November 29, 2002
Barbie is banned from Russia, without love
The doll's outrageous curves are corrupting the minds of children, says President Putin who wants to promote 'wholesome' values instead.An unfeasably busty plastic doll, known for her lavish tastes and docile boyfriend, is an unlikely enemy of the Russian state. But Barbie, along with a host of Western toys, faces the wrath of the Kremlin for contaminating the young minds of Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Education has included Barbie along with a list of other toys and games, such as Pokémon, that face a ban because of the supposedly harmful effects they have on the minds of young children. Barbie, in particular, is under fire because the doll is thought to awaken sexual impulses in the minds of the very young, and encourage consumerism among Russian infants.
" ... a number of criterion have been pinpointed, asking whether the toy 'provokes aggression, or cruelty towards other players,' if it contains 'themes of immorality and violence, or provokes unhealthy interest in sexual problems,' or if it inspires 'disdain or negativity to the racial peculiarities and physical inadequacies' of other people."
Contribute: Web Development for Everyone
Macromedia Contribute, announced the week of November 11, 2002, is a new piece of Web development software aimed at precisely the people you wouldn't let touch your code in a million years. Contribute is a desktop application that allows anyone with the proper permissions to check out an HTML file, edit pieces of it in a WYSIWYG environment, then save and publish the changes. The user interface has been designed to act like popular programs within the Windows environment, so the learning curve is almost nil for folks familiar with Microsoft Office and the like. With Contribute, you can have your entire sales team editing product pages to their hearts' content within an hour.
Let say to wonder that even a CEO can use a web application developer? How nice is it?
November 28, 2002
Google Needs People
"This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors. No humans were harmed or even used in the creation of this page."You can read that lines at Google News FAQ, a new beta service provided by Google that features integrated access to 4,000 continuously-updated news sources. A protest came from Washington Post editor, "It's a useful service, but it's not going to drive me to the unemployment office tomorrow," stated Douglas B. Feaver, an executive editor.
Google's claim that it offers "a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention" is misleading, at best. What about the programmers who wrote the algorithms? What about the designers and architects who structured and organized the templates? What about the thousands of reporters and editors who wrote and selected the articles? Yeah, actually Google needs people. Long live People! We're still human, huh?
A Deep Sorry
As you may notice today, now I'm placing a banner advertising on this website. I don't know it will work or not, but I really want to say a deep sorry just to do this. I look my impression of this website really good (and this all because you guys), more than 100 page views a days, after figured the things, why I don't try to get revenue by banner network that I think would not hurt my visitors. So, I now try, just a little try. Instead, I really hope that if some of you interesting in what displayed there, easily click it. It might be could help me to cover my hosting fees :)
Update (12/19): And, I has drop it finally, phew :p Nice try, all banner advertising is s*cks!!
Afterlife Telegrams
I quote a nice things from Farid's website:
"For a fee of $10 per word (5 word minimum), our customers can have a telegram delivered to someone who has passed away. This is done with the help of terminally Ill volunteers who memorize the telegrams before passing away, and then deliver the telegrams after they have passed away."Have anyone tried it? Please let me know if it worked, I will have one to be delivered to my father.
Funnily, I read from the comments in Farid's site, the webmaster gives his thank for him that he is the first and then write about it on his news site. The webmaster said, as of now, no one has yet bought a telegram. Hmm, why don't you try it Farid, may be for free if you request to the creator, in turn for a delicate promotion, may be?
Simple Shop, an Amazon Web Services Implementation
Someone has commented my July 2002 posting about Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is a business to business implementation of e-commerce, and with this services, any peoples, organization, small or big, prossibly could create any type of stores they wants by using actually Amazon stocks (in real time). Also, they could buy it directly if they made it a links through Amazon Assciates. So, this is the time for XML century, using Web Services we get the time to celebrate the future of internet. I hope more merchant will open this services.
He/she note that he has create one page using this tools named Simple Shop, he is an enthusiast developer using PHP and AWS. Over the last 3 months he created an online application mentioned in Yahoo Biz, Cnet and Zdnet. There, he implement using XML-RPC API interface of AWS. To see his work, easily jump to SimpleShop. Thanks to Calin Uioreanu for the info.
Computer Will Replace Journalist?
Since I very infatuate with Google News, which by the secret ways, they could collects and filtering news source around the world and picking what the top stories in nearly actual times, but after all I still didn't believe that human (especially journalist) would be replaced by computer at that ways Google do. Well, to know more, today I found a nice article by Slate, Computers Go Too Far, that sees a journalists work has been taken by it. But it's not really all, nearly though :) Such it, read one comment below.
No doubt there are writers and policy analysts and consultants of all sorts who think today, "They're going after editors, but I can never be replaced by a machine." Ladies and gentlemen, that's what the editors thought.
November 26, 2002
The Terrorist Quiz
It seems like you can't read a website, watch the news, or pick up a newspaper without hearing about another terrorist attack. Of course most people claim that terrorism is "bad." But is it really "bad" or is that just another lie crafted by "the man" to keep the people down? Well as we've learned from women's magazines all across America, you don't know what you think about anything unless you take a quiz! So without further adieu, take this quiz and find out whether you have what it takes to be a terrorist...
November 25, 2002
The social wars
by IGNACIO RAMONET The great lesson of the history of humanity is that in the long term people will always revolt against worsening inequality. The present rise, in North and South, of illegality and criminality, often primitive and archaic manifestations of social agitation, is a clear sign that the world's poorest have had enough of social injustice. It is not yet political violence. But we all suspect that it might be a lull before a storm. How long will it last?
Indonesia: the fear factor
by Sidney Jones Attacks attributed to Islamist groups are shaking the Philippines and Indonesia. The Bali bombing in October has weakened President Megawati, leading to economic difficulties and the risk that the army may intervene.THE Bali bombings on 12 October were not Indonesia's first encounter with international terrorism, but no attack on this scale had happened before, and no Indonesian believed that peaceful Bali would ever be a target (1). There were ever more urgent warnings from the United States throughout September that al-Qaida operatives were planning attacks in Indonesia, but mostly they fell on deaf ears. Indonesians were very sceptical about the reality of the terrorist threat. The government neither wanted to be seen as capitulating to US pressure, nor to be viewed as returning to the Suharto-era arbitrary arrests of political suspects. There was concern that any move against hardline Muslims, such as the cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, would be politically divisive, when President Megawati Sukarnoputri knew that she needed support from Muslim parties if she was to win another term in 2004.
Religious violence rocks Nigeria
The arrival of dozens of beauty queens in London Sunday closed the troubled Nigerian chapter on this year's Miss World contest. They leave in their wake a Nigeria gripped by increasing social and political tensions that find expression between religious and ethnic groups. Violence that started last week in response to the contest, and continued into the weekend, left as many as 200 people dead.
What we can look after this violence is the very stupidity of intolerance. May be some of you think that you're very tolerance people, you live in very populous communities, and very tolerance. But, after reading such kind articles by ThisDay magazine that insult the Prophet Muhammad, we just realise there were just many people live in very dumb head thinking in their own world. We must now think our spirituality life is our very personal thoughts, our very sensitive means. Instead to persuade those insulting words, we just easily keep in mind what our religion means to be, and not offend the others, by any menas and any contexts. Of course, every muslim will be very resentful by the statement about the Prophet, either it will of any Christian if Jesus do by the same ways (by any people). We now life in the most liberated era, but it seem religion matters still closed area, and we happily realise that.
Related news:
- Religious violence rocks Nigeria - CSMonitor
- The beauty myth - Guardian
- Miss World pageant goes to London; newspaper editor arrested - eTaiwan
- Nigerian governor warns rioters will be shot on sight - Star Tibune
A nice comment from Guardian:
The riots in Nigeria were ultimately triggered, not by the contest itself but by a piece in a local paper claiming the prophet himself might have chosen a wife from these beauties. The Nigeria debacle shows how naive people are about this divide between cultures, especially in a post-September 11 world. A culture where a woman can be stoned to death for adultery clearly contains elements that will not be entranced by a parade of female flesh or the "modernity" it promises. To hold the contest during Ramadan compounds the insult.This is the same cultural naivety exposed by the bombing of the Sari club in Bali. The consolation some clubbers exchanged after the outrage betrays this same sense that the world is a playground where the true human (western) values can be paraded. Because no harm is meant, no offence should be taken. One clubber mourned the passing of the club on a website, saying "it was the United Nations of decadence" without any sense that this is what made it a target.
This new era of Muslim fundamentalism has changed the world but few in the west seem to realise this. Before September 11, casual imperialism caused offence when the west paraded its interests and values as self-evidently desirable. Now the reluctance to attack representatives of western values has disappeared even among those with no involvement in extremist organisations. Those rioting on the streets of Kaduna were not members of al-Qaida but they had no hesitation in attacking what they see as western values.
November 23, 2002
Inequality of world incomes: what should be done?
The evidence strongly suggests that global income inequality has risen in the last twenty years. The standards of measuring this change, and the reasons for it, are contested – but the trend is clear. The ‘champagne glass’ effect implies that advocacy of globalisation is not enough: international organisations need to move beyond integration into the world economy as the primary goal of policy.
November 22, 2002
Global goofs: U.S. youth can't find Iraq
Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday.
The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.
Luckily, in my elementary school, I could briliantly found the map of US without seeing it long. Even closing my eyes. It seem that the only view of the top people of United States is the shining oil at Iraq. Hahahaha, I like to laugh this weekend. :)
American Academics Who Hate America
Visit an American university, however, and you'll often enter a topsy-turvy world in which professors consider the United States (not Iraq) the problem and oil (not nukes) the issue. MORE...FBI: Muslim Groups In U.S. May Be Developing Nuclear Families
What a funny FBI provide such report, huh? Hahahahahaha, i get to laugh until this weekend :DAccording to an FBI report released Monday, "reliable and substantive evidence" exists indicating that Muslims residing in the U.S. are involved in a widespread plot to develop nuclear families."We possess what we believe to be credible proof that thousands of Islamic Americans, many of them Mideast-born, are attempting to acquire nuclear-family capability, often in full view of American law-enforcement authorities," said FBI director Robert Mueller, speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "These nuclear families, which consist of a husband-wife core and a varied number of surrounding offspring, could potentially come into contact with other such nuclear families, creating a terrifying chain reaction of Muslim familial perpetuation."
The phantom empire
From the perspective of those outside the United States, moreover, American foreign policy has distinctly imperial overtones. As sober an observer as Pierre Hassner, research director emeritus at the Centre d'Etudes et des Recherches Internationales in Paris, writes that ''doubtless a return to the imperial theme is in the nature of things,'' wondering only whether the new American empire will be based on force or cooperation. Citing such examples as the refusal of the Bush administration to allow the International Criminal Tribunal to try Americans, Hassner points out that ''the Americans are absolutely against any encroachment on their own sovereignty but absolutely in favor of intervention against others.''--Alan Wolfe, The Phantom Empire - The Boston Globe
November 20, 2002
What terorist say?
"I acted alone and on orders from God," said Yigal Amir, the young Jewish extremist who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995. "I have no regrets." Amir's words could have been uttered just as easily today by Islamic Hamas suicide bombers of buses and public gathering places in Israel; by Muslim Algerian terrorists who have targeted France with a campaign of indiscriminate bombings; by Japanese followers of Shoko Asahara, whose Aum Shinrikyo sect perpetrated the March 1995 nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway in hopes of hastening a new millennium; by members of the American Christian Patriot movement, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City a month later; or by Arab Afghans linked to Osama bin Laden, the alleged Saudi mastermind behind the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.Indeed, the religious imperative for terrorism is the most important defining characteristic of terrorist activity today. The revolution that transformed Iran into an Islamic republic in 1979 played a crucial role in the modern advent of religious terrorism, but it has not been confined to Iran, to the Middle East, or to Islam. Since the 1980s, this resurgence has involved elements of all the world's major religions as well as some smaller sects or cults.
The characteristics, justifications, and mind-sets of religious and quasi-religious terrorists suggest that they will be much more likely than their secular counterparts to use weapons of mass destruction--that is, nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. Four incidents in particular--the Tokyo nerve gas attack, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 1993 bombing of New York City's World Trade Center, and the 1998 attack on U.S. embassies in Africa--indicate that terrorism may be entering a period of increased violence and bloodshed. The connecting thread linking these four otherwise unrelated incidents is religion.
The emergence of religion as a driving force behind the increasing lethality of international terrorism shatters some of our most basic assumptions about terrorists. In the past, most analysts tended to discount the possibility of mass killing involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear terrorism. Few terrorists, it was argued, knew anything about the technical intricacies of either developing or dispersing such weapons. Political, moral, and practical considerations also were perceived as important restraints. Terrorists, we assured ourselves, wanted more people watching than dead. We believed that terrorists had little interest in, and still less to gain from, killing wantonly and indiscriminately.
The compelling new motives of the religious terrorist, however, coupled with increased access to critical information and to key components of weapons of mass destruction, render conventional wisdom dangerously anachronistic. And while it is true that the increasingly virulent threats posed by religious terrorists require increasingly superior military responses and deterrent measures, the ultimate solutions lie far beyond military strategy alone. Driven by value systems and worldviews that are radically different from those of secular terrorists and that are largely impervious to military counterattacks, religious terrorism demands vastly revised national and international diplomatic and cultural strategies that aim to strike at its root causes.
---taken from Old Madness, New Methods by Bruce HoffmannRead also, Terrorism Evolves Toward "Netwar"
Professor Johan Galtung
Truly, i just know this man yesterday Sunday after read his profile and interview on Kompas newspaper, an Indonesian leading paper. There, he told us about many interesting updates on what happened in our world. Including are: a new kind of fundamentalism, that is market fundamentalism. This kind of fundamentalism must be more dangerous than religious fundamentalism (in any religion). Frankly, all fundamentalism take us to what is named terorism, and he add, the terorism of United States is really more dangerous because they combine both fundamentalism (market and religious). The other interesting he said, the war on terorism of US will fail, because every people (especially those terorist) felt that creating terorism is cheaper than fighting terorism. He count that, to do 9/11 they only spend $0.5 billion, compared to $10 billion US government spend to fight on terror in each month. He followed another, Washington sniper need only 13 bullets for 10 death. Every bullets only 20 cent, so all of them spend only $2.6 dollar. In that very cheap amount, the business in those region fell of 60 percent. What a nice fact huh?
Johan Galtung is a Professor of Peace Studies, and Director of TRANSCEND, a peace and development network. Dietrich Fischer is a Professor at Pace University and co-director of TRANSCEND. I think you should know more about this man by reading these news archives:
The ugly AmericanTaken from Newind Press on Sunday
by Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer
September 11 spawned a cycle of violence and counter-violence, evidence of which is all round us. How can we break out of this vicious cycle? Some days after September 11, a psychologist gave advice on CNN to parents with children asking difficult questions. One young boy had asked “What have we done to make them hate us so much that they do such things?” A mature question, unlike the answer: “You could tell your child that there are good people in the world, and evil —”.
....
The targets of the September 11 terrorist attack were symbolic: the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, representing a system of world trade that amasses unspeakable wealth in a few hands while impoverishing billions in the Third World. Bin Laden’s statement broadcast by Al Jazeera shortly after September 11, said, “Our nation has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years”, referring to the 1916 Sykes-Picot treason, bringing Arabia under the rule of infidels, breaking the British promise of independence for Arab help in defeating the Ottoman Empire; and the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
War of WordsTaken from Radio Netherlands, Oct 27, 2002
by Michele Ernsting
The "war on terror" has instilled a new militarism in foreign policy. Attacks and counter attacks have raised the level of tension, but in many ways words rather than violence have fuelled a desire for revenge and war. It's easy to underestimate the power of words, but in the past year they have been skillfully manipulated by politicians, diplomats, entertainers and the media to shift public opinion.
November 19, 2002
Global Trends 2015
Have you wonder what will happen with our beloved world in 2015? Oh guys, what out of worries that year, but the folks at CIA (and its friends) has do it. They has compiled of what so called "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts". Here, I point one interesting views about the world that they divide into four scenario of global futures, they are: Inclusive Globalization, which mean all goes well; Pernicious Globalization, which mean globalization take the bad effect of evil to take the world; Regional Competition, which in my mean globalization come to its antidote creating more growth of regional identities; and Post-Polar World, which seem like our world right now. Though, I really deal with the last, may be because Indonesia has been mention there. To read its original version, please go to the CIA publication.Scenario One: Inclusive Globalization:
A virtuous circle develops among technology, economic growth, demographic factors, and effective governance, which enables a majority of the world's people to benefit from globalization. Technological development and diffusion—in some cases triggered by severe environmental or health crises—are utilized to grapple effectively with some problems of the developing world. Robust global economic growth—spurred by a strong policy consensus on economic liberalization—diffuses wealth widely and mitigates many demographic and resource problems. Governance is effective at both the national and international levels. In many countries, the state's role shrinks, as its functions are privatized or performed by public-private partnerships, while global cooperation intensifies on many issues through a variety of international arrangements. Conflict is minimal within and among states benefiting from globalization. A minority of the world's people—in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the Andean region—do not benefit from these positive changes, and internal conflicts persist in and around those countries left behind.Scenario Two: Pernicious Globalization
Global elites thrive, but the majority of the world's population fails to benefit from globalization. Population growth and resource scarcities place heavy burdens on many developing countries, and migration becomes a major source of interstate tension. Technologies not only fail to address the problems of developing countries but also are exploited by negative and illicit networks and incorporated into destabilizing weapons. The global economy splits into three: growth continues in developed countries; many developing countries experience low or negative per capita growth, resulting in a growing gap with the developed world; and the illicit economy grows dramatically. Governance and political leadership are weak at both the national and international levels. Internal conflicts increase, fueled by frustrated expectations, inequities, and heightened communal tensions; WMD proliferate and are used in at least one internal conflict.Scenario Three: Regional Competition
Regional identities sharpen in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, driven by growing political resistance in Europe and East Asia to US global preponderance and US-driven globalization and each region's increasing preoccupation with its own economic and political priorities. There is an uneven diffusion of technologies, reflecting differing regional concepts of intellectual property and attitudes towards biotechnology. Regional economic integration in trade and finance increases, resulting in both fairly high levels of economic growth and rising regional competition. Both the state and institutions of regional governance thrive in major developed and emerging market countries, as governments recognize the need to resolve pressing regional problems and shift responsibilities from global to regional institutions. Given the preoccupation of the three major regions with their own concerns, countries outside these regions in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia have few places to turn for resources or political support. Military conflict among and within the three major regions does not materialize, but internal conflicts increase in and around other countries left behind.Scenario Four: Post-Polar World
US domestic preoccupation increases as the US economy slows, then stagnates. Economic and political tensions with Europe grow, the US-European alliance deteriorates as the United States withdraws its troops, and Europe turns inward, relying on its own regional institutions. At the same time, national governance crises create instability in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Panama, forcing the United States to concentrate on the region. Indonesia also faces internal crisis and risks disintegration, prompting China to provide the bulk of an ad hoc peacekeeping force. Otherwise, Asia is generally prosperous and stable, permitting the United States to focus elsewhere. Korea's normalization and de facto unification proceed, China and Japan provide the bulk of external financial support for Korean unification, and the United States begins withdrawing its troops from Korea and Japan. Over time, these geostrategic shifts ignite longstanding national rivalries among the Asian powers, triggering increased military preparations and hitherto dormant or covert WMD programs. Regional and global institutions prove irrelevant to the evolving conflict situation in Asia, as China issues an ultimatum to Japan to dismantle its nuclear program and Japan—invoking its bilateral treaty with the US—calls for US reengagement in Asia under adverse circumstances at the brink of a major war. Given the priorities of Asia, the Americas, and Europe, countries outside these regions are marginalized, with virtually no sources of political or financial support.Generalizations Across the Scenarios
The four scenarios can be grouped in two pairs: the first pair contrasting the "positive" and "negative" effects of globalization; the second pair contrasting intensely competitive but not conflictual regionalism and the descent into regional military conflict.
- In all but the first scenario, globalization does not create widespread global cooperation. Rather, in the second scenario, globalization's negative effects promote extensive dislocation and conflict, while in the third and fourth, they spur regionalism.
- In all four scenarios, countries negatively affected by population growth, resource scarcities and bad governance, fail to benefit from globalization, are prone to internal conflicts, and risk state failure.
- In all four scenarios, the effectiveness of national, regional, and international governance and at least moderate but steady economic growth are crucial.
- In all four scenarios, US global influence wanes.
November 18, 2002
Last Bali Related News
Long time no blogging on Bali, today I read a few updates of these events. Here I pick the selected news:
- Police name mastermind of Kuta nightclub bombings as senior figure in terror group - Independent
- West schools in Indonesia now feared to be targets - IHT
- List of suspects behind Bali bombings released - ABC
- Indonesia economy picks up steam - IHT
Btw, Anti-Australian protests have been widespread in Indonesia in recent months, and become particularly intense since the October 12 nightclub bombings in Bali. But the form the protests have taken has transformed from the street rallies witnessed last week in Jakarta when students demonstrated against terror-suspect raids targeting Indonesian families in Australia. Now, political protest is taking a different, high-tech, form.
>> Read Indonesians take protests to the net - CNN
November 17, 2002
Wife in Indian Cultures
Several times has been influenced by Indian cultures, after Pather Panchali: Song of the Road a novel by greatest Indian writer Bibhuti Bhusan Banerjee, then a lovely 50s movies Shoe Polish with a two happy kids who chose to live in their journey become a shoe polish rather than a burglar, and also the latest shocking popular movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai who has been rocking Indonesian television last year. All has it similarity, happy life with unconditional life, the fact that grows behind the Indian-Indonesian root. These all things, makes Indonesian people todays seem love and happy to learn from their cultures.
Yesterday, I just read an Indian novel, Wife, written by Indian female writer Bharati Mukherjee. It's great novel already, by this novel I know "Dimple" is a unique name of Indian female. Dimple, the main character of "Wife" is portrayed in such a way by Mukherjee that the reader is left wondering about the attitude that he or she develops towards her. Mukherjee takes us deep into the mind of Dimple as she makes a transition from being single to marrying a husband chosen by her father,and from living in the familiar surroundings of Calcutta to moving to the so-perceived violent city of New York. As the novel progresses, Dimple's hidden unstable personality reveals itself leaving the reader shocked, yet entranced. It's developed with brilliant dialogue and a sensitive narration, though funny at most. I really enjoy read this novel, even it's a literature work.
November 14, 2002
Love the Book? Read Less to Study More :)
What a lovely live do we have now, since there were SparkNotes.com, the most popular educational web site in the world! From the last Time edition, i saw this website has been reviewed in their corner. Not to long to wait, I was very impressed just how I could spend all my time for literature (mostly classic) in more eficient ways, and cheaper though (actualy all free).
To figured out, several days after see Conspiracy Theory, i have been intriguing to know The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, just want to know, what does really this book is, so the book mentioned and used by all intelligence agents in movie (starred by Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts). Today, I finished the book just not more than a hour. And, it seemly interesting book, whether I don't like with that kind of topics. And, SparkNotes give more others great book to study. Yeah, without long to read those classics work which usually thick and bored, they provide us with its summary (including author's background), plot overview, character lists, and each book's chapter reviews. Wonderfully, they also provide us with important quotations explained, and suggestions on further readings. More fun, they provide us with quizes on particular books too.
The more I should give my thumb are, they doesn't cover literature only, but also History, Poetry, Philoshophy, Biography, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Psychology, Computers, and more. The others good is, they mostly covered all popular works in the world. Just to imagine, I could study all classics from Shakespeare, Tolstoy, until the popular works by J.K. Rowling (all fourth Harry Potter series). So, what a heck to mention more, I think you must be go on there too. I think I'll busy to read all. BTW, I'm not paid by do this.
November 13, 2002
Bali in Indian sight
Travelling by sun-bird: Bali in Indian sight by Tani Bhargava An Indian’s visit to Bali entailed more than the discovery of another form of Hinduism – it made her see her own homeland with fresh eyes. But after mass tourism and now the terrorist bomb, our South Asia co-columnist asks: what kind of Bali will survive?In modern times, Indians have travelled to England out of choice or habit and only reached other parts of the globe out of compulsion. I had no particular interest in, desire for or curiosity about any place to the east of India – not even China, least of all Japan. Without knowing or suspecting it, like all middle-class Indians, I was shamefully Eurocentric.
All Indian children read about Ayutthaya, Borobodur, Prambanan and Angkor Wat, when they are taught medieval Indian history and the ‘Glories of Greater India’. Of course, I knew them.
As a young girl, while reading Simone de Beauvoir, I remembered my shock at the discovery that she found even Vietnam and Cambodia, in fact the whole of south-east Asia, preferable, more fascinating than India. Her English must be inadequate; I put it down to the French colonial connection.
November 11, 2002
The Ten Commandments
I don't know why I love movies so much. But I still remember well when I saw my first movie when I still in elementary school, this is may be the first sight which then take me loves with movies. At that day, my dad take me to the town after school, i was happy by this. Going to town for every village children mean more than vacations, it's a freedom, it's a journey to look another world that typically more modern, more civilised, more busy than our little village. Surprisingly, my dad take me to the cinema because there played The Ten Commandments (1956). Just knowing how my dad is moviegoers at his young, I was lovely to enter the darkness of the cinema. And, it's just Rp. 300 at that time (probably US$ 0.1 if compared). It was a great experience in all my life.
My dad said, he has seen this movies several years ago at his high school. He said this is a great movies. He decided to take his boy, and give the same experience of him. Nicely, it's really great movie, I very loved dad by this. The story is about Moses, the Prophet of Hebrew and also known as Musa in Islamic history. Luckily, yesterday i found a new reproduced VCD of this movies at local stores. I think it's great to recall the great experience on my own life, it's inspiring though.
To escape the edict of Egypt's Pharoah, Rameses I, condemning all first-born Hebrew males, the infant Moses is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh's daughter Bithiah, he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Seti. Moses gains Seti's favor and the love of the throne princess Nefertiri, as well as the hatred of Seti's son, Rameses. When his Hebrew heritage is revealed, Moses is cast out of Egypt, and makes his way across the desert where he marries, has a son and is commanded by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery. In Egypt Moses's fiercest enemy proves to be not Rameses, but someone near to him who can 'harden his heart'.
A'a Gym on Time Magazine
Abdullah Gymnastiar is in the spotlight as usual, wireless mike in hand, dry-ice smoke swirling over the stage, his backing quartet ready to jump in on cue. His velvet baritone is caressing the crowd one moment with a few lines from a famous love song, dropping low to an intimate whisper the next, and then suddenly soaring, cracking with emotion to a near shout. All the while, his free hand is waving, gesturing, pointing and then is clasped to his chest in rapture. Indonesia's favorite preacher breaks into a bawdy grin as he jokes about the challenges facing Muslim men with more than one wife. His eyes become grave and confiding as he talks about his own family. His face constricts with emotion for his finale, as he beseeches Allah to bring together Indonesia's bickering leaders, to bring together its Muslim clerics, to bring the whole nation together to face these troubled times.The crowd loves it. By the time Aa Gym ("elder brother" Gym), finishes his hour-long sermon with a plangent Islamic hymn, scores of women and men are openly weeping, and the roar of applause continues long after the TV cameras have been switched off. When he plunges into a crowd after a performance, there are always eager hands thrust out reaching for him, some fans even bowing down and kissing the preacher's hand, whispering a name to be remembered in his prayers. And always there are scores of squealing teenage girls hovering on the sidelines, a few of the braver ones occasionally darting forward to get the great man's autograph, then retreating in a flurry of giggles and a swirl of head scarves.
--Click here to read the orginal complete version
November 10, 2002
LDNU.ORG Launching
Yesterday afternoon, Lembaga Dakwah Nahdlatul Ulama (LDNU) has been launched its new website at LDNU.ORG. LDNU is an education organization which also a sub-ordinary of Nahdlatul Ulama organization. This organization function is to elaborate and communicate all Nahdlatul Ulama's recommendation on Islamic law. For you who don't know, Nahdlatul Ulama is the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia who currently estimated have more than 40 million members. This website, according to LDNU's chairman KH. Nuril Huda, will publish all Nahdlatul Ulama documentation on their Islamic law recommendation. Now, you can browse all NU's Islamic law recommendation through year of 1926 publication until its recently publication of 2001. It's also available the orginal prayer text and its Indonesian translation.
November 07, 2002
A Girl in Capitalism Era
Some parents may thought that it's very difficult to understand their girls. I think, it may happened also to boys who really just very confused to understand their girls, either me too :) Just looking at a new book by photographer Lauren Greenfield reveals the insecurities, dreams and secret rituals of American girls. What emerges is a portrait of two generations growing up too fast.
Just to comment out, one of them said, "Doing something opposite of what someone tells you makes you feel better. It's like, 'Look, I'm a rebel. I'm doing something wrong." Or, you may don't believe comment like this come from a 6 year old girl, "If I don't dress well, I feel geeky. And if I feel nice, I feel like people like me. Fashionable clothing is way better and cool. My mom is fashionable. She blows her hair straight. My mom's pregnant, so I'm going to get a new sister to boss around and dress up with nice, funny outfits and cute, sweet outfits and stuff. When my mom lets me." What a weird world do we?
"The girls in this book range in age from pre-school to post-grad. And Greenfield makes good use of the insecurities of each age, zeroing in on the shame of an 11- year-old at fat camp, emphasizing the anxiety of an up-and-coming actress standing outside her trailer, highlighting the terrible uncertainty of a teenage girl who is banished, by virtue of her rounded face and curly dark hair, from the blonde, slim world of the popular girls," wrote Jessica Reaves in her reviews about this book.
I just watch Wasabi, a Japan-France collaboration movie, starred by Jean Reno (France popular actor) and young Japanese top-star Ryoko Hirosue, she is live as most of japanase girl culture life in hip-hop activity, mall, salon, red-coloring hair, and any colorful accessories. In Jakarta is more likely at the same ways. Is it more like a global fact of any girl in capitalism area? I think it is difficult to answer, it is also as difficult as to answer the same quoestion for boys :p
Here I quoted their nice thoughts:
Britney's a role model. She's fashionable, and she has movements that I like. Madonna, Britney, Christina Aguilera, Destiny's Child: They're role models 'cause they like action and movement so much.(Teenagers) dress up cool so boys like them. I saw it in a movie. They get dressed so fashionable, like a doll and stuff. They usually do this cool makeup, like lipstick. And a really blushy face. It's cool.
- Lily, 6 years oldWhen guys turn their heads to look at me, they are responding to the fact that I have a pretty face and I'm young and I'm sort of slim. I look like Barbie... The way beauty helps me is obvious in my career. I wouldn't be working as a model. I wouldn't have a manager in L.A., an agent in New York... Life is definitely easier — while your beauty lasts. People, especially of the opposite sex, treat you better.
- Sara, 19 years oldA person like me, who's skinny all over, was not looked at as having a very attractive figure. In fact, they made fun of people like that. They used to call me anorexic, as a joke, because when I started high school, I was very skinny. But at UCLA, I'm told all the time, "Oh, you have the perfect body." Here, the perfect body is slender, like what you see in the magazines.
- Nkechi, 18 years old, an African American girlI would want my daughter to tell me when she's sexually active, so we could get her birth control and teach her stuff about it. I want her to be open with me, like I am with my mom and my sister. I don't want her to (date older guys), but I don't think there's any way I can stop her. If she's going to, I'd rather she let me know than keep it behind my back.
- Christina, 15 years old
Pesantren Virtual Learning Center
I'm very happy today. This morning, i collaborated with the education team of PesantrenVirtual.com happily launch the beta version of Pesantren Virtual Learning Center. This is a virtual learning concept that gives its member the ability to study education lectures in more convenient ways. Then, member could enroll to any courses they would like to attend, they could self-test their study result by using our self-test system, or either they could rank themself and get their our online transcript. This system developed using PHP and MySQL technology. So, just to inform, especially for muslim who want to fulfill this Ramadhan in more beautiful meaning, why don't you try it?
November 06, 2002
Harry Potter Movies Part #2
I really shocked with the increasement of my web visitors today, from 50 average to 65 70 people a day. I never count on that numbers before, REALLY! Soon after I looked at my web statistic, I get that occurences, it's the new Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Yeah, i was luck because Google drove their users on me because I have pages that contain a word Harry Potter in high relevancy (I get high performance on "Joanne Kathleen Rowling" words too, it's as lovely as nice to remember how beautiful she is). It's came from two articles about the previous Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone. I wrote these features a year ago, and has been published on Media Indonesia, an Indonesian Jakarta based newspaper, but the luck will never come endlessly, i still rock :)
I really jealous with Potter's English fans because they could watch this new movies on Nov 3rd (preview), while US start at Nov 15 (global public release). For Indonesian fans, i don't get any date release yet. But don't worry, you should wait for a while, god bless people who patient, like Palestine peoples who had been drawn up by Israelis regime.
"Wisely, scriptwriter Steve Kloves and director Chris Columbus once again are faithful to the book, although Columbus, more confident this time, deftly takes advantage of Rowling's wildly imaginative story to add some visual touches and twists of his own," wrote Tomorrow John Hiscock at Telegraph. But, as I felt in the first movies, we muchly dismissed the spot on movies comparing to the book. John Hiscock added, "reader dismissed Chamber of Secrets as their least favourite in the series because the plot is more straightforward than the others."
So, what to worry, I think i should try to get it first before comments on my own. Never all, by writing this, I should get more users driven by Google then :) See ya, i think, you must be do it too!
Update: Related links:
- When Harry Meets SCARY, Time Nov 3
November 05, 2002
The Biography of the Prophet
What do you expected to do before Ramadhan? For me, read a book about Islam of course, another is take soul journey. This recent weekend, I visit one of my friends, a girl who intentiously has writing her nice thought and inspiration on her nicely page, fariEnsiklo, she is also my partner at the Ensiklo website. Frankly, she borrowed me one of her new book, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, a book written by Karen Armstrong, a celebrated biography of the controversial man in the West perspective. Reading this book, i must be tunning my perspective to the era of sixth century, when the coming of Islam just been introducing by the Prophet. For no doubt, you must read this too, okay!
Muhammad, his story, his religion, and his people are among the least understood elements of world history to your average Westerner. The information we are bombarded with today portrays Muslims as terrorists, anti-western, blood-thirsty savages. This book endeavors to release the Western mind from the bonds of ignorance and the blinders of propaganda, and reveal a Prophet, and a people, with a real, sometimes tragic and sometimes triumphant history, with a conclusion of remarkable success. Whether you agree with Muhammad or not, you will finish this book appreciating his genius, his faith, his leadership, and his accomplishments.PS: If you interested to study more about Islam, try to read others Armstrong's work, all worth to read and has been acknowledged by every scholars: Islam: A Short History, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and The Battle for God.Most importantly, you will read the story elegantly portrayed within the context of the cultural dynamics of the Arabia of Muhammad's day. Without that context, it is easy to cast Muhammad's actions as barbaric. Additionally, Armstrong does a fine job of demonstrating the demise of much of Muhammad's most original thinking by zealous, but culturally constrained leaders who followed him (most notably the emancipation of women).
Because most Western Christians don't read Arabic, we will never understand nor appreciate the Koran, Muhammad's crowning achievement. But with the help of Karen Armstrong, we can gain an appreciation of the origin of that great work, and the meaning it has in the lives of nearly a billion people in the world today.
November 04, 2002
Canada Warns Against Travel To... The US?
Admittedly, Canadian immigration authorities have come under fire before from a variety of sources, but the point stands that a First World country - and one particularly close to the United States both geographically and politically - has just told its citizens not to go there because they might be in danger. Is this a warning sign, or simply a case of hysteria? Maybe, not.
The Canadian government has issued an official advisory warning Canadian citizens of Middle Eastern origin against traveling to the United States. The advisory says anyone born in certain countries (such as Libya and Iraq) will be fingerprinted and photographed by American authorities.
Bill Graham, the Foreign Affairs Minister, says he has complained to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that such racial targeting is inappropriate."People only come to this country and get access as landed immigrants and Canadian citizenship, if we've done thorough security checks. And that's what I'm telling my American colleague," said Graham.
November 03, 2002
Happy Fasting Day, Month of the Muslim Prayer
These coming days, may be starting on Nov 6, every Muslim in the worlds will enter to the month of Ramadhan, a very sacred month in Islam religion. At this month, we do pray of fasting day, a fasting Muslim will usually eat a meal right after sunset called Iftar, which means breakfast, and another light meal right before dawn called Sahur. Generally, every muslim would get all of the most benefits to do their best prayer to get the means of their religion experiences in this month.
So, nice to say, i glad to cheer every Muslim who came here, Happy fasting day for you all. I hope, we all could do our best in praying, to fulfills the next 30 days in the best of spirituality experiences. Unfortunately, it might be, only might be, in these next days, i couldn't post as often as before. So, here is my gift to celebrate this Ramadhan, hope this useful and inspiring :)
Happy Ramadhanmalam minggu sore ini
kuingat hari kala dusta dan selingkuh
menantikan fajar pagi detik ini
kucukupkan cinta, hanya buat kekasihlewat seuntai nada
kumohon ikhlas dan kesudian
agar suci, putih, dan elok
hari-hari kemudian Ramadhan-lah hiasan hatiArif Rokhmat Widianto, 3 Nov 2002
Note: If you want to use this poets, go ahead, i'll glad for it, except for commercial purposes. And don't forget :p
The Latest News from Bali
Long time no coverage of Bali bombing, here i try to provide some of worth read about this tragedy, and the upcoming related events. Including the latest news about the police who mistakenly arrests the suspect and some opinions:
- Indonesia arrests Bali suspect lookalike - Nov 2, CNN
- Islamic community donates $20,000 to Bali victims - Nov 2, ABC News
- 3 Sought in Bali Bombings; Investigation 'Going Well' - Nov 1, NY Times
- Travel appears to be uneffected by Bali bomb blasts - Nov 1, Taipei Times
Comments and Opinion:
- New York, then Bali: tourism toughs out hard times - Nov 3, The Age
- Deja vu in Australia's reaction to Bali - Oct 30, The Straits Times
- Legacy of Bali lingers - Nov 3, Sydney Morning Herald
- Australians defiant as travel warnings grow - Nov 3, SMH
- Bali blasts not hurting Asia airlines: analysts - Nov 1, The Shipping News
