Around the Globe, IndonesiaJuly 19, 2006 12:53 pm
Tsunami on July 17: What lies beyond?
Bitching About the Old Stuff I Missed
• I was just browsing the internet when I found this hilarious post. Check out that nozzle in the picture below.
Some of you may wonder what is it good for—you can find it next to the toilet in many places in Asia. Why do they need it there instead of toilet paper? It might be difficult to understand and very impractical, but Asians seem to stick with it even nowadays when they are already familiar with the concept of using toilet papers. Why, you cried. The’d ask back, you do wash your hands after using the toilet paper, don’t you? Of course, you returned. If you think the toilet paper is not clean enough for your hands, they said, why would it be for your rear?
• I think PETA’s campaigners can sometimes do the things which common people like us always wanted to do—but couldn’t; like hitting Paris Hilton with flour bombs ; Or showing Beyonce how her expensive fur coat was made. But there are also times when they are nothing more than a bunch of people wanted to strip in public for what they claimed as good cause with names like Traci Bingham, Jodie Marsh, Dennis Rodman and of course, Pamela Anderson . “We’d better bare skin than wearing skin”, they said. Um, whatever! I don’t know if stripping is really the best way to stop people from torturing animals, but those campaigners have some fans. This girl is one of them. Here she was doing what she’s best at: stripping! The target was the KFC on Kiraly utca. Too bad she was busted before finishing her quest yesterday. I’d suggest her to protest against the tax hike next time. Click here for more pictures.
• Budapest hasn’t been busier than the day when US president George W. Bush visited the town last month. The government had made sure that the world’s most famous president would be safe here by having security checks everywhere, including in the sewers, I heard. Dozens or perhaps hundreds of tourists and other visitors being kicked out of their deluxe rooms at the Le Meridien Budapest where Mr. Bush stayed. Trams stopped working and the passengers were told to get off in the morning. Why, because they were setting barricade for Mr. Bush around the parliament. On his not so impressive speech, Mr. Bush drew a direct link between Hungary’s quashed anti-communist rebels of 1956 and Iraq’s struggling leaders of 2006. “We’ve learned from your example, and we resolve that when people stand up for their freedom, America will stand with them”, he said. What’s that saying again: “If you don’t have anything nice to say,…stfu?!” Of course the saying is not for you, kind readers. If you are still curious about what happened exactly, click here.
• To fellow Indonesians abroad, fret no more! The House of Representatives has agreed to pass the new citizenship bill into law. From now on, children from international mariage will get Indonesian citizenshil until they reach 18, and then they can choose their own citizenship. Indonesian women who are married to foreign men can also sponsor their husband to obtain Indonesian citizenship.
• In the upcoming miss universe pageant, surprisingly Miss Indonesia Nadine Chandrawinata is on the top five in a recent poll held by the committee with 50,081 respondents. This is an excerpt from her video:
Q: Who is your idol?
A: My admir um…my admire is umm Mother Teresa because she’s so humble for me…
And that is not all.
Q: What do you want the rest of the world to know about your country?
A: Indonesia is a beatiful city (wtf?!), so.. you should go there to visit by yourself because we have alot of beautiful bitches (Err, I hope she meant beaches) and the spectacular mountain and dramatic of history and so the people. Because people of Indonesia is really…is really welcome umm and is really friendly because they’re like to know more about other country, other belief other ideas so…come to Indonesia, and feel it, and um…we open…um we open our arm to come to Indonesia.
She then admitted that she doesn’t speak English well. I wondered why she used English at all then–I mean she only embarassed herself by doing so. We all know contestants are allowed to speak in their mother tongue. But the Indonesian beauty then added that her Indonesian is not fluent since she speaks German in daily life. Ah well!
On the other hand, Miss Hungary Adrienn Bende cleverly avoided Nadine’s mistake by speaking in German during her interview. She definetely learned something from Miss Hungary 2005 Szandra Proksa. In case you’re curious about Miss Proksa, you can read my entry about her here or on Pestiside . They quoted me, don’t cha know?
• In another news about Hungary, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said that farmgate prices jumped by 11.6% in May from a year earlier.
• Higher education students must pay tuition from now on, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány announced at a youth festival last weekend. The government is planning to introduce a uniform tuition fee of Ft105,000 ($481) per semester for a bachelors degree and Ft150,000 ($688) per semester for a masters, irrespective of the field of study.
• If you complained about the financial state already, don’t worry—we all know about it. “Hungary’s public finances are at the moment the most problematic in the European Union,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Germany’s Die Welt in an interview published on Thursday. That also means another tax rise for us, I suppose.
Related Articles:
•Revisit Puteri Indonesia 2004: the Aftermath of the Miss Universe 2005
• The Controversy over Artika sari devi: the Show is Over
