Tag Archives: Jakarta Globe

Your Faithful travel

That sounds like quite the statement, but it applies to this. We all have faith and some are more convinced then others and as I saw the news of registering for the Hajj 2026 (which is not until May 2026) I took a little gander. I found it essential as I wrote last year ‘About the setting of prayers’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/06/04/about-the-setting-of-prayers/) which I wrote on June 5th 2025. I covered (a little) “Last year, 1,301 pilgrims, most of them unregistered and lacking access to air-conditioned tents and buses, died as temperatures soared to 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 degrees Fahrenheit)” but the setting that some were unregistered didn’t sit well with me. So I wanted to know what was going on. As such I saw today a sight I never expected to see. I saw this mention in Al Arabiya and I took a small gander through the Nusuk Hajj screen and I was blown away, so I reveal a little to you all now. To be honest this is so much better then any travel agent ever gave me (my normal holidays as I am not Muslim) 

We are welcomed and you can register or just browse and I was not afraid to browse. As said this is so much better than any travel agent. You have got to be insane not to register here. And we start with 

I didn’t browse deeper, but the 10 steps as I see them show me much more than I have ever seen for any travel setting. And the Hajj pilgrims is taken trough these 10 steps The first 4 are shown and you can enter any setting at any times, having a clear required setting bestowed upon you. So as we start we get the option to create your account, uploading your document, fill the application and application verification. 

We then get select your preferred category, top up your wallet (I guess that family could top it up too from wherever they are), browse service providers and select your preferred package.

We then get the option to book your package and review your itinerary (I guess your could email that to yourself and family members. 

In a simple setting I see the most complete booking system ever viewed by me and there is reason for this. Over a million Hajj attendees from all over the world will come and this is be far the most complete setting I have ever seen. So I am amiss to see why anyone would want to go with some dodgy tour operator (I honestly do see that, and I’ll get to that) There are options to ask someone questions, there are frequently asked question and a whole range of other setting all in the right order as I see it, but the start ’10 steps closer to 1447 Hajj’ blew me away, this is a serious achievement and I get that was needed but I saw it with my own eyes. This is a serious achievement. In travel and it will help over a million get to the Hajj smoothly and I saw perhaps one thing that could be added:

I have this sling bag, which was from the video game ‘AC Shadows’, now imagine this bag in white with the green flag of Saudi Arabia and embroiled on this ‘Hajj 1447’ and perhaps a phrase from the Quran what might be the motto of the 1447 Hajj (if they have this), it has space for your Quran, a space for your mobile and space for perhaps a small bottle of water. Perhaps they have something like that, but I never saw this, so it came to me.

From what I can see Saudi Arabia is taking good care of the people coming to their Hajj or perhaps even Umrah. And let there be no doubt, those who attend unregistered did so for the clear reason to avoid registration and there should be nob doubt that this is done in a time where survival is unlikely to happen to those who are unregistered. 

But there is a second side and that is not on the organizers or on the government of Saudi Arabia. It was given to me by the Jakarta Globe (at https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesian-muslims-face-40year-hajj-wait-nu-chairman-tells-saudi-forum) where we see ‘Indonesian Muslims Face 40-Year Hajj Wait, NU Chairman Tells Saudi Forum’ and I get that, the solution I created a few years was for pilgrims and doesn’t include Mecca, as a non-Muslim I thought it was not my place to offer this and as a non-Muslim, I don’t really get that part. As a christian I saw Lourdes, but not as a faithful pilgrim, and I never got that part either. I understand the of the faithful, but I was never one of them. So I left Mecca in the open and perhaps that could solve this, I saw the equations that 900 million people will never see Macca, most of them cannot afford that trip and they are given that the act of seeing Mecca in one’s lifetime is a central tenet fulfilled by performing the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and is a mandatory religious duty for all adult Muslims who are physically and financially able to undertake the journey at least once in their lives. It is the ‘and financially able’ even in those days they understood that not everyone could afford such a trip. Even as it seems now more and more affordable, over 20% of the world population is now Muslim, a setting never considered 1447 years ago, I don’t think they ever considered that the worlds population would grow to 8 billion people.

But there is a worry for Saudi Arabia as Indonesian muslims have up to 40 years to wait. I don’t think there is ever an easy solution for this, at least not that I can see. And when we consider that the act of Hajj needs to be performed from 8th to 12th of Dhul Hijjah, which gives us starting with the Day of Tarwiyah (8th) in Mina, the Day of Arafah (9th) for standing at Arafat, Eid al-Adha (10th) with animal sacrifice (Qurbani), and concluding with further rites in Mina and circling the Ka’bah until the 12th or 13th, marking a period of intense spiritual devotion, prayer, and unity, concluding the Hajj rituals and celebrating Eid. This is the opening that is available for Muslims, as such some will miss out. 

So have a great day today and rejoice, some people will consider a proper digital experience to give rise to your Hajj 1447. At least the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah are doing their best on making the even smooth, all covering and as I personally see it, the best travel platform ever offered to anyone. 

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Rollback

That is the word of the day, I have always had that word in my vocabulary. The setting that any solution o programmed in Clipper had the setting for a rollback. This is how I grew up (growing up in the Clipper age was a little weird). You see, I had two settings. The first was the data didn’t change and as I was a ‘little’ verbose with my data creation there was the option of registering a data version, so that was the setting. We needed a rollback in several situations and that is where the setting ends. You see, today I got to see a few news lines. 

First there was Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-jet-returns-us-china-victim-trumps-tariff-war-2025-04-20/) giving us ‘Boeing jet returns to US from China, a victim of Trump’s tariff war’, now that is a scrumptious hotdog to say the least. At almost $100 million, according to one source, that is a delicious snack to say the least and as we are told. China send it back. The tariff could cripple Xiamen Airlines as the tariff is 125%, and even as Reuters give us that the plane is a mere $55 million, we can say that the price difference is a little too much to be acceptable, the larger setting is that several players are trying to dam in the losses that are projected to become American losses. 

Most of us will have seen the trade agreements that China made with Mexico, so there is that. Then there is the setting we see at where Business Insider gives us the setting that ‘Some Canadian Stores Are Labeling US Imports With a T for ‘Tariffs’’ (business insider put it behind a paywall, so that’s all you get. And only three days ago I saw the headline ‘China’s Strategic Pivot from US to Canadian Oil Imports’ (at https://discoveryalert.com.au/news/chinas-pivot-canadian-oil-imports-2025/) I cannot vouch for this source, yet in that setting we are given “Data reveals Chinese refiners have slashed US crude purchases by approximately 90% between 2023 and 2025, redirecting roughly 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) toward alternative suppliers, with Canada capturing a substantial portion of this market share.” So the first step to a change has been given and I foresaw these changes even as I never knew about the oil. So as I see it, these changes show billions upon billions in losses for America whilst we see damage to their export, their revenue making defense industry, their tourism and we can go on a little longer. Wouldn’t it have been great if America had a rollback setting for their elections? 

So as Goldman Sachs gives us “The decline in the world’s reserve asset during an episode of elevated volatility comes as investors are increasingly focused on the US’s growing debt burden and other countries are also increasing their borrowing. “Markets are dealing with a lot of competing factors right now — fairly significant drivers where it’s hard to trade all of them at once,” says William Marshall, head of US rates strategy in Goldman Sachs Research.” Really? Only now do we see “investors are increasingly focused on the US’s growing debt burden”, that’s about 4 years too late, but whatever. I saw (and reported on this danger for a few years at least). If the EU, Japan and China dump their bonds (that will be an expensive exercise) the value of the Dollar doesn’t just drop, it ends up having getting a CCC− grade (to give a mere view on the matter). At that point the imminent suicide risk will spike all over Wall Street (a clear but reliable speculation).

I reckon that the one dropping them first gets the best value for it, but after that it will be a quick fall to the luxury value of zero. But it is not just America, the bonds of the EU and Japan will face a similar risk, America is merely the highest as someone thought it was a great idea to introduce the tariff game to their economy. Global News told their Canadians ‘Avoid U.S. travel if possible, Canadian academics are being urged’ with others following in similar settings. The Detroit News gives us ‘Avoid U.S. or take burner phones, Canada executives tell staff’ and there are more sources that give us that, with the added “Arrivals of noncitizens to the United States by plane declined by nearly 900,000 people, almost 10%, in March from a year earlier, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Administration. Travelers are reacting to President Donald Trump’s trade war and to stories of harsh detentions at U.S. airports. Border figures show 4,970,360 came to the U.S. from Canada in March 2024. That number dropped to 4,105,516 travelers a year later. More visitors reportedly traveled from Canada to the U.S. in March 2022 under pandemic-related travel restrictions than they did last month.” I think that Canada is the most likely of number drops, but I reckon that it is not the only one. So as I see it, the danger is not only to Tourism, but business travel too and in that case, hotels in all the major cities in the United States will report on losses of 10% or more, so what does that mean for the value of Marriott International, who operates 9,361 hotels worldwide as of 2024. In addition there is Hilton who operates over 8,400 hotels worldwide. I have no idea how many they operate in the USA, but these are merely the two larger players, especially in the business travel setting. So how many businesses are under the hammer because of this situation? And now as Canada is growing closer to the Commonwealth and they will protect their bigger brother (Canada is 9.985 million km² and the UK a mere 243,610 km²) OK, Australia is 7.688 million km², away highly smaller brother than the United Kingdom. But that setting now gives us that these business meetings are likely to be held in the United Kingdom or Australia. Hilton and the Marriott will still get their coins, but the underlying issues will hurt America to a much larger degree. And as this escalates over the next month or so, the damage to America will increase. Additional damage as China and India rolls in as expecting ‘saviors’ to Saudi Arabia and the UAE will change global politics and global economics to a much larger degree. India will get new options to get additional Pharmaceutical products sold to Saudi Arabia and that is another slice of a billion dollars. Then we get the UK, Australia and Japan hammering on improving their slice of Optical, photo, technical, medical apparatus, as such the American slice of $1.39B will decrees a lot more. All this started with tariffs and basically this setting was staged by President Trump. I merely wonder what got into him to drive America to the edge of insanity (and bankruptcy). What a miss that politics don’t have rollbacks and I reckon that the lawmakers in America will push for a larger change of settings, because I am certain that the Republicans are desperate to see this damage undone and it is me personal believe that they will accept any other politician, even a democrat to undo the damage they are seeing right now.

A mere 21 hours ago we got (at https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesia-seeks-stronger-trade-ties-with-eu-australia-to-offset-potential-us-export-losses) that Indonesia Globe gives us ‘Indonesia Seeks Stronger Trade Ties with EU, Australia to Offset Potential US Export Losses’, which is fine by me as I love the Indonesian version of Bami Goreng with Saté Ajam with peanut sauce. The best dish I ever had, even now after a decade, the scent penetrates my nose, even as I haven’t had it in over a decade. So I am looking forward to stronger ties with Indonesia and I kinda miss the spices we had in Batavia (my weird sense of humor). But the stage is drawn as more countries seek replacement for America, their tariff becomes their setting for isolation and Australia will be happy to have ties with a country that has 281.2 million potential consumers. I already gave the premise to Saudi Arabia as they have access to something Indonesia desires. As such there are more players to take over the places that America is about to lose and lose more of them. Next in line are the international students who will seek safer places to be. In this Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have good chances as they all have great places Oxford, and Cambridge might be the first you think of, but not everyone can afford these places. There is till the University College London, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Toronto, University of Manchester, University of Technology Sydney, University of Southampton. These are merely a Commonwealth grasp of those who are in the top 100 and I reckon that the losses for America start to add up now. And that was merely the Ivy League, America has more good universities and now that the international students will seek education elsewhere, the economic picture of America will deteriorate more and more. 

Wouldn’t it have been great to have some kind of political rollback in place? 
Have a great day and consider where you need to set your focus to next. 

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