with the release of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft introduced a replacement to its Data Transformation Services (DTS) known as SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Familiarity with D’IS, fortunately, is not prerequisite knowledge for understanding the concepts in this chapter This chapter is desied to help you understand the features and management of SSIS. Although this chapter will not (and realistically cannot) be an exhaustive review of SSIS, it should give you a good foundation of understanding how data can be moved between various sources and destinations, and how it can he modified in the process. This chapter covers the following topics:

• A general introduction to SSIS and its features
• The import and export tools used to move data around
• The different options for transforming data using SSIS

About SSIS
As mentioned earliet SSIS is designed to be a replacement for DTS, Although many database administrators found DTS to be an extremely useful tool for manipulating and automating the transfer of data from one source to anothet it was prohibitively difficult for many administrators who lacked significant programming or scripting skills to be able to perform complex transformalions. SSIS, or simply Integration Services, changes all that.

Integration Services is part of a suite of tools included in the Business Intelligence (BE) Development Studio, The BI Development Studio is an instance of Visual Studio 2005, which includes the add-ins for designing solutions for Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services, One of the benefits of using the BE Development Studio is that it allows you to develop Integration Services solutions without having to maintain an active connection to an existing SQL Server This gives you the ability to design solutions that can run on multiple servers, or can be executed from a file system,

Integration Services is an Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tool. This means that with Integration Services, you define a data source, and, from thai data source, you define which data you are interested in copying to a new destination. After having extracted the data, you then perform any optional transformations on the data to prepare it for its destination. For example, you may want to take a column that stores a string value that is either “True” or “False” into a Boolean value, “1” or “0,’ respectively’. This allows you to match the current data type of the destination. Finally, the load sequence takes the transformed data and injects it into the appropriate destination.

SQL Server Integration Services is actually made up of four different components:

• Integration Services itself
• Integration Services oect model
• Integrated Services run-time
• Integrated Services data flow

Each of these components is used to create a robust experience for designing, managing, and executing packages built for SSIS. In the next few sections, you learn about each of these components.

Integration Service

The Integration Service itself is actually managed through SQL Server Management Studio, not unlike many of your other server components. This component is used to handle the management and monitoring of both stored and running packages. Packages can he stored either in the file system or they can be stored in the nsdb database on a running instance of SQL Server 2005.

Integration Services, when installed, assumes that the local default instance contai as the rnsdb database that will be used [or the package repository. However, because SQL Server 2005 n-,d SQL Server 2000 can bofh be installed on the sante niaclune, it is possible that your delault instance is running a legacy version of SQL Server ([this is the case, you must manually edit the <serverflame> element in the MsDtsSrvr. mi ,xmi file. This file is in the 90\DTS\Binn directory of your SQL Server installation folder.

You can use SQL Server Managemmit Studio to connect to an instance of SSIS, as shown in Figure 13-1. The following is a list of manageable features of the Integration Service in SQL Server Management Studio:

• Connect to multiple Integration Services servers
• Manage package storage
• Customize storage folders
• Import and export packages
• Start local and remote stored packages
• Stop local and remote running packages
• Monitor local and remote running packages
• View the Windows Event log

Integration Services Object Model

Integration Services includes a new object model for including both native and managed application programming interfaces (APIs) for customizing the behavior of your Integration Services solutions. You can use these APIs for accessing SSIS tools, command-line functions, or custom applications. You can also use the object model for executing SSIS tools and packages from within your own applications.

Integration Services Run-time

The Integration Services Run—time engine is responsible for saving the control flow logic and execution of SSIS packages. Integration Services run-time executables include packages, containers, predefined and custom tasks, and event handlers, The run-time handles execution order, logging, variables, and event handling. Programming the Integration Services Run-time engine allows you to automate the creation, configuration, and execution of packages through the object model,

Integration Services Packages

Packages are units of execution that are composed of a series of other elements, including containers, tasks, and event handlers You can create and manage packages through the 81 Development Studio, or programmatically, using the Integration Services object model. Each package contains a control flow, which is a series of tasks (related or not) that will execute as a unit. Similar to jobs in the SQL Server Agent service (see Chapter 8), Integration Services packages use a customizable logic flow that controls the timed or constrained execution of individual tasks.

Integration Services Tasks

Tasks are the basic unit of work within an Integration Services package. Each task defines an action that will be taken as part of the execution of this package. Some of the basic task types include Execute SQL tasks, in which a T-SQL script will be executed; file system tasks, which interact with a local or remote file system; and data flow tasks, which control how data is copied between a source and destination. Many other types of tasks are discussed later in this chapter.

Integration Services Containers

Containers are objects that exist within the Integration Services environment to allow you to define one or more tasks as a unit of work. You can use containers to define parameters for the execution of these tasks. Four types of containers am available, and you learn more about them later in this chapter.

Integration Services Event Handlers

Event handlers are similar to packages, in that within them, you can define tasks and containers. One major difference, though, is that event handlers are reactionary. This means that the tasks defined within an event handler will only be executed when a specific event occurs. These events are defined on tasks, containers, or the package itself, and include events that are fired before, during, and after the execution of the package.

Integration Services Data Flow

One of the most significant benefits of the SSIS features is the separation of the control flow from the data flow. Each package that contains a data flow task (such as an import or export) identifies the data flow task to the run-time engine, but then a separate data flow engine is invoked for that operation. The data flow engine manages what is typically the whole point of an SSIS package, and that is extracting, transforming, and loading data. The data flow engine will extract data from data files or relational databases, manage any and all transforms that manipulate that data, and then provide that transfonned data to the destination, A package may have more than one data flow task, and each task will execute its own data flow process for moving and manipulating data.

Importing and Exporting Data

One of the easiest ways to understand SSIS, and to see it in action, is through the Import/Export Wizard, which can he run from the Management Studio, The process is essentially the same for both operations. The primal’v difference between the import operation and the export operation is whether your SQL Server is the source or the destination. It should he noted, however, that SSIS doesn’t need to use a SQL Server as either the source or the destination! You can use SSIS to import data from a fiat-file source  (such a comma-separated value file) into a Microsoft Access database.

Transforming Data with SSIS

Now the fun really begins. By now you should have a pretty good understanding of the concepts of how Integration Services can manage control and data flow, and you’ve seen a simple example of how to get data into and out of the SQL Server using the basic tools, In this section, you’re going to see how those components can be expanded on to provide a more complete scenario for working with Integration Services.

You should first become familiar with the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Integration Services, along with Analysis Services and Reporting Services, relies heavily on the 81 Development Studio. The Bl Development Studio is really just a fancy name for Visual Studio, and is, in fact the Visual Studio 2005 IDE, but it includes only those add-ins for SQL-based services. If you install the full version of Visual Studio 2005, or just language add-ins like Visual Basic and c#, you’ll find that it starts the same environment. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just refer to the IDE as Visual Studio.

To begin creating a new SQL Server Integration Services packages, simply launch Visual Studio and create a new project. Of the types of projects available, Integration Services is available under Business Intelligence Projects (see Figure 13-11). Once you’ve created your new project, notice that like other Visual Studio pmjects, you have a toolbox that contains controls and rsourees for your projects. The development environment is broken up into four different sections, each of which allows you to control different aspects of your project. These sections include a management area for the Control Flow, management of the Data Flow, Event Handlers, and a Package Exploret During the execution or debugging of a package, a fifth tab appears, allowing you to view package execution progress. In the next few seclions, you learn about each of the different management areas, how they’re used, and what options are available when working in those areas.

Package Elements
When creating a new 5515 package, it’s important that you be familiar with the different elements available. Familiarizing yourself with the variety of tools available will help you create mote robust packages, which can execute a complex series of tasks. This section introduces you to these resources.

Control Flow
Your main environment is the Control Flow section, shown on the left side of Figure 13-12. The control flow environment allows you to define one or more tasks that will he executed for this Integration Services project, and specify the order in which those tasks are executed (hence the term “Control Flow”). You can choose to define tasks that are serialized, meaning that one task must reach a completion state before the next task begins. You can also execute tasks in parallel, allowing multiple operations to be executed simultaneously As long as there are no dependencies between these tasks, this can take advantage of your system resources, and dramatically decrease the execution time of your packages. You can reduce the total time the package takes to execute significantly with parallel execution.

To add items to your package’s control flow, simply choose the appropriate item and drag it into the Control Flow pane, which is the first tab on the left in the middle of Figure 13-12. Once you’ve dragged an item into the Control Flow pane, you can then configure that item. Some tasks may display with an error symbol (the red circle with the white X) or a warning symbol (the yellow triangle with the black exclamation point) to indicate that further configuration is needed for that task to be able to execute properly In some cases, simply configuring the task can “fix” the problem. You can also view the Error List (by pressing CtrlE or selecting View — Error List) and review the available errors and warnings. You can also double-click on an error or warning to have the IDE take you straight to where you need to go to fix the event.

Control Flow Tasks

This section briefly identifies each of the control flow tasks that can be used to build your packages.

Also listed are Database Maintenance tasks that may be useful to you as well.

1. For Loop Container—Containers are interesting in that they are both a task and collection of tasks at the same time, In this case, the For Loop container allows you to execute one or more tasks that will continually execute until the result of the executed task returns a Boolean “false” value.
2. ForEach Loop Container—Similar to the For Loop container, ForEach Loop containers allow you to execute tasks for each instance of a type of object. The ForEach loop includes enumerators for files, items, ADO record sets, ADO.NET scheinas, variables, XML nodes, or SQL Management Objects.
3. Sequence Container—These containers allow you to define a series of tasks that will execute in sequence. It is similar in many regards to simply grouping tasks, which is covered later in this section, but allows additional functionality (such as limiting the scope of a variable to only the tasks within this container).

Each of the following tasks is also a container unto itself This is referred to as the Task Host Container, and is not a container h/pc you need to separately manage or add to your package.

1. ActiveX Script Task—The ActiveX script task allows you to run scripts that use VBScript or JavaScript as a step in your process flow This has been largely superseded by the Script task, which uses VisualBasic,Net scripts. ActiveX scripts are primarily used with older packages that have been upgraded from DTS 2000.
2. Analysis Services Execute DDL Task—This task allows you to execute a Data Definition Language (DDL) statement in Analysis Services.
3. Analysis Services Processing Task—This task contains configuration options for processing Analysis Services objects.
4. Bulk Insert Task— This task is used to import a large amount of data from a flat file source.
5. Data Flow Task—This task is pretty much the bread and butter of Integration Services. It allows you to define how data is processed as it moves from source to destination,
6. Data Mining Query Task —You can use the Data Mining Query task to run prediction queries using a Data Mining Extension (DMX) statement,
7. Execute DTS 2000 Package Task—This task is used to execute packages created in DTS from SQL 2000, but have not yet been upgraded or migrated to Integration Services,
8. Execute Package Task—This task can he used to launch another Integration Services task. U Execute Process Task—You can use this to execute a Windows application or batch file.
9. Execute SQL Task—Use this task to execute a SQL script. Second only to the Data Flow task, this is probably one of the more commonly used tasks.
10. File System. Task—File system tasks are used to interact with the file system, such as creating files and directories.
11. FTP Task — You can use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to upload or download files to FTP servers.
12. Message Queue Task— Using this task allows you to configure your package to interact with Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) services.
13. Script Task— This task is used to execute a Microsoft Visual BasicNet script.
14. Send Mail Task—Use this task to send email messages during the execution of a package.
15. Transfer Database Task—This task is used to transfer entire databases between different instances of SQL Server.

Precedence Constraints

Now that you’ve been introduced to the different tasks available for your control flow, you must understand how you can arrange or use these tasks together. When you add tasks to the control flou you must specify how and when to execute these tasks, If you were to just add a bunch of tasks into the control flow, and then run the package, all of the tasks would try to execute at the same time. That may be desirable in some instances, hut in most cases, you want to ensure that there is a defined logic to how and when the different tasks will execute. In more complex packages, some steps may not be executed at all unless there is a problem.

Precedence constraints are used to control the order in which tasks are executed, and whether or not they are executed based on the prior task failing, succeeding, or either, Tasks may also have more than one precedence constraint defined. When defining multiple precedence constraints on a task, you can also specify whether they are evaluated using the AND operator, which requires both constraints to evaluate to true; or the OR operator, which will execute the task as long as one of the constraints is met.

Remember that using multiple precedence constraints on a task means that either all conditions must be met, or just one. The conditions, however, could be completely different. For example, Task C has two precedence constraints defined, The first one requires that Task A succeeds, and the second one requires that Task B fails. If the AND operator is specified, then Task A must succeed, and Task B must fail. If Task B executes successfully, Task C will not run. If the OR operator is used, then Task C will run if Task A succeeds ,regardless of the outcome of Task B, or if Task B fails, regardless of the outcome of Task A.

Figure shows three tasks included in the control flow of a package. The first task will execute a  SQl statement and if it succeeds, the data flow task will execute. If the SQL task fails, then the Send  Mail task will execute, and notify the appropriate personnel.

1. Transfer Error Messages Task— This task allows you to copy user-defined error messages (with an error number above 50,000) between instances of SQL Server. The data is stored in the sysmessages table of the Master database.
2. Transfer lobs Task—This task is used to copy jobs between instances of SQL Server.
3. Transfer Logins Task—Use the Transfer Logins task to copy logins between SQL Servers. This can be useful when creating a redundant server for fault-tolerance.
4. Transfer Master Stored Procedures Task— You can use this task if you’ve created user-defined stored procedures in the Master database that you want to copy to another instance of SQL Server.
5. Transfer SQL Server Object Task—Use this task to transfer other SQL objects such as tables, views, stored procedures, and triggers between instances.
6. Web Service Task—The Web Service task is used to initiate a connection to a Web site, and can be used to return information to a variable or file.
7. WMI Data Reader Task — The WMI Data Reader task can be used to query Windows Management Instrumentation (WMO namespaces to return information about the computer system.
8. WA4I Event Watcher Task—This task can be used to query WMI for events relating to system behavior or performance.
9. XML Task— You can add XML tasks to work with XML files and data sets.
10. Back Up Database Task—The Back Up Database task does exactly what the name suggests, and allows you to configure a database backup as part of a package.
11. Check Database integrity Task— Use the Check Database Integrity task to check the structural integrity and space allocation of all objects within a specified database.
12. Execute SQL Server Agent Job Task—You can also configure an Integration Services package to launch a SQL Server Job as part of its process flow.
13. Execute T-SQL Statement Task—Similar to the Execute SQL task, this requires that you specifically use the Transact-SQL dialect of the SQL language.
14. History Cleanup Task— This task can be used to remove extemporaneous data from the rnsdb database, specifically historical information about backups, restores, jobs, and maintenance plans.
15. Maintenance Cleanup Task—Use this task to remove leftover data from maintenance plans, such as backup files or text reports.
16. Notify Operator Task— During the execution of a package, you may want to notify an operator that a certain step has completed or failed.
17. Rebuild Index Task—You can use this task to rebuild an index during the execution of your package.
18. Reorganize index Task—Rather than rebuilding, you can also reorganize one or more indices from one or more databases.
19. Shrink Database Task—Use this task to shrink one or more databases.
20. Update Statistics Task—This task allows you to execute a controlled UPDATE STATISTICS task for one or more databases.

Task Grouping

There is also a feature in Integration Services that allows you to add multiple tasks and containers to a group. Unlike containers, groups are not treated as a unit of execution, but they can help clean up the logic flow. As a UI enhancement more than anything else, when you group tasks together, you can “hide” the tasks from view by collapsing the group. This can be helpful when you have a complex package, and want to simplify the view, Also, note that precedence constraints cannot he defined on a group, but are defined on the tasks within that group.

Data Flow
As mentioned earIiei one of the biggest improvements to managing Integration Services packages was removing the data flow logic from the control flow, This allows you to create more complex transformations that are easier to design and are more manageable. Data flow tasks appear as a single unit of execution in the conlwl flow, but may have many complex steps in the data flow view.
When you switch to the data flow view, a drop-down list appears with all data flow tasks in the package. Each data flow task will allow you to configure at least a source and destination. You can optionally apply one or more bansforms that can modify or prepare the data before it reaches its destination.

Data Sources
Out of the box, SQL Server 2005 includes six data sources you can use in your data flow. You can, in fact, use multiple data sources in your task. This allows you to use a merge transformation to join the data sets before it reaches the destination. The following data sources are available:

1. Data Reader Saurce—Use the Data Reader Source with an ADONET connection manager to connect to a NET provider.
2. Excel Source—Use with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
3. Flat File Source—This allows you to import from a variety of flat file formats (such as comma- separated, tab-separated, and fixed-length fields).
4. OLE DB Source—Use with any OLE DB data source.
5. Raw File Saarce—This is a specialized fiat file format that is optimized for quick use. This is typically created by Raw File deslinations to allow fast processing of the data, because minimal translation is required.
6. XML Source —This allows you to use an XML file as a data source. You must ensure that elements within your XML file can be mapped to SQL fields, You can do this by creating a schema mapping file, using an inline schema within the file, or allowing Integration Services to try to create an XSD mapping file for this data source.

Transformations

Integration Services includes a number of built-in transforms to help modify or improve your data during the transfer process. With DTS 2000, many of these transforms had to be built programmatically, making the process of performing complex transformations burdensome. Afthough there are still programmatic options that let you build your own custom transfonns, you can use the following transforms to create complex packages with minimal programming ability:

1. Aggregate—This transform is used to perform aggregate calculations, such as AVERAGE, GROUP BY, and COUNT.
2. Audit— Use the Audit transfonn to output additional data about the environment.
3. Character Map —The Character Map transfonn lets you transform string data. You can use this to convert uppercase to lowercase, and traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese, for example.
4. Conditional Split —The conditional split transform is used to send different data sets from the same soune to different destinations.
5. Data Conversion — Use the Data Conversion transform when you need to change the data type between source and destination.
6. Data Minitg Query —This can he used to perform prediction queries against data mining models.
7. Derived Column — Derived Columns can be used to modify the data itself during transformation.
8. Export Column—This transform imports data into a file.
9. Fuzzy Cronping — You can use this transform to help standardize your data. It allows you to look for string data that is similai and replaces the variants with a standard value.
10. Fuzzy Lookup—Similar to the lookup transform, the fuzzy lookup uses values in a reference table, but accepts variants on the data.
11. Import Column—This transform reads data from a file, and adds it to the data flow.
12. Lookup—Viith a Lookup transform, existing data is joined to data being imported. This references values in a lookup table, but with an exact match.
13. Merge— As the name suggests, the Merge transform merges data between two data sets. Use the Union All transform to join more than two data sources.
14. Merge Join — Similar to the Merge transform, this transform uses JOIN statements to combine the data.
15. Multicast —This transform allows the data to be sent to multiple destinations.
16. OLE DR Command— Use this to execute a SQL command for each row in the input flow.
17. Percentage Sampling —You can use this transform to return a random sampling of data from the input. When using this transform, specify a percentage of the total rows that will be sent to the output.
18. Pivot — This can he used to denormalize data.
19. Row Count — Use this transform to return a count of the total number of rows passed through, and return the count to a variable.
20. Row Sampling —Similar to Percentage Sampling, Row Sampling outputs random rows, hut you specify the total number of rows to be returned.
21. Script Component— This transform allows you to execute a custom script task that will transform the data.
22. Slowly Changing Dimension — Used with dimension tables to perform changing attribute, historical attribute, fixed attribute, and inferred member changes.
23. Sort—This transform allows you to sort the data on one or more import columns.
24. Term Exiraction — You can use this transform to extract English nouns or noun phrases and redirect the terms to the output.
25. Tern? Lookup —This transform uses a reference table and returns a count of the items in the reference table that appear in the data flow.
26. Union All — This transform can be used to merge multiple data sets.
27. Unpivot—Use the Unpivot transform to normalize data.

Data Destinations

Integration Services allows you to specify one or more destinations in a data flow task, The following is a list of data flow destinations that are available with SQL Server out-of-the-box:

1. Data Mining Model Training—This destination passes data through data mining model algorithms to train the data mining model.
2. DotaReader Destination — This uses the DataReader interface in ADO.NET.
3. Dimension Processing— This destination loads data into an Analysis Services dimension.
4. Exo’l Destination — Use this to output your data to a Microsoft Excel file.
5. Flat File Destination — This can be used to output the data to comma-separated, tab-separated, or fixed-length file.
6. OLE DB Destination — This destination uses an OLE DB provider.
7. Partition Proo’ssing—This destination is used to output the data to an Analysis Services partition.
8. Raw File Destination — Used as an intermediary output between data flow tasks, this format allows for quick processing as minimal formatting options need to be defined.
9. Recordset Destination — This outputs the data to an ADO recordset,
10. SQL Server Destinat ion—This inserts data into a Microsoft SQL Server destination.
11. SQL Server Mobile Destination —This destination is used for SQL Server Mobile Edition clients.

Event Handling

Event handling is another feature of Integration Services that provides more granular control over the execution of your packages, and the tasks within them, Frequently associated with error handling, event handling allows you to execute additional tasks before a task executes, during task execution, and after task execution.

Any well-designed package includes the ability to control or monitor the execution of the tasks within. Using efficient error handling and event handling is the cornerstone for creating packages that require minimal maintenance and hands-on execution. The Event Handling tab includes options for configuring tasks that execute for the following 12 package- or task-level events:

1. OnError
2. OnaxecstatusChanged
3. Onlnformation
4. OnPostExecute
5. OnPostvalidate
6. OnPreExecute
7. OnPreV’aIidate
8. OnProgress
9. OnQueryCancel
10. OnTaskpaiiect
11. onvariablevaiuechanged
12. Onwarning

Configuring additional tasks on these events can improve error handling and provide you with more precise control over execution of your packages. Be careful, though. Too much granularity can cause more administrative work than necessary.

Package Explorer
The Package Explorer is a useful utility that allows you to view the different elements of your package in an organized, hierarchical structure, Though this view isn’t representative of the control or data flow, it can help you quickly find an element of either, You can view or modify the properties, or delete unused elements from your package.

Creating a Simple Package
So, now that you have a fairly good understanding of the different elements of an Integration Services package, it’s time to put it to use, In this scenario, the employees at Adventureworks have decided to pool some of their resources and decided to keep a DVD library of titles in the office to share among themselves. Anyone is welcome to participate, but if you’re going to borrow, you’re going to contribute!

Up until now, one of the employees had been keeping track of their collection using an InfoPath form, However, over the last couple of months, the collection has grown significantly, and the core group who started the library wants a better way to manage it, They’ve decided to store the data in SQL, hut rather than having to re-enter all the data by hand, they would prefer to import the XML file into the database,

For this example, you can download an XML file from http:J /p2p.wrox, com (search for the ISBN— 04700047046—or title of the book), or you could build your own sample file.

Create the Connection
You’ll begin by ciating a new Integration Services project called AdventureWorks IS Project. When you create the project, a new package named Package. dtsx is created. Rename the package XMLImporc . dtsx.

Follow these steps:
1. Although you’ll only be creating one package in this exercise, create a new Data Source that will be available to all packages that are part of this project. Right-click Data Sources and select New Data Source to launch the Wizard.
2. In the Wizard, click Next on the introduction page. Then, on the next page, “Select how to define the connection,” click New. In the Connection Manager dialog box, either enter your server name, or select it from the drop-down list. Use Windows Authentication, and select AdventureWorks as the database. Click OK when these options have been selected.
3. Click Next to go to the Completing the Wizard page, and leave the default Data Source name. Click Finish to complete the wizard.
4. Now, below the Confrol Flow pane, you should see the Connection Managers pane. Right-click anywhere in the pane and select New Connection from Data Source.
5. Select Adventure WOrks and click OK.

Create the Data Flow Task
Now it’s time to put the package to work, The first thing to do is create a new Data Flow task, From your Toolbox, drag the Data Flow task into the control flow window, and rename it XML Transfer.
Click the Data Flow tab, You should see XML Transfer in the drop-down list, If you had more than one data flow task in your package, you could navigate through them without having to go back to the control flow task to manage it.
The first thing to do to build the data flow is to specify the source, Drag the XML Source from the Toolbox into the data flow pane, and then double-click it to open up the XML Source Editor.
For the Data Access mode, ensure that XML file location is selected, Type the path or browse to the DVDLib . xml file. Because there is no schema mapping file, you can have the SQL Server generate one. Click the Generate XSD button, and use the default filename and location.
You can navigate to the Columns page to view the columns that will be imported into your database, but you should not need to change anything in there. Click OK to exit the editor.

Summary
In summary, SQL Server 2005 Integration Services is a very powerful tool for controlling data transformation operations between SQL Servers and other data stores. It allows you to create very simple data flow models, or very complex ones. It is also extensible, allowing you to programmatically build additional transformations and conbols, This chapter provided you with a high-level overview of how the Integration Service works, how to use the Import and Export wizards, and how to build simple packages using the SSIS designer. If you would like to learn more about Integration Services, check out Profrssional SQL Server 2005 iniegration Service (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2006).

You all know what it is. Sir Peter Viggers’s duck house was iconic, and at the centre of the only event in recent history that’s made journalists more trusted than politicians, surveys say.

But the fact it was a great scoop is not the only reason this story was good for journalism. It also made use of a technique already well in place in the US – Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR).

I first heard about this while on work experience for the Times in 2008. While Heather Brooke was quietly slogging to get the MPs’ expenses published (before they got leaked to the Telegraph – she must have been gutted), I sat in on a lecture from a very excitable journalist who’d just been working in small-town USA.

He raved about hyperlocal sites like this one in Portland, Oregon. But his point wasn’t that they gave local information. What he loved was how sites like these could deliver information. By delivering the raw information on the local community, and making it searchable.

The community gets involved, even if it runs to 10,000 pages. The MPs’ expenses were 458,832 pages long. Look at how the Guardian is solving that little problem here.

All this is CAR. Give people the information: then all race through it to find the stories. It’s difficult. It requires maths – oh God.

From XKCD, a very good, very geeky comics site

And most of all, it takes time. Why else did the expenses scandal take so long to come out? Why did the front pages span across months? The cynical will say ‘to sell papers’.

But the truth is more pathetic than that really. It took so long because the information, whether on a leaked CD-ROM or official (redacted) documents, took hundreds of work experience minions like myself forever to shift through.

I was in the audience earlier this year for this edition of Question Time (below). The video isn’t online, unfortunately, but the most interesting part of the show was when Lib Dem MP Ed Davey waved his expenses documents in the air, and said his local paper was publishing them – unredacted – with his permission. A local organisation opening up local information for local people to scrutinise. Isn’t that what news was always meant to be?

If the Twentieth Century proved anything, it is that the single greatest danger to human life are the thugs of the centralized political State, who extinguished more than 170 million souls during the bloodiest rampage in recorded history. By any rational standard, modern States are the last and greatest remaining predators – and that the danger has not abated with the demise of communism and fascism. All Western democracies currently face vast and accelerating escalations of State power and centralized control over economic and civic life. In almost all Western democracies, the State chooses:

• where children go to school, and how they will be educated
• the interest rate citizens can borrow at
• the value of currency
• how employees can be hired and fired
• how more than 50% of their citizens’ time and money are disposed of
• who a citizen’s doctor is
• what kinds of medical procedures can be received – and when
• when to go to war
• who can live in the country
• just to touch on a few.

Most of these amazing intrusions into personal liberty have occurred over the past 90 years, since the introduction of the income tax. They have been accepted by a population helpless to challenge the endless expansions of State power – and yet, even though most citizens have received endless pro-State propaganda in government schools, a growing rebellion is brewing. State predations are now so intrusive that they have effectively arrested the forward momentum of society, which now hangs before a fall. Children are poorly educated, young people are unable to get ahead, couples with children fall ever-further into debt, and the elderly are finding State medical systems collapsing under the weight of their growing needs – and State debts continue to grow.

Thus, these early years of the twenty-first century are the end of an era, a collapse of mythology comparable to the fall of fascism, communism, monarchy, or political Christianity. The idea that the State is capable of solving social problems is now viewed with great skepticism – which foretells a coming change. As soon as skepticism is applied to the State, the State falls, since it fails at everything except increasing its power, and so can only survive on propaganda, which relies on unquestioning faith.

Yet while most people are comfortable with the idea of reducing the size and power of the State, they become distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of getting rid of it completely. To use a medical metaphor, if the State is a cancer, they prefer medicating it into an unstable remission, rather than eliminating it completely.

This can never work. A central lesson of history is that States are parasites which always expand until they destroy their host population. Because the State uses violence to achieve its ends – and there is no rational end to the expansion of violence – States grow until they destroy civilized interaction through the corruption of money, contracts, honesty, family, and self-reliance. As such, the cancerous metaphor is not misplaced. People who believe that the State can somehow be contained have not accepted the fact that no State in history has ever been contained.

Even the rare reductions are merely temporary. The United States was founded on the principle of limited government; it took little more than a century for the State to break the bonds of the Constitution, implement the income tax, take control of the money supply and the educational system, and begin its catastrophic expansion. There is no example in history of a State being permanently reduced in size. All that happens during a tax or civil revolt is that the State retrenches, figures out what it did wrong, and plans its expansion again. Or provokes a war, which silences all but fringe dissenters.

Given these well-known historical facts, why do still people believe that such a deadly predator can be tamed? Surely it can only be because they consider a slow strangulation in the grip of an expanding State somehow better than the quick death of a society bereft of a State.

Why, then, do most people believe that a society will crumble without a coercive and monopolistic social agency at its core? There are a number of answers to this question, but generally they tend to revolve around three central points:

dispute resolution;
collective services; and,
pollution.
Dispute Resolution

The fact that people still cling to the belief that the State is required to resolve disputes is amazing, since modern courts are out of the reach of all but the most wealthy and patient, and are primarily used to shield the powerful from competition or criticism. In this writer’s experience, to take a dispute with a stockbroker to the court system would have cost more than a quarter of a million dollars and taken from five to ten years – however, a private mediator settled the matter within a few months for very little money. In the realm of marital dissolution, private mediators are commonplace. Unions use grievance processes, and a plethora of other specialists in dispute resolution have sprung up to fill in the void left by a ridiculously lengthy, expensive and incompetent State court system.

Thus the belief that the State is required for dispute resolution is obviously false, since the court apparatus is unavailable to the vast majority of the population, who resolve their disputes either privately or through agreed-upon mediators.

How can the free market deal with the problem of dispute resolution? Outside the realm of organized crime, very few people are comfortable with armed confrontations, and so generally prefer to delegate that task to others. Let’s assume that people’s need for such representatives produces Dispute Resolution Organizations (DROs), which promise to resolve disputes on their behalf.

Thus, if Stan is hired by Bob, they both sign a document specifying which DRO they both accept as an authority in dispute resolution. If they disagree about something, and are unable to resolve it between themselves, they submit their case to the DRO, and agree to abide by that DRO’s decision.

So far so good. However, what if Stan decides he doesn’t want to abide by the DRO’s decision? Well, several options arise.

First of all, when Stan signed the DRO agreement, it is likely that he would have agreed to property confiscation if he did not abide by the DRO’s decision. Thus the DRO would be entirely within its right to go and remove property from Stan – by force if necessary – to pay for his side of the dispute.

It is at this point that people generally throw up their arms and dismiss the idea of DROs by claiming that society would descend into civil war within a few days.

Everyone, of course, realizes that civil war is a rather bad situation, and so it seems likely that the DROs would consider alternatives to armed combat.

What other options could be pursued? To take a current example, small debts which are not worth pursuing legally are still regularly paid off – and why? Because a group of companies produce credit ratings on individuals, and the inconvenience of a lowered credit rating is usually greater than the inconvenience of paying off a small debt. Thus, in the absence of any recourse to force, small debts are usually settled. This is one example of how desired behaviour can be elicited without pulling out a gun or kicking in a door.

Picture for a moment the infinite complexity of modern economic life. Most individuals bind themselves to dozens of contracts, from car loans and mortgages to cell phone contracts, gym membership, condo agreements and so on. To flourish in a free market, a man must honour his contracts. A reputation for honest dealing is the foundation of a successful economic life. Now, few DROs will want to represent a man who regularly breaks contracts, or associates with difficult and litigious people. (For instance, this writer once refrained from entering into a business partnership because the potential partner revealed that he had sued two previous partners.)

Thus if Stan refuses to abide by his DRO’s ruling, the DRO has to barely lift a finger to punish him. All the DRO has to do is report Stan’s non-compliance to the local contract-rating company, who will enter his name into a database of contract violators. Stan’s DRO will also probably drop him, or raise his rates considerably.

And so, from an economic standpoint, Stan has just shot himself in the foot. He is now universally known as a man who rejects legitimate DRO rulings that he agreed to accept in advance. What happens when he goes for his next job? What if he decides to eschew employment and start his own company, what happens when he applies for his first lease? Or tries to hire his first employee? Or rent a car, or buy an airline ticket? Or enter into a contract with his first customer? No, in almost every situation, Stan would be far better off to abide by the decision of the DRO. Whatever he has to pay, it is far cheaper than facing the barriers of existing without access to a DRO, or with a record of rejecting a legitimate ruling.

But let’s push the theory to the max, to see if it holds. To examine a worst-case scenario, imagine that Stan’s employer is an evil man who bribes the DRO to rule in his favour, and the DRO imposes an unconscionable fine – say, one million dollars – on Stan.

First of all, this is such an obvious problem that DROs, to get any business at all, would have to deal with this danger up front. An appeal process to a different DRO would have to be part of the contract. DROs would also rigorously vet their own employees for any unexplained income. And, of course, any DRO mediator who corrupted the process would receive perhaps the lowest contract rating on the planet, lose his job, and be liable for damages. He would lose everything, and be an economic pariah.

However, to go to the extreme, perhaps the worst has occurred and Stan has been unjustly fined a million dollars due to DRO corruption. Well, he has three alternatives. He can choose not to pay the fine, drop off the DRO map, and work for cash without contracts. Become part of the grey market, in other words. A perfectly respectable choice, if he has been treated unjustly.

However, if Stan is an intelligent and even vaguely entrepreneurial man, he will see the corruption of the DRO as a prime opportunity to start his own, competing DRO, and will write into its base contract clauses to ensure that what happened to him will never happen to anyone who signs on with his new DRO.

Stan’s third option is to appeal to the contract rating agency. Contract rating agencies need to be as accurate as possible, since they are attempting to assess real risk. If they believe that the DRO ruled unjustly against Stan, they will lower that DRO’s contract rating and restore Stan’s.

Thus it is inconceivable that violence would be required to enforce all but the most extreme contract violations, since all parties gain the most long-term value by acting honestly. This resolves the problem of instant descent into civil war.

Two other problems exist, however, which must be resolved before the DRO theory starts to becomes truly tenable.

The first is the challenge of reciprocity, or geography. If Bob has a contract with Jeff, and Jeff moves to a new location not covered by their mutual DRO, what happens? Again, this is such an obvious problem that it would be solved by any competent DRO. People who travel prefer cell phones with the greatest geographical coverage, and so cell phone companies have developed reciprocal agreements for charging competitors. Just as a person’s credit rating is available anywhere in the world, so their contract rating will also be available, and so there will be no place to hide from a broken contract save by going ‘off the grid’ completely, which would be economically crippling.

The second problem is the fear that a particular DRO will grow in size and stature to the point where it takes on all the features and properties of a new State.

This is a superstitious fear, because there is no historical example of a private company replacing a political State. While it is true that companies regularly use State coercion to enforce trading restrictions, high tariffs, cartels and other mercantilist tricks, surely this reinforces the danger of the State, not the inevitability of companies growing into States. All States destroy societies. No company has ever destroyed a society without the aid of the State. Thus the fear that a private company can somehow grow into a State is utterly unfounded in fact, experience, logic and history.

If society becomes frightened of a particular DRO, then it can simply stop doing business with it, which will cause it to collapse. If that DRO, as it collapses, somehow transforms itself from a group of secretaries, statisticians, accountants and contract lawyers into a ruthless domestic militia and successfully takes over society – and how unlikely is that! – then such a State will then be imposed on the general population. However, there are two problems even with this most unlikely scare scenario. First of all, if any DRO can take over society and impose itself as a new State, why only a DRO? Why not the Rotary Club? Why not a union? Why not the Mafia? The YMCA? The SPCA? Is society to then ban all groups with more than a hundred members? Clearly that is not a feasible solution, and so society must live with the risk of a brutal coup by ninja accountants as much as from any other group.

And, in the final analysis, if society is so terrified of a single group seizing a monopoly of political power, what does that say about the existing States? They have a monopoly of political power. If a DRO should never achieve this kind of control, why should existing States continue to wield theirs?

Collective Services

Roads, sewage, water and electricity and so on are also cited as reasons why a State must exist. How roads could be privately paid for remains such an impenetrable mystery that most people are willing to support the State – and so ensure the eventual and utter destruction of civil society – rather than cede that this problem just might solvable. There are many ways to pay for roads, such as electronic or cash tolls, GPS charges, roads maintained by the businesses they lead to, communal organizations and so on. And if none of those work? Why, then personal flying machines will hit the market!

The problem that a water company might build plumbing to a community, and then charge exorbitant fees for supplying it, is equally easy to counter. A truck could deliver bottled water, or the community could invest in a water tower, a competing company could build alternate pipes and so on. None of these problems touch the central rationale for a State. They are ex post facto justifications made to avoid the need for critical examination or, heaven forbid, political action. The argument that voluntary free-market monopolies are bad – and that the only way to combat them is to impose compulsory monopolies – is obviously foolish. If voluntary monopolies are bad, then how can coercive monopolies be better?

Due to countless examples of free market solutions to the problem of ‘carrier costs’, this argument no longer holds the kind of water it used to, so it must be elsewhere that people must turn to justify the continued existence of the State.

Pollution

This is perhaps the greatest problem faced by free-market theorists. It’s worth spending a little time on outlining the worst possible scenario, and see how a voluntary system could solve it. However, it’s important to first dispel the notion that the State currently deals effectively with pollution. Firstly, the most polluted resources on the planet are State-owned, because State personnel do not personally profit from retaining the value of State property (witness the destruction of the Canadian cod industry through blatant vote-buying). Secondly, the distribution of mineral, lumber and drilling rights is directly skewed towards bribery and corruption, because States rarely sell the land, but rather just the resource rights. A lumber company cannot buy woodlands from the State, just the right to harvest trees. Thus the State gets a renewable source of income, and can further coerce lumber companies by enforcing re-seeding. This, of course, tends to promote bribery, corruption and the creation of ‘fly-by-night’ lumber companies which strip the land bare, but vanish when it comes time to re-seed. Auctioning State land to a private market easily solves this problem, because a company which re-seeded would reap the greatest long-term profits from woodland, and so would be able to bid the most for the land.

Also, it should be remembered that, in the realm of air pollution, governments created the problem in the first place. In 19th century England, when industrial smokestacks began belching fumes into the orchards of apple farmers, the farmers took the factory-owners to court, citing the common-law tradition of restitution for property damage. Naturally, the capitalists had gotten to the State courts first, and had more money to bribe with, employed more voting workers, and contributed more tax revenue than the farmers – and so the farmers’ cases were thrown out of court. The judge argued that the ‘common good’ of the factories took precedence over the ‘private need’ of the farmers. The free market did not fail to solve the problem of air pollution – it was forcibly prevented from doing so through State corruption.

The State, then, is no friend of the environment – but how would the free market handle it? One egregious example often cited is a group of houses downwind from a new factory which works day and night to coat them in soot.

When a man buys a new house, isn’t it important to him to ensure that it won’t be subjected with someone else’s pollution? People’s desire for a clean and safe environment is so strong that it’s a clear invitation for enterprising capitalists to sweat bullets figuring out how to provide it.

Fortunately, since we have already talked about DROs and their role in a free market, the problem of air pollution can be solved quite easily.

If the aforementioned group of homeowners is afraid of pollution, the first thing they will do is buy pollution insurance, which is a natural response to a situation where costs cannot be predicted but consequences are dire. Let’s say that a homeowner named Achmed buys pollution insurance which pays him two million dollars if the air around or in his house becomes polluted in some predefined manner. In other words, as long as Achmed’s air remains clean, the insurance company makes money.

One day, a plot of land upwind of Achmed’s house comes up for sale. Naturally, his insurance company would be very interested in this, and would monitor the sale. If the purchaser is some private school, all is well (assuming Achmed has not bought an excess of noise pollution insurance!). If, however, the insurance company discovers that Sally’s House of Polluting Paint Production is interested in purchasing the plot of land, then it will likely spring into action, taking one of the following actions:

buying the land itself, then selling it to a non-polluting buyer;
getting assurances from Sally that her company will not pollute;
paying Sally to enter into a non-polluting contract.
If, however, someone at the insurance company is asleep at the wheel, and Sally buys the land and puts up her polluting factory, what happens then?

Well, then the insurance company is on the hook for $2M to Achmed (assuming for the moment that only Achmed bought pollution insurance). Thus, it can afford to pay Sally up to $2M to reduce her pollution and still be cash-positive. This payment could take many forms, from the installation of pollution-control equipment to a buy-out to a subsidy for under-production and so on.

If the $2M is not enough to solve the problem, then the insurance company pays Achmed the $2M and he goes and buys a new house in an unpolluted neighbourhood. However, this scenario is highly unlikely, since the insurance company would be unlikely to insure only one single person in a neighbourhood against air pollution – and a single person probably could not afford it!

So, that is the view from Achmed’s air-pollution insurance company. What about the view from Sally’s House of Polluting Paint Production? She, also, must be covered by a DRO in order to buy land, borrow money and hire employees. How does that DRO view her tendency to pollute?

Pollution brings damage claims against Sally, because pollution is by definition damage to persons or property. Thus Sally’s DRO would take a dim view of her polluting activities, since it would be on the hook for any property damage her factory causes. In fact, it would be most unlikely that Sally’s DRO would insure her against damages unless she were able to prove that she would be able to operate her factory without harming the property of those around her. And without access to a DRO, of course, she would be hard-pressed to start her factory, borrow money, hire employees etc.

It’s important to remember that DROs, much like cell phone companies and Internet providers, only prosper if they cooperate. Sally’s DRO only makes money if Sally does not pollute. Achmed’s insurer also only makes money if Sally does not pollute. Thus the two companies share a common goal, which fosters cooperation.

Finally, even if Achmed is not insured against air pollution, he can use his and/or Sally’s DRO to gain restitution for the damage her pollution is causing to his property. Both Sally and Achmed’s DROs would have reciprocity agreements, since Achmed wants to be protected against Sally’s actions, and Sally wants to be protected against Achmed’s actions. Because of this desire for mutual protection, they would choose DROs which had the widest reciprocity agreements.

Thus, in a truly free market, there are many levels and agencies actively working against pollution. Achmed’s insurer will be actively scanning the surroundings looking for polluters it can forestall. Sally will be unable to build her paint factory without proving that she will not pollute. Mutual or independent DROs will resolve any disputes regarding property damage caused by Sally’s pollution.

There are other benefits as well, which are almost unsolvable in the current system. Imagine that Sally’s smokestacks are so high that her air pollution sails over Achmed’s house and lands on Reginald’s house, a hundred miles away. Reginald then complains to his DRO that his property is being damaged. His DRO will examine the air contents and wind currents, then trace the pollution back to its source and resolve the dispute with Sally’s DRO. If the air pollution is particularly complicated, then Reginald’s DRO will place non-volatile compounds into Sally’s smokestacks and follow them to where they land. This can be used in a situation where a number of different factories may be contributing pollutants.

The problem of inter-country air pollution may seem to be a sticky one, but it’s easily solvable. Obviously, a Canadian living along the Canada/US border, for instance, will not choose a DRO which refuses to cover air pollution emanating from the US. Thus the DRO will have to have reciprocity agreements with the DROs across the border. If the US DROs refuse to have reciprocity agreements with the Canadian DROs – inconceivable, since the pollution can go both ways – then the Canadian DRO will simply start a US branch and compete.

The difference is that international DROs actually profit from cooperation, in a way that governments do not. For instance, a State government on the Canada/US border has little motivation to impose pollution costs on local factories, as long as the pollution generally goes north. For DROs, quite the opposite would be true.

Finally, one other advantage to DRO’s can be termed the ‘Scrabble-Challenge Benefit’. In Scrabble, an accuser loses his turn if he challenges another player’s word and the challenge fails. Given the costs of resolving disputes, DROs would be very careful to ensure that those bringing false accusations would be punished through their own premiums, their contract ratings and by also assuming the entire cost of the dispute. This would greatly reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits, to the great benefit of all.

The idea that society can only survive in the absence of a centralized State is the greatest lesson that the grisly years of the Twentieth Century can teach us. Our choice is not between the free market and the State, but between life and death. Whatever the risks involved in dissolving the central State, they are far less than the certain destruction which will result from its inevitable escalation. Like a cancer patient facing certain demise, we must open our minds reach for whatever medicine shows the most promise, and not wait until it is too late.

I have this javame library I have been compiling for a while. It has a lot of small small code snippets and classes I use often, there is a database part where I have tried as much as possible to encapsulate parts of the saving/retrieving parts of RMS, there is also the UI part, which is what I want to talk about today.

This part contains a TickerForm, which is a form that can show scrollable contents pulled from database or URL at intervals(I am yet to finish it) and the second thing is the Controllable form. This form has a Controller that you can use to service the form(just like posting a form through POST). You call the submit() method of the form and the service method of the controller is called. The service method stores the values of items of the form in a Properties object(which is basically a key-value pair). A code is worth more than a thousand words they say, so here we are

/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/
package com.trinisoft.atpay.forms;

public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d) {
if (c.equals(ok)) {
submit();
if(getResponseCode() == 200) {
display.setCurrent(loginForm);
} else {
Alert l = new Alert("Error Occurred",getResponseText(),null,AlertType.ERROR);
display.setCurrent(l,d);
}
} else if (c.equals(cancel)) {
mainForm.notifyDestroyed();
}
}
});
}
}

You should draw your attention to two places, the contructor and the commandAction in the init() method. In the super constructor, you pass in a Controller, the controller have a service method, which handles the forms submit() and stores response-code and reponse-text keys and values in the Properties passed to it. These keys are used in the commandAction to get the response code and value. Any other value(or object for that matter) that you want to send back as response can be stored in the Properties object.

I think this suite of classes would be useful for anyone interested in Java ME development. Try it out and let me know your feedbacks.

Code hosted at www.gitorious.org/~trinisoftinc

ciao

3 tablespoons (1 ½ ounces) Kahlua

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) vodka

½ cup (3 ounces) white chocolate, cut small

2 cups sifted cake flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup butter

2 tablespoons shortening

1 ¼ cup sugar

3 large eggs

¾ cup buttermilk

1/3 cup apricot jam

Kahlua White Russian Cream

White chocolate curls and shavings

Combine Kahlua, vodka, and chocolate. Place over low heat or hot water until chocolate melts; stir to blend. Cool slightly. Resift cake flour with baking soda and powder. Grease well and flour lightly two 9-inch layer cake pans. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in Kahlua-chocolate mixture, then flour mixture alternately with buttermilk.

Divide batter between two pans. Bake at 350°F 25 to 30 minutes until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Turn out on to wire racks; cooling completely.

To make Kahlua White Russian cream, beat 2 cups heavy whipping cream with 1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar until thickened. Gradually beat in 1/3 cup Kahlua and 2 teaspoons vodka, beating until stiff)

Spread bottom surface of one cake layer with half the jam and about ¼ cup of Kahlua White Russian Cream. Spread bottom surface of second layer with remaining jam. Place on top of first layer. Swirl remaining cream topping on top and sides of cake. Decorate top generously with white chocolate, curls and shavings. If prepared ahead, refrigerate, removing 30 minutes before serving to capture full flavor. Makes 12-16 servings.

Beat 3 egg yolks until they are light and lemon colored and add 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice and 1 tsp. grated lime zest. Beat in the contents of a 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk and a drop or two of vegetable food coloring to attain a natural lime tint. Pour the custard into a baked pie shell with a fluted standing rim. Beat 4 egg whites stiff but not dry and beat in gradually 1/2 cup fine granulated sugar and 1 tsp. lime juice. Spread the meringue thickly over the filling, bringing it to the crust all around and pulling it into irregular peaks. Bake the pie in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for about 15 minutes, until the meringue is delicately browned. Serve the pie well chilled. This unusual recipe originated in the Florida Keys.

Combine 1 can sauerkraut with one peeled, seeded apple in a frying pan. Cook until apple is disintegrated. Throw in hotdogs, cook until heated through. Serve with mashed potatoes. To make mashed potatoes: boil peeled potatoes until soft, mash with milk and butter.

Place one peeled onion inside the body cavity of a chicken. No spices, no fuss.

Cook.

(Chicken in Wine or ‘Drunk Chicken’)

Cut up 2 chickens as for fricassee. Sponge them with a damp cloth and rub with mixed salt, black pepper, paprika, and a little nutmeg. Brown 8 ozs. salt pork, cut in finger-sized strips and 24 whole tiny white onions, peeled, in a shallow earthenware casserole large enough to hold the cut-up birds. Add the chicken pieces and brown them, turning frequently. Pour off the fat and remove the salt pork strips from the casserole. Add to the chicken and onions left in the casserole, 3 tbs. brandy, setting it aflame. When the flame has burned out, add 1 ¾ bottles good red Burgundy, 1 large lump sugar, 2 mashed cloves garlic, 12 whole small (fresh or canned) mushrooms, (if fresh, peeled and stemmed) and a bouquet garni consisting of 2 sprigs rosemary, and 1 large bay leaf, all tied together with kitchen thread. Cover and cook in a moderate oven 375F degrees until chicken is tender or for about 45 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni before serving in the casserole.

There are three cooking operations involved in this recipe–making the crepes, the filling, and the sauce. The filling and the sauce can be made the day before; and though the crepes can be made then, I’d advise cooking them in the afternoon of the day of the party.

Filling: Carefully pick over 1 pound cooked crab meat and remove all bones or hard particles. Use either frozen or canned crab. Cut 15 water chestnuts into quite small pieces. If you can’t get water chestnuts, substitute button mushrooms. Finely chop 1 medium onion, 3 tbs. chives and 4 tbs. parsley. In a skillet or heavy stewing kettle melt 4 tbs. butter or margarine, add water chestnuts or mushrooms, onion and 1 clove garlic, finely minced, and saute, stirring often, until onion begins to brown a little. Add crab, chives, parsley, 2 ½ tsp. salt, 1 tsp. black pepper, 3 tbs. catsup, Tabasco to taste and two cups milk. Bring to a boil and add 4 tbs. cornstarch mixed to a paste with ¼ cup milk. Stir until mixture is thick and bubbling.

Cheese Sauce for Crepes: In top of double boiler, melt 5 tbs. butter or margarine, blend in 5 tbs. flour and stir in 2 cups milk (if you like, ½ cup sherry may be substituted for ½ cup milk). Add 4 ounces Gruyere cheese grated or cut into small pieces (or 4 ounces pasteurized process Swiss cheese), 5 tbs. grated parmesan cheese, ¼ tsp. saffron, 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper. Cook over direct heat until thick and boiling, stirring constantly, or cook in double boiler, stirring often. Taste for salt and add more if needed. The last time I made this I used 1 ¼ tsp. salt, but Parmesan cheese varies in saltiness, so proceed cautiously.

Crepes: This recipe will make about 18 crepes 5 ½” in diameter. Break 5 eggs into a bowl and beat with rotary beater 1 minute. Add 1 ½ cups milk, 1 cup cold water, 1 ¼ cups flour, 1 ½ tsp. salt and 1 tsp. sugar. Beat with rotary beater until blended into a thin smooth batter. Let stand 1 hour before frying the crepe. You’ll need a small skillet whose bottom diameter is 5 ½ inches. If you don’t have one, they are inexpensive and easy to find and are handy for a lot of things. Put skillet over medium high heat, add a small piece of butter or margarine and when melted, pour in a small quantity of the batter. Immediately tilt skillet from side to side to spread batter in an even layer over bottom. When bottom side of pancake is delicately browned, turn it over with a spatula or pancake turner and brown the other side. Transfer to cooky sheet lined with wax paper. Continue until all batter is gone. Each pancake will use about 5 tbs. batter, but they must be poured into the skillet simultaneously–not a tbs. at a time. A good system for gauging quantity is to measure 5 tbs. into a ladle and carefully observe the level. From there on your eye will guide you, and if there is a slight variation in the thickness of pancakes, it’s okay.

Now you’re ready for the assembly line. Heat sauce in top of double boiler while you fill the crepes–the filling should be cold for easy handling. Heap a line of filling across the center of a pancake and work it with your fingers until it is even. Flap one side of the pancake over the limit, then roll. For a guide as to the amount of filling to use, the roll should be about 1 ½” diameter. Grease one very large or two medium-sized pyrex baking dishes. When all the crepes are filled, add two egg yolks to cheese sauce and put a thin layer of cheese sauce in the bottom of the casserole and fit the rolls in, flapped side down. Spoon the rest of the sauce over them, being careful not to obscure the shape of the rolls, and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese. If your casserole has a lid, put it on; if not, cover top with aluminum foil or slip casserole into a paper bag, fold the ends over and fasten with paperclips in hot–400F degree oven. Shortly before serving, remove lid or covering, put casserole near broiler and brown a little. Turn off broiler put casserole on lower rack and let stand until ready to serve.

This is the original recipe for Chicken Country Captain, as prepared by the famous 70-year-old colored cook, Aire Mullen, of Columbus, Georgia.

1 3-lb. chicken

olive oil

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 clove garlic

8 ounces water

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

1 ½ tsp. curry powder

6 large tomatoes

½ tsp. chopped parsley

½ tsp. powdered thyme

½ lb. almonds

3 tsp. dried currants

cooked rice

Cut into 12 pieces a 3-pound chicken or 1 large guinea fowl. Skin and fry to a golden brown in olive oil. In the meantime, brown for 10 minutes in more olive oil 1 onion, pealed and finely chopped, 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped,, and 1 clove of garlic, minced. Stir them as they cook, and moisten with 8 ounces of water. Then season with 1 tsp. of salt, ½ tsp. of pepper, and 1 ½ tsp. curry powder. Again stir well, and add 6 large red tomatoes, peeled and crushed, ½ tsp. of chopped parsley, and ½ tsp. of powdered thyme, and stir well.

Now put the fried chicken in a casserole, cover with the foregoing mixture, and add about ½ of the oil in which the chicken was fried. Cover the casserole and bake for 45 minutes. Have blanched and roasted to a light brown ½ pound of almonds, and add these to the chicken along with 3 tbs. of dried currants. Arrange cooked rice on a platter, place the chicken in the center, and pour the sauce over all. Serve each person a helping of the chicken and the rice and sauce, accompanying each portion with a piece of crisp bacon.

This dish should serve six; but I’d be tempted to double the recipe if for that number. This dish, by the way, was a great favorite with the late President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

Dash Tabasco or red pepper

Paprika

2 teaspoons creole mustard

Parsley, minced fine

6 spring onions, minced fine

2 stalks celery, minced fine

After mixing above ingredients, pour over 1 pound prepared shrimp and allow to marinate for 6 hours or longer in the refrigerator. Can be served in bowl with toothpicks or as salad over thick slices of tomatoes on lettuce.

1 lb. Lobster meat, in chunks

3 cups milk

2 cups grated, canned coconut

5 medium onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

¼ pound butter

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon red pepper

3 teaspoons ground ginger

3 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons curry powder

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 tablespoons flour

1 cucumber, peeled and cubed

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons plum jam

Combine milk and coconut and bring to a boil, remove from heat; set aside for a half hour. Press all the milk from the coconut and discard pulp. Sauté onions and garlic in butter for 10 minutes stirring. Add cumin, red pepper, ginger, salt, curry, and tomatoes. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add flour, stirring constantly until smooth. Add coconut milk gradually, stirring continually until it comes to a boil. Lower heat immediately, add cucumber and lobster meat and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Combine lemon juice and plum jam and add this to mixture. Correct seasoning. This can simmer very slowly a while longer without harm.

Serve over rice and with any or all of the following “Side Boys”: Chopped peanuts, grated coconut, chopped hard-boiled eggs, chopped green onion tops, raisins, chutney, Bombay duck, at least one sharp relish, chopped unpeeled cucumbers, chopped preserved candied ginger. Serve these in small individual bowls.

Butter or margarine

2 tablespoons chopped green pepper

2 tablespoons chopped pimento

9 tablespoons flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

pepper, paprika

3 cups milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard

½ cup bottled capers, drained

1 tablespoon Worcestershire

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 pounds fresh lump crab meat or 6 6-ounce packages frozen King crab meat or 6 6½-ounce cans King crab meat

About an hour before serving:

In 1 tablespoon butter, in small skillet, sauté green pepper and pimento 3 to 5 minutes.

In large saucepan melt 9 tablespoons butter, stir in flour, salt, speck pepper, dash paprika until smooth. Slowly stir in milk, then cook, while stirring until a smooth, thick sauce.

Start heating oven to 350°F. To sauce slowly add egg yolks while stirring constantly; then stir in mustard, 1/8 teaspoon paprika, capers, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, Worcestershire, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise and green pepper mixture. Blend well; fold in well-drained crab meat.

Turn crab-meat mixture into greased 2 ½-quart casserole; spread top with 3 tablespoons mayonnaise. Bake about 30 minutes or until golden on top. Makes about 12 servings – good for a buffet.

1 large can peach halves

1 large can Bartlett pears

1 regular size pineapple chunks

1 regular size Bing cherries

1 pkg. slivered almonds

¾ stick real butter

1 cup light brown sugar

2 tbs. curry powder

Drain all fruit. Chop butter in small pieces and mix with sugar and curry. Butter casserole. Put in one layer of drained fruit, cover with half of sugar mixture, then another layer of fruits and another of sugar mixture. Sprinkle with almonds and bake in pre-heated oven at 350˚F until bubbly. Can be done ahead and re-heated. Sugar mixture will make its own sauce as it cooks.

Cook black-eyed peas as directed on package. Spoon on top of white rice. Top with chopped fresh tomatoes, onions, and green peppers in any kind of vinegar. Serve with cornbread.

Makes 2 qts.

3 large onions

3 cloves of garlic

3 small cans green chile peppers

3 #2 cans tomatoes

2 lbs. Velveeta cheese

salt to taste

Grind onions and garlic in food chopper. Keep peppers separate and grind last. Brown onions and garlic in small amounts of oleo first, then add peppers. Drain tomatoes (no juice) and add to above and simmer 1 hours. Add cheese cut in chunks and cook until cheese is melted. Can be done ahead and reheated in double boiler. Serve with Fritos.

8 Servings

8 c. water

1 family size tea bag or 4 standard size tea bags

1 cinnamon stick

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1/2 c. frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

ice cubes

8 lemon slices

8 fresh mint sprigs

Bring 4 cups water to boil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add tea bag and cinnamon stick to water; let stand 5 minutes. Remove tea bag. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Stir in orange juice and lemonade concentrates. Pour tea mixture into pitcher. Add remaining 4 cups of water and stir well. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. Discard cinnamon stick.

Fill 8 glasses with ice. Pour tea punch over. Garnish each glass with 1 lemon slice and 1 mint sprig and serve.

Bake potatos at 350 degrees for one hour. Scoop out potatos and mash with butter, milk and salt/pepper. Put the mashed potatos back into the potato skins and top with sharp cheddar cheese. Return to oven and bake until cheese melts (about 30 minutes).

Mix one pound of ground sirloin beef with one can of tomato sauce, one beaten egg, chopped onions, salt/pepper, and chopped green peppers. With your hands, shape into a loaf and put in a loaf pan. Pour tomato sauce on top and bake in a 350 degree oven for about one hour. Cool slightly, then slice.

Boil one hen until tender. Cut in small pieces, leaving out the skin and gristle. Marinate overnight in French dressing as follows:

1 tbs. sugar

½ spoon dry mustard

dash of cayenne pepper

9 tbs. Wesson oil

3 tbs. vinegar

juice of two lemons

Cut a stalk of celery in small pieces. Add ½ cup of blanched almonds. Mix with mayonnaise and serve.

Ada perbedaan sangat besar terkait pengelolaan kekayaan alam Indonesia di zaman Soekarno dengan zaman Harto dan para pewarisnya. Soekarno bersikap, “Biarkan kekayaan alam kita, hingga insinyur-insinyur Indonesia mampu mengolahnya sendiri.” Sedangkan Harto dan para pewarisnya hingga sekarang bersikap, “Biarkan kekayaan alam kita dijarah oleh orang-orang asing, silakan Mister…”

Merupakan fakta sejarah jika di awal kekuasaan Harto, kekayaan alam Indonesia yang melimpah-ruah digadaikan kepada blok imperialisme Barat yang dipimpin Amerika Serikat. Sebelumnya Harto dan Washington agaknya telah memiliki “MOU” bahwa jika Soekarno berhasil dikudeta maka Harto yang menggantikannya akan “membalas budi” kepada Washington berupa penyerahan negara dan bangsa ini tanpa syarat agar bisa dieksploitasi sepuasnya oleh para tuan bule di Washington.

Tragedi pertemuan Mafia Berkeley dengan Rockefeller dan kawan-kawannya di Jenewa-Swiss di bulan November 1967 menjadi bukti tak terbantahkan tentang permufakatan iblis tersebut. Di saat itulah, rezim Jenderal Harto mencabut kemerdekaan negeri ini dan menjadikan Indonesia kembali sebagai negeri terjajah. Ironisnya, penjajahan asing atas Indonesia diteruskan oleh semua pewarisnya termasuk rezim yang tengah berkuasa hari ini yang ternyata “jauh lebih edan” ketimbang Jenderal Harto dulu.

Sampai sekarang, hampir semua cabang produksi yang amat vital bagi negara dan bangsa ini telah dikuasai asing. Banyak buku yang telah memaparkan dengan jujur kenyataan menyedihkan ini. Beberapa di anaranya adalah buku berjudul “Di Bawah Cengkeraman Asing: Membongkar Akar Persoalannya dan Tawaran Revolusi untuk Menjadi Tuan di Negeri Sendiri” (Wawan Tunggul Alam: 2009), dan “Agenda Mendesak Bangsa: Selamatkan Indonesia!” (Amien Rais, 2008). Dengan bahasa jurnalisme yang sangat mengalir namun amat kaya data, Wawan memaparkan dengan lugas hampir seluruh fakta yang patut diketahui generasi muda bangsa ini, agar kita bisa sadar sesadar-sadarnya jika Indonesia itu, negeri kita ini, sekarang masih merupakan negeri terjajah!

Dan untuk buku yang kedua yang ditulis oleh Amien Rais, isinya benar-benar bagus dan sangat anti dengan neo-liberal. Namun dalam faktanya sangat ironis, karena entah dengan alasan apa, Amien Rais sekarang malah jelas-jelas menjadi bagian dari kelompok NeoLib dengan berterus-terang menyatakan dukungannya pada rezim yang berkuasa sekarang. Disadari atau tidak, dia sekarang telah menjadi part of problem bagi bangsa ini dan menjadi salah satu penghalang bagi gerakan pemerdekaan negeri ini dari cengkeraman imperialisme asing.

Jika Imperialisme dan Kolonialisme Kuno (Spanyol, Portugis, VOC, Fasis Jepang, dan NICA) menggunakan senjata api untuk menjajah suatu negeri, maka sekarang, Imperialisme dan Kolonialisme Modern (Neo Kolonialisme dan Neo Imperialisme, Nekolim) lebih pintar dengan tidak lagi memakai senjata api namun mempergunakan kekuatan uang (baca: kekuatan utang).

JFK, CIA, dan Freeport

Di atas telah disebutkan, hanya beberapa bulan setelah secara de-facto berkuasa, Jenderal Harto menggadaikan nyaris seluruh kekayaan alam negeri ini kepada blok imperialisme asing. Salah satu cerita yang paling menyedihkan adalah tentang gunung emas di Papua Barat. Gunung emas yang sekarang secara salah kaprah disebut sebagai Tembagapura, merupakan sebuah gunung dimana cadangan tembaga dan emas berada di atas tanahnya, tersebar dan siap dipungut dalam radius yang amat luas.

Lisa Pease menulis artikel berjudul “JFK, Indonesia, CIA, and Freeport” dan dimuat dalam majalah Probe. Tulisan bagus ini disimpan di dalam National Archive di Washington DC. Dalam artikelnya, Lisa Pease menulis jika dominasi Freeport atas gunung emas di Papua dimulai sejak tahun 1967, namun kiprahnya di Indonesia sudah dimulai beberapa tahun sebelumnya. Freeport Sulphur, demikian nama perusahaan itu awalnya, nyaris bangkrut berkeping-keping ketika terjadi pergantian kekuasaan di Kuba tahun 1959. Saat itu Fidel Castro berhasil menghancurkan rezim diktator Batista. Oleh Castro, seluruh perusahaan asing di negeri itu dinasionalisasikan. Freeport Sulphur yang baru saja hendak melakukan pengapalan nikel produksi perdananya terkena imbasnya. Ketegangan terjadi. Menurut Lisa Pease, berkali-kali CEO Freeport Sulphur merencanakan upaya pembunuhan terhadap Castro, namun berkali-kali pula menemui kegagalan.

Di tengah situasi yang penuh ketidakpastian, pada Agustus 1959, Forbes Wilson yang menjabat sebagai Direktur Freeport Sulphur melakukan pertemuan dengan Direktur Pelaksana East Borneo Company, Jan van Gruisen. Dalam pertemuan itu Gruisen bercerita jika dirinya menemukan sebuah laporan penelitian atas Gunung Ersberg (Gunung Tembaga) di Irian Barat yang ditulis Jean Jaques Dozy di tahun 1936. Uniknya, laporan itu sebenarnya sudah dianggap tidak berguna dan tersimpan selama bertahun-tahun begitu saja di Perpusatakaan Belanda. Van Gruisen tertarik dengan laporan penelitian yang sudah berdebu itu dan membacanya.

Dengan berapi-api, Van Gruisen bercerita kepada pimpinan Freeport Sulphur itu jika selain memaparkan tentang keindahan alamnya, Jean Jaques Dozy juga menulis tentang kekayaan alamnya yang begitu melimpah. Tidak seperti wilayah lainnya di seluruh dunia, maka kandungan biji tembaga yang ada di sekujur Gunung Ersberg itu terhampar di atas permukaan tanah, jadi tidak tersembunyi di dalam tanah. Mendengar hal itu, Wilson sangat antusias dan segera melakukan perjalanan ke Irian Barat untuk mengecek kebenaran cerita itu. Di dalam benaknya, jika kisah laporan ini benar, maka perusahaannya akan bisa bangkit kembali dan selamat dari kebangkrutan yang sudah di depan mata.

Selama beberapa bulan, Forbes Wilson melakukan survei dengan seksama atas Gunung Ersberg dan juga wilayah sekitarnya. Penelitiannya ini kelak ditulisnya dalam sebuah buku berjudul The Conquest of Cooper Mountain. Wilson menyebut gunung tersebut sebagai harta karun terbesar yang untuk memperolehnya tidak perlu menyelam lagi karena semua harta karun itu telah terhampar di permukaan tanah. Dari udara, tanah di sekujur gunung tersebut berkilauan ditimpa sinar matahari.

Wilson juga mendapatkan temuan yang nyaris membuatnya gila. Karena selain dipenuhi bijih tembaga, gunung tersebut ternyata juga dipenuhi bijih emas dan perak! Menurut Wilson, seharusnya gunung tersebut diberi nama Gold Mountain, bukan Gunung Tembaga. Sebagai seorang pakar pertambangan, Wilson memperkirakan jika Freeport akan untung besar dan dalam waktu tiga tahun sudah kembali modal. Piminan Freeport Sulphur ini pun bergerak dengan cepat. Pada 1 Februari 1960, Freeport Sulphur menekan kerjasama dengan East Borneo Company untuk mengeksplorasi gunung tersebut.

Namun lagi-lagi Freeport Sulphur mengalami kenyataan yang hampir sama dengan yang pernah dialaminya di Kuba. Perubahan eskalasi politik atas tanah Irian Barat tengah mengancam. Hubungan Indonesia dan Belanda telah memanas dan Soekarno malah mulai menerjunkan pasukannya di Irian Barat.

Tadinya Wilson ingin meminta bantuan kepada Presiden AS John Fitzgerald Kennedy agar mendinginkan Irian Barat. Namun ironisnya, JFK malah sepertinya mendukung Soekarno. Kennedy mengancam Belanda akan menghentikan bantuan Marshall Plan jika ngotot mempertahankan Irian Barat. Belanda yang saat itu memerlukan bantuan dana segar untuk membangun kembali negerinya dari puing-puing kehancuran akibat Perang Dunia II terpaksa mengalah dan mundur dari Irian Barat.

Ketika itu sepertinya Belanda tidak tahu jika Gunung Ersberg sesungguhnya mengandung banyak emas, bukan tembaga. Sebab jika saja Belanda mengetahui fakta sesungguhnya, maka nilai bantuan Marshall Plan yang diterimanya dari AS tidak ada apa-apanya dibanding nilai emas yang ada di gunung tersebut.

Dampak dari sikap Belanda untuk mundur dari Irian Barat menyebabkan perjanjian kerjasama dengan East Borneo Company mentah kembali. Para pimpinan Freeport jelas marah besar. Apalagi mendengar Kennedy akan menyiapkan paket bantuan ekonomi kepada Indonesia sebesar 11 juta AS dengan melibatkan IMF dan Bank Dunia. Semua ini jelas harus dihentikan!

Segalanya berubah seratus delapan puluh derajat ketika Presiden Kennedy tewas ditembak pada 22 November 1963. Banyak kalangan menyatakan penembakan Kenndey merupakan sebuah konspirasi besar menyangkut kepentingan kaum Globalis yang hendak mempertahankan hegemoninya atas kebijakan politik di Amerika.

Presiden Johnson yang menggantikan Kennedy mengambil siap yang bertolak-belakang dengan pendahulunya. Johnson malah mengurangi bantuan ekonomi kepada Indonesia, kecuali kepada militernya. Salah seorang tokoh di belakang keberhasilan Johnson, termasuk dalam kampanye pemilihan presiden AS tahun 1964, adalah Augustus C. Long, salah seorang anggota dewan direksi Freeport.

Tokoh yang satu ini memang punya kepentingan besar atas Indonesia. Selain kaitannya dengan Freeport, Long juga memimpin Texaco, yang membawahi Caltex (patungan dengan Standard Oil of California). Soekarno pada tahun 1961 memutuskan kebijakan baru kontrak perminyakan yang mengharuskan 60 persen labanya diserahkan kepada pemerintah Indonesia. Caltex sebagai salah satu dari tiga operator perminyakan di Indonesia jelas sangat terpukul oleh kebijakan Soekarno ini.

Augustus C. Long amat marah terhadap Soekarno dan amat berkepentingan agar orang ini disingkirkan secepatnya.

Mungkin suatu kebetulan yang ajaib. Augustus C. Long juga aktif di Presbysterian Hospital NY di mana dia pernah dua kali menjadi presidennya (1961-1962). Sudah bukan rahasia umum lagi jika tempat ini merupakan salah satu simpul pertemuan tokoh CIA.

Lisa Pease dengan cermat menelusuri riwayat kehidupan tokoh ini. Antara tahun 1964 sampai 1970, Long pensiun sementara sebagai pimpinan Texaco. Apa saja yang dilakukan orang ini dalam masa itu yang di Indonesia dikenal sebagai masa yang paling krusial.

Pease mendapakan data jika pada Maret 1965, Augustus C. Long terpilih sebagai Direktur Chemical Bank, salah satu perusahaan Rockefeller. Agustus 1965, Long diangkat menjadi anggota dewan penasehat intelijen kepresidenan AS untuk masalah luar negeri. Badan ini memiliki pengaruh sangat besar untuk menentukan operasi rahasia AS di negara-negara tertentu. Long diyakini salah satu tokoh yang merancang kudeta terhadap Soekarno, yang dilakukan AS dengan menggerakkan sejumlah perwira Angkatan Darat yang disebutnya sebagai Our Local Army Friend.

Salah satu bukti adalah sebuah telegram rahasia Cinpac 342, 21 Januari 1965, pukul 21.48, yang menyatakan jika kelompok Jenderal Suharto akan mendesak angkatan darat agar mengambil-alih kekuasaan tanpa menunggu Soekarno berhalangan. Mantan pejabat CIA Ralph Mc Gehee juga pernah bersaksi jika hal itu benar adanya.

Awal November 1965, satu bulan setelah tragedi 1 Oktober 1965, Forbes Wilson mendapat telpon dari Ketua Dewan Direktur Freeport, Langbourne Williams, yang menanyakan apakah Freeport sudah siap mengeksplorasi gunung emas di Irian Barat. Wilson jelas kaget. Ketika itu Soekarno masih sah sebagai presiden Indonesia bahkan hingga 1967, lalu darimana Williams yakin gunung emas di Irian Barat akan jatuh ke tangan Freeport?

Lisa Pease mendapatkan jawabannya. Para petinggi Freeport ternyata sudah mempunyai kontak tokoh penting di dalam lingkaran elit Indonesia. Mereka adalah Menteri Pertambangan dan Perminyakan Ibnu Soetowo dan Julius Tahija. Orang yang terakhir ini berperan sebagai penghubung antara Ibnu Soetowo dengan Freeport. Ibnu Soetowo sendiri sangat berpengaruh di dalam angkatan darat karena dialah yang menutup seluruh anggaran operasionil mereka.

Sebab itulah, ketika ketika UU No. 1/1967 tentang Penanaman Modal Asing (PMA) yang draftnya dirancang di Jenewa-Swiss yang didiktekan Rockefeller, disahkan tahun 1967, maka perusahaan asing pertama yang kontraknya ditandatangani Suharto adalah Freeport. Inilah kali pertama kontrak perminyakan yang baru dibuat. Jika di zaman Soekarno kontrak-kontrak dengan perusahaan asing selalu menguntungkan Indonesia, maka sejak Suharto berkuasa, kontrak-kontrak seperti itu malah banyak merugikan Indonesia.

Untuk membangun konstruksi pertambangan emasnya itu, Freeport menggandeng Bechtel, perusahaan AS yang banyak mempekerjakan pentolan CIA. Direktur CIA John McCone memiliki saham di Bechtel, sedangkan mantan Direktur CIA Richards Helms bekerja sebagai konsultan internasional di tahun 1978.

Tahun 1980, Freeport menggandeng McMoran milik “Jim Bob” Moffet dan menjadi perusahaan raksasa dunia dengan laba lebih dari 1,5 miliar dollar AS pertahun. Tahun 1996, seorang eksekutif Freeport-McMoran, George A. Maley, menulis sebuah buku berjudul “Grasberg” setebal 384 halaman dan memaparkan jika tambang emas di Irian Barat itu memiliki depost terbesar di dunia, sedangkan untuk bijih tembaganya menempati urutan ketiga terbesar.

Maley menulis, data tahun 1995 menunjukkan jika di areal ini tersimpan cadangan bijih tembaga sebesar 40,3 miliar pon dan emas sebesar 52,1 juta ons. Nilai jualnya 77 miliar dollar AS dan masih akan menguntungkan 45 tahun ke depan. Ironisnya, Maley dengan bangga juga menulis jika biaya produksi tambang emas dan tembaga terbesar dunia yang ada di Irian Barat itu merupakan yang termurah di dunia.

Istilah Kota Tembagapura itu sebenarnya menyesatkan dan salah. Seharusnya Emaspura. Karena gunung tersebut memang gunung emas, walau juga mengandung tembaga. Karena kandungan emas dan tembaga terserak di permukaan tanah, maka Freeport tinggal memungutinya dan kemudian baru menggalinya dengan sangat mudah. Freeport sama sekali tidak mau kehilangan emasnya itu dan membangun pipa-pipa raksasa dan kuat dari Grasberg-Tembagapura sepanjang 100 kilometer langsung menuju ke Laut Arafuru di mana telah menunggu kapal-kapal besar yang akan langsung mengangkut emas dan tembaga itu ke Amerika. “Perampokan legal” ini masih terjadi sampai sekarang.

Kisah Freeport merupakan salah satu dari banyak sekali kisah sedih tentang bagaimana kekayaan alam yang diberikan Allah SWT kepada bangsa Indonesia, oleh para penguasanya malah digadaikan bulat-bulat untuk dirampok imperialisme asing, demi memperkaya diri, keluarga, dan kelompoknya sendiri. Kenyataan memilukan ini masih berlangsung sampai sekarang hingga rakyat menjadi sadar dan menumbangkan penguasa korup.

eramuslim.com – Kontroversi menteri kesehatan yang baru, ditambah dengan gagalnya DPR memanggil menteri yang berasal dari eselon dua ini karena “diveto” oleh Ketua DPR Marzuki Alie yang berasal dari kubu SBY sendiri, dimana hal itu dengan sendirinya telah membuktikan tudingan jika untuk lima tahun ke depan DPR akan sekadar menjadi rubber-stamp rezim penguasa, bukan menjadi satu-satunya kontroversi yang ada pada pemerintahan yang baru tapi lama ini.

Kontroversi lainnya adalah rencana kenaikan gaji para pejabat negara, termasuk gaji presiden dan wakilnya, yang diamini oleh hampir semua pejabat terkait, ditengah penderitaan rakyat yang kian hari kian susah dan utang yang menggunung setiap harinya. Lagi-lagi hal ini telah membuktikan jika di negeri ini para pejabat negara bagaikan “Raja Tega” karena sama sekali tidak perduli dan tidak memiliki empati terhadap nasib rakyatnya sendiri.

Semua itu rupanya belum cukup juga. Selain kenaikan gaji, para pejabat negara setingkat menteri ke atas juga akan diberi fasilitas mobil mewah baru yang benar-benar mewah, yakni dengan digantinya Toyota Camry yang selama ini dipergunakan sebagai kendaraan dinas menteri dengan mobil lain yang lebih mahal tiga kali lipatnya, yakni Toyota Crown Majesta. Jika Camry seharga 600 jutaan rupiah perunitnya, maka Majesta di negeri ini membandrol harga 1,8 milyar rupiah perunit karena kena pajak barang mewah. Lagi-lagi uang rakyat dijadikan bancakan para pejabat negara.

Di tengah himbauan pemerintah untuk mengurangi ketergantungan pada migas dengan gerakan hijaunya, yang juga menghimbau masyarakat agar beralih ke moda transportasi ramah lingkungan seperti sepeda, tindakan pemerintah itu dengan sendirinya mencederai himbauannya sendiri karena Toyota Crown Majesta dengan tenaga yang sangat besar, cc di atas 3000-an, sudah pasti akan sangat rakus bahan bakar.

Kegilaan para pejabat Indonesia pada mobil dan fasilitas mewah pernah menjadi ironis ketika dalam satu kesempatan, salah satu menteri ekonomi Indonesia berada di Jepang untuk menegosiasi pinjaman kepada pejabat terkait metahari terbit itu. Pejabat ini akan bertemu pejabat Jepang di sebuah gedung departemen keuangan Jepang. Ketika datang, utusan Indonesia ini mengendarai mobil mewah diiringi dengan pengawalan lengkap plus sirine, namun hal itu ternyata membuatnya risih ketika mengetahui jika pejabat Jepang yang ingin dinegonya ternyata datang dengan naik bus umum, turun di halte yang agak jah dari kantornya dan karena itu harus berjalan kaki masuk ke dalam gedung yang dipimpinnya. Beginilah gaya kebanyakan pejabat kita.

Hal yang sama juga pernah terjadi di Belanda, di mana para menteri dan anggota parlemen di salah satu negara kreditor Indonesia ini memang tidak mendapatkan fasilitas mobil dinas. Bahkan anggota parlemen Belanda tidak mendapat gaji. Beda sekali dengan kelakuan para pejabat negara miskin bernama Indonesia ini.

Hal lain yang mengundang kontroversi adalah penempatan orang-orang yang bukan ahlinya pada pos-pos penting, seperti Hatta Rajasa sebagai Menko Perekonomian dan Purnomo Yusgiantoro sebagai Menteri Pertahanan. Pengamat politik Boni Hargens berkali-kali dalam berbagai kesempatan menyatakan jika dirinya curiga dengan langkah yang diambil penguasa negeri ini.

Menurut pengamat politik yang kerap muncul di Republik Mimpi ini, hal tersebut disengaja penguasa agar orang-orang itu memang gagal memimpin jajarannya sehingga mereka di tahun 2014 tidak mempunyai kesempatan untuk menjadi pesaing baginya. Ada kekuatiran juga jika di dalam masa lima tahun ini, pemerintah yang menguasai parlemen ini akan menyetir DPR agar mengamandemen peraturan yang menyebutkan masa jabatan presiden hanya dua kali lima tahun menjadi tak terbatas, sama seperti di zaman Jenderal Harto. Hal ini bukan hal yang musykil melihat otorianisme mulai berkembang kembali di negeri ini dari har ke hari.

Berbagai kontroversi yang dilakukan pemerintah, dan juga anggota DPR di negeri ini, padahal mereka belum bekerja, telah menyebabkan anjloknya kepercayaan dan harapan rakyat terhadap pemerintah itu sendiri. Rakyat Indonesia seharusnya mencatat hal ini dengan baik agar lima tahun ke depan tidak lagi tertipu dengan memilih rezim dan orang-orang yang sekarang berkuasa, walau mereka mengumbar banyak janji kepada kita. Toh kenyataannya para pejabat negeri ini sekarang pun bertindak sangat keterlaluan dalam ‘merampok’ uang rakyat demi memperkaya diri sendiri dan kelompoknya. Janji tinggallah janji, dan seharusnya kita ingat hal itu untuk lima tahun ke depan.

Andai pejabat negara—presiden dan wakilnya, para menteri, dan juga anggota DPR—mau bersungguh-sungguh bekerja untuk memperbaiki nasib bangsa dan negara ini ke arah yang lebih baik, maka banyak tugas berat yang sesungguhnya harus diprioritaskan ketimbang meributkan kenaikan gaji dan fasilitas yang akan didapatkan.

Sejak lebih dari empatpuluh tahun lalu negara ini telah kehilangan kemerdekaan dan kemandiriannya. Nyaris seluruh kekayaan bangsa ini yang berupa barang tambang telah dikuasai asing, dan kian hari kian banyak saja bidang yang jatuh ke dalam kekuasaan asing itu sehingga muncul istilah jika bangsa Indonesia adalah kuli di negeri sendiri.

Sayangnya, sejumlah pejabat yang duduk di posisi kunci pemerintahan (bidang ekonomi) dari waktu ke waktu selalu saja diisi oleh pelayan-pelayan kepentingan asing, para makelar imperialisme asing, yang sangat tega terus menggadaikan kekayaan bangsa dan negeri ini sampai benar-benar habis. Mereka yang dulu dikenal sebagai Mafia Berkeley ini, sekarang dikenal sebagai nama NeoLib atau “American Boys”. Dan pemerintahan Esbeye memang dikelilingi oleh orang-orang seperti ini. Presiden pun merasa nyaman dan sepaham dengan mereka karena memang negeri keduanya adalah AS. Dan lebih dari setengah menteri di dalam Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu jilid II adalah orang-orang lulusan AS dan sangat Washington-Oriented.

Lagi, salah satu buktinya, adalah pernyataan Menteri BUMN Mustafa Abubakar yang belum lagi bekerja tapi sudah memantapkan tekad untuk meneruskan langkah privatisasi sejumlah BUMN. Ini berarti meneruskan penggadaian kekayaan nasional ke pihak asing. Kasihan sekali nasib bangsa dan negara ini yang terus-terusan dirongrong oleh pejabat-pejabatnya sendiri sehingga bukan tidak mungkin jika hal ini terus dibiarkan, dalam waktu tidak lama lagi Indonesia akan hancur sebenar-benarnya hancur, atau bisa juga menjadi “negara maju” dengan menjadi negara bagian ke-51 dari United States of America, setelah Hawai.

Dominasi Asing di Indonesia

Agar kita semua bisa melihat dengan jernih dan jelas tentang kondisi bangsa dan negara ini sekarang, ada baiknya kita mengupas sedikit tentang bagaimana sebenarnya keadaan dan fakta riil sebuah bangsa dan negara bernama Indonsesia hari ini. Ada banyak buku dan literatur yang bisa kita paparkan, salah satunya tentu sejumlah tulisan bernas dari nasionalis bernama Kwik Kian Gie yang walau pun matanya sipit namanya terasa ‘asing’, namun jauh lebih nasionalis ketimbang para pejabat kita yang berkulit gelap dan memiliki nama pribumi.

Dalam tulisan selanjutnya akan dipaparkan sebagian fakta ril tentang dominasi asing di negeri ini, sesuatu yang sangat-sangat menyedihkan bagi kita semua.

eramuslim.com – Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu jilid II telah diumumkan Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pada Rabu malam (21/10) di Istana Negara Jakarta. Sejumlah kalangan menyatakan harapan baru pada kabinet yang terbentuk, sebuah harapan agar Indonesia lima tahun ke depan bisa tambah baik, rakyatnya lebih sejahtera, dan angka kemiskinan bisa dikurangi dengan drastis.

Namun banyak pula yang menyatakan jika susunan kabinet baru ini tidak membawa harapan apa-apa karena “chip” di dalam “mikroprosesor” mesin besar bernama Pemerintah Republik Indonesia ini masih saja sama-sebangun dengan yang digunakan sejak masa Jenderal Harto. Ibarat komputer, yang berubah casing-nya doang tapi “jeroannya” sama saja.

Mungkin hal inilah yang membuat pakar komunikasi politik Dr. Effendi Ghazali dalam acara di MetroTeve tadi malam (21/10) menyatakan jika Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu jilid II ini tidak ada bedanya dengan yang jilid I. Hanya saja, mungkin untuk menepis anggapan jika pemerintahan sekarang ini kental dengan NeoLibnya maka beberapa pos bidang ekonomi diisi dengan orang-orang yang selama ini kurang dikenal sebagai pentolan NeoLib. “Dan orang-orang NeoLibnya mengisi jabatan wakil menteri..,” ujar Ghazali sambil tertawa.

Walau pemerintah SBY selama ini tidak pernah mengaku sebagai pemerintahan yang menjalankan agenda besar Neo-Liberal atau NeoLib, namun banyak sekali fakta yang memaparkan kepada kita semua dengan teramat jelas dan telanjang jika NeoLib ini merupakan suatu keniscayaan dan benar adanya. Hanya mereka yang jahil dengan isme-isme dalam ekonomi-politik yang mau percaya dengan apa yang dikatakan pemerintah, atau mungkin juga mereka-mereka yang selama ini diuntungkan oleh sistem NeoLib seperti sekarang ini.

Bagaimana dengan susunan pemerintahan sekarang, termasuk presiden dan wakil presidennya? Mari kita jembreng satu-persatu, kecuali tentu saja Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yang sudah dikenal khalayak luas sebagai orang yang memang dekat dengan Amerika Serikat. Jenderal Angkatan Darat yang mengambil Jalur Staf ini—satu jalur aman karena kebanyakan diisi dengan duduk di belakang meja, sangat beda dengan Jalur Komando seperti yang diambil Prabowo Subianto yang kebanyakan harus aktif di medan tempur dan peperangan—dalam merintis karir militernya, mondar-mandir menuai ilmu di Amerika Serikat dengan mengikuti dua kali program latihan militer di Fort Benning, Georgia (1976 dan 1982). Juga di Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (1991). Gelar Pasca Sarjana pun diperolehnya di Amerika Serikat.

Sebab itu, SBY berterus terang jika AS merupakan negerinya yang kedua setelah Indonesia. Itu ditegaskannya saat berkunjung ke AS tahun 2003 sebagai Menko Polkam dalam Kabinet Presiden Megawati Soekarnoputeri. SBY berkata, ‘’I love the United State, with all its faults. I consider it my second country’’. Saya mencintai Amerika dengan segala kesalahannya. Saya menganggapnya sebagai negeri kedua saya.” (lihat Al Jazeera English–Archive, 6 Juli 2004. Atau bagi yang ingin melihat link-nya silakan klik http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/07/20084913557888718.html).

Sebab itu, bukan barang aneh jika di masa kekuasaan SBY yang pertama (2004-2009), kebijakan pemerintah Indonesia sangat loyal pada imperialisme Amerika Serikat, bahkan hingga harus mengorbankan kepentingan nasional Indonesia sendiri.

Dua contoh yang sangat kasat mata adalah saat menjamu kedatangan Bush di Bogor beberapa tahun lalu yang sangat kelewat berlebihan pelayanannya, yang satu di antaranya adalah pemerintah sengaja melanggar undang-undang yang disahkannya sendiri dengan membangun helipad di tengah Kebun Raya Bogor yang sesungguhnya terlarang menurut UU, dan yang kedua dalam kasus penyerahan Blok Migas Cepu kepada Exxon Mobile, perusahaan dunia milik John David Rockefeller. Banyak orang di dnia ini sudah tahu jika Rockefeller merupakan tokoh Bilderberger Group dan pendiri Trilateral Commission, dua lembaga internasional yang bekerja secara rahasia untuk menciptakan The New World Order, satu tatanan dunia dengan sistem Luciferianis. Ironisnya, Pertamina yang sedari awal menyatakan siap mengelola Blok Cepu dijegal dan dikalahkan. Lagi-lagi kepentingan nasional dikalahkan dan kepentingan imperialisme asing dimenangkan.

Hal ini membuat banyak pejuang kebenaran di negeri ini menangis. Salah satunya Kwik Kian Gie. Dalam artikel berjudul “Kisah Usang Dari Negeri Cepu: Liberalisme Versus Nasionalisme” (dimuat di Feodalisme.com; 7 Oktober 2009), Kwik menutup artikel tersebut dengan kalimat, “Saya terus berdoa kepada Bung Karno dan mengatakan, “Bung Karno yang saya cintai dan sangat saya hormati. Janganlah gundah dan gelisah, walaupun Bapak sangat gusar. Istirahatlah dengan tenang. Saya juga sudah bermeditasi di salah satu vihara untuk menenangkan hati dan batin saya. Satu hari nanti rakyat akan bangkit dan melakukan revolusi lagi seperti yang pernah Bapak pimpin, kalau para cecunguk ini sudah dianggap terlampau lama dan terlampau mengkhianati rakyatnya sendiri.”

Untunglah, saat berkuasa di tahun 2004-2009, ada sejumlah orang di lingkaran dalam presiden yang masih memiliki jiwa nasionalisme untuk menahan kegilaan liberalisasi negeri ini. Mereka antara lain adalah Wakil Presiden Jusuf Kalla dan Menteri Kesehatan DR. Siti Fadhillah Supari.

Berbagai terobosan dilakukan Jusuf Kalla untuk meringankan beban rakyat Indonesia yang kian hari kian dihimpit beban hidup yang semakin berat. Untuk menolong rakyat yang tercekik akibat dinaikkannya harga minyak di negeri ini yang oleh orang-orang NeoLib harus disamakan dengan harga minyak di New York, Kalla menciptakan program Bantuan Langsung Tunai (BLT) bagi rakyat miskin. Ini baru salah satunya.

Lalu ada pula Menteri Kesehatan Siti Fadhilah Supari yang dengan lantang berteriak menentang WHO dalam urusan pertukaran sampel virus yang dirasakan sangat tidak adil. Bahkan menteri perempuan yang satu ini tanpa sungkan-sungkan berani menuding jika WHO selama ini dijadikan alat negara besar untuk kepentingannya sendiri dengan menjajah negeri-negeri berkembang seperti Indonesia.

Dalam kasus NAMRU-2 (Naval Medical Research Unit-2) milik AS yang secara semena-mena dan sangat bebas bisa bergerak di dalam wilayah kedaulatan NKRI. Menkes Fadhilah Supari juga sangat berani menentang hal ini dan meminta agar pemerintah memutuskan kontrak kerja yang dirasakan sangat zalim dan sama sekali tidak ada untungnya bagi Indonesia.

Presiden SBY tentu amat gerah dengan sikap-sikap bawahannya seperti itu. Namun untuk bisa menindak mereka, tentu SBY juga harus menghitung arah angin yang sedang berlaku. Dalam kasus virus WHO dan NAMRU-2 (Naval Medical Research Unit 2), Menkes Fadhilah Supari mendapat dukungan dari banyak pihak yang disuarakan lewat berbagai media massa cetak maupun elektronik. SBY yang dikenal sebagai presiden yang sangat menjaga imejnya ini tentu hanya bisa bersabar dan menunggu momentum yang tepat untuk ‘menindak’ Menkes yang dianggapnya kelewat berani ini.

Dan momentum yang tepat ya ketika usai pilpres kemarin di mana pasangan SBY-Budiono diputuskan sebagai pemenang oleh KPU. Sebelumnya SBY telah “menceraikan” Jusuf Kalla dan memilih Budiono yang memiliki cita rasa yang sama terhadap Amerika. Dan ketika menyusun Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu jilid II, SBY tidak lagi “memperpanjang kontrak” dengan Siti Fadhilah Supari dan lebih nyaman memilih dr. Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, sosok yang oleh Siti Fadhilah Supari sendiri ditegaskan amat dekat dengan Namru-2, beda dengan dirinya.