SODEVE

(c)numchucks77

It is indeed a sad moment for us. An Education institution where pupils learn from their masters has been tainted with blood. In United States, we have another school rampage that resulted 31 people dead and dozens injured. Meanwhile in Indonesia, a government-sponsored School caused a furore by covering up a student’s death.

United States with its gun ownership law is not foreign to school shooting. The Columbine incident, the more recent shooting at Amish elementary school and the latest shooting at Virginia Tech. Hopefully US will introduce a better gun-law to protect its citizens.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, many bloggers are expressing their anger and emotion with the latest killing from Institute of Public Administration(IPDN). The government-sponsored school has been known for its semi-military education style, and its students who are killed by their classmates/seniors. An online petition to close down the school has been created.

Hardono’s take

US Federal/State Government should put a metal detector in every school in United States. They could change the budget, instead of allocating so much money for Iraq, the money could be used to fortify every school in US. If the shootings are moved from schools to malls, the malls should also be fortified with metal detectors. If the same thing happened to the beaches, the beaches should also be fortified with metal detectors. Hmm.. shouldn’t they do a simpler approach by making the public access to firearms difficult/near to impossible?

 

STPDN should be closed and rent the building to other school such as UI/Binus/IPB, this way we won’t waste the investments that government has made in IPDN. And I believe the Indonesian government should hire more professionals with management education background. This way, we will have a government with a better management qualities, and with more resistance to corruption.

 

And lastly, my thoughts and prayers are for families of the victims. I pray for your strength and your well-being, bracing through this remorseful moment. For the rest of us, I hope we could do something to make this world a better place to life.

Notable bloggers with their opinion on IPDN Scandal:

1. Kang Kombor
2. Bro Fertob

List of management school in the region (replacements for IPDN?):

1. Singapore Management University
2. Institut Pengembangan Manajemen Indonesia
3. Magister Management - Univ. Gadjah Mada
4. The Complete List

The online petition to close down IPDN:

1. Petition to close down IPDN

Reading on School Shootings in US:

1. Columbine High School Shooting
2. Amish School Shooting
3. Virginia Tech. Shooting
4. List of other School massacres

Hardono Arifanto :: Apr.18.2007 :: Life, News :: 2 Comments »

I was uploading my images to Photobucket when I saw a headline linked to Photobucket’s blog. Apparently Myspace has restricted their users from using videos which are hosted at Photobucket. Thus, all videos that previously hosted in Photobucket will not shown in Myspace website anymore.

I have tried to search for Myspace official press release regarding this matter, but I couldn’t find any page on Myspace website that state the restriction of using videos hosted at Photobucket.

Personally I think this is strange, considering Photobucket is the most dominant image hosting provider in Myspace. Although the images is not restricted, but implementing restriction without any clear explanation will render you as being arrogant. Will disabling these videos will trigger mass user migrations to other social networking sites? Is Myspace testing its users’ loyalti?

Whatever Myspace’s intention, it’s a bad move. The recent growth of many websites that touted themselves as Web 2.0 (basically website with social networking functionality) might provide alternatives for Myspace users. There is a reason why it is called social networking/online community. I think the community won’t like the idea of having host which suddenly implement restrictions without giving any clear-cut explanations. When your host does not play nice, it’s time to pack your bags and move to somewhere else better. Even though if MySpace eventually gives in and permit videos from PhotoBucket, are you sure they won’t do it again? Especially when this time they can get away without being punished?

Hardono Arifanto :: Apr.11.2007 :: News, Internet :: 2 Comments »

Have you watched the movie titled Lord of War starred by Nicholas Cage? It’s about a weapon dealer(Nicholas Cage) selling arms illegally to the warring parties in Africa. The movie chronicles his journey which started by selling guns and pistols to street-gang members, and growing to the point of purchasing machine guns, tanks, and even jet-fighters from East European countries and selling them to African Warlords.

imdb.com
Trailer

Apparently the true story-inspired movie is not far from reality, a Singaporean man pleads guilty for supplying illegal arms to Tamil Tigers. He was conspiring with two Indonesians to provide arms and ammunitions to Tamil Tigers, which is listed as a terrorist organization by US.

Since the criminal offence was committed in US soil, they are bound to the US law. The three of them are currently under US Federal Government Custody in Maryland. They are facing maximum 15 years and USD$500,000 fine sentence.

I’m not a war/suicide bombers/terrorist person. I love peace :-). I believe that resolving differences using physical/weaponry power will degenerate us back to the jungle, where the mighty rules and the weak suffers. So I hope all the guilty parties in this case will receive the punishment that they deserved. For the rest of us, let’s start small by trying to resolve any of our differences using dialogues, not fists.

From Singapore with love,
Hardono Arifanto

Sources

Yahoo News

News Archive @ ETAN

Hardono Arifanto :: Apr.06.2007 :: News :: No Comments »

It’s good to know that the British sailors are released by Iran. Although it’s difficult if not impossible, I hope peace will be restored in Middle East. Everyone will live happily, no more suicide bombers, no more roadside bombs, no more car bombs, no more bombs in the market. Christians, Jews, and Muslims are live side by side without trying to kill each other. Everyone knows that death is as certain as tax, why should we make it sooner?

A train accident happened in Paris. Thanks God no one killed, although 50 people are injured. The train belongs to the state-owned rail company (SNCF) hit the buffers at the train station in Paris. It’s a bit tragic considering a few days back another French’s railway company, TGV was hailed and showered with compliments for breaking speed record.

Grieve news for male-adulterer, a silly law is going to be amended. Apparently in Uganda if you are married and then you cheated, you MIGHT offended the law. Yes .. might, if you are male. But if you are female and do the same thing, you ARE offending the law. Yeah right …

And news from Indonesia, Indonesian Playboy Editor is cleared from the criminal charges. I am not sure whether I should happy or not. I have a friend working there, but I also have many friends who opposed Indonesian Playboy’s existence. Personally I believe book like ‘Jakarta Undercover” is more morally destructive compared to Playboy. And this opinion based only from the excerpt of that book.

And finally, my dear club Manchester United lost to AS. Roma. In the first leg of quarter-final match, Roma beaten Manchester United 2-1. Paul Scholes was sent off on the 33rd minute. Fortunately, Wayne Rooney scored to give us the precious away goal. Hopefully we can do better at Old Trafford.

Hardono Arifanto :: Apr.05.2007 :: News :: No Comments »

There has been an uproar in Indonesia recently. They found out that some foods using formalin as its preservatives. Formalin is the substance you used to preserve the frog in the jar, after you dissected it in your Biology Lab. Yep.. its the substance that preserve the deads.

Let see what happen to your body if you consume ‘enough’ formalin: =P

“Because formaldehyde resins are used in many construction materials, including plywood, carpet, and spray-on insulating foams, and because these resins slowly give off formaldehyde over time, formaldehyde is one of the more common indoor air pollutants. At concentrations above 0.1 mg/kg in air, inhaled formaldehyde can irritate the eyes and mucous membranes, resulting in watery eyes, headache, a burning sensation in the throat, and difficulty breathing.

Large formaldehyde exposures, for example from drinking formaldehyde solutions, are potentially lethal. Formaldehyde is converted to formic acid in the body, leading to a rise in blood acidity, rapid, shallow breathing, hypothermia, and coma or death. People who have ingested formaldehyde require immediate medical attention.

In the body, formaldehyde can cause proteins to irreversibly bind to DNA. Laboratory animals exposed to large doses of inhaled formaldehyde over their lifetimes have developed more cancers of the nose and throat than are usual, as have workers in particle-board sawmills. However, some studies suggest that smaller concentrations of formaldehyde like those encountered in most buildings have no carcinogenic effects. Formaldehyde is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a known human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.” ( taken from Wikipedia , emphasis mine) ( taken from Wikipedia , emphasis mine)

So to prevent yourself getting nasty cancer, please eat more vegetables. Should you really need to resort to those meats and fishes, make sure they are fresh. How to make sure the their freshness ? I’ll leave this to those Material/Chemical Engineers to create another practical indicator test device, just like my previous idea of an indicator for the purity of petrol …. (which is never realised …. >.<)

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.28.2005 :: News, Foods :: No Comments »