Me: A Social Individualist

Back in Surabaya

2009-12-15T15:52:00.003+07:00

The city of great, super tasty, cheap food!

So far I've had my food orgasm having eaten Bebek Goreng Palupi, Tahu Campur and various delicious Chinese food. My mum's brilliant cooking is also the highlight. It's good to be home!

My second day here was crazy, though. I started the day attending Vitria's wedding, then off to photograph Tre's first birthday, then only had half an hour to take a short shower and freshen up at home then off to Sisca Maya's to photograph her beautiful daughter, went home for another short shower then off to Rahma's wedding. The 13th of December was obviously a good day to get married. Also proven with at least two house weddings in almost every alley I passed!

It was very tiring, but a good one. Parties and great food all the time.

A few days to go before I'm back home in Bali and still got some time to meet other friends. Photos will be posted later when I've got my home internet. My connection is very limited here.

Cheers.

Carla Ardian Photography - Up and Running

2009-12-08T18:53:00.003+07:00

So I finished my commitment on the book project in the end of October. December marks the month as my new baby business was born - Carla Ardian Photography.

Some mock me to be turning into a housewife since I work mostly at home now. But really there are so many things to do. Redesigning a namecard (see below), branding a new website (now still the same old design of BukuCarla but I am planning to redesign everything there), optimizing my photoblog, taking care of my facebook fanpage, in the mean time still collecting ideas for the next possible photoshoots. I am having difficulty in getting the best marketing strategy, but I hope to get to it soon. It's a lot of things to do on my own though. Now I understand why people hire employees!

Anyway, it's good to be busy. I still need to synchronize the new logo above to all of the websites I use (blog, etc). And I just got an idea to design a small booklet summarizing the services I can do so that I can take it in my bag just in case one day I need to show my stuff to a prospective client.

I'm so full of ideas my head can burst open anytime now. It's crazy but exciting. I'm open to new ideas though. So my friends, if you have anything to advise me, please comment here or leave me a message in my email. :)

Wish me luck!

Clumsiness of the Day

2009-11-18T19:21:00.004+07:00

Don't you miss my clumsy stories?

Well, I thought I had taken that label off of me long time ago since I have become fully efficient, organized and careful.

Not tonight, though.

It was raining when I was about to leave the office for my French course. Being rather late to the class, I rushed to my Honda motorcycle, opened up the seating to get my raincoat inside the compartment, absentmindedly dropped my bike key in it and in seconds clicked the seating closed.

Then an obvious question popped up:

"How am I going to start the engine with the key inside the locked compartment?"

Sluggishly, I walked back inside the office, told my boss the story and asked if I could borrow his motorbike instead. Then I went straight home and skipped my class once again.

Festival Jajanan Bango

2009-09-29T23:08:00.002+07:00

This post is to give you an advance notice that I will be submitting posts in Bahasa Indonesia in the next couple of weeks in relation with my wish to enter the Festival Jajanan Bango blog contest. I mean, combine food and photography and writing, how can I possibly get away from this Rp 100 million in total prize contest?

Okay, wish me luck.

Twitter

2009-09-08T15:06:00.003+07:00

Okay, after so many denials and much reluctance on joining different social networking sites (except facebook which I find very useful in finding long lost old friends), I was down to Twitter, too, eventually.

That is after I asked a few people who invited me what Twitter is good for. No one gave me a satisfying answer. Vitria, one of those who invite me there, says: "I'm confused as well. So I'm getting more people to be as confused as I am."

The best answer was from Baby Waskito, saying that it only functioned as a status update.

I have no idea why people would want to bother making an account that functions as a status update of what they're doing right now. But one advantage that I notice is that it is open for public view, where in facebook - depending what your setting is like - most of the time your page is only for the eyes of your approved friends.

So I signed up on Twitter to the advantage of letting my fans (and future clients) know what I'm doing mostly in regards to my photography activities.

Here's the link to my twitter account if you wish to follow me.

http://twitter.com/cbardian

Bossy Friend and Friendly Boss

2009-09-07T08:48:00.004+07:00

I'm not sure whether it is wise to be friends with your boss.

There are indeed a lot of positivity that can be gained to cheer up the working environment. Boss happy, employees happy; it means a maximum result. You can stretch yourself dedicating more for your job even when you don't need to.

But being friends means you have the liberty to say more of what is in your mind. And I always thought I knew the line. And I still stand to the belief that I didn't do anything wrong. I may have been a little bit outspoken (which I always have) but no bad intention was to follow my statements.

Too bad these statements have brought situations where it was unpleasant for him, and now me. And the talk comes back to boss-employee relationship again. Who pays and who is paid.

So are you friends with your boss?

Photoblog

2009-09-05T12:12:00.002+07:00

Sorry for the long delay. Life has been mysteriously hectic (that includes the fascination over TV series Lost and Prison Break so I couldn't get myself away from the telli).

Anyway, I've made a big decision to focus only on photography. In a month or two I'll be resigning from my present journalist job and will be a freelance photographer. [It feels weird to address myself so... professionally... but feels good anyway] So that's why I've been busy updating my portfolio and preparing pricelist and learning about copyrights etc.

I'm almost there and I'm dead anxious to see how it will come out. But I have a faith on myself and am pretty sure it will work fine if not great.

In the mean time check my website and see my photoblog I just made (powered by wordpress). And let me know what you think of it. Let me know also if you want me to be your photographer. ;)

Aceh Day Three

2009-07-19T06:46:00.002+07:00

It took me 3 days to finally see the view from my hotel room at Hermes Palace. Wasn't bad, but wasn't exactly spectacular, either.

Work

It was hectic today. Fabio and I were at breakfast at 8 something when he got a call that 2 luxurious hotels in Jakarta were bombed. They were the Ritz Carlton Hotel and J.W. Marriott Hotel.

Speculations emerged soon after the bombing which killed 9 people, 2 of them being completely destroyed. Some security analysts said that although it was too early to decide who was behind this, there was a possibility that Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) was behind this. Politicians linked the bombing to the election since it was just a little while ago the Presidential election of Indonesia was conducted.

In the mean time, Indonesian football enthusiasts were deeply disappointed and angered by the occurence that soon after the news went worldwide, famous English club Manchester United had to cancel their trip to Indonesia given the fact that they were supposedly to be staying in Ritz Carlton hotel.

So we spent the day going for rounds of live interviews with the government of Aceh while in the mean time making calls to some analysts so that Fabio could write it in the 30 minutes to one hour window time he had within one interview and another.

Change of ticket

We survived the day, nevertheless. And I've decided to stay longer to see more of Aceh. Vincent did not like the idea, but I hardly saw anything during my three-day stay. I just had to change my Garuda ticket so that I could go home on Sunday.

World Bank Aceh staff

I like them. They're sweet, friendly, very accommodating, and helpful. Some of them like photography and so I shared some of photography tips with them and they almost immediately thought that I was a pro photographer.

"I am not," I said, "But I will be."

That's a positive thing to say about your future career. Hehe...

This is Dhea. She works at the front office and she definitely has an interesting face. I also found out that Dhea and the other WB girls seemed to collect cute stuff and display them on their desks. Look at this one over here.

Food

One of the most important things in my travel is the specialty food of the region I'm visiting. I made some research in advance and decided that I wanted to eat Ayam Tangkap, just because of its name. Ayam means chicken and Tangkap (verb) means to catch. Wasted name like that caught my interest. I mean of course you have to catch the chicken first before you kill it and cook it, right? Anyway, below is Ayam Tangkap.

Review: I have to go rough this time, I'm sorry. But ayam tangkap is not that much of a special food. It consists of small pieces of chicken that are deepfried along with some herbs of I don't remember what kind (I don't think I've ever heard it before). I liked the fried greens but the chicken was just.... ordinary.

Aceh Day Two

2009-07-17T13:04:00.005+07:00

Those are some pictures I took on day two. It was a busy day and I didn't go out much. I've got one short comment, though.

Culture.

One of the things that made me curious about Aceh is to see how the sharia law is implemented here. Indonesia may not be an Islam country, but it has more Muslims than any country in the world. However, the spread of them is not the same in each region. Bali, for example, is dominated by the Hindus. While Aceh is obviously dominated by Muslims - not quite the moderate ones judging from the fact that it is the only province in Indonesia where sharia law is implemented side by side with the government law.

In an interview with the culture department of Aceh two years ago, I knew that the sharia law was imposed to the Muslims, and not the non-Muslims. However, I feel the need to respect their culture.

Whilst staying at a nice hotel with a nice swimming pool (plus with the alarming signal I got when I stood in front of the mirror and saw that I had three layers of tummy), I thought I'd go for a swim. The problem is: I only have a bikini. So I asked one of the World Bank/MDF staff here, Friesca, if it was okay for me to wear a bikini to swim.

"I think it's okay. But you need to tell the receptionist that you're going to swim so that they could close all the curtains that see through the lobby area and the restaurant."

Really?

I immediately thought it was not worth the embarassment. If they're embarrassed, I think I should too. No?

Warung Kopi

Warung kopi (coffee shop) in Aceh is very popular. It is not the same with the filthy small warung kopi in Java, or fancy warung kopi in Bali, leave alone the easy-access-of-weed coffee shops in the Netherlands. But it is a warung kopi a size of decent warung or restaurant with a 32-inch flat screen TV. I was told that it was a place where people hang out the most.

What I wasn't told was that women don't normally go to warung kopi.

So I arrived there with Fabio and two other men from the MDF to find out that I was the only woman coming there. When the waiter came over, he took a note on everybody's order and of course I would like to have the famous kopi Aceh.

One of the guys said, "Really? You drink coffee?"

Interesting.

I am still to find out whether Acehnese women do drink coffee or if it is the privilege of the men.

Aceh Day One

2009-07-16T16:06:00.003+07:00

Half Day Journey.

So I'm in Aceh for work. Wednesday, the 15th I left my house at 5 o'clock to catch my early flight to Banda Aceh. I arrived in Jakarta at 7 (8 Bali time) and had a 2-hour transit before the plane left for Banda Aceh. Wait a minute, I mean I thought it was a direct flight to Aceh from Jakarta. But I was wrong. We had to drop off most of the passengers in Medan, picked up new passengers, then finally flew to Aceh.

Aerial views of Aceh

Aerial views of AcehAerial views of AcehAerial view of Aceh - dry

We arrived at 13:30, my face so greasy, my eyes red and my whole body hurt. I longed for a comfortable bed so I could lie down for 10 minutes. But hey, it so happened that we didn't have enough time to rest before our first interview. So we went directly to the World Bank Aceh office.

Single Night Out

My boss decided that he was not hardworking enough, so he opted to stay at the hotel and work some more.

The hotel I'm staying at the moment

Me? I was freaking tired and the only thing I wished for was to sleep and rest my body, but realising that my time was very limited in Aceh, I thought I'd forced myself to go out after a quick lovely shower.

First Acehnese food I ate was in a warung in front of the Hermes Palace hotel, where I stayed. I had the usual nasi campur (Aceh), which tasted surprisingly similar with East Javanese nasi campur. But it was good.

Then I took a stroll while swearing when my Rp500,000 high heels got stuck in the mud and started to get my feet swollen. Immediately I tried to find the closest convenience store and bough a pair of red flip-flops. Felt much better.

Becak

Aceh's becak (pedicap) is quite peculiar compared to the Javanese one. The idea is the same: passengers sit on a sort of bench on two wheels with the driver. However, while the driver in Java normally sits and paddles his becak from behind, here they sit next to the passengers on a motorbike attached to the becak. Less energy out, more passengers in (compared to ojek). Clever.

Grand Mosque Baiturrahman

I decided to go to the nearest, biggest attraction of the city. Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman. It is big, though I imagined it would be much bigger. But it's got a spacious garden. I paid Pak Fuadi, the becak driver, Rp 20,000 to get me there and back. I wasn't sure what the good price was. A becak driver right in front of Hermes Palace asked me for Rp 50,000 with the hope that I would bargain. But as usual, I never bargain when the starting point is already too high. Also because he knew that I was staying in the fancy hotel. Sorry, Pak. I am not paying for the hotel. The second one asked for Rp 30,000, which sounded more reasonable, and I haggled it to Rp 20,000.

Anyway, I wasn't too impressed with the mosque, especially at night when my shots tended to be blurry since I didn't have my tripod with me. But at least I saw one part of the city, which in December 2004 suffered from the most devastating tsunami ever recorded in the world history.

Quiz

Guess what picture it is below. If you are correct, you'll get a clap!

Bare Essentials of Safety - Air New Zealand

2009-07-10T13:32:00.002+07:00

This is too hilarious to be missed.

The video shows the Air New Zealand crews explaining how to use the safety tools in the airplanes. It is a common procedure for every airline to do this before the plane takes off. What is different from Air New Zealand's video is that the crews were all naked. What looks to be uniforms they are wearing is actually bodypainting.

This trick works its wonder as now more people on board are paying attention to what air safety is and how to use it.

The Smallest Gesture is the Biggest Gesture

2009-06-24T06:27:00.004+07:00

Have you ever got to the point that you thought you were helpless and had no power at all about something?

I'm feeling that at the moment.

A friend, a family, a brother is very, very sick somewhere else but here in this world. He is alone with no friends and family around. Literally. He's all but positivity. He wants to go back here but he can't. He wishes he could turn back the time and fix things right, but it's impossible. No matter how many times I told him in multiple emails that he was not alone, that I was always here whenever he needed me, he couldn't stop thinking negative - as most of sick people do - and stayed thinking that nothing could be done anymore to make things better.

I'm not there to hug him. I'm not there physically to lift up his spirit and to encourage him that nothing is impossible. I'm not there in real to tell him that if he can't cheat death, he can still be friends with it and negotiate the length of time he can spend more in this world.

Friends, if you ever encounter this kind of thing in your life, don't stop trying. Every little thing you do matters. May be not for us, but for others who need it more.

It was his birthday a few days ago. He wrote me an email that he was so truly sad that he was sick and alone on that day. And it hurt me as I read it because it was not true. Because he's still got me.

So even though I am normally overtired when I have both work and French class in a day, at that time I was psyched. As soon as I got home, I took out my cake recipe book, prepared the ingredients for his favourite chocolate cake, and baked it.

I also made a small flag from a scrap paper and cotton bud stick and wrote on the paper "Happy Birthday, Brother."

Being satisfied with the cake and the flag, I took pictures of it in various angles, sent them to him that very night and put a little note in the email:

You're lucky this time you're wrong. You're not alone.

Being so weak even to check emails, he just sent me a reply last night saying that he couldn't stop crying even at the time he was writing the electronic mail. He was touched and happy and no longer felt that he was alone and pathetic and sick and sinful. I can't count how many phrases of terima kasih (thank you) that he wrote but I know that he knows now that he is not alone. That I'm here to help bear his pain, even for the smallest amount.

I may not be a super doctor that can cure him. I may not be rich enough to fly to him and reach him in my embrace. But I'm a friend to him as he is to me.

Baking a chocolate cake may not be a bombastic gesture. But it is more than enough gesture to get your message across to your loved one that he is loved.

Blogging in English

2009-06-23T07:17:00.005+07:00

Michelle Udem, an intern reporter from the Jakarta Globe - an English-language newspaper in Jakarta - emailed me last week asking if I would want to be interviewed for her article on Blogging in English. I thought it was cute and sure, why not?

I promised to send a photo of me blogging but last weekend was so hectic with parties so I never got around to getting a self-photo of me. But anyway, the article is up today. Though I was not exactly quoted in the main article, I was listed there as one of the few Indonesian people who blog in English.

Let's see if it can generate more traffic. But oh my god, can I handle more fame at this point of time???

I think I can. LOL.

Fail Translation

2009-06-19T07:07:00.003+07:00

I've attended 3 classes of French course at Alliance Francais Denpasar and I was already bragging to Vincent's friends, Pascal and Briggite, that I speak a little French.

Here is their reply:

Coucou
Félicitations, congratulations !!!! Super !!!
Moi de mon cote j ai arrête les cours d Anglais le prof n était pas top... Pas plus tard que hier( mercredi) nous avons encore parlé de vous car Samedi le 20:06:09 nous allons fête le 1st year de retour de Bali
Nous allons vous envoyer des photos du groupe
J espère que tout se passe bien chez vous, nous avons de temps en temps des nouvelles de Nicole et Andy les autres "Balinais" j espère que vous aussi vous avez des contacts
Vincent t as pas trop la nostalgie du pays .... lol chez nous c est triste on a de nouveau un été pourri un jour il fait chaud à étouffer et l autre jour on a 10° de moins enfin ...
Gros bisous à vous et une prochaine que ce soit à Bali ou en France
Pascal et Brigitte

Obviously that was way out of my range of my very limited French. So I opened this page on yahoo babelfish to translate the email. This is the result.

Cuckoo Congratulations, congratulations!!!! Super!!! Me of my dimension J have stops the courses D English teacher N was not signal… Not later that yesterday (Wednesday) we still spoke about you because Saturday the 20:06: 09 we go festival the 1st year of return of Bali We will send photographs of the group to you J hopes that all occurs well on your premise, we from time to time have news of Nicole and Andy the others " Balinais" J hopes that you also you have contacts Vincent T ace not too the nostalgia of the country…. lol on our premises C is sad one again has a summer rotted one day it makes hot choke and L different day one has 10° of less finally… Large kisses with you and next that it is in Bali or in France Pascal and Brigitte

Still lost in translation.

Anyone knows a better translation engine?

Ricardo Evers

2009-06-11T09:34:00.002+07:00

Even at the time I'm writing this piece, I still can't believe it happened. Not to someone with such a life force like you. Not when you already made great plans ahead. Not when it was so fast, unexpected and seemingly unfair.

But you left us anyway. I'm running out of tears but even so it's still coming out every now and then. Out of my disbelief.

We might not have had our plans come true. But we had the greatest moments together.
We might not be able to see you now. But we saw you in your best shape.
And we will never forget that.

We love you, Ricardo.

Carla and Vincent.

Reality Check

2009-06-09T11:41:00.002+07:00

Life is so short.

After my friend Pierre Flaneur died at the age of 30 last year of a heart failure, I am not convinced that age determines our lifeline.

The fact that my good friend Ricardo Evers had a shocking bike accident 2-3 weeks ago and has depended his life on hospital machines ever since does not give me more confidence either.

As if it wasn't enough, someone whom I consider like my own brother just told me that he was dying. AIDS. He is now 33.

I'm feeling like crying. I'm feeling like laughing.

This is all like a joke.

A very, very bad joke.

Father's love to his son

2009-06-01T14:51:00.004+07:00

I know a few of very strong people who got down on their knees and cried after they watched this video. It's very inspirational especially to those who experienced or did not experience this kind of love from their father. And I hope there are fathers out there who can see this video and be moved to do more for their children.

Favourite Quote of the Month

2009-05-18T16:16:00.002+07:00

I stole it from a friend who posted this quote on her facebook status, which says:

"If you want to do something wrong, do it right."

I absolutely agree with it since it relates to my other all-time quote: "Don't do things by halves."
So basically if you wanna be evil, just be 100% it. Think of it smartly. Plan it carefully. Try to get as minimum effect (on yourself) as possible.

You'll be called sinful anyway, no matter how big or small your being evil is.

Cheers, mate!

48 Hours in Bali

2009-05-07T20:25:00.003+07:00

The article I worked so hard for the Vietnamese East and West magazine is up! Both in prints and online. Prints are only available in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. I guess if you want to push it, there may be some in Jakarta, but I'm not sure. If you fly with Lufthansa, you'll find it in this May 2009 edition.

I take the credit of both text and photographs, though some are of the courtesy of Mozaic restaurant.

Download the article here.

YAY FOR ME!!!!

Photography: The Attitude

2009-05-07T07:43:00.005+07:00

I have a few accounts in some photography sites like DeviantArt (DA), UseFilm and Fotografer.net (FN). I absolutely have no problem with the international art sites. If not a compliment, I will get constructive feedbacks every now and then from the other users, which is good.

However, I am sometimes troubled with the Indonesian photo site, Fotografer.net. I mean I think it is normal to also mingle with the other photographers in the country if you want to progress in the real photography world, right? But I hardly get constructive feedbacks. Even in the former days when I first joined it like 4 or 5 years ago, the comments would disappoint me as in you would think that they were clueless of what to say. And it seemed that people just commented because they had to comment in at least 2 photos before submitting an art (FN's rule). And they didn't give a damn to it.

Nowadays, I see more progress in the attitude of the users and that's why I start uploading photos again. But a slightly annoying thing strikes me again. Not as bad as the useless comments I mentioned above. But it is the culture of addressing people (in this case, me).

Indonesians cannot not address the person they are talking to. If you're not a close friend of a person, you just don't call him/her by the first name only (or last name only). You will have to put Mbak, Mas, Kak, Dik, Om, Tante, Pak, Bu, Bli, etc. I could go on and on and make a book of the various types of addressing people in Indonesia but let's just leave it right there. Anyway, I should emphasize that I have NO PROBLEM with the Indonesian addressing culture. I think it's respectful and polite and there is nothing wrong with it.

But when addressing people is a must, you should always check whom you are talking to first. Like I just submitted a photo on FN this morning. In 15 minutes I got five comments, three of which addressed me as a MALE photographer [click the image to see a larger version].

Now I was wondering... is it the pre-assumption that photographers are always males that made me deserve to be called Bro or Om? Or does the name Carla sound like a boy's name? Or is it simply an ignorance to double check the photographer?

Anyway... I'm not too upset or anything. But if it was due to the reason of the stereotype of male photographers or ignorance, I think it is just too bad. I think many, many, many Indonesians are good photographers. They shoot like pros and they are surely able to compete in the international photography world with the quality of the photos they have. But if such attitude is maintained, I'm not sure if that will last long.

Just like the other type of jobs, no matter how good you are as a cook, journalist, programmer, teacher or how beautiful you are as a model, you'll be out of the industry soon if you don't have the right attitude.

Gardening

2009-05-05T09:57:00.003+07:00

I'm terrible at gardening. I mean I never bothered to try. Just to imagine how dirty my hands would set me off in the very first thought of gardening.

But my new place is too big and dark and dull without plants. So I bought a pot of beautiful fresh yellow chrysanthemums last month. I was happy for 2 weeks, but I got reckless. I forgot to water the chrysanthemums for 3 days and they soon were looking like they were dying. I saw 2 buds that were becoming grey and I immediately tried to save them. I threw away the dying/died clumps of the chrysanthemum so that the soil could provide maximum nutrition for the buds. And I forced myself to water them everyday. I think I saved them. For now.

Then I thought maybe I didn't have a chemistry with flowers. So I bought three more pots of green plants (with no flower). One took a week to dry up and look dying. But the other two are going strong. [Yay!]

So since I had died plants some of which I threw away, that means I had unused soil. Once when I was cooking, I saw that my garlic was running bad. And the brilliant me came up with this genius idea, not to throw the garlic away, but to put it inside the unused soil to grow.

I watered it everyday and in three days I could already see the bud sprouting out of the ground. I was soooo.... excited to see it! This one worked!! I'll see if it stays alive one more week, and I may plant some seeds of chili, onion, lime etc! This way I don't need to go to Carrefour anymore to buy these kinds of ingredients!

Buku Carla Launched

2009-04-26T13:58:00.001+07:00

Jangan Bikin Malu 2009

2009-04-20T13:59:00.003+07:00

Youtube link is taken from Indonesia Matters

Ilham Anas, Indonesian Obama's look-alike, is delivering his "speech" in this very short video.

Don't embarrass Indonesia in the next Presidential election! "Jangan Bikin Malu 2009!"

PS: You need to understand Bahasa a little bit to get the fun from this video.

First Photo Published at SCMP

2009-04-14T10:19:00.002+07:00

Fabio assigned me to go to this Buddha relic exhibition at the Buddha Dharma Vihara, Sunset Rd, about 2 weeks ago. I was excited because:

I was dying to be out there in the sun, although still on a work assignment.
I could meet new people.
I could take photos.
If chosen, the photo(s) could be put along with the article, and I would make my first photography debut in print media.
If chosen, I'd be paid, too. I don't know how much and to be honest I don't care. I just need a recognition from a media (thankfully as big as South China Morning Post) that it was worth publishing.
There was a free dinner!!!

It was not bad at all. Buddhism may not have been my preferred belief, but I could gather that the Buddhists are so nice. They have great manners and they could see things beyond their own religion (read: not closed-minded). None of their philosophy is to gain any power in this world like some religions I know (including mine) and their end goal is to get the peace. And peace is all we need.

A peculiar thing also happened, as I was reconnected with Pattrick Zaffini - a French fellow I knew through my late dear friend Pierre Flaneur. Patrick was the one organizing this relic tour. He was the one interviewed by the Jakarta Post. And he was the one I needed to interview as well. I met Pattrick when some of Pierre's friends were gathering at the Jimbaran beach to send him our full respect and love, just a few days after he was gone. And since then Pattrick has always been in my facebook friend list. Isn't it miraculous that we were met again this way?

Back to my photography/journalism carreer prospect, I am triggered even more to do better now. I just finished an article for the Vietnamese-based East and West magazine about Bali, which will be out in May edition. I'll let you know when it's published. It's rather big.

For now, enjoy Fabio's article and MY photo here.

Gerindra's Campaign

2009-04-04T06:43:00.001+07:00

So, the first part of the Indonesian legislative election is almost over. The air and atmosphere of negativity, personal and institutional attacks, money politics and all that have been decreasing a little bit lately. At least no campaigns and street convoys which add up to the complication of the existing messy traffic and which contributed to the already polluted land. Less real open attacks on how bad the present government has been performing, or any other parties whose leader had failed performing. Less manipulation on lower class people that it was not fair for them that they couldn't sell papers by the traffic lights or fake watches at the sidewalks. Less lies on the ups and downs of the petrol price that is blamed to be the sole reason of the people suffering.

Those accusations I just made are probably only one-sided since I only attended one campaign. Maybe the other parties are not like that. Maybe they're more fair and make more sense. But really with the constant news on how Party A attacks Party B, Party B attacks Party C and so on and so forth, it is not likely.

The campaign I was talking about was of Gerindra. Proposing Prabowo Subianto as the next president, the party tries to convince the people that the ex-military general is on the common people's side. It promotes a better life for farmers and street vendors and ojek drivers and the migrant workers. Nice idea. A big question mark that popped up, however, was HOW?

The next was even uglier. Let's say it is logical that you might win people's heart by pretending that you're on their side. That you don't want them to suffer more than they do now. But yeah, you'll need someone to blame. And whoelse to blame but Yudhoyono's administration? A metaphore given for President Yudhoyono's governing performance was ofIndonesia as a Mercedes Benz car and Yudhoyono as its driver. A quality car that kept being broken, they said, was all the fault of the stupid driver. And with a little provocation, they made the people sing in rhythm, "GOBLOK, GOBLOK, GOBLOK!"

Permadi, a paranormal and an ex house member for PDIP (Indonesian Democracy Struggle Party) who resigned from the first president's daughter's party and joined Gerindra funnily tried to remind the people of how good it was when Soekarno was still on the presidency and that Prabowo could take us back in that kind of condition. I couldn't make the best sense of it. How? If Megawati, Soekarno's daughter, failed in ruling this country because she is not, has never been, and will never be a figure her father once was, how would Prabowo make a better President?

No allegations against Prabowo made in the past were proven yet. Not sure if they will ever be rightly investigated. But I just hope there are more clever people in this country for not voting for a president who holds an uncertain past like activist abductions and their "forced dissapearance" and human rights violation in Timor Leste.