Arcandra Tahar. Semenjak pencopotan Pak Arcandra sebagai menteri ESDM 15 Agustus kemarin, mungkin banyak yang kepo seperti apa sih sosok dia. Termasuk gue, yang akhir akhir ini baca artikel di media dan tulisan dari grup whatsapp mengenai keputusan pemberhentian Pak Archandra.
Dan apakah benar dual citizenship inilah alasan UTAMA pak Archandra dicopot sebagai menteri ESDM ataukah karena hal lain seperti political battle in elites ?
Yang pertama tama gue kepoin adalah gimana sih sebenernya proses seleksi menteri itu? karena bahasa "kecolongan" di dual citizenship itu gak make sense menurutku untuk seleksi sekelas menteri ya. Ya kalau pun betul salah administrasi, reputasi presiden jadi taruhan. TARUHAN, yup betul. Untuk proses seleksinya kalo Pak Jokowi ini yang saya kutip dari media, itu seleksi menteri tidak menggunakan tes kesehatan namun lebih ke calon yang bebas dari kasus korupsi dengan menggelontorkan nama nama ke KPK dan PPATK sebelumnya. Niatnyasudah bagus, sangat bagus. Tapi bisa berprinsip tanpa massa dan dukungan politik kah? Apalagi yang pegang kuasa punya pos penting itu semua.

Nah banyak yang menarik dari apa yang saya baca mengenai behind the issue atau rumor Arcandra Tahar yang dicopot sebagai menteri ESDM ini. Banyak yang bilang, bukan perkara mudah mengelola negara diantara berbagai kepentingan. Ingatkah waktu kasus SS heboh dengan Freeport?
Sekarang kita lihat juga kalau Presiden pasti punya "supporter" dibalik kebijakan politiknya baik dari kalangan parpol maupun elite. Sekarang apa yang dilakukan Archandra Tahar selama menjabat 20 hari sebagai menteri ESDM? bikin seneng elite dan politik atau bikin gerah mereka ya? semuanya bisa digeser kalau gelagat sudah tidak menguntungkan bukan.

Ada juga pihak yang mengutarakan bahwa Arcandra telah mengunjungi KPK karena beliau ingin ESDM akuntable. Pihak yang kons pun tidak suka, wajar saja ini lebih dari sekedar skala Freeport, ini tentang kartel , pembongkaran mafia kalau benar-benar ESDM mau bersih. Apakah semua pihak suka? NOPE. Inilah celahnya dual citizenship. karena bagaimanaupun memang masalah kewarganegaraan merupakaan hal yang fatal untuk sekelas menteri. You have no option Pak Jokowi, memang pemberhentian ini harus dilakukan. Tapi ini sedikit clearance kalau dual citizenship adalah sebuah akibat bukan sebab dari rangkaian perjalanan Arcandra Tahar. Tetap jadi sosok yang low profile ya pak dimanapun anda berada.


-Vanessa
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcandra_Tahar
http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/berita_indonesia/2016/08/160814_indonesia_archandra_warga_negara
http://www.gatra.com/fokus-berita-1/208788-menteri-esdm-arcandra-tahar-guru-ngaji-yang-pakar-offshore

Sometimes you feel confuse about the type of clothes you should wear to attend wedding event especially for hijabi women, do not you? Now, Do not be worry! Nowadays, kebaya and many other clothes are having good customization. Very trendy, simple and quick to wear ((: Glad we are not living in 1970's ((:
I already had some fabric that i never been used before. I decide that i will make a clothe with black nuance and batik touching. Because i did'nt have BATIK FABRIC i want, so i decide to shopping at BATIK TRUSMI Cirebon near my home, which sell a very complete batik fabric for your formal occasion.

SHOPPING ALL YOUR BATIK NEEDS @ ebatiktrusmi.com/ but of course you never been satisfied. You should come here and do one stop shopping in TRUSMI VILLAGE - CIREBON, the biggest BATIK VILLAGE in Indonesia ((:

Whats other activity you can do here beside shopping batik? Of Course culinary things ((:
haha i am not teaching you to eat more but THAT'S THE FACT. Almost every weekend plered street are full with B plat car (Jakarta's car) and make traffic jam around which i hate as netizen here.
How about the budget? if you are on budget do not be worry, here you can find 25k clothes ($2) until the expensive one (more than $500) for fabric or clothes. What makes different? Hand made batik and the one who made from silk fabric causing the price sensitive.

The top look is given from my mom, she wore it around 10 years ago and because of the size matter she gives to me. Well i like this simple top because it looks formal and quite fancy for me to be mixed with everything. After i found my batik, so I ask my moms friend to do sewing for design i want just two weeks before my cousin held the wedding. I decide to make batik as a skirt and do not forget to make the simple hijab which i have on my stock. i ask the tailor to give the touch in every edge of my hijab. Dont forget to tell the tailor to sew the pashmina for the length 2 m x 0.75 m. And this is the look.




my home work now is finding the right heels to wear. next ((:

But what recipes are you follow in your home? hmm. This is my personal recipe. a very home made fried rice made by vanessa chef ((: (you know who).


 2. Nasi Jamblang (Jamblang Rice)
What is Jamblang? For local tourist in Indonesia, this food already has its heart with EMPAL GENTONG or NASI LENGKO H.BARNO in Cirebon town. A very unique packaging with Jati Leaf give the rice different taste sensation. This one is not my homemade. I bought this as my breakfast before going to work near Krucuk Bridge cirebon. If u come to Indonesia, especially Cirebon. You can pick one of some famous Nasi Jamblang such as Nasi Jamblang Pelabuhan near Cirebon Port, Nasi Jamblang Ibu Nur near Grage Mall, Nasi Jamblang Ibad Otoy at Cipto Street ((:


3. Risol Mayo (Rissoles Mayonnaise) 
Usually, homemade risol made with vegetable and slice of beef inside. But this home made rissole (again made by Chef Vanessa) made with slice of sausage, mayonnaise, egg, and lil sauce. The taste is soooooo PETCAH!!. Haha its not fair rite for praising my self food but the truth is this is one of my lil brother fav meal. He ask me to make this again and again after sausage. Haha

4. Potato and Beef Sausage
No secret recipe needed for making this meal. Don't buy instant potato because its expensive. U can buy a potato from traditional market and still can have the same good taste like when you bought instant potato in supermarket. The tips from me is, after you peeled the potato and slice similar like below picture, try to boil them with hot water for about 3 minutes to make inside potato slice more soft but not until the outside part. Then you can fry it. The way after u bite it, the inside of potato feels like melted ((:



6. Mashed Potato with BBQ Sauce
A very home made potato by me. Nothing special but cook with bismillah to get maximum tasty haha. Just boil the potato and mashed it. Give lil white egg and seasoning. Stir it.Then place it into cooking mold. In the end party with bbq sauce ((:
Again my lil bro praise me, he feel like he eat european food haha i was laughing from what he said.
*Psst after i fry sausage, he didn't focus again with my mashed potato ((:

yes. the answer for the noon activity is take a selfie. Our laoshi who is very kindhearted bring us to the field and play snow together. We did snow war with chinese student before,kind of exhausted because they have more mass than us. Cmiww.

In the winter, the afternoon is very short. You will sleep more and eat more. Finally i get a hype for a perfect body weight in this winter, 49kg's is awesome huh :))

Disclaimer : there is a friend from Laos (Laotian) in the pictures. Find him!

sangat kenyang, gomawo. we had quality chit chat, my nano nano friends.
diluar masih winter, angin malemnya nusuk bgt dingginnya. jgn coba coba ga pake jaket. -15 degrees.

cheers, vanessa

Many people think that the conventional banking and sharia banking have no difference. Some people even muslim also think that concept of sharia is blur because it's still owned by conventional banking and so on. A lot of people arguing and questioning what's the benefit i get if i moved to sharia banking. Expensive? higher rate than conventional? they said YES. So what's strong reason to move? Because pious and orthopraxy only become supporting reason and did not reflect into the spirit of business which is wealth.
Let us calculate cost benefit between the customer(source of fund), creditor(intermediary), and debtor. This is the simple real world comparison to analyze the difference with $10,000 in hand.

So what conventional bank can do with this $10,000? find credit and lend at 5% interest and find other borrower at 10% and then lend to street vendors at 25%. The bank is not particularly concern about what happen in this money other than gets repaid. Conventional bank has no conditional option, so what will happen if the debtor business crash or bankrupt? the unpaid loans and lender woes are in one package, set the domino effect to people at the same time.  And we can't blame the power of compound interest. In fact, the interest do not need the actual cash/money so the original $10,000 can be pumped out until $100,000 artificial money.With the interest, we succeed to turn our $10,000 into much more and gain incredible profit for the bank. Imagine the number of repaid loans by business or world bank loan which reach more than $1 billion loan. How much they should payback by compound interest? We are all desperate by monetizing the debt.


So what sharia banking can do with $10,000. All transactions of Sharia banking always tight only play in actual assets and services (such as buy the machine, invest in business or lease the cars). The essential is, we can't compound the asset and service. The revenue sharing concept/interest on the other hand, allow cash to circulate and grow into the normal of SUM. Sharia banking is all about buying and selling something real with bank as intermediary. Rather than borrowing and lending something fleeting (conventional concept). Sharia reject the concept of time value of money by Adam Smith.

We witnesses the most dramatic financial problem in decades such as sub prime mortgage 2008 which impact to global financial meltdown. What the conventional bank can not do in this condition is that first, the ability to sell money when there is no money. To sell asset before they have underlying asset (asset exist). Allow debt to grow unchecked which make the borrower more desperate.
Interest creates artificial supply and not backed by the real assets which result into the high inflation, heightened volatility (measurement for variation of price of financial instrument over time derived from market price of a market traded derivative), and economic disparity.

As said by Obasanjo (Ex Nigeria President - developing country) in GA Summit Okinawa 2010 :
"All that we had borrowed up to 1985 or 1986 was around $5 billion and we have paid about $16 billion yet we are still being told that we owe $28 billion. That $28 billion came about because of the injustice in the foreign creditor's interest rates. If you ask me what is the worst thing in the world, i will say it is compound interest."
Developing countries start off relatively with small loan but saddled with growing debt for the next generations. Another example is our country (Asian collapse - 1997), Indonesia's foreign debt reach over 60% of its GDP.
Back to Nigeria, How $5 billion become $44 billion ($28 billion +$16 billion) between 1985 to 2000? Is it high interest rate? NOPE, it is only 15.6%. It does not sounds exorbitant, unfair, nor illegal. But in fact, we personally know if the bank charge high risk credit upwards of 30% of interest rates.


So how sharia serves better economic order?
we are business institution which run religion value. Not the religion institution which run the business value. So, gain the profit is a need and common in a business. But there are several aspects we protect in the business practice for the whole parties. Conventional creates capitalism and make the circulation of money serves only for certain people (from affluent to high network people). Sharia want to erase this by establishing win win solution and healthy business practice.

These are 3 values that we reject from the practice of conventional banking business :

1. Maisir (gambling) : Maisir is prohibited by Islamic law on the grounds that the agreement between participants is based on immoral inducement provided by entirely wishful hopes in the participants' minds that they will gain by mere chance, with no consideration for the possibility of loss.

2.Gharar

Al Baqarah 275 explain the content of how harm usury is, pioneer reason to build better economic practice through sharia banking.








By : Vanessa Alexandra
Source : Youtube, Cornell University Journal, Bank of Syariah Mandiri, wikipedia, quran.com.

Udah lama banget ga denger ceramah, dan akhir akhir ini lagi dengerin ceramah lagi.. bukan karena iseng2 nyari atau habit gue cari berita islami. bukan. tapi karena Allah tempatkan aku di lingkungan yang baik. Alhamdulillah.

Jujur sebelum di lingkungan ini, obsesi karir itu di FMCG, dan memang dinyatakan lolos utk jadi MT disana. Udah usaha ngewujudinnya, tp takdir berkata lain. Mungkin karena doaku dulu, kalo aku ingin bekerja dengan beribadah. Dan Allah bener2 tunjukin jalannya di persimpangan keputusan hidupku kemarin ketika memilih kerja. Benar2 hal tersulit untuk mengikhlaskan ambisi yang udah di depan mata dan bahkan udah dipegang di tangan sendiri, seriously.

Butuh beberapa hari buat ngembaliin semangat dan mengganti cita2 yang udah pernah tertulis. Butuh perenungan yang amat dahsyat, biar bagaimana caranya hamba yang tak berdaya ini ikhlas tanpa meremehkan Tuhannya. Karena aku bukan malaikat, jadi sikap negatif itu selalu ada dalam setiap ketidak ikhlasan hidup atas ketentuan yang ditetapkanNya. PRnya ialah seberapa cepat hamba ini kembali bersyukur, bukan hanya menggerutu.

Bukan hanya masalah karir, ternyata. Perenungan ini pun berlanjut pada masalah hati. Bukannya mau dianggap sok suci, tapi emang gue ga bisa nampik kalo ada hal yang benar. Tapi yang gue takutin itu satu, kalo gue gak istiqamah. Ya istiqamah. Satu kata yang pernah diucapin slh satu temen pas pertama kali pake kerudung, dan begonya gue gak tau kata ini maknanya apa saat itu. Maklum bukan anak pesantren, pencarian ilmu agama hambaMu ini cuma sekadar di sekolah negeri.

Gegara ustadz sipit twitter yang kritisnya minta ampun.. gue penasaran gugling doi di youtube. Ga ada angin ga ada hujan tuh, yang tadinya mau tidur pas balik outbond malah merenung dengerin tausiahnya sampe jam 2 pagi. Ketagihan dan ngena banget. Ada keputusan besar dibalik momen ini. Saya merasa jadi manusia lebih baik di 31 Januari 2015 karena menerima satu kebenaran lagi, yang dulu saya fikir gak sanggup untuk ngelaksanainnya. Semoga seterusnya.

PS : ustadz ini juga pernah jelasin bidang astronomi dalam salah satu ceramahnya. Astronomi itu bener2 cool buat nambah suatu keimanan. Dijelaskan bagaimana tak berdayanya manusia di alam semesta ini, milyaran bintang yang lbh besar dari matahari dan planet yang tidak pernah bertabrakan satu sama lain, menunjukkan adanya Dzat yang maha mengatur segalanya. Berdasarkan computational scientific by Roger Penrose ahli matematika UK, dia pernah melakukan research seberapa besar probability bahwa tuhan itu tidak ada/ seberapa besar alam semesta ini terbentuk secara kebetulan ialah 1/10 pangkat 10 pangkat 123 (10 to the power of 123 to 1) which is unlimited NOL, more than impossible if God does not exist. Subhanallah.