The problem with her blog, or with her to be precise, is she uses pseudonym or ghost blogging as I like to call it.

I promise to myself that once she blogs with her true name, I’ll review her blog right away.

Now the time has come.

When I visit her blog again a few days ago, I found some surprising changes: First, her URL address now using top domain with hosting still with blogger.com, something I recommend. Second, she shows her true name.

I am impressed even further to find out that she has the opinion of this true-identity thing:. In her post titled Pseudonym vs Real Name she explains why she went pseudonymous before:

Security is the obvious reason. Where I grew up, Saudi Arabia was such a small, small place. As many Ghamdis, Otaibis & Sharbatlys as you can find, everybody’s related to everybody else by marriage or education or work. And it was relatively easy to pin them out: The old money and the abroad-graduates grouped together in Northern Jeddah. The drug dealers and shady businessmen around the southern part of Jeddah. And the rest of us in between.

The groups dynamics shrunk even further if you’re a second and so-forth generation immigrant, with a surname such as Felemban, Khan or Seeni. I don’t know about you, but just like in Jhumpa Lahiri’s poetic depiction of Bengali immigrants in the US, the Asians in Jeddah cluster together, rarely opening up to the natives.

It wouldn’t be so much a big deal if giving away your identity didn’t get you in trouble. We still hear about fathers and brothers practicing (and legally protected for) honor killings in these parts of the world. The point is, it’s not always out of vanity that pseudonyms are maintained and may take a while of testing the waters until you dare leave the comforts of anonymity.

And the reason why she changes her mind to start showing her true name now:

1. Because I haven’t been living in Saudi. The inherent cyber-paranoia has slowly been replaced with a sense of “fuck if I care what the Citizenship has to say about my work”.

2. Value for my work. I tend to think that credibility is increased with real names. Not that content is defined by that. Just credibility. It is credible that the writer of this blog is a pompous self-proclaimed curmudgeon, wherever she may be seen in the cyberspace.

3. The tendency to self-destruct, which also has been the reason that I’m protecting my relatives from being affiliated to me has also been sublimated into other directions. I’m into demon sightseeing these days.

4. Besides, most people already know that Alia, Adil and Anggi Makki are related, and all three are equally passionate about their unrelated fields of work. So if anyone of us starts screwing up, we don’t directly harm each other’s professional reputation. If anybody cares, really.

5. And most folks don’t care, really, about who you are or to whom you’re related. Most people care more about what you can do for them. How you can inspire and entertain them. It’s just the way the world works, right?

I am sure, the way she makes points of argument, to agree or disagree, has impressed you. You’d find yourself impressed even further once you visit her blog yourself. She’s tough, intelligent, rebellious and, well,  “wild”. Some qualities many men like to have in a girl.

Related articles:

• How to be Blogger of the Week
• Why Ghost Blogger?
• Why Ghost Blogger? (2)
• Scientific and Credible Blogger
• Anonymity and Credibility
• Why They (Expats) Blog Anonymously and We Do Not
• How Important True Identity for Blogger
• Why True Identity is Important
• Being Critical within and without
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Part Time and Full Time Blogger

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.

That’s why when I read Yansen profile and he highlights his single-name, I knew he’s been abroad and might have an experience in which his single name did put him into trouble a little bit or raise his friends’ eyebrows. Here what he’s to say:

“G for green chronicle” is Yansen. He was born in Kepahiang, a small town in Bengkulu Province, Sumatra. He doesn’t have a family name. Yup, that may be funny. But, most Indonesians don’t have family names. In fact, a lot of Indonesians only have one single name, just like him.

If you read his profile further, you’d come to know that the single-name stuff is just the only light thing he writes. Other than that, he’s got a very good blog meaning a blog with a very good content. And that should not make you wonder. His brief CV would tell you the reason:

After receiving a Bachelor of Forestry in 2002 from Department of Forestry, University of Bengkulu, he was appointed as an associate lecturer at the same department a year after. He was awarded Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) to do master degree in 2005. He went to James Cook University, Queensland and studied at the School of Tropical Biology. He finished his master in 2007. Early 2008, he won an Australian Leadership Award (ALA) scholarship to do PhD. He is now doing PhD at James Cook University.

If you read Indonesian newspapers both in English and Bahasa Indonesia regularly, you’d find his name every now and then outthere in Op-ed pages focusing on such topics as conservation, environment, forestry and agriculture. If you don’t, you can still enjoy his writing in his blog.

***

As I wrote here, a blog with a particular niche and written by a person with academic authority could be called as an expert blog. A blog that would have a real contribution and impact in the long term and that will have serious attention from serious people. Such very good blog may not be instantly popular especially as far as Indonesian readers are concerned. One thing the author should remember is that he should not be discouraged by that.  Because so far as blog goes, quality content may not automatically be in line with the amount of visitors and comments a blog gets. Likewise, a high traffic blog doesn’t necessarily have to do with quality content.

On our part, we should encourage people like Yansen to write more rigorously in his blog by having a visit or two to his blog and writing a good comment there. Making a good comment is a good start to create a good article and thus a good blog as well.

Related Articles:

• How to be a Blogger Indonesoa of the Week
• Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2008
• Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2007
• Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2006

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.

As a “camera owner” sometimes I wonder and regret why I left the camera at home when I see something worths thousands pictures during my journey to a certain places. I think that’s one of many differences between me, and someone like me, as a camera owner and the real photographer. The passion with the camera, as the tools the take a snapshot of a mosaic of the universe. And comes with it is the sensitivity. The sense of what picture is “important” and worth taking and what’s not. Photographer is like a reporter who has the sense and “smells” and can differentiate between what the big news and ordinary one.

Kurniadi Widodo, who describes himself as “a professional procrastinator” is one of those photographer who has the sense of photography. Unlike you and me, the camera owners.

As a simple camera owner, I don’t have enough authority to comment on interesting pictures he took and put into his blog. So, whether you’re a photographer yourself or just a photography fan, I’ll let you to comment yourself on Kurniadi’s works by visiting his blog.

Related articles:

• How to be Blogger of the Week
• Bunyamin Najmi: Bandung Photographer
• Agustinus Wibowo

For so long, all heated and lengthy debates are mosly voiced by men or by Muslim women who never wore or decided not to wear it any more. Heard-scarf Muslim women barely engage in such debate themselves. It’s refreshing therefore, that such voices on behalf of those who wear jilbab start to be heard in the blogsophere. Muslim women with Western education such as Mulia Nurhasan [2] and others start sharing their own experience and the raison d’etre behind their decision to wear jilbab or headscarf. In one of her post she writes:

Graduated from University, I worked in Tanggerang for few months before I moved to Germany for the rest of the year. In Germany I lived in a very small village where everybody knows everybody (though they don’t always talk to each other-it’s Germany-not so much different from Norway). It was my first time living abroad and I kept my headscarf with me. I realized that in this totally different culture village, I don’t necessarily need my headscarf to protect my dignity. People here don’t care about what I was wearing. They perhaps noticed me about my extra fabric on my head, but never really say anything.

I could take off my head scarf if I wanted to, as it was irrelevant to wear it for the reason of protecting my dignity as a woman anymore. But there I learned, that I used it because it identifies me as a Muslim and it reflects my believe, my faith. From then, I choose to wear it because I manifest my faith in this way.

On her headscarf experience during her stay in Europe:

It’s funny but, honestly I am a least conscious person when it comes to physical appearance. I don’t look at my self in front of the mirror all the time. It’s people who see me wearing head scarf. Unless people ask me about my head scarf, I rarely feel different. I don’t think people treat me differently. Is it because it’s Norway? Or because I am not sensitive? I don’t know. But many people said that Tromso is a very tolerant city. I think it’s true. But overall, i feel the same just like every body else here.

When people ask me why am i wearing it, I must confess that i am not always answering it well. Sometimes i simply say “My religion told me to. It’s dogmatic. I need dogma to live my life” hehehe . This is the kind of answer I sometimes give to people whom i think would debate my answer, and when i am just too lazy to debate, this would be a good escape answer. Sorry.

On her wish that headscarf is not a big deal and should be dealt with accordingly:

I learn that people manifest believe in different ways. And because I put head scarf on my head, doesn’t mean I have managed well to headscarf-ed my heart. I have met many Muslimah who are not wearing head scarf but have such wonderful heart. I think it’s very unfair to judge people from what they are wearing. You may, for example think one person has peculiar style from their fashion.

…the head scarf is just part of my manifest to my faith, my connection, my way of communication with my God. It has becoming more spiritual tool rather than religious ritual symbol. Head scarf is just one part of me among many other things that makes me the way i am.

Mulya also asked her Muslim friends to share their experience with jilbab they are wearing and opinions about it which can be found here. There’re some interesting article, especially the one written by Amalia Sanusi, another young Muslim woman who’d been in Australia and among one of the early Blogger Indonesia of the Weeks. It gains appreciation from her Dutch reader named Colson who happens to be an agnostic:

I’m afraid I’m not in the best position to comment – old, male, agnost. And yet I try.

That’s because I want to let you know I think this is a very sympathetic post. And for sure it helps me understand the decision of Muslim women to wear a veil. At least of one Muslima.

As you may expect “understanding” does not mean I share all of your arguments. But I do agree with your call for mutual respect.

===
Note:

[1] Jilbab is popular termn in Indonesia, hijab is  in Middle East, purdah in South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh), kerudung in Malaysia and Brunei. Headscarf or veil in the West.

[2] As her blog URL is no longer active, I remove all  links directed to it.

Related posts:

• How to Get Reviewed as Blogger of the Week
  
• Muslim, Islam and Indonesia

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.

In Indonesia, the word “secular” is a liability. If you’re a Muslim and are called secularist then it may imply that you’re not a “muslim” enough. It’s true especially among Muslim conservative or traditionalist[3]; not to say the Islamist[4]. In India, however, the situation quite the opposite. Claiming a secular is quite an advantage. Being a secular in India means that you are a modern and a pluralist.

That’s said, once may wonder what does the term “secular” and “secularization” actually mean? The question and the answer are equally important because not all common Muslim understand or even care about this.

It’s in this regard that Imdad Robbani’s article about Secular and Secularization has a certain point where a wider auidence needs to know.

… it is a category by which we define the entirety of contemporary Western civilization, that is, from theologico-philosophical, legal-political, and cultural-anthropological aspect of it.

… Secularization is generally regarded as a process of differentiation between “religious” and “secular”. We can speak of it, utilizing categories made by Jose Casanova, through three perspectives; theologico-philosophical, cultural-anthropological, and legal-political. From the first angle, Al-Attas say that secularization is liberation of human reason and language from control of something religious and metaphysical; and turning human attention from the world beyond into this world.

Another approach to understand secularization is through cultural-anthropological perspective, which is, in many cases, more apparent. Culturally it means “the disappearance of religious determination of the symbols of cultural integration”. In Arab context, it is “the marginalization of Islam or its exclusion from the process of re-structuring society during both the colonial and post-independence periods”. This suggests that Islam is excluded as much as possible from shaping the society. It is also differentiation of things “secular”; like economy, science, art, entertainment, health, and welfare; from those “religious”; such as ecclesiastical institution and church’s activities. It also means “the transfer of activities from religious to secular institutions, such as a shift in provision of social services from churches to the government.” We may conclude that secularization culturally and socially is the disappearance of religious symbols, omission of religion’s role in shaping society, differentiation between what is secular, i.e., related to this world only and what is religious, i.e., related to the world beyond, and moving social activities from religious to secular institutions.

Imdad Robbani’s post on this matter has not finished yet. While it’s worth waiting for the whole piece, his readers may look around some other interesting articles written previously from serious topic such as Religious Pluralism,  Sufism, Greek Philosophy, etc to some topic which is not so serious and “cultural contemplation” in nature. Look for example at such post as Intercultural Marriage, A reflection of how hard it’s to socially break a taken-for-granted tradition, marriage in this case, without being labelled as socially, even religiously, “unethical”.

Another interesting post is concerning parents-children relationship and his implicit question the parents need to answer: how far should a parents in a traditional family exercise and impose their authority towards their children and in what matters and how far can children disobey them in a manner which is not construed as a disrespect gesture?

A young man like him needs to write more on this conflict of cultural gap to represent what other young generation think of themselves and about their previous generation particularly their parents. In which way it’s hoped it will open a smooth dialog and wider understanding between the elder and the younger one. Not many young men, living in a traditional family like him, are able to speak up their mind before their parents. This blogging technology, if used properly, should break that barrier.

=====
Note:

[1] Lolo is Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian, Barack Obama’s step father. The second husband of his mother and the father of Maya Soetoro, Obama’s half sister.
[2] Quoted from Barack Obama’s Dreams from my Father, Three Rivers Press, (New York:1995), pp. 37.
[3] The term conservative and traditionalist Muslim have similiar meaning in the sense they usually refer to those practicing Muslims–who follow the basic standard of Islamic teaching, but not necessarily involve or campaign for an Islamic state. In short, they are purely religious, not political. Hence, they are practically secular in Western sense of the term. The non-practicing Muslim are called abangan in Indonesia as implicitly mentioned by Barack Obama quoted above.
[4] Those Muslims who campaign for the establishment of Islamic state in scientific discourse or in actual political activity.

Faiz, as I used to call him, is the kind of blogger who care less to traffic of his blog or to the amount of comments he receives. He focuses more on how to write a good content vigorously. He doesn’t expect many comments nor many visitors, though he’ll be grateful if any.  These are the keys for any blogger to survive and endure a long blogging experience without which you’ll find your blogging passion dissipates in a short span of time.

The Content

To know Faiz’s blog content is simple. Read his profile, and you’d immediately know what it is all about:

Pan Mohamad Faiz was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. After getting his Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) degree from Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, he received a Full Scholarship from ICCR to continue his advance study at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. On July 2008, he successfully graduated from University of Delhi (First Division Rank) with degree in Master of Comparative Laws (M.C.L.) specializing on Comparative Constitutional Law.

Presently he is a legal and constitutional law observer as well as an active op-ed writer in many National Newspapers and Journals. Moreover, he is appointed as a Judicial Administrative Assistance to Constitutional Justice at Constitutional Court of Indonesia. This Blawg (Law Blog) describes his strong thought about Law and other Social Sciences.

So, it’s clear that Faiz’s niche blog is about law. Both Indonesia and international law. This is what he wants to achieve: whenever you want to know about law, visit his blog. And whenever you want to talk about it, talk to Faiz. This is the advantage of having a niche blog and of being a “niche” blogger. []

Further reading: How to get reviewed.

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.

The above quote on one article among many pieces written in her blog should be enough to symbolise her “eagle-eyed” observation on a particular phenomenon and her ability to describe it in a passionate way.

Her passion, mind you, is not only on telling story and making a sort of analysis on something. She has the passion on photography as well. Her regular trips to many parts of the country should motivate her passion on photography even further.

Agni Amorita likes to call herself as Mbak Rita. Mbak in Javanese stands for Sister as Mbak Rita explains:

Mbak is a javanese word for “Sis”. It is a common thing in Indonesia to address a woman with it before her firstname/nickname to show a more friendly gesture.

Aside from blogging activities, she is actually a professional script-writer and a seasoned reporter.  

Blogging passionately like what Mbak Rita seems to enjoy doing is  what will make blogging activities survive the biggest obstacle: boredomity and lack of passion.

Despite English language teaching starts from the junior high school (Class VII) in Indonesia educational system, and is supposed to be the second language after Bahasa Indonesia, instead of Dutch, the students are hardly conversant to this language unless they join a special Englsih course or having experience to study or stay abroad. The methodology of teaching and the quality of English teachers are probably two main reasons if we want to fingerpoint the major culprit.

After joining an three-month-long English course my nephew, who were just a fresher in a state university in Surabaya, once asked me how to improve his English. My suggestions were these: (a) make a blog; (b) write frequently and in English; (c) read English blogs & books of your interests quite often, particularly those which are written by native speakers.

The advice given are specifically for him as I know he has had enough grammatical skill in his pocket. What he needs just to practice and add plethora of English glossaries and their usages.

For Indonesian young students in general though there’s one more advice had they asked me: learning English grammar is no less important.

With the advantage of internet technology, and blogging, we now can achieve all aforementioned just by clicking websites or blogs which would give you ’services’ you are looking for and for free. The blog of Hendro Darsono is one of blogs with educational purposes in mind. Here you can develop your English grammar skill. The explanation is even more understandable for English-newbie as it’s written in Bahasa Indonesia.

If you want to blog in English, or you already have, and you feel the grammar still your weakness point, try visiting Hendro Darsono’s blog frequently. Don’t forget the other advices mentioned above as well.[]

Complete list of previous top blogger Indonesia and how to get reviewed can be found here.

Further reading:

• Introduce English from Class I
• Ten Reasons Why We Blog in English
• How Blogging in English Could Benefit You
• Bahasa Indonesia and Nationalism

I was once upon a time a religious person. I am now a spiritual-romantic-intellectual agnostic.

I am the daughter of a fanatic intellect who taught me to be critical. Because of the way my father raised me, I grew up into a critical young woman, one who eventually broke his heart. He paid a dear price for letting me be my own person and become extremely critical (compared to other people from my country and generation).

When I was 25, I was at a turning point in my life where I could no longer believe in the religion I was born into and decided to convert to another religion that was closer to the values I believe in. When my father found out, he disowned me. This was 7 years ago and I am still an outcast in my own family.

My first religion was a very strict one that rendered me a fanatic. When I converted to my second (and somewhat present) religion, I could not shake off the need to be a fanatic. I was still the same fundamentalist, just with a different outfit and set of beliefs.

In the past 4 years, I have experienced so many new and interesting things that have turned me into an even more critical person than I ever was. However, critical as I maybe, these turns of events have also made me much less religious and fanatical. I have found that being a spiritual agnostic agrees with me much more than whatever it is I was once before ever did. I was finally happy and doing good things in life.

Of course I still believe in God/Higher Power/Deity but I have relinquished all organized religions because I personally think that they just cause complete chaos, segregation, hatred towards other groups, suspicious mindset and limit my thinking ability and willingness (not to mention how both my religions used to force me into believing certain things without the possibility or permission to break the mold, and to think and ask questions out of the box).

Even though I know that my kind are most likely condemned by most people from my own country (daddy included), I now choose to live life with love (to the best of my ability) and I try to be as kind possible to anyone without the guidelines of a specific religion. I strongly believe that as humans, we were all born with a moral compass, we are all familiar with the primordial morality – do not do to others what you don’t want done upon you.

Yes, I am a spiritual-romantic-intellectual agnostic. Does this make me a child of a lesser God? Does this make me a bad person? I dont think so. But one thing I know for sure, I am no longer scared of the abstract, of death and of the unexplained. Instead I am now blessed with the ability to feel God’s love for me. Two words to describe it: absolutely awesome!

Interesting to note that turns of event have made her heart and mindset upside down. On why people tend to be agnostic or religious I wrote similar topic somewhere that

The more independent a person, the less dependent one becomes towards God and religion …
The basic character of human is that they will make priorities based on their immediate needs. People in the West (Western Europe particularly) who are relatively more independent than that in the East, financially as well as emotionally, find religion as a non-immediate priorities. And hence atheism or agnosticism finds a fertile breed out there…

There are moments, however, where money and anything it can buy, cannot resolve problems. And there are times when logic reaches its limit. Here human will need something else. Something beyond human capability to do and to think. It’s at this point of time when you have only two choices: turn to religion, or spiritualism…

Life is packed with turns of events, including the turns of hearts. So far as seeking for solace goes, those who are agnostic today could be religious tomorrow and vice versa, a religious person now could be an agnostic or even an atheist later. That’s another beauty of human life: everychanging, ever-evolving, ever growing, for the better or the worse.

As far as Rima Fauzi’s blog is concerned, however, one thing is clear: she always makes her points crystal clear even when the points she makes very unpopular like the post I quoted above. I commend her gut to speak out. Not many Indonesian, especially the ladies, are able to do so. And for that alone she deserves our honest appreciation. Her willingness to show her identity–not being anonymous blogger–deserves her even more appreciation from all of us.

What is the implicit meaning of that advice?

Geert Wilders, another Dutch and director-producer of Fitna, knows very well what it means: if you want to create a furore and anger among Muslim for whatever purpose just do the opposite of Hurgronje’s word; attack the spiritual aspect of Islam. He just did it and he got what he wanted: personal fame, controversies, criticism as well as “solidarity”. Muslims around the world feel so angry as usual. That’s understandable. You’d feel the pain when something or someone you adore and love got insulted.

But Muslim should also understand the context mentioned in the first para of this piece: the more you’re furious and uncontrollable, the more Geert Wilders (and anyone like him in the past and future) got and will get what they want. Which means you are in a “losing side” of the game.

It’s in this context that we need to hear another advice which represents a good spirit and maturity of attitude. And I believe Sherwin Tobing’s take on this issue represents that grown-up spirit, in which he said:

Protesting should be fine, but I surely hope that Indonesian Muslims or even Muslims around the world not to attack Dutch Embassies as happened before with Danish’s. Wilders, and some other people too, might be using this film as bait. Any kind of brutal and barbarous reactions from Muslims worldwide would just make them smirk and say: “See, Muslims are, indeed, barbarians”. Show them that Islam is religion of peace, show them that those Muslims in the video did not act accordingly to the Koran.

Sherwin Tobing seems to understand well the thumb rule on how to live together peacefully:

I did not know what to say after watching this film, I have always been against any behavior or language that insults or shows lack of respect for God or religion, thus I feel sorry for all Muslims around the world.

I believe that people should never talk about something which they do not really understand. I used to involve myself in religious discussion with people from different religions. I have seen that there were so many people picked up some “scary” or “weird” verses from other believer’s holy book, interpreted them in their favour, and used those interpreted verses to attack their debate opponents. I guess what Wilders did was much of a muchness, he just picked up randomly those Koranic verses and visualized his misinterpretations blatantly in this bad film.

I long for this kind of blog posting not only in commenting for this particular issue, but also in dealing with social relationship among religious followerss as a whole. The kind of articles Sherwin Tobing writes consistently and regularly in his blog deserves his blog to be a regular hang out for all of us, Indonesian bloggers as well as those who want to know more about Indonesia.

Further reading:

• The Limits of Freedom  
• Why Religious Hatred?  
• Being Critical within and without  
• Extremism is un-Islamic  
• Racism within Our Soul  
• Obama, Madrassa and Pesantren