The British Council and the Tools for Intercultural Dialogue

The main important thing to have a dialog is to have the tools to do the dialogue: the language! We can communicate through sign language, or through body language as long as both party understand the symbol of the intended meaning. So, the most important aspect before one can start intercultural dialogue is to understand the other party’s language. English is now widely known as the international language to bridge the communication of people all around the world.

Since the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, the British Council has been always involved in assisting the Indonesian government to train Indonesian teachers of English. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the British Council using the financial fund from Overseas Development Agency started the development of distance learning material. It was developed after they realized that 60% of scholarship offered to civil servants could not be taken up. In their quarterly newsletter published in April –June 2007, there was an article titled “British Council and English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia: a Never Ending Story”. It described the ELT Project Units that involved Lembaga Administrasi Negara (LAN), the civil service’s man training organization that was run from 1987 to 1994. It was then continued by ECSCS (English Communication Skills Civil Service) Project. In these projects the British Council assisted as many as 21 Universities and 20 government institutions.

That would be a long record to note down the support given by the British Council to the variety of ELT activities in Indonesia. The British Council had put their concern to educate people to be able to communicate with other cultures. After gaining the fruit of its effort, they are now focusing in training more trainers and teachers of English.

The interest to learn English language has been growing high and the age to start learning this language is becoming younger and younger…The economic problem is one obstacle in providing the English course for children; there are a lot of families who can’t really support their children’s need to take extra course outside their school’s fee. Ika Damayanti, an English teacher shared her story on how she founded Rumah Belajar Pelangi (the Rainbow Learning House), a learning community basically started from volunteer’s spirits.

Other story was from Toto Purwanto, the Project Manager for Basic Education Program in Bintuni Bay, West Papua. He came to the forest to seek for students! Yes…students! The project was run technically by the British Council using the fund from BP Berau Ltd. They were working on the scheme of Corporate Social Responsibility. A contributor in Wikimu.com had also uploading concerns about education in Papua. It is a reality that there is a high need of teachers in the rural area far away from the big city. Even in the metropolitan city like Jakarta, the quality of teachers is not really convincing. Education becomes more and more expensive for the middle to low class of the society.

So the new strategy to work with national and international companies in Indonesia through the Corporate Social Responsibility activities can also be a good foundation to develop the ability to have the intercultural dialogue!

Pesona Minang Nan Menawan Mewarnai Ulang Tahun Museum Nasional

Menyambut ulang tahun ke 230 tahun dari Museum Nasional yang jatuh pada tanggal 24 April sekaligus dalam rangka Tahun Kunjungan Indonesia 2008, maka di Museum Nasional sejak tanggal 7 - 30 April 2008 (diperpanjang hingga tanggal 7 Mei 2008) berlangsung pameran khusus bertemakan "Pesona Kain Tradisional Minangkabau". Pameran terlaksana dengan kerjasama instansi terkait Museum Negeri Propinsi Sumatera Barat dan Anjungan Sumatera Barat Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII).

Bicara tentang tekstil tradisional Indonesia tidak harus selalu mengenai kain batik. Sumatera Barat juga menawarkan keindahan kain tradisional yang menawan lewat songket dan bordir. Kain songket di Nusantara ini memang tidak semata-mata berasal dari kebudayaan Minangkabau, tetapi gaya dan corak desain yang digunakan tentunya merupakan sesuatu yang sangat khas dari setiap daerah.

Ranah Minang atau Minangkabau senantiasa menarik perhatian wisatawan asing, karena walaupun masyarakatnya dominan beragama Islam tetapi tata kehidupan dalam masyarakat adat mereka menggunakan sistem matrilineal. Dalam budaya Minangkabau sangat sarat makna simbolis, dan simbolisasi ini terutama terungkap melalui penampilan dan pemakaian kain tradisionalnya.

Direktur Jenderal Sejarah dan Purbakala, Departemen Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata, Hari Untoro Dradjat, yang waktu itu membuka pameran ini mewakili Menteri Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata, mengatakan bahwa sasaran utama dari pameran ini adalah anak muda generasi penerus bangsa. Diharapkan generasi muda ini juga mengenal nilai-nilai simbolik yang diturunkan melalui tata cara pemakaian kain, maupun corak ragam desain kain tersebut.


Motif-motif yang digunakan dalam desain kain tradisional Minangkabau memang sangat dekat dengan alam, dan ini sangat sesuai dengan falsafah orang Minang: alam takambang jadi guru. Bila sekarang ini masyarakat kembali diingatkan akan gerakan mencintai alam, atau diingatkan akan peran manusia dalam menjaga bumi dari pemanasan global yang juga berakibat pada perubahan cuaca secara global. Maka sebenarnya falsafah orang Minang tidak pernah melupakan alam semesta yang berlimpah sebagai sumber kehidupan manusia.

Sementara itu Kepala Dinas Pariwisata, Seni dan Budaya, Provinsi Sumatera Barat, H. James Hellyward mengingatkan bahwa budaya Minangkabau juga dibawa oleh orang-orang Minangkabau yang bermigrasi ke Malaysia. Karena itu penting bagi kita untuk terus menjaga dan mengembangkan kekayaan budaya kita agar tetap dikenal dan identik dengan kekayaan kultural kita yang khas.

Pameran ini tampaknya juga bisa dipakai sebagai pengantar atau referensi untuk menengok Pameran Kain Tradisional Unggulan Nusantara yang sudah berlangsung dari Rabu hingga Minggu (16- 20 April 2008). Bahkan dalam acara khusus "Dara Fashion Performing Arts" hari Selasa 15 April 2008 desainer Musa Widyatmodjo berkolaborasi dengan penata tari Boi G. Sakti khusus mempersembahkan pesona kain tradisional Minangkabau dalam persembahan unik perpaduan antara peragaan busana dan tarian kontemporer. Rupanya kain tradisional Minangkabau memang masih bisa terus berkembang dan menjadi bagian dari pesona Nusantara.

Dalam bagian pesona itu, ada baiknya kita lebih mengenal sejarah dan falsafah yang diturunkan melalui desain kain tradisional ini. Misalnya motif Pucuak Rabuang (pucuk rebung), menggambarkan kualitas ideal yang diinginkan dari seorang pemuda Minangkabau; ketika muda berguna (seperti bambu muda/rebung berguna sayuran), dan menjadi penolong ketika dewasa (seperti batang bambu yang berguna untuk konstruksi, atau peralatan kerja). Sementara motif Itiak Pulang Patang (itik pulang petang dalam satu garis lurus berbaris) menggambarkan kedisiplinan dan aturan yang ada dalam komunitas yang mengikuti aturan adat. Dalam konferensi internasional mengenai kain tradisional Indonesia pada tahun 2007 sempat juga dijelaskan arti lain yang terkandung dalam motif Itiak Pulang Patang ini, itik pada pagi hari berpisah ke segala penjuru mencari makan tetapi pada petang hari setelah kenyang pulang bersama-sama. Manusia seringkali berbeda dengan itik, pada saat susah mencari teman dan rekanan untuk menolong, tapi pada saat sudah berhasil seringkali memilih jalan sendiri tidak ingin berbagi keberhasilan. Falsafah itik ini yang mendasari sikap orang Minang yang pergi merantau (mencari makan), dan setelah berhasil selalu pulang atau berbagi keberhasilan dengan komunitasnya, hal ini antara lain terlihat pada waktu Idul Fitri dimana ada kebiasaan untuk pulang kampung yang disebut pulang basamo (pulang bersama-sama).


Berbagai informasi seputar kisah dan perkembangan kain tradisional ini yang ditawarkan oleh Museum Nasional untuk dilihat dan diketahui masyarakat. Satu hal menarik adalah kehadiran sebuah pakaian yang terbuat dari kulit kayu, rupanya kesulitan ekonomi yang sangat parah di masa penjajahan Jepang membuat orang Minangkabau sempat beralih membuat pakaian dengan kain dari kulit kayu Tarok. Kesulitan di zaman Jepang ini pula yang mengakibatkan terhambatnya penurunan ilmu menenun yang diwariskan dari generasi tua ke generasi muda. Menenun songket dan membuat bordiran memang tidak mudah dan membutuhkan kesabaran, tapi sangat sayang bila hilang tergantikan oleh mesin semata. Kemampuan kerjasama antara penenun, pemasar, dan pemakai selain membantu terjaganya sebuah nilai kultural yang tinggi juga bisa menjadi sumber mata pencaharian lokal (dengan produksi kain tenun) bahkan sebagai penarik minat bagi pengunjung lokal dan mancanegara untuk berkunjung ke ranah Minang (pariwisata).



Sumber info:

Press Release Pameran "Pesona Kain Tradisional Minangkabau"

Makalah Bernhard Bart dalam International Conference Traditional Textiles of Indonesia, Today and in the Future, Museum Nasional, 21 November 2007.

"Kain Tradisional Minangkabau Dipamerkan di Museum Nasional", Suara Pembaruan, 8 April 2008

"Kain Nusantara Dalam Tampilan Baru", Kompas, 20 April 2008

Krosceknews.com

Buat yang ingin ngintip hasil karya Musa Widyatmodjo bisa lihat di: http://lifestyle.okezone.com/index.php/ReadStory/2008/04/18/29/101627/para-desainer-perlu-menggarap-kain-adati http://lifestyle.okezone.com/index.php/ReadStory/2008/04/22/29/102973/koleksi-musa-hadir-di-wisma-negara
Foto: Retty N. Hakim

Confused...

This post blog will be very short...
I'm just being amazed that the Unilever, which recently was introducing the big event "Green Festival" here in Jakarta, is accused by Green Peace as a destroyer of the tropical forest for buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia's rainforests.
I'm one of Unilever's devoted costumer, and I'd like the company to really go green. The picture in the video from Green Peace was horrible...

Hari Bumi: Yuk Membuat Lubang Biopori!

Sebenarnya artikel mengenai biopori sudah pernah diturunkan di wikimu oleh Ira Meida (lihat http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4714) dan Alain Bunjamin dari kanal sekolah (lihat http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4974). Ketika semua orang menengok Green Festival di Senayan, ternyata ada juga kegiatan yang menunjang lingkungan hidup yang bisa saya ikuti di dekat rumah orang tua saya yaitu kegiatan penanaman pohon dan pencanangan lubang resapan biopori di lingkungan kelurahan Petogongan, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan.

Bagaimana membuat lubang biopori? Pada Minggu pagi, 20 April 2008 saya berkesempatan menyaksikan dan juga mencoba membuat lubang biopori.

Acara ini rencananya dihadiri oleh Ibu Hj.Tati Fauzi Bowo, yang juga merupakan Ketua Dewan Pendiri Caring Community. LSM Caring Community, Lions Clubs Indonesia Distrik 307 A, beserta pihak pemerintah daerah tampaknya ingin mensosialisikan cara pembuatan biopori di kawasan yang terkenal memiliki cukup banyak wilayah terendam banjir kali Krukut. Lurah Petogogan, Ibu Nurul Baiti, serta ketua BPLH (Badan Pengelola Lingkungan Hidup) Jakarta Selatan Bapak Joni Tagor tampak sibuk mempersiapkan acara yang bertujuan untuk memasyarakatkan pembuatan lubang resapan biopori sebagai langkah pencegahan kerusakan lingkungan hidup.

Lubang resapan biopori merupakan teknologi tepat guna untuk mengurangi genangan air dan sampah organik serta konservasi air bawah tanah. Untuk setiap 100 m2 lahan idealnya Lubang Resapan Biopori (LRB) dibuat sebanyak 30 titik dengan jarak antara 0,5 - 1 m. Dengan kedalam 100 cm dan diameter 10 cm setiap lubang bisa menampung 7,8 liter sampah. Sampah dapur dapat menjadi kompos dalam jangka waktu 15-30 hari, sementara sampah kebun berupa daun dan ranting bisa menjadi kompos dalam waktu 2-3 bulan.

Ternyata membuat lubang resapan biopori itu sangat mudah.

1. Dengan sebuah bor LRB kita bisa membuat lubang, untuk memudahkan pembuatan lubang bisa dibantu diberi air agar tanah lebih gembur.

2. Alat bor dimasukkan dan setelah penuh tanah (kurang lebih 10 cm kedalaman tanah) diangkat, untuk dikeluarkan tanahnya, lalu kembali lagi memperdalam lubang tersebut sampai sebelum muka air tanah (30 cm sampai dengan 100 cm).

3. LRB dalam alur lurus berjarak 0,5 - 1 m, sementara untuk LRB pohon cukup dibuat 3 lubang dengan posisi segitiga sama sisi.

4. Pada bibir lubang dilakukan pengerasan dengan semen, pada acara kemarin semen digantikan dengan potongan pendek pralon. Hal ini untuk mencegah terjadinya erosi tanah.

5. Kemudian di bagian atas diberi pengaman besi supaya tidak terperosok ke dalam lubang.

6. Masukkan sampah organik (sisa dapur, sampah kebun/taman) ke dalam LRB. Jangan memasukkan sampah anorganik (seperti besi, plastic, baterai. Stereofoam,dll)!

7. Bila sampah tidak banyak cukup diletakkan di mulut lubang, tapi bila sampah cukup banyak bisa dibantu dimasukkan dengan tongkat tumpul, tetapi tidak boleh terlalu padat karena akan mengganggu proses peresapan air ke samping.

Pemeliharaan LRB:

1. Lubang Resapan Biopori harus selalu terisi sampah organik

2. Sampah organik dapur bisa diambil sebagai kompos setelah dua minggu, sementara sampah kebun setelah dua bulan. Lama pembuatan kompos juga tergantung jenis tanah tempat pembuatan LRB, tanah lempung agak lebih lama proses kehancurannya. Pengambilan dilakukan dengan alat bor LRB.

3. Bila tidak diambil maka kompos akan terserap oleh tanah, LBR harus tetap dipantau supaya terisi sampah organik.


Sambil menyaksikan Bapak Budiman Simarmata, Plh Walikota Jakarta Selatan membuat LRB, saya sempat bercakap-cakap dengan Bapak Soehartono Soedargo yang mewakili Komunitas Usiawan Kelurahan Melawai Pandya Sanggraha. Komunitas ini cukup aktif dalam ikut mensosialisasikan LRB, bahkan mereka juga berkomunikasi secara intens dengan Bapak Kamir Brata yang mendapatkan ide LRB ini dari rimba. Tampaknya memang dengan turut sertanya semua lapisan masyarakat akan lebih mudah terjalin kerjasama menyelamatkan lingkungan hidup. Semakin banyak yang mengerti secara jelas proses pembuatan LRB ini maka kemungkinan akan semakin banyak yang perduli, karena seperti yang saya baca di punggung kaos seorang hadirin "Bersama kita menyimpan air di musim hujan, memanen air di musim kemarau".

Ketika mencoba membuat LRB sendiri di dalam pekarangan rumah orang tua saya, terasa sedikit berat ketika mengebor tanah, tapi dengan bantuan air dan sedikit tekanan pada alat bor ternyata cukup mudah pembuatannya. LRB bisa dibuat di dasar saluran air, dasar alur di sekeliling batang pohon, batas taman, maupun pada paving block.



Sumber data: Brosur Badan Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup Daerah Provinsi DKI Jakarta, serta perbincangan dengan Bapak Soedargo (Komunitas Usiawan Kelurahan Melawai) dan Ibu Tres (Caring Community).

Selasa, 22-04-2008 09:28:20 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Peristiwa

Kartini: Bukti Kekuatan Sebuah Tulisan!

Seringkali ada yang mempertanyakan kepahlawanan seorang Kartini, ada juga yang meragukan apakah dia sungguh-sungguh seorang tokoh emansipasi wanita. Memang Nusantara mengenal banyak pejuang wanita yang tampaknya jauh lebih hebat seperti Cut Nyak Dien, ataupun Christina Martha Tiahahu. Buat saya pribadi, Kartini adalah sumber inspirasi yang senantiasa menarik untuk dikenal. Perjuangan bukan selalu perjuangan secara fisik, tapi juga bisa melalui intensitas berpikir. Kartini bagi saya merupakan sebuah bukti dari kekuatan tulisan. Kumpulan surat-suratnya (beruntung dia memiliki sahabat pena yang rajin mengumpulkan surat-suratnya) menjadi bukti bahwa suara Kartini terus bergaung bahkan setelah lewat seratus tahun dari kepergiannya. Kalau Chairil Anwar berteriak "Aku mau hidup seribu tahun lagi", maka Kartini sudah menjalani sebagian dari seribu tahun itu.

Ada dua orang yang sangat besar perannya dalam kehidupan saya, yang pertama adalah Anne Frank; seorang gadis Yahudi yang harus bersembunyi dengan bantuan teman-teman keluarganya dari pengejaran terhadap seluruh kaum Yahudi di Belanda, dan yang kedua adalah R.A. Kartini; seorang gadis Jawa yang harus memasuki dunia pingitan karena tradisi. Keduanya berteriak akan kehausan mereka terhadap pendidikan. Saya membaca buku ini sebagai gadis kecil yang sesekali merasa malas pergi ke sekolah, merasa malas belajar, dan seringkali melihat sekolah sebagai sekedar sarana untuk bertemu teman-teman.

Keduanya menyadarkan saya betapa beruntungnya saya terlahirkan di masa sekarang dengan kesempatan yang begitu luas membentang bagi wanita. Baru-baru ini seorang teman membaca majalah Madina edisi April 2008, dan saya tertarik untuk mengintip isi majalah tersebut karena ada tulisan mengenai Kartini. Judul tulisan yang ditulis oleh Ida Rosyidah (Ketua Jurusan Perbandingan Agama di UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta) adalah: "Kartini: Belajar pada Guru yang Salah". Penulis artikel lebih banyak membahas peranan guru dalam konteks pendidikan Islam, tetapi isi tulisannya sangat menarik karena beliau menjabarkan pergulatan Kartini dalam pencarian identitas kehidupan religiusnya dan pentingnya peranan guru dalam proses pencarian itu. Sebuah hal yang juga sangat diperjuangkan oleh Kartini adalah hadirnya guru-guru dalam keluarga, kaum wanita yang lebih pandai yang akan mampu mendidik anak-anaknya dan memiliki nilai lebih dalam menentukan posisinya.

Ketika sebagian orang menuding Kartini sebagai tidak teguh berpegang pada sikap memajukan emansipasi karena menerima pernikahan poligami, buat saya (yang non muslim) tindakan itu terlihat sebagai anti klimaks dari pemberontakannya terhadap berbagai masalah keagamaan yang pernah dimilikinya, suatu tindakan penyerahan terhadap otoritas agama yang dianutnya. Bagi saya terlihat bahwa sikap ini merupakan pengorbanan terbesarnya yang mendahulukan kepentingan pendidikan bagi wanita. Karena dengan menerima pinangan itu, dia akan mampu melanjutkan cita-citanya untuk mendidik anak-anak bangsa, terutama bagi kaum wanita. Dalam suratnya kepada Nellie van Kol (1 Agustus 1903) dia menyatakan telah menemukan seorang pria yang akan membantunya dalam melaksanakan pekerjaan yang berguna bagi bangsanya. Dengan bantuan suaminya dia mewujudkan cita-citanya, setidaknya ini yang dikatakannya dalam suratnya kepada Bapak dan Ibu J.H. Abendanon (11 Desember 1903). Memang benar setelah pernikahan di bulan November 1903, pada bulan Januari 1904 Kartini sudah membuka sekolah di Rembang. Sayang sekali kehidupan Kartini setelah pernikahan ini sangat singkat. Tanggal 17 September 1904, empat hari setelah melahirkan anak pertamanya, R.A. Kartini berpulang ke sang pencipta, usianya baru 25 tahun!

Ada dua hal menarik dari artikel tulisan Ida Rosyidah yang menarik bagi saya. Pertama pada kalimat: "Sangat disayangkan dari catatan surat-suratnya itu hampir tidak ada satupun yang menyiratkan bahwa dia melakukan dialog keagamaan secara intens dengan kalangan tokoh Islam." Penulis artikel di atas mengambil satu kemungkinan bahwa pertemuan dengan kalangan tokoh Islam tidak memuaskan dahaga intelektual Kartini. Tetapi ada kemungkinan kunjungan Kartini kepada para pemuka agama Islam menjadi terbatas sebagai kunjungan kekeluargaan tanpa dialog agama yang intensif karena mungkin pada masa itu tidak elok bagi wanita untuk berdiskusi mengenai agama dengan tokoh agama. Bayangkan, untuk pendidikan saja mereka tidak mendapat tempat, harus dipingit pada saat mencapai usia akil balik, bagaimana mungkin membayangkan dia beroleh kesempatan untuk diskusi?

Hal kedua yang menarik saya adalah pernyataan penulis: "Alih-alih mendapatkan wacana keislaman yang prograsif dari ahlinya, Kartini justru mendapatkan pencerahan dari Nellie van Kol, seorang Kristiani yang saleh. Hasil dari dialog intensnya dengan Nellie, Kartini dengan tegas menyatakan bahwa ia menjadi muslim yang berbeda dengan sebelumnya, yang mampu menemukan Tuhan dalam dirinya sendiri." Hal ini mungkin menunjukkan bahwa pintu dialog antar agama juga bisa mencerahkan selama dilakukan dengan pikiran yang terbuka. Kekuatan Kartini adalah karena dia memiliki sikap kritis yang tajam, tetapi juga memiliki pendalaman terhadap akar kebudayaannya sendiri seperti wayang, gamelan, bahkan pemahaman tentang takdir. Semua masukan itu diolahnya dan dikritisinya sampai akhirnya dia sendiri memutuskan untuk tetap bangga menjadi dirinya sendiri. Sebuah semangat yang timbul setelah melalui perdebatan pikiran dan pengolahan pribadi dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan kritis yang muncul dari pertukaran pikiran dengan sahabat pena dan pengetahuan yang dicarinya secara otodidak.

Nasionalisme Kartini terwujud dalam perhatiannya pada kecerdasan pemuda Agus Salim yang berasal dari Riau, Sumatera. Dia tertarik bahwa Agus Salim berhasil menjadi juara pertama dari tiga HBS. Sayang sekali bahwa perjuangan Kartini bagi kelanjutan pendidikan pemuda Agus Salim ke Belanda tidak jadi terlaksana. Pemuda Agus Salim merasa tersinggung pada pemerintah kolonial Belanda yang dianggapnya kurang menghargai kecerdasan dan jerih payahnya karena beasiswa baru ditawarkan setelah menerima usulan Kartini. Tetapi dari peristiwa ini kita tahu bahwa Kartini tidak hanya berpikir dalam lingkup bangsa Jawa melainkan sudah keluar ke pemahaman lokal sebagai Nusantara.

Maria Hartiningsih dalam artikel "Tak Lekang Dimakan Zaman: Surat-Surat Kartini" (Seribu Tahun Nusantara-Kompas) mengatakan bahwa hampir semua tokoh besar dunia meninggalkan written text (karya tertulis) yang bisa didiskusikan dan membuka kemungkinan untuk diinterpretasikan ulang. Kartini meninggalkan surat-suratnya sebagai warisan sejarah. Bisa jadi karya Dewi Sartika di bidang pendidikan lebih besar dari karya Kartini, tapi peninggalan tertulis Kartini menjadikannya lebih dikenal di dunia global. Surat-surat Kartini yang selalu memberikan pencerahan baru setiap kali saya membacanya dengan tingkat intelektualitas yang berbeda, merupakan bukti betapa kuatnya nilai sebuah tulisan!

Senin, 21-04-2008 15:58:12 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Opini

Link tulisan tahun lalu: http://www.wikimu.com/News/displaynews.aspx?id=2123

Mistakes

Obama and Clinton on defensive in tense debate
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent (Yahoo! News)

...Clinton, a New York senator, apologized for her own recent campaign controversy, when she inaccurately said she had come under sniper fire when visiting Bosnia in 1996.
"You can go back for the past 15 months. We both have said things that, you know, turned out not to be accurate," Clinton said. "That happens when you're talking as much as we have talked. But, you know, I'm very sorry that I said it."
Obama seemed to speak for both of them when he chimed in, "For us to be obsessed with these kind of errors, I think, is a mistake."...

Anybody can make mistakes, especially when we are in high tense or stressed situation. Yet, we ought to be careful in saying or writing things. It should always be remembered by anybody reporting for the citizens, either he or she is a professional journalist or a citizen reporter. Deadlines are the stressing situation for journalist. As a citizen I prefer to delay facts than delivering mistakes.

There are also personal opinions that might be changed over times or over new experiences. As a blogger it is nicer to put this kind of opinion in my online blog, as it will also serve me as a tool to reflect back in the future.

Priority...time management...

I've been quite busy rearranging my life. Blogging has made me into another me...the old spirit of me, actually!
Yet, there is a lot of daily commitments that I do need to think of. Balancing my life is obviously important.

I still have a lot of other stories in my head, pictures stores in this computer (reminding me to make their back up, I've lost some of them because of the computer's broke down). Social life must go on, works and other volunteering works are also important.

I know that the community has been given me more spirit into writing, but there are other communities in my life that are also enriching my life...:)

I still need to do the article about Minangkabau traditional textiles exhibition, guidance for the new volunteer guide (ouch, sometimes speaking is easier than writing), and most important of all is to finish the translation work, the first novel translation in my translation project...How come I always put something that bring money under my second priority (sometimes even the least priority of all)?:-)

Kartini's day is also coming soon...I would love to write something about her, she's quite an interesting figure...

My computer was not a cooperative tool too..., it sometimes deceive me when I was mostly in need of its services. A week without computer is already a great loss! (Especially because I used to work around midnight, who will go to the computer kiosk at that time?)

My twins are preparing for their elementary school, and they are not reading yet...I do need to concentrate a lot on them and helping them to be ready for school (imagine the Indonesian school system...hard work!). I also need to help them to be able to concentrate in longer period...no wonder...I knew it well from whom they inherited those bouncing attention and interest.

This Saturday my oldest son will join the second step of the Kuark magazine's Science Olympiade, and these two days he is having a fever...

I wonder how can a full time mother like that writer for Koekoesan publication can work full time and also producing books for children and then novels...

OK, let's stop talking and start working!

P.S. Today I watched the television children film with my boys, it was about father bear running for the bear city's mayor. He had chosen to run for the election because the mayor never had time to meet him about the holes on the streets, he became really popular between the citizens and could win the election. But then he realized how heavy the workload of the current mayor, and it would be better for him to help that mayor to work on things that the citizen are needing. So instead of running to be
the president...why don't we help our president to build a better nation? Yet, next year election will always depends on the government's performance!

British Council Blogger Day

Celebrating 60 years in Indonesia

Special attention to blogging is not something new for the British Council, take a look at this article in the online Guardian. In 2003 they had already create an event using blogs to enrich and inspire dialog across different countries and cultures. They created the event "Big Blogger" where the combination of Western and Middle Eastern journalists joined forces to report from the ground at the first World Summit on the Information Society. The result can be seen on the Web. They were all journalists, so we can expect them to be trained to deliver news on the spot. Journalists can do their live reporting, how about bloggers? Can they do their live reporting?

The rising uproar of citizen journalism and the high increase of online users are perhaps the reason why British Council would like to give its special attention to the Indonesian bloggers in the celebration of its 60th anniversary of service in Indonesia, one of 109 countries in which the British Council has offices. On April 6 British Council Indonesia invited at least 100 bloggers to its British Council Blogger Day, not only to come to meet other bloggers but also to try live blogging which they claimed to be the first live blogging competition in Indonesia.

Despite the one-stop service in Jakarta that was provided by the British Council during its early period in Indonesia, it is now expanding its services other cities. Dina Lucky, director of business services and relations for the British Council Indonesia, said that instead of waiting for costumers to come to the office, it now prefers to come directly to its customers.

I do miss the British Council library that was handed over to the Indonesian government in 2004, yet I can't deny that I was not a regular visitor at closing time. Long distance transportation to the center of the city perhaps was the main reason for my rare visits. I have visited the new location for the library's books, and I found the new place to be quite nice too. I just hope its collection of books and multimedia materials will grow as it did under British Council management.

As stated in its Web site, the main tasks of the British Council in Indonesia are providing the latest information about studying in the U.K.; promoting British education and training; and demonstrating the innovation, creativity and excellence of British arts, music and design. Its main purpose is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the U.K. and Indonesia and to increase Indonesians' appreciation of the U.K.'s creative ideas and achievements.

Its work is driven by its strong belief in internationalism, a commitment to professionalism and an enthusiasm for creativity. In that belief they hold themselves to the highest possible standard of integrity. They believe that cultural relations can help individuals and the world community to thrive.

A new blog such as The Exeter blog is surely a great help for English language teachers around the world, as it provides the chance to take the benefit of the world's biggest ELT conferences. The British Council Hub blog that provides online discussions for adult learners at British Council Centers can also be useful for those who do not have the chance to take formal courses due to financial problems or to their residential location far from the city.

The English language has become more and more important as a tool to communicate in these recent days. The number of people who use English as their second language or even just as one of their foreign languages is increasing day by day. Youngsters in Indonesia are now preparing to use the language since their early age. International schools are mushrooming throughout the country. But this blogger day was not exclusively for bloggers who blog in English, it was open for those who came and asked for the invitation through the special Web site for British Council 60th Anniversary. In fact all bloggers who came to this event are Indonesians; there were more international bloggers in the National Blogger Party last year.

Last year, the Indonesian minister of communication and information had inaugurated a special day for Indonesian bloggers, a national blogger day on Oct. 27 in the National Blogger Party. Yet, the "party" might be over if the implementations of the new Indonesian Cyber Law of Information and Electronic Transaction (UU Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik; UU ITE) are more into blocking the freedom of speaking and the freedom of gaining information on the Internet.

Leo Batubara, vice chairman of the Indonesian Press Council, in his article in the printed national daily Kompas (April 7) explained the paradox of this cyber law. On one hand it was intended to fight pornography, online gambling, blackmail or even threats, but on the other hand it could be a chain to restrict freedom of the press.

Recently the short film "Fitna" uploaded to YouTube by a Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, has sparked reactions from Indonesians. Some articles from wikimu.com's contributors were discussing the controversial issue. Readers were also giving their opinions; some used their objective and balancing views to calm those who found the film to be an insult to their belief. I posted a link to an article by Claire George to show the need of good communication in fighting prejudices. The reaction to this film made the minister ask local ISP providers to block this film; some providers were trying to block this film and caused the blocking of access to the whole of YouTube.

This fact was also raised in the bloggers' discussion during the British Council Blogger Day. Most speakers in that forum agreed that government is needed more for helping to protect the intellectual copyrights of bloggers than for controlling Internet access to information. As an example, there is a case when a blogger saw a printed book using his blog materials, the case went into trial and hopefully the original writer will get back his intellectual property.

While the Law of Information and Electronic Transaction is also helping Indonesia in gaining back trust in cyber transactions, there is also the possibility of using part of this law to perform criminal defamation of press as the mainstream media are also going online these days. Journalists were also browsing the cyber world to help them gain more information quicker. The network gained through the cyber world is another important aspect to help ease the journalistic work. Closing some part of this cyber world would not help the media gain objective views from the global world.

Three years ago a blogger was arrested because his blog post was considered an insult to the president, bloggers were then questioning the freedom of speech. The controversial blog was deleted, but the writer keep blogging, he also came to the British Council Blogger Day. Most bloggers agreed that there are social and ethical guidelines in the presentation of blogs, and each writer does have their own preferences. Cyber bullying was sometimes conducted by anonymous people who pressed their own way of thinking in the comments section. That's why a lot of bloggers prefer to have the comments moderated. There was also some evidence that blogger's names were used in making comments in other blogger's blogs, while it was actually not his or her comment.

The other topics of conversation were mainly about blogging -- how the famous bloggers started their blogs, and how some of them published their books based on their famous blogs. Microsoft was also presenting its Windows Live Writer and Popfly to enhance the bloggers' knowledge in improving the performance of their blogs.

British Council Blogger Day postponed announcing the winner of its live blogging competition that day as there were more bloggers who came with their laptop and the Wi-Fi connection was not reliable enough, they did prolonged the competition for three hours after the meeting and will announce the winner online. Also, there will be three months competition with one particular topic each month, and according to Dina Lucky the competition is open for bloggers either in Bahasa Indonesia or in English.

The British Council is now focusing more into its out of office activities such as the student exchange program between Indonesia and the U.K., where five couples of Indonesian student and a U.K. student will live three months in Indonesia and three months in the U.K. together, experiencing the exchange of cultures. Blogs will be a very unique way to express their cultural shocks, and their interaction with their new community. One couple will stay together like brothers or sisters, so helping each other in coping with the new environment will be challenging and it would really be an interesting content for a blog!

OMNI Published 2008-04-09 09:27 (KST)

BC Blogger Day...D-day!

Ouf...I can't do my live reporting as the wi-fi provided could not connect my friend's laptop to the internet.

I did my reporting for wikimu.com, it is still waiting for the moderation before going on air. This is the article that will be publish (sorry it is in Bahasa Indonesia, wait until I finish the one I did for OMNI...soon, I still have some agenda this evening...including going to the church...he...he...he...).


British Council Blogger Day

Setelah acara Pesta Blogger Nasional tahun lalu, bulan April ini blogger Indonesia kembali berkumpul bersama, kali ini atas undangan dari British Council. Banyak suara kecewa yang terdengar di dunia maya karena jumlah blogger yang diundang sangat terbatas, hanya seratus orang dalam pengumuman resmi di website panitia BC60 Now. Rupanya undangan ini berhubungan dengan ulang tahun ke 60 kehadiran British Council di Indonesia.

Ballroom Ritz Carlton Hotel Pacific Place tampak sangat ramai, ternyata acara ini berlangsung secara bersamaan dengan acara lain dari British Council “A festival of bright ideas” yang berisi pengenalan terhadap institusi pendidikan di Inggris.

Acara untuk para blogger dibuka oleh Mbak Dina Lucky dari British Council, sekaligus membuka kesempatan kompetisi live blogging, secara bersamaan juga diumumkan akan adanya perlombaan blogging dari British Council selama tiga bulan mendatang.

Acara pertama adalah perkenalan terhadap beberapa program yang bisa membantu mempermudah dan mempercanggih penampilan blog seorang blogger. Pembicara dalam acara ini Mas Zeddy Iskandar memberikan gambaran mengenai Windows Live Writer, Microsoft Popfly.

Sementara acara berlangsung sudah banyak blogger yang memulai melakukan live blogging. Sayang sekali ternyata sarana wifi yang disediakan kurang memadai, sementara kondisi gedung juga menyulitkan penerimaan layanan 3G. Jadi niat saya untuk blogging langsung selama acara, yang katanya baru pertama kali dijadikan kompetisi di Indonesia, tidak bisa berlangsung sukses.

Sesi berikut dimulai oleh Mbak Miund mulai ngeblog tahun 2004 karena diajarkan oleh teman yang sedang sekolah di luar negeri. Tulisan-tulisannya ternyata menjadi populer dan kemudian dijadikan buku. Dari buku dan blog saling membantu publikasinya.

Demikian juga dengan mas Radit yang awalnya senang menulis buku harian sejak kelas 4 SD dan kemudian tertarik untuk berpindah menulis ke blog (kambing jantan). Mas Radit juga kemudian menghasilkan buku-buku yang awalnya juga berawal dari kepopuleran blognya.

Mas Wicak yang di dunia blogging lebih dikenal sebagai Ndoro Kakung Pecas Ndahe, yang sehari-harinya berprofesi sebagai wartawan, maka blog menjadi media alternatif untuk menampung tulisan-tulisannya di luar tugas perusahaan.

Blog bisa menjadi sangat bermanfaat ketika misalnya terjadi bencana, seperti ketika terjadi bencana gempa bumi di Jogjakarta. Sebuah kelompok blogger Bangsari, menggunakan blognya sebagai wadah untuk mengumpulkan dana sebagai sumbangan untuk membantu warga di daerah Bangsari, sebuah pelosok di dekat Jogjakarta. Blog juga bisa menjadi sarana untuk berbagi ilmu seperti bagi para guru dan murid. Ada juga blogger (ndobos) yang mengulas mengenai keberadaan burung-burung langka dari Indonesia.

Blog bisa menarik dari isinya, maupun dari desainnya. Yang mampu menggabungkan keduanya tentunya bisa menghasilkan sebuah blog yang lebih menarik. Mas Wicak mengumpamakan memiliki blog seperti memelihara tomagochi atau tanaman anthurium, harus selalu dipelihara agar tidak mati.
Bang Enda Nasution yang berperan sebagai moderator di acara ini, juga berbagi kisah mengenai komunitas blogger yang bisa saling berbagi dan saling menguatkan.

Masalah lain yang juga sempat disinggung dalam acara ini adalah hal-hal yang bersangkutan dengan RUU Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik. Tampaknya para pembicara memandang lebih penting bagi pemerintah untuk memperhatikan masalah Hak Kekayaan Intelektual (Copy Right) daripada mengatur pemblokiran situs-situs yang dicurigai memiliki konten pornografi. Dalam pembicaraan ternyata memang ada juga penulis yang mengambil isi blog orang lain dan berani menerbitkannya. Pemilik blog yang secara kebetulan melihat buku yang diterbitkan kemudian mengajukan somasi. Memang hal-hal penting seperti ini yang lebih penting dimasyarakatkan agar masyarakat Indonesia bisa semakin belajar menghargai hak kekayaan intelektual orang lain, dan di lain pihak juga bisa terbantu untuk mempertahankan hak-haknya sebagai penulis atau penghasil karya kreatif.

Perbincangan lain sedikit menyinggung masalah negatif yang juga hadir dalam dunia blogging, misalnya saja cyber bully, dimana komentator bisa memberikan ejekan dan tekanan yang tidak menyenangkan pemilik blog.

Masih banyak hal lain yang terungkap dalam perbincangan itu, antara lain ada seorang blogger yang diterima bekerja karena yang mewawancara pernah membaca blognya. Jadi, bagaimana? Anda tertarik ngeblog? Acara hari ini secara resmi juga meluncurkan kompetisi blog dari British Council yang akan berlangsung selama tiga bulan, dengan topik ulasan yang berbeda setiap bulannya. Mau tahu? Tengok http://bcnow60.org/blogger-day/

What is a Blogger Day?

When I first heard about the British Council Blogger Day, I thought it would be more than the National Blogger Party. I knew after the party (by an unintended browsed) that there were a lot of expatriates who are blogging from Jakarta regretted that they did not have the invitation to come to the meeting. I was a bit surprised that the invitation aimed only for Indonesians, but it was “National”…so perhaps they were looking to map the number and the location of Indonesian bloggers. I did see some expats (at least some Caucasian visitors, as some other Asian journalists –either blogger or not- couldn’t be guessed only from their physical appearances) in that National Blogger Party.

I think a blogger day is the chance to meet as many bloggers as we can meet in that offline meeting. It is a chance to enlarge our network and exchanging views with new acquaintances that could be continue online afterwards.

Recently an Indonesian who claimed himself as a real techno-savvy has made a statement that made some Indonesian bloggers’ very crossed! He called bloggers as hackers, and also as somebody who doesn’t have works to attend to, who do like to copy-paste others’ piece of work. I did not hear or read this statement myself, but I did read it in a lot of postings.

Last year the Jakarta Post printed in its front page (October 28, 2007) the headline “Blogging party gets official stamp of approval”. The Communications and Information Muhammad Nuh gave the Indonesian bloggers a special day (October 27) as the National Bloggers day. This year, because Indonesia is fighting against pornographic materials in the internet, there might be chances that we would not able to enter international sites. The government will block risky sites, they will produce a list to give to the ISP providers to be banned. Now, all Indonesian internet users are nervously waiting for that list to come. We are also afraid of the impact of pornographic sites to our children, but closing links can also closing our chance to be the part of the global world. So, the British Council’s invitation to perform a special British Council Blogger Day, is like a confirmation for bloggers (mostly to Indonesian bloggers) to do the right thing…continue blogging…yet, keep it on the right track! I did hope that it will be also a chance to meet international bloggers.

Today, I found a post by Jakartass about this British Council Blogger Day. He’s got a lot of interesting points that I would like to copy the whole blog post in my blog (he….he…he…kidding, I’d like to keep this blog as my personal journal of a citizen reporter), and the comments are also showing that the expats are (again) uninvited. Is it going to be true? We’ll see on Sunday!

He pointed out “famous blogger” (in parentheses) perhaps because he did not know these bloggers who write their blogs in Bahasa Indonesia. He admitted in the comment that his readers are mostly outside Indonesia. He stated the probability that Indonesian Anonymus is more popular here in Indonesia. This blog is also written in English, so is it English is the only language that can suit the label “famous”?

I’m a new in the blogosphere, I came to blogging through the Citizen Journalism websites. I’ve seen different characters of readers through the CJ websites. Indonesian readers are different with the International readers. I've chosen deliberately to became a bridge blogger. I don’t have enough time and energy like Mer, who can blog in three languages…English, Indonesian, and Sundanese (local dialect)! I don’t really care about being famous or being the celebrity blogger, as long as I’ve got good friends around the world. Friends who share the same concern as I do, friends who will support me when I am mentally down in writing, and friends that will enriched my way of seeing things! Thank you friends!:)

“Quantity is more important than quality?” The same questions popped in my mind when I saw the British Council Blogger Day's competition. How would we go to a meeting and ending up just writing in front of our laptop computers? (Actually I only have PC, but I’m going to ask my friend to bring along her laptop so I can borrow it…he…he…he…what’s friends are for?) No, that meeting is the chance to be mingling with new friends. I’ve got my lesson in Seoul, and from all the bloggers meetings that I attended lately…get in touch with others! But think of creativity…How could we make quantity and quality work together? Be creative! Isn’t that what British Council is promoting through their activities? Be a creative person!

I do need to quote these long sentences from Jakartass’ blog as it has something important for a citizen reporter. For longer reading go straight to his blog.

Writing is not easy. Yes, we can all rant, but if we post in haste, then we generally regret our utterances. The only times I have ever posted more or less on the spur of the moment are when I have reported earthquakes, sometimes before the official media. Enda Nasution, the moderator of the session on 'tricks', has my respect for setting up the Indonesia Help blog in the immediate aftermath of the Aceh tsunami. I joined him in posting various links, and the site was resuscitated following the Yogya quake.

Apart from those few times, I have generally ruminated and cogitated for some time before posting. This one, for example, has been worked on since Monday, albeit in my head, and subsequently re-edited. That old adage about 'sleeping on it' works wonders. I keep folders of notes which I probably won't use, yet are available as resource material if a spark of literary creation is ignited. Good writing isn't easy, and making it easy to read is even harder.

I do think it is important to write that long sentences down here, as I often found myself confused between blogging and citizen reporting. Editors in OhmyNews International would like to have the report as current as it is, while I do not want to challenge my credibility (even as merely a housewife) to write something that I’ll regret. I have also seen that misunderstanding can easily came out of misperception in the way readers read our writing, so there are times I did have friends helping me out by making their comments on my article before I am able (and confident enough) to publish it.

When I read the challenge given by British Council to write online during the meeting, I was thinking of Seoul again…when we were asked to submit our articles on that International Forum of OMNI Citizen Reporters. I am not able to do it yet. I think the best way is either to do it later or to cooperate with another friend who will receive the whole story, editing it, and work on it while we are still engaging in getting direct information. There should be a way to improve cooperation in producing better news. Be creative…see you on Sunday!

Blogger and Comments

After the Indonesian Blogger Party I usually visited blogs of the bloggers I've met there. Today I've just found a very interesting post. The blog post is very short (posted on March 21) but it did raised 50 responses so far, and most amazingly the responses were even longer than the length of the blog post itself.

I do not have time to write my comment yet, but this topic is interesting enough. I've got some cousins married foreigners, two of them are women. Then I've also got a sister in law who married an Australian man. So it will be interesting to work on an article about mixed marriage between Asian and Caucasian races.

One interesting thing that what raised up in the comments is the Indonesian way to call Caucasian as "bule". I've noted that some people think that "bule" has pejorative meaning, but I think for most Indonesian when they said "bule", it is only because of the skin colour, no mockery meaning as when people are using "dasar Cina" or "Cina lu" (both referring to the term of saying someone is a Chinese descendant).

The world became so flat, and we are now a part of the global world. I think blog is a good way to express our opinion on things that were bothering us. And that will be a good way to learn to respect each other if the discussion are basically forwarded without prejudice, and aim to have a better understanding of others' feelings.

Indonesia Kehilangan Sosok Pejuang Ekologi.

Indonesia Has Lost a Great Ecology Fighter.

Yesterday (April 1, 2008) Indonesia has lost a great teacher who was always consistent in his fight for a good and sustainable environment. I was not one of his student, but as a student I was fascinated by his books. May be it was also the impact of my lecturer Mr. Hariman who introduced us to Otto Soemarwoto's books and views in the subject of Environmental Science in the university.

We are loosing a lot of Indonesian great thinkers. I am hoping this article will persuade the younger generation to follow Otto Soemarwoto's steps in Ecology, or compelling the conscience to the younger generation to study hard and be the better replacement of any great Indonesian thinkers in the future. It is important to remind them of this urgent need in the more materialism world!

Rabu, 02-04-2008 08:45:37 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Peristiwa

Ketika hari baru memasuki tanggal 1 April 2008, Selasa kemarin, telah berpulang ke Sang Pencipta seorang guru besar ilmu lingkungan, Prof. Dr. Ir. Otto Soemarwoto dalam usia 82 tahun di Bandung. Indonesia kehilangan seorang sosok pejuang ekologi sekaligus pendidik ilmu lingkungan yang sangat konsisten.

Bagi yang pernah mempelajari pelajaran Ilmu Lingkungan, nama ini mungkin tidak asing lagi. Buku-buku beliau biasanya menjadi acuan dalam perkuliahan Ilmu Lingkungan. Salah satu bukunya yang sangat populer adalah "Ekologi, Lingkungan Hidup, dan Pembangunan".

Terlahir di Purwokerto, 19 Februari 1926, Prof. Dr. Ir. Otto Soemarwoto kemudian memiliki jejak perjalanan panjang dalam perjuangannya bagi lingkungan hidup yang berkelanjutan.

Ketika masih kuliah di UGM fakultas Pertanian, beliau biasa naik sepeda sekitar lima kilometer dari Blunyah ke Mangkubumen. Kemudian saat menjadi dosen di Universitas Padjajaran, beliau memilih naik sepeda menempuh jarak antara jalan Cimandiri tempat tinggalnya ke kampus UNPAD di jalan Dipati Ukur , sampai akhirnya beliau tidak kuat melawan polusi akibat kendaraan yang semakin bertambah. Bahkan sampai di masa tuanya dia tetap memilih untuk berjalan kaki untuk jarak tempuh yang tidak terlalu jauh.

Guru besar ini ketika menjabat sebagai Lembaga Biologi Nasional di Bogor mempelopori peningkatan fungsi Kebun Raya dalam penelitian sehingga kini terdapat juga penelitian tanaman obat di sana.

Dua tahun lalu, untuk memperingati ulang tahunnya yang ke-80, beliau meluncurkan sebuah buku berjudul "Berkelanjutan: Antara Konsep dan Realitas". Beliau sangat mengharapkan lebih banyak lagi generasi muda yang turut memperhatikan lingkungan hidup berkualitas dan berkelanjutan di dalam negara kesatuan Republik Indonesia ini.

Semoga harapannya bisa diteruskan oleh generasi penerus bangsa. Sebuah blog yang memuat Pemikiran Reflektif Otto Soemarwoto yang bisa ditemui di http://greenchoice.multiply.com/ dapat menjadi tempat menggali pemikiran-pemikiran beliau.

Walaupun tidak pernah secara langsung menjadi mahasiswa pak Otto, tetapi mempelajari Ilmu Lingkungan dari buku-buku beliau memberikan perspektif yang menarik saya untuk lebih banyak memperhatikan lingkungan hidup. Selamat jalan Pak Otto, ilmu yang Bapak bagikan tidak akan terlupakan!

sumber:
http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Soemarwoto
http://greenchoice.multiply.com/
http://www.planetmole.org/daily/indonesians-in-focus-otto-soemarwoto.html

Rabu, 02-04-2008 09:22:15 oleh: bajoe

April Mop kemarin memang cukup mengejutkan. Selain bangsa ini kehilangan Pak Otto, siang harinya (13.00 WIB) Meliono Soewondo juga meninggal dunia. Meliono Soewondo ini salah seorang tokoh politik yang cukup bersih dan punya prinsip. masuk ke PDIP Megawati, tapi tersingkir karena perbedaan prinsip.

Lalu tadi pagi - 2 April, sekitar pukul 04.00 WIB. Endang Witarsa meninggal dunia. Ini adalah salah satu pemain dan pelatih sepakbola Indonesia yang handal, berkarakter. Dia pernah menjadi pelatih nasional.

Selamat jalan senior-seniorku, sejarah manis yang pernah kalian buat, semoga tidak kami sia-siakan.

Plagiarisme

Plagiarism

This article was written to tell the readers that there will be an open discussion on plagiarism and intellectuality. I could not attend that discussion while I was really interested in knowing the input from that discussion, so I asked readers whose probably interested in that discussion and do have spare time to attend to contribute the report for wikimu. Unfortunately nobody produced any article on this meeting.

Reader's comments are also interesting to hear, one reader said that plagiarism in the writing idea (in term of opinion) is very difficult to be called plagiarism. He said no idea is purely one's idea. May be it is true, as the process of learning is the process of taking over other's knowledge. The other reader explained the term autoplagism (may be she meant autoplagiarism) that to write her own text book she need to include the bibliography of the book she refer to, even if the author of the book is herself. OK that bibliography could work with books, or even blogs, but how about in term of journalism?


Senin, 17-03-2008 09:17:01 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Peristiwa

Salah satu topik yang cukup sering muncul di wikimu adalah masalah plagiarisme, alias contek menyontek. Dua artikel dari kontributor yang berlainan di bawah ini mungkin bisa mewakili beberapa artikel lainnya.

Kapan Indonesia Menjadi Bangsa Yang Kreatif? (Lihat http://www.wikimu.com/News/Print.aspx?id=3226)

Jangan Jadi Pembajak Skripsi Dong (lihat http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5700&post=15)

Saya sendiri pernah dua kali menulis masalah tulisan di harian yang terkena komentar dari pembaca yang sudah pernah membaca tulisan itu sebelumnya. Sebenarnya ada sekali lagi saya menemukan surat pembaca (sekaligus penulis kajian) yang mempersoalkan masalah tulisan yang dianggap tidak menghargai hak intelektual sang penulis yang terlebih dahulu menuliskan hasil kajiannya. Sayang sekali karena sang penulis yang protes ini (kebetulan saya kenal) tidak menanggapi e-mail saya yang menanyakan lebih rinci masalah tersebut, sehingga tidak saya catat dalam catatan saya sebagai pewarta warga.

Menulis di media online menurut saya bisa menjadi pisau bermata dua, di satu sisi banyak pihak yang bisa menggunakan bahan yang kita tuliskan tanpa meminta izin, di lain pihak juga bisa memudahkan terlacaknya kegiatan plagiarisme ini dengan lebih mudah.

Rasanya sewaktu kuliah dahulu saya belum pernah mendapatkan topik bahasan mengenai plagiarisme dalam salah satu mata kuliah saya. Dalam kuliah bahasa Indonesia maupun kuliah bahasa Inggris hal ini rasanya tidak pernah disinggung. Dalam kuliah Perancangan Arsitektur pernah sedikit dibicarakan mengenai plagiarism ini dalam kaitannya dengan perancangan. Yang namanya desain pasti terpengaruh dengan desain yang sudah pernah ada dan pasti mengambil unsur desain dari kekayaan seni rupa yang sudah berkembang baik dalam kebudayaan lokal maupun dari kebudayaan luar. Tapi plagiarisme dalam bentuk kajian ilmiah maupun tulisan sepertinya tidak pernah dibahas.

Kehidupan yang semakin mengglobal ini menuntut kemampuan yang semakin profesional, dalam hal ini termasuk juga mengerti dengan benar mengenai hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan plagiarisme dan hak intelektual seorang penulis. Akhir-akhir ini rasanya semakin marak terjadi hal-hal yang tidak menyehatkan pertumbuhan kreativitas tersebut. Bahkan di luar negeri sempat juga heboh karena anak sekolah sekarang (di sana, mudah-mudahan di sini tidak) membuat tugas pribadi dari sekolah ternyata hanya mengumpulkan hasil tulisan copy paste dari internet.

Harian Kompas ternyata menanggapi masalah ini dengan serius, sehingga mereka akan mengadakan sebuah diskusi yang akan membahas masalah seputar "Plagiarisme dan Intelektualitas". Kabar ini saya peroleh dari salah satu posting undangan di Forum Pembaca Kompas, seperti yang saya tempel di bawah ini:

DISKUSI 'PLAGIARISME DAN INTELEKTUALITAS'

SENIN, 24 MARET 2008 | 15:00 - 18:00 WIB

di Gedung Unit 3 Lantai 5 KOMPAS-GRAMEDIA,

Jl Palmerah Selatan 26-28 Jakarta 10270.

Narasumber:

Daniel Dhakidae, PhD

Tamrin Amal Tomagola. PhD

Dr. Seno Gumira Ajidarma

Moderator: Martin Aleida

diskusi ini diselenggarakan oleh Rubrik Pustakaloka Kompas, Diskusibulanpurnama. (Dbp.) dan Meja Budaya.

Sebenarnya saya tertarik sekali untuk hadir dan mengetahui lebih banyak lagi hal-hal yang sangat penting dalam menjaga kredibilitas seorang penulis ini, tapi sayang sekali waktu diskusi ini yang bukan di akhir pekan tidak memungkinkan saya untuk menghadirinya. Karena itu saya menuliskannya dalam artikel ini, berharap ada rekan-rekan dari wikimu yang bisa hadir dan memberikan reportase dari diskusi tersebut. Bagaimana? Ada yang bisa membantu?

Terima Kasih

Thank You!

Are we thanking directly from our heart, or just saying it out of obligation? In Indonesia we are even saying "thank you" with body language of refusal to say "no".

A fellow citizen reporter gave me a link to a CJ website where they are proposing some topics including the various words of thank you. I'm trying to ask the Indonesian readers from wikimu.com the local dialect for "thank you", unfortunately I did not gain a lot of responses...are our local languages are really going to face extinction?

Minggu, 16-03-2008 09:14:22 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Gaya Hidup

Terkadang ucapan terima kasih tidak terlontar keluar karena kita merasa sesuatu hal yang kita terima baik benda maupun jasa merupakan hak milik kita. Terkadang juga kata ini terlontar secara otomatis tanpa sungguh-sungguh mengucapkannya dari hati.

Ketika sedang browsing di internet saya menemukan artikel yang membahas mengenai ucapan terima kasih dalam berbagai bahasa. Saya kembali tersenyum karena mengingat bahwa bahasa Indonesia terkadang memiliki dua makna dalam kata "terima kasih". Bila kata "terima kasih" diucapkan sambil menganggukkan kepala berarti kita menerima dengan senang hati, tapi bila kata tersebut diucapkan sambil menggelengkan kepala atau tangan berarti tolakan sopan.

Rasanya menarik juga mengenal berbagai macam ungkapan terima kasih dalam berbagai macam bahasa.

1. Bahasa Inggris: Thank you, Thank you very much, Thanks.

2. Bahasa Perancis: Merci, Merci beaucoup.

3. Bahasa Mandarin: Xie-xie

4. Bahasa Jepang: Arigato.

5. Bahasa Spanyol: Gracias.

6. Bahasa Belanda: Dank je

7. Bahasa Jerman: Danke

8. Bahasa Italia: Grazie

9. Bahasa Korea: Gamsa-hamnida

10. Bahasa Portugis: Obrigado

Saya senang belajar bahasa, dan selama ini selalu senang mendengar berbagai ungkapan baru baik dalam bahasa asing maupun dari berbagai bahasa daerah di tanah air. Dengan tetap menjunjung tinggi bahasa persatuan kita, bahasa Indonesia, saya tertarik juga mengetahui keragaman ungkapan terima kasih dalam berbagai bahasa daerah. Ada yang bisa membantu?

Minggu, 16-03-2008 21:31:47 oleh: Eko Nurhuda

Terima kasih dalam bahasa daerah yg saya tahu:
Jawa : suwun (ngoko), matur nuwun (madyo), matur nembah nuwun (kromo).
Sunda : hatur nuhun, hatur nuhun pisan
Jambi : Terimo kasih (beda "a" sama "o" aja)


Senin, 17-03-2008 13:28:01 oleh: Mieka Kurnia Yasa

Bahasa Bali : Suksema


Selasa, 18-03-2008 12:39:02 oleh: Retty N. Hakim

Dankie (Afrikaans)


Selasa, 18-03-2008 13:46:00 oleh: Meidy

Toda (Bahasa Ibrani)

Hati-hati Aku Lagi BT!

Be Careful I'm in a Bad Mood!

Jumat, 14-03-2008 09:15:30 oleh: Retty N. Hakim
Kanal: Kesehatan



Sebuah kisah seputar semua hal yang dipandang "nggak niat" membuat saya tersenyum (Lihat http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=7158&post=2). Yang diangkat kisah itu adalah percakapan dua orang wanita kakak beradik, di mana sang kakak yang sedang BT berat menyambar semua topik dengan tudingan "Nggak niat!" . Tentu saja saya tersenyum, sebab seringkali saya memberikan peringatan kepada anak-anak saya: "Hari ini tolong ya...mama lagi BT!" (BT = Bad Temper alias gampang marah). Maksudnya hari ini tolong bertingkah laku agak manis karena sang mama bisa meledak marah lebih mudah dari biasanya.

Kalau lelaki BT di tengah-tengah bulan bisa jadi karena "kanker" (kantong kering) sudah menyerang. Tapi kalau wanita yang BT, bisa jadi hal itu sudah menjadi siklus bulanan baginya. Gejala ini dikenal dengan sebutan PMS (Premenstrual syndrome), menurut sebuah informasi yang saya baca di www.clevelandclinic.org ternyata lebih dari satu (grafik, jadi lebih dari satu orang tapi belum sampai dua orang) diantara tiga wanita menderita karena sindroma menjelang haid ini. Juga satu dari dua puluh orang wanita menderita sedemikian hebatnya sehingga mengganggu kehidupan pribadi mereka.

Tidak jelas apa yang menjadi penyebab dari PMS, tapi perubahan kadar hormon terutama hormon estrogen dan progesteron ikut andil dalam perubahan mood ini. Gejala yang timbul bisa bermacam-macam dan tidak selalu sama pada setiap wanita. Bahkan gejala yang terjadi pada seorang wanita tidak selalu sama setiap bulannya.

Beberapa gejala yang biasa terjadi:

• Terlihat agak bengkak

• Payudara lebih lembut

• Berat badan naik

• Lebih agresif

• Susah konsentrasi

• Sakit punggung atau sakit kepala

• Masalah pada kulit, seperti: jerawat

• Kelelahan

• Mudah menangis

• Gampang tersinggung

• Gelisah

• Mood gampang berubah, atau depresi.

Beberapa gejala ini juga seringkali dialami wanita usia dewasa yang terkena masalah dengan kelenjar tiroid, sehingga ada baiknya bagi wanita untuk mencoba tes tiroid bila sering mengalami gangguan di atas.

Dalam artikel sebuah klinik yang dimuat di internet ini juga dikatakan bahwa sebaiknya wanita memiliki buku harian yang mencatat gejala yang dialaminya, kapan terjadinya, dan berapa lama gejala ini berlangsung. Bila rajin mencatat maka dalam beberapa bulan akan terlihat bahwa walaupun gejala bisa berubah, biasanya periode munculnya cukup terbaca.

Diet makanan bisa membantu mengurangi gejala PMS yang muncul, seperti mengurangi makanan berkafein, garam dan gula. Terkadang tambahan suplemen juga dibutuhkan seperti Vitamin B6, Kalsium, dan Magnesium. Berolah raga juga bisa membantu mengurangi gejala PMS ini.

Dalam artikel itu juga disebutkan Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), sebuah bentuk yang lebih berat dari PMS. Gejala PMDD mirip dengan PMS, tapi gejalanya biasanya lebih berat dan bisa sangat mengganggu pekerjaan, aktivitas sosial, serta hubungan dengan keluarga dan lingkungan. Saya sendiri baru mendengar istilah PMDD, tapi apapun istilahnya rasanya tidak salah bila kita para wanita mempunyai catatan mengenai menstruasi dan gejala-gejala yang mendahului maupun mengikutinya. Bukan tidak mungkin catatan ini bisa berguna di kemudian hari. Entah ketika ingin memiliki buah hati, maupun ketika ada masalah lain yang berhubungan dengan alat reproduksi.

Dengan menyadari dan mengenal siklus bulanan ini tentunya para wanita bisa lebih siap menghadapi perubahan mood yang dia alami, dan bisa lebih berusaha menjaga kesabarannya selama mengalami gejala tersebut! PMS? Nggak perlu BT lagi! (Semoga:))

British Council Blogger Day, a birthday celebration!

I believe God is working in His own way. I was really busy trying to focus my mind, trying to put first thing first, when a friend who was chatting with me suddenly mention about a blogger day presented by the British Council to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its presence in Indonesia.

People has their own way of celebrating birthday, as an example Kris Biantoro, an Indonesian famous entertainer celebrated his 70th birthday by calling out the nationalism from the Indonesian youth. You can watch his spectacular way of celebration through Kompas-tv.com

Titiek Puspa, another famous entertainer also presented "Titiek Puspa, a Legendary Diva", her biography as an artist facing her 70th birthday. The event was also reported by a contributor from wikimu, Ollie.

And now...I'm going to the British Council Blogger Day! I've said that God has His mysterious way of matching our schedules (at least my schedule...) because I was actually planned to visit the orphanage of defective children with my neighbours (from the Catholic church) that day. Due to one and other problems we delayed it until the next week. It was suppose to be our Easter activity, but the situation was forcing us to delay that. Good for me because my agenda is now open to go to the BC Blogger Day!

It is interesting for me to join this event as I hope there I will meet more bridge bloggers. In the National Blogger Party I was still searching my ground as a blogger, today I think I've got a better ground.

I was really close with the British Council Library when I was a university student. I found a lot of interesting books in that Library. At that time the local university libraries did not provide any multimedia materials, so we were searching that to the libraries belong to the international cultural centers, e.g. the British Council library. The Library was handed over to the Ministry of Education in 2004. I did visit the new library, I hope it will continue to enriched young Indonesian with interesting materials. The library also has a special library facilities for the visually impaired persons.

I think the British Council after 60 years in Indonesia still has the enthralling aspect of creativity that makes us keep viewing it with the same exciting expression...new challenge, new events, and new joining programs...I'm hoping to be able to catch the atmosphere and bring it back to my blog.

It’s hard to get focused!

I've got a wandering mind, and it would not be a helping tool to get a blog which focused only in some topics, especially when the blog I'm trying to write is a blog of a citizen reporter.

This time I'll just presented all the small pieces that troubled my mind. Sometimes I feel like an artist whose dream is only to have a quiet day to write all that bother my grey cells.

It was long time ago that I kept asking myself why I could not be just like any ordinary Indonesian (full time) housewife. Stay at home, enjoy having my family...Why I should always look for some voluntarily work or activities while I knew that having only one source of financial support should make me more careful with the expenses. Why didn't I work to help financing the family instead of giving away my time for voluntarily work? Actually I was not without filter. I did things that would not consume a lot of time. There were a lot of other interesting voluntarily work I did not take because of my time limitation. Green mapping was something that took my interest, but their meeting were usually at night after office hours (If I'm not mistaken...sometimes memory faded with age...).

Then, why I became a citizen reporter? The question "Why are you a citizen reporter?" was asked by Claire George since June last year in Facebook, but I couldn't answered it. I thought I would like to say something about Indonesia to the world, but I do think it is also a way to express myself. Actually I was asking myself the question in one of my previous post "what am I trying to proof?". A part of me was thinking that I'm doing this because I'd like to present Indonesia to the world. The international media did not always put their objective views on Indonesia. The national media sometimes did not have enough pages to cover interesting stories. There are also some questions hanging over my head, because we do have a lot of clever scholars but why were we stuck in the same problem over and over? (e.g. flooding, traffic jam, etc).

I think my brain is easily provoked by news and reacted! I'm not really well today, but I open this blog to write because I read the news on Hillary Clinton admitted her "mistake" in recalling her visit to the Balkans. How could she made such an error? Being under "sniper fire" were not an ordinary experience. If she was not under that traumatic experience, then, how could she imagining things when interviewed? This is not a small "mistake"! A president has a lot of burden to remember when giving her or his instruction. A lot of problem will raise if we do have a forgetful president or even a politician (which make me unsuitable for being a politician), because they will easily forget the misery felt by the citizen during the previous period.

Actually a lot of subjects are dancing in my mind. But I am now trying so hard to focus on my translation work and my other daily obligations.

I was preparing an article about professionalism, but I do need to concentrate to make a good article. Time is a luxurious need for me right now. There is also another article about the demand to raise the basic salary for the professional journalist to start from 4,1 million rupiahs (around U$ 400), it is talking about press idealism and the basic need for living cost. Actually I was comparing it with my experience helping my husband as an entrepreneur in a construction company. Yet, I do think I need to rewrite the whole article.

Being a citizen reporter can really take all our energy. There were stories about poverty around us. Or my curiousity towards all the issues that were close to my previous working environment. The water and sanitation seminar is really compelling me to come as this year is the International Sanitation Year, but I do need to be wiser in managing my time.

My meeting with the Minister of Research and Technology was also making my brain cells working...I was not really a person who cared about the nuclear electricity, my only concern was because I lived near a center of nuclear research here in Serpong. The chance given to the Kompas daily's readers to meet Mr. Kusmayanto Kadiman, the minister of Research and Techology, made an impact as I saw a French program from TV5 that familiarized the nuclear electricity just a day after that meeting. While agreeing that we do need other source of electricity, and that nuclear are going to be an important source of energy, I could not just accept all the explanation given by the minister. I was thinking that we do have plenty of solar energy, and we do have it throughout the year. Yet, as I'm not an expert I need to be more careful to say things. Today I read in Kompas that PLTN (nuclear energy for electricity power plantation) is the wrong solution. I also knew from Hidup (a Catholic Magazine) that 28 scholars were signing petition against PLTN on February 23, 2008. One of the reason is the safety of the plantation because we are located in an area with a high risk of earthquakes. Sometimes things like this is confusing. As a minister who has a vivid back up of scientists in his department I think he would not just make an important decision without thinking ahead. Yet, even without the risk of earthquakes I always doubted the "human error" that could make that dangerous leaking! This topic would not really "touch" me (except when there was a small explosion here in Serpong) if I weren't a citizen reporter.

So...let me try to focus myself on being a good mother first, the term super Retty always reminding me of the household works that were a bit unattended as I was busy entertaining my grey cells!

The Grass Always Greener on Our Neighbours’ Front Yard.

Sometimes we see things only through our point of view. And we usually see the grass on our neighbours’ front yard is greener than on our front yard. We don’t really know how about the grass on their back yards but yet we envy them.

Traveling outside the country is actually enriching us to see things through another point of view. It is a nice chance to see the fact directly with our own eyes. So does a good reading!

I’m interested in Obama’s speech on race in America (The Jakarta Post, Saturday-March 22, 2008, part I). He said: “I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together-unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hope; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction-towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” I think this part of speech has a very universal meanings, it could also be fitted in Indonesia.

I used to think that the Uncle Tom’s cabin story was the story from the past until I visited Europe. I was astonished to hear a very young boy (Caucasian) told his little girl friend not to seat near that yellow devil (which was me). We were on the boat to have the river cruise (it was somewhere in France…may be Paris?!), they never imagined that I can understand their French conversation. I’ve met a lot of French friends and they were all very nice and helpful. We had fun together and I did not sense any feeling differentiating us being a foreign race. Yet, I knew that this type of conversation from those little children can only be taken from either their family circle or their environment. They are parroting elder members of the family or someone from their close environment.

Then I saw how my cousin (who was studying there) reacted when we were approached in a metro station by some young Arabian men asking (a little bit forcing us to donate) some money. She said she would call the police. They did exchange words which I could not follow because it was spoken very fast… but I think some of it might contain racist remarks (both ways). Actually I was afraid too, but I think we should not generalize people and made racist remark.

I was, then, realized that racism is everywhere, not only in my beautiful country. Yes, Indonesians prefer the Caucasian look for models and artists. Perhaps it is a shared view globally. White is the key to beauty!

Recently I also read an article in the Jakarta Post’s weekender titled “The China Blonde Threat” by May-lee Chai. I was astonished reading the racism story she had to pass through her childhood. She, who was half Caucasian, something that could gain her a special status in Indonesia, and was born in the USA as an American! She inherited her Chinese blood through her father and had to struggle through racist prejudice because of her parents’ mixed marriage. And she is my age…so it’s not only from the era of Uncle Tom’s Cabin!

We share the same motto: Unity in Diversities. Hopefully it is a real union that we are to find in the long run. I know that we can not blame any race for that “pride and prejudice” feeling, but to ask ourselves to be fair in judging others’ racial background. We are the part of those diversities that could unite the world.

I'm not a super Retty!

Peter Hinchliffe, a fellow citizen reporter from OhmyNews International called me Super Retty. It makes me feel like one of the contestants for the cartoon star quest "Who wants to be a superhero" that I've seen with my kids on TV. I do not like that idea... Actually it reminds me more of my duty as a homemaker which was not really perfect! I like watching that TV show as it can reveal the inner feeling of a person. There are two characters that I remember: Super Momma and Feed back. My son adored Feed Back. I think Super Momma was also great except that she thinks about eating more than her obligation as a superhero. In some way it came back to me that I also think too much outside my circle of family and I can easily forget my obligation on my family. We don't really know who wins the contest as we did not see the final round (may be I should search in the internet...oups another risky step into another interesting news).

The problem of giving our services to people is that sometime we do not have time for our own family.

I knew my self, I'm a bit perfectionist and I will always deeply involved with things that I like (e.g. work...he..he..he...). That was the reason why I choose to be a full time mother. I've got to match my husband's schedule as an entrepreneur to have a family time for my children. Yet, his business' downfall made me try teaching part time to help our family cash flow. I tried to work as part time architect, but it couldn't work nicely...being an architect need more flexible time to meet clients, to control the site, etc. Being a part time teacher is easier, we have a certain schedule. I only missed my "hang-out" time with friends from the Indonesian Heritage Society.

Writing is something that I really like. After my graduation as an architect I was actually begging my parents to help funding my master degree as I did not get the scholarship. I was actually eager to get a further education in the USA, and to find out what is a job of an architectural critic. But they have three boys to think about, and I can't promise that I will choose a subject that would bring money...

Then I always think that I also need to contribute something for my country. I can't play badminton as Susi Susanti, nor can I swim like Elvira Rosa Nasution. I like environmental problem and was also eager in studying urban planning, but I knew that the struggle in this area can really be stressing.There was also some psychological block of being a Chinese Indonesian. By being a citizen reporter may be I can do my little part of being a voice (only a small voice in the cyber space's forest).

There are a lot of great people whom I can consider super women, but not me! This is not out of lack of self confidence...but it's the fact! There are more women who can manage their time better than me, there are also women who keep trying and did not bother the risk of being stress or being rejected because of their racial back ground. So I do not qualify for that term "super"...

Yesterday when I was in the church I fought really hard in my heart to stay on my seat and keep praying. There was a drama performing the Crucifixion. One part of me told me to go take some pictures for my blog, the other part of me asked me to remember the reason I was in the church. I came to pray...and that would not be the same prayer, or at least not in the same intention if I did take pictures.

I'm still trying really hard to balance my life. Once I've heard an ethical question for a journalist (especially for the photographer) when he or she encountered an accident. Should we help? Or should we make our reports? I think I should help in the first place. May be that would not make me a good citizen reporter, but I think that is the right thing to do. Perhaps that is also why there are citizen reporters and there are professional journalists. There is probably the chance that a citizen reporter can't give a detailed report as they will have other obligation to do, but they can help give the piece of information to help the professional journalist dig more into it. Hot news in term of full reportage will be a difficult task for a citizen reporter who was not trained to present news as a journalist. But features by a citizen reporter can give another hue in the news.

The Jakarta Post contacted me to arrange a meeting, they would like me to answer some questions as a reader. We canceled our planned meeting last week but I am really looking forward to meeting them next week. There are some questions I do have in my mind about the printed and the online media. So, that would be a nice exchange of views.

Balancing my life is a bit difficult as the need to write and the ideas that were popped inside my head can make me crazy. I do need to write that down, but I don't have time and energy to do all of my obligations, nor do to write down all that make me interested in commenting.

Going out (especially to Jakarta, an hour away through the toll road) also cost me some extra expenses (not to say stealing my time away from home). To be able to find news that is not personal I need to go out, and I've got to be careful with the extra cost that I should spend. The internet connection is already some extra cost. But that's also worthed the experience I gained. Yet, as a citizen reporter I can also cut some expenses as there were some seminars invitation came to me for free. I do interested in those seminars, but if I have to spend money on it I doubted I can join them. As a housewife I do not really need to join in that seminar, but as a citizen I do have my curiosity on what's going on out there. We can't always get the reviews from the newspaper or magazine.

Vincent Maher said in an e-mail that a blog is going to be more rewarding in the long run than being a citizen reporter. I asked him why, but he did not answer. I think blog is easier to write than an article for a citizen journalism website. We can select our blog readers, and by focusing in a topic that would be easier to get a real circle of friendship through the internet. Yet, Citizen Journalism Websites (perhaps I should include the bloggers' community in this type of websites) boosted more friendship than just being a blogger. Writing for a community makes me more careful in presenting the objectivity, and it also helps reminding me to keep my integrity.

I was a bit addicted in this new activity (CJ) and sometimes did not put my priorities on other tasks. I am trying to be more realistic and keep my life flowing like the water in the river. I do hope there will be more citizen reporters from Indonesia. I know that this activity is probably not worth in producing cash, but this is a nice communicative way in a world that became flatter than before. It's a way to share and learn from each other.

So, I'm not a super Retty. I'm just trying to be worthy as a human being. I'm just trying to whip up the spirit inside me...

The USA's Presidential election

My fellow blogger send me the link to this article. Actually I am watching over the USA's presidential election through the local newspapers and magazines. Indonesian newspapers were already published abundant of Obama's stories, mostly because of his time spent in Indonesia and his mother's relation to an Indonesian spouse. The American presidential election is surely an interesting topic, but I do not have enough capacity to write something on this topic yet.

The American embassy even made up a mock up election booth here in Jakarta, and the Indonesian people were invited to try the American presidential election...no wonder Obama won the votes over there...(Actually I'd really like to cover that story as a citizen reporter...that is something that one's should experience herself to be able to retell the euphoria, the excitement, etc).

Who can miss to spot this presidential election? With the urgency to focus on a better relation between the West and the East, to build a balance tolerance toward the Moslem community, to empower women globally, and to enhance the actions to go green and healthier...who will miss this special occasion with the special candidates like Obama and Hillary?

I read a note about Hillary, how she won more votes after showing more of her feminine side. The writer said that people still value a hard working woman as an ambitious woman seeking to compete over men. This is interesting, as people do not usually judge man as ambitious when a man is trying to climb to the top!

I like Hillary's books "It takes a village". I did not really read that book, I only read the excerpt through a book review. But it is true that it takes a village to be able to raise a child into a good man (or woman).

Obama's story through the International Herald Tribune show me all the big contribution made by people outside his mother.

I think my friend referred me to this article to show how important a mother's position in building her children's character. I knew this one, that was why I deliberately choose my present "occupation" as a housewife. Reading through the IHT's article I am very fascinated on how Obama's mother could handle all the responsibility being a working mother, a caring mother, and also a single parent in some period... I'm sure she could not do all that all alone, there were always some helping hands that help her throughout the process. I think the Javanese did not encourage divorce, a wife obediently follow whatever her spouse's wishes. The Javanese believes in destiny, accepting destiny is something important too. Perhaps our destiny is to be the helping hands in that village who help a mother raise her children. That was done by Obama's grandparents, teachers, and all those close friends who colored his life!

We are free to choose our path of life, we are free to build our own life. Yet, education and love will be very important in strengthening our choice to the success path. Sometimes poverty doesn't give that freedom, and we should all fight against that!

I am not able to pick which candidate impressed me the most as I did not really follow all their debates and speeches, but I do know I'll learn some lessons from both of them!