Summary (part 2)

Now, this story is about the preparation for returning back home to Indonesia. After my thesis defense, I confirmed return ticket to Indonesia on June 6^th. Since this time is my return home for good, packing and cleaning the room is the main problem. For reading materials and class notes, I had sent them by post and it cost NOK 1,800. Quite expensive, but I do not care since I have no time to look for another way of sending them. Another thing is my books, it take two days for me to finalized how I can pack all of those books in my luggage combined with clothes and the rest (Note: there was excess luggage 8 kg for them that I found during check in at the Gardemoen airport. Gosh!).

Lastly, I want to say goodbye personally to everyone and friends during my stay in Norway. However, I feel so sad that I couldn’t manage to meet all of them.

Well, I manage to have my last badminton game with Vidar and Daniel. Both of them are my first Norwegian friends in GG Hallen and since then become my playing partner in Badminton. Takk for spilleren!


I manage to say goodbye with my very good friend from Nepal, Dadhi and Baikuntha. I manage to say goodbye in very short time with Torill (thank you for the “Sophie’s World” book gift and visit me in very last moment).


And, on the last hours, I manage to say goodbye and having “last lunch together” with my supervisor, Arild Angelsen, and several staff of the Department of Economics and Resource Management at UMB. I feel so bad that I couldn’t manage to say goodbye personally to my flat mate Thomas. Thank you for my other flat mate, Nils, who had drive me to the airport bus station with his car. It was really helpful.

Well, I am grateful that I have a really nice moment during my stay in Norway. I met a lot of good friends and great persons. You may see some of my picture from my first year of study in Norway here. It’s been a great experience also to learn about Norwegian culture and language. I really loved the Norwegian people way to behave in such ways of well-control and discipline. I also loved the Norwegian teachers behave in a really friendly ways. It was also lovely to know international community during my study in Norway.
Especially, I learn a lot about my brothers and sisters from Africa and South Asia. If I heard about their story about their countries conditions, I always grateful that Indonesia is having so much better (if you don’t want to say lucky) condition. In short, I only want to say that I learn a lot indeed.

Tusen takk Norge!

Indonesia: Ring of Fire?

“Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin”.

The above statement seems to be simply the words of press. It’s a jargon or perhaps a logo for a country called Indonesia. In academic field, perhaps in geology or geography, those words will attract some study or even big field research where some scientists or experts might involved.

I am not a geologist or geographer. I am just a citizen who realizes – based on the statement – that I lived above the ground that have great potential danger. However, I never being thought – at any educational occasion – about how to deal or even face directly with such danger, if they shown in immediate time.

Summary (part 1)

This is summary of everything happened in last few weeks:

Finally, I presented and defended my thesis on Thursday June 1^st 2006, in front of my supervisor and one external examiner. It was take place for more or less one hour, started at 12.30 in the afternoon. After presentation for about 15 minutes (from 12 minutes that allocated), I received a lot of questions from the external examiner and two or three questions from my supervisor. Several important points that I had chance to make note on the questions I presented below:

1. The main problem is on the understanding the statistical model used. In my study case, interpreting and presenting the results of logit regression model in a proper ways.
2. What is the practical implication of my study?
3. Expectedly, there is strong correlation between population density variable and regional variable, especially Java island variable. This issue was not yet clearly anticipated and controlled.
4. Regarding unit of analysis: observably, there are more than one individual in one household that being analyzed. Thus, there is a big possibility of correlation among household member which not yet clearly anticipated and controlled in my regression model.

I had answered the above questions/problems as:

1. Given the study that I did in my thesis, it was only an initial for further study in farm household theory. To continue improving the method and techniques, I need to learn more about another regression model or improvement of given model used by past studies.
2. Regarding practical implication, I believe that my study have a general implication on the development of rural (farm) household potential in Indonesia. It is expected that by understanding the behavior of labor market in rural area in Indonesia will gives us hints for promoting any policies to improve economic condition in those area. Specifically, this study was not yet supplied or analyzed particular policies in Indonesia.
3. I already suspected that the correlation between population density and Java island variable was exists. However, I still apply the two variables to represent impact of supply of labor (population density) and regional differences (by region/island). Due to time constraint, it is expected that those condition could be improve in future studies.
4. About unit of analysis, my observation with the data found that there is a condition where each farm household have numerous member where they have activities not only in farm/agriculture but also non-farm/non-agriculture. Previous studies mostly used household head or farm operator and their spouse as unit of analysis, ignoring other household member. However, for Indonesia case that would not be able to capture the real situation of labor allocation within household in Indonesia. That is my main argument for using individual level as unit of analysis. Regarding the correlation among household members, definitely I need to control them. However, I could not found any literature with clear explanation of such condition particularly for topic off-farm work participation. Further improvement need to be done in the future.

Despite of all questions arise during the defense, my own note regarding my thesis is as follow:

1. The data that I utilized, IFLS, has not yet being used optimally. The data contains plentiful information, but it is quite difficult to understand and to prepare the raw data to be able to use directly for analysis. Another self-study or training might be very beneficial to explore the benefit of IFLS data.
2. The farm household model itself also still needs to explore further. From what I have found so far from various journals, the model has much potential to be used for different purposes. So, it is really beneficial to master this model indeed.

 

After the defense, I got a call from my best friend Paksi and he congratz me in here. Thank you very much, Bos! Looking forward to see you very soon. Well, that is all for now…

Bulan separuh hinggap di malam tak begitu gelap
Siluet dedaun berayun ditiup oleh angin dingin
Sendiri sunyi sepi menghuni nurani

Rindu ini belum terbalas tapi sensasi pilu telah menerjang
Dibawa separuh bulan yang hilang
Dibalik gelap siluet dedaun yang berayun
Ditiup angin hari nan dingin

Lagu mendayu mengiring detik waktu
yang asyik menghitung masa
tapi melupa getaran hati yang tak tentu
diterpa nelangsa dikecup nestapa
apalagi jika sudah tak dipercaya

Bagai matahari panjang di belahan utara
Namun dingin kutub datang tetap jadi raja
Hangat di permukaan sekejap saja
Lalu membeku upaya segala selamanya

malam ini menipu rasa
matahari masih menahan baranya
dilangit yang memerah jingga
tapi dingin dihembus ke dalam jiwa

matahari juga menipu cuaca
bersama awan seolah ceria
berlari-lari di sudut angkasa
namun tak terjangkau hasrat di sana

angin menyusup dari celah jendela
gigil sekujur kasih tak pernah bisa dipercaya
kau tetap gigih berkata-kata
bahwa aku lahir sejak pagi selalu mendusta
sehingga bahkan segala upaya
tak kan pernah bisa disapa berguna

maka
harus ditempatkan dimana?
malam yang menipu rasa
dan matahari yang juga menipu cuaca

hanya kau yang terutama
buah pikir dan kecerdasanmu segala
secara ini hati ku bukan mulia
kedunguan sempurna aku si manusia

jangan mencoba menjawabnya
seperti ketika kau tetap gigih berkata-kata
aku tiada akan berdaya apa