just trying to get by without stepping on anything

If she cannot provide proof that the embassy let her down, she should apologize, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said, adding that Manohara could face a possible defamation suit.

That’s right, let’s start ANOTHER Facebook group!

Kejadian yang dialami Prita merupakan bukti kasat mata, dampak dari neoliberalisme dimana kekuatan pasar bebas dengan lembaga-lembaga multi-nasionalnya dapat dengan mudah menggunakan hukum seperti UU Informasi Transaksi Elektronik yang tampaknya memang dibuat untuk memuluskan kepentingan neolib dengan mengalahkan kepentingan asasi (kebebasan ekspresi) rakyat kecil yang nampaknya di era pasar bebas ini, sulit menjadi tuan rumah di negeri sendiri.

Either this woman is unbelievably stupid, or incredibly smart. Well done for being the first to jump on the Prita bandwagon. It’s a wonderful opportunity for you to show us your motherly side. We applaud you for convincing the Police to commute her detention to house-arrest. With five years of the KPK behind us, some of us had forgotten how Indonesian justice really works.

We applaud you and your advisers for re-inventing ‘neoliberalism’ to mean… um… I’m sorry, Ibu, but I’m still not clear on this. Does it mean anything in particular? Or do you intend to use it as a general slur, like “idiot”, “moron” or “communist”?

We praise you for your legal prowess. We were clearly wrong in our assumption that it was Police ignorance that saw Prita locked up. Thank you for putting us right. It was the Neoliberals! Death to the Neoliberals! Surely, this makes Prita a National Hero?

Quoting from the Koran for emphasis, President Barack Obama called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims” Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.

Obama’s Rainbow Tour* of ‘The Muslim World’ is a fine illustration of how difficult his job must be. He clearly wants to end this ridiculous ideological conflict that his predecessor started. Does this make him a ‘friend of Islam’? No. Obama has no choice. He must end this ideological conflict, or things are going to get worse, much worse.

The Bush Administration’s Middle-East/South Asia foreign policy was an economic disaster, plunging the US into recession long before the credit crisis. The recession, which will make the world a very dangerous place. Recessions have a habit of destabilising governments, and governments do stupid things when they’re under pressure.

The Afghanistan invasion and occupation failed to achieve it’s goal of routing out the Taliban, which is alive and well. To top it off, Public Enemy #1, Osama Bin Laden, apparently packed up shop and moved to Pakistan. In less than a decade, the entire region has become a basket case.

Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ rhetoric destroyed all hope for resolution with Iran or North Korea, and these two ‘conflicts’ continue to drain the coffers. In the space of two weeks, North Korea has become the US’s worst nightmare: a loose cannon with nukes.

But perhaps a bigger disappointment is the lost opportunity with Iran. Bush was no match for the intelligent and charismatic President Ahmadinejad, so the Iranian leader took on the American media, who in turn shamed the American people with ignorant boorishness. If anything, the US media circus deepened the Iran-US divide by confirming that US anti-Islamic sentiment is not confined to Washington, but deep routed in the American people. Now Iran’s moderate leader is on the way out, it will probably be another 30 years before the opportunity comes again.

Then there’s Israel. My [G/g]od what a mess! Israel has all but crushed the Palestinian nation. When the end comes, and it will come… I’m glad I live on other side of the world. Good luck with that, Mr President.

So while its noble to talk of ‘new beginnings’ and ‘peace’, it’s also just common-sense. Ironically, common-sense is exactly what the US needs right now.

* In 1947, Argentina’s First Lady, Eva (Evita) embarked on a ‘Rainbow Tour’ of Europe. There are wonderful parallels with Obama’s current trip to the Middle East. The Rainbow Tour was billed as a ‘goodwill’ tour, much like Obama’s trip. Similarly, the Rainbow Tour was fraught with tension. Argentina had just emerged from wartime quarantine and joined the UN. Sending President Peron to meet the facist Franco was too risky, so he sent his wife.

I’m afraid not all these photos are ‘polite’ enough

More hysteria from yet another ‘expert’. Where do these people come from, and why does the Post given them a voice? This one is calling on the government to block Internet content. The woman has no idea what she’s talking about:

“Facebook may be a blessing for the advancement of science and technology.

What? Are we talking about the same Facebook?

Her main concern seems to be the availability of cheap mobile phones, on which you can access Facebook (and the alleged porn). Um, by the time you reduce any of the alleged Facebook porn in size and quality so it can be displayed on a crappy mobile phone, it most definitely wont be porn. It’ll just be sad.

A word to The Jakarta Post: Go and find some real news!!!

* Chicken Little, from the children’s fable “The Sky Is Falling”, believed the sky was falling because an acorn fell on her head. It’s a great fable (see Wikipedia).

Opera overtook Apple’s mobile Safari as the most popular browser for a phone in May, according to data from StatCounter.

My daily trawl through the news sites is becoming a frustrating affair.

My latest gripe is many journalists seem to have graduated from reporting the facts to predicting the future. Case in point: an article in BusinessWeek today predicting the demise of the Pre, three days before its launch (?!). A word from the wise: stick to the facts; why risk your credibility? Leave the predictions to the experts.

But my biggest complaint relates to declining quality control and the rise of sensationalism. “Opera’s Mobile Browser Surpasses iPhone’s Safari” screams InformationWeek. “Opera… [is] the most popular browser” (see above).

Um, wrong.

First off, popularity and market share are not the same thing. ‘Popular’ has a couple of meanings, but in this context, the implication is that people favour Opera over the other browers or, if given the choice, would pick it over Safari.

Opera and iPhone Safari are not competing in the same market. For iPhone users, Opera isn’t an option. Likewise, Safari isn’t an option for people who don’t have iPhones. Opera is competing with Microsoft, not Apple.

The claim that Nokia is in third place is equally flawed. Like Apple, Nokia doesn’t make browsers for WinMob (as far as I know). The difference here is that Opera does make a Symbian browser. So how does Opera stack up against Nokia? We don’t know because InformationWeek hasn’t bothered to make the distinction.

The icing in the cake is the implication that downloads is indicative of market share. What about actual use? What about the fact that Microsoft, Safari and Nokia web browsers come pre-installed?

As far as I can tell, the only thing that you can deduce from these figures is that more people are downloading Opera. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing, ya? I am happy for Opera. Let’s just get the facts right.