AA NAN TAKANA

Tired but excited, stranded in Tokyo on my way home to Bukittinggi, this morning I was waken up by a breaking news. Obama wipe his tears while addressing the massacre done by Ryan Lanza in an elementary school, Newtown Connecticut. Directly, this thing shocked me, it put a bang in my head. I can feel what those more than twenty children's parents feel. I really do, I cannot imagine what a heart break it is. I do not believe I will be able to receive such condition in a sane manner. Though I do not know you, and you do not know me, please accept my deepest condolence.  lukamu, lukaku. luka kita luka kaku*. This thing is a tragedy, although happen locally, but this is a humanitarian tragedy. Children, what ever their race, nationality, and where ever they are in this world, are holy. They are holier than any saint. If threatening a saint is a sin, killing them is a condemned sin. May the soul who ever do this rot in hell for ever. It is emotional indeed, and I say it should

Dalam satu atau dua hari yang lalu, seseorng men-tag link foto-foto berwarna presiden Soekarno dengan John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) di grup F***B**K Madrasah sekolah menengah saya dulu. Menarik melihat Soekarno dengan Kennedy begitu akrab. Di foto-foto itu ada Jack dan Pak Karno berjalan sangat akrab dengan diiringi rombongan pengikutnya di belakang, Soekarno menggandeng tangan John F Jr. Singkat cerita Pak Karno seperti mengunjungi adeknya dalam muhibah tersebut. Hal yang menggelitik saya adalah bahwa dalam sejarahnya, Soekarno adalah seorang anti Amerika. Ini bisa kita saksikan dalam pidato-pidato nya, dari mulai pidato propaganda perang dunia kedua mendukung jepang sampai ganyang Malaysia. Dalam suasana perang dunia kedua soekarno terkenal dengan semboyan Amerika kita setrika, Inggris kita linggis. Setelah kemerdekaan pun demikian, Go to hell with your aid katanya pada Truman. Secara idepun Pak Karno adalah sosialis tulen, sedangkan Amerika adalah lahir batin anti sosialisme. Dala

This post is written Wednesday, November 14, 2012, a couple hours after statistic exam. I am tired, but also cannot rest. The burden that have just passed made me so excited to rest. That's why I write this down. Almost three weeks since the last time I wrote here. Hectic days of midterm exams have taken all my attention. However, her I am, sound and alive. I don't want to talk about the exam, it's over, at least for now. I write about trivia things here, (means nothing important, and true, there are nothing important here); about me, what I have done and been through for the last four months. Since July 2012, I have been taking Master in Public Administration program at Maxwell School of public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA. The school is listed as #1 school in public administration by US News, above Harvard Kennedy School (although I do not really believe it because they rejected my application, while Syracuse accepted

Blog ini dibuat disamping blog lain yang saya punya untuk menyalurkan tulisan yang lebih umum dan tidak pribadi. Diselimuti semangat nasionalisme yang menggebu-gebu, dinamakanlah blog ini Hiduplah Indonesia Raya. Saya bukan penulis yang produktif maupun blogger yang disiplin. Makanya kenyataan bahwa hingga saat ini perkembangan postingan masih seperti jalan keong, terseok-seok tidak ada perkembangan, sudah dalam antisipasi. Harus diakui, semangat saja tidak cukup untuk menghasilkan sesuatu. Disiplin dan kerja keras sangat penting untuk dapat membuahkan karya. Itulah yang saya punya tapi tidak cukup banyak. Lucunya, blog tanpa postingan tetap ini terus saja didatangi pembaca. Perkembangan pembaca tidak wah memang, cuma berkisar di angka ratusan. Akan tetapi tetap saja ada yang nyasar ke blog ini. Melihat sumber pembaca yang melihat blog ini membuat saya sadar, ternyata yang melihat-lihat ke sini sebenarnya tidak di dasari oleh isi blog, akan tetapi karena jasa mesin pencari. Malu ju

The cartoon above appeared in USA today Friday September 21, 2012. Depicting how the Muslim World have just ignore deaths of so many people in Syria, but when a video in Youtube can provoke and raise rages, the cartoon get my attention. It's appearance is stereotyping, but it does have a point. First, I would like to express my opinion about the appearance. Graphically the cartoon capture intelligently how the general west think about Muslim World. Arabic figures with sandals and untidy appearance; a woman with burqa; another woman using scarf on her head, a man with turban, an Alladin hat. Every thing represent external image of Muslim World. It represent how small the cartoonist know about I Islam and Moslems. The untidy appearance can represent the situation where most Moslems live right now, under developed notion, and poverty. After all, I am not sure what the dog represents here. My first impression translating it as representing the opinion that Moslems are no different

I surfed the Internet, watching videos of Ted x events in Jakarta in Youtube this morning. I found two very interesting videos. First, the video Ridwan Kamil spoke about change, on how Indonesian youth should be creative and be responsible to the community. Second Anis Baswedan who spoke about a program called Indonesia Mengajar. The most interesting part in Kamil's video is at the end of the speech where he remind his father's advice. His father told him that there are four kinds of youth; the smarts but do not care, the fools but care, the fools who do not care, and last the smarts who care. The  smarts who do not care are people who just think about their leisure such as students and scholars who work abroad, and too afraid to return to Indonesia to work with petty salary. The fool who care are those who go to demonstration, some times get paid for that. The fool who do not care are the hoodlums in the market and villages. The one that his father advocate him to be is th

Saat pertama datang di Amerika Serika (AS), sering timbul keinginan membandingkan berbagai hal, baik itu besar atau trivia antara kampung dan tanah rantau ini. Sebagian besar adalah trivia karena memang yang terlihat itu hanyalah trivia. Diantara nya adalah istilah moto berbahasa latin di lambang negara amerika serikat  e pluribus unum. Moto ini dapat ditemui di semua koin AS. E Pluribus Unum memiliki arti yang hampir sama dengan Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Indonesia. Berbeda-beda tapi satu. Secara bahasa e pluribus unum berearti yang beragam (plural) satu (unum). Kedua moto yang serupa ini di tuliskan di pita yang di indonesia di pegang di kaki burung garuda, kalau di AS di gigit di paruh elang. Sebagai rakyat indonesia, agak memalukan memang, saya tidak tau bagaimana sejarahnya moto Binneka Tunggal Ika bisa sampai ada di kaki Garuda. Di AS sendiri moto ini berasal dari gentleman's magazine terbitan london tahun 1731, yang kemudian saat kemerdekaan AS tahun 1776 diakomodir menja