Banksy's Powerful Message of Christmas

This is a very powerful 'Christmas card' from the English artist Banksy! If they lived today, Joseph and Mary would not be able to make it to Bethlehem to deliver Jesus due to the Israeli separation apartheid wall and its many checkpoints... How sad and ironic... 

More about this painting, Banksy and his artworks, read here.

Selamat jalan, Madiba Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela….

Rest in peace, Madiba Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela....Your life is your message of freedom, peaceful equality, courage, resilience, determination, tolerance, and wisdom… You are truly a rare one for the ages!

No Actions, Talks Only ---- 20 Years of Talks: Keeping Palestinians Occupied

20 Years of Talks: Keeping Palestinians Occupied | Visualizing Palestine

Bentley dan Keranda Besi

Bentley. Humvee. Ferrari.

Hebat sekali anggota-anggota dewan kita ini. Semuanya ada tak terkecuali, apalagi kok 'cuma' Mercy. Jangan tanya kalau hanya sekedar Harley. Dua tiga model terbaru berjejer rapi di garasi.

'Please deh jangan usik gaya hidup kami. Kalau memang bawaan kami dari dulu kaya, mau apa lagi? Kalau sudah dari asalnya perlente, apa kami mesti mendekilkan diri? Jangan suruh kami berpenampilan pura-pura miskin sehari-sehari. Itu tak sesuai dengan jiwa kami. Tolong dong orang miskin jangan sirik sekali. Ketua KPK juga kenapa nggak ngurusin diri sendiri?' Ujar si 'wakil rakyat' berapi-api penuh arogansi.

Ya Allah ya Gusti. Kutahu Kau benci orang-orang yang berjalan di muka bumi dengan mendongakkan dagu dan meninggikan hati. Ampunilah aku bila dalam keputusasaan aku sering berharap malaikat maut menjemput lebih cepat lagi mereka yang angkuh tak tahu menempatkan diri ini. Saat semua Bentley, Humvee dan Ferrari tak mampu memberi kenyamanan mereka lagi.

Saat kendaraan terbaik yang bisa membawa mereka hanya sebuah keranda besi. Lebih bagus sedikit keranda jati. Tapi tetap saja sempit, panas dan tak seanggun Bentley, segarang Humvee, atau sekencang sebuah Ferrari.

Saat seandainya mereka bisa bicara lagi, mereka akan meminta berlama-lama di dalamnya sepanjang memungkinkan sekali, sambil ditandu belasan kerabat dan famili.

Karna begitu jasad mereka diturunkan ke liang lahat penantian ke alam abadi, dan tanah dikuburkan di atasnya serta doa-doa diiringi tangis keluarga menghilang sayup-sayup ditelan gerak langkah kaki-kaki menjauhi, tak ada yang bisa dilakukan siapa pun juga lagi. Hanya sepi menemani, sendiri. Sempit dan makin menghimpit, panas menyiksa, lama sekali rasanya waktu berdetak dikala sakit mulai menyapa tak henti-henti di tengah gelap menghantui.

'Ya Tuhan, aku tak tahan siksaan ini sakit sekali. Kemanakah amal-amalku yang akan menemaniku di sini? Kemana mereka pergi?'

Kami, rakyat yang telah kau khianati, akan membantu menjawabmu kali ini: 'Tanyakan pada kamu punya Bentley, Humvee, dan Ferrari.'

Antara Percaya dan Tahu -- Dialog Haji Agus Salim dengan Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana

Belakangan ini makin mudah dijumpai orang-orang yg tergolong cerdas, berpengetahuan luas, dan berpikiran bebas mulai asyik bersikap sinis terhadap agama, sekali pun itu agama mereka sendiri. Mereka menjadi terlalu percaya diri dengan inteligensia dan kearifan diri mereka sendiri. Logika dan rasio menjadi acuan langkah mereka sehari-hari, termasuk dalam beribadah dan berhubungan dengan Sang Khaliq. Mereka melupakan bahwa keyakinan adalah bukan hanya mendahulukan 'tahu' tapi diawali dengan 'percaya,' atau kurang lebih seperti dibilang Voltaire: 'faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.'

Unsur 'percaya' yang dipermudah oleh adanya hidayah pelan-pelan tersingkirkan karena menurut mereka tidak memenuhi standar rasio dan logika manusia. Kemudian mereka mulai mempertanyakan ritual-ritual agama mereka sendiri, sekali pun sudah jelas tuntunannya dalam kitab Allah dan sunnah Rasul. Puasa Ramadan pun dikritik, ritual solat pun digugat, qurban pun disarankan untuk diganti dengan yang lebih 'manusiawi' menurut pemikiran mereka. Lalu semua ritual itu pun pelan-pelan mereka tinggalkan.

Setetes kecil tinta yg menempel di jari itu mulai berlagak di hadapan samudera tinta yang mengelilinginya tapi tak nampak di pelupuk matanya. Raga yang tak tahu kapan dia akan tak bernyawa dan berpisah dengan jiwanya itu mulai merasa lebih bijak dengan menafsirkan semua yang sudah tersurat dengan pengetahuan yang pas-pasan, berujung pada kesimpulan bahwa Sang Pencipta pastilah akan menerima semua manusia asalkan kita semua bersikap baik di dunia --- jadi apa gunanya agama dengan berbagai macam ritualnya?

Lakum dinukum waliya din. Bagimu agamamu, bagiku agamaku. Tapi begitu aku yakin dengan agamaku aku akan mengutamakan unsur 'percaya' di hadapan semua pengetahuanku.

Ada baiknya kita mengambil pelajaran dari dialog antara dua tokoh bijak dan cerdas di tanah air, Haji Agus Salim dan Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana. Keduanya adalah orang Minang, dan keduanya sangat terpelajar. Salim sendiri waktu itu sudah menjadi orang tua dan sudah pergi haji, selain juga tokoh Islam yang disegani. Sedang Takdir adalah seorang pemuda yang sangat mengagumi pemikiran renaisans Barat, dan kritis terhadap agama. Suatu saat Agus Salim digugat oleh Takdir.

“Saya heran melihat Pak Haji ini, mengapa kok masih sembahyang. Bagi saya sembahyang itu tidak masuk akal,” gugat Takdir.

“Maksud kamu bagaimana?,” tanya Haji Agus Salim.

“Ya, saya tidak mau terima sesuatu yang tidak masuk akal, yang tidak bisa dibuktikan.”

“Oh, begitu. Baik. Kamu kan orang Minang seperti saya, dan sekali-sekali kamu pulang ke Minang, kan?”

“Ya, memangnya kenapa?”

“Nah, kalau pulang kamu naik apa?”

“Naik kapal!”, jawab Takdir (waktu itu belum ada pesawat udara).

“Nah, kamu naik kapal itu sudah tidak konsisten, karena begitu kamu naik ke geladak kapal, maka yang lebih banyak berfungsi itu “percaya”, “bukan tahu”. Percaya bahwa kapal itu pergi ke Padang tidak belok ke Pontianak, percaya bahwa nanti mesinnya tidak macet, percaya bahwa kapal itu tidak pecah, atau karam, pokoknya semuanya percaya. Dan untuk itu semua kamu tidak menunggu sampai paham. Kalau kamu menunggu sampai paham, kamu harus pelajari dulu kapal itu, baru naik kapal, dan itu mustahil!”, kata Agus Salim kepada Takdir. Lalu dia lanjutkan lagi, “Kalau kamu konsisten dengan cara berpikir seperti itu, kalau mudik ke Minang itu harusnya kamu berenang. Dan mekanisme berenang itu belum tentu kamu pahami. Taruhlah kamu paham, nanti berenang menyeberangi Selat Sunda yang di situ terkenal sekali gelombangnya, dan nanti kamu akan diombang-ambingkan oleh gelombang laut. Pada waktu itu kamu perlu pegangan, dalam keadaan putus asa mencari pegangan, ranting pun kamu pegang. Untung kalau ketemu balok yang besar, yang bisa mengambangkan kamu, tapi kalau tidak, ranting pun kamu pegang.”

And the Awards Go To....

As the World Cup finished the elimination and Knockout 16 rounds and will enter quarter finals this Friday, I would be glad to hand these awards to the deserving teams/players:

Most Disappointing Teams: who else.... France and Italy!

Most Surprising Team: Japan

Most Resilient Teams: USA and Japan

Most Boring to Watch: Italy, except for the last 10 minutes against Slovakia...:-)

Most Exciting to Watch (and my favorite...): Argentina

Started Good, Ended as a Joke: North Korea

Team on the Rise: Uruguay

Highest Impact Players: Lionel Messi (Argentina), David Villa (Spain)

Most Overrated Players: T Henry (France), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Wayne Rooney (England)

Pak Boed

A suspicious mind always looks on the black side of things -- Publilius Syrus

Pribadi yang selama ini dikenal santun, sederhana, rendah hati, pendiam namun cerdas itu telah berubah menjadi sosok yang menakutkan. Dalam waktu setengah bulan berbagai atribut yang bertolak belakang muncul di bermacam media dan ditelan mentah-mentah oleh masyarakat, termasuk para mahasiswa yang senang mendapat bahan baru untuk demo dan protes mereka. Entah itu gelar sebagai antek Amerika, agen neoliberal (whatever it means), suruhan IMF, penjual aset negara ke Barat, kolaborator asing, dll. Para politisi sampai sekelas Gus Dur pun angkat bicara menghujatnya, beberapa ekonom termasuk kolega sendiri ikut mengecamnya, apalagi para 'analis politik dan ekonomi' yang mencari uang dengan menjual diri ke siapa yang mampu membeli lebih mahal untuk fitnah-fitnah, bias, opini tanpa fakta, dan 'analisis gathuk mathuk' mereka. 

Pribadi yang saya maksud di atas adalah siapa lagi kalau bukan Prof Dr. Boediono, Gubernur BI yang baru saja mengundurkan diri karena dipilih menjadi partner SBY di pemilu presiden sebentar lagi. Sosok yang saya beruntung pernah mengenalnya secara pribadi dan sempat berinteraksi sebatas sebagai mahasiswa FE UGM bertahun-tahun yang lalu. Saya ingat beliau adalah pribadi teladan dan langka di tengah persaingan materi dan segala macam bentuk 'jor-joran' yang menimpa hampir semua dosen di fakultas yang populer dan banyak 'obyekannya' seperti FE, FH, Teknik, dll. Santun, sederhana, tak banyak bicara jika tak perlu, ngemong, ngayomi, pendengar yang baik dan tidak pernah meremehkan pendapat orang lain. Pokoknya benar-benar pribadi yang teduh dan meneduhkan. Mungkin hanya almarhum pak Mubyarto yang selevel beliau dan pantas menjadi guru teladan di FE UGM sepanjang masa, tidak hanya dari segi keilmuan tapi juga kematangan serta keteladanan sikap positif yang layak menjadi contoh bagi setiap insan akademisi dan semua murid beliau.

Di FE UGM dulu beliau lebih dikenal dengan panggilan akrab pak Boed MEc untuk membedakan beliau dari pak Budiono lainnya, yaitu pak Budiono Sri Handoko (yang dulu dikenal sebagai penulis buku terbaik matematika ekonomi di Indonesia bersama pak Prof Herman Johannes almarhum -- Pengantar Matematika untuk Ekonomi terbitan LP3ES). M.Ec. adalah gelar master pak Boed sebelum beliau meraih Ph.D. nya dari sekolah prestisius di bidang ekonomi dan finance -- Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (dimana kemudian beliau terpilih sebagai salah satu Wharton's Influential People and Ideas di tahun 2007). Credentials beliau tidak hanya sebatas gelar akademi dari sekolah elite, tetapi juga produktivitas beliau di bidangnya termasuk karya tulis beliau berupa banyak buku ekonomi, termasuk buku-buku teks yang sangat populer karena mudah dicerna bahasa serta presentasinya, tanpa merendahkan kualitas subyek yang dibawakan. 

Oleh karena itu mengherankan sekali jika dalam waktu singkat media dan para pengamat begitu peduli untuk mendiskreditkan beliau. Why him and why now? Kenapa pada waktu beliau akan menjadi Menko Ekuin dan kemudian Gubernur BI semua media dan pengamat memuji prestasi, dedikasi, kebersihan dan kelurusan beliau --- berbeda 180% dibanding perlakuan terhadap beliau saat ini, hanya dalam waktu beberapa tahun saja? Bagaimana mungkin seorang ekonom sekaliber pak Boed dituduh menghamba ke ekonomi pasar bebas kreasi kapitalisme Barat dan membawa Indonesia ke dalamnya, sementara di masa pasca krisis ini justru negara-negara Barat malah mengetatkan pengawasan oleh negara serta kepemilikan negara dengan segala macam bentuk bail-outs, stimulus, stress-tests, kontrol yang super ketat, dll? 

Tanya juga kenapa sosok seorang jenderal yang jauh lebih high profile dibanding pak Boed dan yang berada dibalik pelanggaran HAM di masa lalu dan sekarang menjadi cawapres pula lepas dari investigasi semua pihak -- malah beberapa penjilat, termasuk seorang ekonom 'kagok' menghimbau masyarakat untuk melupakan masa lalu sang tokoh dan melihat masa depan yang dibawanya? Masa depan model apa? 

Agenda apakah yang sedang terjadi di kancah politik tanah air saat ini? Siapa mampu membayar semua bentuk publikasi media dan PR negatif serta kampanye penuh fitnah seperti ini. Sampai saya musti ketawa membaca kecaman lainnya terhadap pak Boed dari sisi lain. Beberapa politisi dan pengamat bertitah bahwa beliau 'kurang Islami' atau 'kurang mewakili umat Islam'.... Tunggu dulu, mungkin saya salah mengerti.... kita mencari calon wapres atau ketua MUI? Sejak kapan orang-orang ini pintar melihat dalam kalbu seseorang atas keislamannya dan memutuskan bahwa seseorang tidak cukup beriman dibanding yang lainnya. Pintar juga para pengecam ini menetapkan bahwa beliau tidak cukup islami dan membiarkan cawapres (dan capres) lain lepas dari tuduhan tak berdasar ini. Sejak kapan seorang pelanggar HAM lebih islami daripada pak Boed? Atau apakah seorang Wiranto yang selalu pakai peci terkesan lebih muslim karenanya dibanding pak Boed? Anyway, kalau memang pak Boed kurang islami kenapa perbankan syariah justru malah tumbuh pesat mulai kurun masa beliau menjadi Menko Ekuin?

Hanya dalam dunia politik negatif seperti demokrasi kita yang bebas tapi kebablasan ini seorang yang low profile, walk the talk dan lurus malah menjadi incaran hasutan, kecaman, hujatan dan tuduhan tak berdasar oleh para pengkritik yang bangun kesiangan. Yang jelas-jelas berdosa besar, penjilat, hipokrit, koruptor dan manipulator bisa tidur pulas dan melangkah lega bebas hambatan karena mereka bisa membeli PR yang mahal untuk memutarbalikkan fakta untuk kepentingan mereka. Berita ditutup dengan berita ditutup dengan berita ditutup dengan berita, dan lupalah masyarakat kita yang terkenal pendek daya ingatnya ini terhadap kebenaran sejati karena fakta telah berubah menjadi ilusi dan kebohongan menjadi santapan akhir di meja makan rakyat.

Pak Boed yang saya hormati, mudah-mudahan bapak selalu diberi kesabaran dalam menghadapi semua cobaan duniawi ini sebagaimana bapak telah berhasil melaluinya dengan baik sekali selama ini. Selamat berjuang untuk kebaikan negara, bangsa serta rakyat dan selamat bertugas!

Disclaimer: tulisan ini hanya mencoba meluruskan pemberitaan negatif terhadap pak Boed selama ini berdasar pengenalan saya mengenai beliau. Saya bukan simpatisan dan tidak pernah memilih Partai Demokrat serta tidak pula memilih SBY di pemilu lalu. 

PS. Tulisan positif mengenai pak Boed oleh ekonom Faisal Basri bisa dibaca di sini.

PS2. Facebook page-nya pak Boed bisa diakses di sini.

'Quantum of Solace': When Bond Shaking and Stirring Revenge and Duty...

This 22nd Bond movie picks up where Casino Royale left off. The action begins on the first second with car chase on the mountain-top roads somewhere in Italy, with Mr White -- the man behind the blackmail and suicide murder of Bond's lost love Vesper Lynd -- in the boot of his Aston Martin. Few minutes later he reveals to Bond and M that the mysterious Quantum organization behind Vesper's murder is far reaching and extremely complex as he points to the first surprise in the movie, an MI6 traitor. From there the plot moves fast and changes global locations swiftly, from Italy to London to Haiti to Austria and finally to Bolivia. The movements show high energy for a Bond-calibre adventure and look to be a promising flow for another great Bond movie... until and unless we think of its soul as not just another full action, spy movie, but a small part of legendary superspy-code-name-007 adventures. This is where it trails far behind its predecessors.

So it's no wonder to find people coming out from the cinema comparing James Bond with Jason Bourne. It doesn't help and is unavoidable that they now share the same editors in Richard Pearson and Dan Bradley. It would have been great if these guys had worked on Casino Royale earlier than Bourne series -- that would have made Bond a trendsetter instead of, uncharacteristically, a follower. But that's a huge if...

Thus to enjoy this movie we simply have to get rid of our high expectations after waiting a couple of years for a quality sequel to Casino Royale -- which now proves to be a tough act to follow.

It doesn't mean that this latest Bond installment is a total failure. It is far away from a bad movie at all. There is nothing awkward acting-wise or in the actions and dialogues. Daniel Craig is as convincing as the new Bond as in the prequel -- cold, smileless, humorless, brutal, emotional, and human... farewell to the old calm, cool, calculated Bond as displayed by Connery, Moore, and Brosnan. I am getting used to it and have no objection thanks to Craig's brilliant performance.

Judi Dench needs no introduction; she even plays a bigger part as M here and better than in Casino Royale. Olga Kurylenko is impressive as Bolivian agent Camille. French actor Mathieu Amalric qualifies as a good Bond nemesis, the billionaire environmentalist and Quantum mastermind Dominic Greene, who uses his campaigns to conceal his evil plan to control the world's natural resources and at the click of his finger is able to ruthlessly overthrow governments of developing countries for his organization's benefits.

Two characters from Casino Royale are probably wasted and could have been used more effectively: Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter and Giancarlo Giannini as retired Italian police René Mathis. However, a nice glimpse from old Bond flicks is shown by Gemma Arterton as MI6 agent Fields, who is sent by M to pick up Bond in Haiti after his license is revoked for his killing spree. The short fling provides the only light spark in the movie; all other parts are simply dark and brutal -- unfortunately this includes how Ms Fields' life ends up at the hand of sadistic Greene.

The actions on the global exotic locations are not disappointing: tire-screeching Aston Martin and Alfa Romeos car chase on the cliff-top of Italian mountain, rooftop bruising action at the same time with a huge Palio horse race event, boat chase in Haitian water, airplane dogfight in South America, shoot-outs and blow-outs in Bolivian desert... just name it, this movie has it all... it doesn't let us down...

There is no special gadgets from Q needed by Craig to survive, so I guess it removes a big burden for the director not to have to think of something new like ridiculously fantasized invisible car in one of Brosnan's Bond, for example. At least in Casino Royale Bond still relied on his Aston Martin to save his life when he was badly poisoned. But not in Quantum... all depend on Bond's skills and instincts. Which is better in one aspect -- there is (almost) no obvious product placements... I can't even remember if there is any...

The story line is however which makes me wondering if this movie is worthy of its own separate screening. Why not integrating it at the end of Casino? The idea of Bond sequel is in itself new one. Isn't it similar to Bourne 1-2-3?

Judge yourself if the plotline is engaging enough. Right after Bond successfully tracks and hunts down Mr White and bring him to M, they must deal with an MI6 traitor which leads them to a bank account in Haiti. There Bond meets Camille on a mistaken identity coincidence. Both later find out that they have common mission: vengeance. Bond is a very angry man losing his love of life to blackmail by Quantum. Camille is on track to retaliate against a Bolivian general on exile who murdered, raped, and burned her family during her childhood. Both leads to new, another mysterious mastermind, cruel Dominic Greene.

Bond mixes revenge and duty in this saga. He even manages to track down Vesper's old boyfriend who blackmailed her to betray Bond. But until the end of the story, when he left Dominic alone in the middle of Bolivian desert for his own organization to settle its score with another failed top man, just like when Mr White finished off Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, we are left with the fact that Quantum will remain exist. Bond only spoils a chapter on its many missions to topple governments in the world and control their resources. It's also unclear if Bond comes out of the saga as a man satisfied with his paid-off vengeance. He's probably convinced himself that for a woman to have serious relationship with 007 is bad for her own health. And so Vesper is no exception.

And not to ruin this story of Bond's lost love, vengeance and rage, the relationship between Bond and Camille is kept to professional side. It doesn't develop any further to create a special chemistry between both as Camille is shown initially as a tough woman who finally breaks down as a bit of cry baby upon her act of revenge and wonders what she desires after she completes her vendetta. They say goodbye to each other as Camille embarks on a train to nowhere and Bond is on to his next pursuit.

A sad, dark, brutal saga of lonely spies. Does it in any way remind us of characteristic ending of Bond stories?

In conclusion, it is a must-see spy action flick, but it is Bond going far too personal and I won't put it in the same league with past 007 movies. Oh, by the way, the theme song by Alicia Keys and Jack White, Another Way to Die, doesn't help either. Unlike previous Bond tunes, it lacks of soul, a Bond soul -- just like the disappearance of Bond's trademark intro: "Name's Bond, James Bond."

A Much Better Kiva

I wrote about Kiva almost a year ago. It was already a very efficient way to practice microcredit to very small-scale entrepreneurs across the globe. Now it has become much better and way so cool thanks to a big change they unleashed a couple of weeks ago with the new Partial Loan Repayments method to replace the full loan repayments. Lenders no longer need to wait until the entire loan is repaid before they can relend it to the long list of small businesses in need of fresh funds.

And this list turns so short and even most of the time it is hard to find those needing the loans. Loan requests are being funded very quickly thanks to sudden availability of credit funds from the partially repaid loans -- it was US $10 million when the historic change was unleashed! If you check the loan request page on Kiva, most likely you will find a similar screen above or at most you will only see a couple of loan requests --- which you will have to act fast to fund if you don't want to get beaten by other lenders eager to release their fund credits.

Check out KivaVision to see who's making loans on Kiva and on which parts of the world they come from. Currently a loan is made every 37 seconds... that is roughly $25 in a half minute, $3,000 in a hour, $72,000 a day, and more than $2.1 million a month...!!!

Imaginary Meal (Simple thing I learned from my son on how to tame our craving for food.. :-))

So many things to do, so little time -- and worse - no time at all for blogging. Hence the long hiatus on this journal...

To break the ice, here's a video clip of my lil' son Afif creatively trying to kill time and forget his tummy's craving for food while waiting for his kid's meal to arrive on a flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta few months ago.

How Unilever Palm Oil Suppliers Are Burning Up Borneo

Read this doc on Scribd: How Unilever Palm Oil Suppliers are Burning Up Borneo

Judul yang cukup dramatis dan sensasional di atas adalah laporan terbaru dari Greenpeace yang mereka keluarkan Senin minggu lalu, 21 April. Praktis berita ini langsung bikin gempar di Eropa tempat asal Unilever. Demo dilakukan para aktivis dan masyarakat di kantor-kantor maupun pabrik-pabrik Unilever di berbagai kota di Eropa. Media utama Eropa pun tak ada yang ketinggalan memberitakannya.

Tapi entah karena apa, studi yang seharusnya bakal langsung menarik perhatian pembaca ini lepas dari sorotan media utama Indonesia dan Malaysia. Sebagai gambaran mudahnya laporan ini menarik minat pembaca, laporan tersebut langsung menjadi featured article begitu di-upload ke Scribd dan sampai hari ke 3 sudah mendapat lebih dari 300 views.

Masyarakat di kedua negara yang tentunya setiap harinya tak lepas dari produk-produk Unilever seakan sengaja dibuat buta tuli dengan berita yang meski sebenarnya bukan hal sangat baru lagi namun karena kali ini membawa nama Unilever seharusnya impact-nya lebih terasa. Sudah cukup biasakah kita membaca atau mendengar tentang perusakan hutan tropis serta ekosistem fauna dan penurunan drastis populasi fauna liar dan langka termasuk orang utan sehingga media sebagai perantara fakta dan kebenaran take it for granted dan berita besar pun menjadi tidak layak muat lagi?

Hanya Kompas saja yang langsung memberitakannya di hari laporan itu keluar dengan judul yang juga mencolok, dan langsung juga dibantah kebenarannya oleh PR Unilever, meskipun menurut Greenpeace Unilever mengakui bahwa mereka tidak tahu dari mana 20% asal pasokan minyak kelapa sawit mereka. Media besar lain bungkam seakan hal ini bukan sesuatu yang layak diberitakan. Jakarta Post, TempoInteraktif, Republika, Media Indonesia, Detik..... semua sama saja.

Di Malaysia idem ditto. The New Straits Times tutup mulut, Star hanya memuatnya di berita kecil mengenai standar kelapa sawit 5 hari setelah laporan Greenpeace tersebut keluar. Hanya media berbahasa Melayu, Utusan Malaysia, yang memasang berita ini pada hari yang sama dengan Kompas tapi terkesan ragu dan sembunyi-sembunyi karena isinya tidak membicarakan mengenai isi laporan Greenpeace dan judulnya pun tidak menarik perhatian sama sekali.

Kenapa media di kedua negara ini seakan tidak berani menyiarkan studi yang seharusnya membukakan mata masyarakat tentang parahnya kerusakan hutan di Indonesia serta peran penting perusahaan-perusahaan besar di dalamnya? Sedemikian kuatkah Unilever sampai media Indonesia dan Malaysia sukarela membungkam diri sendiri?

Pembaca sekilas laporan yang sengaja memancing perhatian dengan nama Unilever di judulnya ini --- taktik mencari sensasi yang tidak jarang dipakai oleh Greenpeace terlepas dari aktivitas mereka yang sangat positif dan influential selama ini --- mungkin akan terkecoh dan menerima apa adanya bahwa Unilever-lah dalang semuanya. Pemerhati yang membaca sampai halaman akhir akan menemukan bahwa hal yang lebih besar sebenarnya terletak di kandungan laporan tersebut. Dengan kata lain, bukan Unilever-nya saja yang seharusnya menjadi fokus pembicaraan tetapi lebih dari itu, siapa saja sih para pemasok utama Unilever ini?

Ketujuh pemasok utama ini berdasar share mereka dalam pasar kelapa sawit Indonesia adalah Sinar Mas, Asian Agri, Astra Agro, Sime Darby, ADM-Kuok-Wilmar, Musim Mas, dan IOI. Ketiga terbesar pertama serta Musim Mas adalah raksasa bisnis kelapa sawit Indonesia -- Sinar Mas adalah perusahaan plantation kelapa sawit terbesar di Indonesia. Asian Agri adalah anak perusahaan Raja Garuda Mas milik Sukanto Tanoto. Sime Darby dan IOI adalah dua dari konglomerat terbesar di Malaysia --- Sime Darby adalah perusahaan plantation kelapa sawit terbesar di dunia! ADM-Kuok-Wilmar adalah kongsi perusahaan besar Amerika, Malaysia dan Singapura.

Sekali kita tahu siapa di belakang pasokan Unilever ini, nama Unilever menjadi berkurang signifikansinya karena raksasa-raksasa ini juga memasok ke Nestle, Carrefour, P&G, dll. Sebagian pasokan ini disalurkan lewat Cargill, trader kelapa sawit besar yang merupakan privately-owned company terbesar di dunia.

So, benarkah media Indonesia dan Malaysia sembunyi dari laporan ini karena nama besar para godzilla ini (dan apa pun bentuk implikasi yang muncul dari nama besar ini...)? Wallahualam... Mungkin benar kata pepatah... it requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious...

This Blog's Reading Level

While blogwalking, I found that enough buzz has been created around a simple blog test and people have jumped to try it to check out their blogs' readability level --- what level of education is needed to understand their blogs...

I had nothing to lose to try it and not too surprised to get the following result:



So, is it good or bad? Frankly, I had expected much below high school reading level. I am hoping whoever can read is able to digest easily what I write. I am sure I never use English words only those spelling bees have ever heard or tenses I only memorized for school exams years ago...

I tried out several samples and was feeling good that the same reading level was required to read Jakarta Post or NY Times for example. I should even be feeling much better to see that it takes a genius to read the English version of Tempo Interaktif. But then I realized that it even gave a rating for non-existing sites. So, don't take this tool too seriously...

If you want more comprehensive test for your blogs, try WebsiteGrader from HubSpot. This free SEO tool site measures the marketing effectiveness of a website, including its readibility level. To my delight, out of a grade of only 56/100 that I get for my blog, my blog's readibility level is merely elementary school level..! That's consistent with its G rating as well. For me, it can't be better than this...

Tuhan 1, Pak Harto 0

Setelah beberapa minggu di bulan Januari ini bergulat dengan ketidakpastian ujung hidupnya di tangan malaikat maut yang menunggu perintah akhir dari Sang Pencipta untuk menyudahi penderitaannya di dunia fana, akhirnya hari ini pak Harto kembali sepenuh nyawa, raga, amal dan dosanya menghadap kepada Yang Maha Adil, Sang Pemilik Alam Semesta.

Ketika raga meregang menahan sakit luar biasa melepas nyawa kembali kepada Yang Maha Kuasa, tak semestinya ada sesal dan sebal dari kita manusia yang ditinggalkannya yang merasa pengadilan buat pak Harto di dunia belum ditegakkan seadil-adilnya karena itu sama dengan mempertanyakan keputusan Tuhan. Karena pengadilan manusia oleh manusia lainnya, sekalipun andaikata ada 1000 pengadil yang disebut sebagai para Hakim Agung, tak akan pernah mencapai tingkatan adil yang sejati. Apalagi untuk pribadi sekompleks pak Harto dengan jasa-jasanya yang tidak bisa dipungkiri besarnya bagi negara, bangsa dan rakyat Indonesia. Demikian pula dengan kejahatan serta dosa-dosa beliau yang sayangnya peradilan di Indonesia telah gagal membuktikannya sampai akhir hayat beliau... sesulit menemukan segunung bangkai dan membuktikan kewujudannya meski mereka sendiri bisa mencium bau busuknya.

Hanya waktu yang akan menentukan bagaimana kita menempatkan pak Harto dalam bingkai sejarah bangsa dan mungkin dunia. Apakah beliau benar-benar salah satu putra terbaik bangsa ataukah beliau akan diingat sepanjang jaman dalam wacana sejarah sebagai pemimpin bertangan besi yang selalu tersenyum sementara tangan beliau penuh darah dan dosa khianat atas kepercayaan rakyat?

Untuk pendukung setia maupun mantan korban serta musuh pak Harto, perlu disadari bahwa jilid satu babak kehidupan beliau sudah selesai dan tidak bisa lagi ditulis ulang. Babak kedua yang berisi pengadilan sejati dan seadil-adilnya atas peran beliau di babak satu kehidupannya di dunia sedang dan hanya bisa ditulis oleh Sang Khalik. Tuhan tak pernah tidur, demikian pula para malaikat pencatat amal dan dosa suruhanNya. Juga neraca akhirat tak pernah perlu ditera ulang. Satu butir pasir halus amal akan tertulis rapi di rapor semua manusia, begitu pula satu atom dosa yang kasat mata manusia pasti akan tertangkap tinta merah pena malaikat pencatat.

Bagi yang merasa bahwa kematian telah meloloskan pak Harto dari pengadilan di dunia, ingatlah bahwa pengadilan di alam baka adalah yang paling sempurna keadilannya dan tidak ada yang bisa lepas darinya. Sementara yang sekarang berlomba mengantar tribut serta mencoba memperbaiki nama baik beliau, ingatlah bahwa semuanya tak akan ada gunanya. Hanya kemahabijakan Tuhan yang menentukan tempat akhir yang paling tepat untuk pak Harto... bukan dalam bingkai sejarah bangsa atau dunia yang fana semata, tapi dalam alam kekal yang wujud bersama kehadiranNya.

Selamat jalan pak Harto. Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi roojiuun...

Free and Easy Ways to Help Good Causes

Ever wondering how many clicks you do daily while you surf the internet? How many times do you try to find something using a search engine?

Would you feel better if while doing those routines you could actually help good causes in various parts of the world? If you think that's a good idea here are some fast, free (and perhaps fun) ways to contribute -- albeit in miniscule portion -- as a conscious citizen of the world.

1. Free donation by clicking

The Hunger Site and its five siblings (the Breast Cancer Site, the Child Health Site, the Literacy Site, the Rainforest Site, the Animal Rescue Site) are the oldest of its kinds as far as I remember. The sites are sponsored by many advertisers to fund their causes. It appears from their statements repeated in each of the sites that '100% of sponsor money goes to charity' or '100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners.' These partners are independent charitable organizations like Nature Conservancy or MercyCorps and several others.

Another site which gives free donation on your behalf when you click on it is Ripple. It has four buttons to click: to help for access to clean water, to fight poverty, to educate people, and to finance a microcredit. Sponsors include Oxfam and Grameen Foundation, the pioneer of microcredit concept introduced by Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel laureate. To learn more about microcredit read this and this wiki.

Care2 is perhaps the largest online community with common objective of helping the planet Earth. It currently has more than 7 million members with various activities and campaigns in protecting the environment, improving health and caring for human rights. The website has 11 click-to-donate buttons for us to supports the causes for free. You need to sign up to become Care2 member if you want to keep track of your cumulative impacts.

2. Free donation by searching the internet

Using a search engine like Google or Yahoo to find resources in the net is something natural that we do in our surfing activities. Wouldn't we feel much more excited if we can change that routine as another way of helping a charity? If you agree you'd better check GoodSearch, a search engine (powered by Yahoo!) which donates 50 percents of its revenues to charities and schools. Users can designate charity of their own choice from the long list of organizations and schools. They can even propose for a new charity to be added to the list.

If you can get away from Google and start trusting Yahoo! you should find this alternative worthwhile to try or even to make as your default search engine.

3. Donate free rice by playing vocabulary game

I was not too convinced with an idea of giving 10 grains of rice for each word I get right in a vocabulary game. How many grains would it take to make a bowl or plate of rice? But as I am normally addicted to word games, spending few minutes on the site has been a worthwhile time-waster alternative.

This site has been operating since early October 2007 and donating more than 100 million of grains of rice daily to the United Nations World Food Program for cumulative of almost 4 billion of grains of rice as of today! I am not sure how FreeRice will match these numbers in terms of tons or kilograms...

If you want to go one step further, practicing microcredit by giving loans to small business entrepreneurs in the developing world -- from Indonesia to Tanzania to Ukraine -- is a viable alternative. In this scenario, Kiva is a site worth visiting. It lets you connect one-to-one with small businesses in the developing world which needs low/no-cost microfinancing to advance their activities. Kiva partners with microfinance insitutions all over the world to reach its goals.

The process flow works like in this diagram (taken from Kiva's website):

How To Back Up Your Blog

You've been working hard on your blogs... brainstorming for ideas, spending hours doing the research, compiling your thoughts, and polishing your words... Surely you don't want all those efforts wasted due to unexpected circumstances like crashes, hacks, etc. Bad things do happen and they rarely let you know in advance. So set aside few of your precious minutes to get prepared for them by backing up your blogs.

Fortunately there are several free, fast and easy ways to do so. Here are what I have done so far to have a peace of mind.

1. If you use Blogger the easiest way comes with its setting.

You can activate the back up by email each time you publish new entry by entering your email in the BlogSend Address inside Email tab on your blogspot setting.

2. Use BlogBackUpOnline

This web-based back up is my favorite so far. You just need to sign up and add your blogs to the its dashboard. You can add as many blogs that you have but the quota on the free account only allows up to 50 MB of storage. To give an illustration, the current size of this blog you are reading only takes less than 1 MB of storage on their server.

You can have full back up once you have added your blogs to the list and then daily backups on scheduled time (that you can set) will back up new and modified entries.

This site also gives you an option to export the backups to your own computer.

3. Use Blogger Backup Utility freeware

This freeware from CodePlex provides a viable alternative to back up your blogs. The setting is straightforward: add your blogs, select drive location on your computer to save the XML files, save all entries as one file or one file for each post, etc. The only obvious difference with backing up using BlogBackUpOnline is that you have to do it manually... no automatic backup at scheduled time.

4. The last alternative works if your blog is hosted on new version of Blogger. I found this simple approach in an unofficial website about Google operating system. You can either display all your blog entries on the original format:
http://blogname.blogspot.com/search?max-results=1000

or on the XML feed format:
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=1000

And to back up your comments:
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?max-results=1000

The number '1000' reflects the max number of posts you want to display. You can check the current number of your blog posts on the blog dashboard.

You can then save the output of either approach above to your computer. If you are more paranoid than most people, you can proceed further to Furl it to save them online for your back up of backups.

The Sweetest Music to My Ear...:-)

Catch the Rainbow

We believed we'd catch the rainbow
Ride the wind to the sun
Sail away on ships of wonder
But life's not a wheel
With chains made of steel
So bless me come the dawn
Come the dawn

(Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow -- Catch the Rainbow, 1975)



It'd been a long while since the last time I saw a rainbow... until 2 days ago, near my house -- exactly on my dearest wife's birthday...!


PS. If you'd like to enjoy the complete song click on the widget below...

Catch-the-Rainbow....

...and here's the full lyrics...


- Rainbow Lyrics

Illogical Logic (Tentang 'Rasa Sayange')

Gambang Suling. Soleram. Apuse. Ampar-ampar Pisang. Bubuy Bulan. Gundhul Pacul. Manuk Dadali. Sing Sing So. Tanduk Majeng. Yamko Rambe Yamko. Butet.

Siapa yang tak kenal mereka? Itu semua hanya sebagian kecil dari banyak sekali lagu daerah yang sangat familiar di telinga kita, termasuk tentu saja Rasa Sayange yang sekarang jadi hit antarbangsa Indonesia - Malaysia. Kalau pun kita tak hafal lirik mereka, tune-nya tak akan pernah lepas dari ingatan kita. Indahnya lahir dan besar di negara yang kaya budaya seperti Indonesia...

But wait.... Jangan heran kalau menyusul saudara mereka Rasa Sayange, lagu-lagu tersebut mungkin akan bisa ditemui di iklan Petronas, AirAsia dan perusahaan-perusahaan Malaysia lainnya. Wow... kok bisa?

Sabar, jangan keburu emosi... it takes a HUGE IF untuk bisa terjadi... yaitu kalau saudara-saudara kita di Malaysia berpikiran dan berlogika deduktif induktif yang sama dengan M. Veera Pandiyan, penulis aktif dan editor salah satu media Malaysia yang biasanya cukup cerdas dalam tulisan-tulisannya... But not this time...

Dalam tulisannya di koran terbesar di Malaysia, The Star, tersebut, Veera menunjukkan kalau dia perlu refresher course Logics 101. See below kutipan dari tulisannya:

But most Indonesians don’t realise that Malays, who make up the majority of Malaysians in the peninsula, are not “Malay” as in the context of people from the Riau province on the eastern side of Sumatra, which include Batam, Bintan and some 3,200 other islands.

Not many also know that under our Constitution, a Malay is a political rather than ethnic definition – a person who practises the customs and culture of the Malays, speaks the language and is a Muslim.

So, based on ethnic considerations, the majority of Malaysians are in essence Javanese, Bugis, Banjarese, Acehnese, Minangkabaus, Bataks, Makarese, Malukus, Sunda, Bawean, in addition to the Malays from the Riau region.

The roots of these diverse groups are so deep that the languages, dialects and patois are still spoken in enclaves.

So, is it really such a big deal if they consider their ancient folk songs as part of a shared heritage?

So, bersiap-siaplah penggemar dan pemilik lagu-lagu daerah-daerah yang sudah disebut Veera di atas... Menurut Veera adalah sah-sah aja mengklaim kepemilikan bersama lagu-lagu daerah tersebut dan bahkan menggunakannya untuk iklan komersial perusahaan-perusahaan Malaysia karena nenek moyang Malaysia kan juga berasal dari suku-suku di Indonesia... Ok, paling tidak Yamko Rambe Yamko boleh merasa aman karena orang-orang Irian nggak pernah make up majority of Malaysians...:-)

Seandainya logika ngawur ini dituruti, bukan hanya lagu-lagu daerah Indonesia yang aman dari klaim tetangga dekat kita ini... Nantinya makanan dan minuman daerah dari mulai rendang, gudeg, ketoprak, empek-empek, bandrek, dll dengan mudah bisa diklaim sharing kepemilikannya dengan tetangga serumpun ini... Belum lagi pakaian daerah, alat musik (misalnya angklung sudah mulai ditampilkan dengan bangganya di salah satu lokasi turis utama di KL seakan milik mereka...), musik daerah juga, tarian daerah, dan masih banyak lagi pernik-pernik budaya luhur kita...

Mudah-mudahan saudara-saudara kita di Malaysia tidak sengawur Veera dalam bernalar...

Seakan masih belum puas dengan pembelaan dirinya soal Rasa Sayange, Veera lebih jauh lagi menyerang Indonesia dengan argumentasinya mengenai pemakaian simbol-simbol Hindu dalam kehidupan sehari-hari di tanah air:

For example, would it be fair to argue that many aspects of Indonesia's heritage – like its ever-present symbol of Garuda, the imposing statues of Ganesha or Bhima which stand outside buildings, or the majestic sculpture of horses pulling Arjuna’s chariot in the middle of Jakarta – belong to Hinduism and India?

Mungkin kita perlu menyadarkan beliau bahwa berbeda dengan kasus Rasa Sayange, kita tidak pernah mengklaim ownership terhadap Ganesha, Bima, Garuda, Arjuna, dll itu... Bahkan kita tidak pernah meng-hak-i kepemilikan bersama simbol-simbol tersebut berdasar asal usul nenek moyang kita... Kita tetap dengan gentleman menyebutkan asal-usul mereka dari budaya Hindu atau India... Veera, just look into the Indonesian school textbooks before you ever make such an erroneous and misleading statement.... And please never try to impose superiority on your writings by putting the following line:

Just how would Indonesians feel if they were accused of “stealing” from India’s much richer cultural heritage? (emphasis from me...)

Mungkin Veera perlu kursus singkat mengenai cultural study atau antropologi... adalah tabu membandingkan keluhuran budaya satu bangsa dengan bangsa lainnya, selain juga nggak ada metrics-nya, dan tidak sepantasnya seorang penulis profesional mengangkat hal ini...

Veera, I know that as an Indian you are very proud of your culture... But how far do you know about Indonesian cultural heritage aside from its Indian influences and symbols? And how do you measure a culture's 'quality' and richness in comparison to the others? All Indonesians admired Indian arts and cultures. They are undoubtedly among the finest on earth... but you should know that even a bit of arrogance and too much of self-pride will only spread taints on it instead of elevating it as a culture is created by and reflection of the people who live through, preserve and protect it...

Day 9 & 10: Survived 'the Loneliest Road in America'

Day 9: 3 April 2007

Leaving small town of Hurricane in Utah, we had to deal with a small problem... decision... Life is about making choices... this one was no exception.

We could go as planned to Las Vegas -- which was only 2 hours away (see map above) -- and enjoy its beautiful lights, glamorous night life, cheap delicious buffet dinner, and maybe spend few small changes for fun in the casinos.... And then California would be close from there... It would all be easy drive from now on if we decided to take this direction...

But wait a minute... it's only the 9th day... we still had 5 days to go... we could have much more fun than spending a dull night in LV and drive easy way to southern California! My wife and I had been to LV before and didn't find it worth returning to, and my kids would not be allowed to enter the places anyway... so why even bother stopping by...

So in a flash we crafted the idea of going up north and followed the road less travelled. More precisely and extremely, it's actually the road LEAST travelled.... Nevada's Highway 50, dubbed 'The Loneliest Road in America,' spanning for 400 miles from town of Ely to Fernley, with not much life along the way. For more details on this historic road, see this and this.

So today we were kind of relax and preparing our physical and mental for this trip to long solitude. We drove only 180 miles for the day to small town of Nephi, Utah. We stopped by a small historic fort called Cove Fort and took a free tour inside this small fort built by the Mormons to provide protection and refreshment to travelers to the Wild West during mid 19th century. By 4.30 pm we already checked in a Nephi hotel (a very nice Best Western Inn). My kids had a chance to spend much time in the playground. I was so sure they must have really enjoyed the break from routine go-out-morning, check-in-the-hotel-at-night for the past eight days.


Day 10: 4 April 2007

We were a bit nervous starting the day, imagining driving hundreds of miles thru open spaces, some high elevation passes, ghost towns, and few quiet towns, with not much life, traffic, rest areas, and things to see and enjoy, and got to get out of this long loneliness before the night became too late... let alone with two small kids...It was more than 200 miles from Nephi in Utah to Ely in Nevada. As we got closer to Ely, where the loneliness was supposed to start, the intensity of life along the road was indeed sharply diminishing... It began a bit early, about 50 miles from where we started in Nephi on the town of Delta... Not much life was found between Delta to Ely for 150 miles, but there were still some cars driving in the same or opposite direction with us... making us feel good that we had companies... But as we reached Ely, the solitude had begun...

Ely was said as the largest town in eastern Nevada, but to me it looked like a small town with only one main road passing its downtown. Ely is the closest town to Great Basin National Park. This historic town had some casinos. It had a train museum and there was a tour on its Ghost Train.

We picked up 'the Survival Guide to the Loneliest Road in America' in the tourism (Chamber of Commerce) counter located in one of the historic casinos. It's nothing more than a passport-size notebook with brief history of Highway 50 and description of the five towns along the way. At the back of this 'passport' there is a place where we are expected to get it stamped at these five towns. Once completed we can send it to Nevada Tourism office to get the survival certificate signed by the Nevada Governor, a pin, and a bumper sticker. Those are the proofs that the holder has passed the test of long loneliness and boredom on 'uninteresting and empty' 400-mile Nevada's Hwy 50.

We didn't spend too much time in Ely. We headed west 75 miles to the next town, Eureka, an old mining town. This town was also very quiet, but more peaceful than Ely without the sounds of the slot machines. Some old buildings were still standing. The old opera house and courthouse were located on the main street. The Eureka Sentinel Museum where we got our survival cards stamped used to be the office of local newspaper with the same name. All these old buildings were dated 1879.

Continuing our drive 70 miles to the west we reached smaller town of Austin, said to be named after Austin in Texas. Several miles on the way to Austin we found some signs showing what more than a century ago were the Pony Express trails, the mail service carried by the horse riders (instead of stagecoach) across continent. I couldn't imagine the challenges that these riders had to deal with during the time, the Wild West era. Speed riding the long, rough, quiet terrains and route alone with their horse only as their trusted friend, with so many obstacles which could cost their lives, was certainly not a career path for everyone. For more details on the history of the Pony Express, see this and this.

Austin is smaller compared to Ely and Eureka, but when we got there we felt that it was more lively yet peaceful. We stopped by a small cafe and had very delicious milk shake. Some locals in this town flocked in the cafe and can be seen on the streets, unlike in Eureka which was a bit larger but very quiet. I also read that Austin was one of Central Nevada's most popular mountain-biking areas as this served as gateway to the nearby Toiyabe Mountains.

Half an hour later we continued to what people said as the loneliest and most boring part of Hwy 50, a 110-mile route to the next town, Fallon. We didn't see much difference with previous parts of this highway. Same loneliness, same empty and open spaces, but not really made us bored. One of few objects located along the way, which we skipped due to time, was Sand Mountain, which was popular for ATV riders.

Once we reached Fallon, we felt right away that this was the end of the loneliness. This town was the largest of all five main towns along the highway, and definitely the liveliest. Farms and ranches were found on the outskirt and around the town. The Top Gun school, featured in Tom Cruise's early movie with the same title, was located here. Fallon was also one of Nevada's premier bird-watching areas. All these have drawn people to come, stay and would never make Fallon fit into the category of a lonely place.

Twenty seven miles to the west was the last town on the west listed on the Survival Kit, Fernley. It was just a regular road trip town with plenty of roadside motels, casinos, restaurants and gas stations. We reached this town slightly after dark. We felt that we still had extra energy to reach the next bigger city to stay overnight, Reno -- 35 more miles from Fernley -- so we just passed Fernley, of course after we got our 'passports' stamped. Around an hour later we already checked in a motel in Reno, feeling so relieved and proud that we had passed and survived the long test of loneliness, boredom and driving endurance. It was a heck of endurance test as we drove 540 miles for the day, the longest on a single day during our trip. We had now easily passed 3,000 milestone for the total mileage of our road trip.

So now you are probably wondering whether Hwy 50 is really very lonely. I would not say 'I would say so....' as fortunately we decided to take simple statistics when we got to Ely, the gateway to the loneliness from the east side of Nevada. We counted the number of vehicles that we met, either same direction with us (from east to west) or the opposite direction from Ely to Fallon. The tally was not surprising and only confirmed the validity of this highway as the loneliest road in America.

The total vehicles that we met from opposite direction from Ely to Fallon were 63 vehicles and 1 bike (very courageous biker!). That means we met a different vehicle from opposite direction once every 6 miles!

But that was nothing compared to the number of vehicles running in the same direction with us from Ely to Fallon. We counted very carefully and there were only 20 different vehicles going with us along 400 miles. That means we met a new fellow traveler only every 20 miles!!!

Ok, so it was really lonely there... but was it 'uninteresting and empty' as Life magazine claimed in 1986, which then made this road widely known and promoted as 'the loneliest road in America'? I think it depends on what type of traveler we are. The real adventurer would love to explore every details of the road and visit all objects along the way. There are many things to enjoy within 400 mile besides the five towns, like Lehman Cave, Charcoal Ovens State Park, Toiyabe Mountains, Great Basin National Park, Grimes Point/Hidden Cave -- an archaeological site housing many prehistoric Indian artifacts and petroglyphs --, Pony Express trails, sites and remains, and also some ghost towns. Definitely an interesting place for real adventurer....

For family travelers like us, we would love to come back and explore further someday in the future. But for now, we could not hide our pride of surviving the loneliness while enduring the physical driving test on this most infamous road in America, not to mention that we brought with us two brave little boys -- whom we were really proud of for their patience, cheerfulness, understanding, and strength during the trip.... they were just cool....

To see the slide show of some pictures I took along the Highway 50 please check this out.

Day 7 & 8: Tour De Rocks...

.... or to be more precise, these two days were literally the Tour de Canyons and Cliffs. That's it, all were about rocks...

Day 7: 1 April 2007

We left from Flagstaff in the morning and headed north 70 miles on road 180 to the main entrance of Grand Canyon in the south rim. It was a two-lane road passing the pine forest, with elks, deers and foxes were visible all the way to Grand Canyon. Traces of snow were still found in higher parts of the forest.

We started like most tourists, directly going to the south rim and walked or drove from point to point. This was my third trip here (and second for my wife and first for my kids) but we seemed couldn't get enough of it, although we still limited ourselves to 'beginner's trip'; we didn't go backpacking from point to point or took an arranged tour down to the Indian Reservation. Its beauty and grandness stood there having passed millions of years of changes in the earth. Really spectacular... it just shows that we as human beings are so tiny and vulnerable on the face of the earth and the universe, let alone before its Creator...


From the south rim we drove 40 miles to the east rim onto its main point, the Watch Tower or Desert View. The view was no less breathtaking, especially since it was almost sunset when we got there.

Just slightly before the sundown, we decided to go up north to the nearest small town to stay overnight. We took Hwy 64 and unexpectedly found scenic views of Little Colorado River Gorge almost all the way 60 miles on this road. Extremely beautiful... This is probably one of the littlest known of the most scenic byways. Only very few cars were ahead or behind us. However, some empty Indian markets were found on the roadside. They were probably open during the day.

Exit from Hwy 64 we entered Hwy 89 seventy miles on the way to small town of Page in north Arizona, close to the border with Utah. The views must have also been wonderful, but it was too dark for us to enjoy.

Total drive of the day: 230 miles.

Below is slideshow of the pics of Grand Canyon and vicinity. All I can say is that some or most of them probably don't do justice to the grandness and beauty of the Grand Canyon, especially as it was difficult to take nice pictures and produce natural colors with regular digicams (Canon S3 and Sony Cybershot) during high noon under the bright sun. Some of the better pictures were taken when it was almost sunset in East Rim of the Grand Canyon. Please also note that it looks like Slide.com reduces the quality of the uploaded pictures for its Flash slide (it's free service anyway... how far should I expect from them?)

Note 06/10/2007: I had to remove the slide show as it was a memory hog. To see it on the Slide server please check this out.


Day 8: 2 April 2007

Town of Page is small, quiet, not close to major cities, but very worthwhile to visit. It is home of the huge Glen Canyon Dam, one of the biggest dams in the US. As in its name, this dam is located in the Glen Canyon National Park, another marvelous canyon. Page is also close to Lake Powell, the second largest man-made lake in the US.

Finished with the visit to the Dam and appreciated the beauty of the canyon and Lake Powell (from a scenic point named Wahweab) we continued our drive on the highway 89 to the west. In a short drive we already entered the state of Utah ('the people of the mountains' in Ute Indian language). The scenic views of Grand Staircase-Escalante mountains were accompanying us until we turned to small byway road 9 which passed through Zion National Park, our next destination.

Frankly, I was actually almost tired of all these rocks though very much loved their natural beauty... Almost 2 full days of only rocks and I am not a geologist to begin with...:-) But then again I was becoming speechless as we got closer to Zion... The soaring towers, monoliths and cliffs ahead, left, right and behind us as we passed through it were so amazing... Unlike Grand Canyon, the beauty of which we appreciated from the top looking down the canyon, in Zion we were really 'inside' and became part of it. We were so miniscule being surrounded by the grandeur of the massive walls of millions of years of rock formation. The feeling was different... we were so powerless down there... It's a complete submission to the nature and the Almighty....

We took the shuttle tour to half of all the points as it was getting dark close to the sunset. Wild turkeys were seen along the road and on trees after dark. We then headed to the town of Hurricane, 30 miles from the park, and we stayed overnight there.

Total drive of the day: 140 miles.