IBeNimages & Words

My daily crumbs of interests

There Goes the Positive Sentiment (..and Manchester United)

There goes the bomb... and my favourite team

There goes the bomb... and my favourite team

*Boom*

There goes the positive sentiment of this country. On Friday morning, 17 July 2009, two bombs blasted on J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel in Mega Kuningan, Jakarta.

The coward terrorists did it again. The innocent people died again.

The nation, especially the capital city Jakarta, was left in shock. The stock index is plummeting. The Rupiah is weakening. Travel ban to this country is re-enacted. Our country credit risk will get higher. Many plans are cancelled. Including the coming of my favourite football team, Manchester United, which is scheduled to play against Indonesia football team this coming Monday.

Well, if I don’t feel safe walking around the street of Jakarta right now, how can we expect Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick feel comfortable coming here?

Great job, terrorist. May you rot in hell.

Apa Yang Bisa Kita Pelajari Dari Pemilu Presiden 2009?

Pemilu 2009 logo

Apakah Anda Memilih?

Pemilihan Umum Presiden 2009 baru saja berlalu. Terlepas dari berbagai macam drama, seperti kekisruhan DPT, atau pisah-pilih calon presiden dan wapres, tetap saja Pilpres 2009 berakhir dengan hasil yang banyak diramalkan semua pihak: SBY, the incumbent, memenangkan Pilpres 2009 dalam satu putaran. Memang ini masih berdasarkan quick count, tapi menilik dari pengalaman pada pileg atau pilpres sebelumnya, biasanya hasil penghitungan akhir versi KPU tidak akan berbeda jauh.

Begitu banyak hal menarik yang bisa dikemukakan dari “pesta demokrasi” setiap 5 tahun ini. Berikut beberapa hal yang menarik perhatian saya:

  1. Masih dominannya preferensi pemilih Indonesia pada sosok “figur” teladan. Di tengah-tengah maraknya kampanye Pilpres 2009, saya sempat mengkritisi strategi kampanye SBY yang terlihat “basi” dan “normatif”. Iklan kampanye yang hanya menampilkan sosok SBY sebagai seorang manusia yang “baik, jujur dan memiliki keluarga yang harmonis” saya rasa akan tertinggal dengan kampanya dua capres lain yang terlihat lebih progresif dan lebih berorientasi program. Ambil saja contoh, program JK-Win yang menelurkan program “Pinjaman untuk Pemuda 3-20 juta”,  yang saya rasa konkrit dan menarik (kendati implementasinya bagaimana, saya meragukan). Tapi kenyataannya, JK-Win dalam Pilpres 2009 ini hanya mandapat nomor buncit.Sebetulnya, yang sebetulnya telah dipahami oleh tim sukses SBY adalah masih dominannya preferensi pemilih untuk memilih presidennya berdasarkan persepsi akan figur presiden tersebut. Sahabat saya, yang kebetulan punya root dari desa, mengatakan kepada saya saat saya mengkritisi iklan SBY di atas. Dia mengatakan, “Ben, kalau orang desa itu memang kalau milih pemimpin, pasti milih orang karena ‘ ketoke iki wong apik, jujur’, bukan program-programnya”. Terbukti mungkin hal tersebut benar. Read the rest of this entry »

Cristiano Ronaldo: Thanks for the great years, but we won’t miss you!

Who say we'll miss him?

Who say we'll miss him?

As Manchester United fans, I don’t feel any regret of Manchester United selling Ronaldo to Madrid. He’s been doing a lot to our team, helped us win everything, from League Cup, Barclay Premier League to Champions League (oh, and that World Club Cup Championship as well). We bought him as teenager in fraction of the cost Madrid has to pay for him. So it’s been a very good investment. Buy low, sell high. And profit while in our realms. Any investment banker won’t resist such temptation.

Anyway, his antics and growing disrespect to the team are clear sign that his heart is not in Old Trafford anymore. So why should we keep him? No one is bigger than a club, let alone a historic club like Manchester United.

Thanks Cristiano. Hope you’re doing well. Now, should we welcome Ribery, Benzema and Valencia? Red Devils goes marching on, on and on!!

Cristiano Ronaldo leaves fans to miss the teenager but not the man
Article taken from from football.guardian.co.uk

What we can now say with absolute certainty is that when he walked out on the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico on 27 May, he fully intended it to be the last time the world would see him as a Manchester United player. This might also explain why Cristiano Ronaldo then seemed so intent on creating more of his own ­history, ­shooting from all kinds of unlikely distances and angles. He, more than anyone, had helped his team reach the Champions League final but this was a night when his desire for ­personal glory blurred his mind. “He wanted to make it the ‘Ronaldo final’,” one United employee would later complain.

Read the rest of this entry »

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