Travel SOS: Trapped in Remote Island

Trouble loves me so, so much; and it seems to entail me anywhere I go - some of them can be totally hilarious if you have the right attitude, but knowing objective facts on the practical solutions are always helpful no matter how low your EQ is. Please be aware that some things are written in local perspective and might be different in one place and another.

I always love Flores. I love its scenery, I love the way people smile at me, I love the drunk grandmothers, I love their spirituality, and so on. But traveling in Indonesia, you have to be aware that this is the land of surprise. And now, it's Flores turn to remind me that anything can happen in this land. Yes, I mean, something like THIS.

I stole the image from Daily Mail, by the way. Hint: volcano eruption (SURE!)

It was a long holiday in May 2014, where we had too many national holidays in a row (sometimes Indonesian holidays are completely nonsense) that I only need to take a three days leave from my office to obtain a total 10 days vacation. And I was alone, a lucky soloist with no itinerary and ended up alone in Ende, waiting for my flight back to Kupang for a night transit to Jakarta.

Everything went so smooth, there was a nice carnival at the town and I arrived on time at the airport, checked in, dropped my baggage, and sat nicely waiting for my boarding call.

By then, I already got a message from my friend in Labuan Bajo that they couldn't flew due to a volcano eruption, Mt. Sangeang, an island near Bima, which just happened to erupt that day. But hey, the airport and everyone in there was so chill that I worry nothing will actually happen. I even asked some airport officials whether the flight will be cancelled, and they confidently answered that no, it is on schedule. And there the announcement speaker bring the jinx... It says something like this (of course in polite version)

"Dude, your flight is cancelled due to the volcano eruption. If you dropped your baggage, take it back from the baggage counter. You can clarify what's going on and what's next in our office" and the office further clarified, "Dude, we're screwed. There's no way we can fly today and I have no idea when we can resume. We have two solutions for your tickets, we'll reimburse it completely, including your connecting flights; or, you can stay in our waitlist to keep flying with us, which the fastest is about 4 days from now, and we have no idea what the worst scenario can be"

Okay. So, if it's ever happen to you, DON'T PANIC. Even if you're completely remote and geographically impossible to get out by anything other than plane, don't panic. Even if you have no idea when you can get a seat, don't panic! Here are some tips:

ONE: Find people who are suffering the same fate with you.

Unless you're traveling to super off-the beaten path places, there's a huge possibility that you're not the only one who wants to go home soon. I ended up meet 13 new amazing friends in Flores and I found people are really valuable resources in solving your case. Why are people useful? (1) You're looking for solution of the same problem. In my Flores case, we shared information about available flights, price comparison, possible alternative route, other possible means of transportation, etc; (2) You'll probably stay overnight for an unknown period, means you'll need cheapest (but humane) accommodation; (3) Companion! You'll need cool people to stay with and keep you sane. And usually, random travelers are the best sources!

Here's the gang:

TWO: Don't be in the waitlist.

Being in waitlist during disaster is a BIG bet. It's tricky and risky, and you don't have active control on your own fate. The best you can do is asking the airline about your waitlist progress. DON'T.

THREE: Just take your reimbursement, and know the trick!

Small cities like Ende won't have much ready cash in their office. There's a huge possibility that they will offer you wire transfer - which will come within 2 weeks at maximum (if it's not stuck somewhere). It can be a problem if you don't have money left to buy another ticket. You can try to demand cash reimbursement, but it can be tricky too. Right after the flight cancellation, the small office will be really crowded. By this time, the officer will definitely say that they have limited cash and they will try to reimburse everyone by wire transfer. They even can say that their cash is dried already. Negotiating anything at this point will less likely success. So, you can wait until everyone is done with their business - but don't wait to be the last person! When it's 4-5 people left, check if the officer still actually have cash. If they do (I bet!), you can take your cash reimbursement when everyone else get wire transfer. In my Flores case, I didn't get in the line (not for the reimbursement reason, I had no idea of this by then) and among the last persons to get reimbursed. People who get their reimbursement before me just got envious with the result.

FOUR: Search for another flight (or, another route - if possible)

This is the most difficult part, and totally case by case. I can only suggest: (1) Know the other available airlines in that city and in cities nearby; (2) Know the stuck point of the cancelled airlines and understand the causation (where do your flight comes from? why is it stuck? is there any other routes?); (3) Get updates from another accessible cities (which one have normal air traffic, etc); (4) Survey the alternative airlines! Ask them when is the next available flight, and how many seats left. Take a note of it. Make a comparison.

This process takes a long time - we spent the whole evening just figuring out our situation and surveying the alternatives.

*** Just so you understand the travel complication in my case, I'll give you a map. Flores is quite a remote area in the eastern part of Indonesia, and only three airlines fly to and from Ende (Garuda, Lion / Wings Air, Trans Nusa), and the flight route of each airlines are different. Each airlines basically fly once a day. My airline, Lion, had to fly from Denpasar, Bali (green route); which means passing by the thick dust of Sangeang madness and stop by Labuan Bajo, Ende, and Maumere before departing to Kupang. So when the plane stuck in Bali, there's no way subsequent flights can happen. All flights from Ende had similar problem. So we looked to other big cities, and the closest one is Maumere, three hours away. After surveying some time, we found out that Sriwijaya Air were operating normally because of the route and the flight altitude, so we decided to leave Ende and took our flight from Maumere.

Green line: my cancelled flight route. Yellow line: the 'solution' flight route.

FIVE: Be patient, don't buy your ticket replacement during the 'panic time'

So you got the itinerary that you want, and the only thing that you want to do is securing it. Normal people will possibly book it really quick, and pay it right away. But from my Flores experience, waiting and gambling a bit can give you way cheaper price. I booked and paid my ticket about three hours after the cancellation happened. That was the 'panic time' - the time when everyone book the ticket, but haven't really paid it yet. By that time (about 1-12 hours after the cancellation, presumably), the seats are very competitive, causing the price getting so high. And people actually can book more than one flight, but certainly ended up buying only one. After several hours, the unpaid tickets will be available again - this is the cool down period. Best bet: wake up at 3am in the morning and keep checking. Some seats will magically available, with a much, much lower price! (My friends who didn't get the ticket during the day woke up at three and bought their tickets half price of mine)

SIX: You're set!

Okay, ready for some disaster? :)

 

Tips Membaca Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi

Mungkin buat anak hukum yang kuliah di Indonesia, baca putusan itu sesuatu yang jarang-jarang kadang lah ya. Kalau diwajibkan baca buat keperluan tugas, ya hayok (dengan catatan tugas FH di Indonesia senantiasa terlalu sedikit, apa lagi tugas bacaannya). Kalau nggak diwajibkan, ah kerajinan lo liat-liat putusan!

Namun, sebenarnya skill mencari dan membaca putusan ini merupakan skill yang penting ketika sudah beranjak ke dunia kerja, atau sekedar tambahan pengetahuan deh sebagai jurist. Apalagi, sekarang putusan pengadilan sudah jauh lebih mudah diakses, baik melalui website putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi maupun Mahkamah Agung. Tapi, kalau teman-teman pernah baca putusan MK maupun MA, rata-rata langsung malas dan komplain "Putusannya panjang banget, bok! Ratusan halaman!". Yap, memang! Misalnya, putusan judicial review UU Sumber Daya Air (2005) berjumlah 523 halaman; putusan UU Migas (2003) berjumlah 233 halaman; pengujian hutan adat di UU Kehutanan (2013) 188 halaman. Walaupun spasinya ganda dan hurufnya gede-gede, tetep aja sih bacanya bikin malas.

Nah, sebenarnya, nggak segitunya kok! Asal tahu tips dan triknya, kita bias menghemat waktu untuk mengambil inti sari putusan dan signifikansinya. Untuk kali ini, kita bahas putusan MK dulu ya.

1. Cari tahu garis besar kasusnya lewat berita

Sekalipun putusan sudah di tangan, langsung membaca putusan tanpa tahu garis besarnya bisa membuat kita ribet sendiri. Dari berita, kita bisa memahami: (1) Pihak yang menggugat; (2) Inti dari pasal-pasal yang diujikan; (3) Prioritas pasal-pasal yang diujikan (mana yang dianggap paling signifikan); (4) Kaleidoskop kasusnya (kapan dimasukkan, kapan diputus); (5) Inti putusan hakim. Kalau putusan belum di tangan, berita juga bisa menginformasikan nomor putusan, yang akan sangat berguna dalam pencarian di website MK (jangan kira urusan cari putusan gampang ya buat beginner). Untuk satu UU, bisa jadi pengujiannya lebih dari 1 perkara. Misalnya, pengujian UU Pilkada (UU No. 22/2014 sejauh ini sudah menghasilkan 10 putusan, semuanya diajukan oleh pihak yang berbeda dan menguji pasal yang berbeda-beda. Pastikan putusan yang kita baca memang putusan untuk perkara dimaksud, untuk pengujian pasal yang dimaksud.

2. Pastikan kamu tahu apa yang kamu cari

Fokus! Sebagian besar perkara MK adalah pengujian UU terhadap UUD, jadi langkah pertama, kamu harus tahu persis pasal mana di UUD yang sedang kamu cari tahu tafsirnya. Langkah kedua, langsung saja loncat ke bagian pasal-pasal yang diujikan dan periksalah pasal-pasal mana saja dalam permohonan pengujian tersebut yang relevan dengan tafsir pasal yang sedang kamu cari.

Misalnya, kamu sedang mencari tahu tafsir atas pasal 33 ayat (3) UUD 1945, pastikan kamu tahu pasal-pasal mana saja yang diujikan dan kira-kira relevan dengan batu ujinya. Jadi, nantinya ketika kamu membaca lebih lanjut, hal-hal yang tidak relevan cukup dibaca cepat.

3. Langsung cari bagian 'PERTIMBANGAN HUKUM'

Ini tips yang paling penting. Dari sekian ratus halaman yang ada, sebenarnya substansi putusannya paling hanya 10-20% bagian akhir dari keseluruhan dokumen. Selalu ingat bahwa postur putusan adalah: (1) Para pihak; (2) Duduk perkara (fakta-fakta); (3) Dalil-dalil para pihak (termasuk eksepsi, jawab-menjawab dan pembuktian) dan pada akhirnya (4) Putusan (pertimbangan hakim dan amar putusan).

Pertimbangan hakim hanya akan ditemukan di bagian keempat. Jadi, hal pertama yang sebaiknya dilihat dari putusan justru adalah bagian terakhirnya. Pertama, lihat amar putusan (apa yang diputus). Kedua, baru baca substansi pertimbangan hakim. Ketika membaca substansi pertimbangan hakim, pastikan kembali merujuk pada 'apa yang kamu cari' (Poin 2)

4. Kalau masih punya waktu, baru baca dari awal. Tapi, skimming aja!

Jangan habiskan waktu untuk membaca secara teliti dan bersungguh-sungguh hal yang sebenarnya belum berguna. Memahami konteks itu penting. Tahu apa yang didalilkan penggugat dan tergugat itu keharusan. Tapi, biasanya intisarinya sudah termuat di pertimbangan hukum. Jadi, membaca 80% bagian awal putusan sebenarnya bukan prioritas.

Oke deh, selamat mencoba! Kalau ada sanggahan atau tips yang lebih praktis, silakan loh! :)

Zuckenberg's "Only Eat what I Killed", Animal Rights v. Animal Welfare

Getting too bored with too many Indonesian cases (and too few high-quality opinions from the Court), I decided to browse around and somehow suddenly stumbled with this interesting random article: Mark Zuckerberg's new challenge: Eating only what he kills (and yes, we do mean literally...)

 

Within seconds, I can't hold my brain to relate what he thinks with my recent reading assignment from Animal Law class - four articles, on an ethical and philosophical approach of that movement, which have a really, really important significance in shaping and draw the direction of what can be done through the legal means.

My first impression of Animal Law class has not been good. In the first meeting, a girl in my class suggested veganism as the solution of animal cruelty problems in the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). Put simply, CAFOs are huge, capitalistic corporation version of farms, which mainly supply daily meats for Americans. CAFOs are so well-structured, usually monopolizing all related meat business, including slaughter house and distribution - excluding smaller farms from the preference list of the meat supply chain. Driven by profit, they do whatever most efficient in producing those meats, consequently care almost nothing about how bad they treat the animals. If you type CAFO in Google, you can experience the horrible image yourself - many, way too many animals with way too little space.

To my Indonesian brain, it has nothing to do with veganism. It is a problem of big corporations being too greedy for profit, casting away small farms from the market, and using the consumer demands to legitimize their cruelty action. I had no idea how this girl conclude that telling everyone that they must be vegan because the meats they eat are produced cruelly can possibly be a practical solution - since some comments from vegan fellow just make me feeling totally antipathy to them. Majority of that class, instead of discussing how a legal solution can be achieved for CAFOs, got really distracted with sharing one another how they feel about their vegan life. Another girl even says, "I feel environmental advocates who still eats meats are no more than hypocrite"; and another one says, "While I was younger and more naïve, I feel like everyone would easily stop eating meats when they know this kind of truth, but those stupid, horrible people does not..." Honestly, I can't remember that we reached any conclusion about that.

One important lesson I learn from that discussion: If you want to advocate something and persuade people to be on your side, do not make people hate you at the first sight.

The four articles I mentioned in the beginning of this post came weeks later after that first horrible class. Those articles turns to give explanation for me to understand that veganism as a solution is not a new idea - someone named Francione had proposed it before, and thank God, the girl who mentioned veganism as CAFOs cruelty solution now amend her opinion - strongly oppose Francione's veganism proposal. But, well, I'm trying not to be biased: Francione attacked so many successful legal cases as false conception of victory. Winning legal battle in court, passing a legislation in humane treatment of animals, influencing regulations to increase their standards animal welfare - in his opinion, these were never victories, but merely compromise which draws the ultimate goal of respecting animal's intrinsic rights further. He offered a fascinating (though flawed) and revolutionary theory on how animals should be respected for their own sake - not for human's sake, and how 'unnecessary killings' (including eating their meats) must be abolished. This first approach called abolitionist. And my Professor, with most of the other famous animal organizations, stands in a different approach - a slow and compromise, but have real impact in creating tangible changes. They criticize the abolitionist approach, by using sharp words, saying that it offers no more than revolutionary idea - and while failed to realizing it, more and more animals died of cruel treatment. This approach known as welfarist. The more popular one: sure, the welfarist. And what's the abolitionist doing? Well, there are some non-violent approach which is basically telling people to go vegan; but to the extreme, there even some groups categorized as terrorists - for example, Animal Liberation Front. By the end of that class, we reach the conclusion that most people feel more comfortable in pursuing career with the welfarist school of taught.

By the way, you might be questioning "So why did you mention Zuckenberg? Where are you going?". Well, as a meat eater, it's easy for me to put myself in a position of common people who categorize animal rights / animal welfare advocates outside my normal sphere. One of my objection is that vegan advocates usually put too much objection in killings. Killing is killing and it can't be right - they say. But, hey, isn't killing supposedly be an inseparable part of our nature in survival of the fittest? The mess that we've seen today is not caused by people killing animals - it is because too many people are alienated from that killing process - yet still be able to enjoy the benefit. We put the burden to kill only to very few percentage of people who work in the slaughter houses, which unfortunately usually targeted by animal rights advocacy group, and again, victimized by their action. And it is absolutely true of what Zuckenberg says: we need to fully understand how our meals is actually at cost of other's life by confronting the horror of killing. Both approaches, abolitionist and welfarist, have failed to recognize this fact. Welfarist, demanding 'humane' treatment of slaughter, only drawing people further from the natural process of survival - and strengthen the huge corporations who already dominating the meat market. The more 'humane' treatment it demands (using anesthetic and complicated tools), the less possibility smaller farms can afford it. Abolitionist create nothing more than hatred, it is nothing more than religious extremist for me - forcing other people to belief precisely what they believe as the truth.

In the end, no ideal solution is complete if it is not seen holistically within the context of human-nature relation. The devil is in our economic system and artificial life, and the furthest we can get will always be compromise. So, eat meats! Eat happy and healthy meats.

PS. One day I'll try this Zuckenberg's goal.

Being Fat and Happy? Wait, It Can be Dangerous.

Okay, first thing first, I am not impressed by supermodel's body or biased media conception about beauty. I am against it and to some extreme it is horrible. But following that, I am in a position of seriously thinking how the counter-movement illustrated in this picture, telling big people that they are deserve to be happy despite of their size, contains a dangerous fallacy.

There are some ways to interpret this illustration, and the more positive one says "Stop being so stressed out of the body image! The standard of beauty created by media are so hyper-real and they have used so many wrong perception in our innocent eyes. Don't let yourself obsessed with what media says about beauty or size!"

But it can also be read as saying: "That's the way Whitney! You love ice cream and cakes and all those mass-produced sugary thing and you eat a lot because that's the way you grow up and you have no idea how to eat less and the society (I mean food corporations) does not let you to have any other perception, besides they have turn to be the things that you love! And you love to stay in home, being lazy and watch TV all day and hate workout and that's fine!"

What I'm gonna write is for the second interpretation. I cannot claim myself as neutral in responding this image, since I have no idea how it feels to be obese and how difficult it is to start the habit those healthy people normally do. But I know how it feels to have more fatty flesh compared to your country's girl medium size, despite how much you think you have put diet attempts. But hey, is diet attempts ever necessary if your daily habit is good enough to let your body do its normal, humane mechanism of calories balancing? No. Hell no.

I grow up believing that our living system have been so altered to what our body naturally designed. Some parents spoiled their children with too much sugar: excessive milk, chocolate and candies, many cakes, so much proteins, and much more. When they grow up, a cup of frappucino slipped in their habit, altogether with alcohol and beers and so many unnecessary, but available, dishes you will find in meetings. And hey, there are way too many ways how the market dictating people's behavior to be physically lazier without realizing it. We work on office, no longer using your body as the typical jobs decades ago. We drive or biking in motorcycle, or using public transport, losing our opportunity to move when transporting. And that's the reason why people starts going to gym and put extra efforts to work out - to keep their body demand to release calories reasonable.

And especially in North America, some 'designed eating habits' really scare me. Ice creams are sold in huge baskets with really cheap price. The cheapest foods you can find are fast food or hamburger or processed meats (sausage, nuggets, etc). Mutated vegetables are everywhere, and people's standard over good fruits or vegetables are the huge ones - yes, like the huge, flawless orange pumpkin for Halloween. If I compare to the tropical, naturally grown fruits from Indonesia, despite the fact that those natural fruits taste way more better, it looks much uglier. And that's the way natural things looks like: smaller and not flawless. Same things happen to poultry or meat products. The strict rule of animal slaughter in the US has been so tricky that small-scale farms are hardly exist, because those slaughterhouse prefer huge industries. And Americans rarely understand that those huge meat/poultry producers have manipulated the animals so badly with way too much antibiotics and hormones. What they know, as what's been propagated by the industries, that chickens are huge and small chickens are strange. Even when I taste the eggs and the milk, I don't think they taste like normal eggs or milk - it tastes like it contains too much drugs. And guess what the answer? Food labeling and veganism! Organic foods are labeled and sold in a much higher price, and there are many laws passed for the 'humane treatment of animal'.

Isn't it an irony that what the earth gave has been modified so badly, changing the human perception until they have no idea which ones are natural, and then reintroduced again as a 'solution' but with a much higher price?

Yes, Whitney, that might be one of the answer of your weight problem. And it's the nation's problem, not only yours, but I let you know so you might realize it. You absolutely can choose to be happy with your current lifestyle because the alternative might be a revolution against the whole system. It might be pricey, full of difficult efforts - because the evil has been rooted so deep in your perception of 'culture' which promoted by the market system.

But for other nations who still have choice to reject this kind of system in their home, please do so. I can see these kind of things arise in Jakarta and other big cities in developing nations. Realize this, you need to have some good role in eating habit - definitely not the US. However, I live in Portland, OR, and what they're doing with veganism, strong local market, food carts, other healthy stuffs, and sporty-outdoor habits sounds like a revolution against the system for me - a post-modern society inside the States itself. The result? Oregonians are typically slim.

Overweight is not normal and choosing to be happy without any effort to reduce such abnormality sounds like nothing more than hopelessness and denial. But it's up to you in the end.

Happy Birthday, TNI!

Military crafted its name really badly in Indonesia history. My childhood perception of Indonesian army was no more than a group  of disgusting dumb flirty guys who seemingly pedophile. When my campus finally sent me to Indonesia's remote frontier, I start to understand the hardships and complication within the individual troops locked in their posts. Indonesia, an archipelagic state with more than 13,000 islands, huge internal waters, deadly sea, frontiers off the beaten track, separatism, illicit trade, tough pirates, creative political frauds, indigenous people, and all those stuffs - not an easy beast to tame whether you're in land, water, or air. There are individual story in each of those troops, a humane story, and distrust towards the institution doesn't necessarily means bad individuals. However, military still have a huge task convincing common Indonesian perception towards them, that is a feeling of safety instead of threat.

Overall, we have seen progress throughout these years, and we do hope Indonesian military keep progressing, institutionally and in the name of defense itself. Happy birthday, Tentara Nasional Indonesia!