Food Crisis Fright

Personal notes :

New trends on the demand's side of food equation: (1) population growth, (2) at least 3 billion people are now stepping up to the next level of food chain. Means more people are consuming more grain-intense livestock products, (3) massive quantity of grains to fuels conversion. 

New trends on the supply's side of food equation: (1) climate change (each 1 degree Celsius rising on the growing season can decrease the crops' yields by 10 % (ex. in Russia), (2) water tables are falling (because of the over-pumping of irrigation) in countries that contain a lot of people (ex. the collapse of wheat production in Saudi Arabia which have established 20 years self-sufficient wheat production). Beyond that, there is huge water-based food bubbles in China and India. Means that in that two countries, the people are being fed with grains/foods produced by over-pumping (175 millions in India and 130 millions in China). (3) Thus, these things are speading water shortages in the world crops producing countries.

*reading Mr. Brown's World on The Edge.

Ignorant-Selfish Taiwanese

Not long ago, Rina posted this article on her blog. A few days earlier, during my way back to Chiayi, it happened that I encountered the similar situation as her. Well, it's not like after living here for more than two years, I never bumped into it. It's just like this one was the most upsetting among all, thus I couldn't keep silence. 

Let me describe the situation in details. I was sitting next to a 20-year-old-something girl who brought along a huge bag, which (of course) she put NEXT TO HER. Then, a family rushed off to get on the train (a mother of two; an at-least-twelve-year-old boy and a seventeen-or-so-year-old girl) and sat next to me. They brought so many belongings. No wonder, it was Chinese New Year holiday, thus they might just came back from visiting their relatives or going to visit ones, with a mass of gifts on their hands. The problem was, the next-to-me's empty seat was only fitted for two of them. As a result, the sister gave in and standing not far from her mother and little brother. Her mother offered her the seat but she said "不用阿". Shortly after, that girl looked jiggly which later made her mother forced her to sit on hers. All those situations were happened in front of my eyes which made me felt VERY uneasy. I've tried to draw the next-to-me girl's attention with my phony coughs. But of course, she kept texting without feeling a speck of guilt. Masya Allah. I just couldn't handle it and blurted "Excuse me, could you please put your bag down? Somebody is dying to sit here". She glared at me as if I was asking whether I can marry his brother or something. BLOOMING HECK! She moved her bag sluggishly and back to her cellphone as if nothing has happened. Ckckck...unbelievable! "谢谢...谢谢", the mother thanked me after I saved her a seat.

See? Most of Taiwanese are so ignorant. Beware of this bad side of them which definitely can get on your nerve. That ugly behavior gets worse because the one in needs (the mother, in my case) seems half-heartedly demanding their own rights. *Sigh

Borneans

How long I've been staying in Taiwan? Two and a half going-on-three years. How many tabligh akbar I've been through? Errr...can't remember. I just know it's quite a lot and I almost always become a paparazzi. Honestly, although I always have superabundant chances to get close to the guest stars, I never have an ambition to take pictures with them, on purpose. When I ended up in one frame with them, it must be because they are asking me to do so. Really. The same situation was happened on two days ago's tabligh akbar. Lacking of DSLR troops in the northern part, Rina asked me to come during my Chinese New Year vacation =p (*I was in Taichung at that time). It turned out to be great :D. This picture was one of the proofs of how great it was.

Thanks to Pak Tya for taking this adorkable picture :))

So, what's the correlation between the title, the prologue, and the picture? Simple :). It's INDRI, Sahrul Gunawan's wife. She happens to be a Bornean, -West Bornean to be exact. Just like the-half-of-me. The difference is her half-half combination, -Melayu-Chinese, which have successfully imprinted that kind of beautiful face, unlike ehmm...you-know-who =p. Anyhow, I'm so excited that I could find someone who can talk Bahasa Melayu-Kalimantan Barat. HaaAA^^! Feels like home. Besides a-little-bit-surprising-fact about Indri's origin, I found that this woman is wonderfully humble. Yes, she is. The way she talks, just like a regular housewife. OK, not a regular one. She's a respectful-humble one :). She even care-freely gave her cellphone number and e-mail address to me. "Contact me", she said. Subhanallah...

Drop That Beat

Just like an ordinary girl, my Junior-Senior High periods were filled with memories of various boy band namely Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Westlife, Plus One, etc. It's normal, isn't it? For me, the one and only boy band that not-only-selling-looks is Backstreet Boys. Not only because some of them can play instruments, but also because ALL OF THEM CAN SING WELL. Yes. A bar sinister usually throws to boy band is they can't sing. Ehm, if they can sing well, they'll surely become a solo artists, won't they =p?

I forgot when was exactly Nyu2 buzzed me ONLY to tell this*** video clip. (Luckily) one of my Facebook friends already posted I-heart-you on her wall, thus, sorry, Nyu...I wasn't as "amazed" as you back then. Hahaha. "Mo ngikut-ngikut Super Junior tapi gatot deh", Nyu2 said. So true [*I almost fainted painfully after watching their hilarious video clip]. I guess the boy band era in Indonesia has passed after M.E, Cool Colors and Coboy's heydays were faded. After that, boy bands are no longer acceptable for music lovers in Indonesia. Musical talents are highly appreciated than a mere good looks. That's why group bands are plentiful. But then, in 2010's Q3, a new boy band debuted. They name themselves SM*SH, the same name as a disbanded Korean boy band [*even their name is not original. Ckckck]. 

Speaking about Korean boy bands, I personally think that they are different in terms of training and pre-debut time. They are practicing really hard, abroad if it's necessary, to improve their singing-dancing skills. Once, I watched one of the Korean boy band's documentary and flabbergasted to see how hard-working they are. Apparently, being an artist in Korea is very strenuous and madly competitive. But that long-winding process makes them a devoted ones, not an instant artists. At least that's what I heard from the media. So, in order to see how good their performances are, after last year's total loss to snatch Super Junior's Super Show 2 ticket, I watched Dream of Asia Concert in Banqiao. haHAaHAAA! *benar-benar tidak tahu diri. Of course DTT was with me =p. Well, at least my curiosity of how-awesome-this-guys-are has paid. Conclusions? Hmmm...they are good. The most important thing is, they are HUMAN BEINGS too, just like us. Hence, it's not wise to idolize them to a sickening degree. 以上.

P.S : Me and DTT were unmistakably the oldest among the hi-schoolers fans. Ahahaha...Bunga, time to stop =p.

Basi !

"If you couldn't keep your promises then don't make ones, don't give hopes if they only lead to the disappointments", (Anonymous). I think that proverbium is right. I also think that it matched perfectly with my ire-nuanced title. 

When you have dreams or hopes, there are times when you want to share them with others, to the people you can trust, build a faith...declare a pledge. The bigger your dreams, the bigger "burden" you will put on your trusted ones' shoulders. The problem begins  when you (the dreamer) walk away and say goodbye before your dreams come true and left your trusted ones bear those dreams of yours, by themselves. Where is your burning-spirits-and-ambitions? Where is your conscience? Where did your pronounced-vows go away? B.A.S.I, Pak ! "sigai sampai ke langit", dong !

_will this year be the "game-over" for this event? let's wait and see_ [*hahaha...mumet berdua lagi-lagi dengan Si Slam] ---> at least I still have a comrade to "misuh-misuh-bareng" *meringis