Public Relations as I think it should be
That Siti Hikmawatty is stupid is a given fact. What else can explain an official for the Commission for the Protection of Indonesia Children (KPAI), and supposedly a one-time academic, would say that women can get pregnant from swimming in a pool with men? Her stupidity is stupendous. In apologizing for her statement she said... Continue Reading →
A battle royale is raging on Twitter between established online media houses including kompas.com, kumparan.com and professional buzzer @Kurawa and so far there have been threats of legal suits, applying the Draconian UU ITE and others. The story unfolded on January 5 when Rudy Valinka, aka @kurawa, tweeted an accusation against Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan for... Continue Reading →
A BMW jumped the curb and ploughed into Apotik Senopati at about 4am today. The driver was apparently a 19-year old student. A video post by @TMCPoldaMetro showed what looked like the driver showed a young man wearing a black cap whose breath, said police, smelled of alcohol. This was the second car to... Continue Reading →
Schadenfreude or, in English, epicaricacy, is mostly a guilty pleasure. That’s because it is the joy you feel at the misfortune of others. In the case of now-sacked Garuda President Director Ari Askhara, however, schadenfreude is a legitimate and just pleasure. Here was a man who lived a life of impunity, seemingly protected by the... Continue Reading →
Something important is lost in the rancour against KPAI (The Commission for the Protection of Children) for calling out PB Djarum's (Djarum Badminton Association) badminton auditions. KPAI, as we know has accused the cigarette maker Djarum of using its foundation, PB Djarum (Djarum Badminton Association) to exploit children. To be sure, KPAI has chosen its... Continue Reading →
Good writing is hard to come by, so what we do with recruits at my workplace is to teach them to write well. Being a former journalist and being one who writes moderately well, the task fell on Unspun to conduct the class. Being a firm believer that writing is a reflection of your mental... Continue Reading →
We all have them. Friends and acquaintances who are so talented and must have accomplished so much and shown such promise that they have been singled out time and again to receive one plush fellowship or another. You know them. They are the ones that pop up in your timeline proclaiming they feel so "humbled"... Continue Reading →
Drive down Jalan Sudirman today and what do you see? You'd probably say you see workers putting the finishing touches on smooth, wide walkways flanked by generous islands of grass, in a process of tarting up Jakarta for the Asian Games that starts on the 18th of next month. What I see, however, is a... Continue Reading →
Unspun thinks its the best idea since tempe but then again, he's biased to the PR profession. But JWT has taken a huge step in appointing former Ogilvy PR and Pulse boss Marianne Adamardatine to head its operations in Indonesia, that includes digital agency Mirium. If it works it will open the doors to lots... Continue Reading →
Not much that is good. That's what the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute found in a survey titled Chinese Indonesians in the Eyes of the Pribumi Public, If the survey is accurate it suggests that after decades of living cheek by jowl with the pribumis, they still harbor stereotyped perceptions about the Indonesian Chinese. Among the most... Continue Reading →
The hallmark of a good campaign is that it spurs public discourse on a particular subject. In this sense, the #SayaPancasila campaign can be said to be successful, if the preponderance of the hashtag and profile pictures bering the message on social media are concerned. Effective public discourse, however, exists when there are differences of... Continue Reading →
Unspun watched with incredulity and horror a segment from the documentary The Act of Killing in which Yusuf calla addressed a group of Pancasila Youth, who were known to be the secular equivalent of a FPI in their heyday. He told the group that this country needed preman (thugs) because they got things done. Unlike the apparat (bureaucrats) who would... Continue Reading →
Unspun 