Happenings in May 2008

Batam faces classroom shortage

A classic case indeed. We had quite aplenty of such cases a couple of years ago, if I’m not wrong.

Merging of University of Indonesia faculties

Read this on the paper a little while ago, about how the currently existing 13 faculties of UI (Universitas Indonesia) would be merged into just three, as a plan to make UI gain more reputation in the international world.

Hmm…

A disabled person qualifies for the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Great move by the IOC! I hope this would also open up ways for other disabled athletes to enter future Olympics, and help reduce the number of discrimination against the disabled in the future.

Increase in Indonesian Fuel Price

Good move by the government. No, I ain’t being sarcastic here, because I honestly believe that the government is doing the right thing.

Why?

As an editorial by The Jakarta Post recently substantiated (sorry, no hyperlink here), those who benefit most from the subsidy were actually they who belong to the higher-income strata of the Indonesian society. Yes, that “higher-income strata” does include you and me as ordinary Indonesians who have access to whatever gadget we are using to access this blog.

To be honest, though I myself was expecting to see an increase of fare for the Pamulang-Ciputat angkot (minibus), I was taken aback by how much I actually had to pay this afternoon. The usual fare of Rp2,000 spiked saliently to Rp3,500!

Geez. I was a bit disappointed, but I think we shouldn’t mind much, really.

I guess that’s one little drawback we get for having this subsidy emasculated. Hence let’s just hope that the part of the budget used for the fuel subsidy could jolly well be used for some other better purposes (and not end in some people’s pockets).

Here is a totally random snapshot I took then in a Ciputat-Bintaro angkot:

click to generate larger image

The usual fare for Kampung Utan-Bintaro Plaza route used to be Rp2,000, but it went for a 50% increase to Rp3,000. Just to give you an idea of what’s happening.

Increase in Global Crude Oil Price

Meanwhile, the price increase in crude oil had finally reached $135/barrel last Thursday, which should have posed an alarm to all of us since those barrels had reached the $100 notch not so long ago.

35% spike in a year or a decade would be more understandable… but months? Now that’s what I call a drying up on our natural nonrenewable resources.

As a non-direct impact, U.S. airlines have taken their psychopathic moves to do whatever they can to afford paying the gasoline, including:

1. Cutting back on domestic routes
2. Cutting back on food service
3. Imposing a fee on bag checks

I don’t really mind point no.1 really, because it could help save the earth by cutting on flights.

Point no.2 isn’t that big a problem either, though of course the passengers could feel quite annoyed by their stinginess.

But point no.3?

This fee on bag checks, as it turns out, has a $15 check fee for your first bag, $35 for your second, and $100 for your third.

Honestly, what the hell is going on here? Who the freak do they think they are, extorting money from the very people whose safety they’re supposed to guarantee? Seriously, those airlines have some pretty sick managers running the company. They could have increased the ticket fee instead but they didn’t. Nothing else should save them from desperation, I suppose.

Obama-Clinton duet

Uhm.. This has nothing to do with the current happenings whatsoever, but you should check it out anyway. Sung by their lookalikes, I was in for a laugh.