Pencurian Laptop

Rupanya, tidak hanya di Indonesia saja pencurian laptop secara sistematis dilakukan, dari mulai pencurian di rumah pribadi, perkantoran, warnet, bahkan di sekolahan. Di Auckland pun kampus bisa kecurian laptop. Padahal, di sini, cctv sudah ada di mana-mana.

Saya mendapat email security warning ini dari kampus saya:

Hi all

We have had a break-in into a XXX staff office, where a laptop and some personal belongings were taken. Another incident has resulted in 7 laptops being stolen from a XXX classroom.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind staff to be vigilant with security matters, and report any concerns to Security x9997 immediately. Please also remember to report any missing laptops in classrooms to ICT as soon as they are noticed missing.

The following are some good tips to follow:
· Remove any 'valuable' items from sight in offices (including alcohol iPads etc)
· Staff with laptops should be taking these home wherever practical, or ensure it is locked away out of sight
· Report any suspicious behaviour to security

Tukang Tipu Mengaku dari IRS

Banyak saja orang melakukan penipuan di sini. Beberapa waktu lalu, saya mendapa telepon ke nomor di rumah. Katanya, dia dari IRS. "You have a problem with your tax return," katanya. Begitu saya tanya dia mau bicara dengan siapa, dia malah bilang: "Please tell me your name." Aneh-aneh saja memang. Terus saya bilang saja ke dia, "Kamu itu sedang diinvestigasi polisi." Walah, dia malah ngeyel: "Please, tell me more."

Tukang tipu ini berlogat Asia. Mirip dengan di Indonesia, dia menelepon dengan nomor mobile. Tampaknya pula, dia menelepon dari jalan.

Yang cukup aneh, di New Zealand kami tidak mengenal IRS. Yang ada adalah IRD. Ini mirip seperti Ditjen Pajak kalau di Indonesia.

Dari yang saya baca di media di sini, yang menjadi target adalah orang asing atau migran. Kenapa demikian? Mungkin karena orang asing di sini lebih mengenal kata IRS. Di US, IRS merupakan lembaga yang disegani. Jadi, mereka sengaja menggunakan IRS untuk menakuti para migran di sini agar bisa ditipu.

Tidak Selalu, Cari Kerja di Auckland itu susah

Selama ini, kesannya, mencari kerja sambilan di New Zealand, utamanya Auckland, cukup susah bagi mahasiswa di sini. Namun, asumsi itu tidak selalu benar. Beberapa waktu lalu, saya bertemu dengan orang Indonesia yang memiliki usaha jasa cleaning di daerah North Shore. Biasanya, setelah jumatan, kami warga Indonesia mengobrol-ngobrol sebentar.

Pada obrolan itu, menyatakan kesulitannya mencari tenaga kerja untuk membantunya. Kalau tidak berhasil juga merekrut tenaga kerja baru, rencanya ia akan mau menjual beberapa kliennya ke perusahaan jasa cleaning lainnya. Nach, obrolan ini membantah bahwa mencari kerja sambilan di Auckland itu susah. Menurut saya, yang lebih susah adalah mencari tenaga kerja yang mau bekerja sambilan di jasa cleaning ini.

Nach, bagi Anda yang akan akan ke New Zealand, jangan takut kalau susah mencari kerja sambilan di sini. Masih banyak peluang yang bisa dijajagi, kalau Anda sempat untuk membagi waktu antara kuliah dan bekerja. Dari pengalaman saya, ternyata tidak mudah membagi waktu ini. Masalahnya, para pemberi kerja di sini ingin kepastian Anda bisa menyediakan waktu yang cukup untuk bekerja dengan mereka.

Ground Rules of Brainstorming

In Indonesia, we are happy to invite people attending a brainstorming meeting. However, mostly the meeting end to hate each other rather than creating an idea. One of the problems is because participant do not understrand the ground rules of brainstorming. When you setup the brainstorming meeting, please make sure you introduces these rules first:

(1) The meeting will mainly concern with quantify the ideas rather than qualify the ideas;
(2) During the meeting there should be no critism of the ideas from anybody (including the chair of the meeting); and
(3) Welcome and open your mind for unusual ideas.

(Thomas, 2013)

Stealing Public Money Through Subsidy

What is corruption? Sometimes it is very difficult to differentiate corruption with other crimes. For example, when someone stealing money from government, people call it as a corruption. Someone who steals money from government, a public money, is called corruptor. But, why don't we call him or her as thief? I think thief and corruptor is similar. However, a corruptor usually steals a lot of money from government, but a thief steals a little money only. Let's differentiate the term just like that.

Do in an almost zero country like NZ there is no corruption at all? I know a little about this. I just read that even in some universities there had been a problem with the misuse of government funds. However, through a powerful enforcement agency, the misuse of funds would be investigated.

What has been an interesting practice for me is the stealing of money from government. Last week I met two mens. One of them just divorced from his couple. He told me about how a citizen could manipulate the government. In NZ, if your income is under the minimum standard of living, the government will subsidize your income from public funds. One type of subsidies is called Supported Living Payment. You can read more and simulate the scheme from this site:

https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/cos/ieg/Screening.do?executionID=8575009821164568576&playerID=-6593535936284327936&readOnly=null
and
http://www.workingforfamilies.govt.nz/childcare-assistance/

However, there are some people who take job illegally. It could be, for example, a wife working illegally and only the husband working legally. Consequently, not all of their income as a household would be recorded. Then, they would receive subsidize from the government. This is what I call a thief. I heard from those some people practice it just to have more money.

So maybe in a country you would not have many corruptors, but could have many thief. Do you know how to solve this problem?

Understanding Address in New Zealand

In Indonesia, usually we have an address structure like this:

Nomor (Number)
Alamat (Street Address)
RT/RW (District Code) as an option
Kelurahan/Desa (Suburb)
Kecamatan (Town)
Kota/Kabupaten (City)
Kode Pos (Post Code)

Therefore, an example address would be like this:

[12], [Nangka Street], [RT/RW 10/14], [Utan Kayu], [Matraman], [Jakarta Timur], [13452]

In New Zealand, usually people living in the same address with some of families. They live in a flat or house.To separate the privacy, usually in a site, there would be one of more units for living. The address structure would be like this:

Unit Number
Street Address
Suburb
Town
City
Post Code

An example address would be like this:

[2]/[14],[Chivalry Road], [Glenfield], [North Shore], [Auckland City], [0634]

So, please don’t get confused when you finding home address in New Zealand. Enjoy your visit when you are here.

Preliminary Study: The Trading Cooperation Between New Zealand - Indonesia

By Rudy M. Harahap and Yetty Martihandayani[1]

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Whilst Indonesia is the Southeast Asia's largest economy, there is still less substantial improvement in the trading cooperation between New Zealand and Indonesia during the last five years. The total trade balance between Indonesia and New Zealand increased, but it was very slow. Indonesia is also still the net importer of the trading cooperation. The export to New Zealand from Indonesia increased slowly, but there was a stagnation of import from New Zealand by Indonesia (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Export, Import, and Total Trading from Indonesia to New Zealand.

Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

The main exported products from Indonesia to New Zealand were still related to non-oil and gas products. It seems that there has been a substantial growth in the export of the non-oil and gas products to New Zealand from Indonesia (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Export to New New Zealand from Indonesia

Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

If compared to the Indonesian’s imports from New Zealand, the products were still primarily dominated by non-oil and gas products also (Figure 3). Whilst New Zealand has produced oil and gas, its export to Indonesia was still low and could be stated as in an immaterial number.

To improve this trading, recently there has been more cooperation agreement in how to improve the trading cooperation related to oil and gas products between Indonesia and New Zealand. For example, New Zealand’s government has given more scholarships to many students from Indonesia to learn about geothermal energy. It seems that in the future there could an increase of import from New Zealand by Indonesia related to these products. For example, there is a possibility that Indonesia may import some technical tools related to oil and gas processing from New Zealand.

Figure 3: Import from New Zealand to Indonesia

Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

From the data, we can also interpret that there is a big opportunity to improve the cooperation for both of these countries. For example, the cooperation could be improved through exporting the main commodities of Indonesia (or also exporting the main commodities of New Zealand). The main exported commodities from Indonesia to other countries currently are textile, electronic, rubber and article thereof, palm oil, forest products, footwear, automotive, shrimps, cocoa, and coffee. However, there are also other potential commodities that can be exported from Indonesia to New Zealand, such as leather & leather products, medical instrument and appliances, medicinal herb, processed food, essential oil, fish & fish products, handicraft, jewellery, spices, stationery non-paper (source: the Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.).

Mostly, many commodities in New Zealand are imported from other countries, such as China. Whilst Indonesia is nearer from New Zealand (if compared to China), it is an interesting question, why there New Zealand has more trading cooperation with China instead of Indonesia? Why there is no substantial trading cooperation between Indonesia and New Zealand? Currently, the main Indonesia’s trading partners are still Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States of America (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, n.d.). From this list of countries, there is a possibility that some products imported from China, in fact, are made in Indonesia. Or some products from China not directly imported to New Zealand, but are transferred from Indonesia.

Another possible explanation is because little is known about Indonesia from the perspective of New Zealand people and also reversely about New Zealand from the perspective of Indonesia. Another reason might be New Zealand people a bit wary when doing business with Indonesia people. A business person in New Zealand told me that business poeple in New Zealand still have a bad image about Indonesia, such as the high level of corruption, the difficulty doing business, and so on. I think that we need to understand more about this so we can improve the trading cooperation between Indonesia and New Zealand.

[1] Preliminary study to be submitted for discussion as part of GradForce’s program in supporting graduates from the universities in improving the business opportunities between Indonesia and New Zealand. The authors are the volunteer business analyst for GradForce (http://www.gradforce.co.nz/). All of the analysis is the responsibility of the authors.

References:

• Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia. (n.d.). 10 Potential Commodities. kemendag.go.id. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.kemendag.go.id/en
• Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia. (n.d.). Balance of Trade With Trade Partner Country. kemendag.go.id. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.kemendag.go.id/en
• New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. (n.d.). Indonesia. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from https://www.nzte.govt.nz/en/export/export-markets/east-asia/indonesia/