Sparks of Aroengbinang's Mind

It's probably good to collect scattered mind sparks that I've written on Twitter and Facebook in a single post, more as a personal reference. The mind's sparks, while using word of "you" and the like, are often not meant for others but more towards myself.

On Adversity

The Situ Gintung tragedy, as with other events of adversity, reveals many aspects of human traits and behaviors. There are those who are quick in providing any form of assistance without being so fussy about everything else, those who are quick in throwing out words, pointing fingers and put all the blames to whoever and whatever they are, except themselves, or those who use disastrous event like this to do business or build names or for things that would give benefit to them, and so forth. There are plenty of choices, and people have freedom to choose.

The Path

It was just a few weeks back when someone asked a seemingly simple question, and yet it's so damn difficult for me to find a good answer for it. It's mainly because I haven't put enough thought about it again, and I my inner state was far different from the last time I gave reply to the same question. Hence I was frozen for a few moments. The fact is that simple things all of sudden can be very complicated and on the other hand complicated matters can also be astonishingly simple ones.

Fight!

Disbelief and humiliated, those were among the first responses that came into everybody's mind on hearing the news of bomb explosion at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, on Friday morning. Deep sympathy to the victims and their families, who were killed and wounded in the blast, were poured. The Jakartans and the Indonesian people in general were deeply wounded again with this act of violence.

On Acceptance

Acceptance of circumstances and realities that one faces in life certainly is a choice, and so is refusal or denial. Whether acceptance is better or worse than, or equally the same as refusal, depends on the person's MiHeS (mind, heart, soul) set, then on plan of action and execution that follow. What more important is to consider things that matter to the subject and the stakeholder involved, and everything else should come second or third.

Shift Happens

This is my first post at The Aroengbinang Project, fulfilling my promise to the blog's owner, as one of TAP's contributors. I've been living abroad for several years, and since a few months back I've been busy attending a class to get a certification. Thanks that at last I completed my final term exams and hence I can find more time to write. This time I'd like to share with you of what my instructor shared with our class. It has nothing to do with the subject he was teaching, yet with awesome energy, it captured the attention of the whole class.

C'est la vie

I happened to read this phrase of C'est la vie yesterday and my memory warped back to the end of 1970s. Memory of an old beautiful song with the same title. I even forgot who played it until several hits on Youtube search engine brought me a name, and it was Greg Lake, the vocalist of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Another search using Google engine, reveals the meaning of the phrase that I had never taken attention on it before.

The Living Death of Artists

It was not the first time I saw them sitting on the dirty floor, right in front of Sroto Eling-Eling at Jl. Lapangan Roos Raya, Tebet, performing traditional Javanese songs, but at that time after finishing my affair with the delicious Sroto (I skipped the hot and oily mendoan), I decided to greet them, asked a few short questions and took their photos. Photos of the living death of old traditional Javanese artists.

Longing for the Past

For those of you who were born in the 50s and early 60s, this is for you. There are a couple of very special songs and lyrics that will bring you back to and refresh your aging memories of the good old days. Just as what the Alan Parson Project says: Time, flowing like a river; Time, beckoning me; Who knows when we shall meet again, if ever; But time, keeps flowing like a river, to the sea.

Happy Lunar New Year

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous Lunar New Year! The first day of the new year of the Earth Ox falls on Monday, January 26, the same day when some of the Indonesian people can observe annular solar eclipse, i.e. the moon will be right in front of the sun but it won't cover the sun completely. A ring of fire will appear.

Wishing You A Happy 2009

One way or the other, people around the world celebrate the coming of a new year. The celebrations are not necessarily held at the same time as others, they often include the adaptation of traditions or religions. Some also include putting on “lucky” attire with the hope of luck throughout the coming year.

On Correctional Facility

Correctional Facility, as it is called, is a strictly guarded place where unfortunate convicted individuals are physically confined for certain period of times or even for life. Their lack of personal freedoms, the minimum standard of living conditions they receive and the lack of personal safety they sometimes have to face, are parts of the consequences they have to deal with in places that are also widely known as prisons.

The Call

The perfect world is the imperfect one. No prosperous society exists without the chain of episodes of darkness, alienation, ignorance, repression, exploitation, poverty, the struggle of humanity and environmental survival. If there really is one, it's a matter of perfect timing for the turning points to happen. Whoever pulls the trigger is honored or cursed as the instrument of change.

The Payback Time

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Wrong. Since there are lunches that we have to pay before or immediately after enjoying them, there are certainly free lunches, absolutely free with no attachments, no future obligations, no delayed stomach ache, no hidden costs. Everything on Earth has its extreme opposite pair, its paradox. If you can’t find the pair of a certain thing today, then it is hiding somewhere at a distance corner of the Universe.

The Aborted Farewell

It's been a while that I've been doing blogging. Looking back, it's still quite fresh in memory the moment when I started posting seriously in this blog. I was in a hospital accompanying my wife who was undergoing a surgery to remove funny little things in her ovarium, when I had a sense of determination to do and learn more seriously about blogging. That was the birth of my second posting The Bathroom Syndrome.

On that Hardship

The recent sharp increase in global oil and commodity prices have affected the life of many people, in both positive and negative ways. As for Indonesians, after days of uncertainties, the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had finally announced the increase of fuel prices by an average of 28.7%, effective May 24. University Students and various elements of the society hit the streets to voice out their oppositions and disagreements. Some turned ugly. Opportunist politicians and analysts got free rides.

The Phelan Legacy

A person can decide to donate time, efforts, goods, or money to support variety of causes or simply for the sake of giving things away. Small or big, a gift may leave a legacy that exceeds the person life span.

Heaven for All

It is human when people praise a hero and condemn the villain, admire a saint and despise evil doer. It is also equally human, however, to act the other way around. Good and evil persons are often products of times and positions, either from the point of view of just a gang of people or allies of several nations. A person, hence, can be both a hero and an evil doer. Sometimes it is also just the way people see things, and a little sense of humor can make a big difference.

The Law of Scarcity

A few weeks ago when I was ready to leave home for Cibubur on a Saturday morning, all of sudden I felt very cold and my body started to shiver. I got high fever. I already knew since the night before that I was contracted with flu and a bad cough, but I didn't know it was that bad. It took three days for my body temperature to get back to normal.

Farewell Pak Harto

Bapak Soeharto, the second President of the Republic of Indonesia had passed away today at 1.10 pm, January 27, 2008, at Pertamina Hospital, Jakarta. He was 86. May he rests in peace.