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.

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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

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