It is an Election eve and I am sitting down at the International Lounge of Los Angeles airport, on my way to the P island, aka B, via Taipei. I just finished my ‘election fun homework’ — which is part of my office’s activity. In my answer sheet I predicted that Obama will win the Election with 353 electoral votes, against McCain with 185. Obama will also get more popular votes, my prediction is he’ll get around 7.5% margin of victory. So, once I come back to the US next week, that country will have a new president, President Obama!

Meanwhile, a friend of mine sent me this link. It’s an interesting map. Of course, it’s easy to predict that the majority of the world is for Obama. But it’s interesting to see the red areas — Cuba, Algeria, Iraq, and Congo! Oh!!

Nuclear energy has become one of some major focuses of discourses around alternative energies (to oil). It was even mentioned several times in the presidential and vice presidential debates in the United States. In addition, nuclear technology has also gained a political importance and been discussed in relations with the world politics with its association with Iran and North Korea.

Since the days of Hiroshima and Chernobyl, so many images of atomic and nuclear explosions emerge in the media — news, movies, books, comics, etc. But, in reality, how much do we know about this technology? Aren’t our perceptions about this technology very much socially and politically constructed by media portrayal of it? How could we judge — protest and support — the establishment of this technology without having enough basic knowledge? (more…)

Yesterday I got a book in my mailbox. Entitled “Networked Publics“, the book is a result of the collaboration of 13 scholars, including me, at the Annenberg Center for Communication of University of Southern California. My contribution is the chapter on politics.

The book itself is available for purchase from Amazon.com.

Networked Publics
# Hardcover: 176 pages
# Publisher: The MIT Press (October 31, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0262220857
# ISBN-13: 978-0262220859
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I’m still in DC, waiting for the time to depart to the airport. Sitting down now at Starbuck, I feel like I am a winner. I finally found a way to sit here, enjoying the free Internet connection without being burnt by the sun, without buying anything, not even a single cup of coffee!! Yayyy!! I could sit down somewhere else, at other cafes, but there I have to buy something. Not that I don’t have money, the problem is I had enough breakfast and really cannot drink/eat anything anymore.

It’s antithetical, in a place of the biggest coffee capitalist I could actually manipulate the game. I just have to look confident as if I had bought something, and then sitting there forever!!

Anyway, enough about Starbuck…. today, one day after the Independence Day, I guess it’s just right to post a rant about nationalism. (more…)

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A unique mass protest happened in May 2003 when Indonesia’s Islamic clerics and organizations banned Inul Daratista, a singer, from performing because her gyrating hip movement, which Indonesians call “drilling,” (more…)

The modified version of this one is published in the Jakarta Post, February 02, 2008.
Thanks all for your comments. Special thanks to republic, colson, and tika!

What is this thing called tempe?
This tasty thing called tempe..
Just who can solve its mystery?
Why should it make a fool of me?
I saw you there one wonderful day
You made me drool but now you're gone
That's why I ask you guys in Jakarta's throne..
Why take this thing from me….

– adapted from "What is this thing called love" by Cole Porter, 1930, sung together by Billie Holiday and ML –

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My very good buddy, Yanuar Nugroho, wrote a very good reflection on anti pornographic/pornoaction bylaws (RUU APP) here.* Yes, this is an old issue that re-emerges these days, this time is more disconcerting since the draft has climbed up and reached the last stage and if no big thing happened in the way, then the President would issue the bill very soon.

Inline with this discourse, here I am re-publishing my old essay. It was written in the light of Minister of Law and Justice’s proposals for a revamp of the Indonesian civil code in September 2003. It didn’t necessarily talk about RUU APP but I think it’s still relevant.

*the draft of the bylaws (in Indonesian) can also be read there
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Today is the day where bloggers all over the world are urged to post one blog entry for Burma. The day is almost over and I am still puzzled on how to write my thoughts down. Not that I don’t have anything to write. I have some issues to write, but am really confused on where to begin and how to write everything down. Mostly, because I don’t know whether I would contribute anything to the current discourse. But anyway, here I am trying to write something.
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Several days ago, I finished a final draft of an essay entitled “Networked Politics: Deliberation, Mobilization and Everything In-Between” to be published as a chapter in the Networked Publics book edited by Kazys Varnelis. The first draft was written with my co-author, Mark Kann, a senior poli-sci professor at USC. Now, after I rewrote it, it goes to the editor and we’ll see whether it needs some further revisions or not. Academic publishing, especially in North American setting, is a meticulous and very impractical business. It pursues quality to the max — not only quality of substance (research) but also of writing/style/grammar. It needs a year or more just to get one small piece to be published. Let alone the book. Every single piece goes through blind pe-er reviews, sometimes double, and it goes back and forth to you and the editor until everybody’s satisfied! Well, what can I do? I chose to be a scholar, nobody forced me to do this so I should follow the rules and so far I don’t get real troubles (yet) in publishing. And when I don’t want to conform with traditions and rules, I’ll just ramble freely in this blog, hehe.

So, it was a big relief that I finally finished. It’s a long essay and while being empirical, it’s a conceptual writing. Since it may put you to sleep easily, if I copy the whole essay, here I copy one section of it. It represents perhaps only 15% of the whole essay.
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For some of you who have been following my travel or Corat-Coret entries, if you think I have included all weird-silly stories from my trips, you’re wrong. There are too many stories, more than what I can reflect!

Sometimes stories emerge from my being absent-minded, my own silliness, and/or my idiosyncratic mind. But many stories come out of my doing nothing. The combination of my being, subjects/object that encounter my being, and the context seem to be enough to create unexpected (or expected?) stories. (more…)