pikir-pikir
Thursday, September 21, 2006
CNN.com - Thai junta bans political meetings - Sep 21, 2006
CNN.com - Thai junta bans political meetings - Sep 21, 2006
The Thai military is dumb. ¶ 4:16 AM 0 comments
The Thai military is dumb. ¶ 4:16 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
congatulations to montenegro
the world's newest country... check them out on wikipedia... i always wondered why they would choose to stay affiliated with serbia... i guess they did too.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
merbabu
I climbed mount merbabu this morning:
began at midnight
reached the top at 615am
missed my goal of getting there for sunrise, but it was still really awesome.
the view from the top is of many of central java's other volcanoes that poke above the cloud cover... most prominent of which is merapi - because it's only 8km away; and it's erupting a little bit. ¶ 11:14 AM 0 comments
began at midnight
reached the top at 615am
missed my goal of getting there for sunrise, but it was still really awesome.
the view from the top is of many of central java's other volcanoes that poke above the cloud cover... most prominent of which is merapi - because it's only 8km away; and it's erupting a little bit. ¶ 11:14 AM 0 comments
Thursday, May 18, 2006
tungurahua
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/05/18/ecuador.volcano.ap/index.html
I hiked in the direction of the summit of this volcano with Camilo in between freshman and sophomore years when preparing to climb a different mountain. it was about to erupt and cause mass evacuations back then, too. i still remember seeing the huge plume of smoke and thinking, "i really just tried to climb that thing?! i'm dumb."
on that note, climbing merbabu with agung in a couple days - a birthday present to myself. trying to reach the summit at sunrise on sunday... hopefully awesome pictures SAFELY taken of merapi to follow.
i'm still dumb. ¶ 11:59 AM 0 comments
I hiked in the direction of the summit of this volcano with Camilo in between freshman and sophomore years when preparing to climb a different mountain. it was about to erupt and cause mass evacuations back then, too. i still remember seeing the huge plume of smoke and thinking, "i really just tried to climb that thing?! i'm dumb."
on that note, climbing merbabu with agung in a couple days - a birthday present to myself. trying to reach the summit at sunrise on sunday... hopefully awesome pictures SAFELY taken of merapi to follow.
i'm still dumb. ¶ 11:59 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
ideas that run unchecked through my mind in the absence of enlish-speaking human contact
pragmatic application of liberation theology, coopting the potential of a booming Lombok tourism industry to channel a portion of the resultant wealth towards ensuring high standards of health care and education are available to all of the island's residents, a full 25% of whom live on less than $1/day.
sensible? overreaching? herculean? awesome?
the previous idea, since scrapped, was to use start-up funds available from my former employer in aceh to expand access to insitutions of secondary education for indonesia's very poor. beginning in aceh and partnering with already established/entrenched local ngos working to sustain the primary education sector, the program would provide free (or nearly free) financing to gifted but destitute high school graduates... allowing them to extend their education (which otherwise would have been impossible due to indonesia's poorly developed education financing options). This work in Aceh would be a feasibility test whose success would be used as a springboard for expanding the program nationwide... in a movement involving national government buy-in, supplemental financing from america, and participation from financial aid offices of universities currently operating in more complex education financing environments.
i dropped the idea when further discussions with my friends out here in jogja revealed that there are some options for indonesia's smart but very poor already in place, including gov't funding and university specific funding.
would have been cool though - straight out of article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights... and providing incentives for poor persons to make strong commitments to their childrens education (because partner local ngos would make them aware of the very real possibility that good marks could lead to a free college education which would, ion turn, lead to greater earning potential... and a way out of structural oppression) ¶ 2:25 AM 0 comments
sensible? overreaching? herculean? awesome?
the previous idea, since scrapped, was to use start-up funds available from my former employer in aceh to expand access to insitutions of secondary education for indonesia's very poor. beginning in aceh and partnering with already established/entrenched local ngos working to sustain the primary education sector, the program would provide free (or nearly free) financing to gifted but destitute high school graduates... allowing them to extend their education (which otherwise would have been impossible due to indonesia's poorly developed education financing options). This work in Aceh would be a feasibility test whose success would be used as a springboard for expanding the program nationwide... in a movement involving national government buy-in, supplemental financing from america, and participation from financial aid offices of universities currently operating in more complex education financing environments.
i dropped the idea when further discussions with my friends out here in jogja revealed that there are some options for indonesia's smart but very poor already in place, including gov't funding and university specific funding.
would have been cool though - straight out of article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights... and providing incentives for poor persons to make strong commitments to their childrens education (because partner local ngos would make them aware of the very real possibility that good marks could lead to a free college education which would, ion turn, lead to greater earning potential... and a way out of structural oppression) ¶ 2:25 AM 0 comments
ideas that run unchecked through my mind in the absence of enlish-speaking human contact
pragmatic application of liberation theology, coopting the potential of a booming Lombok tourism industry to channel a portion of the resultant wealth towards ensuring high standards of health care and education are available to all of the island's residents, a full 25% of whom live on less than $1/day.
sensible? overreaching? herculean? awesome?
the previous idea, since scrapped, was to use start-up funds available from my former employer in aceh to expand access to insitutions of secondary education for indonesia's very poor. beginning in aceh and partnering with already established/entrenched local ngos working to sustain the primary education sector, the program would provide free (or nearly free) financing to gifted but destitute high school graduates... allowing them to extend their education (which otherwise would have been impossible due to indonesia's poorly developed education financing options). This work in Aceh would be a feasibility test whose success would be used as a springboard for expanding the program nationwide... in a movement involving national government buy-in, supplemental financing from america, and participation from financial aid offices of universities currently operating in more complex education financing environments.
i dropped the idea when further discussions with my friends out here in jogja revealed that there are some options for indonesia's smart but very poor already in place, including gov't funding and university specific funding.
would have been cool though - straight out of article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights... and providing incentives for poor persons to make strong commitments to their childrens education (because partner local ngos would make them aware of the very real possibility that good marks could lead to a free college education which would, ion turn, lead to greater earning potential... and a way out of structural oppression) ¶ 2:25 AM 0 comments
sensible? overreaching? herculean? awesome?
the previous idea, since scrapped, was to use start-up funds available from my former employer in aceh to expand access to insitutions of secondary education for indonesia's very poor. beginning in aceh and partnering with already established/entrenched local ngos working to sustain the primary education sector, the program would provide free (or nearly free) financing to gifted but destitute high school graduates... allowing them to extend their education (which otherwise would have been impossible due to indonesia's poorly developed education financing options). This work in Aceh would be a feasibility test whose success would be used as a springboard for expanding the program nationwide... in a movement involving national government buy-in, supplemental financing from america, and participation from financial aid offices of universities currently operating in more complex education financing environments.
i dropped the idea when further discussions with my friends out here in jogja revealed that there are some options for indonesia's smart but very poor already in place, including gov't funding and university specific funding.
would have been cool though - straight out of article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights... and providing incentives for poor persons to make strong commitments to their childrens education (because partner local ngos would make them aware of the very real possibility that good marks could lead to a free college education which would, ion turn, lead to greater earning potential... and a way out of structural oppression) ¶ 2:25 AM 0 comments
Sunday, May 14, 2006
photos from merapi trip
pictures from my trip to merapi last weekend. as far as i can tell, i got to about 1.5 km as the bird flies from the crater. things of note: yes, riding on the back of somebody else's motorbike is kinda homoerotic (notice that agung did not appreciate being man-stradled for hours at a time). the helmet you see me wearing in the en route picture broke in the little accident we had. the island of java has the most densely populated rural sector of any place in the world... there's a whole lot of people that live on this mountain... crap this isn't working. enjoy these for now... i'll share the rest when i get access to a better internet connection
¶ 7:25 AM 0 comments
¶ 7:25 AM 0 comments
Friday, May 12, 2006
about 30 mins ago, i was sitting with some of the jogja dudes savoring a drink (es cappucino is watered down coffee with condensed milk and humongous chunks of ice), we were chilling at a restaurant that overlooks one of 3 rivers that runs north/south through jogja, i saw 2 dudes descend the steep stairs to the river, piss in the river, remove their shoes, wade across the river downstream from where they pissed.
gross. ¶ 12:02 PM 0 comments
gross. ¶ 12:02 PM 0 comments
plan for tomorrow
http://travelmax.statravel.co.uk/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=28166
The Waisak Festival at Borobudur.
It looks like it'll probably be a huge tourist trap, but I'm going anyhow because it's still apparently the collest day (night) of the year to go to Borobudur... and I seriously doubt I'll ever again have this perfect of an opportunity to go. ¶ 1:31 AM 0 comments
The Waisak Festival at Borobudur.
It looks like it'll probably be a huge tourist trap, but I'm going anyhow because it's still apparently the collest day (night) of the year to go to Borobudur... and I seriously doubt I'll ever again have this perfect of an opportunity to go. ¶ 1:31 AM 0 comments