Project 365

Thank you for being the best company ever. I enjoyed it every moment with you. And I can’t ask for more.

Ken Robinson gave an interesting and funny talk at TED. In his opinion, schools nowadays kill our creativity and the creativity of many children. But, in what way?

As all of us may know, kids are not frightened of being wrong. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original,” said Robinson. But the problem is that: how can they remain to be an “artist” as they grow up? Most children have lost their capacity as they grow older; and as a result, they have become so scared of being wrong. Because this is what schools nowadays teach us about. They have been teaching us that mistakes are the worst thing that we can do. That we can’t make mistakes. We are pressured. And therefore, we try so hard to avoid them. The result is that: schools educate us out of our creativity.

Education system around the world has been created and influenced to meet the needs of industrialism. The most useful subjects for work are definitely at the top: science, maths, etc. People are discouraged to take their path to music or arts merely because of the unpromising job that they would get. But the thing is that different people have different ability. They have different talents. Don’t they have to do something that they really like? Why do we have to kill their creativity and talents when those things are probably the only things they have?

Not to mention the so called “academic inflation” which indicates the whole structure of our education system is shifting beyond our ability and capacity. Years ago, having a high school diploma was enough to get a decent job. But this was quickly shifted to having a minimum of bachelor degree. Nowadays, masters degree is important and will become a necessity in few years time (even now!). I can imagine that there will be time when probably PhD is gonna take the lead. 🙁

One interesting thing that Robinson said is this: we start to teach children from the waist up as they grow up. We teach them how to walk. Dance. Draw. Talk. Then we focus on their heads; and eventually to one side of the head. This is so true! Education has become sooooo focused on the brain, not creativity. High marks are important. But producing the most beautiful and creative work of art is less important. How come we don’t value creativity? How can we come up with something original and new when our education itself doesn’t support this? How can we see the future? 🙂

I was sick the whole day. So I didn’t do much and there is nothing to write about. I’m just blessed to be given another day to stand. Blessed to hear your voice. And blessed for everything 🙂

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of live.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

I don’t want to reach the secret sky, but I am halfway up there. I let myself fly. And I don’t even know what I’m thinking….

… continuation from the previous post.

During our coffee time, I asked mbak Linda few things about the conflict in Maluku which occurred in 1999 between the Christian and Muslim groups. She told me that Christians and Muslims in Maluku were very peaceful and never had any problems. There were some provocateurs, which were allegedly done by our former dictator Soeharto, who forced these two groups to fight against each other. When the conflict ended, it was discovered that these people were forced to fight — if not, then these provocateurs would do something nasty, for example raping female relatives. So the Maluku people had no other choice than to cause terror against each other. Mbak Linda also told me that Maluku people were originally Muslims, until the Dutch made some of them to convert to Christian. She even told me that her great-grand mother was a Muslim and some of her far relatives were Muslims. During the conflict, her hometown in Ambon was totally burned, apparently by the Indonesian army. Yet another strange thing about this conflict!

Gosh, I loved to know about these things straight from the locals. They were the ones who knew the situation really well. They were first-hand witnesses or at least had relatives who experienced it. It fascinated me how these kind of details made a difference to how we view and judge others. It made us understand the whole situation better than just by relying on media which was apparently good in exaggerating stuff (and not to mention the censorship done by the government!). If we could build this kind of understanding and tolerance towards others, the world will be in a much better state.

… continuation from the previous post.

Mbak Linda told me about the Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) which was a self-proclaimed republic in the South Moluccas. After the Indonesian independence day, the Maluku people who were part of KNIL demanded their island to be an independent country which turned to be unsuccessful. So most of them went to the Netherlands (which supposed to be temporarily) and were promised by the Dutch government that they would solve this matter. They set up a government-in-exile. Yet, years went by and the Dutch government hadn’t fulfilled their promise yet. So these Maluku people went rebellious, attacking two Indonesian embassies and hijacking train (this hijacking story didn’t get into Indonesia by the way!) to get the attention of the Dutch government. They were quite fanatic — even to these days, according to mbak Linda, they still celebrated the 25th of April (the day when the RMS was formed), put up their own RMS flag, and regarded themselves as Moluccans rather than Indonesians.

Honestly I had no idea about this until she told me!!! Wow! 😀 It was very interesting indeed!!!

*There was a movie about this hijacking thing. You can see its trailer here.

I went to a small city called Weert today. It’s about 20 minutes from Eindhoven by train. Sam, mbak Linda, and I were invited to Ian’s house. These were the people I met during the Boekenfestijn and we became close ever since. Sam and mbak Linda were a married couple originally from Maluku (Moluccas). Sam was half Dutch Indonesian (we call it Indo or Indische), while mbak Linda was pure Indonesian. Ian also had an Indonesian background. His father was a Dutch and his mother was an Indo born in Surabaya.

Anyway… in the afternoon, Ian and Sam were busy making some music while mbak Linda and I were busy shopping in the centrum (city) 😀 After shopping, we sat for a coffee and had a very interesting conversation. This was the first time I talked to her and had a deep conversation. We talked about many things, including our life, future, and Maluku! (I’m going to put this into two different posts: here and here). I had a great time! After our coffee time, Ian and Sam joined us and we had few more drinks. I got to try on a Dutch food (fish) which I forgot its name now!! It wasn’t bad at all.

Then we went to Ian’s house to meet with his parents and had dinner together. They were very nice and their house was very cozy! Ian’s dad cooked so many Indonesian foods and they were very very delicious! They were rendang, tempe goreng, and chicken among other things. You know, it’s amazing how it’s not unusual for the guys here to cook. All the guys on the table (Ian, his dad, and Sam) loved to cook and it’s quite rare for the guys in Indonesia to be able to do that. Once they get married, the wives were expected to do everything in the house, including cooking and doing house chores. But for the Dutch and many other Western people (and MY OWN DAD!), they took turns to cook. They split the house chores with their wife. Isn’t it great?!?

We stayed in Ian’s house until 9pm! It was a looooong day and we were all very tired. But it was a great day and I had such a wonderful time! 🙂

O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers.

Hai orang-orang yang beriman, janganlah sekumpulan orang laki-laki merendahkan kumpulan yang lain, boleh jadi yang ditertawakan itu lebih baik dari mereka. Dan jangan pula sekumpulan perempuan merendahkan kumpulan lainnya, boleh jadi yang direndahkan itu lebih baik. Dan janganlah suka mencela dirimu sendiri dan jangan memanggil dengan gelaran yang mengandung ejekan. Seburuk-buruk panggilan adalah (panggilan) yang buruk sesudah iman dan barangsiapa yang tidak bertobat, maka mereka itulah orang-orang yang zalim.

Al-Qur’an 49:11

(One of my favorite verses in the Qur’an. No offence here, but I do think Arab people need to read this verse and carry it out in real life! Rather than viewing Asians lower than them and treating them with no respect.)

And when We decreed for Sulaiman’s death, nothing indicated to the jinn his death except a creature of the earth eating his staff. But when he fell, it became clear to the jinn that if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in humiliating punishment.

Maka tatkala Kami telah menetapkan kematian Sulaiman, tidak ada yang menunjukkan kepada mereka kematiannya itu kecuali rayap yang memakan tongkatnya. Maka tatkala ia telah tersungkur, tahulah jin itu bahwa kalau sekiranya mereka mengetahui yang ghaib tentulah mereka tidak akan tetap dalam siksa yang menghinakan.

— Al-Qur’an 34:14

This is rather an interesting verse from the Qur’an about the Prophet Sulaiman AS — which I missed out. Just like his wonder life and all his greatness that Allah SWT blessed him for, his death too was a rather unique one. While Prophet Sulaiman stood leaning on his cane / staff and praying, his soul left him. He did not fall and was in the same position until the termites ate away his cane. Nobody, including the humans and jinn, knew that he had died a long time ago.

One important thing to be mentioned about this verse is that: only Allah SWT had the knowledge of the unseen (including future). Jinn knew nothing at all. Therefore, we shouldn’t rely on them. They might be able to hear some “gossips” from the sky and deliver them to dukun (witch), but we never know that the information that is given is true.

Wallahu a’lam. 

So yes, I applied some henna on my hand 🙂 I always have some stock of henna with me and I love doing it! So here it is I present you my own very creation. Hihihi.

It wasn’t the best henna design I created to be honest. The henna paste was not good enough — it was too watery. Therefore, it was really hard to preserve some details of the design. Because in the end, everything blended together. So the leaf part looked quite awful. It looked like a fish now. The color seemed to be good though! I think this henna would last quite a long time. I didn’t wait until it dried completely though, so I’m sure the color would be much darker had I wait for more minutes or hours.

I’m still searching for the best henna paste (the one in the tube!). The previous ones that I used did not last for more than a week. Let’s see how long this would last for 😀