Great is Thy Faithfullness

19-21 June 2015 Hi nature, hi mountain. It is a pleasure meeting you again.  Thanks for uniting us at this beautiful 2821 m above the sea. At the end of this June, we chose Cikuray Mountain, which is located near Garut, West Java, Indonesia, as our place to leave our comfort zone, to break a while from our routines as well. I am hopeful this short break become unforgettable climbing ever.  I do love climbing mountain. I do not know why. Sometimes people asked me or perhaps to my friends who had the same hobby with me, “What are you looking for through climbing the mountain?” Maybe I can’t answer it correctly. I find something which couldn’t be explained by words. I’ve just started this hobby in 2011, but it was suspended for a moment and I’ve started again since last year. Cikuray will be officially my seventh top of mountains! So happy! But it doesn’t matter how many mountains you have conquered or how strong you are to reach the top. It is about finding the m...

Selayang Pandang Hukuman Mati Ketika hukuman mati dipertaruhkan, tapi digunakan hanya agar dendam terbalaskan. Ketika kekejian dipertontonkan untuk kematian orang agar setimpal dan semua terpuaskan. Ketika pengampunan tak lagi diperhitungkan agar impas dan jera tanpa belas kasihan. Benarkah dua tahap eksekusi hukuman mati yang sudah sejalan dengan kedaulatan negara yang diserukan sebagai pembelaan? Masyarakat seolah satu suara mendukung keputusan pemimpin negara kita. Media menyerukan keputusan ini yang benar dan harus dilaksanakan. Jeritan para pejuang kemanusiaan seolah lenyap, tertelan dengan dalil keputusan negara yang tidak boleh diintervensi. Pembunuhan dilegalkan demi kedaulatan dan penegakan hukum guna memusnahkan kejahatan narkoba. Tulisan ini bukan ingin menganggap para terpidana narkoba martir apalagi pahlawan. Tulisan ini juga bukan sepenuhnya mengatakan penolakan grasi tersebut salah dan tidak berperikemanusiaan. Perbincangan hukuman mati memang tidak akan ada u...

Disappointment appears in front of us, corruption is becoming disease everywhere, in any aspect of life. Access to get something for our needs is hampered simply because of the rigid procedure. Rules are made to affirm who hold the power and weaken the poor one. Money and material things becomes the way to get something instantly without effort. Brilliant ideas were stranded in the hand of rule and power holder. These obstacles have to be resolved by the presence of “power of youth”. According to UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) report, the global population reached the 7 billion, and it is projected to climb over 9 billion by 2050. This dramatic growth has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people in productive age. Thus, we can imagine, youth population ages are dominating, about one in four persons in the world are youth. This big and strong power of the youth has to be used effectively. In a world which is full of materialism, youth generation has to stand against...

I am just wondering why huge population mostly happens in the developing countries and the less one is in developed countries. It will affect to the tremendous problems of these countries, for instance food scarcity, water scarcity, and it will be ended by poverty. It will happen to their children, to their generation as well. They couldn’t get access to education, health, and so on. Indonesia, our country for instance, the gap between big city and the other regions are far. We may don’t feel this dangerous effect of this growing world population particularly in developing countries. But our neighbor in Papua, Maluku and any other regions which get limited access to education itself, health, foods, etc have truly felt since a long time ago. Who is wrong exactly in this case?   Country? Government? Rich people? Poor people? It is written in our Constitution “Poor people are taken care by country”. What should we do then? How can we survive in this world? Tremendous pop...

I found this letter when I cleaned my house. 3 years ago, I wrote it, after I had the immersion experiment in Bantar Gebang Final Place of Garbage (Tempat Pembuangan Akhir Bantar Gebang). Our experiment was meaningful and unforgettable. We felt becoming a part of “pemulung” family. I do love our family there, Pak Denin and family. So, for me the money, and all of “world’s stuff” will be nothing if we do not "share" it to others.    Here was my reflection, during those 4 days, imagining I wrote this letters to God. Giving, sharing, even when we don’t have anything. That’s the purposes of our lives. 

Fighting the corrupt culture in the organization, held by Youth Proactive and Transparency International Indonesia May 15, 2015. Mrs. Meuthia, sociolog from Universitas Indonesia (now she is one of Pansel KPK Srikandi) was a speaker at that day. Corruption in the office or the places where we work is becoming “usual”. The mechanism has been “arranged” systematically. Corruption happened due to the character or bad moral from individual which is from the organization itself. The higher position will give the bad action, the others will follow. So, the behaviour at the top level is absolutely important. They tend to be afraid if they don’t do what their boss is doing. Mr. Ahmad Ramdani, lecturer at Bakrie University, HR practitioner from Omnividya. He told us to keep positive thinking as it is the best way for young generation, be part of the solution. When we will become “minority” in our society, what he means minority in this context is honest person. Honesty is “expensive” ...

Every March 8, we comemmorate this history day. Women are equal with men, in any aspect of life. For education, job, and for every access which they should get. I remember when I was in Norway for ISFIT, then one night in Cultural Day, the questions was about Women Day, and Karla, our friend from Peru answered this correctly, at the end we almost became a winner. Viva Ladies! And how about in Indonesia? We marked this day as a special day for all of us, not only for women but also for all of Indonesian citizens. “Kartini Day”, April 21, National Women Day of Indonesia. This year, I and kak Tanty composed tweets on Sabang Merauke twitter. This is our reflection, representing Sabang Merauke (Seribu Anak Bangsa Merantau Untuk Kembali): Setiap tanggal 21 April tentu kita ingat sosok pejuang perempuan, harapan akan kebangkitan perempuan Indonesia pd waktu silam. Ya, Kartini. Tiap tahun kita rayakan hari bersejarah ini, lagu utk mengenang Ibu Kartini kita lantunkan, perempuan Indo...