Meblog

Time for a Re-Count

One-hundred eighteen, one-hundred nineteen, ONE-Hundred and TWENTY!  As part of the editing process for a new tool kit, I had to count how many times our organization's name is mentioned.  The tool kit was written with the help of another organization so among other things I was asked to see which organization was mentioned more frequently.  I finished, and the end result - our organization was mentioned one-hundred and twenty times and this other organization was mentioned twenty-seven times.  Isn't it amazing how our own bias can heighten our sensitivity?  This other organization was only mentioned twenty-seven times and a majority of those mentions were found in the copyright information sections.  Yet somehow those references to this other organization had ballooned until the ratio seemed to be reversed.  You can imagine the surprise when I mentioned my findings.  It reminds me to ask myself the question what twenty-seven mentions am I tracking?  Maybe, it's time for a re-count. 

Securing Social Security

Social security, taxes, the economy are all issues that don't really interest me.  I know I want a strong economy.  I'm all for tax cuts, the bigger the better.  And I think social security should be secure.  However, the nitty gritty details escape me. 

Needless to say, I was not exactly thrilled to see that the cover story for National Review's January issue was on social security reform - An Idea Whose Time Has Come: The necessity and desirability of Social Security Reform.  But Ramesh Ponnuru does an excellent job of summing up the problem drawing even someone like me into the discussion:

People think that Social Security reform is an incredibly complicated and difficult subject.  But it's not, really.  The program's benefits are rising faster than its revenues, which means we're going to have a lot of trouble paying for those benefits.  The program also offers young people a lousy deal.  The solution is, first, to keep future benefits from growing so fast.  But acknowleding that benefits have to shrink doesn't make the program a better deal for young workers.  So, second, something should be done that lets them build up retirement savings to make up for it.  Which means their taxes should be cut a bit, too, on the condition that the invest the money they get for retirement.  That, in a nutshell, is the reform President Bush seems inclined to propose.  There: Was that so hard?

To be continued...

The social security crisis scoffers (Click to enlarge):

"Crisis, what crisis?  There's no crisis.  Bush is just crazy."  and Noah was crazy too.

Wanted Dead or Alive

I thought Indonesia was falling down on the job when it came to fighting terrorism, but I was wrong.  My brother's father-in-law's manager spotted the poster pictured below, sent the following message, and well, good news travels fast. (Thanks, Jeff.)

THE HUNT IS ON !

INDONESIA'S BRIGHTEST ANTI TERRORIST SQUAD HAS PUT THE " WANTED " POSTER
OUT..... ....

" Membawa Tas Kecil berisi Bom "
" Membawa senjata Api di Saku Celana Kanan "
" Kebiasaan  5 kali seminggu lari pagi "
" Berbicara logat Malayu & jarang berbicara "

The clock is ticking.....

Armed and Dangerous:

Noordin Mohd Top

1. Wears glasses.  2. Speaks with a Melayu accent.  3. Black hair that is rather long and tied back 4. Thick Moustache 5. Face is poc-marked from acne and the skin is a light yellow 6. Resembles a person from Ambon 7. Is plus or minus 173 cm tall 8. Carries a bag that contains a bomb. 9. 35 years old 10. Carries a gun in his right pants pocket.

Dr. Azahari bin Husin

1. Thick glasses 2. Well built body 3. Thin moustache 4. Shoulder length black hair worn tied back 5. plus or minus 170 cm tall 6. Dark skin. 7. Normally runs 5 times a week in the morning 8. Carries a small bag with a bom 9. Speaks with a Melayu accent and rarely speaks.  10. 44 years old.

If you see either of these two men, call (061) 7879484 immediately!!!

Indonesian Chairs the UN's Human Rights Commission

Indonesia became a member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1991, and now, Makarim Wibisono, an Indonesian diplomat has been named the chairman of the commission.

Very interesting interview on the Jakarta Post.

He had some good things to say:

Given that Indonesia's human rights record is still poor, will this be a burden in your new job?

Our leadership of the commission is a two-fold opportunity.

On one hand, we can use this momentum to boost awareness and understanding of human rights issues in Indonesia so as to make more advances in the promotion and protection of human rights in our country.

At the same time, we can show the international community that Indonesia is engaged in a process toward a full democracy. If we show human rights abuses as residual cases, we can show that while Indonesia might not have been perfect in the past, it is now in a transitional period and in the future will progress from good to perfect.

We need to explain this perspective (to the international community) because in my understanding there is a positive correlation between a country's democratic processes and its human rights record.

And some possibly not so good things:

What about the counter-terrorism measures taken by several countries, aren't these against human rights?

There are two sides to this argument. Terrorism that kills people without discrimination is clearly against human rights; we need to understand this so we can support actions against it.

At the same time, there is also a tendency to use issues of counter-terrorism as pretexts to justify efforts to limit the rights of people, such as by limiting privacy rights.

If we talk about terrorism and human rights, we must have a clear vision of what we will support and what we have to avoid. We support efforts to avoid the taking of more innocent lives. But we must avoid overreacting in the name of counter-terrorism.

It's all cloaked in such vague terms its hard to know what you are agreeing or disagreeing with.  If the counter terrorism measures being discussed is Putin's use of the Beslan tragedy as an excuse to revert back to his KGB past then I would agree.  However, if the counter terrorism measures being talked about is the liberation of Iraq then I would disagree.  Considering the answer to the first question, I would hope the former, but knowing Indonesia's stance on the Iraq war, I suspect the latter. 

Here We Go Again

The latest news from Reuters in Helsinki headlining the Jakarta Post:

Indonesia and Aceh separatists have agreed to a fresh round of peace talks in Helsinki on Feb. 21 after agreeing last month to try to labor together on the reconstruction of the province devastated by the tsunami.

On the agenda according to the Finnish former President Martti Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative:

The second meeting will aim to explore whether it would be possible to find a comprehensive solution within the framework of special autonomy for Aceh, CMI said in a statement.

Course, besides all the differences and history that will have to be overcome, there is one teeny tiny little problem.  The Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) side is being represented by it's exiled leaders, and no one knows how much influence they have over the "rebels in the jungle." So even if the delegations get beyond planning the date for their next meeting, who knows if the decisions will be accepted in Aceh. You would think that if someone is going to go to all the trouble of planning a peace talk they would at least try to get the right people at the table.

Slighted at Davos

In an opinion piece, Harry Bhaskara, a staff writer for the Jakarta Post who was in Davos for the World Economic Forum this year, laments the lack of representation of Asian countries, Indonesia in particular, at the annual gathering.  He feels there would be a greater focus on Asia if there were more Asians in attendance.

Why would you want to be the focus of all those "beautiful" minds in Davos?  The international community's answer to everything is to blame the United States and then throw some more money (they hope American money) in the general direction of the problem.

But Bhaskara writes,

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the Davos spotlight this year has been turned on Africa, leaving Asia behind, despite the fact that poverty, hunger and AIDS, which were cited as the main factors for focusing on Africa, are not alien to Asia.

But when the powerful have spoken, nothing can be done about it, and hence Asia, including Indonesia, had better take comfort in do-it-yourself indulgence. This is the terse message coming out from Davos this year.

Bhaskara can long for global recognition and free handouts, but with a do-it-yourself attitude, Asia will be steadily moving forward while Africa continues to stagger under the helping hand of the "rich and powerful" at Davos and the UN.

Opposition to National Testing

To raise the quality of education across the islands, the Jakarta post reports that Indonesia's Ministry of National Education is once again proposing that a national exam be given.

The Ministry of National Education has said the final exam is intended to map and raise the country's educational standards. A ministerial decree says the exam will be given in May/June and October of this year.

But it would seem that the resistance to national testing is not confined to our shores alone.

Rostymaline Munthe, executive director of the Committee of Alternative Children's Education, which runs mobile schools for child workers, said the government could not set a national exam standard for students because schools across the country were not equal in terms of facilities and teachers.

She's right about the "not equal" part.  For instance in some of the villages in Kalimantan, the schools are very small, a two three room school house.  If the teachers actually live in the village for most of the school year, they try to supplement their pitiful salary by rice farming like the other villagers.  The students make convenient laborers for their fields. On the days that they actually have school, classes end early.  There are very few textbooks so the students copy the information they need into their notebooks.  Chickens and dogs wander in and out of the classroom.  By the sixth grade, students are lucky if they know how to read.

Rostymaline continues:

"If the exam is forced in less-developed regions with inadequate teachers, it will do nothing but require children to achieve something that is impossible. Don't force children to achieve the impossible for the government's sake," she said.

For the government's sake?  Ah yes.  Finding out where there is a need to improve educational opportunities will definitely only benefit the government.  It's far kinder to let the students remain ignorant of the fact that they are getting a poor education; who cares if they will suffer for it down the road.  And finding out where there are problems means that someone has to figure out how to fix them which would be a hassle.  Can't the government stop thinking about itself?

She said measurements of educational quality would be more accurate if the measurements were adjusted for different regions.

Heard that one before.

National Commission for Child Protection secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, however, said the national final exam would prevent children who did not pass the exam from moving up to the next grade.

And this is a bad thing why?

"Therefore, systematically and structurally speaking, the exam widens the gap in education," he said.

Ah!  The gap!

Eko Purwono, a lecturer at the Bandung Institute of Technology and a member of Bandung's education council, said the national exam could lead to collusion between schools, teachers and students.

"Schools could mark up their students' scores in order not to tarnish their reputation," he said.

And of course their is no collusion in the current system.  Miracles just happen.

Worst of all the national exam would infringe upon the teachers' rights. 

The House last year demanded the government scrap its national final exam and said it would withhold funds for the exam. It said the state-organized exam violated the national education law, which stipulates that teachers have the authority to measure students' performance.

Teacher knows best, especially the teachers that are never around and can barely read themselves. 

I have a wonderful idea!  Instead of trying to find ways to measure a school's quality of education and make sure the students actually learn (like this national exam), Indonesia should just pass a bunch of laws regulating hiring practices and acceptance requirements.  It would be so much easier for employers and schools of higher learning to lower their bar providing equal opportunity for all than it would be to actually find out what is wrong in the education system and fix it. (It would save a lot of teachers' jobs too.)

Victim Card Played Again

Some five hundred students from Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh staged a protest yesterday after Rector Abdi Abdul Wahab sent out a circular that told the students they had to re-register and could begin paying their tuition on February 14th.  As described in the Jakarta Post, the protest was to demand that 1.) their tuition be waived this semester and 2.) the rector resign "for attempting to force them to pay tuition" or put another way "failing to recognize [their] suffering."

"Attempting to force them to pay their tuition"...looks like they don't need the ACLU.  These students know how to play the game.

Muhammad Subhan, vice president of the Unsyiah Students Big Family association, said

"Many students were victims of the (tsunami) disaster and many of them are still living in shelters after losing their homes. How can the rector not see (their suffering) and issue a regulation requiring them to re-register and pay their tuition on time? If we don't pay, we might not be able to study this semester," Muhammad said.

I do feel sorry for the 9,000 students who according to the university's data "lost either their home or a relative," and I hope the university will take their situation into consideration.  And it seems that the university is going to:

The rector's deputy of student affairs, Azhar Puteh, met with the protesting students and said the university would make exceptions for students affected by the tsunami.

He said students affected by the disaster had to fill in a form to have their tuition waived. Those students not affected by the tsunami were still required to pay tuition.

Seems reasonable.

"The policy is very reasonable. We hope the students not affected pay their tuition, considering the high operational costs of the campus," he said. "I hope the students understand."

He can hope, but I'm betting they don't. What's he going to do when no one pays their tuition and everyone claims they were directly affected by the tsunami?  Continue hoping?

Ikea Brings Out the Animal in Its Customers

As reported in This is London, the largest Ikea store in England had to be closed the day it opened as 7,000 people descended on the store turning the grand opening into a grand closing.  When the doors opened, there was a mad rush to get inside, and once inside the customers preceded to fight with each other and with the staff.  The store doors were closed after thirty minutes, and the staff hung handwritten signs in the window to explain.  However, instead of going home, the crowds tried to smash their way into the store.  Police, firefighters, and paramedics arrived on a scene of utter chaos, and while the police restored order, the firefighters and paramedics treated the injured. 

"I only came here to buy a cheap sofa." Latyia Arpesh, 23, from Tottenham, said: "I was pushed to the ground and people clambered over me. I feared for my life."

Avril Nanton, 46, from Edmonton, left the queue after four hours: "Near the front there was a sense of camaraderie. But when the doors opened, people at the back ran to the entrance. Everyone was upset, people were fighting. I saw a woman held down by a group of girls."

Ben Adetimle, 31, from Leytonstone, added: "I bought a sofa but when I turned my back someone stole it. I'm not upset. It's just furniture, not worth dying over."

The Ikea staff admits they underestimated the size of the crowds that would come to take advantage of the sales, but as one Ikea spokeswoman said: "It's fair to say we misjudged it but some shoppers behaved like animals and started shoving and pushing. There's not much we can do to stop that."

Hundreds were crushed, twenty people had to be treated for heat exhaustion, one guard's jaw was dislocated, and one person was even stabbed.  Five people are still in the hospital.

It used to make me so mad when my dogs would fight each other over their plates of chicken and rice.  It was a challenge to make sure they all got their fair share, but at least, they were fighting over food, a necessity of life, even if they were far from starving.  Plus, they are animals operating on instinct alone.  When people act like my dogs, there is something wrong.  I can understand the pushing and shoving during humanitarian missions as food and water are passed out to the starving or a stampede to get out of a burning building, but who can understand pushing and shoving, punching and stabbing over a sofa?  What self-centered, shallow lives we lead!

Pirates Have Disappeared and So Will Dayton

One positive thing to come out of the December Tsunami is the disappearance of the pirates that targeted ships in the Malacca Strait.  It's hard to believe but yes piracy is still a problem in the world most especially in Indonesia and the Malacca Strait. And these pirates are not your Johnny Depps riding in on a sinking pile of boards; they often chase the ships in high powered speed boats, shoot assault rifles, and communicate via satellite phones.  Due to outside pressure from those concerned about the potential of terrorists attacks in the shipping lanes (that pressure source would be us), Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore created "joint patrols to curb [the] rampant piracy," but the pirates have left at least the Indonesian navy in the dust (or should I say spray). 

But the tsunami has stopped all that.  As reported by Reuters, there hasn't been one instance of piracy since the deadly waves.  The article gives several explanations:

1.) the pirates may have been killed since they are thought to hid out along the northern tip of Sumatra

2.) their boats may have been destroyed

3.) it may be too dangerous for them since there are many military vessels in the vicinity helping with the aid operations

Only time will tell:

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, says "When the situation returns to normal, if the pirates were not killed, we will see the attacks start up again. The money is just too good."

Guess who is behind much of the piracy?   GAM (the Free Aceh Movement rebels).  The article says they are like Robin Hood:

"People who are living on the coast always protect them. The pirates are like Robin Hood. They always give some of their takings to the people, so people protect them from us," Marine Colonel Buyung Lelana of the River Mouth Task Force told Reuters.

Well, we can hope that if the humanitarian mission did improve relations between the US and Indonesian militaries, either Indonesia will allow the US navy to help patrol their waters or they will allow the US navy to help train the Indonesian navy to handle their pirate problem.

Speaking of Robin Hood, Mark Dayton, Minnesota's senior senator, announced today that he will not run for a second term.  The poll numbers would suggest he's thinking "nobody likes me, everybody hates me, my fellow democrats tell me to go eat some worms," but he claims his decision is based on his dislike of fundraising.  So why did I think of Mark Dayton at the mention of Robin Hood?  Well, the Northern Alliance Radio Network guys call Mark Dayton Brave Sir Robin after the Robin Hood in Men In Tights (I think) because of Dayton's incredible display of courage in pulling his staff out of Washington due to threats on our capital.  While the rest of Washington went about their business, Dayton ran away to hide.  Therefore, when Dayton is mentioned on the Northern Alliance it is always proceeded by the Brave Sir Robin song:

Brave Sir Robin ran away
Bravely, ran away...away...
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravely talking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin

And awhile back, Captian Quarter's posted this picture of "the fearless Senator":

Even though he's brought shame and disgrace to Minnesota destroying what little self-respect we had after Jesse, Wellstone, and Mondale, I'm rather disappointed he's on the retreat again.  It would have made the race much easier for the Republicans had he sought a second term.