A part of me would be very happy of where am I now.
Another part would be very disappointed, because I couldn’t have the trivial parts.
After all the talk of the insignificant speck dust in the universe and how life is over-rated.
I am still a human after all.
There’s an immeasurable darkness in my heart, and it kept growing due to the uncertainty nature of the reality.
However, dark may it seems, uncontrollable may it be. I still refused to be controlled by it and may lights shine through eventually.
“In many parts of the world there’s always the group of people who run the streets, both night and day. They interact with vast number of people of different characters, while they themselves are also a people of character, whom sometimes annoying, plain hilarious, shady, cool, educated or street smart. Some of them are very fond of speaking their minds, while others are very shy. These are the collection of the wisdom and knowledge of the taxi drivers, whom are kind enough to share and talk to me during my travel across Indonesia (mainly Jakarta).”
I stopped and looked at the back today
Do I see beauty?
Do I see destructions?
I never know
Because none ever matters
Matters no one ever.
I always said that the concept of truth is like the horizon, a person stands in one place wouldn’t be able to grasp what others see.
Put it simply to fulfill the concept, you can see it, others can see it, but nobody can comprehend what is the absoluteness of truth, it’s because each one sees what they want to see. A different perspective for every person.
Just like the door, all we can think are “is it bolted?” “is it locked?” “is somebody just closed it?” or ”are we the one that lost the key?”
What if I tell you, that the key or lock did not exist and the door is a figment of our imagination, painted by an artist which makes we believe that we’re being locked out. Just like the concept of a horizon-slash-truth, you wanted to see a door and its lock, you’ll see a locked door. Where as in other’s perception the locked door might not exist at all.
Now if you still see a locked door, turn back and take a look. You’re being locked outside, where fate always cross, chances are always present like inconsistency and beauty hides itself in chaos.
Update: The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said that the cost of the Internet will be reduced to allow greater acceptance with the public. Hope this will be the key to provide better utilisation of the Internet to the masses. news taken from here
Update 2: The cost of the Internet will be lowered after the legislative election on April 9th. A way to attract the voters? I’m sure the user will not put too much care on it
On my last post I was talking about the lack of use of email as a mean of effective communications. There are several factor that made this e-mail communication did not become a reliable and effective method of communications.The pressing matter is the availability of the cheap internet access. When I meant cheap, I also meant that it have to be reliable in good quality (in terms of speed and signal) to ensure the process of effective communication.
Indonesia is steadily improving in its internet access, however it is far from satisfactory. In comparison with countries like Malaysia or Singapore, who enjoys cheaper price of Internet for better quality, Indonesia seems like a country full of choices but none of the choices could be considered best. Real life example should apply here; Telkomspeedy the sole provider of ADSL internet access in Indonesia as a whole, have put the price of Rp. 450.000 for their 3GB quota, while Malaysia with their Streamyx cost as much but with no cap (www.telkom.com, www.streamyx.com).
Well we can always look for scapegoat for every matter in Indonesia, which include on this laying of price, however, that is not the point of this writings. The point is how do we can achieve what Malaysia and Singapore have been able to achieve. Of course there would be a lengthy discussion and regarding what could and should be done regarding this matter, a project proposal, and to the point of acceptance and rejection.
Telkom as the national telecommunication services would automatically handling the ADSL route of Internet connection. This act as a double edged blade, first as Telkom had the technology and infrastructure they could readily deliver ADSL internet access, however, being the sole provider would mean that the market is monopolised by Telkom. There are however, gaps that could not filled by Telkom and its ADSL access, there are the people who are always on the move, People who are unsatisfied with the package offered by Telkomspeedy access and people who does not have phone line yet (but of course they have mobiles). This over the time creating a new number of ISP with competitive price and package, however, none of the new ISP are targeting the third of the market, because of the lack of infrastructure and low number of Internet user in Indonesia (only 10% of Indonesian uses Internet regularly out of its 200 million people (Kompas, 27 December 2008)) Based on the situation above it could be determined that there are several things could be done in order to sort this problem out.
1 Lower the price of Telkomspeedy, this can be done by subsidising the cost of the Internet from the education budget.
2 Build infrastructure that could support the other ISP to provide internet access other than the big cities.
3 Provide training of basic internet feature (data collection via google, correspondence via e-mail, etc.) in school, government offices and people who need to interact with other people.
4 Make a program to use the Internet for regular correspondence, for example; Students from two different secondary schools across cities in Indonesia will try to correspondence with each other via email, they could share stories or pictures regarding their school etc.
5 Create an awareness to use email as a medium for correspondence and point out the the advantage of using email rather than snail-mail.
6 Build a proper library with cheap and qualified internet access, for people who does not have computer to use.
Onno W. Purbo have an interesting idea on how to achieve low cost internet by using a frying pan. There are wiki articles on how it could be achieved;
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Teknologi_RT/RW-net
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Wajanbolic_e-goen
*both of the link is on Bahasa Indonesia.
The basic idea is to share internet services in community where one household would act as the primary user for the service, while at the same time sharing the connections with people in the community. The frying pan would act as the receiver in other households.
By using this method, people in community could actually bear the cost of the Internet together, which is rationally going to be cheaper, thus achieving the more effective communications.
Cheers
Internet in Indonesia have been existed for quite a very long time, most early adopters would still remember the ugly days of using dial-up connections, visiting plasa.com and trying to log on to gain pornographic material. Today Indonesians fondness of internet and its content (which include pornographic material, celebrity gossip, information of stock exchange, social sites, online gaming, etc.) is climbing towards the peak. This could be seen not only by the increasing number of the cyber cafes but with the increase of people filling the normal cafe with their laptops or other 802.11 gadget, and increasing number of ISP.
There are however several issue that did not resolve along with the increase the internet usage in Indonesia, first is the utilisation of the internet to increase productivity, second is cost of the internet service. The two issues will affect one another, awareness of the importance of internet as a mean of effective communication will increase the number of ISP thus increased market competition therefore reduced cost of the internet could be achieved. This will bring us to the topic of the writing, first how to use internet as a mean for effective communication for professionals and casuals alike and second what can be done to reduce the cost of the internet.
The forgotten one: e-mail
To kick-start the utilisation of internet as a productivity machine I believe we need not to look forward, the technology that allow us to be productive is already present ever since the birth of the internet itself, which is the e-mail.
Along with the now popular blogs and forum, e-mail has been the starting line in internet interaction, before you can join forum, make blog, playing online game, chat, buying stuff over the net you got to have an e-mail address. An e-mail address will show who you are; for instance kids and adolescent e-mail address will differ with those professionals or grand parents. E-mail address also is an important part of the public address of company to NGOs, government departments to The Ministry, both public and private school as well. Unfortunately despite the increasing number of internet user and thus e-mail user, the usage of e-mail in Indonesia (as a mean of communication) could be called tragic.
Why tragic? to make a clear picture regarding this tragedy, let me tell you my story on job and information hunting;
After graduation I have been trying to convince my parents that the good thing to do is to continue my studies, get my postgraduate degree and look for work overseas, unfortunately they are not very keen of the idea, stating reasons that I need to experience in the working environment and taking postgraduate degree could be done later on in life. I swallow the bitter pill and began looking for work and information, I look for jobs over the internet and newspaper over the time. So far there is nothing different than the average Joe right? however, being a firm environmentalist I always try to sent my application through e-mail to various companies, in order not to waste paper. Over the time, none of the local company reply regarding the availability, even though their advertisement still present on the job seeking site.
So I kept wondering what went wrong with my application that is being sent through e-mail? A few possibilities remain; first, my resume is not good enough for their criteria, second, there are already a person filling for the position and lastly they just does not open their e-mail account periodically. Giving the fact that Indonesian, are not very fond of their e-mail based communication, I began to suspect that the reason they did not inform me back regarding my application is because I contacted them through e-mail not by actual or physical mail. Thus I began to look over the company websites, and unfortunately as well, some of them are very difficult to navigate, others are still on construction and some even have been expired. Therefore there are no other form of two way communication other than phone call.
The stories above are one of the example of how Indonesians still do not consider email as a mean of effective communication. a second example might be a simpler, try picturing a craftsman who would like to expand his market. He could promote his crafts by two means; produce an advertisement or waiting for buyers to come, we will not elaborate more on how the way he sit, instead we looked up how he could market his crafts. First, he could produce few brochures regarding his product and will try to market it nationally or even internationally via email or other internet interaction or he can come to the advertising agency, pay some amount of money and let them create a giant billboard and put it on the side of the main road. No need for a calculator for this one, the cost of producing email and sending it are cheaper than producing a giant billboard. This second example would only work in several condition, however, To target a national buyer, the buyer should also have internet connection and second, e-mail might easily reach people around the world, however it is also easily ignored, therefore there is a need to set up an internet marketplace; a blog, or social website account might just do it.
Therefore, given the increase of interaction between people in the world and the ever growing conscience on our impact to the environment, I believe e-mail could be an important substitution if not a complement of how we should interact with one another, both professionally and casually. People and the government of Indonesia thus, should care more regarding the use of e-mail, and by doing so hopefully, the internet is no longer a place to download any pirated intellectual property and porn but as a place to learn and growing.
I’m now at KLIA waiting for my flight at 16.00, and when I step my foot inside it, It’s the last stage of this phase of life. My life had been divided by phases, which is essentially the period I spend in the community, not only schools but also my life with the people around me. This time another phase would be ended.
When there is an end, it ended just like that, and I will begin a new one, with a new spirits and hopes but this time it’s different. I don’t want it to end.
And I can state many reasons why I did not want it to end, because I fall in love with the most amazing woman, because I love it here, because of I like it to pursue my academic, and simply because I don’t want it to end and I don’t want to lose anything from here, especially her.
Why is it like this? last time I was free from it all, and I don’t want to attach myself if I want to. But now I have attached myself to it, and I don’t want to let go. Call me a fool but a fool is all I wanted to be right now and forever.
Cheers
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Now playing: The Bravery – Swollen Summer
Well it’s had been a long time since I write a post (a real post that is, not just a ramblings). In this few days, I have experienced many goodbyes; one from my loved one (miss you so much tang), another from my friends that are going to pursue their studies (best o’luck down there, mates) and from many others that I couldn’t see.
Anyway let me tell you the story of a fool who wanted the best for everyone, someone who could think that he could giving happiness to those that he cared. He thought he could control it while walking the path and following the end that everybody has written for him, had they know him, comedic ends are ones he wanted to fill the photo-book, as tragedies are only enjoyable in loneliness. What could he do to the ends that he never writes though? letting his voice out would only bring awkwardness, as silence would only bring sequels.
He could only wait, for a time that hopefully would come, that they would realize it with the every senses they had, that it had been tormenting and aching to silently scream. That time would probably come, as he was written his own end surrounded by them, still a paradox he should be, he ironically never wanted comedy for his ultimate ends.
It’s only a fiction, and yet I wanted you by my side always when I had my end tang, thanks for everything, and sorry if I always make you disappointed. I love you.
Cheers
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Now playing: Bloc Party – The Prayer
Well it has been my greatest gig ever, great sounds, great lighting and great souvenir (I got Pelle’s towel + his and Club 8’s signatures on that!!)
anyway without further ado here are the pictures from the great night:
Sorry for the poor quality, I had only my mobile with me, well better that than no picture at all.
Cheers
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Now playing: Paul Williams – You Give A Little Love
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