A story of romantic love
Sweet Valentine: Baker Emily Jones decorates
chocolate hearts at the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory in Burlington,
Vermont, on Feb. 11.AP/Toby TalbotFor many, February is the month of
romance.
Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14th gives people a momentum to celebrate
love and express it to their object of affection.
The classic formula to mark the occasion usually includes a
romantic dinner for two, red roses, chocolate, candy and a greeting card. For
those with more money to spend, a holiday getaway and jewelry might come into
the picture.
Those skeptical of the day’s hype might refuse to partake in the
consumerist frenzy, saying that love should be celebrated on any day of the
year. Romantics, who love the special occasion, meticulously plan their
activities on Valentine’s Day.And
there are those who don’t mind being given a reason to be romantic.
But for every type of person holding different opinions on
Valentine’s Day, romantic love is more than dinner
and gifts. It is the one drug that everyone loves — as long as it lasts. It
gives people energy, sparks creativity, and makes a besotted person incredibly
focused on one’s object of affection.
Romantic love is a great motivator and a muse for art. The many
poems dedicated to love is testament to that. Love drives people to go the
extra mile. The fear of loosing love and jealousy can drive people to the worst
of actions, from stalking to murder.
Beyond kowtowing to the demands of a commercialized Valentine’s
Day, The Jakarta Post asked people what they did when driven by this intense
emotion, and what their perception of romantic love was.
Most answered they wanted an everlasting relationship. A happily
married mother of one said love was an illusion, referring to the roles of
dopamine and serotonin in our brains. Others say they believe in love in a
metaphysical manner. And an editor-cum-artist dreams of a noncommittal
everlasting love.
The feisty, 25-year-old Bali-based editor Annisa Dharma said
romance or the feeling of infatuation drives her to “assemble beautiful words
that woo”. It had also driven her to make what she called “grand gestures”.
“I’ve moved countries for a boy. I’ve made a song for a boy. I’ve created art for a boy. I’ve
let go of my ambition for a boy,” she said.
Annisa said her actions
were driven by romance.
“I
think romance is more of a language. Romance and love don’t go hand in hand,”
she said.
“Personally, I can’t be romantic to someone I truly love, and
likewise, when I don’t love a person, I can be the most romantic person ever.”
However if she really loves someone, she would not do anything to
hurt or harm herself. “Because I’d trust them with all my heart,” she said.
Annisa added she would want love to last forever. “Thus, no
commitments…Free and liberating.”
She however would not mind getting married “if I found the right
one, in which the relationship didn’t change regardless of the married status.
That would mean getting married purely as an act of romance… which is fine,”
she said.
For 28-year-old Yolanda Nirmala, love has such a powerful effect
on her it made her think twice
about her religion and chose to live without it. She said she found peace as an agnostic.
about her religion and chose to live without it. She said she found peace as an agnostic.
“Would it makes sense to you if I told you that being in love once
led to me being agnostic? That’s how powerful love is in my life,” she said.
Coming
from a conservative Muslim family, Yolanda fell in love with a man who had a
Catholic upbringing. She was in her early 20s, in college; meanwhile, her
partner was in his early thirties.
Their families disapproved of their relationship because they came
from different faiths. They continued
to date in secret for fear of being separated.
She and her partner devised a plan to elope to Singapore and live
abroad. They started to save up money for their planned future together.
During this time, she started to question religion.
“I
started to lose my faith in religion. I started to ask myself: ‘What is the
point of religion have if it used to hate other people?’ Because of a different
religion, one can hate and stay away from others?”
Life sent her on another path, Yolanda said, as her boyfriend was
killed in a car accident in their two years of relationship.
“I was sad as sad can be. But the thing that didn’t die with him,
was me being an agnostic,” she said. “I don’t feel there is a strong reason to
fit in boxes that separate people.”
For
29-year-old RamdanSudrajat, love has made him do things he never imagined he
could do.
“I cleaned my girlfriend’s father’s behind when he was ill after
having a stroke,” he said.
“I even surprised myself. I have never even seen my own father
naked. That’s the power of love,” he said.
The
relationship with his girlfriend eventually fizzled. That was around 2006 he
said, and he was over it.
“Failure is normal. Even though I regret the decision to break up.
I still remember her as a part of the story of my life,” he said.
“I think love is when you put your trust and hope in someone whom
you wish to be your life companion and who will be by your side until you get
old,” he said.
While Ramdan is looking to forge a lasting relationship soon,
Yolanda said she was not in a rush and was looking for a mature relationship,
with a solid long-term plan. “If a guy says sweet things to me such as ‘I like
you’ or something similar, until he proves it I would say it’s bulls**t,” she
said. And until she finds that love, she is happy with casual dates.
Maria Ferrari, 33, a mother and a singer, has a very rational
perspective on romantic love. She believes it is an illusion, and the emotion
comes from a combination neurotransmitters in the brain.
“In reality, [most] humans whether they realize it or not are
self-centered,” she said. “For me, the deepest and craziest [thing one can do]
for ‘love’ is to keep it unspoken.”
She believes a committed relationship occurs when two people agree
to want to “know” their partners.
“The ‘want’ is full of conflict. And often it becomes a drama,
just like sinetron,” she said. Maria added there was no time frame in getting
to know one’s partner. “Because humans are dynamic,” she went on.
Despite her rational perspective, Maria enjoys being infected with
the emotions.
“Being high and low is exciting. Because [sometimes] that is what
people look for. So life doesn’t feel that bland,” she said.
Scientists have explained love through neuroscience. A professor
of Neuroscience in Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Larry Young.wrote in
scientific journal Nature, that love could be explained by a series of
neurochemical events in a specific area of the brain. From his research Young
finds that oxytocin levels in the brain may enhance humans ability to form
trusting relationships.
Meanwhile anthropologist Helen Fisher states that different
neurotransmitters such as testorerone, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin have
roles in the phases of romantic love, which are lust, attraction and
attachment. In her articles, Fisher wrote that when someone faces rejection,
the body goes into protest and also a renewed passion that she coined
“frustration attraction”, which results from the prolong effect of dopamine.
To cope with all the highs and lows of love, Maria suggested being
conscious of all these emotions.
Taking advice from meditation teacher, she said: “Consciously
enjoy everything, and observe”.
Tenses:
1. And
there are those who don’t mind being given a reason to be romantic à
Present Continous
2. I’ve made a song for a boy à
Simple Present
3. Annisa
said her actions were driven by romance à Simple Past
4. They
continued to date in secret for fear of being separated à
Present Continous
Transjakarta feeder-bus route set for Bekasi
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 03/28/2012 10:35 AM
The Jakarta Transportation Agency will on Wednesday launch a new feeder-bus
route to support the Transjakarta busway between Bekasi and the Pulo Gadung
terminal in East Jakarta.
Jakarta Transportation Agency chief Udar Pristono said that the route will start at the Pulo Gadung bus terminal and pass through Jl. Raya Bekasi, the Jakarta Outer Ring Road, the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road and Jl. Cut Mutia before ending at the Bekasi terminal.
Jakarta Transportation Agency chief Udar Pristono said that the route will start at the Pulo Gadung bus terminal and pass through Jl. Raya Bekasi, the Jakarta Outer Ring Road, the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road and Jl. Cut Mutia before ending at the Bekasi terminal.
The route will use bus stops in front of the Social Ministry office and the
Bekasi Trade Center, which are both on Jl. Muladi Joyomartono, and in front of
the Bank Mandiri office and the Hiba Utama bus depot on Jl. Raya Bekasi, Udar
said during a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday
Each passenger
will have to pay
a fare of Rp 9,500 (US$1.05), comprising Rp 6,000 for the feeder bus and Rp
3,500 for the Transjakarta bus.
The bus is a
high-deck-type with a capacity of 85 passengers, like a Transjakarta bus.
But unlike its
Transjakarta counterpart, the feeder bus will be powered by diesel
fuel, not compressed natural gas (CNG). “Fifteen buses will serve the route,
with a total capacity of 17,340 passengers per day,” Udar said.
He said that he
hoped the feeder buses would see commuters from Bekasi who usually used cars or
motorcycles to get to Jakarta be converted into using public transportation.
“It cannot absorb
the passengers as targeted if commuters still use cars and motorcycles instead
of taking public transportation,” he said.
Udar gave the
example of the feeder-bus route that stops in front of City Hall, which only
has seen around 100 passengers a day utilize the service.
“We have provided
the facility but people do not want to use it,” he said.
The agency also
demanded that the Bekasi administration provide adequate facilities for
passengers, such as parking lots and restaurants, to support the region’s
growing bus system.
Based on research
from the Greater Jakarta Urban Transportation Policy Integration Project
(JUTPI), the number of people commuting from Bekasi to Jakarta grew more than
60 percent in eight years.
There were
423,000 people commuting daily from Bekasi to Jakarta in 2010, compared to
262,000 in 2002.
From the 423,000
Bekasi-Jakarta commuters, 51.1 percent used motorcycles and 29.1 percent drove
their cars.
Just 16.3 percent
of commuters used bus services and 3.1 percent, or 13,113 passengers, traveled
by train each day.
Anisa Titisari,
23, a Bekasi resident who frequently goes to Jakarta to meet with friends, said
that she was pleased with the administration’s plan.
“It would be a
lot easier to get to Jakarta. I usually have to change several public
transportation services to reach Jakarta,” she told The Jakarta Post. However,
she hoped that the buses would journey closer to her house in Harapan Indah
because it costs her Rp 5,000 to travel to the Bekasi bus terminal.
Several feeder-bus systems have been
created by various private real-estate agencies operating in Jakarta’s
outskirts, such as in Tangerang and Cikarang.
These private services have been developed to help residents and clients
get to Transjakarta bus stops or terminals.
Sumber : http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/28/transjakarta-feeder-bus-route-set-bekasi.html
Tenses:
1. Several feeder-bus systems have been
created by various private real-estate agencies operating in Jakarta’s
outskirts, such as in Tangerang and Cikarang à
Present Perfect
Trade
Minister airs concerns over export performance
Hans
David Tampubolon
The
Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, May 11 2012 | 08:58 am
With the global economy slowly recovering, especially in main
export destinations such as Europe and the US, it will be difficult for
Indonesia to maintain its trade surplus at last years’ level, a minister said.
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said in Jakarta on Thursday that
the decline in the demand from Indonesia’s main buyers such as Europe and the
US could result in the decline in the country’s exports this year,
“If we can achieve last year’s exports, it will be a good
achievement,” Gita said on the sidelines of an economic ministerial meeting at
the National Planning Agency (Bappenas) in Jakarta.
Gita also said that imports should be closely monitored so
that the surge in the flow of foreign goods into the country would not affect
the trade surplus. “We have to stop illegal imports,” he said. “Common
illegally imported goods are toys, steel, helmets, fruit and vegetables,” he
said, adding that the entry of illegal foreign products had seriously hurt
local producers.
To intensify the fight against illegally imported goods, Gita
said that the Trade Ministry would conduct much more intensive cooperation with
the customs directorate general and law-enforcement officers.
In 2011, Indonesia’s exports were valued at US$203.62 billion
and imports were $177.3 billion, making a surplus of $26.32 billion.
Economic think-tank National Economy Committee (KEN)
predicted that exports might decline, both in terms of value and volume, due to
the ongoing global crisis.
KEN proposed that to prevent a steep export decline, the
government should open new markets in other regions for its goods other than
the traditional destinations, such as China, the US and Europe.
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said that not only
Indonesia, but other members of ASEAN also believed that they had to start
opening new markets in regions outside their usual export targets.
“One of the new regions that ASEAN countries will try to
cooperate with is the Latin America region,” Agus said while adding that the
agreement to intensify trade with that region was made during the latest Asian
Development Bank (ADB) meeting in Manila.
A joint-report composed by ADB and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) reveals that Asia is now Latin America’s second-biggest
trading partner, with about a one-fifth share of the total of Latin America and
Caribbean trade.
Growing at an annual average of 20 percent since 2000, trade
between Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean reached an estimated $442
billion in 2011.
The
surge being fostered by an increase in free trade agreements (FTAs) between
Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Between 2004 and 2011 an average of two FTAs took effect
every year between the regions, resulting in a total of 18 such agreements
today.
Source:
Tenses:
1.
The surge being
fostered by an increase in free trade agreements (FTAs) between Asia and Latin
America and the Caribbean à Present Continous
$30m Sumatra forest deal in doubt after concerns over funding
May
15, 2012
The future of a much-vaunted $30 million Australian project
to protect Indonesian forests for their carbon is in doubt after an independent
review found it is not the best use of the money.
The project on
the island of Sumatra was announced by Labor in early 2010 to international fanfare, but so far there has been little
detail about the project's design.
It is understood there has been no actual on-ground work in
Sumatra and officials to date have done research only.
It is the second Australian-Indonesian carbon project to
face setbacks. The Herald reported
in March that a $47 million project to restore peatland in Kalimantan, launched
in 2007, had quietly been scaled back and was suffering major delay.
Indonesia is recognised as the world's fifth-largest producer
of greenhouse gases, with 60 per cent of its emissions coming from rapid
deforestation and associated activities.
The review of Australia's Indonesian carbon programs,
costing $100 million overall, found the Sumatran project ''may not be the most
effective utilisation of available funding and that the changing policy context
provides an opportunity for reconsideration of the proposal''.
A spokesman for the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet,
said Australia was discussing with the Indonesian government alternative
approaches to work in Sumatra.
''Work has not started on the ground because we have not
yet agreed on the revised scope of work,'' the spokesman said.
The Sumatra project is a pilot for a proposed global
system, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation,
in which developing nations could earn money from carbon credits created from
forest preservation projects by selling them to rich countries for use in
meeting their emission reduction targets.
The
independent review was handed to the government early last year, but was only
made public by the Australian overseas aid agency AusAID in recent weeks.
It calls for the ''reconsideration'' of the Sumatra pilot
in light of the challenges and delays in the Kalimantan project and the
emergence of other Indonesian forest schemes, including a $1 billion investment
by Norway
Source:
Tenses:
1.
The project on the
island of Sumatra was announced by Labor in early 2010 à Past Tense
2.
The independent review
was handed to the government early last year, but was only made
3.
public by the
Australian overseas aid agency AusAID in recent weeks à Past Tense
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