papers and exams
here are list of topics of my papers, well at least I am planning to work on that..
- should same-sex couples have equal rights like heterosexual couples? (my answer is yes!)
- can Indonesia learn something from the Dutch to improve its witness protection programme? (I have not found the answer for this)
- do we need to reinterpret the new type of conflicts?
- how do you see the convergence between human rights and humanitarian law?
- and how do you assess command responsibility doctrine and its development in international tribunals?
If I could manage to work on those topics properly by next week, I could congratulate myself... otherwise, I just have to go back to my cozy room and hibernate til spring comes... *sigh*
one month in Utrecht
I have not been posting anything for the last one year (even more), just look at my archive..
but I think it is time to start posting something, just like what my buddy Mario said...
To begin with, I arrived in Schiphol on the 28th of August and spent my first three days in Rotterdam, pampered and taken care of by Bram and Michele... Couldn't thank them enuff..
I had to learn how to bike in the WRONG side of the road, well, at least that what I think as Indonesian.... used pedal brake (not recommended unless u are an advanced biker)... and many other important things which I did not think of before... (like shopping for groceries... hemm...)
So after three days, I moved to my nice little room in Utrecht... it is nice, cozy, in the attic, with lots of window... I love the room instantly!
And here comes Ramadhan after that... Fasting has always been something that I could deal with quite okay at home, but it is not that easy anymore, not when everyone
but you are not fasting, not when you have to fast longer that you are used to (it's still summer by the way, the sun set at 8.30 PM, although now, it is around 7.44 or something), and especially not when you don't have your mom cooked excellent dinner for you... *sigh*
So how do I deal with it? I became a regular visitor at ifthar organised by Indonesian community in Utrecht! aha!! very nice indonesian families, delicious indonesian meals,
sholat berjama'ah and indonesian language (with some Dutch translation)... feels like home....
I have three courses this period (while, most of the students are taking two, silly me!), human rights in international and european law, international human rights law and comparing criminal justice system. What does it mean? It means tons of reading assignment!! like tons of it!! no kidding.... I should say that I am coming from a laid-back-kind-of-education-system (I think it was during my time, things are improving now... I wish!), you don't have to read that much... not to mention that it was four years ago the last time I went to college... Gosh...
But Utrecht is a really beautiful small city, I love the canals, old buildings, the dom tower, the small shops here and there, the park.. I could even ride my bike now quite comfortably.... It is quite expensive in a way, but I think that is because I shopped mostly in Albert Heinz instead of going to the Turkish shops..
How's my Dutch doing... square one I guess... I can say goedemorgen, goede middag, goedeavont and daag! can I say something more? nope! but funny though I catch some words that are used in Indonesia and also used by my dad quite often, like Pindakas (for peanut better jam),
persis,
teken,
les,
schoonen (well this one is my dads), etc.. and the Dutch used some Indonesian word as well like
kerupuk,
nasi goreng,
sate, and
sambal.. I guess that is what happened when they colonialized you for hundreds of years..
Nevertheless, I have to admit, I miss people from home.... I miss my hubby, I miss my nephew (soooo much), I miss my mom, my sisters, brother in law, dayu, mario, adhe, wiendy, aciel, plo2, nad2, rhiena, and many more... I think I miss my dad too although he is not home often enough... but then he will have his holiday while I am still here and when I come back, he would have gone back to work again... so most probably, I can only meet him in 2010...
I don't want to get to melancholy... I am gonna leave it there for a while...
gas chamber in a traffic jam
As a public transportation user in Jakarta, of course we are familiar with the minivan bus or Angkot (known as pete-pete in Makassar), they are cheap, abundant, can be irritating sometimes but still they are useful.
And what does it has to do with gas chamber?
well, although the title sounds scary enough but it was how I feel about a week ago.
It was a beautiful morning, I went to work and took an Angkot to go the train station. Little bit traffic jam here and there, a typical condition in Depok when you leave your house after 6.30 AM.
Unfortunately, at one T crossing, we had to stop next to a bus with its exhaust pipe facing the doorway of our Angkot (uhm, an angkot has two doors for driver and front seaters and a doorway without door for the back seaters). In a second, we were enveloped with fumes coming from this bus, all of us in this angkot could barely breath, asphixiated, we were gasping for fresh air.. some of us tried to open the windows but it did not help much.
Ironically, it took some times for the angkot driver to realise this. He tried to steer his angkot away from the bus but he failed.
It was a horrible horrible three minutes, I could even tasted the fumes in my mouth hours after that.
Traffic jam - bus and - high leaded fossil fuels is a bad combination! I hate to think that lots of people in Jakarta should live with it. Pollution level in Jakarta is at the threshold of becoming inhumane and unbearable.
We have to stop this.
We really should.
first post after... dunno.. a millenia?
it's been ages since my last post,
for sure, I have problem in expressing my ideas and thoughts in writing
I have to envy my dearest friend like adhe, mario, and wicak who could actually pour whatever they have in their mind in this blog, and mind you, theirs are fun to read
I am at a stage where my friends are starting their new path of life, getting married, moving abroad, moving to another city, get a new job, continuing their study, get a new boyfriend (hoho) and others.. while at the same time, here I am, stuck in the same daily routines (which still have some travelling, thank Godness) without any clear view of what's going to happen in my life or what will become of me..
Woops, I'm late for my brother's birthday, to be continued
humanitarian law and Israel
Call me a beginner in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), I'm still in the process of learning (I am just fortunate enough to be in the right place to learn this)
I remember clearly these two notions:
1. do not attack civilian
2. do not attack highly dangerous item, such as nuclear power plant and dam
and I just found this small statistics from BBC.com this very evening, that:
1. Israeli attacks in the past two weeks has damaged 5000 houses (and if they are smart enough to read this, houses mean civilian not military barracs)
2. They have hit three dams
Perhaps, people have been evacuated first before the attacks, or perhaps those dams are no longer functioning.. (honestly speaking, I don't know this yet, since stories of war are just too depressing)
Yet, it can never justify the attacks, even worst, the war..
ps:
It turns out that around 10'000 migrant workers from Indonesia are most likely still in that war zone.. how can we help them??
Peace...
mentalitas atau....
think again.. just think again...
pernah ga kita melihat atau bahkan melakukannya sendiri
- berada di satu angkot terus ada yang jatuh dari angkot itu krn supir-nya nge-rem mendadak tapi terus penumpang lain diem aja
- berada di bis atau kereta terus liat ada ibu2 atau bapak2 yang gendong anaknya trus penumpangnya langsung sibuk baca koran, tidur, main sms, denger musik, atau simply bengong...
- berada di bis atau angkot terus ada penumpang yang lagi makan kacang rebus terus dengan santainya membuang bungkus kacang rebus dan kulit kacang di dalam bis
- masuk ke mal dan ada pengunjung lain yang menahan pintu buat kita dan kita malah pasang that 'ArroganT LooK' instead of saying thank you?
- Ngantri dari sebelah kanan atau kiri padahal jelas2 line antrian-nya udah ada, terus pas ditegor malah marah
kalo mau diterusin sebenernya list-nya akan panjang.... masalahnya adalah those were based on real situations... di Jakarta...
Jadi apa benar kita ini bangsa yang ramah??
Personally, I doubt it..
I'm counting my days in this office
wow, it's been a while since my last posting....
I'm counting my days in this office, it's actually 4 more days left (Viernes, Lunes, Martes, y Miercoles).... hmmppff.... melancholy feeling hit me bad these days..
So now, let's see what had been happening for the last couple of weeks...
I had my farewell dinner with my project in a beautiful La Luciolla Restaurant at Seminyak, got a I-shuffle for my farewell gift.. (thx a lot santi and herbie!!!)
Taste the yummiest steak at Chilli's with Ati
Trapped in the worst traffic jam last friday on my way to Little Baghdad with teuku and yuki.. (Gosh, we really really need to do something about this city!)
Spent the last couple of months going out of town back and forth... (it's an absolute necessity to remain sane in this life ;p)
hemmm, what else??? lemme think about it for a while...
ciao...
