Week #1-07

I’ve a problem with my partner here. In Absentia. I probably should’ve expected that, with a name like that. Let all pray for his well being and imminent return.

Anyhow, let’s move on to the news items of the week.

Much of the news space in the last week are on the strings of recent disasters. The missing Adam Air plane is, well, still missing. Again, the inaptitude of the gov’t in handling this one was downright embarrassing. There were series of cock up that would be too embarrassing to repeat. The updates occupy much of the front page in newspapers for the last few days although there’s still very little to report on the fourth date.

The silly white haired minister first said they found the plane, then not. He also told journos that the radar in the area was broken as he was walking away from a press conference in the palace. Then he returned back unannounced and told everybody that the radar was actually okay and not broken.

I’m wondering why so much attention is paid to this missing plane while at the same time we’ve 600+ passengers in a sinking ship, also floating around in the sea. They continued to fish out survivors almost daily now but the media dedication to the sinking ship is nowhere comparable to the missing plane. Maybe because there’re only poor people on the boat and they should learn to swim anyway.

Frankly, I’m not sure why Hatta Radjasa – Transport Minister - is still up there, he should’ve been fired already.

Or at the very least, he should retreat back to his cave and die in shame.

Tempo ran the Microsoft – Indonesia MoU story. Once again, the cover story illustrates well the decline of this once great magazine. Generally speaking, most of our local papers aren’t very good in tech related issues but materials on Microsoft and open source issues are everywhere and they could’ve done with better research and at least some attempt at providing a fair and balanced view. I read quite a few of opinions written on the Indonesian blogs out there and they’re all much better than what Tempo is doing. It annoys me when a proper magazine can't even meet certain basic standard of good journalism. (i had my two cents, here)

The same edition also featured a slew of columns on Indonesian contemporary culture. As usual, the quality is much better when the magazine deals with the romantic sentiments that they love so much over there: the style on the select commentaries on outstanding Indonesian arts is a showcase on how the magazine is now really staffed with a bunch of people trying too hard to be Goenawan. Don’t take it wrong, GM is probably Indonesia’s finest writer these days, I’m just not so sure about an entire magazine trying to mimic him. Read the feature on Dewi Lestari and you’ll get what I mean.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs once again embarked in their annual screw up. The pilgrims aren’t getting their food, some 180,000 of them. They do Hajj pilgrimage anually, people save money – some for many years – just to do the once in a lifetime visit to the Holy Land, and one year after another, the incompetent officials find a new venue for another screw up.

With this sorts of horrid moments, it’s a wonder that many in SBY’s cabinet are still out there touting promises for 2007. In_absentia pointed out that if resignations were to be demanded from these tarred officials, then we would have no government left.

Everybody else in the government are busy with the annual outlook. Observers say 6%, while the ever optimist veep dared 7% growth for 2007. Meanwhile, Sri Mulyani snapped at reporters and told them to ask Mama Lauren the psychic for the expected annual growth.

Foreign Affairs Dept. From Iraq, Saddam went thru the trap door. Right on Eid Adha. America, of course, insists that they had nothing to do with the execution or the gory hanging footage. I was going to say something about it but so many people said it better already, here's Christopher Hitchens.

Last, from Africa, Ethiopia took a page direct from the US playbook and invaded next door neighbour Somalia. America then put their battleships on the coast line and said they needed to watch for escaping Al Qaeda elements. Do these people ever learn?

All in all, it’s a sad way to start a fresh calendar year. Proves the point that it is indeed, a year like any other.