HUMANKIND, in English

LONELY GIANT MANKIND'S FIRST STEP ON THE MOON

2011-09-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

Why they commemorate first man in the moon ( victory of humankind) less than nine eleven ( humankind's lost) ?

Fasten your seat belt!

2011-07-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Fasten your seat belt for this blessed fasting month!

For now on, hear no evil, see no evil talk no evil and even think no evil!

Happy Ramadhan for all muslimin and muslimah of the world!

THE EARTH, THE WORLDS

2011-07-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

The earth is one.Filled with endless worlds. World of you world of me and the rests.

EARTH'S SPEED

2011-07-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

The Earth spins so fast that someone standing at the Equator is traveling at about 1,000 miles an hour (1,600 km/hr).(NatGeo)

Man, we are supersonic here!

THE US DISASTERS

2011-05-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

I noticed that every attack by US military abroad always followed by natural disaster in the US.

This time Mississipiriver massive overflowed was following US attack in Pakistan. Last time attack on Libya followed almost immediately by tornadoes strike in South Carolina.

the news:

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2011/05/12/05130647/banjir.ancam.kilang.minyak

CLEBRATING THE DEATH OF OSAMA

2011-05-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

"We don't celebrate death" said Obama. But lo, they did in NYC.

Jesus son of Mary

2011-04-21T06:26:00.001-07:00

"So peace is on me
The day I was born,
The day that I die,
And the Day that I
Shall be raised up
To life (again)".

Mary 19:33

KHADAFFY AND SHAKESPEARE

2011-04-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

William Shakespeare April 26 1564- April 23 1616

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Khaddafy once said that he has valid evidences that Shakespeare was an Arab. If he's true Arab eloquence has enriched English since Shakespeare works influenced English significantly.

Here the story from AFP through The Jakarta Post 5 August 1989 edition:

SHAKESPEARE AN ARAB: QADDAFI

London ( AFP ): some literary critics have long tried to argue that Shakespeare plays were written by somebody else, but Libya’s remarkable leader Moamer Qadaffi is the first to conclude that the great English dramatist was an Arab.

Colonel Qaddafi is absolutely certain “ all the evidence shows that Shakespeare was an Arab , the son of a certain Sheikh Zubayr, according to a Durham amateur Radio enthusiast who pick up the revolutionary leader’s claim on Radio Tehran late Tuesday ( 2 August ) .

The BBC monitoring service heard it too. According to the Iranian Radio, Col. Qaddafi has decided after studying William Shakespeare works for some years that several references proved the playwright’s Arab origins.

Ronald Hall , a 54 year old gardener ( the amateur radio enthusiast ) employed by Durham Council City cited the radio as saying that Sheikh Zubayr’son was a plagiarist who ‘borrowed ‘ Arab fables and love stories. “ Othello and the starcrossed Romeo and Juliet “were among his main victims.

"This claim strikes me as being the most fantastic in the long line of a series of lunacies “ commented Levi Fox , director of Shakespeare Center at Stratford.

Dr. Fox sticks by the more conventional stories . William Shakespeare was born an Englishman in Statford in 1564 and died there in 1616 after a theatrical career in London. And neither Francis Bacon nor Christoper Marlowe, nor even some Elizabethan aristocrat penned Hamlet, let alone the son of a Sheikh.(AFP)

So Shakespeare was English pronunciation of Sheikh Zubayr, now it is left to the exciteds to further investigate the claim and the disturbeds to prove otherwise, the "lunacy" from almost 22 years ago.

The MOON and LUNA

2011-03-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Supermoon today? No wonder ( super) Lunacy is rising now, like starting another Iraq and and another Afganistan in Libya.

A RITE OF SOLITUDE TODAY IN BALI

2011-03-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

The world is grind to a halt today in Bali. For a new soul , for a new world.

Selamat Hari raya Nyepi.

EGYPT FOREVER

2011-02-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

photo courtesy Geo Project, Beirut, Lebanon.

Friday is good for persuading someone on the top to step down.

Viva Egypt!

TWO GARDENS

2011-02-04T00:12:00.000-08:00

Sharm el Sheik, Sinai by Google Earth

Egypt is prized possession of Islam in the South

Persia is prized possession in the North,

both are sometime refered as Ad Janatain, two Gardens

as in the Qur'an surah 55 verse 46:

"And for him who fears to stand before his Lord are two Gardens"

As explained in foot note no. 2419 of Holy Qur'an translated by Maulana Muhammad Ali :

The rewards of the righteous is plainly spoken of here as two Gardens i.e. a Garden in this life and a Garden in the Hereafter . The Garden in this life is the spiritual bliss which the righteous find here in the doing of good whereof gardens and rivers and fruits are symbols. But in this words they may also be a deeper reference here to the worldly qonquests which Muslims were promised, and support to this is lent by the words of a hadith which speaks of Saihan and Jaihan ( the two rivers of Persia) and Furat ( the Euphrates, which with the Tigris waters of Mesopotamia) and Nil ( the Nile, which waters Egypt) as being the rivers of paradise (Shahih Muslim, Hadith, by Imam Abu-l-Husain ibn Al- Hajjaj, vol. 2 p. 351/ .), the countries which form the valley of these four rivers being among the earliest qonquests of Islam, and remaining to this day Muslim lands under Muslims rule. Note further that it is always two gardens that are spoken of in the Holy Qur'an as outward symbols of prosperity and a happy
life, as the two gardens of prosperous Saba (Q 34:15), or the two gardens of the Christian nations ( Q 18:32).

from: "The Holy Qur'an", Arabic text, English Translation and Commentary ( revised edition) a translation by Maulana Muhammad Ali, seventh edition, published by Ahmadiyyah Anjuman Isha'at Islam Lahore, Inc. 1315 Kingsgate Rd. Colombus Ohio 43221 U.S.A 1991 ISBN# 0-913321-05-2

LAUGH UP !

2011-01-13T17:08:00.001-08:00

Laugh is the only way to stretch out your internal muscles,

like lung muscles, heart muscles, diapraghm muscles etc.

So laugh is not just an entertainment of your soul

but it's your basic phisycal necessity.

The importance of stretching was known

since thousands years ago

as India has been systemize stretching affair

with thing called

Yoga

So laugh up

even at a least funny joke.

SINGAPORE GO UNDERGROUND

2010-11-08T01:53:00.001-08:00

As if not wanted to be forgotten as methamorphing city, Singapore is finding it’s way of expansion bottom ward. Singapore is going underground now.

Here some example. At my second day of my recent visit there, I’ve decided to visit Esplanade Theatre. And I literally stopped by at MRT Station named Esplanade. But as I walked my way to my destination, walk after walk, through and through many shopping centres, still as underground as when I stepped down from my train, turn after turn and finally, there it was my stair to ascend above ground and I found myself in northern lobby of the theatre.

Wide passage with wide choice to buy or just passing by

Later I checked it on the maps. It was 500 meters long foot journey beneath. As long as that 500 meters the shopping malls that flanked my way never been absent except for some corridor that technically required so small opening that it is impossible to established shopping area there.

You can imagine how long it will take that “short walking trip” if I were a shopping monger or even just window shopping instead of just passed by ? Maybe even I could have just forgot my original destination at the last buy. On my way back I easily found much nearer station to depart. Map is helping, but sometime deceiving especially one with bigger scale.

Even when corridor become inevitably smaller, advertisements take place shopping place

A government's friendly persuasion to hire senior employee, but that's another story of Singapore

An escalator upway to final destination, not befit a great theatre but it is a relief anyway

Open air at last, is compassionating for above ground creature like me

Another hub MRT station cast the same amazement. At Gobhy Gaut MRT station you can keep underground out of the station to keep you from crossing the busy streets if you wanted it. And It went south and west as far as 300 to 500 meter away. Always shopping malls on both sides and always shopping arcades at ascension. And when you talk or ask about shopping mall in Singapore it is always no less than fine one. So I beginning to think if malls and shopping centers in Singapore will be continuously linked underground each other someday? If not by underground walking corridors it would be by MRT naturally? saptono 8 November 2010.

CURRENCY WAR?

2010-10-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Old Renminbi which once was globally despised

Well, it's not about overvalued Renminbi ( literally: people's currency) as the media suggest, but actually war between fixed rate monetary system , which is China's need, and floating rate system in which global capitalist life is depend on. But China is not Indonesia and Yuan is not rupiah, cannot be bullied as usually.This time western should beg not rob nor cheat to confucianist as Huntington foretold.

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/2010/0419-weekly/0419-oyuan-chi

G_20 ministry meeting being held in Gyieongju South Korea agreed to keep on using money valued by market, a word synonim with floating rate monetary system : http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2010/10/24/03344717/g-20.sepakat.hindari.perang.kurs.

BLUES AND ROCK N' ROLL

2010-10-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Everybody wants to sing blues but almost everyone wanted to be called rock n' roll singer.

INLEIDING VAN ATJEH door H.C. ZENTGRAAFF

2010-08-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

In de meeste verhalen over of uit den Atjeh-oorlog is zelden een goed woord over onze vijanden te vinden.

Bijna zonder uitzondering zijn de heldenrollen voor de onzen; de Atjehers die tegen ons vochten zijn ,,sloebers, vuilbuiken", althans gemeene verraders.

Er was een gering aantal fatsoenlijke Atjehers: zij die zich na weinig, of in 't geheel geen strijd, aan ons onderwierpen. Er waren nog verdienstelijker Atjehers: zij die in onzen dienst traden, en als het pas gaf voor geld nun eigen landgenooten verrieden. Over het ge-ringe aantal dergenen die uit respectabele overwegingen in onzen dienst traden kan hier worden gezwegen.

Voor hen die tegen ons vochten, was geen afkeuring scherp genoeg. Zij waren slecht en onbetrouwbaar, en wij altijd braaf en heldhaftig.

Het was in den grond dezelfde goedkoope eigenwaan als is gematerialiseerd in de figuren op de vier zijden der onsmakelijke ,,Sieges Saule" in de even onsmakelijke ,,Sieges Allee" te Berlijn. De vechtende Pruisen, daarop afgebeeld, zien er goed verzorgd uit, zoo niet keurig en een tikje welgedaan. Zelfs in het gewoel eener bestorming staan nun petten en helmen recht op de hoofden, en de uniformen zitten netjes. Zoo gaat het met menschen die voor eene rechtvaardige zaak vechten, en het d u s winnen.

De vijanden: Denen en Franschen, zien er slordig en haveloos uit, en een ziertje onbetrouwbaar. Vele Franschen hebben ingevallen wangen, weilicht door den honger, hetgeen dan zeer tegen hen zou pleiten. Het is duidelijk dat het ongelijk aan hunne zijde is, anders zouden zij wel beter gevoed en gekleed zijn.

Dezelfde goedkoope eigenwaan is voor vele schrijvers over Atjeh de basis hunner beschou-wingen. Erkend moet worden, dat juist de officieren en onderofficieren die het vinnigst den Atjeher hebben bestreden, een veel beter oordeel over hem hebben en hiervan meer-malen waardeerend getuigden. In hun mond was de uitdrukking ,,sloebers" niet meer dan een hartige verzamelnaam naar militairen aard, welke hun respect voor den vijand niet tekort deed.

De waarheid is: dat de Atjehers, mannen en vrouwen, in het algemeen schitterend hebben gevochten voor wat zij zagen als hun nationaal of religieus ideaal. Er is onder die strijders een zeer groot aantal mannen en vrouwen die de trots van elk volk zouden uitmaken; zij doen voor de schitterendste van onze oorlogsfiguren niet onder.

Er waren lafaards en verraders onder de Atjehers, en er waren ongeschikten en lafaards onder onze officieren en minderen, menschen met eene bijna pathalogische vrees voor den strijd. Doch wat zegt dit tegenover de overgroote meerderheid onzer officieren, dappere en onver-saagde mannen die den krijg voerden met beheerschten moed van het beste allooi?

Ons leger heeft de goedkoope trues van den eigenwaan en de smakelooze geringschatting van den vijand —• een vijand die ons meermalen geslagen heeft — niet noodig, en de pres-taties van dit Leger verliezen niets van hare waarde in het licht der waarheid. Integendeel Dat wij dit dappere en onversaagde volk met zijn prachtige vechtkwallteiten en weergaloozc doodsverachting overwonnen, is te danken aan de superieure eigenschappen onzer mannen aan de betere aanvoering, de discipline en de systematische training.

De jarenlange guerilla-oorlog is niet gewonnen door eene numerieke meerderheid onzei troepen; bijna altijd waren het kleine eenheden, zwakker dan de vijand, die successer behaalden, dank zij den moed en de vaardigheid onzer mannen die zelfs op het national* Atjehsche wapen bij uitnemendheid: de klewang, den vijand de baas waren.

Bovenal, onze troepen waren sterk door den heerlijken offensieven geest welke er is ingebrachi door mannen als Van Heutsz en Van Daalen en de in hunne school gevormde onderaanvoerders Het zou ook den kritischen snufFelaar moeilijk vallen, een voorbeeld te noemen van eer simpele brigade: hoogstens ee"n ,,baas" met achttlen karabijnen en klewangs, welke, naai behooren geleid en aangevoerd, niet steeds een sterkeren vijand, die het voorrecht dei verrassing had en de brigade onder de gunstigste omstandigheden besprong, met bebloed<>

Zoo, man tegen man, dikwijls: tegen meerdere vijanden, is door onze troepen gevochten en aan belde zijden zijn staaltjes van groote dapperheid en zelfopoffering getoond. Dan hebben wij voor den vijand geen denigreerende kwaliflcatles als: verraders en sloebers noodig. Integendeel, zij zouden de glorle onzer overwinning schaden, en grootonrechtdoei aan een dapperen tegenstander. A tout seigneur tout honneur!

Aan beide zijden is gehandeld zooals naar ieders opvatting in den oorlog gebruikelijk is en hij die niet waarheid en eerlljkheid wil schenden, wachte zich voor de hanteering eene dubbele moraal.

Ik heb in dit boek eenige episoden uit den Atjehkrijg behandeld; ik kon, dank zij de doo het Legerbestuur welwillend verleende vergunning, in de militaire archieven zeer belangrijl materiaal raadplegen. Verder won ik informatics in bij velen die in den krijg eene rol vai beteekenis speelden, en in Atjeh bij verschillende personen, ook Atjehers. Dit vooral leel mij van belang: ook den Atjeher eens te laten spreken over dezen krijg.

Zoo is er naar gestreefd, deze schetsen historischen grond te geven, en aan beide partijei recht te doen wedervaren. Er zit niet meer romantiek in dan in de gebeurtenissen welk er het onderwerp van uitmaken; alle opsmuk, elk offer aan de fantasie zou de geweldig realiteit slechts schaden.

Het scheen mij toe dat er, na allerlei brallende boekjes over Atjeh, behoefte bestond aa nuchtere verhalen, ontleend aan, en gebaseerd op de feiten, verhalen waarin ook de Atjehe krijgt waarop hij, zonder eenige reserve, recht heeft.

DE SCHRIJVER.

LA GRANDE ARCHE IS THE SOUL OF THE DEFENSE

2010-08-24T21:39:00.001-07:00

Johan Otto von Sprekelsen

the concept sketch

La Grande Arche is posing, at the prow of the Dȇfense, as a new symbol on the historical axis imagined by the 17 'century Le Notre, and the palace of the Louvre through the Arc de Triomphe at the Place d'Etoile, at the prestige of Paris. A work of Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, he was chosen by the President of the Republic of four project selection by an international jury chaired by Robert Lion after the conclusion of a major competition before MAINLY REALIZED by More than 400 participants.

A WINDOW ON THE WORLD

An open cube

A window on the world as a temporary pause on the Avenue

With an eye on the future

It is a triumphal arch modern.

To the glory of the triumph of Humanity

It is a symbol of hope in the future

People can meet freely.

Original text by the architect, Johan Otto von Spreckelsen

Idea:

An open cube

A window on the world

As a culmination Interim Avenue

With an eye on the future.

This is an "modern Arc de Triomphe" ,
the glory of the triumph of humanity,
is a symbol of hope-for future,
Or people can meet freely.

Here, under the Arc de Triomphe of man ,
people will come from the world
to know other people,
to learn what people have learned,
to know their languages,
customs, religions, arts and culture.

But especially for meet other people.
At the mere touch other people and nationalities,
barriers of feelings of incomprehension
that past centuries have created are destroyed.
The "Arc de Triomphe of man"
will be furthered reach out in all directions.

In approaching this arch,
we can find a large covered square
where you can mingle
with the other or others
and it is easy

From the discovery of each piece of the large complex.

In the inside and outdoors of the Arc de Triomphe of Man,
in the spaces protected and covered with glass plane which,
like moving clouds, seem to move slowly
over the people and their activities.

And among True plants and little fountains,
we have the opportunity to rest,
drink a cup of coffee,
conversation, play, walk,
take a look at all sorts of things ... ..

On the arch, you will find a garden
that has a suspended restaurant.
This latter exterior complex of Defense
towards the unmistakable near or far,
will receive a series of different proportions,
the largest edifice to the small meeting locations.

see the built project: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1116004

also : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/DefenseDusk.jpg

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

In the heart of the biggest business district in Europe, the designers of the Grande Arche will have succeeded in an audacious challenge: to make an architectural monument that is also an eminent example of business property development. This immense empty cube, whose central opening is as wide as the Champs Elysees, will provide more than 100.000 m2 of space for tertiary use. The walls of the Grande Arche, which will be faced with white Carrara marble, will each contain 35 floors in which nearly 5000 people will work every day. The base and roof of the building which were originally planned to be occupied by the Carrefour International de la Communication, contain large spaces suitable for exhibition and congresses. The Societe d'Economie Mixte Nationale Tete Defense, the development company, is planning to create, with its partners, facilities in the centre of this unique building that will emphasizes a vocation of culture for the general public.

From the esplanade of La Defense, one sees an enormous structure in the form of an open cube, with sides 110 metres long, surrounded by the office buildings designed by Jean-Pierre Buffi. The section, on the left, shows the different transport systems over which the Grande Arche is built: the French Railways track, tunnels for the metro and RER express metro, sections of the A 14 motorway. These various constraints explain why the cube has been aligned at about 6 degrees off the historic axis that runs from the Louvre.

further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arche

MOON ECLIPSE TODAY

2010-06-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Please look southeastern sky. 15 deegree up from horison. Moon Eclipse.

THE SMELL OF THE POOR AND THE SCENT OF THE RICHES

2010-06-25T03:03:00.000-07:00

Now I kow that the poor have smell and the riches have scent. This is not a cynical or communistic statements. This is a real physical perception. The day before I was in Singapore and I took my chance to prowl her in throughout. Through her SMRT ( Singapore Mass Rapid Transportation ) system which has attained an advance progress, and through walking galore and path that seem penetrate the whole down town of Singapore ( You walk and you find it that no access is denied for every pedestrian in Singapore).

Then there, I smell a kind of richness scent, just like scent of big cities in Europe and Australia and Saudi Arabia. Mixed of coffee and cigar scent plus many nice aroma I don't know the name yet.

Yes , Singapore as it looks and as it smelled is a major rich city now. Not like before. Not like my home city.

HAPPY WAICAK 2554

2010-05-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

The four Noble truths:1. All life is suffering, 2. The cause of suffering is desire,3. Thus , the end of desire is the end of suffering.
But how could you stop desire? The desire could be stopped by following “the Eightfold Path” which are : 1.right thought,2.right understanding, 3.right speech,4. right action,5. right livelihood, 6. right effort, 7.right concentration and 8. right contemplation . So man could escapes from suffering and find enlightment of perfect peace of mind.

FIXED RATE

2010-03-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

All of the world economic problems were just came out from one simple thing: the floating value of money of most of the world monetary system. China, Thailand and Malaysia and surprisingly Saudi Arabia consistently refused this so they became the winners. Indonesia always subdued because of it's seemingly eternal love affair with what so called this neoliberalism.

In the last days of his reign, Suharto tried hard to solve all problem by applyng fixed rate of IDR. But ironically all his "faithfull" economists opposed him harder, helped by the media. Eventually he must surrender to IMF rather than other things. This story is seldom told although it's very important. Had it been he won, Indonesia would be different by now.

Gold coin is forever:

http://wakalanusantara.com/detilurl/AS.pun.Akan.Gunakan.Kembali.Uang..Emas.dan.Perak/653/id

FOR THE DESPERATE DIETER

2010-03-02T23:22:00.000-08:00

A full good breakfast will encourage you to skip lunch.

A hardy breakfast incite excessed lunch.

PUBLIC SPACE AND TRANSPORT

2010-02-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

FOR A MORE SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE CITY

by: Enrique Penalosa Londono ,former mayor of Bogota,Columbia

With market economy we are not going to have income equality. But cities can do much to construct quality of life equally. First article in any Constitution states that all citizens are equal before the Law. Therefore, PUBLIC GOOD PREVAILS OVER PRIVATE INTEREST. Does anyone doubt that it is democratic to give priority to public transport in road space allocation?

Tell a 3 year old: “Watch out! A car!” And the child will jump in terror. And something more: We feel it is normal that children grow in terror of car. Cars are to children today, what wolves used to be to children in the Middle Ages. Is that the best we can do after 5000 years of urban history? The 20th Century will be remembered as a disastrous one in urban history.

The question is: Do we dare create a different, better city?

There will be 2 billion more inhabitants in Asian cities over the next 50 years. Over the next 50 years Asian cities will more than double their built area: Are they going to simply do more of the same?

A quality city can provide much joy. And it is a magical good, because its capacity to provide joy does not wear out. While criteria for design should be equality and happiness, that will yield the most competitive city as well.

Political pressures from car owners and other car related interests are so massive, that often it is forgotten that cities are for people, not for cars. Can we design a transport system without knowing what kind of city we want? A transport system tends to produce a kind of city and a city is a means to a way of life. Therefore the urban design and transport issue is the same: "How do we want to live?"

WHAT IS A GOOD CITY?

Beyond survival, happiness needs: We need: 1) to walk; 2) to be with people and 3) not to feel inferior. A city that is good for children, the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, is good for everybody else. A child can tell us what the ideal environment is for a happy whale or a happy gorilla; it is not so clear what the ideal environment is for a happy child. How would we create Jakarta if we had a magic wand? Be careful with the demands of the higher income groups: They rarely use the city. They only care for its roads, in order to drive from one private space to another. What is a sustainable city? Which is the most sustainable environment for a Galapagos iguana? For humans a “sustainable” habitat is the one most propitious for the realization of the human potential, for human happiness.

A city friendly to cars, or a city friendly to people?

COMPETITION FOR SPACE AND MONEY BETWEEN CARS AND PEOPLE

There are conflicts.

Polluting or clean, cars represent problems to urban quality of life. There is a competition for space and money between cars and people. Most of what destroys quality of life in modern cities results from trying to make more room for cars. Most of what provides joy and is memorable in a city are its pedestrian spaces. Cars are extremely recent in human history. When cars appeared we should have started to build a parallel road network: One for cars and the other exclusively pedestrian. Indonesian cities can still easily do it.Why not structure the Jakarta yet to be built around a pedestrian and bicycle street network hundreds or thousands of kilometers long? How would your quality of life improve with a 50 kilometer pedestrian and bicycle promenade a few blocks from your home?

SHOPPING MALLS ARE A SYMPTOM

When shopping malls replace public space as the meeting place for people, it is a symptom that a city is ill. Great cities do not have shopping malls. Their best shops always face public space. In every detail a good city must show respect for human dignity. Sidewalks are the most important element of a civilized city’s infrastructure.

Cars parked on sidewalks, or parking bays where there should be sidewalk, are symbols of inequality and lack of democracy. Quality sidewalks are a symbol that shows that citizens who walk are as important as those who have a car. Sidewalks are as integral to a transit system as the trains or the buses. Is public pedestrian space a frivolity in a developing country city facing many difficult challenges? It is during leisure time that income differences are felt. The least that a democratic society must offer is quality public pedestrian space. Most of what government at the national or local level do are MEANS to eventual wellbeing. Public pedestrian space is an END in itself. IT IS QUALITY OF LIFE ITSELF.

A GOOD CITY PROVIDES MANY FREE PLEASURES.

Tourism is a pedestrian activity. Transport is a peculiar problem: It gets worse as a society gets richer.(...…clearly a not sustainable model). Transport cannot be solved simply with money: It takes changes in our way of life. “Transport Policy” means: In Advanced city: How to reduce car use. In Developing country city: “How to facilitate car use”. Despite giant highways, Atlanta has more traffic jams every year. Solving traffic jams with more or bigger highways is like putting out a fire with gasoline. For traffic it is the same to double the number of cars, as to have the same cars do twice the distance. Neither New York nor any European city have an elevated highway through their core.

COUNTER-INTUITIVE TRUTHS:

The Earth circles around the sun. More road infrastructure brings about more traffic jams.

Montreal Commuting times:

1992: 62 minutes

2005: 76 minutes

Adam Smith’s market does not work for urban transport. What is good for the bee is not necessarily good for the beehive.

For the individual it may be logical to use the private car at peak hours. A contradiction between individual rationality and society’s rationality. Government must intervene.In developing country cities transport is clearly not a technical, but a political issue. Who benefits from the policies adopted? Which is the objective of our transport policy? Provide efficient mobility for all or minimize traffic jams for the higher income groups. Investments in infrastructure for reducing peak-hour traffic jams can be regressive. Government funds for roads in big cities compete with funds for schools, nurseries, parks, housing, libraries in those cities and rural areas.

HOW MUCH CAR IN A CITY SHOULD BE?

There is not a “natural” level of car use in a city.It is Government which determines, explicitly or implicitly, how much will the car be used.If there was more space for cars in New York or London, there would be more cars. If there was less space for cars, there would be less cars. A long time ago advanced cities such as Manhattan, London, Paris, or Zurich decided they would NOT build more road infrastructure in order to alleviate traffic jams. There are frequent traffic jams in Manhattan and nobody thinks that is a problem. If you are in a hurry, you take public transport. The challenge for a good city is to improve public transport and spaces for pedestrians an cyclists. Density is the most important element of good transport, regardless of whether we use trains, buses, taxis, bicycles or walk. In the best cities of the world a large majority of people uses public transport for their daily mobility.

BICYCLES ARE NOT A MINOR ISSUE

Wherever people use public transport, it is rarely out of love for the environment. Bogotá choose not to embark on a US $ 10 billion highways program proposed by JICA and instead decided to restrict car use and create quality public transport. Bicycles are not a minor issue. They are central to the good city of the future. All advanced world cities are trying to promote more bicycle use. Bicycles are not for the poor: Denmark and the Netherlands have a higher income per capita than the United States. And yet nearly 40 % of their population use the bicycle daily. A protected bicycle way is a symbol of democracy. It shows that a citizen on a $ 20 bicycle is equally important as one on a $ 20,000 car.

THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The only individual transport means to which most citizens in developing country cities is the bicycle. In all developing country cities more than half the population spends more than 10% of their income in transport. Quality sidewalks and protected bicycle paths are not cute architectural features: they are a right. Unless we believe that only those with access to a car have a right to safe individual mobility. Car use restrictions can include: Scarce parking as in New York; administrative restrictions by license plate numbers as Mexico or Sao Paulo; congestion charging such as London; or simply traffic jams…....which is wisest? Traffic jams are effective means to achieve: Public transport use -Density

Bogotá: CAR FREE DAY

Peak hour and Tag » (« Pico y Placa ») 93% population support

During 13 hours all citizens meet as equals in public transport, bicycles or walking. It builds community If car use is to be restricted, there must be good public transport. But trains are expensive for developing country cities. Investing in them looks first worldly but takes away resources from the poor. Upper income ladies in London, New York and Paris prefer buses to the subway.

TRANSMILENIO IN BOGOTA

TransMilenio today:

1,6 million passengers daily

84 kilometers of trunk lines.

510 kilometers of feeder lines.

27 kilometers per hour

20% of passengers are car owners

TransMilenio moves 43.000passengers/ kilometer/ hour direction that is more than most of the world subways, at a similar speed and a fraction of the cost. Bus Rapid Transit systems are also a symbol that show that public good prevails over private interest because road space is allocated first to public transport.

TransJakarta is a demonstration of political vision and courage.

Even 7 Colombian cities others than Bogotá are constructing BRTs (including Medellín which already has a subway).

Zurich is Europe’s richest city. Yet 60% of its population takes public transport every day and 20% walk or bicycle.

A billionaire in London does not mind riding public transport next to anyone. 92% of residents in central London, one of the world’s most expensive quarters, use public transport. Manhattan is probably the richest city in the world. Yet, more than 90% of its inhabitants do not own a car. They use public transport. And if they want to go the week-end to the beach or the countryside, they rent a car. Yet many upper middle class citizens of developing cities would not go near a bus or a subway.

In a truly advanced city, rich and poor are integrated as equals in many locations and activities:

Transport,sidewalks,bicycle-ways,libraries,parks,cultural activities. In terms of transport, a good city is not one with great highways but rather one where a child in a bicycle could go safely everywhere.

END.

This article is adopted from Mr. Penalosa presentation upon launching of busway system in Jakarta.

courtesy; E. Penalosa L.

ADVICE OF THE DAY

2010-02-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

Be bare footed to geoelctricify your body

COLOUR PIXEL IN BALI

2009-11-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

Another thing you would find in Bali which come abundantly is colour.

Wherever you go, whenever it is, color is in the air over there whether it's natural colour or acrylic one. A perpetual festival of colour

Funny thing was, that this only came into my attention after the era of digital camera. When you shot and you can check immediately whatever you shot on it LCD monitor.

In no time a conclusion emerge in my mind that colour was dominating over any other element of photography such background and light, here in Bali.

Maybe it was a mother nature bless or have something to do with ritual life of Balinese, but colour in Bali plentifully sprout. Every corner, every wall, every flower, every stone and of course every clothe people wear look as if they over new kind colour or composition of colour that would entertain the most hue ignorant eyes.

TA-NA-E-KA

2009-05-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

A story by Mary Whitebird (reviewed)

Ta-na-e-ka was a ritual performed among the Kaw Indians, a culture that has existed for hundreds of years. I learned many things about it as I read this story. It also gave me a little insight about what an Indian’s life in the Reservation is like. How this tribe gives equal treatments to men and women, unlike the other Indians at that time. Nor even their white sisters that had waited until 1920 before they allowed to vote by 19th Amendment of The US Constitution. ( The proposal of the amendment itself had to wait 42 years before adopted).
It reveals how logical the ritual is for the survival of the people living in hostile plains.
But I noticed in the story that this ritual was fading away within Indian Culture. The ritual is giving way to a more powerful culture in the Indian Reservation. They performed Ta-na-e-ka only in a symbolic way, unlike what they did before. Not all the Indian families are willing to do that. They have reduced the time of endurance from 18 days to five days. They also allowed the performer to wear a bathing suit instead of going naked. Indeed, they do not have many choices but to surrender to the new kind of survivability needed in this ever changing world.
Mary, the narrator of this story, is facing a choice between wild berry and milkshake. And she chose the latter. As youngster of the new generation and being at the age of decision, she had the tendency to look backward and forward in her life. At that time, when the story took place back in 1947, the young Indians living in The Reservation had to decide what kind of life they wanted to lead. It was obvious that they did not want to live in the reservation for the rest of their life. The writer’s cousin had decided to be an accountant, and she herself had fantasies that didn’t belong to her Indian heritage at all.
Inspite of all that, she still appreciated the Ta-na-e-ka. She defended it against her helper, Ernie, who ridiculed the ritual. She listened to Mrs. Richardson, her white teacher, when the latter said that a heritage should not to be looked down on and that it is worth preserving by performing it. The writer also mentioned that as a female she was allowed to undergo the ritual, unlike most other Indian tribes that exclude women. This fact seemed to have lead her later to make a research about equality for women.
As for her grandfather, Amos Deer Leg, although devoted to the tradition, he was fully aware of the changes of time. He wisely accepted Mary’s choice. He even called his grand daughter as “more alert.” The choice she had made, he think, showed that she knew how to exist in a modern world and that she would survive anywhere under any circumstances.

August 12, 2000


Song related : " Indian Reservation" by Paul Revere & The Raiders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMQbedCZj0

Hillary and BMW

2009-02-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

Did you noticed what Hillary ride during her first official trip to Indonesia as state secretary?
After she disembarked from her Air Force One Boeing 757 she continued her Journey with US Ambassador's car which was....... a BMW.
Why ...oh why ... A US Ambassador representing his whole country aspect ride a foreign car? To make thing worse it is happen at time when US motor car industries having great difficulty or even facing an imminent collapse.
That is I think some great faith in an ideology..... Liberalism

OUT OF THIN AIR

2008-10-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Sirs and Ladies,

Would you believe if I tell you that your money, since 1978, is as well as made of thin air?
Just read this, it is from National Geographic Magazine ,January 1993.
In an Article called: "The Power of Money" by Peter T. White and Charles O'Rear:

But where did the Fed get that hundred million dollars?
"We created it," a Fed official tells me. He means that anytime the central bank writes a check, so to speak, it creates money. "It's money that didn't exist before," he says.
Is there any limit on that?
'"No limit. Only the good judgment and the conscience of the responsible Federal Reserve people."
And where did they get this vast authority?
"It was delegated to them in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, based on the Constitution, Article I, Section 8. 'Congress shall have the power ... to coin money, regulate the value thereof. . . .' "

So no matter how hard you earned them , theoritically it could be reduced to be only as good as just papers anytime, and maybe even without proper warning.

Best regards,
Saptono,

see "shocking" thing: http://usawatchdog.com/bernanke-admits-printing-1-3-trillion-out-of-thin-air/

http://wakalanusantara.com/detilurl/Kehancuran.Sistem.Uang.Kertas.Segera.Dimulai/570

http://wakalanusantara.com/detilurl/Mengenal.Dinasti.Rothschild/586

Everything has it owns limit and the limit making debt of the USA is 14.3 trillion dollar and soon it will be reached and it seem would create global problems :

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2011/06/10/03024311/kreditor.as.makin.khawatir

" THE CAKAR AYAM"- INDONESIAN CHICKEN CLAW STRUCTURAL FLOATING FOUNDATION

2008-10-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

An aerial view of Cakar Ayam Construction that made 312,512 square meters of Apron in Passenger Terminal 1 in Soekarno Hatta International Airport. Later the Cakar Ayam Apron was added with another 564,000 sq m in Terminal 2 . Also built with Cakar Ayam System in the airport are 2 parallel runways ( each 60m by 3600m) Taxiways ( totalling 388,241 sqm) and also toll access road ( 4 lanes 17 km) built on swampy area and still serving well until now. The picture here show tubes were planted at place and were ready to receive slab. Photo was taken in November 11, 1986

Cakar Ayam Apron as shown near an aerobridge in terminal 1.

Two heavy equipments specially built for boring the earth (the right one ) and for putting in place the individual Cakar Ayam tube (the left one).

Two concrete tubes/pipes the kind which keep Cakar Ayam slab stiff. Notice how small are the rebars at top the tubes (only 12mm) . The watered holes were tubes that had been planted.

Picture above are steel reinforcement bar drawing of Cakar Ayam construction.

Photo below are new type Cakar Ayam with smaller and lighter steel tube called CAM ( Cakar Ayam Modification) applied in a toll road near Makassar recently ( finished 2008).

THE CAKAR AYAM STRUCTURE FOUNDATION
BY: RIJANTO P HADMODJO, former CEO OF CAKAR BUMI corp.

During the last decades many, new foundation system have been developed with various and sophisticated equipment: All of them have the same goal, i.e. more bearing capacity, quicker and easier to execute, more economical, as regard to the costs and less problems with the neighboring buildings. But very few, if any, deal with foundation system, which can solve the problems on soft soil without looking for hard layers .
The following system which I would like to bring forward is one that specially has been invented to meet the "soft soil problems". It is a simple method with a good bearing capacity, named by the inventor as. CAKAR AYAM (literally mean Chicken Claw) foundation.

This Cakar Ayam .foundation was invented by Prof .Dr. Ir Sedijatmo in 1961, when was constructing electric high-tension tower in the area of Ancol. At that time we (Indonesians) were preparing feverously the facilities for the Asian Games 1962.
The high-tension towers were be finished within a very short time, and would connect the electric-power station, in Tanjung Priok with the sport-venues, in Senayan.
Seven towers should be built in the Ancol area and only 2 were just finished, where the other 5 were to be completed within couple months
As all of us know the Ancol area at that time was a swampy area and it was very hard to make the foundation in the conventional way so he had to find out a new method quickly to overcome this problem.
On a bright morning he got an intelligent idea to build .the tower on a foundation consists of a concrete slab to which concrete pipes were fixed underneath monolitically, clawing in the earth. This idea comes soon to be realized and the Cakar Ayam Foundation was born.
The, calculation was made very roughly and we ( Cakar Bumi corp.) got a dimension of a slab and pipes two and half times heavier than we use to apply at the moment(now), but anyway this system is much cheaper and quicker to execute than the piling foundation used for the previous 2 towers.
With firm confidence that this system was the solution, the 5 towers were finished in due time and now we can still see ( them)

Since that time Prof. Sedijatmo is looking for a more exact and more economical computation-method and after passing various processes we now came to the dimension which more or less becomes a standard.
For those who is not familiar yet with this foundation system, the Following explanations. may be useful.

BASICALLY IS A FLOATING CONCRETE SLAB ACTS AS FOUNDATION

This Cakar Ayam foundation consists of a reinforced concrete slab of 10 to 15 inches thick depending on the construction that should be borne and the condition of the soil underneath.
Underneath the slab reinforced concrete pipes are monolithically fitted
With a distance between the axes of each pipe of 2 or 2,50 m, while the length of the pipe-varies between 1,50 to 3,50 m. The length of the pipe also depends on the load and the soil condition. The pipe diameter is 1,2Q m or 1,50 m and the thickness of the pipe is 8 cm.
The reinforcement (steel bars) for the pipe is single, while for the slab is double. Figure above gives a typical illustration. In principle, the Cakar Ayam foundation is applicable on the softest soil to the hardest soil, but according to our experience it is most economical if applied on soils with a bearing capacity of 1,5 to 3,5 ton/m2 although many times we also use for harder soils as it is still money saving. The basic idea of the Cakar Ayam foundation is utilizing the soil characteristic that is not or/not properly utilized by other types of foundation, namely the passive-soil pressure.
The (relatively) thin concrete slab is floating on the -soil and its stiffness is obtained through the pipes underneath and-the pipes stay vertical because of the passive-soil pressure (that prevail)in the soil. This combination makes the Slab and the pipes in the soil together a stiff construction that is not easy to bend.

If put above the soil it will be a very weak construction so if we compare this system with a slab with stiffening beams the latter has an internal stiffness above the soil which the Cakar Ayam foundation-has not, because as mentioned previously the Cakar Ayam foundation obtain her stiffness through the passive-soil pressure. It is clear that this will mean a reduction on volume of the reinforced concrete and is consequently more economical for the same bearing capacity.
We would like to ask your attention that the function of the pipes underneath the slab is not to support the slab as it is the case with a conventional “slab and beam construction ”, but is to stiffened the slab entirely instead.

The Cakar Ayam system foundation structure is patented in: Indonesia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and The USA.

Jakarta Indonesia, March 4, 1981

PS:
The Cakar Ayam have been applied in many and various building throughout Indonesia as well as the world.
The most noticeable are two runways ( each 3660mx60m )and Aprons at The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. And also the 14 km beautiful access toll road to the Airport which built almost entirely soft soil of swampy area and virtually "float" on them. And the road is named after the CAKAR AYAM inventor Prof Dr. Sedijatmo in honour of him.
After more than 2 decades of operation, the road is still the same as it was when first used despite yearly undue inundating cause of massive improper swamp landfill and reclamation venture just north a third length of the road.

A GREAT MOVER NATION

2008-09-28T08:33:00.001-07:00

The fifth most populous nations happened to be the greatest moving people. Twice a years a big chunks of people of Indonesian move about in an amazing scale. Both of them have a religious background although one of them has more social colour.

MOVEMENT ONE

At the end of Ramadhan in the feast of Aidl Fitr (but Aidl is already mean feast) 30 millions people live and work in cities and big cities all over Indonesia “going home” or "mudik" literary mean "upriverward bound" within a week time span. Yes, most Indonesian are what they called urbanist, mean that altough they live in cities but born in rural area or at least have strong root in hinterland. So at least once in a year they manage homeward bound. And nothing seem to be more appropriate time than in the end of Ramadhan month festivy and holidays since it is equal to Christmas in western countries. And it is only happen once a year within two weeks. So unevitably in that time the nation transportation infrastructures have to stand ultimate test. Main roads all over Java is Jammed. The newly renovated bridges have to trembled into its design limit capacities.
Passenger terminals both sea and air have to employ more garbage men to keep clean.
Railways and bus stations are always sold out week earlier. Airlines ticket are booked up prior months. Government efforst are focused on these occassion. But since it happen every year it seem that the officials are very skill in anticipating neccessary steps. And remember all these million people have to return again within a forthnight with the same feat of transportation.

MOVEMENT TWO

The other great movement starting to happen about thirty days after the last people coming back from mudik and it happen for other festival called Aidl Adha of Hajj pilgrimmage that takes place in Arafah near Makkah Saudi Arabia. Much less people travel than the first one above but go much further. More than two hundred thousand people travel more than ten thousand kilometers into foreign land with different climate and different way of life . It could have been more people to go had it not been limited by the Saudi Government in order to make stay in Makkah more comfortable accommodatting five millions people from all over the world. A pilgrimage who want to go have to be in two years waiting list with 20% advance payments before secure a travel seat.
It is like sending an army of 250 battalions into war over the ocean, but it have to be with a precertainty that all going home safely within two months return trips,because it has no age limit for the pilgrimmage and certainly they are not dispensable.
I went along with an eighty five years old women and she done well all along the harsh journey. And kids too. Only pregnant women in its latter stage is prohibited.
In earlier time they travelled by sea. Even then government acquired five big ships, actually ex cruising yachts, specially for this pilgrimmage events. Then enter big airplanes and then come even bigger. Jumbo jet is very apppropiate vessel for these Journeys that it seem designed for these. Even group of around 400 pilgrimmage flown by this kind of plane in a single direct flight become officially termed as klotter =kelompok terbang, or a flight group. And it is possible that the bigest passenger plane Airbus A 380 will join the rank soon.
To have 200 000 preconfirmed long haul tickets annualy is every airline company dream. These are a hundred millions dollar worths.
Saptono 7 October 2006.

further reading for hajj : http://www.informasihaji.com/ (bahasa Indonesia) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj and details at http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/H/hajj/

THE ANIMALS IN OUR HOUSE

2008-09-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Journal no 12
Do you still remember when the last time you were free from animals of our house?
Yes!. When you are away from home, of course. Please notice that I am using the word animals instead of pest, because I kind of admire each of them. Although I still regard some of them as disturbing agents
No matter where we live, we have to share our home with these damned little subversives. It seems that they come from any directions. They will fill the last niche of our house. They are airborne(mosquitoes and flies), go underground (rats and ants), wall creeper (lizard), slipping into anything (cockroach), over ceiling dweller (rats and termites) and so on . But wherever they are belong they are mastering the art of survival against counterinsurgency act of the original dweller ,us. Public Health experts have already informed us about lethal potential of the most vicious of these creatures, but we still have problem dealing with the less harmless one. Let’s look at them one by one.
Mosquitoes.
Lucky for the ones that share my house, because I am against using insecticide in my house since I believe that that will kill them once but will also killing us repeatedly. Insecticide, pesticide, herbicide should have common name : biocide!
So I fought them the ancient ways. With oiled plastic dinner plate, bed sweeper or even sometime with the empty hand. But they are very swift. Years have gone by since I tried to learn their evasive maneuver pattern by using a martial art method, but the ones I successfully killed are the ones fully laden with my blood or at the most, the bigger slower variant. Some time I wish there is some kind of micro guided missile ( maybe to be called nano sidewinder) available in the supermarket to shoot these bloodsuckers down.
Maybe if they are not leaving an itch on our skin while they’re sucking our blood and do not make a habit to have pleasure doing a jet-like noise in our ears, we would leave them alone.
Cockroaches :
Not really a disturbing creature, but psychologically a fearful one. They have evolved their shape into a flatten ellipse so they can go through any slightest opening in the house. Scientists found that they can survive weeks of starvation and resist high temperature and humidity . Their shape and dark color are deceiving. As mosquitoes move swiftly in the air ,these creature are very fast on the ground. Once they detect a danger they move rapidly that it takes a kungfu swiftness to hunt them down. When I had my own room, I used to wait for any of them to appear and I would start an all night hunt session. Making a small leisure out of hatred of them.
Rats:
I have noticed that they are two kind of rats in the house. One lives underground and the other over the ceiling. The latter is the cleaner one. Maybe one of them is called mice. The undergrounder are much less if you don’t have garden in your house. As swift as these guerilla mammal are, they are also very brainy. You can use your mouse trap only once to catch them. I had done an experiment about it. Every time I caught a mouse I change the trap .But after three traps go, these rodents had already recognized the pattern of my poor method . Having a cat to outsmart and hunt them is now only a legend.
I have a horrible memory about these mice. Once I trapped a medium size one. For a while I didn’t know what to do next. Should I put this Mickey into an exile? It sounded kind of respecting its animal right wise .But remembering its smartness, I was afraid he could find its way back home (its home?) or just smuggling into somebody else’s house. Or drowned it? which is by all means is very ruthless?
So I decided to kill it in gallant way, stab it in the heart while still in the trap. I used a blunt screwdriver to execute the untried prisoner. I stab once but it still looked fine. Twice three times, four times, five times . I don’t know how many times I stabbed that mouse before I finally finished it. Meanwhile I had noticed that despite his ugly tail this poor creature was actually very cute and his face expressed r a plea. O my Lord, what had I done ? I should have had blindfolded it first!
Snakes :
Once my house was between and empty lot full of shrubs. One day, I was just sitting by myself, lost in thoughts when a small black little snake crawled under my chair. I cried out in surprise, then I immediately grabbed a broom and as quick as I could I beat it repeatedly until I was sure of its death. Right after that I just regretted what I’ve done . Why had I killed it ? It was possibly not a dangerous snake. It was out of unfair human prejudice toward snakes that I killed it. Or is it simply a primitive feeling of territorial authority being violated by a threatening element of hostility? But, ironically, I did it again when I found another snake later.
Now what I have is a feeling of trying to live with those animals of our house and always ready to kill them if I have the chance . Ready to accept the feeling between to admire and to be embarrassed by them.
September 16, 2000.

THE DINOSAURS

2008-09-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Pasha, my youngest son of three brothers, has great interest in dinosaurs since he was three or four. Although it was a peculiar interest for a very young person, Pasha is just like any other normal kid his age, always cheerful and playful. It just amazed me that a very young person admire very old creature.
Pasha surprised me when he could distinguish many different kinds of Dinosaurs while I didn’t even know that Dinosaurs have many species. And that happened at the time when he couldn’t even read yet. He even has his favorite kind of dinosaurs, stegosaurus. He also knows all information about them. He knows how big a brontosaurus is or that a T. Rex is a fierce predator.
I don’ know how or when it has started. As long as I can remember, it was all in a sudden, when Pasha, he was four at that time, some day showed me a book which had pictures and explanations of every kind of dinosaurs in it. He asked me to read it for him. But instead of listening to what I read, he began to tell me the name of each kind of dinosaurs in the pictures. And he pronounced them right, as though he can read from the text, even the difficult ones like Archaeopteryx or Pterodactyl. Somebody must have read them for him before and he must have absorbed them fast.
His passion was furthermore fulfilled when a big hit movie called The Jurassic Park was playing at that time. Taking him to see the movie at the theater was impossible at that time because he couldn’t stand the horrifying sound system in the theater. So I asked him to watch the film at home, on the Laser disc version. At the beginning he was afraid to see it, but after his fear subdued and his curiosity won, he then watch the movie again and again. By doing that, he learned more about the dinosaurs, how it was discovered, how they walked, what they ate , and how they attacked their prey. He enjoyed every minute of the show. Since then, I tried to obtain any book about dinosaurs and miniatures or dolls of dinosaurs. Because he knew that I could draw, he often asked me to draw his favorite stegosaurus or brachiosaurus. I had never made any dinosaurs picture before, but I didn’t want to disappoint him, so, I tried my best to copy drawings of dinosaurs from the books. Although they weren’t all perfect, I was very satisfied when his eyes were shining in his happy face and when he tried to color my drawings.
Now Pasha is seven years old and can read. He has become more addicted to dinosaurs, although he also has interest in other things like airplanes and whales. He begins to ask about how to search and to dig dinosaurs bones, since he knows that dinosaurs were extinct millions of years ago.
I would be happy if someday he would decide to become an archeobiologist or palaentologist, because that has been his interest since his early life. And besides that, as far as I know, remains of dinosaurs has never been found here in Indonesia. So, we can put hope on his future.

August 5, 2000

HEARTS AND HANDS

2008-08-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

A review of a short story by O. Henry

The story took place somewhere in the eastern part of America and it happened in the 19th century. As a whole, it pictures what happened there at those time, especially to the people. As far as I can see it, the story is about a young lady who by chance met her long gone friend. At first glance, the boy looked like he’s a marshal, an occupation he had apparently never dreaming of.
This story also reveals the style of language and manner of a certain social class where the lady belonged at that time. It also shows how the people of the east felt about the west, which at that time was still a wild adventurous country.
The relationship of the people in this story is rather tricky, though. Was the young man, Mr. Easton, really a marshall as he was trying to make an impression of to Miss Fairchild, the lady ? He said: “I had to do something, money has a way of taking wing. You know it takes money to keep in step with our crowd in Washington.” If we compare his words with what he said just after that: "…. I saw this opening in the west , and …Well, a Marshall isn't quite as high a position as that of an ambassador…". This shows some inconsistency if he were really a Marshall.
However, the man whose hand was handcuffed with " the Marshall" didn’t give a definite explanation either. He said: “…but I see you know the Marshall here. If you'll ask him to speak a word for me when we get to the pen, he'll do it. It'll make things easier for me there. He's taking me to Leavenworth Prison. It's seven years for counterfeiting.”
So who was taken who to the prison ? Even after he said this to miss Fairchild:
“: Don't you worry about them miss, all Marshalls handcuff themselves to their prisoners to keep them from getting away. Mr. Easton know his business”, she should have gotten suspicious. And when she asked whether she will see Mr. Easton in Washington soon and got this answer: “Not soon I think, my carefree days are over, I fear…”, she just said: “I love the West.” with her eyes shining softly.
While the young man’s hand was handcuffed, the young lady’s heart was bondaged to her happy past. And most of all, it was the heart of the real Marshall that really showed kindness as he tried his best not to embarrass his prisoner.

Retold by saptono
July 22, 2000.

THE LAST LEAF

2008-08-12T03:16:00.000-07:00

A short story by O. Henry
When we enjoy the work of great artists, do we think about their life? According to historians, most great artists lived a miserable life before they could enjoy fame, some even die poor. And how about other thousands of artists who never even got near to success and becoming rich? This story gives us a picture of how real artists lived and started their career.
Sue and Johnsy, two young female painter artists from two different places, had agreed to share a studio and a life in a favorable quaint old Greenwich Village. The area was an artistic but not expensive part of New York City. Someday, Johnsy got pneumonia and she became very pessimistic about her condition. She counted down each day of her life by the fall each leaf of a tree outside her window. The doctor gave her a ten to one chance for survival. She thought, one day, that before dark, when the last leaf would fall, so would her life end.
But the solidarism among artists was beyond compare. There was another artist, Behrman, who lived in an apartment below them. Behrman seemed to be a failure in the art of painting, because he had already spent forty years of his life without any significant progress. When Sue told him about Johnsy's situation, he regretted Johnsy’s pessimistic way of thinking, but agreed to help her. Behrman had often posed as Sue's model in her studio, so, he knew Sue and Johnsy’s bedroom.. When Sue and Behrman went to the bedroom, they peered fearfully out the window and saw the last leaf on the Ivy vine that Johnsy was staring at..
The following morning, after a beating rain and gusts of wind throughout the night, Sue and Johnsy found there, against the brick wall outside their window, one single ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine. The last leaf that Johnsy thought would be her zero count. She thought that that last leaf will fall that day. But another morning arrived, and the leaf was still clinging bravely to the ivy tree.
Later, Johnsy began to realize that it was a sin to want to die. When the doctor came in, he told Sue that Johnsy’s chance to survive was an even fifty-fifty now and that they might win with good nursing. Unfortunately the doctor also told Sue about Behrman’s condition, which he considered to be in no hope.
Eventually, Sue and Johnsy came to know why he died. A lantern, still lighted, a ladder, scattered brushes and a palette with mixed green and yellow colors were found on the ground were telling enough of what brave action had taken place on that damp cold night. Behrman had painted his masterpiece on the brick wall, a single leaf, that was replacing the last leaf that fell that night, and had deceiving Johnsy's last count. A real last masterpiece! 

6 September 2000
reteller : Saptono

About :
O. Henry
Born as William Sidney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina USA in 1862.
He left for Texas at the age of 20 and work as bank teller in Austin then as a Journalist in Houston .
In 1898 he convicted of embezzlement as a bank teller and subsequently served a 3 year term in a prison. Mr. Porter then settled in New York City, and for the remainder of his days contributed short stories to the popular magazines of his time. Among his works are : The Gift of the Magi, The four Million , The Gentle Grafter and Options.
His stories, like two above ( in this blog), are characterized by colorful detail, keen wit, and great narrative skill. Their outstanding feature is the use of coincidence and ironic twist of circumstance to produce a surprise ending to the plot and leave a lingering questions to the readers. This well known American short storyteller died in 1910 at the age of 48.

LIES

2008-05-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

How many lies you can swallow?
Actually infinetely, I'm affraid!..............................................
Especially if you don't bother the truth.

How many lies they can tell you?
Apparently , just as much as you can swallow!
As long as you don't care much about the truth.

How long lies endure?
As long as you believe in them, of course
But some lies could see the Doomdays
If we let them be...

SaptonoMarch21,2003

BONO ON THE KAMPAR RIVER, THE LONGEST SURFING WAVE

2008-05-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe the river mouth of Kampar River (just 120 km Southwest of Singapore) in Riau Province in Sumatra Island in Indonesia could offer a longest surfing experience in the world because in this river there are a tidal wave that generate surfs upriverward which endure up to marathonic three hours compare with ordinary beach surf that last only 5 minutes dash at most . Just read this:

Under the pull of the full moon, giant tidal waves sweep 60 to 70 km up the Kampar River, from Ketam Island to Kuala Panduk village. The wave can reach 2 m high, rushing upriver for 3 hours before running out of steam. (See Sommerset Maugham's description of similar tidal wave in Borneo stories).
Often 6 or 7 consecutive waves appear like snake slithering up the river. The wave are low near the mouth and rear up as the river narrows. A fearsome roar and misty spray accompanies these "Bono" ( the local name for the wave) , and brave young men sometime "surf" them in small canoe, swept along at 10 knots (the locals called it bekudo Bono mean Bono Rodeo). The Bono can best be viewed from the riverbank at Teluk Meranti village, about 8 hours down the Kampar from Pangkalan Baru 20 km south of Pekan Baru ( Riau Provincial Capital ). There is a smaller Bono on the lower reaches of the Rokan River up from Bagan Siapi-api ( 300 km north west from mouth of the Kampar River). This Bono is consider the weaker female force while the larger one on the Kampar is male: the two are supposed to merge somewhere far inland. ( Kal Muller in : Sumatra, Indonesia Travel Guides: Periplus Editions, Berkeley Singapore, 1991)

Basic tips to get there:

First of all, be cautious, that there is a river with the same name in Malaysia. Don't mistake it.

It is in Indonesia instead.

Secondly, It is almost as directly as shown on google earth.

From Singapore ( a world hub airlines/no matter where you live, almost certain that there are direct flight over here) you can go hop to Batam Island just across the sea( 30 minutes, USD 10 one way , USD 15 return, twice hourly, 7.30am-7.30pm ). There are two destinations in Batam, Sekupang and Batu Ampar, pick the first. Upon arrival at ferry port ( Sekupang, Western Batam) you can ask just anybody for ferry bound eastcoast of Sumatra Island . Of course there are slim chance to find four star acommodation. Backpacking is recommended for the firster. Even it is wiser if you search and plan your itinerary first. Remember this is only the basic picture. There are lot of things to be prepared. And always remember that this is a full moon events only, so watch the night sky. And be aware that basically Bono is a giant wave that storming shallow waters (Kampar River while extremely wide = 6200m, at its mouth, is not navigable, means it's shallow. Probably this could explain the natural mechanism that lead to the existence of the Bono, combination of powerful tidal wave with shallow and wide river), so it is very dangerous. So it strictly for a professional to surf it and remember locals never "boat surf" at night. Even If you an expert, it advisable to start with weaker Bono at Kampar tributiaries like river Turip, river Serkap and River Kerumutan. And one thing, the water is chocolate brown instead of blue, so wear color accordingly.

maps of location of Bono:

http://afriyanto.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/bono/

http://zoelchan.multiply.com/journal/item/9

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungai_Kampar

http://azlankadir.blogdetik.com/index.php/2008/11/17/si-bono/

http://www.riauterkini.com/politik.php?arr=10653

http://lagulamaku.blogspot.com/2009/05/bono-pelalalawan.html ( with pictures)

http://blog.greenpeace.or.id/?p=433

A tower for Bono watching is to be built:

http://www.riaumandiri.net/rmn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2766:pemkab-akan-bangun-anjungan-teropong&catid=46:pelalawan&Itemid=67〈=in

Bono also flooding riverbanks regularly so as to give big help to local farmer :

http://202.146.5.33/utama/news/0503/14/133333.htm

Bono that swept away a speedboat named Tuakal and killed 14 in March 2005: http://www.kapanlagi.com/h/0000054798_print.html

http://202.146.5.33/utama/news/0503/14/133333.htm

Known similar phenomenon: Pororoca ( locals called it tupi guaranio=Big destructive locomotion) Amazon, Brazil

Cook Bay, Alaska

Fundy Bay Canada

Macareo, Venezuela http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKyYEXM5TM0

And now, no less than celebrated Rip Curl team tasted the Bono:

http://www.ripcurl.com/index.php?t2t9#popup-1

CAR'S WEIGH DOWN

2008-05-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

I just learn a disappointing fact that passenger cars, almost most of them, are using most of the energy generated by its engine, for moving just their dead weight. Some say two third of the energy. But I prefer to believe it is most of them since the average weight of private car are around two tons while the passenger they carry is 4 time 80 kg approximately.
While the technology to make much lighter vehicle is available since long time ago. Only aircraft and sport industry seem to applicate them.
Some experts don't believe that the weigh of the car is the only way to make car safe at higher speed.

Another major waste in world energy and major pollution source thinking that most of the passenger car are single driven ( only have one passenger) most of time.

ilustration: Tono

CHANGE

2008-04-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

Journal no. 9

Whenever we meet any such gloomy years
What can we do and what can we think of?
Look! I am not talking about monetary crises we are having now.
Probably we could never use our sensibility.
Just look at those unlimited tolerance!
Now, look at what they’ve done to us.
Not to mention everything we want to try or taste.
Everything, we know, is forbidden
It is up to us now
To decide on a new direction,
The direction of morality
January ,5 1998
Hoping on a happy and hopeful year.
Rewritten on August 12, 2000.
ilustration: Tono
( This was written as a reaction to the great crisis started at those time )

Saptono Istiawan SK

THE CLOTHES WE WEAR

2008-04-25T02:19:00.000-07:00

batik cloth patterned with dyed and undyed method by mean of waxing the undyed part

In October,2 2009 UNESCO have formally announce batik as Indonesia's legacy to the world heritage.

And behold ! Ye come to Us bare and alone as We create you for the first time......

(6The Cattle :94)

O ye children of Adam!

We have bestow raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be adornment to you,

But the raiment of righteousness

That is the best.

(7 the Heights : 26)

There is therein (enough provision) for thee not to go hungry

Nor to go naked.....

( 20 Ta Ha : 112)

Verses of The Koran Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Journal no.7

By Saptono Istiawan

I never stop wondering about what will happen, if by misfortune there are not enough clothes for us to wear. Unlike the other basic necessities like food, textile has never left man in any serious shortage of them. We do not know whether it is just luck or human effort, but maybe there is a kind of divine intervention to protect humankind from nakedness as quote by three verses of Al Qur'an above . Although man was born with nothing on him, man never naked afterwards. Nor even in his grave.
One man may spent hundreds of meters of textile throughout his life and that makes billions meters of them in the world in all ages. How many millions of meters of textile does man have to produce and distribute every year? It should be a very big industry now and countries are trying to have supremacy in this important industry. And as textile has become an intensive labor industry, in developing countries where labor is cheap, textile production is vastly becoming the most productive industry.
Saptono Istiawan SK, July 22, 2000

OURLADY SISTERLAND CALLED ACEH

2008-04-25T01:51:00.000-07:00

benteng (fort) Kuto Reh June,14 1904

We used to love her
We used to hate her
We used to praise her
We used to envy her
We used cheat her
We used to ignore her
We used to persuade her
We used to despise her
We used to help her
We used to rob her
Even we fight her
Everybody seems want her defeat
But now …. can we afford to lose her?
A forever truly braveland?
19 zulkaidah 1425 saptono

SOMETHING'S NOTHING

2008-04-25T01:08:00.001-07:00

Foreword: saptono
Goenawan Mohamad essay translation : saptono
illustrations: tono

Do you believe in something?
Or do you believe in nothing?
But...alas...,do nothingness really exist by its own right?
Or is it merely the absence of something?

When you find nothing,
You will probably missing something
But, when you find something
Would you ever miss nothingness?

Anyway, whichever you believe
It’s always amazing to learn how
“The something” and ”the nothing” interact.
Like zero and one in the binary system
That makes this internet works.
Like beautiful space created between Greek collonades
Like black stripes and white stripes in a zebra skin.
That deceives lion's keen eyes.
Like red stripes and white stripes of American flag
That elevate every spirit caught in its sight

But much more amazing is
How silence (the nothing)makes the words (the something)between them
Become more meaningful, as
Evenmore have its own meaning
Like some of us never realize before……..
as Goenawan Mohamad's essays said in Tempo Magazine December 11, 1976 titled:

THE SOUND OF SILENCE:

We probably need to learn the grammatical of silence. Maybe something is happening when words stop and a speechless situation suddenly mediating itself in a dialogue. At that point we are maybe become less alert or too heedless to catch the meaning.

Or, are we sensitive enough?
Communication is not always happen just because two mouths spray out words at each other.
There something Ivan Illich called as “The Eloquence of Silence”. “Words and sentences are made of silence that have more meaning than sound”, he wrote in his book :“Celebration of Awareness” . Few thinkers could portrayed such meaning with such clearness. Clearer than Illich. For him, language is a chord of silence with sounds the knots – as nodes in a Peruvian quipu, in which the empty spaces speak. If language is a wheel: the axles and the spokes are the spoken words, but what makes the whole wheel itself are the empty spaces lay between them.

“Meaningfulness pauses between sounds and expressions,” Illich said, ”become illuminated spots in an amazing emptiness, like electrons in atom, like planets in the solar system”.

Unfortunately we’re not always succeed to nod to the silence. We are even try to substitute it with a more noisy way instead. Like our fondness for the loudspeaker. We’ve been not only ignorant to the hush and muteness, we are even not sure that words can silently creeping out by themselves. …………………..
Actually, when words are part of a quietness, what will be heard are neither “an instruction” nor “a lecture”. As part of muteness, words is part of an inner process. Thus, they are part of our whole history of our personality. Words don’t just paste up in our lips, as so, we cannot expect them to stick up to another’s.

Because they are an integral parts of an action.

Goenawan Mohamad

Saptono Istiawan SK, June 3, 2001/November,25 2008

Goenawan Mohamad essay courtesy of majalah TEMPO

JOHN LENNON'S ECHOES

2008-04-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just few months ago, long after his uneventful death, I just realized that there was another version of "the_day_the_music_died" on December 8th 2000, a term mentioned in Don Mc Lean’s hits “American Pie”. The Day in the song was February 3, 1959 when a small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, and killed its pilot, and it's passengers Buddy Holly, Richy Valens and Big Bopper Richardson along with all of they great prowess on Rock and Roll Music. Wasn't it fit if the music that died also refer to John Lennon demise?

John Lennon, as we can hear from some of his works, felt obligated to loaded some of his songs with strong messages against injustice practices in this world. His voices of course have reached millions ears and minds and keep echoing through generations . He didn’t mind to mix art with politic as long for the benefit of peace of the world. Now every time I heard a new song from another new singer, I feel that the singer or the producer doesn’t give a damn of what happen in the real world. A song which reach millions people should touch current world issues, at least occasionally, not just entertaining personal emotion indulgences at all time.(illustration: Tono)

Saptono Istiawan

published in newsweek Oct 15 2007, see :

www.newsweek.com/id/47429/output/print - 10k

also see :

www.newsweek.com/id/44035/output/print about in nuclear armaments

Some of the songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpgataezz8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLTw_ouiLCQ&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLZhNs7M1oE

New theory of Lennon Murder :

http://english.kompas.com/read/2010/12/04/06401564/Was.John.Lennons.Murderer.A.CIA.Hitman-5

INDEED, YOU MUST HAVE DREAM, MART!

2008-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

by Saptono Istiawan
A Paraphrasing of "Dreams : The Genie Within"
By Edward Ziegler in Reader's Digest

While we are awake, our brain handling many task at one time, both automatically and consciously. Controlling each of our finger movements, sights, hearing, storing memory long and short and medium, speaking and many more. And most of them is thinking. Furthermore each of those tasks have several a sub task for instance : the eyesight they have controller in brain that adjust the lens, regulate lights that come in, interpreting the images.
Most of the people always think that when we are awake our brain do only one thing : think!
If it does, we don’t need dream, said Christoper Evans a psychologist and Jonathan Winson a neuroscientist who arrived separately in that conclusion. The human brain has an almost infinite ability to organize the information it captures. But it also need rest time to do things that is very hard to do for brain during awake.
Christoper Evans further said, base on his experience with a sleeping cormorant, that the need to dream is so vital virtually every warm blooded creature including human, accepts the jeopardy of sleep in exchange for its rewards. The very purpose of sleeps is dreams. The only mammal (warm blooded creature) not to go into rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleeps- the type of rest during which dreaming takes place, is the spiny ant eater of Australia. This creature’s forebrain is proportionately larger than any other mammal’s, including man’s.
Jonathan Winson sees in this oddity a clue to understanding the role that dreams play in our daily lives. He believes that the ant eater can get by without REM sleep because it dream while awake. That is to say, it uses its huge frontal lobe to organize new information while it remain fully alert and active. In contrast, all other warm blooded creatures have to wait for the onset of REM sleep for this essential mental housekeeping to take place.
If the brain have dream to help it works well . does the dream serve us well , regarding our nightmare? What the purpose of a bad dream ?
Both Evans and Winson agreed to say the dream serve us well. A practical example happen to famous inventors and other prominent figures like Martin Luther King, Elias Howe ,Friedrich August Kekule, Berttrand Russel etc. describing in this story.
We can added them with Joseph dream, although it was in a rather different case.

Saptono Istiawan SK

October 10, 2000


YOUR HEALTH IS IN THE KITCHEN

2008-03-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Journal no. 13

by: Saptono Istiawan SK

Are you familiar with names such as polyphenols, lycopene, allyl sulfides, sulforaphane, isoflavones, resveratrol, curcumin ? It’s unlikely that you are. But the host of the name bearer are part of your daily repast. Successively they are nutrients that contained in green tea, tomato, garlic, cauliflower, soy, red grape and turmeric (kunyit) which have beneficial effect of avoiding and fighting cancer. The first four could help inhibit the initiation of cancer, the last two are prevent it from growing progressively, and the remain may thwart cancerous cell from dividing itself which scientists regard as promotion phase. The list could be longer and maybe our scientists will eventually discover at every raw material of the common fresh food, nutrients that prevent or heal diseases. Man’s appetite and man’s nutrient need for health can neither go separately or go along just by chance. We can feel it especially at the kind of tropical and oriental cuisine that heavily depended on spices. In India, I’ve read months ago (in 1998), when onion was in short supply , it became a national issue, overshadowing India nuclear bomb test news at those time.
It was not until recently that doctors and pharmaceutical scientists from all over the world beginning to discover the beneficial effect of the ingredient contained by our particular daily meals.They started to “encroach” the kitchen for their scientific research object . For example : the research for fighting the various kind of cancer have lead them to the kitchen , such as mention above..
In their conclusion they suggest to consume them for a therapy. Rather than consume them in therapeutic way, why don’t we try to make a delicious receipt consist of
those things so we can consume them in much nicer way ? Isn’t it a strange coincidence that word resep ( a doctor prescriptions in bahasa Indonesia)) are used in almost the same way in drugstore and in the kitchen?
Eventually why didn’t we arrange our daily menu accordingly to our pharmaceutical needs ? On the old days maybe our ancestor did it by intuition like animal seeks their medication in herbs. A book I forgot the title and the author, mention “a calling from within”, which explain the reaction of our body when they are in short of an ingredients they immediately needed. The body then send a messages to the brain concerning the problem. Then we, the owner of the body, unconsciously wanting those ingredients which is in their brain registered as contained in a garlic for instance. Then in the lunch time we talk about ketoprak with garlic overdose. Maybe that’s why we always have meals problem in foreign land, the ingredients are almost the same everywhere but the registration in the brain are confused.
Unfortunately for a reason seem long enough to make a separate story, men don’t heed these “calling from within” anymore. Even most of the modern men don’t realize that this advantageous thing nature have given to us, is exist. Only in extreme case such as a pregnant women (nyidam) or when we are hungry as when we are fasting, we then obsessed by specific food in which actually contained ingredient we needing badly for a specific purpose within our body or the baby. And our smelling suddenly become much more sensitive as tough the nature encourage us to search it immediately.
So, if we can trained our sensitivity to detect any “messages from within our body” maybe we can keep our health all of our life without any doctor prescription.
Several days ago I bought several grams of pepper then I ground them and put them on my dinner table. Every time I ate meals that is proper to be peppered I peppered them rather overtly . And then suddenly I missed my stomach ache I suffered for weeks before.
My stomach and my mouth now feel better than as never before. I don’t know what kind of ingredient contained in those pepper that heal, but I have strong feeling “from within” that those are not just a coincidence. I just wait the scientists report for that matter.

Further Goer

A helvetian ( a Switzerlander), named Dr Guy-Claude Burger would had been agree with these, but he even went further and apparently have a seem wilder idea.

He presumed that this " calls from within" mentioned above, had been evolutionary detoriated when the first human cooked their meals.

Henceforth he suggested a rather unusual breakthrough to recover the value of " the calling from within".

He advise raw meal for whatever you eat or drinks.

He accussed that by cooking your meal you unintentionally block your built-in malnutrition detector in your body.

He called this ( eat raw meal) as instinctotherapy which he said could heal many degenerative sicknesses as well to prevent them. And later this raw diet is called anopsology.

For this he even found Centre National d"instinctotherapie.

Sadly saying, in 2001 he'd been sentenced 15 years in jail for pedophilia case by high court of sein Marne.

Saptono Istiawan

October 10, 2000. / March 27,2008

Sources: Newsweek Oct 2000 and an article by Noorca M. Massardi in Jakarta-Jakarta August, 21 1988 , www.antisectes.net/burger.htm

Curing experience with raw food:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/1307584ed23dc78e

STRAIT OF MALAKA

2008-03-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Letter to the Editor of NGM (not published)

by Saptono Istiawan

picture courtesy of google earth

The Strait of Malacca, Dark Passage, by Peter Gwin and John Stanmeyer.
National Geographic Magazine, October 2007.

Straits of Malacca, Suez Canal and Panama Canal are three sisters in importance of global maritime passage.
But straits of Malaka (as we spelled the name ) passages more ships than Suez and Panama canal combined ( according to wikipedia: in Malaka 50,000 ships, in Suez 18,000 ships and in Panama 14,000 ships passed in 2005), yet Malaka earned almost nothing from the ships passed, while the two cannals gets billions of US dollar annualy ( Suez got 3.246 billion USD last year and Panama around 750 hundreds millions USD).
So how can this straits maintain itself? Security is only one thing (to be maintained). There are others things like safety and environment issues need attentions to keep this hundreds of kilometer strait shipshape. Of course the government of Indonesia and Malaysia, did and do everything they can , separately or unitely to keep it passable, even though much of it is not for their own benefit. Apart from Singapore today and city of Malaka in its time, there are very view cities or even town, flourishes in both sides of the strait.

Peter Gwin has already noticed this paradox ( apparently subconciously) by mentioning Sumatra impoverished coastal village which "reap little of the vast wealth that passes through the strait" ( picture, page 142).
Piracy in the strait, as Peter mentioned in his story, can only be viewed as comparatively tiny natural effort to set-off this imbalancy although they are still morally wrong. We can compared it with the great piracy era in Caribean sea during the 16 th to 18 th century against strong and rich Spanish ships by her much weaker and poorer European rival kingdoms adventuring in the then new world. Only they did it out of enviness.

Just because the strait was built by nobody , nobody cannot charge nothing to nobody but because most of this important sea lane are in the territory of Indonesia and Malaysia the two governments and their people must bear all the burdens.
Maybe an international maritime convention is needed to be called specifically to discuss these matters and find a way to make it possible for Indonesia and Malaysia to be benefited by "the vast wealth that passes through the strait",or at least balancing up their responsibilities.

Thanks to Peter Gwin and John Stanmeyer for presenting this stark reality very clearly.

Saptono Istiawan

DAMAGED, DESTROYED AND LOST IN INDIAN OCEAN MEMORY

2008-01-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

by Saptono Istiawan

picture: courtesy of Metro TV

How can you measure something that so huge and is not really in front of you (even if it is, the matter won’t be easier), and is a disaster? To look up the numbers of casualty is seem the best. But how if the number became so unbelievable high to be believed? Almost four hundred kilometers of shoreline dotted with cities and towns and countless villages with hundred thousands people in Aceh were washed away and leveled down by twenty meter high of tidal wave along with their occupants. Beautiful places with beautiful names such Banda Aceh , Lhok Ngha, Meulaboh, Simeuleu, Calang have to face almost total obliterations. Tiny islands hopelessly sank.

Indian Ocean has been hardly ever mentioned in the world news compared to the Atlantic and the Pacific. Even to the much smaller Mediterranean sea. This time everybody in the world think that this ocean is a very ferocious giant. Has willingness and capability to claim hundreds thousands life in matter of minutes.
The twin disasters: earthquake and tsunami shows to the very eyes of the humankind how horrifying are the effect of their efficient sinister cooperation. Hundred thousands of people who have thought that they can easily escape the danger threat by an “ more ordinary” quake by simply run out into the street have suddenly facing another threat hidden behind, that only gave them seconds to realize and to react. Running was the best thing to do but it is so far from enough since the waters have a typhoon speed. And even it is as if the waters think that they need help from debris they carried away to perfect the damaged they spread. The high speed and thus with high kinetic energy trashes in the waters must have made a sure kill anyone who fell and drowned. The destruction will not be finished long after they leave. The scar will stay forever and the damage is in so many layers and must be undone one by one. The survivors only have minutes to feel lucky to be alive, before they have to face the reality of losing virtually everything they’ve once owned:family, house, properties and even safe place and safe future.

The average grim tale is like this. Any mother with more than two children when facing a coming tidal wave must decide quickly which child to be let loose. Even later, one hand must hold on to something and another kid must be let it go. And once this family separated the chance to unite again is slim. The waters not only moving fast. They are also murky. Not like the crystal clear wave smashing the beach. It is way out into the land. And along the way from the beach, the current take with it whatever stand in their way. Including mud and sands plus debris of wrecked houses, cars and even corpses.

Indeed the worst and strangest thing is to hope and to search their loving ones that lost. The saved ones were hanging between desperation and fading hope to get certain news of their lost ones. The space to search is so wide and the time available is so short as the faces of the death one was quickly melting into beyond recognition, if not have been mass buried unmarked. The grief is so overwhelming that almost made them immune to it. The only things that help them to face another day are brave and honest aids from the rest of the world and their own bravery.

THE FUTURE:
Bright days surely to come, but some big problems also
waiting.
1. The cities, towns, and villages must be cleaned to make relief and reconstructions effort goes easier. But this will include rotting bodies that must be search, evacuate and buried with the risk of get contaminated by the decaying corpse’s hostile germs. Not mentioning the relative who would not yet give up searching their lost loving ones.

2. There are hundred thousands of houses must be rebuilt in so short time and scores of damaged infra structures must be repaired. They required gargantuan money and labor. But with the all Indonesian helps plus world aids, these can be done in time. Question is how fast? And how enough is the money at hand? And what must be done to prepare the area for possibility of another kind of disaster?
3. The wounded must be healed and that include the wound of their heart, soul and mind. The future of the orphans left must be arranged quickly but carefully. Thank to the government have made right steps about these.

4. There must have a study to predict what would happen to a city or a town or villages that would certainly be under populated. Can they continue to work properly?

5. Even without these calamities, Acehnesse civilians are already face constant danger of being stuck between two ferocious Armed Forces which always alternately intimidated them not to support their opposite warrior.

Famous mass killings and burnings were reported. But the bloody hands that did them were never revealed.
Mass burials and scores of village full of widows and orphans were found. No one can predict whether this great tsunami only coupled their misery or the two armies are forced to seek a truce eventually. Will the politicians who control them take this chance?

Saptono Istiawan SK IAI 8 Jan 2005. 18 August 2005.26March 2006/23Febr 2007,20 Maret 2007

THE MATRIX, MACHINE CREATED DREAM CONTROL MACHINE

2008-01-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

Dream ! Not daydreaming. But what difference do they make?
For Wachowski Brothers they both a resource of a real success.
With a little help from the Information Technology.

Journal no 10
Review of the movie:
THE MATRIX
(www.whatisthematrix.com)
( a Warner Brothers production)
between virtual and reality

a review by Saptono Istiawan
The earth at the end part of the 22nd century has become a desert globe. A classical scheme of the futurist about the end of humankind is the Armageddon, a stalemate between two opponents. But this time the contenders are rather different. It’s between humankind and their own creation: the Artificial Intelligence, the AI.

Beyond their suspicion, man had developed Artificial Intelligence, computer programs that work like a human brain, to the point where they cannot control them anymore. The AI machines have developed their own personalities, equipped with ambitions. And eventually they have decided to put their future in their own hands. They organized themselves and finally they challenged their creators. And they are on the edge.

In the last effort to overcome their rebellious creation, humans burned the sky in the hope that those AI machines become paralyzed out of their last energy resource: the sun. The remaining humans of the destroyed civilization made their refuge near the earth core, where they can obtain warmth from the last existing energy there and built their last city: Zion.

But they are miscalculated. After the sun was destroyed, they saw that their enemy had found a substitution for their source of energy: the bio energy generated from the human body itself. The now all powerful AI had captured, cultivated and recycled billions of human individuals, into an almost endless cultivation field. Humans were not born anymore, they are planted for breeding. The bio energy released by billions of human bodies were absorbed by the AI machine, while their consciousness was taken into a multi perception interactive program called the MATRIX. Man’s body was in a vegetable state and put into some kind of capsule, and their minds were put into a controlled dream simulating the late 20th century world. They were like being in video games, but the perceptions manipulated were not just their sight and hearing, but all five senses. This total perceptive manipulation is provided by the MATRIX.

Besides being interactive, this program is also interconnected. Maybe the MATRIX is the third or fourth dimensional form of the NET (our Internet today), just like a cube is the third dimensional geometric form of a square..

Nebuchadnezzar, a real ship ( apparently a submarine) built in America in 2069 AD, made her defiant voyage against the MATRIX around 2199 AD. Her commander, Morpheus, believed that there should be one among billions in the now virtualized world who had the capability of liberating humankind from this digital perception life. The savior is found in Thomas Andersen, a hacker in the virtual world with a pseudonym: Neo.

As a hacker, Neo had this disturbing feeling that his and the world’s life is being controlled by a powerful system. He doesn’t know what it is but he can feel it clearly.

Eventually, as John met Messiah long time before, Morpheus met Neo. And, after rescuing Neo from his virtual world, Morpheus explained and showed what happened to the real world and to mankind. Morpheus asked Neo to fight and destroy the MATRIX to liberate humankind from their bondage. Neo accepted and started his mission by challenging the Agent, a virtual FBI representing the authority inside the MATRIX. They also act as guardians and supervisors in the MATRIX virtual world.
Morpheus was sure that Neo could defeat them because Neo is real while they are only virtual.

Neo didn’t have to look out for them because they had already started hunting him. The agents know about the connection between Neo and Morpheus. By finding Neo they hope they can capture Morphoeus, in whose hand is the key password of the mainframe of the computer system of Zion, the last bastion of humankind.
If Morpheus and Neo, on one side, believe that the real world is still the best world, while the agents, on the other side, believe that the virtual world is best for humankind, how about the opinion in between them?
Cypher, a real world man, one of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, is tired of living a spartan life in this ship. He then betrayed Morpheus by hijacking the cyber control of Nebuchadnezzar. He also killed some of his fellowmen wandering in cyber world fighting the MATRIX.

However, at the threshold of his victory, Neo has decided not to destroy the MATRIX. He decided to let the cultivated human kind remain within the MATRIX, rather than letting them become in a state of chaos. Did the value of truth shift within the struggle for it?

The story in this movie is full of ironies and it looks as tough it is based on irony. Nebuchadnezzar, the ship that tried to protect Zion, was actually the name of the king of Babylon, who in 586 BC ordered his troops to destroy Zion along with the city of Jerusalem. The biggest irony was that at the first place, mankind depended on their machines to survive, but later on, those machines, the AI, reversed the roles and made use of the human body for their survival.
For those who believe in God, maybe it can be assumed that this real world now is virtual, compare to the hereafter.

Saptono Istiawan SK IAI

August 19, 2000

DOUBLE SAYING

2008-01-13T04:23:00.000-08:00

by Saptono Istiawan

picture by Saptono

Repeated word are a unique from Bahasa Indonesia. It is one of many ways to make a singular noun plural , like : Ulang is to repeat . (ber) ulang-ulang are again and again . Tulang is a bone. Tulang-tulang are bones.
Anak is a child and anak-anak are children.
But be careful ! Amazingly, repetition could change the meaning of a word unexpectedly different. Watch this! Mata is an eye, but mata-mata are not the eyes, but a spy instead.
Others are:
Laba is profit but laba-laba is a spider. But of course laba-laba could always mean profits but it seldom said because we seldom says profits. Lumba from lomba is a race lumba-lumba is a porpoise, or a dolphin. Berang is in an anger, berang-berang is Otter. Langit is the sky , langit-langit is a ceiling and also upper part of our mouth cavity (soft palate) . Hati is a heart or literally, a liver. Hati-hati is careful or be cautious. Timang is to hold a baby. Timang-timang is a lullaby. Gula is sugar , gula-gula is candy , but it seldom used now. It is permen instead, from peppermint. But sometime gula–gula is, understandably, mean a mistress! Abu is cinder . Abu-abu is grey. Now do you remember the color of cinder?
Otak is brain . Otak-otak is a delicacy made of local fish origin to Palembang , South Sumatra. Ulung is superior . Ulung-ulung is a sea eagle. Untung is lucky, untung-untung(an) is to bet with nothing at stake. Kuda is a horse. Kuda-kuda is a main part of a roof structure, usually has triangle form. Minta is to ask . minta-minta is begging.
Tiba is to arrive . Tiba-tiba is suddenly.
Guna is (to) use but guna guna is magic spellcraft.
Undang is ( to) invite, undang-undang is constitution.

Some repetition change the meaning of a word into a more complex sense but usually colloquial like : Jangan is don’t. Jangan-jangan , is “it could be even worse, but I hope it is not” or “could be beyond our expectation”. Tahu is to know. Tahu-tahu is “for all we know”. Bisa is capable and also venom . Bisa-bisa is “it could be”. But if you ad with “nya”- bisa-bisanya (dia) the meaning become “how manipulating is he or she!” or “it depend on how she or he manipulate it” or even “how thoughtlessly he or she (to do something)”. All depend on the context, tone and intonation.

Some repeated words aren’t really repeated. It’s already intrinsically repeated like:
Kupu-kupu is a butterfly, there isn’t any word like kupu. So butterflies are : kupu-kupu-kupu-kupu. A four times repeat, really!
Kura-kura is a turtle. There is no kura. Alap-alap is a falcon. There’s no alap also
Ubur-ubur is a jelly fish . and Lobi-lobi is a fruit similar in shape to blackberry. Alun-alun is town square.

Sometime repeated word are emphasizing a mean like :
Ujung is end ujung-ujung(nya) , a colloquial, is eventually.

Dalam is deep. Dalam-dalam is deep down.

In the other time it do the other way. It is to soften a mean or give a softer meaning like
Malu is ashamed, malu-malu is shy. But if you ad affix “in”,malu-malu-in it become embarrassing . Ragu is in a doubt. Ragu-ragu is doubtful. Lari is to run. Lari-lari is a little run.
Repeating word also use as to show order like: satu is one. Satu-satu is one by one. Tiga is three. Tiga-tiga is rank three in file.

Also sometime word are irrelevantly repeated like: Pura is a shrine, or a temple. Pura-pura , is to pretend. Maybe because they are come from different root.
Bau is smell. Bau-bau is a name of a town in an island near Sulawesi.

And sometime it doesn’t make any different at all whether you repeated it or not, like : anting and anting-anting, both are earrings. And there are other dozens repeated words in Bahasa`Indonesia.

So, the other time you must say a repeated word in Bahasa Indonesia , hati-hati! Be careful, or probably you could have say what you don’t mean!

Saptono Istiawan SK IAI 2 April 2004/23Juli 2003/22 March 2008

GLOSSARRY THAT MAYBE USEFUL

2008-01-13T04:19:00.000-08:00

These are words even Indonesian are not very familiar to.

compiled by Saptono Istiawan

abstracted= tersarikan
absurd=mokal
Accomplish= mustaid
agile= jeraus/langkas
appetizer= perabung
Approximately= kisaran
Architect= Pangripta
Architecture= Wastu Citra
aspect= gatra
attic=pagu
basic= mudasir
benefit= manfaat
blister= lepuh
certain= niscaya, karuan
conjugation= tasrif
consequence=runtut
counter= gerai
deadline= tenggat
definition= ta’rif
description = pemerian
dimension= matra
disappointment= tenahak
disclose= terdedah
distorted= terpiuh
effective= mangkus
efficient= sangkil
ejected=terkinjat
endure=manda
ethic= adab
exposed= terpapar
fault=sesar (geografi)
feasibility study= tela’ah keterlaksanaan
fillet=larikan
Fluid= zair/zat cair
force= kakas
goal= ancas
Grammatik= nahwu
group band= kugiran
heat= bahang
immediately= taajul
impose= wingit
internal consistency=kepanggahan dakhil
introspection=mawas
items=kalikausar
kebas= mati rasa
knob=kenup
list= senarai/daftar
loop= simpal
loose = galir
mangkus = manjur
misinterpretation= luncas tafsir
modest= ugahari
naked= urian/bugil
network: jaringan. jejala
new comer= pancakan
normal= renjang
nozzle= cerat
one way= jalan sehala
oplag(belanda)= tiras
orders of magnitude= urutan kepentingan
paging= seranta
parsimony= kehematan
pewaka(ind.)= api
Physical= ragawi
pixel= santiran
plot= sangit
prejudice= waham/tuhnah
pure= tahir
rack=para-para
rational deduction= nalar menjabar
relevant=gayut/penad
rhyme= arudal
risk= mudarat
scanning= payaran
science=mualamat
seminar= halkah
sense of belonging= handarbeni
shock= renjatan
showbiz=blantika
simplicity= keratahan
slipper=kasut
sophisticated= piawai/canggih
stepping stone= pancalan
superimpose= sulaya
suspension= perangitan
sustained= daim
Symptom= padahan
synonym= muradif
system= tata’an
target= lesan
texture= barik
to challenge= mencabar
to distinct= menyila
to explore= meramba
to filter= menafis
to generalize= merampatkan
to lift= menuas
to select= pilah
to sponsor= menajai
to trace=merunut
toast= sulang
vague= gabak
variant= perambang
whole=antero

Muhammad mengatakan...

Bung Tono,
Bagaimana kalo ARCHITECT disamakan dengan PANRITA atau PANGRIPTA?
ARCHITECTURE saya blm dapat padanannya.

Salam,
Amry

22 Mei 2008 00.38

saptono istiawan sk mengatakan...

Ok terima kasih atas masukannya.

22 Juni 2008 21.28

GOLD VOICE

2008-01-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

Lilis Surjani passed away on October 7, 2007 at 59. She had a very beautiful voice and she sang terrificly. That's why you can see much obituari for her in various Indonesian and Malaysian blogs and websites.
She was beloved by almost all the people there especially during the Sukarno era.
She was also a song writer, wrote many songs she sang herself.
Her mild , full in airpipe and nasal voice, still ringing in my ears. Hope there are more Lilis will be born.
.

This eight years old essay immediately remind me of her as I heard the sad news, in fact I thought of her voice, among other things,when I wrote this.
May she is within compassion of Allah,the Most Compassionate One.

By Saptono Istiawan
The world is waiting for a real singer now. It‘s been a long long time now since we could find a singer who can really sing and who has a really beautiful voice. We almost forget the time when on every weekend we can hear new songs, sang by well-known singers or newcomers with beautiful voices. Those weekends were the time when a new star was born.
Now , in my opinion, the stars are made. Everyday we can see singers sing and dance on the television screen. Many of them can sing properly but most of them have a voice that is not much better than ours. They became well known singers just because we see them everyday on TV or we hear about them every hour on the radio. They are all we can have nowadays.
We need to hear a beautiful voice just like we need to smell the fragrance of perfume or the tenderness of a touch. We can be perfectly alright without them, but we need them for the nourishment of our soul. It is like eating delicious fruit. It is like seeing precious gems. They are like the Glimpses of heaven that linger on our mind, ready to be recalled at any time of our life.
But what happen to the gold voices now? Where did all the good sounds hide? The world needs to be more patient. Someday, we can share them again. Sometime, somehow.

if you want to hear how beautiful was Lilis Surjani' voice click:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4XZybG0AEA

Saptono Istiawan SK July21, 2000
journal no.6

SPOPTLIGHT ON EMMY HAFILD

2008-01-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

paraphrased from Contact Magazine, LIA ,Vol 7 no 44 .page 30 Jakarta

by Saptono Istiawan

Indonesia is a vast area and, consequently, has its vast environmental problem, too. In this era of economic growth and industrialization progress, we need to fight for our environment’s safety. Luckily, we have one person who gives her dedication to them. Her name is Emmy Hafild. She is named " earth angel" by TIME magazine.

She thinks that “most people take it for granted that natural resources are given to them for free.“ She thinks that “that’s why many of them do not really care for the condition of the environment.”
The word environment itself was adopted from French, l’environ, which means vicinity or surrounding or everything around us. It emerged as an important word since 1970’s in response for the deterioration of our natural resources, like forests, rivers, lakes, the sea and even the very air that we breathe.

“Now,” said Emmy, “environment has become a political issue because most environmental damage is done as a result of government policy.” “The government and The Parliament are now more interested in environmental issue“, she continued.

Emmy Hafild grew up in a plantation area in Sumatra, during which she was amazed by the beauty of the nearby forest. She then studied Agronomy at IPB and continued her study at The University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, majoring in environmental studies.
Since environmental problems continue to happen, we need more and more people like Emmy Hafild these days.

Saptono Istiawan SK.

June, 17 2000

DAILY INFORMATION

2008-01-07T01:58:00.000-08:00

by Saptono Istiawan
Have we ever stopped and thought about the information we daily read or watch? From the time since they can read, people in the big city developed a habit of reading daily information. Everyday they need to hear new information which was later called news. This habit resulted in waiting for the news every day, so that even breakfast and the news have become inseparable.

But then again, have we ever tried for a moment to think about all these news? Some of those news are really needed but most of them have nothing to do with us. We certainly feel sorry and want to do something for those people who lost their homes in a nearby places, but what about news from faraway places? The only thing we can do is maybe only feel sorry for them. And what the depressing fact is that we always get more bad news everyday.

On the other side, the people who are responsible for providing this daily need are placed in an equally strange situation. They cannot single out certain news for certain people in certain places. So, they bombard just anybody with whatever proper story available. And they have to do it everyday, otherwise people will find blank spaces in their newspapers, blank lines on their TV screens, or a blank hiss on their radio. Maybe that’s why they called themselves The Press , referring the pressuring time they suffered.

Mark Twain, American Classical Writer once said that should the Sun goes out ,there are still another sun that shine the world with truth : The Press. It was true that The Press nominally tell the truth. But as you can see today they don’t tell all the truth nor they tell only the truth. Everyday almost all the readers and viewers of the world are salvoed ( a simultant fire)by the same story and news from a single point of view.

So how can we escape this? Or, have we ever thought of escaping this? Naturally, the answer is yes. But from generation to generation, this habit proved not an easy thing to stop, albeit individually. And as the news has become raw material for a gigantic industry, common people who consume them everyday have become their main customer. So, on any typical day, satirically said, when there is no news to tell, people can always create one, just in order to establish a perpetual news activity.
Of course we can see this from a positive point of view. The newspaper has already created a global industry which provide gigantic jobs and opportunities, so if we suddenly stop them, many people would lose their jobs and suffer. From another point of view, though, we cannot assume that we can continue to do this strange thing collectively. For a relatively small advantage that we can get, we must pay a lot of money and time and maybe even our sanity.

So, if we can choose the news we need and pay them accordingly, how much time and money can we save either individually or collectively? I, personally, have tried to start it. For about three years or so, I have stopped to read the newspaper, except when I feel I need to browse for an advertisement or expecting or confirming news that really important. Maybe interactive media that currently flowering can offer solution. But for the moment they still waiting to take place the present media.
Until then I just do my part . I do not sit in front of the TV at 9 p.m. anymore and wait to watch nightly news. At the beginning, there was a feeling of missing something everyday, but gradually, the feeling went away as I replace that daily activity with reading religious books and writings.
Saptono Istiawan SK
July 9, 2000

THE EARNEST OF BEING OLD

2008-01-06T03:04:00.000-08:00

"When I Shall Wear Purple"
By Liz Carpenter
A condensed story in The Reader’s Digest.
by Saptono Istiawan.

Being old is exactly what we are pray for, a long life. But at the same time being old is always regarded as a life of nuisance by both young and old. Are we pray for life of nuisance ? “Certainly no “, answered certain people. One of them was Liz Carpenter , former secretary to the former U.S. first lady Ladybird Johnson . It would be silly if we deny of being old, she wrote in her article"When I Shall Wear Purple", but we can argue that being old is not a life of nuisance at all. It is true that it must be horrible to have feeling of losing something one by one or gradually : hairs, spouse, jobs, income, independence, purpose, friends, sights, hearing, love , being touch, strength, short memory etc. but remember, we still have remaining of them and some other more stay with us or accumulated during our life. Those are sweet memories, wisdom by life, liberty, free insurance, more expertise if we had one, and the most of them is the life itself. While we are losing them, we have time and liberty they spare behind. We can see the life more easily and freely. We’re not just waiting for a death.

Liz Carpenter have them (all of what you’re losing) in the list when she one time had to stay in bed for five weeks. She perceived all of them in positive ways rather than grieving. Take advantage of losing them rather than missing them. Even make a humor out of them. For example while you are losing a sense of purpose she recommends

joining a movement for a cause whether it is civil rights, zoning rights or save the whale. They will provide anger and indignation which are good for a healthy life.

Or when she nearly have one deaf ear. She made the humor by arranging the seating at her dinner parties according to people’s ears–who really wants to listen to whom. A chain of ears that fitted her conditions.

A thirty three years old Beatles’s song cried : “will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I am sixty four ?”(words by courtesy of the Northern Songs Limited)

No ! You don’t need to be needed nor be fed. Everybody during most of their ages are busy thinking of themselves.

You is yours.

Saptono Istiawan SK
Jakarta October 10, 2000, October,5 2009

Liz Carpenter Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Liz-Carpenter/47048344607

Liz picture, courtesy Mrs. Carpenter

@@@

ANGEL IN YOUR HOME

2007-12-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

by Saptono Istiawan

Have you ever seen an angel in your own home?
No? Oh yes you have, and you do!
She helps you. You don’t see who help you everyday ?
Angel is suppose to help, right?

Now, what I’m talking about is your maid.
House helper by our most euphemistic word
Your house crew. But I think she deserve to be called angel
You are the boss and she is your employee, that’s alright

Angel sent down from heaven
The maid sent to you by luck.
Or by their situation
But what difference does it make?

Heaven? Luck?
Situation?
Earthly word would say: “by chance”.
It's only a matter point of view, isn’t it?

Other similarities are: Angel leave heaven
Your maid leaves her heavenly arms of her mother and father
Angel are unpaid
She so barely paid that you can call it an allowance

Some say there are always angels around. Unseen ones
But this one is visible. And her helps are observable too
Imagine these: Wake up and on to the bathroom
Off the bathroom you’ll see your bed are made up

Your breakfast is ready without even smelling your kitchen vapor
And the same goes with the lunch if you happen to be home at that time
The dinner is like in an expensive Paris restaurant
The maid not only cooking your family meal but also serve you in the table

And wash the dishes too
And your clothes?
Like you have a finest super automatic laundry machine in your home
Even if some time you also sent your best apparel to the laundry shop anyway

With her in your house, every house wife have their hands ultimately free
To do thing like pursuing a career in a job
But you hired her almost without any job description
And any working hour arrangement

She cleans your house of course
And she’s an in- house cook
Do laundries include ironing
But she tends kid also, beside do shop

You can ask her to the drug store at any time
Open and close your garage door
When you leave and come home
Shining your shoe

Even wash your car
Making your coffee
Shampooing your hair maybe
Or watering your orchids

Unlikely things they do for you are singing and dancing

Act,storytelling

although these what's an angel mainly does

But maybe just because your artistic sense need not to be served

If it's ever exist !

You always see her wide awake
She starts before you wake up
And stops only after you sleep
You hire one or two more and their job become more limitless
Of course through time there is always improvement for them

But since she’s real
She comes and goes
And that’s when she’s gone
Only you would know better, that she’s angelic

Wish she was here always!
But would you be kinder?
So at that kind of time
You wish you have had treated her supposely.

Because her occupation exist as legacy from our ancient culture
We would like to see her unconsciously with a rather undemocratic way
Economics always overlooked job field she creates
And so you don’t see her profession in any employment statistic

Although there are millions of her in almost every city house
and every town home
And the disregarded billions forex they are pumping-in

When her kinds go abroad. We would say: what a shame!
The people overseas probably say: “We’d like to share their kind of help”
She maybe said:” It’s my only chance to see the world”
So it is possible that one day her kind become scarce at home
Even angel need to be properly appreciated

We would be our angel ourselves then!

Saptono Istiawan SK, April,17 2003, Dec, 28 2007, Sep 26 2009

picture source : special album

The bottom line is: Angel is a conception, misconception, myth and reality, all at once.

JANE GOODALL, OUR LADY OF THE PRIMATOLOGY

2007-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

by Saptono Istiawan.

photo: left courtesy of http://www.janegoodall.org/, right Saptono

Men’s mind have been enchanted and disturbed by their own physical stark similarity with apes since the first encounter with them who knows when.

But not until the long scientific study of Dr Jane Goodall on Tanzanian Chimpanzee in East Africa has ended, men have more definite knowledge about their resemblancee (or resemblancer?, either way, it's quite amazing).
Indeed it was a long field study that begun in 1960 . It last 45 years out of 3 years of her first guess and 10 years out of her protégé ,Dr Louis Leakey, have warned her. But it worth each and every time spent for what she could presented to the world of primatology. It is a longest study in scientific world.

And what she had presented to the world ?

Generally speaking ,her very long years of study in Gombe plain in the eastern banks of Lake Tanganyika show that chimpanzee in the wild are startlingly like human not only physically but also socially. In her first field years she learned that chimps are also carnivorous, a term when eupheumismly apply to us become omnivorous, mean eat both meats and vegetables. In the same year she also found chimps named David Greybeard and Goliath (she named her scientific objects rather than numbered them) devised a tool to probe a termite nest.

A list of her other discoveries among other millions things are:

Chimpanzee are planning, using man-made object,
infected polio,
waged warfare,
cannibalism disposition,
make coalitions,
have transferring females through communities,
adopting orphan,
establish consortship,
transferring technologies,
give birth to twins,
eat medicinal plants for healing.

These discoveries can be used by human related sciences like anthropology and sociology to open a possibility to extend their subjects originwardly.

But what she have given to us are beyond scientific world. She pursued and caught her dream for saving orphan chimps, improved the lives of lab animals and inspire human children to preserve habitat.

And who is she, by the way?
Undoubtly Jane Goodall is a prominent scientist of the world . She is almost synonym with today’s primatology , the science of primate ( that is: "almost fellow"). But in case you still hardly remember anything about them, this is her:

Jane van Lawick-Goodall was born in London in 1934 and educated in Bournemouth ,she then worked in Africa as ethologist with authority on wild chimpanzee, for her fellow British anthropologist Louis S. B. Leakey. On his suggestion she set up camp in 1960 in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika, Africa.

In 1965, Jane earned her Ph.D in Ethology from Cambridge University. Soon thereafter, she returned to Tanzania to continue research and to establish the Gombe Stream Research Centre.
She wrote a popular book about chimpanzee, "In the Shadow of Man" (1971) and on spotted hyenas, "Innocent Killers" (1971).

She also authored "Through a Window" (1971) —as well as two autobiographies in letters and a spiritual autobiography, "Reason for Hope". Her many children's books include "Grub: the Bush Baby", "Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours and My Life with the Chimpanzees".

She has been the subject of numerous television documentaries and is featured in the large-screen format film, Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (2002). Most recently, Dr. Goodall wrote Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating in 2005.

Anyway she's not without any critiscm, some primatologists have suggested flaws in Goodall's methodology which may call into question the validity of her observations. Goodall used unconventional practices in her study, for example, naming individuals instead of numbering them. Numbering is used to prevent emotional attachment and loss of objectivity.

She married a Dutch wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick with whom she collaborated on some of her books and films. The couple had a son, Hugo, affectionately known as 'Grub', who was born in 1967. They divorced in 1974. In 1975 she married Derek Bryceson (a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of that country's national parks) and they remained married until his death in 1980.

In 1977 she and her close friend, Genevieve, Princess di San Faustina, found Jane Goodall Institute in California (http://www.janegoodall.org/) which has aim as to advances the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environments of all living things.

Jane Goodall's involvement in tropical forests and conservation has also led her to be actively involved in a number of environmental issues, and to found the Roots & Shoots youth group. She has also endorsed the Forests Now Declaration, calling for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.

Goodall is also an animal rights activist and is president of Advocates for Animals, an animal rights organization based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Advocates for Animals campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport. "No animal should be used for these kind of things. It's torment to them. Use people for testing makeup, medicine and other things like that, they're the ones that want to use the product."

Along with Dian Fossey, famous for living with gorillas, and Biruté Galdikas, who advanced studies in orangutans, Goodall was one of three women recently dubbed by some as "Leakey's Angels".

She received a long list of awards , honors, honorary doctorates from various countries in the world.

She was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire in a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace in 2004

Dame Jane Goodall, DBE now lives in Maryland USA.

Saptono Istiawan SK IAI
March 23,2001/Oct.1/14,2001.oct5,2002/4 aug 2003/28 dec 2007 /7 Jan. 2008/Oct,5 2009

Sources : National Geographic Magazine, December 1995
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
http://www.janegoodall.org/ previously http://www.janegoodallinsti.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jane_goodall

SHE IS A DISBELIEVER

2007-12-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

Journal no 11
A comment from :
"Christine Maggiore, The HIV Disbeliever".
Newsweek Magazine August 28,2000

Ever since February 24, 1992, Christine Maggiore had to live a different life. The routine blood test for HIV at the time she undertook the test, gave a positive result. And as verdict goes, she had to live the rest of her life as if she was dying. She lived as tough she were on the doorstep of mortality.

What she found later that she only believed in, was almost a certainty at that time.

She prepared herself for a treatment. But she was never been given a scientific explanation about her disease. She felt fine and she still does. How could she have a killer virus like a conventional wisdom as they said at those time?

Her wondering found the answer in the work of the University of Berkeley Virologist, Peter Deusberg, who concluded that AIDS is caused more by a lifestyle choice rather than an infectious agent. But his discovery was dismissed by his colleagues.

One spring evening in 1994, as she was present at a panel discussing about AIDS prevention, it finally struck Christine that she no longer believed in the epidemic.

We can feel the rebellious trait in Christine, but we must trace back what we conventionally believed about such a big issue like AIDS. It could be that she was wrong. But what about if she's right ? How many programs and foundations and movements have been founded throughout the world base on this wrong premise?

Back in 1980's, when first identified and worldwide introduced, this horrible disease had captured the world’s attention. The earliest identification was in 1956. No head of state in the world had spoken up without mention it or shown doubt about it. Thousands of foundations were founded, but something essential had been overlooked: was HIV really responsible for AIDS?

However, Christine started to have increasing followers alongside with criticizers. She founded the "Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives" ( http://www.aliveandwell.org/) in her hometown, Burbank, California, USA. This foundation is to propagate her believe that, contrary to the now conventional wisdom, HIV, which has been blamed for the death of 18.8 million people worldwide, does not cause AIDS at all. She exhorts people to stop taking medications, which she suspects is what really kills, and to stop worrying about spreading their virus. She is against what she calls "the HIV equals AIDS equals death" paradigm.

Back to us , members of the society of the world, what do we know about the issue we share worldwide concerning our prosperity or our security? We still remember the issue of the millennium bug, that we believed would threaten the world computer network system. It was proven, in most parts, to be untrue. The world computer was fine when entering the year 2000. There were no accidents except some minor happenings here and there. It could have been that the safe passage were due to preparation, anticipating the Y2K, that was undertaken worldwide. But there were also lots of computer network systems that were not ready for the Y2K compliance because of the huge money required for it. Nevertheless, Y2K, being something so full of doubt, devoured billions of dollars of the world’s money to prevent its fearful happening. But the worst of it all was that there was no evaluation about the hysteria, neither any apology. And there are lists of similar issues : hole in the sky related to the ozone layers, the rising of the earth temperature, anti tobacco euphoria. They were all included into our conventional wisdom even when they suffered inconclusive scientific or empiric explanation.

With those examples, we should think again what we regard as conventional wisdom. So, how do we believe what we believe? Obviously we can learn from Christine Maggiore’ case reversal way, how she did disbelieved what she had believed before.

Saptono Istiawan SK

September 11, 2000, September 4, 2009

---

PS: In 2004 Christine had to stand a big blow to her life and her faith. Her daughter Eliza Jane who then 3,5 years old died . The Media have blamed her for her refusal to take medicines specified for pregnant women that "sentenced" HIV positive during conceiving Eliza.

But Christine persist and said to media :"I believe the unfortunate irony in this situation is that the one time that we were asked to and that we complied with mainstream medicine, we inadvertently gave our daughter something that took her life".

See full story in: http://breakfornews.com/my/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=271

see also : http://www.theothersideofaids.com/

http://www.duesberg.com/

If you want to see what a HIV look likes ,this is a 3d visualization of HIV. However it is an artist impression not a photograph of a real thing:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/pictures/110217-best-science-pictures-2010-scivis-visualization-illustration-photography/

Christine picture is taken from a special source.