Terrorism, School, and Morale

Part of this post was also published  in The Jakarta Post national newspaper page 8 on Readers' Forum with title "Terrorism, school, and morals"

On Thursday, January 14th 2016 the All-Girls High School Santa Ursula located in Jln. Pos no. 02 Central Jakarta had all its students of 10th and 11th grade day off because the 12th grade students would have to be defending their scientific paper as their final assignment.

My little sister is an eleventh grader studying in All-Girls High School Santa Ursula. She lives nearby in a dormitory of Santa Maria located in Jln. Batu Tulis Raya no. 30 Central Jakarta. Although it was a day off for her, her friends and she had to attend choir practice in school for an upcoming school event.

Why You Can Be a Non-Believer, but Still Need to Be Religious (Or Rather Spiritual)

Life is not only black and white. Neither is it just grey nor colorful rainbow. It consists of wider spectrum. There are various wavelengths that may not be perceptible by our senses, but do exist through different approach of observation. Within our perception, we may favor certain colors more than others, and it's perfectly fine as based on freedom of choice. Just because we prefer apple to grape, doesn't mean we can impose our taste to others as well.

It is no more secret that some of us find religions today as mere political instrument, or delusional idea of afterlife insurance promising divine redemption and security. Moreover, the technology today has eased us accessing information from various fields of study that can enlighten us about pagan and Sumerian traditions and myths that are generally adopted by major religions, specifically the Abrahamic ones (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

The development of science discovery has also expanded our horizons of how this universe actually works, and obviously not by miracle. The white flower we believe as white, turns out to have violet stripes we cannot see. The vast universe we believe real, turns out to be just a holographic object formed by gravity that is leaked out from the one dimensional strings. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle within quantum mechanics also portrays that this universe's existence depends on our observation, meaning reality does not exist if we are not looking at it.

The Life Battle of Our Own, and Mine Especially

I've seen many of my friends or sheer acquaintances put up a fight against nonsensical injustice that has been oppressing them or something important to them. Be it those who voice out the rights of homosexuals, or those who advocate about women's rights and feminism, or those who campaign about how important it is to be vegetarian respecting animals as fellow living beings, or who bravely speak up in public spaces against the unjust government, or who struggle for interracial and interfaith marriage, etc. Each of them rumbles against society, against nearly the whole world that has been imposing unfair values to our life.

Reflecting on those astounding and amazing individuals, I wonder if there is also anything that I've been struggling, trying to stand up for because it's worth the fight. I inquire myself if there is anything I may accomplish in life, not just mundane achievements or fame, but something useful and worth the life I've spent.

I realize that there is one thing that I've been trying to rebel, to smash or break since I was a child. It is the wall of religion. Religion that has been confining me and condescending my humanity.

I remember how I was taught that people with different religion will be sent to hell, no matter how good of people they are. I remember how I was very close to my Christian cousins and I loved them but my heart ached because in Islamic teaching I was taught they were sinners.

A Question to Indonesian Academic Culture: With or Without Skripsi?

On January 27th, 2012, the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) through Directorate General of High Education (DITJEN DIKTI) under the tenure of Mr. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a regulation in Letter of DITJEN DIKTI No. 152/E/T/2012 that undergraduate students had to have paper publication in scientific journal. This regulation was proposed and thus constituted because the scientific paper publication in and from Indonesia was very few in number.

Compared to other countries in South East Asia like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, Indonesia is left behind. According to SCImago Journal and Country Rank (www.scimagojr.com) Indonesia is now ranked 57 out of 239 countries; meanwhile Singapore is 32, Malaysia 36, and Thailand 43. This rank is determined by the number of documents published and the citable documents from 1996-2014. Indonesia has the total number of 32.355 documents and 30.770 citable documents.

How Movie’s Message Shapes Our Children Today

In spite of its cute animated appearance and the fact that most of the audiences are children, some of my friends argue that Inside Out is not movie rated for children. One of them has told me that the movie may even “slap” children waking them up to realize that life is full of sadness, not only wonderful days.

In the movie, Joy keeps trying to make Riley happy everyday, allowing her to only have good memories and cheerful personality. The experiences Riley gets through everyday are represented in memory balls. Little Riley mostly has yellow, the color of Joy, memory balls everyday because Joy rarely lets other emotions take control over Riley.

It is until Riley is 11 and her family must move to San Francisco due to her father’s job, everything changes. No matter how much Joy tries to bring up good past memories to her, one way or another keeps leading Riley to other emotions like Disgust, Fear, and Anger. The unexpected peak of this tragedy is when Sadness keeps touching various memory balls and the core of memory when Riley is at new school for the first time, and she eventually cries in the middle of her introduction as she misses her good times in Minnesota.

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"If time could be turned back, I would have stayed and never left."