Earth Day & me ..

My recent avatar :)

Avatar ini terinspirasi dari sini.
Penggambaran bentuk wajah dan rambut memang (hampir) begitu :D
Dominasi warna hijau, gambar bumi di sudut kanan atas, dan simbol ‘recycle’ yang tertato di pundak sebagai dukungan Hari Bumi yang diperingati setiap tanggal 22 April.
Sejarah tentang peringatan Hari Bumi dapat dilihat di sini.

reduce, reuse & recycle, green lifestyle.. save our planet!!

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Realising the Dream of R.A. Kartini: Her Sister's Letters from Colonial Java

Edited and Translated by Joost Coté
Xii+397 pages
ills
ISBN 978 90 6718 313 0
Leiden 2008

Realizing the Dream of Kartini: Her sisters letters from colonial Java presents a unique collection of documents reflecting the lives, attitudes and politics of four Javanese women in the early twentieth century. The letters of Raden Ajeng Kartini, Indonesia’s first feminist, have been a vital testament to her vision since the first selection of them was published in 1911, seven years after Kartini’s death. Now Joost Coté’s translation of her sisters’ letters reveals for the first time the contributions of Roekmini, Kardinah, Kartinah and Soematri in defining and carrying out Kartini’s ideals. With this collection, Coté aims to situate Kartini’s sisters within the more famous Kartini narrative – and indirectly to situate Kartini herself within a broader narrative.
The letters reveal the emotional lives of these modern women and their concerns for the welfare of their husbands and the success of their children in rapidly changing times. While by no means radical nationalists, and not yet extending their horizons to the possibility of an Indonesian nation, these members of a new middle class nevertheless confidently express their belief in their own national identity.
Realizing the Dream of Kartini is essential reading for scholars of Indonesian history, providing documentary evidence of the culture of modern urban Java in the late colonial era and an insight into the ferment of the Indonesian nationalist movement in which these women and their husbands played representative roles.
Joost J. Coté is a senior lecturer in history at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of On feminism and nationalism; Kartini’s letters to Stella Zeehandelaar and coeditor of Recalling the Indies; Colonial memories and postcolonial identities.
William H. Frederick, author of Visions and Heat: The making of the Indonesian Revolution: “Joost Coté presents what is probably the last of the Kartini-related letters extant a precocious and unique resource. The translations are first class and the editor probably knows more about Kartini and her family than anyone else in the world.”
For further details or to purchase a copy visit the website of the Royal Netherlands Institute of South East Asian Studies

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Tentang Tuberkulosis

21 April. Hari Kartini. Lalu mengapa postingnya tidak ada kaitannya dengan perayaan itu? Tapi justru tentang Tuberkulosis? Tentang penyakit?

Hmm.. tunggu dulu. Menurut saya, semangat yang disebarkan oleh Kartini, Ibu kita tercinta itu, pada intinya adalah upaya agar kita, kaum perempuan, lebih “melek”. Melek terhadap kebutuhan pendidikan, melek terhadap kesetaraan dalam berbagai bidang, melek terhadap isu dan masalah sosial.

Nah, penyakit yang satu ini adalah salah satu masalah sosial yang harus mendapat perhatian serius. Selama ini banyak orang malu membicarakan penyakit Tuberkulosis karena menganggap penyakit ini adalah penyakit dari golongan masyarakat tertentu saja. Padahal Indonesia saat ini masih menduduki urutan ketiga setelah India dan Cina dalam hal jumlah penderita penyakit tuberkulosis (TBC) paru menurut Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) pada peringatan World TB Day atau Hari TB Sedunia tanggal 24 Maret lalu. Di Indonesia jumlah penderita TBC paru dari tahun ke tahun terus meningkat. Saat ini, penyakit TB merupakan penyebab kematian no 2. Dari setiap 100 penduduk Indonesia, 3-6 orang menderita TB paru. Penyakit TBC ini merupakan masalah kesehatan masyarakat dengan berakibat pada dampak sosial yang besar.

TBC atau dikenal juga dengan Tuberculosa atau Tuberkulosis adalah infeksi yang disebabkan oleh bakteri Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Kuman ini berbentuk batang yang berkoloni pada media pembiakan bakteri. Meskipun kuman TBC dapat menyerang berbagai organ tubuh manusia, namun kuman ini paling sering menyerang organ paru. Infeksi primer terjadi pada individu yang sebelumya belum memiliki kekebalan tubuh terhadap basil tersebut. Tuberculosa Paru adalah penyakit menular yang dapat menyerang siapa saja.

Lebih jauh tentang TB dapat ditelusur antara lain dalam situs-situs berikut.

• http://www.cdc.gov 
• http://www.nlm.nih.gov 
• http://www.lungusa.org
• http://kidshealth.org
• http://www.sehatgroup.web.id 
• http://www.dinkes-diy.org 
• http://www.health.nsw.gov.au

Nah, disinilah kaum perempuan dapat mengambil peran, mengingat akses dalam hubungan sosial lebih luas dan lebih luwes, misalnya dalam kegiatan Dasa Wisma atau pertemuan PKK dan samacamnya.

Selamat Hari Kartini..

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Tomato : a fruit or a vegetable?

The world really has two different meanings for the word fruit. There is the use of the word when you go to the grocery store, and then there's the use of the word by a botanist.

In the grocery store, we generally understand a fruit to be a natural plant product that is sweet, and a vegetable to be a natural plant product that is not sweet. In this standard definition, apples, strawberries, grapes and bananas are all fruits, while green beans, tomatoes, squash and potatoes are all vegetables.

Technically, however, this layman's definition is a bit off. The Encyclopedia Britannica sums it up like this:

Fruit - in its strict botanical sense, the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. Thus, apricots, bananas, and grapes, as well as bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds, are all technically fruits.

This definition of fruit is very broad, and encompasses almost everything that contains seeds.

Vegetables, then, are everything that's left. This includes:

• Root crops like potatoes, carrots and turnips
• Bulbs like onions and garlic
• Stems like asparagus
• Leaves like lettuce and cabbage
• Flowers like broccoli and cauliflower

In other words, things that do not contain seeds are vegetables, in the technical sense. Everything else is a fruit.
But... In 1887, the tomato reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling? Vegetable. So legally, it seems, the tomato is not a fruit.

Pic taken from here

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Test Your Brain Power

Are you feeling smart today? Here's an exercise to both test your brain power and learn how it works at the same time! Discovery Channel's interactive segments let you explore your body's systems and learn how they help you move smoothly through your daily life.

Pic is from here

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Memoirs of a Geisha, a story

Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into a life of servitude by her parents when she is nine years old. Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house where she works to pay off the debt of her purchase and the soiling of a silk kimono, which Chiyo was blackmailed into defacing by the jealous Geisha, Hatsumomo. One day while crying in the street, the young Chiyo is noticed by Chairman Ken Iwamura, who buys her sweets and gives her some money. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of The Chairman’s life. Chiyo is taken under the wing of Mameha, head of a rival geisha house. Under Mameha’s tutelage, the girl Chiyo, becomes Sayuri, the most famous geisha in all Gion, Kyoto.
Sayuri, through her work as a geisha, is reunited with The Chairman, who she has secretly loved since she was a girl; although she is led to believe he has no memory of who she was before she became geisha. Her prosperous life is cut short by the outbreak of World War Two and while the safety of Sayuri and Mameha is ensured by The Chairman, they must endure a life of hard labour. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geishas once more. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harbouring for ten years, when he reveals to her he was in fact responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she may fulfil her dreams of becoming a geisha.
Memoirs of a Geisha is an Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning movie adaptation of a novel by Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first-person view, tells the fictional story of a geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before World War II. The movie produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall. It was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie, which was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine.

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