Till We Meet Again, Gus

Artikel dibawah ini ditulis oleh Duncan Graham, seorang jurnalis Selandia Baru di blognya Indonesia Now.

FAREWELL GUS DUR: President RI 20 October 1999 - 23 July 2001

I interviewed Gus Dur for a book on Indonesia and spent most of the time laughing at his jokes. There's one below. He was an extraordinary man, a true democrat, liberal, learned and impossible to dislike. History should treat him kindly - just as he treated others. His impact on Indonesia endures leaving it a far better country after the ravages of Soeharto.

THE BIG DEBATE
By Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur)

Back 10 centuries ago, just before the Crusade was launched, the Pope decided all Muslims had to leave Jerusalem peacefully or there’d be bloodshed. Naturally there is a big uproar from the Muslim community. So the Pope strikes a deal. He proposes a debate with a member of the Muslim community. If the Muslim wins the debate, all the Muslims can stay. If the Pope wins, all the Muslims will have to leave.

The Muslims realise they have no choice. They look around for a champion who can defend their faith. No one wants to volunteer, it's too risky. But they finally pick their representative, an old Mullah who unknowingly agrees without understanding what he’s getting himself into. He agrees on the condition that neither side is allowed to talk but communicate by miming, as he’s almost deaf. The Pope agrees.
The day of the great debate comes. The Mullah and the Pope sit opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raises his hand and shows three fingers. The Mullah raises his middle finger. The Pope waves his fingers in a circle around his head. The Mullah points to the ground and stamps his right foot. The Pope pulls out a wafer and a glass of wine. The Mullah pulls out an apple. The Pope stands up and says: ‘I give up. This man is too good. The Muslims can stay.’

An hour later the cardinals are all around the Pope asking what happened. The Pope says: ‘First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there is still one God common to both our religions. Then I waved my finger around me to show him that God was all about us. He responded by pointing to the ground and stamping his feet, telling me that God was also right here with us. I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God absolves us from our sins. He pulled out an apple reminding me of the first sin. He had an answer for everything. What could I do?’

Meanwhile, the Muslim community has crowded around the old Mullah in total astonishment. ‘What happened?’ they ask. ‘Well’ says the Mullah, ‘first, he said we Muslims had three days to leave Jerusalem. I told him - up yours! Then he said this whole city would be cleared of Muslims. I told him none would leave this land!’

‘And then?' asks a woman. ‘He took out his lunch and I took out mine,’ says the Mullah.

The power of the mind lies in perceiving differences; the power of the heart lies in perceiving similarities
Kekuatan pikiran terletak dalam menerima perbedaan; kekuatan hati terletak dalam menerima persamaan.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un
انّا للہ و انّا الیہ راجعون
We indeed belong to God, and we indeed toward him are returning.

Hedy Epstein

From Mondoweiss.



The sweetest and bravest grandmother ever.

You're Not Done Yet, Neither Are We.

A Message to World Leaders from Global Youth.



In daily life, buy local and reduce our domestic waste.
My kids know now that they can start helping our world by recycling kardus susu and burying the kitchen scraps.
Small actions. Big changes.

The Emperor's Clothes

"The Emperor's Clothes"
by Invincible

Phase 1: Air strikes all day and all night
Phase 2: Rockets hit the Gaza strip with phosphorus
Phase 3: Ground attack how we gonna counteract?

Boycott Divest and Sanction

Israel– you should be ashamed
Kill and maim 1,000's of civilians in our name
Claim you hitting terrorists but children in your aim
Even murder relief workers blood spilling from they brain
While they tried to drive the ambulance, damn they couldn't stand a chance
Even bomb students, hospitals, mosques, Rafah, and Khan Yunis
Shot em in the back like the cops to Oscar Grant…
And in each case the good ol' united states sponsored that
7 million a day that we pay tax and AIPAC's lobbyists is robbin us
Sometimes it feels like they're ain't no stopping this
BUT now no body can deny it cuz you made it too obvious
Naked truth exposed like the emperor's clothes
The struggles getting hotter and the temperature rose
Since 1948 when you formed the state
Palestinian people still defending their homes
They aint been surrendering, NO

Boycott Divest and Sanction
Cuz they even bombed the United Nations

Look, i'm Israeli, my government's so arrogant
War criminals who call Palestinians terrorists
For resisting extinction and occupation
Comparing this to genocide and reservations of Native Americans
Its a massacre! Kick out they ambassadors!
Divest from their apartheid like South Africa
Boycott em like King to Montgomery buses,
Show them we want peace but only with real justice
They murdering the media and witnesses left
We gonna stop shopping at all the businesses that invest
In building they settlements and gentrifying our corners
Illegal walls over there and the US-Mexico border
Build a worldwide movement til the truth is heard
And supporting the Israelis who refuse to serve
All the C.O.s who AWOL when deployed to Iraqi stations
All the people rallying while the cops are chasing
If we enlisted in the system we got an obligation
We ain't got the patience, time to stop the occupation

Boycott, Divest, and Sanction
Til there's right of return for displaced and reparations

We Remember

Khulood Ghanem's diary.

My father told us that we have one god and it is one death either by rocket, by car, by gun, there is no difference and you have to die with your dignity and get rid of your fear.

The Tragedy of Gaza, the West Bank and Israel by Chris Hedges. Full text inThe language of death.

The incursion into Gaza is not about destroying Hamas. It is not about stopping rocket fire into Israel. It is not about achieving peace. The Israeli decision to rain death and destruction on Gaza, to use the lethal weapons of the modern battlefield on a largely defenseless civilian population, is the final phase of the decades-long campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. The assault on Gaza is about creating squalid, lawless and impoverished ghettos where life for Palestinians will be barely sustainable. It is about building ringed Palestinian enclaves where Israel will always have the ability to shut off movement, food, medicine and goods to perpetuate misery. The Israeli attack on Gaza is about building a hell on earth.

The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. And I watched the Bosnian Serbs, like the Israelis, attempt to justify their systematic destruction of the city, with thousands of dead and wounded, on a few paltry Muslim mortars and light arms fire. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. Families who carry the broken bodies of their children to hospitals do not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of those they love do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a “martyr”?

A poem, by David Radavich

GAZA GUILT
I confess: I didn’t really see
the grief-stricken girl
by the seashore.

I didn’t know her suffering.
I’ve only seen pictures.

That’s why it
didn’t seem real.

But I felt for her
genuine pain.

And images came
to me—

just as they are
not now

unlocking their shapes,
their unforgettable
colors.

You will please
forgive me.

Honesty is best.

Even dull honesty
with no ripped-off heads
bloody and toy-like

that only have
been imagined by

the privileged
who in their silence

collude
and oppress.

I am safe and warm.
I have food. And money.
I don’t see bodies

torn by war
for breakfast.

The blind can
never do justice.


a sleeping angel of Gaza (RememberGaza.com)

Do not forget.
Act. Don't mourn.

D for Damar, D for Dimas

Facts about Dam and Dim.

Damar adalah si early bird, atau early worm, orang yang bangun paling pagi dan langsung nyanyi-nyanyi keliling rumah. Tapi kalo dah capek dan kena bantal langsung pingsan.
Dimas adalah si gudel (anak sapi-dee), karena kalo tidur ngebo. Udah dibolak-balik, digendong keluar kamar, dinyalain kartun kenceng-kenceng, ditimbun bantal, dikitik-kitik, diuyel-uyel, dicubit-cubit...semua
kecuali disiram air, ngga bakal bangun. Pantesan pipi Dimas ngga kempes-kempes. Rekor bangun pagi jam 11 siang.

Damar suka nyanyi dan joged. Panggilannya di sekolah? Jacko. Sekarang lagi suka nyanyi jingle bells dan paling suka berbahasa indonesia yang baik dan benar. "Mamah, aku sangat kecewa." atau "Aku mau mengambil spidol untuk menggambar tetapi spidolnya terlalu tinggi aku tak bisa menggambilnya."

Dimas suka maen sepak bola dan lompat timbun. Lompat timbun itu lompat dari kasur atas ke kasur bawah, sebelum lompat ngambil ancang-ancang sambil mbaca mantra, "lima tujuh lima tujuh...", maksudnya mau ngitung satu dua tiga tapi versi dimas. Last step, lompat jauh sambil teriak, "TIMBUUUNNN!!!" Malanglah orang yang kebetulan lagi di kasur bawah. Ketimbun 14 kg pipi dan lemak.
Si Park Dimas Sung ini kalo maen bola ancang-ancang larinya bisa sampe 50 meter. Kalo lari kayak ada per di kaki.

Damar lagi ribut minta pohon natal. Karena ngga dikasih ganti pengen menghias pohon cemara kecil di halaman depan rumah.
Dimas lagi heboh minta ulang taun, soalnya dijanjiiin baru dibeliin maenan lagi kalo ulang taun. Next month.

Damar rambutnya lurus jegrak. Kalo disuruh potong rambut mirip disuruh nyemplung sumur.
Dimas kriwil-kriwil. Kalo lagi keringatan kepalanya jadi mirip rambutan.

Damar bisa diminta matiin tipi, dengan catatan sudah dibilangin sebelumnya, "setengah jam lagi matiin ya" atau "habis little einstein matiin ya".
Dimas harus pake sesi nangis, rebutan remote, kejar-kejaran, dan terakhir saking malesnya pindah dia ngompol di kasur di depan tipi. Padahal aku dah ngga inget kapan dia ngompol di kasur. Wew. Red Alert.

Damar lagi seneng bikin kue, nyetak dan ngasih hiasan. Yang paling nyenengin, dia suka makannya juga.
Dimas...yaahh, masih tahap ngremes-remes adonan sambil ditambahin eces disana-sini.

Damar suka susu strawberry. Dimas susu coklat.
Damar suka es krim conetto mini rasa blueberry. Dimas suka rasa strawberry. Mamahnya suka dua-duanya.

They're both the same, but they're not.
They're both D, but as different as A and Z.
Their hugs are the best cure for a weary heart and a wandering mind.
They keep me connected and disconnected.
They're my Planetaia, my wandering stars.
They teach new things and new point of views every single day.
They remind me of the who,what,where,when,why and how.

The best of all, their face never fail to send a sign,
"everything's gonna be okay, mommie, it always is."

Spirit of Christmas

December this year reminds me of two sad things.
December 26th 2004, The Sumatra tsunami.
December 27th 2008, Gaza bombing.
*I'll leave century, kpk and lunmay thingies out of this note, sorry.

This is how christmas was in Gaza before the bombing, December 25th 2008 :

Christmas in Gaza: No Trees, No Celebrations

For the first time, Hazem Al-Jilda, a Christian from Gaza, and his family could not light the Christmas tree at their home because of the electricity black-out caused by the lack of fuel, due to the Israeli siege on Gaza.

'We only have electricity for six hours a day because Israel is not letting any fuel supplies into Gaza's only electric power plant,' said Al-Jilda (34). 'We missed the happiness of lightening the Christmas tree this year.'

'I have never seen such a sad Christmas,' he said. 'This year, there are almost no traditional Christmas celebrations in Gaza because of the siege and Israel's refusal to give Gaza's Christians permits to visit Bethlehem.

About 4,000 Christians live in the besieged Gaza Strip. Most of them belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, while the rest follow the Latin Church Christmas calendar, which falls on December 25.

Yea, as a matter o' facts, there are christians in Gaza. And they're suffer the same, since they too are Palestinians.

Anyway, we all know the story of Gaza after that christmas day.

This year, a true spirit of christmas

Christmas In Gaza by Fr John Dear, National Catholic Reporter

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power, because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present. -- Thomas Merton

In the true spirit of Christmas, on Christmas day I'll leave for Gaza to join some 1,300 people from 40 nations -- as well as an expected 50,000 Palestinians -- and together undertake a nonviolent march to the Erez northern border crossing leading into Israel. We'll arrive on the first anniversary of the diabolical Israeli bombing attack in which 1,400 Palestinians perished, the vast majority civilians.

The journey represents my attempt to break through the commercialism and sentimentality of Christmas. By this journey I’m trying, in a modest way, to enter the Gospel story itself, mindful that Christmas celebrates the God of peace having come to the poor, having emerged from among the poor. God emerged from among the marginalized, the homeless, the refugees, the outcast, the occupied, the targeted peoples of the world. I journey in the Christmas hope that "peace on earth" comes first of all in places like Gaza.

So, while most of us have already forgotten, some people remind us what humanity is all about. It's borderless.

There are too many people, and too few human beings. ~Robert Zend

Merry christmas, my friends.
May peace and justice prevail on earth.

Quote of the day : " When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or at least return it equally…Surely, Allah takes account of all things.” (An-Nisa’ 4: 86)

Happy Anti Corruption Day

Kemarin aku menjemput Damar ke sekolah. Akhir minggu nanti akan ada pentas di mal (-.-'), memperingati (so-called) hari ibu. Selain nyanyi si Jegrak juga bakal baca puisi. Dan tidak ada yang lebih menghibur selain anak-anak umur 2-5 taun yang berlatih untuk pentas.

Ketika akan pulang dan membuka pintu mobil, seorang ibu tua berbaju lusuh dan menggotong karung menyapa, "Dek, mau mangga?". Jarang-jarang dipanggil dek..
Akhirnya aku dan Damar jongkok di pinggir jalan ngobrol sama ibu itu.
Rumahnya jauh. Satu plastik berisi 5 butir mangga dijual 12 ribuan. Sekarung mangga tadi dibeli dengan harga 85 ribu. Sekarung berisi belasan plastik.
Akhirnya kubeli mangganya seharga sebuah majalah national geographic traveller terbaru yang memuat 55 gunung terindah di indonesia.

Mahal? Tidak kalo mengingat si ibu tua ini naik-turun bukit-bukit di Balikpapan di bawah terik matahari Desember sambil menggotong karungnya.

Sebelum pulang aku dan Damar ke Hero dulu, mau beli jamur. We're addicted to mushroom lately. Seplastik seharga 15 ribu. Di persimpangan menuju Balikpapan Baru seorang anak berkulit hitan legam menawarkan korannya, "Cuma 2000, buk!". Di pinggir jalan ada anak lain yang lebih kecil, duduk sambil menyipitkan matanya karena terik.

Aku menyesal tidak membawa susu kotak di tasku.

I was just like any other hypocrit who felt sorry for them but didn't do a think to make things better.
That old woman, those street children, would they still be doing what they're doing if we're not one of the most corrupt country in the world?

I guess there's only one thing money won't buy, and that's poverty.

“Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge.That no king can corrupt.”

Happy Anti Corruption Day.

Question of The Day

Pernahkan kamu membaca quote ini,

Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.

Penulisnya adalah Giacomo Leopardi, seorang penyair dan filsuf Italia yang hidup pada tahun 1798-1837.

Ingatkah kita masa-masa kecil ketika hari dimulai dengan pertanyaan dan diakhiri dengan pertanyaan? Aku ingat pernah berpikir bahwa di salah satu bintang di atas sana ada seorang anak perempuan kecil yang sedang menatap ke bumi. Aku ngga ingat apakah pernah benar-benar bertanya pada orang lain.

Atau ketika saat ini kita cukup diberkahi untuk memiliki manusia-manusia kecil dengan tenaga kryptonit tak kenal lelah yang tak berhenti bergerak dan berbunyi, sempatkah kita berhenti sejenak merenungkan pertanyaan mereka?

"Mah, kenapa laba-labanya terbang?" ketika melihat laba-laba turun naik di dekat kasur mereka, tanpa terlihat benangnya.

"Kenapa kita ngga punya christmas tree?" sewaktu melihat pohon natal plastik di mal.

"Kenapa sampah dapur dikubur?" saat melihat rutinitas menggali-gali mamahnya.

Jadi teringat suatu siang waktu aku dan anak-anak nonton KBS, channel Korea, tentang multikultural family. Si istri berasal dari Bali dan tinggal di Korea Selatan mengikuti suaminya yang asli sana. Suatu saat berliburlah mereka ke Bali. Waktu ada adegan keluarga itu mengejar-ngejar babi untuk di-babi guling, anak-anak takjub. "Kasian!", kata Dimas waktu si babi diiket di tongkat.
Kemudian sampai ke adegan ketika si babi sudah matang kecoklatan dan mulai diiris-iris untuk dimakan bersama.
Tiba-tiba Dimas bilang, "Mamah, mau makan ituuu!!!", sambil nunjuk ke tipi.

That was an awesome moment.

"Kenapa ngga boleh?"

Ketika kita menghadapi pertanyaan-pertanyaan ajaib seperti itu, sebagai orangtua, dan manusia, kita diajak membuka kembali cakrawala pikiran kita. Dan keyakinan kita. Kita kembali dipertemukan dengan keraguan-keraguan yang dulu sebagai seorang anak kecil pernah kita rasakan.

Jika beruntung, kita akan bertemu dengan pertanyaan yang bahkan kita sendiripun masih mencari jawabannya. Bukan cuma pertanyaan kenapa adek bayi ada atau gimana tivi ada gambarnya..those are some pretty challenging questions too >.<

Tapi seperti ketika Sam, 11 tahun, di Ways to Live Forever (versi Indonesianya berjudul Setelah Aku Pergi, terbitan Gramedia) mempertanyakan Pertanyaan-Pertanyaan Tak Terjawab, The Questions That Nobody Answer, No. 6. "Kenapa sih orang mesti mati?"

Why Do We Have To Die Anyway?

Atau pertanyaan nomor dua, yang dicoba dijawab oleh Sam dan temannya Felix.

Questions Nobody Answers No.2, Why does God make kids get ill?
[proposed solutions]
1.He doesn’t exist. (Felix)
2.God is really evil. (Felix)
3.God is like a big doctor. It doesn’t matter to God if you die, because you just go to heaven, which is where He lives anyway.(Sam, to which Felix responds, “That is the biggest load of crap I ever heard. God gives you cancer to teach you how good riding a bike is?)
4.There is no reason. (Felix)
5.There is a reason, but we’re too stupid to understand it. (Sam)
6.We did something awful in the past life and this is punishment. (Felix, who insisted it be included as not to discriminate against Buddhists)
7.We’re perfect already. Being ill is like a present. Like...like a Get-Into-Heaven-Free Card. (Sam)

At the end of the day, nenek Sam menjelaskan bahwa kematian adalah seperti berubahnya ulat menjadi kupu-kupu. Bagaimana ulat merasa takut menjadi kepompong yang tertidur dan sendiri.

Menurut Sam,

What she means is, it’s the next stage in a life cycle. Like turning into Spider-Man was the next stage in Peter Parker’s life cycle. So you shouldn’t be frightened, you should be excited. But I’m not frightened anyway. It’s only going back to wherever you were before you were born and no one is frightened of before they were born.

All those quoestions.

Pertanyaan-pertanyaan 'aneh' yang ketika kita beranjak dewasa mungkin masih akan muncul di saat-saat yang sepi. Ketika menatap langit-langit kamar menjelang terpejam. Ketika menengadah ke bintang di langit kelam. Ketika terdiam dan menghela nafas panjang.

I really didn't mean to make some rhyme here. Bad habit -.-'

Tidak semua orang cukup beruntung untuk mempunyai tempat bertanya. Terutama pertanyaan-pertanyaan ajaib yang mengerutkan kening 99.99% orang yang mendengarnya. Dan kemudian menyarankanmu ke ustad atau ke psikiater dengan wajah khawatir.

We were often told not to ask anyway, when we were younger.

Jadi,
ketika manusia-manusia kecil itu bertanya, dengarkan dengan sepenuh hati. Semoga mereka mengantarmu ke jawaban dari keraguanmu sendiri.

"Kenapa kamu menikah?"
"Kenapa kamu punya anak?"
"Kenapa kamu beribadah atau tidak beribadah?"
"Kenapa kamu menangis atau tertawa?"
"Kenapa kamu mencintai atau membenci?"

"Untuk apa kamu hidup?"

Maybe I will make my own questions nobody answer one of these days.

Where am I? Who am I?
How did I come to be here?
What is this thing called the world?
How did I come into the world?
Why was I not consulted?
And If I am compelled to take part in it,
Where is the director?
I want to see him

~ Soren Kierkegaard

Jewish Friends of Mine

My first eye opener was Yehuda Shaul with his breaking the silence. I was so amazed by him.
I wrote about it on my facebook, wondering what the comments would be. That was before the Gaza. Turned out I was not the only one. Some of us did think beyond that old tired line "jews are our enemy".

And I wrote more and more about 'friendly jews'. I found more and more people, regardless their religion, were true friends of Palestine. More than us, muslim people.

So I was so glad to read this article, on Jakarta Post.

We should learn more about each other. And put aside some old dogma and prejudice. Cause deep down inside, we are all the same.

Little Things, Always the Little Things.

Mark Twain said "Remember the poor, it costs nothing".

Apa sih, definisi "poor"? Miskin?
Hidup dibawah 1 $? Di bawah 2 $?
Tidak punya rumah? Tidak punya pekerjaan?
Hopeless? Homeless?

Jangan salah.
Ada yang merasa 'miskin' itu karena tidak punya mobil mewah.
Ada yang merasa 'miskin' ketika ngga bisa beli blackberry terbaru.
Ada yang merasa miskin karena ngga beli baju bermerek di mal.
Ada yang merasa miskin karena ngga dapet keistimewaan dan kemudahan yang dimiliki para pejabat dan orang 'hebat'.

Miskin karena selalu merasa kekurangan.

Tapi lupakanlah miskin yang itu, balik ke miskin yang ada di berita akhir-akhir ini.

Seorang nenek dipenjara karena 'memungut' 3 biji buah kakao.
Seorang kakek dipukul dan diseret karena menentang penggusuran.
Seorang PSK dibiarkan tenggelam di kali ketika sedang dikejar-kejar.
Aku yakin kalo digoogle maka akan panjang sekali daftarnya...

Dan tulisan kali ini bukanlah ingin membahas dari sudut hukumnya bla bla bla, karena sudah mahfum sekali bahwa hukum itu bukanlah keadilan. Law is not justice. It never is.
Tapi ingin bertanya pada sendiri, have I remembered enough.
Lebih lagi, have I done enough.

Seorang sahabat berkata,
"Dee, lahir-belajar jalan ngomong-tk-sd-smp-sma-kuliah-kerja-nikah-punya anak-memastikan anak mengikuti hal2 tersebut-mati adalah, devil cycle. I dont know where's thing 'so-called' life on that cycle"

Aku bilang, dia harus mengalami semuanya dulu baru bisa tau.

Dan dijawab,
"No i dont have to. Just by thinking about what our country had become. Its a sad fact that there's actually only few people give it a damn, because they been trapped on their own tired old line. There's no time to think about others. Let alone the nation. Busy to save their own asses, and they dont even realize that's what's happened. Its a false joy"

There. My life is a false joy.
And we're just some kinda robot.
How nice.
Just perfect for this gloomy cloudy november days.

Tapi tentu saja, ini harusnya suatu kritik membangun.
I'm still searching the constructive part.

Kritik membangunnya mungkin adalah bagaimana kita bertanya pada diri sendiri, "Apa yang salah dari komunitas kita? masyarakat kita? negara kita? Is it the custom? The education system? What?"
Jika belum terjawab, masih ada pertanyaan selanjutnya yang menunggu, "Apa solusinya?"

Aku selalu berpikir, sesuatu dimulai dari hal terkecil. Dari diri sendiri. Satu demi satu.
Klise.
Tapi sesuatu itu klise mungkin karena itu memang benar.
And yea, I haven't done enough. I'm crawling.

So, when my simple so-called life, with my simple kinda family, seems not enough..well, I cannot blame my idealistic sarcastic friend. We can always agree to disagree, right?
Just don't expect me to stop believing that maybe we, stupid silly nerdy simple people, can actually make a difference. By doing little things.

2 simple things to remember and share with dynamic duo (again):
1. Simpen krincing kita
2. Pisahin dan kurangi sampah dengan ngubur sampah dapur.

Last but never least...listen to your children. Respect them. So they'll listen and respect others.
Do you realize that your children spend less than 20 years with us, then go on to spend another 60 years, 70 years, 80 or maybe even more on this planet. What goes on in our home with them today seems so small it hardly even matters in the grand scheme of things. Yet what we do in our home can affect society for many years to come.

Itu salah satu solusiku, mate, ketika kamu nanya apa nanti Damar Dimas sempet mikirin negaranya.

Bertanya pada Damar the jegrag and Dimas the jambul.
Ketika mereka pengen roti tawar instead of nasi buat makan siang, aku bukan bilang, "Harus makan nasi! Mamah udah capek-capek masak! Arrgghh! Grrrr! Aum!" and so on.
Tapi aku bertanya, "kenapa ngga mau makan nasi?" dan dijawab Damar, "nanti mah, abis makan roti."

Pertanyaan. Jawaban.
Pilihan. Konsekuensi.

Semoga dengan memberikan mereka pertanyaan dan pilihan, someday when they're older, mereka bisa menentukan pilihan yang terbaik bukan cuman untuk diri mereka sendiri tapi juga lingkungan di sekitar mereka. Semoga mereka, entah itu mengikuti 'that tired old line' atau sebaliknya menjadi biksu selibat yang mengabdikan diri untuk menyelamatkan dunia, menjadi manusia yang bermanfaat.

This stupid simple me is still learning, for God sake!


(www.art.com)

The Beating of A Single Heart

I felt quite aweful aweful this morning.
A perfect combination of fatigue, lack of sleep and lack of gratitude.
Then I watched this video.

From commondreams



The Beating of A Single Heart
by Jonathan Mann

You hear it everyday
sometimes in the subtlest ways
sometimes it's in your face
But nonetheless it's there
"Go back to where you came from"
"They're taking all our jobs"
"They shoul learn to speak English"
"They are lazy, foreign slobs"

It is fear
that can sonsume you
Fear
will make you close your eyes.
But it is love
that can bloom you
let you open up to the sun and realize

We're all the same
underneath our skin
same beating hearts
same blood within

And in the future
as we embrace
We'll feel the beating of a single heart
of the human race.

We're told it's not enough
to consume more than our weight in stuff
when things are getting rough
we oughta buy more

Make it! Pack it! Ship it!
Buy it! Use it! Toss it!

Afterall, isn't that what we're made for?
With no regard
for the impact
our tireless consumption has

from all the beef
to the big smoke stacks
We're messing up the only home we have

Put down your wallet
and go outside
March around
get wide eyed

Cause in the future
We'll take care of this place
And the beating of a single heart
of the human race.

We've heard it all before
there has always been war
From the chimpanzee's roar
and the rocks he hurled

But we must evolve
to find another way to solve
all the disagreements in this world
Well it won't be simple
Nothing ever is
But in that complexity is grace.

Cause in the future
bound by respect
We'll feel the beating heart of a human race.

Thanks Jonathan Mann! It really brightened up my day.

Buaya dan Komodo

Siapa lagi yang bisa dipercaya?
My poor country...

The latest update of criminalization of KPK, the Jakarta Pos

The police and those devil's advocates, those corruptors...I cannot hate those people more.

Negeri Para Bedebah
Ada satu negeri yang dihuni para bedebah
by Adhie Massardi

Lautnya pernah dibelah tongkat Musa
Nuh meninggalkan daratannya karena direndam bah
Dari langit burung-burung kondor menjatuhkan bebatuan menyala-nyala
Tahukah kamu ciri-ciri negara para bedebah?
Itulah negeri yang para pemimpinnya hidup mewah
Tapi rakyatnya makan dan mengais sampah
Atau menjadi kuli di negeri orang
Yang upahnya serapah dan bogem mentah
Di negeri para bedebah
Orang baik dan bersih dianggap salah
Dipenjarakan hanya karena sering ketemu wartawan
Menipu rakyat dengan pemilu menjadi lumrah
Karena hanya penguasa yang boleh marah
Sedangkan rakyatnya hanya bisa pasrah
Maka bila negerimu dikuasai para bedebah
Jangan tergesa-gesa mengadu kepada Allah
Karena Tuhan tak akan mengubah apa suatu kaum
Kecuali kaum itu sendiri mengubahnya
Maka bila melihat negeri dikuasai para bedebah
Usirlah mereka dengan revolusi
Bila tak mampu dengan revolusi, dengan demonstrasi
Bila tak mampu dengan demonstrasi, dengan diskusi
Tapi itulah selemah-lemahnya iman perjuangan.

I've been away from internet for quite some time. And it's been quite uncomfortable here since we're lack of water and electricity. But hey, who am I to complain?? ^^
Me and my family, we're still consider ourselves as the luckiest person on earth no matter what. We have a place to stay, jobs to be done, food on the table, back and front yard to burry our kitchen scrap, books to read, people to love and plenty of sunshine and breezy wind.

Little small things that make our world goes round.

A little upset for the update of Ezra Nawi in Tikun Olam...Bless you, Ezra...
But this one is a good news, from mondoweiss.

When humanity goes beyond religions and politics.

We Want Peace

Kravitz recorded the anti-war song "We Want Peace" as the US began invading Iraq. The song was performed with musicians from Iraq (Kadim Al Sahir), Palestine (Simon Shaheen), and Lebanon (Jamey Hadded).

Here is once again in our face
Why haven't we learn from our past
We're at the crossroads of our human race
Why are we kicking our own ass

A Not So Desperate Mommie

Ada perang besar akhir-akhir ini.
Antara Dimas dan the rest of pasukan D (plus mbak yuk).

Dimas Arga Nurtsany, jagoan kecil berambut ikal tipis itu sedang memasuki tahap pemberontakan. Ngga diajak jalan, nangis. Diajak jalan, nangis.
Dimasakin ikan, nangis. Dimasakin ayam, juga nangis.
Disuruh jangan nangis, tetep nangis. Disuruh nangis terus, tambah nangis.

I was wondering whether to collect his tears since the lack of water here.

Pagi ini, aku nyepeda ke warung untuk beli beras. Langit Balikpapan tidak seperti hari-hari sebelumnya, biru tanpa awan. A good day to eat ice cream with the space cadets. Jadi akhirnya pindahlah satu es krim coklat dan satu es krim strawberi ke tas belanjaan. Sampai di rumah es krim coklat langsung lenyap dimakan dimas yang memang sudah sebulan dilarang makan es krim karena batuk. Dan mulailah perang baru, on how to invade and occupy his brother ice cream.
Ketidakadilan itu kulawan dengan niat, kata-kata dan tindakan. Tindakan maksudnya time out di teras belakang.
Dan berakhir dengan tangisan disana-sini.
But, as usual, this time justice prevails.
Es krim Damar terselamatkan.

Key word is konsisten.
Dan non-violence. Ku-bold karena aku masih sering sekali harus berjuang sekuat tenaga menahan godaan untuk mencubit atau membentak. Saat-saat ketika anak 2 dan 5 tahun membuatmu merasa seperti anak 5 taun juga. Sama-sama ingin ngeyel, sama-sama ingin marah, sama-sama ingin mewek.

"Dimas, mamah ngga mau dipukul!"
"Imas mau mukul!"
"Mamah ngga mau!"
"Imas mau!"
"Ngga!"
"Mau!"

and so on...

Remember Gandhi said?
"I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage."

A reminder for myself :
Bagaimana kita mengajarkan konsep non-violence ke anak-anak jika sebagai orangtua kita ngga bisa mencontohkan hal itu?
Satu cara jitu untuk menekan amarah adalah memposisikan diri kita di mata anak-anak. Apa yang dia liat di diri kita ketika pukulan, cubitan atau bentakan siap berterbangan?
Gabungan antara medusa, sadako dan dewi persik?

So, please, please...Gusti paringana sabar, paringana eling, sluman,slumun slamet donya akherat.

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said. -Anonymous



It's just another Friday.
I hope it'll be a good friday for everyone, including everyone in government (semoga tikus-tikus berkurang, I get sick reading the same news and watching the same face everyday), Padang, Kenya (I saw the malnutrition problem there in aljazeera yesterday), Jerusalem, Gaza, and in every corner of the world.

We'll be doing gardening and learning to do backyard composting tomorrow.

Al-Aqsa Sanctuary: The Palestinian Spirit

Al-Aqsa Sanctuary: The Palestinian Spirit
by Simone Daud

The future

Though I am entirely secular and ethnically Galilean Christian from the villages surrounding Nazareth, I hope that the day will come when the wall and tanks fencing us into our camps fall. I hope that our tragedy ends. I hope for the day when the indigenous people of Palestine, weak and landless herded into crowded camps, will be able to freely pray in al-Aqsa temple. Free from brutality, and free to quench their spiritual thirst in the Muslim compound. Free to pray in what we call Beit al-Maqdas, the Muslim Holy of Holies.

We are not beasts to be herded through checkpoints, we are not vermin to access our temple through Clinton's tunnels, the walls surrounding our prison's will fall.

Let my people pray, bring down the wall in Palestine.

al-athan call for prayer



For many centuries the call for prayer has emanated from al-Aqsa menanrates. For centuries the call has dominated the winds of Jerusalem. The Palestinians being weak without facilities to effectively resist see in the morning athan call for prayer a defiance. We shall one day be treated with dignity. We are human.

A third intifada?
Perhaps that's exactly what the occupier wants.

Aku Tidak Tahu

MONO
oleh Gunawan Muhammad

Pada suatu hari di abad ke-7, dua orang Madinah bertengkar. Yang satu Muslim dan yang satu lagi Yahudi. Yang pertama mengunggulkan Muhammad SAW ”atas sekalian alam”. Yang kedua mengunggulkan Musa. Tak sabar, orang Muslim itu menjotos muka Si Yahudi.

Orang Yahudi itu pun datang mengadu ke Nabi Muhammad, yang memimpin kehidupan kota itu. Ia ceritakan apa yang terjadi. Maka Rasulullah pun memanggil Si Muslim dan berkata:

”Janganlah kau unggulkan aku atas Musa. Sebab di hari kiamat semua umat jatuh pingsan, dan aku pun jatuh pingsan bersama mereka. Dan akulah yang pertama bangkit dan sadar, tiba-tiba aku lihat Musa sudah berdiri di sisi Singgasana. Aku tidak tahu, apakah ia tadinya juga jatuh pingsan lalu bangkit sadar sebelumku, ataukah dia adalah orang yang dikecualikan Allah”.

Riwayat ini dikutip dari Shahih Muslim, Bab Min Fadla’il Musa. Dalam buku Abd. Moqsith Ghazali yang terbit pekan lalu, Argumen Pluralisme Agama, hadis itu dituturkan kembali sebagai salah satu contoh pandangan Islam tentang agama yang bukan Islam, khususnya Yahudi dan Kristen.

Pada intinya, Moqsith, sosok tenang dan alim yang mengajar di Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah ini, datang dengan pendirian yang kukuh: Islam adalah ”sambungan—bukan musuh—dari agama para nabi sebelumnya”, yang sering disebut sebagai agama-agama Ibrahimi.

Tapi yang bagi saya menarik adalah kata-kata Muhammad SAW yang dikutip di sana: ”Janganlah kau unggulkan aku atas Musa”, dan, ”aku tidak tahu…”.

Kini kata-kata itu tenggelam. Kini sebagian ulama merasa di atas Rasulullah: mereka merasa tahu keunggulan diri mereka. Mereka akan membenarkan Si Muslim yang memukul Si Yahudi. Mereka bahkan mendukung aniaya terhadap orang yang ”menyimpang”, walaupun orang lain itu, misalnya umat Ahmadiyah, membaca syahadat Islam.

Dari mana datangnya kekerasan itu?

Saya sering bingung. Satu kalimat suci terkadang bisa membuat orang jadi lembut, tapi satu kalimat lain dari sumber yang sama bisa menghalalkan pembunuhan.

Mungkin pada mulanya bukanlah agama. Agama, seperti banyak hal lain, terbangun dalam ambiguitas. Dengan perut dan tangan, ambiguitas itu diselesaikan. Tafsir pun lahir, dan kitab-kitab suci berubah peran, ketika manusia mengubah kehidupannya. Yang suci diputuskan dari bumi. Pada mulanya bukanlah Sabda, melainkan Laku.

Tapi juga benar, Sabda punya kesaktiannya sendiri setelah jadi suci; ia bisa jadi awal sebuah laku. Kekerasan tak meledak di sembarang kaum yang sedang mengubah sejarah. Ia lebih sering terjadi dalam sejarah Yahudi, Kristen, dan Islam: sejarah kepercayaan yang berpegang pada Sabda yang tertulis. Pada gilirannya kata-kata yang direkam beku dalam aksara itu menghendaki kesatuan tafsir.

Kesatuan: jangan-jangan mala itu datang dari angka ”satu”—dan kita harus bebas dari the logic of the One.

Kata ini dipakai Laurel C. Schneider dalam Beyond Monotheism. Pakar theologi itu menuding: ”Oneness, as a basic claim about God, simply does not make sense.” Dunia sesungguhnya melampaui ke-satu-an dan totalitas.

Schneider menganjurkan iman berangkat ke dalam ”multiplisitas”—yang tak sama artinya dengan ”banyak”. Kata itu, menurut dia, mencoba menamai cara melihat yang luwes, mampu menerima yang tak terduga tak berhingga.

Tapi Schneider, teguh dalam tradisi Ibrahimi, menegaskan ”multiplisitas” itu tak melenyapkan yang Tunggal. Yang Satu tak hilang dalam multiplisitas, hanya ambyar sebagaimana bintang jatuh tapi sebenarnya bukan jatuh melainkan berubah dalam perjalanan benda-benda planeter.

Dengan kata lain, tetap ada ke-tunggal-an yang membayangi tafsir kita. Bagaimana kalau terbit intoleransi monotheisme kembali?

Saya ingat satu bagian dalam novel Ayu Utami, Bilangan Fu. Ada sebuah catatan pendek dari tokoh Parang Jati yang bertanya: ”Kenapa monotheisme begitu tidak tahan pada perbedaan?” Dengan kata lain, ”anti-liyan”?

Pertanyaan itu dijawab di catatan itu juga: sikap ”anti-liyan” itu berpangkal pada ”bilangan yang dijadikan metafora bagi inti falsafah masing-masing”. Monotheisme menekankan bilangan ”satu”. Agama lain di Asia bertolak dari ke­tiadaan, kekosongan, sunyi, shunyat, shunya, sekaligus keutuhan. ”Konsep ini ada pada bilangan nol,” kata Parang Jati.

Bagi Parang Jati, agama Yahudi, pemula tradisi monotheisme, tak mampu menafsirkan Tuhan sebagai Ia yang terungkap dalam shunya, sebab monotheisme ”dirumuskan sebelum bilangan nol dirumuskan”.

Ada kesan Parang Jati merindukan kembali angka nol, namun ia tak begitu jelas menunjukkan, di mana dan bila kesalahan dimulai. Ia mengatakan, setelah bilangan nol ditemukan, manusia pun kehilangan kualitas yang ”puitis”, ”metaforis” dan ”spiritual” dalam menafsirkan firman Tuhan. ”Ketika nol belum ditemukan,” tulis Parang Jati, ”sesungguhnya bilangan tidaklah hanya matematis.”

Dengan kata lain, mala terjadi bukan karena angka satu, melainkan karena ditemukannya nol. Tapi Parang Jati juga menunjukkan, persoalan timbul bukan karena penemuan nol, melainkan ketika dan karena ”shunya menjadi bilangan nol”.

Salahkah berpikir tentang Tuhan sebagai nol? Salahkah dengan memakai ”the logic of the One”?

Di sebuah pertemuan di Surabaya beberapa bulan yang lalu saya dapat jawab yang mencerahkan. Tokoh Buddhisme Indonesia, Badhe Dammasubho, menunjukkan bahwa kata ”esa” dalam asas ”Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa” bukan sama dengan ”eka” yang berarti ”satu”. Esa berasal dari bahasa Pali, bahasa yang dipakai kitab-kitab Buddhisme. Artinya sama dengan ”nirbana”.

Setahu saya, ”nirbana” berarti ”tiada”. Bagi Tuhan, ada atau tak ada bukanlah persoalannya. Ia melampaui ”ada”, tak harus ”ada”, dan kita, mengikuti kata-kata Rasulullah, ”aku tidak tahu”.

~Majalah Tempo Edisi 02 Maret 2009~

Agama seharusnya menjadi sumber kedamaian di muka bumi. Kita, si manusia lah, yang menciptakan siklus kebencian.

Links of the Day

What do you think?
From bendib. Thanks Fatemah for the link.



Hate Thy Neighbour
Thanks for the interesting post, MERC. Liam Bartlett from Channel 9 on 60 minutes blog,

Trying to understand the Middle East peace process is a bit like attempting to unscramble an egg so we travelled to Israel to get a first-hand look at just how hard it might be to even begin a so-called 'road map to peace'.
t might be to even begin a so-called 'road map to peace'.

At the very heart of the problem are the Jewish settlers, now occupying large tracts of land that the Palestinians say are really theirs. The settlers are essentially squatting on whatever piece they choose and constructing houses and towns in a defiant gesture of "now that I'm here – it's all mine".

from bendib

French Police Clear Migrant 'Jungle', Arrest 278

But Immigration Minister Eric Besson said action had to be taken against migrant trafficking rings. "What I want is to dismantle this 'jungle', which is the operating base for human traffickers," Besson told RTL radio.
Activists opposed the raid however. "It's a scandal," said Jean-Claude Lenoir of the Salam migrant support group. "We can't have soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and treat Afghans seeking refuge here with such little dignity."

Anti Corruption Songs by Slank
You know what I hate more than terrorism? Corruption! A Lot, a lot of corruption! Try to live in this country and you'll find them everywhere. Sometime I think I have no respect left for my own government. Indonesia regularly appears on lists of the most corrupt countries in the world, and in the most recent global corruption survey by Transparency International, Indonesia scored a 2.6, with 10 being the cleanest rating.

The situation looks grim now, since the KPK (The Corruption Eradication Commission)chairmen have been named as suspects by police.
Here's the update.

On going battle between KPK and the police
Q+A-Indonesia's corruption court bill

Korupsi membunuh bangsa...Corruption kills.


Photo from tbelfield.wordpress.com

Pictures of Us

Katanya a picture is worth a thousand words.
Aku suka menulis, suka membaca juga. Aku suka mengambil foto, tapi ngga suka difoto. Konon, mataku keliatan lebih sipit kalo di foto...Nah. I lied. Mataku memang dari sananya sipit, seperti itu --> ~_~
Tolong jangan ditinggal lari atau sembunyi kalo aku ketawa.

Anyway, these days were quite...errr...interesting. At least for me.
There were goods, there were bads. There were cools, there were hots. There were laughters, there were tears.
But my mind is blank tonight, so I'll just put some pictures instead.

One of a million things to keep your kids busy.


Damar dan Dimas mbantuin masang lemari baru

Lebaran cookies time! One of our fave time.

A beautiful mess.

Jadi pasang indovision lagi. Demi playhouse disney. Demi liga Inggris.


Dimas : "Ini apa, om?"
Si Om : "Ini kabel"


Rahasia kue enak : eces Dimas.


Mommie : "lagi ngapain, nak?"
Tole Dimas : "lagi motong ikan paus"


Blue and green. A perfect match.


A small hill behind our home. Setiap merasa capek atau galau cukup memandang kesana...

Foto yang diambil oleh Damar dari tempat kita shalat Eid.


Early morning of Eid this year


You can't see it, but there's a beautiful thin crescent moon in the sky


the final shade of sunset


Kegiatan malam lebaran. Nungguin ember penuh. Great. And after that, night exercise. Good for your biceps.


Lebaran with no water. Back to basic, nggotong ember keluar masuk rumah.


And that's a wrap.
Eid Mubarak, everyone! May God bless us always.

I can hardly open my eyes...so ready to sleep and dream about Jogja.
You can hide now.

Eid Mubarak

picture from Jewssansfrontieres
Artikel yang ditulis setahun yang lalu. Another great post from Jews sans frontieres. A blog always worth to read.
Thank you, Nedster.

This marks only the second year since 9/11 that my hometown has lit up its remaining tallest building green for Eid.

Everyone remembers the CNN film of a few Palestinians dancing in E. Jerusalem on 9/11. I recall watching that & feeling more than a little irked, having just come from a candlelight vigil with the WTC smoldering in the background & spending part of the day standing on line to donate blood for the wounded -- who never materialized -- that anyone could find a reason to rejoice in the pointless destruction of my city.

Fifteen months later I traveled to Palestine for the first time. In January of '03, I witnessed the biggest single-day orgy of home demolition in the West Bank since the beginning of the occupation, in the village of Nazlat Issa. Nazlat Issa was a thriving commercial center in the northern West Bank that straddled the Green Line. At least 60 shops were destroyed by the IDF that day. After the major part of the destruction was done, I was coughing amidst the rubble, something easily set off since the weeks I'd spent breathing in the debris of 9/11, and that caught the attention of a local pharmacist. He advised me to drink water, and regretted he didn't have anything from his shop to give me, as it had just been flattened.

Quite all right, I assured him, and when I explained the origin of my cough, I got a very common reaction from him, the one most Palestinians expressed as soon as they'd find out I was from New York -- deep sadness for what my city had gone through. Now I was savvy enough not to have expected to find a troupe of 9-11 celebrants prancing about the West Bank, but I was still quite moved at this widely-expressed commiseration. After all, my co-religionists, many of them being settlers with Brooklyn accents, were busy ethnically cleansing these folks, and my country was financing it. But it really took the cake, this pharmacist standing in the rubble of everything he had, and there he was busying himself expressing effusive sorrow for MY loss & worrying about my cough.

Caked with mud as we all were, and wanting to get away from the dust and the terminator-like machines still ripping away at the remains of the buildings, the pharmacist took myself and two other US Jewish activists to his family's house. He was a superb host, even on such a lousy day, occasionally getting a bit sunken when he talked about how he didn't know how he was going to support his family or mused on what would become of his village. But he brightened up considerably when one of my compatriots surged off an overstuffed sofa and burst into a fabulous interpretation of a Shakira-style bump & grind while the chanteuse blared over Lebanese MTV. We merrily egged him on, clapping in unison, and the one female activist amongst us gamely attempted to ululate. The pharmacist's mother made me tea with an herb picked from their garden -- worked wonders on the throat.

So the picture above is in appreciation for that fellow -- I hope he & his family are doing well this Eid; him and all the other Palestinians who've plied me with their hospitality, wisdom, humor & forbearance in my too brief visits to their beleaguered & beautiful homeland.

Selamat Idul Fitri. Maaf lahir dan batin. May the peace and blessings of Allah be on each of you!
Eid Mubarak!

And Shana Tova ( good year) to our Jewish friends.

Sabra dan Shatila

First thing I saw this morning, a reminder from Gabriel Ash. Thank you, Gabriel.
Remembering Sabra and Shatila.

Pertama membaca tentang Sabra Shatila di buku dr. Ang Swee Chai, From Beirut to Jerusalem. Simply heartbroken. Dan 27 tahun setelah tragedi itu, dan tidak ada yang berubah dari keangkuhan dan kekejaman Israel, aku mungkin mengerti kenapa rakyat Palestina bisa begitu membenci penjajahnya.
Indonesia berjuang selama ratusan tahun membebaskan diri dari penjajahan Belanda, jadi mengapa kita memandang rendah perjuangan bangsa Palestina? Mengapa kita menyebut mereka teroris?

"YOU take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother , bomb my country, ... I am to blame: I shot a rocket back."

~ sabbah's haitham blog

Jadi ingatlah Sabra dan Shatila, 16 September 1982.

“Where was the sun when anger burst at Sabra and Shatila? Where was I? At what party, careless, when I red the news? And where were you – you so eager to defend the oppressed – when the massacre happened? Where is the pride of men? Where were you my friend with the sleeping conscience?”

~ Sabra Y Chatila, An argentinean song by Alberto Cortez

Skygazing

Dini hari ini langit lumayan cerah, so I guess I'll stay awake till sun rises. Kepalaku yang dua hari ini dipenuhi pertanyaan to be or not to be, to do or not to do, rasanya perlu didinginkan.
Being an undecisive person, skygazing has always been a sweet escape to me...

A quick glance to the south.
Ada Fomalhaut, the Lonely Star. Atau Fum Al Hut yang artinya mouth of the fish. Salah satu dari dari empat penjaga surga menurut kepercayaan Persia kuno. Tiga koleganya yang lain adalah Aldebaran di Taurus, Antares di Scorpius, dan Regulus di Leo.
Ke arah kiri atas, Achernar. Akhir an Nahr atau River's End. Si Achernar adalah Alpha Eridani, bintang paling terang di rasinya, adalah akhir dari sungai mistik Eridanus, yang membentang dari kaki Orion di Utara sampai ke Selatan.


Formalhaut dan Achernar (dengan stellarium)

Masuk ke rumah dan keluar lewat pintu belakang, berdiri sendirian di backyard yang gelap menghadap ke northeastern sambil sedikit was-was ngelirik kanan kiri. Dalam hati berdoa semoga ngga ketemu tikus, ular, kecoak ataupun yang suka pake baju putih sambil melayang-layang...*glek!*
Damn, paranoid gara-gara kotak penghasil kuntilanak bernama tipi >.<

Ah, go away you scary thoughts! Shuh!

Sampai mana tadi?
O well, Up up in the sky, first we'll see the old moon, lagi bertamu ke Gemini ditemani oleh Pollux, Castor dan planet merah Mars. Di atasnya Aldebaran dapat terlihat jelas sebagai mata Taurus di Hyades, kepala Taurus yang berbentuk huruf V. Aldebaran atau Al Dabaran artinya adalah The Follower, karena Aldebaran selalu mengikuti Pleiades, bahu dari taurus sepanjang waktu. Pleiades atau the seven sisters, terlihat seperti konstelasi mini yang terdiri dari bintang-bintang yang umpek-umpekan, istilah jawanya. Si bintang tujuh ini disebut juga Kemukus oleh orang Jawa, karena bentuknya yang seperti asap. Berdesakan, dengan 6 bintang yang bisa dilihat dengan mata telanjang. Mereka adalah Alcyone, Asterope (Sterope), Celaeno, Electra, Maia dan Taygete. Plus Merope yang ngga terlihat mata telanjang karena diisukan menikah dengan seorang mortal bernama Sisyphus.
Wew, kayaknya jaman dulu cerita macam inpoteinmen udah ada >.<

Gosip lengkapnya bisa dilihat di sini.


Orion, Taurus (Pleiades & Hyades), Gemini, Auriga, Canis Major dan Canis Minor, Moon and Mars (dengan stellarium)

Okeh, balik ke jalan yang benar.

Ke arah timurnya ada Orion sang pemburu, setia terlihat setiap malam. Rasi bintang ketiga yang kukenali setelah Scorpio dan 'tea pot' sagitarius di langit sore. Orion hanya akan terbit jika scorpio tenggelam. Letaknya pun berseberangan. Katanya, Orion takut akan bisa si Scorpio, musuh bebuyutannya.
Paling jelas dikenali dari dua bintang terang, Betelgeuse (arabic yad Al Jauza : the female on of the middle) dan Rigel (arabic Rijl : kaki), dan tiga bintang di sabuknya, Mintaka, Alnitak ( the belt) dan Alnilam (the string of pearls). Sementara bahu orion ditandai dengan Bellatrix.


Orion Sang Pemburu

Orion atau Lintang Waluku ditemani oleh dua anjing, Canis Major dengan Sirius dan Canis Minor dengan Procyon.
Lebih ke kiri, di langit utara, satu bintang terang bernama Capella di rasi Auriga.



Twingkle twingkle little star
how I wonder what you are...

Ah, Moon -- and Star!

Ah, Moon -- and Star!
You are very far --
But were no one
Farther than you --
Do you think I'd stop
For a Firmament --
Or a Cubit -- or so?

I could borrow a Bonnet
Of the Lark --
And a Chamois' Silver Boot --
And a stirrup of an Antelope --
And be with you -- Tonight!

But, Moon, and Star,
Though you're very far --
There is one -- farther than you --
He -- is more than a firmament -- from Me --
So I can never go!
~ Emily Dickinson

Finally, malam telah berakhir. Benang kusut di kepala belum juga terurai.

Malingsial and Malaysians

When so many people from both sides, Malaysia and Indonesia, show their immaturity and shortsightedness, here is a rapper who knows the difference between Malingsial/Indonsial and Malaysians/Indonesians.


Copy My Style Again ~ Saykoji

You copy my style
You copy again
Apa plagiat di negara lo lagi ngetrend?
Ku tetap sabar tetap kau kuanggap friend
But sooner or later i gotta take my stand

Udah bolak balik sampe balik kebolak
Temen gue sampe keselek pas makan kolak
Lagi lagi berulang ulang terus terjadi
Tetangga bikin ulah lagi bikin sakit hati

Suka ngaku ngaku kagak malu malu
Punya indonesia di klaim satu satu
Apa memang kalian yang gak mampu mampu
Buat budaya sendiri efek gak ampuh ampuh

Baca rambu rambu, bangsaku berbudi luhur
Tapi usik terus, reputasi mu masuk kubur
Jujur gue bangga jujur gue bersyukur
Elo ngaku ngaku berarti progress lo mundur

Panas ku bertutur kreasi bicara
Walau sudah jelas identitas ku dijarah
Joe farizal aja bisa minta maap
Masa yang lain kagak nyadar kagak tanggap

You copy my style
You copy again
Apa plagiat di negara lo lagi ngetrend?
Ku tetap sabar tetap kau kuanggap friend
But sooner or later i gotta take my stand

Bukan mo sok nasionalis sombong mengangkat alis
Bukan mo sok gangster bukan sok sadis
Walau lagi ngetop bukan gue sok ngartis
Tapi bales pake lagu paling praktis

Marah marah di internet, udah pasaran
Ngomel ngomel di pasar kagak sabaran
Kaya cacing kepanasan jenggot kebakaran
Rasanya gatel pengen ngasih tamparan

Tapi gue orang nya cinta damai
Walau rasanya sulit untuk santai
Amunisi di samping nyiur melambai
Pakai musik rap ku siap membantai

Memang satu rumpun masih sama melayu
Tapi melayu saykoji keras dan gak kemayu
Selendang rocker ku agak mendayu
Tapi coba ajak gue battle rap ayuk!!

You copy my style
You copy again
Apa plagiat di negara lo lagi ngetrend?
Ku tetap sabar tetap kau kuanggap friend
But sooner or later i gotta take my stand

Salute to Saykoji!

And hatemongers, Stop bashing around.
Your words show the world who you really are.

Stop talking about war!

You know who's going to inherit the world? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other.

~Yuri Orlov, Lord of War

How to make the case for Israel and win

How to make the case for Israel and win (thanks to gabriel ash, again)

You need to understand just one principle:

The case for Israel is made of four propositions that should always be presented in the correct escalating order.

1.We rock
2.They suck
3.You suck
4.Everything sucks

Wait! One more thing :

5.Islam sucks

Wew. Should've tone down my sarcsm level this Ramadan.
-.-'

Ramadan Note

It's Ramadan! A holiest month for us muslim. A month for fasting, praying and giving. One whole month to recharge our faith and feed our soul.
And I've just learned from Velveteen Rabbi, that this year our Muslim holy month of Ramadan overlaps with the Jewish month of Elul.
Like Ramadan, Elul is also a month to reconnect with God.

We can never love our neighbour without knowing them. And it's nice to know that we have something in common.
It's time to start reaching out and learning about others. Looking for similarities rather than differences.

Happy fasting!
May we have a good and blessed Ramadan.

A Birthday Wish

I would love to meet this amazing man and give him a hug. But now, I just wish on August 16 he will be free from all chargers.
He has been pronounced guilty of assaulting a police officer who was demolishing a Palestinian house on July 22, 2007.

Guilty for what?
For saying "Very funny soldier? That the kids will be sleeping outside, that's funny?"?

Ezra Nawi and the laughing soldiers

August 14, a personal letter from Ezra:

This is not the first time that I stand trial for my beliefs. But it is the first time that they will probably be able to stop me.

I always knew that many people silently supported me, and that if I ever got into trouble they would stand behind me. This moment has come.

I have been harassed and targeted throughout the years, because I embody three elements which provoke bigotry in the Israeli society: I am a homosexual, I am a Mizrahi Jew, and I devote all my time to fighting for the human rights of Arab Palestinians.

I am a simple person. I did what my heart told me to do. Looking back, I know that what my friends and I have done is changing the harsh reality of the occupation in the whole area of south Hebron. I feel that now the Israeli authorities are punishing me on a personal level.

I would like to believe that my personal adversity will inspire and motivate individuals to actively oppose the occupation.

Thank you,

Ezra Nawi

In this sad sad world, we need more people like you..
Bless you, Ezra.

Cukuplah Karena Kita Sesama Manusia

Hidup terus berjalan.
Bagi keluarga Timothy McKay, Garth McEvoy, Evert Mokodompis dan korban bom JW Mariott/Ritz Carlton mungkin tidak semudah itu. Istri Evert bahkan baru saja melahirkan anak keduanya sehari setelah bom meledak.

Pagi ini aku tertegun membaca satu artikel di Tribun Kaltim. Judulnya Ightiyal dan Bom Bunuh Diri. Salah satu isi tulisan itu adalah :

Teror bom itu telah membuat Indonesia menangis. Menangis karena dengan aksi itu, citra Indonesia kembali masuk dalam kategori negara yang tidak aman. Menangis karena pecinta Manchester United kecewa berat karena jadwal laga Indonesia All Stars verus MU di Stadion Gelora Bung Karno dibatalkan. Umat Islam Indonesia juga ikut bersedih, karena aksi pelaku teror bom bunuh diri itu serta merta meninggalkan citra buruk umat Islam di mata dunia.

Juga disebutkan tentang MUI yang harus menunggu empat tahun (setelah Bom Bali I) untuk menyatakan fatwa haram untuk aksi bom bunuh diri. Fatwa tersebut dikeluarkan 10 November 2005.

Tanpa mengurangi makna dan maksud baik penulis, aku bertanya-tanya "Seegois apa kita ini?" Apakah Indonesia menangis karena telah jatuh lagi korban-korban tak bersalah, telah bertambah lagi anak-anak yatim atau piatu dan telah muncul lagi korban-korban luka yang mungkin akan cacat seumur hidup..... atau karena MU tidak jadi datang??? Mana yang lebih penting? Nyawa manusia atau citra?

Dan ketika aku membaca di tulisan tersebut tentang seorang Syeikh Sholih Al Fauzan di Arab Saudi yang menyatakan bahwa

Ightiyal (membunuh dengan rahasia dan sembunyi-sembunyi) dan perusakan (pada sumber-sumber pemerintahan di negeri kafir) adalah perkara yang tidak boleh. Karena akan menyebabkan kejelekan terhadap kaum muslimin dan menyebabkan pembunuhan dan pengungsian terhadap kaum muslimin, ini perkara yang tidak boleh

...aku mulai merasa sedikit mual.

Apakah segala sesuatu harus berputar di sekitar kita, kaum muslim?
Apakah tidak cukup alasannya karena semua manusia punya hak hidup yang sama?
The same flesh, bone, blood, heart and mind?

Beberapa hadis dari Nabi Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) yang sangat menekankan agar kita menjauhi kekerasan :

Deal gently with the people, and be not harsh; cheer them and condemn them not.

That person is nearest to God, who pardons, when he has someone in his power, one who would have injured him.

Assist your brother or sister Muslim, whether he be an oppressor or an oppressed. 'But how shall we do it when someone is an oppressor?' Muhammad said, 'Assisting an oppressor is by forbidding and withholding that person from oppression.'

The best jihad (lit. striving) is a just word before a tyrannical authority.

All God's creatures are His family; and he or she is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to God's creatures.

Faith is a restraint against all violence, let no Mu'min commit violence.

May Allah bless us with His love, and the love of those who love Him. May Allah fill our hearts with love.
Wallahu'alam bissawab. Only God knows the best.

Jakarta Meledak Lagi

What's the difference between a drone attack and a suicide bomber? Both use robots, and at the end of the day, both puppeteers get to go home to their families and act like nothing happened that day. Or act like something happened and proud of it.

Apa yang kalian inginkan?
Mengacaukan negeriku?
Tidak puas dengan pemilu?
Permainan kekuasaan?
Mengklaim satu kebenaran di atas yang lain?
Berperan menjadi Tuhan?

The circle of violence won't solve anything.
Whoever you are, you stupid and coward people who are trying to destroy my country, I pray your family won't suffer the same fate as the victims of the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton today.

Our deepest condolences.
Jakarta meledak lagi.
Indonesia menangis lagi.

Tikus, Cicak, Buaya, Manusia...

Pagi hari. Sambil ganti baju.

Aku : " Gimana dugemnya semalam? ^^ "
Dia : " Gitu deh.."
Aku : Sigh...
Aku : " Jadi ngurusin hanky pangky bisnis gitu sekarang ya..."
Dia : " Semalam akhirnya nyebut angka...."
Aku : " Haaa??? "
Dia : " Itu sih murah. Taun kemarin mintanya something point something billion. "
Aku : " Whaattt??? Terus? "
Dia : " Ya, ntar kuterusin ke bosku. "
Aku : " Terus?"
Dia : " Ya, terserah keputusan yang di atas. "
Aku : " That's it? Bakal dikasih? "
Dia : " Itu dia. Sebenernya kita ngga salah apa-apa. Cuma dipersulit aja. "
Aku : " Ngga bisa dilaporin ke KPK kah? "
Dia : " Hehehe, I wished. "
Aku : " Ngapain kita marah-marah sama anggota DPR atau jaksa korup...kalo ternyata yang terang-terangan di depan mata kita ngga bisa berbuat apa-apa. "
Dia : " Aku pasti bakal protes ke bos. Tapi bukan keputusanku hasil akhirnya. "
Aku : " Jadi selama ini bikin SIM ngga nembak, tilang ngga minta damai, nolak amplop dari supplier, nolak titipan...ada artinya ngga sih? "

Di sini aku salah. Maklum emosi. Mulailah dari yang kecil, mulailah dari diri sendiri...gitu kan?
Jadi pasti ada artinya. Walau saat ini rasanya tidak ada artinya...

Aku : " Mau gimana memutus lingkaran setan ini? Apa mereka yang minta-minta seperti itu padahal mereka digaji dengan uang rakyat ngga takut memberi makan anak-istrinya uang haram? "
Dia : " Lha mereka agamanya (tiiiiitttt).
Aku : " So? Semua agama ngga ada yang menghalalkan korupsi, suap, KKN... Itu yang korupsi banyak yang pake embel-embel haji. Kalo mereka minta 300 juta ke kantong mereka itu bukan masalah agamanya apa tapi orangnya gimana"
Dia : Sigh.
Aku : " Seperti memberi makan tikus..."
Dia : " Masih mending. Ngasih makan tikus ngga dosa. "

Siang hari. Via sms.

Aku : " Aya naon semalam? pake nulis status begitu, hun?"
Dia : " Ya soal permintaan orang-orang itu semalam. Perasaanku galau "
Dia : " Bos tadi pagi malah bilang 'bagus, kok cuma segitu'. Kok begini..."

Saat ini.
Sedih.
Marah.
Bingung.

Aku : " DAMN!!!!!"

Happy Voting, Indonesia!

It's voting day!
And it's too late to be a pessimist.
We can choose only the best of the worse.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Cartoon of The Day

By Carlos Latuff

Smile and Help

"Bassem" means smile.



"Ezra" means help.













Apa persamaan yang dimiliki Ezra dan Bassem? For me, they're both amazing human being.

Manusia suka mengkotak-kotakkan sesamanya.
Berdasarkan agama. Bangsa. Suku. Warna kulit. Status.
Padahal kita semua sama. Flesh and bone. Heart and mind.

Apa persamaan Ezra dan Bassem?
Keduanya percaya bahwa keadilan dan hak asasi manusia harus ditegakkan.
That humanity and justice shall prevail.
Keduanya mengorbankan diri mereka untuk itu.

Bassem tewas ketika melakukan protes damai menentang pembangunan tembok pemisah di Bil'in.
Ezra Nawi akan menjalani masa hukumannya 1 Juli besok.

Ketika sebagian dari kita masih sibuk mempermasalahkan perbedaan dan mengklaim superioritas, seorang Bassem yang muslim Palestina dan Ezra yang yahudi Israel membuktikan bahwa tingkat kemanusiaan tidaklah terkotak-kotak. That humanity IS universal. Shame on people who think it isn't.

Berikut adalah surat pribadi Ezra Nawi yang dimuat di The Nation.

Israel's Man of Conscience

My name is Ezra Nawi. I am a Jewish citizen of Israel.

I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.

Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.

After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I "provoke local residents."

This response reflects the culture of deceit that has taken over all official discourse relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After all, was I the one who poisoned and destroyed Palestinian water wells?

Was I the one who beat young Palestinian children?

Did I hit the elderly?

Did I poison the Palestinian residents' sheep?

Did I demolish homes and destroy tractors?

Did I block roads and restrict movement?

Was I the one who prevented people from connecting their homes to running water and electricity?

Did I forbid Palestinians from building homes?

Over the past eight years, I have seen with my own two eyes hundreds of abuses such as these and exposed them to the public--therefore I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.

Because I am a provoker, the police together with their allies have threatened me, beaten me and arrested me on numerous occasions. And when I continued to "provoke" them, they did not hesitate to out me as a gay man; indeed, they spread rumors among the Palestinians with whom I work that I have AIDS.

One of the reasons I have been singled out has to do with who I am. It is difficult to explain, but as a Mizrahi Jew (descended from Jewish communities in the Arab and Muslim world), a gay man and a plumber, I do not belong to the elite of Israeli society and do not fit the stereotype of the Israeli peacenik--namely, an intellectual Jew of Ashkenazi decent. Actually, the police officers who constantly arrest me and I are part of the same social strata. I was programmed like them, have a similar accent, know their jargon and our historical background is comparable. And yet, in their eyes I am on and for the other side, the Palestinian side.

This simple fact seems to disturb them so much that they have to vilify me; that is the only way their worldview will continue making sense. I threaten them precisely because I undermine the categories and stereotypes through which they understand the world.

But the policemen are only actors on this stage. The military, civil administration and the judicial system are all working with the police, and all of them together follow the commands of their masters, the Jewish settlers.

This unholy alliance is extremely dangerous, because for them the end--gaining full control of the Land of Israel--justifies the means. In order to advance this end they dehumanize the Palestinians; and because the Palestinians in their eyes are not human, everything is permitted. They can steal their land, demolish their homes, steal their water, imprison them for no reason and at times even kill them. In Hebrew we say damam mutar, taking their blood is permissible.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that the evil I confront every day in the West Bank could not have been carried out without the Israeli court system. Judge Eilata Ziskind not only mistakenly found me guilty but she instructed the court to invite a translator for the sentencing, as if I do not speak Hebrew; in her mind I, a Mizrahi Jew, am a Palestinian Arab--and Arabs are, almost by definition, guilty. My case is merely part of a pattern. All the crimes committed by the state and its proxies in the territories over the past four decades were made kosher by the Israeli courts. Therefore, the courts are just as much to blame for the ongoing cruelty.

Because I am a provoker the state subjects me to continuing harassment, and yet I have remained persistent. What strengthens me and gives me energy is the widespread and constant support I have always received from political allies. When I was beaten by settlers, when my car was stolen, when I was arrested, I never felt alone. I know that thousands of people, both in Israel and abroad, support what we in Ta'ayush (Jewish-Arab Partnership) are doing against the occupation.

"Ezra" in Hebrew means help, and I know that in times of trouble I can rely on my friends for help.

So, don't expect me to buy their lies. That Palestinians are terrorists. That Jews or Muslims or Christians are bad. That all Israelis are coldblooded occupiers. That women are being opressed in Islam.
That gay or bikini-clad women are ignorant people.



Jadi next time kalau ada yang mengatakan Palestina adalah masalah SARA, atau mendukung Boycott Israel adalah bodoh dan dangkal, aku hanya perlu mengingat Bassem dan Ezra. Dan yakin bahwa mereka tidak sendiri dalam perjuangan mereka.

We're all doing our part. I'm doing my teeny tiny little part by reminding you of Bassem and Ezra.


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