By The end of the year

Guys..

This year will be immediately ended, just in the next couple weeks we will enter New Year, it means we will face new episode to arrange new steps in our life, evaluating our previous targets and drawing new ones for the upcoming year.

You know, I’m often disturbed by the changes of the years, coz I think time goes faster then I hope. William James said that the anxiety to face the speed up of time is related to age, the older we are then the worrier we will be. May be it could be right but for me my anxiety and my sadness is because so many targets have been drawn hasn’t been finished or hasn’t been realized yet. Every years I often left kind of ‘bad result’ in the year peak.

This year is not extremely different from the previous year. I didn’t do good work with my targets. Consequently many targets even never been done like recitation of qur’an that I targeted (1) one Juz for a year (no result at all), also improvement of my carrier seems to be stuck in its place. what a sad..:(.

but besides of that bad news, there are some good news. one of my targets [and it’s the greatest one] I can achieve this year is GETTING MARRIED. Alhamdulillah I’m doing well with this target. ;). also some good activities that either I did or I pioneered this year, such as :

- Al Balagh – it’s a great experience to be a mentor in Al Azhar Islamic School for 3 months.
- Britzone English Speaking Club - I just join this group for around 3 months but now I become one of the Committee members.
- Private teacher - this year I became a private teacher for 3rd grade students of elementary school for all lessons, especially Reading Qur’an but just lasted for 4 months and I gave up because I couldn’t even influence him to ‘be with me’ (he is very undisciplined child).
- Volunteer Teacher at La Tansa – still going on and I allocate my time to be more active in attendance.

the bad news is that this year I left some of my activities I was dealing with in the previous year, like Gamada and Team Solid DIKLAT DT, actually it’s not because my will to quit from such activities but because of a vacuum exist of the organization itself.

That’s a brief evaluation by this year-end, I hope I will make good improvement in the coming years by being more commitment to my targets. Hopefully..:(

New Visitor

Last Saturday, BZ was visited by 68 years old Mr. Arief - I forget the complete name – but it doesn’t matter. It has been two weeks he supervised BZ before joined the class.

Who is he you said? Well from the introduction I catch that he was with Ms. Meutia Hatta Found LIA in the seventies. Don’t know much about his previous activities, he just said that he is in retirement but sure that he’s the one who knows well about English from his good Pronunciations, and word orders while speaking but not master it, as he said that no one can master English even the Native coz English is language which has the largest number of vocabularies – more than 2 millions- that impossible to be learned by heart. He also said he will do something to help BZ in improving English especially in Phonetic side but he will need 2 months to observe BZ before doing that ‘project’.

He reminded me actually with some of my lectures, I could say it Dead lectures I really hate - phonetic, semantics, syntax and all deal with linguistics – that he said quite important in English – in Professional context not amateur.

yeah…again and again I should feel guilty to my academic background. This actually is my responsibility to know, to study about such linguistics skill but you know what happen to me today?? I even don’t understand well any single of it??. people say, never say to late to study, but life speeds up so fast that make me getting older and older, limiting my time, absorbing my memory gradually, and make me become hard learner rather than a fast one. Frankly speaking I am regretful of my neglectful time during my university years. Completely regretful..!!

Is Terrorism A Muslim Monopoly?

Videos of Lectures and Debates [Dr. Zakir Naik]: Is Terrorism A Muslim Monopoly?

This event took place in Mumbai in front of a jam packed crowd, at the Shanmukhananda auditorium on 11th Sept 2006. Dr. Zakir Naik also gave a similar lecture at Jeddah in the last week of September, 2006. Dr. Zakir Naik said that historic records proved that a large number of terrorist acts in the 20th and 21st century were committed by non-Muslims. The so-called global phenomenon of "Islamic terrorism/militant Islam" was a creation of the western governments and their media outlets, he said.

"Politics lies at the heart of labeling Muslims across the globe as perpetrators of terror acts, " he added.

Dr. Zakir, who is one of the Muslim world's leading and most prolific speakers, quoted from the scriptures of other religions and proved that associating killing with Islam is incorrect."It says in the Book of Numbers that whoever worships other than God should be killed, " he said, referring to the Bible, yet such militant verses were conveniently ignored by the Western media.

"In every religion there are black sheep and the media keep putting these people forward. This is a media conspiracy and a way of pushing people away from Islam." he added.Dr. Zakir Naik said, "No religion encourages terrorist acts or violence. The word 'Islam' itself means 'Peace, obtained by submitting yourself to the Almighty'. Anyone, be it Muslim or non-Muslim, who kills an innocent Muslim or a non-Muslim, kills the entire humanity.

However, Islam goes a step further to say that if one saves innocent lives, the whole of humanity is saved. Injustice is the root cause of terrorism..."He continued, "Palestinians are called terrorists just because they are fighting to get their land back."

By citing examples of LTTE (in Sri Lanka), IRA (in UK), Lord's Salvation Army, which trains the young children to conduct terrorist attacks, and many other non-Muslim terrorist outfits he further said that, the lives claimed by these outfits are more than the ones by the Muslim terrorists.

Dr. Zakir said Naxalites/Maoists across India and the LTTE in Sri Lanka were non- Muslim terror organisations, which had had developed pan regional bases beyond national boundaries. Other such non-Muslim terror outfits included the United Liberation Front of Asom, National Democratic Front of Bodoland and All Tripura Tiger Force in the Northeast, Naik noted.

Drawing on international examples, Dr. Zakir said that the Japanese Red Army, Lord's Salvation Army and the ETA in Spain were also non-Islamic in character and composition."So nothing is more removed from truth as to suggest that Muslims have monopolized terrorism, " said Dr. Naik.

He said the Irish Republican Army, which was considered to be terrorist group, has a history of 100 years of violence against the British, but the British government doesn't seem to be scared about them as they are about radical Islamic groups.

Besides, he also mentioned, "Even a single killing by a Muslim is condemned by Islam, whatsoever the reasons."

Source: www. Biharanjuman.org

BZ Presidential Election

Last Saturday, 22nd November was special moment for Britzoners, because that day we had Britzone Presidential Election and the result is the elect Britzone president for 2009 – Mr. Kikim.

There are some cases have to be noticed in the election. Firstly, we had 4 presidential Candidates; they were Farhan, Prass, Endah and Kikim. By the day of Election Farhan called Vemmi that he wouldn’t come because he had to work over time. Then, just minutes before voting Prass backed off, so the remain candidates was Kikim and Endah. Finally Kikim wins with 22 Votes over Endah who got 11 Votes.

I am interested in one of Kikim programs to involve Britzoners in Social Activity that is teaching the stray children which actually has been pioneered by Maria - member of Britzone who has involved in such activity in Depok. The program also got good support form Jati, who lately known as the volunteer teacher for the needy children in South Jakarta too.

This really reminds me to my postponed plain, a year ago. And I do hope that the program will be implemented seriously, and give me a chance to take part on that program.

Overall, Congratulation to Mr. Kikim, Hopefully you will bring bright light to Britzone, and make it shine brighter. ;)

Enlightenment

Hi Guys

I've nothing to do this morning, so it's a bit temptation to share with you that I just being so curious on my own background – Faculty of Letter

Literature actually is a rich and very general discussion, it could be a kind of gate to learn many things (do you believe in it?)

Literature almost have the same face as Philosophy, they are complementary each other.

I just want to review my actual 'deep lecture', I am browsing about some literary theories, like Structuralism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, etc. I just realized that those theories really related to what happen with the world today. Simply I say " some intellectual worldview" today. So it is a must to take part on such ‘glimmering’ discussion.

Today, precisely this morning. I’m tempted to dedicate myself to write what I should write as an English Literature scholar (??), but it's really great and uneasy challenge rather than field of research. coz of my limited understanding on my own (and unloved) background. pity me..!!!

But I will try…InsyaAllah

‘Obama Fever ‘

I have a glance of hope when Obama wins, at least he will be better than McChain or Bush if I refer to his campaign and his last debate. I was so resentful to hear the black campaign of MC Chain, never intended to say that Obama didn’t involve on such unhealthy campaign but he was one step better than Mc Chain. I witnessed the part of their last debate, in the section of National defense where Iran was their Focus of Issue; Obama firmly stated that he will conduct dialogue with Iran amidst Mc Chain’s hard criticism. Those are points I got to support Obama [just in my limited ‘hope’]

And we hope Obama will make great change in US foreign Policy even though it may 'endanger' himself, remember JF Kennedy case? John F Kennedy was the first Catholic president of US and the only US President who tried to step out of American "platform" (he repressed Israel policy at that time and he also stood for black Americans) some proofs said that he was assassinated because of those reasons.

But we can’t hope much from that country, because whosoever become the US president he/she can’t stay out of American “platform” - to be the superpower country in the world that means conquering world in any aspects of life, including Ideology!. and the hardest thing for US President is to stop creating ‘newspeak world’ which has been created by US government since R Reagen regime, will Obama be able to stop it??. I'm not sure

[Newspeak is George Orwell term to describe the world that has been created by US through Media Hegemony, since that US Government built its image and make stigmatization to its political and ideological enemies]

And, I was a bit disturbed by Indonesian over-reacting on Obama’s Victory. Some Indonesian Obama Supporters even gathered together to watch the election on the five stars hotel and some proudly said that Obama is ‘Anak Menteng’ who leads US now. What a naïve thing..!!. Unfortunately, Such ‘Obama Fever’ also struck our political ‘Elite’, even our president humbly said that he hope much on Obama’s contribution to Indonesia. Furthermore, the ‘inferiority’ action in the West-East Connection dialogue broadcasted by Metrotv just a few days after the day of election, acted by Rizal Malarangeng and Syafii Anwar as the representatives of Indonesia. They spoke as if a servant who hopes kind attention from his boss. What a pity we are!!

Why do we have to hope Obama, a President of USA not a President of Indonesia??. It’s a fact that Obama lived in Jakarta for 4 years, so what’s the connection then??. Do we think that Obama will prioritize Indonesia because of such reason?, it’s really a naïve assumption. Obama is chosen by American people, and will hardly pay it back to them.

Why am I become so disturbed on such thing? In my point of view such manners are a reflection of our inferiority complex. Why don’t we believe in our country?, why don’t we start to be more independent? It’s fine if we hope improvement on US foreign Policy through Obama’s Hands, but we shouldn’t hope in such humble fashion. We have to try to stand on our own feet.!!

First Chance at BZ

Last Saturday was my first chance to be a conductor on BZ Discussion. I formatted the discussion in form of group presentations. The theme was Transportation and Education in Indonesia. The presentation had to follow the certain scope that was Introduction, Problem formulations, solutions, and Conclusion. The determined scope was aimed to limit their discussion for the general theme given. Then the appraisal was derived from the compatibility between problem and solutions, the reasonability/applicability of the solutions and the team work.

Firstly, I divided the participants into groups, comprising of 4-5 persons and gave them 15 minutes to discuss. After that they presented the result before other groups, then they had to answer the questions or criticism given by other groups which has the same topic as them and the questions or criticism from our Judges (they were Ridwan and Ali).

We got many enlighment about those two major problems which has been lasting for decades in our country. And from the discussion we got various solutions - in our version ;). For education themes, the major attention was in the rotten government institution that cut off the education budget which gives bad impact to facilities and Teachers’ salary, unstable curriculum, poor management and system, unqualified teachers, and such, and such. So the solutions were there must be clean government to realize 20% or more of State Budget for education, having stable and appropriate curriculum, improving system and management, creating much more qualified teacher through trainings, workshop, etc. In the field of transportation, most was only focus on Roadways especially in Jakarta; where the major problem is traffic gridlock. They also offered various solutions such as the limitation of Private vehicles, lengthen the aging of Vehicles, and the implementation of 10 in 1 regulation for cars, as the substitute to 3 in 1 regulation implemented nowadays. The latter was the most debatable issue from Yosi’s group, but finally got support from one of our Judges – Mr. Ridwan ;)

It was interesting and alive discussion, coz all participants had chances to speak up and exercised their idea. They could question and criticize other groups’ Idea. Besides this we had insightful and ‘charming’ judges to make the discussion running livelier. And we also had an American native speaker - Merry, who gave us one some brainstorming about education system in her ‘American mindset’.

In the end of the discussion the Judges chose the best group base on their field of discussion. In Education theme Ali decided to choose Merry’s Group as the best group, and for transportation theme Ridwan decided to choose Yosi’s Group.

Anyway, it’s really great chance for me and I am thankful for Vemy, Ridwan, Ali and all participants who enthusiastically helped and followed the discussion. ;)


GROUP PRESENTATION
[Britzone Discussion, on 15th Nov’08]

Theme : Transportation and Education in Indonesia (Chose one of them)
Groups : Comprising of 3-4 Person
Scope of Presentation : Introduction, Problem Formulations, Solutions, Conclusions
Appraisal : Compatibility between problems and solutions, reasonability/applicability and team work

BRIEF INFORMATION

Education in Indonesia

Education in Indonesia is the responsibility of the Ministry of National Education of Indonesia (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia/Depdiknas). In Indonesia, every citizen has to have nine years of education, six years at elementary level and three in middle school.

Law No. 20/2003
Based on the correct constitution, education is defined as a planned effort to establish a study environment and education process so that the student may actively develop his/her own potential to gain the religious and spiritual level, consciousness, personality, intelligence, behaviour and creativity to him/herself, other citizens and for the nation. The constitution also noted that education in Indonesia is divided into two major parts, formal and non-formal. A formal education is divided again into three levels, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Current structure: Primary Education (Kindergarten), Elementary School, Middle School (SMP), High School (SMA/SMU/SMK), Tertiary education (College/University) (Source: http://www.wikipedia.com/)

Education in Indonesia faces many problems that make it left behind compared to other country.

Some facts about Educations in Indonesia
1. high number of Illiteracy in Indonesia:
2. high number of unschooled children
3. poor quality of Education
4. Poor quality of Human Resources


Transportation in Indonesia

Indonesia is a fairly large country consisting mainly of islands. The archipelagic nature of the country plays an important role in designing the transportation system of the country.

The major form of Indonesia transportation is roadways with a total length of 370,500 kilometer (in 2003) and growing. Most of the important cities are connected by bus services through roadways. There are direct and regular bus services between major cities like Java, Sumatra and Bali with no stops in-between. The remote areas are served by mini buses or vans. Buses and vans also form the primary transport of cities.

Taxis, auto rickshaws (Bajaj) or cycle rickshaws also serve as alternate transports. The cycle rickshaws called becak by the people act as a convenient and cheap form of Indonesia transportation. Being blamed for causing traffic congestion, the becak is banned in most parts of central Jakarta.

Alongside the paved roadways, Indonesia also has a large part of its roads unpaved. There are various toll roads, most expensive of them being Cipularang Toll road, connecting Jakarta and Bandung.

The railways mainly provide transportation for long distance traffic or bulk commodities. There are 4 unconnected networks of the railway system in Java and Sumatra. Two major rail lines running the entire length of Java constitute the most railways in the country. A commuter rail service also runs in Jakarta metropolitan area.

Sea transports are important for trade and transportation alike. Each Indonesian island has at least one major port city. Boats here range from large maritime vessels to small motorized transports. Long distance ferry services connect to distant Indonesian islands or neighboring nations. Many of the islands lack roads and river or sea transportation. (source: form Website)

Airways provide the fastest transportation among the others. Domestic airlines connect many of the cities having airports.

Some Facts about Indonesian Transportations:

1. The high number of Airplane Accidents have made EU, forbid Indonesian Airplane to fly in the EU Air Territory (plane go missing, crash into the sea or mountains, or burst into flames on landing)
2. Poor management of Railway has caused number of Train accidents (Train Crashes, Trains jump its track, etc )
3. Poor management of road Transportation has made great number of Accidents, severe traffic jam, congestion (especially in the down town Area), the overcrowding.
4. Poor Management in Waterways has caused many Sea Accidents (Ships or Boats sink or burst into flames)