Monday, July 06, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
xenophobic italy?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5622156.ece
Italy is going further and further into this direction...
In my city there were only 2 small mosques, one of them was so small that it is only for men. It couldn't afford any space for women. And yet still, on friday prayers, the rows of people would spill to the street in front of it.
The second mosque is bigger than the first. At least there is a small room for women. On Ramadhan we would be tightly packed on tarawih prayers in that room. It was usually hard to properly sit and bow during the prayers.
For Eid-ul Fitr and Eid-ul Adha prayers these years an indoor sport hall was always rented. Thus, bigger number of people could be accommodated.
Last year the moslem community of my city began to build a masjid from scratch. Not in the city, but rather in the outskirt. It was planned to become a centre of activities not only for people in my city but also for moslem in other cities in this region. It was planned that on last Ramadhan we would have our Eid-ul Fitr prayer there, and not in the sport hall. But the masjid building was still not yet finished by that time.
During all the process of this building there were already some movements to object having a masjid in this region. I heard there was one moment where they hold a petition signing event in a piazza, talking about the act of terrorism and ask people to sign their petition to object to masjid building.
I read in the paper that actually there was a statement from the church in the region that support the building of this masjid. They recognize that it is a facility for prayer and people with religion needs such facility (CMIIW my italian is not that good). I talked once with my professor too, (an Italian, and he was the one who brought up the topics) and he expressed how ridiculous and made non-sense it was to object a facility of prayer to be built.
But, then... the government decision was issued. The building process had to stop, they withdrew the permission to build the masjid.
That was last year.
I just recently came back from a vacation in my home country. And upon coming back I learnt that now the small mosque is closed. There is only one mosque allowed now in this city...
And here comes the banning of food...
I enjoyed staying in Italy because the people are warm, just like Indonesian.
they smile and say ciao to strangers, they chitchat on the bus. All italians I came into contact with are nice, friendly, and kind.
CMIIW but I think how the situation advanced now is scary...
Italy is going further and further into this direction...
In my city there were only 2 small mosques, one of them was so small that it is only for men. It couldn't afford any space for women. And yet still, on friday prayers, the rows of people would spill to the street in front of it.
The second mosque is bigger than the first. At least there is a small room for women. On Ramadhan we would be tightly packed on tarawih prayers in that room. It was usually hard to properly sit and bow during the prayers.
For Eid-ul Fitr and Eid-ul Adha prayers these years an indoor sport hall was always rented. Thus, bigger number of people could be accommodated.
Last year the moslem community of my city began to build a masjid from scratch. Not in the city, but rather in the outskirt. It was planned to become a centre of activities not only for people in my city but also for moslem in other cities in this region. It was planned that on last Ramadhan we would have our Eid-ul Fitr prayer there, and not in the sport hall. But the masjid building was still not yet finished by that time.
During all the process of this building there were already some movements to object having a masjid in this region. I heard there was one moment where they hold a petition signing event in a piazza, talking about the act of terrorism and ask people to sign their petition to object to masjid building.
I read in the paper that actually there was a statement from the church in the region that support the building of this masjid. They recognize that it is a facility for prayer and people with religion needs such facility (CMIIW my italian is not that good). I talked once with my professor too, (an Italian, and he was the one who brought up the topics) and he expressed how ridiculous and made non-sense it was to object a facility of prayer to be built.
But, then... the government decision was issued. The building process had to stop, they withdrew the permission to build the masjid.
That was last year.
I just recently came back from a vacation in my home country. And upon coming back I learnt that now the small mosque is closed. There is only one mosque allowed now in this city...
And here comes the banning of food...
I enjoyed staying in Italy because the people are warm, just like Indonesian.
they smile and say ciao to strangers, they chitchat on the bus. All italians I came into contact with are nice, friendly, and kind.
CMIIW but I think how the situation advanced now is scary...
Friday, January 30, 2009
lie to me
It's a title of new tv series j downloaded based on the ads we kept on hearing in yahoo launchcast. It builds the story around the fact that there are many things in body languages people can take hints from to tell whether someone is telling the truth or not. Because simply a slight right shoulder shrug could betray a full rehearsed lie.
But then maybe it's not the body languages who betray people,
more like people are betraying their own body by involving it in an act of lie.
When we see it that way, it is amazing how our whole body parts are actually given with an inherent resistance system towards making lies. The faster heart beat, the cold sweats, the shame, the guilty feelings that would churn your guts after you did something bad. It is a bad thing, therefore our body parts are encoded to make it harder for us to lie, or do something intentionally bad in general. In wars some studies have shown that actually more bullets are shot to a random direction, as it is not in human basic instinct to kill someone else. The corollary is shown in studies concerning how there are many soldiers suffered from depressions after war. As they are essentially fighting the will of their own body and mind by killing other people.
I guess this thought will go with some verse (or hadith?) which said that later in the judgement day our body parts will stand by themselves as the witnesses for us, and reports all things, good and bad, that we have done. Jokingly we can say our body parts have their own free will ^^.
Another possibility is that actually it is not about something encoded in the body. The conscience already know that a certain something is bad, therefore, although maybe repressed, it sent this signal to the whole body which then reacts. After all, mind controls everything in our body. People could say love hurts, because when you feel sad by love it goes to the same part of brain which sensor hurts literary, thus you feel the hurt.
Anyway you look at it, -whether it is something already encoded or it's something our own conscience is telling our body-, then it is actually easy to stay away from doing bad things, doing harms to ourselves.
May for our lifetime we don't need to betray ourselves from the true path. May we always be sensitive to listen to our conscience. May our conscience always be guided to always know the truth.
ps. no, don't lie to me though. i picked the title just because it's that series which sparked this thought. I myself am a bad lie detector and therefore a bad liar.
But then maybe it's not the body languages who betray people,
more like people are betraying their own body by involving it in an act of lie.
When we see it that way, it is amazing how our whole body parts are actually given with an inherent resistance system towards making lies. The faster heart beat, the cold sweats, the shame, the guilty feelings that would churn your guts after you did something bad. It is a bad thing, therefore our body parts are encoded to make it harder for us to lie, or do something intentionally bad in general. In wars some studies have shown that actually more bullets are shot to a random direction, as it is not in human basic instinct to kill someone else. The corollary is shown in studies concerning how there are many soldiers suffered from depressions after war. As they are essentially fighting the will of their own body and mind by killing other people.
I guess this thought will go with some verse (or hadith?) which said that later in the judgement day our body parts will stand by themselves as the witnesses for us, and reports all things, good and bad, that we have done. Jokingly we can say our body parts have their own free will ^^.
Another possibility is that actually it is not about something encoded in the body. The conscience already know that a certain something is bad, therefore, although maybe repressed, it sent this signal to the whole body which then reacts. After all, mind controls everything in our body. People could say love hurts, because when you feel sad by love it goes to the same part of brain which sensor hurts literary, thus you feel the hurt.
Anyway you look at it, -whether it is something already encoded or it's something our own conscience is telling our body-, then it is actually easy to stay away from doing bad things, doing harms to ourselves.
May for our lifetime we don't need to betray ourselves from the true path. May we always be sensitive to listen to our conscience. May our conscience always be guided to always know the truth.
ps. no, don't lie to me though. i picked the title just because it's that series which sparked this thought. I myself am a bad lie detector and therefore a bad liar.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
RTSS nightmare
Just attended a mock-presentation as a rehearsal for the presentation of my first paper in RTSS.
I'm working on this paper with two profs, one from the embedded system background (my main PhD tutor), the other from the formal method background. It's my main advisor who will present the paper.
People from both area gathered for the presentation, and ... the question session started...
all hell break loose >_<
oh my, while my prof seems could manage all the questions, my guts churned listening to the questions coming.
I still have sooooooo much to learn in formal area T_T
It's half an hour after it finished, and I'm still disturbed in that how I'm still lacking all those knowledge.
I'm so far away from having the ability to present my own paper and defend it from all those questions.
While it's a consolation that
it won't be me who present it myself anyway, and I won't be able to even help answering the question since I couldn't attend it, and that I'm still a first year PhD student (well, ok, starting my 2nd year now),
still... I thought that at least I could possibly manage some of the questions.
It's so overwhelming in that this formal area is such a vast body of research.
Unlike when it was way back in high-school, or even in bachelor degree, where you have a finite set of references. And reading and mastering them will grant you the knowledge to master the material. Now, it's all current researches and papers which made up this body of knowledge. New papers published every so often. And I thought I've read soo many papers on it. But still I it doesn't seem to be enough. and the show of force (show of knowledge?) in that discussion forum scared me...
I'm still a looong loong way from home....
I'm working on this paper with two profs, one from the embedded system background (my main PhD tutor), the other from the formal method background. It's my main advisor who will present the paper.
People from both area gathered for the presentation, and ... the question session started...
all hell break loose >_<
oh my, while my prof seems could manage all the questions, my guts churned listening to the questions coming.
I still have sooooooo much to learn in formal area T_T
It's half an hour after it finished, and I'm still disturbed in that how I'm still lacking all those knowledge.
I'm so far away from having the ability to present my own paper and defend it from all those questions.
While it's a consolation that
it won't be me who present it myself anyway, and I won't be able to even help answering the question since I couldn't attend it, and that I'm still a first year PhD student (well, ok, starting my 2nd year now),
still... I thought that at least I could possibly manage some of the questions.
It's so overwhelming in that this formal area is such a vast body of research.
Unlike when it was way back in high-school, or even in bachelor degree, where you have a finite set of references. And reading and mastering them will grant you the knowledge to master the material. Now, it's all current researches and papers which made up this body of knowledge. New papers published every so often. And I thought I've read soo many papers on it. But still I it doesn't seem to be enough. and the show of force (show of knowledge?) in that discussion forum scared me...
I'm still a looong loong way from home....
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
For my fellow Indonesian students...
Pesan Sukarno kepada Pemuda Indonesia
“Engkau hai pemuda pemudi yang ada disini, sedang mengerjakan investment. Kerjakanlah pekerjaanmu dengan sebaik-baiknya. Kerjakanlah sebaik-baiknya oleh karena apa yang kau kejar sekarang ini ialah ilmu, dan ilmu itu bukan untukmu sendiri, tetapi ialah untuk anak cucumu, untuk bangsa Indonesia, untuk rakyat Indonesia, untuk tanah air Indonesia, untuk negara Republik Indonesia … semuanya menunggu-nunggu akan kedatanganmu kembali agar supaya kamu nanti dapat memberi sumbangan kepada pembangunan tanah air dan bangsa.”
(Pidato Bung Karno di depan mahasiswa Indonesia di Amerika Serikat, tahun 1956)
I got this quote from a random mail, I just can't help crying somehow reading it...
Maybe it's because I'm just too stressed with my work here now...
but then, have I really done my best? Have you?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
playing around with style
When I was little one of my ambitions was to be a fashion designer :D
what do u think of these sets? :P
what do u think of these sets? :P
Friday, June 20, 2008
About suing for emotional distress
There is something that doesn't sit right with me about this article.
I've read the initial article I think months ago,
about a girl who sued a hairdresser where she applied for a job,
since she wasn't even given a chance to show her ability.
she was just turned down because she couldn't show her hair while working.
I'll put that initial article link later if I could find it.
While I found the salon owner reasoning is pretty sound,
given that the notion of veil must be unfamiliar for her,
let alone the notion of a hairdresser wearing veil while treating a customer's hair.
Yet, I also found that despite the novelty of such idea,
I think she still could have given her a chance to show her professional skill first
before really turning her down.
The problem is about the equality of the right to work professionally.
However, then in this new article the focus is then shifted to about the emotional distress of the girl having turned down by the salon.
And for that she is granted 4k pound sterling.
Somehow the court ruling doesn't seem fair and wise to me...
In the court the suing hairdresser won because
Thus, I think the proper solution would be to have some kind of legal base that ensure
for the future that every person, despite her headscarf, must be allowed the chance to
win the hairdresser job just based on their professional skill.
The part involving money to pay for the emotional distress part is the one that doesn't sound right to me.
It sounds....kinda greedy?
Emotional distress can happen.
It's just parts of human life in society.
How can you measure an amount of money to heal your heart wound from emotional distress?
Having the problem settled in court with an amount of money paid for you for your emotional distress, how would that heal your depression?
Isn't a fair apology from the person feels better?
A sincere admittance of apology with warm handshake and eye to eye contact that convey the empathy and understanding of your distress,
and then also your own act of forgiving that person.
Isn't that what heal heart wounds?
To me the court decision with the money grants somehow sounds like its going to add more social tension...
I really hope the aspiring hairdresser with veils will find her dream job.
I really hope that the salon owner will be able to pay the money and prosper in her salon business and might take a hairdresser with veils as an employee in the future for her awesome hairdressing skill.
And I hope the same for all other aspiring hairdressers in veils and other salon owners in the world...
And may peace fall upon the world...as Islam is rahmatan lil'alamin..
I've read the initial article I think months ago,
about a girl who sued a hairdresser where she applied for a job,
since she wasn't even given a chance to show her ability.
she was just turned down because she couldn't show her hair while working.
I'll put that initial article link later if I could find it.
While I found the salon owner reasoning is pretty sound,
given that the notion of veil must be unfamiliar for her,
let alone the notion of a hairdresser wearing veil while treating a customer's hair.
Yet, I also found that despite the novelty of such idea,
I think she still could have given her a chance to show her professional skill first
before really turning her down.
The problem is about the equality of the right to work professionally.
However, then in this new article the focus is then shifted to about the emotional distress of the girl having turned down by the salon.
And for that she is granted 4k pound sterling.
Somehow the court ruling doesn't seem fair and wise to me...
In the court the suing hairdresser won because
She (the salon owner) was not able to prove her contention that employing someone with a headscarf would have the negative impact on her business's stylistic integrity that she feared.
Thus, I think the proper solution would be to have some kind of legal base that ensure
for the future that every person, despite her headscarf, must be allowed the chance to
win the hairdresser job just based on their professional skill.
The part involving money to pay for the emotional distress part is the one that doesn't sound right to me.
It sounds....kinda greedy?
Emotional distress can happen.
It's just parts of human life in society.
How can you measure an amount of money to heal your heart wound from emotional distress?
Having the problem settled in court with an amount of money paid for you for your emotional distress, how would that heal your depression?
Isn't a fair apology from the person feels better?
A sincere admittance of apology with warm handshake and eye to eye contact that convey the empathy and understanding of your distress,
and then also your own act of forgiving that person.
Isn't that what heal heart wounds?
To me the court decision with the money grants somehow sounds like its going to add more social tension...
I really hope the aspiring hairdresser with veils will find her dream job.
I really hope that the salon owner will be able to pay the money and prosper in her salon business and might take a hairdresser with veils as an employee in the future for her awesome hairdressing skill.
And I hope the same for all other aspiring hairdressers in veils and other salon owners in the world...
And may peace fall upon the world...as Islam is rahmatan lil'alamin..
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