Posted in Photography, Travels on February 26th, 2013 No Comments »
Prior to traveling to Java, I had never seen a volcano before. And I am happy to write that the first ever volcano I saw with my very own naked eyes were the mythical Mount Merbabu and its twin, Merapi on my early morning approach to Yogyakarta in Central Java. I actually got to the [...]
Posted in Photography, Travels on January 28th, 2013 1 Comment »
I have finally made it to Borobudur last December. At last, it was something concrete to back up all that I have learned about the Sailendras and Srivijaya. There it was, a concrete proof in the form of one of the largest Buddhist structures in the world, standing right in front of me. I do [...]
Posted in Society on January 18th, 2013 2 Comments »
I have two related conversations to share. The first happened in a cab in Sydney and the other happened over lunch in Jakarta. Combined, the conversations are possibly a testament of the future importance of the Malay language. The first conservation was not really a conversation. The cab driver, who was probably in his 40s [...]
Posted in Photography, Travels on January 16th, 2013 No Comments »
As I wrote earlier, I was in Java for more or less three weeks. After Jakarta, I took the train to Yogyakarta. Indeed, I traveled from Jakarta to Bali mostly by train. The journey to Yogyakarta took about 9 hours. The rain made the journey longer than it should. I must say, I like Yogya, [...]
Posted in Photography, Travels on January 14th, 2013 1 Comment »
And so, I was in Jakarta in the middle of December, where I began my backpacking trip across Java for three weeks. From Jakarta, I took an overnight train journey to the cheery Yogyakarta, from there on a night in Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya and then a more than 12 hours journey to Bali [...]
Posted in Economics on January 9th, 2013 No Comments »
I learned a few things in Indonesia. One of them involved the discussion of cutting down the zeroes in the Indonesian bills. Prices of goods and services will be adjusted accordingly as well. Right now, the Indonesian currency the rupiah is denominated in the thousands and it is quite common to round up any price [...]
Posted in Economics on December 10th, 2012 2 Comments »
Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia, has been introducing several new institutional frameworks and rulings in the Indonesian economy. I suppose, that signifies that rate of reform in Indonesia. One is the introduction of a trust fund. It is established to encourage Indonesian firms with earnings from abroad to keep it in Indonesia, at [...]
Posted in ASEAN, Conflict & disaster, Politics & government on July 1st, 2010 1 Comment »
The University hosted President Jose Ramos Horta of East Timor recently and I was lucky enough to get a seat for his speech. After Joseph Stiglitz, the President is the second ever Nobel Prize winner that I have had the opportunity to listen to first hand. The speech was interesting, but it was not a [...]
Posted in ASEAN on October 5th, 2009 No Comments »
The very silly spat between Malaysia and Indonesia is a huge disappointment for regionalists who dream to repeat the European experiment of closer integration in Southeast Asia. It may be silly but it has dire ramifications to regionalism in the region. Even if one is not a regionalist but simply a citizen of either country [...]
Posted in ASEAN, Conflict & disaster on September 18th, 2009 No Comments »
Death is always unpleasant for life is always too precious to waste. Hence, I greet the death of Noordin Mohammed Top with a kind of bitter sweet feeling. Part of me regretted it while the other half is happy to learn that regional terrorist network has lost an important figurehead.[1] His ideal is disagreeable and [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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