In around 10 hours from now, the match between Japan and Cameroon will commence. And this is the first of several games I had been waiting for months.
I had specially requested vacation days from office just in order to watch Japan's matches on this South African 2010 World Cup. I have been a loyal supporter of the Japanese soccer team since I watched their play in 2002 (where they were halted by the Turks), and in the unfortunate 2006 Cup in Germany (where they couldn't advance from the first round simply because they were on the same group with Brazil that time).
My support this time? It will be for Japan, as always was, and as always will. It is an unwavering support, and I don't care if people say that Japan is not really a strong team or that the Japanese players are relatively shorter than their European counterparts.
I do love to watch France, Germany and England matches too though, as they always deliver superb performances.
What about South America?
I'm not entirely a big fan of any of the players in this continent, so I'll reserve my comment on this one.
Regarding the USA team (the team of my country of residence), I do hope they lose their matches and do not advance at all to the next round. A draw with England of 1-1 was quite a disappointing one, England should have won the match.
Now don't get me wrong.
It's not that I don't love America. I do love the country I'm residing in, because this is where I really belong.
But in America, the World Cup fever is less than noticeable. It barely exists, at all!
If you people in Asia are all talking about the match between England and USA yesterday, in America nobody I knew were even aware that USA is playing on TV!
So I guess it does fit the logic if I prefer other teams that generates much more enthusiasm and fan support from its own citizens.
Again, don't get me wrong, I love America though. I really do. I'm just not a big fan of its soccer team.
Europe On Screen is an annual event held in several Asian countries and sponsored by the embassies of various European Union (EU) member countries. In Indonesia alone, it filmed movies in several European cultural centres in large cities such as GoetheHaus (German) or Erasmus Huis (Dutch).
And yes, the most pleasant thing from this event is that all the movies are screened gratis; which is why I made it a point to watch as many of their movies as possible.
They are screened from the first movie in the afternoon (at 13.00 on the first day and 15.00 on the subsequent days) until the last movie in the evening (starting from 19.30 onwards).
Most of them screened basically take an underlining theme, such as Urban Landscape, Inspirational Stories, and Youth Life.
In Indonesia alone, EOS is held on several cities across the archipelago, from Banda Aceh, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar, Bandung, Semarang, Makassar, and Jakarta. Due to a larger number of potential audience in Jakarta, we Jakarta residents are more privileged to get all five full days of screening (+2 days of invitation-only screenings) in comparison to other Indonesian cities which are entitled to two days each.
Here are the films which I had been lucky to watch for free:
Sunday, 26 October
Ott Ega Rott. A Swedish film, it gives a good insight into Muslim immigrants to Europe and how well (or bad) things could turn out for different people due to a clash of culture. Eight out of 10 stars.
Taxandria. A Belgian fantasy film. Five out of 10 stars.
Monday, 27 October
Voisins, Voisins. A French rap musical film. Gives a balanced insight between differing ethnicities in a common French city: Arab, Jews, French, British, and how well those people could get to live with each other. Eight out of 10 stars.
Utazasok egy szerzetessel. A Hungarian documentary on the life of a priest on the Romanian-Hungarian border. Seven out of 10 stars.
En la ciudad sin limitas. A touching Spanish drama about love and family. Nine out of 10 stars
Tuesday, 28 October
Best European Shorts. A compilation of the history of EU and EEC by the French broadcasting commission. Eight out of 10 stars.
Mutluluk. A Turkish film which gives an insight to the difference between rural Turks and their urban counterparts. Seven out of 10 stars.
Wednesday, 29 October
Afblijven. A Dutch film, definitely the best youth movie I had seen since Juno. Nine out of 10 stars.
Nuits d'Arabie. A Luxembourgish film. Five out of 10 stars.
Thursday, 30 October
Anlat Istanbul. A Turkish film, with a short review. Six out of 10 stars.
Alice. A Portuguese film. Four out of 10 stars.
After they are screened on a particular venue, some of the films are rerun on several other venues. I myself reside in Jakarta, and I have compiled a personal commentary of the four venues, as a future guide for you attending any similar European-related events in Jakarta.
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(Note: due to the unstable exchange rates between Dollar and Rupiah during this financial turmoil, I have decided to put price figures on Euro instead for the entire year of 2008 and 2009 in Foreign Prophecies)
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1. Erasmus Huis (Dutch).
providing Wi-fi access: N/A.
With a capacity of 350 seats, its auditorium boasts the most seating for the largest number of audience. It is however, not to be taken as to mean that it is the best venue amongst the four.
As a matter of fact, be prepared to spend money way beyond your pocket if you don't bring your own food or drinks to the event. A small water bottle (330 ml) of Aqua brand cost me a hole-burning Rp7,500 (EUR 0.40), which is extremely expensive by any standards of measure in Indonesia.
Since the events had film until the sun sets, it of course made no wonder that I had bought much more than just an Aqua bottle that day.
But alas, I was athirst and starving that time and it was unfortunate of me to find no warung around the vicinity so kaching!... A money (not) so well-spent.
They also made sandwiches too, which made me wonder how much they sold it for.
Regarding the auditorium seatings, they were not very well-recommended for a visit, because the seats they provide upright chairs just like the ones typical in Indonesian private school auditoriums. I would like to recommend other venues instead.
2. Centre Culturel Francais (French).
providing Wi-fi access: YES.
One of the most pleasant venues to visit.
Despite a seating capacity of a mere 40 seats, I loved the very fact that its inside was designed just like a medium-sized home-theatre, which made it much more comfortable even when compared to Blitz Megaplex standards.
It has a café which also made it a point to separate the smokers (outdoors) and non-smokers (indoors). The prices are largely normal in comparison to outside prices, with Rp2,500 (EUR 0.15) for a Tehbotol drink and Rp15,000 (EUR 0.85) for a serving of fried rice.
3. Italiano Instituto di Cultura (Italian).
providing Wi-fi access: YES.
With the smallest building amongst the four, it is by no means a bad idea to visit the place.
Nah, not at all.
Its auditorium boasts a seating capacity of 100 seats and gives us visitors a choice between the 50 recliners positioned on the front, and another 50 uprights on the rear.
There is a choice between a cafe inside the venue or a warung just in front of IIC, which made it pocket-friendly for all visitors to eat during the intermezzos.
4. GoetheHaus (German).
providing Wi-fi access: YES.
I have not visited this venue this year (and have no plans to do so), since my schedules to visit the other places had conflicted.
However, I had once attended a piano recital by a Japanese pianist back in November 2005, hence I could give an account of more or less what the place looked like.
It had a piazza in the centre of the venue, and yeah, the place looked exotic enough. Definitely worth a visit.
Read more...Today's title is the theme for this year's Jakarta International Expo which would be hosted later this month (October).
I don't know what that title is supposed to mean.
If you take a look at the question in itself;
What would the world do without Indonesia?
it actually puts more emphasis on the phrase "what would do the world do" instead of the remaining end.
Why on earth do they question Indonesia's supposed "existence" in order to advocate nationalism among today's generation?
This is plain disturbing. Not stupid, but disturbing... Just like this year's tourism slogan of those "Celebrating 100 years of National Awakening" skullduggery which has no relevance whatsoever to neither the needs of the Indonesian service industry nor the international tourists.
Read more..."Thanks Toshi, you've just made your vote today!" a slender woman in her late 20s said to me, after knowing that this was my first American presidential vote, ever.
"Well thanks! So am I the only first-time voter here today?"
"Hmm lemme see.. If I'm not wrong, Yes, there was nobody your age who had come voted here before.. Congratulations for becoming a historical first-timer in Indonesia!" she offered a warm handshake, which I accepted.
"Glad to hear that", I smiled.
So today (11 Oct) I have came down to the Ballot Open House in Chang's private residence in Kemang, a leafy upscale district in South Jakarta, accompanied by my Indonesian national father, who also speaks fluent English.
I met around 5 to 10 Americans there (who were all Caucasians), and it sure was nice to start speaking English to those Americans with a real accent.
There I had to fill the write-in ballot with my Presidential and Vice Presidential pick, which of course we Democrats should have picked by default. Even you my blog readers agree with us Democrats.
With 84% of the votes for Obama and 16% for McCain, I guess I have no other choice, eh? I respect your aspirations, and I've delivered them. That's too wide a margin already, haha.
And anyways, McCain isn't too bad imho. I just think that Obama is the only one who could stop the war in Iraq and fix the economy by reducing taxes for middle-class Americans.
So I took a while in getting to converse with some of them, and sought help from the person in charge (who was Chang himself) with my federal write-in ballot which was to be sent for free to the States by Fed-ex.
"So where will be voting on November 4th?" I asked Chang, intentionally using the American date order.
"Well Toshi, you've just voted today! This was your vote!" he smiled.
I had previously thought that this was some kind of an election rehearsal, or a part where I only have to register my personal details.
It took me by surprise that this Ballot Open House, where I had written the choice of Obama-Biden and two other names affiliated with Democratic Party that I did not know of, was in fact the election in itself.
I was not supposed to get an Obama pin as a souvenir, since they had run out of it. However, a Virginia man in his 40s offered to give me his as a souvenir.
I thanked everyone for their welcoming and friendly attitude. It sure was nice to meet American folks again after years of staying in Asia... I'd love to come to such (American) events again in the future
At around 9, the event was opened by an introductory speech of Jusuf Wanandi, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Jakarta Post.
The event started with the first session which was about “Comparing Notes – The Experience of Singapore and South Korea” which lasted from 09.15 to 10.15.
The first keynote speaker was Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Minister of Education and Finance of Singapore. He spoke with a slightly crisp accent (despite having been educated in the USA) about the history of education of Singapore since the independence. Having been 10 years in his current post, he was knowledgeable enough of the need of education in Southeast Asia. He basically presented how the education in Singapore was built from nothing after the separation from Malaysia (then Malaya), and how today it had incorporated various elements of the society to cater the different needs of students with their respective differing abilities and skills.
The second person to speak was Kim Shinil, the Former Deputy of Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development of S. Korea. He initially started his presentation of Korean education a bit longwindedly, and realizing this, he admitted to the audience jokingly how verbose his speech could become. His presentation mainly focused on how the Korean society adapted to the needs of education with differing approaches in each the rural and urban areas, especially since all males in South Korea are to be entitled to three years of National Service. He then noted how dire the Korean education was back then in his time, with cases of having 115 students per class! Its striking similarity to Indonesian education in terms of the cultural and compulsory aspect showed how the Indonesian government could learn more from Korea.
The emcee by then had introduced a last-minute speaker from the Indonesian Ministry of Education, the Director General of Higher Education Learning Fasli Djalal. Most of the seminar attendees were satisfied for his inclusion in this event, as he was going to speak on what kind of planning the Indonesian government have got in mind for its improvement.
Djalal firstly showed a presentation on the dire conditions of Indonesian education today, with its low rank in HDI, the dilapidated primary schools in various districts, the low wages of teachers, and the low percentage of qualified teachers as compared to the total number of teachers across the country. Most of the audience seemed quite excited to know what kind of visions he have brought to the seminar as to tackle those dire conditions.
Unfortunately, those two simple messages from the respective representations from South Korea and Singapore seemed unable to reach the Indonesian delegate. Instead of speaking how the Indonesian education could be improved by taking the examples of other more developed countries, Djalal showed an unrealistic vision on how the Indonesian education could be improved by focusing heavily on the use of Technology.
The presentation by then had taken turn into a several-minutes video that showed the use of the dull-looking TVRI-ish educational channel, an educational portal in the internet, an interactive radio, and how the usage of all those technological aspects above could be used more holistically in the near future.
It was a disappointment indeed. The current expenditure of education in Indonesia, which currently stays at the minute figure of 3% of the budget, was only mentioned once without any further elaboration. And he furthermore did not even touch the issue of how the welfare of teachers in the country, together with the improvement of their qualification, could be ameliorated.
The Q&A session for Session One was unfortunately expired due to the limited time both foreign delegates had on that day. Shinil had a flight to catch, while Shanmugaratnam had had other events to attend.
However, it to be commendable for the Singaporean minister that even for 10 minutes after the session expired, he chose to stay in order to answer various questions posed by the ordinary schoolteachers who attended the seminar. On the other hand, the Indonesian delegate Djalal had disappeared to nowhere; raising suspicion among ourselves of whether he was avoiding the questions we attendees had been dying to ask him.
Shanmugaratnam using body language to enliven his answers
After 15 minutes of coffee break, the second session which was about “The Role of the Business Sector in Education” lasted from 10.30 to 11.30.
The first speaker this time was Yani Panigoro who belongs to the Board of Trustees of the Medco Foundation. She spoke English with a thick Javanese accent and her speech was regrettably read
The second speaker was James T. Riady who is the Founder and Chairman of Pelita Harapan University. He offered fresh insights on how the education in Indonesia could be improved by focusing on changing the mindset of the people from the Knowledge-oriented pedagogy to the Learning-oriented one. Being a Chinese Indonesian brought up under the Soeharto rule, he spoke of how Confucianism values had affected his upbringing greatly.
Mr Riady and Mrs Panigoro shaking hands
The Q&A session which took the remaining 20 minutes of the session had one questioner requesting both Panigoro and Riady, being two powerful people in Indonesian education, to lobby the government for the improvement of education not only limited to private sectors, but also the public institutions, where most of the Indonesian children could afford to attend. Unfortunately as it turned out, that question was diplomatically ducked by Panigoro (who chose to answer in Indonesian) presumably due to her unwillingness to do the lobbying herself.
After an hour of lunch break, the third session which was about “Best Practices in Primary and Secondary Schools” was held from 13.00 to 14.30.
The first speaker of this session was Father Baskoro Poedjinoegroho, the Principal of Kanisius College Jakarta. He spoke of the strict approach that the Catholic institution had implemented thus far with all the multitudinous cheatings and indiscipline actions.
The second person to speak on stage was Antarina S. F. Amir, the Managing Director of High Scope Indonesia. She spoke of how the High Scope educational system has been adapted to suit to the needs of Indonesian students with its Indonesian approach to a bilingual education in class and being totally founded and managed by Indonesian nationals. At the end of her presentation, she showed an interesting video of “A Vision of K-12 students in the 21st century” which aroused the interest of the audience, with various students from differing ethnicities showed messages of the current technological needs of kids today on their respective whiteboards. In the end, High Scope has shown its realistic vision towards the unpredictable demands of jobs in the future by preparing the kids with the holistic approach they teach at school.
The third speaker was Niken Asih Santjojo who is the Principal of SMAN 10 Malang, who enthusiastically spoke of the various aspects of how her school has become one of the most reputed public high schools in the country. It was unlucky that she had not shown very clearly what the main point of her presentation was.
Mrs Santjojo receiving token of appreciation
After the third session ended, the attendees were given free copies of the book “The Voice of Reason”, which a Post columnist Simon Pitchforth recently blogged about. It was an anthology of the best select of 200 editorials of The Jakarta Post during the 25 years of its conception and as an embodiment of what kinds of stances the Post has stood over its lifespan. I was quite lucky to get my book autographed by Sabam Siagian, the first editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post. When he saw me, he guessed that I must have been a Binus student. There must have been a lot of them attending the event that he thought I was one of the students.
People "queueing" to get free copies of the book. A typical Indonesian "queue" indeed
The seminar was to end at 16.30 with the last session of “Best Practices in Tertiary Education” but alas, I had an urgent matter to attend at home that I had to leave the remaining contents of the seminar to others to write. All in all, the seminar with loads of its freebies was a nice step taken by The Post towards enlightening the life of the nation by starting on its education factor, though I honestly doubt that the points concluded in this event would be noticed at all by the Indonesian ministry.
Read more...
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