As a wee lad, I used to watch this TV series "6 million dollar man". Of course, now we have "RM1 million is nothing" woman, Dr. Ng Yen Yen.
After stirring/cooking up a little hoo haa over origin of food,
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/13545-nasi-lemak-ours
she went on and clarify that she never said we should patent the food.
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20090923/tts-ng-food-993ba14.html
Of course she didn't say we should patent the food. I read the Malay Mail article and then Malaysia Insider and there is no mentioning of patents.
http://themalaysianinsider.com.my/index.php/malaysia/38002-truly-malaysian-tourism-minister-wants-to-stake-claim-on-popular-dishes
Registering for the patent will be a joke and enforcing it will be impossible. Just so soon after the MacDonalds and McCurry court case, surely Ng Yen Yen would not have miss out the message from this episode? Food fight without a firm argument to back you up is plainly unnecessary and waste of valuable time and money.
If Ng Yen Yen were to do that, what if MacDonalds patent burgers and start hunting down the Mat Ramli burgers by the road side and ask for royalty?
I suppose, following prevailing tradition and habits, self created crises that waste column inches is helluvaway to get noticed. It is also risk free because there is no need for a solution because, really, there is no problem while the real problems are left unattended.
It is good business for politicians to get noticed (as long as it is planned by the politicians themselves, try and ask another Dr. who was unfortunately got unplanned publicity during his off-duty time).
Just be careful, such craving for publicity and attention can be addictive; just ask another certain Dr. M who might know a thing or 2 about this kinda addiction.
Even certain non-BN celebrities have caught the bug. Good old Hassan instructed cases of custom-regulation-compliant beer to be taken away without warning or notice. Helluvaway to talk to business community and promote their confidence.
My advise to Ng Yen Yen as a voter and a tax payer is that, as a tourism minister, she can gain more mileage by taking on PAS Youth who wants to ban every foreign man, woman and bird to have a concert to Malaysia.
"Who is the heck you guys with wild imaginations approve, eh?" I can imagine her put er high heels down and bearing down on'em "The Singing Burkas?!!" That would put the kill-joys in their places.
This would taint and ridicule Malaysia as a destination for relaxation and fun. People's rice bowl in the entertainment industry will be affected,. Ng Yen Yen can kill 2 birds with 1 stone and yet she choose to pick food fights with Mr and Mrs Kiasu over the origins of unhealthy food items that we food-loving Malaysians never bother anyway. As long as it is affordable and yummy, there is no problem so why go and create 1? (Cia Pah Boh Tai Chi - belly full and too free, izzit?)
Seriously, the kill-joys only have 1 word in their vocabulary and that is "no". The kill joys should try to be constructive and put out a list of who they think can have the sing-along or whatever needs to be done so that they would not be offended. (Frankly, if the kill joys just not turning up would suffice). Their bag daddy also say they are "untuk semua" so why the No No No No, they got Dr No inside, izzit?
I think I should dedicate this article to Drs.......
Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts
Let Malaysians advertise Pendet and wayang
The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
By: Riyadi Suparno
We Indonesians are simply overreacting in our response to Malaysia's use of the Balinese Pendet dance in promotional TV spots. We are acting like a big brother and bullying our younger brother. And such responses will not help us become a better nation.
First, it was a small protest from a group of Balinese people, the rightful owner of the dance, then unfortunately it grew into a nationwide condemnation of Malaysia.
Just read the comments posted at www.thejakartapost.com or many other Internet forums discussing the issue, and you will easily find many condemnations from Indonesians against Malaysia, some even urging the government to ganyang (invade) Malaysia, invoking memories of the time Indonesia was in confrontation with Malaysia.
Unwisely, the government responded in the same way, with the tourism minister summoning the Malaysian embassy's top official and sending a letter of protest to his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur.
But it did not stop there. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono joined the fray, calling on the Malaysian government to deal more carefully with "sensitive" cultural issues between the two countries.
Our responses have really gone too far. Just read this news from Antara: Diponegoro University (Undip), one of Indonesia's leading institutes of higher learning, has stopped admitting Malaysian students for the 2009-2010 academic year in an expression of "nationalism".
"We have done it as a concrete expression of our sense of nationalism," Undip rector Susilo Wibowo said Tuesday as quoted by Antara, after attending a ceremony to mark the induction of new students.
But we don't know the real reasons behind it. It could be because there were no Malaysian students applying to study at the university this academic year, which begins in July.
The point here is that we just overreacted to this issue, or worse, we tried to bully one of our closest neighbors.
Malaysia uses various Asian cultural expressions, especially Chinese and Indian, in its tourism campaign "Malaysia Truly Asia". China and India have never protested Malaysia's use of their cultural heritage in its tourism campaigns.
Why then are we so angry whenever Malaysia uses our cultural heritage, including the Pendet, batik and wayang in their tourism campaigns? In reality, though, Malaysia has never claimed the Pendet as their dance, batik as their craft or wayang as their performance.
These are Indonesian cultural expressions brought to Malaysia by the millions of Indonesians who moved there, mostly as migrant workers.
If it's an issue of rights, we don't have copyrights for most of our cultural products. Much, if not the majority of our cultural heritage, was created by our ancestors for the good of society and mankind.
For instance, many of our best classical Javanese gamelan compositions were written by anonymous composers. They were composed for the kings and the people, and the composers deliberately did not put their names there, much less copyrighted them.
Before Indonesia existed, anyone could play these compositions, even people from outside the Javanese kingdom. Now that Indonesia exists, does it mean nobody outside Indonesia can play and use them in their tourism campaigns, even if they have gamelan groups in their own countries?
Currently, hundreds of gamelan groups exist outside Indonesia. If they wish to promote their groups or if their country wishes to use these gamelan groups to promote tourism, they have every right to use gamelan images in their campaign.
Thus instead of getting angry or sending letter of protests or stopping admitting Malaysian students, we should be more positive and collaborate with the Malaysian government to promote our culture in that country.
When there are more Malaysians dancing the Pendet and playing the gamelan and to Indonesian pop songs, it will only mean more benefits, and not losses, to Indonesia. It will mean more commerce and tourism between the two countries.
Not only that, it would also strengthen cultural ties between the two nations.
Similarly, if Malaysia advertises more Indonesian cultural heritage, it would bring more benefits than losses to us.
Lets say, Malaysia advertises the Pendet, and tourists go there because of the advertisement. There is a great chance these tourists will continue on to Bali to see the Pendet at its source. So it not only saves us precious advertising dollars - which we rarely ever spend anyway - but also brings in dollar from more tourist visits.
So let Malaysians dance our Pendet and play our wayang and advertise them. It will only do good things for us in Indonesia.
By: Riyadi Suparno
We Indonesians are simply overreacting in our response to Malaysia's use of the Balinese Pendet dance in promotional TV spots. We are acting like a big brother and bullying our younger brother. And such responses will not help us become a better nation.
First, it was a small protest from a group of Balinese people, the rightful owner of the dance, then unfortunately it grew into a nationwide condemnation of Malaysia.
Just read the comments posted at www.thejakartapost.com or many other Internet forums discussing the issue, and you will easily find many condemnations from Indonesians against Malaysia, some even urging the government to ganyang (invade) Malaysia, invoking memories of the time Indonesia was in confrontation with Malaysia.
Unwisely, the government responded in the same way, with the tourism minister summoning the Malaysian embassy's top official and sending a letter of protest to his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur.
But it did not stop there. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono joined the fray, calling on the Malaysian government to deal more carefully with "sensitive" cultural issues between the two countries.
Our responses have really gone too far. Just read this news from Antara: Diponegoro University (Undip), one of Indonesia's leading institutes of higher learning, has stopped admitting Malaysian students for the 2009-2010 academic year in an expression of "nationalism".
"We have done it as a concrete expression of our sense of nationalism," Undip rector Susilo Wibowo said Tuesday as quoted by Antara, after attending a ceremony to mark the induction of new students.
But we don't know the real reasons behind it. It could be because there were no Malaysian students applying to study at the university this academic year, which begins in July.
The point here is that we just overreacted to this issue, or worse, we tried to bully one of our closest neighbors.
Malaysia uses various Asian cultural expressions, especially Chinese and Indian, in its tourism campaign "Malaysia Truly Asia". China and India have never protested Malaysia's use of their cultural heritage in its tourism campaigns.
Why then are we so angry whenever Malaysia uses our cultural heritage, including the Pendet, batik and wayang in their tourism campaigns? In reality, though, Malaysia has never claimed the Pendet as their dance, batik as their craft or wayang as their performance.
These are Indonesian cultural expressions brought to Malaysia by the millions of Indonesians who moved there, mostly as migrant workers.
If it's an issue of rights, we don't have copyrights for most of our cultural products. Much, if not the majority of our cultural heritage, was created by our ancestors for the good of society and mankind.
For instance, many of our best classical Javanese gamelan compositions were written by anonymous composers. They were composed for the kings and the people, and the composers deliberately did not put their names there, much less copyrighted them.
Before Indonesia existed, anyone could play these compositions, even people from outside the Javanese kingdom. Now that Indonesia exists, does it mean nobody outside Indonesia can play and use them in their tourism campaigns, even if they have gamelan groups in their own countries?
Currently, hundreds of gamelan groups exist outside Indonesia. If they wish to promote their groups or if their country wishes to use these gamelan groups to promote tourism, they have every right to use gamelan images in their campaign.
Thus instead of getting angry or sending letter of protests or stopping admitting Malaysian students, we should be more positive and collaborate with the Malaysian government to promote our culture in that country.
When there are more Malaysians dancing the Pendet and playing the gamelan and to Indonesian pop songs, it will only mean more benefits, and not losses, to Indonesia. It will mean more commerce and tourism between the two countries.
Not only that, it would also strengthen cultural ties between the two nations.
Similarly, if Malaysia advertises more Indonesian cultural heritage, it would bring more benefits than losses to us.
Lets say, Malaysia advertises the Pendet, and tourists go there because of the advertisement. There is a great chance these tourists will continue on to Bali to see the Pendet at its source. So it not only saves us precious advertising dollars - which we rarely ever spend anyway - but also brings in dollar from more tourist visits.
So let Malaysians dance our Pendet and play our wayang and advertise them. It will only do good things for us in Indonesia.
Dr. Saiful Anwar Hospital
Take a break from the Mohd Saiful and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim case. Read about this hospital in Malang, Indonesia named Dr. Saiful Anwar Hospital.
The price of hiring Indonesian maids
The Star reports today the cost of hiring Indonesian maids may cost more. Association of Foreign Housemaids Agencies (Papa) president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan warned that employers may soon have to fork out up to RM8,000 to hire an Indonesian maid. The monthly salary of maids in the following countries are compared:
Taiwan RM2,400
Hong Kong RM1,700
Singapore RM700-800
Brunei RM700-800
Malaysia RM550
At face value, we may think Malaysia has the lowest maid salaries but did you know in terms of wealth these countries rank high above Malaysia? Check out this article from International Herald Tribune. In 2007, Brunei's (about USD30,058) GDP per capita is 2.33 times higher than Malaysia's (USD12,900) and Hong Kong's (USD37,300) is 2.9 times higher. Singapore (USD31,400) is about 2.4 times higher. With more wealth, comes more spending power, hence we can't compare wages in this manner.
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