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Did Malaysia’s Defense Minister frame Google?
Malaysia’s Defense Minister Ahmad Zahidi Hamid, whose Ministry became the laughing stock in Malaysia because of the use of outlandish English translations on its website (e.g. Menjolok mata = poke eye) blamed Google Translate for the mistakes.
Really? Here’s a comparison in Uppercaise
Well, they do say that the Net makes everything transparent.
Malaysians have better English than Indonesians? Translate this.
There was once upon a time when it was universally accepted that Malaysian had a better command of the English language than Indonesians.
It wasn’t arrogance then, just a fact of life because of Malaysia’s British colonial history. For all the sins of the Brits Malaysians could be grateful to them for leaving behind an efficient civil service and a love for the Queen’s English.
But much has changed since those days. The hypocrite Mahathir Mohamad, in trying to display his nationalistic credentials changed the medium of instruction in schools from English to Malay. That, and other misguided nationalistic sentiments since then has seen the steady deterioration of the use of English among Malaysians.
One can safely argue that a certain work ethic also went out the window with the need to learn and master a language. So it seemed inevitable when Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense was red-faced recently because the language skills were so bad that they relied on Google Translate to render their copy into English.
The result: one huge embarassment and a source of mirth for many Malaysians. Check out the story below that appeared in The Star:
Mindef blames Google Translate for ‘poke-eye’ blunder
By P. ARUNA
RAWANG: The Defence Ministry had relied on the free online Google Translate for the English version of its official website, which resulted in the many mistakes found on the site.
“We have corrected the mistakes and translations are no longer done that way. “It is now done manually,” Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said here yesterday.
He admitted that the inaccurate translations had caused much embarrassment to the ministry.
It was recently reported in The Star that amusing translations of the staff dress code on the ministry’s official website were being shared on social networking websites.
The ministry’s website had published translations such as “clothes that poke eye”, a literal translation of pakaian yang menjolok mata, which in actual fact means revealing clothes in Bahasa Malaysia.
Others included “collared shirts and tight Malay civet berbutang three”, which, in Malay, is berkolar baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga.
Another was the brief summary of the ministry’s history on the website, which read: “After the withdrawal of British army, the Malaysian Government take drastic measures to increase the level of any national security threat”.
The ministry took down its English translated version several hours after it went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
In an immediate response, a ministry spokesman had said that a clarification had been posted on the website, saying that corrective action was being taken to ensure that the translations were accurate.
“We did not intend for the English translations to turn out that way,” said Dr Zahid during a visit to the National Service camp here.
However, a check on the website showed that the English translations were still unavailable.
Some images from Myanmar
Still traveling and managed to catch some wifi in Mandalay. So just a few photos to share for now. Merry Christmas.
Lower than low: Slaking the thirst for publicity in disaster areas
What can you say about this?
Putting a photo of your face on the cover of drinking water cups that is then distributed to the landslide victims in Makassar.
How low can you go to trawl for votes? What blind thirst for power drives men to such insensitive means to acquire and keep power?
Wins an Unspun shit-for-brains tag.
Tipped by @sheque in his Twitter feed
Air Minum Bergambar Politisi Beredar di Lokasi Bencana – Tribunnews
Senin, 5 Desember 2011 18:35 WIB
Laporan Wartawan Tribun Timur,Rudhy
TRIBUNNEWS.COM,MAKASSAR – Air minum kemasan bergambar politisi beredar di lokasi bencana alam di Jalan Sukadami, Kelurahan Panakkukang Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Minggu (5/12/2011). Lokasi bencana sekaan menjadi momentum bagi kalangan politisi dari berbagai partai politik untuk menggalang dukungan serta simpatisan masyarakat.
Berdasarkan pantauan Tribun di lokasi bencana longsor, Senin (5/12/2011) yang menelan korban jiwa sebanyak delapan orang akibat ditimpa reruntuhan tembok bangunan PT The Mutiara Jalan AP Pettarani Makassar, kemarin, tampaknya menjadi ajang unjuk gigi sekaligus ajang sosialisasi para politisi.
Terbukti, puluhan dos air mineral bergambar Ketua umum DPP PAN Hatta Rajasa dan Koordinator Wilayah DPD Partai Golkar Makassar beredar luas di lokasi bencana alam.
Hatta Rajasa adalah Menteri Perekonomian RI disebut-sebut bakal maju di Pemilihan Presiden yang dihelat 2014 mendatang, sementara Yakqin digemboskan maju di pemilihan Wali Kota Makassar 2013 mendatang.
Dari pengamatan Tribun, puluhan warga yang menjadi korban naas bencana longsor tampak berdesak-desakan mengambil air mineral berlebel politisi tersebut, bahkan tak jarang mereka saling berebutan.
Ollie’s journey as Chairwoman of ON|OFF
It has been a pleasure to work with Ollie in her role as Chairwoman for ON|OFF. Throughout the preparation stages she has been full of ideas, contacts, flexibility, firmness and never too proud to admit the things she did not know and to ask for help.
And she’s acquitted herself extremely well on Saturday when the ON|Off event achieved – if the Twitter feed for #onoffID is any indication – wild success. Unspun’s observations and thoughts of the event and the evolution of the blogging scene in this country in a later posting but in the meantime here’s Ollie’s own account of her journey as this year’s Chairwoman:
ON|OFF 2011 – Ideas Meet Opportunities
December 5, 2011 Ollie
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It’s been a long journey. Early May 2011, Ong & Hanny come to me and asked me to be the Chairwoman of Pesta Blogger 2011 or we call it now ON|OFF 2011. I was overwhelmed (still is). It’s been a BIG event since 2007. I don’t know if I can do that. Ong then explain my job descriptions, then also plans for this year’s event. I have some ideas regarding how the event should work, I told them on the spot, they like it. I still have plenty of ideas for ON|OFF, so, Bismillah, let’s do it.
We do our first media conference in July 2011 to kick off the event. I felt like a student learning for an exam when I get all the media documents from Nia. I’ve been connecting with medias, but mostly to talk about myself. This time it’s different. I become ‘the face’ of ON|OFF 2011 also represent our sponsors: Acer Indonesia & US Embassy. New experience for me.
Why RIM Blackberry may be heading for more trouble over promo gone wrong
Here’s why:
1. It took them a week before expressing regret. A week is a very long time in today’s BB Messenger-fuelled world of communications. In the meantime word has already been spreading around town about RIM’s seemingly slow response.
2. After all this time and it was short of an apology. It was only a “regret”. (You can imagine the internal debate. Executive: “Do we apologize?” Lawyer: “No. We don’t because it would open us up to lawsuits.” Well, in Canada maybe but have you considered that Indonesians apologize al the time for the small infractions and its culturally expected for someone to do so.
3. Trying to inject corporate self-serving message (“It is very important to us to continue to demonstrate that we’re a strong, responsible corporate citizen in Indonesia”) when all the public wants to know is are you sorry, do you take responsibility, are you empathic, why it happened and what you are going to do about it. Nobody wants to hear or care how strong and responsible a corporate citizen you are.
4. Pointing fingers (“We are reviewing [the contracts with Experiential and Hill & Associates], as part of the … investigation to really take a look at the details, [and] relationship, to the event,” he said) As everyone should have learned from BP’s fiasco, it doesn’t matter whether it was your vendor or contractor who is at fault, when you are a big brand and it happened under your watch, you need to take responsibility and not blame, or imply it is the fault of others.
All classic no-no’s in the practice of Crisis and Issues Management from a PR perspective.So what will happen next? If RIM is very lucky things will die down. If they are not then they may be be heading for more trouble as others react against the mistakes they are making. It’s all very unpredictable in crisis-like situations, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t minimize the potential flash points.
via RIM Regrets BlackBerry Promo Gone Wrong | The Jakarta Globe
Research In Motion said on Friday that it regretted the mad rush for the new BlackBerry smartphone on Nov. 25 that left 90 people unconscious and three injured.
“We sincerely regret that many loyal customers experienced frustration and were upset, and that some individuals suffered injuries,” Gregory Wade, RIM’s regional managing director for East Asia, told the Jakarta Globe.
He also said that staff from RIM and others involved in the event had visited hospitals to “extend our support and sympathy to those injured.”
“We are deeply committed to Indonesia and greatly value the passionate support Indonesians have shown for BlackBerry smartphones and popular apps like BBM,” he said.
“It is very important to us to continue to demonstrate that we’re a strong, responsible corporate citizen in Indonesia.”
The new BlackBerry Bold 9790 was made available first in the world in Indonesia and the first 1,000 people at the launch at Pacific Place mall had the chance to buy one for Rp 2.3 million ($255). The half-off discount attracted a huge crowd, some of whom had started lining up the day before.
Wade said the Nov. 25 event had been organized on behalf of RIM by event organizer Experiential and security consultant Hill & Associates.
“We are actively cooperating with the authorities who are investigating this incident,” he said, adding that RIM was also undertaking its own investigation.
He said the company was also conducting an internal review, focusing on preventing a similar incident happening in Indonesia.
“We are reviewing [the contracts with Experiential and Hill & Associates], as part of the … investigation to really take a look at the details, [and] relationship, to the event,” he said….
Its SEA-SONed not ASEAN Bloggers
For years, ASEAN officials – the bureaucrats in the governments and the Secretariat – have zealously guarded the ASEAN name like high priests, even while they claim that their ultimate aim is to create one region wide community and identity.
So it is with some irony that when the bloggers in these countries finally get together – where else but in cyberspace and in Facebook at that – they decided not to call themselves ASEAN bloggers but the South East Asian Social Network (SEASONed) Bloggers.
Kudos to them for showing the authorities that they are no one’s tools for pledges, swearing ins and declarations and pabulum that is soooo ASEAN.
Now the Facebook is humming with ideas about aggregating blogs throughout the region and other initiatives.
This, of course opens up the question of what the ASEAN Secretariat and the governments should be doing to engage the region’s youth and its bloggers, now and especially in the future.
There will be lots of temptations for ASEAN and its consultants to try to bring bloggers under their fold to serve some bureaucratic itch for ostentatious displays of loyalty and regional camaraderie by forming groups and having them perform arcane bureaucratic rituals.
But that would be folly. Trying to control bloggers is worse than herding cats. The best thing the ASEAN evinces can and should do is to create the infrastructure and platforms for bloggers to meet, exchange ideas and do their own thing – as they are now doing on Facebook without – or in spite of the help of authorities.
ASEAN Bloggers Declaration: And Bali makes two
Exciting to see bloggers from around the region getting enthusiastic about declarations. The latest declaration was yesterday at the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit.
This would be the second declaration for ASEAN bloggers that Unspun’s known about, and in the same year too: the first one was at the First Malaysia-ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference in Kuala Lumpur in April. How they effect each other is anybody’s guess.
It will be an exciting day for us in the region when these Declarations take effect as social media will then be recognized as being important to the region, bloggers will be honored and we will all be of One Vision, One Identity and One Community.
For an interesting and frank take on the Bali declaration of the ASEAN Blogger Community see Anton Nawalapatra’s posting here.
Other takes on the declaration are:
- Tersesatkah saya di ASEAN Blogger Conference? « RUMAH DIKSI
- Oh, Nasibmu ABC | Blontank Poer
- Deklarasi ASEAN Blogger 2011 – Blogging – hermansaksono
- Blogger: Suara dan Kekuatan Baru di ASEAN #ABCBali « Dunia Anggara
- Deklarasi Asean Blogger Conference di Bali | Jurnalnya Nike
via ASEAN BLOGGERS DECLARATION | Iman Brotoseno
1. We, the ASEAN bloggers, gathered in Bali, on 16th November 2011, aligned with the 19th ASEAN Summit, acknowledge the role and contributions of social media for the establishment of ASEAN Community 2015.
2. We, the ASEAN bloggers, aspire to seek the freedom of expressions among us as enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. We, the ASEAN bloggers, in the spirit of partnership and solidarity among the family of people from ASEAN countries, independent of political influence, are determined to use social media in the development of ASEAN’s political, economic, and social-cultural potentials with the aim to promote understanding among ASEAN people.
4. We, the ASEAN bloggers, are determined to develop cooperation in all fields under ASEAN’s One Vision, One Identity, and One Community.
5. We, the ASEAN bloggers, are committed to ethical and positive demeanor, respectful of the rights of authors attached to articles, photos, and videos, and other creative products.
6. We, the ASEAN bloggers commit to:
a. Declare the 16th November as the ASEAN Bloggers’ Day.
b. Develop communication platforms, both at the national and the sub-regional levels, taking into account the interest of people participation in the rural areas of ASEAN countries.
c. Organize future activities to encourage closer contact among bloggers.
d. Mandate the Indonesian ASEAN Blogger Community President to coordinate and communicate to all their counterparts from ASEAN countries regarding development and progress achieved in accordance with the Declaration.
7. We, the ASEAN bloggers, encourage all bloggers to join our efforts in making this Declaration a reality.
The trouble with contests and awards
There’s been much comment and discontent about Indonesia’s poor showing in the New 7 Wonders of The World Contest. In the conversation led by, among others, The Indonesian blogosphere’s Comeback Kid, Priyadi, many Indonesians are criticizing the methodology of how the New 7 Wonders were chosen.
The problem in their arguments, however, is that Indonesia chose willingly to enter into the contest, knowing full well that the selection process may not hold a candle next to Ceasar’s wife, so it is a bit churlish to complain when, having been complicit in the progress of the competition, you turn around and criticize the organizers.
Unfortunately, however, most of us – Unspun included – are suckers for that whatever slim chance at recognition and victory that we tend to overlook the flaws of a contest or award, only to have these very same flows come back in their mocking glory when we do not win any prizes.
Unspun knows this feeling only too well. Last week Unspun was invited by some friends to join their table at the SABRE Awards that was organized by the Holmes Report. Unspun went there because 1. The spot was free, courtesy of my friends and Unspun’s a cheapskate and 2. Unspun’s firm had been short listed as finalist in two of the award categories.
Unspun was skeptical of the awards from way back (see this link) but so hard wired are we all to optimism and The Slim Chance that he trekked to Singapore for the dinner. When the results were announced, the spoils went mainly to the Big Boys of PR, who also happened to be sponsors.
At this point Unspun reasoned, you could interpret the results several ways: Big Boys, because of their resources, are inherently more creative; Big Boys have more clout because they also happen to be the sponsors of the dinner (or conversely, because they are aware of how good they are, they sponsored the dinner so that they could be recognized); Small Boys generally can’t compete with the Big Boys; Big Big Boys rule,maven against other Big Boys.
Unspun wasn’t alone. There were others more skeptical than him. Many questioned the impartiality of the awards, pointing to the close connection between the viability of the organizing body and advertising/sponsorship for its existence. This, however, is a bit unfair because the Holmes Report did conscript some judges who should be impartial although,
Ironically, they did a bad job of PR-ing that fact.
Unspun thinks that the Holmes Report’s present dependence on sponsorship and advertisement leaves its credibility vulnerable but at least they are trying to do something to recognize PR.
The real problem is that the organizations with the heft and resources to really do something for the profession – the Big Boys – are doing squat to set up a forum where good PR work can be recognized and encouraged in a manner that is much more beyond reproach. (Human psychology is such that if you belonged to a Big Boy team and won an award, the fact that you are intelligent enough to figure what Unspun’s said so far would not stop you from The Ecstatic Moment When your firm or team’s name is announced). Then again, if you are a Big Boy, why would you want to upset the apple cart?
So there you have it. Unspun is probably churlish for complaining (and would he write a completely different post if his firm had won an award that night?) but at the same time feels that the whole matter should be brought up for a good airing and unspinning. Any opinions from the PR fraternity?
Raconteur picks up another award for Maverick
I’m so proud of my colleagues at Raconteur who picked up yet another award for Maverick last week.
Who says PR can’t be creative?
The Year of The Raconteurs!
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By hanny
Other posts by hanny
This year looks like an especially favorable one for Raconteur!
Earlier this year, the story tellers were celebrating awards to two of our social media clients: US Embassy Jakarta and AXIS, that received awards from MIX magazine on their effectiveness in using social media. We were so humbled and proud for becoming a part of it—and we recounted those days when we were working on the two winning projects with lots of excitement and enthusiasm.
The US Embassy Jakarta won a Silver Award in Image and Reputation Building category with the program “Berbagi Indonesia: A Campaign to Welcome President Obama”. This social media campaign netted the embassy with more than 70,000 new fans in its Facebook Page within 2 weeks, and exponentially increased the engagement level with its audiences in other social media platforms as well. Our other client, AXIS, won a Silver Award in the Marketing PR category with its “AXIS Menang Bareng” campaign, which succeeded in helping AXIS increase consumers’ usage of its mobile packages and attracted hundreds of new customers.
A few days ago, we were pleasantly surprised with the news that we have won another award—this time from a client.
Each year, PT HM Sampoerna Tbk holds the “Sampoerna Supplier Awards” to recognize the work and contribution given by their more than 3,000 suppliers. The suppliers comprise advertising agencies, PR consultancies, event organizers, among others. This year they created a new category of awards—the Value Creation Ideas Award, to recognize their partners who had come up with the best idea that would add value to PT HM Sampoerna Tbk, either in terms of increasing productivity, increasing quality, lowering costs, lowering wastes, improving safety, or increasing its corporate image.
We submitted two ideas involving the use of communications technology in customer relations and direct communications that they apparently found very useful and awarded it to Maverick, as Raconteur’s parent company.
We think that this award would nicely round up Raconteur’s year for 2011—except that one of our projects have also been selected as a finalist in the SABRE Awards in Singapore on Thursday night! Now if thing go well, that would be the perfect ending for the year for us
Wait for more stories that we will be able to tell in 2012.
