12 Sept 2017

Yang Tidak Diberitahu ke Kamu Tentang Beasiswa CSC (Cina)

Orang-orang Indonesia berborongan berebutan beasiswa belajar keluar negeri, tapi apa udah tau peraturan, tanggung jawab, konsekuensi dan reward saat dan setelah mendapat beasiswa? Yang saya akan beberkan adalah beasiswa ke negeri Tiongkok. Sebenernya beasiswa ke Tiongkok macam-macam, ada Chinese government (CSC), Province scholarship, Confucius, dll. Tapi karena pernah ngalamin CSC, jadi mostly ini untuk yang pengejar CSC, tapi ada beberapa yang berlaku secara umum. Berikut yang tidak dikasih tau ke kalian dan (menurut saya) kalian harus tau para pengejar beasiswa ke Cina. 


1. Ada 2 tipe CSC

CSC embassy dan university. CSC embassy dapat memilih up to 3 universitas dengan up to 3 disciplines. Sedangkan CSC university hanya dapat memilih 1 universitas dengan 1 discipline. Ada yang bilang kesempatan mendapatkan CSC jalur university lebih besar daripada embassy. Tapi percaya-ga percaya juga si ini.

Addition: Ada 2 tipe CSC, tapi jalur masuk CSC tidak solemnly hanya apply ke universitas dan embassy. Ada juga yang apply melalui jalur dari universitas sebelumnya atau dari DIKTI. 

2. Universitas Project 211 dan Project 985

Seperti di negara-negara lainnya, ada beberapa universitas yang memang kuat dalam pendidikan dan research. Itulah yang membedakan Project 211 dan Project 985. Universitas-universitas di Project 985 pasti masuk Project 211, tapi tidak sebaliknya. Lebih jelasnya bisa dibaca sendiri dan ini listnya. Hal ini juga akan mempengaruhi graduates yang ingin bekerja di Cina, karena ada beberapa perusahaan yang hanya menerima universitas dari Project 985. 

3. Beberapa kampus tidak membuka program dalam Bahasa Inggris

Pastikan universitas yang dipilih applicant mempunyai discipline yang diajari dalam Bahasa Inggris, kecuali emang lebih nyaman memakai Bahasa Mandarin. Universitas mana aja yang punya kelas dalam Bahasa Inggris bisa dicek di website CSC. Kalaupun memilih dalam Bahasa Mandarin, akan ada course 1 tahun khusus Bahasa Mandarin, berlaku untuk S1, S2 (S3 ga tau).

4. Udah memilih universitas via CSC embassy, belum tentu akan dapat universitas yang dipilih

Beberapa teman (tapi gak banyak) mengalami hal seperti ini. Dari 3 universitas yang dimasukan ke form, malah diassign ke universitas lain di kota lain. Tapi ini not necessarily bad, karena yang saya perhatikan universitas yang dipilihkan malah universitas yang dimana discipline yang dipilih applicant itu bagus.
Belibet, untuk memperjelas: applicant berniat di Ilmu Kelautan, memilih di Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Indonesia dan Universitas Andalas. Tapi dari ketiga universitas yang dipilih, Ilmu Kelautan tidak begitu bagus, lalu applicant akan dikirim ke Universitas Airlangga yang discipline disitu lebih berkembang. Cuma contoh ya, ga usah bitching tentang Ilmu Kelautan mana yang beneran paling bagus.

5. Udah memilih discipline via CSC embassy / university, belum tentu akan dapat kelas yang berbahasa Inggris

Ini juga beberapa yang kejadian. Di form memilih kelas dalam Bahasa Inggris, kenapa keterimanya in Chinese 😄 . Ini sayapun ga tau kenapa. Yang pasti applicant akan berkembang pesat sangat pengetahuan Bahasa Mandarinnya, tapi bahasa sehari-hari dan bahasa pelajaran emang beda.

6. Basic Chinese is mandatory

Ga tau Bahasa Mandarin ya harus tanggung sendiri konsekuesinya (kayak saya). Makan susah, ngobrol susah, belanja susah. Kampus sebagus apapun, ga semua staff bisa Bahasa Inggris. Supervisor yang diassignpun belum tentu bisa / pede berbahasa inggris. Kalau bisapun belum tentu ngerti dialectnya. 

7. "Keuntungan" bagi siswa yang berbahasa inggris

Sesuai dari pengalaman orang-orang lain, siswa yang berbahasa inggris atau tidak mengerti bahasa mandarin, biasanya tidak disuruh-suruh oleh supervisor. Dari yang saya perhatikan mereka udah malas duluan menggunakan Bahasa Inggris. Jadi beban kerjaan untuk orang lokal bisa lebih banyak dan lebih cerewet untuk pekerjaan akhir. Tapi tidak semua supervisor seperti ini, ada juga yang perfectionist. Makanya untuk Sarjana saya sarankan untuk mengambil kelas dalam Bahasa Mandarin, karena sayang banget ilmunya yang kebuang cuma karna language barrier. Untuk program Master dan PhD kebanyakan professornya sudah PhD dan diluar negeri juga, jadi untuk bahasa mereka juga akan lebih bagus untuk menjelaskan pelajaran dan berkomunikasi.

8. Dormitory foreigner dan lokal dipisah

Salah satu quirks menjadi international student adalah dormitory foreigner biasanya lebih bagus. Biasanya satu kamar berdua, untuk PhD sendiri.

9.  SKS Sarjana lebih dari 144

Akan dibatasi maximum berapa SKS yang bisa diambil, tapi bisa mengambil banyak ekstra pelajaran. Mereka bener-bener gila sih belajarnya.


10. Beberapa universitas akan meminta uang jaminan

Uang tersebut supaya ketika applicant mendapatkan beasiswanya, applicant gak tiba-tiba pindah universitas. Universitas apa aja yang meminta "tanda jadi" harus dicek ke masing-masing universitasnya, lebih baik kalau ada kenalan di universitas tersebut. Biasanya setelah mengirim aplikasi, akan ada email dari universitas mengenai biaya ini. Kalau ga bayar ya artinya ga jadi. Jadi jangan was-was kalau teman-teman yang mendaftar universitas lain mendapatkan email dan beberapa tidak.

11. Dikasih 2500 yuan / bulan untuk Sarjana dan 3000 yuan / bulan untuk Master, tidak termasuk visa dan tiket perjalanan

Tiket perjalanan untuk sampai ke Cina utara biasanya 3 juta-an / trip. Tiket perjalanan untuk Cina selatan pastinya lebih murah. 
Jangan terlalu percaya kalau ada gosip tahun ini akan dinaikan uang sakunya. Dari jaman kapan udah ada omongan itu tapi tetap aja 3000 yuan / bulan. Nominal tersebut udah lebih dari cukup untuk makan dan leisure.

12. Kebanyakan Orang Indonesia di Selatan

Seriously. Mungkin karena di bagian utara itu dingin (dan dekat Korut).

13. Tidak ada requirement harus balik ke Indonesia atau kontrak kerja setelah selesai belajar

Banyak foreigner setelah selesai belajar lalu bekerja di Cina.



Sekarang udah tau konsekuensi-konsekuensinya belajar di Cina. Udah dipertimbangkan dan mau apply? Persyaratan scholarship dan pengalaman teman saya penerima beasiswa CSC Dikti please visit http://aprilliadatty.blogspot.com/2017/11/jawaban-untuk-pertanyaan-terbanyak.html
Happy trying and good luck.


Indonesians Gathering 2017 in Dalian, China












5 Sept 2017

Internet That Works for Foreigners in China

Being a Laowai (term for Foreigner in Chinese) that speaks almost zero Chinese is hard enough to live in a country where most of the people speak almost zero English, and it gets more difficult that the great firewall of china prevent you to ease your life as well! 

These are some of major websites, desktop and mobile applications that do not and do work in China without VPN and their alternatives with English user interface,


Search Engine

All Google services are blocked in China, even the websites and applications that use Google API like Waze, Youtube and Google Playstore are useless. For English speakers it is easier to use Bing. I use Bing all the time. It may not give the exact same result, but what you're looking for may be on the second page.


Email

Gmail does not work in China. However, "Sign in with Google" feature still works, but you can't receive or send emails. Outlook and Yahoo do the job pretty well.



Note

Google Keep users can switch to Evernote. I wouldn't mind. Evernote is an equally powerful app.


Accommodations

Thankfully there aren't much difference for hotel / apartment stay. My personal favourite, Airbnb still works in the mainland China only with different name, Aibiying (爱彼迎).


Map

Until now I still can't find a good map application that works in English. I don't really like Bing Map, and Baidu Map only works in Chinese characters. What I do is translate it to Chinese then paste it to Baidu Map. It's a two time work but at least it minimizes my chance to get lost.


Translator

As I said, anything that is related with google does not work, that includes Google Translate. Baidu translate (http://translate.baidu.com/) has the same function and does the job pretty well. But still lacks in photo scan feature and character draw. Also, open Chinese websites in Chrome browser, because translate page feature still works.


Music app

Spotify works. naff said.


Chat applications

Whatsapp works, Line does not. As you might've heard, Chinese use WeChat and QQ as a chat platform in mobile and desktop. 


e-Payments

It's sort of a surprise for me that most of Chinese shops now use cashless system, even the little food stalls in a small city. People here use Wechat Wallet and Alipay (Zhifubao). To use these you have to have a China bank account, you can add your credit cards (Visa, Mastercard) to the apps but you can't pay with them, so what's the use. Your local internet banking (CIMB clicks) works too if you want to access your bank account in your own countries.


Transport

The Chinese Uber is Didi. But to use it you have to have a registered Chinese number, it is useless if you just arrived to China for the first time and do not have an active Chinese number. And unlike Uber, Didi can only be integrated with WeChat Wallet and Alipay, meaning you can't pay with credit cards.



Have fun in China!








16 Jul 2017

Les Grandes Personnes à Kota Tua, Jakarta

The title was a clickbait, the post is in English.

The Event

On 13 June, puppeteers from France had an open show at Kota Tua, Jakarta. I wonder why they call themselves Les Grandes Personnes.


Ah, c'est pourquoi

The show began at 17.00 sharp and only lasted for less than an hour with only 2 repetitive songs that was still ringing in my brain when I drove home. They began at the yard of ceramic museum then spread around the area attracting tourists.

The crowd


The biggest puppets are the puppets of le grand père and Pelé (I think it's supposed to be Pelé), they have backup puppeteers who exchanged on the corner when no one was looking and other smaller puppets distracted the audience. It took about 5 minutes to re-strap the doll, quite a process.


IFI director, Mns. Marc Piton was there too. He wears suits on every occasion and apparently on this one as well. I don't know if it has that kind of rule in the bureau, but he was sweating.

The Puppets


From behind


That is what it looks like from the back. The puppets are very heavy, you can see the puppeteers were sweating. Quite a workout.


Look how they move the dolls!

Immediately I am curious of the mechanics, the motions and how they bring the props through airports, all that behind the scene stuff.



The puppets were made in France, but there are other workshops, like in Africa: Boromo, Mozambic, South Africa and in Chilli and it has toured all over the world. It's very nice for them to put a preview for free (gratis) to acquaintance people of Jakarta to French big puppets. The doll is kind of reminded me to Ondel-ondel, but bigger with fancier mechanism and actually looks and moves like a person. It'd be cool to have puppets conference and have a week full of theaters and talks from different puppeteers from parts of the world. ça serait intéressant. 







28 May 2017

And on That Bombshell: Basically Top Gear Behind the Scene

"And on that bombshell, we'll see you next week!" said Jeremy Clarkson, or something like that. It took me months to finish the book, And on That Bombshell: Inside the Madness and Genius of Top Gear. Not because of boring content, but I cheated on novels that I faithfully read every day before sleep for graphic novels and a certain Youtube channel. 


A quick nostalgic recap of how I know Top Gear and what the show meant for me. 

In Indonesia we would watch them on BBC Earth on cable, or some people would download them illegally, as Indonesia doesn't have strict policy on piracies, it was very easy. The author mentioned that they didn't know how big exactly Top Gear was because they couldn't know the numbers. It was partly (major) Asia's faults. But, yes, many of us do know Top Gear. First time I took interest was not because I'm a car geek or I love British shows, in fact Top Gear was the first British show I have ever watched and liked, followed by Graham Norton. I watched a section of the show on Youtube where they tried to destroy a Hilux. It was hilarious. The episode came out years before I knew the show, which was 4 years ago, so I was very late. And then I watched the giant cars belonged to someone rich from middle east which made Richard Hammond looked like a flea, and then the limousine challenge, and then the races, I couldn't stop. I started to watch full episodes and caught it again on cable whenever I was home. It entertained my college life which was rather boring, and I haven't gone to UK, so it was a better understanding of British sense of humour, how they deliver their statements, answers and arguments, and closer look to Britain's engineering, how can a non fiction show would become interesting. All with subtitles. It was a form of my escape from Indonesia to England. 


Now the book...

Book Cover

The author of the book is Richard Porter who was a script editor of Top Gear. The book was about the production of Top Gear mostly from baby to teenagers and few of the author's background and some behind the scene photos. It took us to how the author got the job as a Top Gear's writer, the remake of Top Gear, Richard Hammond's crash, Argentina, what happened on the last season and so much more, that people (at least I) were curious about. 


What I like about the book,

The book almost answered all my questions, it describes the process of the show almost in detail, that I genuinely am interested, from the meetings with the presenters, their research team and searched and bought their cars, their grimy office, their relationships with the Beebs and how they said Jaaaag. Furthermore it taught me that nothing comes easy, even a huge show like Top Gear wasn't started out great, that people had left out of doubt. It was very successful because of years of hard work, reckless, creative ideas and the team that supported them. Then, the Argentina ending was meant to be epic, but something that was purposefully to be beautiful was halted with violence which was created by easily provoked angry mobs over some theories on the internet, i mean, where have we heard that before. Plus the friendship between the author and Jeremy Clarkson, how they weren't talking about emotions over tea but somehow managed to reconcile. And then there's the fact that James May is actually a great person off screen and likes curry.

Funny how the author said on the book that Richard Hammond used to attract women audience more but I personally like James May from the start.


Yep.

Overall,

I don't think it is a very famous non-fiction book internationally, I don't know in UK, but if you're a Top Gear fan or curious of the process of making of the show, I would recommend this book. It is a great closure to a great show. I'm saying this as if Top Gear is not on anymore, it still is, but, yknow. yeah.

I personally love this book, the ending was sort of heart warming. I would hope that someday I too will find a job I love so much I would spend 13 years doing with the same flare, with the team I don't mind sharing my 18 hours a day with. 







23 Apr 2017

Big Bad Wolf: My Personal "Fuck You" To JASTIP

Big Bad Wolf is a book fair which began in Malaysia, held their second Indonesia event in BSD, Tangerang, Indonesia. It is filled with thousands of English books with half price. Obviously, it is a big event for book lovers. I followed excellent tips from other blogs who had been last year. So what went wrong?

Between my like of books and hatred of people which won?

BBW (not the porn term) kindly opened a VIP one day earlier for members, bloggers and vloggers, I guess for marketing purposes. So I submitted this blog and I got the invitation. The early viewing was on Thursday and would be open for public on Friday. I thought my blog was special for its few posts and zero quality writing, but,


Guess as other 1000 people.
Many tweeted they spent more than 4 hours queuing. I mean...


So no, I wasn't in the previewing day.


Where are the great books?

I finally came on Saturday early morning, 2 days after the book fair started. I had tens of books on my list, by the cashier I only got 1 from my list and other 5 were bought so I didn't go home empty handed.


Four graphic novels because outside they are expensive :p

There are the kind of people who love money so much that they would sell their souls. Those people were present in the book fair, who call themselves "JASTIP" or "JASA TITIP". It is where you send your book list to people and they would buy it for you for extra charge per item and send you the books. It's not illegal, it's just my personal annoyance that these people shoved hundreds of books to one luggage (yes, like in the airport) and left me, my friend and other chill shoppers with nothing. They even created special Instagram and Line accounts just for this event. I'm not sure they like the books or the money.


It just happened that I don't need to purchase 50 books at once and tend to avoid crowd, that I am a weak competitor against these people. I suspect most of these JASTIP were stay-at-home moms who have nothing to do and would like extra money for hanging out boasting about their children because they don't have qualities to boast about themselves and secretly frustrated of their college degree they don't use, then would spend the little rest of the money for neck ties for their cheating husbands and something for their children.

Cashier problème?  

Anyway, there were more or less 21 cashiers including for priority lines (for Mandiri card owners). Unlike people in the previewing sales, I didn't have to wait for lines, there were pretty empty. But I wonder some people said that members get special discount, I am a member, but the cashiers didn't say anything. I'm still pretty upset about this, I would've got better deals. 

Overall I got great deals with the books. I spent only about IDR 400,000-ish. I'm pretty happy with the books I got, especially the graphic novels with mostly less than IDR 100,000, which normally would cost 200,000+. But if I waited 2 more days, all the good books probably were all sold out and I would've gone home with nothing. 

Will you be back next year?

Yes, with different and more intense tactics.


Other tip for next year's buyers, if you have mainstream or best selling books on your list, GO TO THE PREVIEWING SALE EARLY (all Narnia books were all sold out). If you don't want to have to queue, go by the times when most people are asleep.

Thank you the crew of Big Bad Wolf.

16 Apr 2017

Sarah Andersen Got A New Fan From Indonesia!

Just last year, Adulthood is A Myth was published. A few months ago, I discovered Sarah Andersen's comic on Instagram. And a few weeks ago, I purchased her books. Bought them when the new book was only one month away from release date, so I thought why not pre-order the new one, I can wait and it only costs about IDR 100rb. 



First post-read thought, 

that was quick. It only took 30 minutes to complete both books, and i'm a slow reader! Plus, Adulthood is A Myth is funnier than Big Mushy Happy Lump (debatable). By their titles people can tell they are full of phylosophies, knowledge, controversies and all that. Seriously, they are  like black and white memes made into a series of sequence, consist of 4 to 6 grids per page, and completely different subject on the next page. The book tells stories about a girl character (maybe Ms. Andersen herself) and her every day life, which talks about PMS, boyfriend (it is her actual boyfriend on the book she said), creativity block, etc.

They seem childish, why read them? 

Perhaps the main attraction is that they are very simple, relatable, understandable, despite of some people may think the books are childish. I can't say for other girls, but for me many of the stories reflect my life. Maybe that's why I think the first book is funnier, maybe because I consider it more relatable, and we as humans have sense of humour to laugh at our flaws?  

There isn't much to discuss. Overall, it makes me laugh, then it's worth the IDR 200rb. I'm looking forward for her next work. Sarah Andersen got a new fan from Indonesia!


Wait, who?

This is her IG, go follow!


14 Mar 2017

Buat NPWP dan Daftar e-Filing

Share pengalaman buat NPWP, kalau kebetulan ada yang baca, jangan tersinggung, karena ini pengalaman writer, drop dead honest experience, it is as it is.

1. Kumpulin dokumen yang diperluin
    i. Fotokopi KTP
    ii. Materai 6000
    iii. Surat keterangan domisili (kalau diperlukan)

2. Pilih kantor pajak
Paling gampang buat NPWP di kecamatan sesuai KTP. Kalau misal bekerja di Jakarta tapi KTP masih di rumah orang tua atau kampung halaman, baiknya buat surat keterangan domisili dari RT/RW asal. Menurut pengalaman ada beberapa temen yang gak perlu surat keterangan domisili buat di kantor pajak Jakarta, padahal bukan KTP Jakarta. Ada juga temen yang dipersulit. Ya taulah birokrasi Indonesia. 

4. Isi formulir
Berhasil nanya receptionistnya, entar bakal dikasih 2 formulir. Satu formulir profile diri lo, satu lagi profile kantor. Kalau udah ada surat keterangan pegawai dari kantor, formulir terakhir gak usah lagi.

5. Ambil nomer antrian
Sesuai pengalaman di STAN, nomer antrian diambil di mesin di ruangan belakang meja receptionist. Di mesin ada tulisannya "Pendaftaran NPWP". Pas ngambil nomer antrian ke mesin aja disela orang coba -_- . Kartu NPWP dikasih saat itu juga. 


Daftar e-Filling


Bagi pegawai, setiap tahun dikasih surat SPT dari kantor. Isinya info uang berlebih atau kurang dari potongan pajak gaji kita per bulan. Kalau ada potongan berlebih syukur ada uang kembalian, kalau kurang ya dibayar. Laporan pajak itu bersifat kewajiban masyarakat Indonesia yang baik, jadi ya ikutin aja mainnya. 

Untuk laporan e-filling sebenernya bisa lewat online di website pajak, tapi bagi yang belum mendaftar, harus daftar langsung ke kantor pajak. Pendaftaran gak mesti di kantor pajak asal kita buat NPWP, dimanapun jadi. 

Dokumen:
i. Fotokopi NPWP
ii. Fotokopi KTP

Sekali lagi, caranya ke receptionist minta formulir dan ambil nomer antrian, di mesin nomer antrian pilih nomer C (di KPP STAN). Abis selesai nanti dikasih ID dan password. Agak repot ya untuk pendaftaran, writer gak ngerti kenapa ga bisa registrasi online. Mungkin IT nya bego atau birokrasi kantor pajaknya terlalu ribet. Bukannya buat efficient, malah nyusahin. 


Note: 
Dateng pagi
Baiknya dateng pagi karena antrian bakal membludak, apalagi kantor pajak pusat. Memang sudah diterapkan nomer antrian, tapi nomer antrian hanya berlaku di counter-counter, tidak di receptionist. 

Buat yang mau buat di STAN, diceritain aja, begitu masuk, receptionist cuma 2, di meja-meja kecil, bukan di meja receptionist ala office. Semua orang yang baru dateng, gak tau arah mau kemana pasti nanya ke receptionist dan satpam. Jangan tanya satpam, sok tau satpamnya. Tanya receptionistnya langsung, perlu rebutan dulu sama yang lain, karena ga ada antrian. Jadi baiknya dateng jam 8. Jam 10, fucking chaos.


--Good luck--

27 Feb 2017

Born A Crime: the Things that Interest Me In This Marvelous Book

I know there aren't many people who will read my review, still i like to voice my opinions, especially on this book, since it is a funny, charming, profanity-filled book.


The book tells the story of Trevor Noah growing up in South Africa. While I was reading this book, I found myself thinking, "You too??", like every 2 pages and honestly surprised that South Africa and Indonesia have a lot in common, since we are on the other side of the globe. These are the things that i find interesting,

1. Indonesia and South Africa were both colonized by Netherlands

My uncle who worked in mining off-coast of Johannesburg said that people who speak South African or Afrikaans, understand Dutch. While Netherlands people do not understand Afrikaans. I don't know if it's true, but it seems that Afrikaans and Dutch have many common vocabulary. Indonesian language has also adapted a few nouns from Dutch, since Netherlands "occupied" Indonesia for ~1.5 century. Gosh. The colonization that long of course influenced the people and the country, and Indonesia really adapts Dutch law. It seems that countries that were under Netherlands many years ago, turn out to be developed, third world countries, but are still considerably fine compare to middle east war zones. My friend said that maybe it would better for Indonesia if we were colonized by the English, look at Singapore. Singapore now is cool, but the English took away languages and traditions, it took away identities. While Indonesia still got to speak Indonesian and kept our cultures, Ireland lost Gaelic. I don't know which is worse. Nevertheless, nobody likes to be bossed around by tourists who stole goods for their profits, whether if it's the Dutch or the English.

2. Patriarchy and household tradition

Trevor Noah's mother were ahead of her time. She was like nowadays modern Indonesian women, working, some of them are single moms who live in big cities. Yet, when these women are back to their villages, they have to face the judging eyes of their extended families and neighbors. Many families are still very traditional, women are born to take care of children and clean house, first-born sons are considered the head of the family when their fathers are not at home, men are not supposed to be in the kitchens (I mean, every people should learn how to fucking cook, it's a rule to survive), husbands should be respected above all. These are the norms of people who are never left and they try to shove their beliefs that this is a true way of life, since it is the kind of life their mothers and their great grand mothers had lived. The men are taught only they can provide for their families and it is their pride to provide a living in his way accordingly, thus they do not like women who have too many opinions and make more than they do. This kind of "rational" thinking are one the causes of domestic violence and unfortunately i'm not surprised when Noah's mother told her family that her ex husband beat her, they turned the table by telling her that it is normal, that their husbands beat them too and instead, asking her, "Did you make him angry? What did you do?" and it seems they try to blame the women, not the hitter.

3. Corrupt Officials

This is the most amusing part of all because nobody really talks about it here publicly. When we get pull over, we know that it's not necessarily our fault, it's just that the policemen are hungry. When our house is burglarized or our relative is murdered, we know that it took extra money or publicity for the case to be solved. When we need official document, we know we have to "contribute" extra to create our ID a week faster. It is like a secret-sharing method. When talking to a policeman when you got pulled over, you can act stupid all you want, your conversations will be just spinning around circles, until you mention an amount of Rupiah, then it starts to go somewhere. Exactly like the book.

There was a saying this book,



I couldn't be more agree, in Indonesia especially. We live among tens of other tribes with each different languages, four other religions, separated by five major islets and we don't exactly all finish school. It is very easy to divide Indonesia. And that's what I have been feeling, especially recently, that government or some people tried to convince us that we are different and they keep pointing at the already opened gap to make it more obvious and create a bigger one.

4. Fear of Women

I laughed when Noah told the story of how his aunt is bigger than her husband, that even though he beat her, she could come back and scare him. I remember Trevor said this on The Daily Show during the women's march section,


A post shared by The Daily Show (@thedailyshow) on

"Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo'." 
"You strike a woman, you strike a rock" 
Although in many places in Indonesia women are still hiding, at the same time it is the women people fear. It is the women who actually run their houses, support their men and ruin powerful men. There are a lot of cases in Indonesia which powerful men went down right poor because of women. Marry them old, take their money, watch them die. It is a classic Indonesian opera story. It is also the women who are the most ferocious in public places, I've seen them yelled at police officers, rode motorcycle in highway and were economic and politic experts in social media without college degree. I once heard this joke, that the special cars for women in the commute train are purposefully not to protect women from men, but to protect men from women. So that's that.


Anyway, it is a great book. I'm not sure it is available offline in bookstores in Jakarta or any other Indonesian cities. I bought it online. If you want to learn about what it was like living in South Africa and accidentally compare your childhood to Trevor's, in a humor side, I recommend you this book. Thanks for reading.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)