Politicians are politicians, wherever they are

Bad, or naughty, politicians to be specific.

Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, recently resigned from his post, having pleaded guilty to felony charges last Thursday in a sex scandal.

Why Kwame? Well, I happened to witness his campaign for his first term in 2001. He was the young candidate (31 years old at that time), campaigning against the old opponent (Gill Hill was 70 at that time). He was hip-hop, energetic, and had this 'young' aura - at least in his TV campaign ads - if I remember correctly.

He was exciting.

However, apparently his two terms in the office was full of controversies. Similar to some politicians in this part of the world, but handled differently.

While he must have done some good things for Detroit, but the information in Wikipedia lists mostly his controversies.

A wild party involving strippers at the official residence of mayor.

The murder of one of those exotic dancers.

Personal use of Detroit Police's Harley-Davidson.

Expensive lease of a luxury SUV (by the city) used for his family.

Use of a Civic Fund (created to improve the city of Detroit) for week-long California vacation with his wife, three sons, and babysitter.

And the latest, a sex scandal with his chief of staff, having previously denied the wrongdoing under oath.

The chief of staff, by the way, once was pulled over for speeding. She reacted by saying "Do you know who the f*** I am?" to the traffic officers. She called the Police Chief and the cops were called off.

These sound kind of familiar, doesn't it?

So I'd say, bad politicians are the same everywhere.

The difference is the way they are handled. Of course, some would get away. But in this region, most will get away. Worse, some are well-guarded and keep their positions for long.

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Living dangerously

No, not the movie/novel (The Year of) Living Dangerously.

It's blogging.
Particularly, blogging against the government.

In Malaysia, you can be jailed and charged. Your home may be raided, and your website can be blocked. Defamation is the keyword.

In Russia, you're dead.

So Malaysians can consider themselves lucky.

P.S. Malaysia Today is now blocked, and has moved to another address.

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Students, MBA, cheating, culture, and disciplinary actions

In the past week, the keyword "Duke MBA cheating" suddenly topped the search coming into this site.

No wonder. On April 26, Fuqua’s Judicial Board, following the procedures set forth in the Honor Code, found 34 members of our first-year class guilty of cheating on a take-home final examination. These students will receive disciplinary actions ranging from expulsion to failing grades.

This incident definitely doesn't help the case of MBA students being the ones who mostly to cheat, a survey found out last November.

A survey of 5,331 students at 32 graduate schools in the United States and Canada found an "alarming" amount of cheating across disciplines, but more among the nation's future business leaders. The study found 56 percent of MBA students acknowledged cheating, compared with 54 percent in engineering, 48 percent in education and 45 percent in law school. The study asked about 13 different types of cheating, ranging from copying a classmate's test answers to lifting sentences from the Internet without attribution.

I agree with the school's decision - to take disciplinary actions and to make it a big deal out of the Honor Code. Cheating is cheating. Incoming students signed the Honor Code. Instructions are typically clear on what students can and can't do during exams or assignments - at least from my experience.

Although I don't have strong opinion on the actions taken, these actions show how serious Duke in not tolerating cheating. I think it's particularly good to incoming students, prospective applicants, and recruiting companies.

Duke has also been continuously informing the 2007 incoming students as well as alumni. The Fuqua Dean confirmed that the students involved were from multiple countries on four different continents.

With no intentions to stereotype, I'm not that surprised international students were involved. I feel that there are many "common" practices, at least in Indonesia, that would've been considered cheating in the U.S. For instance, copying others' assignments. Other practices, like cheating in the in-class exam, also exist (or existed in the 90's).

Two most common cheating practices in this region are probably corruption and bribery. Like copying assignments, they perhaps are more common rather than exceptions. It's like, it's not smart to not corrupt if you get to certain positions. That's THE reason people want to get there. That's probably one of the reasons why people are interested in getting into politics or working for the government.

It will be another long discussion on how to eliminate corruption and bribery. But one thing we can do is to do what Duke did. Consistently and correctly take disciplinary actions to the cheaters.

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Gun ownership - reduce or increase incidents?

I was wondering how effective the gun policy is in the U.S. or other countries that legalize gun ownership. I think it contributed to the recent Virginia Tech incident.

The policy of legal gun ownership and control has perhaps been debated since the birth of the gun itself.

There are two arguments - for and against legal gun ownership. One argues that we need guns to protect ourselves against criminals, or that gun ownership is part of constitutional rights. One can also argue that if guns are banned, we need not to worry about having guns.

One argument for legal gun ownership is that it saves lives. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what statistics tell, says National Center of Policy Analysis, a U.S. non-profit organization.

I think the statistics showcase more on the illegal ownership of guns. How many incidents have been related to legally-owned weapons? Not as many as the illegal ones, I presume. Those that are well-known include Columbine until the recent Virginia Tech incidents. And another incident yesterday at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

How about in countries where gun ownership is not (publicly?) legal? Like in Indonesia with Tommy Suharto and Adiguna Sutowo, for example. Or like in Malaysia with the murder of a Mongolian model. All three involved guns and related to elite or politicians.

It's logical to assume that these shooting incidents will increase if gun ownership is legalized.

With the speed the world is going today, there will be stressed people and lunatics out there. A lot of them. Don't equip them with guns. Gun ownership should be made illegal.

Update:
- Mass shootings more common since 1960s.
- Ria Wibisono has concern over similar bullying practice (and racism) in Indonesia, which she expressed on Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

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Another blunder - more to come?

After 'not-so-well-thought-out' comment from Malaysian Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan about bloggers, another official made another 'blog-unfriendly' comment.

If officials in a country that's relatively well-developed in the IT infrastructure like Malaysia still make this kind of comments, what about officials from other countries?

I hope the Indonesian officials learned from their neighbor's blunders. Learned not to talk trash and also learned about what is up in the 21st century.

But the indication is not that good.

Here's an email I got a few days back, claimed to be based on real interview with DPRD (House of Representatives) of East Kalimantan.

===========

LAPORAN PANDANGAN MATA DARI DPRD

Pertanyaan REPORTER: Bapak sebagai anggota DPRD, apa sudah punya e-mail?
Jawaban Anggota DPRD: Apa itu e-mail? Saya belum punya e-mail
karena masih kurang paham teknologi macam itu. Keinginan punya ada,
cuma untuk mengoperasikannya saja saya mesti tanya sana sini. Di
lingkungan Dewan ini sebenarnya sudah ada, tapi sampai sekarang tidak
dioperasikan karena tidak ada yang menggunakan.

Pertanyaan REPORTER: Bapak sebagai anggota DPRD, apa sudah punya e-mail?
Jawaban Anggota DPRD: Sekarang ini belum punya, sebab saya tidak
ingin punya nafsu besar untuk memilikinya namun tidak ada waktu untuk
melihatnya.

Pertanyaan REPORTER: Bapak sebagai anggota DPRD, apa sudah punya e-mail?
Jawaban Anggota DPRD: Saya masih pikir-pikir, karena tidak bisa
dibawa pulang, jadi kurang efektif bagi saya yang terus kerja keras, baik
di gedung Dewan maupun di rumah

Pertanyaan REPORTER: Bapak sebagai anggota DPRD, apa sudah punya e-mail?
Jawaban Anggota DPRD: Sudah, saya waktu itu sudah pernah punya.
Tetapi karena kurang efektif, sekarang sudah saya jual...

Pertanyaan REPORTER: Bapak sebagai anggota DPRD, apa sudah punya e-mail?
Jawaban Anggota DPRD: "Secara pribadi saya belum memilikinya.
Bukannya saya tidak mampu untuk membelinya, namun saya masih cinta
produk dalam negeri. Buat apa kita membanggakan produk luar, kalau
hanya untuk gagah-gahan. Lihat saja nih HP (handphone) saya, masih
model lama kan?"

Jangan dikira ini reportase fiktif lho! Benar-benar merupakan jawaban
anggota-anggota DPRD, ketika reporter kami melakukan semacam
survey di suatu DPRD-Kota di Kalimantan Timur.
Nama kotanya dan nama-nama masing-masing anggota DPRD yang
menjawab sebagai di atas, ada pada Redaksi suatu surat khabar...

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Mile-high scandal: increase the risk of air accident?

Another air incident, another sea accident in Indonesia.

We all might have heard that the probability of airplane accident, or crash, is much lower than the probability of (fatal) car accident. Steven Johnson's the Risk summarizes a study on this topic:

"...it would seem to be reasonable for those in charge of our safety to inform the public about how many airliners would have to crash before flying becomes as dangerous as driving the same distance in an automobile. It turns out that someone has made that calculation: University of Michigan transportation researchers Michael Sivak and Michael Flannagan, in an article last year in American Scientist, wrote that they determined there would have to be one set of September 11 crashes a month for the risks to balance out. More generally, they calculate that an American’s chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is about one in 13 million (even taking the September 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America’s safest roads — rural interstate highways — one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles."

What if one drives in China? It might take only a short 2 miles to equal the risk! What if one flies one of the old aircrafts in Indonesia?

Regardless, is it really that low - one in 13 million? Statistically, perhaps. But for future forecast one must put the intelligence into it.

For example, if we will do some promotions three months from now, we gotta put in our best estimate of sales on that month, and not let statistical history figures forecast the sales. Especially if there hasn't been any regular promotion in that particular month in the past.

Through a friend who was visiting from Jakarta, I met these two Indonesian pilots of MAS and Lion Air (they were in the same company, Adam Air, if I'm not mistaken, before they parted their own way). It was around September 2006. Since these pilots haven't met each other for some time, they shared stories.

Apart from how the airlines industry has changed so much, their conversation was pretty much about flight attendants. Who slept with who. Who got this girl first. Who filmed who in what occasion. One even could persuade a flight attendant to sleep with him despite an approach from an Indonesian celebrity. And so on...

I've heard about this. But I've never heard directly from the one who did it. It was kinda fun at the beginning, but more of sick toward the end. With all my respect - what is wrong with the world?

A more recent one: "British actor caught in sky-high sex scandal." It was Ralph Fiennes in a flight on January 24, with a Qantas flight attendant who said:

"While conversing with Mr Fiennes during my break, I expressed a need to go to the toilet. I went to the nearby toilet and entered it, he followed me and entered the same toilet. I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave. Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and, after a short period of time, I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did."

We can go into more detail... but I'd stop right here :)

It seems that when we fly, we are surrounded by more people who do adultery: some of the cabin crew and our fellow passengers, for relatively longer time.

Back to the intelligent forecasting. If we assume adultery is sinful and God will punish those who practice it, then won't it increase the chance of an airplane gets punished? If one can quantify the probability of getting punished because of sins, or being in the same place when the punishment happens, perhaps the one-in-13-million figure should be calibrated...

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