Too Late For Awakening

The hollow cries to be filled and that's when the rain falls. And who says water is the source of life as there's still nothing grows out of the creature's wet surface. She's died years ago.

Hey, are you wartawan bodrex??

Yesterday I went to Blue Bird's event, where it was announced that the end of this year 50,000 blue bird's employees (including drivers) will wear Blue Bird's Batik, specially designed by Danar Hadi. I supposed taxi business has been so profitable for Blue Bird that they can give their employees new Danar Hadi Batik --3 pieces every 9 months, which everybody knows to be rather expensive (though if I am one of their employees I will ask for Allure Batik instead, which is more youthful and stylish, hehehe)

Nevertheless, at this event I (finally) discovered the truth about "wartawan bodrex" -a mysterious figure that I've longed to see.

It all began when I was accused as wartawan bodrex once by the lousy Datascrip, at their event, just because there was no name of mine listed in the press list, and I didn't bring the invitation. Though it was clearly a human error on Datascrip side (at the end it's revealed), but I found myself severely insulted. I realised at that time the magazine where I work has not yet known as it has just been published for a year. For that, I paid the price by getting humiliated from not being allowed to come inside an event to which I was actually invited (I brought invitation everywhere since that horrible incident).

And back to the "bodrex" predicate, i honestly have no idea of what they are and how they look like. So yesterday, having to see one just right in front of my face, I was totally thrilled.

Regarding bodrex journalist character, I have to say that this one is the most confident fellow I've ever met. He walk into the lobby in a very domineering attitude, with his backpack, camera (which looks more expensive than my photographer's), press ID, hat, jacket outside his shirt, jeans...simply he looks like professional and very serious journalist (not like us lifestyle magz writers who cares a lot about our looks).

Anyway, he walked in and in a loud voice he asked the busy receptionist where the press conference took place. The helpful receptionist told him to wait (just like me and this other journalist from Sindo). But instead of joining us journalists, loudly he made comments such as, "Gila, udah kayak di Istana Negara aja nih. Mau press conference aja musti nunggu. Hebat juga ya Blue Bird..ckckck...!!" And we just looked at him, annoyed. Kinda rude, I guessed. But then I thought...well, perhaps it is the typical character of most koran journalist. You know, these people have to be aggresive in getting news. So perhaps, it is their style.

But when we already got inside the room waiting for the press conference to start, a girl sat next to me and we started to get to know each other, and I remember that I made comment about a tagline printed in the back of a media company's car (don't know if it was Sindo's or SCTV's), which says, "Apapun resikonya demi kebenaran berita". I was truly impressed by this tagline. So I said to this girl, "I really admire you guys. You seem to be so dedicated and aggressive at work. Just like that fellow over there..." and I pointed to the "bodrex" journalist (i haven't found out that he's bodrex yet). Unexpectedly the girl laughed. She said, "well not that person...". And then of course I asked, "why?" Then she spilled it out.

According to her, bodrex journalists don't get salary as they are nobody's employees. So they'd made up names of the fictitious media companies they work for which are usually weird and mostly online such as cipayungonline.com and even sometimes using someone else's company name (that's why we have to be really careful not to give our namecard to these journalists) as pass ticket to events to get free meals, goodie bags, and sometimes ask for money from the event organisers/news sources. The bodrex journalist I met at the event told everyone that he's working for a website (which -according to the girl-next-to-me- is actually dedicated for reporters who would like to upload their free articles and that the website doesn't employ any reporter obviously). It's KABA**NDO. (just guess the name yourself, I'm afraid of getting into a mess by putting it boldly).

So cut to the chase, I was WOW-ed. Surprised. Amused.

I asked the girl, "how do you know that he's fake?"

She said, "We (koran journalists) have met him at events like this, and we knew already who he really is."

I am still surprised, "But he's so confident and seems to know and close with everyone?"

She says, "That's how they are.."

If I were a cartoon character, my repeatedly-open-and-closed-mouth must already sounded "clang clang clang clang..." I mean...such an info!! And I was accused as one (God that makes me even angrier to Datascrip).

I was taking my time then to have a closer look on the bodrex journalist and thought a bit about him. And you know what, I felt kinda sorry for him. I mean, he must have been so eager to work as journalist until he could do such thing, although nobody hire him as their employee. See? It's perseverance. And dream requires perseverance. Perhaps all that he needs is a chance.

But then on second thought, I felt suspicious about whether or not he chose to be bodrex as an easy way to make money? Well...guess I'd never know.