KaFE Depok is on Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2007

After long year end holiday and a series of harpitnas (hari kejepit nasional), it feel so hard to grind the mind and pressed the keyboard again for a witty post on this blog.

After all, we are have been educated in Western Europe that even though has high productivity but used to shorter working days (click here for comparison) than the Anglo-Saxon and East Asia counterparts.

There is no wake up call like an undue honor and recognition.

Fatih Syuhud, one of the most senior and respected Indonesian blogger, has listed KaFE Depok as Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2007. He put us on number seven and wrote that we, "even in a blog posting … writes seriously with many citations, making blog-articles worth an academic paper”

As we wrote on the profile, KaFE Depok is a place for "ser-san" discussion. We see simplicity, but with hard theories and data behind, as a worthy aim since many economic issue seem to be made more complex than what it is. Democracy and good policy required good understanding of economics.... And of course we tried to have fun while doing it.

Rizal Siddik, our senior in FEUI and blogosphere, put it best in his Jakarta Post article (click here),“Almost every opinion widely held by the public and spoken fluently by most newsmakers has not been carefully made and is often against what elementary economics teaches…. We need more public education in economics to fight economic illiteracy.”

Looking back to our blogger of the week honor last April, let me quote Fatih Syuhud’s note on us, "I feel even happier to see that Kafe Depok understands very well the "art" of blogging. The art of interactivity and show of humility. Academicians used to be dubbed as the "ivory tower" who used to expect accolade and standing ovation from the bottom without any need to reach out to them”

May we continue to learn the art of blogging.

kaFE depok on top 100 Indonesia's english blog

Some blogwalking lead admin to Indonesia Matters that came up with top 100 blog composite index from various indicators.

Surprise came when kaFE depok is listed today at rank 30 on the top 100 Indonesia's english blog. After all we are still so young, dealing with specific subject (albeit with all the quasi extensions) and could be more active. There are certainly a lot more worthy blog to rank higher than us.

The honor surely motivate us to climb higher (in term of quality and quantity) and dig deeper into more queries on the multi facet of the economic life. Thanks for all the readers, your visits and comments are always appreciated.

We are The Blogger of the Week!

We noticed a sudden spike in our visitor and looked up the statistics. Turn out that most of it were attributed to link from A.Fatih Syuhud, a senior and respected Indonesian Blogger that actively promote blogging among Indonesian and has been very supportive to newbies. He kindly share his wide readerships (his average visitors in a day are higher than ours in a year) to review a Blogger of the Week (BoW) in a regular column. The seventieth instalment selected KaFE Depok as BoW (to read the complete list click here)

“I am glad and congratulate them, the Kafe Depok crews that the "discussion culture" is still rolling despite the geographical barrier among them. Since, this blessing-in-disguise thing will not only unite them, more importantly it'd benefit others: for Indonesians who are interested with economic matters and to know the voice of young-intellectual conscience; and for non-Indonesians who want to know about Indonesia from its younger-generation perspective. A generation that will shape the Indonesian future…For me as a blogger, I feel even happier to see that Kafe Depok understands very well the "art" of blogging. The art of interactivity and show of humility. Academicians used to be dubbed as the "ivory tower" who used to expect accolade and standing ovation from the bottom without any need to reach out to them”

We are a bit anxious about the BoW since he started his post by mentioning the influential Limited Discussion Group consisted of Cak Nur, Dawam Raharjo and Ahmad Wahib and thus implicitly linked us to them. It’s not like we are tying to introduce some new and fundamental reform in economic thought and practice in Indonesia like what they did in religious thought. But there are reasons why stars used as the guidance in a long journey, they are unreachable yet provide a direction for improvement.

For new visitors, this site was initially meant as post-it board to share thought and opinion among alumni of economics and development department from Faculty of Economics – University of Indonesia doing master/PhD in European universities. As quoted by Fatih Syuhud:

"Kafe Depok is short for kantin FEUI (faculty of economy universitas Indonesia--ed.) Depok where we all shared cherish time of heated discussion on Indonesian economy and social justice as idealistic undergrad. Now that we are separated in geography but (hopefully) more mature and more knowledgeable, we seek to transfer the discussion on line and share it with wider audience. Furthermore, we are eager to unearth from the European way, the kinder, gentler capitalism that care more for social justice and environment, for a better Indonesia."

Hopefully we continue to be more mature and knowledgeable. Thanks again for the appreciation and kind words, we will continuously reach for the star (and write blog post on the journey).

Welcome 2007!

As we wrap up 2006 and move onward to 2007, KaFE depok wish a Happy New Year 2007 to all of you - friends and readers.

End of Summer Hiatus

by Administrator

Yes, we have been idle during this summer.

But isn’t the renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell said that “The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education…….Men who, in their professional work, have become interested in some phase of economics or government, will be able to develop their ideas without the academic detachment that makes the work of university economists often seem lacking in reality” in his 1932 essay entitled In Praise of Idleness.

Following his line of thought, proper idleness is just the product and influence of proper civilization. Even better, it also produce more realistic economist. And in the time like this, more of practical (not just a freak and an undercover) economists are just what the world need.

Blanchard (2004) in analyzing economic future of Europe noted that in this continent, more of the productivity rise is used to increase leisure time compare to America. If in term of total output per worker Europe is behind US but if the unit of measurement is change to output per hour per worker then the difference is negligible.

And aren’t we, as (half finish?) product of European education system, also supposed to absorb the institutional arrangement and social consensus of society around us in addition to optimization techniques and quantitative methods of mainstream economics?

Now we are more energize than ever and looking forward to serve you better economics and a-bit-related-to-economics articles. We also have new contributors just starting their study in Europe, so please check us out.

Summer is dead, long live summer!

another...

I believe that the tears have not faded away yet. But, another disaster has knocked our door again.

A deep condolence and sympathize with my brothers and sisters in Pangandaran area for the losses due to the tsunami...

Keset

Kantin FE Depok: a place for "ser-san" discussion of Depok cross continent generation. We served various foods and drinks of topics, with free 'musik kantin' and 'puisi air mancur', plus some garink-nomics stuff.

Just sit, eat and read...

"Keset!" (read: Welcome)