A Tale of Discipline

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I updated about myself, hasn't it?

With all my recent book analysis posts, I hoped that you all didn’t think that my blog has become a book review and analysis blog. It hasn’t. It’s still just a platform for me to share my life-views and activities with you all. I am an avid reader. So I have recently been busy reading and analysing different books, which I found to be quite interesting and educating. But, I get that if you get the same type of posts every few weeks, it would tend to get boring. So I will try to insert other types of writing in between.

To be honest, I only posted my study analyses because I had difficulties in thinking up topics to write in my personal entries. I didn’t participate in too many events recently. I didn't want to add more activities to my schedule, as there's this voice behind my head saying that I still have lots of things to do. During the holidays, I also couldn't hang out with friends because I had to catch up with my studies. I have an allotted study time of seven hours a day. However, I don’t seem to be getting any studying done. What a mystery! I even used to think that one of the reasons I'm unable to get things done was because of my extracurricular activities; and was about to cut them all down. After examining every possible clue, I finally discovered the culprit! D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N-S. Objects of crime: mobile phone, books, pets, daydreams, computer, and Internet access. Perhaps no further explanation is needed. :)

Thinking back, this culprit has been my constant companion for as long as I can remember; ever since my parents decided to trust me to study on my own. This culprit always succeeded in persuading me to trick my parents, and this obviously bore rotten fruits. The academic deadlines I set for myself always seemed to run away from me and I had to constantly chase them. Unfortunately, I acted like a snail and when I finally reached the finished line, I have another or actually many other races to complete. I seemed to be stuck in never-ending races.

In order to persuade myself to change, I had to find motivations. Unexpectedly, I found my motivations in my friends. I have a friend who goes to a prestigious school known for its rigorous and challenging activities. I wanted to experience similar challenges, but as you know, I have many incomplete lessons. Therefore, I felt the urgency to finish my studies so that I can pursue more challenging and exciting activities.

A competitor can also be a great motivator. A few months ago, I joined an academic course, where periodically, there’s an academic assessment. The results would be shown to the whole class. For the first assessment, I ranked 1st in my class. Recently, a new classmate joined the course. He is a diligent and dedicated student. He studied tirelessly, even during break time! I’m very much motivated to maintain my 1st position and he has become a serious challenger. Therefore, I need to work more seriously and harder on my studies.

I discovered that when I have more motivations, I have more drive to make changes, such as studying more and working hard. But motivations can only push me forward; it cannot help me to manage my time. So, I use a study method called Pomodoro Tomato. A pomodoro is to work with full concentration for 25 minutes then break for 5 minutes. Every 3rd pomodoro, I break for a longer time; usually for 15 minutes.

With these to help me catch up my studies, I'm starting to get back on track. I managed to find time to explore my coordinating skills. I became the coordinator of a homeschool event. Coordinating the event is quite time consuming as I need to spend a lot of time managing people. Therefore, I’m still hesitant in trying a new hobby, as it also takes up time to practise the skills. I still have subjects to catch up with, even though they're not as many as my previous years. I hope that these methods will help me for a long time. I’m very sure that at some point in my life in the future, I will be distracted again. Hopefully, I will find new motivations to help me get back on track!

Son: A Little Analysis on Love

The power of love is a curious thing. It plays a significant part in people’s successes, as it could motivate them to conquer their fears and challenges to reach their goals. The love here is not limited to just romantic or parents’ love, but it’s all encompassing, including friends and teachers’ love.

It is generally known that the greatest love is a parent's love. Claire sacrificed a lot to find her son Gabe. She left her home into the unknown, train hard physically to climb cliffs and traded her youth with Trademaster. Although Gabe never knew Claire, learning about her sacrifices for him made him felt wanted and loved. Before this, even though Gabe led a fairly peaceful life in the village, thanked to Jonas, who rescued him and became like a father-figure to him; he felt a void of not knowing his mother and origin. He agreed to fight Trademaster to save Claire.

The journey to find Trademaster was a hard one, and he couldn't have done it without those who cared for him. The main weapon that Gabe brought with him, is a paddle. The paddle was carved with the signatures of his friends and Jonas. Feeling those signatures, which symbolises all those who mattered in his life, helped motivate him to continue his perilous journey, and later to defeat Trademaster.

There's a saying that behind every man's success, there is a strong woman. I think it would be more precise to say several strong women and men. Many successful people in our world always had someone behind them, cheering them on. Some examples are Jack Ma and Barack Obama. When they made a big change in their career, their wives and families believed in them and supported them to just do it! Love and support from the people that care for us are the main recipes to success. No matter how big their roles are in our life, they help shape us into who we are today.

The fourth, and last book of The Giver quartet

Messenger: What is Important In Our Lives?

For our whole lives, we are constantly reminded and advised to be good. But somehow, without realizing it, we might have fallen victim to the devil's whisper. In the book Messenger, we are introduced to the community where Matty and Christopher, Kira's father, lived. It's a community built by outcasts, and they welcome everyone with kindness. They are considerate and sincere, and they always try to help anyone in need. Unfortunately, with the presence of the manipulative Trademaster, who was actually evil disguised as human, the people lost track of what’s the most valuable things in their lives.

Matty and nearly everyone in the community was envious of Rowan and his family, who had traded for a gaming machine. They thought that they would be happier if they had it. What they didn't realize though, was that Rowan and his family became more and more unhealthy. It reminded me of the avid and addicted gamers. They spent hours playing their online games and some had become so addicted that they disregarded their health both physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Mentor, the community’s school teacher, exchanged his kind self for a fit body and a handsome face so that he could marry Stocktender’s widow. He thought that he couldn’t win the widow without outward beauty. It’s also such a common notion nowadays, and we have this kind of “trade". Many people are insecure about their looks. Beauty clinics, weight loss programs, and plastic surgeons have mushroomed to help people with physical insecurities. Some people would even go into debt and ruin their health in order to be able to achieve their goals. All for the sake of feeling confident and appealing. The importance of inner beauty is forgotten.

Evaluating what are the most important qualities in our lives and societies is very crucial. We should never give up our true selves for the sake of others and materialistic enjoyment. We might be too late when we realize that the results have corrupted ourselves. Matt had to sacrifice himself to heal all the corrupted souls in the Village. Don’t wait until you have to pay a very high cost for your ignorance. Do not lose sight of what matters most.

The third book of The Giver quartet

Gathering Blue: Is the Paved Path Always Right For Us?

"Stay on the path, and you shall be safe!" That was what Jamison told Kira when she went into the woods, and so is the motto of a lot of people. We could think of the path as the norms and traditions we grew up with. They had been made by the people before us, and so they guaranteed a safe and expected result. Straying away from the path meant that there would be differences and changes. There would be consequences, and the results might be either good or bad.
Life was not easy in Kira’s community. All members of the community were expected to be able to work and contribute. Those who were born with disabilities, would immediately be abandoned and left to die in the fields. When Kira was born a cripple, her mother, Katrina, fought to keep her. As a result, nearly all the other women in their community despised them. Katrina and Kira’s lives were lonely and hard. However, Katrina’s action would bring about a significant impact for the future of their community.

Katrina’s a talented weaver. She once worked as a weaver to fix the Singer’s Robe. Every fall, the Singer would wear it when he sings the Song of Ruin, which tells their history. It was one of the most important events in the community. Future events needed to be added to the robe, and for that, the council needed a weaver. Kira's prodigious talents caught the eye of the council, and therefore, killed Katrina and took control of Kira so that they could use her talents for their benefits.

At first Kira was grateful that she was given a chance to live and tried to live up to Jamison, her mentor's, expectations. However, she discovered the dark side of the authorities and the exploitation of talented children. Their talents were cherished, but they were not allowed to create their arts freely. They must follow Jamison’s instructions about what to create. Kira felt limited when asked to weave what Jamison wanted. After much struggle, Kira decided to go against her orders and weave her visions of the future onto the robe. Through this, Kira was able to make a better future for her community.

One of Kira's roommates, Thomas, was also an orphan. Just like Kira, his prodigious talent in carving landed him a spot in the government's quarters after his parent's deaths. He became the Carver of the Singer's Staff, which helped the Singer remembered the parts of the song. He would also carve the future onto the staff. Thomas also felt limited when he carved under Jamison's orders, but unlike Kira, he didn't go against them. He carved the future they wanted.

Even though both Kira and Thomas chose different paths, both ended up leading good lives. Following the societies’ expectations didn’t become a disadvantage for Thomas. However, he didnt make any improvements in his society, while Kira did. She reintroduced blue, which symbolizes love and compassion back into her society. An achievement that none other could do.

In our modern socities, high academic achievements are the ultimate goals because many people think that they will help you get high paying jobs and succeed in life. However, I think that what’s even more important than that is to follow your own passion and be innovative. People who follow their true beliefs and not just adhere to the society’s standards will be inspirational to others. They are the one who will bring new innovations to their companies or societies. Look at some of the world’s greatest innovators, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, both of them didn’t complete their university studies but decided to pursue their passion and their creations changed the world.

People go against the norm because of many reasons. Some don't intentionally go against it. Some aren't comfortable with it or disagree with the norms. Some just don't fit. Whatever the reasons are, as long as we follow our hearts and fight for what we believe in, we will make a difference.

The second book of The Giver quartet

The Giver: An Opinion on Emotions

Turn on the news, and you’ll find a long list of problems in the world. Higher divorce rates, suicides and fights among the streets are just a few of the many problems we have in this world. Nowadays, people are more vocal, thus, they are easily provoked and would react accordingly. Thus, we hear a lot more of conflicts. In The Giver, Jonas’s community tried to get rid of these problems by creating controlled and isolated communities; and alternating human’s character. However, their attempts weren’t permanent and eventually, their troubles resurfaced and they would still need to deal with the root of their problems. In Jonas’s community, everyone’s emotions seemed to be watered down. They don’t display deep emotions. They are also educated to always use precise language to avoid misunderstandings that might result in problems. It’s very clear that they consider emotions as one of the cause of unrest, which is a valid point. People can’t always control their emotions. When there is a problem, sometimes emotions will get in the way of resolving it. Instead of discussing calmly, the involved parties lash out in anger, which resulted in fights.

A very inventive method to understand and deal with emotions is to share and discuss them with others. It was a method that was implemented in Jonas’s community. It is required for every family to have a “Sharing of Feelings”. Everyone is encouraged to share their feelings, and all the members will help to resolve any problematic feelings. This is a good practice, as it helps us understand and deal with our own feelings. Inability to do so, might lead to an individual not being able to function properly. Thus in our world, would require counselling.

Another way Jonas’s society use to control feelings is by a pill. All adults take it every day to suppress emotions. In real life, we also have our own kind of “pills”. They are drugs that psychiatrists use to calm their patients’ emotions. These drugs allow patients with depression and anxiety issues to be able to have a decent life. Most importantly, in Jonas’s community, there is a role called The Receiver of Memory. That chosen one holds selected past memories and emotions, so that others won’t have to. War and starvation were just some of the most unpleasant memories, while some pleasant memories that might invoke vivid emotions were colour and parties. It could seem useful as the society didn’t need to face all those unpleasantness. But it’s only a temporary solution. If anything happens to the Receiver of Memories, all the memories and emotions he or she kept would return to the society, and they wouldn’t be able to cope and the society became chaotic.

The real gist of the problem is that people don’t know how to handle and control emotions well. As we learned in the story, hiding or forgetting feelings and memories that might invoke those particular emotions don’t really work. It’s only a temporary solution. A more permanent and effective ways to deal with emotions is to identify, understand, and accept them. Others are there to help and support you. Nowadays we have counsellors and psychologists who can help guide you to explore your feelings. Unpleasant emotions will always exist. If you can resolve them, they will not cause negative impact on both individual life and the community.

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy the Hero

The Wizard of Oz is a very popular children novel. It is not only popular with children though, but also adult. It has been adapted into movies, plays, and musicals. I think that it’s popular because not only it’s filled with adventures, interesting lands and characters, but it also provides hope and encouragement. It gives us hope that ordinary people like us could overcome challenges and be a hero.

Dorothy is an ordinary girl, who had to face extreme challenges to go home after she was whisked away to the land of Oz. We probably wouldn’t consider her to have hero-materials. However, she brought great changes in the Land of Oz and to the people who live there. She liberated the citizen of Oz from evil witches and helped expose the fake ruler of the Emerald City. During her personal journey to go home to Kansas, she made friends with the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion and while accompanying her, they learned and gained confidence. At the end of their journey, all three of them became rulers who were able to govern and help their subjects wisely. Those are all the qualities of heroes. They brought changes and better lives for others. They encourage and inspire others for the better. They take actions and are determined to go through with their quests. These all bring hope to others and hope often brings changes. The famous heroes in history and today's world, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Malala Yousafzai; all have these traits.

I'm sure the heroes of the past, present, and future too have sometimes lost hope in their journey. We know this from the diaries or journals that some left behind. Mother Teresa may be one of the symbols of Christianity, but there were times when she had no faith for God. Based on her letters, she wrote that there were times when she felt empty and found nothing inspiring when helping the sick poor. She asked for support so that she could still continue on her work as she felt that she was left alone by God.

Another example of someone whose hopes were often dashed is Malala Yousafzai. She campaigned hard for girls' rights to have an education, which was unsupported, and eventually banned by the Taliban. There were several times when she had to face danger of being attacked by the Taliban when she secretly went to school in Pakistan. She's also in great danger when she spoke out about it, which resulted in her getting shot by the Taliban. However, she persisted and refused to stop fighting for what she believe is right. Now, she has an organization dedicated to help and improve girls' life and education. Dorothy had to face a lot of challenges that seemed too difficult for her to overcome. Although generally, she didn’t lose hope and persist on, there were times where she was discouraged. She got upset when the raft brought her away from the golden road to Oz and was upset when Oz's balloon left without her. However, she quickly gained hope when the guard of the Emerald Palace told her that Glinda the Witch of the South might be able to help her.

From this story, it showed that anyone can be a hero, no matter your background. Dorothy brought significant changes to the people of Oz. Even though she's just an ordinary little girl from the boring plains of Kansas, she indirectly brought people hope, and hope often results in change. In a way, she's kind of a hero to the Land of Oz, and Dorothy left Oz as an honoured person.
All these heroes, both real and fictional, had the choice of giving up or persist through their hardships. However, they chose the latter and were awarded with their achievements. As the saying goes, you have to suffer before you succeed.

Should We Defend a Bullied Victim Against Our Own Friends?

When I was in primary school, there was this boy in my class named Jaden (not his real name). Unlike the other boys in my class, he often hanged around and played with the girls. From what I observed, Jaden didn't have any gender identity issues or anything like that. It's just that he didn't act like the norm of boys that age. This caused the whole class to call him a "girly boy", me included.
I know that this was just meant as a joke and Jaden often laughed it off. From my point of view, Jaden didn’t seem to mind, and we still had a good relationship whether I tease him or not. In retrospect, I never really knew how he felt. Did our teasing ever made him uncomfortable or questioned himself? Did it made him feel frustrated and bullied? Did it affect his characters and actions in the future?

Some bullied victims became a danger to the society and themselves. In the US, there had been many cases of school shooting that shocked the world. In Asia, such as Japan and Taiwan, there had also been cases of public stabbing. After investigations, a lot of these criminals, appeared to be children who had been bullied before. They generally become loners and have a lot of bottled up anger against the public inside.

So the root of a lot of these problems is bullying. Some bullying were made without us realizing it, such as what I did to Jaden. I didn’t mean to cause him any harm and I thought it was all just good fun. But now, thinking about it, we were quite insensitive to what he was feeling.

Children are often ignorant about all this. Growing up, children tend to seek stability and security. They feel safe being in familiar surrounding with familiar people. So it’s natural for children to be apprehensive or reject differences. Thus, respect and toleration should be hammered into children's minds starting from a very young age. They should also be taught to always think of the consequences of their actions, especially bullying.

These must be implemented both at home and school. Unfortunately, some parents either don't care or deny that their children are bullies. Then there are those who don't know what they should do with their children's behaviours. Both parents and teachers must be taught how to deal with bullying and why they should do that. Children should also be taught how to have the guts to stand up for themselves and others.

I wasn’t brave enough to go against my friends and acted that way due to peer pressure. If I stood up for him, my friends would talk behind my back about this and make fun of me. I try my best not to change my relationship with my friends, as I like to be part of the big group. After all, they're also my friends, and I wouldn't like to go against what most of them think. I hope that our ignorance and harmless teasing didn’t affect Jaden negatively. I am grateful to know that now societies are more aware of this problem. Both children and teacher organisations are now trying their best to tackle this problem. Hopefully this will lead to less problems in the future.

The Wizard Of Oz: Is Hiding a Lie, a Crime?

After finally defeating the Wicked Witch of the West, the four travellers went back to Oz to claim his promises. They got lost on the way back to Emerald City, but with the help of the Winged Monkeys, they finally reached the Emerald City. No one expected the four to come back so soon -- and alive! Not even Oz. However, instead of being immediately summoned to meet the Wizard of Oz and received their rewards, Dorothy and her friends were left to wait for days. They finally got an audience with Oz after they threatened him with the winged monkeys. During this session, quite by accident, they discovered that the Wizard of Oz was just a humbug. He was not an all-powerful Wizard but an old man from Dorothy’s land.

Dorothy and her friends felt deceived! They had put their life on the line by facing the Wicked Witch of the West, and it was all for nothing! They would never get what they wanted, because the Wizard of Oz wasn't a wizard at all. If I were in their position, I would have exposed him to his citizens. However, Dorothy and her friends had very simple mind and goals. They were only concerned about their own wishes. It had not occurred to them at all to expose him at all. Once their wishes were fulfilled, they were happy and forgave the Wizard for his lies. They also still treated him like a great powerful wizard up till the moment he left the Emerald City for his hometown.

I think that a large percentage of the inhabitants of our world is actually just like Dorothy and her friends. The normal citizens are usually more simple and are just concern with individual or family’s needs. As long as those needs are fulfilled, generally, they won’t go find troubles. They won’t go exposing other authorities or politicians’ misdeeds and crimes just for the sake of justice.

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy's Hidden Strengths

In exchange to have their wishes granted, Dorothy and her friends were given the task to kill the Wicked Witch of the West by the Wizard of Oz. The friends were all horrified and crestfallen at first. However, as there were no other alternatives, they decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, with no plans, no armies, and no advantages; they succeeded.

In real life, we sometimes felt as if we’ve reached the end of the line with no way to solve our problems. However, as long as we don’t give up and lose hope, we might discover more strengths in ourselves that we didn’t realize were there before. Dorothy didn’t know that she bore the mark of goodness, which protected her from any harm from evil. She’s also not afraid of water or darkness, which the Witch feared. She wore magical silver shoes that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East, which were powerful, but Dorothy didn’t know that.

As Dorothy didn’t know her strengths, she didn’t dare go against the Witch and obeyed all her orders. The Witch, seeing that Dorothy was so meek, she underestimated her. It’s true that Dorothy was an innocent child. However, she still had strengths that helped her win the battle with the Witch. She cared about her friend and smuggled food for the Lion. Thus the Witch’s plan to starve the Lion until he does what she wanted failed. The Witch saw that Dorothy didn’t know how to use her powers and strengths and therefore, the Witch dared to plot against her instead of running away. She thought that she had won when she successfully obtained one of the silver shoes. She was laughing triumphantly, when Dorothy threw a bucket of water at her and thus reverse the situation. Dorothy successfully defeated the Witch without meaning to.

We sometimes have strengths that other people and ourselves might not know or consider as a strength. But these strengths unknowingly help us solve our problems and achieve our goals. If Dorothy had not been the innocent child that she was, the story might play out differently.

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and Her Friend's First Impression of Oz Analysis

In her journey to the Emerald City to find the Wizard to help her go back to Kansas, Dorothy met The Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion. They became travel companions as each of them thought that they lacked something and wanted to ask the Wizard to give them what they lack. After facing a lot of obstacles and hardships, the company finally reached the gates of the Emerald City and gained an audience with the Wizard of Oz.

The Wizard of Oz appeared in different facades to Dorothy and her companions. These facades threw them off-guard, thus all previous preparations to deal with Oz were ineffective. The different appearances of Oz also intimidated the citizens of Emerald City and elevated him as more superior and mysterious. No one knew who he really was and what he would do next. Therefore his power over the Emerald City was unchallengeable.

This aspect of Oz showed us the effective use of image or persona in controlling the public. Public figures, such as politicians and celebrities, all use certain persona to influence the public to achieve their goals, whether it’s to sell music albums, products, or compete for presidential seats. Some of them even have marketing advisors to help package and sell their image to the public, with hopes that the target audience trust or like them enough to be willing to help them achieve their goals. Oz’s goal was to keep the citizens submissive and afraid of him. He wanted to appear larger and more powerful than the public. However, he also didn’t want to appear evil like the Wicked Witch of the East and West. Thus he never allowed people to see him and rumours went around about his appearance. When Dorothy and friends appeared before him, he appeared to be both scary and good or beautiful at the same time.

A person’s image can greatly help him to achieve his goal. In this era of advanced technology and communication, social media such as Facebook and Instagram become a platform to build up this image. Being able to effectively establish the persona that you want can really help you to achieve your goals or advance in your career. The chosen image might not be real, but if convincing enough, you can persuade the public to believe you. The Wizard of Oz didn’t really have magic powers, but he was able to fool the citizens of Oz by projecting a very powerful and authoritative image.

The Rise of Pet Business

More people are owning pets now compared to the past. Due to various reasons, a growing trend of millennials shun having children and prefer to keep pets for companions. Additionally, pets are starting to be seen more as family members than just as animals. Some people would even go to the point of pampering them. This has opened up a lot of opportunities for pet related businesses.

As pet owners chase their pursue their careers and ambitions, they aren’t able to accompany or fully care for their pets. They rely on pet walkers, sitters, and daycares to attend to their pets. During the weekends, they want to spend quality times with their pets and thus public places that allow for pets have become very popular. One of the pet communities hangout spots is Central Park Mall, which has a large garden for pets to roam in. With large crowds as these, opportunists see dollar signs. Pop up pet stores “pop up” to offer a wide selection of pet products and services.

As the millennials nowadays are more concern with health: selecting organic foods, non-paraben shampoo and fitnesses. The same attitudes are applied to their pets. So nowadays there are wider selection of pet food, pet clothing, and even pet-gym. Pet owners want the best they can afford for their pets. All those pet products and services don’t come cheap. However, pet owners are more than willing to cough up the dough. In this era of social media, pets owners love to share about the new toys their pets have or the pampering they receive in the spa. This propel “followers” to also “follow” this trend. Thus, create a booming pet industry.

Internship In K9 Canine Kennels

On June 2018, I had an internship at a local dog kennel. This internship was inspired by my mom’s friend, who is a science teacher in German International School. She wrote a post about how important an internship is in our learning process, as it gives us experience in the field that we are interested in. So.... I decided to do one. I wanted to do something related to animals, because I love animals. First, I made 2 CVs. One was for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) involved with animal welfare and the other one for K9 Canine kennels, run by drh.Titi and Om Tatung, a veterinarian and dog trainer. It provides boarding & training for dogs. I was accepted in the latter.

K9 Canine Kennels is located in Ciputat. It’s pretty far from my house. They’re open from 9:00 – 18:00, but drh.Titi and Om Tatung will come sometime around 12 p.m. All dogs are welcome in the kennel, there are even dogs from shelters staying there! When drh.Titi received my CV, I was immediately accepted. It might be because I was a long time client of hers. I was allowed to work there as long as I wanted, and was even allowed to turn up any time! I started around the end of May, near the Eid-Al Fitr holidays. During long holidays like these, the kennel is usually at full capacity as people usually can’t bring their dogs along with them. My internship lasted a total of 16 days, but I didn’t go to the kennel every day. I initially planned to do my internship for 14 days, but then I extended it, for reasons you will read later on. I didn’t receive any salary for my internship.

I felt pretty excited to do my internship and I expected myself to be really busy on my first few days. Somehow, I really like being busy. However, contrary to my expectations, I wasn’t busy on my first few days. All I did was watch the kennel boys and carried out simple tasks under supervision. My day usually started at 9:00 to 4:30. My everyday chores included feeding and bathing dogs; and taking away the dogs’ dirty bowls. When I had free time, I usually talked with Om Tatung, the head dog trainer there.

My first chore when I arrived at the kennel in the morning was to clear away the dogs’ food bowls that hadn’t been taken away. Usually the food bowls would be taken away by the kennel boys after the dogs finished their meals, but some dogs take much longer to finish their foods. A lot of factors may affect the dogs’ unwillingness to eat, such as sicknesses. The kennel boys would leave the bowls until sometime later, hoping that the dogs would finish their meals. While I was clearing their food bowls, I would also refill their water.

This task wasn’t as fast or as easy as it appeared to be. There were times when the dog escaped from its cage when I tried to take the food bowls. It depended on the position of the bowl in the cage. Some bowls were close enough for me to reach without entering the cage. Some were placed a bit farther in the cage. In these cases, I had to actually enter the cage to be able to reach the bowl. Sometimes the dog would slip out when I open the cage’s door to enter. Luckily, the cages were all in an enclosed area, so no dogs escaped out of the kennel.

My next chore was to bath the dogs. I learned to bath dogs with and without skin problems. During my first few days there, I was supervised by the kennel boys when bathing the latter, because I still couldn’t bath and dry a dog well. Bathing a dog wrongly could result in skin problems. For the dogs with skin problems, I was always supervised by the vet, as there were a variety of problems which require different medications.

During bath time, most dogs are usually calm. First I brought the dogs out from their cage on a leash, then I chained them onto the bathing area. This would prevent them from escaping. After that I would pour a mixture of soap and water over their body then scrub it. Some dogs didn’t like certain parts of their body touched, but as they were chained, they couldn’t really defend themselves. I just had to watch out for the nips and warning bites the dogs made whenever they had the chance. I had to bath the smaller dogs quickly because they usually get cold easily.

Bathing a labrador puppy

The most difficult part was drying them up. We use a blower in the kennel. Blowers emit a really powerful wind from the tubes. We have to put the tube really close to the dogs’ bodies to make sure the skin and hidden furs are dry too. Small dogs are often feisty no matter which part of body the blower tube blow. For bigger dogs, they usually are feisty when their heads are being blown.

Drying up huskies with a blower.

I also learned some tips and tricks during my internship. I had difficulties in cutting dogs’ nails, as they often wouldn’t keep still. The dogs’ would freak out whenever the nail clipper touches their paws. A trick I learned was to cut their paws while bathing them, so the dog was distracted with all the water, soap and scrubbing. I also learned not to comb a dog for too long because all the pulling of the fur could hurt the dog. I was in charge of grooming a dog that was to be picked up on a certain day and I wanted the dog to look “perfect”, with straight fur like those dogs in show competitions. I guess I groomed it for too long and was reminded by the kennel boy that combing too much could hurt the dog. Luckily, it wasn’t hurt.

Not the dog that I combed for too long.

In the evening, I prepared the dogs’ meals. I only prepared the evening meals because their morning meals were prepared really early in the morning, before I came. There were a variety of dog food, cooked and raw meat, veggies, fruits, milk, and broth. Some dog owners also brought their own pet’s meals. I was responsible for some cages, and I had to memorize the foods that the dogs’ in those cages eat. It could get pretty hard when the dogs that occupy the cages kept on changing.

Feeding the dogs

Every morning and evening the cages were cleaned by the kennel boys. Somehow, I wasn’t offered to clean the cages, so I decided to ask them to teach me. I had to scrub away all the muck and wash them out. It was pretty tiring and smelly, but at least I made their temporary living space clean.
If a dog just moved out and its cage wasn’t needed urgently, the cage was sprayed with flea repellents. I was taught to pump the flea repellent formula into the sprayer. I had to spray carefully around the cage and avoid the other cages. The flea repellent is poisonous when licked by the dogs, and can cause death.

I got my first bite from a dog when I was doing this internship. The most painful was when I caught a runway black dog. It was my mistake; I tried to pick him up from the back without any warning. Surprised, the dog turned around and bit my hand in self defence. But from that, I learned that I must let him sniff my hand so that he knows me, then put a leash around his neck slowly, without any shocking movements.

The proper way to meet a dog. Put out your hand for it to sniff, then slowly touch its body or put a leash around its neck.

I was also taught to prepare vaccines for the dogs. During my first times preparing them, I couldn’t get the vaccines out from the bottles into the syringe. They kept on getting stuck, and I was always helped by vet Titi. Towards the end of my internship though, I was able to prepare a lot of vaccines, and even vaccinated police dogs!

Preparing vaccines under the supervision of drh.Titi.

Preparing vaccines for the police dogs 

I also talked about some of the jobs police dogs have. I’m quite interested in police dogs, because they seem cool. Om Tatung explained that the most common police dog jobs in Indonesia are as detection dogs. They are usually trained to do human tracking and sniff out bombs and narcotics. Now, some dogs were trained to detect illegal food and things brought into an airport, not limited to just bombs and narcotics. There are also detection dogs that were trained for detecting certain sicknesses, such as cancer and diabetes, but those types of dogs are still not trained here in Indonesia.

My favourite chore out of all of them was bathing dogs. It’s because I would often get wet after bathing them (especially the big dogs) and it’s like I’m playing with water. I also enjoyed watching the water drops sprayed out of the dogs’ body by the blower.

In the kennel, I fell in love with a Rottweiler called Joey. He’s from a shelter and is staying in the kennel. It was because of him that I extended my internship until 16 days. I visited him every Saturday. He came into the shelter because he disappointed his owner. His previous owner bought him to guard the house, but as Joey was a happy go lucky clown and really friendly, a thief came into his owner’s house and stole a laptop. Disappointed in Joey’s inability to scare the thief away, the owner threatened the shelter to take him or else he would be abandoned into the road. Joey’s previous owner had a reputation of abandoning dogs and buying new ones right after abandoning the other dogs, with many different minor reasons of abandoning his dogs. When I was in my internship, I played with Joey. He was a big strong dog though and I couldn’t control him. I talked with Om Tatung about how I should control dogs properly. He taught me that I should establish myself as Joey’s leader, and not obey whatever Joey wanted. Instead, Joey should be the one to obey me.

It was usually the kennel boys’ jobs to bath Joey, but as I came every Saturday on my extended internship, it became my job to take care of him. I bathed him, brought him out, and trained him. He wasn’t feisty in his bath, but he was especially naughty. He liked to grab things that he could reach with his mouth and paws and chewed them like a toy. This included the blower, the shampoo bottle, etc. That’s why I always brought him a toy from the kennel’s dog toy collections for him to chew. I taught Joey some commands under Om Tatung using toys, as he had a high play drive. The problem was that once Joey gets hold of a toy, he didn’t want to give it back. He would bite anyone who wanted to take his toy out of protectiveness. The bite wasn’t strong enough to make my hands bleed, but they hurt. Thus, Om Tatung taught me many different ways to teach Joey not to be overprotective with his belongings.

Joey's bath time!

Joey and his toy

All done!

I really loved these extra times I spent with Joey but he was eventually brought back to the shelter. Therefore, I also ended my internship.This has really been a great experience for me. I learned a lot of dog husbandry and training methods from my internship. It was a really fun experience, and I hope to do it again but in a different place. I hope this experience would be helpful with my dreams to be a veterinarian.

Linking Awareness Journey

From January 11-13, a Linking Awareness Journey Workshop was held in Petlove Center, Jakarta Barat. My mom and I participated in the workshop to learn about how to communicate with sentient beings: humans, animals, and plants.

In the bright morning of January 11, people came one by one to register themselves for the workshop, which opened at 7:00. After we registered, each of us got a USB. The workshop was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. but it didn’t start until later! Some of us chatted while waiting, and from eavesdropping here and there, I heard many reasons why people wanted to attend this workshop. Some were just curious, some wanted to communicate with their pets, etc.

Once the eager participants took their seats, the staff introduced themselves, and then invited the participants for a group photo session. Afterwards, the learning sessions officially started! As per the workshop’s program, the first day will be spent learning theories. We wouldn’t start anything practical until the second and third day. I think it is important that we learn the theories first, because we need to learn the proper ways to link a sentient being and how to reframe our sentences. This will make linking effective and successful. These are some of the points which I think are really important. First of all, we should not feel anything, have any hidden agenda, or feel any ego when we link a sentient being as that would block us from receiving the correct answers.

There was once a man whose neighbour hit his child’s dog every time he got home from work. The man felt sorry for the dog and decided to link it to see if it wanted to be rescued. The dog’s answer was surprising. It didn’t want to leave its current home and guardian. The man was dumbfounded and couldn’t quite accept the result, so he took a photo of the dog and sent it to his friend. He didn’t give any explanation about the dog’s condition. He only asked his friend to link the dog through the photo to see if it wanted to have a new guardian. The man’s friend didn’t feel any pity towards the dog, as she didn’t know its condition. The friend came up with the same results.

Some time passed after the man linked the dog and one day his neighbour was fired. The neighbour was feeling depressed. The dog came over to comfort him. That was the last time the neighbour would see the dog alive; the dog died in his arms right there and then.

Feeling regret for having abused his dog for years, the neighbour became an animal rescuer. This was the “aha” moment. The dog’s mission was to save millions of other dogs, even though it had to sacrifice itself. If the person was influenced by his feeling of pity and re-homed the dog, the dog would have failed in its mission and perhaps, the neighbour would still be abusive to animals.

Secondly, we should not chase any validation of our answer. This classifies as an ego too. There are many sides to a matter and each individual might see the matter from different point of views. There is no wrong or right side. For example, when we ask an animal what it would like to eat, some people may get an image of the food;some may get the smell of it; some may hear the sound of the food being prepared, etc. It all depends on which of our senses are the strongest Third of all is respect, respect, and respect! Do not force the sentient beings to communicate with you and always say thank you to them before or after we communicate. We should also ask the sentient being for approval in sharing the information with their guardians. Sometimes, they won’t allow it, as the info might make the guardian sad or guilty. In this case, we could ask them how we should convey the message. Re-framing the messages to the guardians is important here. I have an example which happened in real life.

One of the participants in the linking class, let’s just say her name was Miss C, owned a cat. Sometime in the past, her cat had 2 damaged legs. She wanted to amputate the 2 legs as soon as possible, because she knew that if delayed, it could result in death. The vet though, wanted the cat’s opinion, and so he linked the cat to see if it wanted to be operated. The cat only wanted one leg to be amputated, because it knew that Miss C had a financial problem and could only pay for one leg to be amputated. The cat knew that Miss C would do anything to get money just to pay for the 2 legs to be operated, and it didn’t want that. Besides, the leg only needs time to heal and return back to normal, even though from the medical point of view, the wound looked really dangerous. The cat didn’t want Miss C to borrow money for the operation and have unnecessary debt.

The vet reframed the cat’s words because if he told the truth he would encourage Miss C to borrow money instead of preventing her. Also, would Miss C believe in linking? She might think that the vet was delusional! So the vet just said: “It might be too hard for the cat if 2 of its legs are amputated at the same time, so I’ll just amputate the worst leg, and for the second leg, we’ll just amputate it next month.” Lo and behold, the leg healed by the next month! When Miss C brought her cat to the vet for a check up, the vet told her the truth. Thus the reason how she knew this story.

We also should not repeat negative information (things that are connected with sadness, guilt, anger, etc) because by repeating, the negative energy will continue to live on.

On the second day, we spent half of the day learning theories. One of the many things we learned was to make a power totem, which was a picture made out of consonants. First, we were to write a great wish of ours. Next, cut out all the vowels and list down the consonants. From here we are to shape our totem, and observe it. Changes in our totem may be a sign of our wish. After a refreshing break from all those theories, we went into our classroom with all the tables and chairs pushed aside. Out of a sudden, the facilitators instructed us to find a comfortable position, whether it be lying down, sitting, or standing. No one had any idea on what we should do. Then, a meditative music was played for 45 minutes. The song was accompanied by someone talking, guiding us in cleaning our chakras and ridding us of any ego and hidden agenda. Most of us fell asleep in the middle of the song.

After the seemingly unending song finally finished, the participants were told to refresh ourselves and settle back to our seats when we’re ready. The facilitators asked us if we would like to share our experience or ask anything before they explain everything to us. The result of the meditative session was kind of hilarious. Almost everyone were lost and confused. A question that almost everyone had in mind was the reason behind our sleepiness. There were also words that we didn’t understand. I did wake up somewhere near the end of the song, but as I was sleepy halfway through the song, I was pretty much in a haze throughout the music and wasn’t really aware about what the guide in the music was saying. The facilitators then proceed to explain the activity we just did. They had to explain in utmost detail what each and every part of the music means. In the first part of the music, we were guided to clean and get rid of any blockings in our chakras. What are chakras? They are turbulences of spiritual energy in our bodies. There are 7 chakras in total. Chakra blockings were mostly caused by negative emotional events. When our spiritual energies are blocked, it may prevent us in getting the right answers. Now it was in the middle of cleaning our many chakras that most of us fell asleep in. The facilitators explained that our sleepiness is our body taking a rest while cleaning up our blockings. This is very much like us wanting to sleep when we’re sick, as our body needs rest to heal ourselves.

The next parts consisted of us getting rid of our ego, emotions and hidden agendas. This will neutralise ourselves into only an observer. When we finally reached the step where we are to communicate with the sentient being, it was hoped that we wouldn’t be judgemental and will get clear answers. So actually, the activity we just did was linking! The USB that we got on the first day consists of 4 versions of the meditative music. The difference between the versions was the durations of the songs. Their durations go from 45 minutes to 6 minutes. With practise, we shall be able to link faster; we may even be able to do it instantly. The facilitators said that they were able to do it anytime when they’re not tired, even when driving! It was already nearly time to finish the second day, and so we were sent home to practise to link. On the third day, it was fully practical! All the participants were grouped into 3 groups, and we practised to link with both mammals and reptiles. Some of the participants were allowed to bring their pets, as long as they had asked the sentient being’s permission. When communicating with animals, we were encouraged to use our five senses. To assist us, the instructors provided us with different imaginary tools related to different senses. For examples, they asked us to use a “sheep’s horn” when we’re trying to use our smelling sense, a “clear pond” for our visual sense, and a “sea-conch” for our hearing sense. Every person is born with one or two dominant senses. If one or more of our senses isn’t strong, we might get the answers through other senses. My most memorable from all the five senses was smell. My group practised it with one of the linking participant’s white cat. Our tool for scent is a goat’s horn. Some of the questions were things that she likes, dislikes, and of course, if she has any message for her guardian. After asking the cat a question, we were then to “hold up” the horn to our nose, and try to smell the thing that the cat answered.

When I asked the cat of her favourite things, the smell of cooked food and sweet perfume drafted underneath my nose. The cat also gave me the smell of something chemical as something that she dislikes. The cat then told me to stay away from smells like that.

During discussion time, the other members of my group said that she was hungry and wanted more food. One of them even got a detailed image of a cooked fish sliced in half, without a head and tail. As we still had time left after discussion, the guardian decided to verify what we just got from her cat. She said that her cat was on a diet and thus she was hungry. The cooked fish was her breakfast this morning! The fish was sliced in half as the other half belongs to her sister, and she indeed doesn’t like fish head. She then verified the sweet smell as her perfume that she usually uses.

The next memorable practise I had was not a sense. Guess what? It’s shape shifting! Me and my group practised with sugar gliders. As sugar gliders are nocturnal animals, and the practise took place in the afternoon, it was actually their sleeping time. Right before the practise took place, the sugar glider’s guardian made them comfortable by putting the sugar gliders into a soft, fuzzy pouch.

When I placed myself in the sugar glider’s body, all I saw was the other sugar glider and the furry brown pouch that surrounds it. All I felt was comfort and I started to drift off into a nice comfortable doze......

When the practise session ended, one of the members of my group said “Do any of you feel sleepy?” Everyone in our group agreed. Even my mom, who was in the group felt as if she was rocking into sleep. I dozed off quite a bit in the middle of it all. I guess that’s what happens when you try to shape shift into a nocturnal animal in the afternoon.

After practising our senses, we practised to link an animal through a photo. This time, we did not do it in groups. Instead, we were instructed to find another classmate that we didn’t know before. As our partner didn’t know anything about us, there is a less possibility of them having any hidden agenda of us. Every partner was to switch a photo of the sentient being that they wanted their partner to link. They also had to tell their partner the questions they wanted their partner to ask. I asked my partner to link my Indian Star tortoise. I wanted to know how he is now and if he’s happy to live with me. Originally, I wanted to bring him to the workshop, but I cancelled because I was afraid something would happen to him. I know that this workshop is safe, but I had a bad experience of bringing my tortoises to public places.

From the linking, my partner received that India is happy to live with me, and that he is surprised to have a guardian like me, who cares and loves a tortoise like him. Please keep in mind that I’m retelling exactly what my partner said, and that I’m not showing off :). India also reported that he felt dizzy and he wanted water. When my partner shape-shifted into him, she felt that her surroundings are hot and that her head feels heavy.

After linking, I could see that everyone had a fun and exciting conversation with their partners. Even after our facilitators told us that time’s up, almost everyone still kept on talking with their partners. Once everyone is back in their seats, the facilitators encouraged us to share our latest linking experience. Out of the few stories that were shared, there were funny and touching experiences.

One of the participants retold of her experience with her partner’s cat. Her partner showed her a photo of his cat, and wanted her to ask his cat’s condition. Her partner didn’t let our any information about his cat except its name. She described a beautiful & peaceful garden where the cat is in now. The cat also said that it misses its guardian. Her partner responded to this by saying “Oh, he’s already on the rainbow bridge.” This prompted her to tear up, but she didn’t want to. She treated her partner as if he was her patient who asked her help, and she definitely didn’t want to tear up in front of her patient. This is also proof that we can link the dead.

The facilitators wrapped up the event with a lot of thanks and a lot of encouragement for us to continue practise our linking and not to ever get our ego get into our way. Showing off would definitely block our answers. They also told us that in a few weeks, they will make a group chat for all of us to continue to help and support each other.

Hoax

Hoax is a well known word around the world. It has great influence in people’s life and community. It had misled people, caused unrests, and even death. There are many different types of hoax. Some hoaxes are about politics or a certain tribe/religion/race/etc. Others about safety, health, food, and education. To avoid disruption in our lives and societies, we social media users must be active in preventing hoaxes.

False health information may also lead people to spend up to hundreds of dollars to buy something utterly useless for their health. People may not trust their doctors anymore and continue to be guided by the internet. This can be dangerous, as they may never know who is really behind the news.

Hoaxes may also be used to put down competitors, such as another company or political candidates. Misleading news about other candidates may lead us to pick someone who doesn’t benefit our city/state/country. This is such a waste, as we could’ve made plenty of improvements during that leader’s era. Different supporters may also end up having a war with the other about their leader of choice, and this would lead to the spread of unnecessary hatred.

In October 2018, an image of a woman’s bruised and abused face sparked a lot commotion among Indonesian netizens. It was said to be the face of Ratna Sarumpaet. The post said that she was beaten by some people. Ratna Sarumpaet is in the winning team of a presidential candidate, and the people from that presidential candidate’s political party confirmed it. Even the presidential candidate himself confirmed it. As it’s nearing the president election, people could easily assume that the attack was made by the other presidential candidate’s political party. After some investigations made by the police, it was revealed that Ratna Sarumpaet actually just had some plastic surgery.

Whenever we receive information through social media, the first thing most of us do is: forward and share! This habit must be avoided! That’s actually the last thing we should do. The foremost action we should take is cross-checking & researching. We could cross-check by googling some keywords from the article/information and see whether similar news/information show up at other reliable sites such as CNN.com, Kompas.com, etc. Additionally, nowadays, there are many websites dedicated to battling hoax such as Snopes or Detik.com’s hoax or no hoax site.

If we find out that the information we receive is a hoax, we should attempt to stop it by informing the sender that the message they sent was a hoax. To avoid misconceptions, we could remind them to inform others too. We could also report the fake news to the administrator of the social media. Most social media platforms have functions to allow users to report fake news easily.

Hoax could be dangerous and fatal once it spreads everywhere, especially with almost everyone having access to social media. Both young and old might just believe in anything from social media and take immediate actions without checking the facts. So watch out for any fake news and do your roles in getting rid of hoax!

Is War Ever Right

It would seem that wars have always existed side by side with human civilization. They are horrible events full of bloodshed. Some wars’ purpose is to conquer other countries, some to obtain the natural resources of others, some to spread religion, and some to defend themselves. Whatever the reasons are, the destructions and casualties are significant. Therefore I highly urge for all future war plans to be reconsidered and substituted with more peaceful solutions. Wars are not necessary. There are always a lot of solutions to a problem. It should be avoided as best as we could. Starting a war would be the worst choice anyone could choose. First of all, war costs a lot of money. Instead of spending money to kill and destroy, wouldn’t it be better to spend them on constructive things such as for the benefits and welfare of the citizens. We would also have more funds to help other countries, and build friendly relationships with them, thus eliminating the needs of war.

War also bring heartaches and griefs. It tears families and friends apart. The aftermath of the Korean War is a living proof of this. Some family members were forever separated after Korea separated into South Korea and North Korea. War endangers a country’s future. Soldiers who came back from wars are often times disturbed and needs a lot of counselling to be able to live normally. They could be disillusioned by what they saw in war that they become unstable and cause further damage in their community.

With so many downsides of wars, a more peaceful alternative to solve conflict is preferable. In the course of history, some examples of successful peaceful actions are boycotting or practising civil disobedience, which had been carried out by Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi.

During the British colonization of India, India citizens were treated unfairly and unequally. Mahatma Gandhi, who was a lawyer at that time, was deeply disturbed and wanted to abolish these inequalities. Gandhi adopted peaceful methods to reach his goals. He frequently made speeches about the inequalities and encourage Indians to fight against them. However, he advocated for a non-violent rebellion. His first method was to encourage the British during hard times, such as when Britain was at war. He hoped that the British would consider the Indians their allies, and change their racist views of Indians. Unfortunately though, this method did not work, and the British continued to treat Indians unfairly.

Then, Gandhi persuaded the Indians to do peaceful civil disobedience and boycott British products. This angered the British and they opened fire at them as a punishment. This resulted with some of the Indians rioting. Despite it all, Gandhi still continued to persuade the Indians not to resort to violence. Had it not been for Gandhi, the Indians would have returned fire themselves. Gandhi continued to hold non-violent demonstrations, boycotting, and negotiation with the British government until India was finally granted Independent in 1947.

Another example is Rosa Parks. She experienced inequality as a black woman and wanted to put an end to it. She inspired a lot of coloured people to rebel when they were treated unfairly, such as not submitting to the rule that they must sit in an assigned area in the bus. Her actions, prompted a lot of the Black communities to refuse to submit to prejudice by simple acts of not using the bus and do carpool instead or refusing to sit in the assigned area. At the end of the boycott, the Supreme Court of Montgomery decreed for the segregation bus law to be abolished.

Those two examples showed that we could do peaceful demonstrations and raise awareness of the problems that we’re facing. Violence or war are definitely avoidable. To resolve conflicts, the main goal is always to raise awareness and then negotiate for solutions. Nowadays, the ever growing social media is a superb method for raising awareness. It’s also a great medium to discuss the problems. Considering the great losses of wars, it would be more beneficial for all parties to find more harmonious solutions.