Sunday 22 November 2009

Life is a Choice

Yes, life is a choice to make! You can be a blogger, you can be a citizen reporter, you can be a volunteer, or you can be an ordinary housewife... We can also take it all as our activities, yet there should always priority at a time.

Time is the most valuable aspect of out life. Being a blogger made me realized why some professionals prefers not to be a blogger. They are also busy arranging their life, between social and professional life. Yet, those 24 hours a day can be valuable enough if we can set our best priority at the needed time.

October 24, 2009 had three kind of choices for me: Pesta Blogger, Trisakti's architects big reunion, and an event for my kids in Aini Eye Hospital (actually that same day they were also having another event in their school). As I was already invited to Pesta Blogger 2009 through an invitation for Forum Pembaca Kompas, I didn't want to throw it away (if I pay for it may be I'll skip this year's party). So, I took Pesta Blogger and gave some of my time fled from the party to be with my kids (thank you to grandpa who were kind enough to bring and taking care for his grandchildren...I love you dad!:))

I wrote "Bersahabat Dengan Mata Sejak Dini" from my short visit to Aini. I thought Pesta Blogger would be covered by more than a thousand bloggers, so it could be postponed. Even for that Eye Care Festival article I uploaded it after 2 weeks.

It would really be easier to be a blogger. I can just upload some pictures and some comments (tough uploading pictures is like wasting a lot of time). That's the different of just blogging and being a citizen reporter. Being a citizen reporter requires me to think, to prepare, and do some research (if needed) before uploading a posting. And that needs time...

But, looking through what I've been writing as a netizen, I think it would be nice to store all those interesting pictures and events in my memory, and uploading it when I have time and at the right (linked) moment.

Monday 16 November 2009

Short comments for today's Kompas (printed edition)

I'm still one of the faithful readers of printed medias, including Kompas. Yet, I really need the online version to keep those interesting articles to reread when I need it. That way, I didn't have to make my own clippings from the printed edition.

I always like the opinion columns because it is not only news, but it gives us another perspective. Actually I also like to write opinions. Yet, there are some news that would not get a column in the printed newspaper and it would be better presented as news.

Face Book is becoming another tool for citizen journalism. As a social media, it connects more people, easier to make a link with pictures, articles, etc. Sometimes I also upload short comments for printed media there. Several days ago I commented on two articles from Kompas' opinion about the more than 1,000,000 FBers joined to back up KPK. I like the opinions ("Pengadilan Opini Publik" dan "Nurani Publik Terusik"), because they are also showing another aspect of seeing the problem. We should see the problem from all different directions. The police, the judge, and the government should see it as people's choice to put off the corruption. It's the KPK that we are defending. We do hope changes from this institution, even if they are taking the role of policemen and other law institutions. I think we do hope that KPK is only a temporary bridge to help cutting the root of corrupted mentality. And I think we, as citizens, should also be careful not to blindly back up anybody or any institution. Yet, we are really depending on those people who are accepted as leaders and thinkers, including medias. I bet that half than those who joined the cause in Face Book did not really know what is going on, they were just joining the voice of the media and the leaders. So, it is important not to see things only as black and white...

Another article from Limas Sutanto today, "Makna Sejuta Dukungan", is also an interesting one. Those who are having the trust from Indonesian people should remind themselves that the citizen is not fighting against the police, or the government...the citizen only need to have a better country, a country free of unfairness and corruptions. And that should also be a common goal from all the governmental institutions (and also the people's representatives).

There is another opinion that attracted my eyes, "Timor Leste dan Indonesia". It was written by A. Windarto. It is true that historians should take their places (a netral stance) in order that we can go through another step of our history. For most Indonesians who are only aware of what had happened through the national media (at that time) could not really understand the "accusation" of being the one who took over and colonialized Timor Timur. It does need political wisdom to open the wound, look into what were really happening, accepting our mistakes and appologize for any wrongdoings, yet at the same time showing that we also did good deeds too (I do hope the money that went there used for building it as a part of the nation, not only for wars. Yet, I've never been there...the only source I've got is the national media. It should also clarified if those who would like to integrate with Indonesia did existed).

The future generation will need the verification of the history, and it would be better to do it while those who are involved in it are still alive. Political mistakes happens, and we need to manage how to settle it without disgracing the country. We are now coming into a more global world, we need to communicate better than before...we need to be honest about history just as we would like people to recognize that our independence as a nation is the 17th August 1945 not the 27th December 1949).