The Boy's Gone*)

The boy's gone. The boy's gone home.
The boy's gone. The boy's gone home.

What will happen to a face in the crowd when it finally gets too crowded.
And what will happen to the origins of sound after all the sounds have sounded
Well I hope I never have to see that day but by god I know it's headed our way
So I better be happy now that the boy's going home.
The boy's gone home.

And what becomes of a day for those who rage against it
And who will sum up the phrase for all left standing around in it

Well I suppose we'll all make our judgement calls
We'll walk it alone, stand up tall, then march to the fall
So we better be happy now that we'll all go home.
That we'll all go home.

Be so happy with the way you are
Just be happy that you made it this far
Go on be happy now.
Please be happy now.

Because you say that this, this is something else (alright)
I say that this, this is something else (well alright)
I say that this, oh, this is something, this is something else

Well I tried to live my life and lived it so well
But when it's all over is it heaven or is it hell
So I better be happy now that no one can tell, nobody knows
I'm gonna be happy with the way that I am
I'm gonna be happy with all that I stand for
I'm gonna be happy now because the boy's going home.

The boy's gone home.

Yeah the boy's gone home.
Yeah the boy's gone home.Yeah the boy's gone home.

*) Jason Mraz

Quote #01

"Transformation of an enterprise begins with a sense of crisis or urgency”
-Louis Gertsner, former CEO of IBM

as quoted from Kompas.com

jadi inget inspirational speech nya om Jobs, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".

Meracau #07

Percakapan antara kakak saya dan temannya ini benarbenar mengakhiri hari ini dengan sangat baik.. ahahahah...

yudi (aka joni): met lebaran om
eka: eh
eka: yudi
eka: met lbaran juga ya
yudi (aka joni): muun maap lahir bathin
eka: kumaha? geus meunang gawe can?
yudi (aka joni): nggeus
eka: dmn?
yudi (aka joni): djarum
eka: ha? serius?
eka: jadi naon?
yudi (aka joni): djaga rumah
eka: anjing!
eka: ****d siah
eka: can nanaon geus nyieun dosa wae maneh
eka: teangan atuh gawe
eka: ma enya di gtv2 wae
eka: moal aya duitan jon
yudi (aka joni): lolos tes bni urg
eka: BNI?
eka: naon deui yeuh
yudi (aka joni): enya
eka: urg erek ngalamar ka bank oge jon
eka: hayuklah urg gawe di bank kabeh
yudi (aka joni): alus atuh mun kitu mah
yudi (aka joni): maneh di bank x urg bni
eka: enya
yudi (aka joni): bagian nungguan imah
eka: eyy
eka: anjir

Meracau #06

Kalau saja di Hong Kong ada tukang cukur rambur DPR, saya mungkin tidak perlu mengeluarkan uang 60HK$. Yup... hari ini saya potong rambut di salon setelah hampir 15 tahun saya tidak pernah ke salon. Dan rambut saya sekarang jadi aneh alaala salon. Let's Rock....!!! Hahahaha....

Meracau #05

Kuliah tidak pernah semenyenangkan ini.... :).

Reflective Journal

I would have written this in Indonesian so you guys can really get the pictures about what I’m going to share you. But I have to submit this writing also as my essay project for my class. So, let’s just use our linguistic quotient for the next two minutes, shall we? First of all, I never really expected that this euphoria of seeing and finding lots of new things in the city will last until now. Well, it is only just three weeks though. But I thought it would probably just the same with Jakarta, where you can easily know the city –apart of its cultural and demographical diversity- in like a week. And only takes you like 5 hours when you’re in town to get the ‘traffic jam’s everywhere’ idea that best describe Jakarta city. Let’s just hope this euphoria will last untill the end of the academic year.

Anyway, I always amaze with the urban development happens here in Hong Kong. Although it’s not even a month I’ve been here, but I can tell you this. From the very first day I arrived here, towers –more specifically residential towers- have been one of the most intriguing city part for me. It is not just the physical form which built the city image, but off course the history behind it, the numbers, the people, the culture, the process, the impacts and so on and so forth. This towers is just one of the physical evidence of the vast urban development here. If you want to take a look back abit to the late of 1800s, this vast urban development marked when the first reclamation began. Huge reclamation project has started since then. Though many protests from the people is now rising, the reclamation process is still on going now on the Central District. The issue on environment has been one of the major consideration that the reclamation process need to be re-examined. People here seems to realize and start questioning and claiming their right on determining the development of the city they live in.

Another interesting finding is the planning system here in Hong Kong. I can’t tell you much about the planning process and system we had in Indonesia. I hardly practiced in this field. But as far as I know, the hierachical plans we had is not really different with the Hong Kong’s. There are three majors hierarcy of spatial planning in Indonesia according to the Spatial Planning Law 24/1992 passed by the Indonesia parliament, the National Spatial Planning Guideline (as we call it National RTRW), Provincial Spatial Planning Guideline and the District Spatial Planning Guideline (which includes the Kabupaten and Kotamadya RTRW). There’s been an amandments though in 2007 on this law which resulted in the Spatial Planning Law 27/2007, but I’m not really sure if this hierarchy is change too. Some changes stipulated the authority of provincial and district government in Spatial Planning, the concept of Metropolitan and Megapolitan Area is also introduced in the new law, the minimum standards services etc. Whilst in Hong Kong, the hierarchy is derived into (also) three major levels with specific concerns,

1. The Territorial/Strategic level which deal with the Territorial Development Strategy (TDS),
Hong Kong 2030 is the vision develop within the TDS.
2. The Sub-Regional Level which deal with the Sub-Regional development, divided into 5 subregion, metropolitan area and the 4 new territories development.
3. The District/Local Level which providing the Outline Zoning Plan (OZP), the Develeopment
Permission Area Plan (DPA), the Outline Development Plan (ODP) and the Layout Plan (LP).

Well, it will take you guys for another three hours or even more to really understand the planning system here in Hong Kong. But my point is, having compare this two hierarchical plan, I can say that the quality of our physical environment is not only depend on the planning system. We do have OZP as we know it Rencana Tata Ruang Kawasan (RTRK), ODP and LP which included in the Rencana Detil Tata Ruang Kawasan (RDTRK), and we do have Town Planning Board as we know it Dinas Tata Kota (DTK). So, is it just my feeling that we are walking on the treadmill? The effects of the development hardly felt, at least for me. No pointing finger. I myself, probably know better the structure of the planning department organization here –since I had the class- rather than in Indonesia. It leaves me with no right then for such judgement.

Ok, let’s go back a litle while to the towers thing. The number of the built area in Hong Kong is nomore than 25% of its total area of 1,100 sqkm. The number of the people settlement of only 3.6% from the total area of HKSAR is really a shocking number. That is the towers and this also explains the number of density of 6,400 people/sqkm. This is something that I’m sure we don’t see it inIndonesia, even in the most dense city of Bogor. The conditions are totally different for sure. We hardly find any problems with the availability and the expediency of the land to settle. The so called new town development in Jakarta and its periphery area always characterized with single landed detached housing –instead of towers- which incrementally sprawled satelliting the capital city of province. It is worth mentioning the new town developments here in Hong Kong. There are three generations of the new town developments . And total of nine new tows which the first, Tsuen Wan was started in 1959. The second generation began in 1970s/1980s which include new town of Yuen Long, Tai Po, Fanling and Sheung Shui. And the third began in 1980s/1990s, Thin Sui Wai and Tsueng Kwan O. What I mentioned earlier about the sprawling new town in Jakarta, didn’t mean it in a bad way. But as Cybrowsky and Ford said, the fact that this new town hardly implement the initial concept of new town as a self contained communities only makes it as a ‘bedroom suburbs for citybroad commuters (Cybrowsky and Ford, 2001). The new towns don’t provide enough jobs for the people there. They have to travel way back, roundtrip everyday to the city center. Causes alot of polution, time-loss, degradation of the quality of live. A better transportation infrastructure and healthy economy condition are some of ideas as a starting point towards a better living environment in the new towns.

Last thing but not least, I don’t want this writing to sounds too pesimistic with the current condition happenning in Jakarta, without offering solutions. Well, it simply because I hardly can, since solutions in planning provide no space for the subjectivity of one. But I do believe we still have long way to go and you can bet I’ll be on it.

Anyway, there are lots of reference that you can get online for further study. You can find some on the refence section below.

REFERENCE :
Roman Cybriwsky, Larry R. Ford, City profile: Jakarta, CitiesVolume 18, Issue 3, , June 2001, Pages 199-210.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V9W-433NPW2-82 e03e9ea851ac0415962688cf1a71f5ed)
Tommy Firman, New town development in Jakarta Metropolitan Region: a perspective of spatial segregation, Habitat InternationalVolume 28, Issue 3, , September 2004, Pages 349-368.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V9H-48NJ0JD-3/2/2ed8c5d119d2995d834be4534e395f2f)
http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/2008/09/historical-overview-of-spatial-planning.html

Intro. to Urban Planning Principles #02

PLANNING PROCESS AND THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES

The common general principles applied in the planning process consist of four principles which are efficiency, environmental values, equality and community. These four principles should be the base consideration on determining the objectives and goals on the planning process. When talking about these goals and objectives, there are important actions need to be implemented.

1. The envisioning. The Envisioning exist in the two major time domain, the present and the future. The relations among aspects of consideration in the present and for the future should be clearly identified. There are three basic questions that need a definitive answer in attempt getting the clear vision and define the clear relations among aspects,
- What? ‘What should the future be like?’ To identify the goals as the point to go.
- Where?‘Where are we now?’ To identify our position in terms of geography, natural resource base, demographics, major employers etc. Some methodologies of research/data collection, community profiling are involved here; ‘Where are we going?’Analyzing the trends of the current and future, do assessment of the future impacts and creating the trend statement are several steps on identifying the possible alternatives to get the goals; ‘Where do we want to be?’ This is the goal where the vision statement boldly defined. In order to get the possible solutions, community involvement is a must.Organizing meetings, public hearing are some of the methods here.
- How? ‘How do we get there?’ Here, the action plan is being developed. Include activities here such as identifying goals, actions, implementation agenda etc.

2. The Plan Generation, that deals with identifying the urban problem issues. Including within is managing the uncertainties, generating alternatives (search and design).

3. Plan Evaluation, to ensure the continous refinement along the process. Some terms that defined here in the process includes scenario, options/alternatives, criteria, effects & impacts, assessment, weighting, sensitivity and decision making. Several methods of evaluation such as checklist approach, cost-benefits analysis, goals achievement matrix etc can be applied for various project scale. We need to know that not every evaluation making impacts. It simply because the evaluation process is not a scientific assessment and the interests are paramount.

4. Decision Making, which usually there are three different approaches on making decision. Rational model that you hardly can gather all the information since everything is not always about rational, the beaureucratic model and the political bargaining model.

5. Plan Implementation, which implement for the public sector. The three modes of delivery of public works are conventionally financed projects, Build & Operate (BO) and Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT).

6. Development Control, as control tool for private sector, as a mechanism to implement the planning vision and intentions, to control disease and public health and resolving conflicts.

This whole process arouses questions which mostly questioning the authority of who should make the call on what to act upon, who control this collaborative process who makes the translation to written documents etc. We can see here that political issue is one of the agenda involved in the process. For what and for whom does this process supposed to serve to?

For it involves scientific judgement of research, analysis, evaluation etc and also creative activities of making alternatives and imaginative insights, this plan making and the process is considered as an art activity. And it has bought the planners with various label, as a projector who projects the future need, an analyst, a spokesperson, a public advisor, a consensus builder, a collaborator etc.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN HONG KONG

Since the ceeding of Hong Kong island in 1842 declared in the Nanjing Treaty, Hong Kong urban
development has been through major milestones. In 1898, the second Beijing Conference resulted on the leasing of the New Territories from the British Government for 99 years, which later than marked the set up of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in 1997 after the treaty was off. During the 1950s, known as transfered industrialization era, Hong Kong was having a new economy state. The refugee after the PRC was declared gave lots of labor skill and capital to Hong Kong that support well the economy growth at that time. In 1953, the Urban Planning Office was established, followed then by the built of the first generation of new town Tsuen Wan six years later.The setting up of the Land Development in 1988 marked the era of the 1960s and 1980s as the era where the Hong Kong having the socio-economic restructuring. The development continues to the state of re-engineering where reclamation, urban renewal, new towns, walled cities, heritage conservation have given images of Hong Kong’s urban development from 1990s untill now.

The current issue facing by the Urban Planning practice in Hong Kong relies in the very simple –yet need comprehensive study- question of,
1. Where to be for the next development? Another reclamation project? Urban renewal?
2. What do mostly people need? Is it housing? Leisures?
3. Who should initiate, participate, control? Government, public-private partnership or public?
4. How are the physical development should be directed? The urban form, the density, the pedestrian.

Based on the notion that the people should have the right on determining the quality of space they live in, therefore the public participation is one of the most important thing in the planning process. Several planning projects in Hong Kong have gained valuable inputs from the public. The old airport of Kai Tak review, the relocation of Queen’s Pier are some of the projects involving the community.

PLANNING SYSTEM IN HONG KONG

The hierarchy of planning is divided into three major level based on the geographical territory.
1. The Territorial/Strategic level which deal with the Territorial Development Strategy (TDS), Hong Kong 2030 is the vision develop within the TDS.
2. The Sub-Regional Level which deal with the Sub-Regional development, divided into 5 Subregion, metropolitan area and the 4 new territories development.
3. The District/Local Level which providing the Outline Zoning Plan (OZP), the Develeopment Permission Area Plan (DPA), the Outline Development Plan (ODP) and the Layout Plan (LP).

The plan on the whole level have to be in planning principles corridor of people-oriented, sustaianable development and environmentally friendly.

REFERENCE :

Ng, M. K. (2008), "General Principles Involved in the Planning Process," Presentation Slide in the class of Introduction to Urban Planning Principles, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong
Ng, M. K. (2008), "Urban Planning and Development in Hong Kong," Presentation Slide in the class of Introduction to Urban Planning Principles, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong
Ng, M. K. (2008), "Planning System and Administration in Hong Kong: From Strategic to Local Planning" Presentation Slide in the class of Introduction to Urban Planning Principles, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong
http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/2007/07/challenges-for-planning-in-indonesia.html

Meracau #06

Kata teman saya... 'keserakahan itu adiktif....'

Intro. to Urban Planning Principles #01

THE HISTORY

The history of Urban Planning was first stated way back to nearly 6000 years ago where the civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea begin to organize their urban life in ziggurats, which function as temple and also as observation area. The history then followed by the urban development in Chinese ancient cities, Greek, Roman, the Dark Ages, medieval to the most urban planning phenomenon in the modern era. Each of the events and places in history of the urban development could tells us specific characteristic of the systematic urban forms at that time. But it is not only the physical form of urban structure that this history describe, we can also draw many information about economic condition, political, and even social-cultural values during that certain period.

It is always interesting to find out everything that occurs in our present time could (probably) be related to the prior conditions in the past. Interesting in a sense that all the information written in the history always open up to many possibilities for further reference study.

Historically talking, time also tells us that the scientific revolution era contributes to many changes in social issues and off course the urban planning development. The industrialization as a result of scientific inventions gave lots of work field and the social order began to change. People’s hope for a better living environment began to rise. More systematic infrastructures like sanitary also well implemented on this era. People have many choices in terms of works, lifestyle as well as living environments than ever before. This momentum then marked as a starting point to the practice of modern urban planning later on.

There’s this assumption that the history is repeating in somewhat way. We can see it in a way that the industrialization era is (again) taking part in the Chinese urban contemporary development especially when the open door policy in 1978 was activated. Many investors eagerly put their money to this country which has led to the booming industries, properties, and puts China into one of the most active in the development of the economic sector.

All these history things lead to the significance importance of what this time and momentum issue could contributes to a better condition (living environment in this case) in the future. And when it comes to the planning and even technical design level, this time plays major roles as well as the space –that contains the physical condition- itself, which probably (most of) architects, urban designers and planners themselves sometimes forgot to think it consideringly.

PLANNING AS A PROCESS

As it is an activity of thinking, visioning, directing, managing, conserving, producing to implementing, the domain of the urban planning itself relates to many tangible (e.g physical infrastructures) and intangible aspects (e.g socio-economic issues, political issues, human and cultural values, time etc). The word visioning describes that this process is again contained in the time dimension. It is always future oriented, yet the whole process should consider every aspect in the current time. The uncertainties then emerge as this visioning proceeds along the process. So how can we make a good decision on the planning process with all these uncertainties? The rationalities behind the process is a huge question mark that makes the whole process is a wicked problems. Because there’s this uncertainty, there is no right or wrong answer, no definite formula, unlimited ideas and alternatives and so on. There is one thing that we can do though. The typical planning process which starts from identifying the problems, collect & analyse data, develop goals & objectives to Implementation & monitoring could help us to perceive a comprehensive and broader perspective on what aspects that we need to accomodates, and in the end resulted in a clear vision as well as minimizing the effects of the uncertainties. And again, learning from history will probably be a good reference.

Though Ripley’s study about visioning explained that the vision concept has always been constant since the biblical time-that therefore need to be examined- the problems which commonly exist in the planning practice problems extend beyond that. It is the process that relates to various aspect and its activities that extend from the local city scale to even global scale which makes it ends up in a complex relation that ironically some development actors use it as a tool against the idealism way of planner thinking. It is, sometimes the evangelist idea of vision tends to be too utopist that for some private and government actors think it too impossible to even understand it. And yes, the planning itself surely has a dark side untill now, as there were the anti planning thinking back in 1980s. From socialist resistance, the planning causes inequalities, from the academic-profession discourses as McLaughlin stated that the planning courses is just a form of indoctrination into a planning profession rather than a critical reflection on the needs of people and cities (Allmendinger, 2001). But apart of all that, the planning process should be seen and considered as one hollistic approach to get the most possible way -if not the best- in making decision, solutions, alternative ideas through comprehensive study to solve the problems for the sake of the good public realm.

Trying to reflect all these lesson-learn here to the condition in my country Indonesia –specifically talking the Jakarta city-, the vast urban development in the country which commonly see in the form of superblock typology and off course new town development has somehow lead to an argument that there is some missing link, missing communication among development actors. This concept of superblock as a city within a city brings positive effects in the efficiency of mobility (though it’s still need continous evaluation), but on the other hand, I think the economic condition of the people –mostly low income people- has not been well prepared yet. This fast urbanization has driven out the low income people away from the city center. The (unprepared) transport infrastructure which the government planned hardly accomodates the people need. Developers keep busying themselves on getting the money. The problem could probably relies on the big global agenda. A clear and bold development direction from the central government will helps alot on the first major step on creating good communication among actors towards the best quality of life.


BIBLIOGRAPHY :
Allmendinger, P. (2001). Planning in postmodern times. The RTPI library series. London: Routledge.
Robert Shipley (2000). The origin and development of vision and visioning in planning. International Planning Studies, 5(2), 225-236. Retrieved September 10, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database

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Terkadang saya tidak tahu apa yang saya bicarakan.... (-___-)

Meracau #05

Tiba-tiba mata saya perih lagi....

epen.. ..epen: rame..
epen.. ..epen: :D
epen.. ..epen: mau cari siapaaa..
epen.. ..epen: ada lina tuh.
epen.. ..epen: hiiihiii..
Andik: ;))

dan tiba-tiba lagi saya merasa beruntung dan bersyukur.... :)

Meracau #4

Satu sore di salah satu gang di Central ....

Jami'a Mosque

Location : Jami'a Mosque - Central Hongkong

'Tiba-tiba mata saya perih...' (Jumat, 5 September 2008 - 12:50 pm)

Meracau #03

Andik: "bu, menurutku semua orang harus baca blog ini... monsterbuaya.blogspot.com"
Andik: "punya epen... urbane"
Widy: "oo yg ada link nya di blogmu itu kan"
Andik: "iya"
Widy: "aku udh liat kmrn2"
Widy: "blm baca semua sih"
Andik: ":D ..kalo sempet baca2 aja... buat ku sih sgt menenangkan... inspiring in somewhat way... dan manusiawi bgt :D"
Widy: ":D"
Widy: "sederhana sih.. tapi sangat ketangkep"
Andik: "yup"

Meracau #02

Kesimpulan :

1. Butuh waktu 24 menit berjalan dari kamar sampai ke area pusat kampus, menaiki 228 anak tangga dan beberapa ratus meter jalan menanjak.

2. Tidak ada cerita gw bakal bisa gemuk kalau begini.

3. Hidup itu penuh perjuangan...(huekcuh... basi.. :)) ), dan ini belum ada apa2nya. ;)

Meracau #01

Sudah 28 hari sejak saya meninggalkan status saya sebagai arsitek di kantor lama saya. It's been hell of 2 years at the office (in good and bad way off course). Hate being so sentimentil, but I do miss you guys, juniors esp.

Sudah 15 hari sejak terakhir kali saya merokok, karena sudah lama ada niatan untuk berhenti merokok. Kesempatan untuk tinggal di negri orang akhirnya yang membuat saya membulatkan tekad untuk bisa memulai hidup baru, memulai gaya hidup baru (termasuk tidak merokok) dan hal-hal lainnya yang serba baru.

Dan sekarang saya sudah berada di ribuan mil jauhnya dari kampung halaman tercinta. Yupp, sudah 6 hari sejak saya pertama kali menapakkan kaki saya di kota Hongkong. 6 hari sejak saya terakhir tidur dengan lelapnya di kasur dan kamar tercinta dan 6 hari sejak saya terakhir bermehe-mehe dengan teman-teman dan keluarga.

It's always hard, isn't it? To start all new kinds of things, it could also means that you'll probably can't go back to your prior life. Dan hal yang paling menakutkan buat saya tentunya adanya kemungkinan bahwa kita tidak akan bertemu lagi dengan orang-orang yang sebelumnya kita kenal. No matter how much you hate it, the fact is always there.

Ketakutan itu baru saja terjadi. Ketika baru 3 hari saya ada di kota ini, saya mendapatkan kabar duka. Istri dari teman saya harus beristirahat tenang untuk selamanya (may you sleep well beside Him). Well, saya belum pernah bertemu dengannya. Tapi berita duka ini benar-benar mengejutkan. But in sort of a way, it's kina a woke up slap.. you know what i'm sayin.. Bahwa pada akhirnya semua itu harus diikhlaskan, mungkin dengan begitu kita akan jadi orang yang bisa berdiri kuat. Things won't last forever.

Saya beruntung punya keluarga dan teman yang senantiasa menjadi pengingat saya untuk tetap berdiri, berjalan dan berlari. Kata teman saya, ini cuman naek kelas, kayak dari SD ke SMP, ato SMP ke SMA, kamu akan mulai hidup baru dan punya teman baru. Tidak ada alasan kamu tidak bisa survive, karena sudah pernah ada di situasi itu sebelumnya. But it is always wise to remember friends, all the good things you had, just to remind you that life can and always as beautiful as it can be.

Anw, saya baru saja melihat earth TV di TV lokal hongkong. Itu loh, tayangan streaming yang memperlihatkan kota-kota di dunia. Dan saya berharap ada kota Jakarta (atau Bandung mungkin), yang memperlihatkan beberapa detik saja apa yang bisa terlihat pada jam ini. Tapi ternyata tidak ada. Again, saya harus menahan sedikit kerinduan ini.. Halah... baru berapa hari. Ntar juga lupa dengan kesibukan kuliah yang jadwalnya padat sekali itu. :D

Well, setidaknya disini saya bisa melihat laut sesering mungkin, yang sangat jarang saya bisa nikmati ketika di Indonesia. :)

Miss you guys allready... Please stay safe, so we can see each other again. Amiin...

Ooo.. one more thing, Marhaban ya Ramadhan.. Selamat berpuasa ya... semoga kita jadi pribadi yang siap menuju hari kemenangan.