Frozen Tuna Auction di Tsukiji, Tokyo

Sedikit yang ‘ngeh’ kalau disebutkan nama The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market (Tokyo-to Chuo Oroshiuri Shijo).  Sejatinya itu adalah nama resmi dari Tsukiji Market (Tsukiji shijo) yang merupakan pasar ikan terbesar di dunia yang sekaligus menjadi salah satu tempat yang menarik turis mancanegara di Tokyo.  Umumnya para turis tertarik untuk melihat keragaman jenis ikan yang diperdagangkan di sini, dan tentunya kegiatan pelelangan tuna (Tuna Auction) yang dibuka untuk umum.  Aktivitas di Tsukiji dimulai setiap hari mulai pukul 3 pagi (subuh), sedangkan pelelangan tuna (Tuna Auction) dimulai pada pukul 5.20 pagi.  Sesungguhnya hanya satu ruangan pelelangan (Auction House) saja yang dibuka untuk umum, itupun hanya untuk tuna beku (frozen tuna) dan hanya dibuka selama 1 jam saja.  Para pengunjung bergantian untuk melihat dari dekat kegiatan ini, bahkan diizinkan untuk bernarcis ria seperti yang dilakukan seorang bocah pada gambar di atas. Ruang pelelangan lainnya tetap tertutup untuk umum, khususnya ruang pelelangan untuk tuna segar (fresh tuna).  Hanya peserta lelang berlisensi saja yang diizinkan masuk ke tempat tersebut

Collaborative Planning ala Joko Widodo van Solo

Negotiation as part of Collaborative Planning

Basically, Collaborative Planning is not a new way in Indonesia since it inherits the noble value of Indonesia’s way of life, Pancasila. According to Margerum (2001), Collaborative Planning can be defined as an interactive process of consensus building and implementation using stake holder and public involvement. The definition shows the similarity between collaborative planning and discussion for a consensus (musyawarah untuk mufakat) in Indonesia Society. Moreover, it has the same essence as it also puts forward the spirit of consensus in decision making process.

Communication skill play important role in collaborative planning. It may occur in form of mediation or negotiation skill. According to Taylor (1998, in Brooks, 2002), for communicative action theorists, planning can be viewed as a process of practical deliberation involving dialogue, debate, and negotiation among planners, politicians, developers and the public.

There are several reasons of the emergence of collaborative planning as policy making strategy. One of those are the era of Information Age. We are now live in Information Age where Technological Change is breathtakingly rapid. Information flows around the globe in days or even hours. It makes people from different cultures are exposed to one another as never before. Moreover, Innes and Booher (2003) also stated that power is fragmented and even powerful agencies or individuals cannot produce the result they want when working alone.

Collaborative Planning may occur in various types of forms. It can be a collaborative dialogue which is time consuming and requires vast amount of fund, or may occur in form of Forester’s six-strategy of in mediating negotiation. However, there is one primary key in successful collaborative planning, the ability of a planner in negotiating his/her plan to the other parties. It is a truly combination of art and science in addressing the plan elegantly.

A Lesson from Solo

It is interesting to take a lesson from Solo City Government in addressing its street trader re-allocation plan (Republika, 2007). It is an example of collaborative planning implementation in Indonesia, a way which is actually derived from noble value of our culture. Negotiating Skill play important role in this case on how the decision maker is able to avoid the unnecessary physical conflict that may occur regarding the implementation of the plan itself. Seemingly, other mayors or decision makers in Indonesia should follow this way to minimize the unnecessary fund in implementing the plans.

Joko Widodo, the Mayor of Solo City, had implemented the collaborative planning through good negotiating skill. The way he executed the city plan has made him gain more popularity and respect from his citizens. Joko Widodo used a sympathetic and unique approach rather than used his power to force in re-allocating the street traders in his city.

Joko Widodo dreamed about the clean and harmonic spatial city planning in Solo. It wasn’t an easy task to do since Solo is crowded by street traders (pedagang kaki lima) in every corner of the city. There are more than 5,800 street traders sprawling in open space public facilities. Even in Banjarsari Monument, a monument to commemorate the Indonesia’s struggle against Dutch Colonization in 1945, street traders covered the area and left only the peak of the monument. Thousands of kiosks created a crowded and slummy condition in the area. Similar condition also happened in surrounding area of Manahan Stadium creating congestion by narrowing the streets.

As a Mayor, Joko Widodo may use his power to re-allocate the street traders in his city. Like many other mayors in Indonesia cities, he can easily clean up the street traders by using his paramilitary troops (pasukan pamong praja or pasukan trantib). He can easily ignore the minorities and the voiceless groups when forcing them to move from their work location, but he didn’t do it. Joko Widodo used another way which was more elegant than his colleagues did.

Joko Widodo invited groups of street traders for lunch in his office regularly. He just listened to the street traders complain. He did it over and over again by just listening or having informal conversation with them. Sometimes, he also invited them for dinner with similar activities. Basically, Joko Widodo had practiced the collaborative dialogue with the street traders. He created an informal meeting to encourage the street traders to speak openly about their needs. This informal meeting, eventually, had built an authentic dialogue which is one of primary keys in collaborative dialogue.

According to Isaac (1999, in Innes and Booher 2003), the dialogue must be authentic, not rhetorical or ritualistic to achieve collaboration among players with differing interest and a history of conflict. It is not easy to achieve this condition. Participants must feel comfortable and safe in saying what is on their minds even if they think others will not like it. Joko Widodo realized this condition. It is almost difficult for Javanese people, especially Solonesse, to speak up about their minds directly, especially to whom has the superior position like a mayor. It is the reason for him to arrange an informal meeting rather than the official one with the street traders in order to achieve the authentic dialogue.

Joko Widodo must be a very patient mayor, or a smart negotiator, since he had to attend 57 meetings before addressing his plan to the street traders. Joko Widodo wanted to remove the street traders into Pasar Klithikan, Notoharjo (Klithikan Market in Notoharjo). The Solo City Government provided almost free kiosks, the traders only have to pay Rp.2,500 per day for 10 years, for the street traders as a consequence to remove from their original locations. The street traders accepted the plan joyfully. It was a win-win solution for both sides.

Joko Widodo led the re-allocation event by himself. He made it as historical and cultural event for Solo City. 989 street traders and 1,000 tumpengs created a parade for the re-allocation event in July 2006. Indonesia Record Museum (MURI) recorded and enacted the parade as the longest parade of street traders in Indonesia. The first re-allocation was for the street traders who occupied the Banjarsari Monument’s area. Joko Widodo also did the same strategy for them who occupied Manahan Stadium and other traditional market such as Kembang Market and Nusukan Market. He had made Solo City a better place to live.

I believe that some people still underestimate Joko Widodo’s success in implementing his plan through negotiation like this. Eventually, Joko Widodo has used his power to apply a negotiating skill which is needed by a planner. Like other types of collaborative planning, this method was time consuming and took vast fund in its implementation. However, this method provides more benefit than the cost. Joko Widodo was success to avoid the unnecessary fund for re-allocating the street traders. He didn’t have to pay hundreds of paramilitary troops for removing the traders. Moreover, the physical conflict had been avoided successfully

A brief review about OverFishing

Background

Urban and Regional Planning deals with the utilization of limited natural resources scattered on the surface and inside the earth. Although in general those resources are differentiated as renewable and non-renewable resources, basically the sustainability of all natural resources is threatened by human behavior in utilizing them. Therefore, it is important to all planners to consider environmental aspect in preparing their plan concerning regional or urban development.

One of threatened natural resources is fisheries resources. It may sound ridiculous since fisheries resource can be classified as renewable resources. However, the recent condition of fisheries resources delivered by scientific journals, websites, reports etc shows that something that may never happen be able to be a reality in not very long time. In fact, several months ago, I read an interesting report with shocking title; “No More Fish to eat in 40 Years”. Honestly, at the beginning I thought that the writer just want to exaggerate the condition. Unfortunately, I should put more attention to this issue after surfing in several websites containing world fisheries resources management.

People may think that this issue only affects to those who eat fish as their primary protein source or those who live from fisheries sector, like my self for example. However, the importance of fisheries resources conservation can be seen from WWF’s statement about the value of fish. This international organization regard that fish are infinitely more valuable that diamonds and gold to over a billion people worldwide (http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/problems_fishing/index.cfm , 2008).

This condition is based on the following facts:
• Fish contribute to the food supply, economy, and health of many nations;
• Fish and seafood products are among the most widely traded commodities, worth billions of dollars annually;
• Fishing is a major source of employment: over 38 million people rely directly on fisheries for employment, most supporting families and communities;
• A billion people rely on marine fish as an important source of protein
(http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/problems_fishing/index.cfm, 2008).

The main threat of fisheries resources comes from human behavior occurring in form of overfishing which has already happened in several fishing grounds in the world. In fact FAO reported that 52% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, and 24% are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion. It also reported that as many as 90% of all the ocean’s large fish have been fished out and several important commercial fish populations have declined to the point where their survival is threatened. These conditions lead to a prediction that stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048, unless the current situation improves (http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/problems_fishing/index.cfm, 2008). Perhaps it is the main reason for me to put more attention to this issue which will be briefly discussed in this short paper.

The Impacts of Overfishing

Although there are several definitions of overfishing, it can be defined as the practice of commercial and non-commercial fishing which depletes a fishery by catching so many adult fish that not enough remain to breed and replenish the population. Overfishing exceeds the carrying capacity of a fishery. (http://www.lehigh.edu/~kaf3/books/reporting/glossary.html, 2008). In simple word, overfishing is a condition when we catch too many fish more than it supposed to be or too many fishing activities that make the fish can not sustain their population. This condition happens due to the number of fishing fleet all over the world. According to Porter G (1998) , the global fishing fleet is currently 2.5x larger than what the oceans can sustainably support. (http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/problems_fishing/index.cfm, 2008). In fact, some scientists stated that on a global scale we have enough fishing capacity to cover at least four Earth like (http://overfishing.org/pages/what_is_overfishing.php). It means that humans are taking much more fish out of the ocean than can be replaced by those which remain.

It can be say that overfishing is biggest single threat to marine ecosystems which eventually cause environment degradation. It causes not only fish population reduction but also fish diversity reduction. This condition leads to two serious problems; the lost of species as well as entire ecosystems and the lost of a valuable food source in which many people depend upon for social, economical or dietary reasons. (http://overfishing.org/pages/what_is_overfishing.php, 2008).

Overfishing activity doesn’t only affect the targeted species but also other species living in the area due to the damage of food chain or food web. The reduction or extinction of certain species will affect both the lower and the higher level in multilevel food chain. Degradation in marine ecosystem also occurs in form of fish species diversity and size. In 2004 I was a participant in “The Demonstration and Training on By-Catch Reduction Device held by FAO and SEAFDEC (South East Asia Fisheries Development Center)”  in Indian Ocean off Sibolga’s coast. Some of participants from Thailand were surprised to see the size of flounder fish caught during the training. Rarely do they catch this kind of fish with that size in Gulf of Siam due to the severe environment damage in the area. Gulf of Siam is another example of overexploited fishing ground in the world.

Like many other environment degradation, overfishing also produces economic impacts to people, especially in coastal fishing communities. The most famous story about this condition occur in Newfoundland, Canada where cod fishery in Grand Bank provides jobs for 110,000 people in fishing and fish processing industry until the early of 1990s. The tragedy started in 1992 when the cod fishery was finally deemed to have collapsed causing some 40,000 people lost their jobs overnight, including 10,000 fishermen. The fishing ground in Grand Bank has still not recovered more than 10 years later. In fact, the latest research indicates that the ecosystem has now substantially changed. It means that cod fishery industry in Grand Bank, Newfoundland Canada may only a history (http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/problems_fishing/index.cfm, 2008, National Geographic, 2007). Honestly, this condition has been predicted in 1998 – 1999 when I worked together with 3 Newfoundland fishermen in a fishing project in Java Sea. They warned me about the over fishing tragedy in Newfoundland that may also happen in Java Sea. Other examples of economic impact of overfishing are The Peruvian coastal anchovy fisheries and the sole (Solea solea) fisheries in the Irish Sea and West English Channel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overfishing, 2008).

The Factors Causing Overfishing

Although there are several factors causing over fishing, the combination of fishing technology advances, destructive fishing techniques and poor regulation of fisheries management is the primary factor affecting fisheries resources degradation. The fishing technology advances occur in form of fishing vessel development with electronic equipment for fish finding such as SONAR and Echo sounder, and fishing gear development such as Bottom Trawl Net which is not only the most effective fishing gear but also the most destructive one. The destructive fishing techniques reflect in use of bomb and poison. Moreover, the dumping of by-catch in shrimp trawler also can be classified as destructive activity in fishing. Eventually, the poor regulation in fisheries management has worsened the condition which happens mostly in developing country like Indonesia.

In fishing technology advances, trawl net may be the most progressive fishing gear. The trawl net is basically a large bag made of netting which is drawn along the sea bed to scoop up fish on the near the bottom. It has a triangle-like shape with opening mouth up to 60 meter width; meanwhile the length of the net itself can reach up to 120 meter. To maximize the opening mouth, trawl net is completed by float in upper side of the mouth and metal chain in the lower side of the mouth as the sinkers. The gear is connected by wire to the wooden or steel otter boards to spread net open. The otter boards are connected to the vessel by towing warp. The vessel tows the drawn net along the sea bed. There are various type of trawl net based on its construction and its operation, such as pelagic trawl net, stern trawl net, etc.( Sainsbury, John C. 1986., Garner, John. 1988)

During the operation trawl net scoops up anything in front of its track. Any type of marine creatures will be caught and collected in cod end of the net, including the rare sea turtles. This gear will also damage the sea bed including coral reef and other marine ecosystem. This condition is getting worse in shrimp trawler operation. As its name, the main target of this gear in marine shrimp (pennaeus sp and monodon sp), thus all unnecessary catch (by-catch) such as low economic value fish will be thrown to the sea again since there is no enough room in the vessel’s fish holds. The ration between by-catch (unwanted catch) and the target catch in Shrimp trawler operating in Arafura Sea is approximately 19:1 (Naamin and Sumiono in Wahyu, 2006). It means that from 20 tons of catch only 1 ton of shrimp as the targeted catch. The rest, 19 tons of fish, is the by-catch product or unwanted catch and will be dumped in to the sea again.

Regulation and MSC System for Fisheries Resources Management

The operation of shrimp trawler is prohibited in Indonesia waters except for Eastern Indonesia Water limited by 1300 East Altitude to the East based on President Decree No.85 of 1982. Moreover, the shrimp trawl net also must be attached by Turtle Excluder Device (TED) or By-Catch Excluder Device (BED) in the upper side of back of the net. The purpose of those devices is to minimize the unwanted catch, low economic value fish and to save the protected marine species such as sea turtles. However, it is very difficult to monitor this regulation implementation on the field due to the limitation of monitoring and surveillance system operated by the government institutions (Ministry of Marine Affair and Fisheries and Indonesia Navy).

Like other extractive industries from natural resources, such as mining and forestry, regulation and monitoring surveillance control system (MSC System) play very important role in fisheries resources management. Regulation occurs mostly in form of permit allocation. Ministry of Marine Affair and Fisheries (MoMAF) implement cautious principle in issuing fishing permit for shrimp trawler in Eastern Indonesia Waters. Up to 2007, MoMAF had issued 341 permits of 423 permit allocations for shrimp trawler. Moreover, the institution also enacted a high fishing fee for this type of fishing gear, the highest one in fact among the fishing fees enacted for fishing permit in Indonesia Waters.

According to Law Number 31 of 2004 concerning Fisheries, fishing fee is a levy that must be pay by fishing company or fishing entrepreneur as a compensation for the permit given to them in utilizing fisheries resources. Fishing fee is Non State Revenue Income (PNBP) from fisheries sector. The regulation also enacted that this revenue must be use for the fisheries resources conservation and fisheries development purpose. Moreover, based on Government Rule Number 19 of 2006 concerning Non-State Income (PNBP) tariff in Ministry of Marine Affair and Fisheries, Fishing Fee tariff enactment is based on the price of the fish caught by the fishing gear. It means that the fee is based on Market Price Method of Monetary-Based Ecosystem Valuation Method. Market Price Method is a method that estimates economic values for ecosystem products or services that are bought and sold in commercial markets. In simple word, the fee only consider about the selling price of the fish instead of environment damage created by the utilization process. It seems necessary for the government in the future to consider about environmental damage as additional fee for shrimp trawler permit. Hopefully, the additional fee will help the government in developing and strengthening Monitoring Surveillance Control (MSC) system in fisheries resources utilization. The combination of Straight Regulation and MSC System is the key in preventing the sustainability of our natural resources. Government regulation occurs in form of restricted fishing permit allocation for shrimp trawler or implementation of fishing season in threatened fishing grounds. Meanwhile, MSC system will be conducted in Vessel Monitoring System, and intensification of patrol boat operation.

The Development of Planning Theory

Planning theory develops over the year based on technological, socio and cultural change. In fact, political change also affects the development of planning theory. However, the development of planning theory philosophy is closely related with the history of science since planning itself is a science. According to Patta, throughout its history, planning has been influenced by the methods and technologies at its disposal. Since planning has commonly borrowed methods and technologies from other disciplines, its activity has been affected by broad movements in others disciplines concerns, methods, and technologies.

The history of philosophy of science was started at the same time with the beginning of renaissance era in 16th century. Basically, it was the beginning of rationalism developed by Rene Descartes and supported by Spinoza, and Leibniz. Next, in 400 years it has been developing so rapidly. Now, we are familiar with several types of philosophy such as rationalism, empiricism, criticism, idealism, vitalism, positivism, anti positivism and phenomenology. All of those are influenced by technological, socio and cultural change occurred in their era. The similar condition happens in Planning Theory history.

There are several approach used in describing the history of planning theory. Many scholars have tried to map planning history. Sujarto (2004) described the development of Planning Theory based on Industrial development. Meanwhile, Friedman (1987) described the history of planning theory into 4 types of thoughts; policy analysis, social learning, social reform, and social mobilization. The others decribed it based on several aspects such as the invention of certain planning theory, the methodology used in planning theory, prescriptive types, etc. In short paper will briefly decribe the development of planning theory based of Friedman (1987).

1. Planning as policy analysis;
This tradition occur in 1930’s influenced by logic way of management, public administration science. It is also influenced by the awakening of neo-classic economics and cybernetic technology. The supporters of this ideology believe that the best solution is produced from scientific data analysis. Other influence came from Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California whose primary client is US Air Force (USAF). The primary purpose of planning, as public policy analysis, is to provide policy alternatives for the decision makers completed with the future consequences. In this case, planners act as analyst or technician servicing the decision makers holding political power. In this tradition, community is considered as the object of planning.

2. Planning as social learning;
Basically, this model give bigger space for the society to interact with the government through countinouly dialogues. This tradition was influenced by criticism; by critizing the fundamental of science itself. For social learning, knowledge is gained from experiences and completed by practices. In simple word, we learn about something by doing it. The primary supporter of this tardition is John Dewey who believe publc policy as semi-scientific experiment

3. Planning as social reform;
It is the institutionalization of planning practices where government play dominant role in society development. In this tradition of planning, government play importatnt role in society empowerement. In simple word, planning is part of beraucrats. The primary concern is to find the most effective way for the government in planning process. It means that planner act as technocrat. Basically, it is a top-down planning approach.

4. Planning as social mobilization;
Basically it is a form of direct community participation in planning process. Generally, beraucrats less support this type of planning since it can influence previouly determined policy. It is developed from and influenced by utopian, anarcism and marxism. It can be classified as radical planning approach where planner should be able to provide critical notes for changing situation., moreover planner should also be able to help the community in finding practical solutions in overcoming their problems. Community capacity empowerment should be encourage in discovering the strategies accuratevely. Ideologically, planners must have commitment to encourage transformation in community and they should not keep the distance with the community.

Meanwhile, Wingo (1969) in Sujarto (2004) explained the history of development planning theory based on direction of idea of growing theories. He divided planning theory into two streams; describers and prescribers. The describers are hardly tied by the things and experience in the past (the geographers), while the vision of prescribers is ideal thinking, focus to the future and try to find new concepts. The purpose of those groups principally is similar which want to improve the condition.

SEMUA TERGANTUNG NIAT…

Bagi sebagian orang, kompetisi Indonesia Super League (ISL) sudah selesai. Persipura sudah menjadi juara (selamat ….!!), tapi kompetisi masih berjalan panas bagi 3 tim untuk memperebutkan posisi kedua, demi sebuah tiket ke AFC League (semoga Indonesia masih dapat jatah,.;-P).  Saat tulisan ini dibuat, PERSIJA, Arema Indonesia dan Semen Padang masih berdesakan di peringkat 2,3, dan 4 klasemen sementara.  Poin dan jumlah pertandingan sisa mereka sama, hanya selisih gol semata yang memisahkan peringkat mereka.

Berdasarkan sisa pertandingan yang ada, Arema Indonesia mempunyai peluang terbesar duduk di singgasana kedua di akhir perhelatan ISL 2011 ini.  Mereka ‘hanya’ menghadapi dua tim asal Kalimantan Timur yang sudah tidak punya kepentingan apa-apa lagi di Kanjuruhan (!!!).  Bontang FC sudah resmi terdegradasi dan lebih fokus ke pertandingan play-off mereka melawan Persidafon Dafonsoro, sementara Persisam juga sudah tertutup peluangnnya untuk sekedar masuk ke 4 besar. So, masih niat-kah kedua tim asal Borneo timur tersebut untuk ‘benar-benar’ berlaga di Kanjuruhan?

Semen Padang akan menjalani 2 sisa pertandingan mereka dalam tur maut ke Papua.  Kedua tim asal Papua ini berhasil memanfaatkan keunggulan geografis mereka dengan melibas semua tamu yang bertandang ke sana. Perjalanan ke ujung timur Indonesia memang sangat menguras tenaga.  Sekedar illustrasi, jika kita berangkat dari JKT (Bandara SOETA) jam 22.15 (Jam sepuluh malam), maka kita baru nyampe ke Jayapura keesokkan hari-nya jam 7 pagi.  Itu pun kalau pesawatnya nggak delay..:-P. Nah,.gimana kalau perjalanan tersebut dimulai dari Padang?..silahkan dihitung sendiri.  Yang jelas, jarak yang harus ditempuh Semen Padang saat bertandang ke Jayapura  lebih jauh dan lebih lama (pastinya..:-P)  dari pada jarak yang harius ditempuh FC Lyon (Prancis) saat bertandang ke Galatasaray (Turki). Sedangkan perjalanan ke Wamena masih harus dilanjutkan  dengan dengan pesawat-pesawat kecil yang dijamin bakal bikin jantung berdegup keras. Selain jalur perjalanan yang melelahkan, tim tamu juga bakal mendapat ‘jamuan’ yang ganas saat bertandang di Stadion Pendidikan Wamena.  Mereka harus bermain di lapangan yang berada di 3.500 meter di atas permukaan laut (dpl).  Stadion Pendidikan Wamena adalah La Paz-nya Indonesia. Stadion sepakbola yang lebih tinggi daripada Gunung Gede, Gunung Pangrango dan Gunung Merapi…..:-P

Dengan kondisi seperti itu, nggak heran kalau kedua tim asal Papua itu bisa dengan tenang melibas semua tamu mereka yang bertandang.  Sehebat apapun, seorang pesepakbola professional tetap membutuhkan waktu recovery yang cukup.  Masalahnya, masih niat-kan Persipura dan Persiwa untuk bermain serius dan mempertahankan keangkeran kandang mereka?

Nah, Gimana dengan PERSIJA?  Minggu besok (12 Juni 2011) mereka akan bertandang ke Sidoarjo menghadapi ‘lobster-lobster veteran’. Sementara di partai akhir, Macan Kemayoran akan ‘menjamu’ PSPS Pekanbaru (semoga bisa main si SUGBK…Amin).  Secara teknis kedua team tersebut bisa ditaklukkan PERSIJA, sehingga nilai maksimal 6 poin bisa diraih.  Jika kondisi ini menjadi kenyataan, maka hanya selisih gol semata yang akan menentukan peringkat akhir Macan Kemayoran dan Singo Edan, mengingat head-to-head mereka sama persis (2-1 di SUGBK dan 1-2 di Kanjuruhan).  Nah, masalahnya, masih niat-kah punggawa Mcan Kemayoran berjuang sampai penghabisan?……and the last but not least,..masih niat-kah para wasit untuk ‘mengerjai’ PERSIJA?

What Is An Economic Hit Man? A brief review

This brief book review was made by my dear friend Siti Aisyah from Indonesia.  At that moment we were preparing ourselves for mid semester test of Politic and Development class.  So, we made a study group consisting 7 students.  Each of us must make a brief review of a book.  Later, we discussed about those book which previously was presented by the reviewer.  It worked well. It saved our study time because we don’t have to read or summarize all the books.

Politic and Development class was a tough class.  Every week we have to discuss a specific topic.  It means we have to read and summarize a book or several chapters in a book every week.  It was a hard job for us but we love it.  Our professor gave us the list of books that must be read for the whole semester.  All of those are popular and amazing books. John Perkin’s The Confession of an Economic Hit Man was one of those and is my favorite as well. In this case, my friend Aisyah has made a very good brief review about EHM.  Her review is simple and clear so that we can understand easily about EHM.  Thus, I thought that it will be useless if I only keep this note for myself.   I think it is better to publish it so that there will be more people who can understand about EHM.  I have asked Aisyah for a permission to publish it, and Thanx God, she agreed..:)

Welldone and thank you Aisyah,..;-)

So…here is her review about EHM…..

1.   EHM is highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe and make sure that the money from ‘aid’ organizations such as World Bank will be transferred to huge US corporations through investment and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control natural resources.

Two primary objectives:

a.   To justify huge international loans, (huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay) for targeted countries. These loans would be for major engineering and construction projects carried out by U.S. big companies (through manipulated economic growth projections as investment implication).

b.   To help bankrupt the countries that received these loans after the U.S. companies had been paid. This would make sure that these countries would remain in debt to their creditors and would then be easy targets when the U.S. needed favors such as military bases, UN votes and access to natural resources (oil).

Basically what they were trained to do is to build up the American empire. They created situations where as many resources as possible flow into US, to its corporations, and the government. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men.

2.   EHM job was to predict the impact of billion dollars investment in a country. If the U.S. decided to lend money, EHM would compare the economic benefits of different projects such as power plants or telecommunications systems. S/he would then produce reports showing the economic growth that the country would experience due to these projects. These economic growth projections ‘must’ be high enough to justify the loans. Otherwise, the loans would be denied.

3.   Remember that all of projects only benefit to a few very wealthiest family  who have a car to run on a highway, have money to go abroad (so they need ports), company that need power supply but not the poor who do not have all of those access. The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn’t possibly repay (= the rich get richer and the poor grow poorer).  And of course it will be funneled back the loan to US and to its big corporate.

4.   When targeted countries fail to pay the debt they will be the servant or slave to US

 

The U.S. Government’s Role

1.   EHM doesn’t actually work for a United States government organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). However, they were recruited by government organization such as CIA and the NSA which later will send them to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, and construction companies. Thus, IF they were caught for doing “country task” (ex. working to put a country in debt to the U.S. with the main reason being for favorable military and political positions against the Soviet Union), the government will deny them. Hm,..it is exactly like the opening scene of “Mission Impossible series/movies”

2.   “These economic hit men would never be paid by the government; instead, they would draw their salaries from the private sector. As a result, their dirty work, if exposed, would be chalked up to corporate greed rather than to government policy. In addition, the corporations that hired them, although paid by government agencies and their multinational banking counterparts (with taxpayer money), would be insulated from congressional oversight and public scrutiny, shielded by a growing body of legal initiatives, including trademark, international trade, and Freedom of Information laws.”

The role of the World Bank and other financial and aid agencies.

The World Bank provides most of the money that’s used by economic hit men. Recall to the fact that the high level officer in the agencies were politicians close to the highest power of America.  

EHM and Indonesia

Perkins’ job was to produce very optimistic economic forecasts for Indonesia, showing that by building new power plants and distribution lines, the country’s economy would explode. These projections would allow USAID and international banks to justify huge loans for the country, which would then be paid to U.S. corporations to build the projects.

In 1971, Indonesia had become even more important to the U.S. in its battle against Communism. U.S. worried about a domino effect of one country after another falling under Communist rule (the lost over Vietnam). Indonesia was viewed as the key. If the U.S. could gain control of Indonesia (with the debts that would incur, thanks to the loans for these huge projects), they believed it would help ensure American dominance in Southeast Asia.

While conducting his studies in Indonesia, Perkins was encouraged by his superiors to create strong forecasts for economic growth. He was told that growth rates of 17 percent per annum were expected. Perkins’ figures pleased his bosses with 17-20 percent growth rate projections. And the story goes to -Indonesia never ending debt.

 

EHM and Panama

EHMs plan: to create a justification for World Bank, Inter- American Development Bank, and USAID for investing billions of dollars in the energy, transportation, and agricultural sectors of this tiny and very crucial country. It was, of course, a subterfuge, a means of making Panama forever indebted and thereby returning to its puppet status.

Again, Perkins experienced the enormous differences between the wealthy and the poor. However, in Panama, the differences were most extreme in one area, the Canal Zone.

Perkins met with Panama’s president and charismatic leader, Omar Torrijos who was aware of the EHM practices and knew fully how the game was played. Torrijos made a peculiar deal with Perkins and MAIN. He wanted Panama to take back control of the Panama Canal and in doing so he wanted to build a more efficient canal, a sea-level one without locks that would allow for bigger ships.

Torrijos did want to invest in huge advancement projects in electricity, transportation and communications for Panama, but he wanted to make certain that these projects benefited his entire country, including those living in extreme poverty. So, Torrijos made a deal with Perkins and MAIN. He told Perkins that if he could secure the financing for these projects (which need a huge amount of money that can be obtain through WB loan), MAIN could have all the work they wanted on this master development plan. Perkins agreed to the deal and would do Torrijos’ bidding.

 

Saudi Arabia

In response to the power of the international oil companies, which collaborated to hold down petroleum prices, a group of oil-producing countries formed OPEC in the 1960s. The huge impact OPEC was capable of became evident to the world with the 1973 oil embargo. This embargo was a result of the United States’ support of Israel when Egypt and Syria launched attacks on the country.

As the U.S. provided Israel with more financial aid, Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil producing countries imposed a total embargo on oil shipments to the U.S. While the embargo was short-lived, its impact was huge as Saudi oil prices jumped from $1.39 per barrel on January 1, 1970 to $8.32 on January 1, 1974.

As a result, Wall Street and Washington became obsessed with protecting American oil supplies and the U.S. was forced to recognize Saudi Arabia’s importance to its economy. “For Saudi Arabia, the additional oil income resulting from the price hikes was a mixed blessing.” Suddenly, the country’s conservative religious beliefs were being replaced with a sense of materialism.

Washington recognized this movement and negotiated with Saudi Arabia for assurance that there would never again be an oil embargo from the country. The result of these negotiations was the United States-Saudi Arabian Joint Economic Commission, known as JECOR. The unprecedented agreement was the opposite of the norm, where countries had to borrow from the U.S. until it could never get out of that debt. Instead, this agreement relied on Saudi Arabia’s own money to hire American firms to build up the country.

The U.S. wanted Saudi Arabia to guarantee to maintain oil supplies at prices that would be acceptable to the U.S. and its allies. Due to Saudi Arabia’s vast petroleum supplies, this guarantee would protect the U.S. even if other countries threatened oil embargos.

In exchange for the guarantee, the U.S. offered the House of Saud a commitment to provide complete political and military support (this would guarantee that the royal family would continue to rule in Saudi Arabia). The agreement goes like this, the Saudis buy U.S. government securities with their petrodollars, later the interest earned on these securities would be used to pay U.S. companies to convert Saudi Arabia into a modern industrial power.

Perkins job was to “assure that a large portion of petrodollars found their way back to the United States.” Basically, MAIN and other U.S. corporations needed to convince Saudi Arabia of the importance and benefits of transforming their country to a more modern nation. This would ultimately make Saudi Arabia more dependent on U.S. corporations and make U.S. corporations extremely wealthy.

“Globalization” and “Who’s Afraid of Globalization” in “Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Warriors and Adventures Shaped Globalization” by Nayan Chanda

Unlike Friedman who describes the end of the twenty century as the third period of globalization when the convergence of events and newly developed information technology occurred, Chanda argues that it took place much earlier than that.  Chanda believes that globalization as a growing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world is an ancient historical process that began thousand years ago and is still continuing with increasing speed.  Thus, although the word appeared firstly in Webster’s in 1961, the process explained by the word itself has been continuously evolving starting long before Columbus sailed to find the new world back in 1492.

In describing the meaning of globalization, Chanda started by tracing the evolution of the concept of globalization.  He used the electronic database Fativa, a combined product of the archive of Reuters news agency and Dow Jones News Retrieval system.  Simply to say, Chanda counted the appearance of the word globalization(s) over the time to analyze the evolution of the word meaning itself.  He argues that the time we live in surely have shaped the way we perceived the term.

Chanda discovers several things in his analysis. First of all, the frequency with which the term globalization was used and its changing meaning are also directly related to economic and political change in the world.  That’s why the first artificial satellite’s launching, Sputnik in 1957, and the first Olympic event broadcasting lively all over the world in Tokyo at 1964 were not considered as globalization process, although those are clearly related to the growing integration of the world.

He also claims that the first major change in the meaning of globalization occurred in 1980 when trade barrier started falling and manufacturing industries of the developed countries began to move in to developing countries for lower wage cost. Thus, the early 1980 marked the development of general theories about globalization.  In this case, Chanda quotes Ted Levitt’s article published in the Harvard Business Review, “The Globalization of Market”, that argued about the need of homogenized world and the importance of adopting a global market for companies to survive in the future.  Moreover, Chanda also noticed the role played by the media in changing North American Industrial landscape.

According to Chanda, the role of political change started to took place in popularizing the word of globalization when the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher administration launching deregulations that became the groundwork of “the globalization of financial market”.  On the next part, Chanda illustrates how the policies issued by the ‘Iron Lady’ and Wall Street’s Black Monday panic boosted the term globalization.  From this moment, globalization received positive meaning as well as the positive trend of the occurrence of the word itself in the news paper.  He claims that by 1995, the word globalization had evolved as a production system of borderless world.  The simplest illustration about this definition is the process of car manufacturing involving several countries

The next story illustrated the golden age of the word globalization when it became a buzz word of globalizing companies.  Chanda describes how the media in the 1990’s were filled by the news about the globalization strategies set up by the companies.  Moreover it also became the favorite issues stated by many leaders and organizations who believed on the bright future of the world due to the ongoing process.

In the next part of his paper, Chanda starts to reveal the downside of globalization which became common in association with globalization in the late 1990’s.  In this era, globalization started to turn in to a cuzzword.  Chanda illustrates the ‘bamboo effect’ of globalization of Japanese industry as the beginning and the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 as the peak of the change.  From that moment, Globalization had turn into something that frightened many people of the world as also became the main concern of many leaders.

Chanda argues that Globalization’s formal fall from grace occurred in Seattle at 1999 when fifty thousand anti-globalization demonstrators shut down the first world summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  The protests had made public became more aware about globalization as a negative thing. Other events considered as the anti-globalization movements are the establishment of World Social Forum, the 9/11 tragedy, the transformation from the anti-globalization to alter-globalization and the threat of outsourcing, which later turn into off shoring, for jobs availability for the people in developed countries.

According to Chanda, The World Social Forum (WSF) consisting of a group of NGO is created as the result of the great victory in Seattle.  It challenges the globalization idea by offering alternative program.  Later, some of the member, the softer one, transformed from anti into alter globalization movement.  Meanwhile, regarding 9/11 tragedy, Chanda argues that the growing interconnectedness not only allowed the exploitation of illegal migrants but also opened the door to terrorist and criminal as well since the attack itself was arranged by benefiting of the globalized world through advanced technology.  Moreover, the attack also can be seen as the result of anger of marginalized side due to the globalization process.  In fact, the attack can be recognized as the most violent form of globalization protest.

Chanda also describes clearly about the negative effect of globalization.  He dramatically illustrates the struggle of Lee Kyung He, the leader of Korean Farmer and Fishermen Federation association in fighting against the WTO’s policy forcing South Korea to lower its barrier to agricultural imports.  Later, Chanda reveals how the developed countries’ policy in protecting their farmers had destroyed agricultural sector in developing ones.  The worst of it, the amount of money disbursed to rich countries’ farmers is much bigger than potential loss received by poor developing countries from their agriculture sector, a sector that feed millions of people.

Moreover, Chanda also criticizes the implementation of globalization in term of ‘unfair’ free world economic system. His arguments are supported by several data lead to the conclusion that the developing countries receive less than the developed ones. Chanda claims how actually the foreign aid provided by the developed countries to the poor ones eventually will generate bigger economic loss to them.  The next part of his paper, Chanda illustrates other negative effect as the impact of globalization, from degradation of environment due to the industrial pollution and more extensive logging in developing countries to the threat of unemployment because of outsourcing and off-shoring system for people in developed countries.

All the negative effects generated by globalization lead to the objection to globalization by some group of people.  However, Chanda argues that the rejection is not only to the specific negative effects of the interconnectedness but to the very ideology and philosophy associated with the perceived globalizers-big business and its backers.

Eventually, Chanda delivers his support to globalization as a process of integrating the world.  Based on several studies, although globalization has been creating wider disparity within people in developing countries, it has been increasing their economic generally and is still demandable by those living there.  The fail of some countries in growing their economic is not merely caused by globalization.  There are several other factors influencing those fails.  Chanda argues that globalization which has passed over millennia is an unstoppable and irreversible process, thus any effort for disconnecting the growing integration may cause higher cost.

 

Critical Review

It is interesting to notice Chanda’s arguments regarding the changing meaning of term globalization.  He argues that both are directly related to economic and political change in the world.  The argument is supported by several examples of political and economic changes such as deregulations policies issued by conventional administration of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980’s, or Asia Financial Crisis in 1997.  However, he did not mention the collapse of Berlin’s wall as the political change affecting the term of globalization.  In this case, I have the same opinion with Friedman that the collapse of the wall has affected the live of millions of people and has given a positive value to the term globalization.  However, I also agree with Chanda’s opinion that we should not focus merely on the debate related to the semantics of globalization. It would be much better if we more focus in examining the forces that drive the unavoidably interconnectedness and interdependent of the world.

On the other side, Chanda offered wider perspective about the history of globalization.  He described not only the evolution of the meaning of globalization but also the downsides that may be created or generated by the process.  His description regarding the downsides covers various sectors, from the fear of unemployment and shorter working hours in Japan to the misuse of advanced technology for exercising terror actions.  Simply to say, Chanda has opened my eyes more widely about the loss that developing countries have to bear due to the implementation of ‘unfair’ trade agreements.

Chanda has described clearly how the developing countries receive less than the developed ones.  The amount of foreign aid provided by the developed countries means the bigger potential loss that developing countries have to bear in the future.  Thousands of workers have been laid off while millions of others are struggling for jobs due to the relocation of factories.  Degradation of environment has been continuing while exploitation of developing countries resources has passed the amount of what the colonialism did.  No wonder that the term globalization has been translated as an exploitative capitalism and the accumulating of disappointment of marginalized people tends to create ‘another most violent form of anti globalization protest’.

Although Chanda has been clearly described about the negative effects generated by globalization, eventually he still supports this process.  In my opinion, Chanda has been trying to separate the ‘recent’ meaning of globalization from its original one as a process of integrating human kind.  He believes that the increasing disparity, the injustice agreements, the inequality of income, the economic growth fail, and others downside are not merely caused by globalization.  Moreover, he argues that there will be higher cost that we have to bear for any efforts that try to reverse this process.

All of those explanations about globalization have leaded me to the conclusion to see globalization as a double-face coin. On the one side it provides us ease and facilities for better quality of life, while the other side gives us a condition where the juggle law exists, where the strong kills the weak.  Thus, as Chanda said, there will be always a winner and a looser in this game.  All we have to do is to prepare ourselves best so that we can enjoy the good side of the coin, while keep on struggling for better rule of the game for the other side of the coin.

Globalization: A Resume and Critical Review of “The Ten Forces that Flattened the World” in “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Friedman

Globalization, the clunky five-syllable Chanda said, is hardly to understand based on direct interpretation merely.  It is better to understand this term by reviewing not only its history but also the products produced by the term itself.  From its history, we can understand the factors and the forces making the more globalized world today.  Meanwhile, the products of globalization lead us to the conclusion in comparing between the benefits and the negative effects both generated by globalization to the human kind.  Eventually, all of this will make us easier to understand what we have to do in facing this inevitability phenomenon.

Generally there are 2 main topics delivered by Friedman. The first relates with the history of Globalization. It includes the starting period, the process, the changing meaning, the shaping factors and the effects of globalization.  The second is his opinion regarding the globalization itself.

Friedman describes globalization as the result of a convergence between events and technology.  The combination of those factors is the forces making the world become more globalized. It is actually a condition where all nations have an equal opportunity in world economic. Friedman argues that those factors happened between the end of twenty century and the dawn of twenty-first century.

The first and probably the main factor occurred in 1989 when the Wall of Berlin came down and Microsoft Windows went up.  Basically it was the first convergence of event and technology which not only start the flattening process but also open the way the next combinations.  Friedman argues that the fall of Berlin’s Wall did so much more than just uniting the people of West Germany and East Germany or liberated the captive people of Soviet Empires.  It affected the balance of power created during the Cold War by allowing people from the other side to join the same economic field ground, the free-market capitalism. In his opinion, it was the event that allowed China, India, Brazil and the former Soviet Empire released their big energy and potency in new world economic.  Meanwhile, only six months after the wall went down, Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 enabling millions of individuals sharing their digital form work easier.  Eventually it made people more productive since the digital form can be manipulated easily in many ways.  Moreover, it also made the transformation of information became much faster and easier.

The second, third and the forth flattener are related to the development of information technology.  Those are the emergence of Netscape, The Work Flow Software, and The Uploading or Open Sourcing respectively.  Simply to say, the Netscape created and promoted the use of the browser that made internet much easier to be accessed for common people.  Its collaboration with modem equipped PC making the computer and its connectivity more useful for millions of people.

The introduction of Netscape to public also generated the third and the forth flatteners, as said by Barksdale, the former Netscape CEO, “Netscape going public stimulated a lot of things”. For instance, the ease of internet accessibility created by collaboration of PC and Browser required software that enables communication among PCs, and it is the function of Work Flow Software as the third flattener.  According to Friedman, the first breakthrough in work flow actually was the combination of PC and email.  While the PC provides us facilities in creating and manipulating digital form of data, the Work Flow Software make us able to exchange the data easily.  In other word, the Work Flow Software has made all these machines we used to speak in same language enabling them to communicate much more effectively. It is the main reason why Friedman argues that the first three flatteners mentioned above is the crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration and also the genesis moment for the flattening of the world.  Moreover, it becomes the basic for generating the next six flatteners (p.91-92).

The next flattener, The Uploading can be seen as the awakening of Community of Internet users.  The increasing speed of internet accessibility combined with the development of ‘user friendly language’ has transformed the users not only as the consumers but also as the producers.  In this case, Friedman focuses on the three forms of uploading: the community developed software movement, Wikipedia, and blogging/podcasting.  In his opinion, Uploading is already huge flatteners and potentially becomes the most disruptive among all the flatteners.  Nevertheless the level of accuracy, it leads us to the era when people can find any information they want as well as provide any information to others.

The next 4 flatteners are related with the emergence of Multinational Corporations.  Perhaps it is the reason why Friedman put the Fall of Berlin Wall as the first flattener which had diminished of the barriers between two major forces in the world.  Moreover, it actually also created both the new market and the new player of world economic. The awakening the sleeping giants, China and India with their enormous energy and potency provide alternatives for Multinational Corporations in exercising their business using Outsourcing system.  This system has allowed those companies to distribute both their manufacturing and service activities to smaller companies abroad.  Friedman defines it as taking some limited specific function of ‘in-house’ company activities such as research, call center, or account receivable, and having another company perform the exact function and reintegrating it as overall operation. Basically it is related to the cost-effectiveness due to the abundance of to low-payment skilled human resources in the new-opened countries.  Friedman describes clearly how Indian’s IT engineers received advantages for fixing Y2K bug attacking computer system during the change of millennium as the example.

Offshoring system as the fifth flattener actually is not a new thing in manufacturing company since it has been used for decades.  However, it became important in flattening the world as China joined the WTO on December 11, 2001.  China offered facilities that attract many big multinational companies for implementing this system more extensively there. Friedman describes it clearly and simply as moving a whole one of company’s factory operating in Canton, Ohio into Canton, China.  It will increase the company’s benefit since the new located factory produces very same product with cheaper labor, lower taxes, subsidized energy, and lower health-care costs.  Moreover, Friedman also noted that the joining of China in WTO had become the real flattening factor of offshoring since it will create a process of competitive flattening to other developing countries which previously open themselves such as Malaysia, Thailand, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, and Vietnam. China’s participation in world economic had made those countries started offering the same incentives to the investors.

Relating with Outsourcing and Offshoring, Friedman offers another implementable system for Multinational Company called the Supply Chaining as the seventh flattener.  Friedman claims that the system had made the consumers enjoying all sorts of goods at lower prices and better quality.  He describes his astonishment to the Supply-Chaining system performed by Wal-Mart, the biggest retail company in the world.  This system had made Wal-Mart as an effective global flattener.  For instance, Unlike Commodore Perry, Wal-Mart did not have to use big cannon in big warship for opening its way to Japan, instead of its well-known reputation in supply-chain.

The last flattener generated from the emergence of big multinational company is Insourcing. Friedman describes it as “- a whole new form of collaboration and creating value horizontally, made possible by the flat world and flattening it even more”. Furthermore he describes it clearly and simply by the story of Toshiba laptop being fixed by the UPS’s employee previously trained and certified by Toshiba Company.  This collaboration benefited the consumers since it will reduce reparation time.  On the other side, it was reported that Toshiba had experienced dramatically declining complaints.  Another form of Insourcing is collaboration between UPS and U.S. Customs Service that allowed the customers to track the journey of their packages.

Friedman names his ninth flattener the In-Forming which is the combination of previous 6 flatteners.  Friedman defines it as the individual’s personal analog to uploading, outsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining, and offshoring.  It is the ability in building and arranging our personal supply-chain of information, knowledge and entertainment.  It is also about self-collaboration in gaining all of those previously mentioned. Friedman uses Google and other search engines as the primary example which diminishes the discrimination in accessing knowledge. Google and other search engines had empowered people by providing them almost unlimited information they want to know.  Simply to say, those engines have been giving people the unlimited power in exploring their world.

The last flattener may be described as the new technologies called the Steroids since those are amplifying and turbo changing all other flatteners mentioned previously.  All of these technologies have enabled people connecting each other much faster and easier.  Those are the increasing computational capability, the breakthrough in instant messaging and file sharing, the breakthrough in making phone calls over the internet, the new level of videoconferencing, the advances in computer graphics, and the invention of new wireless technologies and devices.  According to Friedman, the last one is the most important and named it ubersteroid allowing people to manipulate, share, and shape their digital contents from anywhere, with anyone, totally mobilely.

Critical Review

There is almost no doubt that the world today becomes more globalized or flattened because of 10 forces argued by Friedman, an American journalist, columnist and author.  These forces have made the world as a level playing ground for every nation in term of commerce. The forces also have been increasing rapidly the interconnectedness among the people in last 20 years. Personally, I have been enjoying all the ease created or generated by these forces.  For instance, The Steroids, the tenth force has enabled me to communicate ‘face to face’ with my family and friends located thousands miles away from me in such a low cost that I have never imagined before.  It is also the combination of the forces that provide me, and millions of others, unlimited access in gaining information, knowledge and entertainment through the web. Thus, it is difficult for me and many others to deny the role of the Ten Flatteners in unifying the world.  However, there are several things that I would like to comment regarding the 10 forces argued by Friedman.

In my opinion, some of the forces are the result of the previous one.  Open Sourcing, In-Forming and Steroids will never arise without the emergence of Netscape or browser and the development of Work Flow Software.  Someone would never be able to upload his/her works if the PC s/he uses to work is unable to communicate well with web which will broadcast it all over the world.  In other case, people will never be able to gain all the information, knowledge, and entertainment from the web without the occurrence of browser and Work Flow Software which transform the ‘machine’s language’ into the human language.  Similar condition also happens to the presence of a group of advanced technology called the Steroids.

On the other side, Outsourcing, Off shoring, Supply-Chaining and In sourcing are manufacturing and service systems which will only be realized based on the implementation of certain trade policies.  If the WTO does not impose its members to reduce their trade barriers, all of these systems are hardly to be implemented.  Moreover, if we look further to the back, basically the collapse of the Berlin’s Wall which actually made all of these system more profitable to be implemented.  If the wall had not fallen, China, India and Ex Soviet Empire’s countries would not have opened their economics to the world.

As previously mentioned, Friedman claims globalization as the result of convergence between events and technology.  Thus, why is the establishment of World Trade Organization as the successor of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade not considered as the flattened force? WTO, an international organization dealing with the rule of trade between nations, is the one who responsible for making Outsourcing, Off-shoring, Supply-Chaining and In sourcing become more common.  Moreover this organization was ‘established’ at the golden age of globalization when it became a buzz word for every company who wants to survive in the long term.  If Friedman put it as one of the force, it would have been considered as the “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration”

Despite the number of flattener forces argued by Friedman, I also notice his description and explanation on each flattener force.  It is rarely that Friedman illustrates the downside or the negative effects that may be generated from the implementation of those forces.  If there is any, the portion of it is much less than the benefits ones.  For instance, it can be seen clearly how he was astonished by the supply-chain system implemented by Wal-Mart, the biggest retail company in the world.  In fact he has illustrated beautifully how this Gigantic Mall opened its branch in Japan without using big cannon as Commodore Perry did in opening Japan’s isolation policy.  However, Friedman seems forget to describe how the expansion of Wal-Mart and other mega-merchant like Carrefour also produced negative effects to people in developing countries beside provide them with cheap and better quality products.  Friedman should have also described about the marginalizing process of many traditional merchants due to the opening of one of these gigantic mall branch in certain city of developing countries.

On the other case, although Friedman has illustrated how the Off-shoring system affects the US manufacture sector, it is still not enough to cover other negative effects which may occur in developing countries.  The extreme side of anti-globalization movement may see this system as the new form of colonialism since it takes the advantages of the abundance of low-wage skilled labor and exploits the resources of developing countries.  I may not go as far as they thought.  I just feel uncomfortable to see how these developing countries have to compete on each other for attracting the investors.  As previously described, the involvement of China in world economic has made other developing countries adjusting their tax and incentive system as the way to retain the investors from flying to China.  Friedman should have also described about thousand of Indonesians labors or other developing countries’ labors being layoff since the investors move their factories to China, or how other developing countries have been racing each other in offering lower tax and lower labor’s wage as slightly ignoring their wealth.

Eventually, I tend to conclude that Friedman, as advocate of globalization, only observes globalization based on American’s point of view.  He only sees the good sides of globalization, especially for the Americans, both as the producers or the consumers. In fact, he argues that the first world flattener is the collapse of Berlin’s wall which is also the symbol of the capitalism’s victory against communism. In his opinion, globalization also provides benefits to developing countries as long as they provide much more benefits to the Americans.  What India had gained through tones of outsourcing jobs in preventing Y2K bug was less than the benefits gained by the Americans as the biggest users of PC at that moment.

Menyambut 16 besar (part 2)

Walau dengan hati pedih, gw tetap harus melanjutkan ulasan 16 besar Piala Dunia 2010 berdasarkan aliran sotoy-isme yang gw anut. Gw yakin sekali banyak teman-teman gw yang bahagia atas kegagalan Gli Azzuri, tapi di sisi lain, banyak pula yang ikut menangis. Suka atau tidak suka, Italia selalu memberi warna tersendiri di setiap putaran final Piala Dunia. Bahkan setiap kekalahan Italia yang ‘tak terduga’ selalu masuk ke dalam 10 kemenangan tak terduga selama sejarah PD. Selain kekalahan ‘ajaib’ tadi malam (24 Juni 2010-red), dua kekalahan ‘ajaib’ lainnya yang masuk ke dalam list tersebut adalah kekalahan atas Korea Selatan (2002) dan Korea Utara (1966).

Ok,..lupakan kegagalan tersebut, mari kita ambil sisi positif-nya. Kini gw bisa menganalisa dengan sotoy-nya secara lebih obyektif.

Lanjut, gan,….

Group E
Belanda meraih nilai sempurna di group ini. Di setiap perhelatan De Oranje selalu menjadi favorit dengan total football-nya. Di PD 2010 ini De Oranje mempunyai skuad yang luar biasa. Coba tengok barisan penggedor jala lawan yang mereka miliki; RVF, Robben, Kuyt, Sneijder, RVP, bahkan striker cadangannya saja sekelas Huntelaar. Di tengah, Van Bommel menjalankan tugasnya dengan baik sebagai jangkar. Selain sekelompok penyerang ganas tersebut, team ini juga masih punya gelandang-gelandang muda pelapis yang berbakat. Salah satunya adalah Eljero Elia. Anak muda berdarah Suriname yang bermain buat Harmburger SV ini mempunyai gaya permainan yang mirip dengan Clarence ”Opa” Seedorf. Mari sama-sama kita lihat perkembangan anak muda ini di masa yang akan datang. Seperti juga Tim Tango, grafik permainan De Oranje termasuk stabil dan cenderung meningkat di setiap pertandingan penyisihan group. Laju Belanda nampaknya belum tertahan, mengingat di babak selanjutnya mereka ’hanya’ berhadapan dengan Slovakia, sang pembunuh Azzuri. Sepertinya Bokap gw sebagai fans berat De Oranje bakal tersenyum makin lebar.

Jepang dengan semangat samurai-nya kembali mengejutkan dunia. Kali ini Honda cs melakukannya di luar kandang mereka. Ternyata, selain memiliki mental samurai, team matahari terbit ini juga mempunyai para sniper yang sangat jitu menempatkan bola ke gawan lawan. Contoh paling gress adalah dua gol pertama jepang ke gawang Denmark. Keisuke Honda telah membuktikan dirinya layak bermain untuk klub sekelas CSKA Moskow dengan 1 gol dan 1 assist-nya semalam (24 Juni 2010). Sementara itu Endo-san membuktikan bahwa dirinya memang layak didapuk sebagai ”Player of the Year 2009” oleh AFC. Di barisan belakang, Tulio Tanaka lumayan sukses menggalang tembok pertahanan sekuat Nagoya Castle.

Untuk dua team lainnya, Denmark dan Kamerun, dengan segala hormat harus mengakui bahwa mereka tidak sebagus generasi Milla cs dan Laudrup cs. Kali ini Danish Dynamite redup tertiup kincir angin dan patah ditebas katana sang samurai biru.

Group F
Sebenarnya malas banget gw mengulas group ini setelah Gli Azzuri gugur dengan sukses. Namun demikian, gw nggak mau mengecewakan sahabat-sahabat gw para pembenci Azzuri yang berteriak girang atas kegagalan kami (Tapi gw yakin banget, kalau dalam hati mereka juga ikut kecewa,hehehehehe)

Ok gan, show must go on….Lanjuuuuuuuuut !!!

Paraguay memuncaki group ini dan sekaligus membuktikan bahwa mereka layak sebagai runner-up di fase penyisihan PD Zona Amerika Latin. Sebenarnya nggak ada yang istimewa dari team ini, kecuali keberuntungan dan kerajinan yang tinggi. Oleh karena itu gw berharap Blue Samurai akan memangkas mereka di babak 16 besar nanti.

Banyak yang kaget ketika Slovakia menghantam Azzuri. Hal itu hanya berlaku bagi mereka yang nggak tahu sejarah dan politik dunia. Slovakia adalah pecahan Cekoslovakia, so nggak heran kalau gaya permainan mereka nyaris serupa dengan saudara kembarnya Republik Ceko. Dan Azzuri selalu kewalahan menghadapi permainan spartan dan ’dingin’ ala Eropa Timur ini. Selain itu, kekalahan Azzuri semalam (24 Juni 2010-red) juga nggak bisa lepas dari kesalahan strategy yang diracik Lippi. Sang Maestro terlalu bernafsu sehingga menurunkan pola 4-3-3 yang membuka banyak ruang bagi lawan. Pola ini juga ’mematikan’ Montolivio, selain tentunnya keterlambatan dalam menurunkan Andrea Pirlo.

Ok, kembali ke Slovakia. Meskipun diperkuat beberapa pemain yang berlaga di liga elit dunia, seperti Hamsik (Napoli) dan Skartel (Liverpol), perjalanan Slovakia akan terhenti tertiup oleh pusaran kincir angin.

Ok gan,..itu aja dulu ulasan aliran sotoy-isme ala gw. Kita tunggu kejutan-kejutan selanjutnya. This is World Cup !!!, Anything can happen here…

(bersambung kalau ada waktu)

Menyambut 16 Besar (Part 1)

Fase penyisihan group putaran Piala Dunia 2010 Afrika Selatan sudah hampir selesai (per 24 Juni 2010-red). Beberapa group bahkan telah meloloskan wakilnya untuk putaran 16 besar. Seperti juga pengamat amatir lainnya, gw juga tergerak untuk menganalisa hasil dari masing-masing group sesuai aliran ’Sotoy-isme’ yang gw anut.

Group A
Uruguay yang lolos fase penyisihan melalui play off berhasil memuncaki group yang cukup keras ini. Forlan yang gemilang membawa Atletico Madrid juara European League ternyata masih ’panas’, alias nggak kehabisan bensin seperti kebanyakan pemain bintang yang telah ’habis terkuras’ akibat kerasnya liga-liga di Eropa. Hal yang patut dicermati adalah Uruguay tetap bermain ngotot hingga pertarungan terakhir meskipun bermain ’safe’ saja dengan Mexico akan membawa mereka lolos. Yang jelas, Uruguay telah berhasil menghindari Argentina di babak 16 besar, team yang membuat mereka harus melewati babak play off sebelum ke Afrika Selatan 2010.

Meksiko adalah langganan 16 besar, hehehehehe. Team ini selalu lolos ke babak 16 besar, meskipun akan terhenti di sana. Prestasi gemilang mereka di group ini adalah membungkam Prancis di pertandingan kedua. Well, nampaknya perjalanan mereka akan kembali terhenti karena Tim Tanggo sudah siap menunggu di 16 besar. Partai ini adalah partai ulangan 16 besar PD 2006. Kala itu Maxi Rodrigues menghentikan mimpi Meksiko di menit 98 (Extra time) !!!

Afrika Selatan berhasil membuat sejarah. Mereka menjadi tim tuan ruman PD pertama yang gagal lolos ke babak 16 besar. Nggak apa-apa, setidaknya tim ini telah berusaha dengan keras dan punya prospek yang cukup bagus di masa datang (kayak Indonesia aja, prospek masa depan terus, entah kapan realisasinya…hehehehehe)

Kegagalan Prancis adalah salah satu kebahagian gw,..hehehehehe. dari awal team ini sudah nggak bener. Seluruh Dublin pasti berteriak kegirangan atas kegagalan Les Blues. Berhasil sudah kutukan yang mereka jatuhkan akibat ’tangan setan’ Thierry Henry. Dan satu lagi, kelakuan Domenech sangat memalukan !!!

Group B
Argentina memuncaki group ini dengan nilai sempurna. Grafik permainan team tango semakin meningkat dari partai perdana hingga ke tiga kemarin. Sejauh ini Diego berhasil menebus permainan buruk Argentina pada fase penyisihan. Sepertinya laju Messidona dkk belum tertahan melihat lawan yang akan mereka hadapi di babak 16 besar nanti. Saat ini Argentina merupakan kandidat terkuat di PD 2010 ini.

Korea Selatan berhasil membuktikan sebagai yang terbaik di Asia. Untuk pertama kalinya mereka lolos ke putaran 16 besar di luar kandang. Inilah saatnya Tim Negeri Ginseng untuk menunjukkan kepada dunia bahwa prestasi gemilang mereka di PD 2002 bukan hanya karena faktor tuan rumah dan bantuan wasit semata. Lawan mereka berikunya adalah Uruguay yang juga tampil impresif di fase group. Well, gw berharap ”Taeguk Warriors” bisa melewati mereka, sehingga kalau tim nasional Indonesia kalah lagi lawan mereka, kita punya alasan yang bagus dan kuat, ’Ah…wajar kita kalah, Korea Selatan 2 level di atas kita”,…hehehehehehehehe

Yunani, walau berhasil memetik kemenangan pertama sepanjang sejarah keikutsertaan mereka di Putaran Final Piala Dunia, gagal mendapat restu dari para dewa. Sehingga Samaras dkk gagal mengulang ’keajaiban’ di Euro 2004. Tuah Otto Renhagel nampaknya sudah tidak sakti lagi. Demikian halnya dengan Nigeria juga gagal mengulang prestasi mereka di PD 1994. Nampaknya sampai saat ini, Tim Elang Super belum berhasil mendapatkan talenta-talenta sehebat Rashidi Yekini dkk.

Ok,..lanjut gan…

Group C
Dua ’sahabat’ politik berhasil melenggang dari group ini seperti yang telah diprediksi sebelumnya. Yang jadi kejutan adalah posisi akhir di klasemen group. Inggris yang menjadi favorit harus bersusah payah hingga pertandingan terakhir untuk lolos ke putaran 16 besar. Amerika Serikat menyalip ke puncak dengan sukses berkat gol Landon ”The Angel” Donovan di menit 90 + 1. Akibatnya singa-singa asuhan Don Fabio harus bersiap menghadapi panser muda Jerman. It is gonna be a very interesting match !!!

Ada hal yang menarik dari pasukan 3 singa ini. Ada kesan bahwa para bintang mereka telah terkuras habis akibat kerasnya Premier League. Akibatnya Rooney dkk sampai saat ini belum berhasil menampilkan permainan terbaik mereka. Bahkan saat 10 menit terakhir melawan Slovenia, Inggris bermain ’lebih grendel’ ketimbang Italia. Pramagtisme Don Fabio nampaknya telah berhasil mengubah team ini pertandingan ketiga Inggris. Kelemahan Inggris tetap belum berubah. Don Fabio mungkin berhasil ’menepikan’ para WAGS, tapi beliau tidak punya pilihan yang cukup banyak buat posisi di bawah mistar gawang. Well, let’s see, sanggupkah David James menahan laju panzer muda Jerman ?

Group D
Walau sempat tersendat oleh spartanisme ala Serbia, panzer Jerman tetap melaju dan berhasil memuncaki group D. Klinsman dan Loew telah berhasil mengubah permainan Jerman. Nampaknya panzer mereka kini tidak lagi menggunakan solar sebagai bahan bakarnya. Panzer mereka langsung panas dan tancap gas sejak pertandingan pertama. Pada PD 2002, Jerman langsung tancap gas dengan menggunduli Saudi Arabia delapan gol tanpa balas. Lanjut di PD 2006, sebagai tuan rumah Jerman menggilas Kosta Rika 4-2 di pertandingan pertama juga. Trend ngebut ini juga terlihat di PD 2010 ketika mereka menggilas the Socceross dengan 4 gol tanpa balas di pertandingan pertama. Sialnya, akibat ’kejutan’ yang ada di group C, panser muda ini harus menghadapi singa-singa britania di babak 16 besar. Ada satu hal yang gw tunggu dari tim Jerman ini yaitu awal bersinarny bintang muda mereka, Thomas Muller. Anak muda berusia 20 tahun ini cemerlang bersama Bayern Muenchen dengan meraih double winner di musim 2009/2010 lalu. Cedera Michael Ballack di Final FA merupakan blessing in disguise baginya. Gw tertarik sama ini anak sejak dia berhasil menjebol gawang Indonesia saat Bayern Muenchen tour ke Jakarta beberapa tahun lalu. Gaya permainannya mengingatkan gw akan idola masa kecil dulu, Karl Heinz Rummanige. Hal menarik lainnya adalah ambisi si kepala batu Miroslav Klose untuk mengukir rekor sebagai pencetak gol terbanyak Jerman di Putaran Piala Dunia. Dia hanya butuh 3 gol lagi.

Ghana berhasil menyelamatkan muka Afrika di perhelatan kali ini. Melihat peluang Pantai Gading di Group G, nampaknya The Black Star akan menjadi satu-satunya wakil Afrika di 16 besar. Nampaknya Gyan dkk dapat melangkah lebih jauh lagi karena di babak 16 besar ini mereka akan bertemu Amerika Serikat kembali. Pada pertemuan terakhir di PD 2006, Ghana berhasil menaklukan Amerika Serikat dengan 2-1. Bukan tidak mungkin sejarah akan terulang kembali, apalgi kali ini The Black Star bermain di ’kandang’ sendiri. Seluruh benua akan mendukung mereka.