Germans only answer in German, although to an Asian who asks in English

The difference between big cities and small town in Europe is in the crowds. Not much different on the buildings.

I had my night flight from Denpasar, Bali, arrived dark in Mataram, the capital of the province.
Taxi ride from airport to Senggigi around 30 mins, cost around Rp 50.000.

Actualy there are other way to reach Lombok from Bali vice versa. By boat, there are public ferry cost Rp 36.000, Padang Bai Harbour to Lembar Harbour.
Or, many fast boat offered cost vary, started from Rp 250.000 (local price).
You can arrange this accomodation in your hotel.

I arranged a room in Elen Hotel, cheap yet good, many foreigners stay here.
I also rent motorcyle here, Rp 50.000 per day.

My first sightseeing is Senggigi Beach. Its a very clear beach.
I had warung lunch here, plecing kangkung, nasi campur, and beef satay, and spent less than Rp 50.000 for that 2 portion meal.
I also had temporary tattoes here, in fact, I was being tattoed while writing this.

After friday pray, my guide took me to have a city tour. We pass Mataram City to reach Narmada Park. Narmada is a rest palace for the king Agung, from Karangasem, Bali. Regularly the king had to do prayer ceremony in Mount Rinjani, since he became older, he couldn’t make the prayer travel anymore, so he built narmada park as a replica of Mount Rinjani. There, he continued the prayer ceremony.

Another temple King Agung built is Lingsar Temple. The unique thing about Lingsar Temple is it has two sites for Hindu and Moslem.

In Saturday, I made a diving trip to Gili Trawangan. Gili means island in local language. There are two other gilis side by side, Gili Meno and Gili Air. It’s nice to have an island hoping here, do little snorkling.
From Lombok, in Bangsal Harbour there are public boat to Gili Trawangan, cost Rp 10.000, 15 minutes ride. Last boat from Gili Trawangan back to Lombok is at 4 pm, otherwise you can stay overnight in villas and hotel there.
For island hoping, you can rent boat for Rp 350.000 per day. Only two schedule for public boat, 8 am and 4 pm, so it is not accomodating.

After gili trip, I had sunset view in Malimbu. It is a high view to the sea, headed to Bali Island. Here, we can enjoy grilled corn and fresh coconut.

That ended my fascinating weekend in Lombok, surely i will come again *crossfinger

Selama menunggu distribusi Ivio DE-88 berkembang, ternyata ada lagi produk Android CDMA yang diluncurkan. Kali ini milik Bakrie Connect. AHA touch, atau Huawei C8150 yang dibundling dengan AHA.  AHA atau Affordable Highspeed Access sendiri telah lama bermain di pasar koneksi data dengan produk modem EVDO nya.

Tampilan AHA touch yang mungil dan touch screen menarik perhatian saya. Akhirnya dengan agak susah payah juga mencari tempat penjualan produk ini yang masih jarang, saya dapatkan juga produk Android CDMA ini. Harganya belum bisa ditawar, pas harga label Rp 1.500.000, bonus nomor AHA.

Ukuran handset nya mungil dan saya sebut saja “palmy-dinamic”, pas digenggam.  Tombol-tombolnya pun sederhana dan menu yang mudah di akses.

Kamera 3,2 MP hasil jernih, musik player dan radio baik. Pengaturan personalisasi widget mudah.

Tethering Wifi dan USB benar-benar memudahkan koneksi data, dimana saja, kapan saja… dengan langganan satu plan data saja.

GPS dan Navigasi, hehe, ini penting sekali untuk saya yang tukang nyasar. Bekerja baik sekali (NOTE: JIKA lokasi TERDETEKSI, entah kenapa sering hilang).

Ada juga beberapa kelemahannya yang saya alami. Keyboard kecil, sehingga sulit mengetik cepat.

Google Calendar Sync masih telat dan tidak otomatis, entah masalah jaringan atau memang aplikasinya lemot.  Dan tentu saja lokasi GPS dan jaringan sering tidak dikenali. Sehingga mengganggu aplikasi yang meminta informasi lokasi. Untuk saya yang senang check-in di foursquare, dan perlu navigasi ketika menyetir, ini mengganggu sekali.

Since kindergarten, we are familiar with doctor, teacher, sailor, or farmer. Now, try to ask your little kids, are they familiar with, tax consultant, fitness trainer, or talent scout? Yup, those are few examples of how career specialization has developed.

Do you remember, when you were a child, what did you want to be? Then, see your present condition. Take example, you did become a doctor. But what doctor? Ophthalmologist, Internist, Gynecologist, or else? I am sure a gynecologist can not or not willing to be equalize as ophthalmologist. Why? They are still doctors anyway. Well, sub specialization is the reason.

Basically, human needs itself creates profession and its specialization. Long ago, when life was simpler, professions were around carpenters, fishermen, farmers, or teacher. Yes, because human needs were around food and housing only. As humanity grows, life has become more complex and human needs also grow. Especially, in big cities where life goes rapidly.

In Jakarta, in toll-road entrance, there are booth officer whose duty is giving freeway ticket or receive payment. I am just thinking, does it really necessary to have an officer in the booth. I am talking about how that officer can do much more than just dealing ticket or collecting payment. Human has much more ability than just doing that simple routine.

Another case is from 9-to-5 workers. White-collar employees in high-stories buildings must be familiar with overtime working. Yup, 9-to-5 office hour is no longer until 5 o’clock. Often, we are forced to work much more in a day. In 24 hours of our time, ideally only 8 hours to work, 8 hours to sleep, and 8 more hours for recreational. Medically, it is unhealthy if human body is forced to work more than that. Besides, working in a not optimum condition or concentration cannot be expected to yield an optimum result. This is waste of time and energy, not to mention waste of electrical consumption (lights, computer, elevator, etc). Why not doing good for your own body, give it the rest it needs, that way, you are also doing good for your company.

I know, I already have a ‘lazy girl image’, maybe you think it is my justification. But for me, I’m just enjoying my life, no pressure on success, no pressure on richness. Just living as human as possible. Maybe we have different goals in life, I just hope happiness as human being for all of us.

*cheers

*kampaaiiii :p

How strong is a woman, when she only wants marriage of the long relationship, her boyfriend thinks that’s too much to ask. When she chose to find another guy, she is the bitch.

How strong is a woman, to let go her man because she can not give birth to his child.
She let him find new woman, and still congratulates them for having the baby.

How strong is a woman, holding her home so peacefully, in spite her man cheating on her. Keep smiling, just to let her children have perfect family picture.

How strong is a woman, when her man is troubled in job, she’s willing to back up family income. Tired in working, and still responsible to do the dishes and laundry.

How strong is a woman, keep humble to let her man always feel superior. Cause when her career goes to top, her man ego would feel intimidated.

When women’s emancipation is overrated… .
It’s in mind not in physical nature. Don’t get twisted.

Woman appreciates man who give his seat in bus to old woman, not only to young beautiful woman then he feel as hero.

Woman appreciates man who open the door first, and let his woman goes in first.

Woman appreciates man who holds his woman’s hand when crossing the street.

Those simple things, yet still capture woman’s heart. And when man has woman’s heart. You’ll be surprised what she can do, with all of her strenght.

Happy Woman’s Day
December 22, 2010

If Heaven is a peaceful place where evil is defeated, how fun will that be?

Consider that we are used to life on earth, with high pace and competition. Materialist, labelized society.
Where expectation often come with dissapointment.
Happiness turns to sorrow replaced with adrenaline joy then grief again and so on.

We like to talk about someone’s misfortune or bad behaviour.
We want to enjoy all things money can buy and be proud of it.
That’s not good, that’s just human.

Then we feel the shame when we are in the misfortune spotlite, or no longer able to fullfil what we want or need.

We come to feed the soul as a way out. All suggestion tell us to be patient, let go negative emotion, and hold on to good hope.

But, be honest to ourselves, we are still human. And the cycles keep continue.

Isn’t that the art of life. Don’t we enjoy all the process.

So if some part of life are diminished will it be as interesting?

Let’s just sit together, side by side, hand in hand
And look forward, to your world
As I look forward to my world
And when you feel like going, you can let this hand off

when seconds gives you meaning

will you accept it

will your heart understand it

meanings attached meanings released

no wonder if you are changed

don’t be surprised of where you are now

now and then it will vanish again

until then you realize

you neglect to make friend with time

Hidup dalam Detik

ketika detik memberi makna

adakah kau menerimanya

adakah hatimu mengerti

makna melekat makna terlepas

tak heranlah jika kau berubah

jangan terkejut akan tempatmu sekarang

kini atau atau nanti akan terhilang lagi

sampai akhirnya kau sadari

kau lalai bersahabat dengan waktu

may’10, cozy saturday morning

I want to ask The Lord, of seemed never ending trials I face
for pure gold is what You want
and soldiers are trained that way to be prepared for every battle
not to avoid those difficulties Lord, oh please help me
just to have comfort for this becoming-dry soul

I want to ask The Lord, of the doubted faith I face
faith that I am sure grows because of Your grace
faith that often stumbled with reality of life
not to betray the faith Lord, please trust in me
just to be sure that this faith is not my selfish desire

I want to ask The Lord, of all the times I had
for mistakes and apologize, lessons learned, faith remain
are You pleased with my offering to You
no to gain praises Lord, please those things are Yours
just to keep my name written in book of life

Many diseases are problems belong to a society or environment. Diseases often occur due to unhealthy lifestyle, diet, or unhealthy environment. For example, the availability of clean water in one neighborhood can affect the
health status of the residents. Lack of clean water may lead to bad sanitation, can cause infection diseases, diarrhea, skin rashes, etc. So, sometimes individual healthy behavior is not enough.

In its growth, medicine has become an important aspect in forming a healthy society. We can counter almost every disease with medicines. And for incurable disease, the research is extensively carried out. As pharmaceutical
research is not an easy or cheap thing, it leads that medicine is a quite expensive item. As I described earlier, illness condition is not a monopoly of rich society. It may be, economically, not a big deal if rich people suffer an
illness condition. They may able to afford all the treatment facilities needed. How if poor people suffer illnesses that require expensive medication? Doesn’t he or she deserve equal chance for treatment?

In some poor or developing countries, where neighborhood is still very sociable, they are accustomed in raising charity to the unlucky patient. So, the poor patient can try to afford the medication needed. I believe this is the
original version of insurance. As more complex society grows, especially in big cities, that sociable behavior slowly diminishes. And now, people let the ‘unfortunate fund’ to be managed by the insurance industries.
But of course as all industries do, insurance industries only serve the premium payer. How about the people who are not clients of any insurance company? Are they free of health problems?
Many reasons why not all people willing to be a client of an insurance company, some don’t feel it is necessary; some just don’t have enough money to spend there. This maybe only occurs in poor or developing countries.

Insurance is a system of distributing risk and payment needed due to the risk. Every occurrence follow statistics rule. So, with global view of statistic data, expenses needed on one occurrence or illness can be quantified.
Why health insurance is so important? Health insurance is meant to protect household and individual from out-of-pocket burden on medical expenses. Sickness is something unpredictable, but the expenses on curing a disease can be predictable. And, statistically, we can count occurrence number of a disease in one nation and how much treatment expenses needed. By that, we can quantify how much is the medical expenses have to be prepared for one
nation. To ensure all citizens are covered in health insurance, we need government to take over the responsibility. Government needs to allocate fund to make a basic national health insurance especially for poor people.

According to TR. Reid, senior correspondent of The Washington Post, there are four models in health service policy.
First, The Beveridge Model, says every citizen have right in health service funded by taxes. Country as sole payer, decided the health provider can be given.
Second, Bismarck Model, where health insurance is funded by employer by wages cutting.
Third is National Health Insurance (combination of Beveridge and Bismarck Model). The system used private health provider, funded by national insurance program. The program is managed by government and all citizens are obliged to pay the premium.
Fourth is self-payment model. Most of the world citizen don’t have access to health service because their countries are to poor and can not coordinate mass health service provider.
In Indonesia, health insurance industry has grown very fast lately, maybe mostly due to increasing awareness of insurance. Basically, Indonesian is a very sociable community. So preparing an unfortunate fund is way beyond our plan. Because, the culture is we help our neighbor who is in need. And paying insurance premium for uncertain risk is thought to be a waste of money, because it is unsure that we have such medical risk. By this general opinion in Indonesia, it is not easy to encourage individual to actively participate in health insurance system.
For National Insurance System, Indonesia uses the Bismarck model and National Health Insurance. Our government has several schemes in national health insurance.
The schemes are: ASKES, health insurance for civil servant, JAMSOSTEK, for private sector workers, and ASABRI, for military force. Recently in Indonesia, the ministry of Health launched a national insurance program for poor society, called ASKESKIN. Since 2008, ASKESKIN is replaced with JAMKESMAS. It covers 72 million people. In 2008, Jamkesmas bill is around Rp 2.5 billion.
In all those schemes in Indonesia, participants have a very low contribution, and it is not voluntarily. All those workers are ‘forced’ to participate, and share very little percentage on the premium. The rest is government
responsibility. As participants, of course, we can only hope that the government prepared adequate health facilities.
Please be reminded, adequate in here means adequate in terms of appropriate health service and treatment, maybe
it is difficult to be adequate in terms of paid premium amount.
Those are insurance scheme for formal workers. How about non formal workers? Assume there are 45 millions civil servants and military and police force that are covered with ASKES and ASABRI, plus 8 million workers covered with JAMSOSTEK, and 36 millions poor citizens covered with ASKESKIN, insurance penetration level is only 40 percents of
total population of 227 million people in 2008. The 60 percents must bear the insurance premium themselves. For those 60 percents citizens, we can only hope that they have enough awareness to insure themselves. With all
citizens insured, we can prevent unproductive risk due to illnesses.
That’s for one nation. How if we upgrade the condition to global citizen? As in a country, the world has poor citizen and rich society. Population with high affordability to health, that is upper income countries, statistically is only
around 30% of the total world countries. The rest are poor and developing countries which, in average, have low affordability.
Seeing those conditions, I am thinking of a global system of health insurance. Borrowing the insurance system, rich countries have the obligation to pay more premiums (okay if you prefer to call it charity) to the ‘insurance board’.

Then the ‘insurance board’ gives the donation to countries needing the fund to treat patients. This kind of treatment can be in a form of medication supplies, facilities, or any other forms needed, such as communicable surveillance system, etc. The objective is to ensure that every country can afford the medical expenses for all the citizens.
For a start, we can make limitation on communicable disease. Infectious disease is a world problem. Maybe the occurrence number is higher in some countries, poor and developing, and none in rich countries. But as we experienced recently, how the world is waken up by many infectious cases emerged globally; avian flu, swine flu, and not to mention infectious disease like HIV, malaria, and TB. An estimated 40 million people are still living with
HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.
With the basic data of average occurrence rate in the world, and how much is the average medication expenses needed per patient per country, we can count how much the premium per country must share. Maybe still, poor
countries can not afford the share. Then we can adapt the Pareto system; rich countries should share bigger premium.

To apply such system, we need global commitment. United Nations should manage the ‘Global Insurance Board’, and interfere with ‘The Premium Share Policy’ to contributing countries.
Why rich countries should have the obligation to pay more premiums? What is the necessity or the urgency for them to allocate more budgets? Well, rich countries tourist must ever experienced what is called traveler’s diarrhea. And see how much effort rich countries do in preventing re-occurrence of communicable disease, like building up-to-date
surveillance system in airports, harbors, and other borders.

I realize my idea is still way to far from application. I just hope this essay, at least, will bring to mind, the necessity for us to help each other, as global citizen. Maybe it is not a new innovation of health, but surely it will be innovating’ health for all.
(Roseline Sitorus, Indonesia)

ps. The essay was supposed to contribute in Young Voices Essay Competition, 2009, but since I had my previous essay published already, I am no longer eligible for the competition.