Everywhere you turn in Indonesia there is evidence that society in general has lost touch with its roots. The pursuit of temporal wealth by the rich coupled with the pursuit of a living wage by the poor has devastated our environment. There is little recognition that our very survival depends on mutual and communal action.
The needs of the community at large are rarely, if ever, addressed. These have nothing to do with sectarian interests, be they along religious or political fault lines because myopic greed recognises no demarcation. Cities lack parks, those essential green lungs for our physical well-being whilst their replacements, air-conditioned malls, contribute to global warming, increased flooding, traffic woes and mental malaise. And there is no co-ordinated public transport system, at any level. The devastation of forests along the shores and in the hinterlands has resulted in increased slaughter from the elements. Mangroves no longer impede erosion or tsunamis and tropical forests no longer provide clean water or safe havens for protected species. Landslips and floods kill hundreds every year.
The plundering of irreplaceable natural resources puts communities at risk – think Freeport and Sidoarjo.
As Jakartass, I’ve commented on various issues, given links where appropriate and offered moral support. Other bloggers, such as Indcoup, Greenstump and Yosef Ardi, have occasionally touched on environmental issues. We all have a personal perspective on life here so it is rare that we’ve found an issue we can simultaneously blog. There is only so much an individual can do.
In my researches of various posts about the environment in Indonesia I have come to realise that there is a wealth of information, skills and wisdom on tap, but these taps need to be turned on.
Discussions with a number of online colleagues have shown that there is scope for collective consciousness raising. As regular contributors to hyperspace, aware of its power to network, we have registered the domain greenindonesia.net . This is intended to be a wiki-type blog, albeit with a WordPress template.
There are a number of issues which need to be addressed, such as:
Transport
Recycling
Fair Trade
Food Issues
Urbanisation
Eco Tourism
Nuclear Power
Marine ecology
Rain Forest Action
Parks and Playspaces …..
No one person or organisation can address all of these issues. For that reason, we invite interested individuals and organisations to co-ordinate and edit sections of this blog.
Posts could focus on issues, news, individuals or whatever seems to be relevant. It is our hope that in publishing the collective writings focussed on what we believe constitute a sane future for Indonesia, we may be able to encourage society to actually work towards that future.
Another day, another unnecessary loss of lives: 24 people killed and 10 still missing in floods and landslides on the small island of Tahuna off Indonesia’s Sulawesi. The date is January 12, 2007.
At an alarming rate, Indonesia is replacing Bangladesh and India as the most disaster-prone nation on earth. Whenever the word Indonesia appears on the list of headlines on Yahoo News, chances are that another enormous – and often unnecessary – tragedy has occurred on one of the islands of this sprawling archipelago.
Airplanes are disappearing or sliding off the runways, ferries are sinking or simply decomposing on the high seas, trains crash or get derailed on the average of one per week Illegal garbage dumps bury desperate communities of scavengers under their stinking contents. Landslides are taking carton-like houses into ravines; earthquakes and tidal waves are swallowing up coastal cities and villages. Forest fires from Sumatra are choking huge areas of Southeast Asia.
The scope of disasters is on a scale so vast that they cannot be discounted simply as the nation’s bad luck or as the wrath of gods or nature. Corruption, incompetence and gross indifference on the part of ruling elites and government officials are to blame. Poverty, in combination with a dearth of sound public projects as well as kleptomania, is taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of desperate Indonesian men, women and children.
Since the 1965 U.S.-sponsored military coup that deposed Sukarno and installed the military regime of staunchly anti-communist and corrupt pro-market dictator Suharto, Indonesia has escaped serious scrutiny by the international media and governments. After Suharto was forced to step down in 1998, Indonesia has been hailed by the international media as an emerging and increasingly tolerant democracy: yet the only political parties allowed to compete in elections are those that are staunchly pro-business. (more…)
Gamelan music is the sum of diverse foreign influences. Pitch relationships from China, bronze instruments from southeast Asia, drums and modal practice from India, bowed strings from the middle east, and even military styles from Europe contributed to the traditional music we hear in Java and Bali today.
The First Gamelan
Among the earliest evidence of gamelan instruments is a series of stone relief carvings on the Borobudur Buddhist temple in central Java (ca. 800ad).
Borobudur shows the world’s first record of a bar percussion instrument. It appears to be a gambang style “xylophone” with ten wide bars resting over a trough resonator. We have no way to tell, but the bars were most likely made of wood or metal. The instrument is shown being played with two sticks with large, presumably padded, balls on the ends (see Kunst, “Hindu Javanese Musical Instruments,” fig. 21). Cymbals resembling Balinese ceng ceng kopyak used in modern processional music can be seen as well as two-headed hand drums which appear to be of both Javanese barrel shape and Balinese conical styles.
The reliefs of Borobudur and other central Javanese temples of the period, including Prambanan and Candi Sari, depict many other instruments including zithers, lutes, harps, vessel drums (gatam), and transverse flutes. Most are extinct in Indonesia today and may have never really existed on the islands, possibly carved from memory by mainland artisans. Only the bar instrument, cymbals, and drums remain. Notably absent from all reliefs of this period are gongs.
The First Gongs
Gongs first appear in the carvings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, among temples of the Majapahit Hindu empire. These depictions show small gongs, often mounted in pairs on a stick or hanging singly from a cord in the hand and played with a padded mallet. Also evident are significant advancements in bar instruments since the time of Borobudur, including four-mallet gambang style xylophones of a type still used in Bali for cremation rites. Suspended bar gangsa and gender as well as saron with resting bars can be found. The earliest evidence of tuned acoustic resonators, bamboo tubes which amplify the sound of the bars, also appears in this period.
Notable in the east Javanese reliefs are images resembling sitar and other gourd resonated plucked string instruments like those used today in India. Many drums depicted in this period also strongly resemble Indian mridanggam and pakawaj. These instruments became extinct in Indonesia, and again may have never existed, but their presence indicates a powerful foreign cultural infusion.
Gongs most probably did not originate in Indonesia. There is no evidence of the development of bronze gongs in Indonesia before the thirteenth century. They simply appear in the record as highly refined instruments, complete with an embossed center and deep shell. Mainland Asia, however, displays a much wider variety of bronze gong styles, including shallower shells, flat faces, and a clear developmental lineage.
Ancient literature suggests that gongs may have been known and used in Indonesia as early as the ninth century. Their original use may have been as instruments of battle, a sound used to encourage soldiers as it instilled fear in their enemies. But, their absence from the earliest stone record suggests that they were either relatively uncommon until that time. Perhaps they were not an instrument of the ruling class, or had no religiously important purpose.
Majapahit is where all the primary elements of modern gamelan came together. Bronze gongs combined with Indian and southeast Asian influences and the “indigenous” music and instruments of the central Javanese cultures which built Borobudur make east Java the birthplace of gamelan as we know it today. Influence of the Majapahit was strong throughout Indonesia and the southern Philippines and reached deep into the mainland of southeast Asia.
Bali and Java Split
In the fourteenth century, people from the middle east introduced the religion of Islam and the fall of the Majapahit empire began. Those who wished to remain Hindu were exiled to Bali, where they remained relatively isolated for hundreds of years.
The gamelan we hear in Bali today is a direct, almost pure, descendant of the music of the Majapahit period. Many instruments in Bali are exactly the same as those recorded by stone carvers in east Java over six centuries ago. But, while the tools of the trade have remained similar, the music has changed and developed. Every generation of musicians in Bali puts their personal stamp on the music. An added variation here, a new section there, or another composition for a particular ritual, add up considerably over six hundred years. Changes in popular taste also had an effect.
In Java, the new Islamic Mataram empire began and music and instrumentations changed considerably. In Bali, we still find primarily homogenous ensembles of bronze, iron, bamboo, etc. But, in central Java, this diverse instrumentation was combined into a single orchestra. Also combined were the two scales, slendro and pelog, which had remained exclusive to certain ensembles and rituals in Majapahit times. While scales and even melodies may have remained the same, theories behind them were amended to create the Javanese “patet” modal system.
The Javanese Mataram empire is responsible for advancing bronze foundry techniques to produce the very large gongs which have become a staple of modern Javanese and Balinese gamelan. The village of Semarang on the north coast of central Java became the new Indonesian center for gong making, supplying instruments to most of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo, and surrounding islands.
The use and purpose of gamelan music in Java was also revised by Mataram. Originally, gamelan was played in outdoor temples for religious rites, to inspire trance and to invite ancestral spirits. But, in Java religious worship was redirected to the royal courts and the old Hindu and Buddhist temples were left to decay. This change of environment gave rise to many of the aesthetic differences between Balinese and Javanese musical styles. Music in Java moved from open air temples to large roofed platforms within the royal court. Mallets were softened to allow the instruments to reverberate within the space in a more pleasing manner. Forms were also slowed down and elongated to take advantage of the new acoustics and lend austerity to the court. Music became largely a cerebral pursuit of the aristocracy and musicians became servants of the courts.
The Twentieth Century
The last hundred years has brought great changes in both Balinese and Javanese music. Older Balinese musicians speak of times when tempos were slow and variations less intense. Older Javanese musicians relate stories of now rare grand court events and lost compositions. Balinese kebyar style is a product of this century, as is the bonang imbal and kembangan playing techniques so typical of today’s Javanese sound.
Gamelan music continues to change and evolve in both style and purpose. Government performing arts schools are the new patrons driving the future. Students in these institutions are required to create new music and dance, expanding the scope and popularity of gamelan both at home and around the world.
Suave is a national monthly magazine which supports all activities in the creative community in general. Suave record all the fashion trends, culture and creativity of young people with a lighter style, entertaining but still look smart.
Since its first publication in April 2004 and after 4-year journey from Suave Suave evolved into Suave FREE CATALOG MAGAZINE. With more articles, coverage, photos and features a creative, Suave will surely meet the thirst for information note of cultural trends that develop young people in Indonesia.
With an average of more than 120 pages, Suave present in the first week of every month in 3 versions namely:
1. free print version can be obtained free of charge at the pickup point (distribution or places to hang out).
2. printable version sold with a bonus cd containing a digital version of Suave.
3. digital version can be free in dirunduh www.suavecatalogue.com.
So, keep in touch with Suave and stay tuned at www.suavecatalogue.com, because Suave will always display the creativity and beauty of a youth culture trend most recent.
ARE YOU suave enough?
CONCEPT MAGAZINE
The basic concept of suave is the media campaign that had the vision and mission of promoting local professional clothing. That means it’s time’ve had to promote local clothing seriously. Local time’ve known the same clothing the masses, not just org2 the itu2 again. So his vision of promoting local emang clothing, the brand image and revenue, too, of course.
Therefore constrained by the format suave quite simple, memorable exclusive, with the design and layout is refreshing and attractive. Suave so free, but even though the magazine became one of the products Collectible
DETAILS MAGAZINE
* Publication of each month
* 15,000 copies of the print version (80% free, 20% sold)
* Unlimited copies of digital versions
* On average, more than 120 pages
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
* Size: 17 cm x 24 cm
* Full color offset printing
* Material:
- Cover: Art Carton
- Content: Art paper 85 gr
* Saddle stiched (sewing wire)
TARGET READERS
Gender: 50% Male
50% Women
Age: 15% = 15 -18 years
75% = 18 – 27 years
10% => 27 years
S.E.S: B and C
Profession: Student, Student, Professional and creative young workers
CONTENTS
The catalog
Suave Fresh
People
The streets
Suave reviews
Look who’s talking
One place
Showcase
Head to head
Ad quiz
Fashion article
Event reviews
Snapshot
Fashion spread
Music profile
VISION AND MISSION Suave
Vision: Suave makes a major media campaign for the local clothing in Indonesia. It also brings Suave to the international level.
Mission: To promote local branding image clothing in order to compete with foreign produk2
MISSION IN 2009
In this 2009 campaign is “EVERYBODY TALKING ABOUT Suave”.
Tagline that we think will cover all aspects related to the development of our magazine is
Subscription Info:
SUAVE CATALOGUE
Head Office
Jl. Gempol Wetan No.50
Bandung 40115
Ph/ Fax. (022) 423 0901
Jakarta Representatives
GRAHA ROI FORMULA
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Kebayoran Lama, Jakarta Selatan
phone. 021.937.90720
phone. 021.723.2437
Affter 13th years, now UNKL347 is a 7-part project that holds not only a clothing line, but also skateboarding up to interior household stuff. Founded by art school music junkie in 1996, these represent trademark of UNKL347 personal perspective, lifestyle and attitude. Affter 13th years, now UNKL347 is a 7-part project that holds not only a clothing line, but also skateboarding up to interior household stuff. Founded by art school music junkie in 1996, these represent trademark of UNKL347 personal perspective, lifestyle and attitude.
Based on their love towards skateboarding, surfing and design, in 1996, these music junkies gathered and decide to create their own “Playground”. They started by selling stuffs through special orders and catalogues, it didn’t take long until they opened their own store in 1999. Shortly they became the pioneer of Indonesia’s own label called 347boardrider.co with their initial designs that described about the way of life they were living. Back in the earlier days they had no one but themselves to please. They were making things that they want to wear and need to wear. Later on 347boardrider.co grown as its owners’ life continued, music, nightlife, art, and with avant-garde nuance that made them where they are today. Then the name changed into “347”.
A lot of things happen in between 2000-2005. I guess the same thing happens to you too, am I right? I mean, the “a lot of things” not the same thing “same thing” (do you get me?)
By the end of 2006, 347 evolved into UNKL347 and made a tagline of “after ten years, friends call us unkle” which tried to explain about what happened inside the company.
Sense, Design, Memories, Create, and Play. These five elements increasingly will guide our lives and shape our world. Organizing youth movements, innovating a new form of creativity, supporting any kind of sub-culture evolution. Good design, now more accessible and affordable than ever, also offers us a chance to bring pleasure, meaning, and beauty to our lives. But, the most important thing, cultivating a design sensibility can make our city a better place for us all.
Up until today, UNKL347 is still trying new things and smiling at the back of your head!
Screamous® – acronym of Scream of Us- is a clothing retail company that officially started on May 29th, 2004 with big expectations to give extraordinary choices in fashion industry.
Along with Screamous taglines “Screamous is culture”, our vast market ranged from adolescence to everyone that open-minded, independent, and modern people. We try to put every aspect of human culture and behavior in our products. Any form you could think of, because ’culture’ is a vast universe to explore. Anything you do, feel, hear, or see everyday is a ‘culture’. This is not just a fashion-statement, it is being who you really are, it is being a part of your own culture, it is being extraordinary!
Products variety that offered to consumers both male or female are t-shirt, shirt, denim pants, shorts, sweater, jacket, hat, belt, sandal and many more. Besides that, we produced every detail of our products with the best quality and released every product in exclusive amount and supply with affordable price.
Until now, Screamous have 2 Official Shophouses:
#1 Shophouse: Jalan Trunojoyo No.23 Bandung 40115, West Java, Indonesia. Phone: +6222 426 51 33.
#2nd Shophose: Bandung Indah Plaza, 2nd floor, Jalan Merdeka #56 Bandung. Phone: +6222 420 84 18
Our products can be found almost everywhere in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Furthermore, since May 2007, people are able to on-line shopping through our official website www.screamous.com.
HAMMER is a casual wear brand established since 1987 by PT. Warna Mardhika. HAMMER products has been developed by maintaining highest quality and ideal comfort for the customer. Targeted towards male and female customer between 17-40 years old of middle market segment, HAMMER has been introducing a lifestyle collection based on daily customer needs through simple, modern design which are international fashion updated yet very wearable. Through gradual expansion of its distribution network all around Indonesia, HAMMER has been trying to fulfill the demanding and expanding customer base.
The stripe polo shirt has been the signature product of HAMMER since 1987. Other casual oriented products offered in the collection are woven shirts, T-shirts, Jeans, Jackets, Gym wear, and accessories such as handbags and belts. To maintain customer satisfaction, HAMMER only use 100% high grade materials for the products.
‘HAMMER REDEFINED” is a way of improvement and perfection of our long established concept. Enhanced product orientation and exclusive brand image has been launched based on the concept of ‘casual smart’ lifestyle through high quality products following international standards which are distinctive from HAMMER’s previous brand image.
Through this new concept, HAMMER’s signature product of casual polo shirt, woven shirt and jeans has been developed towards exclusive image with newly introduced products for instance casual dresses, blazers, business shirts, knitted cardigans, graphic T-shirt and etc. Various washing and dying process such as ‘Vintage washed’ or ‘Garment dyed process’ which are very common found in products of international brands, has also been introduced to achieve that casual smart feel, unique color effects and wonderful comfort. Leather handbags and belts are very also available in the collection.
Last week we hosted a webinar, How to Make Social Media & Email Work Together, which was part 7 of our Social Media Series. We had quite a few great questions from that webinar and we wanted to share them with you. Happy reading, it’s a long one!
Email Marketing
Q: During this webinar you recommended we communicate on a regular basis. How often is too often and how often is not often enough for email campaigns?
The answer to this question really depends on how often your audience would like to hear from you. If you are sending email every few months, and every time you have customers who have forgotten about you then I would say you are not emailing enough. But if you are mailing every day and your unsubscribe rate is very high then you are emailing too much. We really tell our customers to do what they promised their customers when they first signed up to receive email.
Q: On the topic of subject lines, we’ve been sending using our company name as the start of each subject line. Is that a best practice?
This is a debate that has been going on a long time. If you use your company name as your from label then I wouldn’t waste the space using it in your subject line. Some email readers cut off the subject line after 40-50 characters so you’ll want to put the most important information up front.
Q: You suggested that we should reuse the content from our blog in our newsletter. Won’t this be the same audience if we get our blog followers from our emails?
Many times they are similar audiences, because we all hope that our blog followers are signed up for our email marketing list and visa versa. Truth is, when you publish your blog content, you’ll have a lot of people that don’t know you’ve put out some quality content. What we suggest is that you give your email marketing recipients a “teaser” of your blog content, and have them click off to read the rest of the story.
Social Media In General
Q: How much time should an entrepreneur invest daily on social sites to be effective?
This is always a good question. Anyone who has signed up for social media knows that it is very easy to get sucked into it and spend too much time doing it. I always recommend that people put limits on how much time they spend on social media. Maybe try checking social sites once or twice a day to stay on task and limit yourself to a half hour at the beginning.
Q: Is it wise to post the same message on Facebook and Twitter or should they be completely different?
I say post the same message everywhere your audience would appreciate it. At VerticalResponse everything that goes on Facebook is also posted to Twitter. But it is not the same for the reverse. We feel that our Facebook audience would not like us to post more than 2-3 times a day, but our Twitter audience loves as much information as we can give them. So we use more content on Twitter than we do on our Facebook Fan page.
Q: Can you offer some good examples of how to keep people engaged once they’re fans/ linked/ followers?
I always like to recommend asking questions, commenting on your fan’s and follower’s status and possibly throwing in a contest once in awhile. You are trying to get a response and to do so you have to give them a reason to respond.
It is always good to reach out to them as well. On Twitter every time you respond, you get their Twitter handle in front of your followers and everyone likes to get more followers! On Facebook I like to see companies who highlight some of their happy customers.
Blog Q: How can you add an opt-in form to your blog?
Adding your opt-in form to your blog is a great idea. Here are a few links that will explain exactly how to do it.
Adding your opt-in form to your blog is just like adding it to your website.
If you have a TypePad blog click here to get information about our TypePad widget. It’s a few clicks and you’ve got an opt in form on your blog.
If you have a WordPress blog click here to read more about the WordPress Widget.
As a bonus here are the directions for adding your opt-in form to your Facebook Fan page.
Twitter
Q: How many tweets do you consider to be too many?
It depends on who you are and who is following you. Figure out what works with your schedule. Most importantly, pay attention to how many interactions you get if you increase or decrease the number of tweets you send.
Q: When you send a tweet, does it only reach people who are following you? Or the entire twitter universe?
When you send a tweet it is sent to the home feed of everyone that is following you. But the entire tweeter universe could see it if they went looking for it.
If you RT or retweet someone the same is true.
If you @Reply to someone then that message is sent to the home feeds of only the people who follow you and the person you sent the message to. But again, anyone in the twitter universe can see it.
Facebook
Q: How do you track which fans are generated through an email campaign?
As far as I know there is no way to track which fans are generated through an email campaign. To put a number on how many people became fans because of an email you have to watch the timing. If you track how many followers you get on a weekly basis then it will be easy for you to see a bump in the number of fans you got after your email campaign was launched.
Q: Do you think it is better to have a ‘personal’ profile page for your business, a fan page or a group on Facebook?
I have seen companies do all three of these. I would recommend the Facebook Fan Page as the best resource for your business. A profile page is for one single person, so if you are not the only person behind your business this isn’t the best fit for you, but I have seen it work for consultants and people that are the face of their business. I would pick the Fan Page over the Group since this is better for communication purposes. When you write on your Fan Page Wall it will be shown in your followers feed, but the same is not true for the Group. You also want it to be as easy as possible for your Fans to find information about you.
LinkedIn
Q: Are “company” pages available on LinkedIn or just individual pages?
You can have both an individual profile and a company profile. An individual profile is beneficial because it is a great place for your professional network, but it is a very individual thing. A company page is beneficial because you can host your company information. You can also post your job openings on your company profile. LinkedIn is a great place to find potential employees.
Q: My understanding is that you cannot have “Connections” to a LinkedIn COMPANY profile on an individual’s profile. Is that correct?
The only people that can be directly linked to a company profile are the people who work there.
YouTube
Q: Should you be concerned about your company branding because on YouTube you have no control over what related videos come up?
Most people who have watched videos on YouTube before know that YouTube controls related videos. So I would say that related videos would not hurt your brand. But if you have uploaded a video and feel that the related videos are hurting your brand it is very easy to pull down your video. Take a look at the video title, description and key words because they can all affect what type of related videos appear.
If you take it a step further and customize your YouTube page then no related video stream will be shown. Only videos that you have produced will appear on your page. To see an example check out our channel VRTube.
Q: What are the advantages to posting videos to YouTube versus your own website?
Videos can be very large files. So the biggest benefit is that you would not have to host that video yourself. YouTube makes it very easy to embed your videos on to your site, which is what we recommend. The real benefit to hosting your video on YouTube is that you’ll get your video in front of new people since YouTube has many millions of views. Make sure you tag your video with relevant keywords.
SAN FRANCISCO, KOMPAS.com – Google Inc. stopped censoring the Internet for China by shifting its search engine off the mainland Monday but said it will maintain other operations in the country. The maneuver attempts to balance Google’s disdain for China’s Internet rules with its desire to profit from an explosively growing market.
On Monday, visitors to Google.cn were being redirected to Google’s Chinese-language service based in Hong Kong. Google does not censor those results, but Chinese government filters can restrict the results that are seen by mainland audiences.
The Hong Kong page heralded the shift with this announcement: “Welcome to Google Search in China’s new home.” The site also began displaying search results in the simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China.
Google’s move comes after a 2 1/2-month impasse pitting the world’s most powerful Internet company against the government of the world’s most populous country.
Google plans to keep its engineering and sales offices in China so it can keep a technological toehold in the country and continue to sell ads for the Chinese-language version of its search engine in the U.S. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., also intends to keep its mapping and music services on Google.cn. (more…)
