Help is on the way

The death toll of the Indonesian Tsunami is officially at 150,000 people. Indonesia's victim is 80,000. The world has recognized the severity of this tragedy and has come to aid the various countries affected.

Personally, I've been touched with letters sent to me by my colleagues here in the US who ask about the well being of my family. They have all said how horrible this tragedy is, and their concern shows how much these people care.

Stories of donation keeps coming in. Today it was announced at the mosque where I pray that a special box is created to handle donations for these tsunami victims. It seems that everybody put money into the box.

Countries are lining up to help. The US has said it will send 350 million dollars, the european union, britain, france, japan, united arab emirates has also sent aid.

Story also abounds, about common ordinary people helping. A group of people are mobilizing from Java, doing all they can do to help. We hear donation tins being filled all around Indonesia, and even here in the United States. Every city looks to have a fund raising activity. Everyone is doing all they can.

This human tragedy has touched everyone's soul. No matter the race, religion, nationality, political preference, or residence status. For one moment in time we're all the same... small weak humans, living in an unpredictable world. It's a shame it took 150,000 people's lives to remind us of the need for this unity.

Update - Tsunami

The death counts to the disaster has reached 52000. It's still expected to rise. Wow. 52000.

In Indonesia the GAM rebel (Free aceh movement) and the Indonesian government have declared a truce for now.

An officer for the Indonesian Police uttered words that I think is most appropriate for this situation "we're all crying together".

8.9

An 8.9 earthquake hit near sumatra sunday morning. Then the tsunamis hit, India, Sri Lanka, The loss of lives kept growing. Started at 3300, then 11000, today it's 21000. Condolences to all that have been hit. It is truly a sad day.

The Indonesian government has declared a national mourning period. The MUI (Islamic Ulama Council) has also said that they are concerned. Concerned or 'prihatin' is an Indonesian word usually used by politicians to make a statement without actually doing anything useful). In this case however the MUI has opened an account to help the region.

The lack of a tsunami warning system was touted as a factor in the large number of deaths. I'm not sure whether a warning system would have helped Indonesia, seeing as it was so close to the epicenter of the quake. A person with the Indonesian geological system claimed it was too expensive however.

I'm not quite sure about the extent of damage to the sumatra region. I have only heard it from the news. I know (from reading the news) that many of the damages to the region was caused by the earthquakes and not the tsunamis itself. As for the Tsunamis, I'm not sure how deep inland they came.

Anyway on to the recovery process. Help is coming, both from overseas, and also from inside the country. Hopefully the help will be given to those who need it and not corrupted by those in power. If all goes well, the help will be organized and we will be able to quickly rebuild.

Hopefully plans will be created to create a warning system for natural disasters in Indonesia (Indonesia is very susceptible to natural disasters). Warning systems should be created to detect earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcano eruptions.

There is a lot of work ahead of us.

Spiderman.. spiderman

I just watched spiderman yesterday. Spiderman 1 mind you, not spiderman 2. Yeah I know, it's a bit out of date. Nice movie. The premise is what transpires in every teenage boy dreams. You know, boy is in love with girls, boy gets some kind of special power, then girl falls in love with him suddenly (too conveniently I might add). Yes... boys do dream up of such things :).

My favourite quote (and one that I plan to use whenever somebody asks me for a quote :) ) from the movie is:

"With great power, comes great responsibility"

We may not have the power of spiderman. However, we've all been blessed with something special. It may be intellect, diplomacy skills, or even good looks. Our skills and traits are our power, and we are responsible in using that power wisely to fix this world and all its faults.

By the way.. isn't kirsten dunst hot?

The games we play

I've been playing games a lot these last few weeks. I used to play an MMORPG game, in which I would spend 1-3 hours everyday playing the game. A little more on the weekend (about 5 hours more each day :) ).

I know a lot of people that are addicted to games (am I? I wonder...). I'm defining addiction here is when you have to play and forego many of the normal daily activities, such as showering, eating, and most dangerously taking classes. I know some people who have let games take over their lifes, maybe not to the extend that they stay in front of the computer and doing nothing else, but spend so much time playing that it takes a major part of their lives.

One of the most popular (and the most profitable) games are the MMORPG games I've talked about. In these games, you play as a character in an alternate time or universe. Unlike traditional game where objectives are given to you, in the MMORPG type of games you are free to do as you like (limited only by the game engine capabilities). You buy items, interact with other characters (some characters are computer controlled, others are controlled by other humans just like you), hone your skills, and just do whatever you want to do.

Sounds familiar? It should. Because that's very similar to our lives. In life you don't have people telling you what to do. How to succeed, what your objectives are. In traditional games (think pacman or space invaders) you have a set of objectives that you must do, however in MMORPGs you have the ability to set your own goals.

A lot of people have asked me, what's so fun about games. I've also asked the same question. there may be many reason, but I think the three basic reasons why games are interesting are:

1. Games allows us to be something we're not. Games allow us to be in another more interesting place. Whether as a knight, fighting dragons, or as a soccer player working as a team (remember when you are watching soccer on TV and you scream to the players "pass to your right.. he's free", well now you control them). You can fight ghost, dig holes, use magic, be a hunter, be a craftsman, and lots more.
2. Unlike life, games is much easier. You can be a master hunter in a week. A world cup winner in three days. You can be rich in 10 hours. You can own conquer a country in 2 hours. You can get a job just by picking up the papers. What's more, if you don't like how something turns out (for example you lose a life or a match) you can always redo the things you want to do. None of these things can happen in real life.
   
3. Finally, games give instant gratification. In a game, when you hunt, you can cash in your products in a couple of minutes. In life you have to go to the store, haggle with the merchant, maybe even work through the bureaucracy of the town goverment. In games you get points everytime you do something interesting (shoot a plane down, eat a ghost, jump on a mushroom, pick up a star for example). The gratifications in life is not so simple.
   

Everyone wants to be a success. Apart from escaping from our mundane lives, games allow us to achieve an artificial sense of success. With games you can have this intoxicating feeling of success. A feeling of "yes.. I did it".

Acquiring this feeling is useful. However when playing games become a substitute for reaching real success, then it is dangerous. Unfortunately for some people, that is exactly what happens, because they cannot find success in real life, they substitute it by playing games.

The energy people use to play games would be better served if it were diverted to do useful and constructive things.

Studying in the United States

A lot of students that I know would like to study in the United States. Unfortunately due to economic constraints they cannot. What they do (which I do too) is to try and beg for scholarships. Unfortunately not many scholarship are offered for international students studying in the United States.

The problem is that there isn't that much information about studies in the united states in general. Germany has done a lot of promotion in Indonesia (stressing among other things that education is free in Germany). Actually, before I came to the US. I didn't know much about the education system in the United States either. As a result, I was misinformed about many things in the US.

Some myth about education in the states.

1. There are no scholarship for international engineering students to study in the US. A lot of international foundation only give scholarships for social studies. Unless you happen to work in a big company or extremely rich by Indonesian standards, it seems there's no way you can afford to study in the US.
   This is just not true. Although there are no private scholarships that gives you money to study, the United States system is based on assistantship. That is you work (slave :) ) as a teaching or research assistant for 20 hours a week in return for a stipend and the tuition fee. Students should focus on looking for these jobs instead of scholarships/fellowship which gives money without any obligations to work (even though if a fellowship were to come, you should always accept it).
   
   
2. The research/teaching assistantship is usually limited to only PhD students. However, you don't need a master's degree to apply for the PhD degree. This is one of the biggest myth around, that a master's degree is needed to apply for the PhD. I guess we're so used to the fact that a primary school diploma is needed for junior high and so on, that we think a master's degree is needed to apply for the PhD.
   In most universities, to get a PhD you need a bachelor's degree. You have to commit yourself to 5-7 years of study to get the PhD. In the process of obtaining the PhD degree, you actually do some of the Master's coursework. However if you only apply for the master's then you are expected to be finished in 2 years.
   
   
3. Because you come from the best school, and you have great grades you are definitely in. One of the more important factors in your application is your research and independent work. Grades are important but research and independent work are more important. Unfortunately, the education system in Indonesia does not put any focus on research and independent work.
   

As closing, I present a very good article about the application process. Good luck in your application process, and see you in the US.

Warm Orange

It's winter here in the US. Blustery wind, falling snow, overheated heaters. Not a good combination. Anyway, winter is the time for my annual cough. I'm not sure why, but every winter I start coughing bad.

The solution? Cough drops (candy) or warm tea ($1.70 for a small cup at starbucks). I miss cheap indonesian tea. Maybe I should get mom to send me a box of tea. I like malaysian tea too, and it tasted good (it was flavoured), but I digress.

You know what isn't available here? A glass of warm orange juice. Well maybe juice is not the right word for it, since the 'juice' usually consists of a couple of spoon of orange and warm water. Hmm.. and the most important ingredient: sugar, and lots of it. It's impossible to get warm drinks besides coffee and tea in the US.

Well, there's a market to be exploited ... warm drinks. I want warm orange juice!!!!!

You know what a popular drink here is? Soda. Coke, pepsi, root beer, even lemonade soda. But it's all soda. It's always iced too. If you ask for drink with no ice.. they look at you funny. Ice or no ice, the drink is still cold.

Yesterday we had a talk about the problem of children obesity in class. Part of the talk revolved around the vending machines which are usually filled with fatty food and soda (which are also fattening).

Digress mode:
Vending machines in japan

Okay back to the topic at hand. We had a lively discussion about whether vending machine should be outlawed at schools (meaning no more vending machines at school)? One good point: let children make their own decision, but teach them how to make good decisions (Indonesian parents ... listen up :P). Another interesting point is that soda company has a contract with the school to install vending machines. By putting vending machines in those school, the soda company will give other benefits such as build a stadium for those school. A small price to pay for a lifetime of buying pattern that particular soda.

What about Indonesia? Is obesity going to be a problem soon?
Probably.. especially among the rich. Even now it is probably a problem. Of course when you average it with the undernourished children, Indonesia's children are just about the right size.

Hmm.. this article doesn't have a single unifying topic. However let me close this article with this little story from yesterday. We were talking about how normal weight is correlated with height. My friend stated "Hmmm.. that means I'm not overweight for my height, I'm just short for my weight."