EKKA

Ray told me Ekka was shortened from Exhibition. The first time I knew Ekka was just like an ordinary name in Indo, who know it might be Ekka kurniawan, my school mate. There is one thing I could see from visiting Ekka, make Lara happy and her Daddy ... (what the ...?). Another thing is the cost that deseperately cutting off my forthnightly budget. Going to Ekka did cost so much though RACQ gave us a little as 10$ off from the real ticket price. In side the show, we can not only strolling seeing some extraordinary thing that we can not find in our country but also some show bags, rides and uhg ... some faked-padang n Indonesian satay food. There many street polls in Courier Mail or even West Side News about how expensive wasting money in Ekka, yet people keep coming every year. But ... I don't .... It is only becoz this year's gonna be my last year in Brizzy, why don't we take this chance to see what we can't see when we're going back home, after all Lara was very happy got a hug from Dora. Anyway this is my last EKKA.

Idol - Idolatry - idolaters

Ketika nonton iklan Australian Idol, saya jadi ingat kata 'Idol' yang suka diucapkan Br. Abdalla hari Sabtu n Rabu kemaren. Terus teringat pula ketika nonton audisi Australian Idol yang the silliest ever, ngeliat orang-orang sinting dan nekat menunjukan ke tololannya di depan si 'judges' sampai-sampai ada yang mlorotin celana kostum superman-nya menunjukan G-string yang dia pake ke the 'jugdges'. N gak kalah juga Spiderman konyol yang gemuk.

Nggak habis pikir ternyata Banyak juga bule-bule yang kurang waras dan kampungan banget. Untuk apa sebenarnya mereka berlomba untuk meraih jadi the 'Idol', tidak hanya Australian Idol juga idol-idol konyol lainnya termasuk di nagara sendiri yang super miskin berusaha ingin mensejajarkan diri dengan western (un-)civilisation.

Kata Idol dalam bahasa Indonesia berarti berhala, kalo di Al-Qur'an terjemahan yang English coba bandingkan, Idol = Berhala. Saya berasumsi (maksudnya berkahyal) mungkin kata idol sendiri dulunya mungkin memang berasal dari idola-idola orang yang belum mempunyai agama dan mereka mengidolakan tokoh masyarakat ditengah komunitasnya. Orang yang dijadikan idola itu kemudian meninggal dan masih di elu-elukan maka salah satu seorang diantaranya membuat monumen berupa sebuah patung si idol tadi dan ternyata patung pun bisa memuaskan kerinduan mereka untuk mengelukan dan akhirnya menyembah patung-patung idol itu. Kalo diperhatikan, apa bedanya dengan Idol yang sekarang, orang-orang yang menyaksikan Australian idol da idol-idol lainnya sampai teriak-teriak histeria mendambakan idol-idol mereka. Secara tidak langsung ini merupakan bentuk penyembahan idol dan mereka disebut idolaters atau penambah behala. Kesamaan lainnya adalah ketika si idol itu gak bisa hadir didekat si idolaters maka di belinya poster-poster idol mereka dan dipajangnya di kamar-kamar the idolaters. Cuma bedanya the idolaters ini tidak secara langsung mengakui penyembahannya dan tidak menjadikan idolatry-nya sebagai agama, karena mereka mengaku Atheis. Itu ter jadi di Australia. Kayaknya di Indonesia pun gak akan jauh berbeda ketika para penggemar idol (yang pasti gak mau dibilang idolaters) mengelu-elukan jagoannya, padahal nota bene mereka agama Islam - kebanyakan.

Jadi penyembah-penyembah berhala equvalensinya adalah penggemar-penggemar idol dong. Maka boleh dong kalo translation untuk Indonesian Idol berarti diterjemahkan "BERHALA INDONESIA".

Indang

From day to day topic yang dibicarakan masih masalah tujuhbelasan di kecamatan-kecamatan St. Lucia, Taringa dan gak tahu yang di Indooroopilly. Suatu pagi yang dingin ketika dua orang kuli Gherman sedang ngantuk sambil ngobrol. Mereka membahas tujuhbelasan tea, ya ... tentang meja yang rada mahal, tentang berbagai pernak-perniknya lah tujuhbelasan di luar nagreg termasuk Ekka. Ini cuplikan obrolan kedua kuli tadi:

Kuli N: Nanti katanyah akan ada latian tari buat tujuhbelasan
Kuli A: Oh ... nu tadi ceuk si S ... tea latihannya jam setengah enam. dirumah si S -nya?
Kuli N: he ueh ...
Kuli A: Emang cenah barudak mau di latih nari apa?
Kuli N: Katanya si mbak V... mau ngelatih tari INDANG
Kuli A: Naon INDANG tech?
Kuli N: Tari INDANG teh temenna BANDENG meuruen ...

Tiba-tiba keduanyah diem .... beberapa detik suasana hening, mikir meuruennya maklum rada tell me

Kuli A: Naha BANDENG ....? Ujug-ujug oh .......dasar gelo, maksudna INDANG BANDENG nya?

Indonesia, Independence? - Day

This afternoon, the invitation to come to the Bahasa Indonesia class made me curious. I just wondered how it was like. Before I went there, I had to think about my sit-in for Literacy class that took two hours, at least the last one hour was for the BI program in Gordon Greewood Bld. I managed to get out of the class when Mr. harrington allowed the students to have a break. Lucky me I was not the only one who came out of the class. I came to the BI and did what I can do - just gave a little glimpse about Bandung.

Then, in the end of the class, Mr. Ardani Sarjito said 'Harusnya banyak orang Indo yang mau datang [ke kelas Bahasa Indonesia, buat para bule di UQ] dan mempromosikan sisi positive Indonesia, jangan selalu yang terdengar berita negativenya dari media Aussie, bencana, bom di san -sini, terorr ...." - more or less he said so. Why people hardly use the word 'promote' for Indonesia. To be honest what should we promote? The appalling quality of a country huh ... phatetic ...

Having the conversation with Mr. Ardani 'n some friends (Pinus, Adi 'n Jaya), and joining the invitation from the UQISA mailing list about being the Indonesian interviewee and telling a bit more about our home town, it come to my sense that what should I promote our 'beloved' country to others when the fact says that our country is not good enough to be a good nation. I can take a little picture of Indonesia from its TV program for example, we can see that heaps of craps like infotainments, supernatural programs, rubbish sinetrons and many more low culture associated program. Another picture I want to say is that once we are Indonesian with its appalling mentality, it always be there. We are coming in one package with the mentality that can never be detached from our daily life though we are living in different situation - in Aussie for example.

Recently I have been wondering about the so-called educated and religious Indonesians in Australia were a bit ignorant to the offer from the secular school. I can not say myself that I can be responsible for this case. But the thing is when my response [to them]described a little about my scepticism and felt a little bit of responsibility just because I am legally authorised, none of them argued or even had a little discussion. To me it's a kind of the bluffing.

This kind of mentality can be found everywhere in any case. I'm not over-generalising. So, the mentality is when a group of people feels insecure about their well-being, they call for a victim to sacrifice himself for the sake of their safety. They are waiting for the volunteer victim. When they know the volunteer is not hurt, the group of that people follow the path what the volunteer has done to their community. But if the volunteer were victimised, every body in the group find the safe place for their survival and ego. The affinity of metaphore for this case is just like a herd of Hyena. They want to eat the zebra but they don't want to hunt and just waiting for lion to kill the zebra and eat the leftover. Thus, can we call this an independent mentality?

Carpe Diem

Time flies so fast. It just like a flash from week to week though I always want it everyday is the weekend. My time in Brisbane will be over soon, in the coming six months I'm no longer live in Brisbane with itsy bitsy dynamic life. Realising the 'games will be over', I start to think what's my future like? what can I get from staying for so long in different culture and situation from my home country? Is it worthwhile living in Australia for four years? or it's just for nothing.

When the speed of time haunts me, many ideas come across with and without some action. Now I begin thinking the weekly program to seize the daily bases for my own. Trying to classify what 'dough' and 'donut' (Homer Simpson copy right), variety of activities were made up for the CARPE DIEM. Trying to be look as a well-organised lady, the schedule for the week would look cool enough for actually a full-time slacker.

SEIZE THE DAY COMES DAILY WITH SOME COMPLEMENTARY FUN AND RISK

• Monday. This is gonna be the sickness of Mondayitis, everybody will suffer from the desease including me, me, me .... Try to figure it out, Monday is gonna be the "Searching Day". It is the time to prepare for my sit-in classes the next day otherwise the sit-in session wouldn't trace anything in my skinny brain. Monday is the day for searching course materials for the three courses but I don't think I could read them all - get real. I don't care if I can't get into them at all. After all who cares? The COMU 1000 could be quite all right that prvide some online copy in the library, and the EDUC 7031 has just shown up from the Blackboard to down load. But the LING 2020 is gonna be a bit messy cuz some of them are on-line material but not the others. Another short cut for this is buying the reading material from the UQ Bookshop without discount - they were sold out anyway, and ordering them was undesirable.
• Tuesday. It's time for the sit-in. Tuesday is the "Sit-in day" Sleeping is a must, 6.15 after working hard, I lay down for a while and go ... go ... go ... Carpe Diem. Some searhing material stuff might be involved cuz the previous day might not enough. 12. 00 for COMU, 2.00 for LING and 6.00 for EDUC. The hardest part of Tuesday is that Lara has to go with daddy while daddy has to seize the day and night for his un-ended thesis. The course is good though sometimes the snoozing is unavoidable. The prof is cool and a very nice fella. I want to give him something he likes? What .... any idea?
• Wednesday is the "Playing day". It called playing cuz I try to manage volunteering in Play House day care. Having just one or two volunteering time were quite inspiring how to deal with kids. Somehow, I enjoy playing in there with some kids and the Korean group leader, Sunny and Japanese assistence, Shelley. Kindy probably the group I chose cuz the group with younger kids than kindy was a bit hard and only a little chance to learn. But actually I want to try the preschooler with the Aussie group leader. I suppose the chance to learn many things is a lot more. Anyway, the important is that I have to keep my vonlunteering in a weekly bases and focus.
• Thurday is the "shopping day". As far as three and a half year living in Brisbane, thursday is the time when shops and shopping centre start the period of reducing some of their merchandise in turn - but not for groceries. Sometimes, I just pop in one of the section of a variety store to check how far their stuffs are being reduced. It's silly, it's kind of obsrvation to find the lowest price ever, even if my luck's coming over I got as low as 50 cents for a piece socks or Bart Simpson key ring or any other which is impossible and amazing. In other times recently, a velvet-dark-brown-boho bag was only $4 (used to be $20), and it was cute, though Yusi bought as the same as she found it first. It's gonna be funny if we put them in together in the same occasion ha ... haa ... ha. Shopping, I can say it's one of the the most interesting experience here in Brisbane cuz when I compare the price here to my home country, it is impossible. In Bandung the price reduction is not fair, it happens after they lift the price up and they put the discount on - but not here. Yes, Thursday is my favorite day with another one important reason it is a pay day.
• Friday. It's nearly weekend, people say TGIF for this day. To me it 's gonna be the "Reflection Day". On Friday sometimes I plan many things to do cuz I know to night is holliday for my work and I don't even want to sleep again after working from 11.40. p.m. My program for Friday is actually blogging to write the weekdays and any occasion I had for a week. Another thing is cleaning up the house in detail, organise the wardrobe and thats the house wife thingys work. Sometimes preparing some food for the Mushala and I try to come to the Mushala not only for my reflection and enriching my spiritual being but also see some friends. Lately this week, the issue on Friday is gonna be the RE voluntary teaching for next week in Ironside Primary School in St Lucia. It is kinda an argument having in my mind just like between the rock and the hard place. If I go for it, I have to think twice, what I am doing as a religion teacher? I can't believe it I do it cuz being an RE teacher I have to mantain my attitude and behaviour as good as a saint. While I'm not a saint - I'm in the middle of fixing my attitude to be a real saint. My religous knowledge about Islam is nothing compare to those who are ready to teach for RE. But if nobody is willing to take the role, what can I do? I am the one who hold the Blue Card as a permit to teach there. So what's ... bla bla bla. I'm not the right person but any way I'll take the role before the right person come over and take the role properly. Please God, help me, this is gonna be a big resposibility teaching Kids about Your way. However, the most important thing is the sincerity and being earnest are the essence of doing this.
• Saturday and Sunday. They are sometimes confusing day but anyway they are "Free Time Day". Most of them I fall as sleep for the half day though once in a while my other job is on the roster for saturday or Sunday or may be both from 5 - 8 a.m. No program at all in these day. However, If I am on the loose, I feel bad about what I've done for being too indulged my self and wasting my time.

The bottom line for all the weekly program is that every day I have to seize the day. Filling in as many things as I can do to enrich my body and soul, to preserve some at least a little knowledge in future and collecting some certificate of letters of reference as the last one is my last year target during my stay in Australia.