia sebagai negara yang paling tersenyum sebagai hasil dari pelanggan layanan data dari evaluasi yang dilakukan di seluruh spektrum dan pameran oleh AB Bisnis di seluruh dunia, di Swedia.

Dalam laporan itu disebutkan Indonesia sebagai negara tertinggi tersenyum dengan 98 persen. Selain itu, Indonesia juga merupakan negara dengan ucapan salam yang paling tinggi yaitu 98 persen. Sementara itu Swedia berada di nomor 24 pada daftar untuk kategori senyum dengan angka 77 persen dan urutan 31 untuk ucapan salam dengan 81 persen.

Industri yang banyak senyum adalah di bidang kesehatan dan kecantikan perawatan serta transportasi dengan 86 persen dan nilai terendah berada di layanan bisnis B2B dengan hanya 52 persen. Dalam jajak pendapat itu disebutkan bahwa ucapan Salam tahun 2008 dan 2007 tercatat 81 persen dibandingkan dengan 88 persen pada 2004.

Ucapan salam tertinggi selain Indonesia juga menempatkan Hongkong dengan 98 persen, sementara yang terendah adalah Maroko dengan 48 persen. Ucapan yang terbaik ditemukan pada layanan di pemerintahan dengan 94 persen sementara di kalangan bisnis (B2) hanya 70 persen.

Dalam layanan penjualan, skor tertinggi dicatat oleh Pakistan dengan 82 persen dan terendah adalah Finlandia dengan tiga persen. Dalam pelayanan B2 memiliki nilai tertinggi mencapai 65 persen sementara dalam segi kenyamanan tercatat sangat rendah dengan 40 persen.

Dalam laporan itu terdapat kesenjangan yang besar antara benua Australia memiliki skor tertinggi dari semua benua, dengan senyum sebesar 89 persen dan salam 92 persen sementara Afrika disebutkan terendah dengan 61 persen senyum dan 51 persen salam.

ONO

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LONDON, KOMPAS.com-Some of the Swedish media during the last few weeks writing the reports that Indonesia is in the first level in the order in a country with smiling people in the world's most high compared with other countries.

The reports cite Smiling Report 2009 is one of mystery shopping provider that is located in Sweden Sweden is the place to be in the order to 24. One such disclosed Secretary KBRI Stockholm, Sweden Dody Kusumonegoro to the correspondent of London, Sunday (17 / 5).

In a poll conducted in 2008 which contains more than 2.5 million questions about Smiles (Smile) and Salam (Add-Greeting) in sales in 66 countries, India put Sweden at the top of the list.

Swedish media reported that Indonesia as the country's most smiling as a result of the customer service data from the evaluation conducted in the entire spectrum and exhibits by AB Business in the world, in Sweden.

In the report mentioned Indonesia as the country with the highest 98 percent smiled. In addition, Indonesia is also a country with a formula that is the most high 98 percent. Meanwhile Sweden is in the number 24 on the list for the category senyum 77 percent with the number and order of 31 to 81 with the formula percent.

Industry is a lot of curl in the field of health and beauty care, and transportation with 86 percent and the lowest value in the B2B business services with only 52 percent. In the poll mentioned that a speech in 2008 and 2007 was 81 percent compared with 88 percent in 2004.

Formula is also placed in addition to Hong Kong with 98 percent, while the lowest is the 48 percent of Morocco. Speech found the best service in the government with 94 percent, while business (B2), only 70 percent.

Services in sales, the highest score recorded by Pakistan with 82 percent and Finland with the lowest is three percent. B2 in the service have the highest value reached 65 percent while in terms of comfort was very low with 40 percent.

In the report, there is a large gap between the Australian continent has the highest score from all continents, with a smile as much as 89 percent and a 92 per cent while Africa is the lowest with 61 percent and 51 percent senyum prayers.

Mon premier voyage en France

2009-05-12T07:39:00.005+07:00

This post is originally written on 26/04 in the bus from Lyon to Paris with International students from HEC. As promised, I am going to tell you about my trips. Let me begin with the first.

First Day

In a bright Friday morning on 13 March (I just realized it’s Friday the 13th haha), we (suta, gabriel, michelle, amy, eva) went together from HEC at 7:30 am to Massy Palaiseau to get the car that we rent to embark on our journey.

First is Caen, a city famous for its Memorial Museum, which I myself regard as one of the best museum that I have been too. It’s more expensive than Louvre yet I still like it more. There will be more about it in the next day

We had a nice lunch here... and eat this steak....

We then tried to find a way to caen memorial museum but we couldn't do it, and I'm glad we couldn't because we had way more time to see it in the day after. So, we went to the famous Mont St Michel instead. We walked on what maybe the biggest beach on earth which will be gone by night.

We circled the 'island' because the tide was still low. It was really fun. Some part of it can suck you down but it's not dangerous because it is really slow.

After that we went to some stores to see the famous foie gras (liver of a duck or goose) and local product before heading to St Malo, a famous fortified city (don't be surprised people, even when I say it's famous, I didn't know what it is before). We ate dinner there, but was not really good, so we moved to other restaurant to have dessert (the one with the alcohol and being burnt with fire, don't worry we don't eat fire).

We then moved back towards Mt St Michel to see how beautiful it was in the night,and it was really good,look by yourself if you don't believe me.

We went back to Caen to go back and sleep.

Second Day

In the second day, we first went to Caen memorial museum, one of the best I've seen that I even dedicated a separated photo album for it.

The top left is the campaign material from Hitler, continued clockwise, letter from Einstein to FD Roosevelt, me and all the equipment that a soldier has, News world war declared, a wedding gown made of parachute, and a dedicated section for the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno.

We then went to Bayeux where its famous tapestry was being hosted. I like the tapestry a lot. It is about the tale of the Norman invasion of England in 1066 over 58 remarkable scenes. Made in the 11th century with length of 70 meters, it's also Unesco's memory of the world register. Following that is what I ate there and how the city looks like.

Prochain arrete (next stop) was D-day beaches, the biggest one is Omaha where the American cemetery is. It is so beautiful and peaceful, a great place to reflect. It was the place of the bloodiest battle between ally and Nazi in the D-day operation Overlord. Today, about 10,000 soldiers are resting peacefully here.

Just few kms from Omaha, there is Gold beach. We went to an observation deck above the hill. Here are the views. There are a big cross and a big statue of virgin Mary there.

We then continued our journey to Rouen to stay for one night there.

Third Day

In the next morning, we went to the Notre dame de rouen and the place where Joan d'arc was being burnt which is now Eglise Jeanne d'Arc. Who is she? Saint Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc;^[1] c. 1412^[2] – 30 May 1431) is a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old. (from Wiki, hehe)

We then continued to Amiens where the biggest notre dame in France located and where the head of John the Baptist is being hosted. Anyway, almost every city in France called their church Notre Dame, and believe me, there is no such thing as the Hunchback of Notre Dame here, hahaha. It means "Our Lady," so basically all the churches are dedicated to Virgin Mary.

Next was Lille, where we saw a piscine (swimming pool) turned into world class museum where I first saw the creation of Pablo Picasso and Donatello with my own eyes. To be exact, it was in Robeaux, a small town next to Lille.

We ate dinner in Lille, a local food which I recreated because I don't like cold and jelly meat,ha3, so I asked the waiter to heat it up and it eventually became a soup,haha.

That's all about my first trip, feel free to drop comments, and stay tune for the next posts. You can zoom in the pictures if you click on it.

Love Crunch vs. Credit Crunch

2009-05-09T05:07:00.003+07:00

To be honest, I am not in a good physiological and psychological condition to write a post now since my body has not been in its best shape since earlier this week and I have been having a lot of thought lately. So, wind (msk angin) + thought = pseudo-insomnia for me.

Hence, today post is taken from someone's blog that I read before with the title below. Originally, this posting is made by Linda Lauwira (a friend of my friend's hehehe, thanks Linda), which you can see it here.

It's quite creative thought of hers and it's quite funny too (in case you understand how the real subprime crisis happening,hehe). Credit to her as the original writer. Below is the original writing from her.

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Love Crunch Vs. Credit Crunch

With all the subprimes' bet toppling down even Bear Stern of Wall Street, it makes me wonder if Love is not similar to a subprime loan?

You drove down the highway called life and you see the banner of Love Property offering you cheap down payment and low monthly installments? You got tired of renting out of singlehood; where you can never have a fixed home that can be your sanctuary always. So you said why not?! Let's cut a deal with this lovie-dovey business.

9 months down the road. The rate had hiked up to the roof. You had to pay insurance, property tax plus your monthly payments. Added to that, the economy is not doing so good.. so interest rate is spiked from 1% to 7%; expectations rose. Good bye half of your monthly salary [that goes to your monthly payment]... low loving deposit to your partner. Hellow collection letters... snappy demands from your relationships.

Thus with all the bounced checks, you are months delinquent.. Thus with all the disappointments and misunderstandings, you are running a contest instead of relationship. All the pressure started coming on to you. Your sanctuary became the stone that sunk you to the bottom of all debts; your commitment became the lodestone that hung around your neck.

Thus. The decision.. is it foreclosure or loan modification. is this it or love mod?
What happen along the way? From a new happy beginning of something precious into something that can make you or bankrupt you? Are you strong enough to let go? or are you brave enough to hold on?

So when all the chips are down and you found yourself seeking for a lifeline, any lifeline; is it your fault for not researching and understanding the product that you are buying into? Is it your fault for not thinking through of all the commitments, give and take of a relationship? Or is it their fault for making it looked so easy? Is it theirs? OR ultimately is it YOURS?

In His time

2009-05-05T20:20:00.008+07:00

Ok, forgive me that I haven’t had time to write about my trips, however my first trip has been written but I need to polish it with pictures.

In this post, I write about what I learned the most during the last two days, especially about what Ci Lily (the evangelist in the Indonesian fellowship in Paris) said in her sermon.

If you saw my Facebook status about two weeks ago you would know that I said something more or less like this “Sutayasa believes everything will be wonderful in HIS time.” Honestly, I still haven’t gotten the wonderful thing I sought before but I become firmer now in changing my orientation. God has several times reminded me in the last few weeks about Matthew 6:33-34:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

I always love the song Seek Ye first which is based on that verses, but I honestly admit that the reality may not be wonderful at all when we try to do that statement. However, thanks be to God, that He showed me these below examples to strengthen me during these kind of time.

There is no such thing as late in His time

Susan Boyle, a 48 year old woman who just started his career in world professional music industry through Britain’s got talent 2009 about three weeks ago has failed in a lot of her attempts before despite her wonderful talent. She believed that it was because her appearance that doesn’t look appealing that she even joked that she has not been kissed in her life.

Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances. [...] There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example. — Susan Boyle, The Washington Post

However, God changed her life from a singer in the choir and a volunteer worker in her church to a worldwide-phenomenon. She initially didn’t want to participate in Britain’s got talent until her mother died two years ago and she decided to fulfil her mother’s wish for her.

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent

Some interesting things in the video:

00:20-00:27 – Never been kissed etc.

00:55-01:03 – she comes from village

01:00 – I’m 47, and that’s just one side of me

01:27-01:31 – I am trying to be a professional singer but I’ve never been given a chance before

01:34-01:35 – a lady grinned when Susan said she wants to be like Elaine Paige

01:44- 04:16 – I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle, things happening during the song:

Simon lid his eyes up only in Susan’s third notes, people started standing on her third line, her last line of songs touched me:

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Watched out for this, on 04:25 she left the stage after a thunderous applause from the audience, she thought that this would not be different from the other show she has been in, demeaning people just because of their appearance, and she was only there singing to fulfil her mother wish, so there was not any point for her to keep on standing. But the judges call her back, Piers Morgan, who told her, “Without a doubt, that was the biggest surprise I’ve had in three years on the show.” He then voted with saying “the biggest yes I have ever given anybody.”

Amanda Holden said “Everybody was against you. I honestly think that we are all being very cynical and I think that was the biggest wake-up call ever... it was instantly brilliant”

Cowell completed the judging with the third resounding yes. “Susan Boyle, you can go back to the village with your head held high,” he said. “It’s three yeses.”

There is no such thing as too soon in His time too

Hollie Steel, 10 years old, ballerina? Singer? I am not too sure, but I’m sure that she is one of the best talent that God created.

Hollie Steel - Britains Got Talent 2009 - Audition

Interesting things in the video:

01:32-02:44 – Her singing

01:46 Simon almost pressed the “no” button before Hillie sang

Amanda: “it’s just ridiculous how much talent you have..I was stunned”

Piers: “we’ve seen a lot of children... I never heard any of them sings as well as you”

Simon:”you got fantastic voice.. the fact that you don’t know how good you are it’s what I really like about you”

Don’t give up on Him, He will not give up on you

Shaheen Jafargholi, 12 year old, chose Valerie by Amy Winehouse because it was his favourite song but even though the crowd like it, Simon stopped the song short at 01:35 and said “You got this really wrong, what do you sing apart from that?” Amazingly, Shaheen looked really calm and said that he want to sing his next song, Who’s loving you by Michael Jackson.

Shaheen Jafargholi - 12 Year Old Singer - Britains Got Talent

At the end, all the three judges stood up and gave him applause. Simon said “This is how one song can change your life” which I think can be translated to “This is how easy for God to change your life if you don’t give up.” Amanda said “I get a Goosebumps test, I got it with Paul Potts [the winner of BGT 2007]. I got it with George Sampson [the winner of BGT 2008] and I got it with you.”

It's a bit stretching the fact but we can learn from the video that often times the one that we want (like Valerie song in this case) is not something that we need to bring out the best in us.

This condition of having uncertain future (not really future, it's my next 6 weeks) maybe something that I don't really like nor I really want but I have a strong belief that this will be the one that teach me best. Maybe it's just time for me to make a friendly gesture with failure before leaving it for success.

Zodiak and Us

2009-04-27T21:39:00.004+07:00

Ok, I know that zodiak is certainly not a scientific approach to know someone and I don't believe how 550 millions people in this world (assuming we have 6.6 billions people now) can be characterised by a page of description.

I firmly believe God is way more creative than that, hahaha. However, I just want to laugh on it as I found the 'most accurate to date' description of me using zodiak, hahaha.

The link is available on here for Libra and here for October 1. Let me know which part that made you laugh when you read it or which one that you think is wrong for me, hahaha.

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Libra individuals are artistic, affectionate, and refined. With Venus as the ruling planet, people born under this sign are considered to be attractive and fashion-conscious. They seek peace and joy through personal and professional relationships.

The Libra Man

When it comes to charm, there is no one more appealing than a Libra man. He is often the handsome tough-guy type but with a rare sensitivity that makes him irresistible. Men born under this sign are often drawn to artistic and creative careers. They usually marry, often at a young age. Because they are generally good-natured and accommodating, Libra men are happy to do their share of housework. They are supportive and enthusiastic about their spouse's career.

The Libra Lover

Libra men and women are the most romantic among the zodiacal types. Venus-ruled, they have an idealistic view of love and togetherness. Once these people fall in love, they start thinking of marriage. Libras don't enjoy romantic suffering. Whenever they are disappointed in a relationship, a Libra man or woman will spend a little time grieving and then move to another partnership.

The Libra Friend

Because they are very social people, Libras make good friends. Libras are great counsellors, because they have the ability to weigh the pros and cons of an idea fairly and without bias. They love giving parties, and they have talent for making people feel at ease. Although they may seem superficial at times, anyone who knows these charming men and women understands that they have an intriguingly profound side to their nature.

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1. artistic?? my drawing can even scare mouse, hahaha

2. fashion-conscious?? come on, hahaha, i don't really care what I wear everyday, hahaha

3. okay, I maybe a charming-appealing person (now, you can call me a liar too, right? hahahaha) but honestly, "handsome tough-guy type" is perfectly not me, hahaha.

4. "drawn to artistic and creative careers"??? hahahaha, how artistic a programming or investment banking for a normal person will decide whether this statement is true or not, hahaha

5. "They usually marry, often at a young age." i am almost 21 and i don't think I will marry anyone at least until I am 24 or 25. I am not sure it's young enough, hahaha

6. Having said that, I agree to The Libra Lover description except the last sentence. (this is also provided that you believe I am not a liar, hahaha)

7. The Friend description seems accurate for me, haha, but you are the one who suppose to judge it as my friend,haha.

okay, here goes another ‘more personal’ one

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Libras born on October 1 have a bold and uncompromising spirit and an ability to come back from hard times. They enjoy being in the spotlight but have too much grace to appear egotistical or vain. October 1 men and women understand the need to build their future on past successes. They have an instinct for making the right decision.

Libra Information
for October 1

You should embrace: Thoroughness, acceptance, happy memories

You should avoid: A domineering temperament, disapproval, petty people

Friends and Lovers

Friends play a pivotal role in the lives of October 1 men and women. They have a wide variety of social contacts but a small circle of very intimate friends. October 1 individuals are extremely romantic. They fall in and out of love quickly. Once married, they will strive to keep the romance alive.

Children and Family

Family life has a major impact upon the lives of October 1 individuals. Their idyllic childhood may make them nostalgic for the past. They have the best intentions of fulfilling their parental roles, yet may find themselves preoccupied with career responsibilities. They do set rules that provide social and spiritual guidance.

Health

Because of their generally upbeat nature, October 1 men and women have little problem dealing with stress. Generally moderate in all things, these people usually keep their weight down. Even though they hate to sweat, they usually keep up a regular workout program.

Career and Finances

October 1 individuals are often drawn to careers that give them a chance to show their commitment to the less fortunate. Perhaps because they know only too well how much they enjoy spending hard-earned cash on beautiful things, they may not trust themselves with money.

Dreams and Goals

October 1 natives have the spirit to overcome adversity, which gives them great satisfaction because it allows them to demonstrate their true mettle. They seek harmony in all aspects of life. This can require some sacrifices in personal relationships, but they are glad to make those sacrifices if it provides peace of mind.

----

I should admit the ‘more personal’ one describes me better, but there are still some slight differences though, hahaha. I would leave it to you to guess which one doesn't suit me, so come and flood my blog with your opinions and comments, haha.

Cin(T)a - Cina, Tuhan, Annisa

2009-04-27T17:05:00.004+07:00

Nope, I know what you were thinking about, the last three words are not the official abbreviation of Cin(T)a.

After all this time, this maybe the first movie for the last 1 year that I fell in love in the first sight with. The trailer is marvelous, it's a novel idea in any ways, and it's really making me proud of Indonesian movie producer.

The synopsis is pretty short but really engaging. It makes you wonder in your deepest sense what this movie is all about.

This is a story of a triangle love between
Cina (the boy), Annisa (the girl),
and Tuhan (God).
Cina and Annisa love God
and God loves them both
But Cina and Annisa cannot love each other
because they call God by different names

Casts

Cina, an 18 year-old college freshmen, was ready to conquer the world with a strong faith, yet naive, since it had never been tested by failure.

God (Tuhan) is the most unpredictable character. Everybody tries to describe Him. Everybody thought they knew Him. Every art tried to figure Him. But nothing is really like Him...or Her

Annisa is a 24 year-old college senior whose education was held back because of her career in the movie industry. Her fame and beauty left her so lonely that she drew a sad face on her finger as her companion. Until one day, another finger came and she was no longer lonely.

I have watched the below trailer several times and I still in love with this trailer. It potraits the religious difference so bluntly that a lot of discussin in Kaskus and other web forums predict that the film will be banned. However their premiere screening will be in London on 29 May 2009 and I really wanted to be there but I will be only in London on 10 June 2009 (if my visa application successful though, please help me God on this one, hehe)

Meanwhile, I can only do the same as what everybody else do in most of their lifetime, waiting.

This week activity

2009-04-24T19:10:00.008+07:00

I am sorry guys that I haven't had time to write about my previous trips. I am going to Lyon today until Sunday because HEC International Students association organized the trip and it's considerably quite cheap (50 euros for 2 nights and 2 days accommodation and transportation). Next week I'm going to Champagne because the HEC Office of International Relations organize it for free, yay!! hahaha

Meanwhile, my group just started a survey, please help us by filling it by clicking the button in the bottom part of the frame below. Your help is very much appreciated and your response will be handled confidentially. I promise, it won't take more than 10 minutes for a survey that I designed for 4 hours, hehe.

Thanks before people.

(the survey is done and my group managed to find enough respondents, so thanks a lot people!!)

Just a Quick Update

2009-04-21T05:31:00.003+07:00

I am not supposed to write this one now, since I have a submission deadline soon, but never mind, I need to update several things here for my loyal readers (if I have any, hahahaha)

1. Going to UK for assessment centre
Too bad, I just got news from JPM that I won't be eligible for Work Permit in UK. I did check the embassy website and it said the same thing too. Basically I need 70 points and I only have around 60 points. The point-based system was quite new, not even 5 months old, but it's ok. This means I am not going to be able to intern in UK this summer. However, the good thing is they said that I can get the work permit if I want for the graduate programme, and I will get priority access for the graduate assessment this October. Nevertheless, I still have tuition grant in Singapore, so I guess I have to skip on that one.

Don't worry, I'm not sad nor upset because of this. I believe God has a better plan than mine.

2. My life this summer??
Too bad that one of my goals this year is not going to happen. I will still try applying for internship in European mainland this summer to gain international exposure, but i am not really hoping for that.

I don't know why but I really want to go home (Indonesia) this summer (maybe more of my phase of adaptation here, but i feel it's a bit different), I don't care if I will get only 10% of what I got in Singapore. It's just feeling peaceful to me that I have a place called home in Tebet, Jakarta, which is replaceable neither by my condominium-like appartment in Singapore, nor my room in glamorous-and-glorious city of Paris (a bit outside of Paris actually, haha). At least I know that I don't have to cut expenses on anything and I can enjoy life in its fullest sense in Jakarta, hehe.

However, let God guides me. Everything will be beautiful in HIS time, not mine. I am waiting eagerly for that.

3. Holiday in France
My next couple of posts will be about retelling my 2 holidays for my already-7-weeks-without-noticing-it term in HEC Paris (it's just keep making me smile to really experience how Paris HEC Paris is, hahaha, in a bad way often times). I have not been outside of France due to budget and opportunity constraints but I will be at the end of May.

So guys, just wait until my next posts are ready to be published.

For a teaser
Holiday I
(3 days 3 nights) - Caen, Mont St. Michel, St. Malo, Bayeux, D-Day landing beaches, Rouen, Amiens, Lille, Robeaux

Holiday II
(3 days 4 nights) - Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Marseille, Carcassonne, Toulouse

Meanwhile, I need to do my obligation first.
Until then, GBU.

Sunday Morning in Paris

2009-04-11T07:16:00.004+07:00

Last Sunday was a bright and cheerful day in Paris. I went off from my 'apartment' room when it was still a bit dark, around 8 in the morning. (yup, it's still dark in Jouy-en-Josas, it's almost spring, hahaha)

I went with a very ambitious plan to go around Paris. That time, it was with Adel, one of my junior in SMAN 8 which is from 2009 & 2010 batch, and I am from 2006 batch. She is also an exchange student, but still in her high school.

This time, I won't tell by words, it will be using pictures, hehehe. You can click on the picture to get a more detailed view.

9:00 - 10:00 Church service at American Church. (my church is the other tower you can see, other than eiffel)
These are the only photos that are not coming from my camera

10:00 - 13:30 Musee du Louvre. It was free for the first sunday of the month, hehe.

From top left, Napoleon III's dining room, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Venus de Milo (Aphrodite)
From bottom left, coronation crown of Louis XV, and I don't think I have to mention the name for you to know it, right?

One of my favourite statue is this one, Psyche and Cupid (A. Canova)

13:30 - 16:00 Lunch at Jardin du Luxembourg, walking around Sorbonne, Universite de Paris, and Pantheon

16:00 - 18:30 Centre Georges Pompidou and Marche de St Ouen (the world's biggest flea market, I heard, too bad I didn't take any picture there)

18:30 - 19:30 Basilica de Sacre-Coure, Montmarte, Moulin Rouge

20:00 - 22:00 Trocadero, Eiffel tower, and Champ Elysees

If only my notebook can type by itself to update my blog

2009-04-10T07:22:00.007+07:00

It's another busy week at HEC Paris.
I'm glad it's over.
Since two weeks ago, a lot of things have been happening in the world (of course), especially my world. Here are things that were happening for the last 2 weeks in my world, just the interesting one for me, haha.

Tour de Paris
Sunday, 29 March
Michelle (8, 2006, PK X) and her UGM friends were coming to visit Paris. I went from my 'apartment' room to Paris at 8 o'clock and the weather was terrible, I even still remember that it was -2 degrees Celsius that morning. Luckily the weather was getting better in the afternoon until around 12 degrees (felt like Winter to Spring in several hours, haha).

We went to Eiffel (of course, this is Paris, what can you expect from a tourist, haha), walked to Trocadero, walked again to Arc de Triomphe and Champ Elysees, went to Notre Dame by train (some of them lost in Chatelet Metro, if I remember correctly, it was because they were adjusting their watch because it was Daylight Saving Time that day, the only day in my life that was only 23 hours in a day), walked across the romantic right bank of Seine river (which made them stopped every few metres because of pictures of topless ladies or kissing gay which were everywhere along the book, poster, and souvenir sellers at bank of Seine river), before arriving at Louvre.

That day, I learned a new thing, which is kind of funny to be learned in Paris, Javanese culture, "Alon alon asal kelakon" (literally means "slowly but sure"). I thought it was only a slogan, but I realized it was really apparent that day. Having lived about 99% of my life in metropolitan cities, I regarded that at first as one of the most expensive way to waste the time. I mean, they only in Paris for 2 days yet they didn't have any clear plan about where to go and what to see except posing for the camera every few minutes. (Please don't be offensed guys, if you read this post, it's going to be compliments all the time this point onwards, hahaha, so keep on reading).

However, things were not meant the same between me and them, they were enjoying their time very much, it looked like no matter what the place is, as long as I am with my friend, it's enough. It strucked me when I wrote that phrases, I just realized that maybe my metropolitan life has corrupted my heart. There are a lot more meanings for travelling than just sight seeing as much tourism site that one can, and thanks God they reminded me about that.

Monday, March 30
Not much, except classes until afternoon and I got an email saying that my application for tickets for UEFA Champions League Final were not successful. I didn't really dissapointed because of that though, maybe because it's very expensive also. Either way, if God permits, I'll be in Rome when the Final match being played there. Watching in Piazza and seeing all the crowd is more than enough for me, haha.

Invitation for Assessment Centre at JPM UK
Tuesday, March 31
It was a big day for me. Not a lot of people have the privilege to get a second chance, thanks God I was one of them. Two months ago I was being invited for an assessment center (sort of more complicated and longer job interview) for an intern position at Operations and Business Services division of a company with an initial of JPM in London. I was still interning in another company with an initial of BC in Singapore then, and the invitation came two weeks before the date, which was certainly not enough for me to apply for visa (yes, Indonesians need to apply for visa to almost every countries, haha). However, my commitment to my project was the biggest hindrance for me to push for that, so I just gave up that opportunities.

In my third week in Paris, I tried to send an email again to JPM asking whether I could apply to other location. At first, they seemed to be a bit reluctant to changed it because of possible technical difficulties in the system. However, thanks to God, they wanted to do that after I made an essay about why I wanted that location based on their request. On March 31, I received another invitation to have an assessment centre in their office in Bournemouth, UK (their headquarters for Europe operations) with transportation and accomodation being covered by them. That was amazing and none other than God could give me that opportunities.

However, there was still a bit hindrance, the assessment was dated on 8 April, which means I should get a UK visa in 5 working days.

Visitation to KBRI Paris
Wednesday, April 1
April mob, April fool day, or April fishy day, you name it. Nothing special for me on this day except planning for the trip to UK which really ate a lot of time and I went to KBRI (Embassy of Republic of Indonesia) in Paris to get a residency stamp and I finally saw the famous KBRI's Koperasi which sells Indonesian products from Kecap Manis ABC to 1 dus Indomie goreng and Sari Jahe, haha. However, 1 bottle of sambel ABC cost around 3 euro there, whereas the same product only cost about 33 cent euro in Indonesia.

Submitting Documents to UK Embassy Representatives
Thursday, April 2
I was going to WorldBridge, a UK embassy representative who handles matters related to Visa. It was very tiring to go to Paris for 2 days in a row, haha, now you know how far HEC Paris is from Paris. Other than that, nothing special except I skipped one of my class because I was so tired that I felt I was going to sick that day, so I just skipped the class for a rest.

Friday, April 3
Did not really remember what I did that day. Maybe studying for the exam for the following day, and some assignments. I believe I was busy that day, haha.

Saturday, April 4
Exam of Doing Business in Europe Today. Writing a business report in 2 hours was not as easy as I thought though, but thanks to God that it went well for me.

Sunday, April 5
This will be covered in the next post.

Monday, April 6
Started making a report for my Globalization, like it or not class. Not as easy as I thought. I read almost 12 newspapers and spent several hours of research in Factiva, NYT, FT, WSJ, Reuters, etc. for this assignment.

I am going to WEMBLEY to watch England's World Cup Qualification Match
Tuesday, April 7
Hadn't finished the report and I didn't know when I was going to study for my Theory of Finance class which is my first finance class and the course is mainly Pricing and Hedging for Options and Futures. I was struggling for that course; I think I still am.

That day, I bought a ticket for fulfilling one of my dreams. England's world cup qualification match at Wembley!!! After spending almost 1 hours of looking the best seat that the system can give to me, I finally selected mine at row 18 (around 18 metres from the field I guess) class I seat, near the left hand corner spot. I suppose to be able to see Beckham, Lennon, Rooney and Gerrard closely from there, haha. Even though it's only against Andorra and the match is still in June, I am still very excited about watching my favourite national team in one of the best football stadium in the world. I didn't really think about it anymore because I spent 2 weeks to search for a ticket to Liverpool's match but I haven't managed to get one until now. So I really know how hard it is to get one.

Wednesday, April 8
Full of doing the assignment and studying, with a break of watching the dissapointing Liverpool vs Chelsea match in the evening.

Thursday, April 9
Studying from morning until 3:30 PM and having exam after that. One of the worst exam I ever had in my whole life I guessed. Lesson learned, don't try derivatives when you haven't even formally take Finance 101, hahaha. But never mind, I took the subject mainly for learning, not for grades. After all, I never really care about my grade as long as it's not decreasing (haha, a bit paradoxical, right?). Hopefully I passed the exam, because it is counted as 90% of the final grade.

A little help of prayer from you for that will be greatly appreciated, hehe.

Kepada Kamu, dengan Penuh Kebencian

2009-04-03T04:27:00.003+07:00

Really love this letter!!
Reminds me of how it feels to fall in love.
------

Kepada kamu,
Dengan penuh kebencian.

Aku benci jatuh cinta. Aku benci merasa senang bertemu lagi dengan kamu, tersenyum malu-malu, dan menebak-nebak, selalu menebak-nebak. Aku benci deg-degan menunggu kamu online. Dan di saat kamu muncul, aku akan tiduran tengkurap, bantal di bawah dagu, lalu berpikir, tersenyum, dan berusaha mencari kalimat-kalimat lucu agar kamu, di seberang sana, bisa tertawa. Karena, kata orang, cara mudah membuat orang suka denganmu adalah dengan membuatnya tertawa. Mudah-mudahan itu benar.

Aku benci terkejut melihat SMS kamu nongol di inbox-ku dan aku benci kenapa aku harus memakan waktu begitu lama untuk membalasnya, menghapusnya, memikirkan kata demi kata. Aku benci ketika jatuh cinta, semua detail yang aku ucapkan, katakan, kirimkan, tuliskan ke kamu menjadi penting, seolah-olah harus tanpa cacat, atau aku bisa jadi kehilangan kamu. Aku benci harus berada dalam posisi seperti itu. Tapi, aku tidak bisa menawar, ya?

Aku benci harus menerjemahkan isyarat-isyarat kamu itu. Apakah pertanyaan kamu itu sekadar pancingan atau retorika atau pertanyaan biasa yang aku salah artikan dengan penuh percaya diri? Apakah kepalamu yang kamu senderkan di bahuku kemarin hanya gesture biasa, atau ada maksud lain, atau aku yang-sekali lagi-salah mengartikan dengan penuh percaya diri?

Aku benci harus memikirkan kamu sebelum tidur dan merasakan sesuatu yang bergerak dari dalam dada, menjalar ke sekujur tubuh, dan aku merasa pasrah, gelisah. Aku benci untuk berpikir aku bisa begini terus semalaman, tanpa harus tidur. Cukup begini saja.

Aku benci ketika kamu menempelkan kepalamu ke sisi kepalaku, saat kamu mencoba untuk melihat sesuatu di handycam yang sedang aku pegang. Oh, aku benci kenapa ketika kepala kita bersentuhan, aku tidak bernapas, aku merasa canggung, aku ingin berlari jauh. Aku benci aku harus sadar atas semua kecanggungan itu…, tapi tidak bisa melakukan apa-apa.

Aku benci ketika logika aku bersuara dan mengingatkan, “Hey! Ini hanya ketertarikan fisik semata, pada akhirnya kamu akan tahu, kalian berdua tidak punya anything in common,” harus dimentahkan oleh hati yang berkata, “Jangan hiraukan logikamu.”

Aku benci harus mencari-cari kesalahan kecil yang ada di dalam diri kamu. Kesalahan yang secara desperate aku cari dengan paksa karena aku benci untuk tahu bahwa kamu bisa saja sempurna, kamu bisa saja tanpa cela, dan aku, bisa saja benar-benar jatuh hati kepadamu.

Aku benci jatuh cinta, terutama kepada kamu. Demi Tuhan, aku benci jatuh cinta kepada kamu. Karena, di dalam perasaan menggebu-gebu ini; di balik semua rasa kangen, takut, canggung, yang bergumul di dalam dan meletup pelan-pelan…

aku takut sendirian.

—

By Raditya Dika

*Tulisan ini terdapat dalam buku Kepada Cinta (Gagasmedia, 2008), buku kumpulan surat cinta dari berbagai macam penulis. Selain memuat 25 cinta para pemenang Sayembara Menulis Surat Cinta GagasMedia 2008, ada juga surat cinta dari Adhitya Mulya, Christian Simamora, Andi Eriawan, Ita Sembiring dan penulis lainnya.

Interesting view on Christianity and Politic

2009-04-03T04:10:00.005+07:00

I just read the below article and thought a lot about it. I'll comment on it once I have the time. So, watch out here for more writing from Suta. Meanwhile here is the article.

Thanks to Erlina who sent the article.

Gordon does God by stealth

If you want to make Gordon Brown squirm, just ask him to talk about his Christian faith in public

Justin Thacker, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 March 2009 18.06 BST

What is it about British politicians that makes them so uncomfortable with the "God" question? Today, at St Paul's Cathedral, Gordon Brown in the company of Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, gave a half hour speech on the importance of what he called "our shared global values" in the context of the current economic crisis. "The Washington Consensus was over" we were told, and "markets need morals". Such sentiments are wonderful and can hardly be challenged until you ask Gordon for the basis of those morals and the shape of those values.

I happened to provide one of the questions that was picked up by the Chair of the gathering, the Bishop of London. It read, "Is doing God important to our 'shared global values'?" Well, you should have seen Gordon squirm. Having previously been very keen to answer all the questions posed, this one he promptly gave to Kevin Rudd.

The reason for that is that Kevin is not ashamed of his Christian faith. More than that, he has set out the way in which he believes Christianity and politics should interact. In an important essay in an Australian journal, Prime Minister Rudd draws on the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to say that faith should not be restricted to the private realm. Rather, it has a duty to speak up for those who are voiceless and powerless in precisely the way that Bonhoeffer did. It is to hold the state to account. He writes:

The Gospel is an exhortation to social action. Does this mean that the fundamental ethical principles provide us with an automatic mathematical formula for determining every item of social, economic, environmental, national security and international relations policy before government? Of course not. What it means is that these matters should be debated by Christians within an informed Christian ethical framework. It also means that we should repudiate the proposition that such policy debates are somehow simply "the practical matters of the state" which should be left to "practical" politicians rather than to "impractical" pastors, preachers and theologians. This approach is very much in Bonhoeffer"s tradition.
A Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not prevail. It must nonetheless be argued. And once heard, it must be weighed, together with other arguments from different philosophical traditions, in a fully contestable secular polity. A Christian perspective … should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere. If the churches are barred from participating in the great debates about the values that ultimately underpin our society, our economy and our polity, then we have reached a very strange place indeed.

Amen to that – I would say, and so, it would seem, says Gordon Brown. For following on from Kevin Rudd's comments, Gordon Brown went on to offer us his own. In particular, he mentioned the essay from Rudd indicating that Gordon was of the same general outlook in regard to the interaction of faith and politics. He clearly assumed that no-one would know which essay he was referring to for he then went on to contradict himself by suggesting that religion and politics should not in fact mix: "Let the Bishop act as Bishop" he told us, with the clear implication that politics should be left to the experts, in other words those "practical politicians" that Rudd mentions.

All of which explains why Gordon initially refused the "God" question. Taken at face value, it would seem that he is of the Ruddian persuasion – Christian faith should inform, though not dictate political policy and the values that underpin it – it's just he doesn't want to say that too loudly. The upshot of this is that Gordon's faith is there, but it surfaces in a somewhat incoherent and haphazard manner. Hence, it would seem that like his predecessor, Gordon does God, but just doesn't really like to admit it.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/mar/31/religion-christianity-gordon-brown

MBA schools, just shut them down

2009-04-02T04:07:00.001+07:00

If flight training schools produced this number of crashes, we’d be asking questions
-------
an interesting tag line indeed. I won't comment too much since my week is busy enough to refrain me from thinking how come I have a time to write this post or even such a silly statement like this. However this tag line struck me when I was reading SMU Daily Alerts. It is easy enough to refute the statement with one argument: if non-flight training schools are allowed to run the flight, "this number of crashes" is surely an wonderful performance for them. Same like the case in business, who else except the MBAs? Honestly I don't know the answer too (it's not a rhetorical question, haha).

But one thing that is a bit out of this topic but interesting is George W. Bush is having an MBA from Harvard Business School!! The man with the 3 trillion dollars war, the man who changed the biggest surplus ever in US history (post-clinton era) to the biggest deficit ever in US history at the end of his service (I should add the last few words because Pres. Obama certainly has the biggest deficit now) is the man whom I thought never really has an undergraduate degree. What a powerful negative campaign that I heard before. I only knew just know that he is actually alumni of Yale and Harvard.

Anyway, back to the topic, something fishy in his view though. I believe the MBA or any other education is just like a technology. It's only a tool, even though it's more like a bigger tool that actually can control someone if one is not wise enough. It depends on the person. We just can't blame the system behind the people all the time. If it's people's fault, then let it be. It's the moral values of the educators that may become the reason of all these mess. But, once again, who knows except God?

Nevertheless, enjoy the article, it's quite a thought-provoking one if you enjoy business and economy.

-------

Weekend • March 28, 2009

Matthew Lynn

WHEN King Henry VIII broke with the Church in Rome, he shut England’s monasteries. When Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, he did the same with Havana’s casinos.

So let’s close down business schools to get into the spirit of the new financial order.

In the past 20 years, the Master of Business Administration factories have created the conditions that have helped land the global economy in the current mess.

They legitimised a pseudo-scientific approach to finance that turned out to be bogus; they promoted a management style that was too mechanistic; and they formed a managerial elite more interested in rewards than producing lasting wealth for the economies they operate in.

There is little mistaking the growth of business schools, especially as the economy contracts and jobless bankers seek to boost their qualifications. Applications to MBA programmes last year rose at the fastest pace on record, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council.

The trouble is, the last batch of MBA graduates who rose to the top made such a hash of things it is hard to believe the next will do much better.

The people who steered the global economy onto the rocks in the past year all benefited from the finest management education that money can buy.

Famous alumni

Mr Richard Fuld, who was chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers when it collapsed, has an MBA from New York University. Mr John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, is a graduate of Harvard Business School. Mr Christopher Cox, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has an MBA from Harvard University. And so does former US President George W Bush.

The record isn’t much better in Europe.

Mr Andy Hornby, the CEO of British bank HBOS is another Harvard Business School alumnus. HBOS had to be bailed out in a merger with Lloyds Banking Group and then both had to be rescued by the British government.

Mr Peter Wuffli, who as CEO presided over the huge losses that took Zurich-based UBS to the brink of disaster, studied management at Switzerland’s University ofSt Gallen.

Of course, it is unfair to assign all blame to business schools. Over the last three decades, taking an MBA has become just another qualification, a hoop to be jumped through on your way to getting a good job on Wall Street, or in London or Zurich’s financial centres.

If we studied the records, we would probably find that most of the CEOs who led us into the crisis also did finger painting at kindergarten — and it would be wrong to pin the credit crunch on that.

Clueless leaders

Still, it raises the issue of what business schools are teaching, and how they managed to create leaders who were so unable to spot the flaws in the companies they were running. If a flight-training school produced this number of crashes, we would be asking some questions. There is no reason that business studies should be exempt from the same kind of scrutiny.

The schools should be called on to account for several things.

First, they encouraged a quasi-scientific approach to business, sermonising that everything could be nailed down in a textbook.

By preaching a set series of formulas, they encouraged students to believe that running a company could be mastered by anyone. The entire private-equity industry is founded on that principle. So are mergers and acquisitions.

An acquired skill

In reality, management is a skill that is acquired through experience, judgment and flair. Billions are about to be wasted relearning a simple fact that should never have been forgotten.

Second, the intellectual tools that led us into the financial meltdown were largely invented within academia. Complex models for pricing risk created the market for the options and derivatives contracts that have caused so much trouble in the past year.

The business schools took something that was mysterious and unknowable — risk — and tried to make it as easy to count as peas in a pod. By doing so, they encouraged a whole generation of young men and women to go into investment banking armed with the belief that they had mastered risk; that it had been tamed and brought under control.

The truth, of course, turned out to be different. Bankers can no more tame risk than sailors can tame the oceans. All they can hope to do is steer a safe course through it.

Third, the schools created a managerial elite that acted like a caste apart. One reason the bonus culture ran out of control was that many of the people involved were trapped in a bubble. They thought “guaranteed” bonuses, private jets and multi million-dollar payoffs were normal. That process started in business schools.

No doubt, we will hear a lot in the next year about how the schools are reorganising themselves. We will see lots of papers and proposals, and probably a few equations, explaining how to stop the credit crunch from happening again.

But as Henry VIII and Castro both concluded, for different reasons, sometimes an institution is beyond redemption. It can’t be fixed, simply because it is the problem.

Just shut them down.

---
The writer is a Bloomberg columnist.

The opinions expressed are his own.

Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Update this week - 28th March

2009-03-29T05:39:00.005+07:00

It's been a while since I am writing for myself, one week to be exact. I've been busy for the last one week. Some assignments, reports, group projects, and let alone my 'deceiving' "Theory of Finance" class.

First, about my Theory of Finance class. As you can read from the title, it's very easy for everyone to fall into the trap that it is a basic finance course. However, things were not going the way I wanted it to be, it is completely about Derivatives, specifically about Pricing and Hedging. whooo. That's the first academical finance course that I ever take, hahaha (laughing over my silliness of not reading the syllabus, haha). I know what you are thinking, you must be saying, "why don't you drop that course", but things are more complicated than you think here.

1. it's 0.5 SMU C.U. (credit unit) and I can't drop it and find another 0.5 c.u. course in SMU about finance. so, my other 0.5 C.U. finance course here (Emerging Countries and Capital Markets) would be wasted, hahaha

2. It's just usual Suta, an over-confident-kind-of person (I can be quite pessimistic some times) which thinks that he can learn fast enough to cope with the lesson.

To cut the story short, I am now having 2 books which I should read before Tuesday because my 90%-of-the-final-grade exam is coming in 10 days. Financial Institutions and Markets, 7th Edition (771 pages) and Options, Futures, and other Derivatives, 7th Edition (822 pages).

Don't worry, I know I won't read all of them, but still, it's a very thick book.

Moving on, I spared some time last night to watch England vs Slovakia. It was a good game, we won (yup, I consider myself part of England, haha) 4-0. I really enjoyed how Gerrard and Rooney played together in the first half. It was also the first game that we played wearing the new kit, like below. I personally don't really like it, but the technology behind it is very impressing. So, I don't mind if someone wants to give it to me, hahaha.

Third thing is about my Easter holiday. I just got the news that my friend was successful in her application for a Schengen visa in Spanish Embassy (she's a Turkish, so she needs a Schengen visa too). I am now preparing for my visa but unlike other people, I want to apply for the Schengen visa at Czech Embassy with a hope that they will give more days in my visa details. (they are the country with one of the lowest living cost in Schengen Area in case you don't know the reasoning behind my decision)

I still have many things to say about the last one week, but I don't think anyone will be interested with my academic life busyness. hahaha. So, here I am starting a new day which is my first 23-hour-a-day kind of day (it's Daylight Saving Time in Europe starting from 2:00 AM today).

I thank God for the last one week and I hope the next one week will be more blissful.
(I have exam coming up on April 4th, a paper due on that day also, and some other homeworks, so I can bet that it'll be an even busier week than this week).

See you
God bless you all.

Update this week - 21st March

2009-03-21T08:04:00.000+07:00

Originally posted on 21 Mar 2009 at 2:04 AM

I have a final presentation worth 50% of the grade coming in 7 hours, more or less done, it's just we don't know how to fill the 30 minutes available to present. hahaha.

Still in the midst of planning for my easter break. I was deciding on Belgium, Netherland, Luxembourg, and Germany for that 10 days, but then after some research, I realized that my visa is illegal to go there and I need a Schengen visa that I can only apply outside of Schengen countries. So, I quickly changed my direction and planning on the UK instead and apply my Schengen visa from there. Hopefully things will be going well this time.

I need to go back to my reading for my presentation, so meanwhile, I'll stop on writing this unintended post.

PS: this is my first post in the new blog address, I realized that the old one was only accessable for commenting if you are a member of Muliply, but now, feel free to say anything you want here, hahaha

If this blog were a country, it is a democratic one.

The unknown dark side of honeymoon

2009-03-20T17:56:00.000+07:00

Originally posted on 20 Mar 2009 at 11:56 AM

This is new to me, haha. I never knew that such thing exists. One more proof that Hollywood has been deceiving us for all the image they put about marriage in their movies.

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Postnuptial Depression: What Happens the Day After

By Jeninne Lee-St. John

I got married in August, and — I'll admit it — I'm still slightly obsessed with reliving my wedding day. But I don't think my friends want to reminisce anymore about the miraculously sunny hillside ceremony or the super rockin' dance party at the reception. I can't really turn to my husband either, the only other person as emotionally invested in my wedding as I am, because he's 9,000 miles away in Vietnam. After the big to-do, which we spent a year planning long-distance, he's back living and working in Saigon and I'm back in Manhattan — living with my grandmother. Talk about a letdown.

It wasn't until I received an e-mail from a friend that I realized there was a name for what I was going through. It read, "Hope you're not too deep into the wedding blues (the depression you get after the wedding is over, that no one really tells you about)." Bingo. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)

Postnuptial depression may not be a clinical diagnosis, but it has entered the lexicon of marriage in the past few years, and newly hitched couples will tell you it's real. The blues typically hit early in married life, psychiatrists say, as newlyweds begin recognizing that expectations of how their partner or relationship will change postwedding are unrealistic. Worse, once the Big Day has come and gone, couples are forced to step out of their much-cherished and often long-lived "bride and groom" spotlight and just get on with real life.

Dr. Michelle Gannon, a San Francisco psychologist who conducts Marriage Prep 101, a weekend workshop, with her husband Patrick, says there's been an uptick lately in the number of recently married couples who enroll to deal with their postwedding doldrums. Newlyweds often blog about it, while brides-to-be fret over the anticipation of it on websites like TheKnot.com. Therapists say most people experience at least some minor disappointment as they settle into a new marriage, but 5% to 10% of newlyweds suffer strong enough remorse, sadness or frustration to prompt them to seek professional counseling.

Emily Summerhays, 30, felt regret immediately after her 2002 wedding ceremony. She found herself crying even as she said goodbye to guests at the reception. "It was sort of buyer's remorse — 'What did I just do? This is really permanent,' " she recalls. That feeling of losing one's selfhood can be overwhelming, especially when it's coupled with a sense of duty to do everything as a pair, says Dr. Jane Greer, a marriage and family therapist based in New York City who has taught a seminar called "Are You Ready for Commitment?" Greer says: "It's a question of how prepared you are to become 'we.' " (See pictures of the busiest wedding day in history.)

For months into her marriage, Summerhays remained in a funk. "There was a lot of me being sad and sullen, wishing I could be married and somehow also be single," she says. She felt afraid of sending the wrong message to her new husband. Summerhays recalls thinking, Will he think I don't love him enough if I don't want to snuggle with him all night or if I leave him for the weekend? And she felt trapped in her own melancholy, feeling ashamed that her new marriage wasn't living up to the fairy tale. Dr. Terry Eagan, medical director of the Moonview Sanctuary in Santa Monica, Calif., calls postnuptial depression the secret sadness — women who experience it are often too embarrassed to tell anyone, while men are simply less open with their feelings to begin with. "A lot of my friends had experienced it," Summerhays says. "It was just hard for us to admit that we were happy in our marriages and yet so indescribably sad on some level."

The so-called honeymoon period, say psychologists, really isn't. But so many couples buy into the myth that when they start arguing about sex, money or time — issues that all married couples battle over — it can seem catastrophic. Gannon finds herself correcting patients all the time. "Where did you get the idea that you weren't supposed to fight?" she says. "You are. It's normal." It's also normal to remain independent and to be responsible for your own happiness. "It's unreasonable to assume your partner is going to be everything to you," says Eagan.

Even couples who cohabit before marriage and who have presumably tempered their expectations and reconciled their petty differences are not immune to the day-after blues. "People who have been living together think they're going to feel something different once they're married," says Gannon. But there's no magical transformation that comes with signing a marriage certificate. In fact, if anything changes, it might be the couples' biology — which may only worsen postwedding blues. When people are newly in love — or feel a rekindling of love just after getting engaged — their bodies release more of the feel-good hormones dopamine and oxytocin, which stimulate bonding. But as the relationship wears on, the levels of those hormones drop. That accounts in part for the fact that "in the transition from dating sex to married sex, the interest, frequency and effort goes down," says Gannon. But having less sex precisely when couples think they should be having more is understandably stressful.

For many couples, it's not about sex or arguing; despite good sex and open communication, they still feel adrift. The problem may be that after months consumed by wedding preparations and feeling like the center of attention, the sudden shift back to everyday life can be a shock. "I put a lot of time and effort into the wedding-planning process," says Erin Hastings, 28, who got married in 2006 after an 18-month engagement. "Where do you redirect your energy once it's over?"

The answer, the Hastings learned, is to direct that energy on themselves and their marriage. "We have a date night every week, without fail," Erin says. Taking time to be with your partner and to think about each other is always important. Ideally before the wedding, Greer says, couples should take a step back and remind themselves of at least two things: the reasons their partner is the right person for them, and that their beloved's annoying little habits aren't going to disappear at "I do."

After the vows, to defeat the postnuptial blues, doctors say, couples should get adequate rest and exercise; communicate constantly; focus on the benefits of marriage, like having a built-in support system; and start thinking about the future in terms of family or finance. Women should stop thinking of themselves as "the bride" and throw out those wedding magazines, then plan social events for after the honeymoon, so they have other parties to look forward to.

Since my husband and I are half a world apart, all I can do for now is rest and exercise, and learn to relinquish the spotlight — to one of my bridesmaids who just got engaged. It'll be worth it, as I know the high point of her wedding roller coaster will be another rockin' dance party.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1861028,00.html

Yudhoyono well placed in Indonesian polls

2009-03-20T17:41:00.000+07:00

Originally posted on 20 Mar 2009 at 11:41 AM

Below is an article from FT which clearly express my view on the upcoming election.

Don't worry, I'm not campaigning for him. I agree with a lot of people that Indonesia can do better, but looking at the current economic and social situation in Indonesia and the world, I guess change may not be the exact word that we need for Indonesia. A new leader and a completely new system will only disrupt the harmony that we have from Indonesia's most advancing years since reformation.

Anyway, that's only my view and below you can see FT's view.

Enjoy

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By John Aglionby in Jakarta

Published: March 16 2009 17:18 | Last updated: March 16 2009 20:25

Formal campaigning opened on Monday in Indonesia for elections to national, provincial and local legislatures in which 171m largely Muslim voters are expected to clear the way for the re-election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president.

Mr Yudhoyono is not a candidate in the April 9 legislative election, but candidates for the July 8 direct presidential election must be backed by parties that win 20 per cent of the 560 seats in parliament, or 25 per cent of the popular vote in what is the world’s third largest democracy.

After eight months of initial canvassing restricted largely to the media, Mr Yudhoyono’s Democrat party, with more than 20 per cent support, is leading the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, Mr Yudhoyono’s predecessor, which is registering support in the mid-teens.

A percentage point or so behind is Golkar, the political machine of the former dictator Suharto and the largest party in parliament. Islamic-oriented parties, which won more than a third of the vote at the last election in 2004, are now polling about half that level.

The wildcard is the new Great Indonesia Movement party led by Prabowo Subianto, a former Suharto son-in-law whose military career was cut short in 1998 after his involvement in the kidnapping of some two dozen activists, 13 of whom disappeared.

Up to a dozen parties are expected to pass the 2.5 per cent popular vote threshold required to win parliamentary seats.

Some 20 per cent of voters remain undecided, but analysts believe that a sizeable proportion of these will back the Democrat party because Mr Yudhoyono’s popularity and record are likely to decide the campaign in the absence of a meaningful policy debate.

According to Roy Morgan International, a market research company, he is one of only three democratically elected leaders whose job approval rating exceeds 60 per cent – the others being Barack Obama of the US and Australia’s Kevin Rudd.

In presidential election surveys Mr Yudhoyono, a taciturn former general known as SBY, is polling in the mid-40s and rising. He is at least 20 percentage points ahead of Mrs Megawati, with all other potential candidates in single digits.

Speculation is mounting that if the Democrat party does very well, securing more than 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats, Mr Yudhoyono could create enough momentum to win a majority in the first round of the presidential election in July and so avoid a September run-off between the top two candidates, which was required at the last election.

“The public perception of SBY is that he is doing a good job and so this will undoubtedly help the Democrat party,” said Sunny Tanuwidjaja of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “But the economic crisis will be the main factor . . . Will the stimulus limit the impact on people or not?”

Mr Yudhoyono has announced a Rp71,300bn ($5.9bn, €4.6bn, £4.2bn) package of tax cuts and infrastructure projects due to be rolled out later this month.

Indonesia’s three elections since the fall of Suharto in 1998 have been largely free and fair and observers are confident this one will be no different.

The only big change in the proportional representation multi-member constituency system that Indonesia uses is that voters will this time be allowed to select individual candidates, rather than simply nominating a party. This innovation is intended to remove from the parties the power to decide which candidates end up sitting in parliament.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ef131cb6-124c-11de-b816-0000779fd2ac.html

ps: PDI-P = Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle :-)

A Confession of an Exhange Student

2009-03-17T07:36:00.001+07:00

Originally posted on 17 Mar 2009 at 1:36 AM

Have you ever felt of having a sudden surge of writing something? I have, most of the times when I was taking a bath, hahaha (but I don’t have pen and paper in bathroom, don’t worry about that). But this time it is because of reading my friend’s blog (thanks to Adel,hehe) that sparks me. I wanted to write about this a bit long time ago, but I let myself drowned with all the tasks that I need to do. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do now, but I think writing this is worth the price of reducing my already short sleeping hours.

This is a confession of an Indonesian exchange student who goes to Paris from Singapore after living about 90% of his life in hustle and bustle of Jakarta, an only child who never lives his life according to a stereotype that an only child is not independent.

It has been only two weeks, but I think I know perfectly what I’m going to face for the next 3 months and maybe more.

1. Cultural Entry

Culture shock, it’s what people are afraid of and maybe excited with. It’s nothing like your electrical shock. It sometimes went unnoticeably but it inevitably will bring to your face a subliminal (sometimes blunt) message of “Hey, it’s not your comfort zone anymore, don’t look for that here!! It’s your choice anyway!”

It’s nothing new for me. Moving from Jakarta to Singapore taught me quite a lot of things that no book of cross cultural studies can ever give. Believe me or not, I was almost completely changed when I was moving to Singapore. From a considerably popular person (haha, I knew that you are going to laugh on it, but never mind, it’s the truth anyway, hahaha) in my high school (at least among footballers community, if not within the girls, hahaha, the later is just kidding), to a very quiet, almost anti-social kind of people. Disliking what people do, how they done it in their way, why they do it at the first place, etc. All the complaints that a person can ever have, you name it, I might have mentioned it. However, to cut the story short, I managed to go back to almost my old me (without the popular within the girls part, hahaha, cause I was belong to a girl at that time, hehehe), in about 6 months.

Now, it’s another different turn in my life, but I won’t tell you in this point, hehe

2. Cultural Adjustment

I managed to adjust very well with this one now, at least way better than the previous one. Now I’m entering into another theory called The Emotional Roller Coaster Ride of Cultural Adjustment, which is divided into

a. Honeymoon (remember when you first see Eiffel Tower, Orchard Road, or maybe Monas and Kuta, this is how it feels)

b. Cultural Shock (remember the first time you thought that you were able to ride a bicycle and then you fell again after a few seconds of smooth riding)

c. Some Adjustment (remember when you try to adjust the photo frame on the wall, okay, not really that way, but you get the point right?)

d. Continual Problems (ha2, I once felt that the worlds are against me, even my closest team mate, so I more or less know best about this stage)

e. Feel at Home (you will only know how precious your home is after 4 months outside of it, and you know how comfortable that feeling is right?

Yup, you know all the theory now. I knew all of those way before I was going on exchange and I know what will happen to me here even though I was not expecting anything before. I got the university I studied in now by faith, I got the money I need to finance my exchange (90% my own money, 5% subsidy from SMU, 5% from my parents, but 100% of them came from God of course) also by faith, so it is not surprising that I went here by faith also without expecting anything.

Now, it has been 2 weeks here living in Jouy-en-Josas (about 25 Km outside of Paris), and I think I’m doing it well and supposed to be in Adjustment stage now, thanks to God. But looking backward and forward, I know that there are lots of things I need to learn here, and that brings me to a question that everyone considering for exchange will ask, “what do you learn most from your exchange?”

I believe, there are only 3 answers for me. The world, myself, and God.

To be honest, the second one is the one that I will tell to people for what an exchange programme is worth. Everyone is always talking about thinking outside of the box to find a solution for a problem because they can know the problem in its entirety objectively outside of it. The same thing happened to people going for exchange. You can only know about yourself if you go out of your comfort zone without no one to actually depend on except yourself and God.

It’s certainly not a holiday and you’ll be disappointed if you think exchange is about going on a long holiday because I think it’s too expensive to be considered a holiday.

It’s about you, yourself, your expectation, everything about you and your relation to people around you.

If you can handle all those things well, exchange will be one of the best time in your life, not only when you are done with it but also when you are in it.

Bonne chance.

One Day in Paris

2009-03-09T06:41:00.000+07:00

Originally posted on 9 Mar 2009 at 12:41 AM

Finally, I went to Paris today and enjoyed it verrrryyy much

you guys maybe confused, cause I suppose to be going on exchange to Paris and why i said that this is my first time in Paris. HEC Paris is not in Paris at all. It's in Jouy-en-Josas which is located in Versailles (it's a French word, so don't worry if you don't know the meaning, and you're right, it's where the Chateau de Versailles located)

it's in Il de France province. Ile de France to Paris is something like Jabodetabek to Jakarta but the size is quite different. Ile de France is 12,012 km2 (Paris is 86.9 km2), Jabodetabek is 7,315 km2 (Jakarta itself is only 664 km2), and Singapore is 707.1 km2. So yeah, my campus to Paris is more or less like IPB to Semanggi, or NTU to Orchard Road, hehehe. around 1 hour of journey by walk, wait, train, wait, train, wait, walk (if we are quite lucky enough to have short waiting time).

Photos will be up soon (after I do my reading and doing homework of course). Meanwhile, you can have a good laugh of how I am deceived of the word Paris in HEC Paris first. Really, even though some people told me before, I never think that will be that far.

ps: some extract from Wikipedia (yup, all the data above were from Wikipedia)

Jouy-en-Josas is home to the prestigious HEC School of Management. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jouy-en-Josas)

HEC is regarded as one of the most prestigious school in France

HEC is ranked first by French magazines for decades but the school has also gained international recognition. It has been ranked #1 Business School in Europe by the Financial Times of London in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. ^[1] :

In 2007, the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris published a "Professional Ranking of World Universities". Its main criterion is the number of chief executive officers (or equivalent) among the "500 leading worldwide companies" (Fortune Global 500). Despite its small size, HEC is ranked #7 while University of Oxford, for instance, is ranked #8 with 6 times as many students.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEC_School_of_Management)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lao-tzu

2009-03-06T07:42:00.000+07:00

Originally posted on 6 Mar 2009 at 1:42 AM

This is my first step.

I made a blog before, but I realized that it was not part of my priority list, so I dumped it. Now, I’m going to make a new one again. Why??

Because they said that the Dead Sea become ‘deadly’ because of there is no water runs out of it, I think it’s better for me to start flowing things out of my mind so I’m not becoming as deadly as Dead Sea, haha. Don’t worry, it won’t be about bad things, complains, or nags, I’ll try to write something nice (it’s a bit lying though, hahaha)

I’ve been living my last 8 years or so being a rather busy man. Having no time to look back, to reflect on things that I have done, and to make a better me not just because of mistakes, but also because of every little things that happened in my life that used to go by unnoticeably. So, here I am now, starting a little first step to go out of my usual self and kind of resigning from my ever busy life.

Footballers call it early retirement. So do I. I would like to retire from the world of student organization now after leading 40 or so projects (I think I can name them one by one), planning more than US$ 150,000 worth of budget for all of my projects, and leading almost 1000 people in all the teams or groups that I’m in.

There have been ups and downs but that’s life and I’m grateful that God led me that way. No, no, no, no, it’s not because of my last project (Gaya) nor any of my friend (whoever you are). It’s just I’m talking to myself that “Enough is enough”

All the good things come to an end.
So does this blog entry.