Great Admiration Means Great Danger..

Just want to say. I have already thought of this before that having great extension of admiration and reverence to someone in your profession or your field is not going to make one move further beyond getting into the field. What I mean is that one looking up to his role model just provides him with the energy to get absorbed with the field, say economics but it's not going to make one distinct as he would tend to, to the least extent, copy pretty much the idol's technique. It is still fine as long as one still adapts the way of thinking, but it is dangerous when he starts completely copying his technique. Worse yet, we could be blind in judgment just because it collides with the idol's value system. I don't want to be someone like that. I don't want to take anyone or anything for granted. It is simply dull.

Short-lived but Very Deep Impact..RIP, Mas!

Just exactly a week ago, my best friend just passed away. All I remember is that he always slipped some sugar to a glass of tea of mine even though I requested plain tea. "It tasted better, Mand", he said. Ah, Mas Karnoe, you always want the best for your kids without thinking about yourself, first. I believe you were among the noblest man in this world.

Unfortunately, you received no wide publications that other people could not get to know to you. Ah, I thought I would be able to visit you at BOE for the last time before my departure to the U.S. next August. But it's okay, perhaps I would simply ask for your blessings in my prayer.

Mas, you might have had relatively short life and less wealthy, but it did not mean you lived a miserable life. As Abraham Lincoln once said "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." Rest in peace, Mas.

Great Scientists and Statesmen

I may not be a mathematics student or have a knack for mathematics, but I am actually interested in mathematics and mathematicians. I once borrowed a book from a library in my campus titled "Men of Mathematics" and I was dazzled by the life of the greatest mathematicians. Also, I have a great interest in reading lives of great economists, scientists or philosophers, as well. This time I happened to read a life story of another great mathematician.

As I was trying to look for mathematics material (trying to learn some before my grad study, hopefully. :p ), I stumbled at department of math at Harvard and was pretty amazed finding out that its chair is Chinese, Dr. Shing-Tung Yau! I know that Chinese are widely known for their prodigious ability in math and science but it still bit my tongue.

As always, my great interest guided me to his story. I don’t want to give so much thought about his prodigious academic achievement, which is most notably for winning a Fields Medal in 1990, but I was much interested in his courage and determination to advance sciences in China. He still wants to come home every summer to his homeland to work and teach there. His objective is to attract bright Chinese students to study in the U.S.

In addition to academic drive, he has also been absorbed by political movement and interest. He even got the balls to challenge Chinese government regarding allegedly fraud committed by Beijing University. He said that if he was not a Fields Medalist, he would be dead by then.

By now, after the death of his teacher at Berkeley, Dr. Shiing-Shen Chern, he is now dubbed as the greatest living Chinese-born mathematician, or so called the Emperor of Chinese mathematics.

Yohanes Surya has pretty similar story with him. However, he is not as great as Dr. Yau, no widely known international prize in Physics. Anyway, I am awed by his great contribution to his efforts to advance sciences in Indonesia. To be honest, initially, I was and am skeptic with his efforts in Physics Olympiad projects, whose long-term goal is to produce Nobel prize winners from Indonesia.

He said that winning medals in IPho would boost Indonesian students to go to prestigious universities in the U.S. and work under supervision of previous Nobel Laurates which is likely to make them think like one and win the prize later. He forgot that Nobel prize winners are awarded for their long-term research not for their medals in competitions, yet I don't know for sure how many Nobel prize winners had won science competitions when they were younger. Yohanes Surya once said proudly that his students can solve very difficult problems within a few hours, whereas it took a Nobel prize winner years to solve. It is not comparable! His statement was misleading.

Anyway, I still look up at him as a Chinese-breed Indonesian that has strong determination to contribution for Indonesia, especially his founding Surya Institute to polish smart students from remote areas in Indonesia and sometimes it turns the dumb into brilliant ones. His contributions are even bigger and, therefore, deserve much more respect than other native Indonesian in advances in science.

Any conclusion? Unfortunately, I have no conclusion because this posting is not meant to conclude anything. I just hope that someday Indonesian students are swarming the best universities in the world and receive so much respect as their Chinese or Indian counterparts. Unlike others, I don’t hope they come back to Indonesia right after receiving their Ph.Ds but someday after they have become prominent scientists.

Just a Scramble Idea..

I was initially and am still attracted to macroeconomics and other big economics stuff. However, overtime I was also absorbed by behavioral economics and, to some extent, development economics. In the field of behavioral economics, I have always been intrigued by causes of people's actions and how economics can decipher it in simple ways. This has been partly triggered by my deep interest in philosophy. Even so, I was never thinking of getting serious in conducting research in such fields.

My biggest desire is to conduct research which can explain a classic problem, how nations can grow significantly and how the spectacular growth rates can grease the wheel of developments, as well. Recently, I am particularly interested in the topics of measurement of welfare beyond GDP. I have not been acquainted well enough, though, to find an interesting research topic. In fact, there has not been sufficient development in research exploring the proper set of measurement. GDP is still the champion, as for now.

Anyway, there is actually one research topic that can close the knit together: consumption behavior of people. This topic can be a research topic of behavioral economics and growth and development economics. The consumption theory is my holy grail to attain. I am always curious on how consumption behavior differs or resembles across countries. What are the determinants of it? Is it government policy, education level attainment, or culture? However, I am still not on the ground on cultural argument thing. On one side, I believe that cultural values play important role in shaping habits of people in doing things, including their consumption patterns. On the other side, my economic knowledge teaches me that people are highly likely to be affected by incentives or disincentives. If people in one country are affected by a bundle of above determinants, therefore the consumption aggregates of a country. As such bundle differs among countries, therefore their consumption and saving aggregates and, to large extent, their welfare level.

I have several more ideas to explore in my mind, but I will definitely explore these topics in my further study. In the meantime, I will just have to rekindle my interest and brush up my mathematics skills.

Where are you going?

More often than not we always have dreams. Yes, each of us. Some dream of having tons of money, enough to buy one or two grand dwellings, private jets, or yacht. On the other hand or other side of the rooms, some just simply dream of continuing their education to highest level possible, some think of becoming the well known researchers as their dream jobs.

It is good, indeed, to have a dream and strive for it. Unfortunately, I suppose not all of us know what to do next after achieving those dreams. Some are just becoming desperate when they do not know what their next steps should be. Sometimes, we are wandering to some place we don't even know, too sleepy to know where it is. Some of us walking as dreaming or half sleeping.

I realize that life, more often than not, is not flowing as we want. Weather does not happen as predicted, people suddenly plunge into the fall of poverty mud before they even got the chance to live lavish lives, and many more occurrences happen aberrant of what we think.

So, as we think we have achieved your life dreams, we must think where am I? Where are we going to? My suggestion: let God, or whatever, whoever you believe it is, take you where He thinks the best place for you. Therefore, we shall not get bewildered and desperate.

Unlike others', this is my choice and my way..

Yeah, I admit I did not conquer my fear..I was naive that I waited till I got a new place to work for..Nonetheless, I felt pretty satisfied that I could survive my time there, considering tough times facing pressures and high expectation, sometimes my supervisors' getting furious against very simple mistake..

This very first class experience gives me something worthy taking notes about: sometimes one's desire to give contribution to his nation requires no working in departments in the government, not even in the office of the second most powerful person in the country..unlike others who worship this ridiculous fanaticism, I guess one can work anywhere, given one's heart is truly with his country..

This is my life, I determine my destiny; hence, when I feel something terrible in place where I thought I can contribute much, I move..Just as simple as that..But, deep down in my heart, I really love my country that's why I always aim excellency in my future work that it can benefit further development of my country..

Beat Your Fear!

A few months ago, I remember watching an episode of Friends, which has now been a regular activity of mine every night, in which one of the characters is deadly bored at her job and her friend suggests that she needs to quit the job and do what she really likes. He says that she needs to conquer her fear.

She takes the challenge, but I don't think I can defeat my fear just yet and leave it behind and go for my dream job even though I don't think I could get it since the institution I aim for is dying from severe shortage of fund..

Here I am walking through ladders of life which might have some traps on it but I do believe I can shout as loud as I can releasing my brood when I am already at the top..

As for now, I will be only savoring this time..

I don't want to walk while sleeping...

There is always one short phrase that I always remember from ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’: ..kebanyakan dari kita melakukan sesuatu dengan setengah sadar, seperti berjalan sambil tidur..That is more or less what I can recall. It’s not this short phrase being right or wrong, but the point is that we must fully sober when we are to make decisions, especially about something that there is a good chance we will do for the rest of our lives. In the case of my present life, it is my job.

I by all means agree to it and decided to follow it. I got a golden opportunity to work with the second most powerful person in this country just after I graduated. I was very happy and, not to be naïve, a little proud. But the most essential thing is not that I could sit in the same room and listen to him talking. It is the chance to learn from the real policy makers and visit such beautiful places. I might have never dreamed of putting my feet on the magnificent Banda Naira or Merauke and having some conversations with boys living there, contemplating why the socio-economic condition is like this and that.

Nevertheless, I realize that it is not one of my goals, not in my early career. The required capabilities are yet to come. Indeed, it will not come if I am still there by now. I don’t want to be the person Professor Morrie talks about. I insist on being a person to walk his life soberly, not caused by temporary pride but lasting regrets. However, what I can remember up to now is that I do not remember having some regrets to have worked for my nation (almost) directly.

One Step is done, So many left!

Last week I have officially accomplished my mission in FEUI..
Despite deep disappointment, I learned to be thankful to God for what I have done..
What I learned is that I have never learned and I think it's time to learn for my long-term objective..

Well, sometimes what you really expect doesn't come just that way..Sometimes you are just
foolish enough to think you just have it in your hands but then it flies to nowhere..
Anyway, I just wanna think that anything that doesn't make you die will only make you stronger...

And I will be...

How to Trick the Tricky Ones

(Getting fed up with the so called biggest feast for a democratic country, I tried to contribute something to society by sending this article to a newspapers, but, unfortunately, the editor has left the newspapers so my article was too late to heed so that it didn't get published, too bad, indeed. It's okay. Just see and give your comments please)

Preparing for the upcoming legislative election on april 9^th, every single ‘caleg’ has spent billions on ludicrous posters and banners to deserve one honored seat. Their becoming generous on this generates ambiguous effect. For entrepreneurs on posters and alike, this election is like a drop of water amidst dire economic downturns, whereas for laymen this is a kind of silly jokes. As an advertisement suggests along with economic theory: the more choices you have, the happier you are, but when the choices are off the limit, the less happy you are, indeed.

We are now facing the most perplexing days ahead until the day of election coming. We find people presumably trying to contribute something significant. Nevertheless, what can you expect from persons we don’t know promoting themselves with nothing as they promise but showing photos of celebrities, superheroes or even foreign statesmen? This article is trying to give a vignette of the situation of political competition nowadays and to give a little trick on how to choose the right person without even knowing their true personalities. The thrust of this article is not to sway you to vote ‘golput’. It’s up to the readers. I will only give some current situation, simple theory embedded on it, and how theory can guide you to the right choice.

First, I suppose that this current political atmosphere is somewhat similar to the case of used cars in the second-hand markets. The sellers try to conceal their cars’ qualities by showing up noticeable features, like colorful paintings, attractive accessories, newly decorated seats, while the machine is inferior. It’s similar to what ‘calegs’ do by now. They try to conceal their competence by showing either eye-catching sentences or pictures so that people can remember their names. For example, some ‘caleg’ tries to accentuate the fact he is a father of a famous singer, some person is proud of having a face looks like a front man of a band, while some feels profoundly happy with him faking taking pictures with Barrack Obama. Unfortunately, due to limited space, I can’t tell one by one of descriptions of how funny our ‘calegs’ are.

Second, a simple economic theory somehow provides a little trick so that we are able to pick the right one, assuming we are not into ‘golput’ societies. This simple theory called ‘lemon’s problem’ is drawn from a famous work of of 2001 nobel prize winner in economics George Akerlof. A simple explanation would be like this. Lemon’s problem is a problem that prevails when buyers can’t figure real quality of the cars they are going to buy, and thus buy the lemon (bad quality) ones instead of mint (good quality) ones, because dealers have more information than that of the buyers’.

According to Akerlof, dealers in second-hand markets are confined to limited quality cars because owners of moderate-quality cars who want to sell their cars due to high cost maintenance would rethink about it for their utilities for keeping their cars exceeding their utilities coming from selling with prices dropping significantly. Hence, cars left to be sold are the worst quality whose former owners’ utilities are at highest if they sell it because their cars have severe problems. If buyers are lucky enough, they may still find moderate quality ones in the show room as there are persons who desperately need money that they are willing to sell their cars.

The key word here: asymmetric information. At first the dealers don’t know the true qualities of cars offered to them until they pass it on to buyers who feel the same way with dealers at the first time. Feeling emphatic? You should be since it is akin to us facing legislative election coming in weeks, yes? However, the theory tells that we face unintended consequences: bad products drive out good products. Competent people don’t feel like plunging themselves into this feast assuming Indonesia’s political reign is full of deceptions and betrayals. I just want to say that not many good choices left. Indeed, it’s hardly.

The question now: what is the promised trick? It’s very simple in understanding yet difficult in practice. As explained above, ludicrous posters, banners and any media ‘caleg’ use imply lack of confidence of their own capabilities. We can therefore use the reverse logic. Choose the ones using proper promotions containing neither funny sentences nor pictures. It shows their confidence and capabilities. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in practice. After narrowing down our choices to several people there is another additional homework to do: we need to do a little research on them. We need to heed their track records. There is no guarantee they don’t understand this theory. Just think for the best, prepare for the worst. Happy vote!

The Most Painful Torture

I suppose most people in the world must have thought how they regret letting time fly without doing something avail and I bet this must have been one of the most painful tortures they ever got in their lives. I have several time pondered how fool persons who can't attain the similar excellence to their peers. Because you know what? All people in the world are confined to 24 hours a day, every day until the Almighty God recalls them. This thing kind of reminds me of Lincoln's words "It's not how many years you live, but how you live years in your life" even though this contrasts with words of Russel (if I'm not mistaken) : "When you feel happy wasting your time, then it's not wasting your time, at all."

What do you think, folks? Have you put 'wasting time' thing in a box named 'my most painful tortures'? I used to think such thing, but apparently it had changed. I just threw it away of my most precious box because you know what? I think regretting things that won't be back does really give you a major setback.

Recently, one human disaster, so to speak, shocked me and just refined me up that the most painful torture in my life would be when you can't do something to help others who are powerless'...You can't do anything but sit comfortably watching others crying because their dwellings got swept away by something very unexpected before...because their family members had to go to the eternal land when they thought the time had been yet to come...

From now on I will put it in my sacred box, but not for too long...because it means I am happy to see it in the box, staying covered with dust in a very long time; I am proud of myself when I can't do anything....I feel very ashamed as a human being, how do you feel, guys?? Don't you feel the same way I feel, yes?

…..but you should give this a shot.

If you have a question to ask to me what my lifetime hobby is, I will answer, undoubtedly and decisively: learning how to live my live very well. I know that life is something very unique, it’s not ubiquitous to every person in every corner on streets in Jakarta, Paris, New York, Dakkar, Abu Ghrabi, etc. Everybody has his own story, not a common good. For some degree, I really like wise words from Forrest Gump, one of my lifetime favorite films, that are ‘life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’. It accentuates the mystery of one’s life in it in a simple example of a common stuff. In everything I do, I can name it from something very simple up to the most elaborative I can do, I always starve for some kind of moral message in it as I believe that there is nothing I do or have done in vain for further development of me, but it’s not the aim of this posting. I just want to tell how a movie can really make you feel more aware, spirited, and moving at the same time, to the least.

For instance, every time I feel like watching movies, actually sometimes I have no special purposes in it, though. However, if you can learn something from doing it, is it like a bonus, yes? This film is a kind of a moving film, in a sense that it teaches you how to cherish the life you got, not to stop struggling and craving for unexpected extremely happy ending life, including your love story, and to remember something very memorable in your life because someday it can be very helpful, like the magnificent Jamal, whose life is full of surprises, fortunate, and happy events.

Yes, of course, you can’t learn how to live a life from merely reading piles of thousands of books or watching hours of movies. There is no text book, or alike for it. But, I this Slumdog Millionaire will give you some thought of how you should live your life, I suppose. Anyway, one of the interesting parts of it is that we can see how poor Indian is, only slightly different from Indonesian, especially Mumbai. Thus, there is still a big hope for us to thrive, focusing our energy on advancing knowledge. Oops, sorry, this is another story...

Life and Rational Expectation

What’s life? Is it something to be stressed about or something that we should be grateful at? The world where we live is full of opposites, of which are the most troublesome adjective for most people, I suppose. Please tell me if you know there is something which doesn’t have its opposite and none of us don’t get mad at, because I am very eager to figure it out. People always feel something bad and sometimes for God for their miserable life if something unexpected opposite happens to them. There is black, there is white; there is day, there is dark; there is man, there is woman; there is happiness, there is sadness, etc. Consequently, no need to deeply brood over it, since when something comes, its opposite will replace it, regardless of time period of the replacement. Believe it or not, sun rises in the morning and hides itself when moon starts showing up. It’s timely and kind of beset every day. I know it’s not something extraordinary.

However, when the winter comes, the period changes. It’s no longer like in regular days; we can change our prediction in the winter, then. I know it’s a poor analogy to life, but the basic moral of this is that when something bad happens to you it will be replaced by something good, vice versa. So, don’t be so upset when something bad makes a visit to you, and, vice versa, don’t be so happy when something good happens to you because it can be replaced with something you have never expected before. See? Expectation plays a big role in life. I am so grateful that I have got a chance to study rational expectation in economics that teaches me to change my expectation, when some variables change.

The main problem here is that not so many people can manage their expectations. In return, some people may consider this life as a kind of proof that you are an imperfect living creature, that can be angry, depressed, and, interestingly, happy in just the short period of time and not to be able to make rational decisions every time. Some people consider this life as a curse because they have been experiencing so much severe pain in his whole life full of torturing, grieves, lost, and so many hard feelings. As a result, most of them might ask not to be delivered in this world and hope to die in young age. For them, I can conclude, life is something to be stressed about.

In my definition, life is something that can prove your existence as a human being since in this life you can feel the bitterness and sweetness of life. Therefore, I feel like this life as something that would make you a ‘real’ human being. By living in this world, human beings can taste such things, which are challenges for our everyday life. Life can make you explore all of your moral, intelligence, and feeling capability in order to survive. And of that, you can be more perfect every minute. To a large part, it’s exciting, indeed. I am not saying life is to be grateful at or stressed about, either because I am far from being able to recall my memory of who I was if I happened not to be born in this world. Thus, I can’t make an objective comparison, then.

The only thing I can say is that I love to live in this unique world even though sometimes I don’t feel very comfortable with my life. What about you, folks? Do you think life is something to be stressed about, or the exact opposite of it, that is something that should be grateful at?

What Would Jesus Do?

Saya percaya kepada Jesus sebagai Tuhan saya...meskipun saya sering kali meragukan agama kristen ataupun yang berhubungan dengan ketuhanan...dan sering kali melanggar peraturan yang Dia tetapkan....But still, I believe that God does exist..and I choose Jesus as my God, even though I am not capable of knowing how many God exist...

Anyway, my point here is I suppose the biggest question that remains the biggest mystery in this world is "what would Jesus do". It goes beyond Human's imagination, anyone...You will never know whether He would grant our requests or not; He would give us the biggest misery or bless, instead...

You will never know....until anytime...

House is Baaack!

The sick bastard, yet super genius is back...The man of his own god, the man who doesn't take it everything for granted, the man who thinks every single thing is possible to happen, the man who, to some degree, doesn't think that his patients worth not more than mere dazzling puzzles...

To be honest, this controversial man is kind of my role model to some extent....His moral message is something like this: there is nothing exact in this world, even God...But, for this God thing, I believe in my God, not to an extent a religion as religion is just a moral guidelines for this life on earth....

13 Biggest Questions in My Life By Far

As Descartes said that cogito ergo sum, that is “I think, therefore I exist”. Why thinking came up to surface? It’s because I feel something odd or curious. I, as a normal human being must have questions in my head, even every second, ranging from the most trivial to complicated ones. Here are the most perplexing questions I have found in my life by far, that are yet to be solved due to its being beyond imagination:
1. If Jesus is said to be sent or, say, created(no?) by Allah, His holy Father, thus who gave life to Allah?
2. Why did Allah create this world and then sent Jesus to this world just to save us (according to Christian bible)? Why did He not just let human beings live in Heaven, instead of in this world? Is it like a game or something?
3. Do heaven and hell exist? Or only heaven which does exist? Or the hell, instead?
4. Does the bible reflect the whole truth?
5. Why did Allah let various religions exist? Why not only Christian?
6. Why does Allah let persons that hesitate His existence remain to live and which most of them are the most brilliant human beings?
7. Where am I if I was not born in this world?
8. What is the general meaning of life in this world since I can’t digest why Allah created this life?
9. Why most Christians would urge going to church every week, while they can praise Allah every single second in their lives? Why do they condemn other Christians who do not go to church regularly as bad persons?
10. When would Indonesia thrive so that Indonesia can sit in the same table with US, Japan, and other G-8 countries, China, India, and Brazil, talking the same topic but with defiance when Indonesia is not agreed to the agreement?
11. When would Indonesian politicians not think about their own interests, while Indonesia is experiencing turmoil or crises?
12. When would Indonesian people stop feeling proud in excessive ways just using other countries’ technology as if Indonesia that invented it?
13. When would Indonesian people stop thinking about Globalization as the sole culprit of this stagnancy situation facing now, instead of the government and they themselves?

I would be so pleased if you bite my tongue coming up with extremely unexpected answers...

It’s Like Bambang Pamungkas Moving to Manchester United?

One of my highest-ever goals in my life is to continue my study to one of the top schools in economics in US, of course by getting scholarship. But, for a while I can’t keep thinking about the clean path to get into this school. How? I think it’s so difficult to get it because perhaps I am not a great student compared to other foreign students who have the same aims as me; I study in University of Indonesia which is relatively not well-known among other top universities in the world, which is an essential factor.

I can make analogy of this me getting into top school is like Bambang Pamungkas, which is one of the best of the best players in Indonesia, moving to Manchester United, which is one of the biggest club on earth.

And yet, I want to assure myself by upbringing possibility making analogy like Hidetoshi Nakata moving to AS Roma at that time so that I can have a little bit optimism…hahaha

I Must Have the Same Endurance Like a Camel!

When I reread Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers I was refreshed by this sentence, which reminds me of how hard it is to absorb some of great texts I ever read:

“Economic reading is…a veritable desert of dusty prose…The student of economics must be prepared for long journeys without a single refreshing sentence; it takes the endurance of a camel and the patience of a saint to finish some of the great texts”

Oh, I am really embarrassed finding how I seldom finish some of great texts…hahaha…Anyway, I’ll try to have great endurance as a camel has…Ironically, I find it difficult to absorb all of the aims of Heilbroner in this book since it uses sophisticated English, like in literature or something…Why so complex, Mr Heilbroner??

My Biggest Fear!

It’s been observed that the biggest fear of human beings is death. Without ever reading it somewhere I must have known it. My everyday life has told a lot, the same message. I can see everywhere, from bottom to up of social strata, anywhere in Indonesia. I wonder why all of human beings find death so dreadful, while to some extents they find life so difficult to live. I haven’t dug the right soil to find what the right answer is. It’s too complicated; the riches who have abundant luxurious stuff and the poor who have nothing but friends (of course the former also have friends), have one thing in common, that is fear of death. Why??

However, not to be so presumptuous, so far death is not my biggest fear, even though I realize that I won’t see my family and friends again if I die. What my brain and my heart can think of and feel is fear of losing my idealism over something, like money. What my idealism for sure is, however, I can’t tell since I still look for it; sometimes I still perceive something different depending on who or what.

But one thing for sure right now that I can think of is I don’t want to lose my idealism, which I can’t tell, over money. I know someday I don’t know where this precious thing is; I know that it’s said that when you are 40, you are still concerning others, you have no brain assumed you already have your own family, because your own family is more precious than others; I know that if you care for others does not mean that they will care for you, and it would be moron to have faith in opposite way.

However, I like being a distinguished person; I like being different which I think it’s the coolest thing in the world so that I want to keep my faith in this whole doctrine that you should care for others, no matter what without being so foolish and not to suppress the urge to do so. I don’t want to become hypocrite, though, like my seniors, friends, and colleagues. I don’t want to hide behind the mask of doing generous things expecting praise while I do nothing but lie.

As for me, idealism is what makes a person a person, no matter what it is….That’s why I would keep this as long as I live…

Happy So Belated Birthday My Beloved Country!!

It’s been 63 years since Soekarno-Hatta proclaimed that Indonesia was a sovereign country.. I know that I hadn’t been born by then, but I know a little what happened in progress before and after that proclamation.

It would be stale if you are just talking about whether Indonesia has already been sovereign or not because it just makes yourself indulged in this kind of boring discussion and, at last, plunge into the lazy habit of thinking about the future we have in front of us. No essential breakthrough so far, except KPK and absurd democracy since 1998. No looking forward just backward blaming globalization; no vision just shortsighted self-interest goals; no self consciousness just being selfish; no statesmen just greedy-idiot politicians; no anything required to build a powerful nation. No!! This is a kind of nightmare I have ever had. Indonesia is nothing, in the eyes of other nations.

Oh Indonesia, till when you will rise against your own chronic diseases. I know it would not be wise to just commemorate, and blame this horrible situation. It’s time to wake up and stand still. Like a piece of lyrics of my all-time favorite song, Cahaya Bulan

“…sudah waktunya berdiri mencari jawaban kegelisahan hati…”

Hidup Indonesia!! Happy 63rd birthday. Hopefully in the next twenty something years I could contribute something significant to this nation building…I hope my fellows also have this kind of dream because we are the hopes of this sick nation, if I may say so..