Friday, 12 January 2007 @ 4:20pm.
Quotes of the Day:
“Scientific knowledge brought into being ever more wonders. The legends of my ancestors were shamed into silence. No longer did one have to meditate for years to be able to speak with someone across the sea. Some Germans had stretched a sea-cable from England to India! And wires of this sort were proliferating from here to there all across the face of the earth. Now the whole world could observe the actions of a single person. And one could watch the activity of the whole world.” — Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian Writer, b. 1925 (from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/top/nationality/indonesian/)
Proverb: “Masuk kandang kambing mengembik, masuk kandang ayam berkokok.” (“If you enter a goat stable, bleat; if you enter a chicken coop, crow.”)
Did you know…
…that Indonesia is part of the “Ring of Fire” (the Pacific Basin includes about 75% of all the world’s volcanoes)?
…that Indonesia is one the world’s largest producers of nutmeg?
…Indonesians age 17 and above and all married persons regardless of age have the right to vote?
…Indonesians use over 12 million landline phones and over 46 million mobile cellular phones (as of 2005)?
…there are 662 airports in Indonesia?
…the unemployment rate is estimated to be just under 12% (as of 2005)?
…the official type of goverment for Indonesia is a republic?
…there is 54,716 km of coastline in Indonesia?

I found these very strange…
“…the official type of goverment for Indonesia is a republic?”
— what did u think it were? probably this was an old “did you know” fact (during Soeharto’s regime or something) ;-P
“…Indonesians use over 12 million landline phones and over 46 million mobile cellular phones (as of 2005)?”
— whaatt?? I don’t really believe this.. I suspect more users are registered considering the population. =P
- hmm what about Indonesia as the largest archipelago nation in the world?
- and uh.. it has the world’s largest muslim population but not an Islamic country?
but oh well…
JENNY’S RESPONSE:
(1) Political Scientists have debated about why Indonesia is called the “Republic of Indonesia” as opposed to just “Indonesia” given that there are structural and institutional differences between “republic” and “democracy.”
(2) I agree, the phone statistic is probably vastly underestimating actual phone usage. Too bad we don’t have more accurate statistical data!
(3) I like your listed factoids.
Comment by Pengamat — January 13, 2007 @ 10:49 am