DSK : '09 & '11

NEWSWEEK December 7, 2009:

"Today the storm has passed. The worst has been avoided." - Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, speaking about the economic crisis at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference in London.

THE GUARDIAN June 17, 2011:

"I have diplomatic immunity." - Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the police shortly after he was detained in New York on accusations he tried to rape a hotel maid.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it but you can use it. You can't keep it but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back." Quote by Harvey MacKay.

FAIR ENOUGH, huh?

The Buddhist Monk's Quote

Sunday, 3:08pm.

Another gloomy day in Lima and it seriously has turned my mood up's and down lately. Aggh.

I have story to tell. Almost one month ago, I met for the very first time with Annie Driscoll, a girl from DC. We met in Ayacucho airport before we took the small bus to go to Alcamenca district for our social works together.

Annie came and in a very short time we became friend and talked about many things. Within 2 weeks, I recognized her as one of the most positive person on earth because of her attitudes, the way she looks on life, and she also helped me to think from different perspectives about many things. She simply left very nice impressions on me about her and I hope everything will always good with her and her family in DC.

When she came, she brought a book written by Jacqueline Novogratz-the founder of Acumen Fund, titled "The Blue Sweater". It took me only several days to finish the book and one word to say after I completed it was: AWESOME.

Novogratz's life is something that probably many young people would be willing to trade off with. Travelled to Africa, became a representative of international organization, been here-there-and everywhere, worked with locals and learned the language, and the most special thing was: She had the time of her life. She made the most of her journeys.

Steve Jobs says...

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what they truly want you become. Everything else is secondary." -Steve Jobs-

Between Me and Humalla's Thought

For you in Indonesia or in any other part of the world outside Peru, this is Ollanta Humala, Peru's President-to-be who will take the seat as Alan Garcia's successor on July 28th 2011.

Now in this post I won't talk much about him (ideologically or politically), but I just wanna quoting one of his statement which I found in BBC's article.

"I dont believe in turning the problems of Latin America into ideological battles. We've been through that and it ended in bloody civil wars."

I am not quite sure which political ideology this man will go through with for the next 5 years term presidency. But one thing I truly agree is: Spending time debating each other about which ideology is the rightest one, is just wasting time and.. energy. 

In Indonesia context, probably it is more into putting religiosity as a public debate. Why? What for? Which one is right and which one is wrong? How do we know which one is right and which one is wrong?

Again, quoting Humalla: Ideological battles will be ended in bloody civil wars.

I hope people in Indonesia will be smart enough to stop this massive fiasco. Build the country by enriching people, not killing them ideologically. People have their rights to choose: To believe or not to believe any religion at all. 

Being a Moslem, Christian, Protestant, Catholic, Hinduism, Buddhist, Ahmadiyya, Scientific, Kaballah, whatever it is. Respect. 

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Speaking about ideology, speaking about freedom.

Freedom or... civil wars (in the end).

Ohh.. I love you Humalla (hahaha) :)

Currently Searching : The Meaning of Life

I spent about an hour today walking around El Polo area just by myself, having lots of thought in my mind about my life, my experiences, my mistakes, my failures, and so on and so on until I stopped myself in one part: The question part.

I got myself all confused on what I want now. What I'm really heading into in correlation with what I am really wanna do in life. Lame and cliche? For me these things are daily meals for my mind.

Once, an old man told me: If you know what you want, then you know what you need. If you know what you need, then you know what to do. If you know what to do, then just do it.

Mercado: Santiago de Surco.

    I love market. Whatever you call it: Traditional market, groceries market, even 'dirty market'. I love to see how people do bargain with the seller, how butcher use their extra big knifes into slices of fresh meat, and most important of all: I love to cook my own food. That's why I went to this market, for the very first time since my 'almost-seven-months-staying in Lima'. The place was very clean and neat! Totally different than the usual market I knew in Indonesia. By the way, I bought fresh seafood and chicken's breast.

*

    I love market. Bagaimanapun orang biasa menyebutnya dengan berbagai nama: Pasar tradisional, pasar grosir, bahkan dengan sebutan 'pasar becek' sekalipun. Saya suka menyaksikan bagaimana pembeli melakukan tawar menawar dengan penjual, bagaimana tukang daging menggunakan pisau ekstra besar untuk memotong-motong daging, dan yang paling saya suka: Berbelanja kebutuhan untuk memasak makanan saya sendiri. Ini lah kenapa saya mengunjungi pasar ini pertama kali dalam cerita 7 bulan keberadaan saya di Lima. Pasar ini berbeda dari pasar-pasar yang saya tahu di Indonesia, bersih dan rapih! Oh ya, saya membeli seafood segar dan dada ayam.

Today's Breakfast

Today. Breakfast.

The Journey That Teach Me How To Value Life

Hello everyone, first please forgive this long pause of blogging. It's been my second weeks in Lima again after 8 days staying with people in Alcamenca, small district in a highland-2 hours road trip by local mini bus from Ayacucho, Peru. I feel blessed for the opportunity that been given to me lately. It is not about how many places I have been to, but how many stories I can keep and share to other people in the future.

As a human, I have been living my life mostly in a big cities. Born and raised in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, the very first time I stayed outside of this town was when I enrolled Universitas Gadjah Mada, government's university located in Central Java spesifically in a city named Yogyakarta.

I always know that I won't be able to live in remote areas, the only reason probably because I couldn't imagine myself (ME) without magazines, newspapers, internet (the most important of all), et cetera.. et cetera. When I was trying to finish my thesis back in last year, I was very confuse about the option 'to go' or 'not to go' to Papua Island, the poor area in east part of the country. My thesis was about Freeport Company's contract and it's relevances with environmental protection in the Papua Island (where the company's based it's main mining activities). After loong considerations, I decided not to go to Papua (one of my life's decision that I probably will regret the most).