Of Love and National Geographic Indonesia

As a student I would frequent the local library for reading National Geographic magazines. Like a few people, I would be fascinated by the breathtaking beauties of their photos. An old copy was particularly special; it was one featuring tancho birds, a type long regarded by the Japanese as a symbol of fidelity. The photos and words were so exceptional I dont know which touched my soul more. But I know that the one of its kind magazine has since reigned in my heart.

On our way home one day my wife said she was deciding to subscribe to NGI, National Geographic Indonesia (it tried Indonesian readership early last year, while Playboy Indonesia will follow its path this year, if only with a mission that is far from educational). Youd probably guess it right: agreeing to itI mean the NGI--was almost too easy. Before we knew it, the first copy was delivered to our home, much to our delight. It was on the Chango, the rather mysterious and mystical tribe living in the rustic areas bordering Hungary and Romania. Then, again before we knew it, weve started collecting the yellow-covered publication.

To my chagrin, I have yet to find the pleasure of reading them. It is not because of the presentation in Indonesian, of which I remarked to my wife that we should wear tolerance. The problem is that every time I lay my fingers on it, it feels like I am being invited to the verge of nausea. It doesn't smell like paper; it stinks like cheap screen-printed plastic stickers.

According to my wife, the smell is quite palpable, though apparently not so strong enough to turn off her reading appetite. Maybe it hasn't. Or perhaps some noses, like mine, will become more sensitive after living for some time away from big cities. If, like they say, the nose knows, NGI should seriously overcome this problem.

***

Then, the February 2006 edition arrived home yesterday. Its title, printed in crimson against the black background photo of a young couple embracing each other, is Cinta, the Indonesian equivalent for that most important word: love. After Fromm's The Art of Loving and Peck's The Road Less Travelled, my instant blink commanded me to like it, which of course I succumbed to. I set my heart to go against my normal reaction (did I use normal already?). So, I finally did read it.

In this headlined article the writer tried to explain how love influences human brain and how science gradually comes to the forefront in explaining empirically how the emotional phenomenon reflects its empirical evidence.Well, in spite of what the article says, what is really there to say? Maybe one day this same science one day will try to what hormone is emitted in the brain when I am disgusted, or maybe it'll try to make photos of human souls.

The article quoted a 10-year research. According to the writer, this scientist has in the last ten years been "memperhatikan cinta dalam arti sesungguhnya, dengan pertolongan mesin MRI" ("observing love in its truest meaning, by using an MRI machine"). How absurd!

The serious problem with all this I guess started when the writer failed to define cinta in the first place. Love being a complex issue covering a wide range of emotions, there are soo... many kinds of it. For one, my love to my wife would not the same as that to my daughter. To me the most disturbing flaw that disturbed my reading is the way the article has confused sex, lust, infatuation, physical attraction, and passion with cinta despite the writers attempts to distinguish them by quoting various studies by anthropologists and psychiatrists.

***

Why do people seem to have a predisposition to like magazines like National Geographic? Well, we can think of some reasons: its superb photos of faraway lands? Great stories of exotic things? Intriguing accounts of otherwise unbeknown experiences?

I hold that the underlying reason has to do with escapism. It is closely linked to our personal concept of (dis)comfort. Most of us are confined to the (dis)comfort of modern living. Partly, it's either because we tend to wish to be elsewhere; or because it's often sufficient just to think that we know about something, a simulacrum instead of experiencing it ourselves. Of course, we can't do all the things we want. And there are certain things that we should not even wish to do.

I wonder whether a reading of the original text, in English, would've led me to this direction. This post is long enough already; for now daily chores are getting the better of all my need for escapism.

An affable fable

A group of monkeys are monkey-seeing and monkey-doing one fine day, on the branches and twigs of a big tree of life, doing whatever they think they are doing. There are babies and children of them, adolescents, fathers, mothers, and also senior members of the monkeydom. Down below, barely a stone-throw away, is a small and rather opaque pond, a perfect habitat of the fish and other watery creatures that are swimming about, in solitude or congregation. Occassional bubbles of air that the animals breathe out go up and burst on the surface as they emerge. Some members of the fishdom make occassional gasping for fresh air. As it happens, there are always monkeys that never see such fish. A few of them do, but consider it just a matter of course. A number of them are aware of the existence of the fish and other beings in that water and spend a great many hours brooding how these creatures can possibly live there. Still, some insist there is nothing alive down there. And the same string of phenomena also occurs among the fish. There are always fish that have never seen the noisy animals above all their lives. There are some who have, but do think of nothing else except that is just the way it is. Some are aware of the existence of the monkeys outside water and spend many a days wondering how they can survive without water. Then the night falls in regardless what all the animals that we are, think or otherwise. Similar questions we will question as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.

BII, penny wise pound stupid

Commercial banks exist solely to make profit and do that through making interest and fixed income. They absorb depositors' monies by providing interest and channel the funds to third parties at higher rates, in the hope of gaining some margin counted at future value through the resulting interest differentials.

In attempts to remain competitive, banks must be attractive enough to would-be depositors or lenders by offering as attractive interest rates as possible, and to existing customers by better service delivery or provision of incentives. We also know that most banks try to make additional income by offering services for fixed fees, such as through services of inter-bank transfers, payment settlements, forex buy-sell, cellular vouchers, et cetera.

Still, with the above understanding in mind, I'm afraid that Bank International Indonesia (BII) is making a gross mistake by doing what it is doing nowadays. In fact, I think it is being ridiculously penny wise but pound stupid in its attempt to increase fixed income.

Yesterday I checked my balance at one of its ATMs down the office building and withdrew some cash. Minutes later I read a notice saying that this bank is starting imposing that BII savers must pay Rp 5,000 for transfers to other BII accounts and Rp 2500 for checking the balance at any BII ATM, unless they have balance bigger than Rp 5 million rups (US$ 550)!

Of course, banks are no moral institutions. Appealing that most Indonesian banks are actually indebted to the majority of the people would be like straightening a wet thread. But it is a naked fact that we civilians have been paying the burden of the banking restructuring since the 1998 crisis, and that our grandchildren will also have to chip in for the salvation.

Equally, saying that BII is being evilish is as out of the question; still, the fact remains that it is outrageously ripping the majority of its savers off their money.

When this issue was brought up this morning among colleagues and the office financier, I knew I wasn't the only guy turning mad.

Of Hospitals

Indonesians have an interesting term for the word "hospital." We call it "rumah sakit," which translates back verbatim into English as a "sick house." It can either mean a "house for the sick" or a "house that it sick," and I can tell you that neither meaning has any association with "hospitality."

Rumah sakit is semantically ambiguous, but we have lived with this term since time immemorial--we tend to not question stuff like this anyway. Subconsciously the term brings to mind a place where patients go for medication. Rumah sakit is a place for us to try to get our well being back (or harbor hope against hope in very unfortunate cases, which aren't rare, regrettably).

Truth is, few places are more dangerous than rumah sakit. So, in a way rumah sakit is really a sick house. Healthy persons who go to hospitals, especially babies or minors whose immune systems have yet to develop, invariably run the risk of being contaminated. Why, because hospitals make a perfect breading ground for germs; they are a most ideal place for contracting communicable diseases. This we often forget or neglect. The points above suggest why hospitals should be located at a certain distance from residential areas and why they must to be properly managed.

So, the Indonesian term contains a warning that we must stay away from this place as much as we can. If we must be there at all, we must get the hell out of it asawpc!

Er, that's short for: As Soon As We Possibly Can ;)

Perempuan, Keperempuanan dan Poligami

Judul: Membela Perempuan
Penyunting: Ali Hosein Hakeem
Penerbit: Al Huda, Jakarta
Cetakan: I (pertama), Jumadil Akhir 1426H/Juli 2005
Tebal: viii + 310 halaman

Posting ini berisi resensi singkat, tanggapan dan kesan-kesan pertama saya tentang buku tersebut, yang sampai saat saat ini masih saya pinjam dari istri tercinta. Menukik langsung ke rekomendasi pribadi, saya pikir buku ini perlu dibaca oleh pria maupun wanita yang tertarik dengan isu-isu jender, feminisme, isu keperempuanan, atau kaum pria yang tertarik pada, atau yang berniat melakukan..., poligami!

Sebagai paket bunga rampai, buku ini layak mendapat penghargaan yang setinggi-tingginya.

Penghargaan pertama adalah untuk penerjemah, yang telah melakukan tugasnya secara profesional dan baik. Saya tidak ingat lagi kapan pernah membaca buku terjemahan dengan kalimat yang lugas serta lancar sebagus itu, seperti yang telah dilakukan oleh penerjemah buku ini. Saya jadi tertarik siapa dia gerangan sang penerjemah ini. Namanya baru kali ini saya dengar dan terdengar agak aneh: Jembala Gembala, entah nama samaran atau bukan. Saya tidak kenal dirinya, dan belum pernah mendengar namanya. Tapi saya siap meneraktirnya makan siang! Bagi saya, ia telah berhasil menjinakkan teks bahasa asing ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, sehingga menjadi lancar, mudah dan indah.

Penghargaan kedua adalah untuk penyusun dan penerbitnya atas dimensi cakupan bunga rampai yang cukup luas membahas isu-isu di atas. Juga untuk kedalamannya yang lebih dari cukup, serta pembahasan ilmiahnya yang cukup bertanggungjawab. Saya tidak tahu siapa Ali Hoesin Hakeem ini, sang penyunting. Info mengenai dirinya hampir tidak dapat ditelusuri, pun di internet. Ini agak aneh, bahkan cenderung misterius; tidak semua orang dapat menyajikan bacaan serius macam ini.

Di bagian belakang buku ini terdapat tulisan (blurb) yang relevan bagi mereka--termasuk saya-- yang menggugat konsep jender dalam hal spiritualitas manusia (atau ruh). Khusus untuk pertanyaan pribadi ini, saya belum tahu apakah presentasi dan substansinya cukup memuaskan; perlu pembacaan yang saksama. (Arahnya adalah mencari alternatif justifikasi bahwa manusia secara fisik dapat saja berupa lelaki atau perempuan; tetapi semua orang memiliki elemen maskulin dan feminin, dan dalam hal menyangkut ruh (spirit) isu serta konsekuensi perbedaan kelamin/jender tidak relevan.)

Melalui riset kecil melalui internet saya berhasil menemukan resensi buku ini dari harian Republika, yang menjelaskan sedikit banyak tentang cikal-bakal atau latar belakang penulisan artikel-artikel dalam buku ini. (Silakan baca Wacana Perempuan dalam Islam.)

Salah satu bab paling menarik dan istimewa adalah yang mengkaji isu poligami. Menurut saya, ini tulisan paling komprehensif tentang poligami selama ini. Di dalamnya dikaji aspek-aspek historis (pre- dan pasca-Islam), psikologis, sosio-ekonomis lintas-waktu, serta pandangan Islam yang cukup komprehensif terhadap praktik tersebut. Poligami telah ada jauh sebelum Islam; agama ini sukses menghapuskan poliandri dan berhasil "memperhalus" poligami.

Yang agak aneh dan perlu digarisbawahi dalam bab ini justru bagian kesimpulannya. Republika online mengatakan buku ini "mendukung poligami," dan begitu pula kesan pertama saya. Menurut istri saya, tidak demikian halnya. Setelah saya baca ulang, kesan saya adalah sbb: kesimpulan dalam bab ini agak melenceng dari uraian yang panjang lebar dari sang penulis bab tentang fenomena poligami. Pemerian dan penjabaran yang sedemikian bagus, obyektif, dan komprehensif tentang segala hal menyangkut poligami seharusnya tidak dapat direduksi menjadi: "pemihakan yang cukup kuat terhadap praktik poligami."

Yang cuma membaca simpulannya akan terseret ke kesimpulan demikian, sebagaimana halnya peresensi di Republika. (Di bagian ini saya berharap dapat membandingkannya dengan teks asli.) Menurut "pemaknaan" saya, penulis buku ini justru dengan halus ingin mengatakan bahwa memang poligami dapat merupakan pilihan yang lebih baik jika dibandingkan dengan pilihan lain (e.g. pelacuran, perjinahan, dll); dan bahwa di abad modern ini hampir tidak ada lelaki yang mampu memenuhi syarat-syarat, atau layak, untuk berpoligami sebagaimana yang ditetapkan dalam ajaran Islam.

Terakhir, untuk menambah kredibilitas karya semacam ini dan untuk mengakui kontribusi para penulisnya, Al-Huda sebagai penerbit buku seyogyanya memberi info tentang mereka bagi sidang pembaca Indonesia.

Defending the Indefensible

This post may be overdue, but I posted it anyway because I needed to relieve my angst (as they say in Indonesian, bloggers are humans, too!).

I was anguished by the news reporting that Bank Indonesia's high ranking officers were proposing such a ridiculously large salary package! If the President and Vice President had asked for a salary raise, it would have been understandable.

On the last 13th Jan, the central bank of Indonesia announced its 9-step policy on Indonesia's banking for 2006 onward, containing 4 short-term and 5 medium- and long-term measures. In the short run, the measures aim to provide breathing space to the banking industry so as to continue playing a role in financing the development; in the medium- and long-term, it focuses to strengthen the banking foundation and elaborate on some of the programs contained in the Indonesias Banking Architecture, all of which are as follows:

1. BI is to review its PBI No.7/2/PBI/2005 concerning the Quality Assessment of Commercial Banks Assets, while holding dearly on the principle of prudence.
2. BI is to consider readjusting the minimum reserve ratio if macro stability so allows. The re-adjustment will be reviewed by the 1Q06 with a conviction that when the macroeconomic condition reaches a relatively stable level, banking liquidity can ease down.
3. BI is to keep increasing people's access to sharia banking services by allowing branches of conventional banks that already have sharia banking units, to provide office-channeling sharia transaction services so that banks no longer need to open new branches of their sharia units in many places before they can provide sharia services.
4. BI is to extend banking service network, particularly to the SME sector so as to reach out evenly to regional corners. Moreover, in the near future BI plans to adjust the ratio of weighted assets for certain retail activities, including the financing ratio to micro and small businesses.
5. BI is to strengthen the capital structure for expediting the process of banking consolidation. Referring to the PBI No.7/15/PBI/2005 concerning the minimum core capital requirement of commercial banks, indicatives to the effectiveness in the process of banking consolidation will be reflected in the first quarter of 2006, when action plans of the banks with capital under Rp100 billion are received by the central bank. BI will take necessary measures to ensure that the stipulation on the limits of banking activities be enforced if the PBI No.7/15/PBI/2005 cannot be met.
6. BI is to increase the role of foreign banking in the economy. The intermediary role of foreign banks currently needs to be improved. BI will improve the role of bankers by adopting policy guidelines related to the development of national-banking human resources so as to remain as competitive as that in international banking.
7. BI is to anticipate for the development of future banking. Referring to the trend within the industry that leads toward universal banking, BI is planning to embolden its position and directions in realigning for the relationship between banking and financial markets. Taking into account the possible consequences, the policy to open universal banking in Indonesia will be carried out selectively. BI will relate such operational permits to strict requirements that will reflect the soundness of a given bank in anticipating the risks that may ensue.
8. BI is to strengthen the banking sectors internal management. This gears towards resilience and competitiveness of each individual bank so that each can exist healthily to be profitable within individual peer group. Therefore, focus in the implementation of the conception of best practices that refer to banking efficiency and effectiveness as corporates in the future is by applying the principle of good governance and Basel II.
9. BI is to improve the infrastructure of the banking industry. In 2006, it will particularly strengthen 5 aspects: improvement of the financial sector safety net or JPSK (Jaring Pengaman Sektor Keuangan), establishment of apex institutions for rural banks, banking mediation institution, management of card-based oayment systems, and banking research institution in various regions in Indonesia.

Indonesia's inflation since 1950


(Source: CBS, Indonesian Statistical Year Book, various editions.)

Bank Indonesia exists and is mandated by the law as an autonomous institution to adopt a single ultimate objective of reaching and maintaining the stability of the Rupiah currency. As stipulated in its charter, the stability here embraces two aspects: they are the stability of the Rupiah v-a-v the goods and services, and that v-a-v other currencies.


(Graph: Rupiah in the last 15 years; source: BI)

This stability here has everything to do with inflation, something most people regard as a "natural" phenomenon to adjust to while it is an elephant of a witness of a terribly imperfect, erronuous, manipulative, and manipulated financial arrangement in the world. Thus, like most central banks in the world, Bank Indonesia has existed to defend the indefensible. Its task has been an utter impossibility, something that cannot be attained as long as there is no reform in the global financial order. Until that happens, all central bankers need to be more sensible so as not to ask too much from the people.

About OUAW

I am Nad, an individualist living in Ciputat, a small hilly town that borders with and used to be part of South of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, a country where Bali is.

I have lived here since 2001 with my wife and our 7-year young daughter, and a crippled she-dog that had been there long before we built our home and moved in. (With utmost confidence I can say she has accepted this cohabitation).

[Updates: Our beloved doggy died on May 24, 2007 :(
My daughter is nearly 11. We all live in Canberra now.]

I invite comments--they’ll make my day.

(Last updated: 8 October, 2010)

Eid ul-Adha's Eve, 2006

Here's in loving memories to my uncle who died last night during the course of his pilgrimage with Bibi in Mecca. May you rest in peace in the holy land, Mang Kadir. The good memories of you will never cease for as long as I live. May the bereft family members in Palembang be strengthened in going through the immense loss of a husband most loving , a father most caring, and a gentleman most wise in words and deeds.

Lej's

So I have a new blog

Something somehow was telling me that I ought to give myself 5 minutes to post on whatever's on my mind. I thought I wanted to blog a bit about some of the tidbits of this newest blog.

So, if blogs have birthdays, this one was finally born this morning, January 12. At this moment I'm still admiring its gorgeous new look from Karysima. I'm still having a problem, though, with paragraphs, and am not sure if it will ever be solved. Internet Explorer doesn't seem to recognize paragraph breaks in this template environ. Under Opera and Firefox, it has no such problems.

I already spent hours in the past two nights to fix it myself to no avail. Just minutes ago, I gave up, and emailed the hands that created it, at least for confirmation that such problems exist.

Anyway, the picture reminds me of the beginning of Indonesia's reform back in 1997, that eventually brought down Soeharto in 1998. I was with my wife, braving ourselves to get nearer and nearer to the Parliament building--but never got it to the gate. Since the reform, my country has undergone a lot of drastic changes almost overnight: changes of presidents, cabinets, amendments of constitutions, deregulations, and system of governance.

Gosh, five minutes is sure too short..

1/13/06 UPDATE: I finally solved the paragraph problem! Isn't it neat and great looking now? ;)