That's what Rosnida, a teacher at Pasundan 7 Junior High Bandung was trying to do by lighting a match and burnt her students during religion study, one of them was burnt on her cheek.She also said that more women ended up in hell.
And the whacky thing is, the principal only gave her a warning and the parents just pasrah, accepted.
This news is so wrong in so many levels.
First of all she's a teacher, who supposed to teach, not abusing her students. What can her students learn from someone like her? That you can do whatever you like to get your point across? I dont get how she could be so sure that more women ended up in hell & that hell is hotter that a fire, did she have first hand experience? What more important is teaching those kids that they have to be a good person who is responsible and respecting other people. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you as the prophet said in his last sermon.
Second, the principal only gave her a warning. She should be sacked for corrupting her students by promoting a system where moral integrity and intellectual honesty is discourage. I really couldnt wrap the idea why she could get away so lightly. Gawd knows what she's been teaching those kids. With all the fanatics & terrorist around, I am seriously concerned on what religion teachers are teaching Indonesian kids. If such a thing happened in what I suspect to be a secular school, I could only wonder what's going on in Islamic school.
Lastly, how could those parents accept such person to continue teaching their children? There are better teachers out there, who could give better education to your kids. After all you paid a good deal to that school for your kids education, you might as well getting your money's worth.
On one fine Sunday, we ended up in Bekasi area looking for food to bring home. Mom spotted a hawker selling crispy sweet rolls (Semprong).
M: I have here Rp 5000, how much do I get for that money? H: I'm sorry ma'am, I normally sell them in three packages for Rp 20000 M: No, I dont need three of them, how much is it for one package? H: Alright, I give you one for Rp 6000, because normally it's Rp 20000 for three.
It reminds me of my fave priest. Somehow, instead of me confessing to him, I used to listen to his experience being celibate and serving his congregation. The choice between Gawd and flesh.
It's been years that Indonesian complaining about Malaysian stealing our cultural goods. The latest one is Balinese Pendet dance being claimed by Malaysian as part of their tradition in their tourism ad "Malaysia truly Asia". They also claimed Rendang, Reog Ponorogo (I thought the name Ponorogo gives the clue that its root is definitely not Malaysian), Rafflesia Arnoldii, Batik, and that Mollucan song Rasa Sayange as part of their heritage.
According to Malaysian 1971 National Culture Policy, the national culture among others must be based on the indigenous Malay culture & suitable elements from the other cultures may be accepted as part of the national culture.
Now let's see about Malaysian ethnic groups. Their indigenous people which counted for 5% of their population has similar culture to Indonesian Dayak. Then there are chinese with their peranakan culture and Indian ethnic. Malay are the largest ethnic group. It is interesting to point out that according to Wikipedia:
Malays (Malay: Melayu) are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines. The Malay language is a member of the Austronesian family of languages.
Taking this into account, I think it's safe to say that Balinese nor Molluccans are not part of the equation of Malaysian ethnic group.
I can understand when they claimed Rendang as their traditional food, it is part of share Malay culture. As for Raflessia arnoldii, although it was first discovered in Indonesia, it grows in all Malay archipelago as far as the Phillipines.
I guess Malaysia is exercising their policy of taking suitable elements of other culture as part of their own when it comes to Pendet dance, Batik, Reog and that Molluccan song. Their ambassador for Indonesia kept citing about the fact that there are really those things in Malaysia for as long as he could remember. Of course they do, there plenty of Indonesian people living in Malaysia taking their culture from back home (Bali, Java, Mollucas, etc). Just like there are plenty of Dutch people living with their culture in Australia. But, we dont see Aussie claiming wearing clogs as part of their culture, do we?
Now I dont blame solely on Malaysia for this mess. Indonesian government has done little to protect its heritage. The last time this happened, our minister promised to catalogue our culture. But is it enough just to do that while Malaysian government is already busy claiming them with patents?
Maybe we should take note from Bolivian government in its dispute with the Peruvian. It started as Miss Peru wearing a Diabolical costume inspired by La Diablada dance as her National costume at the Miss Universe pageant in Bahama this month. According to the Peruvian, the costume is part of share culture of Altiplano in the highland bordering Bolivia, Peru and Chile. However, Bolivian believes that it was originally in Bolivia and then spread out to the neighboring countries. Sounds familiar?
The Bolivian Culture minister is said would sue Peru in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Bolivian government is also doing tv ads at CNN en español and Telesur on this matter.
In the light of these events, Indonesian need to do our utmost in protecting our culture. We cant leave it to our government and its catalogue business. But as a nation we need to do something about it. How much do we know about our own culture? I bet most Indonesian kids nowadays are more knowledgable about Disney's characther or anime than about local folklore. How many of you could dance any traditional dance, play any traditional musical instrument?
Maybe it's time to teach ourself and our kids more about our own rich tradition before other people steals them from us again.
Back in July there was press conference about "Meraih Mimpi". Supposed to be Indonesian First Animated Feature Film. It is said that the producer chose to premiere it abroad to get international recognition before showing it in Indonesia. Well, a quick search at IMDB.com, you cant find Meraih Mimpi in that site. However, you can find Singaporean first animated feature film "Sing to the Dawn". Check out their trailer, it's the same animation as Meraih Mimpi but in English.
Hold on, is it Indonesian or Singaporean?
Well, it's kinda both. It was created based on Singaporean Ho Minfong's children's book. Apparently the whole animation was done in Batam by a team of mostly Indonesian animators. It was later on localized by Nia Dinata's people. But since Singapore Government paid the $5million bill, the credit goes to Singapore, people.
Since I havent seen the whole movie, I cant say much about it. But from what I've seen so far, I found the Indonesian's dialog is a bit difficult to follow. I know it's not easy adapting foreign script to proper Bahasa Indonesia, couple that with the fact we tend to use more words in our sentences than in English, I guess it also making it difficult for the actors to say their line as close possible as the animated movements.
All in all, kudos to Indonesian animators for their wonderful work.
The most read daily paper in the wizarding world is becoming a reality this September. Well almost. Entertainment Weekly is scheduled to published a video-in-print edition in its 18 September edition in LA and NYC. Just like the Daily Prophet, it will display moving pictures on a slim-line screens.
I want to see it. So, John, would you please bring that edition to the big durian? *batting eyelashes*
Apparently months of campaigning takes its toll on our president. His campaign slogan was Lanjutkan! (continue). I guess it is becoming his second nature to utter that word.
So when he was leading the ceremony of Independence day yesterday at the Presidential Palace. He said Lanjutkan! in stead of Laksanakan! (carry out).
I ve noticed that a few of (Indonesian) blogs are nothing but a copy paste of someone else's blog. It is not about copy-pasting parts of it, but the whole blog. Why would people do that? Is it their way of becoming part of (what Roy Suryo called as trend) blogging world?
I found out years ago that some people copy-pasted my emails to this open mailing list in their blogs. Some put my name on it, some didnt.
The last one that I know of is my friend's art blog has been plagiarised by this person who seems to be a student of one of Surabaya's art schools. What interesting is this bloke is not shy in putting up his picture and a link to his facebook. I would have thought if I did that I wouldnt want people to know the real me. But that's just me. Would you exposed yourself when you plagiarised someone's works?
An interesting choice of living. He had no home, slept on the grounds of senior center, ate the hospital while having this much wealth. I dont know why he chose living like that. Though I couldnt help wondering, that by doing so he also took a place for someone who really didnt have much choice.
Was it his redemption? Or was he just being eccentric?
I dont know about European as a whole, but Dutch loves their sweet. Seriously, I've never seen people who LOVE their sweet as much as the Dutch. During their fraternity/sorority's initiation, one of the rules is not eating any sweets during camp week. And I can tell you how they miss their snoepjes, sweets, during that time. Sure, most of them dont use that much sugar (if any) in their coffee, but their cakes, candies, chocolates are very sweet.
