Ini bukan soal tampang, bung!! Ini soal cerita..

"Masyarakat Indonesia itu memang suka yang multikulturalisme kali ya. Ngerti ga ngerti bahasanya, asal tampang ganteng. Langsung sikat"

Itu dia komentar salah satu aktris Indonesia waktu ditanya soal kesuksesan drama Korea di Indonesia. Komentar yang bisa dibilang bodoh. Pertama, karena enggak ngerti arti kata multikulturalisme. Jelas kata itu ga ada sangkut pautnya kita suka tampang ganteng ato enggak. Kedua, emak gw aja bisa langsung nyaut "pantesan aja itu anak2 muda yang ngerasa dirinya cakep langsung jadi artis. modal tampang ga bisa akting. mentang-mentang kalo artis dipikir langsung tajir. mending juga liat Emak naik haji. bermutu biar ga ada yang cakep. bagus lagi muatan islaminya".

You got it, Mom!!!

Berhubung diri sendiri penggemar sinetron asia yang produsennya entah dari Cina, Korea atau Jepang, tak kasih tau ya kenapa drama-drama mereka booming di Indonesia. Tentu aja dibanding dengan sinetron Indonesia.

1. Jumlah episodenya ga panjang.
Jepang dengan kejam cuma membatasi sekitar 10-15 episode. Cerita panjang cuma ada di taiga drama alias film drama sejarah yang jumlahnya bisa diitung pakai jari tiap tahun.
Korea membagi sinetronnya menjadi 3. Drama pagi yang kurang ajar panjangnya sekitar 100an meski patut dicatat itu durasinya cuma setengah jam. Drama kolosal yang berkisar antara 60-70 episode, kayak Dae Jang Geum. Trus sinetron prime time yang slotnya masih dibagi jadi dua. Sinetron yang slotnya berkisar angkat 30 dan 20an.

2. Tampang emang penting, tapi cerita juga ga kalah penting.
Jangan salahin tampang artis luar yang emang keren untuk menjustifikasi sinetron indonesia yang melempem. kalau dilihat artis jaman sekarang, gw akuin kok kalo tampang artis kita oke punya. Gw selalu kekeuh menganggap Zumi Zola, Darius Sinatrya, Tora Sudiro ama Nicolas Saputra itu cakep. Artis cewek kita juga begitu kok. Banyak yang cakep, seperti penuturan adek dan temen2 cowok gw. Bedanya, itu sinetron Indonesia suka ngelantur ceritanya. Mari kita ambil contoh Tersanjung dan Cinta Fitri. Itu dua sinetron booming banget di awal penayangannya. tapi begitu serial itu dipanjangin ampe hitungan tak terhingga, langsung deh keok. Alasannya sederhana aja, penonton udah males nonton karena ceritanya emang udah ga jelas. Udah ngelantur kemana-mana dan terkesan dibuat buat. Penuh intrik dan penderitaan tak berkesudahan, persis realita penduduk Indonesia. Kita nonton drama kan pengen dapet hiburan, bukan gambaran semu yang aneh bin ajaib. Cobalah sinetron kita ga pake acara dipanjang-panjangin, pasti booming.

Jadiiii... Yang penting itu bukan cuma tampang doang, bung! Cerita dan jumlah episode juga sangat membantu. Biarpun sinetron kita bertabur bintang cakep, kalo ceritanya ga jelas, ga dilirik juga. Makanya, drama korea atau jepang bisa mencuri perhatian masyarakat. Jangan salahkan kimbum, rain ato lee minho kalo mereka cakep juga. hahahaahaha..

Anyway, kita masih hebat juga kok. Tayangan di tv kita masih ada yang bermutu dan film yang tayang di bioskop juga masih oke.

1. Yang menyentuh hati itu pasti booming, tapi sayang kadang tak berarti rating
Tengoklah acara upin ipin yg lagi heboh itu. Setelah melihat ponakan sendiri cinta mati ma upin ipin, akhirnya niat juga nonton itu program. Ternyata bagus! pesan moralnya ada dan ide nya sangat kreatif. Itu yang disebut drama multikultural ketika tokoh-tokoh di dalamnya diceritakan berasal dari etnis yang berbeda. Kita punya??? Jelas ada!! Kita punya kok tontonan bermutu macam upin ipin. Tengoklah Kick Andy, Bolang, ato si Unyil. Beruntunglah ketiganya masih menyambangi layar kita. Jadi kita masih ada tontonan yang menghibur di kala semua sinetron kita lagi ga bener.

2. Sinetron boleh keok, tapi film Indonesia sangat berjaya!
Pas pulang ke solo, kaget ngeliat layar bioskop disini nyatanya diisi oleh film Indonesia. Tidak hanya di satu layar, tapi hampir di semua layar. Sebutlah kemarin itu ada Sang Pencerah dan Laskar Merah Putih. Sebelumnya, ada Laskar Pelangi, Merah Putih, Garuda di Dadaku, Emak ingin Naik Haji, Naga Bonar (jadi) 2, Ayat-ayat Cinta, dan masih banyak lagi. Hebat kan kita?? Kalau dilihat, emang ada yang cakep gitu maen disitu? Yah, di pelem Merah Putih emang iya. Tapi lainnya? Mereka menang di alur cerita yang bagus dan membumi.

Ada perasaan senang dan bangga melihat film anak negeri menjadi tuan rumah di negeri sendiri. Semoga sinetron kita juga begitu dan tidak melulu menyalahkan mereka si artis luar yang bertampang oke sebagai kambing hitam kemerosotan kualitas sinetron kita. Ayo, bikin sinetron yang sederhana dan menyentuh. Kayak si Doel jamannya masih ada Benyamin atau Keluarga Cemara, atau Losmen-nya Pak Broto. Aku rindu sinetron-sinetron itu...

Indonesia: a supermarket of disasters, a theater of jokes, a country of anomaly (part 1- social media)

What you cannot find in another country, you can find it in Indonesia. Not only certain thing, but almost everything. But, what you can easily find in another country, you might find it hard to see in Indonesia.

Recent social media survey on twitter and facebook reveals that Indonesia comfortably sit as world's third biggest user of facebook and tweet producers. In general, it looks like Indonesia is a technologically savvy community that can put themselves as equal as US and Japan. You might also imagine Indonesian carrying their smartphone everywhere, from bathroom to boardroom. But i guess, imagination can be misleading, sometimes..

If you are an Indonesian or ever visit Indonesia then live like normal Indonesian do, you might find it strange how Indonesian could somehow project themselves as very savvy in technology when living savvy with public transportation means you are bound to loose your magic phone. You can only become savvy when you are at home, office, school or supermall. Well, I might not be in Indonesia for 2 years now, but the last time I came back home, that’s how things went. When I was in supermall, there were blackberry everywhere. Everyone seems to have one. pip..pip..pip.. Even when they have their friends around, the hip and hop in facebook and twitter is still as important. Especially nowadays, Jakarta people could be proud for having their own social media called ‘koprol’ (if you ever heard about it) that allows you to find friends whereever you are. Specially in big mall, the only place you can go for spending time and money.

Let say compare to Japan. If you ride a train or bus, there are one rule that you have to follow. To make yourself comfortable, try to do one of these things: sleep, listen to your mp3, playing games, read books, or doing something with your phone. Other than doing that, you are doomed! You cannot standing or sitting idly or asking people to talk like in Indonesia. That is just so no no! So, the most easily spotted activity, phone! Or even better, one can listen to their mp3 while holding phone at one hand and gamebox at the other. Why they do that? because it is safe to do so. Public transportation is a safe place to do whatever you like including showing off your latest most advanced gadget. Plus, the internet in Japan is way freaking fast. me? sleep ;p

Then, why we are in that hot spot of worlds’ third twitter and facebook users? do we really that savvy and hip? Thanks to cheap smartphone widely distributed nowadays, it is understandable. But who are the user? how is the demographic mapping? do people from small city or rural area outside java even knows what twitter is all about? could it be that the real users (for twitter, as for facebook i guess the number is a lot bigger) just several hundred but they tweet like hundred everyday? most likely to be that case.

Then suddenly I remember one day after North Korea huge defeat 7-0 to Portugal in World Cup. I told a friend, If world cup allows such a game, Indonesia should be allowed to join world cup too!. He just answered, “nope, because there are hundreds of thousands of children still suffer from diarrhea (due to bad environment and hygiene)”. spot on! So, while we are having this problems (let me list: disasters, corruption, porn video scandal, health malpractice, FPI, etc), how do we stand in the highspot of newest technology trend? while we are in number 3 for facebook and twitter, we are also in the top spot for being the most corrupt countries in the world. what an anomaly (>.<)

I know we cannot stop using facebook and twitter. It is useless since for me, they are now Indonesian new version of “warung kopi/coffee shop” where people can connect and talk to each other. Indonesian is just social people by heart. The question is, can we use it in a smarter way? for the better of others too? If not, then the anomaly of social media habit in Indonesia will always be an anomaly.

One thing about facebook and twitter, or friendster, or hi5, or multiply, or whatever is that by using them, we make people far from us closer but drive people close from us further. you choose ;p

originally written on 2 July 2010

How much social network is enough

One day, i sit with my dad enjoying evening breeze while reading a newspaper with a cup of tea and our all-time fave snack, pisang goreng aka fried banana. Then I read an interesting, if not cynical, article. The title is "how much mall is enough?" the article cynically portray the urban paradox in Jakarta where big super mall are being built like mushroom while no one believes that Indonesia is no longer in the state of crisis. No one really have high purchasing ability, except for the haves, less than 20 % of the whole 220 millions population. Who would buy all those stuff in the mall? how much mall is enough???

The same irony strike me tonight when i tried to clean all my emails from junk, spam and unread mails. I found myself in big troubles as many of those unread emails are important mails. left untouched for weeks, even months! many of them, importantly, need my reply. Ooohh.. for my friends and colleagues who sent me mails, and haven't receive any reply from me, please forgive me... i will try my best to make it up for you guys in the future...

As i getting through all the clean up, i found that many mails are truly junk!! many of them no more than notifications from all social network that i subscribe to. Yes, people.. you are so not wrong. social network..

My God, i never realized that i subscribe so many of them. facebook, friendster, plurk, hi5, xing, diino, twitter (oh, i just delete my account), and many more. not to mention the blogging stuff, livejournal, blogger, bloggaul... and my biggest guilty pleasure. tv-drama related forums.. geeezzz.. i cannot even mention each one of them as i apply so many of them. And too bad, none of those accounts are deletable!

so, i start asking myself... how much social network i actually need? if each social network represent my certain interest, how many things that actually, really interest me? do i start to have this multiple personality? (ooh.. i know i am taking things to far for this one ;p)

How many social network is enough?

Is our life getting so complicated that we need more than 1 social network or blog to stay in touch and express our self?

how many of us actually live that world and choose to live that way as it is more exiting than meeting the real people?

does having all these network is fulfilling?

or this multiple network is just a trend? a social trend that will continue to evolve as the world continue to revolve..

quoting a song, "somewhere that only we know"

originally written on August 1

Indonesian is not a Loyal IT Customer

Pelanggan Indonesia tidak bisa dikategorikan sebagai loyal customer. Dia tidak akan bersikukuh terhadap satu model atau merek tertentu. Mereka cenderung untuk melihat dan mencoba hal baru yang dianggap lebih menguntungkan mereka. Maka mereka suka untuk mencoba mengganti provider yang menyediaan tariff yang lebih murah. Bahkan, sekarang muncul tren untuk memiliki lebih dari satu hp dimana hp pertama adalah nomer yang sudah dikenal banyak orang, dan nomer lainnya berasal provider yang menyediakan tariff murah agar dia bisa melakukan komunikasi dengan lebih mudah. Maka tidak mengherankan ketika melihat pesatnya perkembangan pengguna CDMA di Indonesia.

Hal lain yang menarik adalah masalah pembangunan jaringan komunikasi di Indonesia. Dalam tender SLI beberapa waktu lalu, adalah kewajiban pemenang tender untuk menyediakan jaringan. Di akhir masa penyusunan peraturan tender, tiba2 postel dan, depkominfo merubah klausul tersebut menjadi “membangun”. Membangun jaringan adalah yang paling mahal. Jika tidak hati2, maka investasi itu akan sia-sia kalo tidak dimanfaatkan dengan baik. Maka, pembangunan jaringan bukan sesuatu yang mudah karena hal itu terkait pula dengan asas manfaat perusahaan dan masalah kesejahteraan pengguna jasa telekomunikasi.

(bersambung)