Jessup 2009

The UPH team has performed admirably and reached the final rounds of the Jessup competition. Unfortunately, we were defeated by a team from Colombia.

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition is the most prestigious of all law moot competitions and it is therefore quite an achievement to reach the final rounds. It would have been nice to have gone a little further still. However, I am proud of the team's achievement as no one expected them to do this well.

They will be better for the experience and will one day be exceptional lawyers and advocates.

Will -- 24 March 2009

I figured it was time I posted a few new picks of the little fella (the last one taken by his Mum on her new mobile phone)...

Will is healthy and growing fast. It is amazing to watch.

Washington DC

It is always nice to come back to Washington DC. I really enjoy the mix of history and the hustle and bustle. Simply, it is a place with a rich history that has made a nation and the hustle and bustle of a place always on the move seeking out the best possible future.

As I was travelling around on buses and trains, I found myself wondering when Jakarta might have a public transportation of some similar kind. I am resigned to the fact that it might be a long time off. Oh well!

Yesterday, I, along with the UPH team, did the standard monument walk-a-round. I could have done more monuments, but the team was hungry and cold so we headed off to find food and ended up in Chinatown. The photos of this little journey will be posted later.

Today, was a long day. It did not start until after midday, which I guess is some consolation, and started with lunch with our gracious host, the Education Attache at the Indonesian Embassy. We were joined by the UI team for the occasion. The lunch was a Chinese buffet and it was pretty good value for money at USD 15 dollars (plus tax).

After lunch we ended up in Georgetown. I really enjoy Georgetown as it has a laid back casual air to it. I also like the mix of branded shops, sole traders, and book and music stores. There is a really good Barnes & Noble Bookstore that I was able to spend a couple of hours wandering around. I bought a few books for Will and myself. I am still looking for the gift that the missus wants and I need to find a good craft shop in order to get it.

The day ended after a good French meal, a bus ride, and a taxi ride back to where we are staying. The french food was exceptional and I am going to write a little review of that part later.

The team as usual has passed out or gone straight to bed. The jet lag seems to be still lingering. Hopefully, they will have that under control sometime tomorrow as the competition starts with the orientation session on Sunday and competition proper on Monday.

Something that I am noticing is that the people I am meeting are so much more friendly and approachable than I remember them of the past. Maybe I have forgotten, but the service that I have received over the past couple of days has been excellent. In Barnes & Noble the service went above and beyond, which is a pleasant change from what I have been used to in other parts of the world.

More updates to follow.

Qatar, Doha, and Qatar Airways

I had the pleasure of flying with Qatar Airways all the way from Jakarta to Washington DC. You can probably guess that this is going to be positive in terms of the comments about Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways bills itself as the 5-Star Airline and this is probably apt based solely on my only experience with the airline and this is in spite of a delay in Doha.

The planes are new so this is always a good start as this means that the comfort level is likely to be good. I was not disappointed on this front. Although, more leg room would never go astray.

The service was first rate. The food was 5-star. It really was like eating at a hotel, Parmesan covered chicken breasts with roast pumpkin and beans...awesome. Even more fun was that when the lights went down there was a self-service option. That is, the staff provided hot and cold sandwiches, as well as drinks. You just meandered your way back to the galley and helped yourself to whatever you wanted - very cool.

The flight was long, so it was nice that the service and food was excellent.

I did not get to see any thing much of Qatar and Doha, except what I could see from the terminal and flying in and out of the airport. However, I got to see more of the international terminal in Doha than I wanted to.

For an international airport that is supposedly a hub for those travelling in the Middle East then it still has a fair way to go on that front. There is probably a litany of complaints in this regard that I should keep to myself, but hey, that would not be me.

For an international airport there is next to nothing in the terms of duty free shopping. There is really only one shop and this is hardly duty free. I was looking at buying a real camera (real being something other than point and shoot) however the duty free price in Doha was the equivalent of IDR 3 million more expensive than what I could pay for it at a legitimate electronics shop.

However, such is life on that front. That, though, was not the big thing for me. The toilets / restrooms were of a quality that made the restrooms at Soekarno-Hatta look like a 5-star joint. Each of the toilet facilities at the terminal required one to have Jesus-like skills, particularly the ability to walk on water. And, at least two of the restrooms were under repair. For me this is just crazy for what is supposedly a 5-star airport. Nevertheless, on the positive side the water was hot which meant there was a certain enhanced cleaning possibility if you know what I mean.

The security at the terminal was interesting to say the least. I am all for enhanced security if this means that I am guaranteed of flying safe. As someone transiting through the airport the security was pretty strict. To get of the plane and into the terminal required all of your stuff to be x-rayed, this included taking off your belt. However, this was ramped up on getting into the lounge to reboard the plane. What made this experience even less fun was that the security staff were scary in an agressive way.

Getting into the lounge required not only the belt to come off again, but the shoes, face towels, hankies, laptops, cameras, coins, keys, mobile phones, and the list goes on. This is part and parcel of an increased security presence however getting shoved against a wall and yeleed at not to move while your stuff goes through the x-ray machine is a little disheartening.

So, in short Qatar Airways service and food was excellent! The terminal at Doha was a little less than expected.

An Update on the Big Trip to the US of A...

Dear Readers...

I arrived in the good ol' US of A a little later than I expected, but alive, however I am not one to complain when that is the case.

The big competition starts on Monday. There is an orientation on Sunday.

We are staying courtesy of the Indonesian Embassy in Bethesda, Maryland, which sounds a lot further than it really is from DC and the venue at the Fairmont Hotel. It is a mere bus, metro, and walk.

The team is still suffering a little jet lag and have already crashed out for the evening. So, I am taking this quiet time to catch up on some work and blogging.

More specific detailed posts on the big adventure to follow.

AIG -- An Update

Why am I providing an update on AIG? Good question, and there is a simple answer - crazy.

This is the stupidity of bailing out a company interested in nothing but itself. After much hoopla about the need to pay bonuses in order to retain the best staff and to turn the ailing, perhaps mortally wounded, business around, it seems that at least eleven executives have decided to take the money and run. So much for retaining staff.

The retention bonuses were paid to some 73 individuals, all of whom received at least USD 1 million, for their efforts in presiding over a prosperous business and running it to the brink of collapse. What is really bizarre is that these bonuses were paid from money provided by the government in order to bail the business out of trouble. Simply, the business can not be in that much trouble if it can make these types of payments. Or, if it is in trouble then payments of this kind and magnitude are totally irresponsible and make a mockery of hard working tax payers who are now feeling the pinch because of the bad business decisions of others.

As I said in the previous post on this topic. I wonder if letting this one fall is such a bad idea when the bonuses could have been used to provide golden handshakes to less fortunate employees of the company who are likely to be let go in any restructuring and streamlining of the business model.

Sad, very sad.

Off To The Good Ol' US of A...

I am heading off to the US later tonight for about 12 days. I might try and post while I am away or I might not.

I am heading there with the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot team from Pelita Harapan University. The Jessup is the most prestigious of the international law moot competitions and this also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the competition.

I am looking forward to being in Washington DC and attending the competition. I am not so happy about having to spend time away from the two most important people in my life, the Missus and Will. Work is work, I suppose.

Time to pack some stuff (the stuff being clothes) for the journey ahead.

AIG -- Bonuses for Failure

I am not sure that anything that I do or I am involved with relies on insurance provided by AIG. So, in that sense I could not give the proverbial rat's arse whether the company stays afloat or not. Then again, it employs a whole lot of people who do not deserve to be without an income because of the incompetence of a couple of top level executives.

Yet, when it is all said and done, AIG still wants to pay its top executives and employees bonuses. Let's put this into perspective. AIG is a company that lost USD 60 billion (I think) last year and has since taken USD 170 billion worth of government bailout money, and there is an expectation that they will need another USD 60 billion just to be sure of not going under.

Yes, punters, that is almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.

This is the kicker for me. AIG is now claiming that it has to pay, as it is legally bound and all, to pay a couple of hundred million dollars in bonuses. That is outrageous! One cannot seriously claim the right to a bonus when your company is losing cash by the bucketful and taking taxpayer money by the bucketful.

The government's rationale for continuing to pump money into AIG is that if it was to fail then the repercussions would be worldwide and send myriad of other companies to the brink of insolvency. Maybe, maybe not.

In any event, the best idea I have heard over the last couple of days, at least on face value (I need to do a little research to see how it would work in the real world), comes from Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness fame), who suggested that the government might be better served by giving every single American (registered voter I think he said) USD 1 million instead of bailing out these banks and financial institutions. The individual cash payments would make a much better financial stimulus package than what has been offered up-to-date.

Global crises - seems we can't live with them and we can't live without them!

Gus Dur Supporting Prabowo for President

Speechless!

Well, almost...but good readers I am sure you are already aware that it will take more than this foolhardiness to stump me for words.

This support apparently comes with strings attached. There is a sizable push for Yenny Wahid (aka Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh Rahman Wahid) to be placed on the Prabowo ticket as the Vice President.

For me this support makes Gus Dur (Abdurrahman Wahid) increasingly irrelevant on the Indonesian political stage. I am also surprised that Yenny Wahid is going for this. Yet, in the big scheme of things this foolhardiness is not all that surprising. Gus Dur is a bitter man and still feels that the PKB, which was his political vehicle, was wrenched from his control by traitorous enemies and the complicity of the government. He is likely to do anything to redress this wrong, even supporting Prabowo.

Prabowo Subianto and his political vehicle might indeed have some similarities to Gus Dur and those that support him. However, the reality is that Prabowo's skeletons are real and they are nasty. The man may have been honorably discharged from the army, but there are remaining questions as to whether this was deserved. There are still unanswered questions as to his imvolvement in the Rose Group and his responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearing of activists in 1998.

The interesting thing about Gerindra is that the party has adopted some real socialist ideas in trying to garner support from farmers and blue collar workers under the guise of Pancasila. Pancasila has always been viewed as an avid tool to be trotted out in the fight against communism and socialism. Although, it is easy to argue that the social justice elements of Pancasila in fact lend themselves to a socialist democratic platform. There is certain irony in the support of Prabowo and Gus Dur for these ideals.

In any event, even Gus Dur's support is not going to be enough for Prabowo to be relevant in the coming presidential contest. This is at best a three-way horse race at the front with SBY, Kalla, and Megawati, with SBY being slightly in front as the incumbent. The dark horse will be PKS and whoever it is that they nominate.

Hopefully, after this little charade Prabowo and Wiranto can be prosecuted for their alleged crimes and then fade into history.

Yes, a dream, but without dreams there is no point in living.