May She Rots In Hell

We don’t know why a mother would kill another mother’s child. -Sgt. Tony Sheneman, Tracy Police Department (West California), on Melissa Huckaby’s killing an 8 year old girl.

Not only she killed the 8 year old Sandra Cantu after kidnapping her, but also rape the girl with a foreign object and lewd or lascivious act with her. After done killing the little girl, she put Sandra in a suitcase and dumped it in a pond. Melissa Huckaby (28) is a Sunday school teacher at her grandfather’s church where he’s a priest at. According to KTLA News, authorities believe Sandra was killed in the church next to the trailer park where both the Huckaby and the girl’s family live.

I’m flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Stupefied. Thunderstrucked.

How could you do that to a little girl? To take someone’s life is mind boggling, but to take it out of a small child who’s only eight year old and couldn’t fight back? What a coward, psycho, low life individual. Sandra probably just learned how to spell ‘t-e-c-h-n-o-l-o-g-y’. Or she just learned how to do a two-digit addition. How could you do such horrible things to a young human being who probably did not know how to hate yet?

And the fact that the killer is a Sunday school teacher, daughter of a priest and a mother herself? How could she do such an evil thing while she’s brought up full of religious values? How would she be able of caring and loving her own child but terminate her child’s playmate?

My daughter is the same age as Sandra. She’s also a second grader. She also has brown hair. It’s probably why I got emotional reading this news. But on her public memorial service, a lot of people cried. Even big, beefy guys in biker’s outfit. Somebody said, “We were praying everyday, and everyone thought that Sandra would come home OK.”

Maybe God was too busy to save Sandra’s life. Maybe God’s not there. Maybe there’s no God.

I know I don’t have the patience of an angel, I yelled at my daughter when I got impatient. I spanked here when she was smaller. But to torture and then kill? I will never understand the reason why this demonic woman slayed Sandra.

If she’s proven guilty, I hope she’d get tortured in prison. I hope she’d rot in a place she’d call HELL.

My Big Dilemma of the Year: Listen to the Travel Warning or Risk the Kids’ Life?

Now that the Bali Bombers are dead (executed last night, or Sunday 11/9 at 00:15 am Indonesia time), I am regretting something. Not that I regret they’re dead, I solely believe they deserved it. But I’m regretting the fact that our family travel plan to go home to Jakarta was cancelled. This year, my plan to bring my hubby, children and my father-in-law to experience Jakarta and meet my biological family was demolished.

As you may know, Indonesia’s always been notorious with travel warning ever since… forever. Umm, let me take that back. Approximately since 1998, if I’m not mistaken. But as an Indonesian, living in Indonesia, in the capital city, Jakarta, I didn’t really see what the hoopla was about. When I was still a citizen of Jakarta, I used to feel frustrated to read about what the international media say about Indonesia, and more spesifically, Jakarta. As an insider, I don’t think Jakarta’s situation was a ‘red alert’ or as scary as they said in the news.

My attitude was forced to change a little bit when I married an American and now have two interracial children. I can no longer say, “Who cares about the travel warnings, it’s usually just to scare you away from going. Nothing bad would happened.” I bet that was not what the casualties from the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing (2000), the Christmas Eve Indonesia bombings (2000), Bali bombing (2002), JW Marriott’s bombing (2003), the Australian embassy bombing (2004) or again the Bali bombing (2005) would like to hear. An by the way, those bombings were courtesy of the Jema’ah frickin’ Islamiyah. Which lead me to question, why doesn’t the Indonesian government ban J.I. like they do Ahmadiyah?

This year, I was being tested. We had planned, around May this year, to go to Jakarta as our annual family vaation. It was a Mother’s Day present from my kids to me that they’ll join me to go home (originally I was going alone). The excitement was built up, as I, as a mother of half Indonesian children, am longing to bring my children to the place I was born and grew up at. I made detailed travel plan and itinerary on places we’re going to. I wanted them to see and experience the difference of living, eating, studying in two places (Iowa, USA and Jakarta, Indonesia). I announced to all of my families and friends about this and promised to some to meet up and introduce the two parties. My mom was in tears when I called her to let her know about this and how she’s been longing to see and touch her grandkids. I was drooling over thinking all the food and drinks that I’ve missed. Everybody was so psyched.

Until the announcement of the execution came along, and sparked the travel warning again. Most intensively, from the Australian government:

 

We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Indonesia, including Bali, at this time due to the very high threat of terrorist attack.

The Indonesian Government announced on 9 November that the three individuals convicted for involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing were executed on 9 November. The executions could prompt a strong reaction from their supporters such as demonstrations, acts of violence and reprisal attacks.

We continue to receive credible information that terrorists could be planning attacks in Indonesia. You should exercise great care, particularly around locations that have a low level of protective security, including where Western tourists gather such as beaches, bars, malls and other venues associated with foreign interests. We continue to receive credible information that Bali remains an attractive target for terrorists.

We are aware that many young Australian school graduates may be travelling to Bali in mid-late November and early December. We urge these young Australians and their parents, like other Australians, to exercise heightened caution at this time. Australians should register their travel with the Australian Government on www.smartraveller.gov.au and take out travel insurance.

If you do decide to travel to Indonesia, you should exercise extreme caution.

There have been recent arrests of high level terrorist operatives in Indonesia, but we assess terrorists are continuing to plan attacks. These attacks could take place at any time, anywhere, including in places frequented by foreigners. Previous terrorist attacks against Westerners in Bali and Jakarta indicate these areas are priority targets. You should take particular care to avoid places known to be terrorist targets.

Hubby and I got into a hot argument. I was trying to assure him that nothing bad would happen; that the Indonesian authorities made announcement that the threats were just a hoax. Tried to assure him that by the time we got there (late November), those three men would be a dead meat and the situation would winding down. He went berserk. He asked me is I was a 100% sure, that I thought the political experts were just making the travel warnings up and that I would risk our children’s life. That’s when I stopped and finally regain my rationality. Do I really want to risk their life being bombed, kidnapped, or even slightly injured in this situation? Just because my kids don’t look white at all, their father is (along with my father-in-law), and that they both have a big target on his back.

I apologize to families and friends that we can’t meet up with you guys. Melly and Juinita, sorry guys. Maybe next year when I go home alone. Now that we have everything booked for Thailand, I just found out that those bastards were executed and [for now] everything seems to be okay. If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Would you go to a place where some people hate you because of your nationality? Let’s say you have a family in Baghdad or Rwanda, would you go there with your spouse and children? Or are we just whimps?

The Circle of Bribery

Just heard about the Indonesian businesswoman who was sentenced for five years in jail after bribing a senior prosecutor to drop a major emblezzlement case. What the hell was she thinking? A prosecutor? Kudos for the current Indonesian president, SBY, who is keeping his word as promised in 2004 to fight corruption. More details here.

Speaking of bribery, have you ever done one? As long as I could remember, I have not intentionally bribed  an ‘official’ before. I did not have the stomach for it, nor know how to do so. Not a police officer, not a government employee, nor the like. Even when I was actually asked by the ‘official’ himself [to bribe], I was not quite following the down low and just gave him a dumb look, “Huh?”

An example. Long time ago, when I was visiting a police station to get some kind of paper work to apply for a job. In Bahasa Indonesia, it’s called Surat Tanda Kelakuan Baik (STKB), which basically stating that I don’t have any criminal records and I’m a good girl. The officer literally said that if I could come back with a pack of cigarette for him, he’d have it done in 2 hours instead of making me come back the next day or two. Since I was in desperate need for that paper work, I did go find his stinkin’ kretek (clove) cigarette. Sure enough, when I came back 90 minutes later after eating road side ketoprak for lunch, it was ready.

Another example was when I applied for my first ID card or Kartu Tanda Penduduk (KTP) at a local sub-division administrative office (kelurahan). The person behind the counter who happened to look like an official (with his brown government uniform and all those emblems) told me that with some extra money, I could have it done on the same day. When I asked ‘how come?’ , the guy got somewhat offended (which I don’t quite understand). So I thanked him for the offer and said I was fine with the waiting time. He got really upset, “Ya udah. Kalo Ibu nggak mau dibantu, dan mau nunggu lama, terserah aja.” Which would be roughly translated, “Well then, if you don’t want to be helped, and prefer to wait a long time, go ahead.”

Indonesian police officer on the road is mostly notorious, especially in Jakarta. There are certain busy intersections that have too many policemen standing by, waiting for us to make a wrong turn, then whistled us. The scary one is Bunderan HI or the roundabout in front of Hotel Indonesia. I was riding with a friend, and her car was the very front in line at the stoplight. She nervously asked me, “Is this lane OK to make a U-turn? Should I not be on this one? Shit, it’s green! What should I do? Should I go ahead or keep going straight? Aww *bleep* they whistled me. Oh *bleep* here he comes!”
My friend is a very confident woman. Unlike in the US, the driver in Jakarta was OK to get out of a car to talk to the officer. And that’s what she did, after grabbing some money from her purse. I was actually the one who’s sweating and got my heart racing pretty fast. I saw my girl friend was trying to smooth talking the stern-looking officer. Later, I saw her reached something out of her pocket and put something on the officer’s hand so smoothly, it looked like they were shaking hands. The officer looked around to see if anybody’s looking, before he took the ‘thing’ from my friend.

I don’t know how this mentality became a habit for us Indonesians. Is it because we like to do it to get out of a sticky situation? Thus created a suply-demand circle with the authorities? Because if we don’t initiate uang pelicin or money offer to get the proposal get done quickly, officials won’t expect or hope for bribery. Just do it properly, follow the rules, you’ll get there. Eventually.

Flood Season?

Felt like we just got done with Winter. Snowstorm, snow and sleet, snow this, and snow that. We were bombarded with the snow, it made the transition from Winter to Spring rather unnoticeable. I honestly felt like Spring was not going to happen at all.

And now, while Spring is finally here [and almost gone], it was not behaving nicely either. Apparently Lady Spring thought, “Well, if Father Winter could do it, I can too!” And swoosh… came down the rain. Lots and lots of them. Four to even seven days straight full water/hail pouring down from the sky. Our county has gone from thunderstorm watch, thunderstorm warning, flood watch, flood warning, flash flood watch, flash flood warning, tornado watch, and tornado warning. Because of the thunderstorms at night, the kids have been sleeping with me (including Max, our pet) while Dad evacuated himself to the basement. The four of us on my bed curled up like shrimps, close to each other, with our heads under the pillows; attempted to reduce the boom! noise and the bright lightning. 

Midwest has been hit the worst by the rain. Iowa, mostly. Many places were either flooded or hit by a tornado. Late May, a tornado hit Parkersburg, IA; killed 7 people and injured at least 50 people. Parkersburg is about 83 miles from Ames -the town we live in- and only 30 miles away from where my in-laws live: Denver, IA. One of my husband’s cousins live there and her house was flattened by the tornado and is now homeless. Looking at the aerial picture of Parkersburg after being hit (or video)was like looking at a demolished war zone. No buildings remain, just piles of debris. One could not tell where downtown was anymore, or location of houses. Can’t quite tell where one used to live, because the street name was blown away and other landmarks were destroyed.

About a couple of weeks later, a twister hit Little Sioux Scout Ranch (advanced Boys Scout camp) in western Iowa, near Nebraska state line. The twister struck as Iowa, like other midwestern states, was dealing with severe flooding along the upper Mississippi River. Four children were killed, while 40 were injured. From what I read, there was a group of scouts who were out hiking at the time of disaster. Seriously, weren’t they aware that bad weather is approaching? Don’t they have some kind of weather alert system, radio, or TV? But I guess there’s no point in questioning all this. Don’t cry over spilt milk, they said. 

The overflow Cedar River forced Cedar Rapids, IA, to evacuate the Mercy Medical Center hospital. Isn’t that crazy? How’d you able to evacuate hundreds of patients in a hurry? Post op patients, elderly patients, patients on wheelchairs, not to mention complicated ones; what a frantic situation I bet it was. The engorged river flowed through Cedar Rapids’ downtown. Hundreds of city blocks were under water, and in some neighborhoods the water was 8 feet high.

Des Moines, Iowa’s capital city, was also flooded. Many of its resident left after a voluntary evacuation request issued on Friday, June 13. So was Burlington, Coralville, Davenport, Iowa City, and more.

The town we live in, Ames, was not flooded as bad as those towns. ‘Just’ a golf course and a couple of streets/parks were flooded. I was actually driving on one of the main road one day, going from work to downtown. I was amazed when I drove back for the same route, the road was closed because it was flooded. I was just driving on it 35 minutes ago and it was fine! The raging South Skunk River was just overflowing so fast, the officials weren’t anticipating it at all, I guess. Judging from the last minute road closed and traffic detour. What usually takes 15 minutes ended up being a 45 minutes deal due to traffic.

   

Last Saturday we went on road trip ’to see the flood’. I know it sounded sad, but we were just intrigued. We heard that the U.S. Highway 30 between Boone and Ogden had to be closed because of the flood. We usually drove on that road to go to a state park, and the scenery around it is so pretty. Not boring flat or corn field-y like most of Central Iowa’s scenery, but hilly and curvy. We weren’t the only ones who were touristing the sites, others too. They were just watching… being a curious human being. Some were taking pictures/videos, and some went kanoeing! I couldn’t believe it… some people were actually took their canoe, loaded it up on top of their vehicles, took their kids along with them, drove there, and went kanoeing! That’s pretty risky, I thought.

Now that the rain had stopped pouring like crazy, the flood had decreased little by little. Everybody’s question is now, “What’s in the water?” Other than mud, there’s some scary shit stuff in it like naxious brew of sewage, farm chemicals and fuel. I read somewhere in the paper that the water just reeked of pig feces and diesel fuel in Oakville. Ugh, I couldn’t even imagine how horrible that is.

What about the stress level? Your belongings are destroyed or long gone, you have to live in a shelter (mostly a high school gym) with strangers, the worn out volunteer and Iowa National Guard who was working on the levees, you either still have to clean up your super messy house or find a way to rebuild your house, your medications were swept away by the flood, questionable of safe water to drink, tetanus from the nasty water if they got a cut/laceration, and not to mention mosquitos.

How stressful. It’s probably not as bad as The Great Midwest Flood 1993, but still…

PS: Thanks to the writer, for your concerned comment in my ‘Saya’ page. We’re safe and fine. Our part of Iowa is on a higher ground. 

If Two-Faces Baby Were Your Child

Why do parents put their kids on braces? Why do they want to spend a lot of money and time to make sure their kids’ smiles are perfect? When their teenagers are starting to have acnes, why don’t parents mind spending cash on dermatology products and consultation? Why are parents okaying their youngsters’ wish to switch the glasses to contact lenses? Giving the health-related answers would be very common, but let’s be frank: it’s to make them look good.

I’ll be honest. I had my mole on my face removed 7 years ago because not only it was noticeable, but it started to itch and growing in size. Again, health reason and look-awareness. Why did I agree to suffer multiple tooth extraction and braces tightening for 28 for months? Sure my dentist was concerned about my mouth being over crowded (I used to have 32!) and it was hard to keep them clean and decay-free. He also mentioned something about crossbite. But to be honest, I hated my crooked teeth. I tried to switch from eyeglasses to contact lenses, especially to go out socializing, but I hate poking my cornea. So then, back to eyeglasses to complete my dorky look.

When my 5 year old son was diagnosed with chronic hyperopia or farsightedness (difficulty seeing up close), I felt so bad. My boy has to wear glasses in such a young age?  I groaned. What if his friends make fun of him? I worried. Spending extra on ’hip’ glasses was our choice. Yes, I still want him to look good besides to able to see.

We all very cautious about how we look. Consciously or not. To ourselves, to our children, to people we care about. Sometimes we care about it too much, we judge people by it. When the Indian baby girl was born with two faces in mid March (read here), I deeply symphatized with the parents. Like the rest of the world, my first reaction was ‘Omg!’. Then as I followed the news, I learned that the father of Lali -the baby’s name, meaning ‘red’ because of her cheeks- had refused the doctors suggestion to have a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal. He felt that his daughter is acting normally, therefor no need for the test.

Lali has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali’s facial features are duplicated -two noses, two pairs of lips, and two pairs of eyes. Regardless, her parents who are poor farm workers, think she is fine just like any other child. Even though Lali’s rare condition often linked to serious health complications, the doctors of Saifi Hospital in New Delhi saw no need for surgery. Reason being, she has no breathing difficulties. ‘Nuf said.

As I did more online research on Lali, I found out that some people’s reaction toward the treatment refusal is somewhat concerning. “Why would you as a parent do that [refusing]?!” a coworker exclaimed.

Others worried about the child’s psychological development when she’s growing up. If peers should giving her a hard time. If she’d be making fun of. But since they live on a rural India which is very superstitious and the fact that Lali is already hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess, maybe she’ll be okay. Some says she’s the reincarnation of Durga or Shakti. Living among people who think you have a god-like status is not so bad after all. The village chief wanting to built a temple on your behalf. Hundreds of people want to see you, touch your feet out of respect, and even offer money to receive blessings. Not a bad life, huh?  

I don’t know what would happen should this take place in United States, to an American. Would the parents undergo a surgery to ‘fix’ the baby? Look at Abigail and Brittany Hensel. Born 18 years ago, the conjoined twins are still inseparable and live happily with their mom who is a registered nurse and a carpenter/landscaper dad. The twins have made many media appearances and have a younger brother and sister. I think they have an amazing parents who don’t judge a book by its cover and love them unconditionally.

First Time In History, Catholic Is Not At The Top; Muslim Is

As I was reading the newspaper during my lunch break few days ago, the World News section mentioned: World has greater number of Muslims than Catholics: ”For the first time in history, we’re no longer at the top. The Muslims have surpassed us,” said Msgr. Formenti.

“Hm.” I thought.

And that’s it, no more no less. Although I was born and raised as a Moslem, I didn’t go ‘hooray’ after reading that news. Actually I thought, “Yeah, so what?”

Couple of days later, my iGoogle showed a news feed about the same subject. It was from Catholic.org and it appeared that Msgr. Vittorio Formenti, who heads the Vatican’s statistics office, thinks that the shift was because Muslims’ family have more children and are outpacing the average growth rate. He heh. I can’t help but sensing a little sarcasm there.

I personally do not have any vendetta on Catholic versus Muslim thing. My concern is, does the world know anything about Muslims? U.S. News & World Report March 24-31, 2008 edition has an article about ‘Inside the Minds of Muslims’. Dalia Mogahed, the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, did a survey and wrote a book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think along with Georgetown University Prof. John Esposito. The book is based on a Gallup Poll, the largest of its kind, which surveyed some 50,000 Muslims in more than 35 countries.

Based on the interview, it seems that we [Americans] are no closer to understanding Muslims. Because Gallup did a survey in 2002, asking what Americans knew about the beliefs and opinions of Muslims around the world. Fifty-four percent said they knew nothing or not much. Same questions were asked in 2007, after two wars and more media coverage on Muslims, and this time 57 percent said they knew nothing or not much. When asked what they admired about the Muslim world, the most frequent response was “nothing”.

I’m curious about what do they think about us [Americans]. Mogahed answered that Muslims admire the West’s technology the most, followed by freedom of speech, the rule of law, and the transparency of government. They resented our democracy, perceived moral laxity and libertinism. Only a very small percentage of people in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia, said they admired nothing about the West.

The way I look at it, while answering ‘we admire nothing about the Muslim world’ is one’s choice and right, it does show ignorance. Do we not like it because: a) we know something but against it, or b) we don’t know shit anything at all…

Fly Safe(r) with Indonesian Airlines?

As mentioned in my previous post, Visit Indonesia Year program is happening this year. So many skepticisms, doubts, and concerns are twirling around this program. Which understandable, I think, considering a series of unfortunate events (outside the political/religious issue) that were effecting Indonesia. One of those unfortunate events is the undependability of Indonesian airlines. Remember when an Adam Air jet plunged into the sea off Sulawesi island on January 1, 2007? Killed 102 on board. Also a Garuda jet crashed in Central Java in March of the same year with 21 dead. Which exactly why the European Union (EU) had to ban all Indonesian airlines, including national carrier Garuda Indonesia (since 2006, if I’m not mistaken). This is not good for VIY program (or Indonesia’s tourism industry in general), if Garuda can’t come in or out to the European countries.

Transport Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said that Indonesia will try to accelerate the revocation of the ban by proposing a ‘fast-track programme’. That’s why just recently, during the Singapore Airshow, Garuda Indonesia (state-owned) purchased 10 Boeing 777-300ERs airplanes worth 2.3 billion dollars; while low-cost airline Lion Air acquired 56 Boeing 737-900ERs worth about 4.4 billion dollars. Garuda president director, Emirsyah Satar, said that following the order, Garuda was planning to open new routes to European and U.S. cities, beside being an attempt a push to lift the ban.

While it’s not bad to dream big by aiming the international flights, I personally think our Transport Minister should take care the domestic ones too. To satisfy local customers is as important as pleasing the international ones. Adam Air’s crash opened the year of 2007 with a bang, a Mandala Airlines crashed after take off on Sumatra island in 2005 (143 fatality), a Garuda Airbus crashed into a jungle-covered mountain slope in Sumatra and killed all 234 people aboard. Two months later, a Silk Air jet crashed into a river on Sumatra (104 fatality) –source.

And please, other than buying new(er) prototype of the airplanes, make sure the other elements in ensuring global aviation safety and prevention of accidents are maintained. Be it frequent maintenance for the airplane, worker’s training, or maintaining the safety of the runway. I, too, want to feel safe flying within Indonesia -as a local, an Indonesian- just like a foreign tourist. Don’t we have the same right?

Suharto is Worsening, the End of Hope for Trial?

In the car with hubby on my lunch break today when the National Public Radio (NPR) announced that Indonesia’s former president, Soeharto (the Indonesian spelling) or Suharto, is not doing very good. “He’s suffering from organ failure,” they mentioned. “Oh no,” I said. “It’s that good or bad?” hubby asked. “Well, I know this may sound mean, but no, it’s not good because he’ll never be on trial,” I said. With that, the NPR announcer continued in explaining who Suharto is (or was) and what he had done in the past to be considered worthy to be on trial.

Suharto got himself the president title with a military coup d’etat in 1965. Ruling Indonesia for 35 years fiercely (anybody who opposed him or became his enemies were mysteriously disappear or ended up dead), he was also a big corruptor. His family had done too much nepotism in our country when he was in charge. Schoolchildren were fed lies about Indonesia’s history about the beginning of his dictatorship until that day he was forced to resign in 1998. He also controlled the media. If one should dare write something bad about his family (notoriously called ‘The Cendana Family’ -Cendana is the name of the street where he lives), somebody would definitely get fired. Or if the media is not big enough, it’ll get shut down.

I understand that he’s also a human being, and seeing a picture of him lying on the deathbed; pale and whatnot, it’s pretty sad. I should also say that during his ruling, things were much more peaceful compared to now. Our economy was also more stable. I can still remember those days where the exchange rate was only 2,000 rupiahs for 1 US dollar… But I was hoping to see that Suharto would be brought into trial; not only for the corruption, but also for human rights violation, especially the Trisakti tragedy which followed by the 1998 riots. They’ve been trying for 7 years, but Suharto’s health’s been keeping him away from the court.

Will it be Augusto Pinochet all over again, or would the injustice continue as Suharto’s losing his battle against his health?

KOOZA’s Update

I was online this morning trying to purchase tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s KAZOO in St. Paul, MN for October this year. Wouldn’t you know: IT’S CANCELLED!

Here’s what their official website says:

Bonjour,
 
Cirque du Soleil announced the cancellation of its Saint Paul performances due to uncontrollable circumstances.
 
If you are a ticket holder for this engagement, you will be fully credited.  Within the next few days, you will receive a follow-up e-mail confirming the credit to your credit card account.  For further ticketing information please contact the Cirque du Soleil Customer Relations Service at tickets@bo.cirquedusoleil.com or call 1 877 688-2699.
 
We understand and apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment these circumstances may cause.

Me imitating Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone: “Nooooooooo!!!”

Indonesia in Miss Universe 2007

 

Nineteen year old Agni Pratistha Kuswardono won the 2006 Miss Indonesia title, therefor sent to compete in Miss Universe pageant this year. A lot of Indonesians favor the winning of Agni to Nadine Chandrawinata, previous Miss Indonesia. Some says it’s because Agni has the Indonesian face, while Nadine’s more Western.

Watching her interview clip, Agni seems to be a smart girl with not-so-bad English. Other than being a full time Technical Faculty student at Bina Nusantara University, Agni is also a model and an actress.

Here is Agni’s profile in Miss Universe’s official site. Here’s her photoblog her team made while she’s in Mexico City.

Good luck, Agni!