Can anybody help me with this problem of mine??

Yesterday, two friends of mine went back to Indonesia, for good. They have completed their study here, and as agreed on the scholarship contract, they will have to return upon completion of their studies. I asked them how they felt about leaving Australia. They had mixed feelings: happy and sad. Happy because the torture of postgrad studies have now ended and they are soon to see their families again, but also sad since they still enjoy living in Australia.

Now, here comes my problem. I was born in Jogja. That's in Indonesia. And when i was still a kid, so young enough that i couldn't remember a thing about it, my parents brought me to Sydney, Australia.

So suddenly i was in Australia. As far as i can remember, i was already in Australia. And we lived there (or should i say, here :D) for 5 years, after which we all flew back to Indonesia, my beautiful and so beloved country. And by the time i arrived in Indonesia, i could not speak my own language, and completely lost all my friends back in Sydney.

So... now the problem i have is... i have this fear of leaving this country, Australia, once more. It happened to me once, and i sure didn't like it at all. Just to make you understand how i felt back then, i will show you here a commercial from Qantas which plays a song called "I still call australia home". It had already been broadcasted on television when i was still at Primary School, around 18 years ago, and a newer version of it still being played today:



Even my older brother used to tell me that we would come back to Australia again.

Anyone can help me to get rid of this feeling? A feeling which says i still call australia home?? Because one day i will definitely leave this country, again, for a long time... (hopefully not too long though, amin)

--sorry, this is another stupid post--
*youtube video from fabulously (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1jm9aFez7w)

Do not read this unless you really need to waste time

I normally hate to post about my own private personal life in this blog of mine... but there had been many things happening in the last few days (or weeks) that deserves some mentioning here. Some of them are good news, most are bad news though. Some are fun, but more are annoying.

I think i'll start with that bad things first, as i always like happy ending stories haha..

Hmm...

Maybe it's better if i don't get too much into the details :D The bottom line is that i had been overwhelmed with such many tasks and responsibilities that i must do, not only at school--which is actually supposed to be the top priority for me here but not taken care of too seriously--, but also at home, at KPII, and at Woolworths (this is the supermarket i'm working at).

Haha, now let's end this stupid post. The good news is, i've got a new friend :D

Last few pictures from my camera

My Canon Powershot A75 who have been with me for the past year is now dead. It freezed with its lens still opened. Here are some of its last few pictures i like:

A crowded warm winter morning downtown Sydney.

Almost spring in Hyde Park, Sydney.

My friends and i, posing with Mr. Wardhana, Indonesian Consulate General for Sydney.

Jindabyne. It was blistering cold for us sydneysiders, but not frosty (=warm, according to locals)

Kena damprat: "you are not an engineer"

Astaghfirullahalazim, salah apa ya aku ini .. kemarin sampai kena damprat bapak2 di arena pesta kampung di Sydney Uni.

Cerita nya begini.

Hari minggu 20 Agustus 2006 kemarin, Mas Zafri, mb ak Ayu, Rama, Ida, dan aku bareng2 pergi ke Pesta Kampung di Sydney University. Sesampainya di sana, ada upacara bendera. Jarang2 ada yang nyanyikan Indonesia Raya di Aussie kayak kemarin tu, jadi lah aku ikut berdiri deket tempat upacara, sdg sok nasionalis gitu haha.

Selesai upacara, tahu2 ada bapak2 di belakang ku menyapa ku,

"are you from national university of singapore?"

Oh, ternyata bapak itu melihat jaket ku yang bertuliskan "king edward vii, national university of singapore"

"Oh, i went there for one semester only. And that was a few years ago"

Obrolan merembet sampai ke mana2, tapi intinya masih seputar dunia pendidikan dan engineering.

Yang fatal adalah ketika aku cerita apa sekolah ku di UNSW. Electrical Engineering. Duh, dan kenapa pula aku sempat bilang kalo aku gak terlalu doyan matematika. Bukannya aku benci matematika, tapi memang kadang kurasa pelajaran2 kayak medan magnet dan pengolahan isyarat digital tingkat lanjut itu cukup berat. Matematika hanya kupakai sekadarnya utk yang sepele2: ngitung arus, ngitung delay, ngitung daya, menghitung yang gitu2an lah, pokoknya supaya rancangan kita bisa bekerja sesuai harapan.

Ternyata gara2 omonganku tadi, bapak tadi sampai keluar emosi nya gitu. Bukan marah ke aku. Tapi mencerca seluruh Australia yang sepertinya tidak terlalu menghargai fisikawan seperti mereka menghargai 'engineer'. Bapaknya itu lantas membandingkan dengan keadaan di AS dan Inggris. Di sana ada banyak sekali fisikawan yang menjadi electrical engineer yang ternama dan dikenal, kata beliau. AS dan Inggris jauh lebih menghargai fisika dan matematika sbg dasar untuk engineer2 nya.

Duh apalagi Indonesia, pikirku :(

"Mathematics is like the language of engineering. You are not an engineer. You don't like maths. It's like reading Shakespeare without knowing English!"

"Ehmm, well. When i said i didn't like maths, i meant that i am not too good at them," bela-ku secara jujur.

"You are the same as all those Australians. You are not a good Australian. They are all the same, they call themselves engineers. Do you know where all the technologies come from? America have all the technologies. It's because they have strong physicists and mathematicians!!!" teriak beliau.

Bapaknya koar2 soal betapa sedikit nya peraih nobel di Australia, jauh sekali di bawah AS dan Inggris. Beliau pernah menghitung, di Aussie 'baru' ada 11 peraih nobel, dan yang terakhir adalah peneliti bakteri penyebab maag dari University of Western Australia di Perth, tempat beliau mengambil PhD di bidang electrical engineering nya. Untung, kata beliau, bahwa Unibersity of Western Australia itu banyak dikelola oleh orang dari UK langsung, jadi mutu nya, kata beliau, masih bisa dijaga. Tidak seperti UNSW atau Sydney Uni, sekali lagi menurut beliau, yang standar mutu nya mulai merosot jatuh karena alasan komersialisasi dan banyaknya mahasiswa internasional.

Urghh... jadi tambah stress. Doakan studi ku lancar2 aja ya, dan semoga bisa menjadi manfaat yg sebesar2 nya :(

* oh ya, bapaknya tadi kog nyebut aku australian si? hmm...
* if you often use the computers at level 2 main unsw library, you can sometimes see the man i'm talking about. he likes to wear a shirt with a jumper, and a suit. He wears a piar of glasses, and he brings his backpack bag everywhere. He's more than 60 years old i think. He said he's trying to get CPA now that he has retired. (yang bener aja!?? salut3x... )

Cuaca Sydney bener2 ... aneh!

Bangun pagi tadi kulihat langit cerah sekali, sama sekali tidak ada dingin2 nya, malah cenderung hangat seperti musim semi walaupun secara resmi, musim dingin masih ada 2 minggu.

Tapi, kenapa tiba2 jam 3-an sore tadi langit jadi gelap, dan jam 4 sore tiba-tiba hujan turun sampai atap bus yang sedang kunaiki saat itu terdengar bunyi keras? Sambil melamun di bus, memandang ke arah luar, pandanganku jadi terpaku..."Hah? Kog air hujannya mantul2 lucu gitu?"

Ini yang terjadi: (blitz kamera nyala)

Kurang jelas? Ini foto mobil putih depan rumah itu, di-zoom:

Ini foto depan rumah lagi:

Di belakang rumah juga gak kalah seru:

Oh ya, kalau ada yang memperrhatikan kendaraan di sebelah mobil merah, iya anda benar. Itu semacam excavator kecil :D Mbuh punya siapa, kog bisa ditaruh di situ (tahun lalu sempat ada kapal ndekem di situ berminggu-minggu)

Jadi, sekitar jam 4 sore tadi, terjadi hujan es (hail) di daerah city dan sekitarnya. Anehnya, kampus UNSW kurang dari 1km dari rumahku sama sekali ga ada bekas tanda kena hujan es. Hujan es nya sendiri berlangsung sekitar 20 menit, cukup lama untuk ukuran di Sydney, kata tetangga bawahku. Dari pengamatanku, hingga jam 9 malam ini tadi, beberapa taman di Sydney University masih menyisakan bongkahan2 es putih mirip salju itu. This is a very rare and uncommon scene here in Sydney. Seumur2ku di sini, Sydney gak pernah bersalju.. walaupun Newcastle yang lebih utara malah pernah seingatku (dulu waktu SD diajak bapak ke sana, tapi telat, walhasil kita kepanasan krn salah kostum)

Setelah hujan reda, seperti biasa, langit kembali cerah, pelangi pun muncul di sebelah timur seperti ini:

Seneng, bisa melihat Sydney seolah2 bersalju :p

Antiwar rally in Sydney, 12 august 2006

This is a picture of a kid holding an Australian flag during an anti-war rally in Sydney last Saturday.
















Australia's foreign policy has been well known to be supportive to the US government, which implies that Australia is supposedly to support Israel. But due to the large number of Lebanese born Australians, the government seem to be not so explicitly supporting the US. Unlike the US, the Australian government does not consider the political group of Hizbullah to be a terrorist organization. Only the external section of Hizbullah are considered terrorists by the Australian government. This political standing, though it may seem still not good enough for us Indonesians, it is still much better than the US as well as several other countries who considers the whole Hizbullah organization as terrorists.

It has been more than a month since Israel launched a full-scale military assault to Lebanon, causing almost one thousand civilian casualties in Lebanon, much more left homeless. The call for ceasefire had just taken place a few days ago, and i suppose it should have been brought into effect this morning local time.

Last weekend, around one thousand sydney siders gathered at Sydney Town Hall, rallying for an anti-war protest, urging Israel to stop its atrocities. Most of the crowd were of middle eastern appearence, many activists such as socialist groups, the greens party, and some unions also participated in this demo.

Here are some other pictures i managed to take during the rally (which i also participated in ;p).

A poster of a dead child. So tragic. (can you see World Tower at the background? that's the building i was talking about on my other post about Superman returns :p)





























George street, front of Town Hall, are full of protestors.

















Some kids enjoying themselves.

















Police had increased the security in the CBD area during the rally.
















Among numerous people who gave speech at the beginning and the end of the rally, one true blue Aussy women announced in front of the mass that she will go to Lebanon for jihad. Well, she didn't actually use the word "jihad", she told us that she wants to be sort of a human fence? Hmm.. i couldn't recall perfectly what she said... All i can remember was that she had went to the middle east for quite a while, and she plans to go there again, to go to Lebanon. Oh yes, and she is a muslim... i think. Well, she did say "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim... Assalamualaikum..."

Bantul 2 months after earthquake

(updated 10.08.2006)
Jika anda memutar video klip ini, anda akan mendengar juga kisah lucu yang diceritakan ibuku ke pakde ku yang duduk di sebelahku. (i'm the driver as well as the cameraman hehe..)

Potongan transkrip dari cerita ibu ku:

uwong udo blejet iku akeh bgt, yo opo jam 6 isuk wayah e uwong adus, wayahe uwong ngising..

smp ono yo, wong meteng.. wong meteng 7 wulan opo 8 wulan ngono, lagek neng kamar mandi, begitu gempa dekne langsung mlayu udo blejet dekne gak rumongso nek udo..

trs ono bapak2 sing sepuh ngono yo, nyopot sarung e , "nok, iki dienggo yo nok.."

"Lho ngge nopo to pak, ngge nopo? kulo mboten nopo2"

"Kowe ora klamben..."

Oya, ibuku bercerita ini dalam bahasa Jawa Timuran. Dan lokasi pengambilan gambar ini adalah di seputaran pasar Imogiri, sekitar 15 km selatan pusat kota Yogyakarta.

Mel Gibson, maju terus!!!

Kemarin dunia dihebohkan dengan berita soal Mel Gibson. Iya, memang dia kepergok sedang "drink driving" di LA sana kalo gak keliru.. sampai akhirnya ditahan (bener gak ya?hmmm). Tapi bukan ini yang bikin hueboh. Kata2nya soal yahudi lah yang jauh lebih heboh: dia bilang yahudi itu yang nyebabkan semua perang di dunia ini...

Plok plok plok... banyak orang di Indonesia pasti setuju dengan kata2 Mel Gibson yang, sayangnya sekaligus untungnya, diucapkan ketika dia mabuk.

Mel Gibson akhirnya minta maaf, tapi tetep aja dia dicecer abis soal ucapan rasis dia. Dan yang nyecer orang2 Yahudi. Aneh banget lho ini sebenarnya mereka itu.. ucapan orang mabuk aja dibikin repot. Kog segitu gak terima nya to mereka dengan isi hati seorang aktor kebanggaan Australia itu? Dan sebenarnya untuk konteks perang di Israel - Gaza - Libanon sekarang, ucapan Mel Gibson sangat beralasan. Walaupun di berita resmi nya Israel bukan yang mulai pertama, tapi mereka yang bikin perang ini makin parah aja... Mereka lah yang berhasil membunuh anak2 dan ibu2 paling banyak... Mereka yang gak tunduk sama sekali dgn PBB... entah kapan mereka bisa berhenti. Untuk menambah kejengkelan suasana, Amerika ndukung mereka pula.. negara yang selama ini kuhormati karena "american values"-nya yang dijunjung tinggi sama Superman :p

Untuk masalah Israel dan Yahudi, Indonesia terpaksa bersikap rasis. Yahudi bukan di antara 5 agama yg secara resmi dijamin pemerintah kan? Dan kita juga gak punya hubungan diplomatik dgn israel... dgn palestina malah punya.

Sepertinya kita gak ada yang keberatan kan dgn kebijakan negara kita? Atau ada? :D