Condemn

I don’t always watch TV. But when I do, there’s always people fighting and upbraiding each other. Today I bumped into a scene where an ustad furiously damned a widow of his brother as blasphemer to ulama just because she’s against the renovation of her (ex)husband graveyard. Why do these people, whose voice are heard nation-wide, make such a haphazard speech? How can he quote scripture’s verses to justify his action and, even worse, to blame others? 

Please think wisely before you condemn others. You’re not Raqib & Atid who know exactly the good & bad deeds of human, are you? Unless your intention is to transfer pahala to the pertinent person, don’t easily judge others.

Don’t enjoy making people feel lowly, especially when it’s about something wherein there’s still much debate, e.g culture, religion, taste, and even money. People with revealing traditional dress are not always prostitutes, atheist are not the same as criminal, rockers don’t always love violence, and rich people aren’t always greedy.

Strangely, many people insult someone else but they still follow the update of the condemned person. If you think his life is unworthy, why must you keep an eye on him? If you think she's is wrong in almost everything, what makes you pay attention to every single move she makes? It's not useful for you, isn't it? It gives you nothing but torment, right? Otherwise, do you seek humor in others' foolishness? I think it's better to enjoy intellectual joke or maybe a little slapstick in comedy show and movie.

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Marriage

I've never been married so I don't know how it feels. I just have a decent hope about it. But again, I found cues that cause my fairytale image of marriage fallen apart and crushed to pieces.

In high school a friend of mine told me that marriage is just a formality. It's useful only to bear legal children. I thought it's an obscure thinking as a result of bad experience.

During college years, I met a girl who said that she would marry only to meet social expectation. It doesn't matter to live separately with her husband after that. She wants to raise a child in accordance to her idealism but she doesn't want anything to do with a husband. I thought it's because she never really fall in love.

But, some family movies/dramas, e.g. "Why Did I Get Married?", "Salaam Namaste", "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna", "Ohlala Spouses", etc. give me a real dark view about marriage. Love ends after the vow, or it may not end but divided with the other party, what if you meet your soulmate after you get married? Yea, the snowball keeps on spinning. There will be a lot more problems that turn marriage into some kind of trap.

We might argue that the filmmakers just dramatize the conflict. But how can we explain the divorces we see everyday in real life?

Just now a public figure bluntly talked in national television that the reason of his divorce was because of boredom. Well, he didn't exactly said the word "bored". He used some parables, i.e.:

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Etasia Tlatar

I visited Ekowisata Taman Air Tlatar yesterday. It is located in Kebonbimo Village - Boyolali, approximately 4 km northward from downtown. Tlatar for me is all about childhood memories. When I was a kid, I went there almost every weekend with my fam. At that time, my uncle officiated as Head of The Department of Fisheries in Boyolali and he was one of the founder of Tlatar itself. Hence, it’s easy for us to get in and out for free. We’re even allowed to go inside the fishpond owned by government, where not just anybody can enter. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we swam with fish there while the elders were enjoying meal in a hut. Who cares if we smell fishy. :p

The water is so clear and it’s fun to jump from one pond to another. Different pond might contain different kinds of fish. The most precious fish is koi, no doubt. Though we swam freely but we never once brought any fish home. That would be considered as stealing, right?

I also remember my uncle let me feed giant fish in indoor ponds. We hand the food right into their mouth. The way their mouth twitched our hands was so tickling. But it wouldn't stop us to do so.

Yesterday I was amazed by how much Tlatar has changed. There's so much improvement, both in quality and quantity of facilities. Initially, Tlatar became famous for its artesian springs. Now, there are additional attractions that gives it extra points. Some of them are pakecehan (water playground), restaurants, fishing pond, swimming pool, fish spa, woodball venue,  entrepreneurship and outbond facilities, natural laboratory and hidrological garden, etc. You can go around the 7-ha-area on foot or you can choose to ride horse. Therefore you can enjoy the fresh view of the surrounding.

Interesting, isn't it? So, why don't you give it a try?

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Oh, My Small Town...

I just had an interesting conversation with my friend. She is now learning to build a business in an industrial city of  East Java. She came home few days ago and shared me this story.

She said that the citizens there have a great enthusiasm into entrepreneurship. Along the highway in the city, you can find many independent businesses. Even in small alleys there will be a lot more home industries. If there are people who works as an employees, there's a big chance that they are from outside the region.

She compares it with social circumstances in our small town. We lack the interest to found our own business. Civil servant is still being a favorite occupation. That's why our economy is going nowhere. My town is as dull as a dead city. There's nothing big here, this town sleeps at 9 pm. Well, thanks to the certification for educators which have enlivened this town a little bit. People can spend more money after receiving additional revenue from government.

Still, there is distinct mindset between citizen of that industrial city and this small town. People there wouldn't mind to pay more for quality and prestige. But, here people will choose the cheapest goods they can find. There will be a fierce barganing over what's look a little expensive until the price gets as low as it can get. So, how do you expect there will be a signifcant growth of entrepreneurship if the market is not prospective?

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Global Trend

The global economic trend is now changing. When a couple decades ago the economy was driven by America and Europe, now it's slowly shifting to Asian domination. While western contries is now struggling to get through a storm of crisis, many Asian countries is swinging through it and remaining stable. Indonesia is one of those countries, with inflation rate of 4,3% in 2012. Yes, our financial stability is good, but we can't be viewed as Asian top economic leader yet.

Japan, as we already know, has been the giant power of Asia, but now they're no longer a single player. There are emergance of new powers in Asia, such as China, South Korea, and India.

With the policy to keep their currency weak, China is able to import affordable goods worldwide. American lobby (or some might call it "pressure") to raise CNY currency has been disregarded by Chinese government. It's good to know that a country could stand up for its vision despite all the pressures from outside.

Yes, I think vision is an important key for the development of a country. We can see South Korea for instance. It has guideline for a long-term development. In order to stimulate industrial advancement, the government facilitates labor-intensive entrepreneurs to change their business into heavy industry, such as production of cars and electronic devices. As you can see now, Korean manufactures has become a rising star, leading the global market. This program has also created many new chaebol (business conglomerates) in Korea.

Hallyu is not one night project either. South Korea gradually sent their artists abroad to learn from the world's best art schools. These emissaries has come back to generate a Korean culture wave across the universe. A wonderful work from a small country who has been destroyed by Japanese invasion and civil war some decades ago. FYI, South Korea got their independence day in the same year as Indonesia and look at the large gap between us now.

Side by side with the other Asian powers, India shouldn't be underestimated. I read a lot about their fast growing technology development. The capital of Karataka state, Bangalore, ranks as one of India's most prosperous and progressive cities and pace-setter in software development and IT industry. Dubbed as the Silicon Valley of India, it is moving boldly into the 21st century, propelled by some of the best and brightest technological and scientific minds in the world. This city has attracted the Indian youth -- whose parents immigated from India to fulfill American dream long time before -- to get back to their ancestors' land and create startup business there. The government fully support their homecoming by providing lifetime visa. Therefore, these "agents of change" wouldn't have difficulty to stay in India.

It got me thinking of the same characteristics between Indonesia and India. We share some similar social problems: population density, corruption, and poverty. But, why can't we follow their improvement?

Well, I think the basic need should be met first. It is proper education! You know what, according to the Learning Curve from Pearson education firm, Indonesia ranked 40 in terms of education system. Thus, we are classified in group 5 (at least one standard deviation BELOW the mean). The two education superpowers - Finland and South Korea - are followed by three other high-performing Asian education system: Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. You can read the full interesting report here. There's also an inspiring article from Yudhistira ANM Massardi about the education in Indonesia compared to Finland and South Korea.

I see the importance of building this country as a whole. It's good that some people are devoted to serve in micro-sector to help people individually. But we need not only curative and corrective action per person, we need prior plan to prevent, maintain, and improve the quality of life in the broader range of society. We need people who understand the "big picture" and start to work from there.

I really hope that it started with policy making. We should have strong vision for our education and business development. We could use more entrepreneurs, especially in the field of IT and science. Indonesia is a very promising market, you know. We have high amount of population and there's also high amount of opportunity to fulfiil their needs. If smart citizens are not encouraged to build this country, but pushed aside by selfish interest instead, where would this nation come to? Its downfall, I suppose.

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