Pesta Blogger 2008 Indonesia, I wuz there!

I finally made it to the venue, BPPT Jl. Thamrin at about 11.20am where the event was held. Of course I was late after my mobile phone alarm rang earlier in the morning and I guess the snoozing bit was better.

Getting in was easy enough after finding Mbak Pasha with whom Unspun left my invitation ticket. I must admit that I can feel a sense of camaraderie among the bloggers as I walked by. With my eagle eyes scanning the auditorium, it was easy enough for me to spot Unspun. I moved over next to him seated behind YB Jeff Ooi and the other 4 invited foreign bloggers.

My first encounter with YB Jeff Ooi was indeed a pleasant one. Being Penangites, we clicked immediately. We chatted a bit despite Jeff being busy with his LG hand-phone text messaging.

In the course of our conversation, I managed to give him my 2 rupiah worth of opinion about the development projects that falls in the heritage zone of Penang. I opined that it is imperative that the heritage status must be protected at all cost and I am sure all Penangites like me will support the PR government to protect it. “The inflow of development funds will be good for the island but not at the expense of the status, do not be penny wise and pound foolish” I said.

The key difference between Indonesia and Malaysia about blogging is that the Indonesian government fully engaged and encouraged bloggers where not 1 but 3 Ministers were there to address them. This goes to show how far and matured the Indonesian have come in the democratic process and freedom of “responsible” speech in just 10 years after the new order regime. While in Malaysia, we still have Ministers who are the exact opposite and still in the slumber mode (…just like me this morning perhaps… ☺)

For this, Indonesia 1, Malaysia 0

Anyway, I did not stay very long and disappeared by about 2ish.

Pesta Blogger 2008

It's already 9.57am on Pesta Blogger day in Jakarta and yet I am still at home. As usual, wait until the very last minute to check at pestablogger blog for information and found out that the event is on until 5.30pm with lots of talk, interaction etc.

Better move my butt and go over to BPPT now, as I just finished smsing with Pak Ong since I am oh his invite list.

Looking forward to meet up with YB Jeff Ooi too.

Have a good laugh

Wakakakaka :)

Globalization Insights

Came across this video from http://diskopi.wordpress.com/ titled "The New Rulers of The World" on the pros and cons of globalization and the hidden hands behind the economic power house and the profound effects and implications it created for Indonesia.

The bottom line is that the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer. What a world we live in.

Go to the link. It is a must watch video.

There goes my EPF savings

Damn, they are going to use the little money that I have left in my EPF for my retirement in a stock broking company. Why is the government toying around with my money? EPF itself has an investment team who has been doing a pretty decent job investing my money giving me between 5% to 8% yearly interest returns. I have no complaint about that.

But when the government is using my EPF money to put into some 'not transparent' company with the shareholders apparently owned by the government themselves, then I have a big problem.

If ValueCap is so good with their investments promising better returns, why take EPF money? take Petronas money lah. Being ignorant about stocks and investment, this deal certainly smells fishy.

Damn it!

If only I can withdraw all my EPF savings now, you bet, I will do so.

Old 1,200 square meter house selling for US15 million

It’s amazing, the house where the newly elect US President used to stay as a kid while in Indonesia was offered by several buyers for about US15 million, 5 times above the market price.

It was reported 6 months prior to the US election, there were several foreigners who are interested to buy the property on the condition that Barrack Obama wins the US presidential election. Amongst them are representatives for businessman in the US and Holland with the US Embassy in Indonesia joining in the bid 1 month before the US election was held as highlighted in Kompas.

However it was so unfortunate that the owner, Bapak Tata Aboe Bakar Soerono passed away just before the US election at the age of 78.

Till now, there wasn’t any news whether or not the deal was sealed or otherwise.

Abused of authority, power or what?

Grab this from NST online today, Nov 11, 2008.


Is the Home Minister saying (Police work is police work) and that is to be brutal by charging and bashing upon innocent people?
Isn’t the police being disrespectful of the country and King when they moved in to disrupt and brutalized the people while singing the national anthem?

As far as I am concerned after watching the videos in youtube and photos in some of the blogs, the Home Minister, IGP and the state police chief can say whatever they want, in my books, they are guilty as hell! They are just like little boys playing ‘masak-masak’ with the little girls and can’t ‘own up' to their mistakes.

Now, can I really depend on the Malaysian Police to protect and serve ordinary folks like you and me?

Either way, the “rakyat rugi” big time with the current bunch of so-called man in blue. Sad but true!

What's your perception?

Grab this image from Zorro-unmasked.

Now if Ku Li did not pay a single RM and can only secure 1 vote from his own division, what does this imply?

How ironic that the UMNO President and PM designate will be decided by just 191 division heads! What a 'pow wow' demoCRAZY concept!

Sickening, isn't it?