Equinox Books

I was so disappointed by this book. It could have given great insight as to President Abdurrahman Wahid's short rule, but instead Witoelar constructs a log of oh-my-gosh, gob-smacked, name-dropping of all the celebrities and politico's he gets to meet in the company of the President. I learned a lot more reading Greg Barton's biography of Wahid. For anyone seriously interested in Indonesia and that time, I'd highly recommend that book instead of this one.

This book brings a great insight on the events during the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, widely known as Gus Dur.
The events are outlined in fair details for public consumption to the best extent possible and this was made possible through this book and in the capacity as the Chief presidential spokesman of Wimar Witoelar, the author.

Wimar shares many of his personal beliefs and principles related to the unfolding events throughout the chapters. The tracking of events do provide an excellent balance of the issues that most Indonesians would hear on single-sided basis through the press. Many of the aspects of his opinions and beliefs are shared by specific group of his fellow countrymen who share the strong belief and hope of good performing, people oriented and transparent governance and contributed to the advancement of those beliefs and hopes through their professional lives.

Despite of my late purchase given the release date of the book, I do enjoy the writing styles and overall presentation, as I have always enjoyed Wimar's writing skills. I would recommend the book and would like to iterate the reader-to-be to engage in a wonderful experience that takes you to the situation behind the magnificent gesture of the Presidential Palace. A place which I would not think nor plan to enter as an ordinary Indonesian, but a place which resembles my great respect and honor to my own country having known that the 2 respectable 'Orang Biasa', Wimar and Gus Dur, who are extraordinary have served there.

Shame, most of the web pages ae no longer availible, so a bit of a waste of time buying it.

Rituals permeate our existence; from our social etiquette rituals to our political rituals. Religion especially is rife with rituals, and the study of rituals and religious belief can be very interesting and engaging. However, this book is not. It falls flat.

This academic compilation (A Reader) is disjointed and convoluted. Except for a few articles, very little insight is given to `religious rituals'. The book attempts to cover too much in too little space. Readers would have been better served if the focus was on the rituals of one world religion, not the world of religious belief.

"Ritual and Religious Belief" is the cacophony of sixteen very erudite authors, all singing solos under no ones' direction.

Conditionally recommended for academia for upper graduate, graduate levels and scholars, but not for the general reader. 1.5 stars

By the time he'd gotten around to rewriting the Master Therion's commentaries, Mr. Motta was appearantly convinced that he had somehow become Crowley's incarnation. This was unfortunate, and his works suffer for it. Motta muddles the "Old" and "New" Comments, and then inserts his own as well, without enough differentiation between the three, and which is which.

A much better collectable edition of the old and new commentaries on the Book of the Law was published in 1973, entitiled "Magickal and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law", and was published by 93 Publications, Canada. A copy of that, if you can find it, will run you over $200.00.

Good news for non-bibliophiles: the paperback version in print, entitled "The Law Is For All" is just as good as "Magickal and Philosophical Commentaries", and costs less than ONE-TENTH of the price!! Go and buy it under THAT title!!! Collecting Uncle Al shouldn't cost you a small fortune!!!

93/93, ITBOTO,

Fr. WLTR FV

Very self-indulgent, silly sentimentality, no primary archival research, poorly structured

I was hoping for well-written material on a fascinating part of history, the Dutch East Indies in WWI.
Instead, one gets an amateurish hodge-podge.
The best parts are the biographical chapters on the Helferrich Brothers, Karl, Emil, and Theodor which include some original material from personal experiences in Indonesia, recommend consulting this material in a library copy, not buying it
However, the bulk of the book is a rehash of secondary sources on the German East Asia squadron, on which there are much better books. This is not a good book from the point of view as popular or serious history.
He does not even manage to be historically accurate when he tries to mix in later well-known historical events in for the 'dramatic effect of the "sweep of history" and lame attempts at the melancholy of time Very half-baked.
Too bad he did not mix the original anecdotal Helferrich material he has with some coherent research in national archives of USA, UK, Netherlands [and Germany as well] where there is substantial material on the activities of the Helferrich brothers, who are in themselves very interesting characters.

sriSriro's Desk Reference of Indonesian Law 2008

This is a very incomplete and rather elementary reference to some, not all, Indonesian laws.

For example, on p. 430 Sriro states "Indonesian legislation is based on the following hierarchy." What follows, however, omits many essential components of such legislation, e.g., although he includes Presidential regulations (peraturan Presiden), he fails to include Presidential decrees (keputusan Presiden).

Nor does he include "elucidations" (penjelasan), the unsigned commentaries accompanying many decrees and laws, much less does he discuss their hierarchal ranking, if any, in Indonesian law.

The book has neither an index nor a glossary.

In sum, it's unclear who would find this book useful -- practicing lawyers, whether in Indonesia or abroad, are given no advice on where to access the texts of the Indonesian laws which are referred to.

In short, I don't think this book is worth $49.95.