daily notes: May 2008 Archives
Today mark the two months since my last post. In celebrating Indonesia’s 100th anniversary of “Nation Awakening Day”, I have returned to post some of my thoughts here and there.
So, it’s been a while, yes? Of course! Aside from the fact that I am very busy (I know, such a cliché excuse), I haven’t managed to write a single post for this past months. Some lack of motivation? Probably. Not enough resource? Not quite. I actually have tons of topics that I like to discuss
What’s new? Nothing much. Jakarta seems much dull these past months. The gas price will be up starting this June. That upset everyone of course, including me. I think this kind of policy makes the government very unpopular. Yet, they always use the “hey! We don’t have any other choices, you know!” excuse to finalize this thing.
Back to the Nation Awakening Day theme. I went to see Bill Gates lectures and speeches when he visited Jakarta earlier this month. Such a total nerd that guy is. Okay, I concur, he is a brilliant man; I acknowledge that from his speeches. But, he doesn’t have that Steve Job’s charisma. He talks like a professor, no witty comments, no small talk, and no jokes whatsoever. He’s a tech guy, not a sales person. Yet the topic he presented is interesting. I’m fascinated with the Microsoft focus on technology for helping countries via education, healthcare, and economy.
What this country need is a good low-cost education system. You know the “Nation Awakening Day” marks the day the “Boedi Oetomo” organization was created. This for us symbolizes the arising sense of unity of Indonesian as a nation back then. The Boedi Oetomo consists of well-educated young man who studied in STOVIA that eager to make a progress through that organization.
Education is the fuel that can lead us to advancement in every field that we want. Through education we can achieve great things. With education, we can be a better nation.
Yet, a large percentage of Indonesia is still illiterate, many government funded schools logistic are poor and/or damaged, and to have a good educations means you have to spend a relatively large amount of money. So this reality right now is quite flawed. Only rich people can afford good education since it’s so damn pricy.
Well, I hope the government raises their spending percentage of education, since the last time I check, they didn’t give it much thought on that.
So to Bill Gates, when you said technology that could help education, all I can ask is: “would it be affordable for us as a developing country? Will it help us achieve a low-cost education system?”
Okay, probably that’s all for now. Dinner waits. My last though to all of you Indonesian, it’s been a 100 year since a couple of bright young men thinks that “hey! We’re a great nation, let’s join together and arise!” yet life was so simple back then. But now, with all this technologies that we can easily use in front of our eyes, what would you do to make Indonesia a better nation?
So, it’s been a while, yes? Of course! Aside from the fact that I am very busy (I know, such a cliché excuse), I haven’t managed to write a single post for this past months. Some lack of motivation? Probably. Not enough resource? Not quite. I actually have tons of topics that I like to discuss
What’s new? Nothing much. Jakarta seems much dull these past months. The gas price will be up starting this June. That upset everyone of course, including me. I think this kind of policy makes the government very unpopular. Yet, they always use the “hey! We don’t have any other choices, you know!” excuse to finalize this thing.
Back to the Nation Awakening Day theme. I went to see Bill Gates lectures and speeches when he visited Jakarta earlier this month. Such a total nerd that guy is. Okay, I concur, he is a brilliant man; I acknowledge that from his speeches. But, he doesn’t have that Steve Job’s charisma. He talks like a professor, no witty comments, no small talk, and no jokes whatsoever. He’s a tech guy, not a sales person. Yet the topic he presented is interesting. I’m fascinated with the Microsoft focus on technology for helping countries via education, healthcare, and economy.
What this country need is a good low-cost education system. You know the “Nation Awakening Day” marks the day the “Boedi Oetomo” organization was created. This for us symbolizes the arising sense of unity of Indonesian as a nation back then. The Boedi Oetomo consists of well-educated young man who studied in STOVIA that eager to make a progress through that organization.
Education is the fuel that can lead us to advancement in every field that we want. Through education we can achieve great things. With education, we can be a better nation.
Yet, a large percentage of Indonesia is still illiterate, many government funded schools logistic are poor and/or damaged, and to have a good educations means you have to spend a relatively large amount of money. So this reality right now is quite flawed. Only rich people can afford good education since it’s so damn pricy.
Well, I hope the government raises their spending percentage of education, since the last time I check, they didn’t give it much thought on that.
So to Bill Gates, when you said technology that could help education, all I can ask is: “would it be affordable for us as a developing country? Will it help us achieve a low-cost education system?”
Okay, probably that’s all for now. Dinner waits. My last though to all of you Indonesian, it’s been a 100 year since a couple of bright young men thinks that “hey! We’re a great nation, let’s join together and arise!” yet life was so simple back then. But now, with all this technologies that we can easily use in front of our eyes, what would you do to make Indonesia a better nation?
About
Patrick G. van Diest a.k.a "patvandiest" thinks he can fulfill his
"world domination scheme" by writing in this weblog in his spare time.
We'll see about that in the upcoming future. Now, just expect writings
on random geek things that may interest you. More
