Haram is Inappropriate for Smokers

Last night I saw the television program talked about Islamic law (makruh or haram) against smoking among the ulemas. They debated about Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) decision to prohibit smoking by labeling it ‘haram’. Their reasons approximately similar with something written in this blog. However, there is a side which refused the ‘haram’ label since this country isn’t the islamic monarchy yet. So, the government will take the role to make a policy about smoking. This side is agree when smoking should be labeled ‘makruh’. So, what’s my opinion?

Nope, I’m not a smoker that try to make approbation in this case. I’ve stopped smoking for last three years and I agree if smoking can damage the body health although I don’t have capacity to say it since I’m not health expertise. I just feel charitable since that normative thing is debated. Honestly, I never believe that people will always obey to instigation, even it’s religious instigation! In other words, fatwa is not efficient to reduce the smokers. For me, when we make some policies, we gotta know about our constituent behavior. Our people may be religious, but they are human. They will look for the space where they can do it (smoke). The negative incentive or obvious punishment must be applied for the smokers, since we live at the earth, not heaven.

Love & Security Market Line

A while ago I got two ‘outflows’ from my closed friends about their romantic story. The stories has similar plot about the beast and the beautiful. The beast here is not only on my friends’ face, but also their financial condition. So as the beautiful. However, the ‘beautiful’ species here is little bit different. The first beautiful is the heredity of the legislator in this republic, the second one is the heredity of one of the biggest furniture entrepreneur in this republic.

The big deal is the princes above don’t know what to do to reach their dream. Every night, they dream their respective woman. It seems like they just have a little bit chance since they don’t have similar value with their dreams. As you know that, the dating in Indonesia can be analogized as supply-demand law in classical economics. Here, I don’t wanna give an obvious solution for them all. I’m not a Don Juan that can vanquish all the women in the world. I just wanna share my unique idea about choosing the women love by using CAPM

Crusaders at Cellular Industry of Indonesia

It’s been a common phenomenon if the cellular operators in Indonesia participate the war price for flattering customers to move in their operators. Honestly, I don’t like that climate since it possible to conduce many victim as many as crusades. The victims are players, civilians, until the weapon they use for.

Yesterday, I got from this website that the complain against cellular operator is getting more and more. One of the complain above is the advertising trap. The advertisement seems like trap the customers by providing a very low tariff (and free tariff). In the hang in time, suddenly it’s disconnected. My blogger friend from Jogjakarta has complained too, you can read her complain here. I just laugh since I ever underwent the same problem, a while ago.

That’s it, the story above is one of the negative effect caused by the price war. It can create a condition where the company will struggle to reduce cost of good sold (COGS) for pushing the production cost. An extreme impact of the COGS reducing is minimum quality control that can ignore the customers’ satisfaction level to the product. It’s been happened in aero-plane industry like Adam Air case, Lion Air case, etc.

The Complicated Problems of Insurance

The Problems

Insurance industry is one of the business way that initially supposed to be one of the most prospective industry in Indonesia since the country have large people population. However, in the process of the industry, there are many problems which has been attached. Start from the market structure problems, until the customers’ ones.

Oversupply

There are over supply phenomenon between insurance producer and the consumers. Whereas, Indonesia with the population until 220 million people should be an affluent market to grow. So, what’s the problem? The affluent market has convoked may players to play within. So, the players is too many, and they just become minor companies so that they get difficulties to expand their operations. As we know, the market leader here only have 12,08% market share.

Let’s Talk About The Oil Price in Indonesia

Yesterday, my friend showed me about the Kwik Kian Gie’s article about his counter statement against the increasing of fuel price in Indonesia, last June. The same things has been shown by Professor Kwik in Aula Setyaningrum, University of Indonesia 4 years ago. I don’t know, is Mr Kwik speaking up as an economist or politician. The Mr Kwik’s article can be read in here. He said that we still have profit although the world oil price has been raised since we have our own oil reserve and it can be sold with low price (moreover, it can be free). We just have to spend the production costs to make the raw oil materials into finished good like premium, pertamax, etc. Instead of sold to another countries, the oil should  be retained to fulfill our needs. So, the government still can subsidize the civilians. It looks like a good idea, right? But for me, Mr Kwik opinion doesn’t make sense.

Trading, Branding, & Change

The world is about trading. why did I type those words? It’s not solely that I’m a business student, but more than that. Trading, what is trading? trading is a mechanism between many sides for exchanging something that they’re owned. It has done since pre-history era. In those moments, the trade doesn’t use any medium of exchange like money, in which goods or services are exchanged for other goods and/or services too. I’m interested in many real phenomenon that all of things have been practiced. For instance, an employee actually just sell his labor so that the firm give them some incentives like wage, salary, bonus, etc. Even in Pariaman’s culture, a marriage is decided based-on bride’s side bid. If the groom is a doctor, for instance, consequently the bid offer will be higher than a farm. So as man-woman dating in Jakarta, in which a man must have something special that can be “sold” against the woman in order to the woman is interested in him. If the man is poor,whether in financial or educational position, then he’ll get the couple in same or similar with him. It’s like a supply-demand theory in the equilibrium market. That’s above, only little instances that’s occurred in this world.