Almy and Tauhid’s Blog

Amira hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days. It happened after we brought her to a park at Clear Lake. I think it might have something to do with those birds that were flying around. That and the cold weather.

Almy is still amazed by how the health system works here in the US. She is baffled about why we still need to make copayments even after paying really expensive insurance premiums. In Germany, when you have health insurance, 99% of the time you’re not paying anything. I personally think it’s going to get worse in the US, especially with the recession tightening its grip on everybody (Milk is 4 dollars a gallon now?!?!?)

Tau

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and picked a Blackberry. Here are some straightforward benefits from having one:

-I’m able to take notes at work (or when shopping at walmart) quickly, without needing a pen or paper

-My tasks and calendar are nicely setup and prioritized

-Every so often I sync the calendar, notes and contacts up with Outlook at home so I can further organize my work life at home.

-I’m able to use facebook, IM and twitter anytime, anywhere.

-GPS + GoogleMaps + Blackberry = no need to ask for directions anymore.

Things I don’t like:

-I can’t believe you can’t sync data using Bluetooth — same goes to YOU, IPhone !

-I haven’t been able to find a mobile Quran that works on the BBerry — unbelievable!
I wonder how these smartphones have transformed other people’s lives?

Tau

I remember talking to an Indonesian in Europe, somebody who my wife knew. After exchanging pleasantries, the conversation then veered off to where I worked, where I lived and how did I get there. And then we parted ways.. a few weeks later I heard that a friend of this person needed help from a US resident so I happily obliged. Interestingly, by ways that I won’t discuss here, I found out by chance that the person lamented the fact that I chose to settle in the US.. I don’t know why. I got the impression that because I chose to live in the US, he thinks I abandoned Indonesia to the sharks and doesn’t care anymore about the country I grew up in. I found that point of view fascinating, because I’ve met or communicated with many Indonesians who think exactly the same way about me and other Indonesians who settle in the overseas– except of course, those Indonesians who themselves live overseas. It’s an ‘us vs them’ mentality. I’ve observed many discussions about whether the Indonesians living in the US forgot about their identity, they don’t love their country, they’re just in it for the money, blah blah blah.

Which brings me to the topic of generalizations. Let me first remark that those who have the opinions I mentioned above were mostly university students or professionals with at least a Bachelors degree. These critics, if you will, lump me and the other expats as one group of people — Indonesians, who consciously chose to go overseas and forget about their home and their ideals.. whatever those may be. That is a weird way of viewing people, they pretty much ignored the whole dynamics of being a human being, their personal and cultural problems and just said.. you guys are Indonesians, if you’re not working for your country then you’re wrong! And I usually always reply like this, “would you guys care about us expats if we stayed in Indonesia, jobless and drenched in all the problems happening there?”, and of course, the answer is no. If I chose at this moment to go back to Indonesia with all my idealism and try to make a difference, and fail, not one of those critics will care.. they won’t even remember who I am, save for whatever remains of this blog.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I’m still talking about generalizations. I’m not saying that those guys who consciously abandon their contractual and moral responsibilities to Indonesia don’t exist, but it’s really easy for the critics to lump us together. Let me try to present the other possibilities of why Indonesians end up overseas:

-Their parents work at Indonesian based US companies; the parents then send them overseas to study — why would they refuse?

-They become a sailor (for economic reasons), and end up settling in a different country.

-They are nurses or manual labor who get sent overseas (it’s their job), and some eventually settle down.

-They marry somebody from overseas (for the right reasons, of course).

-They become a professor/researcher somewhere.

-They get sent overseas by their company, and the company no longer exists (went bankrupt or what have you).

-They’re not comfortable living in Indonesia, with the talents and qualifications that they have. Example: what would an aerospace engineer do in Indonesia if he wants to work in aerospace? Google IPTN.

What I’m trying to bring up is that, they probably saw the problems Indonesia had but their sphere of influence was really small — meaning they had no way of correcting them. So people usually steer away from that lofty objective and move to the more urgent ones.. trying to live, make some money, do something. And of course, people have different talents and circumstances, and some seized the opportunity/job offer/scholarship based on their best judgment– this could mean going overseas, or this could mean staying back. There are probably idealists who calmly refused to go overseas, wanting to do more in their own country. Does this mean they’re the better ones though? Of course not. Like I said, people’s circumstances are different. The idealist might not have an urgent financial problem like the expat sailor did — he could afford to do so. And this brings me to ‘objectives in life’.

I’m not going to spell out my own objective in life.. if people want to know that bad, they can read all my blog entries and deduce it themselves.

To be continued…

I’ve always thought that people who are constantly connected, via their computer PDA and cellphones, are overdoing it. After all, why would you want to do that? You could always wait a few more minutes to get home to your PC and look information up. However, in the last few days I’ve had the opportunity to become one such person. I bought a Blackberry and I now understand why it’s sometimes called ‘CrackBerry’.  Since it has push email, I always know when a new email has been sent to me on Yahoo or GMail. And it’s nearly impossible at times to resist the urge to open up the device and do one of the following things: check your email, check your calendar, install nifty apps, write tasks and reminders, organize your contacts, browse the web (I like Opera Mini). It’s like a black hole (or berry) that sucks you in. The only thing I can’t do so far is sync my contacts, neither with my PC (since my USB driver is broken) nor with Yahoo or GMail (why in the world isn’t there any way to sync contacts over the air for BB?????).                                If that’s not bad enough… I also bought an Iphone 3G, with the unlimited data package….

I don’t know how those guys do it during Ramadhan — the Muslim brothers who work in Tyson’s food packing meat, those who do field work in the heat of the sun.. I tried working for about 2 hours doing a little lifting and I’m exhausted. It didn’t help that the place I was working at had no AC.. luckily there were some big trees providing shade.

I tried buying some ice in Downtown Houston today, they were almost out but I managed to get 3 bags. The place was crowded but I found a short queue. However, the guy in front of me didn’t have enough money, so he had to give back some of the merchandise that was already packed. I think it took about 5 minutes for him to sort it all out. Meanwhile, my bags of ice were melting. In hindsight, I should’ve help paid the difference to the guy although I’m not obliged to.. this being the last ten days of Ramadhan — so I’m kicking myself right now for not doing that.

Tau