Blogger Indonesia of the Week (91): Yansen

Posted on May 2, 2009
Filed Under Blogger of Week, Culture, Education | 62 Comments

Any non-Indonesian who has a little more time to take a closer look at Indonesian culture might wonder about one thing unique about this nation: a widely common use of single name. Two of Indonesian first presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, are using a single name. Symbolizing that this habit of single-name is practiced by all strata of Indonesian society.

I myself regards this thing as normal until the first time I travel abroad with a single-name friend when an airport official complained to him. In another word, an Indonesian who considers a single-name as “unusual” must have travelled to another country at least once.
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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (90): Kurniadi Widodo

Posted on March 24, 2009
Filed Under Blogger of Week, Culture, Indonesia, blogging | 60 Comments

Kurniadi Widodo “A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ~Ansel Adams”

I always have a camera since my teenage years from various brands. Just to tell you, first of all, that I like photography (meaning, taking pictures). But, as some say, “Buying a Nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner.” This quote reminds us of the fact that while everybody can buy a camera, only a few people can have it and “feels” it with passion to the extent of passion like a techno geek does to his/her computer.
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First Anniversary of Quit Smoking

Posted on March 21, 2009
Filed Under Culture, Fatih Syuhud, Lifestyle | 78 Comments

quit-smokings I’ve never celebrated any of my birthday. I’ve also barely attended any birthday celebration of my friends. I always insist that celebrating one’s birthday is a waste of time. Besides birthday is not worth celebrating. If anything, everyday should be celebrated because every single day is important. For me, today is as important as yesterday, tomorrow, next month and next year, etc.
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Forbes World Richest People 2009

Posted on March 12, 2009
Filed Under Culture, News, Personality | 9 Comments

List of top 100 billionaries 2009 according to Forbes Magazine.
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Facebook for what?

Posted on March 8, 2009
Filed Under Culture, Internet, Lifestyle | 96 Comments

friendship-painting-by-fikru Since the invention of the internet, what sub-invention that attracts me to engage in an online activity is one and only: blogging. The reason is clear: (a) it offers tremendous chance and opportunity for everyone to spread out one’s idea through writing to a lot wider audience without any need to sweat it out. (b) It offers a level-playing field for everyone to publish one’s idea without any barrier of, say, cost and patron. Like what happens in conventional publishing tools.[1]
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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (89): Mulia Nurhasan

Posted on January 30, 2009
Filed Under Blogger of Week, Culture, Islam, Muslim, blogging | 104 Comments

mulia nurhasan As far as Muslim women is concerned, there’s nothing more controversial than a piece of cloth called headscarf or veil. Popularly known here in Indonesia as jilbab[1]. The simplicity of jilbab or head scarf doesn’t make the effects simpler. In reality, jilbab pros and cons that comes around it as though represents a symbolism of opposing thought and attitude between practicing and non-practicing Muslim as a whole.
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Obama the First US President with a Blog

Posted on January 22, 2009
Filed Under Culture, News, blogging | 74 Comments

A day Obama is anaugurated on January 20, the first post of his blog were born. Visit his blog at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/. The first post was written by apparently his Director of New Media (or should I call Director of Blogging?) named Macon Phillips. He writes
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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (88): Imdad Robbani

Posted on January 10, 2009
Filed Under Blogger of Week, Culture, Islam, blogging | 34 Comments

“Like many Indonesians, Lolo[1] followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”[2] – Barack Obama

Everybody everywhere tends to take a standpoint where it will socially have an advantage, not a liability. Take, for example, the case of a controversial word “secular” and its variants as far as Islamic and political discourse go.
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Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2008

Posted on December 31, 2008
Filed Under Blogger Indonesia, Indonesia, blogging | 118 Comments

The essence of blogging, as I put it as a jargon in my Bahasa Indonesia blog, is to culturalize the tradition of writing and reading. Many Indonesians, like those who are from developing or underdeveloped nation, don’t have the habit of writing and reading. They talk a lot. Write and read less. And that’s why, some foreign academicians who come to Indonesia were a bit shocked to find out the lack of reading and writing habit among Indonesians even within the so-called middle class family. The lack of reading naturally would end up in the lack of blog content “charisma”.
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