Bomb Blast Malegaon Mumbai India

Last night I watched England-Pakistan cricket match and US Open semi-final randomly and was not aware that at about 21.00 Indian time, there’s a breaking news on local tv about another bomb blast, another terrorist attack struck Malegaon, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. The blast this time coincides with one of Indian Muslim holy day and took place at a mosque, the first of its kind in India. The blast has caused 38 dead and many injured.

Who Did it

Because of its distinctive time and place, many speculations being made about who carried out this attack. Some analyst fingers point to anti-Muslim entities like Hindutva, a Hindu ultra-nationalist movement which want to drive all non-Hindu entities out of this country.
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Writing a Book

A few weeks back a friend works in Indonesia Embassy (KBRI) New Delhi called me telling me that there’s a parcel from someone named Jennie S. Bev. Another friend of mine who happened to be there at that time brought it for me. It’s a Bahasa Indonesia book entitled Rahasia Sukses Terbesar to which I give my forward to. As I wrote here, Jennie S. Bev is arguably the most prolific contemporary Indonesian writers.

When I opened the book the first time, I feel surprised and at the same time so honored to know that it’s my forword that has been trusted to appear in its entirety in her book. Just for the record it’s not only me who’ve been requested by Jennie to make introductory remark. I think it’s her unique way to remind me that “here’s your foreword in my book, let me give my forword in your book” kind of thing. In other word, time is rife for me to write a book. Yet I still have an accuse to myself: I’ll start it when I were at home in a few months time. Hopefully, I won’t find another accuse once I get there.
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Corrupt Democracy or “Clean” Tyranny?

People in developing countries are facing many challenges the most basic of which are corruption, injustices and poverty; widening gap between the rich and the poor; the deficit of trust between the ruler and the subject. In Indonesia, with life is getting harder on grass root level, many start murmurming about and romanticizing the “good old days” when Suharto’s tyrannical rule was prevalent.

In other words, for those downtrodden people who are facing difficulties to get their daily basic need, a meal a day for them and their kids, tyrannical system is relatively better as far as it can fulfill their basic needs than the so-called democratic system with its full-fledged idealistic yet unapplicative values. Former autocratic ruler of Indonesia, President Suharto, once said, “What the people need is good economy. As far they can afford to buy their daily needs, they will keep quiet.”
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Are You Internet Addict?

A survey conducted by Standford University recently on internet users in the US gives an interesting finding: ” more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of “problematic internet use”. The typical internet addict was a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s.

How did the survey defines someone as addicted to internet or not? The answer could be used for all of us, outside US, as well. So, you, accordign to the survey, are considered as an internet addict if you meet (one or most of) the following criteria:
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Blogger Beta Hack

When Google introduced new version of Blogger software in Beta a few months ago, Blogger (blogspot) fans around the world were excited. Not only has this beta version got a category, called ‘label’, but it’s also running fast and, well, furious.

Ong Hock Chuan once asked me whether I intended to migrate to wordpress.com which I said no. At least not this blog as I want this site lives as long as Blogger alive. On top of it all, Blogger is free and you’re in full control of it. Two things that don’t come together very often.
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What New Blogger Wants

Reading Harry Sufehmi’s latest post which guides me to some other links with similar topic I come to know that there’s a case in which a new blogger got frustrated and ended up deleting her blog. The reason: none of the “elder” blogger care enough to comment in her blog.

Well, that might raise another question I consider important: what does actually a new blogger wants the most from his/her more senior blogger as a show of support?
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Top Five Blog Indonesia in Kompas Media

I wrote an acknowledgement post on the introduction of Blogger of the Week by Tempo Media which came up only a couple of times, then after a long pause of the program, Tempo through its online editor Budi Putra told me to restart the feature which I responded in another post, giving him another alternative on how to make it simple.

In which I offered him a clear alternative:

From my point of view, it would be much better if every week Tempo feature at least 10 Blog/Blogger Terbaik Pekan Ini or Top Ten Indonesia Blogs/Bloggers of the Week instead of Blogger of the Week. And the introduction for each blog featured could be much briefer, one para is enough.

Floods that Paralysed the Capital and its People

Indonesia again gets international media intention for yet another natural disaster. This time the capital Jakarta has gone through the worst floods in five years. The floods paralysed everything - the business activities, its people movement and day-to-day government activities.

Around 340,000 of Jakarta’s population were forced to flee, leaving almost everything but themselves.
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How Long to Write a Booker Prize Novel?

How long does it take to make a Booker Prize novel? “Seven years.” If you ask Kiran Desai, the 2006 Man Booker Prize winner with her novel The Inheritance of Loss, that will be her answer. Here’s the excerpt of her interview with India newspaper The Hindu during her South Asia tour for promoting her book:

How has the Booker changed your life?

There has been a total transformation. I kept my mouth shut for seven years [during which she wrote The Inheritance of Loss]. Now all I do is talk. (laughs)
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