indi + rani = noe | kei

Singapore's Victoria Hall 2003: Our band KARIB Gembira did a cover of "Moliendo Café" and "Kopi Dangdut" sung in acoustic version:

-Sax: Kirana Asih Widayanti
-Vocal: Askar Hilman
-Piano: Rani
-Trumpet + Conga: Indi Soemardjan
-Percussion: Budiman

*Check out our mariachi-style brass at 2:01

Want more clips?

Hosted by news anchor Teymoor Nabili, "Al Jazeera 101 East: A Legacy of A Dictator" was indeed a thought provoking episode.

It started with a brief flashback of what Suharto had done to Indonesia (and its people) since 1965 and was followed by conversations among Mugiyanto, Wimar Witoelar and Emil Salim.

Wimar, as always, spoke from his heart while Emil was all over the place, unable to defend his points clearly. Mugiyanto was very consistent as well in his views.

You can watch the episode using the following links:

PART 1 :

Over the years, Rani and I have asked these questions many times:

-Why is corruption so rampant in Indonesia?
-Why is it that Indonesia does it much "better" than most other Asia Pacific countries when it comes to corrupt practices? See Indonesia Matters' story on Corruption Index.

It's not until recently that we both started thinking of these fundamental yet intriguing questions:

-Do majority of Indonesians know what the word "corruption" means?
-What sort of activities/practices are considered "corrupt"?
-Do you think the government officials really know which types of activities are considered corrupt?

No, I am not talking about mobile phone services. I am talking about this organization called XL Results Foundation that claims to be successful in creating wealth for Asians. I heard about it from a Malaysian friend that is about to get recruited in Singapore to join them. My curiosity came out so soon and here is what I found out about them:

- Letter of complaint and petition: complaint against Roger Hamilton & Dave Rogers of XL Results Foundation Pte Ltd, www.resultsfoundation.com (a private limited company registered in Singapore Company registration: 200107729C)

noe & i arrived safely in boston after 26 hrs of grueling sardine-like flight, not to mention our luggage got lost in chicago and we had to wait 2hrs in logan until it arrived. also, the subway stations are not really stroller & suitcase friendly, but luckily people are really helpful.

To mark the end of 2005, allow us to present Noe's beautiful eyes of 2005

Noe took his first step! Yes, like, walking step. Without holding onto anything. I (Rani) saw it myself. It was in the bedroom. He was standing in the middle of the bedroom. First, he stood up from sitting position, without holding onto anything. The next thing he lifted his left foot, take a small step forward.... he kept standing up very very briefly afterwards before falling into sitting position again. Well, it was a first step indeed, although it was not a complete walk yet.

My article on Austria on a Shoestring was published by Cita Cinta Magazine in Indonesia. Yay! I hope they'd pay me. Now i'm motivated to write more... wish me luck!

You can read the article here which is actually a summary of my travelog published in my last year's blog.

'tis the season to share our joy to others!

We'd like to share with you something that might be useful for you. Allow us to present... A ringtone for your cellphone made from Noe's lovely baby laughter! Download here in WAV format (355kb) or MP3 format (165kb).

We're in the process of migrating to the new blog engine, which hopefully can be launched by new year. Beta version is actually available, but it's still barren .. email or PM me if you wanna test the beta or help out.. thanks. Some december entries will be available in that location too.