Archive for the ‘(ENGLISH)’ Category
Publish your freelance work abroad
By Jennie S. Bev
Today I write bi-weekly op-ed pieces for The Jakarta Post, an English print newspaper based in Jakarta, an Asian metropolis 9,400 miles away from New York. I also guest blog for Asia Blogging Network based in the same city. From time to time, I write articles for Asia Sentinel, an online news site based in Hong Kong, China. Reprints of my articles can also be found in the pages of Korea Times based in Seoul and Asia News Network based in Bangkok, Thailand. Read the rest of this entry »
The truth about happiness
by Jennie S. Bev, Palo Alto
An old adage goes, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Well, this has proven to be a fallacy. Economists Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman found in a survey of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that those who earned at least US$75,000 annually had a better sense of well-being than those who earned less. Read the rest of this entry »
Asian culture is thriving in America
[This article was previously published by USA Rise Up, November 16, 2009. It has been more than one year but it's still relevant.]
by Jennie S. Bev, Northern California
In today’s mainstream society, Americans illustrate a greater acceptance of Asian influences, values, and culture. Asian pop culture is thriving. From suburban noodle houses to Zen-style spas, Ayurvedic restaurants, Shiatsu massage, kanji tattoos, Yugi-Oh, Ichiro Suzuki baseball cards, Thai diners, and anime and manga comics to.. the list goes on. Read the rest of this entry »
Global Islam: Between Images and reality
Image source: asetow.wordpress.com
By Dr. Muhamad Ali
Globalization has made the world of Islam more heterogeneous than homogeneous. It continues to shape Islam identities and moralities, imagined or real, at both global and local levels. What is conceptually homogenous is Islam itself, but what it means differs.
Globalization in its broadest sense is not new, and early Islam normatively preached trans-racial, trans-ethnic solidarity of the community of the believers, although information technology today has made them even more aware of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Climate change can strain region’s security
Image source: dfg.ca.gov
By Evan A. Laksmana
FOLLOWING the recent ‘triple disaster’ in Indonesia – the flooding in Papua, the tsunami that hit the Mentawai islands, and the volcanic eruption in Central Java – some are wondering whether climate change will increase the intensity and frequency of similar events in the region.
The Singapore-based Economy and Environment Programme for South-east Asia (a project under the International Development Research Centre of Canada), for instance, has shown that the Read the rest of this entry »
Developed Indonesia and third world America
by Jennie S. Bev, Palo Alto
Indonesia is enjoying a rosy economy with a 6.3 percent GDP growth predicted in 2011. The United States’ economy, however, is slowing down rapidly with a predicted 2011 GDP growth of 2.5 percent.
Assuming optimized economic, political, and legislative environments at home and in Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, Nigeria and South Africa (MAVINS), Indonesia shall become a developed country by 2032.
On the contrary, assuming problems aren’t fixed properly, the United States may have become a third world country by that time. Read the rest of this entry »
Tipping point, terrorism and crimes against humanity
by Jennie S. Bev
It’s mind-boggling that the National Police have claimed they are one of the best police forces in the world in tackling terrorism and that the government has claimed it is an administration that governs a pluralistic country. Their claims are far from factual conditions. Otherwise many people wouldn’t be puzzled.
The Islam Defenders Front’s (FPI) acts of terror are rampant and have reached a point where religious minorities, including both non-Muslims and Muslims, have no place to stand and breathe. Recently, the places of worship and private residences of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect have been ransacked, destroyed and burned. People have been abused physically, mentally, and emotionally. Read the rest of this entry »
The Indonesian Defence Forces: Strategic Changes and Implications
Image source: oursurprisingworld.com
by Evan A. Laksmana
FOLLOWING PRESIDENT Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-election in November 2009, the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) have undergone several structural changes, many of which escaped notice of a public distracted by the numerous political dramas unfolding in Jakarta.
Many of these changes will have significant implications for the country’s still nascent military reform process and could potentially change the entire outlook of the defence establishment. Read the rest of this entry »
Death, midlife crisis and family life
by Jennie S. Bev, Dublin
We grow into multiple directions externally and internally, which we have been enduring and will continue to endure through the changes of inner weather and turmoil. As we age and grow a wee bit older every day, we take steps toward our final destination: death.
David Shields said it well, “The thing about life is that one day you’ll be dead.” Point taken and it is a point of no return. Read the rest of this entry »
Doubt and why good people do bad things
[Image Source: Photobucket]
by Jennie S. Bev
Indonesia is renowned for its kind, smiling and warm-hearted people, beautiful culture, strong values, high morality and for being very religious.
By the same token, Indonesia is also enigmatic, mind-boggling and paradoxical.
Minorities have been persecuted. “Heretical” Islamic sects have been condemned, destructed and banned. Churches have been burnt, closed and destroyed. Genocide has occurred in Papua causing tens of thousands of deaths.
Porn has been banned and ministers have been judging morality based on people’s wardrobes. All kinds of corruption have remained rampant beyond belief. Read the rest of this entry »
The Battle of Dragon Antaboga against Octopus Lapindo
By Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, SJ
The mud people have made use of traditional stories familiar to the people to share their sufferings to the public and resist against unjust corporation. They refer to Sang Hyang Antaboga in the epic of Mahabharata and with the help of local artists connect the Lapindo Corporation with gurita (octopus). Octopus with dexterous arms can shrink and expand coordinately, and its camouflage system survives octopus in critical situations. They see the need to raise public awareness of the camouflaging power by the corporation to justify its innocence in the mudflow. They performed the battle between dragon Antaboga against octopus Lapindo to commemorate the fourth year of the mudflow in Porong. Read the rest of this entry »
Outsourcing integrity and cultural transformation in fighting corruption
by Jennie S. Bev
Integrity is a rarity in Indonesia, which explains why it’s ranked the 111th in the corruption perception ranking according to Transparency International.
While many kinds of efforts have been undertaken to prevent and eradicate corruption, appropriate workable solutions haven’t been found.
Interestingly, other countries, such as Angola, Latvia, Kosovo, Nicaragua and Haiti have been able to collect state revenues in an efficient and proper manner. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-engagement with Kopassus
By Evan A. Laksmana
The recent announcement by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the US will begin “a gradual, limited program of security cooperation activities” with the Indonesian Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) sparked an immediate controversy.
While the ban restricting the Kopassus from training on US soil or receive funding for lethal combat training is still likely to be in place for a while, the symbolic statement of opening formal lines of communications — beginning with “staff level discussions”— speaks louder than the actual deed. Read the rest of this entry »
Interpreting Koran as the source of living fatwas
[Note: This article is an example of my attempt in peace-building and creating better understanding in a pluralistic and multicultural society.]
by Jennie S. Bev
In Indonesia, clerics and their “political” organization Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) have been making headlines with their so-called “fatwas.” Even though some fatwas make sense, like forbidding smoking, which is bad for one’s health, other fatwas sound trivial. Read the rest of this entry »
View point: The perils of irrationality and diplomacy
Image source: qualityartprints.co.uk
By Jennie S. Bev, San Francisco
The world is both rational and irrational. Specifically, the world of politics is full of irrationality throughout the history of mankind. Thus, it might attest that men are intrinsically irrational, or at least those with power are.
In Laws, Plato said, “Peace is only a name; in reality, every city is in a natural state of war with every other.” Peace is the rational choice, yet those in politics have been deliberately choosing violence in the name of security and maintaining power status quo. Read the rest of this entry »
