The Three Old Ladies

As I was walking down the street 

With a morsel of meat 

I bowed down to greet 

Three old ladies 

Three old ladies 

Walking down the the street 

Together side by side 

Carrying a morsel of meat, too! 

 

One’s Madam Hess 

A lover of chess 

The other’s Madam Bess 

Who used to play brass 

 

Last but not least 

Prepare yer curtsy, ladies 

The only living descendant…. 

Prepare yer bows, gentlemen 

Of the House of Yeast! 

She’s the only person who can claim 

The House of Yeast’s 

White and blue crest 

Lady Le’Jess! 

And so here ends 

My introduction of our new friends 

The three old ladies 

That we met down the street 

With a morsel of meat 

Madam Hess, Madam Bess, and Lady Le’Jess! 

Global Warming, Influencers, and Social Scientists.

 Global warming. A topic heard almost everyday and found everywhere. It is the gradual but quick heat up of Earth because of the greenhouse gases that we produce. This is a problem that has been going on for years but was just brought to public awareness in the late 90s. The problem snowballed in the last 10 years and scientists have been warning the world that immediate actions must be taken to tackle it. However, we don’t see much progress. More innovative ways are needed to influence individuals to be more active to reduce their carbon emissions as the call to slow down climate change is so far ineffective in Indonesia.

Environmental activists and scientists have stepped up their efforts to bring awareness to the public about the peril of climate change. However, sadly, their efforts are futile. One of the reasons for that is because it’s very difficult to change people’s habits and lifestyles. Modern lifestyles are full of convenience and comfort, mostly due to the advancement of science and technology. Electronic appliances have made our lives so much easier. We use washing machines to wash our dirty clothes, refrigerators to keep our food fresh, and AC to keep ourselves cool during hot summer. These are essentials that we can’t live without, but they are also one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases. Knowing this, we should attempt to do something about it. It may be daunting to change lifestyles, but everyone can start small. We can start by reducing the amount of electricity we use. Only using electricity when necessary, such as turning on ACs after a certain temperature and humidity and purchasing energy-saving electronics are a few ways to save energy.   

A change of lifestyle is a difficult one to make, especially when it’s about the usage of electronics and vehicles. To help encourage the change into a greener lifestyle, I think the government and scientists can work together with influencers and social scientists, like psychologists and sociologists, to influence the public. They can create a movement or trend that subconsciously influences people’s lifestyles into a greener one. Social scientists will then analyze the results of their experiment to create better methods in influencing people. An example would be an experiment that was conducted in an apartment complex. Three different stickers are prepared and each symbolises the amount of energy used by the residents. These stickers are put on each resident’s door to represent the amount of energy used by each housing. A red sticker for residents with the most energy usage, a green one for those improving, and a golden star for those who used the least amount of energy. This type of social competition evokes every person’s competitive side and each tries their best to reduce the amount of energy used. Perhaps through this experiment, social scientists could analyze how our competitive nature increases our efforts to create better results. This experiment might be more popular if influencers take part in these competitions and broadcast how each and every of them are trying to live an eco-friendly lifestyle.

To encourage this eco-friendly lifestyle movement, governments could also pay influencers to create the image that the eco-friendly life is the new elite. Eco-friendly products are usually more expensive than others, so this fits the image of a high-class person. Governments could buy and distribute to the influencers the eco-friendly products from the many eco-friendly entrepreneurs in Jakarta. Or perhaps they could give an eco-friendly house to the influencers to live in. An example of an eco-friendly lifestyle is the VSCO girls/boys. VSCO defines the lifestyle of a middle class teenager. They are well known to promote the use of metal straws and bring their own hydro flasks, with “Save the sea turtles” as one of their slogans. In a kind of way, this brought the public’s attention on how plastic garbage is harming turtles. If VSCO teens are a thing in Jakarta, then perhaps the government could fund the influencers’ VSCO life with all their eco-friendly products and lifestyle. As the public, especially the young generation, tends to follow and idolize influencers, they might follow whatever the influencers do. Sociologists can then be brought in to analyze the public’s response to this new trend and give new ideas for the influencers and governments to try out.

However, as much as influencers and social scientists can affect people to change their lifestyle, many might not be able to follow them due to the lack of infrastructure in Jakarta. Infrastructures are one of the main pillars of a person’s lifestyle. There is a lack of eco-friendly infrastructure to support an eco-friendly lifestyle. One thing that almost everyone in Jakarta owns, from the poor to the elite, is a type of private vehicle. Almost everyone uses private vehicles to the point that it has become Jakarta’s lifestyle. Affordable vehicles and lack of access to comfortable and safe public transportation results in a lot of people owning private vehicles. In addition to that, many of Jakarta’s roads are not improved or built, with many roads already outstripping the space capacity for all of Jakarta’s vehicles. This causes traffic jams to be frequently found in Jakarta’s roads. Large amounts of diesel is wasted and carbon dioxide produced more than necessary due to these traffic jams. As roads could take a long time to build, some people might  think of switching to electric vehicles. However, they might have second thoughts due to the lack of electric stations to recharge their vehicles. Even if there are electric stations, most of Jakarta’s electricity is powered by fossil fuels. While the list of problems goes on, these are just some of the problems Jakarta experiences with their infrastructure. 

Even though Jakarta’s progress in infrastructure is slowly improving, Jakarta needs drastic changes if it wants to speed up their reduction of greenhouse gases. I think that the government should first and foremost replace diesel powered plants to nature-powered ones. We are a tropical country with lots of water and sunlight, so surely we are able to maximize our usage of them. In this way, the use of household appliances won’t contribute any greenhouse gases. Secondly, governments should replace gas stations with electric charging ones. Before the replacement, the government could ask all private transportation owners to switch to electric ones before a certain date. They could offer incentives and affordable prices to encourage the public with this change. Influencers may also play a big role in this by promoting their electric vehicles. Perhaps with this collaboration, we can create massive transformations in our use of private vehicles. 

Teamwork makes the dream works, and if governments, influencers, and social scientists work together, they can create a huge movement in the rapidly changing Jakarta. Every person in Jakarta is aware of global warming, but we need an extra push from governments and the media to create massive change. People are encouraged to change their lifestyles, but as changing habits isn't easy, influencers can influence the public to change while social experiments can be held to analyze factors that cause people to improve themselves. Infrastructures also need a massive and quick upgrade by the government to support the change of lifestyle. To create change amongst a large number of people, not only do we need scientists now, we will need the help of sociologists and others that specialize in human behavior.  

A Picture to Describe 2020

I chose this image as the image that represents 2020 the most for me. It is the logo of a video-telephone software programme called Zoom. 2020 was the year that the Covid-19 virus took over the whole world, killing more than 2 million people and infecting much more in a short amount of time. As a vaccine for the virus hasn't been made, lockdowns are imposed nearly everywhere to avoid more people getting infected. Zoom has suddenly become very crucial in everybody’s life. Teachers use them to teach students; businessmen use them for meetings; and housewives use them for cooking lessons. I'm sure that if you ask any random person if they knew this program, I'm 99% sure they'll say yes. 

If historians or archaeologists 100 or 1000 years from now study the visual culture of 2020 and 2021, I think that they'll mark 2020 as the year when everything went online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWvSJqB3Q3Y

Sesame Street's Newest Muppets for Rohingya Children

The Rohingya is a stateless ethnic group from Myanmar. They are persecuted by the Myanmar Government as the government considers them to be illegal foreigners from Bangladesh. However, Rohingya claimed to be descendants of Arab traders who had settled in Rakhine in around 7th century. The conflict grew worse in 2019 and around 750 000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar to other ASEAN countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia; more than half are children. These children suffered emotional trauma and led a very impoverished life in the refugee camp. Sesame Street attempts to help these children with some new initiatives, but more assistance from international organization will be needed to ensure that these children will have a future.  

Working together with several other charity foundations, Sesame Street, an educational TV series from the US, created a special TV program with two new Rohingya muppets, Noor and Aziz, for the Rohingya children. Noor and Aziz are twins and share many similarities with the Rohingya children, allowing the children to identify themselves with and thus learning from the muppets. They have similar features, speak Rohingya’s native language and share similar backgrounds with them. For example, Aziz is steeped in the Rohingya tradition of storytelling and Noor is afraid of loud noises as they reminded her of gunfire, much like many Rohingya children. The cartoon shows how Noor and Aziz handled their trauma and deal with their emotions, thus allowing the Rohingya children to apply those solutions in their own life too. Sesame Street hopes that this would provide psychological and emotional support for them. 

Another idea featured in the show is gender equality. Aziz helps with household chores and Noor loves to study. This might be unusual in a Rohingya household as girls usually do the house chores, received very little education, and are married off at quite a young age. With Noor as an example, Rohingya girls emulate her and see that there's nothing wrong in getting an education and having high dreams. Sesame Street hopes to show Rohingya children that both genders are equal in every aspect of life and deserves to be regarded as such.

However, these empowerment and modernization of children, could put the children, especially girls, at risk. Some of the ideas taught by Sesame Street, like gender equality, might go against the norms of a traditional Rohingya community. This might cause conflicts and estrangement from their family and community. There have been cases of violence towards young adults for breaking a traditional norm. If the Rohingya finds Sesame Street as a threat to their customs, the programme might be banned among them. The younger generation won't learn the same ideas the older generation did. In this way, many wouldn't be able to improve themselves in certain aspects due to the limitations put on them by the customs of the community. 

Not only do children need to be taught to be open minded, I think adults in the community need to be educated to be open minded too. I think that this is where social welfare organizations can step in. NGOs like Gugah Nurani Indonesia and SHINE provide seminars and workshops for parents. These organizations usually teach both children and adults new skills and ideas of the 21st century. My mom and her team are invited by Gugah Nurani Indonesia to teach teachers on how to teach story writing and illustration to children and the importance of creativity to both Indonesian children and parents. She will also help out in their parent seminar on using technology in a productive way. I used to participate in SHINE and the organization has taught new skills such as making organic soaps to both parents and children. Through these kinds of social welfare organizations parents in poverty can broaden their minds and improve their living standards. 

In my opinion, Sesame Street's Rohingya programme is very beneficial to the Rohingya children. They provide not only entertainment and fun, but also attempts to educate and empower them. However, it can also be a double-edged sword as the modernization could bring more harm than good. If all these charity foundations work together, these displaced children will be able to have a better quality of life and brighter future.

The Covid-19 Vaccine

 

As we come to the end of 2020, people are seeing hope for the end of the pandemic as various Covid19 vaccines are in their final clinical testing stage. The Pfizer vaccine is one of them and it has now been approved for emergency usage in several countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada. Despite announced to having a 90% efficacy, it still receives mixed opinions from the public. With the launch of several Covid-19 vaccines around the world, we will now need to weigh the pros and cons of taking the vaccine to make a crucial decision that will affect not only our individual lives but the global community.

Vaccines are crucial to combat Covid-19 and enable us all to return to a semblance of normal life before the pandemic. Vaccines will help us achieve herd immunity. Herd immunity will only happen when a half or a third of a population has the immunity to defend themselves from the virus. It’s estimated that an infected person can spread the virus to at least two or three people. If a lot of people are already immune to the virus, then the spread of the virus will be contained. Thus, this is where the role of vaccine becomes very important. Vaccine can provide Covid-19 immunity in a safer way. When 75% of the community has been vaccinated, the risk of a person getting the virus will be lower. Therefore, we will all be able to go outside again, back to our daily activities.

Even though we all know the benefit of being vaccinated, the short time it took to test the vaccine is one of the main reasons people are hesitant to take the vaccine. Countries are rushing to be one of the first to have a viable vaccine. US Government even set up a program called the Operation Warp Speed. It offered large amounts of money to companies that can produce a vaccine by a certain deadline. People worry that the drug companies might be pressured to deliver the vaccines according to the demand of the operation, affecting how they conduct the clinical trials. Normally, before a vaccine can be distributed to the public, it is required to go through multiple tests and trials. These can take many years to ensure the vaccine's safety. When the trials are rushed, there are great possibilities that there might be mistakes or inaccuracies.

Vaccine development usually ranges from 4 to 10 years. So when drug companies announced successful Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year, I was really sceptical. There must have been some mistakes. After further research, I discovered that one of the reasons researchers were able to speed up the vaccine development was due to past researches of SARS and MERS. Both viruses are a type of coronavirus. In addition to that, the massive amount of funding made it possible for drug companies to run parallel tests. These 2 combined are the ultimate formula in the race to fight Covid-19.

As countries around the world are rolling out the vaccines, all eyes are watching closely for the effect and result of the vaccination. I am fairly certain that drug companies would not be so careless and risk their reputation in creating vaccines that are not safe for the public. Therefore, I think that when the vaccine is available for me, I will choose to be vaccinated. At least I would have done my duty as a responsible citizen and contributed to returning the world back on track.

 

 

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

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.

 

    

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.

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.

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!