Hear evil, see evil, speak evil

When one celebrity ustaz died in an accident, the media coverages made it seem like it's a national tragedy.

When dozens of Papuans killed in Papua by the military, no one reacted. If there's any, people often said they felt bad about it, but then what could they do?

I heard from a friend, who was really upset when she told me this, that a 'famous' comedian here said that people should move on and stop dwelling in the past. He meant the unfinished murder case of Munir.

I read somewhere in Aceh, women can't fart in public anymore. I hope this is a hoax. The banana ban is bad enough. And now farting in public? (Oh you don't know about the eating-banana-in-public ban for women? Really?)

I wonder how Acehnese women feel about being a woman and live in such bigoted community. Oh wait, maybe they don't even understand the concept of bigotry because everything under Sharia is absolutely 100 percent true. It's God's words. What could possibly wrong about them?

Yes, I wonder what can possibly wrong about the words of God. 

Unity in Diversity? MIA

I've been reading different things about atheism recently and then it got me thinking: How can you be an atheist in a country with the largest Muslim population in the world? In a country where acknowledging atheism is the same as an invitation to get arrested, harassed and most likely hurt? In a country where thugs wearing white long robes and silly white hats, chanting something presumably meaningful in Arabic, CAN actually get away with murder? I guess the answer is: secretly.

There was a case of an atheist civil servant in this country who posted a status saying he didn't necessarily believe in god. And that didn't end nicely for the man, of course. He was then arrested, convicted committing blasphemy, got fired and then spent some time behind bars. I have lots of atheist friends, and I don't think they ever said it out loud. And that was before the FPI-era; before people can hurt other people just because they pray differently with the majority. Before churches in Bekasi were forcefully closed down. Before Ahmadiyahs got killed and trapped in their own mosque or houses. Before Buddhist temple was asked to take down their Buddha figure on top of THEIR temple's entrance.

The fact that Indonesia still considers blasphemy as a criminal conduct is beyond my comprehension. By definition, blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God (Merriam-Webster). If you don't actually believe that there's a god, how can you insult or show contempt towards it then? Okay, you can say by not believing is showing contempt or lack of reverence. But when you don't believe in tooth fairies or Santa Claus anymore, are you trying to show contempt towards tooth fairies and/or Santa Claus? Or to the people who still believe in tooth fairies and/or Santa Claus?

I guess the theistic basic principles of this country has been abused to a degree where people forget that we also have another unifying nationalistic slogan (which supposedly becomes the foundation of this country as a nation), the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika: in diversity we unite.

It feels very utopic to talk about Bhinneka Tunggal Ika now. It sounds like a beautiful fictitious concept that only exists in a Victorian novel or something. Definitely cannot picture the way Indonesia works as a nation now. I constantly ask myself this: Why is it so wrong to be different?

Will there ever be a peaceful way to solve religious conflicts or differences in this country? Will there be a safe way to control poisonous and dangerous mass organisations like FPI? It's not that I reject the idea of a religious organisation; it's about how they use violence, break the law and violate human rights in the name of a religion.

 

Bear and Dora

There are only a few things that I wanted to say in this post. First, I was scrolling up my timeline when I saw one tweet that said, "You are not a photographer. You're just a teenager with Nikon." I laughed and retweeted it, thinking that this tweet pretty much sums up a series of bitching, with a friend, about how hipsters here are 'wearing' expensive SLR as part of their costumes. Come on, kids that haven't grown out their teen pimples slinging a $1500 camera on their skinny (or fat) necks? You gotta bitch about that, surely?

Second, hipsters aside, I am thinking of getting a SLR myself. I think I like to be able to explore the world of lights and wonder with better media (i.e. better lens, more expensive camera). Although recently, I managed to take a few good pictures of my cat with my generic digital camera. Bear, that's my camera, is a Fujifilm FinePix SL300. It's ok, but sometimes it performs quite crappy in a low-light condition.

A friend, who has just recently acquired the title "professional photographer" once told me that oftentimes it's the person behind the lens that matters. I hope she's right. And I hope I'm one of the people who matters. And now we've come to the last part of the post, the pictures. I titled this series as Dora: the secret cat model (yeah yeah not catchy, whatever). She's my 5-month-old Persian kitten, insane and playful, and recently just found out that she liked to be photographed by me. I, of course, prefer to photograph her than working. Enjoy :)

p.s. sorry for the shitty layout. blogger doesn't allow me to arrange them the way I want them. or maybe it's because I'm shit and I don't know how to. if there's someone out there reading and itching to tell me, please do. spanks!

1/8 F3.1

1/13 F3.1

1/13 F3.1

1/8 F3.1

1/8 F3.1