Ming’s Mind

(Saya akan berusaha untuk tidak memuat spoiler dalam review ini.)

{I’ll try to not include any spoiler in this review.}

Sebenarnya saya merasa beruntung telah mendapatkan kesempatan untuk
menikmati Jukstaposisi: Cerita Tuhan Mati, karena menurut saya novel
ini merupakan salah satu tulisan berbahasa Indonesia terbaik yang
pernah saya baca. (Wah, novelis baru muda berbakat telah lahir!)

{Actually I feel lucky to have got the chance to enjoy Jukstaposisi:
Tale of Dead god, because in my opinion this novel is one of the best
Indonesian literatures I’ve ever read. (Wow, another young talented
novelist has been born!)}

Menurut saya Calvin M.S. adalah novelis muda yang berani dalam memilih
topik untuk novelnya dengan secara tidak langsung menyangkal
Tuhan-Tuhan monoteistik yang kita kenal di dunia nyata dan memasukkan
tuhan-tuhan dalam dunia imajinasinya; karya yang sangat menarik untuk
para free thinker!

{I think Calvin M.S. is a brave young novelist in choosing the topic
for his novel by indirectly denying the monotheistic Gods that we know
in our reality and including the gods in his world of imagination into his book; a
very interesting piece for free thinkers out there!}

Saya disuguhi dengan Prolog menarik saat Anda mulai membaca novel ini
dan hanya setelah saya selesai membaca novel ini hingga Epilog, barulah
saya dapat memahami prolog Jukstaposisi (walaupun masih banyak hal-hal
yang ingin saya tanyakan pada CMS).

{I was served with an interesting Prologue the moment I started reading
this novel and only after I’ve finished reading the entire book up till
the Epilogue that I could make a sense out of the Prologue of
Jukstaposisi (although there are still some things that I would like to
ask to CMS).}

Beberapa hal yang kurang saya sukai dari novel ini (ada juga yang karena sentimen pribadi terpendam =p) antara lain:

{some things which I don’t really like from this novel (there is also this thing out of personal sentiment =p) are as follows}:

1. Novel ini bercerita seputar kehidupan anak sekolah (protagonisnya
adalah Ashra Trivurti, gadis berusia 14 tahun yang baru akan memasuki
masa puber), ruang kelas, UKS dll. Duhhh, apa sinetron-sinetron murahan
Indonesia masih belum cukup membuat kita-kita muak dengan topik anak
sekolahan? Untung saja saya tidak menemukan seekor siluman ular pun! =p

{This novel revolves around the life of a school girl (the protagonist
is Ashra Trivurti, a 14-year-old girl who’s just about to enter her
puberty stage), classroom, infirmary etc. Dohhhh, are the cheap
Indonesian soaps not yet enough to make us nauseous with this setting?
It’s fortunate that I couldn’t track any transfigured-snake-monster in
the novel =p (it’s typically Indonesia, if you’re wondering)}
2. Settingnya yang sangat teramat Indonesia sekali dan semua pemeran
utama merupakan orang Indonesia (kalau saya tidak salah=p) padahal
sekolahnya diceritakan sebagai sekolah yang cukup plural sehingga
memiliki kesan terlalu mengagung-agungkan bangsa (sama seperti orang
Jepang membuat komik mereka berpusat orang-orang Jepang saja); Saya
kurang menyukai hal ini.

{The setting which is so very terribly Indonesian and all of the main
characters are Indonesians (if I’m not mistaken) although the school is
told to be quite plural creates the impression as though there’s a
glorification for the people in this nation (just like those Japanese
making comics which revolves only around their people); I don’t think
too highly of this thing.}
3. Ada kesan penceritaan yang terlalu bertele-tele di awal cerita
(berpusat pada kehidupan sekolah Ashra, kehidupan Marya Yeshwa yang
penuh tekanan [BOREDOM ALERT!!!], dan pengenalan (pendek) tokoh penting
lain serta figuran lainnya) dan ngebut di akhir cerita sehingga (saya
pribadi merasa) ada kesan buru-buru (mungkin CMS dikejar deadline/sibuk
dengan pembuatan skripsi pada saat yang sama?? =p) dalam pengakhiran
cerita sehingga mungkin beberapa pembaca akan merasa agak menyesal
sudah menghabiskan waktu membaca awal cerita yang tidak penting-penting.

{A prolix beginning of the story (revolving around the Ashra’s school
life, Marya Yeshwa’s pressured life [BOREDOM ALERT!!!], and
miscellaneous introductions), yet racing the story when it’s about to
reach the end which (I personally think) creates an impression that
it’s finished in a rush (maybe CMS was racing with the deadline/too busy
doing his final term paper for college at the same time?? =p)  so that,
maybe, some readers would regret having spent their time reading the
unnecessary beginning.}
4. Ada tokoh-tokoh yang penting tapi pengenalannya terlalu sedikit di
awal cerita sehingga saya tidak habis pikir bahwa perannya akan bergitu
penting di akhir cerita (siapa yah…???).

{There are some important characters in this story which are not
properly introduced that they amazed me when I was reading the ending
because never had I thought that their role in this story could be that
important (who could they be…???)}
5. Bahasa tuhan di Jukstaposisi agak sangat terlalu mirip sekali (lol)
dengan bahasa elf di LOTR/Eragon sehingga bikin illfeel karena terkesan
semi-mencontek (sorry yah, Vin =p).

{The god language in Jukstaposisi is a bit quite too very similar (lol)
to the elvish language in LOTR/Eragon it gave me an ill feeling toward
it because it created a semi-plagiarism impression (Sorry, Vin =p).}
6. Endingnya kurang memuaskan! Tapi demikianlah yang terjadi di dunia
nyata yang kejam ini apa adanya digambarkan oleh novel ini =]

{Unsatisfactory ending! Yet it describes what really happens in this cruel reality perfectly =]}

Itu hanya merupakan beberapa pendapat pribadi saya dan hanya Andalah
yang bisa menilai sendiri apakah novel ini memang layak untuk menjadi
juara tiga dalam Sayembara Novel DKJ 2006. Saya pribadi menjadi sangat
tertarik untuk membaca novel juara pertama dan kedua setelah membaca
novel Jukstaposisi.

{Well, those are some of my personal opionions  and only you can decide
for yourself whether this novel is good enough to have won the third
place in  Sayembara Novel DKJ 2006. I personally got pretty interested
to read the first and second-place-winning novels upon reading
Jukstaposisi.}

…kalau juara 3 sudah sebagus ini, apalagi juara-juara lainnya?!?! ;]
Saya akan selalu menunggu karya-karya Calvin Michel Sidjaja yang berikutnya!

{…if the third-place-winning novel is this good already, what good
stuff could be waiting in the other champions’ novels?!?! ;]
I shall wait for the future masterpieces of Calvin Michel Sidjaja!}

Are humans ready to accept the truth?

I’ve
been thinking a lot, understanding a lot of people’s minds, and seeing
a lot of different perspectives after realizing that it’s impossible
for an almighty and benevolent God to exist.

And I’m scared.

I’m worried whether I’m really doing the right thing.

To tell you the truth, it takes a lot from person who’s been believing the existence of God to deny God’s existence.

It took a lot from me to deny the existence of something that I’ve been wishing to exist.
I’m scared of dying.
I’m scared of the future.
I’m scared of everything unknown.

And
the possibility that a greater power could exist — and I can’t get this
thinking out of my mind — scares me the most since if it really does
exist it mustn’t be an all-loving one; and I’m not talking anything
about religion here.

Most religions are failures.

Reading
a history book and starting to ask ‘why?’ on every little cruel thing
that happened in the past would prove that there couldn’t have been any
almighty and benevolent being helping humans — we’re all granted free
will after all…

And the fact that it couldn’t have been an all-loving being scares me the most…
I’m feeling like a guinea pig being experimented for some kind of psycho fun…

Life is such an uncertainty full of possibilities when you stopped believing in God.
I’ll leave this topic here since nobody knows for sure.

Morality issue is the greatest fear, now that I realize I’m living in real world filled with a lot of immoral people.

The
question is not whether God exists or not anymore but…will those
people who are willing to kill others because of their belief in God be
a better person without their religion?

Surely they did it because of their religion, but we can’t blame the religion for doing that.

Humans are the most amazing creatures I’ve known on earth and we’re beautiful.

We are able to think and reason.
We do have our own ego…but we’re able to love.

Being
an Atheist (?) I have an even greater reason to live a good life since
I believe it’s more possible that this is the only life I’ve got and I
have to live it good and to the fullest…it makes me able to realize
that when I’m doing good deeds to my fellow human beings I’m doing it
because I wanted to, not because of the eternal fire threat from a
so-called benevolent deity.

Those other people who killed because of their belief in God are so pitiful.
They’re doing something based solely on their faith, not facts.
They’ve treated a real and living human being lower than something that can’t be proven.
They’re so lost and this is why I’m saying that religions are failures — for being one of the causes.

…yet
religions can make those ignorant  and selfish people to be scared of
God and hell and hold them back from doing the extremes (although some
are encouraged to do the extremes by some certain religion…)

What I’m scared of is, when those people finally believe that God doesn’t exist…

What can hold them back from doing cruel things to other human beings if those kind of people aren’t afraid of hell anymore…?

Moral degradation is my biggest fear…

Although some would say that religion is the cause of the moral degradation and some believe that you are what you are regardless of your religion.

*poke*

Oh!!! I’ve just been told that I’m actually an Agnostic!!!
Are you a believer, Atheist, or Agnostic?

Am I doing the right thing…?

Welcome readers.
Please take your time to watch some fascinating videos that will keep you
thinking about your God and religion. Please click on every link below to see my point.

Ten questions that every intelligent Christian must answer.

How do you know that Mormons, Muslims, and Christians are delusional.

The best optical illusion in the world.

Proving that G-O-D’s plan is impossible.

Proving that pope has NEVER read the bible.

Proving that NOBODY can get into heaven.

The Interview with G-O-D.

I hope you had fun watching because I did.

Click here if you’re interested in watching more.

Please visit www.godisimaginary.com if you’re interested in finding 50 proofs
that G-O-D is imaginary.

I do hope that you can at least realize that you’re the one who’s responsible
for your own life after watching these videos because your delusion is hurting
all of us.

I’d be really grateful if you’ll please repost this blog into yours with the
title:
God. Is. Imaginary.

Be sane.

Thank you~!

*poke*

~Ming~

P.S. I’m sorry for your inconvenience in reading this blog because I can’t post video on my blog, it seems like friendster hasn’t evolved to be a decent site for blogging — yet.

Welcome all readers! =D
Traveler’s Guide, a new blog segmentation from me.
This is a new marketing mix strategy I’m using to target all of my dearest readers who prefer lots of pictures in a blog.

~Less texts, more pictures, only in Mingy’s TG~

All you need to do is sit sweetly on your chair and wait for the pictures to load~

So,
this October 2007, I went to Jakarta on Lebaran/Idul Fitri (Muslims new
year, they are on Mudik/back to their villages so the traffic is not
crowded during this time) holiday. I was staying at Le Grandeur hotel (the name was Dusit).

[above is half-doggy style me XD]

It’s
a VERY nice hotel equipped with broadband internet connection, TV with
more than 60 channels to choose from, and so sleepable nice beds in
every guest room.

[the hallway of Le Grandeur]

It’s
very secure since all vehicles entering hotels and malls are checked
whether they are carrying bombs and each floor can only be accessed by
the certain guests living on the certain floor of Le Grandeur by e-card.

The night scenery of this hotel was exceptionally beautiful because of its lighting and the fountain on the front.

[holding my laugh bcuz people were looking :p]

It
has swimming pool, spa, hot spring, sauna room, restaurant, bar,
convention center, fitness centre, cafe, wine shop, and souvenir shop.

[the pool]

[the fool]

[...he needs an instructor XD]

[hot spring, the sauna room is also here]

[the gym]

[We call this sport 'Ping Pong' in Indonesia]

[wine shop]

[souvenir shop]

[posing in front of the restaurant]

Guests
(2 adults and 1 child per room) are invited to the free breakfast
buffet in Kafe Mangga Dua everyday during their stay to enjoy a wide
choice cuisines; Indonesian, French pastries, Oriental, Western, all
you can eat.

[Kafe Mangga Dua, where you get your breakfast, quite spacious, and full music too]

[patiserrie]

[I like them smeared with tomato and chili sauce, yum~!]

[I love them long, hard, raw, and... XPPPPPPPPPP]

[the menu is different everyday]

[fruits and strawberry pudding, they've got no ice cream DX]

The
rate of this hotel is only IDR 600.000/nett (USD 60) per night and you
can get all these luxuries offered along with our typical Indonesian
hospitality.

As
some of you might’ve known (very well), one of my favorite things to do
is shopping, which of course can’t be separated from malls. If shopping
is your idea of spending your holiday, These are the malls that I
suggest:

1. Mall Kelapa Gading
2. Taman Anggrek Mall
3. Plaza Senayan
4. Senayan City

They are the most famous malls in Jakarta and  they are huge.

[the famous Kopi Luwak XDDD]

[They're just everywhere~ I'm doing the analysis on it for my final marketing assignment]

[all Indonesian cuisine section at Mall Kelapa Gading]

[love them, so pretty!!!  ...expensive too XD]

Mall
Kelapa Gading is better for middle class people seeking for standard
quality stuffs, the other three (especially Senayan City) target those
upper middles, lower uppers, and uppers whose cup of tea are those
high-quality stuffs, international fashion, and expensive dining; some
shops made me think more twice before entering them :p

[they price their items at ridiculious prices ~.~]

[they hate me for taking these pictures w/o buying XD]

[so pretty]

[too pretty]

[Starbucks' cakes]

[the
most famous bakery in Indonesia: BreadTalk; you'll have to queue for at
least half an hour to purchase those buns and cakes]

[I was told to not take pictures by a security dude who thought I'm a Japanese while taking the pic above lol]

All
of those malls have wonderful ( and huge) foodcourts with lots of kinds
of foods available, just get your tounge ready to taste all the amazing
Indonesian cuisine (well, all kind of food are available, A-Z)

[Plaza Senayan]

[I love their chocolates~]

[Remember Singapore's Kaya Toast? This is their branch]

[another ridiculous pricing :p]

[Another branch from Singapore, Crystal Jade Restaurant, we ate here]

[Being Mingylicious before eating something delicious]

[Food were superb, price as well lol~]

[Taman Anggrek]

[Their clothes are nice and comfortable~]

[They reminded me of Spongebob XD]

[every girl's dream ...what about bulldykes?]

[In Coffee Bean Taman Aggrek, went there to meet my lovely old elemantary schoolmate]

Now
one problem you might encounter during the travel here is language as
most Indonesians can’t speak fluent English and some wouldn’t
understand more than ‘yes., no, thank you, good bye’ phrase — which is
gonna be a problem for you. My suggestion for you is to learn the most
basic Indonesian which you’re sure will come in handy when traveling
here, i.e. berapa harganya? [how much is the price?] etc.

[I'm tired of commenting below everypic :p]

[Another Ted Baker's creativity, I so wanna see this guy]

[Yes,
these pictures from CK are taken in Senayan City (remember Vivo City in
my Singapore blog?), this mall beats all the malls in Singapore]

[ I can become a viewfinder real soon~ sneaking one]

And
don’t forget to never hesitate asking for direction or whatever when
you got lost or looking for something [some malls DO have poor
directories], Indonesians are the most courteous people you’d ever
encounter although there are some douche bags tew of course~
[look
for friendly-looking people, especially Chinese, because most of us are
better educated and more civilized; if some people look rude, they are
rude].

The DON’Ts in Jakarta:
1. Walk on the street while carrying or using valuable items [like cellphone]. The thieves there are horrible.
2.
Getting into a cab except those ones from Blue Bird company [colored in
blue although lots of fakers too] and always check  if the driver has a
driver’s ID before entering the taxi [in the front of the car]. A lil
bit more about this is that they like playing dumb
with passengers, telling them that they don’t know the directioneven
when they’re actually heading to the most well-known places in Jakarta.
I suggest you to leave them be to stay out of trouble and always make
sure before you get into the cab whether they know the direction you’re
heading to.
3. Cussing at people; ths is not a free speech country.
4.
Drink yourself drunk in a club, and especially girls, do NOT drink
anything from strangers, they have drugs that could make you feel to
sleep at once; a rape or rapes + video take is expected and the worst
thing is some of the sedatives they use could make you sterile.
5. Make out in the public or do any kind of Public Display of Affection as the people in Indonesia are not used to this.
6. Have sex without condom/other means of protection from HIV for a lot of people [moreover sex workers] have been infected; it would even be better if you stay away from this thing [practice safe sex, go fuck yourself].

Have a safe trip someday to Jakarta~!

*poke*

[Being silly at the lobby XDD]

The most delicious chocolate wafer in the world:


A surprise lollipop from Le Grandeur while we’re away lol:


And I’ve bought clothes for Chinese Spring Festival, YAY~!!!! [I love surf shops!]

Love,
Ming

All passengers welcome aboard! Thank you for choosing to fly with Scary Airline …which you will soon regret.

All our crews are specially untrained and our planes are the oldest and cheapest planes available to assure— No, Sir, please sit down, we’ve locked all exits. Hey! Tie that geezer up will ya mothafuckahs?! — the dodgiest, the most unpleasant, and the most life-threatening flight of your life.

If you check under your seat you won’t find any life vest available if we should — and we are proud to tell you that the probability is high — make a sudden landing on the water, so its either you have to be able to swim or die.

We don’t have any oxygen masks available should air pressure exceeds the normal when we’re flying to high up to see how long you can hold your breath — and please don’t worry about your baby girl Ma’am we’ve got special baby parachutes *pulls out*, so you can break the window and throw her out when it’s necessary. Our windows are easily broken *bang bang* ~ *creaking sound* so there’s no need for you to worry at all.

While the plane is taking off I would like to share some titbits that I’m sure all of you would love to know. One of the planes in Indonesia had suddenly disappeared in the water on the left of Sulawesi island which happened on January 1st this year. Surely, the horizontal stabilizer was found by a fisherman and other pieces followed afterward along with the black box but we are certain that 96 passengers and 6 crews died on that flight because not even their dead bodies were found.

Another plane from another airline killed 21 passengers and 1 cabin crew on March 7th. The horror of the plane crash were horribly described by the survivors… "Suddenly there was smoke inside the fuselage, it hit the runway and then it landed in a rice field. I saw a foreigner. His clothes were on fire and I jumped from the emergency exit."

*WIDE smile* ~ *batting eyelashes*

Don’t worry our dearest passengers, I, on behalf of Scary Airline assure to get you all to your destination in pieces.

Our current destination is Jakarta — Sir? You’ve got question? Seatbelt you say? Oh! I’m sorry I should be explaining about how to put on our special seatbelts, yes…

So if you’ve noticed some colorful fabric we bought from a certain company who has gone bankrupt — whatchamacallit, a bit too much info — on your left and right side, those are the special seatbelts, you just need to tie them around your waist, it’s very simple even a chimpanzee could do it — Pardon me, Ma’am? It’s too short for you? See how I told you not to eat too much Pizza? OMG, and you’ve exceeded the allowed 14" ass width and we should fine you later for that — although we don’t suggest you to do so if you really want to enjoy the dodgiest flight ever in your whole life.

*cough*

There’s no explanation about the safety on plane so don’t bother to look for it, kid, and oh you lil bastard! How many times do I have to tell you not to turn on any kind of electronic devices on plane?!?!?!?
*breaks the window*
*throws out the gameboy*

…so, our Scary Airline obliges me to give you a lil complimentary tour to some of the most famous places and happenings in Indonesia.

Our current destination is Jakarta. In this capital city of Indonesia, there’s something you will never forget your whole life once you get into your cab, does anyone know what the answer is?
Yes!
It’s our infamous traffic jam.
You will get caught in the jam for hours because our govt are just either too stupid or too preoccupied corrupting — I dunno —that they aren’t able to make a decent and humane traffic for us.

And if you’re lucky, our lovely passengers, you will even encounter some burglars who will break your car windows and rob everything that you have — even your clothes — during the jam; they are the unpaid heroes of foreigners who are always trying their hardest to give just the right atmosphere to you all.

A bit north from the Java island is Kalimantan (Borneo) island (and the author of this blog is currently living there~) which is very infamous for the forest fire smog which has always been complained by our neighboring countries: Malaysia and Singapore. Luckily, the hot spots in Kalimantan are increasing which of course will enable you to take a sniff of the smog easily from every part in Indonesia. And if you have a very adventurous mind to explore the wilds of our island; we also encourage you to enjoy your time with our natives.

Earthquake is one of our most perilous happenings in Indonesia.
Scary Airline is planning to set up a race for all travelers who enjoy adrenalin-pumping trip on the heart of our quake spots. Contestants of two are legible to enter the tournament, shoot all your rivals to death while driving away from the quake spots. Some worthy rewards are available for the last men or women standing. (100 early birds will get iPod nano, terms and conditions apply, register now!)

Our surfer dudes and chicks, we’ve got wonderful news for you. I’m sure all of you must’ve been bored of surfing the same ol’ wave again and again.
In Indonesia, you will be able to experience something totally new and challenging…

The legendary Mega Tsunami!
Swim — real — fast and surf in the tunnel of wave created by this monstrous disaster!

A bit wise advice from Scary airline before you enter this perilous competition is that you should insure your life first, make a will, and don’t forget to make a donation to Scary Airline so that we can always worsen our service.

Now, should you’re still alive and have the chance to enjoy the unbelievably Indonesia we’ve got a Xmas special for you.
Enjoy tanning your pale skin on our extraordinaire beach and dance yourself out in the tropical night life in our lovely paradise island of Bali.
Some religion fanatic morons are always around Indonesia and they can never be content until they finally become martyrs of their so-called religion; the good part is that they never want to die alone, these suicidal bombers.
They will blast their handmade masterpiece in unexpected time and unexpected places; of course Bali is their favorite spot since they just seem to love foreigners so much that they’re always targeting you all and I know this is such good news for you all, but don’t get all excited just yet. The best thing about this is that we haven’t got any skilled demolition experts here and they wouldn’t have the time to stop the ’suicidal’ bombers if they should magically appear; all the fun you can get only in the paradise island of Indonesia.

If you’re still alive after this trip, we would be really glad if you don’t forget to tell all of your family and friends about the second-to-none greatness of our beloved country, Indonesia, and persuade them to come and visit this TRULY Asia.

We’ll be looking forward to flying with you again!
Love your patronage,
Ming
—Air Steward
P.S.

I didn’t get the goddamned job as accountant (4 tests, 3 interviews), they must’ve thought I overqualified or too hot to be hired… XD

Even if I did get the job I’d get (at most) US $100 per month (be VERY happy you’re not born here) working from 7 am to 4 pm, ah well, everything happens for a reason.

We still get frequent blackouts here from 8 am to 4 pm, 5 pm to 10 am the next day, and some blackout bonuses~

I’m wondering what job I should apply for next ~.~

I’m flying to Jakarta tomorrow (YAY! SHOPPING! XDDD) and will be back on 16th

No notebook, so don’t expect for my reply during this time~

As promised, Thursday, blog

Last night when I was racing my
way back home because I didn’t want to eat a cold take-away dinner, I almost
struck someone who was strolling on the side walk; a beggar.

In the city where I’m living,
there are many beggars waiting on almost every traffic light areas, approaching
every vehicle when the traffic light turns red. They sometimes bring a small
container with them for collecting money, and sometimes empty-handed, some of
them even bring some portable instruments and play their *ughhh* ‘music’ in the
attempt to get some change. I feel pity for these people most of the time
because there are a lot of them who are disabled; I’ve seen one who has lost
his legs, a blind woman who needs to be helped by her son (?) walking her when
she’s begging for some change, one who looks mental and has a larger tumor growing
on the side of his neck… But there are also a few who seem strong, healthy,
and capable of working if given chance. Most of these people are very annoying
actually; they will bang your car if you don’t give them money or simply ignore
them. And they even let their children help them begging for money as well,
around the very crowded and dangerous traffic. Most of them haven’t even
reached the age of five because they could barely walk, and I found most of
them are suffering from malnutrition because of their poverty. Some mothers
bring along their infants begging for money under the blazing sun of our
tropical climate, which is very unhealthy to those poor newborns. What’s worse,
as I examine these beggars and bums, it seems like their number are growing,
slowly, but surely. These people seem to be reproducing pretty quickly because
they don’t have anything to do and they have all the time in the world to do
their thing, and if this keeps up I’m pretty sure our city, the city in where I
was born, will become a slum city in the near future, because not only these
people will disturb our traffic, they are dirtying the city as well; a very
serious problem, indeed. Sadly, I used to give some change to these people
regardless of their condition, but after giving it more thought, I decided to
be choosy on who I’m going to give some change to. This situation has put the
people here in a dilemma, in where we feel a lot of pity for them, yet if we
keep giving these people money, we’re directly supporting the growth of the
beggar community in our city.

An even worse condition happens
in the metropolitan city of Jakarta, a lot of people work cleaning the front
mirror of cars, and not caring whether the owners of cars will approve or not
of their action, they charge them; and funnily enough, those illegal (yes, I
think this kind of action can be classified as a form of threatening) car
cleaners state the price of their service, when they’re actually not needed at
all. But I can’t blame them. They are just victims of this cruel world, who are
struggling unrelentingly for something to fill their stomach everyday; they
must be helped.

Ironically, one of the statutes in

Indonesia

has clearly stated that: "All the poor and urchins will be supported by
the country", while I can find them lurking around everywhere in my city.
The policemen act as if they don’t see them, when these should be gathered, and
helped somehow (maybe by teaching older ones some life skills so that they’ll
be able to work decently and putting their kids to school). The government acts
as if these people don’t exist and do nothing to solve this problem; I believe
if the government would just share their precious time to take care of
them-instead of preoccupied corrupting-everything will become a lot better. A huge
shame for us Indonesian when comparing ourselves to our neighboring countries
like Singapore; they have a special force who works keeping the country clean
from bums and beggars, and I’ve heard that Malaysia is also starting to follow in
Singapore’s footsteps in keeping their country away from bums and beggars.

I really hope someday

Indonesia

’s
government will be less toothless about their law and won’t break the law that
they’ve made themselves. But I know I shouldn’t put my hope too high. Many
deaths are caused by the corruption done by the government who are corrupting
the fund planned to be used on the poor for their welfare. But this fund is also
corrupted, mercilessly, by some certain scum, causing a lot of death of the innocents
because they weren’t able to afford the medication for curable diseases like
Malaria, Diarrhea etc.; they’re murdered by corruptors. And we’re still the
runner-up in the competition of the most corrupt country in the world after

China

. I can
still watch the show “Republik Mimpi” (=Dream Republic)
every Sunday evening, humorously criticizing the way our govt rules the
country. And I can find a prepaid airtime voucher depicting a certain govt
being sent to his elementary school and being punished by the teacher to write
“Saya tidak akan Korupsi lagi.” (=I won’t be corrupting anymore.), on the
blackboard by his teacher, and passed out knowing that he will have to write
the sentence as many times as the amount of money he had corrupted-500 billion
times, that is (500.000.000.000 Rupiahs = approximately US$ 55,555,555.00; assuming
that US$1 = Rp 9.000,00 [nine thousand; a soft currency, yup]). Try to imagine
how many lives has been killed by this scum because of his bad habit, imagine
how much help that amount of money could be used to fix the fucked up condition
here, and imagine how severe this scum should be punished…

 

Although our current President in
charge is trying so intensely in fighting the corruption, who can guarantee
that he will succeed? What will happen in the future if he won’t be voted as
the next President? Who can guarantee that he himself is not corrupting?

I don’t even know what to believe
anymore…

What will be of Indonesia in the future?

Will we end up selling our
islands to foreign countries because we’re unable to pay off the monstrous
debts left by some certain Indonesian scum for the future generation?

Or will there be someday when I can lift my head up and proudly say, "I’m an Indonesian"?

…Indonesia, my dear country, I
love and thank you for all the things that you’ve given me; I’m sorry, I
can’t help but feel shy for being an Indonesian…

 

 

-Ming-

*yes this is my first blog post friendster ~.~, I’m not very active in this site, but maybe I’ll be more active…? haha we’ll see ;)*

Keep moving on!

So,
I went to the movie today, this afternoon, after very long absent from
my weekly schedule of going to the cinema. I watched the cartoon (yes,
I love watching cartoon~) "Meet the Robinsons" (Walt Disney presents),
and it was a great cartoon, which has delivered some important messages
to me. The story wasn’t very well arranged since there are quite a few
scenes which are-in my opinion-delevoping too fast than it should’ve
and therefore resulted in shocking effects and lessen the score I’d
give to the movie (as if it’s that important :p), but overall this
movie is a must-watch.

This story gave me a very meaningful
message, which was written by Walt Disney himself… "Keep moving
forward". One of the character from this story (I forgot who, since I
don’t have a super Einstein brain like Lewis *the kid who has the main
role in this cartoon* do) said something about failure is better than
success, since every time we fail in doing something we’re going to
learn something and we won’t learn anything from success (although it’s
nicer to be successful all the time), and I agreed with this statement.
The good thing about this movie is that the Robinson family has a very
positive view on failures, they even have a "cheers" together after
Lewis failed in repairing the peanut butter-blackcurrant jam gun and
encouraged him to try again later, and told him the story of the
prototypes (failures) of the time machine, on how the machine was made
once, twice, hundredth times, five hundredth time, and so on, before
the first spic and span time machine was successfully made. They even
reminded me about one of Indonesian’s aphorism… "Failures are the
postponed success".

"All
the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have
strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick
in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. We keep moving
forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. All your dreams can come
true if you have the courage to pursue them.Girls bored me - they still
do. I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I’ve ever known."-Walt
Disney

   

By failing we’ll be
able to learn a lot, we learn not to make the same mistake, we get
experience, we learn how to get up, and try again for future success.

   

"I failed in getting the scholarship…"
"I failed in my social life…"
"I failed this relationship…"

We make a lot of failures everyday, and nothing in this life will always go as smoothly as we’ve planned.

And this movie taught an important lesson in life: when we fail, get up and keep moving on!

 

two other quotes that I like>>>

 

"All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
Girls bored me - they still do."-Walt Disney

"I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I’ve ever known."-Walt Disney *gay…? or zoophilia? or even worse??? o.o;;… haha XDDD*

And I’m moving on now

*pokes*

-Ming-