Archive for September, 2007

Will It Change?

Thea September 24th, 2007

As human, it’s very natural that we have dreams and set paths to reach them. During our life journey, it’s often our dreams change because of the obstacle we face or existing condition which make us have to alter them. However, there are also many dreams that remain unchanged and retained firmly by its pursuers.

I have three women friends. For me, they are outstanding. All of them have strength and prowess which I believe can lead them toward a success woman. Let’s name them as A, B and C.

My friend, A, has just attained her master degree in a prestigious university in Australia. When we were in the same class in GMU, she showed her determination on success and undoubtedly she’s also smart. Then she went to Australia and after two-year research-study, she’s back to Indonesia with another degree after her name. A has been experiencing love relationship with my old friend, also in GMU, who’s now working in foreign ministry. He’s one of the Indonesian diplomat-to-be. They plan to get married next year. A and I used to be very close and I know that she’s very keen to be a career woman. However, several month a go, when she’s about to finish her final year in Melbourne, she said to me that she dreamed to be a full-time housewife. She told me why she wanted to. As she would be a diplomat wife, she won’t be able to work abroad. As for the reciprocal reason, Indonesia forbids all of its diplomat’s couple to work abroad. And to me, she’s much reliant on her couple meanwhile she has a lot of chances to make herself advance. 

 

Another friend, B, is now working as an officer in an Indonesia-based-supranational organization also known as United Nations. While we were in college, she was the most ambitious one, especially in pursuing career. She graduated from college in less than 4 years. Last night, I was involved in a conversation with her. Her boss, she said, wanted her to have career upgrading because he believed that B had capability which enable her to be kind a project officer. Then I asked her if she received her boss offer. Surprisingly she answered not. Looking back to my knowledge on her during our time together, I thought it was a little bit weird considering this one that she’s been looking for. What’s wrong on her? 

 

I just don’t want to be selfish with my couple and my self. If I totally plunge in to a project, I will have no time for my husband and my family. 

 

 

Though she’s not married yet, she’s already ranked her priority in her mind and she let her career ambition in unknown number. 

 

And the last is C who is now going 25 and manages to marry at 27. Despite her bright career future, she dreams unexpected thing. We ever talked about MBA scholarship opportunity offered by a famous foundation. She said that she wasn’t interested in that scholarship as it requires compensation which is relatively burdensome. Kinda monthly fee cut from scholarship awardees salary within many years ahead. She said” If I am awarded that scholarship, I have to work for more than 15 years to repay the scholarship”. Then she surprised me with her statement” Then, how about my dream to be desperate housewife”. 

 

How it changes. As long as I’m concerned about those three friends, they are very talented and of course have great chance to move much forward than now. And of course they used to have such dream. My friend says to me “Gradually, our idealism will change. When we marry someone and have family, we must consider many thing”. And for me, will it change my dream as well??? 

 

 

 

 

Lithuania

Thea September 13th, 2007

To what country should i send this document Ma’am?

A courrier asked me when i managed to send several documents to my colleagues abroad. I saw the envelope and it’s addressed to Lithuania.

Of course to Lithuania

I replied and he asked more

Is there any country named Lithuania, Ma’am?

And I said it was. Hhmmm, what about if next time i send documents to countries which sound unfamiliar to him such as Eritrea or St. Kitt Navis. Probably, he will ask the same

 

Ramadhan

Thea September 12th, 2007

I know that forgiving isn’t easy. However, i’d like to ask your compassion to let off all of false I’ve ever made.

May this Ramadhan lead toward a much better us. Amin

Petite Histoire Indonesia

Thea September 10th, 2007

If you’re kind of people who has less interest in history, you really have to read this book because probably this book will grow your enticement on history, especially Indonesian history.
The author of this book, Rosihan Anwar, is an experted journalist. Starting from his interest in reading history book written by Dutch author about Indonesian in past decades, Rosihan thinks about writing a history book that can enjoyed by people, especially young generation. According to him, history isn’t merely the sequence of date and its historical events. History is beyond that. It’s supposed to be felt lively and meaningful to the current condition.

That’s why as a journalist who has experienced year by year of Indonesian historical moments, Rosihan wants this book can deliver the information of Indonesian history in enjoyable way.

This book comprises of 13 parts, each of it’ s inspired by his own experience in several provinces in Indonesia. An article of newspaper is put an introduction in each part. Just like the first of this about East Timor, Rosihan put an article about the declaration of East Timor, which is just separated from Indonesia.The article was published in Kompas, 20 May 2002. After the introduction, he took the readers past when he visited East Timor, where at the time chaos happened.

Different from history book in common, in this book Rosihan wrote the history with more of human interest touch. As a journalist, he knows well how to convey the history cleverly. Being bored reading history book? No chance, as you may get more interested in reading part by part of this book.

Have u ever known about Cocos island where undersea telegraph cables lied from Eastern Extension Australasia and China telegraph connected to Batavia? In this group of island also, a Germany ship, Eden, was wrecked during he first World War. You can find that sort of story in this book.

Besides, you can find many interesting historical events in daily activity of Indonesian or people in Indonesia in many several years a go. The small stories written in this book really happened in Indonesia. It’s interesting to know that this full-of-human-interest stories are put partly from the biggest major history of Indonesia. Meanwhile, they are actually very close to the history of Indonesia.

In this book also u may find stories about Sandlawood in East Timor, Nazi coup d’etat in Nias, or the story of Prof.Snouck Hurgronje’s friends.

Undoubtedly, Rosihan shows his excellence in this book. It’s very informative, reliable, yet written briefly and smartly which hopefully can make the readers read this book more and more.

Salary Management

Thea September 5th, 2007

A classic problem usually faced by some employees is salary management. Of course, we want to afford all of our needs. We want to pay our credit card, buy clothes or save some of them in saving or deposit account. However, not rarely in the mid of the month, the deficit comes along and it makes us more frustated:-(

How it doesn’t make us frustrated if no matter our salary is, it’s never able to fulfill our needs. Even worse, we can’t save them for the rainy day.

Probably, we never realize that such deficit is caused by some mistakes. One fatal mistake that keeps being repeated again and again is we never list our cosy. The money that we eran flows unnoticed. This mostly happend to new employees like me who want to enjoy the money i get. Another mistake is we often fail to differentiate our want from our need. Therefore, we need what’s called salary management.

Mostly, people have 20-30 expense cost. However, be careful, because not all of them are needs. What we should bear in mind is the salary that we earn isn’t aimed only for fulfilling our need but also for the saving. According to financial experts, there are four posts in to which we have to divide our money. They are:

  1. Daily Life Post
  2. Debt Installment
  3. Insurance expense
  4. Saving and Investation

from the four above-mentioned posts, which one that’s prioritized most?

First of all is debt installment. Why? It’s because we wont feel safe if we keep being haunted by the debt collector, will we? For this post only, we can devote 30% of our salary at maximum.

The second priority is saving and investation(if you have). This post is very beneficial for us in teh future. At least, spare 10% of your salary for this post (the bigger, the better actually). Shoutd you don’t have any debt, this post can be lifted up to the first priority.

Paying insurance premi is the third one. The portion for this post can range from 20 up to 30% of your monthly salary. Say for example you don’t have any insurance, you can skip to the next priority. However, if you’re interested to buy, watch out the rule!! The game rule is “dont buy too much insurance”. Just choose the one which can anticipate the risk and take the premi which’s in line with our financial capacity.

The last priority is daily expense. It comprises cost for daily meal, transportation, entertainment, etc. Why is putting this one at the last? It’s becuse the nature of this post is flexible. In the other words we can say that we can consider which  need that can be reduced. For example, we can skip our want to buy clothes thish month if we have bought the new one last month. Ideally, this post takes 50% of our salary.

Dont forget to list all of your expense. This is useful to ensure that our money’s spent to the correct post.