Batu City's Ridiculous Lock Up

Recently, the local government of Batu city in East Java issued an instruction for massage parlors in the area to lock up their masseuses' pants in order to keep the area "squeaky clean" and supposedly to protect the masseuses. Reports say that business owners and their masseuses willingly complied to the instruction. They say that the policy doesn't bother them and they don't mind the lock up, because the feel "safe".

Regardless of their opinion, this "lock up" instruction is a discrimination against woman and a gross violation of human rights. The policy blatantly insults woman as a source of problem, and it implies that we need to put women under our control so that the society won't suffer from immorality. This is a result of old, or maybe even ancient, way of thinking, which sometimes is also supported by incorrect religious interpretations.

Locking up pants is extremely disrespectful to women, whatever the reason is. The local govt feels that they can easily lock up someone's clothing and get away with it. The constitution guarantees that any Indonesian citizen can do any job that doesn't violate the law, and that he/she must be given proper respect for doing so. And don't even try to pull religion into this. No religion will ever approve of gender discrimination and human rights violation. The policymakers must be so stuck in paternalistic point of view that they produce this disgusting crap of a policy.

Approving this action will give way to many other violations. In the future, the govt may even try to wiretap our communications to somehow prevent crimes or peek at our internet activities to prevent immoral behaviour. Maybe the "Russian Idol"s favourite song sums it all: "Every move you make, I'll be watching you"

If the spirit of the policy is really for "safety", they could also put those massage customers' hands in handcuffs so that they can't harass the masseuses, in addition to locking up pants; or maybe less extremely, instruct parlors to install surveillance system in their business. These policies won't insult anyone and doesn't discriminate one sex as a trouble maker. Besides, it will not only prevent crimes such as rape and sexual harassment, but also prevent prostitution practices.

The Woman Empowerment Minister Meutia Hatta commented on the policy and stressed that it should be evaluated. If our leaders and figures are in their right mind, they should be protesting this stupidity too.

Post-Idol Gives Back

Idol Gives Back 2008 was fantabulous. The fundraising concert featured a great array of performers, a strong message, and amazing entertainment. My favourite part is the beginning, when the Top 8 performed Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music", while dancers from So You Think You Can Dance showed off their moves. Ellen DeGeneres was there too: "Hello, it's me Oprah. If you're like me, and you like to help people..." She was hilarious, too bad she didn't co-host like last year. Robin Williams -as a fake Russian Idol- also showed his talent, and his affection for Simon's "manbreast". To summarize, the night was full of bright shining stars...although I think one star shone waay too much, Miley Cyrus. Why in the name of Simon's manboobs did she have to perform twice?

Here's the performance I was talking about, thanks to YouTube.

Anyway, Aussie guy Michael Johns just got eliminated from the contest, instead of bottom-three regular Kristy Lee Cook, blurgh. That's too bad, I really enjoyed his performance of Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions". Afterward that rock star performance, I thought that I might enjoy his next performances. Although his last act wasn't that great, I didn't expect him to be eliminated so soon.

Right now, I'm rooting for Brooke White, Syesha, and Carly. You may ask, "Where the heck is David Archuleta in your list?" OK, in my opinion he's so good, he should've won American Idol the moment he entered; but I just don't root for him, that's it. Just don't think that I'm an anti-Archuleta. By the way, I'm so eager to see next week's performance of Mariah Carey's number-one hits. Her latest single Touch My Body just reached #1 in Billboard Hot 100 and because of that, it's very possible for her to break some records soon. I read about it, but I forgot what record it was; if I'm not mistaken, one of them was as the artist with the most #1 hit.

As all I talked about in this post is music, I'd like to share some of what I'm listening to these days along with regular favorites. Actually, they're not necessarily my favourite songs, but I just love listening to them. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Sara Bareilles - Love Song

2. Matchbox Twenty - How Far We've Come

3. Cobra Starship - The City is at War

4. Panic (without the '!') at the Disco - Nine in the Afternoon

5. Mariah Carey - Touch My Body

6. Aly & A.J. - Like Whoa

7. Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music

8. Vanessa Carlton - Hands on Me

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Such a happy day...Indonesia, welcome back to the world (i.e. YouTube, MySpace, etc) Menkominfo had -finally- repented from his stupidity and decided that the blocking policy is not a smart one. Let's not have anything like this again in the future, it will only tarnish Indonesia and Islam's image worldwide. Now, if only Lembaga Sensor Film would repent too...

And...something really good made me all smiles today! First and foremost, Thank You, God, for this wonderful birthday gift. I cannot express my gratitude for You adequately; even a googol (that's the number '1' with 100 zeros after it) thank You's is a major understatement. And God, please guide me, and my friends, through the final exams. Thank You.

Happy Belated Birthday, Adit!

Guess what? I just reached the milestone-ish age of 17 last Sunday, April 6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Yeah, I didn't post my birthday card for myself on time, but blogger was down that day. I couldn't connect to my blog at all.

Anyway, I wanted to wish like a million wishes for my b'day, but for the sake of brevity, I just prayed that God give me the best. I do make specific wishes, though: I hope that I, along with my friends, can pass the National Exam with flying colors, another year of 100% graduation for Pak Budi the Principal. I hope that all of us can study at our preferred universities, and have tons of fun there. To be more exact, I'm currently praying and waiting for the result of PPKB UI (you might know it as PMDK). I applied for the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Indonesia. And I also hope my friends who are taking various uni entrance tests (ITB, UGM, etc) can get accepted.

To lengthen the post, I'll be writing some trivial stuffs about the particular date. First, I share my birthday with Raphael, Italian Renaissance painter and architect; Dutchman Anthony Fokker, whose contribution flew high in the sky; Paul Rudd, Phoebe's hubby in Friends; and Zach Braff, JD from Scrubs. I also share the day with a Holy Roman Empire Empress, a Canadian serial killer, and a Jordanian Princess. According to the know-it-all Wikipedia, there are 4 Nobel Prize winners who were born on April 6: 3 won the prize in Medicine or Physiology, 1 in Physics. I'm happy to say that one of the winner is James D. Watson, one of the DNA discoverer. Not that it'll give me anything, but I can brag about it, right?

And, you might also want to know about what happenned on the day centuries ago. Don't bother saying "no", I'll write about it anyway. Let me check Wikipedia... The Scots reaffirmed their independence by a letter to Pope John XXII called the Declaration of Arbroath. A Dutch sailor established a resupply camp at Cape of Good Hope, which later became the city known as Cape Town (btw, I'd love to go there someday). Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Celluloid was patented on this day. In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games were opened in Athens. Gandhi started the Salt Satyagraha against the British. And the Pioneer 11 spacecraft was also launched in April 6.

To end the post, HAPPY BELATED BIRTH DAY TO ME!!

Menkominfo YouSuck!

Another proof that we need a change in 2009: The government, through the Communications and Information Minister (Menkominfo) ordered ISPs to block websites containing the controversial Fitna by Geert Wilders. As I said in the previous post, the act of blocking the movie itself will do more harm than good. Instead of maintaining public order or safety, it will just say to the whole world "Hey, we're muslims and we're easily provocated. We can't take the slightest criticism from anyone. Live (or die) with it!"

Further than that, the blocking caused major uproar in the online community. The ministerial instruction forced ISPs to ban the whole websites altogether. The affected websites include YouTube, Multiply, Rapidshare, and LiveLeak. As you may notice, they have become a somewhat integral part of our lives. We got all sorts of information and entertainment from these websites. We've laughed our a**es off on "Ken Lee", we trash talked Cinta Laura for her "bechek" clip, and we gasped over Fitna. We saw Kevin Rudd ate his earwax, we enjoyed amateurish lipsyncing of random people, and we never stop coming to YouTube. Many small entrepreneurs also depend on the net to spread their product.

In this case, there's a striking similarity between Menkominfo and Geert Wilders. Wilders took a small bunch of freaky "muslim" clerics who preach hate and destruction, then he conluded from inadequate data that all muslims are as freaky. Then, he made a movie to spread the lie. Similarly, Menkominfo saw one or two "unagreeable" videos on the net, thus he conluded that the internet is such a wild and dangerous place. To prevent any "unrest", he decided to block sites containing the material. Both persons deny the society's right to transparent information.

By making the instruction, Menkominfo have violated the constitution that grants freedom of expression and freedom for self development. Such actions cannot be tolerated by anyone. He's depriving us of access to information, knowledge, and entertainment. As an Indonesian citizen, we have the right to choose what we want to watch, what we want to listen. The blocking effectively deprives us of choices. Can he compensate this huge loss of Indonesia's development toward the future? Is he willing to take responsibilities if the policy caused other people inconvenience and loss of information?

We are not and should never be China. Indonesia is built as a democratic country, we must not let it fall into such undemocratic level of censorship. Such blocks are obstacles to the development of the society. These controversial events should teach us to be more mature and civilized. Instead of doing so, Menkominfo trapped us in the "safety" of the blockings. If the govt has the craziness to block YouTube, it really has the craziness to block anything else. Who knows what will be the next victim; will it be Yahoo!? Google? MTV?

Menkominfo, please, use what's left of your brain. You are trying to kill a mosquito with nukes. What good will blocking websites do anyway? Do you think people will respect us more for such stupidity?

Give the Freedom Back to the People!!

So, Whaddya Think?

Despite all the brouhaha on Fitna, I watched it on YouTube twice. I'm not one to comment on something before actually seeing it myself or knowing it from a reliable source. My friends have also watched it, and there hasn't been any kind of unrest. What I want to know is whether all those people who condemn the short film have indeed watched it.

And my friend asked me, "whaddya think of it?" My brain worked up quite an answer, "Well, it shows that both sides need to introspect" Now now, let's not exaggerate things here. Those hateful clerics do exist in the real world, they do incite hatred and war. Just see, even in Indonesia we have those kinds of freaks. There are groups who feel proud to bring hell to Earth in the name of "Islam". If a documentary on these groups or persons were to be made, my bet is that it wouldn't be so different from Fitna.

To me, the real problem of the movie is that it took bread crumbs to portray the whole bread: chunks of verses to portray the Qur'an, chunks of muslims to portray all muslims. As a book, the Qur'an shouldn't be fragmented and presented in the way Wilders had done. He took fragments of the Holy Book, took the most literal translations, and match it with those terrorist acts. It would be like taking fragments of the Bill of Rights to justify the war in Iraq.

In addition, the main thing that makes me feel disrespected is that Wilders took some crazy bearded, robe-clad guys calling themselves "muslims" who preach hate to their audience as the typical muslim. Hey, I'm nothing like that and neither are most normal muslims! Those freaks are a whole world away from moderates, the majority of muslims. In fact, they are trying to infect us with their hateful ideologies.

IF the film specifically said that "there's a minority in the muslim world that hijacks Islam for violence, ...so on and so forth..., and therefore it is everyone's responsibility to get them to the right track again"; IF the film didn't use Qur'an verses out of context and interpretation; it would be a good reminder to muslims to introspect. It would serve as a wake-up call to make us see that there are groups bearing the name of "Islam" that are trying to destroy the religion itself. These groups are exploiting Islam to justify dictatorship and totalitarianism. They are using their brand of Islam to stop muslims from progressing to the future. We need someone to shout really loudly and make us take a look at these phenomena.

That's what I (currently) think of the movie. There're still aspects that I may discuss in the future through this blog. This problem has many sides to it, and those sides are being stretched to all directions.

April Fools' Day!

Last year, Wikipedia featured the article of George Washington, an inventor of instant coffee. This year, if you go to the Main Page, you can say "Ima Hogg". Yes, it's that time of the year. April 1. April Fools' Day. We had spaghetti trees, we had a decreased gravity due to the conjunction of Pluto and Jupiter, and we also saw Square and Enix's merger into Square Enix (well, this one's true).

It's such a great day to see how creative human beings can be. Big Ben replaced with a giant digital clock?? That's original. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy spearheading a campaign to improve Britons' style?? That's just fresh. And don't forget about the little pranks we do, they deserve the same praise.

It's the day of light-hearted fun, and also forgiveness. On this day, we can trick our friends and just yell out "April Fools'!!!" at them. Oh my, lots of fun! Well, last but not least, good luck getting through the day and also good luck if you plan to prank someone.

Maybe Indonesians will someday grasp the concept and make their own April Fools' hoax. Possible hoaxes to make in the future:

1. The government of Indonesia really works.

2. The Coordinating Minister for Minister's Welfare is changed into CM for People's Welfare.

3. As an agrarian country, Indonesia fulfills its own food needs and becomes an exporter.

4. Indonesian Council of Ulama minds its own business.

Oh, Hillary just dropped out of the race. Click here for the news.

PS: my birthday's coming in a few days! Yay me!