Blogger Indonesia of the Week: 73 – 76

On Being Credible and Impartial

Credibiity is earned through stages and various ways. In real life, a credible person connotes to someone whose words are not at variance with one actions and he or she does it in a relatively consistent way. As far as blogging, or writing, is concerned, in order to be credible in the eyes of one’s peers, a blogger should hold to a particular universal values and ethics and stick to them. Note that credibility should be differentiated with scientificity. And the highest universal values in the writing/blogging world is none but impartiality.

CONTENTS

• #73 Tasa Nugraza Barley
• #74 Indrani
• #75 Nurudin Jauhari
• #76 Willy Sudiarto Raharjo

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (73): Tasa Nugraza Barley

It’s at this point that I regard Tasa Nugraza Barley as among those impartial, and thus credible, Indonesian blogger I’ve ever seen. To be impartial is to liberate oneself from any attachment of reference; be it reference of own’s religion, race, nation or political and cultural affiliation. It’s not easy. Since it requires not only a good will, honesty and humility. To have an impartial and good judgement one is required to have a sufficient understanding of matters one is talking about to attain a sort of analytical sharpness. That’s one of his strong point.Let’s see for example one of my favorite post here on How to distinguish a good book from the bad one:

I think mainly there are two perspectives that differenciate the “Bad” Books and The Enemy At Home as the good one:

1. Dinesh D’Souza in The Enemy At Home divides muslim into two kinds: radical muslims and traditional muslims while the bad books basically bash all muslims, they see all muslims are the same. The bad books think all muslims all around the world are retarded as they are willing to follow an old-fashioned religion. The bad books say that Islam is the source of problem, it is a religion that teaches its believers to put bombs on their bodies and explode their heads up in the crowds. At the same time, Dinesh D’Souza is wiser in describing the situation that Islam is facing right now. He thinks that more than 80% of muslims are the traditional ones and they are basically against of radical muslims’ thoughts and ideas especially for such issues like jihad. The problem he says is that the radical muslims are the ones who get the most attention from the West medias since they are the ones who think jihad is about killing the infidels. In his book, Dinesh D’Souza mentions that Taliban was a joke even to Mullahs in Iran and yet The West was so amazed to see how Taliban Regime was treating women in Afghanistan which led them to think that Taliban was a representation of Islam in general.

2. The bad books can’t differentiate between Islamic values and cultural values, and I think this is so misleading. Bad books think that if muslims act something then it must be told by the Koran. One example is how Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her book exploits the practice of female circumcision in muslim countries like Somalia where she is originately from. Although it is true that there are muslims who believe that female circumcision is allowed or even supported by Islam as they have a hadith that justifies the practice but at the same time there a lot of muslim scholars who think that the hadith has a little credibility and authenticity. The authors of the bad books wrote their books mostly based on their experiences in the past which they are so emotionally attached. For example the author of Because They Hate Brigitte Gabriel wrote her book based on her childhood experience as a Christian Lebanese during the civil war where her family had to live in a terrible condition.

Or his anger on the Indonesian corrupt bureaucrats:

The only reason why this messed up country has not been able to move to a better condition over more than 60 years of its independency is because those people on high level don’t feel like doing it. It is not that hard to make Indonesia as one of the next giants in Asia with all those resources that we have, China and India are doing it. But those people with their fancy cars and big houses in Menteng or Pondok Indah don’t feel like sharing the wealth. They want to keep us stupid and retarded. I know they all like to see us fighting against each other. I hope they rot in hell.

Tasa Nugraza Barley I think, should write a lot more often on those kind of topics to enlighten us in Indonesia as well as those English speaking readers. His readers will certainly benefit from not only matters he talks about, but also from the way he look insighfully into them.

Unrelated notes:

1. I’ve been a bit busy these days doing tetek bengek things and that’s the main reasons that prevent me from making a regular post. I hope I can make a better time-management in the days ahead.

2. Template of this blog is back to normal again. Thanks Blogger.Com. Good news for blogrollers I’m able to blogroll you again, let me know if one of you haven’t been bloggrolled.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (74): Indrani

The most romantic couple blogger. The couple, Indi and Rani, are writing continuously and regularly from everywhere they are travelling. Arguably the most passionate Indonesian blogger I have ever seen. And the first non-expert blogger whose one of their pieces in the blog appeared in the Jakarta Post newspaper. The couple’s blog is still alive at http://indrani.net/ although the last update was 23/07/2010 that is four years ago fron now (November 2014)

In their response to this review they said: “Thank you A. Fatih Syuhud for having selected us (Indi + Rani) as blogger(s) of the week!

To A Fatih Syuhud, we apologize that we write this linkback a bit late, because we’ve been occupied with things that diverted our attention from blogging these past few weeks.”

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (75): Nurudin Jauhari

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (75): Nurudin JauhariSo far as Blogger Indonesia most prolific free themes / template creator goes, Nurudin Jauhari to wordpress is what Isnaini to blogger.com. Both are very capable and studious in creating new design of free templates or themes, in wordpress more known terms, for every wordpress users to use and enjoy.

He is not a kind of amateur in this field, though as an electrical engineering graduate his skill is obviously not something he develops from his university. For example, one of his wordpress themes called Ayumi even got recognition from wordpress.org. You can find Ayumi themes enlisted here as one of free wordpress themes which is compatible with 2.3 version. A kind of honor from the official WordPress site that will invite envy from everyone.

The quality and the origanlity of its design also got recognition from non-Indonesian as well. The second most popular of his wordpress themes creation called simply MIX which is among the top ten winners of Sandbox Design Competition. Quite an achievement and should be congratulated accordingly.

I am sure Jauhari will not be satisfied with all that achievement. And we as Indonesians share the pride of what Jauhari has done and will still be doing. Every Indonesian has his/her own bits and pieces to contribute in his own way to make Indonesia recognized to the outside world. In the globalized internet world, one is more than able to make oneself known accross continent just by a click of the mouse, of course, as far as the willingness is there with you. Just like what Jauhari, and many others, is doing.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (76): Willy Sudiarto Raharjo

Willy Sudiarto Raharjo Blogger Indonesia of the Week #76To encourage new bloggers to be more active in posting their potentially precious thoughts, I wrote a blogging tip here that writing a paragraph-long posting is just as good as the longer one provided it covers the main idea you want to convey in that brief piece. Previously, I reviewed a blog belong to Alaya Setya who loves making a brief posting. Another case in point is a blog run by a techno geek Willy Sudiarto Raharjo who, like Alaya Setya, seems to like brief posting–one or two paragraphs each post–and yet he makes his point clear from the very first sentence of every post. This is important, if you intend to make a brief post, make to the point of whatever you want to say, to make your message get accross to the intended audience, indeed to all readers of your blog.

The tendency of brief-posting is actually in-vogue among some seasoned bloggers in other parts of the world. Insta Pundit, the so-called the grand dad of American political bloggers, can be included in this category.

Willy seems to understand well, that most of his readers who come to his blog are a blog walker who doesn’t have too much time to read your “in-depth analysis.” They just want an instant and latest information they think can be found in his blog. Unless the readers is one of your most die-hard fans, they just want a brief and informative post. And he is up to that expectation.

As I mentined in another post, brief post doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of words–or a lack of information gathered. It’s just intended to be so. Wise people will always put thing in appropriate time and condition. Blogging for some is a place to convey the main idea, not the nitty-gritty. That’s being said, we should not forget to appreciate those who sweat making a long comprehensive and thorough writing in their blog. The point is being flexible and not sticking to one’s own rule and standard in judging others is the best, so far as blogging goes. Every one has his own standard and priorities where to write what.

Willy is one of those who have a different “rule” as far as writing in various media. In blog, he just wants to make it as brief as it can get; he sets his own rule. In conventional publication, however, he just knows exactly what to do.