Embracing 2008

The end of the year is drawing near. We would like to do a little reflection. First of course, Alfie had his first birthday. It was quite a fun with families and friends to whom we owe thanks. As of today Alfie has made further progress. He's got 7 teeth and about 50 words -- 50 percent of which we are still trying to decode. His best friend is Barney and he enjoys tearing down books and newspapers -- his way of getting complete attention from Papa and Mama. Recently Alfie got a new cousin, Nadia. Alfie tried a school. He didn't like it much. Especially because the Misses there forced him to change 'Papa' to 'Daddy' and 'Mama' to 'Mommy'. He quit that school.

Anna and Aco didn't do too much traveling compared to 2006. But one was special, because they did it together, with Alfie too, who was so happy to meet with his cousins in Tokyo.

Other than that all, it's business as usual. Aco published one article at AJAE, wrote some other working papers, and set up a new blog with Dede Basri. He still has his love-hate relationship with Kompas daily. Anna's year seems more interesting. She got herself a new camera and has been busy collecting books and references on photography. She was offered a new job in an oil company but she decided to stay with her office, location being the prime consideration.

Hope next year will be fun, too. Happy new year, everybody.

Alfie and ballbath

Alfie's first modeling career

Here.

Upcoming and vanishing things (1)

Soon, USB ports/hubs will be available on walls everywhere. And very gradually, those power sockets with holes (the two or three holes) and the corresponding power plugs will vanish.

Posting from Gmail

This is a test. I'm posting from Gmail. See how it plays out.

Questions of the day

1. Why don't wedding parties in general here serve coffee?
2. Why did people invent wasabi?

Kidzania

This is so cool! Good place to teach your kids to become true capitalists...

Off to school

Alfie can't wait to go to school...

What Alfie does when mom and dad are teaching

Sometimes Anna and I have to teach on Saturdays. That's when Alfie enjoys walking around the campus.

Alfie said to Mbak Tary: "Do they people really need that beautiful pond with fountain? Is it because their library has all the good books needed by the students, already?"

Of course he didn't say that.

teaching discipline

At 12 month, Alfie is a very busy baby. He is very eager to explore things around him. I cannot stand his movements around the living room, touching and messing up with remote control, paper, pen, plug, cord, and cupboard.

So, one day, I punished him by putting him next to the fridge, letting him hold it as he cannot walk at that time. I told him: alfie, strap (or straff - in dutch). After 1-2 minutes enjoying the "straff", Alfie felt bored. He started to ask me to help him move (ie release him from the fridge). He almost cried as I didn't offer him my hand to support him walk. However, after 2 to 3 times of "straff", he now requested to be "straffed". He is willing to go to the fridge and hold it and say: strap. For him "straff" is a game.

Well, I need to think something else to teach him discipline.

Ramadhan Paradox?

Ramadhan, the fasting month, is coming. Unfortunately, there are some paradoxes that usually come with it – at least here, in the so-called largest muslim country. First, it is supposed to be peaceful, but that is the time where we see a few people destroy pubs, restaurants, and other places, in the name of religion. Second it is supposed to be a month of full self-control, but it is also the month where we notice some fasting people force everybody else to be in the same situation. As in “Look, I’m fasting, do not eat in front of me”.

And there is the third paradox. That is, the fact that inflation is always high in Ramadhan. We understand that prices go up in the months of non-harvest time, beginning-of-school time, and New Year’s. We also understand that right after the Ramadhan, people celebrate the Eid day with lots of food and new clothes and even new furniture. In the days of Ramadhan, mothers (and young fathers of the recent generation, if you like) cook lots of food. And then follows kolak and coconut water and martabak manis – many of these are absent in non-Ramadhan dinners at home. Nearing the end of the month, we observe a massive flow of people coming home: mudik. And traffic of SMS for Ramadhan greetings is so high; the networks are jammed many times. As result, most families end up with bigger expenditure in Ramadhan. Those in the supply side respond, too, of course. So, yes, finally prices go up quite significantly.

Sounds like there’s nothing wrong about it. Maybe no. But isn’t it strange that the main idea behind the fasting month is to restraint from consuming too much? Or at least, consume less than what you do in the other months? Or, as the sermon says, to experience the life of and therefore to empathize with the poor?

Happy Ramadhan, I wish you all. Maaf lahir batin.

Alfie is one y-o

Alfie, today's August 18 and that means you're one year old. Happy birthday. Thanks for being born and fun, for taking so much space in the bed, for the midnight wake up calls, and for making Dad always want to go home and to even cancel some of his trips. Happy growing, Son. But stay cute.

You can almost walk without help now. You have four teeth. You play with your toys and you can even demand your right to food and all. That's good, Son. You've got character already.

Sorry for sometimes being so busy when you ask me to play with you. But it's OK, you can tear down the new newspapers as you like (but not Dad's comics, please). You can play with the remote controls. You can even throw your mini black jeep to the door or hide Mom's stuff. Don't be shy.

Don't worry we're not gonna force you with all those 'teach-your-baby-how-to's now. You take your time, enjoy your toys, and study whenever you like. But when you can read later, don't rush into Mom's novels or Dad's non-fictions -- because they're probably boring to you. Dad still keeps his Winnetous for you -- the old Pradnja Paramita editions. But he will understand if by the time you can enjoy books, you prefer PlayStation or something like that. Just make us proud in your own way. You don't need to become economist like Dad or an accountant like Mom. Hey, professional painter or pianist sounds great, too. Or mathematician or computer scientist or sport columnist or whatever.

Again, happy birthday.

Bermain petak umpet

Tak terasa, hampir satu tahun usia Alfie. Tanggal 18 Agustus ini, dia akan merayakan ulang tahunnya yang pertama. Ditinjau dari tumbuh kembang bayi seusianya, Alfie termasuk yang cukup maju. Ibaratnya, kalau kita kursus Bahasa Inggris, Alfie ada di tingkat Intermediate. Saat ini Alfie sudah menjadi anak yang sangat sosial, dia senang sekali bertegur sapa dengan orang tak dikenal yang ditemuinya di jalan, lift, mal, taman dan lain-lain. Padahal sebelumnya, Alfie sempat mengalami stranger anxiety pada usia 5 bulan. Dia mulai mengenali orang, hanya mau digendong dengan orang-orang yang sudah dia kenal dekat. Begitu ada orang asing yang mendekat dan ingin menggendongnya, dia langsung menangis sekeras-kerasnya. Namun, lambat laun dia mulai beradaptasi dengan semakin seringnya dia berinteraksi dengan orang-orang di sekitarnya.

Pada usianya yang ke 8 bulan, Alfie sudah bisa duduk sendiri, menendang bola dengan tepat, mengejar dan melemparnya. Kesenangannya akan bola semakin menjadi-jadi sejak pertandingan piala AFC disiarkan di televisi. Alfie suka menonton pertandingan bola. Dia bisa ikut merasakan irama pertandingan dengan bertepuk tangan pada saat gol atau hampir gol, berteriak-teriak saat sedang seru dan ikut memeragakan tendangan dengan kakinya. Sampai-sampai lebih seru menonton Alfie yang sedang menonton bola daripada pertandingannya sendiri.

Sebulan terakhir ini sejak Alfie sedang giat-giatnya belajar berjalan. Sekarang dia sudah berani melangkah sendiri, walau cuma 3-4 langkah, kemudian mulai tidak seimbang dan oleng, dan terjatuh akhirnya.. Beberapa minggu ini, kita sering mengajak Alfie bermain petak umpet, atau tepatnya, mengajar Alfie bermain petak umpet. Bermula dari mulai kolokannya Alfie sama sang mama, setiap kali melihat mamanya menghilang atau keluar ruangan, dia mulai menangis. Maka, kita menyiasatinya dengan bermain ‘cari mama’ yang kemudian berkembang menjadi ‘petak umpet’ versi Alfie. Ternyata menanamkan suatu konsep permainan kepada bayi 11 bulan tidaklah mudah. Beberapa kali kita coba, sampai saat ini dia belum mengerti juga konsep “gantian”. Begini maksudnya, setiap bermain petak umpet dengan Alfie, dia selalu paling senang sebagai yang mencari. Dia mengerti, bahwa dia harus mencari orang yang bersembunyi, dan selama ini dia selalu berhasil ‘menemukan’ kita yang bersembunyi. Dia senang sekali begitu berhasil ‘menemukan’ kita. Nah, biasanya, setelah kita berhasil ‘ditemukan’, kita menyuruh Alfie untuk bersembunyi (gantian). Awalnya, dia tidak mengerti, dia kekeh mau mencari lagi. Setelah beberapa kali bermain, dia mulai mengerti, dan mulailah dia bersembunyi (tentu saja masih dengan di-titah sama pengasuhnya). Tapi, dasar bayi, dia tidak tahan untuk menunggu. Selagi kita pura-pura mencari Alfie yang sembunyi, tiba-tiba dia menongolkan muka dan badannya dari persembunyian dan dia yang berteriak-teriak, seakan-akan dia yang menemukan, hahaha, lucunya.

Privacy

Privacy is some complicated concept, as it turns out. Anna and I were running on treadmill this morning. As usual, she set her TV to BBC and I to MTV (then V-channel then F-channel then MTV again then V-channel again -- OK, I am an easily bored person). We had learned that the earphones provided by the gym were lousy: the noise level was comparable to that of 70s made. I guess that is the reason why only one or two persons use them. The solution should be trivial, maybe: bring your own Bose QuiteComfort! Well, we don't have one, of course. So, we, just like other people, had to listen directly to the TV speaker. We were cautious, though, that the sound might annoy other gym users. So we tried to set the volume as low as possible, while still hearable. (At other time, when closed captioning is available, we prefer to just read it, set the volume to zero, and be free from guilt of annoying anybody -- who needs volume and caption when Kelly Ripa is on air?).

But today. There was this one man who was really annoying. Apparently he was a new member. He was on the treadmill right to the left of Anna -- who was on my left. And he set his TV to ESPN and set the volume so loud -- so loud you could hear it from the entrance. My goodness. Unfortunately, he seemed to have had his guilt nerve cut somewhere, so no matter how people stared at him with a 'dude-turn-that-down-please!' look, he did not care. Anna hypothesized that the guy might be a) technology illterate, b) deaf, or c) mannerless. Then we saw him switching channels, so option 'a' was out. Then he responded to a trainer who greeted him, so option 'b' was also out. We concluded, therefore, he was just another mannerless person in the world.

But then, fitness center is a public place, you say? Not really. (Economist will call it a club good, since members should pay some fee). And, how do you ask for privacy while you yourself is at the margin of intruding other people's privacy? Most importantly, what is 'privacy' anyway?

Well, it is complicated.

But Alfie seemed to understand. He demanded his own, while we were in Tokyo...

Father and Son

Alfie and Bernard

Alfie in red

9 months, 9.7 kgs, 74 cms.

Vietnam

I had this wild thought of moving to Vietnam. It was all because I had to read a lot of Vietnam before a presentation two days ago in Ho Chi Minh City. Anna didn't seem to oppose the idea. She even said that, well, if you can teach in a good university there, why not.

Now I know I would not. Vietnam, at least as shown by its economic center, Saigon, isn't where I prefer to live in. True, the economy is growing impressively, market is opening up, poverty rate is decreasing, population is big, and its ease of doing business is at least better than that that of Indonesia.

But, no I don't think so.

The Godfather?

Aco and Alfie posed as Don Vito and Michael Corleone :)

Cheesy Kartini's Day

It was the first time I had to travel and left Alfie at home. I couldn’t find excuse anymore; my HR had been questioning me after I rescheduled the mandatory training four times. So, last Sunday I flew to London.

Being away from home, I started to become melancholic. It was a totally different feeling from what I had expected. I had never been to London and was eager to come and pay a visit to Buckingham Palace, British Museum, Shakespeare’s Corner, etc. I love traveling, and am always looking forward to it. But this time, I could not wait to be home. Life has changed.

Apart from attending the boring training, I used my five days and nights isolated in Milton Keynes for contemplating. Back then, I used to underestimate career women who were married and had children. When it came to me, I realized that it was not easy to be the good one, and too bad some people took it for granted.

Agree or not, a working mom is a good example of a manager; she has to manage her family, her career, her husband as well as herself. To those who spend lots of money attending seminar or motivational session to become a great manager, you’d rather save your money.

On the day I left home, some Indonesian women were enthusiastically celebrating Kartini’s day by wearing traditional outfit - kebaya is one popular example. I couldn’t help laughing seeing waitresses, bank tellers, teachers, sales girls, and others trying very hard to even walk normally in that outfit. It was just too much -- and too far from what a (working) mom means.

locally single

while anna is in london, i spend my nights reading. well at least, that was my plan. i've got lots of books piling up -- most of which i hadn't had time to read. but i guess the plan was too ambitious.

yes, i finished my haruki murakami's "norwegian wood" and "kafka on the shore" in toilet. interesting novels. and i started that biography of ayn rand, a used book i got from aksara couple of days ago. but then, distraction, distraction. this teaching thing, i have to re-read many textbooks also. so i ended up switching back and forth between scarth's "macroeconomics", branden's "the passion of ayn rand", mankiw's "macroeconmics", and some classics: north on intitutional economics and coase on economists.

and the music. recently i've been listening intensively to french classics. satie and ravel being the most. i guess the reason why i love these french guys more than the germans is because they're more subtle, more impressionistic, more, well, free and jazzy.

but of course the greatest joy is still alfie. he now understands what i say. ask him where an ant is, and he will look down at the floor trying to spot it. or, say lamp and gekko, and he'll look up toward the ceiling.

today i have to go to mothercare, i guess. alfie is running out of his cream.

anna, alfie says "cikecakeci" back to you.

Alfie - 8 month

Even though Alfie is having a cold and runny nose, his smile is still very charming. By 6 month he can sit without support. Now he is mastering new skill: bumping on his feet and playing football. He can also crawl and say 'mama'. He hates instant food, ants, and any kind of formula.

Back to Sanity

Since we moved to the apartment, we hadn’t had time to subscribe to cable TV until last weekend. After more than a month, switching from one to another local channel, we have been driven away from sanity. Welcome back NG, Discovery, AXN, and friends :)

The Piano

Anna has a piano at her parents’ home. No one has played it for a long time -- even abandoned as Anna lived in Sidney back then. When she’s back in Jakarta, she’s busy with lots of traveling, never really has time to take care of the piano.

Until last week, this guy, who happens to know stuff about piano, paid a visit to Anna’s dad. And he somehow saw the poor, abandoned piano. He said he wanted to buy that thing. He mentioned his offer price – and it’s a big money. Knowing this, Anna decided not to sell it. Instead, we’re going to take it to a piano doctor, re-tune it, and give it a proper place in our home.

Sometimes you don’t realize the value of a thing until somebody else reveals it.

My teacher is an ant

Have you ever sung one song and before you know it, you have switched into another different song, just because they share common tones? It happens a lot to me. Especially these days when Anna asks me to sing for Alfie (not that I can sing -- far from that).

Like last night. I was out of playlist in my mind when I started to hum some Louis Armstrong's sweet jazzy old songs. But Anna protested, "No jazz, please -- he's a baby!". So I stopped and tried very hard to recall any children song. I came up with "Semut-Semut Kecil". I sang it:

semut-semut kecil
saya mau tanya
adakah kamu
di dalam tanah
punya mama papa

semua baktimu
akan kuukir
di dalam hatiku
s'bagai prasasti
t'rima kasihku
'tuk pengabdianmu...

Then I realized, I have just switched to another song! It became "Terpujilah" (or is that even the right title?). Alfie was not calmed down. Because I was laughing myself outloud. How come an ant became my ... teacher?

Alfie killed James Bond

For Tante Nitse.

Am I a lousy shopper?

In a stark contrast to Anna’s, my average search cost is, I think, too high. Ask me to buy everyday stuff -- bread, toothpaste, diapers, everything. Then I will buy them at the first store I find them. I don’t do comparison; I don’t go to other shops. What drives me in shopping is my assumption that for trivial stuff, prices are pretty much the same everywhere. The slight difference, if any, is just enough to cancel out the trouble to find the lower price – it is not enough to compensate for my time spending on searching.

Anna, on the other hand, is a born shopper. Ask her which department stores are now selling diapers 19,500 rupiah lower than the others. She knows exactly which one. She even remembers how much we spend on a box of ice cream a month ago (and tells me what a great deal or otherwise a rip-off I am about to do when I am buying the same ice cream now – me being clueless on the price change!).

I asked her once, why she bothers all the trouble in shopping. She said, she did it with "almost no additional cost". I didn’t believe it, of course. But she argued that she had been doing it for a long time, she knew what to compare and where to do it. “If you do this”, she told me, “you need to invest quite a lot before you know what you are doing, because you have zero knowledge on smart-shopping”. “I did my investment long time ago, and I did it efficiently. So efficient, I can do shopping my way faster than you do yours”.

So I said, “If you know already which store would sell at what price, why then you still need to do comparison?” She responded, “You don’t get it, do you? Shopping is a good itself. I am willing to pay for being able to window-shop before I turn back and buy the one I want. You might think this is bizarre. But it is not more bizarre than your reading lots of those econ books of yours before you decide which one you really believe”. I thought she had a point there.

You might think the answer lies in the marginal utility of income. As theory puts it, marginal utility of income goes in the opposite direction with the level of income – just like any other good. If this theory is true, then you would predict that Anna earns fewer than me. But that would be wrong. (Here’s a little secret: she earns a lot higher than me!). So I resort to my first hypothesis. It’s my search cost. (I’m gonna need to test this sooner or later, I guess).

Imlek

Alfie is a dog. Anna a tiger. And me, a rat.

I don't care what Suhu Beny will make of that, but we're gonna make the pig year a good one.

Happy Chinese new year!

One morning on the street of Jakarta

So we were at this Tomang junction, the light just turned red. The street corner was as usual full of beggars and ‘asongan’s (moving street sellers with small boxes of stuff: snacks, bottled water, or even kids’ toys). One beggar approached us. She was a 20-something woman -- without disability. She knocked on the window, and Aco quickly gave a no-sign, so she took off. Then came a man selling fried peanuts, wrapped in credit-card size of plastic bags. Aco scrolled down his window and bought five. I didn’t have time to warn him how unhealthy that food might be. Then, the light turned green.

When we arrived at Slipi traffic light, similar jam and crowd welcomed us. A little boy, maybe six or seven year old was approaching us. Aco scrolled down his window, calling the boy. Then, to my surprise, he gave him four bags of peanuts he just bought! He told him: “Sell these, kid, earn the money”. Then, the light turned green.

So I asked Aco, why he refused to give money to the young female beggar, bought something he didn’t consume from an asongan man, and gave it away to a beggar boy. He said, he refused to give money to those ‘strong enough to work’. “It’s a matter of principle”. He continued, “I’d rather give money to those who give me something in return, even if I don’t really need it”. Apparently that was his reason to buy the peanuts. But why then you gave them to that boy? “First, because I don’t want the peanuts. Second, because I don’t like to see that boy begging, I wanted to give him something he didn’t ask, but he could use to get money with”.

My office building, Wisma BNI, was right ahead, but I still have one more question left. “Why did you save one bag of peanut?”. Aco looked at me and said, “I’m gonna give it to a disabled, old man at Salemba junction”.

I love competition

While Aco was en route to Tokyo for a conference, Alfie and I moved to my parents’ house until he is back next Wednesday. Coincidently, my sister also stayed over for the night and she asked me to drive her to Carrefour to buy a formula for her daughter.

The business nature of retail industry is of small margin and high volume. Due to tight competition, each retail races to increase their sales. A lot of marketing strategies have been taken, to name some: 20% discount for purchase with a certain credit card, buy-one-get-one-free, and the most frequent one: products promotion. This offers particular products at lowered price for a certain period of time -usually 2 or 3 days. The objective is to invite consumers to the store with the expectation that the customer will not go to the store just to buy the advertised product(s). Hopefully (and most of the time) they also buy other stuffs. This strategy is expected to boost their sales and of course their revenue.

If you notice, in Kompas Friday edition there are always one-full-page advertisements by either Carrefour or Hypermart or Giant - the top three hypermarkets. This week, Carrefour offered a 35,000rp discount for a tin of 900gr Pediasure (that's a milk formula for babies). Since there had been many complaints over the availability of the product, it is stated on the ad that one customer can only buy 2 tins. Since my sister wanted to stock up, she asked my other sister to come along.

So, this morning the three of us went to Carrefour quite early to anticipate the crowd and long queue at the cashier. We had this strategy that each of us had to take 2 tins and ring them at different cashier. This worked well. Around 20 minutes we each had a bag with 2 tins of Pediasure :). Mission accomplished. However, looking at the pile of Pediasure over the shelf, my sister couldn't resist the temptation to buy even more. She made a quick count: "Vanessa finished 1 tin a week. Six tins will only last for 1.5month. Let's do another round!"

So yes, we did it again. This time it took longer, but we ended up with 12 tins and saved 420,000rp. We didn't even need to buy other stuff, as Carrefour wished.

I love competition!

How to cheat the time in Jakarta+, 1

That's it. I'm a high degree risk averse person. Not only that, my discount rate is so damn high. Put it another way: I'm paranoid yet impatience.

We live in this small but pleasant house in Karawaci, Tangerang (remember the no-kissing-on-the-street zone? Yes this is that). Geographically, it is close enough to the Cengkareng airport. But boy, I'm no lucky, when it comes to going to the airport, it is, well, far.

I've got two, no three options, basically. One, enter the airport through a backdoor -- this is almost literal, since that means you can enter only if you are authorized or you have that stupid sticker on your windshield. That 'backdoor' is my term for an entrance to the airport supposedly for officials only (or anybody who happens to have sticker, legal or illegally). Many times, I was successful with this entrance, even without a sticker or anything (it's not like I'm a cheap bastard -- well I'm, a little -- but hey I don't fly every day? But being me who preaches the there-is-no-free-lunch at schools, I always promised myself that I should buy that sticker -- never really got time to, though). Here's what I do instead: just wear a suit with formal tie and tell them guards you are in a hurry to catch your flight...

Second, ...

Oops, we have to board.. Sorry, catch you later..

Welcome 2007

Read carefully :)

hard to say I am sorry

I'm always confused how some people use the word “maaf” ('sorry').

One morning when approaching toll gate, my driver asked for toll money. I gave him the money. While he was taking it from me, he said “Maaf”.

On another occasion, on our way to office, the driver suddenly hit the car break, shocking us in the back. Apparently he was trying to avoid a big hole on the road. We, sitting on the rear seats immediately shouted “What's going on?” And he very calmly replied “Ada lubang, Bu” ('There was a hole, Mam'). No, there was no 'sorry', nothing.

Apparently, what ‘sorry’ means to us, is different with what it means to others. I guess sometimes it can mean 'thanks', yes?

And this one is hillarious. Yesterday, the rain was really heavy. As you know, in Jakarta that means traffic jam. Stucked in a street for 20 minutes, our driver took the initiative to make a detour. We agreed, as there seemed no better solution. We did not expect that he actually did not know well the route he took. After two hours of driving nowhere, we were back to where we started. I hopelessly complained: “I thought you knew the route!” And he softly grumbled: “Just now, I took the wrong turn.” No, there was no ‘sorry’ at all... By the time we reached the toll gate, I gave the money. He took it and said, "Maaf"...

Maybe I just don't know the exact meaning of 'maaf'...