Indonesia Tampil Di Piala Dunia? Lupakan Saja

Analisis: Daniel Setiawan


Polemik yang terjadi di persepakbolaan Indonesia dalam kurun waktu dua tahun terakhir ini cukup membuat banyak khalayak pencinta sepakbola nasional geleng-geleng kepala. Mencari jarum di tumpukan jerami saja terlihat masih jauh lebih mudah daripada mengurai permasalahan yang ada di tubuh induk sepak bola Indonesia ini. Permasalahan ini seperti benang kusut, banyak cara yang dilakukan untuk mengurai dan meluruskan masalah ini namun semuanya hanya terlihat berputar-putar di tempat.

Mungkin jika kita bisa lebih bijak, kiprah kita di Piala AFF tahun 2010 lalu bisa jadi salah satu momen yang tepat untuk membangkitkan persepakbolaan Indonesia. Meskipun kita lagi-lagi menjadi runner up, penampilan kita di kompetisi antarnegara Asia Tenggara begitu luar biasa. Bukannya memanfaatkan euforia semaksimal mungkin, kita malah sibuk mengurus dualisme kompetisi yang terjadi. Bahkan hingga sekarang, meskipun dualisme ini sedikit mereda tetap saja ada pihak yang merasa tidak terpuaskan.

Adanya dualisme kompetisi di Indonesia membuka babak baru permasalahan persepakbolaan tanah air. Kompetisi lama versus kompetisi baru, kompetisi (dengan) APBD versus kompetisi (tanpa) APBD. Kehadiran IPL di tanah air memunculkan banyak prokontra, di satu sisi terlihat profesionalitas klub-klub Indonesia yang mengarungi kompetisi tanpa dana APBD, di sisi lain muncul banyak pertanyaan, jadi yang mana liga resmi di Indonesia? Bagaimana sistem dan format kompetisinya?

Seperti yang dikhawatirkan sebelumnya, dualisme yang terjadi memang mengacaukan atmosfir sepak bola Indonesia. Kedua kubu bersikukuh mempertahankan ego masing-masing. ISL sebagai kompetisi induk yang sudah ada sebelumnya tidak mau merelakan begitu saja posisinya digeser oleh IPL.  Pun IPL, eksistensi kompetisinya ingin diakui oleh seluruh masyarakat Indonesia. Dua kompetisi bersaing memperebutkan tempat utama dengan landasan induk organisasi yang amburadul. Alhasil FIFA berulang kali melayangkan surat ultimatum untuk PSSI. Beberapa kali digelar kongres akbar yang tujuannya meluruskan permasalahan, meskipun terlihat hanya membuang waktu dan dana saja.

Berkaca dari pengalaman liga yang dijadikan dua, sekarang muncul versi kedua PSSI yang dikenal PSSI edisi La Nyalla. Organisasi ini dibentuk saat KLB pada Maret lalu, yang tujuannya menyaingi dan pastinya menekan kubu PSSI edisi Djohar Arifin.  Dua liga domestik, dua versi organisasi utama, siapa yang anda pilih?

Banyak Rekor Baru

Kalah telak dari Bahrain 10-0 di babak kualifikasi Piala Dunia, dipermak Malaysia baru-baru ini dengan skor telak 6-0, dan peringkat FIFA kita yang terburuk dalam sejarah yaitu posisi 159. Anda tidak bisa memberikan alasan untuk di argumenkan ketika kalah telak 10-0. Bahrain bukan tim yang baru kita hadapi di ajang internasional, di Piala Asia 2007 kita bahkan sukses membungkam mereka 2-1. Kekalahan menyakitkan melawan Malaysia memang masih bisa dimaklumi. Malaysia membewa skuat gabungan para pemain muda dan senior mereka, sementara kita bermain dengan skuat full pemain muda. Namun faktanya, kekalahan terbesar kita saat menghadapi Malaysia yaitu 3-0. 6-0? Rekor baru PSSI edisi Djohar Arifin.

Ekspektasi warga Indonesia kepada sosok Djohar Arifin saat pertama kali terpilih begitu besar, karena kita tahu di periode sebelumnya, tepatnya saat Nurdin Halid berada di singgasana ketua PSSI masyarakat Indonesia tidak puas oleh kiprah timnas baik di level Asia Tenggara maupun internasional. Saat terpilihnya Djohar Arifin, saya sendiri berfikir bahwa langkah sepak bola Indonesia sudah mulai kembali ke jalan yang tepat. Namun pada kenyataanya selama periode 2011 sampai sekarang performa timnas kita memprihatinkan, bahkan jauh dari kata "lumayan" sekalipun.  Rekor baru banyak tercipta, namun sayangnya rekor negatif yang kita catat.

Permasalahan tidak hanya sebatas timnas saja, klub-klub peserta liga mengalami banyak kendala dana. Bahkan sampai ada pemain yang mengemis demi keberlangsungan hidup. So, perhatian tidak hanya ditujukan kepada timnas dan kompetisi semata, tapi juga ketidakjelasan administrasi klub yang juga merembet ke kehidupan personal para pemain yang berlaga.

Mau tampil di Piala Dunia? Lupakan.

So, sampai kapan? Seperti berputar-putar mencari jalan keluar di labirin, itulah sepak bola Indonesia. Permasalahan di induk sepakbola Indonesia ini merembet kepada hal-hal terkecil. Jika tidak ada ketegasan dan dibiarkan berangsur-angsur seperti ini, niscaya kondisi carut marut ini pasti bertambah pelik. Jangan muluk-muluk berkaca pada kompetisi Eropa sana, kita lihat tetangga kita Malaysia yang struktur liga dan organisasi induk sepakbolanya tertata rapih. Bahkan pembinaan pemain muda di sana sudah selangkah lebih maju dibanding kita. Terbukti saat menjuarai AFF 2010 lalu skuat mereka rata-rata dihuni muka-muka yang sama saat membawa Malaysia merebut emas di Sea Games Vietnam.

Bersikap dewasa, buang jauh-jauh ego, duduk bersama menyelesaikan permasalahan. Sepakbola kita tidaklah buruk, kualitas pemain kita luar biasa, negara kita dipenuhi talenta berbakat. Hanya saja pertanyaanya, sampai kapan PSSI mau bergelut dalam ketidakjelasan ini??

Duchess of WellPoint Abdicates, Likely to Escape with Much Loot

A change in the leadership of one of the biggest health care organizations reveals a little more about how such leadership has become our new corporate royalty and nobility.

The Departure of WellPoint CEO Angela Braly

The basics of the story, as reported by the Anna Wilde Matthews in the Wall Street Journal,

Under pressure from investors unhappy with the health insurer's performance and direction, WellPoint Inc. Chief Executive Angela Braly resigned Tuesday, and the company's board said it would begin a search for a permanent replacement.

The abrupt shift came as the board's leadership had been meeting with major investors in the wake of a disappointing second-quarter earnings report that sharpened concerns about Ms. Braly and the company's strategy

Note that while this change was seemingly dramatic,

In its statement, the board signaled that WellPoint's direction might not change dramatically. Ms. Ward said that the board 'continues to believe that time will prove the wisdom of potentially transformative actions taken under Angela's leadership…But now is the right time for a leadership change.' She also said the board believes 'the remaining executive team is dynamic and strong, with great potential to drive WellPoint's future success.'

In addition, the Indianapolis Star suggested that Ms Braly would be richly rewarded for her departure:

Details about her exit package were not released Tuesday, but under her contract, she is entitled to at least $7.7 million if terminated without cause.

Furthermore, recall how much the board apparently thought of Ms Braly's leadership in the immediate past, as evidenced by the compensation she received. In 2011, her total compensation was a mere $13.2 million (see this article in the Indianapolis Star), just slightly less than that in 2010, $13.4 million (see this post). Such compensation, of course is gargantuan compared to that received by mere mortals such as primary care physicians (actually, conservatively it is at least 66, and probably more like 100 times that of primary care physician, and over 250 times the median US family income) Such compensation, and the likelihood of a rich severance package, suggests that either the board applauded Ms Braly's leadership right up until now, or perhaps that Ms Braly, despite being a hired employee, actually had more power than the board, sufficient to virtually set her own pay.

Was Financialization the Reason She Had to Go?

So why get rid of her now? Aside from references to recent issues with only short-term revenue, there were few hints in the media. The WSJ article did note

a series of stumbles over the past few years, including an unexpected earnings hit last year tied largely to problems with a Medicare plan in California. In 2010, the company scaled back a proposed rate increase in California that had become a lightning rod in the policy debate over a health overhaul, leading to a loss.

A Forbes post suggested that one problem was Ms Braly supported President Obama's health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or ACA):

Many blame Braly and her team for putting The Affordable Care Act over the top in Congress after Wellpoint’s Anthem Blue Cross plan in California two years ago raised rates nearly 40 percent on individual policyholders before the increase was tamed. Many at the time say that provided President Obama and Sebelius political momentum and ammunition to tell the story of excessive rate increases by the loathed insurance industry.

However, no media report so far has raised the issue of the ethics of past WellPoint behavior. In fact, as we have discussed, (most recently here), the company has made a lengthy series of ethical missteps, to put it kindly. (The complete list appears in an appendix at the end of this post.) These problems have been going on for quite a while, and if they were not a concern before, there is no hint that they became a concern within the company recently.

So, one explanation for the sudden leadership change is the dominance of financialization of for-profit health care insurance (and likely of all health care organizations.) The notion, pushed by a few economists in the 1980s, that the only thing that should matter to corporate leadership is short-term financial results may be that powerful (see this post). Of course, that is profoundly troubling for health care organizations, since it dismisses the importance of any long-term results, especially of results that affect patients' and the public's health, and the importance of values like honesty.

Corporate Leadership as Our New Royalty and Nobility

Another explanation, which need not contradict the one above, was suggested by Charles Ferguson in Predator Nation. He wrote that the leadership of big financial corporations, which became the dominant organizations in the US and, indeed, in the world,

became corporate royalty, with all the absurd arrogance, disconnections from reality, ego poisoning, and cults of personality thereby implied.

If the leadership of big financial firms became royalty, then the leadership of big health care organizations became nobility. The issues above only would affect nobility slightly less. In that sense, the departure of Ms Braly likely resulted from personal and political battles among royalty. The good thing is that in this somewhat more enlightened age, the results are merely abdication, probably with a huge severance payment. In the old days, the results would likely have been imprisonment in the castle dungeon, if not beheading.

Nonetheless, the notion that top corporate leaders, including leaders of for-profit and non-profit health care corporations, are becoming the new royalty and nobility should be profoundly disturbing in the US, which was founded after a revolution against royalty's excess power.  They should be no less disturbing in other countries which have overthrown their former royal leaders, or instituted constitutional monarchies in which the royals and nobles have little political or real power. 

Obviously, the growing power and decreasing accountability of hired managers of large health care organizations has become a major reason, if not the major reason for health care dysfunction.  True health care reform would decrease the size and scope of health care organizations, and make their leaders accountable to ownership, when appropriate, and to the community at large for patients' and the public health. 

Appendix: WellPoint's Ethical Misadventures

• settled a RICO (racketeer influenced corrupt organization) law-suit in California over its alleged systematic attempts to withhold payments from physicians (see 2005 post here).
• subsidiary New York Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield misplaced a computer disc containing confidential information on 75,000 policy-holders (see 2007 story here).
• California Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary cancelled individual insurance policies after their owners made large claims (a practices sometimes called rescission).  The company was ordered to pay a million dollar fine in early 2007 for this (see post here).  A state agency charged that some of these cancellations by another WellPoint subsidiary were improper (see post here).  WellPoint was alleged to have pushed physicians to look for patients' medical problems that would allow rescission (see post here).  It turned out that California never collected the 2007 fine noted above, allegedly because the state agency feared that WellPoint had become too powerful to take on (see post here). But in 2008, WellPoint agreed to pay more fines for its rescission practices (see post here).  In 2009, WellPoint executives were defiant about their continued intention to make rescission in hearings before the US congress (see post here).
• California Blue Cross subsidiary allegedly attempted to get physicians to sign contracts whose confidentiality provisions would have prevented them from consulting lawyers about the contracts (see 2007 post here).
• formerly acclaimed CFO was fired for unclear reasons, and then allegations from numerous women of what now might be called Tiger Woods-like activities surfaced (see post here).
• announced that its investment portfolio was hardly immune from the losses prevalent in late 2008 (see post here).
• was sanctioned by the US government in early 2009 for erroneously denying coverage to senior patients who subscribed to its Medicare drug plans (see 2009 post here).
• settled charges that it had used a questionable data-base (built by Ingenix, a subsidiary of ostensible WellPoint competitor UnitedHealth) to determine fees paid to physicians for out-of-network care (see 2009 post here). 
• violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policy provisions to customers, according to the California health insurance commissioner (see 2010 post here).
• exposed confidential data from about 470,000 patients (see 2010 post here) and settled the resulting lawsuit in 2011 (see post here).
• fired a top executive who publicly apologized for the company's excessively high charges (see 2010 post here).
• California Anthem subsidiary was fined for systematically failing to make fair and timely payments to doctors and hospitals (see 2010 post here).
• management was accused of hiding the company's political contributions from the company's own stock-holders (see 2012 posts here and here).
• settled charges that its Anthem subsidiary cheated former policy-holders out of money owed when that company was converted from a mutual insurance company (see 2012 post here)

Clinicians: How to Document the EHR Screens You Encounter That Cause Concern

Healthcare IT "glitches" as reported on this blog should make any clinician - and patient - wary of the technology in its present state.

In the past, when camera film was the only image recording medium, it was often difficult to get high quality photographs of TV screens.  No longer.

Clinicians, here's a hint: it's now easy to photograph computer screens, either old CRT-based or newer flat panels, with a cellphone or other digital camera.

When you see something you are concerned about...you have the tools to document and share as necessary with the appropriate authorities, and to protect yourself.

Further, hospitals often claim they cannot show data as clinicians see it on-screen because of "print page" restrictions or due to the "oppressive burden" of someone having to do multiple screen dumps to a printer.

That excuse is no longer valid:

A screen shot of the very screen used to create this post, taken with an old 2 megapixel cellphone, default settings, no flash, ambient (dim) light, unremarkable flat screen monitor.  The same can be done for EHR, CPOE, etc.  Click to enlarge.

This example blows that Discovery-impairing excuse out of the water.

"Glitches" should be reported, and in a manner as I wrote at this post, reproduced below:

(Disclaimer:  The IT sellers and hospital corporate officials are likely to invoke IP rights regarding EHR screens and HIPAA regulations in the attempt to limit transparency about problems, for which I take no responsibility.  Use this technique with appropriate precautions with regard to information sharing.)

... When a physician or other clinician observes health IT problems, defects, malfunctions, mission hostility (e.g., poor user interfaces), significant downtimes, lost data, erroneous data, misidentified data, and so forth ... and most certainly, patient 'close calls' or actual injuries ... they should (anonymously if necessary if in a hostile management setting):

• Inform their facility's senior management, if deemed safe and not likely to result in retaliation such as being slandered as a "disruptive physician" and/or or being subjected to sham peer review (link).

• Inform their personal and organizational insurance carriers, in writing. Insurance carriers do not enjoy paying out for preventable IT-related medical mistakes. They have begun to become aware of HIT risks. See, for example, the essay on Norcal Mutual Insurance Company's newsletter on HIT risks at this link. (Note - many medical malpractice insurance policies can be interpreted as requiring this reporting, observed occasional guest blogger Dr. Scott Monteith in a comment to me about this post.)

• Inform the Joint Commission (or similar national accreditor of hospital safety if not in the U.S.) via their complaint site at http://www.jointcommission.org/report_a_complaint.aspx . Also consider writing the JC senior officers (link to officer's list), whose awareness of HIT issues I can personally attest to via our correspondences.

• Inform the FDA (or similar healthcare regulator if not in the U.S.) via the FDA Medwatch Form 3500 reporting site at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm. An example of such an adverse event report I filed myself (when the involved hospital refused) is at this link in the FDA MAUDE (Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience) database.

• Inform the State Medical Society and local Medical Society of your locale.

• Inform the appropriate Board of Health for your locale.

• If applicable (and it often is), inform the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) of your state or region. Example: in Pennsylvania, the QIO is "Quality Insights of PA."

• Inform a personal attorney.

• Inform local, state and national representatives such as congressional representatives. Sen. Grassley of Iowa is aware of these issues, for example.

• As clinicians are often forced to use health IT, at their own risk even when "certified" (link), if a healthcare organization or HIT seller is sluggish or resistant in taking corrective actions, consider taking another risk (perhaps this is for the very daring or those near the end of their clinical career). Present your organization's management with a statement for them to sign to the effect of:

"We, the undersigned, do hereby acknowledge the concerns of [Dr. Jones] about care quality issues at [Mount St. Elsewhere Hospital] regarding EHR difficulties that were reported, namely [event A, event B, event C ... etc.]

We hereby indemnify [Dr. Jones] for malpractice liability regarding patient care errors that occur due to EHR issues beyond his/her control, but within the control of hospital management, including but not limited to: [system downtimes, lost orders, missing or erroneous data, etc.] that are known to pose risk to patients. We assume responsibility for any such malpractice.

With regard to health IT and its potential negative effects on care, Dr. Jones has provided us with the Joint Commission Sentinel Events Alert on Health IT at http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/SEA_42.PDF, the IOM report on HIT safety at http://www.modernhealthcare.com/Assets/pdf/CH76254118.PDF, and the FDA Internal Memorandum on H-IT Safety Issues at http://www.scribd.com/huffpostfund/d/33754943-Internal-FDA-Report-on-Adverse-Events-Involving-Health-Information-Technology.

CMO __________ (date, time)
CIO ___________ (date, time)
CMIO _________ (date, time)
General Counsel ___________ (date, time)
etc."

• If the hospital or organizational management refuses to sign such a waiver (and they likely will!), note the refusal, with date and time of refusal, and file away with your attorney. It could come in handy if EHR-related med mal does occur.

As EHRs remain experimental, I note that indemnifications such as the above probably belong in medical staff contracts and bylaws when EHR use is coerced.

Physicians can create health IT transparency; waiting for the industry or HHS to do so is, in my view, futile and not a patient advocacy stance.

-- SS

Aug. 31, 2012 Addendum:

I tried this method on a 20 year old, cathode ray tube-based Fisher 13" (appx.) color TV set.  Of course, this TV set is limited to a few hundred lines of resolution, and is interlaced (unlike most computer monitors after the early 1990's). Here's what I got.  Note that the picture was moving:

Old TV, old 2 MP cellphone, default settings.  Click to enlarge.

Again, old 2 MP cellphone, ambient background, default settings.  I tried several shots, and all were of similar quality.

-- SS

A Tacit Admission That National Health IT is a Gargantuan Experiment

In my post yesterday "The Scientific Justification for Meaningul Use, Stage 2" I wrote:

There's no truly robust evidence of generalizable benefit, no randomized trials, there's significant evidence to the contrary, there's risk to safety that this disruptive technology causes in its present state (but the magnitude is unknown, see quotes from 2012 IOM study here) that MU and "certification" do not address, there's a plethora of hair-raising defect reports from the only seller that reports such things, but CMS justifies the program [starting at p. 18 in the Final Rule for Meaningful Use Stage 2 at this link - ed.] with the line:

"Evidence [on benefits] is limited ... Nonetheless, we believe there are substantial benefits that can be obtained by eligible hospitals and EPs ... There is evidence to support the cost-saving benefits anticipated from wider adoption of EHRs."

I am deeply impressed by the level of rigorous science here.  We are truly in a golden age of science.  [That is obviously satirical - ed.]

The Final Rule for MU Stage 2, via the admissions made by it regarding limited evidence, is in fact a tacit admission that the whole national health IT enterprise is a huge experiment (involving human subjects, obviously).  It is likely the most forthright admission we will get from this government on that issue.

With neither explicit patient informed consent nor a formal regulatory process to validate safety, but merely based on a "we believe" justification from the government, hospitals and practices are leaving themselves wide open to liability in the situation of patient injury or death caused by, or promoted by, this technology.

(Parenthetically, I note that I've already seen a claim in a legal brief that "certification" implies safety and a legal indemnification, and that the federal HITECH act - that as in this report merely provides statutory authority to the incentive program - pre-empts common-law i.e., state litigation over health IT.  The judge dismissed the claims.)

-- SS

Aug. 30, 2012 addendum:

A commenter pointed out that experiments on minors without consent might constitute an even more egregious action, subject to even more stringent laws (and perhaps penalties, I add) than on adults.   I cannot confirm that, but it is an interesting observation.  If you are an attorney, please comment, anonymously or otherwise.

-- SS

Setelah Pesan Senjata, Kini Irak Pesan Pesawat Dari Indonesia

Kualitas produk buatan Indonesia mulai diakui di mata Internasional. Menteri Badan Usaha Milik Negara (BUMN) Dahlan Iskan mengaku senang mendengar pernyataan Irak yang berencana memesan pesawat buatan PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI).

Dahlan mengapresiasi upaya dan keberhasilan Wakil Menteri Pertahanan Indonesia yang telah sukses mema

sarkan dan mengangkat nama PT DI di negara timur tengah.

"Kita terima semua (pesanan), saya senang sekali wamenhan kita dari Irak dan menjadi tenaga marketing yang baik untuk PT DI, Pindad dan Dahana," ungkap Dahlan ketika ditemui di Kementerian BUMN, Senin (27/8).

Dahlan mengaku telah lama mendengar berita rencana Irak membeli pesawat dan senjata buatan Indonesia. Saat Dahlan berkunjung ke Irak untuk umrah, dia mendengar rencana tersebut.

"Tetapi saya dengar kunjungan wamenhan sukses sekali, Irak percaya sekali dengan senjata buatan indonesia," jelasnya.

Fakta Unik dan Lucu Search Engine Google

Teman-teman, kali ini You'll Never Walk Alone akan memberikan sebuah informasi mengenai fakta-fakta unik dan lucu yang ada di search engine paling populer  di dunia saat ini, yaitu Google. Apa sajakah fakta-faktanya ? Berikut informasinya.

1. Gambar Doodle Pertama pada Google.

Page terkenal dari Google Doodles (kalau Google-nya ganti logo) sudah banyak dikenal dan dinikmati orang-orang ketika ada event spesial atau hari-hari besar. Tetapi tahukah Anda kalau Google Doodle yang pertama dibuat dengan pesan "Out of office"? Pada 1998, Brin dan Page cuti untuk pergi ke festival Burning Man di Nevada.

"The B

urning Man Doodle" (pada gambar diatas), didesain oleh dua orang tersebut dan dipajang di homepage Google agar pengguna tahu kalau mereka sedang cuti keluar kantor dan tidak bisa mengatasi masalah teknik seperti crash pada server.

2. Penyimpanan Google Pertama Terbuat dari LEGO.

Hosting kebanggaan Google ketika melakukan projek penelitian yang bernama 'BackRub'. Di Stanford memperlihatkan penyimpanan Google yang original yang dipakai saat 1996. Itu hanya bermemori 40 GB (size lebih kecil dari iPod sekarang) dan terbuat dari bentuk batu-batu yang menyenangkan dilihat, yaitu dari LEGO. Dan terdapat bentuk lucu pada bagian atasnya. Alasan menggunakan LEGO ialah orang (karyawan) Google butuh barang yang mudah dikembangkan dan murah. Apakah warna primer dari bentuk batu-batu bersusun tadi digunakan untuk inspirasi warna-warna pada desain logo Google, sepertinya itu bukan suatu kebetulan.

3. Tweet Pertama Google.

Post pertama Google di twitter cukup aneh dan unik. Tweet-nya pada Februari 2009 : "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010."

Untuk yang asing dengan biner, ini petunjuknya. Dikenal sebagai kata yang ada di homepage-nya Google. Artinya : "I'm Feeling Lucky."

4. Logo Google Belum Ditengahkan Sebelum 2001.

Homepage Google memang mempunyai desain yang klasik. Sebelum 31 Maret 2001, logo Google belum ditengahkan atau Left-Hand Side.

5. Google Menyewa Kambing.

Ini merupakan salah satu lelucon April Mop : Google Rent out Goats. Google menyewa kambing dari kompani yang bernama California Grazing untuk menolong memotong (lebih tepatnya memakan) sejumlah rumput liar dan semak-semak di Google HQ. Operasi tersebut mengerahkan 200 personel kambing, dan Google menyebutnya : "A lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers." Artinya : "Tampak lebih lucu dilihat daripada mesin pemotong rumput biasa."

Bahasa Yang Paling Sulit Dipelajari di Dunia

Bahasa Yang Paling Sulit Dipelajari di Dunia - Kali ini Espilen Blog akan memberikan sebuah informasi tentang beberapa bahasa asing yang paling sulit dipahami. Mempelajari bahasa asing memang bukan hal yang mudah. Ada huruf yang berbeda, susunan kata yang tidak biasa, sampai pengucapan kata yang asing di lidah. Menurut penelitian, seseorang paling mudah mempelajari bahasa dengan susunan kata dan pengucapan yang mirip dengan bahasa sehari-harinya. Masing-masing bahasa mempunyai tingkat kesulitan yang berbeda.

 Berikut lima bahasa yang paling sulit dipelajari :

1. Bahasa Cina.

Bahasa Cina dianggap sulit dipelajari karena sangat menekankan pada intonasi. Penekanan intonasi yang berbeda bisa membuat arti kata yang diucapkan sangat berbeda. Tak hanya itu, ribuan huruf Cina yang sulit dan rumit membuat bahasa yang cukup populer di dunia tersebut makin susah untuk dipelajari.

2. Bahasa Arab.

Untuk orang Eropa, bahasa Arab memiliki kemiripan yang sangat sedikit dengan bahasa mereka. Membaca tulisan dalam bahasa Arab juga dianggap agak sulit karena pengucapan vokal yang agak berbeda dengan bahasa Inggris. Sama seperti bahasa Cina, huruf-huruf Arab juga menjadi salah satu kesulitan jika ingin cepat mempelajari bahasa ini. Perubahan bentuk huruf dalam kalimat yang berbeda ketika suatu huruf digabungkan juga membuat belajar bahasa Arab lebih menantang.

3. Bahasa Jepang.

Lagi-lagi bahasa dengan huruf yang rumit masuk dalam daftar ini. Jepang, seperti sudah banyak diketahui memiliki ribuan karakter dengan sifat yang berbeda. Selain ribuan karakter, ada tiga cara penulisan dan dua jenis daftar suku kata membuat orang harus memiliki ingatan yang kuat ketika mempelajari bahasa Jepang.

4. Bahasa Korea.

Struktur kata, pemahaman kalimat, dan konjugasi kata kerja yang berbeda membuat bahasa Korea bukan bahasa yang mudah diserap. Selain struktur penggunaan kata, huruf-huruf Korea yang tak kalah rumit juga membuat bahasa asal bintang K-Pop tersebut sulit dipelajari dengan cepat.

5. Bahasa Hungaria.

Bahasa Hungaria dianggap sulit dipelajari karena tidak memiliki kemiripan atau rumpun yang sama dengan bahasa apapun. Tidak seperti bahasa Indonesia yang memiliki beberapa kemiripan dengan bahasa Malaysia, bahasa Hungaria tidak mirip dengan bahasa apapun. Karena itu seseorang harus mulai dari nol untuk mempelajarinya.

Sekian artikel yang bisa Espilen Blog sampaikan mengenai Bahasa Yang Paling Sulit Dipelajari di Dunia. Semoga memberikan manfaat.

Ashley Cole Sarankan Gerrard Hijrah dari Liverpool ke Chelsea

Saran mantan Manajer Timnas Inggris, Sven-Goran Eriksson agar Steven Gerrard pergi dari Liverpool demi gelar juara Premier League, ternyata cukup menarik perhatian bek Chelsea, Ashley Cole. Bek The Three Lions itu pun berharap Gerrard bisa pindah ke Stamford Bridge.

Pada Rabu (29/8), Cole mempersilahkan fans melontarkan p

ertanyaan melalui akun twitter Chelsea. Dan salah satu pertanyaan yang muncul adalah soal pemain yang diinginkannya bergabung ke Chelsea. Cole pun tak ragu menyebut nama Gerrard.

"Aku rasa Steven Gerrard, lima tahun lalu. Dia pemain hebat untuk Inggris dan Liverpool," jawab Cole.

Gerrard sendiri sempat mempunyai kesempatan berlabuh ke Stamford Bridge dua kali, pada 2004 dan 2005. Namun dia memilih menetap di Anfield.

Selain itu, Cole juga turut membeberkan rasa gembira dengan kedatangan beberapa pemain baru di skuad asuhan Roberto Di Matteo pada musim panas ini.

"Dengan rekrutan baru, kami bisa memainkan sepak bola menyerang. Semoga akan lebih menghibur," kicau dia.