What's that, Pa?

Alfie finds something

4 months, 8 kilograms, 67 centimeters

Smackdown

If Alfie grows as fast as this, imagine in the next couple of years :)

By 11 November:

7.1kgs

63cms

Bald Alfie

2 months
6.3 kgs
61 cms

Sleeping Alfie

Sleepy Alfie

Alfie

Preparing for the baby, that is the reason for the long absence of posting. Yes, Anna and I have been occupied by the welcoming of our first baby, Alfie. Our doctors predicted August 15 as Alfie’s birth day, but he chose to come out 3 days later.

Friends and families, please meet Alfie Shan Patunru, the little being who carries our genes. "Alfie" is a variant of alpha or of alif – both indicate “first”. "Shan" is a Mandarin of "mountain". Alfie was born 3.77 kilograms and 51 centimeters with normal delivery. His mother was well, despite the extra pain from vacuum pump. Thank you, God for the added joy to the family.

And there the new life has begun. We have done things to home to welcome the new comer. The bedroom now looks even more compact with a new colorful cabinet for Alfie’s stuff – our home decorator might be disappointed to know that his design had to be significantly altered, but Alfie can explain.

Anna has prepared a stack of music for Alfie. Of course she’s biased toward classics, and me jazz. But we believe Alfie has the right to his own bias. So we play him everything. From Bach to Chopin, from Ella to Diana Krall, from Titik Puspa to Tina Toon -- everything. As it turns out, Alfie seems to like ... ABBA and Fleetwood Mac! Whatever you say, Alfie...

update on the mud

The last two days newspaper headlines read:

• The mud has overflowed one of high school in Porong up to its top!
• No solution on how to stop the spurt out of the mud nor to get rid of it
• The temporary dam was broken and around 6000 people must be evacuated
• Need another 3 months to handle the mud (you think so? No, I don’t)

People who claim yourselves as Government, now you can should do something. Where are you?

oh my mud!

OK, that’s it! Enough reading the news everyday about the Lapindo Brantas’s mud that messes up people live in Sidoarjo, East Java.

It’s been almost 3 months since the hydrogen sulfide gas mixed with ammonia and hot mud spurted out over the residential area in Porong and over Surabaya-Gempol highway. Today, it is reported, the highway is closed due to the high risk of the mud that is already 4 meters high to be overflowed to the road. Companies located around the mud area have lost billion rupiahs, not to mention other companies that have to transport their products through this highway. Also, don’t forget, the lives of people whose house have been flooded since the first day of the spurt.

What would have happened if the company is not Lapindo, but Newmont or Freeport? Still remember couple of months ago when people brutally demonstrated in front of Freeport head office in Jakarta accusing the company of polluting the environment?

Get cornered by your kid? Blame the store next door

There was this stupid commercial on TV. It featured a famous local rockstar singing "Motor juga manusia..." (motorbike is human, too), a twisted version of the rocker's hits, "Rocker Juga Manusia" (rocker is human, too). I was laughing the first time I saw the commercial. But that was it. I didn't care and I forgot already.

Until this morning.

Anna pointed out a reader's letter in Kompas. The reader, a father of a curious son, is complaining about that commercial. He was bugged by his son who kept asking him, "Dad, is motorbike human?". No matter how hard the frustrated father tried to convince the son that "No, motorbike is motorbike. It's not human, Son", the son was stubborn like a stone. "No, Dad, that guy on TV says motorbike is human. It's human, Dad".

So the hopeless father wrote to Kompas. He argued that commercials should not mislead. That the company, PT Astra Honda Motor should be wiser. He even complained that the commercial should not pushed too hard just to have a rising rockstar advertising for it.

I say, get a life.

Every company should be free to advertise in whatever way it likes. You buy if you like and don't if you don't.

As for your kid's bugging you, it sounded like you failed to argue with him. It's your fault, not the store next door.

The real me

My sister sent me this. It is my niece Pacchi's work. Pacchi told her mom: "This is Uncle Aco". I'm flattered.

Signalling on the road

Do you notice bumper stickers? I do. Not only bumper stickers. But also other "signalling instruments" in/on cars. Sometimes they are entertaining. Some examples:

A name of some top university abroad = I went abroad and I have brain.
A name of god-knows-where university abroad = I went abroad and I didn't even need a brain.
A name of domestic, state university = I was on subsidy.
A name of domestic, private university = My parents are rich. Call me.
"Baby on board" sign = Don't rear-end my car, I have baby. Go rear-end others.
A Harley Davidson sticker = I'm a biker, I'm cool.
A military or police badge/insignia = Stay away, me first. (Or: Hey, we're family, don't stop me).
Red-numbered license plate = Who needs licence and traffic rules?
Yellow-numbered license plate = Who needs traffic rules?
B 1 XX = Try me, Idiot!
"My other car is YYY" sticker = I'm cheap bastard.

....

If she can do it really well, she doesn’t do that

We’d been living only the two of use for almost one year. We’d got used to take care of our needs on our own (or more precisely: I could take care of myself, and Aco could himself). We managed to collaborate on weekends, though: I prepare special breakfast, Aco did the laundry. In the afternoon I fold the dried clothes, Aco washed the dishes. Or something like that.

Until a woman knocked at our door one Sunday morning. She said she could be of help: washing dishes, laundering and ironing clothes, etc., for a reasonable pay. I thought, OK, we could give her a try.

So she comes every Sunday morning. She does exactly what she promised: washing dishes, laundering and ironing clothes, plus cleaning floor and bathrooms. Only less than I expect. On all those activities, I, or even Aco, can do a lot better.

I gather, our dining sets have some stain intact. The clothes are not shiny. The floor is too wet. And the ironing isn’t perfect either. I can’t really enjoy the infotainment on TV, because I always have to tell her what to do and what not to do. That function goes to Aco when I think I deserve extra Sunday morning sleep. And he usually complains (“I want to blog”).

I discussed this with Aco one day. He told me, those things should have been predictable – those “less than expected” results from the woman helper. He argued, if she could be really good in all those activities, she would have not appeared knocking on our door in the first place. Because she should have valued her labor higher and demanded higher wage. As a result, she would have applied for a better position, say as a manager in a hotel launderette. With a pay rate that we would not be willing to agree with, as a price for our enjoying our Sunday morning. Working as a helper in our house might be the best the woman can do. Even if her best is not our best. (Aco says, this is the comparative advantage principle)

I think that’s true.

Siem Reap

I am writing this post in one of many internet stalls in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After 3 days being away from computer and the net, I felt isolated. Well, I can't deny that I can't live with the Net. The connection here is quite fast and it costs US75c/h. Not too bad. I have been here for almost 4 days, accompanying Aco who is invited by CALD to give a presentation on some liberal economic things (well, he will explain later, I guess). While he was attending the conference, I walked around by myself to see some interesting facts about this city - and country.

One thing that I can't help with this city is its weather. April is a "killer month" as written by Lonely Planet, my guide for every travel that I do. But, I can't really plan the travel, since I am just a free-rider :) (Aco doesn't think so) . Oh btw, fake version of Cambodia's Lonely Planet issue is sold for US3 in Siem Reap. Unfortunately, I bought it at Changi for US20!

Since it is extremely hot and humid (at noon it is around 38C), I limit my exploration to late afternoon, giving me so little time for looking around. However, after 2 days, I concluded that nothing much can be seen in Siem Reap. The city itself is very small, centered around Siem Reap river. Along the way you can see a lot of hotels, old and new, and some are still under-construction. Obviously, tourism is blooming and definitely Angkor Wat is the magnet. I plan to visit Angkor Wat this afternoon, so the next post will probably be on Angkor Wat.

As in other Indochine countries, Khmer people are very nice and polite. It is very safe for a woman (like me) to walk around the city by myself. Many modes of transportation are available, from bicycle to motorbike (ojek as we called in Jakarta), from tuk-tuk to helicopter (to see the city and Angkor Wat from the sky). But, of course those can't beat walking, if the weather is nice.
One interesting place which is the center of the attraction in Siem Reap is Psar Chaa (Old Market). Amazingly, the word 'market' in Khmer is pronounced the same as pasar in Indonesian. Lots of cafes, restaurants, guesthouses, massage centers and souvenir shops around this area. One advise, better come in the evening to see the "real life" of this area.

One fine typical day

This is what we do almost everyday…

5am: Wake up. Brew coffee. Browse CNN or if necessary, local TVs for hot gossips.

5:45am: Take off. Yes, it’s early. But that’s how we live with otherwise long traffic jam. Read Kompas and the Jakarta Post on the way. Sometimes Aco can’t help blogging, especially if the news freaks him out.

6:30am: Arrive at gym. Light exercise and take showers. (In non-typical day we take off at 6:30, of course after taking shower!).

8:00am: Aco drops me off at my office, then he proceeds to his.

12:00pm: Aco calls me (or the other way around) with standard pickup line: “What’s your eating?”

5:00pm: I call Aco (or the other way around) with: “What time are we leaving?”

7:30-ish-pm (or non-typically 8-9 pm!): Aco picks me up. We stop by for a quick meal.

8:00 pm: Driving home. Traffic jam, almost always.

9:00 or 9:30pm depending on the traffic flow: Arrive at home, exhausted. Take showers. Finish up with the newspapers (or start with weekly magazines if any).

10:00pm: Lazily playing with TV channels. If CSI is on, then it’d be my intro to sleep. Sometimes, this guy Aming beats CSI or Alias (he’s smart and funny), though he obviously would have hard time beating Desperate Housewives.

11:00pm: Aco wakes me up: “Go to bed. Don’t sleep here on the sofa”. By that time he has turned off the TV… He looks tired, too (in non-typical day he can go on with his damn laptop until 1am).

Did I say typical?
Because we have life, too, you know...

Guys don't keep pennies coins

Over coffee this morning (guys, in case you're not aware yet, Coffee Bean is offering a 50% off for BNI card holders -- go get that delicious Caesar's Salad!) Anna pointed to me that my wallet was growing. I didn't realize I had been putting small pieces of papernotes in it -- about teaching, about research issues, about things to blog, etc. Damn, what was I thinking? I looked at the wallet. She was right. It was ugly. She had been telling me to optimize economize with my O2, but I'm just an old-fashioned who can't completely get off papers. Out of embarrasment, I threw those notes away...

Then we talked about guys who keep coins in their wallets. If two or three pieces of small papers could make my wallet look so ugly, you can imagine that of a guy who keeps coins in it. Some guys even proudly ("look, I've got money") put their big fat wallets full of coins in their Levi's back pocket. That's a total turnoff, I overheard girls' talk once. "Like we don't know it's not part of his body?"

Now that my working environment doesn't allow me to wear Levi's everyday (blame those meetings with clients), I should've not concerned too much, because of course I can put my wallet in my pants' front pocket. But as Anna told me: "Eeew, you look like that Nazi's general from the World War!", especially when the other front pocket is already occupied by my handphone.

OK, I am not keeping coins in my wallet ever again...

(Now a little confession ... and why I stroke the word "pennies" in the title). Back a couple of years ago I was a typical grad student. By "typical" I mean, a guy who accumulated (like or not) pennies in his apartment. Everytime I came home, there was always one penny or two (along with dimes and quarters of course) in my pocket (not in the wallet, girls). I put them in my big glass bowl. Every semester the pennies grew quickly. So I went to my bank to get them transformed to paper bills, to ease carrying and transaction. So far so good. But...

One day I entered the bank hurrily with a sack of pennies. I told the cashier: "Can I change my pennies...". Alas, my accent screwed up. The cashier looked at me with weird expression (later I knew she was trying hard not to laugh). Apparently I pronounced the word "pennies" a little too hurrily, so I might have said another word with completely different meaning...!

Fast forward: I'm much more careful now. Even when teaching Game Theory, for example. Whenever I use the example of "Matching Pennies" game, I change that damn word into "coins"...

Would you share your husband?

www.berbagisuami.com (click picture to enlarge)

We watched three Indonesian movies. Two of them are good. One is an extreme crap.

Janji Joni (Joni's Promise) is good. So is Berbagi Suami (Sharing One Husband) . While both have drawbacks especially in their background sound/music, they are obviously high above the average Indonesian movies. It might bother those who value originality highly, but the unavoidable allusion to Run Lola Run in Janji Joni and Four Rooms in Berbagi Suami should be within tolerance. Of particular praiseworthy in both of these Nia Dinata's films is their honesty and simplicity. So "daily life". The pictures are good, too. The economics of Berbagi Suami is discussed in Café Salemba.

As for Detik Terakhir (The Last Moment), it was a torture. It's terribly boring (I was like: does this thing have an end?) and copycattish. Really hateable. Stay with Teater Koma, Cornelia. At least they teach you something there.

Filosofi Kopi is overrated

Curious of media's promotion of Dee's new product, Filosofi Kopi (Coffee Philosophy), I bought one.

And I think it's overrated. I don't know why Goenawan Mohamad calls it wit. Another heavyweight, Arswendo Atmowiloto even dares to relate this piece to Nobel.

To save your time, I'd tell you, this book has nothing to do with coffee nor philosophy.

Anna told me: "I thought you disliked Supernova and you hated Akar (these are Dee's previous books), why do you read this?". I guess she has a point.

(Indonesia) AirAsia is bad, bad, bad!

While I praised its competitions against Lion Air, it turns out, AirAsia is equally lousy. I should've listened to my instinct: never trust too cheap a thing.

So I went to see Anna in Bali. We had been told to try AirAsia, since "it's so inexpensive". When I asked the friends if they were sure (cause I had bad experience with Lion Air), they made me believe it was alright. So I bought the e-ticket online (so far so good, efficiency). It was a week before the schedule.

On the D-day, I was called by AirAsia. There was "unexpected delay" from the scheduled 4pm to 6pm, due to "technical problem". I called them up:

Me: What's going on? Why did you just informed me now?
AA: Apologies, Sir. Technical problem.
Me: What's the compensation?
AA: We don't do compensation, Sir. Sorry.
Me: I beg your pardon? No compensation? You must be kidding me. I have appointment at 7 in Kuta! At least find me another flight.
AA: Sorry, Sir. There's nothing we can do. But hold on, I will ask our manager... (silence). Ugh, Sir? Here's the compensation. You can cancel your trip now, but your ticket is good for three months. You can even let somebody use it.
Me: What? You think it's a compensation? My problem is, I have to be in Kuta at 7pm! Your "compensation" is not doing any justice to it.
AA: Sorry, Sir.

So I contacted my travel agent if they could get me into Garuda. They said it's impossible to issue a ticket 3 hours before the flight. I gave up. It's the damn AirAsia then. I went to Cengkareng.

And guess what? They made two, no, three more delays. I finally flew to Denpasar at 8pm!

On the way back to Jakarta, Anna and I used Garuda. In the airport lounge we hear the announcement several times. That AirAsia's flight to Jakarta was delayed, and delayed, due to... "technical problem".

I shouldn't be complained, I guess. Their ticket is darn cheap. But just to remind my fellow travellers, "cheap" means all inclusive, including several delays and annoyance.

This morning I got an email from AirAsia, promoting their other "great deals". I trashed it. Twice.

Bali, the next paradise?

Can you imagine people in Bali wearing long-sleeves shirt and formal pants to enjoy Kuta or Sanur? I am in Bali now--and too bad, not for holiday. I have to conduct training for a week. Today, my participants were discussing about the demonstration act some Balineses conducted last Friday against RUU APP--dunno how to translate it to English. In general, the government is supposed to have the right to put someone in jail for not wearing proper clothes. Tourism as Bali's main revenue will surely be affected. But swimming in sarong might be a good idea, no?

I'm not allowed...

Apparently, we live in one of the holiest places in Indonesia the world. That's probably sounds like a good thing. But we're scared. This is why.

Anna and I used to go home around 9pm (or even 10pm sometimes) due to work. Fortunately, so far, we have been doing it all together, both of us. But it is really not impossible that we might go home alone sometime. Not because we want it, but because one of us is out of town -- also due to work. If I walk alone at 10pm, I don't think the police will investigate me. But Anna should be prepared. According to the news, the police has the right to probe her.

Even more horrifying is the idea of having to carry a copy of our marriage certificate everywhere we go. Why? "Let's face it," said Anna, "We have different race. In this country that's unusual. When we hold hands in public, they think we are dating -- and dating isn't good, especially between your race and mine". With this recent development, "I'm afraid we should always bring a proof of evidence that we're legally married"...

I was looking at her. She sighed, "Don't you dare kiss me on the street". Or, we'll be jailed...

What T-Shirt?

How about that? Order here for $18

Brokeback Mountain Sucks! Memoirs Rocks!

OK, we admit we also buy illegal stuff. Last weekend, we happened to stop by at Ambassador and before we knew it, we paid supercheap for Brokeback Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha, and King Kong dvds. (Well, there were more, but let's not list them all here -- we don't want to sound so cheap).

Memoirs is excellent. Well, I expected the rising Ziyi to shine the most. In fact it is Gong Li who should have been praised more. Yeoh is so-so. The entire scenes are beautiful. If there's one that we regret, it is the Hollywood sausage: how Rob Marshall pictures the love dynamics between Sayuri and the "Chairman". It's kind of corny.

As for Brokeback Mountain. Our recommendation? Avoid this. It's nothing but a parade of Marlboro ads with two dudes kissing each other! And, eeww, with those cowboy hats and country music...

King Kong, later.

Dressed for success

Does your appearance matter to your spouse? I don't think it should. Anna thinks it does.

So off we went to gym. As usual, I was in what I call my sport apparel: wrinkled T-shirt, jogging pants, and (tennis) sneakers. It turned out, the morning was colder than the days before. We were in the car, halfway from home -- not a good idea to come back for my sweatwear. Without thinking, I just grabbed my business jacket. But...

"What are you doing?" Anna was hysterical, to my surprise. "You can't go to a gym with that thing," she was pointing on my beloved dark jacket (it's cheap, by the way). So, rather than arguing (she was using the tone I instantly recognized as meaning: Don't try to argue), I slowly put the jacket back on the seat...

Now the best part. We were walking to the locker rooms after exercising. Anna realized she left her (business) shoes in the car. "Shoot, I forgot to put my shoes in my exercise bag. I only took the suit". And I gave her yet another wrong response: "Calm down. Why do you need your shoes? You have your sneakers now, no?". She stared at me, "What? A formal (she put a stress on this word) business (on this, too) attire, with ... sneakers (she went: "sneeee-kers" with even more emphasis on it)? Are you out of your mind?".

Was I out of my mind?

All I remember was, one day three years back, I invited a prominent economist to give a talk in my campus. He flew all the way from Washington D.C. to Champaign, Illinois. I picked him up at the airport. He was in a dark business suit with a pair of ... jogging sneakers. And they were white!

Economists should take another course :-)

Easy Silly way to make money

A man is suing iPod's Apple, claiming that the product "can cause hearing loss from prolonged use". Instead of reminding this guy that on his iPod package he should find an explicit warning that reads "this product can cause hearing loss", I have some ideas to help him make even more money:

• Sue Gillette, its razor can cause bleeding on your chin
• Sue BMW, its Z5 can cause accident when you drive too fast
• Sue Nokia, its handsfree can make you look dumb
• Sue Phillip Morris, its Marlboro can cause cancer -- as it admits
• Sue Coca Cola, its strawberry soda can make you puke
• Sue Starbucks, its coffee can make you addicted
• Sue Café Salemba, its postings are nonsense
  

Any more ideas? Let the man know.

Banned in Indonesia

What's inside?

with apology to whoever created this (got it from chain email)

toll road economics

it's been a while without me posting here. i have been extremely busy with works and lately with traffic jam in the toll road due to newly opened bus-way corridor that passes tomang intersection. this so-called integrated transportation system has caused my travel time increase from 50 minutes to 2 hours, especially in the morning! of course now i have so limited time for my personal life. and aco is the one who gets the biggest impact. i don't have time and energy to prepare breakfast and dinner, so most of the time we eat out. but, as an economist he understands very well that the opportunity cost of preparing meals are bigger than buying them outside. that's a very basic of economics. so, he never complains. however, me after reading an article about how convenient it is to live in the city, start thinking of, you know, moving to an apartment! i've started to imagine, how much time and energy that i can save if i stay in an apartment in the city center. and i believe that the saving is worth the price of the apartment itself. some people might not agree, but let's see...

Rubber for soldier

Anna was laughing while reading the latest issue of Tempo magazine. I was curious why. She showed me a small, little news (you might not be able to find it via net -- but trust me, the news exists in print version). It's about condom machine. Reported, the government has installed several ATM-like machines that supply condoms for the public. What was funny is that those machines were installed in ... Army Headquarter (Markas TNI)!

I hear you laughing...

Convenient AND cheap? No way

We saw this ad by Lion Air on tv. It says: more convenient, more comfortable, and ... cheap. We were skeptical. There's no such thing. Lion Air should ad like this: "We know we're not offering the best convenience. But we guarantee the lowest price, and we are improving on the safety". That's honest and that would make a good niche. It might even confront AirAsia.

"No smoking, please" vs "Feel free to smoke"

It started with Anna complaining about a meeting she had with some officials from a state-owned power company. All the officials were smoking -- in a centrally air-conditioned room. She was irritated.

Then we discussed about smoking in general. It seems that everybody knows that smoking may endanger his/her health. But people keep smoking. Anna was bothered to see some sick people in wheelchairs were sunbathing in hospital frontyard, smoking. She also didn't understand why many street beggars (even those with legs amputed) smoke. "They barely have money. But they smoke, why?", "Why don't they use the only money they have for food -- healthier than smoke?".

I told Anna, we had to be careful in this issue. Smoking is a form of consumption. Some people like to do it; just like I enjoy chewing bubble gum. Or like anybody sipping coke, eating candy, et cetera. But why don't we complain when we see somebody chews bubble gum or drinks coke? While we get irritated by people who smoke? As long as they use their own money, it's their right to spend it on whatever they want. Including to buy cigarrette. As for the beggar, we are free to give him money or refuse to do that. But once we give the money, we can't take it back just because he uses it to buy cigarette.

Anna was still unconvinced. And I knew it. She must be thinking about what economists call "externality problem". When somebody smokes, some other people have to deal with the smoke, too. Without proper compensation, we say, the affected parties bear a cost due to somebody else's smoking. This is a situation where the non-smokers have the right to hate and even complain the smokers. ("You should have told those officials you had meeting with; you objected them smoking"). But note: we "hate" smokers because the smoke disturbs us (and is harmful to our health), not because smoking is harmful to the smoker himself. We can complain because the smoke gets in our eyes (and lungs), but we can't complain if people spend their money to smoke. (The way we can complain when somebody spils coke on us, or somebody throws bubble gum on the street). You see the difference?

But, how to ask a "proper compensation"? Is it that we can't ask the smoker next to us to pay us some compensation? That's true. Here's a room for a policy called "sumptuary tax" -- charge imposed on to discourage consumption because it might create negative externality to other people. How? Make smoking less attractive, by imposing higher tax/excise. That would result in higher price of cigarette. How is the money collected be used for "compensating" the non-smokers? By providing (closed) smoking booths in public place etc. Of course this is no easy, as many smokers don't care with such facility; they smoke wherever they want, including in public places -- looking for designated place is troublesome. Well, those guys deserve a slap. Things are more complicated because many non-smokers don't know that they have the right to complain... More so, the smokers don't understand why they are complained.