I have just arrived in Jakarta, and boy have I got many stories.

It is the eve of the Independence Day tonight.

How am I celebrating the cause?

Unfortunately, clubbing.

I know, how inappropriate of me not to join the street parades or be in the crowd to see the fireworks display over at Monas or wherever. I guess I have no one to go with.

I have so many stories to tell, but my laptop broke the day I landed. It’ll take time for me to survey a new solid laptop and be blogging at home.

But no worries, I’m at AYOLA Cyber Cafe right now. I’ll come back to you guys with more posts and my stories in Jakarta.

Last but not least,

SELAMAT MERDEKA INDONESIA-KU.

PrinceJake signs off. (For quite a while. Seriously.)

Writer’s block.

I’m having it. 

I have tried writing for many days now, but nothing seems to interest me enough. 

Holidays have been kind, but laziness has hit back. *Explains the lack of update*

I’m in Kuching, Sarawak right now, my second-Jakarta and it has been pleasant.

I’m probably one of the very few Indonesians who still reside in this little town. To my surprise, I met another one just a couple of days ago.

Being an Indonesian in Malaysia has been quite entertaining, especially if you start visiting the Malay places/people. 

I was across the river just yesterday, where these awesome Malay food-places are. 

While conversing in Indonesian, moments after we sat down, a Malay waitress made a remark on how she loved hearing us talk in Indonesian. I asked her whether she watches the Sinetrons, and she said: “Ya, maka itulah saya Minat”.

I thought she was adorable.

So, I went to the Unisex toilet at the biggest food stall over there and inside there were two Malay women. I was on the phone with my friend in Singapore while waiting for my turn, and I could hear the two Malay women whispering “Ehh, Indon Indon”. 

I turned to them, and they smiled happily.

These zoo-like encounters have happened often during my stay in Malaysia over the years. Be it on a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Johor, or Kuching. 

I used to speak only in Malay whenever I converse with the Malays in Malaysia, but I realized that they understand my language. 

My parents have the thinking that Indonesian/Malay language have no place in this globalized world. 

It is also seen as a growing trend in Indonesia and Malaysia whereby parents teach their kids English first before their national language (which I think is ridiculous by the way). 

What no press have told the people is that Indonesian is one of the languages the FBI/CIA look for when recruiting. Indonesian language is also one of the languages listed in many world universities.

This does not mean there is something special in our language, but for simple reason, we have huge number of people. 

To say that it has no place in the world does not really make sense. Indonesian/Malay language occupy the biggest economies in South East Asia. 

With ASEAN playing a bigger role in the world, it is just a matter of time. 

A more important reason to preserve our language is the fact that it is a national treasure. One that identifies us. One that separates us from the mainstream world and one that brings us closer as neighbors. 

Prince Jake signs off.

BOOB TUBE: An activist takes part in a demonstration at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Friday, exhorting passersby to turn their TVs off this Sunday. Organizers say they staged the event to warn the public that most local TV programs hold no educational value for children. (JP/J. Adiguna)

(Taken from the Jakarta Post Headline)

This was one of the headline pictures of the Jakarta Post.

I don’t get why it is called BOOB TUBE?

I showed it to my sister, she said it made sense, Boob and Tube.

I still don’t get it.

I have completely forgotten about this blog in the midst of my ultra-stressing time towards the end of my semester.

Though I’m technically on ‘holidays’, the last thing I could do right now is to relax. Currently, I’m writing an analysis report on Indonesia, democracy, cultural imperialism and Islam. It’s something that I like, but when I have to type thousands of words along with some ridiculously structured sources, it’s become tedious and annoying.

Things on the news have been the same all over again, with news involving an anus and genital dominating the mass media. It’s crazy what politics have become.

Anwar’s not that bad, at least he’s not with a horse.

I’m probably going to be bombarded by the millions of Anwar supporters for saying this, but I really think that Anwar and Saiful (or his back) did have something ‘personal’ going on. It’s my formulated verdict after reading materials, books about Anwar and the Barisan Nasional.

The latest news also came upon Anwar’s refusal to provide DNA, in which he defends he did not want his ‘DNA’ result, to be manipulated, again.

I’m not a big fan of Barisan Nasional, but I do not think they would actually do that. Sure, call this an amateur logic considering on what they did to Altantuya. But, I do not think Barisan Nasional is stupid enough to venture into this scandal AGAIN, if they have no whatsoever assurance to back it up. I also do no think they would have the nerve to actually manipulate the sample considering the worldwide attention it has gotten.

I am wondering, could it be possible if the case was ‘handed’ to a foreign country? Thus there is no fear of bias or manipulation in the process.

I mean Pakistan did it with the death of Benazir Bhutto, whereby foreign investigators were called to analyze the case, instead of the untrusted Musharraf regime at the time who were the first to examine the death.

If this happens, Anwar should not refuse to give his DNA sample and Saiful, well, I don’t exactly know what they do to him. How do you check if Saiful has been sodomized by Anwar? I have this shameful thought in my mind that I don’t think I should share.

So I posted a poll on my blog, relating to the sodomy case and as you can probably see, majority think Anwar is innocent. While the second majority say they think he really did it.

Anwar should really be glad he has the charisma to garner large support. If he hasn’t, I don’t think he’ll still be roaming about free now.

100-year Old Mothers.

Nice cap Grandma, er, I mean, mother.

I have this fascination with bio-technology, cells, clones, genes, and you get the drift. So imagine how fascinated I was when I read the news, infertility can soon be ‘cured’, which literally means women of any age can still get pregnant.

I don’t know am I supposed to feel towards this breakthrough. I mean, it’s great that women can bare their fetuses anytime, but seeing how people are becoming in the modern world, I think it’s more of a problem than it is a help.

We’re going to have more BBA (born by accident) cases in the future, and yes, that include our mothers. How scary is that.

Imagine you’re 50, and your mother is 80 and pregnant. 50 years gap to my own sibling? That sounds ridiculous. Besides, what sane old woman would want to have a child when they reach 80 or worse, 100?

As a son, I am not emotionally equipped if my mother was to accidentally conceive a baby when she reaches 80. Can you imagine her coming to me one day and telling me she got knocked up?

The paper says the technology will become a reality in 30 years time.

While curing infertility in women is the main point of this breakthrough, the scientists are also using this technique to create, what I call, ‘designer babies’.

This means, you can design how your baby is, this includes their color, hair color, height, and even intelligence. Your baby can even have disease-free genes.

As great as it sounds, I think the whole thing is scary.

People can call this progress, but I think we are seriously messing up the world.

There’ll be a new sort of discrimination again. This time it will be between the ‘designer humans’ and the ‘normal humans’.

After reading many history books, one thing I have noticed is that; History is doomed to repeat.

We just keep making the same historic mistake over and over again.

What an anal world.

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