A song, I am wonder

Perahu Retak -- Cracked Boat
========================
Artist : Franky Sahilatua
Creator : Emha Ainun Nadjib

Perahu negeriku, perahu bangsaku, menyusuri gelombang.
My country's boat, my nation's boat, traverses the wave.
Semangat rakyatku, kibar benderaku, menyeruak lautan.
My citizen's spirit, flying my flag, pushed the sea.

Langit membentang cakrawala di depan, melambaikan tantangan.
Sky extends the firmament at the front, waved the challenge.

Di atas tanahku, dari dalam airku, tumbuh kebahagiaan.
On my land, from within my water, happiness arise.
Di sawah kampungku, di jalan kotaku, terbit kesejahteraan.
In paddy-fields of my village, in the streets of my city, welfare arise.

Tapi kuheran di tengah perjalanan, muncullah ketimpangan.
But I'm wonder in the middle of the journey, discrepancies appear.

Aku heran, aku heran, yang salah dipertahankan.
I'm wonder, I'm wonder, which is wrong was maintained.
Aku heran, aku heran, yang benar disingkirkan.
I'm wonder, I'm wonder, which is true was marginalized.

Perahu negeriku, perahu bangsaku, jangan retak dindingmu.
My country's boat, my nation's boat, do not being crack of your wall.
Semangat rakyatku, derap kaki tekadmu, jangan terantuk batu.
My citizen's spirit, footsteps of your determination, do not stumbled by the stone.

Tanah pertiwi anugerah ilahi, jangan ambil sendiri.
Motherland was the divine grace, do not takes it alone.
Tanah pertiwi anugerah ilahi, jangan makan sendiri.
Motherland was the divine grace, do not eats it alone.

Aku heran, aku heran, satu kenyang, seribu kelaparan.
I'm wonder, I'm wonder, one full, one thousand starving.
Aku heran, aku heran, keserakahan diagungkan.
I'm wonder, I'm wonder, the greed is glorified.

Vote now for the idea that help the most

Last year, Google has started a project called Project 10^100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th"), invited the world to submit ideas to help as many people as possible. During submitting period, they have received more than 150,000 ideas from 170 countries, and now has been narrowed down to (combined into) 16 brilliant ideas that are considered best for you to vote. I have voted for the idea to "Make educational content available online for free", and I quote its description at below:

"Make educational and course materials more accessible online to students worldwide. Lots of educational content is not indexed or accessible on the public web. Various users have proposed finding ways to help content owners put formerly exclusive content online, including offline materials (lectures, textbooks, videotaped workshops) and limited-access materials (scholarly papers, research dissertations); help teachers themselves become more available online (access to online profs, 24/7 homework help, cross-country study groups); and to make all this material and academic help accessible through both computer and mobile platforms."

Your vote will help the advisory board to identify the best ideas for further consideration and choose up to 5 projects to fund. They have committed $10 million to make up to 5 of them become reality by identify (choose) the relevant organization that are in the best position to implement them. If you think that your organization would be a good candidate then you should let them know by filling this form.



Despite the submission deadline has passed but voting to the ideas that you like is still open until 8 October 2009. Now, it's your turn to vote! Hopefully this brilliant ideas will be come true and make a different to our living. That is why I felt "more Google than Gates". Btw, is there any idea to overcome climate change?

Spiritual vacation and my cousin's engagement

Two weeks before Eid ul-Fitr, I was with my first brother went to Surabaya then to Bali and Tuban. The goal is to attend my cousin's engagement in Surabaya.


My congratulations to Erlin and Bernard, wishing you become happy couple.

Then together with my third brother who lived in Surabaya we continued to Bali to see the 10th anniversary of a prayer's place owned by Jro Putu Saya. Based on the reference of my second brother who lived in Bali, Jro Putu Saya is a person who have advantages in the spiritual matter, in other word, he have supernatural power, perhaps can be called a psychic.


Photo sent by my brother Awie. Jro Putu Saya (wearing white sarong) and my brother Awie (wearing jeans).

When I entered this prayer's place for the first time at night (about 21:00 o'clock), I felt mystical atmosphere around, calm and peace. I saw many people went to this place for worship, some from out of town, with a variety of requests such as fortune, business success, recovery from chronic illness where doctor has raised hand. What impressed me was this prayer's place is open to all religions and beliefs. As I know there are the altar of worship for Lord Shiva, Gautama Buddha, Laughing Buddha, Goddess of Guan Yin (Avalokitesvara), Deities in Balinese society, Lord Guan Yu. After prayers, some visitors approached Jro Putu Saya or his wife for consulting or asking something, similar like go to the doctors. At that night, I watched his wife body was possessed by the power of Lord Shiva and serving visitors by answering their questions or requests and sometimes she also give some directions to be done. While her husband Jro Putu Saya was busy served other visitors at the other room.


My brother Awie who lived in Bali (wearing sarong) and me.

When I and brothers have the opportunity face to face with Jro Putu Saya, he advised my third brother and me to cleanse our mind and body by bathing in Tirta Empul. The water at Tirta Empul was directly out from the land, clean and cold. Balinese society believe that the water at Tirta Empul can heal various of diseases. Believe it or not, I tried it together with my brothers. Upfhh... the water is cold.


From Bali, we continued on to the most popular temple in Tuban, that is Kwang Sing Bio temple, the only one temple in Indonesia that using crab symbol on the gateway, not like other Chinese temples which it using dragon as the symbol.


In the Kwan Sing Bio temple.

Sadly I forgot to bring a camera for this trip, so the picture above was taken using a mobile phone with limited quality and capacity for image. Finally within this post I also want to say Happy Eid ul-Fitr to all Muslim brothers and sisters around the world. May God bless all of us.

Unbelievable thing

While looking for something on YouTube, I found a collection of unbelievable photographs. Something difficult to be explained with common sense, science or even religious. I guess you will say: this is supernatural, psychic, abnormal, or unbelievable, etc. If so, perhaps, the real truth is still out there and this world still containing many mysterious thing to be explored. Just look at the video below with relax.



I myself ever see a true story from one of my employee who have a chronic disease that can not be cured by modern medical science, then tried religious healing (also failed), but then it can be cured by a shaman/paranormal. I don't know whether this case can be said a miracle or a magic?? So I think, that is why for those who are unable to resolve the world mystery through science and/or religious, will be heading towards the paranormal, or have a tendency to engage to the supernatural thing.

Sorry if this post rather contradictory thinking. That is still interesting to see how science and/or religion can provide a comfortable explanation against this phenomenon. Can you?

Equalize bachelor's degree with diploma's degree ??

At this time many Indonesian students continue the higher education in various universities in Australia to obtain academic degrees such as Bachelor, Master or Doctorate. My three cousin and several other relatives also continue the higher education in Australia after finished Senior High School in Indonesia.

But I was startled after knowing the news from Antara News that the policy of Directorate General of Higher Education (Department of National Education) is to equalize Bachelor degree from several universities in Australia only equal to the Diploma 3 degree (D-3) in Indonesia. This policy was determined on 01 July 2009 within the Peraturan Direktur Jendral Pendidikan Tinggi (regulation of Directorate General of Higher Education) Nomor:82/DIKTI/Kep/2009 concerning the certificate assessment guidelines of foreign college graduate. This regulation was followed up with the surat edaran Direktur Akademik (circularize letter from Academic Director) No: 1850.1/D2.5/2009. At point no.2 of the letter was mentioned the list of the certificate equivalency of foreign college graduate. Click here to download these list from the website of Directorat Jendral Pendidikan Tinggi (Directorate General of Higher Education). Most Bachelor degree which it considered equivalent to the Diploma 3 degree (D-3) in Indonesia are Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Bachelor of Arts.

"Equalize graduated scholar from Australian with graduated Diploma 3 (D-3) in Indonesia is clearly disadvantage and unfair", said Anggraito Danangjoyo, an Indonesian student who studying psychology in University of Queensland. And according to Antara News, this was an injustice form of Indonesian government against thousands of Indonesian students who studying in Australia. Interestingly, this news also republished (but in Indonesian language) in NEWS BULLETIN in the websites of Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Australia, with the title "PEMERINTAH RI TAK ADIL PADA SARJANA LULUSAN AUSTRALIA" (English: Indonesian government is unfair to the Australian graduate scholar / by mean: unfair to the Indonesian scholar who graduated in Australia). When I told this issue to some of my friends who got their Bachelor of Business in Australia, they were also startled and asked whether the quality of education in Australia worse than Indonesia?

== Postscript ==
I noted some interesting readers reactions regarding to this post, namely:

1) From Rummuser, retired Management Professional from India, said:
"I am not qualified enough to comment on this without having more information. Jim perhaps will. What I do know is that there are a number of fly by night institutions in Australia that rip off unsuspecting overseas students by promising a lot, but not delivering. This is a matter of great concern here in India too. Many of our students go to Australia and return with qualifications that do not compare in quality to their literal equivalents in India."

2) From Bayu Dardias, as written on his profile is an Indonesian student who has completed Graduate Diploma in Public Administration (Grad.Dip Pub.Admin) from Australian National University and is pursuing Master of Public Policy (M.P.P) in there, said:
"In PPIA mailing list, this topic has been intensively discussed lately."

3) From Jim Belshaw, a manager and strategic consultant from Australia, within his posting titled "Indonesian Government downgrades certain Australian degrees to diploma status", said:

"The issue appears to have been ignored by both the Australian media and local bloggers. I say this with a little caution since it is based on just my own reading/watching. I find this a little remarkable, given the importance of education as an export sector."

"I will watch the response to Tikno's post with interest. I may make the issue a central point in my next week's column in the Armidale Express."

4) From MiChi, a beautiful teacher from Malaysia, said:
"I agree with Rummuser... Even in Malaysia, this thing do happen. Therefore, I always encourage my students to go to Public Universities, which is a better guarantee... really have to be careful when choosing university."

For other related sources in English click here; in Indonesian language click here.

Glimpse the spirit of 1945

On 17 August 2009, Indonesia celebrates its 64th Independence Day. I will not write more about the spirit of this proclamation, because I think, the videos below could represent it with well.







I am proud to be Indonesian, Happy Independence Day my country.

Aware or just a dream

Dear readers, if you are a regular visitor of this blog, perhaps you still remember my post titled "If One Why Different" (posted on 1 September 2008). In that post, I wrote about how I heard badly debate of religions among my friends when we gathered together, that is, each person seeks to maintain his own opinion namely his religion is the most relevant in this century. Within that post you may also read my thoughts as the response to them, as well as readers comment, and I would like to rewrite my thoughts as below:

Human has exist before any religions emerge in this earth. The universe has exist far before human and religions. And... God (only one God) has exist far before the universe, human and religions.
Who the owner of my soul, your soul and the soul of all creatures in this world. Only one or many? If only one, then why we must be different.

Please readers do not feel confused with the question "why we must different" because I mean are "why must feel very special" or resistance against others because of religion, skin color or race. Based on the thoughts above, then with the curious feeling on 19 January 2009 I opened a discussion on Blogcatalog network (please visit this link) to get various wider reactions. My goals for this discussion is trying to raise the awareness of brotherhood among human and attempt to encourage each person for unite as a human race. I am glad that this discussion has got comments and reaction from people with various background of religion / belief. There are Christian, Islam, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoism, and even Atheism. As I read from their comment, part of them were able to accept this idea and partly still resistance. Indeed an interesting discussion to know of what in each people mind towards this idea.

I must say nothing is wrong by being different like an analogy of a garden which is not beautiful if there is only one kind of flower. It become uncomfortable (problem) if we deliberately creates differences, or underestimate to others, because a negative behavior will produce another negative behavior as opposite to yours. The more you are consider the differences and feel resistance to others then the more you feel lonely and only live with your own community.

Finally I only know that Almighty God has been called with various names, that is "God" in English, "Tuhan" in Indonesian, "Shangdi" / 上帝 in Chinese, "Allah" in Arabic, "Dio" in Italian, "Dieu" in French, "Бог" in Russian, etc. I think, a lot of name to refer to Almighty God. How with you? How you think to promote fraternity, understanding, peace, and love. I am asking a honest answers from your heart, not from a diplomatic statement when in front of public.

Noordin M Top is still mysterious

Previously, various media has published the death of Noordin M Top (the most wanted terrorist) in a raid conducted by anti-terror forces Densus 88 in a house in the Beji village, Kedu sub-district, Temanggung district. As promised by the Indonesian police to announce the identity (DNA test result) of the killed terrorist suspect body on Wednesday, 12 August 2009 (mean today), the result revealed that the suspect was not Noordin Mohammad Top (also known as Noordin M Top). It's mean that the existence of Noordin M Top is still mysterious.

Inspector General Nanan Soekarna (head of public relations division of National Police Headquarters) stated in Jakarta today that the body of the suspected terrorist who was killed in in Temanggung, was Ibrohim. Who is Ibrohim? Ibrohim (known as Boim at work) is an employee who worked as a gardener (florist) at Hotel Ritz Carlton and who were immediately disappear after the bombing happened. According to Nanan Soekarna, Ibrohim has played a dominant role in the bombing at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton. His role is bringing the bomb into the two hotels.

Below is CCTV documentation from police which it showed the movement of Ibrohim in Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott. As we see in first scenes, Ibrohim taken a survey firstly. In the next scenes, Ibrohim carried the goods suspected as bomb using a car. According to the car driver, he refused to be assisted and want to carried the goods by himself.


Although Noordin M Top has not been caught, I am proud of the hard effort and good progress achieved by the anti-terror forces Densus 88. I support you with prayer.

Good wish

Brother Dasanrangarajan has very kind sharing a good contemplation, through our discussion on Blogcatalog. I feel good after reading it many times. I think, it's good if I share it here. I do not intend to bring you referring to a particular religion / belief, but only want to share the good things. Hopefully you will also feel good with the contemplation below:

I asked Lord Krishna to do away with my vices.
Krishna said: They are not there for me to take them away. They are there for you to resist them.

I asked Lord Krishna to complete my body.
Krishna said: Your spirit is complete, your body is only temporary.

I asked Lord Krishna to give me patience.
Krishna said: Patience is a byproduct (side products) of difficulties. It is not given but learned.

I asked Lord Krishna to give me happiness.
Krishna said: I give blessings. Happiness depends upon you.

I asked Lord Krishna to free me of pain.
Krishna said: Suffering makes you go far away from this world and brings you nearer to me.

I asked Lord Krishna to make my spirit grow.
Krishna said: You have to grow by yourself! But I will prune you to make you bear fruit.

I asked Lord Krishna for the things that would make me like life.
Krishna said: I will give you life, so you can enjoy all those things.

I asked Lord Krishna to help me LOVE others, like He loves me.
Krishna said: Ohhh..., finally... you got the idea!

And brother Haver also shared the love message image below:


















So, let's get together and feel alright.
Note: I will post our discussion in Blogcatalog on next post.

Fatwa against terrorist

Dear readers, I create this post because I heard many terrorism issues that tend to be associated with Islam as religion. But through this post I want to say that it is NOT TRUE. If you say that it is personal responsibility, then I'll say yes. I know some of you may be asking within the heart "Why you say that?"

Well, here is my explanation:
1) I'm strongly believe that there are still a lot of good Muslim, even far more than you imagine. I live in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, and I have many Muslim friends here. They (my Muslim friends) are also condemns terrorism action.

2) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, namely Indonesia, also condemns terrorism action and has been gave his command to the police and law enforcement to investigate, arrest, and judge all the perpetrators who were involved in the bombing cases at Hotel JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton, with firmly and without hesitation.

3) I have been looking for the reaction of Muslim scholars in the two countries which has the largest Muslim population namely Indonesia and India, where the terrorist attacks also happened in both countries. What I want to looking for is whether the Fatwa against terrorist was existed. To know more about "Fatwa" please click here and here. This is the interesting things for me and perhaps also for you who still doubt. Below is what I has found:

=== IN INDONESIA ===
Through searching on internet, I have found a Fatwa decision against terrorism at the website of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Ulama Council), namely: KEPUTUSAN FATWA MAJELIS ULAMA INDONEISA Nomor 3 Tahun 2004 Tentang TERORISME (Fatwa decision of the Indonesian Ulama Council Number 3 Year 2004 about terrorism). As we know that Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) is the highest Muslim authority in Indonesia who have the rights of issuing Fatwa.

This Fatwa has explain the differences between terrorism and Jihad, that is:

<----------------- original text ----------------->

"Terorisme adalah tindakan kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan dan peradaban yang menimbulkan ancaman serius terhadap kedaulatan negara, bahaya terhadap keamanan, perdamaian dunia serta merugikan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Terorisme adalah salah satu bentuk kejahatan yang diorganisasi dengan baik (well organized), bersifat trans-nasional dan digolongkan sebagai kejahatan luar biasa (extra-ordinary crime) yang tidak membeda-bedakan sasaran (indiskrimatif)."

<----- Translated by me (correction please) ----->

"Terrorism is the criminal act against humanity and civilization that cause serious threat to the sovereignty of the country, the danger to security, world peace and harm the welfare of the society. Terrorism is one of the forms of crime which it well organized, a trans-national crime and is classified as extraordinary crime that does not differentiate the target."

And the law if do the terror is:

<------------------ original text ------------------>

"Hukum melakukan teror adalah haram, baik dilakukan oleh per-orangan, kelompok, maupun negara."

<----- Translated by me (correction please) ----->

"The law if do the terror is forbidden / Haraam, whether is done by individual, group, and the country."

If refers to this Fatwa, it is clear that the terrorists did not carry out the improvement, also did not uphold Allah's religion, and the victims are people who do not know anything, and the deeds of terror is forbidden.

=== IN INDIA ===
The Times of India wrote: "For the first time ever, Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against terrorism on Saturday, stating Islam had come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace". And according to Reuters India, Darool-Uloom Deoband is a 150-year-old institute, controlling thousands of smaller Islamic seminaries in India.

The Fatwa signed by Darul-Uloom's grand mufti Habibur Rehman, asserts that: "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form". The Fatwa, still according to The Times Of India, went on to say: "It is proved from clear guidelines provided in the Holy Quran that allegations of terrorism against a religion which preaches and guarantees world peace is nothing but a lie. The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace. Allah knows the best".

Mahmood Asad Madani, leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, has stated that: "Killing of innocent people is not compatible with Islam. The biggest challenge faced by us today is terrorism (which) threatens to strike at the very root of the secular structure of our society besides causing irreparable loss."

=== OTHER REACTION ===
As additional, in Saudi Arabia The Kingdom's highest Islamic authority also denounce the terror attacks in the Kingdom and describing them as "serious criminal acts" (Source: Arab News).
And the Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama also said "It was wrong to tag all Muslims as terrorists". His statement comes a day after the leading Muslims anti-terrorism organization issuing "Fatwa against terrorism" (please read more at MeriNews website).

Therefore, it's clear that terrorist is the problem of terrorist itself, the responsibility of personal or their organization itself, and has NO relevance with religion. Among you may want to say "Why not using national legal system?" For this one I agree with you, but at least all the good Muslim people has sending the message for world peace through the Fatwa against terrorist. Always remember! outside there are still many good Muslim people, even more than that which you imagine. Will you generalize them also? Hopefully NO.

Although I'm not Muslim, I want to defend my Muslim friends (my best friends here) who understood their religion properly. Finally, I'm confused why I rarely heard the publication or discussion for this Fatwa on media like TV, newspaper or internet? Oh... I can understand! But... if you have a blog, hopefully you want to help me to spread this news.

** Postscript **
I had ask Jim Belshaw, a blogger from Australia, about the question at the last paragraph, that is, why this important Fatwa rarely get attention from the media? And you may find his interesting answer within his post titled: For Tikno - selection, perception, bias and the MUI Fatwa.
And again from Neil, also a blogger from Australia said: "It is as well - again - to remind ourselves that it is not all of Islam we are looking at here, but a perversion".

It is interesting to see the opinion from the western people towards the Islamic world, and at this time I refers to Jim and Neil.