Cali ayah lain..

Me : Mas, sama ayah ga boleh nakal..
My son : Abis, ayah tuhhh..
Me : Klo nakal sama ayah, ntar ayah buat bunda aja deh, kamu ga dibagi..
My son : Ya, ntal aku cali ayah yang lain ajaahhh..
Me : ???? 'garuk-garuk kepala ndak gatal'
Ayah : 'ngakakakak'

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For just a day ..

Aaron Dilderback

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Tentang Irshad Manji

Bila perempuan ingin mendapatkan posisi yang setara dengan laki-laki dan adil, maka salah satu cara yang dapat ditempuh adalah terus berpikir kritis dan menyuarakan pikiran tersebut.

Irshad Manji. Perempuan yang luar biasa. Keberanian dan keteguhannya, sebagai perempuan, untuk menyampaikan suara dan pikirannya patut diacungi jempol. Sebelum saya membaca karyanya, The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, pujian itu sudah saya sampaikan.

Irshad Manji adalah seorang muslim wanita asal Kanada. Ia dikenal sebagai penulis dan aktivis yang cukup keras mengkritik kelompok Islam radikal dan ulama-ulama yang menafsirkan Al Quran secara kaku.

Hadir di dua kota di Indonesia, Jakarta dan Yogyakarta, pada bulan April lalu untuk meluncurkan buku yang sudah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Perempuan keturunan India dan Mesir itu mengajak untuk membuka kembali pintu ijtihad agar umat Islam dapat mengikuti perubahan pada abad ke-21. Tradisi ijtihad menghasilkan Islam yang berpikir dan bermartabat, yang jejak kejayaan hasil ijtihad itu dapat dilihat pada ilmu pengetahuan di Barat. Irshad mencontohkan, universitas seperti yang dikenal sekarang di Barat berdiri pertama kali di Baghdad pada abad kesembilan.

Untuk bersuara lebih lanjut, tunggu sampai saya selesai membaca bukunya dulu :)

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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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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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free-complaint area

“Duh, hujan lagi.. hujan lagi! Bisa batal nih semua rencana hari ini”
“Sialan, ujian gue ancuuur!!”

Dan … berapa lagi keluhan yang anda buat hari ini? Mengeluh, berkeluh kesah, nggresulo, .. adakah sesuatu yang bisa kita dapat dari situ? Kepuasan? Perubahan atas sesuatu yang kita keluhkan? Tidak ada. Pikirkan dengan sungguh-sungguh, bahwa akan lebih banyak ‘rugi’ yang kita dapat dari nggrundel. Mau tau beberapa kerugian diantaranya?

1. Berapa orang yang mau mendengar keluhan kita dengan senang hati? Berapa orang dari mereka yang mampu memberi dukungan balik yang positif? Amat sedikit orang yang bisa bersikap demikian. Akan lebih banyak orang yang mencibir, sekalipun itu tidak dilakukan di depan kita. Rugi kan, udah mengeluarkan suara, tapi tidak mendapat dukungan positif.
2. Jika mendengar keluhan, orang lain akan tau bahwa kita sedang memiliki masalah. Tidak semua orang bisa bersimpati dengan tulus. Akan lebih banyak yang bersyukur, sekalipun dalam hati, bahwa kita sedang punya persolan. Ga enak kan diperlakukan demikian.
   
3. Dengan mengeluh, kita mengeluarkan energi. Percuma kan membuang energi untuk sesuatu yang tidak bermanfaat. Semakin sering kita mengeluh, makin banyak hal yang terasa kurang. Semakin banyak berkeluh kesah, makin terasa betapa tidak sempurnanya hidup ini. Lalu kapan kita sempat menikmati hidup? Kapan bisa bersyukur?
4. Dan masih banyak lagi, silahkan menambahkan sendiri :)

Oprah Winfrey bahkan pernah membahas hal ini dalam salah satu shownya, dan dikatakan "When they can eradicate complaining from their lives, they truly become happier". Nah betul kan :)
So, jangan pernah mengeluh! Dimanapun, kapanpun! Syukuri semua yang sudah kita miliki! Jadikan diri kita sebagai free-complaint area dan hidupmu pasti lebih bahagia.

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