How does President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono evaluate his five years in office? His speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, on Sept. 30 is a brief commentary of his own performance.
Anand Krishna , Jakarta | Wed, 10/14/2009 1:34 PM | Opinion
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) is, perhaps, the greatest inventor of all time. The range of his inventions is simply mind-boggling, from the deadly dynamite to the prestigious Nobel Prize. It is not the dynamite, though, but the prestigious prize that has carried his name to this date.
In 1888, a French newspaper erroneously published an obituary of Nobel, citing him as “the merchant of death”. That was a turning point in the life of the man who had turned Bofors, formerly a steel mill, into a major armament manufacturer, still in business to this day.
Atmano Mokshartham Jagat-Hitaya cha. Those in Bali who are still committed to the spiritual values and cultural heritage of their ancestors consider this the quintessence of their belief. Iti Dharma: this is righteousness; this is religion.
When we say “it depends,” we do not normally explain the “what” of it. We do not find it necessary to do so, and people are too busy to bother. So we get away with a blank cheque; we can fill it in ourselves. It depends on whatever; it can even be on our mood.
In Bali, however, the “what” does matter. “It depends” does not stand on its own. “It depends” depends on desha, kala and patra.