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    <title>tempatmita</title>
    <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/</link>
    <description>tempatmita</description>
    <lastBuildDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:20:01 PST</lastBuildDate>
    <generator>http://www.blogdrive.com</generator>
    <copyright>Copyright 2009.</copyright>
    <category>Writing</category>
    <category>Reading</category>
    <category>Ecology</category>
    <item>
      <title>The Story of A Pencil and Me</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/34.html</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:33:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;After a week of exam, finally I have a&amp;nbsp;time to breathe…pfff…Even though I still have some papers to do, I feel a bit relax.&amp;nbsp;Temporarily leaving my&amp;nbsp;school texts, I&amp;nbsp;read Paulo Coelho book: Like the Flowing River, a collection of short stories. I enjoyed my silent cold nights in &lt;?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = &quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot; /&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Dundee&lt;/st1:place&gt;, reading&amp;nbsp;the book&amp;nbsp;until I fallen asleep. &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = &quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office&quot; /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The story of a pencil is a conversation between a grandma and her &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;grandson. She teaches him about qualities of life and the philosophy of pencil. Pencil has five qualities, if we manage to lean on them, will make us become a peaceful person on earth. I have a conversation with my self when I read the story (bold line are my words, the other are taken from the Paulo's writing).&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -1in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;First&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;quality: &quot;just like a pencil, we are capable of great things, &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -1in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;but &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;we must&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;never forget that&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;there is a hand guiding our step. We &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -1in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;call &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;that a &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;hand of God &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;that guides us according to His will&quot;. &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;I agree with this one, sometimes we forget for being &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;humble and too proud of our achievement. In fact, we can not dictate our wishes. Even if we plan&amp;nbsp; our every step&amp;nbsp;with full of details, reality might be different. A certain thing in life&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;is uncertainty. We can die anytime, and even we&amp;nbsp; can not reject the death when its come. How can we consider ourselves great?&amp;nbsp;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;COLOR: black&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;Second quality: &quot;pencil use sharpener that makes the pencil suffer little but afterwards, he is much sharper. So we must bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make us a better person&quot;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;Indeed, sad time and&amp;nbsp;trouble are little training to make us stronger and more patience.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Everybody has their own problems that need to be solved.&amp;nbsp;In the saddest time of life, we have to remember that God will not let us to bear&amp;nbsp;burdens more than our capacity.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;Third quality: &quot;the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice&quot;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;To what extend we need an eraser? Since there is no mistake in life but lesson, I think we need not rub out our mistakes. Sometimes we have to look back to see the past lesson before moving forward and find the road to justice. Don't erase the mistakes, because erasing them will make us forget. We don't necessarily need to erase something we did for a correction. However, we can use eraser for changing negative mind into positive one. For now on, I will erase&amp;nbsp; &quot;I am not beautiful&quot; and &quot;I am broke&quot; in my mind and change&amp;nbsp;them into words&amp;nbsp;&quot;I am fully blessed&quot; and &quot;I am lucky&quot;. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;Fourth quality: &quot;what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you&quot;. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;Well yes, I think it is important to be honest and fair to ourselves. We often&amp;nbsp;neglect our own feeling and not become ourselves to follow society's order. We value something by its appearance; meanwhile the essential thing is invisible to the eye. In my society, it is a bit strange for a woman for still being single in my age. That cultural view is bothering me.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I marry someone not because society wants to, but because I want to. Happiness is about feeling inside our heart.&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Respecting society's norm doesnt mean I have to ignore my own feeling.&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;Fifth quality: &quot;pencil always leaves a mark. In just the same &lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;way, we should know that everything we do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action&quot;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-tab-count: 2&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;Life is about how we use the chance, life is about&amp;nbsp;self-responsibility. How do you use the time of your life? For doing good, bad or even nothing? It is difficult for drawing a strict line to limit what are good, bad and nothing. That's way we need conscience. Conscience will help us to decide what is suppose to do and not to do. It&amp;nbsp;helps us to&amp;nbsp;identify the impact of our decision.&amp;nbsp;Conscience will make us to take responsibility for the choices we made, and not to run away. I guess, that's a mark of our life.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Times New Roman&quot; size=3&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F34.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=34</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Little Emergency Kit</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/33.html</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:57:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>
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      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=33</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Maybe Ramadhan</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/32.html</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:53:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>
                   i will leave the archipelago&lt;br&gt;to a place of highlanders&lt;br&gt;where vikings left their paths&lt;br&gt;another world to be understood&lt;br&gt;maybe in ramadhan&lt;br&gt;i will let my self lost &lt;br&gt;and&lt;br&gt;wish you &lt;br&gt;to find me &lt;br&gt;there&lt;br&gt;under the sky of europe&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;                     
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      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=32</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Promoting DemoCrazy</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/31.html</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:11:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>
             &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;&quot;&gt;&lt;o:smarttagtype name=&quot;place&quot; namespaceuri=&quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot;&gt;&lt;/o:smarttagtype&gt;&lt;o:smarttagtype name=&quot;country-region&quot; namespaceuri=&quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot;&gt;&lt;/o:smarttagtype&gt;&lt;o:smarttagtype name=&quot;City&quot; namespaceuri=&quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot;&gt;&lt;/o:smarttagtype&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; A&amp;nbsp;news titled &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;US House Approves New Funding for Bush's War &lt;/span&gt;on the &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:city w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt;Jakarta&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:city&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt; Post, June 21, 2008 cathed my eye.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &quot;&lt;/span&gt;By vote 268-155, the House approved the funding for wars in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Iraq&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; and &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Afghanistan&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;. Pentagon will get 161.8 USD billion, which is slightly less than Bush requested will be used to fight in Iraq&quot;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; Wow, the vote's gap was quite big! &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;The statement of John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who voicing support for the war was worse &quot;&lt;b&gt;I am glad we are there. Our effort in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Iraq&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; is important. Building a growing democracy in a part of the world that has never known it will pay great dividends over the next 50 years&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/b&gt;G&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt;ive me a break, what kind of democracy that US offers for &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Iraq&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;? &lt;span style=&quot;color: black;&quot;&gt;Well Sir, you said democracy with a gun in your hand&lt;/span&gt;. I think you don't even know what democracy is. How about going to &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Burma&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; and learn from Aung San Suu Kyi for the real work on democracy?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; Its very interesting to see&amp;nbsp;US media propaganda and strong government's&amp;nbsp;control&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;that make&amp;nbsp;most of the&amp;nbsp;citizens&amp;nbsp;follow&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Bush's War on Terror (a silly concept that exploit nationalism, fear, racism, religions, to chase corporate benefits in the energy, armaments,&amp;nbsp; and other important sectors. I think the&amp;nbsp;war is a matter of&amp;nbsp; &quot;bussiness&quot;). Do Americans notice this? Hmmm...Good example for Gramsci's theory on hegemony.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;          
&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F31.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=31</comments>
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      <title>Mind to be Mined</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/30.html</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:20:28 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;P align=justify&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I cannot sleep (sigh, its late at night and tomorrow is Monday..Arrgh).&amp;nbsp; Two last emails from North Sulawesi&amp;nbsp;I&amp;nbsp;got this morning&amp;nbsp;are bothering my mind.&amp;nbsp; The first one&amp;nbsp;was a short brief on recent condition of Buyat Bay's pollution victims and the second one was an up date for a mining construction project around the hill of Toka Tindung.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lets say, Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) shut down its operation in 2004. It paid the local people less than one US cent per square meter for their land. After seven years of mining in North Sulawesi, it left scratch landscape with six open pits where 4.78 millions tons of ore is extracted. Operating in 1996, NMR disposed more than 4 millions tons of a highly toxic mine wastes into Buyat Bay, 2000 tons a day.&amp;nbsp; Ocean dumping, known as Submarine Tailing Disposal is a method that is cheap and convenient for mining companies. However, it is banned in many developed countries since it has bad impact to the environment and health. A report of Indonesian Forum for the Environment stated that Newmont's tailings contain four times the government-standard level of cyanide, high level of mercuy, cadmium and arsenic.&amp;nbsp; For short, people living in Buyat Bay suffer symptoms consitent with mercury and arsenic poisoning including skin rashes, body sores, bad headache, tumors, and reproductive problems until now. In addition, marine pollution caused the collapsed of the local fishery.&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Another mining plant in North Sulawesi namely PT Meares Soputan Mining (MSM company) which 85% of its share owned by Archipelago Resources (England) started its construction project in Toka Tindung area in 2006. Considering the gold deposit, it is planned that the company will only spend 5 years to mine. Refer to RPJM (regional development plan) mining is not primary sector for the North Sulawesi development. Also, due to the region's vulnerability to earthquake, the&amp;nbsp;mining site and tailing dam located in the hill are not safe at all. Nevertheless, even though the project against the will of local people, local parliament and the Governor of North Sumatera who are mind their land to be mined, and without&amp;nbsp; official approval from the Ministry of Environment's official&amp;nbsp; for its Environmental Impact Assessment Document, PT MSM aggressively continues its project (It amazed me anyway!).&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;MSM seems confident by holding a contract of work signed by the late Indonesian Dictator President, Soeharto in 1986 and a recent&amp;nbsp; letter&amp;nbsp;signed bythe Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources and Mineral for giving a green&amp;nbsp;light to the project. (Sadly,&amp;nbsp; the Ministry of Environment's consideration is often ignored by another Ministry. Dealing with business, Environmental concern blames as a setback in development process). A wave of mass protest for the project is continuing in North Sulawesi. The email informed me that the company files SLAPPs against some local community members.&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;I thought life, land, clean water and clean air are more precious than gold. However, people in the government have different opinion.&amp;nbsp;No wonder they are very kind to foreign investment by selling our rich land to greedy businesses,&amp;nbsp; &quot;legitimating&quot;&amp;nbsp;company's illegal mining to&amp;nbsp;dig the gold and leave the damage.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Ironic, both of NMR (which is a part of Colorado based Newmont, the world's most profitable gold mining company) and PT MSM operate less than 8 years.&amp;nbsp;Indeed&amp;nbsp;the&amp;nbsp;projects&amp;nbsp;sacrifice the whole life of local community. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F30.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=30</comments>
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      <title>Scattered Idea</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/29.html</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:55:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;
&lt;DIV align=justify&gt;My green work relates me with a lot of things, issues on human rights, health, law, politics, religion, you name it (ok, get the idea why I never bored dealing with my work.)&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I looked at my old files and found my scattered note on the idea that religious group supposed to speak out for the environmental protection or broader aspect such as good governance or poverty eradication. That time I guess I am a bit dissaponted for their action such as &quot;sweeping women walking alone in public space without Hijab&quot; (sigh ..it is weird but its really happens here), or protesting the American Play Boy magazine published in Indonesia (I think it's a matter of limiting the distribution, just ask the distributor to make it expensive and&amp;nbsp; exclusively circulated if you are afraid your children buy it..Anyway, internet access is cheaper, so why bother?). Nothing is progressive; they don't even find a method to combat rampant corruption in this country with their religious movement.&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I am quite concern for the affect of pollution to women. In most environmental pollution, men and women often do not experience the effects in the same way whereas the different effect can be attributed&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; to three factors: economics, biology, and gender roles.&amp;nbsp;Environmental degradation gives significant effects to socio-economic ladder. It pushed vulnerable group (those who cannot afford to protect themselves from environmental deterioration). Women are suspiciously positioned at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. In terms of biological aspect, there are many differences between women and men, such as hormonal structure and reproductive system that make women and men are susceptible to different health effects from exposure to toxins and other pollutants [1]. Low level contamination of dangerous substance (i.e. carbon monoxide) from air pollution may not be harmful to a single human. However, even though it is declared as safe for human, it still harmful for pregnant women.&amp;nbsp; Due to women reproductive system, the low level carbon monoxide exposure during three months pregnancy might cause a premature birth because the infant lack of oxygen supply. In other case, residue of a pollutant (i.e. pesticides) will also affect men and women in different ways. A pregnant woman will have double impact since the fetus will automatically be contaminated by the substance through the nutrition supplied by the mother; furthermore, as the pregnancy period over, the baby is still facing danger due to the contaminated breast milk. &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; In Indonesia, most victims of environmental conflict are women and children. From the&amp;nbsp; Buyat Bay pollution case&amp;nbsp;in Manado due to a big mining activity (releasing mercury to the air and toxic tailing to the sea), the women's health quality is significantly dropping off. In 2004, from 100 respondents, it is reported that 94%&amp;nbsp;of peolple&amp;nbsp; had health problem.&amp;nbsp; Those who had health problem&amp;nbsp;were 60% of women, 40% of children and toddler [2]. Another case, in Kenjeran beach, Surabaya where 45%&amp;nbsp; of the people work as fisherman and 55% of them work as labor force, the environment is polluted by heavy metal Hg, Cu, Pb and Cd. People eat contaminated and low nutrition food. There are 60% of&amp;nbsp; toddlers live in malnutrition and 56% of&amp;nbsp; women suffered from anemia [3]. Other symptoms might be reported but there is no extra attention from the government to the deeper research of the pollution and its impact. &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;Based on the above conditions, triggering the concept of religion to be one of the problem solvers is an interesting topic. To be specific, Islam paramount the importance of social justice and insists on the distribution of the wealth. Regarding the environment and nature protection, the tasks of human being is not to contend with nature and to dominate it. We live in a friendly environment which we must care and respect for. According to Islam, damage of all forms and kinds is forbidden. One of the fundamental principles is the Prophetic declaration: &quot;There shall be no damage and no infliction of damage&quot; (Al-Hakim). Prevention of damage and corruption before it occurs is better than later treatment.&amp;nbsp; Another important juristic rule is, &quot;The averting of harm takes precedence over the acquisition of benefits. &quot;Accordingly, all activities which aim at achieving good and securing benefits by way of satisfying human needs, providing services and developing agriculture, industry, and means of communication should be carried out without causing significant damage, injury, or corruption [4]. &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; In fact, there is a wide gap between understanding the concept and implementing it. Although Islam stressing the social welfare and natural protection, the people lives with corruption and oppression; human degradation is also a common sight in societies; conspicuous wealth and abject poverty often exist side by side; and the environmental damage keeps increasing. Besides the gap, the state is also gender bias in interpreting the concept and rigid in implementing it.&amp;nbsp; In some Islamic countries, women's political right is still in debate. The debate is centered on the problem of whether Islam puts forward and teaches about women's political rights or not. Mainstream Islamic discourse maintains that women should remain in the domestic sphere, while politics is part of the public domain managed by men [5]. &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;Patriarchal interpretation and rigid implementation restrict women's access and any role in society. This is brought into social construction, education and even state system. Based on that perception, it is not important for women to have higher education and to have access in political channels. In Aceh, under Sharia Law, woman has become the primary targets of enforcement rather than man. Beside religion and the state factor, the women's weak accesses to information, education, participation and justice are influenced by the high work load, social construction and the gender role. The weakness in those accesses, are causing women to have a very limited knowledge on their living environment and the impact of activities around them. It is very important to promote that Islam is also put forward women's involvement in politics from beginning. Women should involve in decision making process since the political products and decision will impact their life.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I think for a broader idea, Muslim should aim to rediscover the values and ethics of the concept and use it to promote civil society, participatory and accountable governance. This should be done with the grass roots, with full participation of all members of society.&lt;/DIV&gt;
&lt;DIV align=justify&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/DIV&gt;
&lt;DIV align=justify&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/DIV&gt;
&lt;DIV align=justify&gt;&lt;FONT size=1&gt;[1] Joni Seager, Rethinking the Environment : Women and Pollution, Political&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Environments&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;#3,Spring 1996&lt;BR&gt;[2] Teluk Buyat Tercemar dan Beresiko Bagi Masyarakat, Lembar Fakta&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;ICEL,JATAM,WALHI,TAPAL 2004&lt;BR&gt;[3] Pantai Kenjeran pun Tercemar Merkuri, Kompas, 21 Februari 2000 &lt;BR&gt;[4] &lt;A href=&quot;http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/312/#_ftn1879&quot; target=_self&gt;Environmental Protection in Islam, Protection of Man and Environment&amp;nbsp;from Harm&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;[5] Syafiq Hasyim, Understanding Women in Islam, An Indonesian&amp;nbsp;Perspective,&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;ICIP 2006&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F29.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Picky Consumer</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/28.html</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:30:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;I might&amp;nbsp; not a good companion for shopping (big smile)...and&amp;nbsp; a kind of annoying person (am I ?).&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;I remember when I was in Pasaraya (one of the big department stores in &lt;ST1:PLACE w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;South Jakarta&lt;/ST1:PLACE&gt;) with Esthi looking for a pair good shoes for her&amp;nbsp;field works in Aceh after Tsunami. We were looking at nice Nike expensive shoes (which I believe they are sweat products&amp;nbsp;produced by&amp;nbsp;Indonesian or Vietnamese cheap labor force). Suddenly she asked me &quot;Am I still your friend if I buy Nike shoes?&quot; then I said &quot;No&quot; (actually it was a joke; I respect her rights to buy anything she wants). However, finally she chose other shoes that seemed&amp;nbsp; not a sweat product..(geez, I hope she&amp;nbsp;was ok with it).&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 10.5pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Yeah, I am a sort of picky customer. &lt;SPAN&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;It's a kind of habit that I divide for &quot;things I need to buy&quot; and &quot;things I want to buy&quot;. I also have another rule: trying to purchase something ethically by finding the history of products. Actually I never intend to force my view on others, really, just sometimes out of control…big smile (especially if I am with my close friends because I know they accept me as I am). &lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 10.5pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;I believe that&amp;nbsp;we, the&amp;nbsp;consumers&amp;nbsp;have a great power.&amp;nbsp;We can push industries to pay more attention to&amp;nbsp;respect human rights or to protect the environment.&amp;nbsp;A massive movement can&amp;nbsp;lead significant changes on the way of production. Finding adequate information will help us to consider the entire history of the products and services we buy, including the policies of the companies that provide them. I remember a world wide campaign in 90's for boycotting sweat shop products such as Nike. Everybody was shocked to know the cheap labor force&amp;nbsp;behind the extremely expensive pair of shoes. It lead&amp;nbsp; a guilty feeling for being irresponsible buyer. The company is pushed for better management and treatment&amp;nbsp;for&amp;nbsp;its&amp;nbsp; labor. It was also a moment that awoke my awareness to be more responsible for the things I consume.&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;Now a day, the impact of global economy and trade chains interaction are not only rising cheap labor force issues but also unsustainable way of production, exploitation, natural resources conflict, and the worst is a war. I know the problem can't be solved by critical consumer movement alone. However, making a wise decision when we purchase something is always important. Before buying, just asked ourselves : &amp;nbsp;&quot;Is the item made in line with my values? Am I supporting the local economy? Are the people who produce this product treated and compensated fairly? Is this item built to last? Is it safe to be consumed? &lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Here, I would like to share categories of consumer (sorry, I forgot the source of information, will put&amp;nbsp;on this blog as I found it, promise). I hope we can work together for betterment starting from being a responsible consumer. &lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Very dark green:&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt; is nearly always buying environmentally friendly products. They try as far as possible to buy such product.&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Pale green:&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt; is tending to buy green products if they see them&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Armchair green:&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt; they care about environmental issues but their concern does not affect their spending habits.&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;Ethical spenders&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;: buying good which do not, for example, involve dealings with oppressive regimes, sweat shop, irresponsible selling.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 11.7pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(86,94,86); FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;COLOR: rgb(86,94,86)&quot;&gt;&lt;O:P&gt;&lt;/O:P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F28.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=28</comments>
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      <title>Seven Social Sins</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/25.html</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:38:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;P align=left&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT face=Tahoma&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&quot;Politic without Principle, Wealth without Work,&amp;nbsp;Pleasure without Conscience, Knowledge without Character, Commerce without Morality, Science without Humanity,&amp;nbsp;Worship without Sacrifice.&quot;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=Tahoma&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;(Mahatma Gandhi)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;Well, yes, that's&amp;nbsp; reflects our&amp;nbsp;recent condition. Those sins are still remain, maybe even &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=Tahoma&gt;worse..&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica&quot;&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;IMG style=&quot;WIDTH: 471px; HEIGHT: 336px&quot; height=314 src=&quot;http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/images/bush_incredubyas.jpg&quot; width=500&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT face=&quot;Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT face=Tahoma size=1&gt;Psst....pssst...the pic&amp;nbsp;is taken from politicalhumor.about.com&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F25.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=25</comments>
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      <title>Back To Japan</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/27.html</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Sep 2007 16:19:27 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;FONT face=&quot;Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot; size=2&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;After five years leaving &lt;?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = &quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot; /&gt;&lt;st1:City w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tokyo&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:City&gt;, finally I got a chance to go back again. This time just a week visit to attend a conference. &lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = &quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office&quot; /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;As arrived in Narita, I immediately took a shinkansen (bullet train) to Ikebukuro station and continued to Otsuka station with a green strips train of Yamanote Line. Ah, &lt;st1:City w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tokyo&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:City&gt; is still busy as usual, the street and the city's every corner are still the same, Japanese are charming as always. I can hear the sound that I miss a lot in the street &quot;Irashaimasse!&quot;, &quot;Irashaimasse!&quot; a yell of the shop keeper in front of their store.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-tab-count: 1&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/SPAN&gt;The environmental conference was okay. I thought Envix, the conference organizer (also the company where I worked for my internship in 2002), was quite successfull.&amp;nbsp; As the event had finished, I had some time&amp;nbsp;for &quot;a small reunion party&quot; with my old friends&amp;nbsp;in a vegetarian restaurant at Shibuya (I am an ovo-lactus vegetarian, not the strict one but close to..LOL). Tomoko, Kohei, Yuriko, Hirotaka, &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Oka&lt;/st1:place&gt; chan, Maki, Massy&amp;nbsp; (guys sorry I don't write you all here), thanks for the good time.&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-tab-count: 1&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Unfortunately, &lt;/SPAN&gt;I didn't have much time to walk around many places, except to my old dormitory in Ooyama, Otsuka Mosque, my favorite Hyakuen shop and Junkudo&amp;nbsp;a biggest book store in Ikebukuro. Baba san, took me around &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:PlaceName w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tokyo&lt;/st1:PlaceName&gt; &lt;st1:PlaceName w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Metropolitan&lt;/st1:PlaceName&gt; &lt;st1:PlaceType w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tower&lt;/st1:PlaceType&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt;. She treated me a delicious vegetarian meal in Shinjuku to break my Ramadhan fasting time (yeah, this is Ramadhan). &lt;SPAN style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000&gt;&amp;nbsp;I should leave early morning tomorrow. After packing all my stuff&amp;nbsp;lazily (big smile),&amp;nbsp;I lay on my bed and have a silent moment. I wonder if&amp;nbsp; the city changes a lot.... Hmmm, no… It is me that change... Not the city... &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #565e56; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000&gt;I was 24 years old student that time. Staying in &lt;st1:City w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tokyo&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:City&gt; made me see the world from different angle. I met new people&amp;nbsp;that become&amp;nbsp;my good friends. Through them I learn to understand another culture that is as good as mine. It was long time ago that I used to have wired feeling as a gaijin (stranger) and lost my self in the crowd.&lt;B style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-weight: normal&quot;&gt; &lt;/B&gt;Now, going to &lt;st1:City w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Tokyo&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:City&gt; feels like coming back home.&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #565e56; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;
&lt;P class=MsoNormal style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;SPAN style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana&quot;&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;!-- begin(Yahoo ad) --&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/click/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://ypn-rss.overture.com/rss/35557/73251/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftempatmita.blogdrive.com%2Farchive%2F27.html&amp;amp;pid=1846251505&quot; alt=&quot;Ads by Yahoo!&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;!-- end(Yahoo ad) --&gt;</description>
      <comments>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/comments?id=27</comments>
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      <title>Journey to Cologne</title>
      <link>http://tempatmita.blogdrive.com/archive/26.html</link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:10:07 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>
    &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;I made a short coverage of an interesting conference on Women and Islam in Germany I attended&amp;nbsp;in March. It is (finally) published in &lt;a href=&quot;http://noor.co.id/&quot; target=&quot;_self&quot;&gt;NooR Magazine&lt;/a&gt;, 06/TH.V/June 2007 Edition. The title of my article, &quot;Meneropong Perempuan dan Islam di Jerman&quot; is a kind of metaphor, another way to say that I am viewing &quot;Women in Islam in Germany&quot; through the distance, through Indonesian eyes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &quot;Meneropong&quot;&amp;nbsp; is a way of looking something through telescope..(LOL). Meanwhile, &quot;Perempuan dan Islam di Jerman&quot; means Women and Islam in Germany (hehe..Indonesian language is simple..) Below is my translated article (with some&amp;nbsp;revisions from the original text). Have a look!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;&quot; align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;Meneropong Perempuan dan Isl&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot; lang=&quot;ES&quot;&gt;am di Jerman&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;Gloomy portraits of the discrimination against women still exist even numbers of countries&amp;nbsp; ratified the international convention on elimination on discrimination against women and implemented the Beijing Declaration. To bear it or not, the symbol of religion is often mentioned as one of the factors that caused discrimination against women. A conference on &quot;Women in Islam&quot; in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; last March 2007 to commemorate International of Women's day&amp;nbsp;attracted&amp;nbsp;people's attentions. It is hoped that&amp;nbsp;the dialogue could find a way to solve the existing problem. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;A picture of women in Islam in the West especially in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; is always an interesting topic to be discussed. It was proven by the huge enthusiasm&amp;nbsp;of around 180 participants from various countries&amp;nbsp;attended the international conference titled: Women in Islam: Between Oppression and Self Empowerment, in &lt;st1:placename w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Media&lt;/st1:placename&gt; &lt;st1:placetype w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Park&lt;/st1:placetype&gt;, &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:city w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Cologne&lt;/st1:city&gt;, &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt; in March 7-8, 2007. Initiated by Dr Lale Akguen, a member of Bundestag (German Parliament) from SPD fraction and organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, headquartered in &lt;st1:state w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Berlin&lt;/st1:state&gt;, this was the first and the biggest conference in &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/st1:place&gt; addressing the issue on Woman in Islam.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Media and Hatun Tragedy&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;After the September 11, 2001, within &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;European&lt;/st1:place&gt; society, there is a tendency to mix between Islam fundamentalist and Islam. It is worsen by media that reports the spectacular, problematic and controversial matters rather than to report matters with constructive view. Hence, the unproportional view on Islam covered by media is potential to create problems. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;In &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;, the imbalance of social and economic relation, high number of unemployment, immigration from other countries to &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; (muslim immigrant from &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Turkey&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;, &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Morocco&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;, or &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Africa&lt;/st1:place&gt;), coloring the life of German society and sometimes those create certain problem. However, it is supposed to be understood as social and structural problem, not religion.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;The killing tragedy of Hatun Surucu (23 years) by her brothers in &lt;st1:state w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Berlin&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:state&gt;, 2005, in the name of honor killing was astonishing German society. It also lead negative interpretation on Islam. Hatun a women from Turkish Kurds family forced by her family to marry&amp;nbsp; a cousin in the age of 16. Later on she decided to divorce,&amp;nbsp;took her child with her and left her husband. She also gave up for wearing her head scarf, enrolled a technical school to become an electrician and started to date a &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;German&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; man. Those were shameful for her family, therefore, an honor killing executed by her brother by shutting her down.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;The tragedy was shocking the public, moreover, Hatun was the sixth person killed by the member of family for honor killing in &lt;st1:state w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Berlin&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:state&gt;. The truth is, Islam never agrees on honor killing as well as forced marriage. This case shown how tight patriarchal culture within the society and the low bargaining position of woman. Regarding Hatun incident, we can not generalize the picture of Islam. The problem strongly related to culture in the society, patriarchal system, and the level of education. Unfortunately, it is bad that, man often use religion label to legitimate violence against women. It is assumed by German &lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;society in general, that Islam is oppressing women,&amp;nbsp;making them to be sexual object of men, and legalizing violence against women (for example wife beating). &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Presentation on Faces of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Islam : Not Narrow&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;The conference gained a lot of comments, such as from Prof. Dr. Thomas Meyer, a political lecturer from &lt;st1:placename w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Dortmund&lt;/st1:placename&gt; &lt;st1:placetype w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;University&lt;/st1:placetype&gt; and FES advisor in politic which one of his books titled Politics of Identity: The Challenge of Modern Fundamentalism published by Pemuda Muhammadiyah and &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;FES&lt;/st1:place&gt;. He said :&quot; It is often that the view on Islam that is propagated and distributed to public is still very narrow. Hopefully the conference can demonstrate to German public, that Islam is rich, much differentiated based on geographical, political and cultural context.&quot; Meanwhile Zarizana Abdul Aziz from Women's Centre for &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:city w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Change&lt;/st1:city&gt;, &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Malaysia&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt; presented Gender Djihad-Friends and Foes from Asian Perspectives. She mentioned that gender djihad means muslims, must perceive distinction between interpretation and the divine will. The existence of male hegemony and privilege in interpretation the Quran is influenced by the interpretation in patriarchal way of thinking. Patriarchal approach limits understanding of divine intent to&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;male-stream perspectives in many aspects. Gender jihad is needed, because human right is universal. We have to make universalism of human rights without making the universalism into homogenous universalism or paralysis of cultural relativism or tend to certain type of sex. Subscription of human right norms requires legitimacy among Muslims and consensus between man and women. In this occasion, there were also two Indonesian resource persons presenting the face of Islam in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Indonesia&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;, those were Mr. Syafiq Hasyim from &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:placename w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;International&lt;/st1:placename&gt; &lt;st1:placetype w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Center&lt;/st1:placetype&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt; for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) and Mrs. Aditiana Dewi Eridani from Rahima. &lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;During the conference, I heard that &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Indonesia&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; mentioned as a country that is relatively moving forward in Islamic discourse, movement and inter religious tolerance. As a comparison, in my humble opinion, in general, muslima in &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Indonesia&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; are able to work in many sectors, they can decide for their own life and have important position at work. However, it is not yet perfect since the quality is still need to be improved. In this case, at least &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Indonesia&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; is not leaving behind from &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Germany&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;At last, the struggle to reach the equality between man and women, to defend the human right (where the women right is part of it) is still a long way to go. Oppressing women in the name of religion can not be tolerate because the essence of any religion is to liberate human from oppression, to respect and to recognize the equality between man and women. For that, dialogues about Islam, and inter religion dialogues have to be done continuously to reach mutual understanding. I think Islam is a religion of peace, respecting the difference, tolerance to other religion and respecting women. Mass media as agent of change should cover the optimist side, not to provoke or tends to cover in a way that leads the public to think Islam in negative. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot; lang=&quot;DE&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interview With &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.laleakguen.de/&quot; target=&quot;_self&quot;&gt;Dr. Lale Akguen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot; lang=&quot;DE&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Multi Dimensions of Seeing Islam&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot; lang=&quot;DE&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;Bernhard Erkelenz, wissenschaflicher mitarbeiter (scientific co-worker) of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt; Dr Lale Akguen helped me to meet her so that I could talked to Dr&amp;nbsp; Lale personally.&amp;nbsp;Well&amp;nbsp;known as a muslim that persistently works for the integration affairs, Lale Akguen&amp;nbsp; does a lot of efforts to bridge the gap in understanding of Islam within German society.&amp;nbsp;She initiates the conference as an occasion to connect, to share experiences, and to form an international muslim feminist movement. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;According to her, the idea of the event started from the&amp;nbsp;local condition. It is a good idea to introduce German public and to let them know more about Islam,&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Islamic countries, and the diversity within Islamic groups. In German, public in general see Islam in one dimension, identical with poverty, and the picture of women in Islam is under oppression, not liberty. However, due to the process, the dynamic of the conference was lead to a bigger thing. Besides introducing Islam to German public, it is also very good to develop a network, to support each other, to do research or study, disseminate the idea of Quran re-interpretation, or change the Syariah in democratic way. It is argued the existing interpretation is in man perspective and some of the interpretations are also understood in improper way such as&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; legalizes the domestic violence, wife beating, and make women as sexual object of men, etc. To change this, we need the power of intellectual and democratic muslim people. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Related to human rights, Dr Lale said that &quot;Human right is universal, it is not depends on any kind of religion. Women right is part of human rights. Women across over religion, culture, and countries should unite and to liberate for being object of man`s perspective&quot;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Responding my question about stereotyping between Islam (identical with the East) and &lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/st1:place&gt; (identical with the West), for example East assumed that Western people sees Islam as a religion of violence and terror, they do not like Islam. In other hand, West sees East as a jealous group with the development in the West and they express the jealousy with terrors and attacks. Dr Lale responded &quot;It is because there is no trust between them. Off course we have to change it. Continuous dialog, democratic discussion between the groups is &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;vital&amp;nbsp; to foster understanding and better relations between the Islamic world and West. Through those efforts we can change the perception toward better condition, even it is not instant but it is sure&quot;, She said optimistically.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;  
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