Bali island

Party at the White House!

Posted by Internet at Every Where on 7:43 AM

Word of advice to Barack Obama inauguration organizers: You might want to have some emergency sambal on hand, because a number of Indonesians are going to be on hand for the festivities.

Not just the usual government types, like Ambassador to the U.S. (and spelling-bee champ) Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, but actual Obama relatives. Unfortunately the President-Elect's stepfather Lolo Soetoro - second husband of Obama's mom Ann Dunham - isn't in good enough physical condition for the long journey. But Lolo's niece Yana Trisulo, her husband and cousin will all be bum-rushing the Lincoln Bedroom.

Somehow Indonesian actress Ayu Azhari also scammed an Inauguration invitation, even while big American celebrities are complaining that they can't get access to the hottest ticket in town.

Hey, I'd like to go too. Maya Soetoro-Ng, do you visit this site? Help a blogger out!

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Garuda: Totally insane?

Posted by Internet at Every Where on 11:31 AM

I don't know what they're smoking in the executive suites of Garuda Indonesia, but I'll definitely have some.

In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, when other airlines are frantically slashing routes, mothballing new orders and looking for spare coins under the seat cushions, Garuda is doing the exact opposite. It's actually adding routes, like the new Singapore-Yogyakarta service, and planning to double its entire fleet by 2013.

What gives? It seems it's not really a profit grab - after all, nobody's making profits these days - but an effort to gain significant market share while other carriers are cutting back. With a planned 128 aircraft, including a fleet of new Boeings being delivered in 2009, Garuda will have a much bigger Asia-Pacific footprint (and more planes to dispatch to Europe, once the EU ban is eventually lifted). They'll also have the wherewithal to muscle in on new routes like Denpasar-Adelaide and Surabaya-Hong Kong.

Savvy, or suicidal? As investing guru Warren Buffett is fond of saying, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." So though it seems clinically insane, maybe Garuda's going against the grain might actually be a stroke of genius.

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Relatives invited to Washington, DC bash Jan. 20

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Healthcare: Now sucking globally!

Posted by Internet at Every Where on 7:00 AM

One things that never fails to puzzle me: Americans' neocolonial attitude towards medical care in other countries.

To wit, a recent New York Times article on an intrepid reporter's medical adventure in Lombok, once she deigned to venture away from the luxe confines of the Oberoi hotel. When her husband suffered a fractured ankle after falling into a ditch, they contemplated a $120,000 airlift back to New York City, and ended up springing almost $10,000 for a first-class ticket back home for treatment by American doctors.

Now, come on. Anyone who's been to a U.S. emergency room knows that the situation here is just as horrendous as anywhere else. The few times I've been in one, have reinforced my desire to never get sick again, ever. They're all disasters. And first-class medical facilities in other countries, anywhere from Thailand to India to Singapore, are just as good - if not better - than the best American hospitals. In fact at some top-flight ones, you get Western-trained doctors, marble hallways, gourmet food and recuperation at a five-star resort, all for a fraction of the price.

So can we all stop assuming that the U.S. has the best medical care around? That is all.

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Top Indonesian bloggers announced

Posted by Internet at Every Where on 8:17 AM

To paraphrase the old E.F. Hutton commercial ... when Fatih Syuhud speaks, people listen. He's the reigning king of Indonesian bloggers, and he's just announced his top 10 bloggers for 2008.

Without further adieu, the lucky winners are: Nana Podungge, Tasa Nugraza Barley, Rima Fauzi, Primadonna Angela, Agni Amorita, Anita Carmencita, Muyla Amri, Deden Rukmana, Sherwin Tobing, and Dedi Sanusi.

Credit where credit is due, so many congrats to this year's top 10. And let's not forget past winners, who continue to dominate the field: Champion bloggers like Ong Hock Chuan, Enda Nasution, Jennie S. Bev, and Budi Putra. Together you're helping raise Indonesia's profile around the world.

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Series of quakes hit Papua
One reached 7.6 on the Richter scale

SBY leads in poll shock
Clobbering competition, including Megawati and Yogyakarta's Sultan

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The "Year of the Castrated Bull," indeed

Muchdi acquittal: Major human-rights setback
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Jakarta's alcohol shortage, pondered

Posted by Internet at Every Where on 6:11 AM

The Butterfly Effect holds that relatively small events often have unintended consequences, like a butterfly fluttering its wings in China leading to a hurricance in Florida.

A new real-life example of the theorem: Indonesia's recent alcohol shortage has caught the attention of one of the world's foremost economists.

University of Chicago prof Steven Levitt had a massive bestseller (three million copies) with his book Freakonomics, which sifted reams of data to come up with observations like the effect of legalized abortion on crime, the importance of word choice in selling real estate, and crunching numbers to discover cheating patterns in the world of sumo wrestling. (No, really.)

Anyhow, in a new post on his blog, he sets to thinking about Jakarta's alcohol shortage, caused in part by a crackdown on black-market importers, which is annoying non-Muslims and starting to have a very real effect on the tourism industry. The central question: Whether cutting down supply will actually have the opposite effect, in terms of making alcohol more desirable than ever (in the economics world, a so-called Giffin Good).

Like Prohibition in the U.S. in the 1930s, something scarce becomes even more valuable.

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