.... without really trying.
There's an ad in full colour which takes up a third of the back page of today's Jakarta Post. I'm not quoting it because it's advertising a Bakrie company.
FLY THE FLAG PROUDLY ...
(if only the pole was higher)
Bakrie Telecom in its apreciation to our teachers,
is granting scholarship for teachers and providing
computer equipment complete with internet facilities
and esia's Fixed Wireless Phone to schools in Bogor,
Ciligon, and Serang to keep broadening and
heightening knowledge.
Bakrie Telecom wishes "Happy Education Day"
Gain more education and fly higher, Indonesia!
I'm quoting it because in spite of Bakrie's squillions, no-one could be bothered to proofread the ad before submitting it to the Post. Apart from equating education with flag flying, which may well be laudable although awkardly put, and discovering that on the Bakrie Telecom website that Esia (capitalised) is the trade name, spot the spelling and punctuation mistakes, note the incorrect particle and wonder who the ad is aimed at.
I think we're supposed to think that Bakrie is wonderful, which I may have been disposed to be if they had consulted, say, the British Council, which is full of university educated native speakers.
Except, temporarily one presumes, their website displays this message:
The British Council's website is currently undergoing maintainance.
Oh dear, chaps. Haven't you got a spell checker on your amazingly wonderful computer network?
I have long felt that if an institution wishes to demonstrate a caring commitment to its community or clientele, it should pay attention to the small details; if they can't be bothered to do that, then what guarantees are there that they give a damn about the bigger picture?
Consider these excerpts from the English pages of Batan, Indonesia's Nuclear Energy Agency.
The discovery of livestock-food supplement called Urea Multinutrien Molasses Block (UMMB) is another glorious breakthrough in livestock-food engineering. This food ingredients, which is able to stimulate sexual desire of livestock such as cow, buffalo, and goat, contains vitamin essential for the growth of such livestock. Research in food of livestock was originally directed toward animal fatting. It turns out that the UMMB has a special capability of stimulating sexual desire of livestock, and hence creating fast-breeding livestock.
After being trained and supervised for some time, nowadays farmers in Wonosobo produce by themselves the round-thin molasses blocks, called Cow Pills.
And ...
Northern seaside of West Java has been long recognized as dependable cropland for rice due to its vast area, spanning widely from Karawang to Indramayu. Even though many rice fields have been used for industrial estates, most farmers are still keeping their fields for rice plantation. In this place, the originating seeds of Cilosari rice - known as The Dragon Beard - were planted by the farmers in the neighboring areas.
Direct inspection to the rice fields and interviews with the farmers revealed that Cilosari rice variety is not only immune against the brown insects (wereng coklat) but also resistance against the attackful insects (hama beluk) - a type of insects that eats and cuts off the trunk of rice trees. Non-Cilosari rice varieties suffered seriously from these two types of malicious insects and resulted in the death of the rice trees and empty crop.
To give Batan its due, the Government Act on Nuclear Energy, Number 10 Year 1997, is actually in very good English and, hence, a worthwhile read. My only worry is that the act was seemingly promulgated With the Blessing of God the Almighty the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
The absence of an 'and' is worrying, although it should be remembered that Suharto was still president in 1997.
