Share my experience traveling in Manila, and then Batangas.
Iwan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-umWWgaYfA
November 4, 2006
Daylight Saving
By Utami Pinjungsari (SIF 2001), Melbourne.
Udah sejak hari minggu lalu Kita di Australia yang berada di negara bagian New South Wales, Victoria, Capital Territory dan Australia Selatan memajukan jam secara serentak lebih cepat satu jam dari sebelumnya. Sementara Tasmania sudah melakukannya sebulan lebih awal dari Kita. Istilah popularnya “Daylight Saving”.
Daylight Saving/Daylight Saving Time (DST) yang biasa dikenal juga dengan istilah “Summer Time” ini biasanya dilakukan ketika Spring atau Summer untuk beberapa negara di benua Afrika, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Amerika Utara dan Amerika Selatan, yang biasanya ketika musim-musim tersebut daerah ini mengalami perbandingan siang yang lebih lama terhadap malam. Mungkin buat temen-temen yang pernah tinggal atau saat ini tinggal di negara-negara yang menerapkan DST ini udah familiar banget sama istilah ini.
Gue pribadi sudah mengalami pertukaran jam ini dua kali selama di sini dan masih aja ngerasaa bit confuse sama istilah dan pentingnya diterapkan DST ini. Maklum di tanah air gak pernah mengalami “majuin dan mundurin” jam seperti ini.
Gue baru tau kalau alasan utamanya DST ini diterapkan adalah untuk pelestarian energi. Karena matahari bersinar lebih awal (yaitu sekitar jam setengah lima pagi) dan terbenam lebih lama (yaitu sekitar jam setengah sembilan malam), otomatis dengan memajukan waktu satu jam lebih awal membuat orang lebih memanfaatkan sinar matahari alami. Orang lebih cepat bangun artinya lebih cepat mematikan lampu. Secara teori katanya DST ini bisa menghemat pemakaian listrik sampai 1%.
Alasan-alasan lainnya seperti meningkatkan kegiatan outdoor seperti berpariwisata dan berbelanja setelah jam pulang kantor berhubung masih terang. Dan mengurangi kecelakaan lalu lintas, dan pengurangan tingkat kriminalitas.
Tapi pastinya selalu ada pro dan kontra. Gue pribadi sih termasuk yang kontra sama adanya pemajuan jam ini. Alasan pribadi sih karena susah banget ngerubah Body Clock diri sendiri dan anak euy!akhirnya jadwal jadi berantakan. Alasan kedua harus sering-sering lihat jam deh.. abis berasa siang mulu. Sampe-sampe suka terlambat masak makan malam. Sampe-sampe pas Dhanny mau kerja malam Gue lupa telat bikinin nasi (untung deh dia suami yang pengertian 
.
Abis jam delapan malam aja terangnya masih kayak gini *ngeles*. Ini penampakan dari jendela apartment Kita jam delapan malam gonjreng.
Tapi bener aja, masih ada pertanyaan-pertanyaan lebih serius dari pihak yang kontra seperti, bukannya dengan lebih awalnya pekerja pulang ke rumah saat Summer berarti mereka akan menggunakan energi untuk AC dan jalan-jalan mengunakan kendaraan bermotor?
Dan masalah lainnya seperti kerancuan untuk keperluan bisnis international,transport schedule, tv programmes schedules, payment schedules, praying time (untuk muslim) etc etc… Mmm gak kebayang deh kalau di Indonesia diterapkan DST ini. Mungkin makin banyak kecelakaan Kereta Api ya? 
. Bahkan ada beberapa studi yang menunjukan dengan adanya DST ini, dimana orang kehilangan waktu tidurnya satu jam, dapat meningkatkan rate kecelakaan lalu lintas akibat karyawan yang berangkat kerja menyupir sambil mengantuk.
Tapi, buat morning person pastinya DST ini disambut dengan gembira. Karena bisa memanfaatkan hari lebih cepat, pulang bisa spend waktu dengan keluarga untuk belanja, beraktivitas outdoor dll.
Yah akhirnya mau gak mau dinikmatin aja sinar matahari yang ada sampai malam ini. Untung Ramadhan kemarin jatuhnya pas belum DST. Imsak jam tiga pagi buka puasanya jam sembilan atau setengah sepuluh 
October 19, 2006
Breaking fast gathering at Baim’s house
Hi all,
Last Friday night’s buka puasa @ Baim’s place was being attended by mas Baim himself (of course!), his beautiful wife and his two angels , Riza-Nanang- Joy (the three UL-mustketeer), Happy, newly wed couple Lily-Elpi, Iwan, Shiza, Nina, me, and Aditya Oli -a supervisor from PG Singapore . And also being attended by fruit punch, kolak, beehoon goreng, balado egg, tumis beans, shrimp & fish crackers from Palembang, and great black coffee.. (I am fasting when I write this…)
As we know, we’ve started the SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM last year, giving 15 scholarship to 15 kids in Pati, Central Java (5 from 4th grade, 5 from 4th grade, and 5 from 6th grade; and of course they’ve now grown up.. oh kids..)
As a next step, we’ve agreed to expand the scholarship to 10 MORE KIDS!! �
And, to give more scholarship to more kids we need more of your help, friends….
Simple calculation, simple way to help, simply works:
100,000 rupiah / month for 1 year can support 1 kid’s schooling
Anyone else?
We can transfer the money to our account & pls inform Lily/Fenny that you have transfered this amount of money
Bank Mandiri Cab Wisma Metropolitan
No Rek 122-00-0450096- 6
A.n. Arlina Veralda / Ayu Kartika Dewi
PS: also need inputs on what school can be the potential next destination for us to give the scholarship to the students. preferably somewhere in greater jakarta so we can visit them easily.
PPS: lets start to think of what name we should give to this scholarship its been a year and we dont have a name for this
Cheerios,
Ayu Kartika Dewi
August 28, 2006
Elpi&Lily
Congratulation to Elpi (SIF 2001) and Lily (SIF 2000) who got married on July 30. They met during SIF alumni gathering and decided to get married 4 years afterwards
August 27, 2006
Teguh ( SIF 98) gets Ford scholarship
Teguh Santosa, SIF’98 n now the executive editor of rakyatmerdeka.com, recently got a Ford Foundation scholarship to pursue his master degree overseas. He said he might go to either the U.S or England as he was still waiting for an acceptance letter from a university. However, he must also face a court trial in the following weeks for defaming Prophet Muhammad as his website published the controversial cartoon of the Prophet early this year. Please correct me if I am wrong).
Congratulation and be tough
August 11, 2006
Report from our scholarship to SDN Purwosari 2
I translate part of the letter from Hartiningsih, Head of Primary School SDN Purwosari 2, Pati, Central Java. ( I will scan the original letter and post it in the blog later) – Thx Iwan.
I would like to report to the donors from Singapore International Foundation (SIF) Alumni that the donation, which is used to help smart but poor students from our school and now continue their studies in junior high schools, will be placed in the Education Development Forum for SDN Purwosari 2. This is necessary to distinguish donation from the society with fund from the government.
Two students Aprilia and Dian Lutfiani are now in SMP 2 Pati, one of the favorite schools in town, 6 kilometers from Purwosari. Iski, Istiana and Yulianti are in SMP Tlogowungu, less than one kilometer from Purwosari (addition from me).
The financial report is as follow:
1. Donation Rp 2.5 million
2.Uniforms for Aprilia and Dian Lutfiani (SMP2) Rp 890,000
3. Uniforms for Iski, Istiana, Yulianti Rp 841,000
4. Transportation allowance for April n Dian Rp 104,000
5. Uniform for Trianto (a poor student, who is almost unable to study due to lack of fund) Rp 190,000
Expenses 2.025 m
We saved the remaining Rp 475,000 in a bank account in BPR/BKK Tlogowungu.
It is just the beginning of the future of five children. Two children, who study in SMP 2, would need to buy books at Rp 225,000 each every semester. Three children in SMP 1 Tlogowungu would also need the same amount of money per semester for books.
In total, they all need Rp 1,125 million per semester to buy book or Rp 2.25 million per year.
Our two students in SMP 2 would also need financial support for transportation as they should travel 6 kilometers from their houses to reach their school. For the two students, transportation costs are Rp 2.2 million a year.
10 students in fifth and sixth grade of SDN Purwosari 2, who received financial support from SIF Alumni, would also need new uniforms in January.
We suggest SIF Alumni to donate the fund monthly to the students rather than occasionally, so that
1. SIF Alumni will not suffer too many financial burden
2. We could regularly submit our financial responsibility every month.
3. If there is a financial surplus in the bank account, we could open a deposit account (hehe maksudnya dana abadi) under SIF Alumni name.
Thank you very much for all your support. We really appreciate it.
Hartiningsih
Head of SDN Purwosari 2
August 10, 2006
Aan studies in the U.S, Lutfhi to follow
Aan Suryana (SIF 97), who works for the Jakarta Post journalist, departed on Friday (Aug. 4) to Maryland, the U.S. to study journalism in there for 10 months under Humphrey fellowship program. Congratulation An.
Lutfhi Ashari (SIF 97), a World Bank researcher in Jakarta, will also go to Columbia University, New York later this month for the next 2.5 months, which is part of his study in Master of Public Management in the National University of Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew scholarship.
August 7, 2006
My Citizen Journalism research
Testing. I just returned from Seoul, Korea to do my thesis research on citizen journalism. I was able to interview ohmynews chief editor Eun Taek Hong. The South Korean website is deemed the best website in the world that implements citizen journalism. It has 44,000 citizen journalists along with some 70 professional journalists. Other interviews were just additional information. Hope I could finish my master degree in journalism in Ateneo de Manila University under the scholarship from Konrad Adenaur Asian Center for Journalism this October *Moch. N. Kurniawan (Iwan)*
