Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indonesia. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Nadi Kota

This is prove that I procrastinate a lot.

And in just two days I'll be starting my very first mid-term exam in Torquay.

Psh... the perks of being an IGCSE student.

**



I've been hearing this song a lot as of recently. Well actually I just discovered it this morning, it's Malaysian though. Albeit the fact that it is in Malay I just couldn't help it but to have this image of the typical Jakarta traffic at night, the blazing sun that made the water sparkly for the Bunderan HI fountain, the classiness of Museum Fatahillah, and my typical practising routine in Senayan with the rest of my DKI Fencing comrades... good times, good times...

Instead of revising for Business or Math or even Science, I did some little Indonesian films marathon in Youtube. I discovered some amazingly undervalued Indonesian movies, they are including "Di Timur Matahari (To The East of The Sun)," "Tanah Surga... Katanya (Land of Paradise... They Said)," and... well it's just those two really. Heh.

To sum it up, all I did today was just doing the infamous art of procrastination.

SINDROM HOMESICK MENYERANG NANANANANA~

Dadah,



Friday, 18 January 2013

The Toughest Place To Be A Binman

It all started when my English teacher had my class to watch this particular documentary film by BBC about a binman from London who visited Jakarta to experience his job in another country and with a 'whole new level' of being a binman (or maybe "trash picker" would be the right term here in Indonesia). As an Indonesian, I know that people are actually aware of the fact that Jakarta has now becoming a trash dumpster. Not only that, about 10 million people are also depending on the capital to be able to fulfill their needs.

Though we are all aware of it, I sense no action is coming from all of us--ahemgovernemntahem. I'm not only referring to the people of Jakarta here since we are all the ones who are going to decide the future by the decisions that we're making. I'm not going to have my country deserve a title as 'one of the top 5 dumpsters in ASEAN.' I mean that's just silly for a country who seems to be the largest among the 10 (you see, we Indonesians are always so proud of our country, geographically).

What caught my attention is a particular scene that involved an 'unknown' trash truck (is it the right term for trash-carrying trucks?) came to this rural place where the British bin man was staying, in a complex where all of the people there are mostly fulfilling their life needs as trash-pickers, thus the place it self is also filled with filthy trashes. What saddens me is that the fact that those trashes came from other places too, big companies who just want to get rid of their trash for instance. 

Then some people said that the truck was sent by the government.

We all assumed that maybe because BBC was doing a documentary about the whole rural place and trashes, the government wanted to have this sort of 'good impression,' and so they sent a truck to kept away the trashes. The local people there were all started to say things like "there has never been a single truck from the government being sent here."

One important thing that these Indonesian trash pickers are lacking of, is equipment. Since they aren't being recognized by the government as official "binmen," they must provide all of the equipment by their own.

Let's compare this one


With this one


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But then again, ranting and yelling at the projector won't solve the problem, and so we decided to list several possible solutions.

I came up with these (the ones that I could still remember):
  • Make a community
  • Write a letter to the government
Yes...... only two so far.

The first solution was actually one of the questions being asked by the British bin man to the Indonesian bin men. I think their conversation sounded sort of like this:

"How about making a community for trash pickers then?"

"We've tried, but no one listens."

I'm still wondering though, what if they really made a community consisting of binmen? That way I suppose they could at least try to have the government attention being diverted to them. For real.

---

Anyway, I suppose this documentary was made when our mayor wasn't the current mayor (Mr. Fauzi Bowo was Jakarta's mayor from 2007 until 2012. If I'm not mistaken, this documentary was made in early 2012). Jakarta now has Mr. Joko Widodo as its new mayor, was once a mayor in a city called Surakarta and he's quiet famous for his achievements and how the city of Surakarta changed rapidly (in a good way of course) under his leadership. I think one of his power is because he's always making communication to the local people as his top priority, because a mayor who makes his people as his top priority is always kool.

Well then, Jakarta is now the biggest water park ever since it's already raining season here in Indonesia and floods are everywhere. So bring your swimsuits if you're going to visit Jakarta and prepare to ride a kayak among the skyscraper buildings.

---

Somehow I'm beginning to think that democracy is just a thing that is currently among those trashes in the dumpsters, here in Jakarta--or maybe the whole Indonesia.

The pictures are rightfully belong to their owners by the way.


Dadah

-Nibras Sakkir



Saturday, 24 November 2012

Well I think...

Indonesia is fair like Kartini, has the charisma of Soekarno, and courage from Bung Tomo.




  

Friday, 9 November 2012

Bloody Surabaya

Obviously I'm not trying to curse like a British by using the word "bloody," but tomorrow Indonesians will be celebrating what we call "Hari Pahlawan," or the National Heroes Day.

Here's a brief story about what happened on 10 November.

-oOo-

It all started in the time where we were struggling to protect our identity, the identity of a free country. In 1945, about 3 months after the declaration of independence by Pak Soekarno and Pak Hatta in Jakarta, the Japanese surrendered and the Dutch came again with help from the Allies. Britain arrived in Jakarta & Surabaya in order to get control over the Japanese weapons and freeing Japanese prisoners and bringing them back to Japan, but nonetheless Britain also brought a mission to bring Indonesia back to be the Dutch East Indies again.

Meanwhile in Surabaya, On 27 October 1945 Britain arrived and gave the people of Surabaya an ultimatum to surrender their weapons. On 28 October, not only the infantries but the people of Surabaya itself attacked the British troops. The men were marching forward to fight the British no matter who they are, children and women are ordered to stay back and went to a safe place. What most memorable from this battle was a speech that caused the fiery spirits of the Surabaya people, by one of the most famous national hero in Indonesia by the name of Bung Tomo.

Bung Tomo itself read the speech furiously, saying that the Surabaya people will never be afraid of anything, not the Allies, not the Dutch, and not for the fact that they were lacking weaponries too.

People mainly used left-behind Japanese weapons, but since that time Indonesia was so little of weaponries, people even fought in battles using bamboos with sharp ends to be able to stab the enemies.

Surabaya men or "arek-arek Suroboyo" then known for their heroic spirits despite all the obstacles that they faced, at the end they got through it. Losing about 200.000 men while the Allies side losing about 2000 men.

That time, the word "merdeka" brought a lot of miracles for everyone.
With this one word, an unforgettable phrase was born, "Merdeka atau mati." "Freedom or death."

Though we are not in the era where we struggled to gain our real identity, "merdeka atau mati" is a really common phrase, especially when we celebrate our country's national day (17 August). Sad our generations these days even forgot about it too sometimes.

And so, many of them forgot about what happened on 10 November.


Dadah

Nibras Sakkir


















(Image belongs to its rightful owner)

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Sumpah Gue Sumpah Pemuda!

Pertama
Kami poetera dan poeteri Indonesia, mengakoe bertoempah darah jang satoe, tanah Indonesia.
Kedoewa
Kami poetera dan poeteri Indonesia, mengakoe berbangsa jang satoe, bangsa Indonesia.
Ketiga
Kami poetera dan poeteri Indonesia, mendjoendjoeng bahasa persatoean, bahasa Indonesia.

Baru aja baca barisan-barisan yang ada di Sumpah Pemuda, lalu tiba-tiba otak diahlikan lagi ke para generasi muda Indonesia. Satu hal yang dipikirin itu: "Apa kita semua sudah menanamkan nilai-nilai yang ada di barisan ini di dalam diri kita semua?"

Ya untuk yang ketiga jangan ditanya lagi, itu mah sudah jadi bagian dari kehidupan sehari-hari. Tapi untuk yang kedua dan pertama...

Agak diragukan keberadaannya sekarang (jengjengjeng)

Tapi sepertinya kalau mencoba membahas barisan yang pertama dan kedua, pasti akhir-akhirnya bisa nyangkut dengan yang namanya nasionalisme.

Oke emang nasionalisme tuh berkobar sangat kalo udah ditambah sama yang namanya sepakbola, tapi masa cuma sepakbola atau yang bersangkutan dengan olahraga aja sih. Jujur aku kagum banget sama nasionalisme orang-orang Indonesia, apa lagi orang-orang "tempo doeloe," beuh itu mah jangan ditanya lagi, tapi terkadang suka kasihan sama orang-orang Indonesia zaman sekarang.

"Eh eh eh, kita ke Singapura yuk! Barang-barang disana banyak banget yang nggak ada di Indonesia lho~"

Jujur aja kadang telinga saya sendiri suka nyeri ngedenger yang kayak gitu.

"Akh Indonesia, malesin. Mending ke luar negeri keren."

Yang ini harus dicobain diceburin ke laut-laut Indonesia dulu kali ye.

Saya sendiri makin jauh dari tanah air, malah makin cinta, mungkin itu juga awalnya dair rasa kepunyaan terhadap Indonesia sendiri. Di mata dunia itu negara kita justru beruntung banget! Budaya, kita ada segudang, kekayaan alam, silahkan hitung sendiri, apa sih yang nggak menarik dari Indonesia?

Nasionalisme rasanya kurang lengkap ya kalau nggak ada yang namanya persatuan.
Ngomong-ngomong soal persatuan, yang namanya tawuran lagi marak tuh...


(courtesy: mobile.seruu.com)

Tawuran diawali dengan sekelompok pemuda-pemuda yang sok jagoan...

dan berakhir dengan...

(courtesy: merdeka.com)

Penghinaan.

Hoi, dulu Soekarna & Hatta itu nggak kerja secara individual untuk memerdekakan yang namanya Bangsa Indonesia. Ada gitu tawuran? Ada, tapi ngelawan Belanda, bukannya saling ngebantai satu sama lain. Nah, bedanya disitu. Mereka tahu kalo mereka saling cekcok ngeributin hal-hal seperti perbedaan suku lah, agama, budaya, latar belakang keluarga, dan lainnya, pasti pihak lain yang bakal menang. 

"Anak Sulawesi, lawan Anak Jakarta.
Anak petani, lawan anak orang kaya.
Siapa yang menang? Belanda!"

Kalimat yang jleb sangat ini kira-kria bunyinya seperti itu, saya ambil dari salah satu adegan di film "Merah Putih." Bagi saya kalimat ini terkeren pertama, lalu pilihan saya yang kedua "Bau Orang Belanda itu seperti keju." (?)


(courtesy: id.wikipedia.org)

Tuh, bahkan di posternya saja disebutkan "Untuk merdeka mereka bersatu"


Hari-hari seperti Hari Sumpah Pemuda ini paling nggak bisa mengajarkan kita semua sedikit pelajaran, hadiah dari para pendahulu kita semua, orang-orang yang selalu menaruh harapan pada para generasi mudanya. Untuk itu lah, jangan sampai harapan mereka musnah!

Bagi para generasi muda dengan impiannya yang tinggi, bagi para penerus bangsa Indonesia, selamat Hari Sumpah Pemuda!

Dadah

-Nibras Sakkir