If you curious how traffic jam occur in Jakarta...

If you really curious how traffic jam occur in Jakarta, maybe you could take a look at what the mathematician conclude when they try to solve the traffic jam mystery. Using mathematical model, they solve the causes of traffic jam as follow:

Their model revealed that slowing down below a critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the car behind to slow down further and the next car back to reduce its speed further still. The result of this is that several miles back, cars would finally grind to a halt, with drivers oblivious to the reason for their delay. The model predicts that this is a very typical scenario on a busy highway (above 15 vehicles per km). The jam moves backwards through the traffic creating a so-called ‘backward traveling wave’, which drivers may encounter many miles upstream, several minutes after it was triggered.

As clearly seen recently in Jakarta, population of cars have increase dramatically while length of the road is not rise significantly. If you want to find out what causes any congestion occur while you drive your car or motorcycle, it is almost certain that they caused by backward traveling wave by following activities:

1. Pedestrians crossing the road. If you notice, the more pedestrians crossing the road given the size of the zebra-cross, the the longer you will be stuck in the traffic jam. (See picture). In this case, it is not only the driver who suffer from the situation. The pedestrians also facing difficulties to cross the road for sure - and safe.
   
2. Stop by public transport, especially angkot and bus. The number of bus or angkot, and the longer they stop by at a particular spot of the road, it will increase the wave of backward traveling. You may see the case at the mall or market.
   
3. Distances among U-turns and numbers of junction. The closer a distance between two U-turns, it is most likely to increase the wave of backward traveling. Not only because queuing U-turns maneuver of cars but also because cars who is stuck in the queuing and wish to change the line. If the U-turns also quite close with a junction then it will adding up the wave.

Therefore, if you ask me what is the solution for heavy traffic jam in Jakarta? I believe, the only single solution is reduce numbers of cars on the road and re-arrange the traffic flow - including pedestrians flow. Mass rapid transport system, e.g Bus Way or Angkot Way, is one necessary policy but not a panacea for road congestion in Jakarta. While adding more road is only a pain killer.

The next problem - and this is the most difficult one - is how much are you willing to give up not driving your cars or riding motorcycles? How much are you willing to crossing the road at the appropriate location, i.e zebra-cross???

Quote of the day: Pengorbanan adalah "memberi"

Pengorbanan adalah ”memberi”. Di dalamnya, waktu tak terulangi. Seperti yang dilakukan Ibrahim, kata kuncinya adalah ”ikhlas”. Tak ada pengharapan akan adanya pembalasan kelak. Baginya, tak ada ”kelak”. Waktu tak diperlakukan sebagai lingkaran dengan ujung yang akan bertaut kembali.
By Goenawan Muhammad

Catatan Pinggir, Majalah Tempo Edisi. 44/XXXVI/24 - 30 Desember 2007

Hindu party? Get real!!

First of all, I am not against the idea of having religion based party. When I read the news about New Hindu Party for 2009 general election, I could not help myself to wonder. Why Hindu?

You may answer it simply by "Why not?". There is no Hindu party in Indonesia, while there are Hindu's people in Indonesia that need to be represented politically. Or, the "philosophical' reason behind this new Hindu party as mentioned here,

Ngurah Arya (the founder) believes that now Dharma calling for reinventing the good politics in Indonesia. We should keep Dharma to lead this country and maintain our ancestor legacy. May this is the true calling, the call of Dharma for Dharma.

I cannot stop myself for keep inquiring, why Hindu? What is the specialty of Dharma in politics? Ok, let's keep that "too sophisticated" question behind. Instead, lets talk about the number. How many Hindu's voter in Indonesia? If you get my question, then you maybe able to figure out how many representative would be possible to get by the party? For your information, Hindu population in Indonesia not more then 5 % approximately from total population. Just by that simple figure, you should be realize that Hindu will always be minority groups in Indonesian politics. Also, are there any non-Hindu groups in Indonesia that will vote for Hindu's party? I believe, NONE of them!

Why don't you re-allocate that money for political garbage - establishing branches, campaign, etc - into more economically productive sector. For instance, why don't you initiate and established an Indonesian-Hindu university? That is sound more beneficial since it will impacted on accumulation of Indonesian-Hindu's (human) capital. Julian Simon said, "human is the ultimate resource!" So, why don't used the money for enhancing them??

KHL = Kecuali Hari Libur

Aku menerima email yang berisi foto dan peringatan tentang sebuah rambu lalu-lintas yang memuat singkatan "baru". Aku sendiri belum mengecek kebenaran tentang keberadaan rambu lalu-lintas tersebut. Namun, jika ternyata benar mungkin Anda akan menjadi tahu dan waspada jika menemukan singkatan KHL seperti di rambu lalu-lintas tersebut.

Kalau Anda ingin tertawa silahkan saja lho...


Catatan: foto di atas bukan hasil potretanku sendiri. Aku menerimanya dari salah satu mailing list yang aku ikuti. Jadi, mohon maaf jika si empunya foto melihat. Maka, dengan ini Aku telah mengklarifikasi perihal hak cipta atas foto tersebut.

Quote of the day: On Microcredit

I study economics, that is why I love the following quote on "The Velocity of Circulation" from the episode of serial Numb3rs - Money for Nothing - as follow:

"The efficiency of microcredit is something like the capillary action of a paper towel absorbing liquid. The economic structure of a community is like a paper cloth - people connected by commerce. The difference is, as money enters the fabric of economy, it actually creates more money. Say a woman has money to buy material and sells clothing at a market. The woman then brings back cash to her village, buys food and other essentials for her family. Money gets absorbed, spreads around, and soon more people have cash to spend and invest."

Can you figure out how many economic concepts in the above quotes? If you watch the movie and pay attention with the graphical illustration on how the velocity of microcredit circulation works, then you will be amaze. I hope so, if you like (read: study) economics...

Buddha

Tidak bisa lebih setuju lagi terhadap opini yang ditulis Pak Gede Prama di Kompas hari Sabtu, 1 Desember 2007. Pak Gede Prama menulis artikel yang berjudul Cinta, Kedamaian, Pencerahan. Yang membuatku setuju sejak awal tulisan adalah kutipan berikut:

"Albert Einstein - fisikawan besar abad ke-20 - berpendapat agama yang bisa memenuhi kebutuhan intelek manusia masa depan adalah agama Buddha."

Terlepas dari agama yang ditunjuk, dalam hal ini Buddha, aku tergugah mendalami apa yang dimaksud dengan kebutuhan intelek manusia masa depan? Dan Pak Gede Prama memberi jawaban yang membuatku setuju untuk kedua kalinya, yaitu kedamaian. Jadi, agama apa pun selama dia bisa memberikan bukti dari ajarannya yang mengarah pada kedamaian merupakan agama yang mampu memenuhi kebutuhan intelek manusia. Sementara ini, aku hanya melihat bahwa Buddha-lah yang telah mampu secara konsisten menunjukkan semangat perdamaian tanpa cela di dalam ajarannya.

Hari-hari belakangan ini, ketika semakin banyak agama yang kian memperkuat stigma sebagai agama utama, semakin menjauhkan semangat agama sebagai pembawa pesan perdamaian. Agama yang semakin kronis dijadikan alat politik, alat kekuasaan, dan media progpaganda bahkan agitasi untuk melakukan tindak kekerasan adalah agama yang lebih tepat disebagai ideologi ketimbang wahyu Tuhan.

Sai Baba berkata, "The greatest spiritual practice is to transform love into service". Jika kita meyakini bahwa agama yang kita anut mengandung cinta dan kedamaian, mari mentransformasikan semangat cinta dan kedamaian dalam keseharian kita dengan berlatih laksana Buddha. Seperti disarankan Pak Gede Prama,

"Meminjam cerita Zen, setiap kata hanya jari yang menunjuk bulan. Bahkan kata-kata Buddha digabung dengan Krishna pun tidak bisa mengantar manusia menemukan pencerahan, terutama bila sebatas dimengerti lalu lupa. Apa yang kita tahu adalah sebuah tebing. Apa yang kita laksanakan dalam keseharian adalah tebing lain. Dan jembatan yang menghubungkan keduanya adalah latihan."