Blogger Indonesia of the Week (92): Alia Makki

When a person calls herself Hning Swara commented in one of my post, I was impressed with the way she expresses her opinion. I was impressed even more when I visited her blog– back then in blogspot. She certainly has the talent and obviously is a good writer with an eloquent English I hardly found in an average Indonesian.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (91): Yansen

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

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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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (89): Mulia Nurhasan

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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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (88): Imdad Robbani

“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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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (87): Pan Mohamad Faiz

Pan Mohamad Faiz is a visionary blogger and a man-of-principle personality, so to speak. He knows what he wants to do. When the first time I met him in my last-year stay in India in 2007 he asked me how to make a blog. At the same time he insisted that he wanted to have a niche blog on law, his specialty, not a personal blog. He knows that a niche blog will not get a good traffic instantly but he is sure it will create faithful readers and, thus credibility to the blogger concerned. He wants his blog to emphasize on specific quality content. I couldn’t agree more with him.
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Blogger Indonesia of the Week (86): Agni Amorita

When I was looking for a blog post on Hari Raya Idul Fitri 2008/1429, I found an interesting article on mudik tradition written by Agni Amorita aka Mbak Rita thus:

If I were a linguist, I will put mudik (going home) as the newest entry for the encarta dictionary. I mean, mudik is going to be a hot new international term.. Because the mudik phenomenon here is so powerful, and big and heartbreaking… this term, mudik, will be suitably needed to explain as a nationally special exodus from big cities once a year, no matter how hard the obstacle is.