Problems in Kuala Lumpur

Although Kuala Lumpur is one of the major cities in Southeast Asia, it has several problems to be solved. There are 2 main problems in Kuala Lumpur; the first is the number of the vehicles. Cars is everywhere in Kuala Lumpur, just like Motorcycle in Indonesia. And obviously it causes traffic jam. If I drive a car during the rush hour, I just simply get stuck. The government had tried to decrease the traffic jam. In average, there will always be new road every month in KL. In the same time, the number of vehicle is also increase. So it’s just the same like before. Public transportation as the alternative is just quite good. The punctuality of the commuter train is sometimes very bad, a lot of technical problems, and of course a lot of commuter during the rush hour.

The second problem is the vacant area. It is hard to find the vacant area in KL, that’s why most of the government office moves to Putra Jaya and there are a lot apartment and condominium in KL because there isn’t any area to build a terrace house. And according to demand law, the price of an area in KL is very expensive.

Integrating ICT on those 2 problems might decrease the problem in Kuala Lumpur. For the first problem, beside the road expansion and routine maintenance for the Commuter train, CCTV and computerized traffic management system should be also established. And for the area problem, the area on the suburb should be used effectively and manage through a city management system where provides the whole information about the area on the city. So the used of the area will be effective.

Body Language

Body language is an unspoken communication. In a simple way, it involves hand gestures, facial expression, and also eye contact. Next, we’ll discuss about them in Indonesian case, because each country has their own way in giving meaning to a body language.

Same with others, Indonesian people also use their body language in communicate each others. The first one is hand gestures. Hand gestures are a form of body language that can be used to non-verbally communicate with others. If you are in a setting where hearing is difficult, hand gestures are one of the only ways to communicate with others. If you are speaking to someone who doesn’t understand your language and you don’t understand theirs, hand gestures and body language will be the only way to help convey your feeling. The most famou example of hand gestures is in thumbs case. Thumbs-up is a sign of positivity, a signal that everything is okay, while thumbs-down signals disapproval or rejection.

The second one is about facial expression. It would be easy for you to predict what exactly people feel at that time by looking to their face (such us lips, eyebrows ,ext ) . For example, when people sad, their eyebrows and their lips would be so un great to see , it’s contrast with the condition if they feel happy, their lips would be so nice, even their teeth, because they will smile widely and even show up their teeth .

Next, the last thing is about eye contact. Indonesian people usually do this when they want to express their feeling. For example, if they feel bored when they are listening to someone who is having a conversation with them, their eye contact can show it, people will know whether you’re bored or not by looking to your eyes. Some people also use eye contact to know whether it’s a true or not, because when people lie about something, their mouth can say a lie, but their eyes cannot. Therefore, some people usually use black glasses when they want to hide something from others.

In conclusion, defining a body language is not an easy way if you meet someone from other countries, because all the things that I’ve mentioned before would be a wrong article if western people read this, their way would be so different with Indonesian.

Kania Novita Wulandari

Body Language in Indonesia

Body language has an important role in communication. It is the way in which our body reflects our mood and so on. In Indonesia itself, there are many body languages that commonly used.

First, Indonesian people mostly use a handsake to greet or give a congratulation to other people. And after shaking hand, many Indonesians place their hands on their heart. Second, Many Indonesians usually put Mr, Miss, Mrs or Madam before start to call his/her name. A man is addressed as Bapak (sir or Mr) and a woman is addressed as Ibu. And to the most senior person, usually addressed as Kakak.

Third, Indonesian people usually using two hands or the right hand when they give or accept something, for eating , greeting and etc. And the last example is, Indonesian people usually do not allow other’s voice to get loud, whether in anger or joy, Because it means an impolite attitude and it could bother other people.

In conclusion, Body language has different meaning based on the countries and the cultures. So, if you want to go to one country, you should know first what kind of body language which commonly used there.

Problems in Bogor

Nowadays, Bogor is facing some crucial and complex problems. Those are transportation, cleanness, poverty, and also PKL (Trader who do their activities along the side street) .

The first problem, transportation, is the hardest task for government to solve. If you come to Bogor, you’ll find a lot of traffic jam, especially at busy hour. This problem not only caused by the citizens who bring their own car as their own “prestigious” transportation, but it also caused by public transportation which has a big number of amount. Imagine, there are more than 3.000 public transportation that called “angkot” in Bogor. Those 3.000 angkot compete each others to get passengers, they can wait for the passengers until a half hour, and made a long traffic, because they stop everywhere they want and wait for their passengers until the car full filled. What make the government feel hard in solving this problem is, how can they reduce the amount of public transportation if reducing way would make a lot of driver lose their job. Government have to think what compensation would be given to them.

The second problem, cleanness, is the most important problem that being talk by everyone in this city. If we compare the condition of this city at nowadays with its condition at ten years ago, you’ll not believe that it’s Bogor, it’s so different. Nowadays, the condition of this city is so dirty , many people don’t care anymore about the cleanness, it seems that they haven’t got any awareness of their environment, only a little bit of people who still aware with this problem, most of them can only talk without act.

Now, move to the third problem, poverty. Almost all cities facing this problem, but what make Bogor different from others is, those people who are poor, is already touched by the government , only a little bit of them who are still in untouchable condition.

The last problem,PKL. It’s hard to solve by the government because the government still can’t give compensation to them, if the government force them to close theirs without any compensation, it would be same as adding a number of poverty. Those are some problems that being homework for government and also the citizens in Bogor, hopefully those problems can be solved as soon as possible.

created by : Kania Novita Wulandari

Body Language

Body language is the way to communicate with others without say any single words. It is kind of non-verbal communication which is consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact. There are some differences of body language, different place has different body language, based on the culture.
Here are 3 examples of body language used in Indonesia:
1. Indonesian people usually raise their thumb up to express something good an down to express something bad.
2. Indonesian usually make an 'o' with their thumb and forefinger to agreeing something.
3. When Indonesian promises something, they usually make a 'v' with their forefinger and middle finger. But that 'v' can also means 'peace'.
Beside that 3 body languages, there are many others body languages used in Indonesia.

The Problems In Big City

My hometown, Bandung is a big city with some social problems. But in this opportunity i will explain just 3 biggest problems of many social problems in Bandung.
The first and the biggest Bandung's problem is population. Actually, Bandung has only capacity for 500.000 citizen, but nowadays Bandung's citizen is becoming out of capacity, 2,3 million people. That number is predicted to still grow and grow, and there is a prediction that in 2025 the citizen of Bandung will be about 10 million people. Can you imagine how dense Bandung will be?
The second is unemployment problem. With too many people in too small place, the job opportunity in Bandung is becoming very low. Job is very difficult to find, even for the scholar, especially for uneducated people. This problem increase the number of unemployed people in Bandung, and consequently, the beggar in street is becoming increas too.
The third problem is traffic jam. With a population that has exceeded capacity, of course Bandung is becoming more and more densely. And consequently, the streets in Bandung is always been full of traffic jams. Beside, Bandung as the city of fashion and capital city of west java was always visited by travelers from many others city, especially in weekend and holiday. The public transportation is also the cause of traffic jams, because almost all of angkot's drivers is driving carelessly.
So, the conclusion is the most important social problem in Bandung is population. And that problem is creating another problem in another aspect. I hope the government can fix this problem.

City of Traffic

"Wow! What a traffic!" is probably the words that will come at first, when we see the traffic condition in Bandung. As a part of big cities in Indonesia, especially for Province Capital City, Bandung has a serious traffic problem. For the past 2 years, the condition of traffic here had lead to three major causes, those problems are should be more concerned by the local government.

The first problem we could easily found is, Angkot, a means of transportation that in form of city car. Angkot, as another people mentioned as "City's biggest traffic problem maker" has playing a big role in making the traffic jam in the city, by attempting to pick up passengers at unofficial and unapropriate places. In some cases, angkot will instantly stop at first when they meet a passenger nearby. For such people who in hurry, this will be good so that they can quickly taken to the destination, but how about the others? Common result of this action is a jam. When people are in rush, imagine the effect when this is happend, people will try to slowing down and evade from the line. If you think that it happens only for particular Angkot, maybe you should think twice regarding the number of Angkot in Bandung, it is so enormous, and most of them are doing the same. While bigger number of angkot available is good to provide transportation, such behaviour would make it a big problem.

How about the road?

Now we come to the second important thing, the road. As we can see, people are likely to use their own vehicle rather than public transportation, and because of this, the road is full of cars everyday. While the number of cars is increasing every years, the development of the roadway doesn't has the same trend. The roads in Bandung today is as it was in the past 10 years. This is because the city was designed as a medium-cozy city, with medium road size. When i was in Bandung in 2005, the road was still fit and cars were easily moved. One of the big road called Cihampelas, where there are many clothing store and souvenirs shop, is still available for two directions. 

But when i come back now in 2010, traffic jam is a common view everyday, and the Cihampelas road is now like a small street, even it is for one-way road. If i'm not mistaken, the last roadway development project is the Pasopati Flyover bridge. It was initiated since 2003 as part of inter-city Tol highway project, and finished in 2005. Perhaps it would be one of the solution to the traffic problems, but it seems not giving much help.

The next is, Traffic Lights. Traffic Lights are almost broken and need to be maintenanced. But, as long as i can see, they are not really being carried out a lot. Many broken traffic lights can be found along the main road such as Jl.PH H Mustofa, Jl.Surapati, Jl.Ir. Hj. Djuanda - Dago; Jl. Cipaganti - Dr. Setiabudhi; Jl. Jend. Ahmad Yani; and even Jl.Ibrahim Adjie which connecting Bandung and the sub-city, Kiaracondong. Most of the problems are dead lamps, wrong colors--because of broken electrical circuit inside, and one interesting incident is that there are two traffic lights controlling two opposite directions having the same green light at a time, and each directions are allowed to turn right; so that vehicle from the front direction could be crashed as the vehicles from the other direction wants to turn right.

All of those problems are still happend today, for some reasons, i think maybe the government want to be focus on tourism first, because Bandung is well-known as beautiful city and even called "Paris van Java" where we got everything in Bandung. But, if the city doesn't have a good traffic management, and the road is not supporting enough, soon or later we will find this city as crowd as Jakarta, which had an extremely serious traffic problem compared to nearby cities.

Government should take quick response to this, so we can still have Bandung as Paris Van Java, beautiful, emerging creative city forever.

Iqbal Fathony Ramadhan [110420015]

The Important Social Problems

In my small town, Purworejo has a problem like other district. The most important social problem are waste, poverty, and street vendor. Generally, it caused by standard or quality of human resources are low. And they are less able to take advantage of opportunities. Those problems are interconnected.
Most of rural communities work in rice field. Commonly their education only finish until elementary school or junior high school. As we know, global warming make extreem weather. So, they can’t make prediction when they must start to cultivate their rice field. Because they need rainy season. Because of that, they are involved in detriment and try to look for another activity to care of their family. For example, they try to be a street vendor.
Street vendors were existing also have low awareness in sanitary beside they abuse should function as a place sidewalks for pedestrian. They just throw their waste any place. They didn’t think that waste also can give us profit. If street vendors have awareness to separated organic and anorganic waste then they can recycling it, they will get more profit. Commonly we called it waste recycling.
Waste problem can be solved by waste recycling. Especialy plasctic garbages which have potential as a raw material and it can be changed to other usefull things. Waste recycling can involve many people. It can help unemployment to get job and decrease the poverty. Unfortunately, absence of government policy to involve the public as consumers to participate in the waste recycling. Disposal of mixed waste, such as prevailing in Indonesia at this time may damage and reduce the value of the material that may still be used again. Change is necessary and is good change begins from ourselves because waste recycling cannot be separated from society’s lifestyle. Imagine if we all did this, certainly will cause a big impact. Therefore invite relatives and friends near you to actively participate in environmental protection.

by: dahat noor hutami