Alfie's first picnic

I said I loved holidays and hated the government's take on them. This one's about the love part. It's even more special, because Alfie is involved.

We wanted to enjoy at least one of those many forced dayoffs. We had been quite concerned that the concept of animal Alfie had in mind seemed to be all about Barney the dinosaur and ants.

So we took him to Taman Safari. It turned out, he was amazed by elephants and giraffes and -- to my disappointment -- was less interested in tigers. (How could someone not love tigers?). Oh, there was one more thing he loved: frog. But that one he saw was a stuffed frog at the souvenirs store.

And here is the unintended consequence of the safari: Alfie now refuses to sit the back seat!

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'...

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.

luv the tech

we don't have a fixed phone line at home. we tried to apply but the guys there at the state-owned telephone company implicitly asked for some "extra payment to speed up process" and we refused. we have to rely on our cellphones. how about internet connection? i bought this internet pcmcia card pluggable to my notebook. to control my usage, i chose a prepaid system. so far so good.

and then yesterday, when i was browsing, a window popped up. my internet phone card required recharging. before, i always made the recharge over atm. so, on our go, we stopped by at one. it turned out, the atm was broken. what should i do. fortunately i have a gprs system in my o2 cell. i logged in to my bank website, used a password key generator, and recharged my phone card. then i activated it via phone.

within five minutes, i am able to write this post.

i love technology.

"apa artinya cinta"

anna and i are reading this movie review in tempo magazine. it's on "apa artinya cinta", reviewed by leila chudori. it's too harsh you feel sorry for the movie crew and artists. but, as i said elsewhere, it's a review -- and review is a subjective act. leila has all the freedom to kill a movie. nonetheless, i usually buy her taste.

but anna has a good point: leila might just be a representation of her generation, or at best, her peer. meanwhile, that movie, just like other chick-flicks, has it's own niche. the fact that youngsters are willing to pay and stand in queue several hours is an indication that there is demand for this type of crap -- whether you like it or not.

that said, i suggest my peer: avoid this movie!

hospital that doesn't seem to be

my father in law is hospitalized. this hospital is supposed to be one of the best hospitals in the country. yet, anna and i are surprised by the their slow service. my in-law got in yesterday at 1pm. he was taken into the icu. they took his blood sample. and we had to wait 3 hours before they told us that anna's father had to stay!

is that cool ER series really just a fiction?

the expensive minute

receipt

anna is always outraged when we exceed the 60 min 59 sec of a parking-hour, on the way to paying it! and i can't blame her: the last minute is the most expensive minute.

yay, it's holiday

it feels good to have saturday on wednesday from this week to next week!

pity the housewives

It’s been 2 days I am home. I’ve got a terrible flu (no, it is not avian flu) that forces me to stay home for rests. Being home during the weekday for two days really bores me to death. Not only that I am too weak to do housework but also I can not connect to the internet (read: outside world) until Aco is back -- he's got a pcmcia. It is ridiculous knowing the fact that Kabelvision’s (tv cable and internet broadband provider) head office is just less than 1 km away from our house! When we first moved in, Aco and I visited the office to apply for the connection, but they said no plan to extend the cable to our neighborhood. We then applied for the second time last month, together with our 20ish neighbors, expecting that 20 connections would be more interesting for them to invest. However til now, no news whatsoever.

So, I ended up watching local television. Most of the programs are gossips, criminal news, quizzes and what-so-called “sinetron” (mini series drama). This is just a brief statistic from 11 local channels from 7am – 5pm on Wednesday:

• Gossip show: 23 programs, average duration: 30 minutes, prime time: 7-9am, 11am-1pm, 2-4pm.
• Criminal news: 14 programs, duration: 30 minutes, prime time: midday
• Sinetron : too many to count, duration: 30-60 minutes, mostly morning and afternoon. (more in the evening, though)

I believe most Indonesian housewives are fully-engaged with this black-box during the day. If I were a housewife, I would probably spend most of my time at home watching TV while I was cleaning, washing, cooking, and ironing. It is very easy to get engaged, you just need a remote control and a TV (of course). In my opinion, TV is the most perfect media to educate people, especially housewives. With good programs-such as in Discovery, Animal Planet or National Geographic, TV can make the greatest change ever in human life. The power of knowledge and experience shared will give a multiplier effects to the children. They can gain knowledge from their well-educated mom. In the long run (borrowing from Aco's term), good quality human resources are simply there at the market. Instead of launching BOS ("bantuan operasional sekolah" -- school assistance aid) that needs to be advertised hugely in 2-full-page newspaper to justify the achievement! Get awake, minister!

intrusive, intrusive!

i once wrote a short paper titled "do consumers buy advertising?" (sorry no weblink). i concluded, yes. and that means, advertising is a good thing. but i might need to restate my position. why? lately i feel bothered by many ads got into my cell inbox. when you travel across countries, it might be a good thing that once you reactivate your cellphone in the foreign airport, you get this message telling you some good deal on calling rate. but not too much, please.

now, even the government can have access to your cellphone. i hate it when there's an incoming sms from somebody not in my address book, yet, her/his/its name appears as such. see? meaning i HAVE to recognize it. i am forced to recognize it. believe me, this is not the same with ads in newspaper or magazine or tv. on today's cellphone, you have less freedom to ignore such sms. you have to read it.

and not just cellphone. the comment field in blogs are in danger, too. freedom has dark side, no?

(i'm tempted to talk about intrusion in google, too. yes, now, whenever i want to surf with google.com, i HAVE to go to google.co.id first. hey you out there, why are you forcing me to use co.id?)

productivity vs toilet

What is the correlation? You might not be able to link it directly, but this is how I relate these two things together. Economists (including Aco) calculate productivity by dividing output with input. Input in this case is defined as the sum of resources (capital, human resource, etc), where output is the final product of a process. So, the larger the result from that division, the higher the productivity is. Then, what does toilet have to do with productivity? Well, probably not many people might even think of it. But I think toilet affects the productivity.

This is the story of a toilet. I had quite a number of intriguing toilet experiences that no one ever think about. In one of my project assignment at a government oil and gas company, the toilet in the building where we worked for about 2 years was very “fascinating”. There were 4 toilet rooms with toilet bowl in it, but no toilet seat at all. Imagine how you are going to pee in that kind of situation! The first time I used the toilet, it took me about 5 to 10 minutes to get the best position to pee in this toilet! I was curious how the others can survive with it. So, on one conversation over lunch with my colleagues I asked some of them on how they use the toilet. And, I got amazing stories! A woman colleague told me that she used to do half-squat every time she peed because it was impossible to sit on the toilet! The other one said that she sometime sat on it –with the help of a roll toilet tissue to cover the bowl--because she could not stand the squad position if she had “big event’ that usually took minutes. The most hillarious one is that some of them even squatted over the toilet bowl to avoid contact with the non-hygienic bowl! For some of my metrosexual male colleagues, the toilet thing was really a big problem. They solved the problem by going to a five-star hotel located about 1 km from the office just for “pup”.

Another experience I have now is quite the same, even though not as hilarious as the previous one. I am assigned at the state utility company where there are 2 toilets which tissues as the problem. Sometime I have to spend 3-5 minutes looking for tissue. Some of us try to find another toilet in different floor. You do the math for the time spent on these non-value-added activities!

You may think that this toilet story is just a tiny problem that you would not be bothered to think about it. But, have you ever calculate the economic side of this extraordinary situation? How much opportunity and time we can save if we have clean and proper toilet? Let say, 15-20 minutes of no added value a day, can be accumulated to 100 minutes a week, 2000 minutes a month and 24000 minutes a year (equal to 400 hrs. try converting this to consultant rate: 8hrs = USD 600-800). Not to mention that actually bowl-type of toilet is really not suitable for some of Indonesian people. Instead of seating on the bowl, they squat ON it! If you are the next person using the toilet, you have to really clean up the seat!

Back to productivity, when the output is less due to employees’ beyond-control factors, it is the responsibility of the employer/client to solve it. Working environment is not simply office, computer, networks, colleagues, documents, but also toilet and temperature (I’ll write the last one later in different post -- I can assure you, this is as much interesting!).

alias

Alias

have been watching "alias" lately. mostly out of curiosity after reading the graphic novel some years back. it's not dissappointing. anna seems to disagree, though -- she always falls asleep with those glasses on her nose. (surely she loves "friends" way more. even "everybody loves raymond" can not beat her sleeping call).

back to "alias". garner is a bad actrees. don't be critical on acting skill, if i may suggest -- just take it easy. it's sidney bristow. forget about garner. (but that guy who does sloane and another one playing jack bristow are good).

great place to work

this morning i told aco i want to be a parliamentary member. less work (or should i say no work to do?), less thinking, but good salary with lots of allowances. they themselves just approved another 10 million rupiah allowance per month, excluded the following compensation that they had already have (in million rupiah):

• basic salary:4.2
• position allowance:9.7
• intensive communication:4.14
• honors allowance:3.7 (what the hell is this?)
• package allowance:2
• electricity:2
• telephone :2
• family allowance:0.588

compare that to a worlwide management consulting company where i am working in now; with its famous slogan: "great place to work", ours are really nothing.

however, money is not everything. i still value our personal development, critical thinking, respect to others, integrity, honest and hard works more than those allowances. and lastly, i don't want to be a person that is cursed by millions of indonesian people.

the power of "thinking without thinking"

Yesterday I turned down one candidate that I interviewed for a vacancy in my office. It is not that she doesn't meet the qualification, but something was telling me that she is not the right person that we're looking for. People might think that I am subjective. Well, thanks to my husband who bought me "Blink" (to cheer me up 'cause I couldn't go with him to Phuket, sniff) which makes me more convinced that you actually can make a very good decision in the first 2 seconds. That’s the power of our brain. As Malcom Gladwell said "with mastering the art of 'thin slicing' we can think without thinking."

Cheating on my laptop

I have been blogging for more than two years now. In all those time I have been with this very laptop, my R32 ThinkPad. Am considering now to get a new one. I’m a believer in Moore’s Law (“The number of transistors per chip that yields the minimum cost per transistor increases at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year”) but as Anna correctly points out, increased computer power might not be my key reason. It’s the weight that bugs me more. What keeps me from not doing it, however, is the cost of migrating to a new one. I hate moving. I have so many software installed here – original CDs of which I have lost (or even if I still have them, I have to make big effort to run through all the installment process again; followed by reorganizing all the auxiliary files and docs). Not to mention my very ill filing system (blame it on Google desktop search!). [Hey, am I revealing my outdated knowledge in TI? There should be a good migrating software out there, right?]

Once I ran a back-of-the-envelope calculation of a cost-benefit analysis on getting a replacement laptop, done by myself whose tech know-how is limited. It told me, I should hold on for about one or two more years… (But this ain't got no bluetooth, ooh…)

the price of mango

I never understand how ‘price’ is defined, even though my husband always has an explanation of every price phenomenon I encounter. My opinion is that price does not always reflect the value of the good or service I consume. Here is the story of a mango price.

Two weeks ago, I was grocery shopping at at a well-known “mid-and-above-class” when I saw mangoes displayed in the fruit section. I immediately bought it, because I love mango and it’d been a while I had not have mango. The price was IDR 1950/gram and the price board said “mangga harum-manis spesial” (special sweet-and-smell-good mango). Taking for granted the IDR/gram denomination, I took two, one for me and another for my husband. I was a bit shocked by the resulting price I should pay. It was IDR 18500 for two mangoes, or around IDR 9000 each (equivalent of three can of cokes!). I was tempted to put the mangoes back, but, hey “I want mangoes! I should buy mangoes”. I justified myself: “The board says these mangoes are ’special’”. There I went. I assumed “price comes with quality” – as my husband always says. Finally, the mangoes were in my fridge. The next day, I eagerly peeled one mango and tried it. It was … sour, a bit hard and not special! I felt deceived. I was disappointed: “price does not come with quality at all”.

Since I was still craving for delicious mangoes (no, I’m not pregnant, by the way), my husband suggested me to “buy it from who specializes in it” – this is another mantra of his economics. He supposed that special fruit store with lots of customers should imply higher quality. So we dropped by at a famous and crowded fruit store – that sells nothing but fruit (my husband even insisted to look for a store that sells nothing but mangoes. No such store here). I picked “export quality” harum-manis mangoes priced at IDR 1650/gram. Though it was slightly cheaper than the previous one, it still cost IDR 8000 each (again , I bought two). As soon as I got home, I took the knife and sliced one. Well, the taste was a slightly better than the first one, but still it was far from delicious. It was very different from what I expected the term “special quality” should be: sweet, nice smelled, and a bit (for lack of better term, but you know what I mean) crunchy.

But today, I was very happy. I took the risk to buy two mangos from a hypermart that cost only IDR 6300, or around IDR 3000 each. Surprisingly it tasted… very yummy. Sweet, nice smelled and slightly crunchy, just what I expected! Admittedly, when I decided to buy it, I did not expect that it would deliver such a “special quality”, given the price. This is the graph that I draw for this phenomenon (see graph). I will to pay more for higher quality, but what I get sometime does not have the quality that it should deliver. So, why should I pay more if I can not get the quality I demand? When I confronted this fact with my husband, he said, “well, it was simply a market distortion”. He – annoyingly -- still believes that price comes with quality and good quality is always more expensive. The price has been distorted by “the inability of the producers or sellers to maintain the quality, yet they took advantage from asymmetric information – consumers have no idea” . He’d better have better explanation. For me, this kind of ability and information should be embedded in the quality and that is why I am willing to pay premium price.

In conclusion, next time if I want mango, I will go to hypermart…

Amsterdam

As I am writing this, we are en route to Paris by Thalys. We left Amsterdam about 5 minutes ago. Well, I should say we managed to leave… We got to the train 3 minutes before it departed after a 10-min rushingly dragging our luggage all the way from Dam to the Centraal Station. There was an accident that caused the tram we were in should cease its operation.

Thalys is not as good as the train we had from Frankfurt to Amsterdam – ICE, a new train that travels 220km/h. Thalys is older, less neat, and less comfy. It might also be a reflection of the fact that the Netherlands is a little less developed than Germany. (But we are enjoying the service in Thalys: mozzarella and pineapple sandwiches – ICE offered nothing).

Of course is not that Amsterdam is less attractive than Frankfurt. In fact, we kind of like Amsterdam more. It’s an old city with friendly neighborhood. It is kind of small compared to Jakarta, you can walk or ride a bicycle to see around; or if you want to explore the canal, you can take canal bus. We stayed in small but cozy hotel, La Boheme, in the Leidseplein area, the center of city activities.

We walked around, from Rijkmuseum to Van Gogh Museum, from Leidseplein to Dam to Centraal Station, passed over Red Light District, Magna Plaza, National Monument and Madam Tussaud Museum. We learned that Amsterdam is a city of bikes and museums. However we only visited one museum: Van Gogh due to time limitation.

We also went to Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, however we found nothing much to see.

So that’s for 3 days of Goethe and Van Gogh experience. Now, we are looking forward to ‘meet’ da Vinci in Paris and Picasso in Rome.

If you like to see some pictures that we took, click here

frankfurt

writing from friedberg, less than an hour drive from frankfurt. just arrived yesterday, 6 hours after anna came from chicago. whether frankfurt is really nice or not is to be explored today. so far, it is.

freakonomics of toll road

while anna was en route to u.s. i was contemplating on the thing we had been talking about. it's the toll booths. or more specifically, the ticket persons in the toll booths.

i once told anna that it seems to me that the ticket persons in the toll booths in jakarta outer ring are way slower than their counterparts in toll booths within the city limits. the farther the booths from the city, the slower the ticket persons. i had been hypothesizing that this could be due to higher flow of traffic inside the city that outside. need to test this against data.

we so far just rely on naked observation. here's the thing. the city toll road ticket price is Rp 4,000. in indonesia there's no such single paper or coin for that -- you have to give either four Rp 1,000 bills, eight Rp 500 coins (unlikely, who wants to grab eight coins while rushing?), or any of the bigger denominations: Rp 5,000; Rp 10,0000; Rp 20,000; Rp 50,000; or Rp 100,000 (the latter two unlikely -- many times the booths are not prepared to give change against these big bills).

now, what is your reason to choose the toll road and not the non-toll ones? to save time -- and you are willing to pay for saved time. so, you want to maximize time-saving. at least, i maximize time-saving. this is what i usually do when i am about to enter a city toll booth. i show (or even, waive) my money (usually i got no time to collect four Rp 1,000 bills. it's easier to grab one Rp 5,000 or one Rp 10,000) before i really reach and stop at the booth. and the ticket person who has seen my money give me my ticket and the change at the same time.

compared that to toll booth outside the inner city. i do exactly the same, but trust me, the response from the person inside the booth is ... different. no matter how obvious i showed my Rp 5,000, he or she will take it first, then ring the register, and then give me ticket and the change (fyi, the ticket costs Rp 2,500 -- but it's irrelevant to my story now; except that it is of course more difficult to manage Rp 2,500 than Rp 4,000, since the former should include one coin, for exact amount). from 2 weeks of observation, the average time i spend more on the outer jakarta toll booth is about 2 minutes, compared to the inner jakarta toll booth.

you would say: what would you make from 2 minutes? yes, that's small. but think about this: if it costs me an extra 2 minutes, what does it cost the person(s) in the vehicle right behind my car? assuming a fixed inefficiency rate of 2 minutes per ticket, that makes it 4 minutes. what does it cost the person the 15th car behind me (trust this long queue is not unusual in here)? it's 2*15 = 30 minutes! that's a real "late to the meeting"!

but i'm more intrigued by the question of why a ticket person in outer jakarta toll booth slower than that in inner jakarta toll booth? is it true that the flow of traffic higher inside jakarta than outside? maybe not. so what is it? anna offers another way out: probably only the better ticket person can be in the inner jakarta (and "better" is a reflection of a person who appreciate time in the sense of having a sense of urgency). this is interesting.

after all, i ask mysef. if i'm so picky in this thing, why don't i just prepare my exact amount of money before even driving? well that's true. but still, our friendly ticket person will take that exact Rp 2,500, then ring the register, then give the ticket with a smile...

addendum: anna just reminded over the chat: "you're exaggerating. it's less than 1 minute". maybe she's right. i was exaggerating. but even if it is less than 1 minute, the math remains. in fact, anna was telling me that if we happen to be number 10 or 15 in the line, one minute inefficiency in the booth translates to 10 to 15 minutes.

what we're looking forward 

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moving in

Finally, we moved to our own house last Tuesday, after all the fixing, cleaning and filling in the house done in quite a while. We’ve never had experienced in managing a house before, which we thought that 2 or 3 weeks was enough to prepare it before we move it. Turn out, it took almost 2 months! Actually, up to now, the house still needs some fixes and cleanings; however Aco told me that the house should be a living thing, it will grow as we do, it won’t be ready, clean and perfect if we don’t live in it.
Our small but cozy house is a double-deck 75m2 Japanese-style house, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. All the bedrooms are on the second floor, one bathroom on the first and the other on the second. We painted the living room with broken white, one bedroom with light green and another one with cappuccino brown. Our kitchen was planned to be light orange, a very warm orange as shown in the brochure. But the paint came out differently on the wall. Shinny bright orange. It is so bright, even when the light is turned off during the night, you can still see. Never trust the brochure. We repainted with light green.
The house is located in Karawaci, Tangerang, 20 km west of Jakarta. When there is no traffic jam, it is only 20 minutes drive (with 100km/hr) from Central Business District (Semanggi). However, during the peak hours, 7am-10am and 5pm-7pm, it can take 1.5-2 hours drive! So, better avoid those hours if you like to visit us.
Our house is in an estate that is developed by Lippo group. The neighborhood is well managed by the town management. Our neighborhood is clean, quiet and secure (hopefully!). It also provides all the facilities such as shopping mall, school, hospital, transportation, not to mention abundance of food stores and cafes. One thing that Aco and I like very much is to have a cup of morning coffee at Coffeebean which is located on the side road in front of UPH. Aco said, it reminds him of Harvard…