A Letter About Justice: Our Quest of Truth

The School of Athens by Raphael

Below is originally written as for assignment required to finish a course in Coursera, Ancient Philosophy: Plato & His Predecessors. (finished on June 5th 2018)

To my fellow born-again ancient Athenians,

Our pathways may have diverged into branches that we won’t be able to recognize each other by the end of this journey. We have sought answers to so many question marks popped up in our heads, but I doubt if we ever truly find them. The best possible choice available to us is, as Plato said in one of his Socratic works, by recollecting the innate knowledge that our souls originally recognized but have forgotten.

How Feminism in My Family Has Shaped Me

This piece was published in Magdalene.co on May 31st, 2018

I would not have realized how feminism has been internalized so much in me if I had never been asked by those who read my book why most of the short stories I wrote are about women and their fights although I’m a male writer.

At first I didn’t know the answer. I also wondered why I subconsciously made those choices for my book. My first guess was because of my nine years’ involvement in English debate tournaments, where equality for all had always been one of the hottest topics debated. Then one day I had a book discussion with Feby Indirani, author of Bukan Perawan Maria (Not Virgin Mary), and she told me: “Who and what you truly are will be reflected in your writing.”