Two Lessons from Babar Story

Adam Gopnik teach us how to reread Jean de Brunhoff's "The Story of Babar", a great children book whic is published in 1931. At least I found two of them here:

First,


Fables for children work not by pointing to a moral but by complicating the moral of a point. The child does not dutifully take in the lesson that salvation lies in civilization, but, in good Freudian fashion, takes in the lesson that the pleasures of civilization come with discontent at its constraints: you ride the elevator, dress up in the green suit, and go to live in Celesteville, but an animal you remain—the dangerous humans and rhinoceroses are there to remind you of that—and you delight in being so. There is allure in escaping from the constraints that button you up and hold you; there is also allure in the constraints and the buttons. We would all love to be free, untrammelled elephants, but we long, too, for a green suit.

Second,

In London, in children’s books, life is too orderly and one longs for the vitality of the wild; in Paris, order is an achievement, hard won against the natural chaos and cruelty of adult life; in New York, we begin most stories in an indifferent city and the child has to create a kind of order within it. Each of these schemes reflects a history: the English vision being a natural consequence of a peaceful nation with a reformist history and in search of adventure; the French of a troubled nation with a violent history in search of peace; and the American of an individualistic and sporadically violent country with a strong ethos of family isolation and improvised rules.

General Manajer AIA Singapura Mundur

Saya kutip berita dari Tempo Interaktif soal perkembangan nasib AIG:

Mark O'Dell, General Manajer AIA Singapura, mengundurkan diri. AIA merupakan unit perusahaan American International Group Inc., perusahaan asuransi terbesar di dunia, yang kini tengah menghadapi krisis keuangan global.

Otoritas keuangan Singapura (Monetary Authority of Singapore) mengatakan, Executive Vice President Kenneth Juneau akan mengambil alih posisi yang ditinggalkan O'Dell.

Kantor pusat AIA di Singapura pekan ini kewalahan menghadapi para pemegang polis asuransi yang menuntut uangnya dicairkan atau hanya sekadar ingin mengetahui status polis mereka. Nasabah AIA panik dengan krisis finansial global yang juga menimpa AIG, sampai-sampai Federal Reserve harus menyuntikkan dana sebesar US$ 85 miliar.

Dalam pernyataannya hari ini, AIA mempersilahkan para pemegang polis yang tidak ingin melanjutkan asuransi mereka selama dua minggu ke depan ini, tanpa dikenai penalti.

Kurang dari 0,1 persen atau sekitar 2.000 dari total 2 juta pemegang polis AIA di Singapura telah membatalkan asuransi mereka pekan ini.

AIG Klaim Bisnisnya Aman

Kegoncangan ekonomi yang melanda Amerika Serikat, yang telah menyeret Lehman dan Merrill Lynch, sebenarnya membuat saya sedikit waswas terkait dengan nasib polis saya di American International Group Inc. (AIG) Indonesia. Saya maskin cemas ketika membaca para konsumen AIG Singapura sudah ribut dan mengantre di kantor AIG setempat.

Untunglah Rabu lalu, meskipun agak terlambat sebenarnya, AIG Life Indonesia meyakinkan konsumennya bahwa bisnisnya berjalan "normal" dan pemegang polis tak akan terkena dampak krisis perusahaan itu.

"AIG LIFE Indonesia urges customers and business partners not to worry about the developments that have occurred (with the parent company in the U.S.) as AIG LIFE Indonesia has good financial strength and solvency," kata perusahaan itu seperti dikutip Dow Jones. Berita lain ada di Antara.

Selain itu, "I want to assure customers and business partners that AIG LIFE Indonesia is a separate entity from AIG in America and we are playing by the laws prevailing in Indonesia," kata Robert W. Bush, presiden direktur AIG Life Indonesia.

Tapi, Bush tak menjelaskan apa bedanya hukum usaha Indonesia dengan hukum Amerika dalam menyelesaikan masalah utang-piutang induknya di Amerika sana.

Dia hanya menyatakan bahwa "We have enough capital and resources to fulfill our responsibilities to holders and our partners", lagi-lagi tanpa penjelasan lebih jauh seberapa kuat keuangan AIG Life Indonesia dalam mengatasi masalahnya.

Saya hanya berharap krisis ini tak berkepanjangan dan masih bisa diatasi dengan baik. Indonesia sudah terpuruk ekonominya, terpojok oleh kenaikan harga minyak dunia, dan janganlah lagi ditambah krisis ekonomi akibat krisis keuangan dunia semacam ini.