30 Friday Apr 2010
Posted in Indonesia
A 46-year old woman and her 58-year old husband in the central Java town of Pekalongan are expecting their 22nd child after 31 years of marriage. That works out to be roughly 1.3 children each year.
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29 Thursday Apr 2010
Posted in blogging, Pesta Blogger
Tags
Change is in the air and this year’s Pesta Blogger will see a woman helping the premier event for bloggers and onliners that wil take place some time in october. This will be the fourth year of Pesta Blogger and the person asked to be the Chairperson is Irayani Queencyputri. A dentist by profession Irayani, better known as Rara, is an active blogger , is active in the Angingmamiri blogging community, and a Tweep as well.
Rara is likely to bring some changes to this year’s Pesta Blogger by making it more inclusive to the various online communities. How is she going to do it? The conversation has begun in the following links:
Ini Dia, Manusia Kursi Pesta Blogger 2010
- Perempuan di Pucuk Pesta Blogger
- Welcome, Chairperson PB 2010
- Menyongsong Pesta Blogger 2010
- Rara dan PB 2010
- Dan Dia Adalah, Rara…
- Kembali Ke Khittah: Mimpi Saya Buat PB 2010
- Pesta Blogger 2010
- The Chairperson
- The Boss of Pesta Blogger 2010
Below is a posting on the official Pesta Blogger Website by Iman Brotoseno the Chairperson for Pesta Blogger 2009:
Ini dia, Manusia Kursi Pesta Blogger 2010
Post by: iman on April 22nd, 2010 in Headline
Dari beberapa polling di twitter dan perbincangan milis, sosok wanita ini menjadi salah kandidat yang paling banyak disebut sebut. Kenapa tidak, dokter gigi Irayani Queencyputri atau yang lebih di kenal sebagai Rara memang bukan orang baru dalam dunia ngeblog. Aktivis komunitas Blogger Anging Mamiri, Makasar ini sudah makan asam garam dalam kegiatan blog.
Entah karena tradisi atau tidak, yang jelas setiap ‘manusia kursi’ demisioner wajib menyampaikan amanah teman teman blogger terhadap kandidat pilihannya. Hingga kemarin saya bertemu empat mata untuk bicara panjang lebar tentang Pesta Blogger 2010.
Rara memang tidak langsung meng-iyakan tawaran ini. Ini tidak salah, sikapnya yang hati hati membuatnya menghitung kalkulasi kemungkinan yang ada. Dia mengakui beban ini tidak ringan. Menjadi ‘ Manusia kursi ‘ Pesta Blogger. Sekali lagi saya meyakinkan bahwa dia tidak sendiri.
Tapi ini tidak terlalu alot. Saya tahu bahwa Rara memiliki mimpi yang sama tentang perkembangan dunia blog di Indonesia. Ia bicara banyak tentang visi dan apa yang diharapakan dari Pesta Blogger. Bahkan ia sangat antusias untuk mengatakan bahwa Blogshop di seluruh kota Indonesia, harus mencapai ujung timur negeri ini seperti Ende, Flores Nusa Tenggara Timur.
Jelas dia punya semangat dan kemampuan.
Mari kita sambut Chairperson Pesta Blogger 2010. Semoga dia bisa mewujudkan Pesta Blogger 2010 yang jauh lebih baik dan bermanfaat dari hajatan tahun tahun sebelumnya. Karena memang tantangan saat ini bukan melulu hanya blog tapi bagaimana juga bisa merangkul media onliner lainnya.
Selamat bekerja Rara !
Iman Brotoseno
via Pesta Blogger » Blog Archive » Ini dia, Manusia Kursi Pesta Blogger 2010.
Hari ganti dan tahun berlalu, tidak terasa setahun lebih saya memangku amanah manusia kursi, Chairman Pesta Blogger 2009. Banyak kenangan , suka dan duka selama kurun waktu itu. Sekaligus waktu yang tersita untuk hajatan yang menjadi agenda nasional. Kini saatnya lengser dan menyerahkan kepada penerus untuk periode tahun 2010.
29 Thursday Apr 2010
Nestle harvested a storm of protests in the West when it mishandled the Sinar Mas issue on social media. Yet it got away relatively scott free in Asia, or so the industry voices including Unspun’s alter ego think in this article in Media:
Apathy reigns in Asia over Nestle’s saga and social media mess
Thanks to Facebook and other social media channels, Nestlé has in recent weeks had to deal with an enormous public relations mess, the source of which lay deep in the Indonesian rainforest. But as international condemnation grows, why has the region stayed silent?
The trigger for the controversy is by now well known – an online video posted by Greenpeace featuring an office worker accidentally biting into an orangutan finger instead of a Kit Kat. The video was designed to draw attention to the NGO’s battle with Nestlé over its relationship with Indonesian company Sinar Mas Group, which has been accused of illegal deforestation of rainforests – the habitat of orangutans.
The food giant flexed its muscles and managed to get the Greenpeace video removed from YouTube, a step that angered thousands of consumers, prompting them to take on the company through Twitter and on its Facebook fan page. The inept handling of social media channels by a Nestlé representative attracted a barrage of negative comments. Nestlé has since admitted it has learnt a big lesson from its social media ineptness and accepted that that it is still “learning about how best to use social media”.
But while the incident has inflamed online passions in the West, it does not seem to have affected the average Asian consumer too much. The two largest producers of palm oil globally – Indonesia and Malaysia – have been relatively unaffected by the controversy, with no serious protests covered in the local media or in the social media space. And although Nestlé has been forced to bow to international online pressure, the incident has so far had little impact on palm oil production or indeed government legislation in these two countries.
28 Wednesday Apr 2010
The Balinese authorities have got it all wrong where it comes to the hooha over the news documentary Cowboys in Paradise, about the Kuta Cowboys, gigolos selling their services to foreign women tourists.
Instead of getting angry with Singapore-based director Amit Virmani for allegedly besmirching the island’s reputation, they should instead thank Amit for restoring their sense of sight. If you’ve been to Bali, you have to be blind, oblivious or extremely naive not to notice the beach boys trying to solicit business. This is apparent to any tourist, let alone any long time visitor to Bali, yet has been occluded from the attention of the Balinese authorities.
Now, all of a sudden the Balinese authorities are awakened to the fact that there are “dark skinned men with good bodies” chatting up women and providing them with sexual favors, often for an exchange of money. I once was blind, but now can see...Amazing Grace! Now, isn’t that something to be thankful for rather than getting their G-strings in a knot?
Here’s a trailer of the documentary on YouTube:
Here’s The Jakarta Globe story:
Offended Bali Officials Investigating Director Of Controversial ‘Gigolo’ Documentary
Kuta. Stung by the new documentary “Cowboys in Paradise,” which examines the phenomenon of “Kuta Cowboys” — gigolos working Bali’s beaches and bars — Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said on Tuesday that he would investigate whether the director had the necessary permits to film on the island.
The former Bali Police chief expressed disappointment at the documentary, which he claimed only focused on the negative side of the Island of the Gods.
“I thank Kuta’s residents who helped conduct raids against those they suspect of being gigolos,” Made Mangku said, referring to the questioning of 28 well-built men on the beach on Monday. “The main thing is, do not use violence.”
News of the documentary has spread across Web sites nationwide, and Bali Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Gde Sugianyar Dwi Putra confirmed that Bali Police were investigating it.
The film, completed last year after two years in production, premiered at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in South Korea last Wednesday.
“We are still collecting some information because we have only seen part of the movie from YouTube. We haven’t seen the whole movie yet,” Sugianyar said, adding that police would coordinate with the supervisory body that issued filmmaking permits.
The film — which documents the relationships between foreign female tourists and male prostitutes, the “Kuta Cowboys” of the title — immediately touched a raw nerve, with Kuta Beach task force members raiding the beach.
27 Tuesday Apr 2010
Posted in Indonesia
Tags
Unspun is so jealous!
While others are blessed with memory that would put an elephant to shame, Unspun has trouble remembering where he put the car keys each day.
Among the Blessed are Barrack Obama’s former classmates in Menteng because not only did they manage to go to an elite school and got to school together with the future President of the United States; they are also blessed with a memory bordering on total recall.
They must have eaten lots of ginko nuts because they are the only guys Unspun know of who has such uncanny recall of what happened to them when they were about 6 years old. How many of you can recall your classmates that you went to school with for two years but whom you have not seen since then (be honest now)? Yet not one but at least eight of them have such prodigious memories that they would gather now and then to have memory orgies of Barrack, oh sorry, Barry, aka the boy with dumpling ears. Such familarity! Such chutzpah that would make even Tareq and Michaele Salahi blush!
But the real point of this posting is…hmmm…Unspun’s forgotten…so just read The Jakarta Globe story below:
When Obama Was Just ‘Dumpling Ears’
When US President Barack Obama officially visits Indonesia in June, classmates from his elementary school days are looking forward to seeing him again.
They may have known him for less than two years at school in the early ’70s, but Barry Soetoro, as Obama was then known, has become a source of inspiration and pride for many of his former classmates, said Rully Dasaad, one of those who befriended little Barry at Sekolah Dasar Negeri Besuki in Menteng.
“Barry affected our lives in a way,” Rully said. “He helped shape our personalities. I don’t know how to express it, but we are very proud to have been his classmates. Imagine, as US president, he is now the most powerful person on earth.”
Rully said this sentiment was shared by Widiyanto, Tita Tambunan, Donny Nyoman Moena, Deborah, Dewi Asmara, Ira Lesmana, Haryanni Barkah, Atik Isyanto and Yogi Dharma, along with many more of the “elite kids” from the school.
According to Rully, the school was where wealthy top government officials and bankers sent their children.
“Strangely, all the way from third and fourth grade with Barry to high school and up until now, we still meet and talk about nostalgic moments with him. We are all now in our late 40s, but we take time to gather, sometimes as many as 20 of us, to talk about practically anything as close friends,” said Rully, who works as a commercial photographer and technical surveillance instructor for elite security forces.
Widiyanto, who was Obama’s seatmate in third grade — back when students had to share a seat and desk built for two — said he was surprised when the US ambassador to Indonesia, Cameron Hume, invited him and Rully to his Surapati residence a day before Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 for a traditional slamatan, a ceremony for special occasions.
18 Sunday Apr 2010
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Sigh! To think that there was a time when one could admire the female form in traditional attire in Malaysia. These days the sarong kebaya, a sexy garment if there was one that used to popular P. Ramlee movies is all but extinct, having given way to the extremely unsexy baju kurung.
Why is it in Indonesia that the women (OK, one of the women pictured here is a bule, so probably a foreign tourist but she could easily be an Indo) can still wear sexy traditional dress when in Malaysia it is frowned upon. Is sexy bad? Does it make Malaysian women cheap? Or is it the Malaysn men that s so gatal that they have to use religion to bludgeon their own libidos and with them the women’s freedom to look good and look sexy with it?
via Almost a fashion show | The Jakarta Post.
Almost a fashion show: Dozens of female surfers ride on the waves in Javanese long-sleeved kebaya blouses Sunday for the Kebaya Surf Culture Exhibition on Kuta beach, Bali. The event was held to commemorate Kartini Day, which falls on April 21. JP/Zul Trio Anggono
13 Tuesday Apr 2010
Posted in Indonesia
The stereotypical image of Chinese Indonesians is that they are all rich. This is not so, of course. There are many poor Chinese some so poor that they are believed to sell off their daughters to Taiwanese and Korean men for marriage. There are many poor Chinese in Tangerang, commonly known as Cina Benteng and today’s eviction of one of their neighborhoods illustrates that like all other ethnic groups in Indonesia, while there are a few rich people there are also many poor ones. So enough already with the stereotype of the rich Chinese Indonesian.
Evictions delayed as residents fight
The Tangerang municipality administration delayed Tuesday the eviction of residential houses of a lower-income Chinese community living in three villages along the Cisadane riverbank, pending further agreement regarding compensation.
The delay began after a long-hour standoff between the public order officers and the residents in the morning.
However hundreds of officers bulldozed illegal factories, office buildings and resident-owned pigpens along the riverbank in the afternoon.
The standoff between about 1,000 residents of Tangga Asem, Kokun, and Sewan Lebak villages of Neglasari district, known as Cina Benteng, and the city administration has been ongoing since Monday.
The evictions of illegal buildings in the villages are related to the municipality’s project on the expansion of Cisadane River under a 2000 bylaw on sanitation, security and public order. (tsy)
Source: The Jakarta Post
13 Tuesday Apr 2010
Posted in blogging, communications, Crisis and issues management, Malaysia
Tags
APCO, blogging, lobbying, Najib, News and politics, US politicians
Unspun learned about the article below in Malaysian Insider from Opah. Its a nice piece of business for APCO and while the Opposition in Malaysia were right to query about the amount paid, they are asking the wrong questions.
Any successful public relations effort ultimately changes one or more of three things: awareness, attitude and behavior.
If the target audience here is the US political system then, if they are successful, they would have changed the level of awareness that the US political elite has of Malaysia, the attitude they have toward one or another aspect of the country and their behavior (say, from voting against to voting for).
If the Opposition understands this then the correct question to ask is what are the KPIs, the Key Performance Indicators, agreed between the Malaysian Government and APCO and how did they do against these parameters? Being American they must have polled this thing to death. What do the polls say?
And if the Opposition is smart about it they should hire their own pollster in Washington to provide an independent assessment of whether the US$24.2 million is well spent. That is the only way to pin the Government down on their justification to hire APCO, anything less than a marshaling of facts and figures to back their allegations would mean that the Opposition has lost the game. They would have fallen into the trap of rhetoric vs rhetoric, and in such a verbal pissing contest, someone who’s been trained in the arts of the bump and run (also known as bridging) and other techniques will surely, if not win the day, will at least emerge unscathed.
Government paid APCO RM76m
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — The government paid US$24.2 million (RM76.8 million) to APCO Worldwide, the international public relations consultancy linked by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders to Israel, for its services from last July until June this year.
The amount was revealed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, in a written reply to a question in Parliament from PKR MP, Chua Tian Chang.
Chua disclosed this today to reporters, and pointed out that the amount far exceeded the RM28 million mentioned by Nazri previously.
The minister’s written reply provided a breakdown of the fee paid by the government to APCO, starting from July 15, 2009 until June 4, 2010.
“I want the minister to explain the expenses concerning APCO Worldwide. The payment was just for APCO’s services, not even for the 1 Malaysia concept,” Chua told reporters today in Parliament.
“How did Nazri end up with RM28 million, when the total amount was US$24,207,158 which is in US dollars. Change it to Malaysian ringgit and you get RM76,820,653,” said Chua.
When met by the Malaysian Insider, Nazri explained that he was uncertain during the time whether the figure was in the correct currency.
“It was what was told to me. I was not sure whether it was dollars or ringgit. Tengku Sharifuddin (Tengku Ahmad) informed me at the time,” said Nazri.
Nazri also said that when Chua had raised the question in Parliament, he had mentioned that he lacked the information then but would answer in depth at a later point.
13 Tuesday Apr 2010
Posted in Indonesia
Tags
Whatever he is, Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring isn’t boring, especially when it comes to Tweeting, which he or a team that he hires, does with religious regularity.
Of late, however, @tifsembiring’s tweets have taken a strange, some say morbid turn. He’s taken to Tweeting about Adolf Hitler, you know that guy who killed thousands of people in genocide campaign and brought the world to the brink of chaos with World War II?
First, Tifatul quoted Hitler with this Tweet: “the union between two children, when both of them complete each other, this is magic “.
Then he tweeted a joke involving Hitler, involving a wordplay of penyakit hidler, which is an acronym of hidung (nose) + meler (runny, as in runny nose). One supposes the humor that Tifatul found was between the wordplay of hidler sounding like Hitler.
The Tweets have unleashed predictable results. Dozens of Indonesia’s Tweeps have written in questioning the sense and sensibility of the man.
At the heart of this broughaha is a central question: what sort of a politician quotes Hitler and makes lame jokes about him on Twitter. What does this say of the calibre of Indonesia’s ministers?
12 Monday Apr 2010
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Get a load on this story. Friend tells girl enchanted boyfriend needs to see photo of “naked pretty girl” to break the spell. So, instead of going onto a porn site on the Internet and dowloading the photo she allows her friend to take X-rated photos of her, which eventually find their way into the Internet.
How gullible and stupid can people get?
Snap: University Student in Naked Photo Scandal
An Indonesian university student has reported a friend to Bogor Police headquarters for allegedly posting naked photos of herself on the Internet.
Devi (not her real name), a 23-year-old student from West Jakarta, told police that she allowed her friend, Misha (not her real name) to snap the x-rated images in their boarding house in Kebon Jeruk because she had told her the pictures would be used to cure her boyfriend, who was under a black magic spell.
“Devi said Misha begged her to help cure her boyfriend Johny [not his real name] who was under a black magic spell,” Adjutant Comr. Irwansyah, the head of Bogor Police’s criminal investigation unit, told TVOne.
Misha claimed Johny could only be healed if he was shown a naked picture of a pretty girl, he said.
Devi agreed to help her by posing naked because she felt sorry for her friend but made Misha promise not to show her pictures to other people.
After the photo session, Devi received money from Misha.
via Snap: University Student in Naked Photo Scandal – The Jakarta Globe.
