Maemunah Penuh Rasa Sayang

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Maemunah Thamrin (82) dipandang sebagai sosok ibu yang sangat memperlihatkan sifat keibuannya. Istri novelis Pramoedya Ananta Toer ini selalu memberi kasih sayang secara penuh.

"Dia sangat menyayangi total. Enggak cuma bagi anak-anak, tapi juga buat orang lain," kata anggota Komunitas Taring Babi, Bob, Minggu (9/1/2011) di TPU Karet Bivak, Jakarta.

Komunitas band musik punk tersebut beranggotakan 9 orang yang didukung sepenuhnya oleh Pramoedya saat masih hidup. Pram pernah mengatakan suatu hal kepada para anggota Taring Babi, "Pemuda jangan jadi ternak. Kalian harus kreatif."

Bob menuturkan, Maemunah sering bercanda dan mencurahkan hatinya mengenai suka duka kehidupan masa mudanya. Kisahnya cenderung memotivasi orang agar bisa bertahan hidup di tengah impitan sosial politik.

Ashes To Ashes Dust To Dust Di San Diego Hills

Memang suka ketinggalan jaman. Kemaren ngobrol dengan seorang kawan yang cerita satu pasangan. Si prianya dari golongan tak berpunya sementara istrinya anak gedongan.  Pasangan ini kemudiah mempunyai bayi yang entah kenapa meninggal.  Untuk menunjukkan indikator gedongan dari pihak perempuan kawan ini mengatakan bayi itu oleh keluarga pihak perempuan di makamkan di San Diego Hills.

Ketika saya menyakan ketidaktahan saya apa itu San Diego Hills, kemudian saya diberitahu. Itu loh tempatnya orang orang kaya dimakamkan.

Wah ini menarik.

Apalagi kemudian hari ini diberitakan Sudwikatmono pengusaha yang sukses karbitan Soeharto meninggal dunia dimakamkan di San Diego Hills.

Rasanya sekali kali pengen juga kesana. Melongok tempat pemakaman mewah. Yang pasti menarik  mungkin ngobrol dengan penggali kuburnya. Bagaimana dia melihat Indonesia masa kini dari kaca mata penggali kubur.

San Diego Hills yang bukan di Amerika ini terletak di Karawaci.

Welcome to hyper reality world

Amalia Pulungan

Trade Policies and King Leopold's Ghost

I was in Belgium earlier this year for some meetings at the European Parliament on trade between Africa and Europe. Those meetings were all about the so-called "Global Europe" program, which is code name for the European Commission's international trade strategy. (Global Europe is part of the failed EU constitutionattempts and the more recent Lisbon Treaty, which might also be a failure.)

When we met with MEPs (members of the European Parliament), those who supported the Lisbon Treaty and the Global Europe proposals were quite happy to concede that this was all about increased access to the resources and markets of developing countries. They claimed that as the U.S. was already pursuing such a strategy in Africa, and China seemed to be poised to do the same, they had little choice other than to use African resources and consumers for the benefit of European corporations.

What's left unsaid is that this is not a new strategy for Europe; in fact it is a very old strategy. 

When I saw some of the monuments in Belgium, one of the most famous of which is the castle at Laeken pictured above, I could not help but think of a book I had read some years ago. As I reread the book - King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild - over the past few weeks, I began to understand this castle and much of Europe's splendor would not have been possible without the brutality of European colonialism in Africa.

King Leopld II was the King of Belgium from 1868 until his death in 1909. While turn-of-the-century Europe was moving towards a parliamentary democracy system with Kings as figureheads rather than purveyors of political power, Leopold established a mediaeval kingdom in the heart of the tropical African jungle. Its purpose? To extract African natural resources (in this case wild rubber) for the profit of European corporations and the Belgian King. The Africans "employed" to harvest the wild labor were subject to kidnappings, forced labor, whippings using a deadly hippopotamus hide instrument called the chicote and murder. Soldiers were punished for using bullets for anything other than killing, so for every bullet spent they were encouraged to bring back a human hand to their captain. By most estimates, the toll of murder, disease, famine, and reduced birth rates cost the Congo some 10 million lives during Leopold's rule.

Sapi dan Buku Cerita Itu

Mengapa susah sekali melihat bahwa binatang binatang ternak itu

adalah semacam LAST HOPE. Harapan terakhir. Tentu saja para penduduk desa di sekitar Merapi itu  mengetahui betapa bahayanya memberi makan ternak ternak mereka itu. Tapi disitulah mereka menaruh harapan terakhir mereka tentang hidup dan penghidupan.

Tentu saja sebagai gadis ASLI KOTA BESAR bukan saya hendak

mengatakan berarti saya lebih paham kehidupan orang desa. Tapi saya

rasa kita semua tahu arti kata pengharapan. Terutama di kala semua

kepastian tidak ada. Semua hal bisa menjadi sebuah janji yang entah

kapan datangnya. Bahwa seseorang mengatakan ternak ternak itu akan

diganti. Tentu saja mereka tahu itu.

Pernah satu masa sebetulnya di waktu kanak kanak saya membaca sebuah kisah tentang "Gadis bisu dan sapinya", karya Rabindranath Tagore. Gadis bisu itu hanya berkawan dengan sapinya. Dunia sehari hari yang melingkupinya digambarkan dengan baik oleh Tagore hanyalah kesunyian yang lain dan mengasingkan bagi si gadis bisu. Di dunia yang sebatang kara hanya sapi itulah sahabat dan harapan terakhirnya adanya hidup.

Harlem (New York)

Malam itu semua orang di Harlem bersuka cita, atas terpilihnya bagian
dari mereka. Mereka menari di depan Apollo Theater. Aku teringat
Billie Holiday. Harlem berjarak hanya satu blok dari kampus Columbia
University. Di tempat itu aku melihat tubuh tubuh obesitas itu.
Sementara hanya berbeda satu blok kampus Columbia di daerah UPTOWN,
bertebaran tubuh -tubuh sehat , yang datang dari makanan salad
vegetarian kami.

3 bulan kemudian, setelah kemenangan bersejarah seorang presiden
kulit hitam, sebuah surat elektronik datang ke jakarta,"mereka akan
menggusur kawasan itu", buat pembesaran kampus kata kawan kawan.

Aku mengingat -ingat makanan yang kukunyah di Harlem, yang kudapat
dari supermarket disitu. Kebanyakan Junk Food.

Alice in the Wonderland

When i use a word Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornfull tone it means exactly what i choose it to mean-NEITHER MORE NOR LESS
The question is ,said Alice whether you can make words mean so many different things
The question is said Humpty Dumpty which is to be MASTER. Thats all.



LEWIS CAROLL, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, Alice in the wonderland..


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MASTER : a person with ability or power to use control, or dispose of something; male head of household; a victor or conqueror a man eminently skilled in something. One holding this title.

Random House Dictionary of The English Language

In workplace, LGBTs face discrimination

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 12/17/2010 11:18 AM | Special Report

As the world’s largest Muslim majority nation, Indonesia has long been on the road to embrace tolerance – particularly tolerance of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Jakarta Post’s Arghea Desafti Hapsari explores how employers are accommodating LGBT employees.

Arvi (not his real name), a 25-year-old media relations executive for one of the country’s largest cigarette producers, walked into the men’s room at his office in Central Jakarta.

After he washed his hands and groomed his hair, a colleague walked in, stared and said: “You look fabulously beautiful.”

Although Arvi has always been openly gay to people at his office, he has to bear the brunt of remarks that poke fun at his sexual orientation.

“I’m sure that my colleagues are open-minded about homosexuality, but still there are times when they make these surly comments,” he said, adding the comments, though obviously made with no ill intention, irritated him at some point.

Happy New Year!

Photo by : Rio Helmi