Fashion model Soraya taps Internet's benefits

Fashion model Soraya taps Internet's benefits

JAKARTA (JP): Fashion model Soraya Haque says the Internet has
become a useful tool in her profession, although she wouldn't let
her children near it.

Through the Internet, Soraya said she obtains information on
fashion, including schedules of fashion shows worldwide and lists
of modeling agencies and schools, in a short time.

Before there was the Internet, obtaining such information
could take weeks, she told a seminar Saturday on the uses of the
Internet, attended mostly by business and office secretaries.

"I started learning the Internet three months ago. It wasn't
difficult," said the owner of a modeling school named after her.

As a word of caution, she said anyone who intended to use the
Internet must first know what they really want. "Otherwise,
they're wasting their time and certainly their money," she said.

Soraya said the Internet was not something she would let her
children use.

"I have two kids at home. I don't think it's wise to have the
Internet with the kids around," she said, saying that the
information was not only too broad but also "too open".

On one website on lingerie, for example, the models remove
their clothes, she recalled. "That is hard to believe, even for a
married woman like me. I can't imagine how it affects children."

The seminar on the Internet and the Secretary was attended by
Tjahjono Soerjodibroto, president of PT Indosat, which is also an
Internet service provider, and Dewi M. Margono, the chairwoman of
the Association of Indonesian Secretaries.

Marcellus Ardiwinata, General Manager of PT Uninet Bhaktinusa,
an Internet service provider, said that while the Internet has
facilitated transactions like home shopping, people should be
careful in giving out their credit card numbers.

There have been cases where people purchased items through the
Internet using other people's credit card numbers, Marcellus
said. "Credit card owners should be careful with the Internet."

Using the e-mail for transactions is a lot safer, he said.

State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono, in his keynote
address, said the Internet and the e-mail facility that comes
with it should help secretaries in their professions.

A secretary could, for example, pass on orders from her boss
to others by the use of electronic mail instead of having to run
around the office, Haryono said.

Since communication through the Internet and e-mail is
impersonal, users should try to be courteous, he said.

"Although e-mail messages must be brief, it pays to begin your
communication with courteous greetings," he said, adding that
personal relationships remain important in the era of the
computer. (ste)