Sidenotes in English, Arabic and Bahasa
Culture and Society: an Indonesian Blogger Perspective is a book which is based on collection of A. Fatih Syuhud’s notes during his stay as students in India in which he actived wrote in English during that time.
Responding to the attrocities of Bali bombing, my good friend Nadirsyah Hosen says this in his blog: “I strongly condemned a recent terrorist attack in Bali. All moderate Muslims must speak out loudly to confront evil ideology behinds this violent movement.” Now, who is the so-called moderate Muslim? First, If you, reader of this 50-cent-piece,…
Bush and Indonesia Islam If you watched CNN or BBC before and during Bush’s visit to Indonesia, you would see a sea of protersters in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta with slogan of anti-Bush and to some extent, anti-American foreign policy. But with most female protesters were wearing Islamic clothes i.e. jilbab (Indonesian term for Islamic veil),…
Ramadan from Monday in India Ramadan India In India, the month of Ramadan starts from Monday which means we, any Muslim currently stay in the country, will resume our fast from 25th of September and end up (probably) on October 24. People in Indonesia and some other countries including Saudi Arabia have already started their…
Celebrating Eid the Blogger Way Some Indonesian bloggers still talk about Eid ul-Fitr, or something to do with it, days after it passed for various reasons. Agus Setiawan at Blogonesia, for example, discusses the recent fatwa (religious decree) made recently by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Indonesian Muslim organisation, in which it stated that watching…
Keith Ellison, Quran and “American Civilisation” Keith Ellison Quran rowI wrote earlier on Keith Ellison the first American Muslim ever elected as Congressman which surprisingly spark much hype in America. Another (unnecessary)controversy seems to be in the pipeline now regarding his intention to take oath by Quran instead of the Bible. Dennis Prager’s article first…
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Corrupt Democracy or “Clean” Tyranny? coup thailand People in developing countries are facing many challenges the most basic of which are corruption, injustices and poverty; widening gap between the rich and the poor; the deficit of trust between the ruler and the subject. In Indonesia, with life is getting harder on grass root level, many…
Shirin Ebadi, Islam and Women Rights Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize winner 2003, is among prominent moderate Muslim I admire. Not only has she got the gut to speak up her mind what she thinks right against the conservatives and/or radicals of her fellow Muslims, be they Iranian clerics or others; but she also…
Budi Sutomo, VCO and Book My apology to Budi Sutomo, SPd for being late congratulating him upon his book publication on VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil). Nothing special about book publishing, except that he’s got that opportunity by way of his blog. And for that, he urges everybody to blog actively no matter what. Someday, sooner…
MP Sex Scandal Yahya Zaini, an Indonesian MP from Golkar party, in the meanwhile is making news for very wrong and stupid reasons: his sex scandal with a singer recorded by and through her mobile phone gets out of hand and spreads like a virus among Indonesian mobile phones users and gets talked about by…
Polygamous Holy Man and MP’s Sex Scandal There is nothing more ovelwheming than the conversations among Indonesian blogosphere these past few weeks. The talk involves two occurences that looks similar but are actually unrelated – Aa Gym’s second wife and an Indonesian MP of Golkar party’s sex scandal. First off, for non-Indonesian, here’s an intro…
Entrepreneurship as a Trend I am so happy to see young dynamic fully motivated person like him. I wish him luck and want to see his company grows steadily well and fast. And on top of it all, I hope all young Indonesian look at him as the father-like figure: be entrepreneur; be a brave…
Kebab Turki Baba Rafi on BBC After having dinner this night, I need a little relax; sipping tea and switching on BBC news channel and am pleasantly surprised to see a Indonesian young man in his early twenties, 23-year-old to be exact, named Hendy Sutiono being interviewed. Surprisingly he’s responding to BBC’s queries in reasonably…
The pros and cons regarding blogging being at par with or part of journalism is not new. In milis teknologia (googlegroups) Carlos Patriawan generate this issue once again in the midth of court appeal of Apple controversies in the US. Some friends, themselves are bloggers, also voiced the pros and cons. Enda Nasution agrees that…
I read an interesting headline today in India best-selling newspaper The Times of India. The title’s no less catchy: “Blogs Rage over Denial of Justice.” It’s the number two top headline today in the media. It reports the anger and anguish of Indian bloggers over some recently concluded verdict results on rape and murder issues….
Police Officers Blog Blogging seems to be spreading its “pendemic” into an alien territory that so far more known for its secrecy: the Police departments. How many police officers or police departments in the world have their own blog? Not much. According to an Indian local newspaper, only three police departments start blogging; two in…
How to Retire Early indonesia blog How to retire early? It’s easy. Be a genius techno geek like Google founder. If you are not the one (that’s the most probability), well there’s another choice: go to Iraq, find the whereabouts of a man named Abu Ayyub al-Masri or Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Yes, he’s Abu Musab…
Senior Junior Relationship A few months back, I, along with a friend, was invited by a senior Indonesian diplomat in New Delhi. We talked a lot about various issues including current events in Indonesia, international, and some off-the-record stories. What I want to share here with you, my honorable readers, are his comments on senior-junior…
Between A Leader and Manager Picture: Baharuddin Lopa the few good men in Indonesia politics What differentiate between a person with leadership personality and a mere manager? The answer is plenty and will be in a very long list. I’ll just wanna pick up few of those. The order might not necessarily on priority basis….
In many democratic countries, civil servant or PNS (pegawai negeri sipil) never been a booming “industry”. Rather, it’s the second choice for the young potential & dynamic citizens, even in India. Not in Indonesia. Here, the demand to be a PNS has always been beyond the existing supply. So, for the corrupts Indonesian officials (who…
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Religion and Nationalism If a journalist asks your first preference between two important identity which one carries all his/her life, i.e. religion and nationalism, which one comes first? Shakhrukh Khan (SRK), India’s Bollywood mega-star, told BBC a few years back that he prefers nationalism as his first choice. The same question with the same answer…