The first time I visit Indra Pramana’s blog was when I found his article concerning the lack–the absence, to be precise–of Indonesian food recipe blog written in English by Indonesian chef and he urges all Indonesian food bloggers to consider blogging in English. This is interesting. Indra’s urges is interesting for more than one reason. First, I found very few Indonesian bloggers who have the same vision with me and have the courage to call for others to blog in English. So far, my urges drive a bit pros and cons among bloggers with various reasons.
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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (52): Indra Pramana
Secondly, he made the call specifically on Indonesian chef or cook blogger to blog in English. What does make him doing that? Here’s why:
One of the visitors from Germany, Angelica, added comments saying that it was too bad that those recipes are written in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), instead of English. She and her husband really love Indonesian food, however it’s quite difficult for them to find cookbooks or recipes of Indonesian food in English.
And based on his finding,
I also noticed that most (if not all) of other blogs containing Indonesian food recipes, which I subscribe through Bloglines, are in Bahasa Indonesia. Those include Dhonatneth’s Kitchen (which now has been renamed to Dhonatneth’s Apa Kabar) and Dapur Wati, on top of the two I have mentioned earlier (Dapur Bunda and Nisi’s Food Corner).
Why do Indonesian recipes ‘experts’ hardly blog in English? Comments Dhonatneth’s Kitchen, whose name mentioned by Indra, it’s because “Long time back, I wrote my recipes both in English and Bahasa Indonesia, but in fact all my visitors seldom goes to my English recipes, that is the reason I stopped writing in English.”
While Dapurwati has another reason: “Biasanya sih kalo yg bule2 minta langsung resepnya sama gue. Jadi liat dapurwati trus liat gambarnya, kalo pengen bikin mrk kontak gue buat terjemahan, that’s how it works. :)”
Recipes and Indonesian food, as you’d know after visiting his blog, is of course not the only topics discussed and talk about in his blog. The current Middle East war between Israel-Lebanon, cultural reflection, diary, and many more can be found there.
Among various topics, as an IT geek, IT related issues are among his most favorite topics. As you can see here, he’s among the big time IT professional. To be a VP in a Singaporean company is not a piece of cake. And that’s why any Indonesian should be proud of him. And the fact that’s he’s blogging actively make Indonesian bloggers feel even better.
Blogger Indonesia of the Week (53): Oskar Syahbana
Blogger Indonesia of the Week (53): Oskar SyahbanaSukarno known more as Bung Karno (BK), the founding father and the first President of Indonesia, once said in his biography written by Cindy Adams that 10 dynamic energetic youth are enough to accompany him to build and change Indonesia towards the better future. When I walk through Oskar Syahbana’s blog and read some of his statements, his hopes, his dreams and his enthusiasm, Sukarno’s words echoes in my ear: is the person like Oskar (Ozzie) that Bung Karno wants to accompany him?
His personal introduction speaks for itself:
My name is Oskar Syahbana and I’m just a simple person trying to make a living. That might seems a little cliche, but it’s true. I was born on March 23rd 1986 and currently studying management in University of Padjadjaran, Bandung […]
[…] In the long run, I wanted to have my very own mass media company, be it a newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, internet portal, or any other means like it. As I mentioned earlier (have I mentioned it?), I really love spreading my thoughts to other people. Probably owning my own consulting office will be a good addition :-).
In the short-run, I wanted to open my own distribution outlet (some maybe call it distro). This is not just an ordinary one, but a different one with a unique concept.
A dynamic, energetic and strong individual in a nation which is still struggling to prosper is important because it will inspire others. Every political science student knows the term social engineering:
“A concept in political science that refers to efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behavior on a large scale, whether by governments or private groups.”
A positive behaviour of an individual(s), to some extent, will change the attitude of his/her surroundings. In the blogosphere world, the word “surrounding” is certainly not only confined to our conventional neighbours. And that’s why Oskar’s optimism is important to be expressed loudly and heard in wider space to make its resonance felt everywhere at least by Indonesians.
I remember when I reviewed Jennie S Bev’s blog and personality many Indonesian readers emailed me saying that they’re very much inspired by Jennie’s productivity in writing many books; some who have already written a few books planned to write even more and some who haven’t got energized to start making one! This is what I call as “social engineering” made by individual(s) like Oskar.
An individual with strong personality, whether it’s good or bad, has contagious effects and tend to influence the weaker ones. If you are one of the later, you need to refer to the personality like Oskar and other strong (and good) personalities for some inspiration; through their words and their actions.
Here’s his declaration of “war” that needs to be read by all pessimists:
I like competing very much. To add to that, I don’t like loosing. I always fight (or compete, whichever sentence you choose) till I reap my reward. I never backed off …
I, Oskar Syahbana, from this day on, will work harder, smarter, and faster to overcome my enemy (till this day remained secret). Not one step shall I back off, not once shall I tremble. Every drops of my sweat is just like a flow of ravine for him. Thus this declaration is made.
Blogger Indonesia of the Week (54): Devi Girsang
Blogger Indonesia of the Week (55): Alaya SetyaHow to have a good blog content? How to be a good and insightful blogger? Or in other words how to be a good writer? Devi Girsang, though implicitly, says loud and clear: “Love reading and writing!” She’s right. While reading is a must for recharging your rechargeable brain in order to keep updated with the latest information of your interests and be a well-informed person, writing is the best way to keep whatever we read and absorb and then build it up further into a totally new idea or a convergence of various thoughts.
Yet, another factor as mentioned by the Atmajaya University medical student Devi should not be ignored: love to read and write. You can still have the chance to be a good reader and prolific writer even if you don’t have love of doing them. But to be a big writer love and passion are a must. Paulo Coelho in an interview with Nisha Husain from the BBC a few months back said that without love and passion of what he’s doing, his first novel and most popular ones,The Alchemist, would never have come into reality.At least, if reading is your love and passion, your talking and blogging will benefit many because it must’ve been insightful, even if you haven’t published any writing in a conventional medium which is just a matter of time.Devi Girsang has written several published articles including fictional short stories. Yet, the more important thing is she’s just a 20-year-old girl living in Jakarta, an Indonesian capital city known more for its having-fun & party-loving youth. That should be a strong message to other youngster in the capital and other province cities as well that “fun” should not necessarily be associated with laid-back attitude and unmeaningful activities; that “love, passion and fun” could mean both ways: hardworking or self-destruct.Making comparison to a better personality is profoundly important for anyone, young and old generation, to improve one’s personality towards progress. And that’s why sucessful personalities always write their (auto)-biographies to be read and whose paths are to be followed. In some other parts of the world, (auto)-biography of a prominent individual is always sold-out. It’s not the case in Indonesia.
Let’s face it, we like and enjoy reading and watching a celebrity-gossip news or a junky soap opera more than reading or watching something more useful like, say, current affairs news or Discovery Channel.
thanks for sharing…NICE POST