Colbert vs Arwana

Ever seen "The Colbert Report" from The Comedy Central (in States)?
Ever seen "Empat Mata" (four eyes) from Trans 7 (in Indonesia)?
Ever wonder to what extent both programs might be related?

In Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert is the host. The program is designed as a news program, where Colbert would invite popular celebrities from various sectors (mostly politics) and read recent current affairs news and spiced them up with metaphors and joke. According to a Wikipedia entry about "The Colbert Report", Colbert was positioned as someone who has good intention, poorly informed and a high-status idiot.

To some extent, it kinda resembles "Empat Mata", where the character of host, Tukul Arwana is a seasoned comedian who got his major career breakthrough with this program. "Empat Mata" is a TV talkshow that invites popular celebrities. They would answer light questions from Arwana, who read the questions from a laptop that feeds real time questions from the producer. The questions are mostly about the guests' regular life as common people. Sometimes, the questions are tied to current affairs. Arwana, the host, is positioned as someone naive, poorly informed and polished as a real cool guy.

"The Colbert Report" was nominated for four Emmy Awards and is undoubtedly one of America's favorite shows. "Empat Mata" is Indonesia's most popular talkshow. Arwana often called himself as "The Actor Who Boosts TV Rating". I don't know whether "Empat Mata" is eyeing any award or being nominated for one.

It's always interesting to see how tired our society is and everything becomes instant and skin deep. Probably the only thing we can do is finding a quick fix to our daily boring routine, ey? Aren't we all?

BTW, if you're curious how TV ratings work, have a look here:
Nielsen Media Research: Inside TV Rating.



Images courtesy of:
http://www.tukularwana.com/
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

raging hormones

Cianjur is the capital of Cianjur District in West Java Province on Java Island (FYI, Indonesia got over 17,000 big and small islands, as well as densely-populated five huge ones). The sky is still blue and cars are not that many. The city caters traders from its surrounding areas, mostly farmers. It's one of the blossoming city around Bandung, the "Parijs van Java", capital of West Java Province. Geographically speaking, Cianjur District lies at the foot of Gede Pangrango Mountain. The district shares a portion of "Puncak" (peak) a mountanious resort area with Bogor District. Numerous villas and various hotels spread like mushrooms in many villages in both districts.

On Sunday, November 20, 2005, at least two FM radio that I tuned into at different time broadcast a story about high school students of Cianjur.

"If you want to expel me, then expel my friends as well." Was quoted from a high school girl who got caught smoking at school. It turned out that this particular girl had too many reprimands from the school and the smoking scene triggered the school to expel her. But.. (there's always a but..) she refused and asked several of her friends to be expelled as well. Further details were sketchy.

However, around 11 students (8 of those were females, if I'm not mistaken. If I am, then sorry) were finally rounded up and expelled instantly because they were allegedly enganged in prostitution. A teacher was involved as a middleman who arrange meetings between the expelled students and their clients.

The radio immediately got calls from listeners who immediately condemned the students, emphasizing the rebuke on the female students. The fingers were constantly pointing at the young women. The following day, TV stations shocked the public with raw footage of the young students "class orgy". Close up shots were aimed at the female students.

In a word, the public were very angry at the female students, but no one said anything about the teacher, who were only being questioned in a local police station.

Immoral behavior of the female students is the cause célèbre.

Why blaming the female students? Why not looking at circumstances that my cause such thing to happen? Why not taking real, practical actions to tackle such issue. Is sex education that scary or taboo?

After thousand of years since the dawn of civilization and humanity, practical solutions or practical ways that may restores morale instead of questioning and condemning the morale itself is only debated instead of actually being done. Something that only lurks in a "state of mind". Despite danger at their 12 o'clock, human beings seem to choose to wait until danger devours their fellows. And the journey of humanity will continue despite blood, war, epidemic and death.

Are human beings naturally compassionate or only to serve certain purposes?

oom pasikom is wearing colors

"Kompas" is Indonesia's "The Washington Post", "The Globe and Mail", "Die Zeit", "Le Monde", "The Sunday Times". It is the biggest newspaper. Today, June 28, 2005, after 40 years of nine columns in a page and black and white logotype, they did a complete redesign of the whole thing.

Royal blue logotype, seven columns in a page, every news section logo type is printed in two colors: bright red for the first letter and royal blue for the rest. Then they dedicate one full page of explanation about the new design. They even gave a special box on "Kompas Architecture" and something similar on FAQ about the change, including a subject on circulation price. The whole 40 pages looks like "Pantone Color Chart" to me. Even "Oom Pasikom"** is wearing color clothes today *winks*

"Kompas redesigned" has bigger fonts and wider spacing. Does it mean that contents are reduced? Does it mean that news quality is decreasing? Does quality is sacrificed over quantity and looks? Only time can tell..

If you read your paper from front to back, you will get a pretty good idea of what "Kompas" is turning into after 40 years of time. If you read your paper from back to front the way I am, you will also get a pretty good idea of how "Kompas" is changing. Arbain Rambey's photograph titled "When the sun rises" caught your sight on the first page of "Kompas redesigned", followed by Daniel Dhakidae's and Ninok Leksono's articles in "Opini" (opinion, a section within the paper). Jakob Oetama's main article is literally on top of everything. But, is Kompas trying to be humble (or secretive or even better: to save space?) by not mentioning all of their newsroom staff members in the "masthead box" that usually occupies page four?

Yes, it's smaller
Yes, it has more color
Yes, space is wider
Yes, it's a lot cooler *winks*

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** for non Indonesian and non "Kompas" readers, "Oom Pasikom" is a cartoon that appears every day in the paper. Usually, it either carefully criticize or launch plain vanilla, harmless comments on Indonesia's current affairs.

Photos courtesy of: Myself.