Some Like It Thick

Tastes are as diverse as number of people alive. Maybe even more since one person could develop different taste over time (economist has yet to properly recognise and model this).

But a generality can be made that a group of people has stronger preference toward something than other groups. Casual and informal (thus, unscientific) observation lead me to claim that Italian like it thick.

Anyone who ever taste espresso know that it is much thicker than ordinary coffe, yet anyone who ever come to italy and order for a cup of coffe will get espresso (not any lighter version of coffe). Capuccino is only for breakfast (they don’t too keen on milk but know it is healthy so they mix it with coffe).

It is also the case to cakes, which especially thick with nuts and sweets, and soup, with all the delights the chefs decides to thrown in. But the hidden gem is certainly cioccolato caldo (hot chocolate) that is made by hydroginated cocoa powder, in same manner as hydrogenated coffe and milk that made capuccino. The thick drink with strong cocoa aroma and sweet lingering after tase, something that made you thanksful to be alive (I am exaggerating, but not too much).

The analogy went further with known Italian passion for life. The animated hand gesture and warm personality is an almost universal trait here. Making friends are never easier compare to any countries in Europe. I read in Wall Street Journal (sorry, it is not avaliable free online so I can not give you the link) that Italian are rated as the best lover (come head to head as best cook with France). As you can see from fast cars such as Ferrari and Lamborgini and fashionable brands such as Prada and Gucci, they don’t take life lightly here. In one way or another, aren't we all in a search for a meaningfull life (hence, the title of this blog)?

I could write more on this topic, but I have a sudden urge go out to get a cup of cioccolato caldo and continue to thicken my life. Ciao...

The five euro cut

What is it with five euro cut in Italy?

This month I have encountered the notion too often to think of it as coincidences and certainly to often for a healthy personal budget.

First come the five euro commission to exchange currency at bank (regardless of amount). And then I was told that everybody who has a bank account will have to stay goodbye to their five euro every six month to pay government tax. By the way, the fee for the bank to take care your account is (about ) 5 euro every two month (regardless of amount) and one euro for every over-the-counter transaction. This morning, I lost another five euro to pay service fee of buying pre-paid credit (for purchase of of 10 euro and lower the cut is “only” 2 euro) for my mobile phone.

My bank in Amsterdam, Singapore and Jakarta (excep my Citibank USD account) never take any service fee for such ordinary transactions. Why should they? After all they keep my money and lend it to other people and gain interest. It is the bank that should give me a share of their profit. There are also no service fee to top up mobile phone credit (actually I got more than the stated amount in Jakarta).

Financial services and telecommunication sector in Italy are certainly used to this kind of easy money. My inovate when you can simply extort? But this kind of practice also limit their growth prospective since other country in Europe is more efficient. Unsurprisingly, banking system in Italy are very fragmented with numerous brands of local banks. Italy has yet to see a massive banking consolidation as common in many others.

But they may not see the day. Not often I wish the coming of capitalism wave but proper competition is certainly in need here. It is better to have tight competition and good services than have quasi-monopolist and bad services (plus high price).

The only thing stopping other more efficient banks in the world to buy excess-profit-and-deficient-service Italian banks are nationalistic-but-less-than-truly-honest (see this article ) banking authority. Once the corrupt officials are thrown away and EU common market directives for services are agreed and in play then the time for buy-out (especially from UK, Netherlands and US firms) is coming.

Remember, you read it here first.



picture from kaoz-kreationz.de

Let’s Go Glocal!

I agree that the term “globalization” is probably the most overused, misused and abused term in the last ten years (“millennium” surpassed it briefly in 1999 though).

A derivative term is made by combining the centralizing force globalization with centripetal force of localization, resulting in a somewhat awkward “glocalization”. Wikipedia defines the term as “The creation of products or services intended for the global market, but customized to suit the local culture.” It also explained that the terms come from Japanese business practices and brought to English speaking world by a British sociologist named Roland Robertson in the 1990s.

A quick online search by Google revealed that the term has over 117000 hits. There is even a Conference on Glocalization that will conduct the fourth annual meeting this year. So, I guess we must accept that the term is here to stay.

The reason I go an extra mile to explain the origin of the term is simply that I want to describe glocalization at work in medieval city that I am living now.

If you pass Siena main street to Il Campo, you would not miss a neat and spacious modern supermarket like store own by Consorzio Agrario Siena (Agricultural Consortium of Siena), the windows has writing in English "Specialist Grocery Store - Typical Foods and Wines".

The majority of the products come directly from the local farm and most of the packed goods were packed up locally. You can find local fresh meat and wines together with more gastronomically palatable delicacies. Marmellata di mandarino (orange jam) taste great on any bread while funghi porcini (mushroom sauce) is suitable to almost any dish. Or you have a royal taste bud then salsa tartulafa (black truffle) and ragu di capriolo (tomato sauce with and deer mince meet) is yours to take.

Consorzio Agrario Siena is a farmer co-op that founded in 1901. Since then it has grown to provide various services from wheat grinding to specialty store, from agricultural technology consulting to gas station. It even has its own protein certification labs.

I have yet to study its history, membership and profit sharing method with it is very close to an ideal in term of production. It buys directly from farmer and sells directly to costumer. By cutting cost of unproductive middle man it can (and should) give more profit share to the farmers. Furthermore, the by obtaining the form of modern organization it can extend the reach beyond its borders. I am sure they also serve numerous specialty shops around Europe.

What does it take to bring it to other (especially developing) countries?

1. Heterogeneous products

The scheme would not work as well if they only sell olive oil and bread. The types of products need to be sufficiently numerous (beside few local specialty) to be able to command attention of customers.

2. Costumer taste

Designated customers need to develop a taste for “genuine” and “biologically friendly” products. After all, in term of production scale it is hard to compete with giants such as Nestle and Parmalat. Most likely that the price in CAS store’s can not be set to be lower than those giants. Customers need to have enough reasons for such a premium.

3. Modern organization

Having a vertical food processing company required modern management technique with high regard for efficiency. Family relationship should not be the main factor of employments. The need to obtain capital through banks or capital market also demands a professional and open organization.

4. Export oriented

The big money is out there. So are the customers with consciousness. Ability to tap those market will greatly increased sustainability of the co-op. After all, that is natural next move for a glocalization phenomenon. All the barrier to export and possible assistance to find global market from government is appreciated.

We need is more glocalization even if it would not hurt if we can find a better terms for it

From Ottawa to Molucca

In need of done-that-and-can-do-it-again feeling for my next article (wish me luck), I googled the title of my Jakarta Post article to look it up.

It is to my surprise that the result shows 47 hits. Numerous institutions have copy-paste my article and put it into news/opinions archive of their website.

The nature of those as diverse as I can possible think. From Indonesian embassy in Ottawa (a definite state apparatus) to Foundation for keeping Moluccan Civil and Political Rights (with certain separatist tendency). From environment indonesia mailing list to mercedesbenzgruppen.com

I am happy that they find it worthy to be catalogued (and more people can read it) but still wondering how one article can be useful for such a different groups.

As Sudjatmoko once said, ideas have wing. Hope this particular idea flying to the right people that can make a difference in Aceh.

Let there be light

No, it is neither a sermon on Genesis nor analysis on one of Isaac Asimov’s short story (which he described as his personal favorite)

I am also not talking about the current weather in Siena where it has been rain heavily since yesterday that caused high noon to look like sunset (and most likely the internet conection in the room will be down for a couple of days like happened twice before).

Just on-top-of-the-head observation on patterns of goods I bought with first installment of my scholarship.

First, a lamp. A flourescent energy saving one to replace the plain-old-copper-fiber-lamp they provide in the dorm. Don’t understand why such modern establishment should waste energy like that. And of course the new one provide better lighting for me to read.

Second, a mobile number. I already explain the process of getting it in previous post. But isn’t a mobile number truly is a medium to smooth and enlighten our relationship with other peoples?

Third, a (small) basket of various Italian food and delights. Who can deny that food shed some light and energy into an empty stomach? Now I have more variety to choose for breakfast (dorm only serve dinner)

The next (relatively) big items to get is a hair cut. Got it the last time when I go back home and my hair is already quite long by now. I’have been told that an Italian (hair) job its not cheap but I need to shed some light into my scalps.

This is not a particularly intellegent post. But its kind of hard to be intellegent in this gloomy weather. Let there be light…



(picture from ordnancesurvey)

To Trust an Italian

Since I already received the first instalment of bursa di studio (scholarship), yesterday I went to buy an Italian mobile number. I did not buy them before since I know I will be spending credits calling or sms which I could not do without a local phone number (call it a commitment device).

It was a 20 minutes walked (in 10 degree Celsius) to the Vodafone shop and another 10 minutes of queued, so imagined my dismay when the staff told me that I need to show my passport (which I did not bring and had to walked back home to get).

I have obtained mobile number in Netherlands and Singapore without need to show anything other than money. I was even more surprised as the staff printed the receipt, it contain my codice fiscale (unique number for every resident of Italy, like social security number in US) without me giving them. That mean the shop has access to database that match my name to my codice fiscale. Some Big Brother authority out there know my mobile number, how much I earn (it is also a tax code) and where I live.

Then I started to justified the procedure, maybe since I am a stranieri (foreigner) and Italy has lost significant number of soldiers in Iraq wars then the state want to be careful so that in case a mobile phone used as triggering device for a bomb they can identify the number owner.

Then my Italian classmate told me that it always been the case that phone company required legal identification for new number purchase, even before Iraq war and it applied for anybody (yes, including Italian). I am immediately reminded of a superb book by Francis Fukuyama entitiled Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity where the author identify trust as an important elements in social capital and level of productivity. He also identified Italy as a low-trust country.

Right now I am reading a very analytical and thoughtful book by Paul Ginsborg (I’d recommend it to anybody want to know more) about Italy as I am trying to know where about this country I am now living. This passage is a particularly illuminating one:

“Centralization went hand-hand with distrust… the state never made the transition, not even in a democratic Republic, to trusting its citizens until such point as they proved themselves untrustworthy. Signatures had to be verified by notaries, application for jobs had to be accompanied by numerous certificates, the task of becoming an Italian citizen either by marriages or by naturalization passed through nine and sometimes ten different offices of the state and took an average of 730 days… If the state was unprepared to trust its citizens, then how could they trust it”
(Paul Ginsborg in “Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State” page 218)

Do I have to think twice (or even thrice and conduct a background check) before trusting an Italian?

(picture from totalmedia.com)

A noble strategy for lasting peace in Aceh province

Finally I managed to publish my first opionion article after silent for so long. Hopefully can contribute a little to peace in Aceh.

To read click here or copy paste the following link

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20051110.F03

The editor change a bit of my writing though. The most annoying is when they change "credible" to "intellegent". I supposed they have not attend a course in game theory where credible threat is a distint concept from intellegence. But I undertand that not many has.... They also change the my label, I sent it as Scoule Dottoratto in Economia Politica and change it to "School of Politics and Economics." Of course the correct english translation is "Doctorate School of Economics" but the Italain version is just more exotic.

Good to know that I still can write up to standard of establish media. Have been wondering why I did not managed to published anything during my Amsterdam sojourne while when I was still in undergraduate student I published three opinions article in Indonesia and Singapore newspaper plus five article in Indonesia's economic journal (not too mention numerous papers for speaking at conferences).

Guess this quiet city has enabled me to concentrate and reflect. Hope the muse to write keep on flowing and ideas keep on coming...

The Grandeur Within

Despite its elongated and colourful history, Siena is not a city that is known to harbour Moslem migrant in the past. So what does a modern day Moslem migrant can do as sole Moslem on the dorm in a city without mosque at Iedl Fithr?

The answer is not much.... It’s too risky to go to neighbouring city with mosque that will take 40 minutes ride by bus since he does not know the timing of the festive.

It is one of few times where he needs to rethink Frithjof Schuon’s conception of a Moslem as a self supporting and self sufficient cube that only marginally affected by others once the structure inside is sufficiently strong.

If a Moslem is a dice then the board game is the ummah where it can play around with a common rules and feels home while surrounded by fellow players.

So a lone dice in Siena just open the freezer and re-warm his mother’s rendang to be eaten with warm Basmati rice.

If he can’t participate in a ritualistic grandeur at least he knows that the grandeur is still there without the ritual.

(picture from crystalandcandleshop.com)