Smile, Ruhut!

Ruhut Sitompul (source : petisikotbah.wordpress.com)

To be honest, I haven't stayed tuned to the news of our country lately. First of all, I don't own a television in my small rented room, and two; I'm too busy to listen to those dumb politicians and stuffs. And maybe the third reason is I'm starting to get some kind of addiction to Youtube. My kind of news now are only the ones I get from hundreds tiny updates flowing in my timeline on Twitter telling if Bruno Mars is on his way to Indonesia, that Rebecca Black is not a myth and she's singing some kind of song called Friday which I don't understand why people hated it so much, and if Mr TS, our minister of porn (seriously as if we had one), says some moronic things--again.

So after I decided to catched things up this afternoon by opening a news site and then read the title "Ruhut: Roy Suryo Hanya Ingin Terkenal" on the headline, I knew I shouldn't have done it in the first place.

One thing flashed in my mind was; THEY'RE STILL ALIVE?

I was kind of wishing that I'd read some news about Libya, recent updates from Japan earthquake, or perhaps that Melinda-the-swindler people are talking about, but all that I saw at first was RUHUT and ROY SURYO--the dumb and dumber.

I have to clarify, I don't hold any grudge against those two. Ruhut is funny, actually. He should be a comedian rather than a lawyer or legislator. And Roy Suryo.... Well, Roy Suryo. Though he often reminds me of the type of guy who's prone to be teased and bullied at school, he's smart enough to tell his opinion if Ariel and Luna Maya's super hot video clip was fake or genuine. So just let him live for the sake of humanity.

But I also have to say, finding their names on the headline was annoying.

The worse part? The news was actually about the soon-to-be-built brand new House of Representatives' office.

It's 2011, people. And yet, they're still having arguments about that.

I wish the earth would open up a big hole under our lovely Gedung Senayan and just swallow it. Then we wouldn't have to argue over such idiot thing anymore.

I got D on my Calculus I, and I could say that building a new House of Representatives' office is non-sense. Now we pay millions of Rupiahs on Mr Lawyer, Ruhut Sitompul, and Mr IT Expert, Roy Suryo, to argue if the idea building the new and majestic construction is sensible or not. My conclusion? Mr Sitompul and Mr Suryo got E on their Calculus I.

But it's interesting to see the same political party members debated over this issue anyway. As the title of the news said, Ruhut pointed that Roy Suryo is just trying to get more popularity by objecting the new building. And if it's true, I'm impressed on how Mr Suryo attempts to lick 200 millions Indonesians' asses by taking stance. How noble of him.

However, frankly speaking, it's not wrong at all trying to get more attention. Whatever Mr Suryo is doing right now, he couldn't be more popular and adored than Justin Bieber anyway. He could just climb to the top of House of Representatives' office, writing things like 'DPR SUCKS' or 'WE WANT JUSTICE!' on the roof, but the teenagers wouldn't even interested in putting his posters on their bedroom walls. So Ruhut, what are you worrying about after all?

My advice for Roy Suryo, if you really intend to gain more popularity, post a video singing one of our Mr President's self-written song in your bathroom on Youtube. Or else, you could just write a book titled 'Kuyakin Sampai ke Seberang' or 'Roy Suryo sang pakar IT' and distribute them to elementary and middle schools. If you're too lazy to do that, why not asking some mad unknown writer to write 'Gurita Roy Suryo' for you. Nah, that's what we call famous.

But if your true motive is really to defend the people, please keep doing what you think is right and just pretend that Ruhut is a member of Telletubies--which I'm doubting so much.

And for Ruhut, all I can say is; don't worry, be happy. What about kicking out Mr Suryo from your party if it's so annoying? Or maybe buy him an iPad 2 so he can shut up and get back to his geek-mode. Hope that's a good bribe. iPad 2 is so hot right now!

But if all of those fail, I hope you're not regretting taking him to the Democratic Party. Whoever recruited him must be dumber than Mr Suryo who blurted things out without consulting the faction.

Last but not least, smile, Ruhut! Nobody makes House of Representatives funnier than you.

And keep making your jokes as us, people, are waiting for your office finally tumbling down.

The Tiger Mother vs Western Mother

Amy Chua and Her Daughters (source : The Wall Street Journal)

It's more than interesting to read Amy Chua's essay, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior", published in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, January 8, 2011. The essay which has generated a storm of debate especially in the United States is actually an excerpt from Amy Chua's book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". The writing itself brings an issue of parenting in such a provoking way that leads us into cursing or thinking--depends of how we want to see it.

For many people, stereotyping is just an easy way of evaluating others.We just pick what's seen or heard as a general rule, then 'bingo!' it's like we know everything and everyone with just one glance. We've often heard that the westerners are too free-minded, Japanese are stoic, all Germans are Nazis and Indonesians are stupid, live in the woods and cannot operate the washing machine (seriously, someone there in the USA once thought we all wear Koteka and still make fire from stones. God give her a television!). We all know stereotyping is not fair--especially since we know half of the Indonesians are spending time strolling in the shopping malls and not building a hut in the jungle just now. But just like Ryan Bingham in the movie Up In The Air says,"It's faster."

So what if stereotyping is brought to the parenting issue?

Chua herself might imply that she's not directly stereotyping. She wrote in her essay that she uses the term "Chinese Mothers" loosely. It is actually a phrase to call parents who have very strict method to raise their children, thus making the kids brightest academically. In contrast, the term "Western Mothers", is  also loosely used to call parents who aren't even close to the Chinese Mothers.

In reasoning her arguments, Chua brings her own children, Sophia and Lulu, as example. In the beggining of her writing, she listed some of the things her daughters were never allowed to do; which includes attending a sleepover,  having a playdate, participating in the schoolplay, complaining of not being in the schoolplay, even choosing their own extracurricular activities. And what is the result of all this Chinese Mothers' method of educating the her girls' young minds? A beautiful young lady who debuted at the Carnegie Hall with her amazing piano skill.

Chua said the western parents think they're strict enough to the kids while in fact they aren't at all. When Chinese mothers are pushing their children to their limits--even if it means being mean or cruel, the western worry too much that they would hurt the children's feeling. Western kids are give too much freedom--not to mention that their parents might be just lazy, Chinese kids are given a set of goals they have to achieve. Chinese kids can't have boyfriend in high school, western kids are freely allowed to date.Chinese parents are able to call their kids 'garbage', western parents are too afraid to scratch their children's self esteem.

Seriously, you have to read her article to know more. And be ready to hold your breath as you read along--especially on the part when Chua rejecting her daughter's happy-birthday card only because she thought it wasn't good enough.

Many responses have arisen since the essay itself appeared. Just like any other debate issue, some agree and some do not. Everyone has their stand and arguments. As I'm writing this, there have been around 7000 comments on the article page in wjs.com. There are also lots of response article in various media--and actually you're reading one of them.

To be honest, Chua's article is intriguing. I'm not a parent--and not going to be one soon, but at least it made me think.

Is it true that we have to push our children to the limit, even if it requires us to be like some psychopathic Chinese mothers who couldn't accept any failure?

Chua's experience is perhaps an excellent example of a Chinese mother successful parenting. Not only producing straight As students, but amazing pianist and violin player. Frankly speaking, I happen to have a friend which is Chinese and her mother is--let's just say--a typical Chinese mother we are talking here. When we were in elementary school, she has very little free time. At home, she has to constantly study or help her parents at their family store. Her mother didn't let her go out just for fun. Perfect score at any exam and top ranking at every semester is a must. If she fought or talked back to her mother, she would get beaten which led to a heartbreaking cry. I only witnessed some of those yet had a bad dream about them. She was actually one of the best students back then, but I couldn't imagine living life like her.

Seeing those examples, we might think that maybe Chinese mother's method is trully effective. Who wouldn't want their kids to be the brightest at school? Being praised for academic performance are satisfying for most of us and we smile whenever the teacher says our kids are smart.

But is it only the academic performance which rates the parenting itself? Or maybe the speech about 'every child is unique in their own way' and 'learning must be fun' are just a bunch of bullshits all along?

This is the most interesting part.

What is the parameter of successful parenting?

In my opinion, there's none. Some want their children to be the top of the class, some demand good attitudes, some encourage their kids to be happy, some just want it all. Do you want your kid to be the president of student body, a wealthy businessman, or whatever you kid loves to be--even if it's a mad scientist or weird abstract painter? It's all up to you.

It sounds cliche, but you really can't set the same standard for everyone.

I agree on Chua's point of view of discipline. Persistency is a good thing and hardwork is very important. Nothing can be achieved by little effort and for everything there's a price we have to pay. But then how we apply it to our children what's more important.

Chua might be lucky. Her daughter have such a great personality that they didn't get mad enough to hang themselves in the bathroom. Or maybe it's also Chua's method that they didn't run to Kak Seto which might have done by any unstable Indonesian celebrity teenager. Chua's daughter even say that she's thankful to her mother and likes the way her mom raised her.

But not everyone can fully accept these Chinese mothers method. And it's very crucial to see what fits our children the best. Maybe sometimes we should push our kids to try harder. But I guess letting them blistering out in the cold just because they don't do their homework or refuse to keep practicing piano is not acceptable to some extent.

Sophia and Lulu might be bright because a persistent support from their mother. But no one tell Bill Joy to spend nights and days in front of the computer when he's young yet he's the founder of Sun Microsystem. Once again, there's no single method better than the other. It's all about what fits.

So far, I found an essay by Ayalet Waldman, "In the Defense of Guilty, Ambivalent, Preoccupied Western Mom", also featured in The Wall Street Journal to be the best response. She claimed to do very opposite actions toward the children--allowing them to do the things Chua may consider as deathly sins--yet they're happy and doing well in their own way. She doesn't point out and say that the Chinese mothers method is entirely wrong. She even gave thanks to Chua for making the article since it made her children read the newspaper. There's just specific needs for every family and situation.

She said in her essay,"...Roaring like a tiger turns some children into pianists who debut at Carnegie Hall but only crushes others. Coddling gives some the excuse to fail and others the chance to succeed. Amy Chua and I both understand that our job as mothers is to be the type of tigress that each of our different cubs needs." Honestly, I can't agree more. Chua herself admitted,"Don't get me wrong: It's not that Chinese parents don't care about their children. Just the opposite. They would give up anything for their children. It's just an entirely different parenting model." Apart from the methods used, Chua and Waldman are just mothers who think the best for their children.

By looking at this issue, I hope Indonesian parents would be wiser in the future. We're not here to stereotype and I believe Chua wasn't trying to do so. I also believe we have our own set of values which will do well for our kids. But nothing's wrong to put Chinese mothers and westerns method for consideration, since we could find what's best for us.

Luckily, my mom had the best way to raise me. She might be not that Chinese mother. She let me do what I like, didn't scold me, allowed me to play games until night, and never locked me in the room to study. Remember my friend I mentioned earlier? With her mom's method, she might be one of the best students at school. But I guess I might have to say proudly, I was the top of the best in our class back then and she never beat me. :) 

Piggy Dolls; New Image of Fatness

Piggy Dolls (image source : Herald Economy)

Seriously, I've held myself for a few hours before writing this post. I've sworn to myself that wouldn't write too much about K-Pop since 2011 which has been passed nearly a month (yeah, a month!). But as you're reading this right now, you know I've failed and that is NOT an achievement.

So, what makes it so difficult for me to not write about K-Pop these days?

Try Google "Piggy Dolls". If the pictures are still showing pinky piggy banks, add "Trend" after "Piggy Dolls", and thou shall know what I mean. But if by any chance you're too lazy to open another tab, let me give you a brief explanation about them then.

These Piggy Dolls we're talking about is a newly debuted K-Pop girls group from Korea (if it was from Indonesia it would be Indo-Pop then, moron!). Don't be scared with the name 'piggy' since they're still sane enough for not putting real pigs into the screen. The group actually consists of three members; Park Ji Eun, Kim Min Sun, and Lee Ji Yeon--and I swear they're not pigs (or dolls)!

What makes them so rocking is the fact that they're different from any other girl groups from Korea. If you by now are thinking about the sexy T-ara, undeniably cute SNSD, or whatever pretty girls with flawless faces, please kick out those thoughts now because like I said before; they're different--have I bolded the word 'different'?

The image their agency wants to show the world I guess is clear enough; 'These girls are fat, but look they're amazing!'. When most big sized girls are usually not confident enough--even bullied and teased by schoolmates, with wonderful talents and tremendous efforts these girls are capable of showing themselves who they really are. Not only singing, they also can dance very well. They're like telling every girl--especially the ones with excessive body weight--to boost their self esteem and be proud of themselves. Because if they can, then you can! (sounds like a social campaign eh?)

From the first start, they've had stolen many people's hearts. It doesn't matter if they're fat and not as skinny as the adorable T-ara's Hyomin, but as long as they keep producing hit songs and promoting 'Go Fat Girl Movement'--as if it really existed--they will go well for the rest of the group's life.

But seriously, THEY CALL THESE GIRLS FAT?!

I don't know what is the K-Pop standard of fat. But if they're calling these girls fat--yes F-A-T 'FAT'--I don't know what we should call Pretty Asmara with (no offense though).

To be honest, the first time I read the news about them, I kept thinking that they're the girl version of Roni Dozer multiplied by three. But after I saw their pictures and music video, I was simply dissapointed. THEY ARE NOT FAT, for mother nature's sake! In Indonesia, we don't call them fat. We call them 'semok'--sorry I don't have any proper English version of this. Let me eat six times a day and in two months I'd be signing up to their group.

Or maybe my expectation of fat was misled. From The Biggest Loser show until Miss Big competition--even Martin Lawrence's Big Momma's House, my idea of fat is what we usually call people who look at least like doubled Saykoji.

But by the way, I’m just kidding. They ARE fat. The rumours say each of them weights almost 200 kgs. We know it’s obesity and we pray to God they won’t be diabetic soon

So what's with this 'I'm fat, I'm amazing' slogan? 

At the beggining, It's pretty sweet though. And it surely works--if you look at their video comments.

But isn't it a liitle bit misleading showing three not-so-fat girls eating a giant chunk of pizza in front of the television and then sing a song about it? If you lay on the couch eating pizza for hours it's not the ******* fat being your problem! It's your mind! Rather than sitting there like a real pig, why don't you stir your mind, go out and start working out?! 

Don't get me wrong. These girls are talented. They're--in fact--pretty. And I like the message they're sending to the soon-to-be-fans. At least, they aren't encouraging other girls to go to the toilet and throw their food up after eating in order to own Chanel Iman's shape.

But it's the FATness they're emphasizing what bugs me the most. The 'Piggy Dolls' name makes it worse. They even claim to eat almost 20 kilograms of rice every three weeks. So what? You’re proud of that?  

Other than that, I don't really think letting the girls keep swallowing the foods regardless of health issue could be a good idea. Being big--especially if it's genetic--is okay and you have to be proud of how you are. But getting a heart attack in your 30s wouldn't exactly be your wish either. 

Maybe it's just a marketing strategy. People are starting to get bored with the idea of perfection. (I'm even getting tired of scratching Leighton Meester's face on my PC's screen too anyway) And especially on the girlbands teritory, it seems like they're targeting wider range of fans--not just high school boys drooling over skanky legs. Once again, it works though. 

It's too early to tell if they'd be succesful in the future. Following the paths of previous K-Pop groups is not an easy task. I don't know how far they are planning to go, but I hope it'd be as far as possible. They have packed themselves well enough and though it's hard to be consistent in a world changing everyday, they should keep spreading positive influence among the youths.

I just wish people don't get the wrong message from these girls. After all, they are a gold digger machine for the agency. Constant suspicion might be too much, but being critical is not a sin.

But anyway, just relax and don't overthink more about this. Let't just listen to their music to see if you're interested. And if you don't, you can switch back to Mike Mohede anytime.

By the way, I'm secretly waiting for the boy version of this group. Super Pig maybe? Anyone? 

Cheers!

Younghusbands For LPI

Younghusband Brothers

A headline on Kompas.com tonight caught my attention : "Duo Younghusband Ragu ke LPI."

I haven't been following the news recently so what actually caught my attention were the words Younghusband and LPI. If I wrote the news, I would bold those two words--just to exaggerate if not attracting female readers.

Anyone who has been patient enough to watch the gruel war between Nurdin Halid cs versus Arifin Panigoro cs must have known; LPI promises a brand new atmosphere in Indonesian's football scene - or at least it's what they say. While PSSI are trying (too) hard to ban LPI, even forbid Younghusbands brothers to play here, there's really a scheme where people shouting and screaming to get rid of Nurdin Halid from PSSI - even better, from this world.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Indonesian football, not to mention that I hate our super ugly football stadiums, our dumb holligan-wannabes and the oh-you're-so-smart-even-smarter-than-our-coach commentators on television. But after the euphoria of the last AFF cup where suddenly I knew which one is Christian Gonzalez and which one is the cool Muhammad Nasuha, I think my interest in our local football league has slightly increased. And I believe most of people would say they do too after madly cursing in front of the television when Indonesia's squad was beaten by our neighbor Malaysians.

And suddenly, Indonesian females are attracted to the local football players. As a fellow female, I can't agree more. Anyway, since when you can see our beloved miserable princess Manohara Pinot cheering for our national team?

Since Indonesian females finally discovered Irfan Bachdim, our football has never been the same. I personally don't think he's really that cute, but since those girls are starting to praise him like a cult, let's just say that he's good. He played quite well in AFF cup and posed so nice for the posters. It's more than enough for me.

So of course I would say that LPI should go on.

First, there's still a slight chance that Philipines' Younghusband brothers will play for Jakarta 1928, one of LPI clubs. If this eventually comes true, our Indonesian women will absolutely go mad. Not only raising the ratings of television channel broadcasting the matches, our abang-abang poster sellers will also be happy because these girls will voluntarily get in line to spend their money on pictures of the good looking and talented brothers wearing local jersey.

Second, Irfan Bachdim is playing for LPI. For the advantages of this, see above.

Next, I'm so tired of seeing the "NURDIN TURUN" banners and his not-so-good-looking (would he sue me if I said 'ugly'?) face on the news. Let's just forget that he exists and move on.

Fourth, the name - Liga Premier Indonesia - sounds cute and resembles English Premiere League. Moreover, I never really like liked our clubs' names. Persija, Persikabo, Persib, Persebaya - please be creative!

Fifth, more foreign players will come. I don't care about our local players' breeding and development. Bring those pretty asses for us females! Could we have Fernando Torres by any chance?

Six, hopefully Younghusband brothers still want to play here.Wait, have I said that?

I could write more reasons for this issue, but I think I have reached a point where I can say we're just tired of PSSI. Others could write 10 pages of essay of it and I don't want to make your eyes tired by writing another 10 pages. I'm not even qualified to critizice PSSI after all. Plus, I don't want too boost Nurdin Halid and friends' popularity on the searching engine more than this. He's even more popular than Mark Zuckerberg on Google right now and fortunately I'm lying.

All I can see from here is that PSSI is acting like an overly jealous wife who doesn't seem to be sure she's hot enough for her husband and that's all I can say. And we, let's just say as the husband, maybe should just look for another wife - a sane and incorrupt one (an additional point if she can cook). 

Though I can't say that LPI is the answer, I think I should make it clear. 

The Younghusbands are cute. So bring them on! For the better-looking Indonesian's football league.

Should we make a Facebook page for this? :lol:

(image source : janaishabai.blogspot.com)

Do We Need a Ministry of Porn?

image : zorpia.com

In my family, the topic of sex never survives to the surface. Being a child with an exotic mixture of Javanese-Sundanese-Chinese blood running in my veins in a very strict environtment where any vulgar comments will never be tolerated has made me somewhat lack of reproduction knowledge in my early stage of life.

Then, as many of fellow Indonesians children, my friends were the only source of this so-called grown-ups thing. I remember listening to my friends' stories and everything which I didn't quite know from where they found them. As an 11 years old girl, it was pretty disturbing at first. Knowing that your little 'thing' down there could do something else other than peeing was pretty amazing but disgusting at the same time. But a little curiosity made everything go for quite a long time. Dirty jokes from the boys, sexy pictures on the comic books, and a little bit of Biology combined into the wildest imagination of us.

My first encounter with porn happenned when I was in Junior High School. There were nude pictures the boys brought from nowhere, and I saw them giggling and laughing to the pictures. Where did this pictures come from? Only God knows.

The first time I watched porn videos is when I was in High School. Again, it's the curiosity that brought me further. From cellphones videos to the high resolution clips you found on the internet, I and my friends were just having fun of seeing the things our parents forbid us to take a look at.

So, the banning of pornographic contents from the internet for Indonesian users must be very upsetting for many Indonesian super curious teenagers and lonely citizens. The goverment through one of the ministries claims that it was a very important action to protect Indonesian young generation from being such a stupid perverted person. And since our own Mr Tifatul Sembiring once implied that the earthquakes were also caused by those perverted guys who watch porn over and over again , it sounds pretty nice and makes sense.

On the other hand, some people calling themselves the defender of a certain religion in Indonesia were raiding, sweeping, and even violently bashing anything that shows some human skin. I don't even want to talk about that.

Now, again, the ministry of communication and information are trying to do something with RIM, scaring many BlackBerry users that their super cool gadget might have no use in the future (especialy the ones that still on 6 months payment). I don't know what's the deal with this but as long as I know, some expert say that this RIM thing is just some sillines where pornography is to blame--again.

Before I proceed, I need to make my stand first. I don't think pornography is good for some extent. But banning it completely will not make Indonesians less perverted.

'Mati satu tumbuh seribu'

This old adage should say it all. You can ban the internet, you can ban the magazines, the papers, RIM, even the television, but as long as we're still breathing and walking on earth, there's no way you can stop human beings to think dirty. There will be other means to spread the pictures of naked women and men all over the world.

If you want to decrease the criminal rates of raping and sexual harassment, take your children to the living room, talk with them, educate them, give them the freedom to speak and ask, and just hope they won't knock up the girl next door. If you think your religion has the power, then give them the wisdom of it. Nothing can guarantee that your children wouldn't be somewhat a hypersex by doing those. But it's better than sending us all to the pre historic age.

In my opinion, our goverment is too busy doing things that our own families should do--not to mention the politic agenda that might be hiding behind.

Have you ever seen the news that an elder (I'm not even interested to mention his age) was acussed of raping?

Did he own a BlackBerry? No. Did he subscribe to any magazine? No. Was he an internet maniac perhaps? No.

He's just perverted lonely old guy with no brain. Case closed.

On the other side of earth, my friend, who used to collect porn CDs under his bed, went to Theology school and soon will become a priest.

Seriously, do we need a 'ministry of porn' to ban anything that might be too 'open' to be true?

Some people may say that we do.

But I don't think so. :)

So I Say

So Doctor,  I'm in love with this particular guy. He's cute, he's kind, we get along very well. I like him very much and he says he loves me too. 

But the problem is, he's not actually a single guy. I mean, he has this on-off relationship with this girl. They have been dating for almost two years and he says his girlfriend demands too much from him. He's not sure if he still has any feeling for his girlfriend, that's why he loves being with me. It's like we're meant for each other.

He says he would like to be my boyfriend. But until now, he still cannot decide between me and that bitchy girlfriend of his. They break up and make up frequently, but sadly he always chooses to get back to his ex.

I can understand him. It's really hard to get rid of an ex. I'm willing to wait because I believe that he loves me and I love him too. Even his friends say so. I'm just waiting to the right time when he can be completely free from his ex. But in the meantime, I'm feeling really hurt.

Doctor, what do you think about this?

---

So I say,

Hell, I'm not a love doctor. So forget about getting any advice from me.

But seriously, did you just steal that story from a soap opera? Because I think I've heard it somewhere for like...hundreds of times.

I can see, having a relationship with a non-single guy is painful. It's even more painful when you know that his bitchy girlfriend who looks like a ho treats him very poorly and they break up so many times that you can give them a beautiful vase for breaking up for the 10th time in a month.

I'm not going to tell you to forget that guy. If you really loves him and you think he loves you that much, go for it. But before that, maybe you should consider killing his ex. You didn't describe what she looks like, but I bet she's hotter than you since that stupid guy keeps getting back to her.

So yeah, kill that whore. Take an axe and go to her house!

But before you get going, I'm telling you this one thing :

If he really loved you, this conversation would never even have existed.

Goodbye! Good luck!

---

Note : I hope nobody takes this seriously. I don't want to go to jail. I still want to get married. :D

Made for my two beloved friends that almost fell to the arms of 'calon om-om tukang selingkuh'.

K-Pop, A Personal Overview

There was a time in my high school days when one of my friends suddenly gave me a CD from her collection. At first, I didn't know what it was. But I remember the band's name written on it; TVXQ.

"Here, take it. I'll lend you this. You'll like it. I love them very much. You should listen to them too!" she said. She told me that she had waited for a long time to own the album. She bought it over the internet and spent a quite large amount of her savings since she bought not only one CD. So for her, I might be considered lucky that I could borrow her precious stuff.

'Thanks' was the only word I said to her.

I went home, put the CD on my desk and thought 'Should I try this?'. So I turned my CD player on, put the disk in, then waited. After the first track, I decided to not listen to it anymore. I got the disk out and returned the album to my friend a few days later, claiming that I had listened to all of the tracks but unfortunately didn't like them.

You might ask the reason why I didn't listen to the whole album. So you have to know that I have this trait towards music: I listen to stuffs that catch my attention in the first 30 seconds. No matter what kind of music that is, my 30 seconds rule never fails (that's why Luna Maya will never survive the music industry for me). So for the whole album, I think the first track should say it all.

And unfortunately, TVXQ or DBSK or whatever you call them, didn't do it for me. Bad first track perhaps. Or maybe at that time, I haven't been into Korean music or K-Pop as you might say.

K-Pop in 2007 until 2009 for me was nothing but a name. There was a huge K-Pop craze in Indonesia, that many of my friends went haywire because of it. Names like TVXQ, Super Junior, etc came out of nowhere and suddenly they were worshipped like God (ok, I'm exaggerating). Their fans said they're really cool, their music like....'wow!', and if you're an 16 years old girl you might consider to marry them.

But again, at that time, my music preferences were very different than now. I could listen to any kind of music, but K-Pop and J-Pop were really really out of my radar. Not only that I didn't understand what they're singing, but I really hated the way their boys looked with that colored, long hair. Plus those excessive make-up and costumes. God, they were so gay! (but now I'm saying 'what's wrong with being gay?') It was simply annoying for me.

I should tell you, I never hated K-Pop. I even liked some of Korean songs, especially the ones from famous dramas. I just once didn't understand what people like about the boybands, girlbands, and all. Moreover, I didn't understand why these crazy fans were so lunatic about them. So I decided to ignore it, until one day in the late 2010.

Okay, I should admit, the first Korean song from a group that caught my attention was Nobody. I don't even have to tell what group it's from since now I can hear you all in front of your screen are screaming 'WOOONDEEER GIIIRLSSS'. Ok, that's enough. But again, I stopped at that. My interest in  K-Pop was stopped at that very moment after I got bored of Nobody. I didn't even know the face of the singers.

That goddamn day when I got caught by K-Pop was actually started when my friends were planning on making dance parody video from K-Pop groups. For days since then, without any intention, I had been listening to 'these songs' I didn't know what the titles were. The songs I acknowledged were only Abracadabra from Brown Eyed Girls because my friends' dance was so funny at that part and the oh-so-well-known Sorry Sorry from Super Junior. 

Then here it came. I couldn't even explain further WHY this happened to me. All I know that, after such a long time, my barriers for K-Pop suddenly tumbled down. The most exciting part, these girls did it. With only one song :

GEE, from Girl's Generation or SNSD.

And that's it. I couldn't stop since then.

I know I was way toooooooooo late to hear this song and any other songs I'm listening to right now. But I guess for someone like me, really, it's a complete shock that I like them.

I'm a huge fan of John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Joshua Radin, and Teitur Lassen. And then I fell in love with these songs from those nine girls with...whatever. But then I remember that I even listen to Fatwa Pujangga and it's really normal that I like this kind of music since I listen to everything good to my ears.

And ever since then, K-Pop music is on my playlist. I started to listen to everything I could find and suddenly amazed of many things I didn't realize. I even fall deeper in love with a group named Clazziquai Project. For the first time in my life, I can tolerate some colored hair guy with tight jeans singing "Hello hello~" and even try to know what's the meaning behind the song "You Wouldn't Answer My Call" from 2AM.

As an addition to this complete shock : I LEARNT HOW TO DANCE WITH THE SONG 'GENIE' and got very stupid by memorizing T-Ara's hit.

Okay, enough with my complete 'labil' actions. Now I'm going to talk about more important things.

As a spectator, seeing a whole K-Pop industry is more than interesting. You are looking at an East Asian country which is known for it's deep culture and heritage where hierarchy and values are very respected, then you're shifting your sight to it's music industry where the image of consumerism and art collide into one fascinating scene of what we call K-Pop now. It's very difficult to picture what is really happening there if you're only looking from one side of the box.  

What makes K-Pop very popular? 

You can make hundreds of theories out of this. But for me, the most important part is that the Koreans seem to be very serious into this entertainment business. It seems that for them, stars are not born. Stars are MADE. Who made them? Us.

It's like nothing is instant for them. For those soon-to-be-stars, the agency holds many trainings, from dancing, singing, even modelling. After years of training, then they can debut. Not only training, they do everything to make those stars look perfect. Okay, it sounds very controversial since yeah, plastic surgery has been such a hot topic. So I don't want to talk about that. You judge for yourself. Some other even say that those girl and boybands image ruin the whole image of the Asian. But what I want to emphasize is; SELLING is everything. You cannot say 'Oh, Lady Gaga is ruining the whole Americans image! The Indians don't dress like her!' after Gaga scored platinum sales which contributes to the whole nation's economy.

We cannot lie, in every industry, sales are the goal. You can swallow your it-is-art speech and kick your idealism out of the window. If you cannot sell, then there's no point in creating a masterpiece unless your dream is to have your picture hung up in the museum. Spending thousands dollars investing on looks and expensive recording studio sound believable if you take a good look at your profit tables throughout the year. 

In the end, it'll be back to something we address as Mr and Mrs Dollar.

We entertain, you pay.

It seems like a win-win solution. In every entertainment industry, including United States' most beloved Hollywood, people are doing give and take. The industry creates entertainment, ranging from the music you play while you're driving, to the blockbusters movies with special effects that can 'wow' you for hours. Then you go to the music stores buying CDs or to the cinema lining for tickets. With every profit that the company makes, they produce bigger and more massive entertainment products. While on the other hand, there are these young gentlemen and ladies who really want to be popular by acting, singing, or whatever talents they possesed. The company takes them, puts them on the stage and the screen, and wooots, dreams come true! That's why you can sing along with Rihanna at home. The process might not be that easy, but it's more or less the big picture.

Then, while the tentacles of US' music industry have spread all over the world, K-Pop industry seems wanting to do the same. It might adopt RnB, Rap, and other popular music styles from US, but it has been succesful in injecting its own style to the music. More than that, the Koreans create fashion trends and other popular culture along their music especially among young adults and teenagers. K-Pop meets huge success in Asia and it may really conquer the world.

Like other industry, sometimes it can be ugly too. No matter what, business is still business and every revolution you make costs something. When the first industrial revolution with its machines and automatization came up, there was hesitation, even rejection. But years after that, we love how we can make more money by employing less. But now another problem came up; energy crisis. It goes the same way with entertainment industry. There's no way you can make money without being ugly one way or another, even if it's only behind the curtain. And after people accept that ugliness as a normal thing, there will be another problem to face. As long as the industry goes, it would be like that.

K-Pop as an industry is growing. To be honest, it wows me. With those amazingly good looking boys and girls with great talents which have been sharpened for years roaming the world stages, it pays off in the end. They are just the whole package. But how ugly and beautiful the industry can be, it's your choice to accept it or not.

For me, I'm just going to listen to these songs as long as I want.

Cheers!