Project 365

Wasior, a town in West Papua, has been devastated by flash floods due to heavy rain. The official death toll as of Friday was 101, with an estimated 76 others still missing.

It took our beloved President, who used to be good in being prihatin (concerned), three days to speak on the matter and to request on providing special attention on the disaster. He was even defeated by Hillary Clinton, who expressed concern about flooding in Wasior a day after the disaster struck.

Meanwhile, illegal logging in Papua was blamed for floods in Wasior :(.

My prayers for the victims and those who lost their loved ones.

Fatimah is part of me. Whatever pleases her pleases me, and whatever angers her angers me.

— Prophet Muhammad SAW

I have never seen anyone whose habit, character and the manner of speech were as similar to the Prophet (SAW) as Fatimah’s. Whenever the Prophet saw her approaching, he would welcome her, stand up, kiss her, take her by the hand, and sit her down in the place where he was sitting.

— Aisha RA

It brings me to shiver every time I hear or read these quotes about the Prophet SAW and his beloved daughter, Fatimah. I envy their close relationship, to be honest :).

I’ve been very interested in Afghanistan ever since I read Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner which provided me an insight about the country and how cruel the Taliban was. When I first came to the Netherlands, I met an Afghan guy who quickly became a friend. He came to the Netherlands after being granted asylum about 7 years ago and took a Dutch citizenship a few years afterwards. Although not explicitly, he told me that he was thrown in Taliban prison by the regime. I asked him whether Hosseini did an honest portray about Afghan society, and he said yes.

Today, I just finished reading The Bookseller of Kabul written by a Norwegian journalist Ã…sne Seierstad. The book tells a story surrounding the life of a bookseller named Sultan Khan and his large family in Kabul. The author got the chance to live with the family for three months which allowed her to peak through their unique everyday lives. But as I read more pages of the book, I realized that the author focused too much on the negative and backward aspects of Afghan culture, and ignored the fact that Afghanistan had something positive to offer too! I couldn’t help thinking the reaction of the whole family, especially Khan who was depicted as a very unforgiving, merciless,  and authoritarian person.

So I tried to google it and found this interesting article. It turned out that Seierstad was sued for her "inaccurate and invasive" stories by Shah Muhammad Rais, the real Sultan Khan. The court found her guilty of defamation and "negligent journalistic practices" and ordered her to pay more than 31,000 euro in damages to his second wife. The case did not end until here. The other seven members of the family also planned to sue her!

Oh well, the stories that followed are as interesting as the stories in the book :D.

Caution: This is a completely rubbish blog post. Don’t waste your time.

I’m slowly turning into Saudi. In terms of lifestyle, of course. Sometimes I wonder… Gosh, what kind of life I’m living right now?

I sleep everyday at 3am or 5am. Then wake up at around 1pm (SAY WHAT?!). Yes, one o’clock in the afternoon. I don’t need to eat for breakfast anymore. It’s lunch time already. After lunch, I indulge myself on the internet, TV, movies, or books. It goes on like that until sleeping time. Yeay, welcome to my boring life!

I want to go somewhere. Do something different. But where? And most importantly, HOW? I’m just too bored of malls. Beach isn’t that exciting as it’s still quite hot. Desert is not my thing. Meeting up with friends? I’m not in the mood of doing that anymore.

Maybe it’s just me who’s too moody and too hard to be entertained right now. I know that really well; living here for more than 3 weeks can turn me into a mad woman. So, yeah, look at me now. A mad freaky woman. My mind is in Holland right now. Take me back there!!!

I’m tired of complaining. I’m tired of waiting. So what should I do? Get mad?

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Yes, I gotta keep walking, though I don’t know where this path leads me to. I live in the present and that’s the only thing I can see. "Now" is where I belong. And I don’t want to let my fear controls me. Because fear looks too much on the future and I’m not supposed to see it.

Fight for the fear and live the life we have now.

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language,
even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn’t make any sense.

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

So, I’ll meet you in that field?

Isn’t it cool and scary at the same time that it takes us not more than 6 human-to-human connections to be related with anyone in the world?

I knew about six degrees of separation when I first joined Friendster many years ago. The website allowed us to see the connections that we have with other people and it’s the only coolest thing about it, really. I encountered this term again by accident a few days ago.

Every time I met new people, there’s a great chance that we share common friends. Or their friends had some kind of connection with my friends. I’m talking about the Indonesians, of course.

The world is indeed so small. And it’s becoming smaller and smaller. Let’s keep on spreading our wings and encountering new friendships so that there’ll be less misunderstandings and prejudice between us; and create the world full of loving and peaceful people 🙂

A different angle of Ka’bah. I’m grateful to have the second chance this month to perform Umrah again 🙂

It’s definitely not about my residence permit. But it’s a very very good news coming from Brisbane, Australia!

A close friend of mine sent me a message today that she’s planning to get married next year. And she insists me to attend the wedding ceremony and be her maid of honor! I was so happy and thrilled upon reading her message!!! I was crying of excitement! I felt so touched too, to be one of the first people to know about her plan — and not to mention that she chooses me as her maid of honor! Wew, I feel so honored! This would be my first time to be a bridesmaid!!

Ah, next year is still a long way to go. But I don’t know how I’m going to do this, seriously — knowing that I already have so many traveling plans laid out. Going to Australia is not cheap. The travel costs are too much and I haven’t got any money for that yet. Maybe I should book AirAsia flight from KL to Gold Coast by this year. And maybe I should cancel my other plans and put them for the year after. Or maybe I’ll do all of them. It really depends on my financial situation next year.

Whatever happens, I can’t refuse to attend the wedding, as I have promised her for many times that I’d come back to Australia if she’s going to get married. She also kept her promise that she’d tell me about it a year ahead before her wedding, so that I would have enough time to prepare. She’s even willing to change the wedding date if the time doesn’t suit me! So there’s no reason for me to not attend the wedding! Hehehe.

If I eventually go back to Australia, it’s going to be a sweet reunion! I haven’t seen her ever since I bade farewell 2 years ago, although yes, we do have Skype session once in a while. I miss the 3 years we spent together as a roommate. And I’ll meet other friends back in the college too!!! I can’t wait! I’m sure Brisbane has changed a lot. I want to reminisce the good old days. Ah, those sweet days that are unforgettable. Insya Allah I’ll find a way to be there.

Who wants to join me? 🙂 (maybe this would be the best time for me to go to Cairns too! To see the Great Barrier Reef!!!! If only money can be grown like plants…)

Got this picture from a friend of mine. Phew, such a long time ago. Can you guess where I was? 😀