Knowledge Economic Index

Knowledge Economic Index is a tool create as benchmarking a country position in the global knowledge economy. The Knowledge Economic Index was created by the World Bank using the Knowledge assessment Methodology. The Knowledge Index or KI is an economic indicator prepared by world bank to measure a country ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge. he Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) takes into account whether the environment is conducive for knowledge to be used effectively for economic development. It is an aggregate index that represents the overall level of development of a country or region towards the Knowledge Economy. The KEI is calculated based on the average of the normalized performance scores of a country or region on all 4 pillars related to the knowledge economy - economic incentive and institutional regime, education and human resources, the innovation system and ICT. The pillar or framework to create a knowledge economy framework are :

An economic and institutional regime to provide incentives for the efficient use of existing and new knowledge and the flourishing of entrepreneurship;

An educated and skilled population to create, share, and use knowledge well;

An efficient innovation system of firms, research centers, universities, consultants and other organizations to tap into the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs, and create new technology;

Information and communication technology to facilitate the effective creation, dissemination, and processing of information.

The List of KEI and KI can be seen at world bank website. For now the rank 1 country in KEI and KI are Sweden with KEI score 9.43 and KI score 9.38. At the second place are Finland with 9.33 (KEI) and 9.22 (KI). Taiwan,China have the highest KEI and KI score among other Asian Country the KEI for Taiwan are 8.77 and 9.10 for KI. Indonesia on the other hand only rank 108 with 3.11 (KEI) and 2.99 (KI) it lower than Vietnam with 3.40 (KEI) and 3.60 (KI).

source :

• http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page5.asp
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Economic_Index

Global Warming

 

Today the climate change are serious issue with the change of global climate people around the world now are beggining to feel the impact it cause. Many theories are tried  to explain why the climate changing, altough the climate are naturaly change because local temperatures fluctuate naturally, but now over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history one theories are suggest that the one changing the temperature are cause by the global warming. Global Warming cause by Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. Even tough our planet naturally release the carbon dioxide such as form the eruption but the carbon dioxide that are gather in atmosphere approximately 90 % are coming from human activities such as using fossil fuels and deforestation. Many Expert thinks that if we don't begun to find alternative to stop the temperature to rising then there will be many bad things that are going to happen example : in 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons ever. The same year, drought created severe dust storms in Montana, Colorado and Kansas, and floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Texas, Montana and North Dakota. Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have shortened in some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington.  In 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons ever. The same year, drought created severe dust storms in Montana, Colorado and Kansas, and floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Texas, Montana and North Dakota. Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have shortened in some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. Now we must think that the effect of the global warming are not only affect the industrialized country but also it will affect all country so even if your live in a country that are using the green technology or even have a eco friendly enviroment your country are still affected by the effect of global warming sure it still help our planet but without our self awareness then is still difficult to fully stop the global warming effect.

    source :
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/solutions/default.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming#Observed_and_expected_environmental_effects
http://www.greenscroll.org/images/global-warming.jpg

TOEFL

TOEFL, or Test Of English as a Foreign Language (or TOEFL , pronounced "toe-full") evaluates the potential success of an individual to use and understand standard American English at a college level. The test is designed and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS), and TOEFL is a registered trademark of ETS. It was developed to address the problem of ensuring English language proficiency for non-native speakers wishing to study at U.S. universities. It has become an admission requirement for non-native English speakers at many English-speaking colleges and universities. Additionally, institutions such as government agencies, licensing bodies, businesses, or scholarship programs may require this test. TOEFL scores are valid for two years, after then they are no longer reported. 
The history of TOEFL test was begun in 1962 when a national council made up of representatives of thirty government and private organizations was formed to address the problem of ensuring English language proficiency for non-native speakers wishing to study at U.S. universities. It developed under direction Dr Charles.A. Ferguson at Center of Applied Linguistik and was first administered in 1964 by the Modern Language Association financed by grants from the Ford Foundation and Danforth Foundation.
In 2005 The TOEFL IBT or Internet Based Test was begun to replace both paper based and computer based. At Internet Based Text it divided to :

1. Reading, consists of 3–5 passages, each approximately 700 words in length and questions about the passages. The passages are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Passages require understanding of rhetorical functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. New types of questions in the TOEFL iBT test require filling out tables or completing summaries. Prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer.

2. Speaking,  consists of six tasks: two independent tasks and four integrated tasks. In the two independent tasks, test-takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. They are evaluated on their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently. In two of the integrated tasks, test-takers read a short passage, listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a question by combining appropriate information from the text and the talk. In the two remaining integrated tasks, test-takers listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test-takers are evaluated on their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information from the reading and listening material.

3. Writing, measures a test taker's ability to write in an academic setting and consists of two tasks: one integrated task and one independent task. In the integrated task, test-takers read a passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss the same topic and in the independent task, the test-taker must write an essay that states, explains, and supports their opinion on an issue, supporting their opinions or choices, rather than simply listing personal preferences or choices.

4.Listening, consists of six passages 3–5 minutes in length and questions about the passages. These passages include two student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions. A conversation involves two speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. A lecture is a self-contained portion of an academic lecture, which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area. Each conversation and lecture stimulus is heard only once.

reference :

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOEFL#History
2. http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/scores

advantage and disadvantage of market economy

A market economy is an economy in which decisions regarding investment, production and distribution are based on supply and demand,and prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. The major defining characteristic of a market economy is that decisions on investment and the allocation of producer goods are mainly made through markets.This is contrasted with a planned economy, where investment and production decisions are embodied in a plan of production.

A market economy has seven main characteristics: l) people buy what they want, but only if they can pay for it; 2) thus, money becomes necessary for life; 3) people are forced to do anything and to sell anything in order to get money; 4) maximizing profit rather than satisfying social needs is the aim of all production and investment; 5) discipline over those who produce the wealth of society is no longer exercised by other people (as in slavery and feudalism) but by money and the conditions of work that one must accept in order to earn money; 6) rationing of scarce goods takes place through money (based on who has more than others) rather than through coupons (based on who has worked harder or longer or has a greater need for the good); and 7) since no one is kept from trying to get rich and everyone is paid for what they do, people acquire a sense that each person gets (and has gotten) what he deserves economically, in short, that both the rich and the poor are responsible for their fates. A market economy has several important advantages and several major disadvantages: Among the advantages are :

1. Competition between different firms leads to increased efficiency, as firms do whatever is necessary—including laying off workers—to lower their costs;
2. Most people work harder (the threat of losing one's job is a great motivator);
3. There is more innovation as firms look for new products to sell and cheaper ways to do their work;
4. Foreign investment is attracted as word gets out about the new opportunities for earning profit;
5. The size, power, and cost of the state bureaucracy is correspondingly reduced as various activities that are usually associated with the public sector are taken over by private enterprises;
6. The forces of production, or at least those involved in making those things people with money at home or abroad want to buy, undergo rapid development;
7. Many people quickly acquire the technical and social skills and knowledge needed to function in this new economy;
8. A great variety of consumer goods become available for those who have the money to buy them; and
9. Large parts of the society take on a bright, merry and colorful air as everyone busies himself trying to sell something to someone else.

And the disadvantage are ;

a.             Distorted investment priorities, as wealth gets directed into what will earn the largest profit and not into what most people really need (so public health, public education, and even dikes for periodically swollen rivers receive little attention);

b.            Worsening exploitation of workers, since the harder, faster, and longer people work—just as the less they get paid—the more profit is earned by their employer (with this incentive and driven by the competition, employers are forever finding new ways to intensify exploitation);

c.             Overproduction of goods, since workers as a class are never paid enough to buy back, in their role as consumers, the ever growing amount of goods that they produce (in the era of automation, computerization and robotization, the gap between what workers produce—and can produce—and what their low wage allows them to consume has increased enormously);

d.            Unused industrial capacity (the mountain of unsold goods has resulted in a large percentage of machinery of all kinds lying idle, while many pressing needs—but needs that the people who have them can't pay for—go unmet);

e.             Growing unemployment (machines and raw materials are available, but using them to satisfy the needs of the people who don't have the money to pay for what could be made would not make profits for those who own the machines and raw materials—and in a market economy profits are what matters);

Once we have recognized all the main advantages and disadvantages of the market economy, and once we have had a chance to examine and compare them, there are three major questions that remain to be answered. First, is it possible to have the advantages of the market economy without the disadvantages? Both theory and empirical evidence argue strongly that the answer is "no". Even a quick perusal of Marx's analysis of how the market economy works reveals it as an organic whole in which each part serves as an internal aspect in the functioning of the others. Similarly, their effects, both good and bad entail one another; they are extended parts and/or necessary preconditions or effects of each other.

reference :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_economy

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/china_speech2.php

The National Monument of Indonesia

The National Monument of Indonesia or known as Monas ( short of Monumen Nasional) is one of famous landmark of Indonesia. Located in the center of Jakarta precisely at Merdeka Square, central Jakarta this monument are 132 metre (433 ft) with a flame like shape at the topof monument. The construction of Monas began in 1961 under direction of president Soekarno the first president of Indonesia. The idea to build this monument came from Soekarno himself who want to build a monument which reflecting the character of Indonesian's people. On 17 August 1954, a National Monument Committee was established and a design competition was held in 1955. This attracted 51 entries, but only one design, by Frederich Silaban, met any of the criteria determined by the committee, which included reflecting the character of Indonesia in a building capable of lasting for centuries. A repeat competition was held in 1960, but once again, none of the 136 entries met the criteria. The chairman of the jury team then asked Silaban to show his design to Sukarno. However, Sukarno did not like the design as he wanted the monument to be in the form of a linga and yoni. Silaban was asked to design such a monument, but his design was for a monument so large that it would have been unaffordable given the economic conditions at the time. Silaban refused to design a smaller monument, suggesting that construction be delayed until the Indonesian economy improved. Sukarno then asked the architect R.M. Soedarsono to continue with the design. Soedarsono incorporated the numbers 17, 8 and 45, representing the 17 August 1945 Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, in the dimensions of the monument.

The Monas can be divided to :

The Top Yard, From the top yard you could enjoy the view of Jakarta City and the wind blowing and caressing your face. In a clear weather you could enjoy the view of Salak Mountain at the south side, the ocean at the north side, and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at the west side. While you're in Monas area it's recommended to get into the top yard and enjoy the views from the top.

The Hall of Independence, located inside the cup or cawan of Monas, it  contains various symbols of independence, can be reached through spiral stairs at the north and south doors. Inside the Hall of Independence visitor can see the original text of proclamation of independence stored in a glass case inside the golden door on the west side of the inner wall a mechanized bronze doors weigh 4 tons and are coated with gold adorned with the image of awijaya kusuma flower, symbolizing eternity, and a lotus flower, symbolizing purity, the doors, known as Gerbang Kemerdekaan or the Gate of Independence, open slowly while the nationalist Padamu Negeri song plays followed by a recording of Sukarno reading the text of the Proclamation.

The National History Monument, National History Museum located at the baseman of National Monument (Monas). The width of the museum is 6400 meters (80 x 80), and the whole walls, floor, and pillars are top layered with marble. The museum can hold up to 500 people. At the four sides of the museum there are display windows that shows the life and phenomenon that Indonesian people has gone through since Indonesian ancient time.

The Flame of Independence, Monas is topped by a 14.5 ton bronze Flame of Independence containing the lift engine. The base of the flame, in the shape of a goblet, is 3 metres high. The bronze flame structure measures 14 metres in height and 6 metres in diameter, It consists of 77 sections. Originally the bronze flame structure was covered with 35 kg gold foil but at the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence in 1995, the gold foil was recoated and increased to 50 kg gold foil. The obelisk and flame symbolize the Indonesia people's struggle for independence.

reference :

http://www.indonesia-travel-guide.com/Jakarta_Travel_Guide/National_Monument_Monas/National_Monument_Monas.html

History of Jakarta Fair

History of Jakarta Fair


 

Jakarta fair or commonly known as PRJ (Pekan Raya Jakarta) is a fair that held in June and July. It held to celebrate the anniversary the city of  Jakarta (22 June). The Jakarta fair held annually in Jakarta International Expo, Kemayoran Jakarta. It main features is shopping and food festival ( especially traditional food ).

The history of Jakarta fair was begun during Dutch east Indies era or zaman kompeni belanda. Originally it called Pasar Gambir held to celebrate the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina in 31 August 1898an later to celebrate the queen birthday. The location to held Pasar Gambir is in Koningsplein (now Merdeka Square), according “de Sumatra Post” (publish 2 September1907) pasar gambir featuring parade, public audience, and fair for a full day. The concept of pasar gambir is a nigh market where people around the city can enjoy themselves by watching the parade, football game, karapan sapi or enjoying the traditional food it also used to promote the product and invention from Europe.

Sadly, when Japanese force came at the beginning of world war, pasar gambir was stopped to celebrate. After the Indonesia independence pasar gambir was held again for first time in 1968, it change the name to the Djakarta fair. The fist Djakarta fair inaugurated by president Soeharto and took placefrom 5 June to 20 July 1968. The location to held the fair not to far from the beginning it held at Merdeka Square now it held near the National Monumen (Monas). The idea to hold a grand fair in jakarta was initiated by the current Governor at that time Mr. Ali Sadikin. He sought to combine several night markets held throughout the city inspired by the colonial era pasar gambir.

Over time, Jakarta fair that held in National Monument area no longer able to accommodate the visitor and participant of fair so finally in 1992 the fair location was change to Kemayoran where it still held until now.

The custom to held a nigh market also carried over to Dutch by European or Indo-european who ever lived in Indonesia but move away after the Indonesia independence, they held a similar festival called The Tong Tong Fair (formely known as Pasar Malam Besar) where it held anualy at the Dutch City of The Hague.

           

Source :

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta_Fair

·        http://disperindgi.jakarta.go.id/sejarah-pekan-raya-jakarta/

·        http://www.jiexpo.com/home.php

Green Economy

Green Economic is a model of economy that not only based of material value but also in ecological value. Generally “green economic” is any economic theory that an economy considered component of the ecosystem that it resides. This mean that natural capital and ecological service have a economic value and a full cost accounting regime in which costs externalized onto society via ecosystems are reliably traced back to, and accounted for as liabilities of, the entity that does the harm or neglects an asset.

One international institution that promote the concept of the green economy is the United Nations Environment Programme or UNEP. In UNEP website, the green economic is one result in that not only improved human well being and society but also to significantly reducing the environmental risk and ecological scarcities. Since for almost two centuries we can see that industria or capitalist definition of wealth has always been about the accumulation of money and matter, even sometimes forgot about the side-effect, by-product of we accumulate the money and matter from the industry. A postindustrial world requires an economics of quality, where both money and matter are returned to a status of means to an end.  Green economics means a direct focus on meeting human and environmental need.      

The means of green economy is not only about the environment. Certainly the concept of economic must also harmonize with natural system, but to do that we need great creativity, knowledge, and the participation of everyone. Ecological development requires an unleashing of human development and an extension of democracy.  Social and ecological transformation go hand-in-hand.  

Here are ten interrelated principles that cover key dimensions of a green economy :

1.      The Primacy of Use-value, Intrinsic Value & Quality, the principle of green economy that mean that green economy is a service economy, focused on end used or human and environment needs.

2.      Following Natural Flows

3.      Waste Equals Food, In nature there is no waste, as every process output is an input for some other process. This principle implies not only a high degree of organizational complementarity, but also that outputs and by-products are nutritious and non-toxic enough to be food for something.  

4.      Elegance and Multifunctionality

5.      Appropriate Scale / Linked Scale, This does not simply mean "small is beautiful", but that every regenerative activity has its most appropriate scale of operation. Even the smallest activities have larger impacts, however, and truly ecological activity "integrates design across multiple scales", reflecting influence of larger on smaller and smaller on larger (Van der Ryn and Cowan, 1996).

6.      Diversity

7.      Self-Reliance, Self-Organization, Self-Design

8.      Participation & Direct Democracy

9.      Human Creativity and Development

10.  The Strategic role of the Built-environment, the Landscape & Spatial Design

 Source :

·        http://www.greeneconomics.net/what2f.htm

·        http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/AboutGEI/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/tabid/29786/Default.aspx

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_economy