Sunday, 29 March 2009
Tips on learning foreign languages
Tips Belajar Bahasa Asing is my article written as a reaction to another article "Percaya Diri Menulis Dalam Bahasa Inggris Walau Dengan Kemampuan Pas-pasan". Learning foreign languages sometimes seems very difficult for non native speaker. Sometimes it also made people afraid of trying to write their news in English. A contributor for wikimu wrote his idea to increase one's self confidence in writing an English article by using google translator. Perhaps that would help boosting the self confidence, but we should try to improve the quality of language. Sometimes using google translator would not give us the translated version as it should be. It would be better to try writing using our own words, and asking the help of trusted online dictionary if needed.
For a passive user of a language who has a lot of vocabulary in his/her own self dictionary, it would be easy to track the misleading translation. Yet, for a real newbie...it will be very difficult to know if the translation has a new meaning or misleading intention.
That is why I do need my cyber friends to read some of my "very serious" article before uploading it to OhmyNews. I've learnt from experiences that editor can have misinterpretation as they are not familiar with the real situation. Or, the different way of West and East perspectives on a certain matter can also influence the output of a reading process.
I wrote some tips that I've learnt from my language teachers, from school and from courses, on how to study foreign languages and gain a better result. PPIA/LIA, IPPM, and PPB-UI are places where I gained knowledge for my English language. The Indonesian Heritage Society is the place to practice using it. Centre Culturel Français(CCF) contributed a very significant input for my process of learning foreign languages. Perhaps I'm not an active speaker of French language right now, but the way they presented the French language to me was very attractive...and it helps me to understand how to teach foreign language in an interesting and attractive way. Their art and cultures presentation, including Indonesian art and cultures, were really enriching my life...
The 4 tips are:
1. Learning in a happy situation will be more rewarding, our brains will absorb more knowledge...so you can try music, or film to enhance your knowledge. It's how Sesame Street gained its smart students. It works for children, it would be working for us too.
2. Use the best teacher, it means that we do need a good dictionary and good books for enriching our language knowledge. (I do prefer using Longman books for teaching as they have lots of books, each series have their own level of price...we can choose which one is suitable to our pocket and functional enough to fulfill our needs).
3. Try to think in that language. This is something I've got from CCF, as I used to translate French into English, while at the same time translating the English word into Bahasa Indonesia. It was complicated...A teacher from CCF asked me to use French to French dictionary, it would help us to think in the language itself. Now I do prefer English-English dictionary, or French-French dictionary, yet in doing a translation sometimes I do need the bilingual dictionary...deadline sometimes make me forgetful of the word I should use in my own language.
4. The last but the most important tip is to keep practising. I become a passive user of French lately as I did not keep practising the language. Studying the language is one thing, but using it from time to time is more important to gain fluency in using the language.
For a passive user of a language who has a lot of vocabulary in his/her own self dictionary, it would be easy to track the misleading translation. Yet, for a real newbie...it will be very difficult to know if the translation has a new meaning or misleading intention.
That is why I do need my cyber friends to read some of my "very serious" article before uploading it to OhmyNews. I've learnt from experiences that editor can have misinterpretation as they are not familiar with the real situation. Or, the different way of West and East perspectives on a certain matter can also influence the output of a reading process.
I wrote some tips that I've learnt from my language teachers, from school and from courses, on how to study foreign languages and gain a better result. PPIA/LIA, IPPM, and PPB-UI are places where I gained knowledge for my English language. The Indonesian Heritage Society is the place to practice using it. Centre Culturel Français(CCF) contributed a very significant input for my process of learning foreign languages. Perhaps I'm not an active speaker of French language right now, but the way they presented the French language to me was very attractive...and it helps me to understand how to teach foreign language in an interesting and attractive way. Their art and cultures presentation, including Indonesian art and cultures, were really enriching my life...
The 4 tips are:
1. Learning in a happy situation will be more rewarding, our brains will absorb more knowledge...so you can try music, or film to enhance your knowledge. It's how Sesame Street gained its smart students. It works for children, it would be working for us too.
2. Use the best teacher, it means that we do need a good dictionary and good books for enriching our language knowledge. (I do prefer using Longman books for teaching as they have lots of books, each series have their own level of price...we can choose which one is suitable to our pocket and functional enough to fulfill our needs).
3. Try to think in that language. This is something I've got from CCF, as I used to translate French into English, while at the same time translating the English word into Bahasa Indonesia. It was complicated...A teacher from CCF asked me to use French to French dictionary, it would help us to think in the language itself. Now I do prefer English-English dictionary, or French-French dictionary, yet in doing a translation sometimes I do need the bilingual dictionary...deadline sometimes make me forgetful of the word I should use in my own language.
4. The last but the most important tip is to keep practising. I become a passive user of French lately as I did not keep practising the language. Studying the language is one thing, but using it from time to time is more important to gain fluency in using the language.
Mourning for Situ Gintung
Situ Gintung is a name for a dam in Cirendeu, Tangerang. Can you imagine that you are going to witness tsunami in the middle of a city? The leaking dam made it possible... Multa Fidrus wrote for the Jakarta Post "Cireundeu 'tsunami'! Earlier warnings were ignored".
The disaster should not be blame to the natural cause alone, as JP stated "But this latest disaster may have not been all nature's work alone. The foreboding signs were already there, according to some."
It was recorded by that article that earlier warning as from 2007 was actually ignored by the government,
I've heard that the foundation's system of most dam or lake enhancement is using sand or soil to fill in the base of its pile planking...and most "Situ" or "Lake" here were made in that way of construction. Then we need to be very cautious about those leaking.
It was so sad seeing how many people loosing their beloved family. In the television we can see a man loosing his four children, all were covered in front of him...they were found dead. His wife is still missing. We've got around one hundred people dead, while around 105 people are still missing. I hope the souls are resting in peace...and the family left here can be tough enough to face the future. God bless them...
An already soggy Friday morning was quickly soaked in tears as the nation awoke to the horror of an inland tsunami that struck poor and affluent alike in the Cireundeu area, South Tangerang.
As the sun broke through the clouds to shed light on the tragedy, emergency crews raced to rescue survivors and shelter those turned out of their homes by a wall of water gushing madly from a collapsed sluice gate at the 21-hectare Situ Gintung Lake.
In a nation fraught with a seemingly endless onslaught of disasters, updates throughout the day were eerily familiar as the body count mounted.
The disaster should not be blame to the natural cause alone, as JP stated "But this latest disaster may have not been all nature's work alone. The foreboding signs were already there, according to some."
It was recorded by that article that earlier warning as from 2007 was actually ignored by the government,
They, like many others watching in horror, wondered how Jakarta's worst single-day tragedy since the 1987 Bintaro train crash, which killed 139, could have happened.
Recriminations soon boiled over as residents claimed they had long been concerned with the condition of the sluice gate, which was already rotting in parts and had not functioned properly for two years.
"We first found leaks at the sluice gate in early 2007; we reported it to Pak Naseh, an official at the Tangerang regency Irrigation Agency, who daily controls the lake," said RT 1 resident Taufik.
However, no response was forthcoming.
Through a river and lake normalization program last year, the government built an embankment jogging track on the lake's eastern shore, while the feeble sluice gate to the north was ignored.
I've heard that the foundation's system of most dam or lake enhancement is using sand or soil to fill in the base of its pile planking...and most "Situ" or "Lake" here were made in that way of construction. Then we need to be very cautious about those leaking.
It was so sad seeing how many people loosing their beloved family. In the television we can see a man loosing his four children, all were covered in front of him...they were found dead. His wife is still missing. We've got around one hundred people dead, while around 105 people are still missing. I hope the souls are resting in peace...and the family left here can be tough enough to face the future. God bless them...
New knowledge in blogging
I just found out that posting pictures through imageshack will not make those pictures appeared in my multiply blog. Actually I'm trying to save time by using imageshack,
it supposed to save my bandwith too...
I knew why for some people blogging is time consuming. We do need extra time to upload the article and pictures. As I am more into citizen reporting than blogging then I always upload my article in the citizen journalism website before uploading it here.
Blogging for my meditation blog is easier. I'm only writing and uploading the posts. The source is also easy; the bible and my heart.
People are talking about the new media here. The collapse of some printed newspaper in the USA is also a hot topic in some printed daily here. As usual, I've got a lot of things in my mind to say but I don't really have time to sit and write it down.
People need to make priority and balancing life...I'm trying to make my life balance.
it supposed to save my bandwith too...
I knew why for some people blogging is time consuming. We do need extra time to upload the article and pictures. As I am more into citizen reporting than blogging then I always upload my article in the citizen journalism website before uploading it here.
Blogging for my meditation blog is easier. I'm only writing and uploading the posts. The source is also easy; the bible and my heart.
People are talking about the new media here. The collapse of some printed newspaper in the USA is also a hot topic in some printed daily here. As usual, I've got a lot of things in my mind to say but I don't really have time to sit and write it down.
People need to make priority and balancing life...I'm trying to make my life balance.
Monday, 16 March 2009
Cikoneng Lighthouse
This lighthouse was built in 1885, it's not exactly the oldest lighthouse in operation in Indonesia, as we do have the oldest one in Semarang (1879). Yet, if the first lighthouse which was built in 1806 counted in then this location is perhaps older in the sense of history.
The old lighthouse is located about 30 metres from the new lighthouse, and is known as the starting point of the long road Anyer Panarukan, started by Daendels in 1808. The ruin of the old lighthouse is known as the "zero point".
I have never been brave enough to go up its 300 stairs, although each of its 18 floors will offer beautiful scenery. The lighthouse was made from metal, with 60 metres high, and actually people can ask permission to the guardian of the lighthouse to go up.
I'm also relating this article to the First Day Cover issued by PT Pos Indonesia. First to fill in my Stamp Collecting blog, second to show people that we can learn something through philately. And there is still another reason which will be revealed in another article for wikimu...
Architectural Travel: The Sam Po Kong Temple
In 2001 I went to Semarang, and I've seen the Sam Po Kong Temple, the building known by local people as Gedong Batu. It is because the main temple is located in the cave. Bondan Winarno in his article in Kompas.com said it was mistakenly take from Kedung batu which means that they were cutting the river by building stone walls.
It is not clear yet, which opinion is true as I've read in the Encyclopedia of World Architecture from Henri Stierlin, that between the year 350 to the 7th century there were temples built inside caves in di Gun-huang, Yun-kang, and Lun-meng, all located in China. Those cave temples were inspired by the cave temple architecture from Ajanta, India.
As I'm writing for a citizen journalism website, I feel I can just forwarded my experience with that temple in 2001. It was under a renovation at that time, and I knew a lot of more interesting buildings and decorations were made, especially for celebrating the 600 years of Cheng He first expedition to Java in 2005. I found some stories from wikipedia too, added the story about Cheng He and his expedition. Then I made my own opinion about the eclectic architectural style I found in the temple location. (Perhaps I might need to translate more from my article, and added it here in the future...)
It is interesting to have some readers' comments. Some are about their own experiences, and more new facts about the place, and there is also an intriguing question as to make another extensive research into the history of the temple; how from a mosque it became a temple, and also about the ancestors of Raden Patah...
It would be a great work if there are some people who are interested in architecture and also history, working together through the cyber space in researching more about the old buildings. It would also be better to have more news from small cities in or outside Java. I hope wikimu's project to produce a book on heritage building can be made into a realization. Collaborative work to enrich those uploaded article will be the best output, but we'll see...as time is so precious, so perhaps not everybody is as eager as me to finalized it that way.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Indonesian Blogger in The Best Job of the World (hoping...)
I received a forwarded e-mail from Nila Tanzil about her application as the candidate for the Best Job in the World in Queensland, Australia. It happened that I've met her twice...both in the National Blogger Party here in Jakarta (2007 and 2008).
She came into the top 50 from about 34,000 applicants. The day I opened that website, she was even on the 13th rank of the wild card leaderboard. I've been learning my lesson from Hadi Mirza, the Asian Idol, that we do need to make our votes to help her boost her rank. That is the reason why I wrote "14 Hari Lagi...Mampukah Nila Tanzil Menaiki 13 Anak Tangga?" Actually at that day (14 days from the closing) she was already on the 13th rank...so only 12 steps to the top. I was writing in a hurry, and it does seemed that 14 and 13 are nicely fit. Yet, today she is on the 14th rank, one step lower...
Clare from Taiwan seems to be securing her first rank with a very high voting score. I am still hoping for Nila, as Indonesia is the neighbour of Australia and we also have various beach resorts. The Islands of the Great Barrier Reef will be a very nice destination for Indonesians who like diving and snorkeling, and for Indonesian who do need to learn how to manage their beach resorts.
With the global financial crises, more Indonesian will search for a closer travel destination for their holidays. The youngsters who love diving and snorkeling are also seemed to be looking for new adventure in other places. So, Nila will be the right candidate to promote this holiday destination in Indonesia. Moreover, she is also a global citizen, a blogger who has spend her time outside Indonesia. She is young, popular, and she does enjoy underwater experiences.
But why do I promote to vote her in wikimu? I do hope that she will also remember to gain something for us Indonesians if she get that best job in the world. It would be helpful to share what she gets from her experience there to help our marine resources to limit the impact of human use. As a World Heritage Site, Islands of the Great Barrier Reef could gave us a lot of examples on how to manage our beautiful beaches such as the Raja Ampat Islands in Papua, or other places in Bali, Sulawesi, and Komodo Island. You can search for some beaches here. But, as we can read in this blog, Indonesians need to improve the way we looked at those places. We need to balance the exploitation of the natural resources within our financial needs with the need to preserve the environment and its rich biodiversity.
So, I do think that Nila Tanzil is the best candidate for that job. She won't be just working for the Great Barrier Reef, but at the same time she will show her fellow Indonesians how to treat our environment, to show us how important it is to keep those natural underwater heritage.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you Nila...
related news: http://khazanahpikir.blogspot.com/2008/06/indonesias-hidden-treasures.html
She came into the top 50 from about 34,000 applicants. The day I opened that website, she was even on the 13th rank of the wild card leaderboard. I've been learning my lesson from Hadi Mirza, the Asian Idol, that we do need to make our votes to help her boost her rank. That is the reason why I wrote "14 Hari Lagi...Mampukah Nila Tanzil Menaiki 13 Anak Tangga?" Actually at that day (14 days from the closing) she was already on the 13th rank...so only 12 steps to the top. I was writing in a hurry, and it does seemed that 14 and 13 are nicely fit. Yet, today she is on the 14th rank, one step lower...
Clare from Taiwan seems to be securing her first rank with a very high voting score. I am still hoping for Nila, as Indonesia is the neighbour of Australia and we also have various beach resorts. The Islands of the Great Barrier Reef will be a very nice destination for Indonesians who like diving and snorkeling, and for Indonesian who do need to learn how to manage their beach resorts.
With the global financial crises, more Indonesian will search for a closer travel destination for their holidays. The youngsters who love diving and snorkeling are also seemed to be looking for new adventure in other places. So, Nila will be the right candidate to promote this holiday destination in Indonesia. Moreover, she is also a global citizen, a blogger who has spend her time outside Indonesia. She is young, popular, and she does enjoy underwater experiences.
But why do I promote to vote her in wikimu? I do hope that she will also remember to gain something for us Indonesians if she get that best job in the world. It would be helpful to share what she gets from her experience there to help our marine resources to limit the impact of human use. As a World Heritage Site, Islands of the Great Barrier Reef could gave us a lot of examples on how to manage our beautiful beaches such as the Raja Ampat Islands in Papua, or other places in Bali, Sulawesi, and Komodo Island. You can search for some beaches here. But, as we can read in this blog, Indonesians need to improve the way we looked at those places. We need to balance the exploitation of the natural resources within our financial needs with the need to preserve the environment and its rich biodiversity.
So, I do think that Nila Tanzil is the best candidate for that job. She won't be just working for the Great Barrier Reef, but at the same time she will show her fellow Indonesians how to treat our environment, to show us how important it is to keep those natural underwater heritage.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you Nila...
related news: http://khazanahpikir.blogspot.com/2008/06/indonesias-hidden-treasures.html
Thursday, 12 March 2009
More about David
There are more stories coming about David Hartanto Widjaja. Yesterday another citizen reporter asked me to read his page. I found another story there. It mentioned David's research "Multiview acquisition from multi-camera configuration for person adaptive 3D display". He also wrote that Zhou Zang was introduced to David by Prof. Chan on the night of the incident. It seems that the professor asked David to handed over the research to Zhou Zang. Unfortunately there is no link about the source of information. The good news is an Indonesian journalist from Tempo is already in Singapore to make his investigation report. I do hope he's able to find more relevant stories to show us the truth...
Browsing through the internet I found another link which is sgpolitics.net. The comments from readers are worth reading. One comment posted under the name "barasida" said that he was a close friend of David. It was already written in the link I gave in my previous post about David, but I'd like to write this down for those who are not willing to browse to another link:
I'm trying to find the link that could relate me to the story about that research, and in the process I found other links. This one is from Singapore News Alternative which seemed to take the news from Borneo Blogger Community
, it reveals David's family wishes to the Indonesian government to care about its citizens abroad. In some mailing lists it was already discussed how Indonesian government was never take the position as a guardian of its citizen abroad, either for the citizen who worked as foreign worker -especially the woman worker who only work as household assistant- or (now) a citizen who study abroad. Indonesian government is hoped by its citizens to ask for a clear explanation and to make a formal inquiry into the truth of this case from Singapore.
I found something about the mentioned project in a forum discussion of Channel NewsAsia, yet I did not find any news about the relation between that project to Zhou Zang.
To become a winner (it's not important if it was not a gold medal) in the Asia Pacific Mathematic Olympiad 2005 is surely not an easy task. Being a mother who accompany my sons to go trying this competition or that competition, I think I knew the difficulties to accept this tragedy. It is also like giving salt into a wound when people criticized that your son is only growing his intellectual quotiens and not his social and emotional quotiens.
As a citizen, who is really far from knowing David or his family, I can only hope that the Singapore police department and also the international journalists (not only Indonesian journalists) can help providing an explanation and clarification of that two (assumed as) suicidal cases. My sons are still very small, but I do hope that one day they could also be studying abroad. It is not because our education system is bad, but it would be for gaining international experiences. Yet, cases like the student's shooting in the USA, or case like David's make me doubted if it is worth investing that way...
More reading from the Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345314.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345383.html
Browsing through the internet I found another link which is sgpolitics.net. The comments from readers are worth reading. One comment posted under the name "barasida" said that he was a close friend of David. It was already written in the link I gave in my previous post about David, but I'd like to write this down for those who are not willing to browse to another link:
3. I and some Indonesian students gather tonight, 3 March 2009, at 8 pm,
at International Student Center and talked to David’s parent.
They have seen his body. There was NO WOUND whatsoever on his wrists
and police also has confirmed it.
I assumed that his parent would not lie it means that all media news about
‘David slashed his wrist’ was FAKE.
4. The wounds found on David’s body, according to his parents,
were on his head (It is assumed due to fall injury),
and slash wound on his neck. The wound on his neck is very suspicious, in
my opinion. How he received that wound?? Again, according to his parent,
police guessed that it may be happened when the bottom part of his head smashed
the ground. In that case, his chin will have broken and it did not.
My question is: WHERE DOES THAT SLASH WOUND ON HIS NECK CAME FROM?
I'm trying to find the link that could relate me to the story about that research, and in the process I found other links. This one is from Singapore News Alternative which seemed to take the news from Borneo Blogger Community
, it reveals David's family wishes to the Indonesian government to care about its citizens abroad. In some mailing lists it was already discussed how Indonesian government was never take the position as a guardian of its citizen abroad, either for the citizen who worked as foreign worker -especially the woman worker who only work as household assistant- or (now) a citizen who study abroad. Indonesian government is hoped by its citizens to ask for a clear explanation and to make a formal inquiry into the truth of this case from Singapore.
I found something about the mentioned project in a forum discussion of Channel NewsAsia, yet I did not find any news about the relation between that project to Zhou Zang.
To become a winner (it's not important if it was not a gold medal) in the Asia Pacific Mathematic Olympiad 2005 is surely not an easy task. Being a mother who accompany my sons to go trying this competition or that competition, I think I knew the difficulties to accept this tragedy. It is also like giving salt into a wound when people criticized that your son is only growing his intellectual quotiens and not his social and emotional quotiens.
As a citizen, who is really far from knowing David or his family, I can only hope that the Singapore police department and also the international journalists (not only Indonesian journalists) can help providing an explanation and clarification of that two (assumed as) suicidal cases. My sons are still very small, but I do hope that one day they could also be studying abroad. It is not because our education system is bad, but it would be for gaining international experiences. Yet, cases like the student's shooting in the USA, or case like David's make me doubted if it is worth investing that way...
More reading from the Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345314.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345383.html
Monday, 9 March 2009
Blogging and reporting
Like I've said in my previous post, reporting is not always easy. Blogging is easier for me, but both ways produce surprising results...
My old (almost forgotten) file about the Textile Museum that I've uploaded in this blog made the Jakarta Post's reader that I mentioned there made his comment. As news, it is surely out of date...two years ago. Yet, the urgency is still the same...
I prefer wikimu to publish the recycle story as I'm now concentrating in taking the Indonesian interest towards museums, not to say to take the attention of those who are seating in the offices that can make policies.
Writing for Citizen Journalism website helps me promote the content of my post. For example, a post about the Science Center and the meeting with pak KK, the Minister of Research and Technology, was taken into the minister's blog.
Reporting at First Hand as Claire George mentioned in her article help me to produce a different point of view from the newspaper's reporters. Sometimes, the "deadline" made me unable to produce any news. Luckily there would be no deadlines for blogging...
Claire said, "All articles are valid in their own way. (The expression of under represented opinion is particularly important.) But when they are providing their best public service, their very very best public service, citizen journalists report first hand experiences and share the real flavour of the things they see." I think that's the basic of citizen journalism. It is not about us, it is not about the news, but it is about the personal hue given to the public as a service to improve the quality of citizens' life.
So, I'll continue mixing blogging and reporting in my own "free time" and in my own limited capacity.
My old (almost forgotten) file about the Textile Museum that I've uploaded in this blog made the Jakarta Post's reader that I mentioned there made his comment. As news, it is surely out of date...two years ago. Yet, the urgency is still the same...
I prefer wikimu to publish the recycle story as I'm now concentrating in taking the Indonesian interest towards museums, not to say to take the attention of those who are seating in the offices that can make policies.
Writing for Citizen Journalism website helps me promote the content of my post. For example, a post about the Science Center and the meeting with pak KK, the Minister of Research and Technology, was taken into the minister's blog.
Reporting at First Hand as Claire George mentioned in her article help me to produce a different point of view from the newspaper's reporters. Sometimes, the "deadline" made me unable to produce any news. Luckily there would be no deadlines for blogging...
Claire said, "All articles are valid in their own way. (The expression of under represented opinion is particularly important.) But when they are providing their best public service, their very very best public service, citizen journalists report first hand experiences and share the real flavour of the things they see." I think that's the basic of citizen journalism. It is not about us, it is not about the news, but it is about the personal hue given to the public as a service to improve the quality of citizens' life.
So, I'll continue mixing blogging and reporting in my own "free time" and in my own limited capacity.
Just several links about David
Reporting is taking a lot of time and concentration, especially if we are taking the journalistic ethical code. I was really interested in the case of David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, an Indonesian bright student who was found dead after (accused of) stabbing his associate professor at NTU, Singapore (read Channelnewsasia)
I knew the news from the local television here, then through mailing lists. Loosing a bright and intelligent student like David is something that would arouse our curiosity. He was blessed with intelligent and also a scholarship, then why he had to end up that way?
Receiving a scholarship from a well known foreign university is not always like jumping into heaven, another student who receive scholarship from the same University shared her story here. Unfortunately it is not in English. She did not know David, but she told a story about the difficulties that perhaps all those scholarship receiver had to face. She also revealed that there were other students that became the victim of this education process, one ended up in the mental hospital, the other one was making unsuccessful suicide.
Another blog was asking if David was a victim or a suspect? Family has doubted the Singapore's newspaper story.
It is human for family to doubt that such a bright boy stabbed his professor then committed a suicide. I do not know him, his family, or even his university, but as a mother it took my concern. He came from BPK Penabur, an (private) Indonesian senior high school with a high level of competition. So, naturally we expect him to be ready to run well in a tighter competition abroad. Coming from BPK Penabur also indicate that he came from at least middle level of financial family support, which should not make his scholarship termination could force him into a murderer and suicidal action...especially when he was already in his final year. Chinese Indonesian family usually helped each other in term of education. Even if his nuclear family can't support him, there should be another way to finance that final year. Yet, youngsters sometimes are unpredictable. Stressful situation are existed in any campus...the South Korean who shot guns and made us lost one Indonesian scholar was another case that came two years ago from the States.
Another story came in through mailing list, it is from Singapore Enquirer, this time about the second suicide from NTU, an NTU officer was found hanged in the balcony of his apartment. It came less than a week after David's incident. And he was also from the Division of Information at the School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), although he worked as the University infocomm project officer while David was only a student.
Professor Chan Kap Luk has survived the stabbing, he is the only one who know the true story about David...
I knew the news from the local television here, then through mailing lists. Loosing a bright and intelligent student like David is something that would arouse our curiosity. He was blessed with intelligent and also a scholarship, then why he had to end up that way?
Receiving a scholarship from a well known foreign university is not always like jumping into heaven, another student who receive scholarship from the same University shared her story here. Unfortunately it is not in English. She did not know David, but she told a story about the difficulties that perhaps all those scholarship receiver had to face. She also revealed that there were other students that became the victim of this education process, one ended up in the mental hospital, the other one was making unsuccessful suicide.
Another blog was asking if David was a victim or a suspect? Family has doubted the Singapore's newspaper story.
It is human for family to doubt that such a bright boy stabbed his professor then committed a suicide. I do not know him, his family, or even his university, but as a mother it took my concern. He came from BPK Penabur, an (private) Indonesian senior high school with a high level of competition. So, naturally we expect him to be ready to run well in a tighter competition abroad. Coming from BPK Penabur also indicate that he came from at least middle level of financial family support, which should not make his scholarship termination could force him into a murderer and suicidal action...especially when he was already in his final year. Chinese Indonesian family usually helped each other in term of education. Even if his nuclear family can't support him, there should be another way to finance that final year. Yet, youngsters sometimes are unpredictable. Stressful situation are existed in any campus...the South Korean who shot guns and made us lost one Indonesian scholar was another case that came two years ago from the States.
Another story came in through mailing list, it is from Singapore Enquirer, this time about the second suicide from NTU, an NTU officer was found hanged in the balcony of his apartment. It came less than a week after David's incident. And he was also from the Division of Information at the School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), although he worked as the University infocomm project officer while David was only a student.
Professor Chan Kap Luk has survived the stabbing, he is the only one who know the true story about David...
Sunday, 8 March 2009
The Changing Faces of Architecture in the City, an unending battle...
Perubahan Wajah Arsitektur Kota, Sebuah Pergulatan yang Takkan Usai.... I wrote this article after I saw the picture used in Todd Thacker's article "Protest Street Art" and the article of Mira Tj "Modernisasi dalam Arsitektur = Membuang yang Lama", Modernization in Architecture = Throwing Away the Old (Buidlings).
I was actually preparing an article about the mural. Jakarta Biennale 2009 with its murals on the street took my interest. Yet, I had some problems...the internet connection, and also the missing pictures. I have some pictures on street murals, but I can't find where they are. Some of my pictures were lost when my computer broke down. I am not a very organized person either...
Mira's article made me take another point of view. I am still engaging some artworks from the Jakarta Biennale 2009 which talk about city development, and also asked readers to get back to some old articles. Town planning is not only a case or a project for the city planner or the government, they should also include the citizen who live there, and the citizen who work there. Historical and financial values of a location should be able to work together, and it does need a lot of support from the government to make it fruitful!
I do hope I can prepare the second article talking about the art that talk from the street. It is just very interesting that in the case of relocation of citizens, there is no difference between South Korea and Indonesia. I believed that the picture from Kwon Woo-sung is picturing a universal protest. The man in that picture could be MB, could also be SBY, or FB, or anybody...
I wrote some articles for wikimu about relocation, as it was so sad seeing all those hopeless faces on the television. This is something that reminded me of the Soeharto era...I know that we do need changes to show a better development of the city, but we need to understand the citizens' financial need. Relocate them unwisely can only cost them a lot of additional life expenses. In my eyes, the government's approach toward the case of those flower and fish vendors from Blok B was not a wise approach.
A hybrid garden would be a nicer idea. Even if they do need to be relocated, but it would be a better stand to keep their business running. Of course it is not an easy task to find the way out, that is why we do need those intelligent scholars to help the citizens. There are a lot of historical places, not only historical buildings, that we do need to think about. Let's say jalan Surabaya, or perhaps then...jalan Jaksa?
Citra Niaga, as the winner of the Aga Khan project, is a good example on how an ideal project can turn out without the cooperation and the support of all those involved in planning, manage, and use that project. If it is not the government who supported its citizens then who will?
I was actually preparing an article about the mural. Jakarta Biennale 2009 with its murals on the street took my interest. Yet, I had some problems...the internet connection, and also the missing pictures. I have some pictures on street murals, but I can't find where they are. Some of my pictures were lost when my computer broke down. I am not a very organized person either...
Mira's article made me take another point of view. I am still engaging some artworks from the Jakarta Biennale 2009 which talk about city development, and also asked readers to get back to some old articles. Town planning is not only a case or a project for the city planner or the government, they should also include the citizen who live there, and the citizen who work there. Historical and financial values of a location should be able to work together, and it does need a lot of support from the government to make it fruitful!
I do hope I can prepare the second article talking about the art that talk from the street. It is just very interesting that in the case of relocation of citizens, there is no difference between South Korea and Indonesia. I believed that the picture from Kwon Woo-sung is picturing a universal protest. The man in that picture could be MB, could also be SBY, or FB, or anybody...
I wrote some articles for wikimu about relocation, as it was so sad seeing all those hopeless faces on the television. This is something that reminded me of the Soeharto era...I know that we do need changes to show a better development of the city, but we need to understand the citizens' financial need. Relocate them unwisely can only cost them a lot of additional life expenses. In my eyes, the government's approach toward the case of those flower and fish vendors from Blok B was not a wise approach.
A hybrid garden would be a nicer idea. Even if they do need to be relocated, but it would be a better stand to keep their business running. Of course it is not an easy task to find the way out, that is why we do need those intelligent scholars to help the citizens. There are a lot of historical places, not only historical buildings, that we do need to think about. Let's say jalan Surabaya, or perhaps then...jalan Jaksa?
Citra Niaga, as the winner of the Aga Khan project, is a good example on how an ideal project can turn out without the cooperation and the support of all those involved in planning, manage, and use that project. If it is not the government who supported its citizens then who will?
BERANI Belajar Demokrasi
BERANI Belajar Demokrasi is about the project of learning democracy for elementary school children forwarded by the daily BERANI. It is a printed daily for children.
My eldest son likes reading this daily in his way to school. The variety of news and the size of this Monday to Friday journal made him interested in reading it. I'm glad to see him reading this daily as I was trying hard to take his attention to the youngster pages in Kompas to no avail.
The article I wrote for wikimu include my wishes to the headmasters and teachers who are involved in this "learning democracy" project, that democracy is not only stopped after being elected as the president and the vice president of the school. Children will learn a better understanding of democracy if they are capable not only to make promises, but to try to take those promises into realization. Otherwise, they'll only learn about the "campaign party" and "empty promises"...
My eldest son likes reading this daily in his way to school. The variety of news and the size of this Monday to Friday journal made him interested in reading it. I'm glad to see him reading this daily as I was trying hard to take his attention to the youngster pages in Kompas to no avail.The article I wrote for wikimu include my wishes to the headmasters and teachers who are involved in this "learning democracy" project, that democracy is not only stopped after being elected as the president and the vice president of the school. Children will learn a better understanding of democracy if they are capable not only to make promises, but to try to take those promises into realization. Otherwise, they'll only learn about the "campaign party" and "empty promises"...
Textile Museum, the Forgotten Jewel of Tanah Abang
Museum Tekstil, Permata Tanah Abang yang Kurang Ditengok, Textile Museum, the Forgotten Jewel of Tanah Abang.
This is a recycle version of an article sent to JP as a reaction after reading a readers' letter. The article did not get a room in that printed newspaper, and was buried inside my computer.
As wikimu is raising up the travel to old buildings I worked on this one, faster as it is just like translating and adding several comments.
This is the unedited version of the English script (the data is old dated but I think the fact is not really changing, yet in the article for wikimu I did make some changes or erasing some statements):
A recent letter from the Jakarta Post’s reader Mr. Jonathan Zilberg (the Jakarta Post, September 21, 2007) is commenting on the article published here earlier under the title “Museum Struggles for Popularity” (the Jakarta Post, September 17, 2007). The letter showed the reader’s in-depth knowledge of the Textile Museum and the problems that encountered most museums in Indonesia.
One of his statements should be read by more people dealing with the city officials or the museum’s planning and development here, “A new building is the last thing that is needed”. It is really true, as this old building gives another additional value to the museum itself.
Searching through the Indonesian Wikipedia (see http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Tekstil) we can trace the museum long history. It was built as a private house of a Frenchman in the 19th C, and it has a long history before it became the Textile Museum in 1976. The house was used as the house of a Turkish Consul, Abdul Azis Almussawi Al Katiri, before bought by Dr. Karel Christian Cruq in 1942. It was then turned as headquarter for the Civil Defense Force (Barisan Keamanan Rakyat –BKR), before it turned back into civilian house by Lie Sion Pin. In 1952 this beautiful house was bought by the Social Department and was transferred to the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta on October 25, 1975. Madame Tien Soeharto, the first lady at that time, inaugurated the building as the Textile Museum on June 28, 1976. The building is really worth historical value!
Looking through its history, the building represents a century of Tanah Abang history. If we can dig a deeper cultural history of how this district became the first melting pot of international textiles trades in Jakarta (not to say in Indonesia) perhaps it can show the significant value to promote the building as a cultural object of tourism.
Yet, other facts presented in the article “Museum Struggles for Popularity” are also worth to take into our notice. The picture presented the crowded hawkers that put the beauty of the museum into the unseen back ground of the place is a real thing. As we drive our private car we can easily missed this place. And the poor public transportation is nonetheless discouraging local people to come to this museum.
For most residents of Jakarta, the Tanah Abang district is probably meant awful traffic jam. It is also the problem that should be faced by most museums in the Old Town Area. The public reluctant to come due to the traffic jam. Yet, these museums are also benefited by the continual need of the resident to come and visit the trade centers nearby.
If the government can make these museums (not only the textile museums) be the oasis in the middle of these historical and active business districts, it would really help boosting their popularity.
The National Monument as the landmark of Jakarta is probably the most popular historical building as tourism object in Jakarta. According to the Office of Culture and Museums of the Province of DKI Jakarta, in the year 2006 the National Monument was visited by 664,212 visitors, while the Textile Museum only got 19,072 visitors. The number of visitors is far from the number of visitors who visited the most popular museum in Indonesia, the National Museum, which according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic Indonesia had 170,437 visitors in 2005 (in the same year the Textile Museum got 15,014 visitors as cited from the Province of DKI Jakarta’s data). The low numbers of visitors are still even better than faced by the some other museums such as the Maritime Museum, the 1945 Struggle Museum and MH Thamrin Museum, or the Onrust Archeological Park which did not even passed 10,000 visitors in the year 2006.
Visitor’s comfort is one important thing that is overlooked by the Textile Museum’s administrator. While searching in the tourism object in the internet we could gain information that we can take picture without flash, in the reality we are not granted to take any pictures without flash inside the building. So, the only token would be from the exterior of the buildings in the Textile Museum. The special permit is off course available with prior hierarchial arrangement, but for most public visitors it might be also one disadvantage factor to revisit the place.
Another discomforting fact that was encountered by the writer when visited the Textile Museum is the fact that a woman’s handbag is also forbidden to enter the main exhibition building. Under the security reason that was really acceptable, except that our bags were not really guarded. Coming out of the main exhibition there was no person guarding the bags put in an open shelf. Giving a locker facility will at least give a more secure feeling leaving your bag outside.
As someone unfamiliar with curatorial work and minimum requirement of the treatment of old textile, one can not really judge the minimum varieties or visual comfort displayed in the museum. Yet, it might be true that Indonesian public with the lack of knowledge on their valuable textiles would not see any reason to come back after the first visit.
On the other hand, people who do have the interest toward traditional textiles would find this place intriguing. In the center courtyard behind the main building, one can study the trees that helped Indonesian ancestors produced such beautiful colored textiles.
In another building that facilitate interested people with the facility to study how to make traditional textile such as batik, we can always find the interactive transferring of knowledge that also help the continuation of the traditional textiles.
It is also important for the media to promote these probably hidden activities, to take people’s attention to visit the place. Here, the local and international visitors are all in deep concentration toward the process of producing the beautiful pieces of art in cloth. Some international visitors are already tied to the place for years. They can become our best representatives outside the country in promoting the beauty of Indonesian textiles.
To gain a good remark of the Textile Museum image, it should combine all the efforts. It should include the willingness of the government administration to prioritize the Textile Museum as its central part in any urban planning decision in the Tanah Abang district. It would really enhance the existence of the Textile Museum as the jewel of Tanah Abang. And off course, to be one of the irresistible treasure to visit in Indonesia.
This is a recycle version of an article sent to JP as a reaction after reading a readers' letter. The article did not get a room in that printed newspaper, and was buried inside my computer.
As wikimu is raising up the travel to old buildings I worked on this one, faster as it is just like translating and adding several comments.
This is the unedited version of the English script (the data is old dated but I think the fact is not really changing, yet in the article for wikimu I did make some changes or erasing some statements):
A recent letter from the Jakarta Post’s reader Mr. Jonathan Zilberg (the Jakarta Post, September 21, 2007) is commenting on the article published here earlier under the title “Museum Struggles for Popularity” (the Jakarta Post, September 17, 2007). The letter showed the reader’s in-depth knowledge of the Textile Museum and the problems that encountered most museums in Indonesia.
One of his statements should be read by more people dealing with the city officials or the museum’s planning and development here, “A new building is the last thing that is needed”. It is really true, as this old building gives another additional value to the museum itself.
Searching through the Indonesian Wikipedia (see http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Tekstil) we can trace the museum long history. It was built as a private house of a Frenchman in the 19th C, and it has a long history before it became the Textile Museum in 1976. The house was used as the house of a Turkish Consul, Abdul Azis Almussawi Al Katiri, before bought by Dr. Karel Christian Cruq in 1942. It was then turned as headquarter for the Civil Defense Force (Barisan Keamanan Rakyat –BKR), before it turned back into civilian house by Lie Sion Pin. In 1952 this beautiful house was bought by the Social Department and was transferred to the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta on October 25, 1975. Madame Tien Soeharto, the first lady at that time, inaugurated the building as the Textile Museum on June 28, 1976. The building is really worth historical value!
Looking through its history, the building represents a century of Tanah Abang history. If we can dig a deeper cultural history of how this district became the first melting pot of international textiles trades in Jakarta (not to say in Indonesia) perhaps it can show the significant value to promote the building as a cultural object of tourism.
Yet, other facts presented in the article “Museum Struggles for Popularity” are also worth to take into our notice. The picture presented the crowded hawkers that put the beauty of the museum into the unseen back ground of the place is a real thing. As we drive our private car we can easily missed this place. And the poor public transportation is nonetheless discouraging local people to come to this museum.
For most residents of Jakarta, the Tanah Abang district is probably meant awful traffic jam. It is also the problem that should be faced by most museums in the Old Town Area. The public reluctant to come due to the traffic jam. Yet, these museums are also benefited by the continual need of the resident to come and visit the trade centers nearby.
If the government can make these museums (not only the textile museums) be the oasis in the middle of these historical and active business districts, it would really help boosting their popularity.
The National Monument as the landmark of Jakarta is probably the most popular historical building as tourism object in Jakarta. According to the Office of Culture and Museums of the Province of DKI Jakarta, in the year 2006 the National Monument was visited by 664,212 visitors, while the Textile Museum only got 19,072 visitors. The number of visitors is far from the number of visitors who visited the most popular museum in Indonesia, the National Museum, which according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic Indonesia had 170,437 visitors in 2005 (in the same year the Textile Museum got 15,014 visitors as cited from the Province of DKI Jakarta’s data). The low numbers of visitors are still even better than faced by the some other museums such as the Maritime Museum, the 1945 Struggle Museum and MH Thamrin Museum, or the Onrust Archeological Park which did not even passed 10,000 visitors in the year 2006.
Visitor’s comfort is one important thing that is overlooked by the Textile Museum’s administrator. While searching in the tourism object in the internet we could gain information that we can take picture without flash, in the reality we are not granted to take any pictures without flash inside the building. So, the only token would be from the exterior of the buildings in the Textile Museum. The special permit is off course available with prior hierarchial arrangement, but for most public visitors it might be also one disadvantage factor to revisit the place.
Another discomforting fact that was encountered by the writer when visited the Textile Museum is the fact that a woman’s handbag is also forbidden to enter the main exhibition building. Under the security reason that was really acceptable, except that our bags were not really guarded. Coming out of the main exhibition there was no person guarding the bags put in an open shelf. Giving a locker facility will at least give a more secure feeling leaving your bag outside.
As someone unfamiliar with curatorial work and minimum requirement of the treatment of old textile, one can not really judge the minimum varieties or visual comfort displayed in the museum. Yet, it might be true that Indonesian public with the lack of knowledge on their valuable textiles would not see any reason to come back after the first visit.
On the other hand, people who do have the interest toward traditional textiles would find this place intriguing. In the center courtyard behind the main building, one can study the trees that helped Indonesian ancestors produced such beautiful colored textiles.
In another building that facilitate interested people with the facility to study how to make traditional textile such as batik, we can always find the interactive transferring of knowledge that also help the continuation of the traditional textiles.
It is also important for the media to promote these probably hidden activities, to take people’s attention to visit the place. Here, the local and international visitors are all in deep concentration toward the process of producing the beautiful pieces of art in cloth. Some international visitors are already tied to the place for years. They can become our best representatives outside the country in promoting the beauty of Indonesian textiles.
To gain a good remark of the Textile Museum image, it should combine all the efforts. It should include the willingness of the government administration to prioritize the Textile Museum as its central part in any urban planning decision in the Tanah Abang district. It would really enhance the existence of the Textile Museum as the jewel of Tanah Abang. And off course, to be one of the irresistible treasure to visit in Indonesia.
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