2009 Football Summer Transfer

Transfer window is always greeted with great enthusiasm from football fans all over the world. Not surprising. A successful club which is challenging for the trophy for sure will have a group of good players and transfer window provides the opportunity to strengthen the squad to sail through the entire season.

So here we are at the end of the 2009 summer transfer! No last minute big name signing as in last year when Manchester City sensationally captured Robinho. Real Madrid and Manchester City are two clubs dominating the big signing this summer. Seems like there’s no restriction in their transfer budget as hundred million of pounds are splashed to get the player they want. But do they make a clever signing?

For me personally, the top 3 shrewdest signing in this summer window is as follow:

1. Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona to Inter Milan)

What Barcelona was thinking when they sanctioned the transfer of Samuel Eto’o plus staggering 46 Millions Euro is completely beyond my imagination. Well, perhaps Eto’o is perceived as the disruption of the team which for sure needs to be pulled out. But getting Eto’o and that huge sum of money at the same time? What a bargain! I must say that this is the most clever transfer of the summer!

2. Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid to Inter Milan)

Inter again made a clever deal by taking Sneijder from Madrid for just 15 Millions Euro. I’m wondering why Premier League Big-4 Team didn’t make an approach for him (or I didn’t know about it?). 15 Million quid is cheap for a player like Sneijder especially when you know that Luis Antonio Valencia costs you 17 Million pounds!

3. Michael Owen (Newcastle to Manchester United)

Well, Michael Owen might have passed his peak, but getting him for “free” plus “pay as you play” clause is a good business. As a Liverpool fan, I’m puzzled why Rafa decided to miss out on him. Free transfer, no huge bill of wages, and potential commercial value from selling shirt on his name! If I were Rafa, I’d be very happy to take him even though just as a bench warmer as what he is currently performing!

Resurgent Reds Challenging For The Title

14 March 2009 will be remembered as one of the most remarkable days in the history of Liverpool Football Club for sure as they humiliated defending champion Manchester United 4-1 at what is called “Theater Of The Dream”, their own turf, having trailed 0-1. Having defeated Real Madrid 4-0 earlier in the second leg of first knock out round of Champions League, the victory came as moral booster to the squad. On their day, they can beat anybody. But the problem is that how they can sustain this kind of performance to go all the way to clinch the Premier League trophy.

The biggest problem with Liverpool Football Club is consistency. On their best day, they can thrash Madrid, scoring 4 goals for fun (if it had not been Casillas in the goal, the score line would have been bigger), they can inflict the worst home defeat for Manchester United in so many years, scoring 4 goals past Edwin VanderSar who just recently broke the record of minutes not conceded, but on other day, they struggled against the likes of Wigan, Hull City, Fulham, Middlesbrough and West Ham.

The sign of the champion is consistency in getting results, even though the squad is not playing well, as shown by numerous 1-0 victory by Chelsea and Manchester United in the past couple of years. The team should get good result against other big-4 team as well. Well, Liverpool Football Club might not win the league this season, but yesterday result, first win against Manchester United under Rafa Benitez’s helm was priceless. To do double against Chelsea and Manchester United this season is massive. Liverpool’s problem in the past couple of years was bad results against other big-4. But his very season, they struggle against lesser teams. Well, if this could be solved, then I reckon Liverpool would be a major force in the competition for the title. They have certainly improved a lot under Benitez.

Of course when speaking about consistency, we should take a look at the squad depth as well. Liverpool first 11 is strong, but the depth of squad is not comparable against Manchester United and Chelsea, in which you can have multi million pound rated Berbatov, Tevez, Nani, Anelka on the bench. Torres and Gerrard is the backbone of the team. I do hope that in the coming summer, Liverpool can get a clinical striker (Aguero or Villa), a pacy right winger (Ribery), and a versatile right full back (Daniel Alves alike) to complete the squad. Well, hopefully..

To all Manchester United fans : Liverpool might not win the league this season (well, that’s how you consoled yourself in dealing with yesterday’s blow), but the result was massive and priceless. You may win the title again, but watch out the resurgent Reds.. Hopefully Liverpool can continue the challenge and you indeed need to be worried about the force of Liverpool Football Club.

Express Courier

The facility of delivery tracking by DHL on its website is awesome. I’m truly impressed with it. Am I just being ignorant to know that it’s a standard of international courier or it’s an exceptional service from DHL ? With its friendliness staff and this facility, I would say that I have a very good customer experience with DHL and will continue using its service for future overseas courier.

Picked up in the evening of Wednesday, my package was received on Friday afternoon. Speedy service, while the progress of the delivery can also be tracked, including the time! From Jakarta to Singapore, to Leipzig, to East Midlands, to Newcastle. Good job DHL!

‘Pamer Paha’

Surfing through the web reading article in one of the leading portal in Indonesia, I had a glimpse over one article’s unique headline ‘Bandung Pamer Paha‘! Eyebrows raised. Bandung Pamer Paha ? To kill my curiosity, I immediately clicked the link to learn about it, and tada… gotcha! it’s about the terrible traffic jam in Bandung today. Know what Pamer Paha stands for ? “Padat Merayap Tanpa Harapan”, similar to “crowded crawl with no hope” in English I guess.

It’s the interesting aspect of Bahasa Indonesia. New words, phrases and idioms are growing rapidly and suddenly become commonly spoken by people. The source might be from abbreviations of phrases, such as the case with Pamer Paha, Sembako (Sembilan Bahan Pokok – Nine main necessities), absorbed from other languages (common as in other languages) or even out of nowhere. Well, maybe it’s me of being ignorant, but to date, I still don’t know where the hell do the words “lebai” and “termehek-mehek” come from.

Indonesian people are so creative in producing abbreviation that I find it interesting and at the same time amusing. I can understand the reason behind abbreviating places like Plaza Semanggi to Pelangi, Senayan City to SenCi, Bendungan Hilir to BenHil, but it’s just a bit hilarious for the case of Pamer Paha.. haha..

Some other words and phrases resulted from abbreviations :

1. Kutilang Dara, from Kurus-Tinggi-Langsing-Dada Rata <- Thin, Tall, Slim, Flat Chest.
2. Cipika Cipiki, from Cium Pipi Kanan, Cium Pipi Kiri <- Kissing right and left side of cheek
3. Dugem, from Dunia Gemerlap <- Shining World, refers to night activities such as clubbing, etc
4. Titi DJ, from Hati-hati di Jalan <- Be Careful in your journey

I bet there are abundant out there which I still don’t know.. Care to add ?

King Rafa Rules Australia..

Just when you think Mighty Roger Federer moves a step closer to equal Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles, here comes the spoiler, Rafael Nadal Parera! The 22-year old Spanish showed another classy performance by edging out Federer in 5-set : 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3),  3-6, 6-2 in 4 hours 23 minutes. Not only stretching his record over arch rival to all time 13-6, the win also earns him the sixth time career grand slam title, following last year Wimbledon, and four consecutive years of Roland Garros triumph since 2005.

What Nadal has achieved in age of 22 is phenomenal. While the tennis world has long predicted the emergence of this tennis prodigy some years back, I think pundits didn’t expect that it would be in such a short time, not when Roger Federer seemed unstoppable by dominating the ATP tour in 2004-2006 and considering that Roger, born 1981, still considerably young.

As comparison, Nadal won the first Grand Slam at French Open 2005 (19 years old) and clinched the world number one in October 2008 (22 years old). Roger Federer, on the other hand won the first Grand Slam at Wimbledon 2003 (22 years old) and topped the world ranking in February 2004 (23 years old). It seems that the rivalry between these two players is set to continue, promising an exciting times ahead for professional men tennis competition. The rising of other young tennis player such as Jo Wilfred Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Novak Djokovic further adds fuel to this for sure.

The strength of Nadal in particular is his powerhorse stamina. Having defeated compatriot Verdasco in more than 5 hours and despite having one day less rest compared to Federer, he showed no sign of fatigue at all in the Final match! Well well, it seems that the only way to stop Nadal is by not making unforced errors and pushing him to make errors. Easier said than done! :p

Federer is likely to surpass Sampras’ record, but I reckon Nadal will go further, and set more records, provided that he doesn’t suffer any serious injuries along his career ahead.

Obama for Good?

“I’m going home to watch Obama’s inauguration ceremony” said my colleague when he made an earlier-than-normal office-home trip yesterday. What I mean in “normal” here is of course passing office hour already, but compared to his normal time, it was somehow “earlier”. Later in the evening when I logged in to facebook, I saw some friends’ status about the watching the event. Well, those are just two very simple examples of the enthusiasm about Obama.

Obama is indeed phenomenal. The world cheered his victory over rival McCain in the election. His inauguration ceremony yesterday attracted millions of people. Americans in the United States flooded the capital, Washington, to attend the ceremony. Overseas Americans held the gathering event to watch the ceremony. Non US citizens tuned in to television for live coverage. It must have been recorded in the history book as one of the most followed event, the day when Obama sworn in as the 44th President of The United States.

It’s normal for people all over the world to feel hopeful of Obama, following catastrophic times brought by Bush in his eight-year regime, and his “Change” campaign theme. Particularly for Indonesian people, the feel of joy and enthusiasm is understandable given the fact that Obama spent some of his childhood in Jakarta. But personally I think the over-joy feeling and optimistic hope over the relationship with US should be avoided, not to mention some exaggerating celebrations.

Obama himself have not spoken much about his childhood in Indonesia. Well, perhaps this might change as time goes by, if the argument is that it would hamper his chance of being elected if he spoke about it. But the most important point to note is that he is the President of The United States, not Republic of Harmony or Kingdom of World Peace. As far as he concerns, the United State of America and American people will remain the top priority. The decisions he made will surely based on the welfare and the best interest of America, even though let’s say the decision is disadvantaging Indonesia or other countries.

Well, perhaps it’s just me being skeptical. I’m more than happy to be proven wrong. The Gaza saga involving Hamas and Israel could provide some insights. It’s interesting to see the stand-point of Obama on this issue, considering Israel is US lifelong ally and best friend.

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast, It’s Survivor!

Have you ever heard and watched the reality show called Survivor ? Well, to me personally, it definitely ranks among the best. This series caught my eyes for the first time back in my college time, aired in Indosiar station. Since then I’ve become the avid fans of it, but couldn’t do much since Indosiar decided not to continue airing the series after the Australian Outback season (I reckon it’s the second season of Survivor!). Not until I get to know Torrents lately that I started to get fond of this series again. You might think that I still can access the survivor’s official site to watch it or even @ YouTube!, but trust me, it’s a different story and much enjoyable if you watch it not through streaming, given the internet quality in Indonesia.

The concept of the game itself is quite simple. Contestants start the series in two tribes and they must compete against the other tribes in series of challenges, competing for both prizes and the survival in the game. It takes 39 days to a full series to conclude the winner who will take away a staggering USD 1 Million! FYI, in those 39 days, the contestants live in a very minimal condition, including shelter and food. That’s why it’s called Survivor! To survive the conditions and at the same time, try to win the game. There are two types of challenge, i.e. Prize Challenge, and Immunity Challenge. For the former, if the tribe win the challenge, it’s entitled to valuable prize such as fishing tools, food, hunting utensils, etc (imagine you can use those tools to strengthen your survival), while in Immunity Challenge, the loser team needs to go to Tribal Council and votes off one of its member to be eliminated and sent home. When number of contestants reduced to 10 (if I’m not mistaken), the tribes are merged into one. Starting from this stage, each contestant is fighting for him/herself, competing in the Individual Challenge where the winner can’t be voted off.

To my surprise, this interesting game has gone all the way to its 17th season, taken place in Gabon, a country in Africa hailed as the Last Eden in the world. Up till now, I’ve watched 7 episodes of it and can’t wait for the upcoming ones.

Palau Islands, one of the locations where Survivor! takes place

The reason why I’m so fond of this game is contributed to not only the interesting challenges and some spectacular scene of nature presented in the game, but also the plot of the game in order to become to sole survivor. You need to outwit and outlast. You’ll see during the show, how people forming alliances, betrays the pledge, playing politics, just in order to stay in the game. It involves a lot of twist and tricks and sometimes you’ll see people are in cahoots to eliminate certain members. Backstabbing act might also occurs in some stages. Very interesting indeed. The most interesting part is that the winner of the game is not decided by yourself. But instead, it’s decided by the jury formed of voted-off contestants! Wowwww… That means while you need to keep yourself in the game, you’ll also have to have a good relationship with other members so that they will vote you as the winner! What a game!

Having said that, I think there’s also criticsm for this game. To some extent, I think the challenges in the show are somewhat too “physical” which are a bit unfair to the elderly and some women (without being a sexism). As such, it’s normal that you’ll see many elderly and weaker women are voted-off early.

Tribal Council - Voting off one of your tribe member...

How to win the game ? Hmm.. that’s quite a question. While you need to show what you’re capable of, at the same time you also need to keep a low profile, unless you’re so confident that you can win all the individual challenges. People tend to eliminate weak members at the start of the game, but as the game goes along the way, if people see you as a threat, you are likely to be eliminated as well. So, my advice would be show your contribution to the tribe, keep a low profile yet prove your worths and keep a good relationship with other contestants. Sounds easy, but I know, it’s extremely difficult. One thing for sure, i think backstabbers will not have any chance to win the competition. You’re relying those whom you have backstabbed to vote for your victory ? Not a chance! So, don’t play much with politics!

Wondering what if I become a Survivor’s contestant.. Will I outwit, outlast and stay in the game for an honorable period of time of will I get vote-off very early ? hehehe…

You can find complete information and update about Survivor! on CBS site here.

Unofficial footages of Survivor! can also be found here.

Election Campaign Tips?

(picture from Yahoo!)

Nov 4, 2008 will be marked as one of the most important dates in American history as Barack Hussein Obama, 47, becomes the first African-American President in the history of the country, in a landslide victory over Republican rival John McCain, a Vietnamese war veteran. The victory has already been predicted, but still it’s a historic win not only due to Obama’s background (Kenyan-born father) but also the issues revolving his relationship with terrorist and a socialist tag from his rival as results of his economic plan.

I was not particularly interested in politics, not to mention politics in United States. But somehow late last year, the United States politics caught my eye through the race of Presidential Nomination in Democrat. Well, I hadn’t heard Obama’s name before, not until his sudden rise in popularity in the tight race against Hillary Clinton whom I know better and whom I think, is one of the most powerful and smart women in the world. As I have a habit of going to Yahoo! portal to access email, I accidentally got interested in US Election after the Democrat race had always been the headline in Yahoo! homepage. When Obama scored victory over the former first lady, the headline became more often.

To me personally, some notes I’ve taken from this election result :

1. Change will always be a “popular” theme to attract voters for first time runner. The word “Change” is used by Obama in his campaign, both in face to face against Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Against the two, this powerful word lifts him to victory. The theme is effective, but Clinton and McCain, to their advantage, can’t make use of this word in their campaign. Not when Clinton is a former first lady who is associated with the past power (although Bill Clinton didn’t perform as bad as George Bush), and McCain is a Republican candidate, the same party as the unpopular President Bush. Need to note that the theme “Change” has also brought SBY to President seat in 2004 election. Sadly, this theme can only be used once. Obama can’t use it in four years time if he’s running the election again, and SBY also can’t use it in next year election.

2. Majority people consider “economy” far more important than other issues such as security or patriotism. At the end of the day, it’s the economy that matters. People care much about economy ahead of patriotism, security, etc. If economy is secure, then they will consider security and other issues. That’s the reason behind the re-election of Bush in 2004 (thanks to terrorist issue). The bad shape of economy under Bush has driven people to ditch McCain who is perceived as having the same economy policy (although it might not be true) and instead vote for Obama, even though Obama is rumoured to have close relationship with terrorist. Thus, in order to get re-elected, the running President needs to emphasize on economic issue. If there’s significant improvement in economy, it’s likely that people will vote him again. If economy is okay, you can try other issues. If economy is in deep shit, don’t bother to run for re-election! That’s why, up till this moment, there’re still people saying that it was better in former President Soeharto’s regime than current condition. People seems to forget all the corruption, collution and nepotism that’s because they think under Soeharto’s era, life was easier.. life was better. Singapore is another perfect example. “No freedom of speech, no this, no that, Lee Kuan Yew’s clan power ? No problem, as long as the economy is in great shape” (quoted from my singaporean relative).

3. Socialism still have place in people’s heart, even in the most advanced countries like United States, moreover in bad times. Despite gung-ho attack from McCain on Obama’s economic policy to cut taxes for medium – low income earner and raise taxes at the same time, and label of “socialist who spreads the wealth”, Obama still take it. To some extent, the attack from McCain’s side is somewhat exaggerating, I think Obama’s policy is indeed some sort of socialism idea, although not that extreme. But perhaps this is just a minor hypothesis, still to be proven though.

4. Instead of attacking your rival’s idea, it’s better to come up with your own idea and plan and defend it. I think this is the most crucial point which leads Obama to his journey in becoming 44th President of the United States. McCain didn’t show his idea and plan. All he did was just to attack and attack Obama’s idea.

I’m not an election strategist nor consultant, but perhaps politicians who will compete in next year election might find this article useful ? hahahaha… :p

Lost in Currency?

When we talk about national identities, what will come across our mind ? For me, they’d be Flag, National Anthem, National Language, and last but not least, the Currency. Those are the pride of the nation. We have our own flag – “Merah Putih”, our own national anthem “Indonesia Raya”, our own language of “Bahasa Indonesia” and “Rupiah” as our currency. I have no dare to claim that I’m a truly nationalist, but in my opinion, in regards to currency, we should use Rupiah in our day to day domestic transaction.  But somehow I found an astonishing fact when I was browsing the internet to search any flight promotion (Yes, I’m searching for air ticket again for Medan trip later in December) :p

This is the screenshot from Batavia Airlines website for the ticket reservation.

Look at the fare for the ticket. Wow, in US Dollar! How can that be ? At first I thought I made a mistake in the homescreen of the site where there was question whether we browse from Indonesia or other countries and also on our language preference (Bahasa Indonesia or English). I chose Indonesia and English. I thought the USD rate was due to choice of English as language. But then when I switched to Bahasa Indonesia, there was no change in the currency either. What a surprise!

In my opinion, any transactions should use Rupiah currency, with exceptions for international related such as flight and maybe some transactions in area of border line, lie in between Indonesia and other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.

I find Batavia’s decision to change its fare from Rupiah to US Dollar is particularly driven by business reason, in the wake of weakening Rupiah following global financial turmoil. Perhaps the costs borne by the airlines are mostly in US Dollar so that they have to find way to balance their books, one of them is by charging in US Dollars. But again, it’s rather unacceptable. If other companies follow this way, the demand for dollar will continue to rise, people will ditch Rupiah for safer haven in US Dollar which in turn will exacerbate the downfall of Rupiah. As I write this post, the latest exchange rate at Yahoo Finance! is USD 1 for IDR 11.050, representing an almost 20% depreciation in just one and a half months.

To my surprise, our Central Bank Governor was quoted about the worrying fall of Rupiah yesterday (when Rupiah passed IDR 10,000 barrier) and his response was “There’s nothing special”! Wow what a statement. Although it’s due to impact of global financial crisis, the government ought to do something to prevent further steep fall. If not taken properly, sooner or later, this will impact companies with foreign currency debt. More and more companies will fail, retrenchment to follow, unemployment will rise. That’s the domino effect. I’m not an economist nor a financial expert but trust that the officials up there know what they are going to do.. hopefully..

Strangely, it’s United States who has the financial crisis, but US Dollar continues to strengthen against other countries (except Yen). What a jinx you are Uncle Sam! You’re the one on crisis, yet you drag other countries to drown with you..

Check & Re-check!

Sounds like one of the infotainments which are now spreading like mushroom in the rainy season ? No no.. this one is not about celebrities’ gossip, divorce, marriage or whatsoever. Check and Re-check, area that I’d like to highlight is the quality of the news, articles or writings published for public consumptions. Sometimes I wonder if there’re some sanity checks performed for the writings before they are being published. Well, I expect so, especially if they are coming from reputable organizations. If the writings are published in personal blog (which is understandable that there’s no stringent checking), it’s considered okay in my opinion.

Today I receive an email from Mandala Air about year-end airfare promo ( I subscribe for the marketing offer news since I love to hunt for cheap ticket ). This is the screen-shot of homepage :

Note the “not that serious” but amusing error in above information ? Hahaha.. If you can’t figure out then perhaps you can ask a primary school student to tell you about it. Notice now ? Well well.. How many days are there in September ? 30 right ? Then how come the offer is up till 31 September!

This one is not so serious. I ever encountered much more serious and horrendous errors, also from reputable organizations and in other formats as well, such as newspaper article (including top national newspaper publisher).

Despite all the checking and editing process, sometimes errors are still there. I think that’s why organizations are setting up quality checking and assurance function in daily operations. Imagine if this function is not there ? One consequence for sure that we will surely see more errors!