The other day I came to compare Indonesia's youth to America's youth. Today I'm here to defend the religion of Islam.

As most of us know by now, there were terrorist attacks on Paris several hours ago that left over 100 people dead. I've purposely stayed away from Twitter today because I don't want to see any tweets bashing Islam or Muslims--I know if I do I'll get super duper angry. I am not Muslim--I'm a nondenominational Christian (which is just a big word to say, I don't follow a specific sect of Christianity). But seeing a beautiful and rich religion being used as justification for hate and hate and more hate makes me upset. And seeing the evil atrocities of IS used as justification for even more hate than I thought possible breaks my damn heart.

Earlier today I made a LINE post exhorting people to stop using the attacks as justification to hate or look down upon other religions. (In essence, don't be a self-confirming idiot). Someone responded to my LINE post. I'm going to take this time to respond to that person and add some more points. So, let's delve into this post and add some more commentary for you sweet readers to enjoy on a Saturday night!

[[Di beberapa poin gue setuju dan di beberapa poin juga gue ga setuju.

- "Terrorism is the product of hate-filled people, not of a religion or an ethnic group."

Terorisme eksis dikarenakan adanya ideologi dan kepentingan politik suatu kelompok. Ideologi itu sumber dari gerakan-gerakan terorisme, apalagi kalo ideologi tersebut mengharuskan para penganutnya untuk melakukan itu. Analoginya sama kaya gue beli action figure yang ngerakit sendiri, terus gue ngikutin cara ngerakit dari guidebook yang banyak errornya. Menurut lo, yang lebih salah si guidebook atau gue?]]

FIRST, [the popularity of terrorism] and [the existence of ideology] are in no way related. People don't read a Koran and think, "wow, now I'm going to be a terrorist." Just as people use the Bible to fuel their own selfish hate, some people may read the Koran to fuel their hate.

SECOND. There has never been a moment when terrorism was "popular" on this planet. Terrorism is committed by a very vocal minority who are grabbing all the airspace.

THIRD: do not trust the media. I mean, just take a look at American media. Six major companies own 90% of the information that is reaching your eyes and your head. This is why critical analysis is a very, very important skill to have.

FOUR: this segment equates the "ideology of Islam" to a faulty guidebook that has many errors. I think you're implying that the Koran's faults are in its supposed violence. So. Have you read the Koran? Or are you simply reading Internet articles that say "ISLAM IS SO VIOLENT AND PROMOTES HOLY WARS"? Picking and choosing 2 sentences out of the Koran and judging the entire religion based on those 2 sentences would be like trying to understand one Harry Potter book with 2 sentences out of the whole book. The religion of Islam has never required its adherents to become terrorists or forcefully convert others. Read some articles by Islam professors and take a moment to read the Koran before jumping to the worst conclusion. What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt? Give Islam and the Koran and your fellow people a chance.

FIVE: are you forgetting the atrocities committed by Christian and Catholic extremists? Think about American slavery, the Inquisition, and the 200-year-long Crusades. I stand by my original statement: terrorism is a product of hate-filled people, not hate-filled religions. Humans are very good at self-justification, and it's despicable that IS is twisting the Islamic religion into justification for their crimes against humanity.

SIX: if you as a person with access to the Internet and education in the 21st century are still using the excuse, "they made me do it," or "I was just following the leader", then you might need to sit down for a while. Allah and Islam do not force others to kill. PEOPLE force others to kill. PEOPLE feed mothers their cut-up sons. PEOPLE hold guns to prisoners' heads and make those prisoners kill others. We as humans are born with the power to make decisions. PEOPLE take away that power, not Allah.

Seventh: there is a huge difference between the religion of Islam and the ideology of Islam, just as there is a difference between the religion of Christianity and the ideology of Christianity. Ideology in any form, extremism in any form: they are sinister because they do not allow for opposing viewpoints.

[["Don't turn a tragedy into a tool to further your hatred of other people"

Yep, gue sangat setuju sama ini. Tapi kita ga bisa salahin orang-orang yang kesal sama si pelaku juga, orang kesal itu wajar kok. Gak semua orang bisa menyikapi semua hal dengan bijak dan kita harus mengerti akan hal itu. Apalagi kalo tragedinya sebesar ini. Selama semua itu hanya sebatas ide, ga ada masalah. "A half-baked idea is okay as long as it's in the oven."]]

I won't add much to this because for the most point it is a reasonable statement. People can be angry at terrorists. People can be angry at the atrocities committed today and every single day by hate-filled people. Note how I am saying people can be angry at TERRORISTS and at ATROCITIES. But even though a fear/anger of Muslims is understandable, does that make the fear/anger acceptable or tolerable?

- "I'm sick of hearing bigoted, close-minded Americans (and other whites) saying that this is all Muslims' fault."

Kita juga gak bisa nyalahin orang-orang yang langsung bilang "Ah palingan juga ini kelakuan Muslim lagi" karena opini mereka juga disebabkan oleh beberapa hal yang masuk akal. Kenapa masuk akal? Karena menurut data pun mayoritas aksi terorisme itu sebagian besar dilakukan oleh Muslim. Misal menurut data dari National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) tahun 2011; "The report says that in 2011, a total of 10,283 terrorism attacks across the world killed 12,533 people. Sunni Muslim terrorists committed “about 70 percent” of the 12,533 terrorist murders. Terrorism also is blamed for 25,903 injuries and 5,554 kidnappings."

This is where I start to have an issue again. No, I don't blame people for their ignorance. I don't blame people who have been taught all their lives to fear Islam and fear Muslims. It's natural that they're conditioned to hate Muslims or blame them for every act of terrorism. Thanks, Bush-era propaganda. Swell job you did polarizing the world.

Hmm. I won't argue with the data because it's from the NCTC and that's a reliable national organization (although the  US government is minimally reliable). But even then: have you considered that the most victims of terrorism are also Muslims? So then what's your point? Have you considered the fact that there are wars going on in regions you don't think about? According to this same organization, the countries being hit the hardest by terrorists are Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Somalia. Four of these countries are predominantly Muslim.

When Americans and other whites jump to blame "Muslims", they refer to the entire Muslim religion and condemn every Muslim person in the world. I know, because I've been in a heavily anti-Muslim community. It runs deep. But these atrocities are committed by extremists who are Muslim, NOT by the Muslim world or the religion of Islam. Again: these acts of terror are produced by hate-filled people who conveniently use their "religion" as a reason to destroy. These acts of terror are NOT produced by a people or a religion. Muslim people do not somehow manufacture terrorism.

[["To everyone saying that the Paris attacks are proof that Muslims are "evil": people are dying and all you can do is spread more hate and suffering? You know nothing about their religion."

Gue setuju, jangan langsung loncat ke konklusi dengan premis yang lemah, nanti jatuhnya malah ke generalisasi tidak sempurna.
Dan 1 hal lagi, penganut agama Islam tentunya ga semua jahat, gue punya banyak temen Muslim dan mereka semua baik.
Tapi mereka (penganut agama Islam) punya potensi untuk melakukan hal-hal yang jahat. Bukan karena mereka ingin melakukan hal jahat, tetapi mereka diwajibkan untuk melakukan hal-hal yang jahat.
Kita harus mengenal perintah-perintah Islam lebih jauh dan mahzab-mahzab yang ada di dalamnya.]]

What even is this argument? The Muslims have potential to do evil things? So do I? On the outside I am a good little Christian girl. But I have the potential to do something evil too! Hello? I could, say, take a knife and start stabbing people in the name of Jesus! That means I'm crazy, not that Jesus is crazy! Every single f*cking human on the planet has the potential to do evil things, so STOP before you go any further and STOP singling out a single group of people! Thank you! And "because they are required to do so"? I'm bug-eyed in disbelief. Refer back to point 4 above.

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My commentary: man, I stayed away from Twitter to stay away from this casual justification of Islam-focused anger. There is a difference between [extremists who abuse the name of Allah] and [people who believe in Islam]. It makes me so sick and so sad. There's no point in figuring out who's to blame. It's more time-efficient to ask the French what we can do to help and to raise the voices of the huge majority of Muslims who would never in their lives dream of hurting anyone or forcing Islam onto a non-Muslim. Don't make hasty generalizations and don't stereotype. Don't give people a reason to stereotype by saying, "well, it's understandable that they'd be angry at Muslims." All bigots will hear when you say that is "it's okay to be angry" and stop there. Think about the Parisians. Think about the Muslim world, who is hurting every day because of terrorists who use the name of Islam/Allah to kill. Think about the Palestinians, and the Rohingya, and the Iraqi, and the Afghans and the Syrians. Think about the pain they have endured. They, too, are aware of the caustic, heartbreaking pain of mindless violence. We as citizens of the world need to unite not only for Paris but for each other, in America, in Beirut, Yemen, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, etc. Muslims are humans too. We are all human, and we need to stop defending hate and anger and instead spread love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Have a blessed night and stay safe.

Education Sucks!!

It sucks in a lot of places, but sometimes I've been frustrated recently because I feel like going to class is a waste of time. (Why do I always seem to express my frustrated feelings?). My cousin said once that in Indonesia, people cheat because it's easy, and that her schoolmates would come up with really clever ways of cheating. So far from what I've seen, what she's said is true. It's a little bizarre for me because even my seniors say, "If you can cheat, just do it. On the quizzes it's fine, as long as it's not the final." It's a little different in America, where you can get expelled very quickly for plagiarism or cheating.

Personally I think the whole mess of grading, testing, and quizzing is faulty because in the real world there will always be access to resources and information. I also think that forcing students to take "closed book" exams is inefficient. I know I don't have a basis for these statements; it's just some of my observations from being out and about in my little world. Instead of testing students on memorized facts we ought to run simulations, give oral exams, and develop labs for students to demonstrate their knowledge. Simulations and labs would take the information the student learned and apply it to a real-life settings. Skills are more valuable than knowledge. I could memorize the entire periodic table but if I don't know what to do with it or what its implications are, then it's useless.

Oral exams or presentations would, of course, put a higher toll on the teacher, but it has dual benefit: frst, the teacher can see just how well the student knows the information, and second, if we start oral exams from a young-enough age, all students can get proper practice speaking in front of an audience. If we normalize presentation and speech-delivering instead of making it into some sort of DUN DUN DUN IT'S HELL TIME, students will likely feel much more confident. As they say, "the true sign that you've studied properly is when you can teach what you've learned to someone else."

Back to cheating. Maybe it's a little frustrating for me. Grades matter in the long run because they're what companies look at while evaluating your application, and since everyone is boosting their own GPA shouldn't I boost mine too? All's fair in love and war, they say, and isn't the academic competition war? But I'm a bit hesitant now to go into morals and justice and philosophy so let's just stay away from that and keep this as musings. 

Anyways education was supposed to be about learning and instead it's about the score and about grades and about ranking. Which is abysmal and very, very disheartening. Maybe one day I'll be the president of a nation and push education reform bills through. That's what I would do as president: EDUCATION REFORM. I'm not sure how different governments work though. This is just musing but I think Indonesia would be much better off if it 1) eliminated the cheating and plagiarism epidemic and 2) taught students how to think creatively and analytically. Students are just spouting off hastily-memorized and useless information to perform well and of course everyone is obsessed with performance and so nothing ever changes.

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I've been thinking about the semester 6 internship in Germany and I really hope I'll get to go there or to Amsterdam. It would be very nice to experience winter again, because I really miss cold weather and sweaters and hot chocolate. Hot chocolate just isn't the same in warm weather, you know?

Should I be frustrated if people at school don't know anything about me? Probably not! It's my fault for not being more open. I'll introduce myself a little more here so at least you, dear reader, can have the benefit of knowing about me. I absolutely adore poetry. I'm being published in the next edition of Murmur! And I recently sent about 16 of my poems back to America and they will probably not be accepted but at least I can dream. Why are all of my dreams blooming so violently? I've been using the word "blooming" a lot lately. I love to eat french fries. I will eat absolutely any potato product, whether it be french fries, baked potatoes, curly fries, potato chips, hash browns, etc. Anything. Feed me potatoes and I will devote a portion of my adoring love to you.

I'm really just on this blog today as a cursory measure. See, I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog. If you care enough to know what I've been doing for the past few days and weeks, read on! Someone took the time to screenshot my LINE post and share it to Facebook (you can see it here), where it got 300+ shares. I'm very honored and a bit apprehensive because lots of people added me and discussed with me about the issue. I have dreams of being monumentally, stupendously important in the world so I guess I'll have to get used to the negative comments and appreciate them. I've been rather busy working on that novel but I've resigned myself to the likely possibility I won't finish it in time for NaNoWriMo, what with my compulsive editing skills and all.

I've also been grumpy recently. I had a minor spat with my dear friend Mocha and I thought the world was ending because I rely on him quite a bit. We were talking every day and I got used to that. Humans, after all, don't like change.

I've been eyeing the Staedtler Fineliners and Zebra Mildliners and other stationery, such as the Muji notebooks (if not Hobonichi but for some reason there are no Hobonichi vendors here in sweet Indonesia). I've been craving sate ayam recently. And I've been listening to a lot of NAIF. I hope you have a brilliant day today, full of love and joy and absolute wonder.

Cheers,
RIN

I'm going to preference this by saying I totally disagree with every single person who is bashing IU's song Zeze and saying that she's a sick, twisted pedophile. It makes me really angry. I've been following IU since 2010 and I have never found a reason to dislike her. Not because of the Eunhyuk "scandal" and certainly not because of Zeze.

It really pisses me off seeing people blame IU for being a pedophile. The irony makes my eyes hurt. Since her debut she was marketed as a sweet, soft, lovely princess. You can see it in her lyrics for 23, where she's expressing her doubt and confusion as to what she's supposed to be. IU is an artist.

POINT 1: IU doesn't have to listen to the netizens who tell her what to write about. It's her song, and it's her album.

POINT 2: IU herself has been simultaneously sexualized and infantilized by creepy perverts, but she writes a meta song about it and suddenly she's evil.

POINT 3: Once a character has been released to the public, it's free for interpretation. Zeze doesn't "belong" to the author anymore, he belongs to the world. And that means that just as people can write smut about EXO or reinterpret Maleficent, IU can redefine Zeze and use him to tell her story.

POINT 4: Having a sexy attitude is not the same as being sexy. Madonna/whore complex, anyone?

POINT 5: Zeze wasn't sexually abused.

Everyone's going crazy because they say she's praising sexual abuse but?? In the book he wasn't abused.

My Beautiful Indonesia: The First Impression

I've been here in Indonesia for almost seven months now, and there are some major differences and minor differences and, of course, similarities between this country and the United States. But the most startling of the major differences is that Indonesian youth actively discourage each other from being:


1) passionate
2) angry

3) emotional
4) disappointed
5) basically showing any strong emotion

Indonesian youth have a very strong tendency to dismiss all of these things as being "baper," which I guess has become a catch-all term for "sensitive". I've heard from more than one person my age that I shouldn't be "overthinking things"--why overthink when you can just live life freely, without worries? I mean, they've said it right out: "Rin, why are you thinking so much about this? There's no point in thinking too much about anything; it'll just give you a headache." Contrast this with so many American youth (not just my friends) who are always thinking /more/. In fact, they'd go to war for the right to think freely. They're always striving to do better and greater. These kids go home and they cry or they sing or they write poetry or music, they read books or work on Web comics or do their own research about social trends. So many of them. They're passionate, they get angry, they fight for their beliefs, they get out on the Internet and write angry diatribes--not at the object of their crush but at the government/parents/other students. American youth are engaged in their society and strive hard to have a voice even though adults try to shut them down much the same way adults shut down youth here. They are not afraid because they know that the world is their birthright, so they are starting early to make their inheritance a good one. They defend their voice. Indonesian youth...don't. They dismiss the horrible things going on in the world as someone else's responsibility, seemingly forgetting that they will inherit Indonesia the way the kids abroad will inherit the United States. And all of you, all of us: we are inheriting the world. Why aren't we trying to make it better?


If there was a motto for the Indonesian youth of today, I feel like it would be "don't be baper." And frankly, I don't understand it. Why are youth actively discouraging each other from these things? Isn't the whole hallmark of youth to be young, vibrant, emotional, and ecstatically alive? Being here in this culture has been hard. People always say I care too much. So many kids practice this cold detachment from what they love, whether it be music, science, family, or friends. Friends in Indonesia are less of a platonic love bond/support system than a tool to PAP of on ask.fm. All of this serves to highlight the Indonesian spirit of fear and silence. Truthfully Indonesia actually has a brilliant people and culture and arguably has the richest culture out of all the world's countries, but all of that is being destroyed by:

1) a government who doesn't care enough about culture to protect it
2) the messages we are sending to Indonesian youth

3) the messages Indonesian youth are sending to each other (I'm looking at you, galau LINE accounts who only talk about romance)

So many people in America don't even know anything about Indonesia. The most they know about is Bali, which, as we all know, is a big fat waste of Indonesian culture that turns our heritage into cheap commodities that will be brought home, placed on the kitchen table, and used as "kitschy home decor." Is that it? Is that all Indonesia is destined for?? Why is being carefree and "whatevs" so in vogue here??? Why don't you love your country? Why don't you support your youth in creating beautiful things? All of those things that your kids are striving so hard to create--art, poetry, music, engineering projects--those things are being lost abroad to Germany and the States and everywhere else because you don't value what they believe in and as a result neither do they. This whole "whatevs" culture permeates every single layer of Indonesian society and it terrifies me.
Your youth have an abhorrent fear of being angry or having any emotions in general, which is probably why they turn to romance and love as an outlet for the anger, passion, and frustration they can't otherwise display. So many of you are cold robots who only have time for yourselves and it's just baffling. I might be an idiot but at least I believe in something and fight for things with all my heart. Where the hell are your hearts??? I've never met such a dejected, lifeless, robotic group of people before.