The Dawn of Corporatist Education

Opinion, The Jakarta Post, 1 December 2007
Published as "The Rise of Privately Funded Education" *

The delivery of education in Indonesia has long been operated by private educational institutions. But more recently, with increasing cost of running an educational institution and funding its programs, and decreasing government subsidies to support such costs, most educational institutions have to rely on private corporations to fund its educational programs. Even public universities have started to become privatized, while more and more corporations have established private educational institutions.

This article attempts to explore the social and cultural cost of privatization of education and the possible danger this may bring to the development of the society. The case of single corporations founding and funding private educational institutions will be discussed in more depth due to its mushrooming growth and especially alarming repercussions.

With the expansion of free market and its campaign for privatization, Indonesia is not the only country that faces the challenges of funding educational institutions. Even universities in the developed countries have to seek funds from the private sectors. Naomi Klein, in “No Logo” (2000) warns that researches being funded by private sectors can compromise the integrity of research findings. She cites a study that “found that companies maintained the right to block the publication of findings in 35 percent of cases, while 53 percent of the academics surveyed agreed that “publication can be delayed”” (Cohen, Florida, & Goe, as cited in Klein, 2000: 112-113).

In Indonesia, private corporations not only fund educational programs and research projects, but single-handedly found educational institutions, fund its whole operation, and seek profit from providing educational services to the society – creating educational systems that I would call corporatist education.

The term corporate university refers to educational programs and institutions founded by corporations to train their employees in core beliefs, operating and value systems of the corporations. But corporatist** educational institutes, the private corporations in Indonesia, go beyond this sphere to form and deliver main stream educational content to those who can afford their ‘services’.

While many of these corporations may found educational institutions out of sincere desire to contribute towards improvement of the quality of education in Indonesia, others may do so for more practical reason that rises from the simple equation of market demand. Still others attempt to bring in more fundamental vision to the kind of community and future generation they seek to form: the ones that would conform to their corporate beliefs and extend their reaches to more fundamental facets of our lives.

These latter corporatist educational institutions run the operation of their educational institutions very similar to the way they would run corporations – with cost benefit factors, marketing surveys, and the running of marketing and management of the institutions by professionals who may or may not have interests in the value of educational and academic quest for development of knowledge. In these institutions, students and their parents are customers whose demands must be met regardless of academic integrity.

Some of these corporatist educational institutions manage their educational institutions the way corporations would manage their offices and commercial areas: highly secured, gated, exclusive communities with their own privately run food courts, parking lots, and students’ dormitories. Every now and then, these institutions would run sponsored and marketing events where other corporations could promote their latest products to students. Some of them even look and feel like the malls, where people who ‘don’t belong’ won’t have access to the educational compound.

In describing the effect of corporate sponsorship to the “re-engineer[ing of] some of the fundamental values of public universities,” Klein mentions that “[m]any professors speak of the slow encroachment of the mall mentality, arguing that the more campuses act and look like malls, the more students behave like consumers” (Klein, 2000: 109).

To make matters worse, corporatist educational institutions polarize even more the already divided social economical classes of Indonesian society. In his book, “Manifesto Pendidikan Nasional” (National Education Manifesto, 2005), Prof. H.A.R. Tilaar describes the impact of consumerism to education: “… most of [national pluses schools] are very elitist because they are very expensive. This consumerist life style is highly contrasted with the everyday realities of many children on the streets, many of whom are homeless … and have no access to education. [It] has dampened our feelings … towards the poverty that majority of Indonesian society is living in” (Tilaar, 2005: 27).

To illustrate the above point, several weeks ago, I was invited give feedbacks to presentations by fourth-year architectural students from one of the corporatist universities. I was stunned by one particular presentation of a student’s point of view about an urban problem she observed, and was even more baffled by her proposal. She noted that the price of a pack of instant noodle was cheaper at Carrefour than at the (illegal) street vendors. However, the (legal) inhabitants by the railroad of the Mangga Dua area she investigated did not go to Carrefour because they had to take a roundabout walk or take the ojek (motorcycle taxi).

Her design proposal was a building that would bridge over the railroad track into the Mangga Dua Mall so the inhabitants could go directly to Carrefour. Thus, in her reasoning, the legal inhabitants of the area would no longer need to purchase items from the (illegal) street vendors or use the service of ojek – because “by law these (illegal) people would have to anyway be evicted from the area.”

In her argument against corporations sponsoring educational events and programs, Klein stated: “When corporations sponsor an event on a university campus [or school] … they cross an important line between private and public space – a line that is not part of a consumer’s interaction with a corporation as an individual shopper. We don’t expect morality at the mall but, to some extent, we do still expect it in our public spaces – in our schools, national parks and municipal playgrounds” (Klein, 2000: 445).

With the lack of national parks and municipal playgrounds in Indonesia, where social exchanges among different social economical classes could occur, educational institutions have become our last frontiers where ideal form of the society could be envisioned, discussed, debated, and continued to be developed. Yet, with the constant growth and encroachment of corporatist educational institutions, could we still hope for such public arena?

Notes
* This is the original, unedited version.
** Not in the original manuscript: The term corporatist is borrowed from Klein's "Shock Doctrine" (2007):

"Corporatism, or "corporativism," originally referred to Mussolini's model of a police state run as an alliance of the three major power sources in society - government, businesses and trade unions - all collaborating to guarantee order in the name of nationalism. ... an evolution of corporatism [can be defined as]: a mutually supporting alliance between a police state and large corporations, joining forces to wage all-out war on the third power sector - the workers - thereby drastically increasing the alliance's share of the national wealth" (Klein, 2007: 86).

Between Work and Family: A Faustian Bargain?

I recently heard from a friend that someone I know is going through a rough family crisis. He is one of the most curious, driven, insightful, and intense architect and thinker that I know in person, and I have always wondered at what personal cost he does these with.

Coincidentally, I am reading Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” (1994) , and reaching the part where he went through a very rough time in his life, and was about to divorce his first wife. This is what he wrote:

“I wondered – not for the first time – whether one was ever justified in neglecting the welfare of one’s own family in order to fight for the welfare of others. Can there be anything more important than looking after one’s ageing mother? Is politics merely a pretext for shirking one’s responsibilities, an excuse for not being able to provide in the way one wanted?” (Mandela, 1994: 212).

In “Creating Minds” (1993), Howard Gardner studied seven highly creative people: Gandhi, Einstein, Freud, Stravinsky, (Martha) Graham, (T.S.) Eliot, and Picasso and revealed that in their personal lives and relationships, these otherwise geniuses were treating their families and friends from “disregard to simply sadistic”. Einstein just wanted to be left alone to do his work, whereas Picasso was driving several people into psychological trauma and suicides. (!) According to Gardner, these highly talented, top of the crops human seemed to think that they might not be able to achieve what they had in their lives without the luxury of time and unnecessary ‘distractions’ of normal family and social lives.

But I’m wondering whether certain disciplines are also more prone to what Gardner terms as Faustian bargain than other disciplines of knowledge. For example, people in the business- and economic-related fields seem to have more normal family and social lives in comparison with the disciplines of knowledge covered above (politics, science, arts, language). Or maybe I just haven't heard of it.

Do you think there is such a thing as a Faustian bargain between work and family (or social) lives? If so, do you think this spreads across the disciplinary board? Or, are certain disciplines more prone to it than others? And, to bring up and rephrase Mandela’s question: Is it ever justifiable? Or is work merely a pretext?

The Fittest of Human

When you hear about Darwin’s survival of the fittest, and look at your own circle of friends and acquaintances, who do you think would survive in the long run?

I used to think that Darwin’s survival of the fittest means the survival of the strongest, healthiest, and smartest. Among my own circle of friends and acquaintances, I think of those sensible people who are smart and open minded, culturally diverse, environmentally conscious, physically healthy, and financially stable – those who I think would naturally be at the top of our human pyramid.

But more recently, as much as I think those at the top of our human pyramid should survive, the reality of it is that most people in this category are also the least likely to have or want to have many children of their own.

So it suddenly dawn on me that the fittest of human may actually mean those who are fittest in their adaptations to our human social cultural environment; in other words, those who are most in line with the majority of human chain: the middle part of our human pyramid.

Care to share your own thoughts about this?

Indonesian Unemployed Youth: Culture or Laziness?

In discussing the state of Indonesian education with a colleague recently, I was reminded by this statistics in Naomi Klein’s “No Logo”: “Youth (age 15-24) unemployment as a percentage of total unemployment in Indonesia was 72.5% in 1996”. I was shocked by such a high figure, the highest in the list as a matter of fact. As a comparison, in 1997 the percentage was 45.4% in the Philippines, 35.9% in The United States, 29.9% in The United Kingdom, and (the lowest was) 12.2% in Germany (Yearbook of Labour Statistics, from 1980 to 1997, International Labour Office, in Klein, N. 2000: 532).

My hope is that the social safety net in Indonesia is really good, so much so that it allows most teenagers to be dependent upon adults financially. Or is it our culture? Only recently it has become socially OK for Indonesian high school and university students to be employed while going to school. Or maybe the statistics couldn’t get into account the thousands (millions?) of Indonesian youths who work in the informal sectors. Or, to take on the opposite stand: Are Indonesian youths lazier than those in the rest of the world? Or they simply lack the opportunities, education, skills, and systems that could help boost their employability? What’s your take on this?

If you’re wondering if the statistic is still the case in Indonesia, this is what I found: 70% of total unemployment in Indonesia is (still) represented by the youth generation, according to SMERU’s report on “Reducing Unemployment in Indonesia (2007) as quoted in this Media Indonesia article (in Bahasa).

From corpse to dust: One stop burying

In this age of hyper-commercialization, even burying process has become a one-stop service like many others. Within this context, what happens with burial rituals and traditions, and even the process of grievance? Does it matter anymore whether we understand the rituals and traditions we do, or do these have become so commercialized as well that we no longer can tell whether they are real or hyper-real?

***

My uncle passed away. It happened on early morning last Wednesday. When we went to his wake late that night after picking up my dad from the airport, his body was already deteriorating. His casket was closed soon after we arrived at the funeral house, after we were led through some set of traditional Chinese (Indonesian?) rituals which I knew nothing about. A worried thought overcame my mind as I blindly followed instructions from the guy in dark khaki uniform whose name tag pronounced him as Gunawan: What would happen when my generation, whose complete ignorance to all this rituals and traditions, took over?

As I went to my uncle’s wake night after night throughout the week until his cremation yesterday, folding papers to create different forms to be burned alongside my uncle, I tried to gain some information from Gunawan about the meaning of these folded papers. He said that the flat ones served as tokens for the evil spirits to let my uncle’s spirit passed easily into the next world; the rolled ones were the money he would need in the other world; while the ones he taught me to fold symbolized roofs of temples. When I asked why the roofs of temples, and where what about the bodies of these temples, he scoffed. But I found out later that he didn’t know the answer either. I asked him to teach me how to make the intricate lotus paper folding, but after teaching us the basics, he too had forgotten how to do it. So much for my attempt to learn about rituals and traditions, which would have been forgotten by the time my daily routine takes over again.

But apparently I need not worry about not knowing what to do with funerals when my generation eventually takes over. The funeral houses will take care of everything. My uncle’s whole burial process was fully organized by the funeral house. My uncle’s family only had to determine what type of burial they wanted (Buddhist, cremated), when they wanted to hold the flower and prayer night (Saturday, 9pm), when they wanted to leave for the burial ground (Sunday, 8am) and where to cremate him (Nirvana crematorium), all within the family’s budget.

The funeral house arranged for the deceased to be picked up from the hospital by an ambulance, provided the room, the casket, and an attendant (Gunawan) to lead through the chosen Buddhist rituals. On the flower and prayer night they even arranged for a group of Buddhist monk and social workers to lead the extended family, who only had to arrive at the predetermined time, through prayers which meanings only they understood. The same prayer group came again the next morning to lead the moving of the casket from the funeral house to the crematorium, with hired pallbearers, ambulance, truck, and traffic controllers all ready to help along the way. With such convenience, perhaps the hope was for the family to be able to focus more on commemorating the life of the deceased; or was it?

After more prayers and rituals at the crematorium, my uncle’s casket was put on a ceramic plate on an automated, fireproofed conveyor system that led it to the brick incinerator, while we stood beyond the enclosing tempered (showcasing) glass. Once the fireproofed steel door of the incinerator was closed, and the last of the cries and snivels subdued, we were told to sit and wait for two hours while my uncle’s body was cremated. Then out came water, snacks, fruits, and lunch boxes – which were soon consumed by my whole extended family over chatting, catching up, and even laughing out loud with one another. The funeral slowly turned into a family picnic to culminate in a boat ride.

Two hours later, the ceramic plate came out of the incinerator, with distinctly colored ashes (what I guessed as the remains of the casket, the flesh, and other things) and what’s left of my uncle’s still burning bones. Once the bones cooled down, my uncle’s family was handed giant tweezers – with which they could pick up my uncle’s bones, place them on steel pans, and hand them over to the attendants who grounded and placed the bones’ ash inside a small red sack, while the remainders of the ash were shoveled into bigger plastic sack. Throughout this process, the rest of us watched the rituals through the now open tempered glass doors: a showcase of cremation process, quite detached from emotions.

Several minutes later, we were all led to walk towards the conveniently located port from which we took a boat to the open sea, where my uncle’s ash was to be scattered. The precise moments and locations for when to throw papers, flowers, my uncle’s ash, and (take a deep breadth, environmentalists) the plastic and cardboard containers into the sea throughout the boat trip were announced by another man – who was telling us what to do as if he was reciting off directly from that memory strand of his.

By the end of that trip, no one was crying anymore. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the rather long bereavement process, or because the whole experience was just so surreal that we became detached from the fact that the whole procedure that was supposed to commemorate my dear uncle’s life had been conducted by orders of people who were strangers to my uncle.

My uncle was the second to go in my mom’s side of the family. Last year, another uncle passed away. He was buried the Catholic way, which was organized by the same funeral house. May they rest in their respective heavens, while we think about whatever will happen to cultures, traditions and rituals in this instant, convenient, and commercial age.

Hard Facts on State of Indonesian Education

Some hard facts on how bad the state of Indonesian education is:

An OECD survey (2004, as cited in World Bank report 2006) revealed that “[Indonesian students’] performance … signals serious deficiencies in students’ ability to use reading as a tool for acquisition of knowledge and skills in other areas” (World Bank, 2006: 5).

Another statistics from the Indonesian Ministry of National Education (2004) uncovered that “34% of elementary school teachers, 71.2% of junior high school teachers, 46.6% of high school teachers, and 33.4% of vocational school teachers being surveyed were incompetent to teach” (as cited in Sampoerna Foundation, 2005: 2).

More to come.

Learning to Type a :-)

I didn't know that the digital smiley :-) was invented by a Professor! And it was done 25 years ago! (I thought it was invented more recently.) And it wasn't until recently either that I fully realized why using the computers could be so intimidating for those to whom these otherwise helpful machines were foreign.

My mom and dad, well in their 60s and 70s, were only recently learning to use the computer. While talking on the phone with them several days ago, my dad asked me why his typings were all wavy. Confused, I asked him what he meant. He started explaining that whenever he typed a word, it had a red wave under the word. He tried to get rid of it, but every time he wrote again, the red wave reappeared. Partly smiling to myself, I realized that the spell checking was not as natural as I thought it was.

Apparently while coaching both my parents, my sister said that using the mouse was also a strange experience for them. They didn't have the fine motor skill to click and double click, nor the intuitiveness to maneuver the mouse as an extension to a hand 'reaching' into the computer screen. Although I knew that using the computer required one to also learn the many languages and symbols unique within it, I didn't realize how daunting it could be :-)

Debating Outsourcing

Outsourcing. Flattener #5 in Thomas Friedman’s list of ten forces that flattened the world (2005), and how it changed India:

“There are currently about 245,000 Indians answering phones from all over the world or dialing out to solicit people for credit cards or cell phone bargains or overdue bills. These call center jobs are low-wage, low-prestige jobs in America, but when shifted to India they become high-wage, high-prestige jobs. …

[In India,] applicants who are hired at a call center is … [entered] in the training program, which they are paid to attend. It combines learning how to handle the specific processes for the company whose calls they will be taking or making, and attending something called “accent neutralization class.” These are day long sessions with a language teacher who prepares the new Indian hires to disguise their pronounced Indian accents when speaking English and replace them with American, Canadian, or British ones – depending on which part of the world they will be speaking with.” (pp. 24-26)

Great. Or is it?

Arundhati Roy doesn’t seem to think so. Here’s what her thoughts on the same subject, in “Algebra of Infinite Justice” (2002):

“… [in] a “Call Centre College” in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi … [one could see] how easily an ancient civilization can be humiliated and made to abase itself completely. … On duty they [the call center operator] have to change their given names. Sushma becomes Susie, Govind becomes Jerry, Advani becomes Andy. … Actually it’s worse: Sushma becomes Mary. Govind becomes David. Perhaps Advani becomes Ulysses.

Call Centre workers are paid exactly one-tenth of their counterparts abroad. From all accounts, Call Centres in India are billed to become a multi-million dollar industry. Imagine that – a multi-million dollar industry built on a bedrock of lies, false identities and racism.” (pp. 160-161)

One story. Two opposite ends.

Reading Two Books (At One Time)

Wouldn't it be great to read two books simultaneously at one time? :) Below is photograph of William Wegman, Reading two books, 1971.

Introducing "Ruang Jeda"

I have decided to start blogging in Bahasa - to improve my ability to write in my mother tongue, which unfortunately has not been as developed as my ability to write in English (shame on me!). But I beg to differ: I start to learn how to write properly in English, and never have done so in Bahasa. Many fellow Indonesians I know who learned to write properly in English, though, also tend to be better and to feel more comfortable in using English for written communication as well. I hope it's only a matter of practice.

But being selfish is not the only reason why "Ruang Jeda" exists. Through it, I wish to share what in my view need to be more accessible to Indonesians. Meanwhile, I will keep posting here for more general, global concerns. But the division may be as ad hoc as which language my thoughts prefer to materialize in.

A Beggar and a Chooser

There is a saying that beggars can’t be choosers, and while this may be true for most cases, I think there are exceptional ones.

To take the saying literally, most beggars become one because they have no choice. But there are those who choose to be beggars, and even to the extreme case of doing so for the sake of principles – like the 1981 year-long ‘performance’ of Tehching Hsieh who “lived in the streets, never entering a building except when he was arrested by the police, an event documented on videotape” (as cited in Hollevoet, C., “Wandering in the City”, pp. 51-52).

To interpret the saying non-literally, most ‘beggars’ (people in needs) can’t be, and perhaps shouldn’t be, choosers, because these ‘beggars’ are in inferior positions, in the opposite end of the givers and decision makers, and therefore should just accept what would be decided by those in superior positions.

In an attempt to question the statement in previous paragraph, in this past six months, I have tried to not only be a beggar but also be a chooser in the matter of going back to school. Having achieved my chosen goal to be at HGSE, I am now back to being a beggar for full scholarship – which necessitates me to postpone my study for another year, and to continue living in uncertainties in the next month or two, and most likely for the year to come. Only to hope and to prove that perhaps a beggar can also be a chooser, although through long-winded, anxious-ridden, risk-taking, goal-seeking and -questioning process.

Synchronized Nature

It has been a while since I went to the beach, and the trip to Carita over the weekend was my solace to the years of neglect in coordinating with the waves. And I failed miserably the whole first day. The waves kept leaving my boogie board behind, or I was too fast, or too slow, or completely taken over by them. Hopeless, embarrassing attempts. I did only a little better with the kayak. The waves turned me over as soon as I got on board. Only later I managed to balance myself. And both got better the second day.

Being in nature made me realize, as most would, the harmony of the world. How well the coral fishes camouflaged themselves with sand, hermit crabs with seaweeds. How logical were the colors and the shapes of the corals in relation to the ebbs and flows and where the sunlight reached their crevices. And I was in awe with the most trivial things: how the sunlight reflected off of the waves, how the sand captured the drops of water from my fingertips, the foam and the traces of the waves.

The days were long in the great outdoors. And the whole weekend felt like a whole week away from the city. Strangely, the sun set really fast – although it wasn’t really a sun set I was watching, but two within five minutes.

The first one happened around the time I was leaving. And I thought how strange it was that I could see the sun setting from between the leaves on the trees and a good way above the horizon. Then I realized the sun was going behind a cloud with a horizontal top, which completely hid it behind for a while, before it reappeared again in between clouds. The lower cloud then became the second ‘horizon’ for the sun set.

A dawning thought emerged: what if the earth stopped rotating and turned backwards for a few minutes? Having read most of Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, scientifically I remembered vaguely what made the planets so well coordinated. But still, given the state of the global warming and environmental degradation, I couldn’t help asking this question: What if the earth had had enough abuse and decided to call it a quit?

***

Below is an image from the pier nearby, where most activities in the nearby fish market has subsided before eight in the morning – when I normally would still be sleeping in Jakarta on weekends.

Moral & Religion

The debate on God has apparently warmed up again. From Goenawan Muhammad to Steven D. Levitt, the question of belief and disbelief has triggered a lot of interests, mine included.

My interest in the topic was triggered none other by 9/11. A specific book that I purchased then was Mark Juergensmeyer’s “Terror in the Mind of God” (2000), for the reason that, in Juergensmeyer’s words:

This book is about religious terrorism. It is about public acts of violence … for which religion has provided the motivation, the justification, the organization, and the world view. … I do want to understand them and their world views well enough to know how they and their supporters can morally justify what they have done.

Mark Juergensmeyer, “Terror in the Mind of God”, 2000: 7, my emphasis.

With the rise of religious fundamentalism, terrorism, debate on Evolution vs. Creationism/ Intelligent Design, and closer to home is religious indoctrination in educational institution(s), I got Richard Dawkins’ “God Delusion” (2006) and Franz Magnis-Suseno’s “Menalar Tuhan” (2006). These books were one way or another also triggered by similar vein of inquiry as Juergenmeyer’s.

My own stand in this debate is: How much does religion really matter? Or do moral and humanism that matter more? This diagram explains my take:

One can have zero to maximum amount of religious belief, but we’ll get fundamentalists when one’s belief in relation to the wider context of moral/ humanism is in the low range (the grey area in diagram).

(Mis-)Education of the Minds

I recently trained high-school students who got scholarships to pursue education overseas. The purpose of the training was to make these students becoming aware of their blocks to critical and creative thinking – one of the main problems is stereotyping.

One of the biggest stereotypes that Indonesian has is against communism, specifically the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). When asked about what they think about PKI, the participants indeed mentioned associative words like banned party, atheists, and dangerous – all negatives.

They then were asked to think of three things that they agree and disagree about the following sentences:

The original transformation of money into capital proceeds … has the following results:
(1) That the product belongs to the capitalist, not to the labourer;
(2) That the value of this product comprizes a surplus-value over and above the value of the advanced capital. This surplus-value has cost the labourer labour, but the capitalist nothing, yet it becomes the lawful property of the capitalist;

And, as part of the original writing, but omitted from the training:

(3) That the labourer has reproduced his labour-power and can sell it once more, if he finds a buyer for it.

To the above sentences, the students couldn’t find anything that they disagreed about. But when it was revealed to them that the sentences were written none other by Karl Marx in “Das Kapital”, one of the students exclaimed: “But I didn’t know it was written by Karl Marx!” – which was precisely the point: the way we are (mis-)educated can make us biased against information, rather than its content.

Dumb and Poorer

A friend told me recently that her brother got into one of the most prestigious public university in Indonesia. He got in through the exam administered by the university on the first phase of the admission.

What is of interest to me is the several phases how one could get into this public university, and the respective entrance fee:
1. To go through the entrance exam administered by the university, with entrance fee of Rp.15 million (around USD 1500).
2. To go through the entrance exam administered by the ministry of education - which is a lot more competitive, with entrance fee between Rp.7-8 million (USD 700-800).
3. If you failed number 1 and 2, then you can go through the second phase of exam administered by the university, with entrance fee of Rp.45 million (USD 4500).

Chances are, those who get in through option 3 are those who fail the option 1 and 2. Or in other words, they are not as smart as those who got in through option 1 and 2.

Those who are among the smartest of the group are rewarded by paying the least of the entrance fee. Chances are, these students have had series of quality elementary and secondary education - which often comes with higher tuition fee here in Indonesia.

With privatization of public universities in Indonesia, the latter are left with finding ways to get funds, one of the ways is to resort to charging higher fees. What will become of those who are not as smart and happen to come from less well-off families?

Democracy with Sanction

Here's an interesting news from Kompas today:

The Commission for Election DKI Jakarta wish all institutions in DKI Jakarta to submit to government's request to let all of their employees to take a break on August 8, 2007. If not, they could be suspected to prevent people from using their voting rights in the election for governor and vice governor of DKI Jakarta.
...
According to the jury, those [institutions] who did not submit could be sanctioned with ... one month to six months in prison and/or fines between Rp.200.000,- to Rp.2 million,-

The head of Association for Computer Company in Indonesia, Henky Tjokroadhiguno was quoted in saying "For the sake of development of democracy, the issue of having a vacation on that Wednesday need not become too big of a deal."

Hey, I don't mind having a break. But for the sake of democracy? What democracy?

Bags for Food

This image was one of several that I received recently in my inbox. The text said:

Handbag Euro 32,-
Food for a week Euro 4,-

I've heard of people buying handbags for thousands of US dollars - and on waiting list too! Hope the same people can't wait to contribute to poverty.

Between Bangkok and Jakarta (2)

Image credit: (left) www.bma.go.th, (right) Suryono Herlambang

This is a long due post, and follow up to this Bangkok-Jakarta comparative study, which result was recently disseminated in a national workshop. Background to the study was written by Sri Palupi from Institute for Ecosoc Rights here and by a Kompas reporter here. The workshop presented survey findings conducted by Institute for Ecosoc Rights and set up a national network for stakeholders of major cities in Indonesia.

Another researcher for the study, Suryono Herlambang, a lecturer in planning at Universitas Tarumanagara, put forward major contribution of street vendors in Jakarta. The study urged public participation in planning and management of cities and incorporation of the poor as part of cities in Indonesia, with a particular stress for Jakarta.

In the last link, I just would like to set the record straight that the real credits for the survey findings and numbers on the street vendors should go to Institute for Ecosoc Rights and Suryono Herlambang respectively. As my previous experiences with reporters, words have not been credited properly and some have even been put into my mouth.

The workshop also featured a presentation by Somsook Boonnyabancha, director of CODI (Community Organization Development Institute), a special government unit of Thailand that deals specifically with the problem of poor communities through Baan Mankong Program. In her speech, she spoke about the problem with the inability of systems - be it governmental or institutional organizations (including academic and non-governmental) - to keep up with rapid changes that happen in today's society. She insisted that people in (poor) communities are the key in finding the solutions to their own problems.

While we realize, and many would say, that of our findings from Bangkok can't be directly applicable to Jakarta, I would argue that the problems should nevertheless be addressed. I do think, though, that Indonesia is in desperate need of success stories from within the country so skeptics, pessimists, and critics alike could start thinking that it is possible to have a better Indonesia.

The following notes are in addition to the above links:

1. In Jakarta, informal economy activities give major contribution to the economy of the city, but unfortunately they are not being properly supported by allocation of space and opportunities.

2. Although Bangkok's modern shopping centers are more in numbers than that of Jakarta's, they co-exist with traditional markets and street vendors. Bangkok value the informal communities' contribution in economy, history, culture, and society.

Other detail findings will follow (soon, hopefully).

CSR: Humanism or Opportunism?

The following may help define what specifically is being referred to in the recently passed, controversial Indonesian law on CSR.

William Damon, a Professor of Education at Stanford University and a co-researcher of Good Work Project, in his book “The Moral Advantage” (2004), categorizes business morality into four dimensions:

"1. Generative morality arises from deep inner purposes and beliefs.
2. Emphatic morality is an approach to business relationships that reflects the Golden Rule principle of treating others as you yourself would like to be treated.
3. Restrictive morality is the widely shared societal code of ethics that protects people from trouble, regulates their behavior according to the traditional norms that society demands, guards their reputation, and provides them with safety from legal attack.
4. Philanthropic morality reflects a charitable impulse, donating a share of profits for altruistic ends." (p.49-50)

Although I haven’t finished reading the book (as usual I read several books simultaneously and end up finishing only a few), a recent conversation with a human right activist reminded me that, like all aspects of being human, not everything being labeled as philanthropic (and I would include the other three categories above) is good.

She was telling me about her experience as a volunteer in Aceh, and how international NGOs, in being critical of low wages in Indonesia (and other developing countries), ended up paying at least 9 million Rupiah (1000 USD) per month to Acehnese – thus raising their base salary at least ten times the norm prior to the tsunami. The immediate repercussion, according to this colleague, was social discrepancies and jealousy among the humanitarian volunteers and the local ‘humanitarian’ workers, who regardless of their qualifications get the priority for the many openings.

My fear is that among the long term, and perhaps worse, repercussions is the fact that when all these international NGOs have left the area, how would the local Acehnese sustain their current living standard? Besides, although I do think those working for NGOs should be professionally paid, such high financial incentives to work in post-disaster areas like Aceh and Yogyakarta have significantly blurred the line between humanism and opportunism.

Having said that, I don’t think all international NGOs have done more damages than goods, as many of the local NGOs are not all good either. Likewise with CSR. Although some companies have been accused of conducting CSR in order to buy off their guilt, there are many others who do so, if not – to borrow Damon’s term – for ‘generative’ reason, at least for ‘restrictive’, ‘philanthropic’, or ‘emphatic’ reasons.

The point of what I am trying to say is that although obviously there are many things to be improved by the CSR law, this should be seen as an opportunity to promote better business practices in Indonesia.

Travel Warning to Indonesia

In light of these recent disasters in Indonesia, I was reminded of a sticker that was given to me by some of the people in Common Room last week. The prints on the back said:

" Several countries have issued travel warnings not to visit Indonesia. It is now your time to make statement that Indonesia is too beautiful to be passed. Please stick this on your vehicle, luggage, etc."

Here is where I have decided to 'stick' mine to:


This campaign is started by iwan_esjepe@yahoo.co.id.

Politicians & Paranormals

The top 10 advertising expenditure by brand in print and TV in 2004 (in Indonesia) were, not surprisingly, for the promotion of products (shampoo and skin, cigarettes, oil lubricants), mobile phone providers, and political campaign.

And guess what comes directly after this top 10?

It's paranormal (!!!) - at 121,596 million Rupiah (13.5 million USD.)
If you are wondering whether or not this data is credible, the research was conducted by AC Nielsen Media Research and Media Scene.

Intriguingly, the category was missing from the 2005 list, along with political campaign. The latter is obviously expenditures related to election year, but the former? I can't help to question whether or not the two are related ...

The Racist Tintin

Just found out that Tintin in Congo is considered very racist. Being a huge fan of Tintin, I read most of the series, but Tintin in Congo is not one of it unfortunately. So what I have to say next would have to be taken in the context of this ignorance: who, except the most conscientious ones, in 1930s were not racist? Placing this comic into its historical context should be the fair thing to do - as from history, we all (including children) could learn a lot from how far humanity has progressed in this past century.

Solution to Jakarta's Traffic?

I'm not sure how much this new science of parking will help Jakarta's traffic. Higher parking cost in combination with better public transportation would do a little (as when the parking cost doubled and with the introduction of busway).

But perhaps not allowing buses, minibuses, and any vehicles to stop haphazardly would help the most - and figuring out how to prevent pedestrians from leisurely walking across moving vehicles! Besides, it would reduce the stress of being in Jakarta's traffic.

One Degree of Separation, Virtually

We blog for different reasons, one of the main ones is to share our ideas with the wider public instantly, or almost as soon as we come up with the ideas. And it seems that this desire to publish may link with the vanity to know how far our ideas spread and influence other people which, with the help of search engines, is not that hard to track.

Take for example Puspa mentioned Greg Mankiw, who tracked down the post through a search engine, and created link to Puspa's post, which later being linked to Muli's (Puspa's brother) post here – where I found out about the circuitous linkage.

Or my own quotation of Paulo Coelho in an article for The Jakarta Post, who tracked down the internet link and post this in his own blog, which I tracked down through another search engine, and create this post to link it back to Coelho’s post.

Has six degree of separation been reduced down to one degree of separation in the virtual world of great wide web with internet as an interface? The Wikipedia post doesn't seem to suggest so.

Wind of Career Switching

Maybe I shouldn't feel too bad about switching careers every so often! The end of this saga is that I will be going back to school in September, taking my second master's in Arts in Education program at HGSE. Yay!

"Neutral" Education

I am often reminded by a professor that as an academic, I should always attempt to be neutral (he senses that I am not). Thus, I'm glad to have re-read this following excerpt:

"There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes "the practice of freedom," the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."

Richard Shaull, in Introduction to Paolo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", p.34.

On Religious Educational Institutes (2 of 2)

In this previous post, I shared my worries on religious institution camouflaged as educational institution. In this one, I would like to share some quick run through the responses to the surveys we gave. What we found were even more disturbing.

Some of the survey questions were modified to fit the participants as teachers in training. These included a question that asked what the participants think as the most important matter they should be teaching to their future students. In one of the three groups, 20 of 43 participants mentioned religious-related responses that were rather specific to [beep]’s point of view.

Other questions were more specific to creativity, such as what favorite books have they read in relation to creativity. From the same group, 21 of 43 participants mentioned the same book title – which I had never heard of. After googling, the author turned out to be a leader in a very specific [beep] group.

Now, if they were my students, as a lecturer I would be very amazed and probably thought happily that I had succeeded in educating them. But I know if I was to ask my own students to respond to the same question, I am pretty sure that they would mention different titles. Such an overwhelming response could only mean that either these students learn by rote memorization, if not drilling, or they were given only that one reference book and were not exposed to others.

Going back to the question what the participants think as the most important matter they should be teaching to their future students, of the 23 participants who did not mention any religious-related responses, 12 actually mentioned the book title whose author was the leader in a very specific [beep] group.

Education? Try indoctrination.

And to think that these students will one day become teachers of math, science, biology, accounting, social sciences, health, etc. in elementary and secondary schools all over Indonesia. What would become of them? What will become of the world if students are drilled so narrow-mindedly and learned about boxed-in worldviews? Perhaps, Amartya Sen’s worries, as highlighted in this post, was made over a very possible future.

On Religious Educational Institutes (1 of 2)

Along with two colleagues, I was recently invited to train students on introduction to creative thinking. As part of the continuation of our study last year, we handed out pre- and post- surveys to find out the role of motivation and culture in teaching creative thinking.

While waiting for the students to fill in their post-surveys, I looked around the room, which walls were filled with pinned up posters created by students. Intrigued about their contents, I paid a closer attention, and realized that these posters contained worldview from the point of view of a certain religion – which from this point on I will refer to as [beep].

What was interesting was that most of them contain very similar information on how disciplines of knowledge were related directly to quotations from verses taken from the [beep]’s holy book. Later I found out from one of my colleagues that in her classroom, this [beep] worldview was juxtaposed with Western worldview – which again, most of them contained very similar information.

With my curiosity aroused, during the break in between training sessions, I chatted with some participants to find out a little bit about their study program. These participants, in training to become teachers in elementary and secondary schools, are recruited from all over Indonesia. Apparently, most of them are on full scholarship and some pay twenty five percent of the tuition fee. They all live in housing that belongs to the university.

I was told that once they graduate, they would be sent back to where they came from, to teach in schools that belong to the same foundation which run educational institutions from pre-school all the way to graduate school. They were bound by a five-year contract, and had to contribute twenty percent of their future salary back to the foundation. (Note that meanwhile, they must work for ten hours while studying.)

I asked them about the posters, to find out if everyone was ok with the idea. Apparently, they all came from the same [beep] background. So no problem there (although a student said that sometimes she felt that she’s in training to become a [beep] teacher, teaching religions as suppose to biology), with the exception that in the name of the university, there is no indication whatsoever of its link to a [beep]’s belief.

Do these students know what they got themselves into when they signed the contracts at such a tender age when one graduates from high school? I don’t know. But the institution clearly set itself on a very strategic and religious role.

If, while reading this post thus far, you do not get what I’m worried about, try change the [beep] with a religion other than your own. Trust me, it can happen anywhere, anytime, in any religions other than your own.

Now I don’t have problems with religious institutions per se, including religious educational institutions. I myself went through [beep] elementary and secondary schools which were founded and run by [beep] leaders. But my parents sent me there because they believe in the value and quality of the education, more than on their religious convictions (none of my parents held the same beliefs with the schools I went to).

So the fact that this institution did not attach a [beep] in front or as part of its name, like most religious educational institutions in Indonesia, is frankly misleading. Or perhaps is it done on purpose?

Efficiently Creative | Creatively Efficient

Recently, an article in Business Week mentioned the clash between creativity vs. efficiency in 3M, (used to be?) known as one of the most creative companies in the world. Even more recently, another article from the same source discussed Frank Gehry’s Stata Building at MIT which mentioned as well the clash between creativity vs. efficiency in the context of space.

Being trained as an architect by quite a few MIT grads who studied under modernist architects who studied under masters of form follows function, I must admit that as much as I preach creativity and admire its products, I still find it difficult to enjoy buildings such as Gehry’s Stata Building and Experience Music Project. I can intellectually admire the process of thinking and experimenting which Gehry has dwelled on for decades, but my sensibilities have been tainted by years of training that, for better or worse, has made me aesthetically and logically biased.

Maybe that’s why I’m better off not practicing as an architect, as I can’t overcome the guilt that someone else has to pay for my experimentations. Or perhaps I should overcome this guilty feeling and experiment on efficiently creative or creatively efficient spaces. Or the two words are simply a paradox?

City with (No) Ad Signs

Sao Paulo is on the move to become a city with no advertising sign. In the long run, if this city persists, how might it alter the perception of its citizen?

Contrast this with Italo Calvino's image of an industrial city of nothern Italy in the 1960s:

Born and raised in the city, ... [Michelino] had never seen a forest, not even at a distance. ... [Michelino and his brother] walked around the city, illuminated by street lamps, and they saw only houses: not a sign of a forest. ... And so they reached the area where the houses of the city ended and the street turned into a highway.

At the sides of the highway, the children saw the forest: a thick growth of strange trees blocked the view of the plain. Their trunks were very very slender, erect or slanting; and their crowns were flat and outspread, revealing the strangest shapes and the strangest colors when a passing car illuminated them with its headlights. Boughs in the form of a toothpaste tube, a face, cheese, hand, razor, bottle, cow, tire, all dotted with a foliage of letters of the alphabet.

"Hurrah!" Michelino said. "This is the forest!"

...

That evening there was a report that on the superhighway a bunch of kids was knocking down billboards.

From Italo Calvino, "The forest on the superhighway", in "Marcovaldo: or Seasons in the City" p. 36-39.

St(r)aying away from Reality

Graduation time is in the air. Yesterday, a post in one of the mailing lists I subscribed to forwarded Bill Gates’ remarks to graduates of Harvard, which I find very inspiring, particularly this part:

“… But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret. I left
Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement. …”

Then today, from another mailing list, I read another speech by Amartya Sen that was prepared to address a conference back in 2003, which was also centered around inequity, particularly how this contribute to human insecurity and raising fundamentalism throughout the world since September 11.

“… schooling can be deeply influential in the identity of a person and the way we see ourselves and each other. … there is need to pay attention to the narrowing of horizons, especially of children, that illiberal and intolerant education can produce. It is also important to recognize that lack of public facilities for the schooling of children often contributes greatly to the appeal and popularity of religious schools run by political militants. … Indeed, the nature of education is quite central to peace in the world.

...

There is need not only to discuss the importance of our common humanity, but also to stress the fact that our diversities can take many distinct forms and that we have to use our reasoning to decide how to see ourselves.

The importance of non-sectarian and non-parochial curricula that expand, rather than reduce, the reach of reason can be hard to exaggerate.”

Too often we see educational institutions as ivory towers that st(r)ay away from the reality of everyday life and too many educational institutions being used as means to promote doctrines. I just hope those who have graduated from school realize these.

2030

President Yudhoyono has launched a vision for Indonesia: by 2030, Indonesia will be among top five economic powers in the world. In the past three days, Kompas published a seminar that attempted to relate this vision with education. The second article in the series is of interest in this post. In it, the article stated that the vision, albeit feasible, is impossible to achieve by 2030, considering the current state of affairs in Indonesia.

It begs the question of why bother having a vision when it is not achievable? Sure, in their highly influential book Built to Last, Collins and Porras stated that visionary companies (interchangeable with countries) should aim to have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. But implicit in their argument is that the vision should be achievable.

In a current research initiated by British Council, conducted by partnership between Bina Nusantara University and Forum Grafika Digital to map packaging, promotion, and publication industries, I was informed that Indonesia does not even have data on the service industries yet – a fact that although is not surprising is nevertheless detrimental towards the 2030 vision.

When the more advanced countries in the world have moved on from industrial era, to informational age, to service industries, and to knowledge economy at present, manufacturing industries are still Indonesia’s most valuable industries. Service industries don’t even count.

Without attempting to be pessimistic and cynical (although it’s hard not to be both considering the state of affairs), how on earth will Indonesia be among top five economic powers in the world by 2030? The Kompas article mentioned that at present Indonesia is not even in the top twenty. So why not set an achievable vision instead, one that although may not be as great as the 2030 vision, but is more likely to set up smaller steps towards being on the top five?

ADDED
In Changing Minds, a book I currently read, Howard Gardner wrote:

"... while stories [referring to any ideas put forward by leaders] need to be dramatic, motivating, memorable, picturesque, even garlanded with appropriate music and graphics, they also need to be honest. That is where integrity comes in. Stories that do not resonate with reality ultimately prove frustrating and ineffective." (my emphasis, p.112)

The Power of Words

"... words were consequential in a way ... [that] pictures were not. The pictures belonged to their instant; though they could serve memory, they were not the same as memory. You could not quarrel with the pictures. You could not change what they insistently and irremediably saw. But as the words rushed in in torrents, as they proliferated, becoming more and more various and removed, some broke through the gates of memory into the freer fields of parable, myth, analogy, symbol, story. And where memory was fastidious in honoring history, story turned to the other muses. Where memory was strict, fiction could be lenient, and sometimes lax. Where memory struggled for stringency of historical precision, fiction drifted toward history as a thing to be used, as imagination's stimulus and provocation."

From "The Rights of History and the Rights of Imagination", in Cynthia Ozick's "Quarrel & Quandary", 2000: 105.

On Indonesian (Higher) Education (Curriculums)

I attended a seminar today, a small part of which discussed about the state of Higher Education in Indonesia.

One of the speakers said that currently the Indonesian Higher Education aims to promote internationally-recognized programs. If any institutions are interested, they are encouraged to "copy the curriculum from overseas program".

The speaker continued in saying that he attended a meeting with Deans from Faculty of Economics throughout Indonesia, and some of them asked him a question of what kind of curriculum they should use.

The speaker noted in disbelief that these Deans from Faculty of Economics who didn't know how to do a curriculum reflect very well the state of Indonesian Higher Education. The audience laughed. Then the speaker told the audience how he more or less responded:

"Get a reference from curriculum overseas, which one does not really matter, then copy it [note that he mentioned this already]. This is better than trying to make your own curriculum."

That was the keynote speech (or rather, an impromptu talk) from the Director General of Higher Education from the Indonesian Ministry of Education.

Which one better reflect the sad state of (Higher) Education (curriculums) in Indonesia: the Deans or the Director General or both?

Too Difficult to Educate

On Wednesday, I went to two of the eighteen communities under Urban Poor Consortium’s network to observe their alternative educational programs. Both were located near Jakarta Kota. The first one was inside a small and rather dark but paved and clean alley. Here and there people were sitting, with some doors opening into small cramped rooms.

Fifty meters into the alley, the ambience got denser as mothers and children cluttered one of the doors that were opening out into the alley. And there was my first stop: a small living room turned into a class room during some parts of the day.

The two and a half by four meters room was already packed with twenty something children below six, some with their mothers, sitting on the floor in between long low benches turned into desks. As me and my two friends went into the room, some of the mothers had to leave. After we settled, though, more than few children entered their ‘classroom’ that some had to remain at the threshold. A TV that was tuned into a cartoon show was the center of children’s attention while they waited for the class to start.

Around half past nine, the class started. The children prayed and sang songs energetically amidst the overcrowded room. The walls reverberated their voices loudly into my ear drums I had to put my fingers on my left one. That was the first five minutes, followed by another five for calling the names of each one of them, checking for absences. The next five minutes was spent for introducing us the guests and discussing about their field trip to the beach.

Then came writing. The teacher recalled one word they already went over: ha-ti (heart). She asked one of her students to write the letter h on the board. Many raised their hands, but her son turned student who sat in the first row insisted he should get the privileged. She relented. Then came the second letter a. This time a girl, also from the first row, gave it a go.

Meanwhile, the rest of the thirty something students got restless. They had nothing to do. So they started talking to one another. The class was so cramped with children they practically had to move in sync with the others – a rather impossible task for children that young. Soon enough an elbow landed on another’s rib. A small cry followed by a fist on the other’s head. And they both cried.

The teacher, in the meantime, did not even notice what happened, as she was keen on the third letter t. This time she asked a boy from the back row to write on the board. He stepped on the bench turned desk, and landed on the floor closer to the board, on top of someone’s bag, just a centimeter away from a pinkie. He inched behind some backs, almost tumbled down if it was not for the support from a shoulder.

Finally he got to a small clearance big enough for his ankle to pass through and step on the second bench turned desk, and made it to the front. He wrote the letter t quickly and made his way back. The whole ordeal of moving forth and back must have taken five minutes.

I started to feel claustrophobic. To distract myself, I zoomed in on a group of children right in front of me who had been staring at the refrigerator this whole time with no view whatsoever towards the board. And I missed out on who wrote the fourth letter i.

Having four students finally completed the whole word ha-ti, the teacher called up everyone’s attention and asked them to spell out the word in rhyme. Her toddler, who had been on her lap throughout the lesson started acting up, and she seemed to suddenly realize that she had lost control of everyone. An exasperated look on her face.

Fortunately her assistant initiated another round of singing. And soon the class was dismissed for their trip to the beach. Thirty minutes of total racket that apparently happened almost everyday because of overcrowding.

The second community was even worse. It was literally built on garbage swamp. The community alternative learning center was a little better in a sense that it was dedicated for the purpose. It was smaller in size than the first one, with only one opening to a smaller alley, and a zinc roof that made the room unbearably hot.

While discussing afterwards the problems that we identified and what we could do to improve the situation, I remembered what had happened the first two days of the week. On Monday, my sixteen students from a private university were supposed to come for discussion of their projects. Only two turned up. On Tuesday, I was supposed to train fifteen students in another private university as part of a study, free of cost to the students, and none showed up.

I’m sure Goenawan Muhammad would have considered these cases, the first one being the circumstances, the second one being the students, “terlalu sulit, terlalu sulit” (too difficult, too difficult).

The Cost of Not Knowing

I always have a lot of interests, not only in what I do, but what I want to do. I am currently holding two part time, two freelance, and one volunteer jobs. It’s been like this for the past eight years, the last few of which I’ve grown restless and started thinking about going back to school. The problem is, with my diverse interests, I want to learn more about not just one subject. After much pondering, I managed to narrow it down to three areas: architecture, education, and society - which most people would consider as very wide still.

In 2004, I applied for the Fulbright scholarship and into a Ph.D. program in education, and I got rejected for both. In 2006, I tried my luck again with the Fulbright Ph.D. program, and this time I got through. I applied to 7 Ph.D. programs, six in architecture, one in education. I got rejected from all but accepted into two of my top choices, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and UCLA School of Architecture, though not the Ph.D. program, but the master’s program.

After going through all that, I realize that going to the Master’s program at HGSE is the choice that I really want at this point, even if I had been accepted into the Ph.D. program in architecture.

But here’s the catch: I couldn’t use the Fulbright scholarship because it was allocated for a Ph.D. program in architecture. And the cost of not knowing what I really want in the first place? I will have to reapply for both the scholarship and the master’s program again this year and hopefully will get a matched result in both ends next year. No guarantee on either end.

Although I realized that this is partly my own fault, I start questioning whether one should always know what one wants in life. It’s probably easier for those whose strengths and skills obviously point to one direction. Even when I graduated from high school I didn’t know I was going to study architecture. But I was fortunate because the educational system I was in enabled me to test out my own strengths and skills.

Although I have diverse interests, they are means to a goal. So my life since graduation day has been about juggling in the in-between areas. And I must say I have again been very fortunate to stumble upon jobs that could accommodate my changing interests. Until I hit this wall.

And I realize that in most parts, our world and the systems build on, in, around, within, and beyond it, is still very much compartmentalized that it doesn’t leave room for changes. But considering that many things could happen (especially when we talk about a year), should not change be accommodated in systems?

Writing/ Reading

From Margaret Atwood's "Negotiating with the Dead":

I would like to begin by talking about messengers. Messengers always exist in a tringular situation - the one who sends the message, the message bearer, whether human or inorganic, and the one who receives the message. Picture, therefore, a triangle, but not a complete triangle: something more like an upside-down V. The writer and the reader are at the two lateral corners, but there's no line joining them. Between them - whether above or below - is a third point, which is the written word, or the text, or the book, or the poem, or the letter, or whatever you would like to call it. This third point is the only point of contact between the other two.
...
The writer communicates with the page. The reader also communicates with the page. The writer and the reader communicate only through the page. (p.113)

But how does blogs change this relationship? Through blogs, the readers become other writers/ contributors. All writers communicate through the webpage. Although there are other readers who only read, don't blogs change not only the relationship between writers and readers but also their definitions? Where does one role end and the other begin?

Writing/ reading? Writing = reading? Writing =/= reading? Writing is reading when ...? Reading is writing when ...?

The Meeters, The Callers, and The Netters

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to be un-detachable from their cell phones, some must get connected to the internet very often if not most of the time, and others don’t get attached to either, but seem to be with people all the time?

Recently it dawned on me that people can be categorized into three groups according to their preferred means of communication and coordination with other people.

The first group consists of those who love meetings. Call them anytime of the day, or ask them what they do over the weekend, they are mostly with other people, be it at meetings that more than often are not in their offices, at this or that restaurants or cafes, or visiting this or that friends. For identification purpose, people who belong in this group are The Meeters.

The second group consists of those who prefer talking on the phone. You would never see them without their cell phones and if for one reason or another their cell phone died, they would get rather jittery. Some people within this group have more than one cell phone for the circumstances that should one died, the other would still function. And they know very well the price wars between different providers and have updated knowledge on what kind of packages are cheaper for making phone calls or text messages to which numbers and areas. We’ll call them The Callers.

The last group consists of those who get very anxious and even cranky if they don’t check their email every day. They are happiest when they can be connected to the high speed internet. They would be happy working away in front of computer screens, and they could sit for hours and hours without getting bored. They would go to a lot of extent to avoid meetings and calls and much rather use text messages, emails, or chats. Meet The Netters.

If you want to communicate and coordinate with the Netters, they would ask you to email them. And in turn, they would text or email you and would only call if you don’t respond to their text or email messages. Try The Callers, they would say: “Call me”, or they would call you up and try to solve things over the phone. The Meeters’ first response would obviously be: “Let’s meet” and you will have more meetings in longer time that you could possibly expect – at least for The Netters.

If you are dealing with The Meeters, don’t try to communicate with them through text messages, emails, or chats – especially if you have something urgent to discuss. At the very least you should call them and ask whether or not they have read your messages. In meetings, rather than giving them soft copies, give them hard copies. They need to see people and things to get the message through.

Along a continuum, The Meeters and The Netters are at the opposite ends, with The Callers in between the two. Meeters can be Callers, Callers can be Netters, some Meeters can be Netters, but most Netters are definitely not Meeters.

But then again, what do I know, I'm a Netter, I don't meet that many people to be able to categorize them all within these three narrow categories.

On Sorrow

Sorrow, piled on my pillow, what is your shape?
Like waves in rivers and seas, you endlessly churn.
How long the night, how dark the sky, when will it be light?
Restless, I sat up, gown thrown over my shoulders, in the cold.
When dawn came at last, only ashes remained of my hundred thoughts ...

That poem, believe it or not, was written by Mao (taken from this book). All humans are subject to sorrow.

About a Boy (Who Wants to be a Tour Guide)

Several weeks ago, while on a business trip in Ubud, I took a moment to go see the famed rice terraces. As is typical in tourist sites of Bali, the moment I got off from the rented car, a group of people swarmed around me to sell things off. I walked quickly passed them and cascaded down to be at the edge of a cliff from where I could savor the view much treasured by most urbanites who have been away too long from nature.

While indulging my eyes among the greens, I heard footsteps coming over – they belonged to my colleagues and a young boy. He was amongst the group that surrounded me, I noticed, as he brought with him odds and ends that one would be tempted to buy as souvenirs, but then would shove it somewhere and forget about it the next moment. He commented to my Indonesian colleague in Bahasa (thinking that I was not Indonesian for some reason) about how fast I walked. And then he asked my friend where I came from.

After finding out that I am Indonesian, he started talking to me, trying to sell things off – all for merely ten thousand Rupiah. He pleaded that he had followed me a long way, and so I should buy things from him (I wonder how effective is it to sell things off by evoking one’s sense of pity and/or guilt?).

Trying to overcome my own temptation, thinking that these souvenirs would be of no use once I am back in Jakarta, I started asking him questions about himself: does he go to school, how long he has to work everyday, where does he live, what does his parents do.

This boy, who is a junior high school student, caught up quickly. He told me that both his parents owned a souvenir stall down the road, and he and his brother both had to help out. Therefore, I should buy things off from him so he could pay for his tuition. Witty boy. He was weighing down my heart (and why should I feel this?).

I started to like him, but I was adamant not to buy anything from him. So I sat next to him and we chatted. He noticed that I and my colleagues wore similar silver warthog pins that we got from our visit to a jewelry workshop. He started asking questions about the pins and where we got them. He told me that the pin was really nice, and noted that although it was suppose to look like a warthog, it looked more like a bull (which was true). I told him that he was a good observer, and I asked him questions about the future and what he wanted to be. A guide, he said with twinkle in his eyes. My heart sank.

I realize that Bali is a tourist-driven island, and most jobs relate to tourist-driven industries. But does this boy want to be a guide because he really wants to, or because he has no exposure to other jobs he could do? Does one’s dream of possibilities and opportunities open up as one’s own knowledge and experiences widen?

So I told him about the jewelry workshop. I told him about various things people do there, hoping that it would open up his horizon. But unfortunately we had to leave. What I realized after the car moved away from the site on towards our next destination was that I should have given him my pin. It would have meant a lot more to him than to me. This post is my dedication to him instead, although he had no way of knowing or accessing this information.

Western Lords, Frustrated Artists, and Pigeon-Holed Workers

Several weeks ago I went around some cities to visit arts and design industries, communities, and schools. I thought the visits to the universities would be most interesting, but as it turned out, the visits happened towards the very end of the week so most of the schools were rather quiet and one was in dilapidated condition. Nothing was happening.

The arts and design communities, though, were buzzing with a lot of energy. And at both Common Room and Kedai Kebun, we had lively discussions which accidentally, both ended up with rather heated tones when the topic on the role of academics and universities in developing arts and designs came up.

Most academics and universities, according to these frustrated, albeit otherwise very successful artists and designers in their own rights, were not actively involved in the communities. Many of them even accused academics as being backward thinkers, conformers, and bureaucrats who simply didn’t keep up with the way of the world, and were the very actors who kill creativity in the young. They were the very reason why the artists and designers communities started in the first place.

Meanwhile, visits to arts and design industries from the sweatshops to the internationally known ones owned by Westerners, although were very interesting, were very depressing at the same time.

Most Indonesian workers were very skilled in their crafts. And that’s everything that most of them had in store. They wanted to know more about design. They wanted to know more about what would sell. But all they could do was copying exactly as ordered.

And who gained from all this?

The most successful industries were owned by the Westerners. They were the ones who design. They were the ones who know how to market their products. They were the ones who profit from the skills of Indonesian craftsmen. They owned acres of land. They employed hundreds of people. They were lords in modern and supposedly independent Indonesia.

I’m not blaming the Westerners. It’s Darwin’s survival of the fittest world after all.
I’m just asking myself some questions:

When the worlds of schools, practitioners, and industries are so disjointed, how can we start bridging?
When the gaps between the most successful and the barely surviving people are so wide, how can we catch up?

Where do we start?

ADDED:
For more in-depth analysis of the successes in the industries owned by Westerners vs. those owned by Indonesians, see Designing Ideas.

Boxes: 1.3.

A new Atom triagonal clips No. 303 box.
Attempt #3.

I leave it up to your imagination.

Remains of the Earthquake

I recently visited Yogyakarta. I didn’t expect the remains of the earthquake could still be seen throughout the city. Here are some photographs from Institut Seni Indonesia, the Research Institute building – or what’s left of it. They could surely research the structural failure of the building from its remains now.

Boxes: 1.2

Frogs: jumpling, flipping, stretching.
Dragonflies with broken wings.
Hoover craft and safe boats.
Hands holding on, or are they just ramps connecting?

A new Atom triagonal clips No. 303 box.
Attempt #2.

Selling UK

This past week, British Council Indonesia has posted several advertisements in Kompas about the upcoming IYCEY (International Young Creative Entrepreneur of the Year) Music Awards. Indeed, the end of this month all the way through April will be a busy time for British Council. The Education UK will be promoting UK universities in Jakarta and Bandung, and Love and Money Exhibition, will be presenting works of 25 UK designers in Jakarta.

What’s all these buzz about?

British Council is well on promoting UK, with the intent of selling the idea that UK is the center of creative industries, defined it seems according to John Howkin's Creative Economy. In the next several years, they will have completed several programs, which altogether will strategically sell this idea. When you think of creative industries, you will think of the UK, and vice versa. All grounds relating to the creative industries will have been covered by these programs: they are working with Indonesian government, educational and professional institutions, arts, crafts and design communities, NGOs, aspiring young artists and designers.

As I am currently freelancing for the British Council, I get to scoop a little more into their plans, and I am very much impressed by how strategic and well the institution and the country work. It occurs to me that this conference I attended at the beginning of this year was part of the same effort, sponsored by UK’s Higher Education Academy. And so it goes all around the world through the British Council.

If this effort continues well, America will have to watch out about losing its dominancy, if not in developing countries throughout the world, then maybe in Indonesia. In comparison with other countries like France, The Netherlands, and Germany who have centers to promote their cultures in Indonesia through CCF, Erasmus Huis, and Goethe Institut respectively, with the exception of AMINEF that promotes US education, the United States doesn’t seem to bother with promotion and exchange of cultures. Perhaps the US doesn’t feel the need to do much promotion at present, considering most top universities around the world are currently in the US. But how long would this last?

The only concern I have with UK’s promotion is the definition being used for creative industries that is narrowly correlated with arts and design industries. It could mislead to the perception that other fields of study are not and can not be correlated with creativity. I prefer, rather, the definition of creative industries by Richard Florida in his The Rise of the Creative Class.