Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Lower Wanagon Story


cold morning @ lower wanagon

we've spent four nights there, fixing water level radar sensors for flood early warning system

it was a perfect time to reflect about loving job, dedication, lotality, responsibility, solving problems & cope with unsecure feeling...








cant use this machine gun, just for narsis.

just feel relieve after 4 days camping

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

relieve



cargo nett from Lower Wanagon
the flood early warning system repair project has been done

thanks God
coming home safely
Berada di tengah kabut berarak naik
Dari lembah Wanagon yang dingin
Putih namun memekat
Bergulung suara air sungai
Bergemuruh
Di tengah kesunyian yang mendalam
Kucoba merasai hati ini
\tercenung
\gelisah
\sempurna
Akankah kuikuti air sungai yang bergemuruh ke laut?
Ataukah bersama kabut berarak naik?
Apakah akhirnya nanti sama saja
Karena kabut yang naik
Akan menjadi tetes hujan di atas
Kemudian jatuh dan mengisi gemuruh air sungai
Menuju laut
Karena air sungai yang ke laut
Akhirnya menjadi awan berarak naik

Lower Wanagon, January 2012

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

freedom from fear

Remember this four freedoms, from Mr Roosevelt, 1941, that every people in the world should enjoy:

Freedom of speech and expression
Freedom of worship
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear

Then reflect them into your daily life, do you already enjoy those freedoms? all? partially? below is short discussion of me vs myself

my self: I wanna reflect these freedoms to myself, my daily life in job site..in which I feel, and probably all my friends who work here too & their families, at least psychologically, unsecure..

me:how come? there are hundreds of police & army at freeport site..can you see so many route patrols cars with apparatus within driving around from HL-LL-HL for security patrols?

my self: yea you just right, but please see facts that shooting after shooting continue to happen..with two digits death tolls now and the murderers cant be brought to justice yet :(
why these irresponsible people so hate us? we just make a living here, for our beloved family..we dont make any enemy here

me: bro, see the big picture, they dont target you, they must have bigger agenda

my self: what? there is nothing bigger than people being murdered, imagine the feeling of the family left behind!

me: cant discuss here bro..lets go private!

myself : so you dont have the first freedom, freedom of speech and expression

me: and we both dont have the fourth freedom :(

Farewell my friends



Last night, 4 friends of mine, say goodbye hardly in farewell session @ Darussadah Mosque Tembagapura..they will move to continue their life @ another part of world outside Tembagapura..its always emotional..we used to meet, doing religious activities together, bonded by hardship situation at job site..strengthen each other..far away from family..and then finally they move on, and we stay still in Tembagapura..

May Allah bless you with barakah, protection & ridho with whatever your goals in life...

Monday, January 16, 2012

sad date



A week ago shooting caused the death of two KPI employees in Freeport area.. I've written it in my lunch box..

May the victim souls rest in peace. And may the killers can be brought to justice soon..

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Wet Job!



Work as hydrologist gave me lots of opportunity to "get wet"! Its absolutely fresh job especially when your work area received up to 7,000mm of rainfall annually! The job requires to travel regionally from high land to low land close to the ocean..dealing with surface & ground water analysis, modeling...from flood early warning or rainfall-induced landslides, storm water modeling to ground water quality analysis..environmental geochemistry and so on..:)

BBQ



Nice moment, delicious food..
what left behind will become a memory
the bright future will be come..insha allah

OLD 2011 & NEW 2012



This poster was made to invite moslems to come to Darussadah Mosque for BBQ in end of 2011. It gave alternative for moslems to do positive thing, gathering, BBQ-ing, and watching movies..

Freeport Tembagapura Mosque



That was last fasting break ramadhan followed by last year in Darussaadah Great Mosque Tembagapura, Papua. Oh God, it was so amazing, its touch my heart enterily :)..the mix feeling of celebrating successful fasting in Ramadhan far away from family but closed to other moslems who have same emotion..This event was worth it to remember.




Darussadah mosque formally opened by Freeport on 15 Nov 1994, and it was Ustadz Zainuddin MZ (alm) who also gave his signature..it was a great mosque, its full of religious activities, has many ustadzs who ready to teach, has multimedia rooms, radio station (Suara HMM), modern library, and soft carpet hehe..if you do sujud, you might wanna do it in looong time.

I think I'll remember this mosque in my life time, clearly its coloring my spiritual journey..

my little Papuan fellows



I met these three little fellows at Tembagapura hospital. What am thinking at that time was they're so happy, playing around corridor, laughing & always say hello to evryone entering "his territory". God, I remember my Tama, 2trs old now, at home, thousand km away from me..

As it was quick encounter, I have no time asking whether they go to school or not. Hopefully they are..there were several schools available in Tembagapura and Banti, closest village from Tembagapura. Guys, education is important for your future, so you can manage your own wealthy resources some time in the future...

Deep inside my heart, I was respecting you, your culture, your beautiful land. My family and I am living from your natural resources extraction..I wish you all the best in your future!

Friend of mine



Well, this is the story a year a go..meet US guy who gave Hydrologic Training at Tembagapura. He is, surprisingly, so religious..He gave 10% of his income for the sake of his religion, and me? man, just 2.5%!

I was interested to discuss, not only hydrology topic, but also about his opinion about Iraqis war, political, and in my opinion didnt represented by his government. I think we should understand that in many countries, their government policy are not always inline with the interest of the people. So, we might hate specific government i.e. US who enjoy sending troops around the world for bloody war but no good to hate its people too..

Back to my friend here, I like his way of thinking, his opinion about family value, respecting people, and how cool he deal with problems. its nothing to worry life. a good life. So my friend, you some how gave me life learning, to re-think my life, do many good things to my religion..its the way for happiness

Finally, he back to US, and gave me his holy book. I didnt ask why he gave me it, I already told him am a Moslem. Anyway, I will keep it & if have time read it, but most importantly I'll read my holy book, Quran, keep it in my heart & life with it..as a life time guidance.

Rasa Aman

Rasa aman adalah hak dasar yang bilamana tidak terpenuhi akan timpanglah kehidupan dasar manusia. Betapa manusia membutuhkan rasa aman, rasa aman dari kelaparan, rasa aman dari marabahaya, rasa aman dari ketidak-berdayaan. memanipulasi rasa aman, dengan cara menciptakan teror ketidak-amanan, adalah cara klasik mendapatkan kekuasaan. Sejarah mencatat bagaimana manusia satu memanipulasi rasa aman manusia lain untuk kepentingan dirinya sendiri dengan jalan menciptakan ketidak-amanan pada jiwa manusia lain sehingga tercipta rasa takut, takut dari kelaparan, takut dari marabahaya yg sengaja diciptakan. akhirnya, manusia yg takut akan terpaksa memberikan nasibnya kepada mereka yg dapat memberikan rasa aman...

NATURAL DISASTERS IN INDONESIA: WHAT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT DO FOR THE FUTURE? (old paper)

Introduction
Indonesia experienced two major earthquakes in the past two years. First, a 9.0 Richter scale earthquake that hit Aceh on December 26, 2004 was followed by a huge tsunami wave that devastated Aceh and brought Aceh into zero condition of life. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. All infrastructures were destroyed. Homes, buildings, schools, offices, factories, roads, bridges, and others were seriously damaged. The people who survived from the disaster were not lucky because there are limited basic needs such as: food, housing, electricity, water, and sanitation. The result of a development program of previous years was devastated by this disaster in only a few minutes. The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh was 165,708 with US $ 4,747 million of total damage and losses. Second, a 6.3 Richter scale earthquake struck Yogyakarta and Central Java on May 27, 2006. The death toll caused by this earthquake was 5,716 people with US $ 3,134 million lost from the damage of private and public infrastructures (BAPPENAS, 2006).
Other severe disasters that have happened in Indonesia are floods and landslides. The Jakarta flood in early February 2007 has resulted in large economic losses because almost 70 % of Jakarta province was covered with from 1-5 meters of water and all economic activities were paralyzed. The flood killed at least 57 people and 420.440 people must abandon their homes and live as refugees. The damage and losses from this hazard reached US $ 1.8 million per day (Walhi, 2007). In another location, a landslide disaster that happened in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara province killed at least 40 people and dozens of houses were damaged (BBC News, 2007).
Geologically, Indonesia is located at the junction of three-earth plates: Eurasian, Indo-Australian and Pacific plate. The Eurasian plate moves southward by 3 cm/year and is hit by the Australian plate with velocity at least 3-7 cm/year from south. The colliding zones between these plates create “the ring of fire” which means “the ring where the tectonic earthquakes are mostly generated”. The implication from this condition is that Indonesia has potential to be struck by major tectonic earthquakes. Some of these earthquakes potentially generate tsunami. Another implication from geological setting is causing an active mountain belt from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi and this belt creates the terrain condition of Indonesia mostly having many hills and valleys. The interaction between terrain condition of Indonesia and tropical climate has consequences making Indonesia highly vulnerable to landslide and flood disaster during rainy season. Unfortunately, there are many other types of natural disasters that potentially happen in Indonesia: tropical cyclone, drought and forest fire.
Disaster and development
There is a relationship between disaster and development. The development can reduce or increase the vulnerability of people from disaster. On the other hand, the disaster can cause setbacks in the development and can also create opportunities for development. Some governments ignore and the others realize it. The governments who ignore it are not concerned about disasters that potentially happen in the future and hope the disasters would not happen. The phenomenon is if the disaster strikes, they are just shocked and only can do little things and it is even more embarrassing moment if they ask help from other countries and relief organizations. The governments who realize that there is a relationship between disaster and development do so usually because their countries have been hit by a devastating disaster. They realize that the development results that have successfully done can be devastated by disaster only in few time. They realize that their past development programs, as Stephenson said in 1994, were not assessed in the context of disasters, neither from the effect of the disaster on the development program nor from the point of whether the development programs increased either the likelihood of a disaster or increased the potential damaging effects of a disaster.
On the other hand, there is a different picture in the developed countries. They have developed in economics and therefore have flexibility in using their budget to anticipate if natural disasters happen. One example is the United States. In 1906, a 7.7 on the Richter scale earthquake struck San Francisco (California) triggered a fire that caused a death toll over 3,000 people and more than 200,000 people were injured. The economic losses exceeded US $ 400 million in 1906 dollars. After that, as their economy developed they built more robust buildings, roads and other infrastructures in order to reduce the impact of an earthquake if it happens in the future. The benefits of these efforts were received when the city experienced another major earthquake (6.7 on the Richter scale) in 1989, which only killed 62 people and even though caused substantial economic losses, but the city recovered quickly.
The reasons why the governments of developing countries are reluctant to consider the disasters in their development program might can be found in Kofi Annan’s statement in 1999 (Mechler, R, 2005):
“Building a culture of prevention is not easy. While the costs of prevention have to be paid in the present, its benefits lie in a distant future. Moreover, the benefits are not tangible; they are the disasters that did NOT happen”.
The governments do not want to spend their money to make preparedness so they only conduct development programs as usual. It is reasonable, because to do that the governments have to spend much more money and there is no benefit until the disasters really strike in the future. The other reason to not consider the disasters in development program is it will need long-term commitment and longer planning horizons, and that is difficult to implement (Meller, R, 2005). The development programs in the developing countries usually must give direct advantages to the community and prevention for disasters wouldn’t give direct advantages to them
What should the government do?
The government of Indonesia actually has information about how vulnerable Indonesia is from natural disasters, but they still believe conventional paradigm towards natural disaster. Conventional paradigm assumes that natural disaster couldn’t be avoided. Therefore what we can only do is helping the victims immediately and give appropriate aids to reduce the losses and relief until the condition returns to normal. After the catastrophic tsunami hit Aceh in 2004, the government gradually shifted paradigm into mitigation/preventive paradigm. Mitigation means measures to lessen the impact of a disaster phenomenon by improving a community’s ability to absorb the impact with minimum damage or disruptive effect. The measures include both preparedness and protection of physical infrastructure and economic assets (Stephenson, R.S, 1994).
There are two choices that the government can choose from: spend now on prevention or mitigation and integrate it into development program or, keep the money and use it when the disaster happens. One basic principle affecting the choice is that spending on preparedness and mitigation should be less than the present value of the expected losses that would be averted by the preparedness/mitigation measure. (Stephenson, R.S, 1994). To analyze the cost of investing on mitigation and the benefits that might be got when disaster happens in the future, the government could use cost benefits analysis (CBA) method for natural disaster. For example, using CBA, the government can determine costs for alternative project options (cost) and damages with and without mitigation options (benefits). After that, they can calculate economic viability of options and choose most profitable development project to implement.
The government should consider the disaster in their development program. It is because Indonesia has many potential disasters that can strike immediately, so generally there will be more advantages or benefits in the future if the government spends their money to anticipate the disasters starting now. Some politicians and government officials who tend to justify that the lack of expenditure for mitigation because they think the disasters occur rather infrequently and uncertainty should change their point of view. The government policy should put the development in the context of natural disasters that could potentially happen in the future. They have to understand the types of natural disasters in their regions and design prevention of disaster while conducting the development program. The idea is to integrate prevention of disaster in the development program. The development program should reduce the vulnerability of society by improving their capability to face natural disasters. For the future, the government of Indonesia should:
1. Know and understand that although Indonesia is blessed by various natural resources, they are also accompanied by various potential natural disasters.
2. Shift consistently the paradigm: from focus on post-disaster action to disaster prevention/mitigation. Therefore all development programs should be put on “positive” aspect in relation with disaster, which is to decrease the vulnerability, and not in “negative” one, which can increase the vulnerability.
3. Have long-term commitment and longer planning horizon of development in which mitigation can be integrated into development program.
4. Obey and enforce the law consistently, for example space use law and land use regulation.
Conclusion
There is a good sign from the government as they put disaster management on The Government Working Plan 2007, which is to rehabilitate and reconstruct Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), Nias (North Sumatera), Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta and Central Java, and also to mitigate and fight disaster (RKP 2007). But, there is not enough if the government is only focusing on short-term period of development program or giving response for “putting on a show” that will not be effective at all. It needs to be continued on and on.