saya berharap ini bukan ejekan.

Ini bukan masalah, inilah cermin diri kita.

Buat teman-temanku yang menganggap aku sebagai masalah,

ini bukan pembunuhan karakter sekolah.

Inilah realita.

Siang ini, saya dan teman-teman sekelas sedang mengikuti pelajaran biologi. Kebetulan, periode kedua ini adalah jam setelah istirahat siang, sekitar pukul 12.30. Perut sudah diisi (saya puasa) dan kepala sudah siap menempel ke tembok. Saat sang guru (kebetulan wali kelas kami) mulai menerangkan kembali, saya melihat antusiasme teman-teman mulai menurun.

Pelajaran yang saya kira akan membosankan ini mendadak berubah. Ada seorang teman yang terlambat masuk kelas dan gagal membuka pintu. Usut punya usut, handle pintu rusak dari dalam. Terpaksalah saya, yang duduk paling dekat pintu, mengirim pesan S.O.S. Petugas sekolah segera menjebol kaca jendela, berikut teralisnya, dan membetulkan handle bangsat itu dari dalam.

Jika dipikirkan kembali, setelah tidur siang yang cukup dan lain-lain, kejadian ini sungguh merupakan arang hitam di wajah sekolah kami yang notabene sudah memperoleh sertifikasi ISO. Sertifikasi ISO yang diakui secara internasional seharusnya diikuti dengan pengembangan fasilitas lokal yang memadai. Maksud saya, fasilitas sekolah perlu diperbaiki. Tentu akan memalukan sekali – baik bagi siswa, guru, dan jajaran direksi sekolah – jika insiden ini terjadi saat ada kunjungan dari luar kota. Inikah profil sekolah ber-ISO, yang juga disebut-sebut sebagai salah satu institusi terbaik di Kota Pahlawan?

Menurut saya, sekolah yang layak menerima sertifikasi ISO haruslah memenuhi segala persyaratan fisik yang layak. Mungkin saja saat dilakukan pengecekan beberapa saat lalu, handle pintu-pintu tampak normal. Namun, di balik kenormalan selalu ada iregularitas dan sebangsanya, bukan? (ini adalah prinsip dasar alam semesta) Maka, dengan ini saya mengajukan usul kepada segenap jajaran direksi dan guru untuk meninjau ulang keadaan kelas-kelas di SMA Negeri 5 tercinta. Tak lupa bagi rekan-rekan sesama siswa, kami berharap kita semua dapat menjaga aset sekolah. Mohon untuk tidak merusak alat-alat dan prasarana lain, sehingga proses KBM kita dapat berjalan lancar.

Bayangkan jika lingkungan sekolah terawat, fasilitas memadai, dan sumber dayanya cemerlang. Sungguh SMA Negeri teladan yang brilian!

facebook is founded by a genius from Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2004. His first intention was about connecting Harvard students to each other, but the network he made grew up rapidly and was able to connect students from different universities in the States. After five years of improvement, Zuckerberg’s site has become famous around the world. Millions of people subscribed as facebook users, thus making Zuckerberg a rich young man. However, it is ironic to state that millions of people are addicted to this social networking site.

Given the question of one’s reasons why he/she joins facebook, most of the users state that facebook is faster than any other social networking sites. The other reasons are its interesting features (e.g. online games or online gifts) and detailed events (e.g. music concert or art exhibition). An event can be described well by using notes or personal messages, since facebook has no limitations of words used in a message or note. In addition, people can always share photos with everyone and limit access on certain settings. facebook also has fewer advertisements compared to another social networking sites, thus people are secure from spams. However, the most important reason to join facebook is that people can keep up to date with their friend’s status without meeting them face-to-face.

On the other hand, facebook may cause addiction. Some groups of world’s younger generation feel like their day is ruined when they’re not logging in to facebook. A habitual facebook user, someone who logs in to facebook all the day and enjoys everything offered by the site, is susceptible to health interference such as dementia, heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Genes of heavy facebook user are often altered and damaged, as well, thus the user’s performance declines. This genetic alteration causes distortion of immunity, hormonal system, and body’s circulation. Privacy of contents such as notes, status, and pictures are often hacked by online bastards, and no one could keep away from this. facebook may leads its users to antisocial behaviour, since the users are only attached to the site and doing nothing else. Even though facebook offers us new friends, people tend to stick with the ones they already knew. e-mail notifications are just another annoyance. Some of us doesn’t want any notifications of someone doing something in their facebook account, but these notifications frequently appear by itself in one’s e-mail.

On the one hand, facebook is so beneficial because it links us to far-away people and acquaintants. On the other hand, our account can be abused by hackers. Hackers extract one’s personal informations – such as birthday, hobbies, and occupation – from one’s account to a fake account he made, and tell wrong news about the person. Most of facebook addicts are college students, and they keep logging in to facebook longer than time they spend on doing tasks. This may leads to one’s bad mark, and it is equal to academic homicide. In addition, some files posted in one’s account are permanently attached, no one can delete the information. The situation will be worsening if the source of the file itself is unknown, a virus might have been attacking the file as well as our computer.

Considering the fact that facebook addiction is now widespread, we must be extra careful when logging in to the site. To avoid unwanted things like what I’ve mentioned from happening, firstly we should be able to tell whether we are addicted to facebook or other social networking sites. It is somewhat easy to see. If someone keeps procrastinating his/her schedules just to see what’s going on in their facebook account, then he/she is addicted to facebook. The level of addiction rises as someone gets angry if his/her friend request is ignored or given compliments from parents, roommates, or friends. Heavy facebook users – facebook addicts – start to develop antisocial behaviour. Those users relaxes their minds by playing games or commenting on friend’s facebook status. They usually have more virtual friends, since most of their days are spent in front of the screen and scrolling pointers towards facebook activities.

It is quite difficult to quit a habit. Quitting facebook is just as difficult as quitting alcohol or cigarette. However, experts have suggested some methods to follow. We can set goals of visiting facebook such as saying ‘happy birthday’ to our old friend living abroad, or manage your time to visit the site in a day. If we don’t want any e-mail notification, just uncheck the e-mail notification box in each applications. If all those above seem to not working, just block the site and leave facebook forever. It always works, though might be difficult at the beginning. Besides, we can think of more importan things to do, such as research data to fulfill our assignments.
QUESTIONS

1. Do you have any facebook / other social-networking accounts? If so, how long have you been joining the sites? What do you think of sites like this?

2. Do you consider yourself as a facebook / social-networking addict? Why? If you do, does it ever cross your mind to quit social networking?

3. Is there anything bad / improper that you experienced when you’re using facebook (e.g. a chat with unwanted person, blackmails)? If there is, how do you cope?

4. Would you allow your children to subscribe to any social networking sites when they are already 10 years old? Why / why not?

Yes, we should. Since the number teenagers dealing with alcohols, drugs, fights, and other illegal things increases day by day, parents should protect their children by a strict rule. The statisics says that the tendency of female teenagers dealing with stuffs alike is surprisingly equal to that of male. Something more surprising is the fact that a considerable percentage of students in Year 11 (Indonesia : SMU 2) have already experienced their first sexual intercourse.

This is the result of less supportive environment. People who live around a teenager’s life can influence his/her mindset, thus affecting their behaviour. Busy parents also becomes one of the main reasons of this issue. Workaholic moms and dads tend to overlook their children’s needs, then those neglected children decide to get what they need in their own way. Besides, genetic factor sometimes (scientifically-proved) brings these bad traits to teenagers. The media is another thing. Violence, rape, murder, car crash, etc. tell these unstable teenagers that the world isn’t as beautifully theoretic as what they’ve known.

In the future, misbehaved youngsters tend to live an unhappy life. It is because of their past habits of dealing with everything merely by their instincts instead of deep-thinking. However, as long as someone is willing to change their path, then everything will turn. A nightmare can be a wonderful dream.

E.T. or Extraterrestrial Life is a form of living which comes from outer space. In the latest two decades, people have confirmed the evidences of E.T.’s existence, e.g. implausible patterns in sparsely-populated areas, abduction, slaugther, etc. Some groups of scientists doubt this news and the idea of extraterrestrial life, but a considerable group of them believe and hold researches to prove the truth.

It is widely known that life on Earth is mainly composed by carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (in the order of abundance) atoms. Biologists believe that, with enough time provided, those materials – particularly carbon – can evolve into living organisms by certain biochemical processes. Astronomers are supported by Frank Drake’s theory of the possible amount of Earth-like planets out there. Though this theory is somewhat experimental, it offers us a challenge. The geometric pattern drawn on some fields in different places in the world shows us how civilized and advanced is their culture. Cattle slaughter, human abduction, and strange sounds coming from deserted places are just another examples of other intelligence’s existence.

Religious groups consider the appearance of aliens and UFOs to be the representation of advanced life. It is the model of human’s future life in other dimension, nothing more. They tend to refute this fact because theu believe that nothing originates from minerals. Even mineral itself originates from god. The idea of extraterrestrial life is obviously crossing conventional law of science, as well. The impossibility of interstellar travel is one of the main arguments. Outerspace is an impassable medium that lacks of air and extreme temperature. Besides, the distance between solar systems are thousands lightyears, which means hundreds of centuries on Earth. Although signals from UFO and aliens have been received by our observers, those signals are probably sent in the last century, considering the fact that waves from far away planets should travel through a difficult medium. Furthermore, some people argue that aliens and other forms of extraterrestrial intelligence can cause our doomsday. They’ve come around us, slaugthered and murdered people and other creatures, and perhaps they have such a bad intentions. They come here to study how humanity works, analyze its weaknesses, and observe its development. Someday they may attack us.

In brief, pros and cons of this issue is just another challenge for humanity to prove. Since the ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’ (Frank Drake), we should carry out more experiments about this to find the truth. But, do you really believe that people’s doomsday is caused by an attack from the aliens, just like H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds?

Mungkin ini adalah posting pertama (dan satu-satunya) dalam blog ini : monyettnyonyet.wordpress.com yang menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia. Ide pembuatan artikel ini melintas begitu saja saat saya sedang asyik-asyiknya chatting menggunakan Facebook. Terjemahan artikel ini ke dalam Bahasa Inggris akan saya publikasikan dalam waktu dekat.

“Setelah sekian lama saya menjadi siswa di institusi ini
Setelah berbulan-bulan fan page institusi saya terpendam dalam gunungan fan pages..
Saya baru menyadari bahwa saya adalah fan dari SMA Negeri 5 Surabaya.”

Well, wabah facebook memang sudah menjalar kemana-mana. facebook memudahkan kita untuk berinteraksi dengan orang-orang baru maupun kenalan lama yang terpisah kota, waktu, dan benua. facebook, yang awalnya akun eksklusif untuk mahasiswa sekolah-sekolah di dunia Barat, kini telah merambah kehidupan khalayak. Anak SD hingga kelompok berdasi di usia kepala empat mereka kebanyakan memiliki akun facebook. Inilah yang dalam bahasa saya disebut ‘wabah Facebook’.

Ternyata, ‘wabah Facebook’ ini juga sudah menjalari berbagai institusi pendidikan seperti ITB dan, tentunya, SMA Negeri 5 Surabaya. Saya yakin masih banyak sekolah lain yang memiliki Facebook Fan Page (FFP). Yang menjadi topik saya kali ini adalah efektivitas FFP bagi sekolah-sekolah. Seperti yang banyak terjadi, orang membuat akun di suatu situs jaringan sosial (social network) dan berujung pada kebingungan lantaran tidak tahu harus berbuat apa untuk mengembangkan akunnya. Membuat Facebook Fan Page adalah suatu langkah yang bagus bagi SMAN 5 Surabaya untuk memajukan IT-nya dan memperkenalkan diri kepada masyarakat luas. Namun, kadangkala manajemen situs seperti ini sangat mengkhawatirkan.

Menurut saya, social networking memiliki satu kelemahan, yaitu banyaknya orang luar yang menyalahgunakan fungsinya. Intensi pembuat situs sendiri adalah baik, namun disalahartikan oleh orang-orang yang tidak bertanggung jawab. Akankah FFP SMA Negeri 5 Surabaya berakhir seperti ini? Semoga saja tidak!

Saya sungguh berharap bahwa FFP sekolah ini tidak hanya jawaban dari tren yang berkembang diantara murid-muridnya, tetapi juga suatu langkah awal menuju gerbang cahaya : kemajuan IT dan juga seluruh almamater.

Medical world doesn’t always allow this operation. There are many things to be considered before this act is performed, e.g. warning and counselling. Single operation costs large amount of money, thus makes it a big problem. Abortion may cause psychological impacts to the mother, as well. It’s prohibited in most countries like Indonesia, but there are some which legalise this extreme operation. By the way, what causes the rising tendency of dealing with this operation?

Generally, people deal with abortion because they don’t want the baby or the pregnancy. There are many factors that cause one’s pregnancy is unwanted, such as jobs and the baby’s prenatal defects. Incest and the MBA (married by accident) thing are the biggest social problems which demand more from abortionists.

On the one hand, abortion obviously crosses religious values. Bible says not to kill others, and it is prevailed in every conditions. I’m sure other religions and beliefs tell people not to do this. On the other hand, people need to throw away their babies due to the unstable financial condition and social reaction. Those who deal with abortion - female executives, young girls, or old women – are often expelled from the society. People assume them as killers, since it seems like they’ve murdered someone. Society overlooks all the reasons behind one’s decision.

Even though abortion is illegal in Indonesia, huge number of people still sought for this shit. Indonesians have their traditional abortionists (dukun bayi), who often – traditionally - help people to give birth to their children. Chinese invent some concoctions to naturally abort one’s infant. There are many ways to perform abortion in traditional life, but modern medical world does it occassionally. ‘Medical abortion’ can only be done after the parents’ve been informed and given reliable counselling. Modern medical abortion helps saving females’ lives, thus reduces mother’s mortality rate. During the rule of New Regime in Indonesia, a policy called Gerakan Sayang Ibu was done to reduce the mortality rate of pregnant mothers. Unfortunately, current government doesn’t enforce this idea seriously.

Doctors and physicists debate about this topic so frequently. They are still looking for solutions to reduce – or even exterminate – abortion. However, the important thing is to wipe out the root of all. People can think of things to prevent abortion, but I think they’d better to think of the unwanted pregnancy.

Can you think of something to reduce the root of all sins?

Journalists who cover the latest news of wars are called the war correspondents. In the 19th century, those journalists were often nicknamed as Special Correspondents. This profession has started in ancient Greek era, when Thucydides reported his experience in Pelopponesian War (the war between the Athens and Spartans).

War correspondents have to go to conflict-ridden parts of the world, e.g. the Middle East and the developing countries. They report the events happening there, take pictures, and sometimes they narrate their on-the-spot news. Their narrations are often used as documentary film footage, as well.

War coverage is both dangerous and advantageous for the newspaperman (a.k.a war correspondents). It is dangerous because they should report things happening in terrible place, the battlefield, thus they’re so susceptible from getting many injuries. The threatening din of missiles, grenades, guns, etc. often harms their hearing system. The latest weapon used in Israel-Palestinian war, the P-bomb (a bomb which contains phosphorus element), may burn those determined risk-takers alive by the flaming scars appeared on their flesh. However, they may earn great amount of money as their news bring grand profit to the newspaper company they work in. The vast number of people speaking of the war issues is the best reason for newspapers’ outstanding fame.

On the one hand, the lack of infrastructure in developing countries may cause disturbance to the reporters and journalists. Journalists covering war issues in less developed countries - e.g. African countries, Latin-American regions, Vietnam, etc. - should pay more amount of money to afford their projects there. They’re also close to the dangers offered by the countries in question. Tribal attack could happen at any times, so unpredictable that it is so difficult for people (particularly foreign visitors) to avoid. The situation gets worse if the local area is the source epidemic diseases such as ebola, cholera, and lepra. Their health is hampered, even leads them to death. On the other hand, the experience offered by covering war issues is irrefutable. Visiting war-ridden countries takes them closer to local life and politics, which are so essential for them to construct a good news report. Besides, an interview with the locals is an additional value to the news’ rank, which makes the news more convincing and profitable.

The money gained from the highly-exposed war news is undeniably grand, thus makes the newspaper – and the reporters – rich. This is quite debatable, since it takes merits from the poor. Conflicts are always advantageous to the ones reporting them, but conflicts are also the hell for the victims. This is what people called war-mongering, selling news from the battlefield for themselves. However, reporting wars leads the journalists to a better understanding to global issues e.g. humanism, terrorism, usage of weapons, etc. Adequate comprehension of current issues of the world helps them to write an enticing written account of the war in question. Their articles tend to evoke people’s awareness to the poor, thus assists to the world in quest of peace.

The news reported from Palestine showed how local people celebrated the truce after twenty two days of war. Israelites seemed to dislike this condition. Israel’s army began to attack the parade, thus evoking the hatred in Palestinians’ hearts.

The Palestinians – men, women, and children – were all absorbed in the euphoria of truce. They went down to the streets, carrying their national flag, and began the march. Knowing this, Israel’s army couldn’t let their guns down. They attacked the crowd, threw lethal weapons, pulled the triggers of their guns to kill their mortal enemies. Seemed like they reject their government’s policy to stop the war. Victims taken, mostly unarmed Palestinian.

There were questions floating in my mind. Firstly, what are those leading people doing when victims are taken in the battlefield? Then, when will this genocide end?

The last one, what causes all this to happen? The easiest answer for this last question is that those people had started to drop bombs and killed each other. No, that’s not the reason. Think back on their history, perhaps we’ll find something.

The war in Gaza and other Palestinian area has enticed people’s awareness to the violation of human rights in many places across the globe. It is common that many charity and demonstration showing people’s solidarity to the victims of Israel-Palestine war. An American musician, Michael Heart, dedicated this song for those who are wounded, taking refuge, and died in the war.

A blinding flash of white light

Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight

People running for cover

Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and planes, with ravaging fiery flames

And nothing remains, just the voice raising up the smoky haze

(*)

We will not go down in the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques, and our homes, and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We wil not go down in Gaza tonight

Women and children alike

Murdered and massacred night after night

While the so-called leaers from countries afar

Debated who’s wrong and right

But their powerless words were in vain

And the bombs fell down like acid rain

Through the tears, and the blood, and the pain

You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

(*)

The Middle-Eastern wars are undeniably irritating. Those wars endanger lives, demand innocent souls, damage buildings, etc. Some of those wars began in past millenia, and seem to continue forever. The hottest war spoken by the world today is Israel – Palestine war. Israeli dropped phosphorus bombs, Palestinian army sent lethal rockets. The most terrible region, Khan Younis, suffered from long-term loss caused by the missiles and bombs dropped by Israelites. Refugees ran away to Rafah, a city in the border of Palestine, which is closest to Egypt.

Eight months ago, I had a trip to Israel and Egypt (see Big Trip ’08). I wasn’t looking for any trouble with Israelites or the Palestinians, I was just walking around their towns and visiting historical sites. I spent eight days in Israel. I visited Jericho, the historic Jerusalem, Haifa, Tiberias, and the Dead Sea. I had to go to Rafah in order to get to Egyptian area of Sinai, thus I drove straight from Ein Bokek near the Dead Seato that Palestinian town.

Getting into Rafah was easy enough, though I brought notes from Israel. It took only 30 minutes for the immigration process done. Then I got to Rafah’s border by local bus, paid only several pounds (something similar to airport tax) to get in. Entering Egypt was rather more complicated. I don’t speak Arabic, neither I am a Moslem. The immigration process took a little bit longer, but it was okay for me. While I was waiting, I walked around the immigration office and saw the sandy area of Sinai desert. I saw kids and teenagers, who were shepherds, busy with their flocks, men and women carrying dairy products and other foods. Their border gates, Makbar Rafah, were strictly guarded by both Palestinian and Egyptian army. Before leaving the office, a female police officer checked me and all my luggage to ensure I bring nothing dangerous to Sinai and other Egyptian areas.

According to the news I’ve read in websites and papers, entering to both Rafah and Egypt (or vice versa) are much more difficult. The immigration process takes hours to be done, even though someone has permissions required e.g. notes from ambassadors, ID card as journalists, etc. An Indonesian journalist sent by Jawa Pos mentioned in his article that he took 5 hours to enter Rafah area from Sinai, Egypt. I can’t imagine how difficult getting out from Rafah, since it is one of Hamas’ stronghold.

I bet that people (both tourists and journalists) are now unable to see the cheer of young, beautiful Palestinian shepherds or people carrying dairy products and feeding their cattles. They seem to be locked up in their houses, veiled by the susceptible hopes of taking refuge to Egypt. I bet most of them, the inhabitants of Rafah, are already dead in the war. Their unique limestone houses are already crushed down by the bombs, their rich fields of rice are lost. Their poor economic condition is getting worse as the war and truce come and go.

On the one hand, the current US president Barrack Obama promised the world to reduce, even eliminate, genocide sprawled in Middle Eastern countries. The wars in Afghanistan and Palestine, nuclear weapons of Iran, are on his concerns. He promised people, not only the Americans but also the whole world, to clear those issues away without any exception. On the other hand, the lethal Israel has been US’ best puppet in the Middle East. Considering this fact, do you think that Obama can change the situation?

(PS : Do not rely on his famous phrase “Yes, we can”)