The Mau Mau Uprising

 

On June 11 1920, Kenya was colonized by the British for their fertile land. They became part of British Africa with little to no advantages on their sides and experienced an unjust period for around 42 years. Their lands robbed, taxed heavily, and the people forced into labor work. Needless to say, it created resentment between the British and Kenyans. Many revolted, with the most significant one the Mau Mau Uprising. While they are regarded as terrorists, it was this uprising that ultimately led to the independence of Kenya.

The Mau Mau first started as a nationalist group dominated by Kikuyu people. The Kikuyu is the largest ethnic tribe in the colony and they suffered the most in the hands of the British. They pressed the British for their lands back, but with little to no results. As time progressed, radical members of the Mau Mau created a splinter militant group which used violence to drive away British authority. To be a part of that group, the native African had to take an oath. It was believed that if one break that oath, the repercussion would be death.

As the British didn't want the world to know that they were the reason for the war, they portrayed the Mau Mau as the culprits. In British news and media, they represented the Mau Mau as a barbaric and cult-like group who made it their job to raid both English settlers and local people alike. Meanwhile, they portrayed themselves as "saviors" and claimed to help the locals against the Mau Mau with weapons and soldiers. They labelled the locals that worked with them as loyalists, so it sounded like the war is between the Mau Mau and loyalists. They showed the British's compassion towards the locals in the broadcasts, such as British troops honoring a fallen local tribe leader, and predicting the Mau Mau's positions with Kenyan locals. In these broadcasts, there were no words about the British coming to Kenya to claim the lands. Now that we're able to gain more information about what really happened, we can see who the real culprit is. It was the British who was the real perpetrator of violence in Kenya.

It was true that Mau Mau killed thousands of their own tribe, those who are loyal to the British. However, the British also caused a great deal of deaths that they didn’t report. Many Kikuyu men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps with little food and poor sanitation and some were killed without trials, just because they were suspected to be part of the Mau Mau group. I think it’s a pity that so many lives were lost in the Mau Mau uprising, but at least the movement freed the Kenyans from the rule of the British.

Thus, I consider the Mau Mau as heroes of their country. Their determination for independence brought more troubles to the British than its worth. Even when the British had caught the Mau Mau's leader, Dedan Kimathi, the Mau Mau did not dwindle and continued to fight. While the British came for fertile land to plant crops, all they'd done is waste money on these wars. This results in the British granting them independence 3 years later.

If I were a Kikuyu, I would feel upset to be framed as a villain. I fought for my independence, then why would I be the "bad guy"? However, it is also difficult to judge an organization in times of war, as information may be hard to achieve. If the whole world listened to the British news during the time of war, I think many people would believe that the Mau Mau are terrorists. I am pleased that more information about the Mau Mau were discovered after the war and we can see their point of views about the event. It’s interesting to see that historical perspectives about a historical event could change greatly in years after. It’s always crucial to keep this in mind and be critical for new evidence and facts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising

Friends In My Drinking Bottle

Doing chores is a bore for most people, including me! As they're no fun, I always try to find a way to reduce them. One of the things I did to avoid washing my large water bottle was by using it for 2 whole weeks. Can you imagine all the germs and organisms collected there? Ewww. Speaking of gross, I decided to check the water with a USB digital microscope in the hopes of seeing the little friends I had cultured over the past 2 weeks. I predicted that I will find many microorganisms and immediately wash my water bottle after the observation. Please do keep in mind that this was just a fun observation so there aren't things like hypothesis and variables. That being said, come and have a look at them:

Please pardon my Dad's voice :D

The first thing I did was setting up the microscope. The one I own uses the computer screen to see the results, as it doesn't have an ocular lens. Next I used an acrylic tent card holder as a glass slide with a pencil case underneath to make it horizontal. This was a bit difficult as I tend to nudge the pencil case around with my elbow, making the card stand diagonal again. Last of all I put a white sheet of paper under it to get clear results. 

I observed that there were microorganisms and cat fur in my water! The latter was unexpected, because I never saw or felt a thing when drinking it. I also observed that the microorganisms moved away from the light of the microscope, seeking a darker area. However, the microscope is only able to magnify until 500x (half of the common optical common microscope) so I can't identify their species. If anyone has any idea what they are, please do tell me! As for the cat fur, it must be the effect of me kissing my cat too much, but it won't stop me from continuing to do so! 

Located on the side of the microscope is a button to take pictures of the things we see under the microscope, but I couldn't snap a photo with it. Pressing the button will make the microscope shake, which will result in a blurry photo. So, I used my cell phone to capture my computer screen for a clearer photo. I know that the photo quality would've been better if I used the microscope camera, so please do pardon the lines you can see in the picture.

After I had a laugh at my disgusting behaviour, I immediately brought that water bottle to the kitchen and scrubbed and cleaned it like I've never before! In conclusion, whenever I feel afraid when I'm alone at home, all I have to do is remember that I have little tiny friends to company me! Nah just kidding.

 

 

 

Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist?

 

Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States. He is most well-known for abolishing slavery and is considered a hero who fought for the freedom of slaves. This resulted in his assassination by a confederate loyalist. His death was mourned as "the darkest hour in history", with around 7 million people mourning his funeral train when it made the 13-day journey to Springfield, Illinois. However, when we look back at his actions from a modern perspective, he might not seem to be such an advocate of human rights and equality after all.

North and South America were on rough terms with their political differences, especially about slavery. While the Unions (North) disagreed with slavery, it was the main asset and source of income for the Confederates (South). When Lincoln took office in 1861, he had the ultimate goal of uniting the North and the South. In his famous speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It was his opinion that the country must choose to either support or abolish slavery.

In the early period of the civil war, I think Lincoln took a more passive aggressive stance towards the issue of slavery. While Lincoln disagreed with slavery, he wasn't sure about what to do with the slaves if they were emancipated. He thought about just sending them back to their native country but decided against it because they might not be able to survive there. However, he was also conflicted about the slaves’ status and role in society if they were to remain in the US.

Finally, Lincoln was forced to make a decision when the war was going badly for the Union. A sure way for them to win was to destroy the South's main economic centre, which was slavery. This pushed Lincoln to sign the 13th amendment, making it illegal to own slave and punishable by law. Most of the freed slaves joined the Union Army and this helped defeat the Confederate. We can see that Lincoln’s grand action to abolish slavery was based on a very tactical decision to win the war.

Some modern historian considered Lincoln racist and a white supremacist. They based this on his indecisiveness to immediately abolish slavery and his belief that black people cannot be equal to white people. In his own words: ” What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this;”

Lincoln's words are straight down racist and they might sound like something a racist person like Trump might say. That means he doesn't deserve to be called as one of the greatest president of America. However, we should also consider the time period. Human rights for black people have improved so much in the 21st century, while there were no human rights for them in the time of Lincoln. Whatever he said, we must acknowledge that black people's rights are started by Lincoln. In addition to that, we also must acknowledge his change of perception towards blacks' rights. Lincoln proclaimed that he will improve their lives if he gets re-elected for the next 4 years. If that really happened, black people's lives will be one step ahead of today.

The history of Abraham Lincoln is a good example of the words "history is made by those who created it." Lincoln is noted only for his great achievements, which I understand, as it shaped today's world history. I was pretty disappointed though when I learned that he took his time in abolishing slavery as he was my inspiration. However, after more research and reading into primary sources, I think that it’s not fair to label him as a white supremacist because we are judging his actions from a modern perspective. We must keep in mind that during that time, the human rights movement was just at its bud. After a couple of centuries, understandably, the human rights movement has matured significantly. So our modern understanding of it would be very different from Lincoln’s time. Now that I know better, he has become much more than just an inspiration. He is proof that world-changing actions take process. It also shows that it's never too late to change yourself.

 

    

Tante Grey's Infographic Course

Hey guys! I'm extremely sorry for not updating in a really long time. I have been busy studying in the first half of 2020 and I just finished Grade 11 a few months ago. With my main focus on academics, I didn’t find any interesting topics to write for my blog, thus the lack of updates. Now that I am on a short holiday from academics, I have time to join some interesting online events.

 

One of the online events that I joined was an online infographic design course brought by Tante Greysia Susilo, a design lecturer at Pradita University. I don't know whether she has been planning to open this course for some time or did she open this course because of something that happened in instagram.

 

There were mean comments from ignorant people about homeschoolers in an IG’s post and comment section. There were a lot of different kinds of negative comments, belittling homeschoolers’ mentality, lifestyle, and social life. What annoyed me was the fact that they were all untrue and it was posted publicly on social media. A lot of people could get the wrong image about us! This made me momentarily thought about arguing with them online with my homeschooler friends. Luckily, I knocked some common sense into myself just in time. The decision to argue was a foolish impulse and it would definitely make things worse.

However, we felt all pent up. My friends and I, were at loss for what to do. We definitely couldn't leave this alone. Luckily for us, we got an advice from Tante Grey that the medicine to ignorance is education. By educating,we not only help them understand, but also channel our negative energy into something positive! 

 

One of the ways of educating others is through infographics. Thus, Tante Grey offered to teach us to make infographics. Our final project would be making infographics which debunk misconceptions about homeschooler.

 

The online course took place in zoomland and lasted around 2 months. We met once a week, with a total of 18 homeschool teenage participants. We were taught the basics of making a clear and interesting infographic: from collecting ideas to clustering information. After every meeting, the students were given a task to finish. Those who have finished the task would have their results discussed in the next meeting. There weren't any strict deadlines, but we were expected to finish them at a certain time, otherwise we would be left behind!

 

First, Tante Grey taught us the basics. There were a lot of simple details that could be easily overlooked when making infographics, such as data placing. We often forget that we should place our data according to how people usually read, which is from left to right and up to down. Instead, we tend to put our data in areas where we think they might look nice. Another thing about infographics is that there shouldn’t be too many words. It should be quick and easy to read.

 

Then we were given our first task! Tante Grey started by creating a mindmap with “Critiques Homeschoolers receive from the public” as the main theme. The participants were asked to continue it with all the critiques we know. Next,we were asked to pick a specific critique to focus on and make a mind map of the solutions. We were advised to pick the critique that we receive the most, as we would have more to say about it. I picked the topic of socialization.

 

It took me half of the day to create the mindmap, as I used google drawings in google doc. I’m not familiar with it, so it took me a while to get used to it. In addition to that, I made my mindmap with a lot of pictures. These are proofs that I socialize with a lot of kids my age. As the pictures are scattered in many different electronic files, it also took a long time to find them. I was pretty happy that I advanced to the next step without much critiques.

 

Once our mindmaps are done, the next task is to cluster or group all the data we made in the mindmap. Sometimes the topic is too broad and we had to narrow it down or choose a specific aspect of it to write about. While clustering, we also had to design our infographic. These two must be done at the same time to decide which data are the most important and choose the appropriate positions to put them on the infographic. I didn’t have any idea of how I should cluster all my data, so Tante Grey lent me a hand. She first asked me to divide my data into several categories, such as my academic and non-academic activities, my variety of activities or the frequency of my socialization. I originally chose to focus on analyzing the latter.

 

She then gave me examples of how I could divide my frequencies into more categories, such as once a week, once a month, and once a year. She also gave me a format of how my categories would look like in the infographic.

 

Once I have categorized all my data, all I had to do was put them together. I used Canva, a free programme specifically for graphic design. I experienced some difficulty while making the infographic.

 

First of all, I rarely make infographics and had little experience in using programmes like Canva. Thus, I had some difficulty getting around. Next, I couldn’t fit all the pictures using my format. Therefore, I decided to change the format. I think I did a pretty good job at it, but Tante Grey said that I had to review my data placement again. I told her my problem with the pictures, which she replied with an infographic of her own XD. She used the same format with the same amount of pictures, thus proving that it’s possible. Following the examples of the placement  of her picture, I finally managed to finish my infographic.

 

Next we had to ask for feedback. We had to show our infographic to 2 kinds of people: those that are familiar with homeschool and those who aren’t. I chose my parents for the first and my ex-school friends for the second. When asking for feedback, I had to first tell them the message I wanted to send through this infographic. Next, I had to ask if they received the message. Unfortunately, one of the reviewers didn’t get it, but instead she thought I was telling about the variety of activities I did for my socialization.

 

When I talked about this with Tante Grey, she agreed with my reviewer’s point of view that my infographic seemed to lean towards the variation more. She then showed me an infographic made by one of my coursemates, Vyel. I saw how his infographic leans more to the frequency of socialization with the bar graph he put in his infographic. Seeing the difference I decided to just change my title from “Frequency of socialization” to “Variation of Activities for Socialization”

 

When most of us had finished our infographics, they are posted in the instagram of my teen group @Teenspower.squad. As the infographics are posted on social media, we hope that more people will be able to understand more about homeschoolers. I think this infographic is also really useful when facing ignorant people --- all we have to do is share these infographics as a reply to their negative comments. As a person who isn't really into graphic design, I found this course overall interesting. When I first started the course, I thought that making an infographic is only about gathering information and designing an aesthetically interesting charts. I never gave thought as what made them enjoyable to read and look at. Through this course, I learned that there is more than just pasting information on a template.

 

These are the end projects of mine and some others!

This infographic is made by Vyel. The statistic he puts in his infographic clearly showed how frequently he makes friends.

An interesting infographic by Yla!

A very informative infographic by Nuala!

 

My Pets' Nicknames

Nenek! Engkong! Mpid! Kucing gendud! You will hear me say those words at least once a day. They are just some of the nicknames I have for my dogs and cat, and the nicknames that I use more often than the rest.

"Nenek" is the nickname for my oldest dog, Snowy. In Bahasa Indonesia, nenek means granny. She got this nickname for being 13 years old, which is pretty old for a dog's age, and will turn 14 this year. In addition to that, she's the oldest among the dogs. Another version of this nickname is "Nenek Centil". The term "Centil" in Bahasa Indonesia is usually used for a girl who likes to play with boys, like the girl version of a playboy. I like to call her this because she likes to act playful and flirty around male dogs such as licking their faces and showing her butt to them several times.

Hello boys!

"Engkong" is the nickname for my second dog, Chiko. "Engkong" is the Hokkian version for grandpa. This is because he's 8 or 9 years old, which is also considered old for a dog's age. He also has coughs; more frequently than Snowy. This shows that his physical health is worse than Snowy, making him "older" than Snowy.

Next is Mpid. This is just a shortened version of my youngest dog, Speedy. It started from only Pidy, to Pid, to Mpid. I added the M in the front because it just sounds more comfortable for me. Also, when I feel as if I want to squeeze him because of his cuteness, I like to emphasize and say the M longer.

Last but not least, is my cat, the "kucing gendud". Those are the Indonesian words for fat cat. When we adopted him, he was really skinny and bony, making him a walking skeleton. But after a few months, he became a really fat cat. He looks a lot like a character in my sister's storybook. They're both fat, orange, and stripy. The cat in my sister's storybook is called "Kucing Gendut".

Out of all the nicknames I had given them, these are the ones that make the most sense. Not all of them react to these nicknames. Snowy doesn’t respond to anything, including her own real name, so there’s no point in calling her. Chiko sometimes responds to “Engkong”, as he starts to get used to being called that. Speedy always responds, as that’s just the shortened version of his real name, which he responds to too. As for my cat Goldie, he only responds to his real name or the shortened version of his real name, Odie.

My pets will continue to receive numerous, senseless nicknames as long as they live, as I will always find something new and funny about them. It’s a good thing that they all put up with their owner’s quirkiness and took all the nicknames good-naturedly.

Who Do I Turn To In My Most Difficult Times?

It is said that teenagers are awkward and I’m living proof of that. As I enter the dreaded teenage year, I suddenly discovered many situations that made me feel self-conscious and at loss about what to do. The person who I turn to to help me deal with difficult social situations is my mom. One of the most frequent and unavoidable tricky situations was walking my dogs in my neighborhood. It’s always full of people, like a park! There are kids and teens playing, adults out to talk with their neighbors, people exercising, vehicles, and other dog walkers. When walking my dogs, I just want to have a quiet me time with them. However, my all-white dogs are a constant attraction to passersby, and we often get disturbed by both positive or negative reactions. With people who like dogs, they would stop us and some would pet or play with my dogs. Some would even follow us. I only have a limited time to walk my dogs and I don’t appreciate being stopped every 5 minutes or so. People who don’t like dogs give us askew looks, a wide breadth, and I’ve even heard mean comments as they pass by. This results in me turning away from people I know to avoid having to stop and chit chat with them. I may appear rude and unneighborly, supporting the stigma that teenagers are difficult. As I often feel drained and agitated after taking my dogs for their walk, I usually talk to my mom.

My mom isn’t a counselor or a psychologist; in fact, she graduated from civil engineering. But being a middle-aged mother of a special needs child, my mother has an abundant of good and bad experiences. From her experience, she discovered that keeping bad feelings only made her feel worse. Instead, she sought out alternative ways to deal with them. A method which worked best for her was to release her negative emotions by breathing in and out. While breathing out, she imagined that her negative emotions went out with her breath. In other words: “pushing” them out mentally. She then would analyze what just happened and found out that she could learn some lessons from the experience.

My mom also taught that method to me. When I’m in one of my tempers, my mom always asked me to calm down first by “pushing” them away, as thinking with heavy emotions often lead to stupid decisions. When I was younger, she helped analyze the situation with paper and pen. It usually ended with her telling me the reasons of why people acted that way, and how I could react to them in a better way than what I did before. The reasons and factors sometimes surprised me. Sometimes, it’s just their habit to lose their tempers. Sometimes, it’s just because of the environment that they live in. I was also taught that my energy could be put into a better use for the greater good to help change the world into a better place. :)

Now that I’m older, I could analyze the difficult situations on my own and think of ways to handle them in a better way. Still, with an occasional help from my mom. As the person who raises me and helps me deal with my problems, she knows every little details about me. When retelling my bad experiences, I don’t have to explain myself, why I did what I did, because she already knows why. She would also know just the right words to say to me. I don’t think I would ever find someone else more perfect than her to guide me and help me through difficult situations.