Kirain tenang-tenang aja, eh kok ada tembak-tembakan sama tornado di Jerman?

Hi you guys!

Jadi ceritanya hari ini gue cuma mau blabbering idup di Jerman seperti biasa.

Gue kira selama ini negara bagian tempat gue tinggal dan kota yang gue tinggalin sekarang itu tempatnya tenang-tenang aja, ga ricuh, ga demo-demoan kayak di Berlin pas kemarin corona lagi tinggi, pokoknya adem ayem.

Eh tapi kok hari ini tornado terus dulu sempet ada tembak-tembakan

Jadi gini, kalo untuk yang tembak-tembakan ini kejadiannya udah lumayan lama. Mungkin 2-3 bulan yang lalu? Gue udah ga inget sih tapi yang gue inget itu deket sama kasus Palestine sama Israel yang waktu itu sempet rame lagi. Berarti sekitar lebaran ya kayaknya? Motifnya juga sebenernya gak jelas karena pelakunya seinget gue ketembak terus meninggal. Kirain Amerika doang heboh senjata eh kok kota gue ada juga :”) sampe kaget. Waktu itu si pelaku ini katanya nembak 2 orang di kota lain atau distrik yang deket Kiel gotu terus dia kabur terus sembunyi di Kiel. Pokoknya pas itu sampe ada himbauan dari polisi gaboleh keluar rumah/tempat kerja/dll gitu. Terus jalanan sampe diblokir dijaga polisi. Pelakunya ketangkep hari itu juga sih tapi malem jam 10 dan ketangkepnya di perjalanan dia lagi kabur lagi ke arah Hamburg seinget gue.

Nah kalo yang hari ini, gue merasakan tornado untuk pertama kalinya. Yah tembak tembakan sampe kayak gitu juga pertama kali sih. Setau gue, Jerman itu hampir ga pernah ada cuaca ekstrem. Biasanya disini angin kenceng gitu, tapi emang kenceng bener sih. Wew. Kemarin tuh cuaca masih kayak agak panas tapi emang di forecast bakalan ujan terus 1 sampe 2 minggu ke depan. Tadi siang gue makan lah di Mensa (kantin) sama temen temen gue karena udah lama kan. Dan kebetulan lagi ada temen gue orang Perancis yang dulu ERASMUS di Kiel lagi main, jadi kita ke kantin makan siang bareng. Emang berawan tapi masih ada sedikit matahari. Terus mulai tambah dingin tuh pas kita balik jam 2 atau 3pm an. Terus ujan deh sekitar jam 5 atau 6. Dan sekitar jam 10 gue cek hape ada notif dari berita gitu kalau tadi di Kiel abis ada tornado.

Hah? Tornado? Yang kayak di film-film itu? Yang kayak di Amerika? Hah? Kok bisa?

Dan ternyata ini tornado pertama di Kiel sejak 50 tahun. Wow.

Kiel is wild, man.

Gue bersyukur sih gue ga deket sama tempat kejadian dan ada beberapa orang yang ternyata ketiup terus kecebur ke laut gitu. Kalau gue kecebur ke laut kayaknya jaminan ga selamat :” aing ga bisa berenang….

Anyway, gitu aja sih gue cuma mau nge-rant gue kaget juga akhir-akhir ini banyak kejadian yang ga terduga gitu. Jadi kalau kalian pikir di luar negeri lebih aman dan sebagainya (iya kayak gue mikir kirain ga ada bencana alam yang parah dsb disini), ya gak juga sister, bruder. But yea, stay safe and stay sane! Dont forget to wear your mask and get your vaccine!

Cheers,

Kemmy

Indonesia’s Jurassic Park and Environmental Valuation

Rinca Island (Photo by Azis Pradana on Unsplash)

Hey you guys!

So last semester I took a class called “Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services.” One of the assignments that we needed to submit and present was to find a news on the internet and correlate it with environmental valuation and how the valuation can help in this regards. As someone who is really interested in environmental economics, I was, of course, really enjoyed the class and the assignments.

In this post I would like to tell you a bit about the paper that I have wrote in 2020. So here you go, the short version of my assignment:

Komodo National Park, which aims to conserve the unique Komodo dragon and its habitat, is located in the center of Indonesia archipelago at East Nusa Tenggara Province. However, the government unveiled controversial plans to turn part of the site (Rinca island) into a Jurassic Park-style tourist attraction as a premium tourism site in October 2019. In addition, it is reported that the Komodo dragon will be lured into the site after the project is finished as the main attraction of the island.

This project will damage the overall ecosystem of the island due to landscape changes and concrete heavy system. This, of course, will affect the Komodo dragons’ survival rate and behavior. For instance, the intentional feeding will make the accustom to receiving food from humans and act aggressive towards human. Furthermore, this project might contaminate groundwater from drilling wells and produce CO2 emissions from diesel generator. This project affects not only wildlife, but also locals. Despite the opposition by many, this project is still ongoing and is predicted to be finished by June 2021.

The government did not provide the monetary value projection which will be gained from this project and there is no information on the value of the damaged ecosystem. In other words, there is no information that can be used to compare the two. Hence, environmental valuation can help the decision-makers to measure the effects of environmental change on monetary scale. In this case, cost benefit analysis (CBA) can’t be done as it is typically conducted before a project is implemented and it is unlikely that the government suddenly decide to stop the construction. Therefore, technical use can be applied to assess the natural resource damage after the project is completed. In addition, informative use to see the value of the national park in general can also be done to increase awareness of the value of nature.

If you wanna find out more about the news, you could read it here:

1. BBC: Viral photo sparks concerns about Indonesia’s ‘Jurassic Park’
2. TEMPO: Facts Behind the Jurassic Park-esque Project at Komodo’s Habitat
3. TEMPO: Locals Strongly Reject ‘Jurassic Park’ Project at Komodo National Park Area
4. Jakarta Post: Govt denies ‘Jurassic Park’ claims amid controversy surrounding Rinca Island project
5. ABC Australia: Indonesia’s Jurassic Park-inspired tourist attraction worries Komodo dragon fans

(This academic paper was written while studying the M.Sc. “Environmental Management” at Christian-Albrechts Universität (CAU) in Kiel, Germany)

Cheers,

Kemmy

VISTA #11: COVID-19 and Cancelled Flights

Hey you guys!

Sooo I am currently at home in Indonesia since mid February. My plan was to go back to Germany by 20 March but then everything turns into havoc (is it a correct situation to use the word in a sentence?).

My initial flight got cancelled 2 days before departure since my flight had a short layover (30 minutes) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the government announced that they wanted to do a national lockdown. Then I rescheduled my flight with my friend to the next week, 27 March. We still used the same airline though by this time. So the next flight was supposed to fly from Jakarta to Singapore (transit for around 3-4 hours) then to Amsterdam (transit for 4-5 hours) and to Hamburg. But then couple of days before my departure, I saw that my flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg had been cancelled without any notification to me either via the airline apps nor email. Basically, no notification really.

I tried to find a solution in this problem, so I contacted my friend who currently lives in Leiden and told her that my flight was cancelled and I was planning to take train from Amsterdam to Hamburg. I saw that the train was still operating and I asked her if I could stay at her place if there is any problem suddenly comes up and I have to stay in the Netherlands. Alright, problem solved right? Right? Ohhohoho of course not.

Then 2 days before my departure, my friend told me that Singapore forbid any short term visitor including transit. Great. Now my flight from Jakarta to Singapore has been cancelled. But weirdly enough, my flight from Singapore to Amsterdam was not cancelled. Umm, excuse me? How can I get to Singapore again? Swim from Jakarta to Singapore? Wut? My flight from Jakarta to Hamburg was with the same airline and I bought the ticket directly from them and I am not sure why they didnt cancel my flight from Singapore to Amsterdam as well. Because of that I could not really do anything, I could not reschedule my ticket sad. I tried to contact them but it is sooooo hard. Nothing gets through basically. Oh well, I can kind of understand but come on…. And now the refund is not in the form of cash but travel voucher, correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know, you could not do that and the passengers are entitled to have their money back.

After couple of days being confused on what to do and when should I go back etc, I finally decided to refund my ticket. I guess it’s better than to get nothing in return? Besides, I dont know how long the ban will last so rescheduling flight again and again is pointless in my opinion

I am now planning to go back to Germany by finding a direct flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. Hopefully i can find one. Again guys I am not trying to speak ill of the airline or anyone really, I just vent my frustration basically.

I know this is a difficult time for all of us, I am sorry for spreading such negativity but I just need to let it all out guys, I really just wanna go back home as I still have my classes and yes of course I understand there are many with problem similar or even worse to me. Stay strong, stay safe, stay healthy and please do what the government told you to do. Stay at home, so they could do their job and lets hope and pray (if you guys believe in God) that this too shall pass soon.

Cheers

Kemmy