Desi Anwar's Blog

Seeking Refuge in Nature

2011-10-31T13:55:00.003+07:00

I am on a boat being pushed out to sea on the East coast of Bali. The wind is strong here, partly due to being in a bay and partly because it's winter in Australia, making the current somewhat choppy. But the cloudless blue sky promises a good snorkelling morning, even though I can imagine in these parts, close to the shore and the many 'jukung' boats anchored nearby, the corals are

Learning By Playing

2011-10-31T13:52:00.002+07:00

For the past week I've been at MIT Sloan Executive Education to learn. I'm not yet exactly sure about what, but I have an idea that it's about learning to learn, so I thought I'd share with you some of my observations and impressions of what I'm experiencing.Now, being in MIT is an awe-inspiring experience in itself. The place is the seat of learning for just about the smartest people in

The Vision Thing

2011-10-31T13:50:00.002+07:00

I'm a great believer in visualisation as a tool to fulfill an objective. When embarking on a project, I close my eyes, visualise the result that I want to have, and try not to allow doubt or scepticism get in the way of the picture. Then it's just a matter of allowing the path to open up and following it until the thing is done. And unless my heart is not in it to begin with, or I'm beset

Spare Me The Beef

2011-10-31T13:47:00.002+07:00

I can’t remember the last time I ate a piece of juicy beef steak. It was probably around the late eighties or early nineties. In any case it was around the time when mad cow disease broke out in Europe. Prior to that, student poverty had imposed a more or less vegetarian-lifestyle on me anyway, although I would happily revert back to being a carnivore whenever my budget allowed. However,

Creating Time

2011-10-31T13:45:00.001+07:00

Recently I have decided to review my relationship with something that has so far and so strictly ruled my life: the concept of Time. Call it the fruit of spending too much time sitting around getting stuck in incessant traffic jams, but it must be said that one of the impacts of living in a messy and disorganised city like Jakarta is that one ends up having a distorted and rather unhealthy

Fading Faculties

2011-10-31T13:42:00.001+07:00

When my father was still alive he confided in me that his biggest fear in life was losing his faculties: in other words, his intelligence and capacity for sound thinking and reasoning. To stave off that possibility, he continually invented new mental challenges for himself in his spare time, such as teaching himself Japanese - wrestling to form the intricate kanji characters in his

Manipulate Me

2011-07-27T07:36:00.001+07:00

When I'm in the US I always love to watch those paid advertisement programs on the television. You know, the long programs that are commercial in nature, and so addictive to watch because you start discovering all the problems you have with your body, your face, your life and other horrific things which, prior to that moment you never knew exised. But now you know you have them, life

Hooked on Memories

2011-07-27T07:35:00.002+07:00

I have a pretty bad memory, especially when it comes to remembering names and faces. I don’t think it has anything to do with age, although I’m sure that’s not helping either. I could be introduced to people several times or bump into those I’ve often met before and draw blanks when it comes to knowing who they are let alone remembering their names.So when I meet people, most of the time I

Meditating on Meditation

2011-07-27T07:30:00.002+07:00

Since the Universe has been kind enough to give me opportunities to meet many interesting people, I thought I’d share with you the recent chats I had with two well-known Buddhist monks who are currently visiting the country. One is Mingyur Rinpoche, a young and fine looking monk from Tibet with a beautiful smile, fine teeth and a happy countenance. The other is Ajahn Brahm, an Englishman

Kitaro: Man of Nature

2011-07-27T07:28:00.001+07:00

I spent an entire day with Kitaro recently. You know, the legendary long-haired Japanese born musician and composer who’s been prolific for the last three decades creating New Age music and whose distinctive synthesiser sound had provided soundtracks to many a film, not to mention becoming the background sound of many of us who had lived through the eighties. Even those who’ve never heard

Minding the Brain

2011-07-27T07:26:00.001+07:00

These days we are constantly bombarded with a deluge of information from a plethora of sources, whether Online or Offline, real or virtual, Facebook, Twitter and mobile chats, with different degrees of quality, importance and verifiability vying for the same space in our brains. While all this access to information is great to keep us updated on what’s going on in the world and helps

Aflockalypse

2011-03-23T14:37:00.002+07:00

Birds fell dead in thousands from the skies and millions of fish died mysteriously recently in parts of the world. Fireworks, sudden change in temperature and stormy weather had been blamed for these strange goings on, but an approaching Doomsday sounds like a more plausible explanation to this Aflockalypse. After all animals are a lot more sensitive and prescient to impending events and

The Beautiful Game

2011-03-23T14:32:00.001+07:00

Just looking at the reaction that the Indonesian national football team’s shining performance in the Asean Football Federation cup is having on the nation’s psyche, I find it amazing how a few victorious games on the field could transform the spirit of a people worn down with life’s disappointment, hardened by cynicism and dogged by pessimism into one of delirious joy and overwhelming sense

On Mothers

2011-03-23T14:26:00.002+07:00

Indonesians often says that paradise lies beneath the sole of a Mother's foot, a metaphor that I still don't quite grasp or an image easy to imagine, but I suppose the idea is that a mother's position is so elevated as to be quite divine and cursed is anyone that shows disrespect to her or treat her with less than complete deference and adoration.The fact is, as the saying goes, 'a man's work is

Chased By Time

2011-03-23T13:48:00.002+07:00

More than ever I feel chased by time. Hounded like a quarry desperate to find an escape hole, away from the merciless fangs biting at my heels. And yet time is relentless, coming in many forms, like the news of a sudden and premature death or in images of a stable country disintegrating into social chaos, reminding us constantly that nothing ever stays the same: that sooner or later we all

End of a Decade

2010-12-22T14:04:00.007+07:00

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Can Do Spirit

2010-12-10T14:50:00.003+07:00

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Indonesia Inc.

2010-12-10T14:40:00.006+07:00

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On Tiffie, Vicky Vette and Barry

2010-12-10T14:12:00.004+07:00

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Popes and Queens

2010-11-16T11:46:00.002+07:00

Recently The Pope went on a visit to England. This might not be of any interest to Indonesians but I wish I were there to cover the event all the same. The last time England had anything to do with the Bishop of Rome was over five hundred years ago during the reign of Henry VIII, and this happened to be the favourite period in my school history lessons.Henry VIII was excommunicated by the

Twitter Twit

2010-11-16T11:44:00.002+07:00

This article was published a couple of weeks ago in The Jakarta Globe, in response to some very irresponsible tweets from a certain minister who should have known better than to be a Twitter Twit.I can't wait to join Sir Richard Branson on his travel to outer space. Imagine being able to get away from this planet and all the problems that come with living on it. Richard Branson said he

Looking At The Sun

2010-11-16T11:41:00.001+07:00

According to Stephen Hawkings ‘We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.’ I don’t know about how well we understand the Universe or the degree of our specialness, but as far as monkeys go, we are certainly naked apes that distinguish ourselves from our cousins and other fellow

The Joy of Singletasking

2010-09-29T16:18:00.005+07:00

According to statistics in the UK most Britons spend almost half of their waking life using media and communications. Moreover, UK regulator Ofcom calculates the average person actually squeezes in the equivalent of nearly nine hours of media and communications by multi-tasking on several devices. Which means that if you’re awake for around fifteen hours, you spend seven hours of them watching

Bring On The Guns

2010-09-29T16:15:00.005+07:00

The Navy Chief of Staff Agus Suhartono has confirmed that Indonesia has enough warships to safeguard our territory including a Cakra submarine that, according to him still works quite well. This is quite a relief because if we were to go to war against Malaysia, a properly functioning submarine would be useful. However, even if we don’t have enough hardware with which to go to war (fancy

Stop Nagging Me!

2010-09-01T14:57:00.002+07:00

These days there are too many people who make a living telling you what to do and what not to do.Don’t look at porn. Don’t have sex. Don’t get on a motorcycle with someone who’s not your relative. Don’t have a different opinion because it might offend. Break this rule and you go to jail, break that and you go to hell. I don’t know whether it’s just me but this plethora of admonishments

Why?

2010-09-01T14:55:00.002+07:00

I miss my father. I wasn’t always nice to him when he was still alive. I didn’t even regard him as much of a role model and used to make fun of his quirkiness and his singular perspectives on things. But hindsight as they say, is twenty-twenty vision, and looking back on what he was like as a father and an individual, I have to admit that he was quite unique. That is, in the sense that

A Good Journey

2010-09-01T14:51:00.001+07:00

I'm writing this in an ICU where someone who had been sick for the last month just passed away. She lies there with her hands clasped, quite still, as the warmth of her body gradually escapes her and rigormortis slowly seeps into her bones. Once she was a living, talking, eating human being. Now, she is as lifeless as the bed she's lying on.Why this dwelling on death, I hear you think.

The Space In-Between

2010-07-21T14:06:00.001+07:00

I am writing this from an airport lounge in Incheon, Korea on my way back to Jakarta. To be honest I wasn’t even sure what day of the week it is until I looked at my Blackberry and realized that my article deadline is due. The thing is I’m in transit coming from Chicago, which was a twelve-hour flight away and 12 hours behind Jakarta in time. Korea meanwhile is fourteen hours behind

Lost In History

2010-07-21T14:04:00.002+07:00

I have a great fondness for Turkey. No, not because it is like Indonesia, a young democracy with a large Muslim population where you could find lots of women with headscarves but also those wearing tank tops and tight jeans. Although in many ways the country is superior to ours. There the streets are clean and the public transportation works beautifully. While the lengths they go to when

Expressions of Love

2010-07-21T14:01:00.001+07:00

Indonesia lost her former first lady recently - Ainun Habibie, the wife of former Indonesian president Habibie, who is remembered for her sweetness, gentleness and enormous devotion to her husband. And whose funeral attracted many people and the media pack anxious to give her a fitting final farewell and to show to her family that she will always be remembered with great affection.At the same

Twelve Years Ago

2010-06-22T15:24:00.001+07:00