What’s in a name?

In many societies, a child’s name commonly represents their parents’ wishes and pray. A name also could lead us to a thoughtful meaning or could indicate an event or location when the child was born. This post will try to answer what’s in the name of my first son. His name is “I Dewa Gede Arvind Adiyatama.” My wife and I call him: Arvind. Let’s go through into each name and meaning.

The first three names is a typical Balinese name. In Bali, “I” is a commoner title for male while “Dewa” is a title for Ksatriya, second wangsa or caste title among four wangsa which is common in Balinese society. Finally, “Gede” (means Big or the Eldest in Indonesian) is simply mean first-born. So, I believe the overall meaning of the first three names is quite obvious. These name are simply the recognition of Arvind’s association with and position in Balinese culture.

The next two names is a representation of wishes and pray upon him given any conditions when he was born.

Arvind means lotus in Sanskrit. Some believe that ‘Arvind’ means red lotus in particular, on which the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity – Lakshmi sits. According to myth, only the cleverest and most bright child gets the name 'Arvind'. Arvind is also believed to be the name for a minor god, ‘Aravinda’ – the god of wit, intelligence and shrewd scholarship. In conformity with those meaning, Arvind symbolize our precious wealth, eternal prosperity and representing blessing from God upon our family. Arvind also have a particular signification of scholarship or knowledge which both his parents strive for when he was born.

Adiyatama is two combine word “Adiya” and “Tama”. The name Adiya stems from the Indian word which means, “Gods Gift.” Adiya also a fluke combination of Arvind’s Grandpa and Grandma from Mom’s side: Hadi + Setya(ningsih). The name Tama is originally quoted from word Utama which is mean “Prime.” Ergo, Adiyatama signify as “the prime of gods gift.”

Finally, one may start to be curious what is the overall meaning of Arvind’s full-name. Me and wifey do not intend to put many thoughtful meaning on Arvind’s name. The one with possible brief meaning of Arvind’s full-name is: “First-born male Ksatriya which is the prime of gods gift that strive for knowledge.” For us, he is a precious gift from God. Our simple hope - a humble pray - upon him is that he will be a good individual who learn universal knowledge of life and share it to others.

Copyright © Dewa Wisana. All rights reserved

welcoming Arvind!

Copyright © Dewa Wisana. All rights reserved

policy wonks

We live in an age of "policy wonks" who judge programs [policies] by their effects on productivity, output, or work effort. Wonkian analysis uses the jargon of economics while ignoring its content.

I can't hardly disagree with the above quote...

Update 2010 Reading List: The Armchair Economist

Just want to update the 2010 Reading List after the last book arrived in my mailbox:

The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life by Steven E. Landsburg (author of More Sex is Safer Sex and The Big Question)

So, this is the final book in my 2009 wish list and in early 2010 all of them already complete.

Indonesia: Facebook leader?

Jeremy Wagstaff's post, Facebook in Asia: A Limit to Growth? shows an achievement (yeah, not so important probably) for Indonesia. He collected information on Facebook populations by country in Asia-Pacific. And, Indonesia is taking lead as the highest Facebook populations. With 24% growth and 6.68% proportion of population on Facebook, Indonesia shows stunning expansion of penetration.

Without valid data on number of internet access in Indonesia, I guess Facebook population that a top-notch in Indonesia mainly drifted strongly by the wide access on mobile phone through 3G network. Despite of lack of high speed internet network available in Indonesia, this is something that can be seen as good thing that Indonesian population highly appreciate internet as their new media for communication or expanding social network. It shown a combination of expanding information technology with people ability to utilize such technology.

We may continue to highlight some detrimental thing of high Facebook user. However, I believe it is more sensible if we are being affirmative with how can Indonesian people gain benefit from better access to information after they are able to expanding their social network and technology utilization. Such access hopefully could give some additional knowledge, skills or social movement for greater welfare achievement.

On sushi etiquette

I am not a big fan of sushi, but I do love sushi. Wifey really crazy with sushi and due to her pregnancy now, she really miss them a lot. Therefore, I would love to share her and all of you guys this following guideline on how to eat sushi in a perfect manner. Definitely, it is really beneficial if you stayed or visit Japan. Yet, I believe it is also good no matter where you eat sushi.

Happy sushi!

wifey just won her first eBay item!

She just won a New 'Easy Wrap Swaddler' from her first bid attempt on eBay.

I noticed that she made only a single bid and won, remarkable. Without denying a possibility of luck, I believe she carefully listen and learned whatever strategy I kept discussing with her during my own bid on eBay. And somehow, she work on it even better than me. In other words, I should be aware of her since she is a good 'player' in auction game...

Congratulation, honey!

the Oil Age is not over yet

The above picture quoted from the following article. I recall in one of my class I asked how many people believe that oil stock will be depleted and how fast. Due to global warming and environmental issue (only some given answer through staggering oil price), a lot of class member somehow believe that oil stock will be depleted very soon. In other words, many people believe that oil will be gone very soon. My answer was the stock of oil will be not depleted very soon, in fact there are more of them for sure but it requires new technology and/or new approach to reach their sources beneath the earth.

The article above indicates such possibilities. I am not sure how delicate your opinion will be influence by such ideas, regarding efficient energy consumption vis-a-vis global warming and/or environmental issue. But, I believe we need to firm our effort to reduce our indulgent for oil and looking for other alternatives.

On "Google" and "Tweet"

According to this report, "Google" is selected as word of the decade. And, "Tweet" is selected as word of the year.

I am just wondering now, what would be the possible translation of Google and Tweet into Indonesian language?
*Please note, I am looking for non absorption language to be able to make them really Indonesian language without any excuses.

2010 Reading List

After a couple of months hunting for reliable (I mean cheap!) online book sellers, finally before year 2009 ended I was able to order some wish-list books and they arrived by the last week of 2009. Following are list my latest collection:

• The Return of the Economic Naturalist: How Economics Helps Make Sense of Your World by Rober H. Frank (Author of The Economic Naturalist)
• The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics by Steven E. Landsburg (Author of The Armchair Economist and More Sex Is Safer Sex)
• Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity In A Disordered World by Tyler Cowen (Authoer of Discover Your Inner Economist)
• Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Author of Freakonomics)
• Dear Undercover Economist: Priceless Advice on Money, Work, Sex, Kids and Life's Other Challenges by Tim Harford (Author of The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life)
• Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations by Raymond Fisman and Edward Mogul
• Parentonomics: An Economist Dad's Parenting Experiences by Joshua Gans

The last two books - Economics Gangsters and Parentonomics - are the first books I bought and already finished to read them.

I recommend Economic Gangsters for any of you who interested with corruptions and violence from economics perspectives. It is well written and worth to read during your spare times. My favorite chapter is the first one which discuss about Suharto Inc. While for Parentonomics, I feel a bit uneasy while reading it. Not necessary because it discuss a lot about parenting, but the writing style not so specific. It is quite understandable because it close to economist parenting diary rather than economist parenting theory/concepts compilation. However, it is still worth to read if you are interested with parenting and economics.

For the first five books, I am just in the middle of exciting reading the two hot books: Superfreakonomics and Dear Undercover Economist. Both of them really superb books, highly recommend! I hope I can blog them - and the rest of the book - very soon. Especially the Dear Undercover Economist, wifey really enjoyed reading it as well.

In case you have your own opinion or review regarding one or any of my reading list, please kindly share your thought.