blog nondik a 2006

Racial issue on Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of River"

2010-06-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

Fajar Supriono

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

“The Negro Speaks of River” tells about the history of black, specially the Afro-American people. It tells their history from their origin of country until they are now, in United States of America. Hughes tried to construct the racial issues in this poem by the title itself “The Negro Speaks of River”. “Negro” refers to specific race that has specific characteristics and history while “river” refer to a natural thing that exist in this world from the beginning of the time. On the third stanza, the word “I” doesn’t refer to a singular form of first person but it refers to the Afro-American people generally. He also uses a narrative form in the poem to construct the racial issues. On the third stanza also tells about the origin of the Afro-American people from the beginning of the time until the present time. It is described in a narrative way by several keywords, shows the sequence of time. The keywords are, “…Euphrates when dawns were young”, “…my hut near the Congo…”, “…upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it”, “…the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln / went down to New Orleans…”

The Euphrates River believed as one of the river flow in the Garden of Eden, (others are Pison, Gihon, and Tigris) the place of origin of humankind. The line continues by “…when dawns were young” that can be interpret as the beginning of the time. Next, he mentioned Congo River, located in Africa. This river helps the black people to make living and gives them a life when they settled in Africa continent. (Line 6: “…my hut near the Congo…”). It continues by “I looked upon the Nile…” (Line 7). Nile located in Egypt where the Pharaoh ruled and made the black people as their slave to build their civilization (marked specially by the pyramids). As we saw, this period can be marked as the period the black people treated as lower/second class than the other race. Mississippi River located in Mississippi, a place where black people got discrimination at that time. New Orleans is a place represented as the place for the black people to start a new life. Nowadays New Orleans becomes a “central cultural place” for the Afro-American in USA.

Hughes uses the figurative language as the literary devices to raise the issue. On the second stanza (“My soul has grown deep like the rivers”), he uses the metaphor to affect the reader when read this poem. This metaphor makes the reader think that river mentioned in this poem influences the black people’s life throughout history. We also can use the Marxism theory to criticize the poem. Marxism theory deals with the class struggle between the “first second class societies” against the “second class societies”. In this poem, we could see the struggle of the black people (as the “second class societies”) against the other people throughout the times (from the beginning of the time until now). They fight their right to be equal in every field of life (education, politics, etc) and they did success gaining their equality nowadays although some discrimination still exists.

We can conclude that the poet use this poem to make people (black people and others) aware of their existance. The Afro-American people should realize the origin of their ancestors and the struggle in every period of time they’ve been through. Not only the struggle, that must be noticed, but also the contributions of the black people to the civilizations. This can considered that the Afro-American people in America are people that give contributions to the state and not just “a slave-descendant” people that live in the state.

MLM

2009-07-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Fajar Supriono; 0608216
memang ga nyambung dgn mata kul qta. hanya untuk selingan :-)

(Sy lupa ini ngambil dari mana. Waktu itu browsing2 nyari bahan kerjaan, malah ketemu ini. Lupa juga dari blog nya siapa. Jadi, Bagi Yang Telah Menulis Blog Ini, SAYA MOHON MAAF klo lupa nyantumin blog anda. BUKAN SAYA BERMAKSUD PLAGIAT, tidak mencantumkan sumber. Karena saya memang benar2 lupa. Tolong konfirmasi saja nama blog anda lewat comment. Terima kasih,,,,)

Sebuah Transkrip bebas dari CD Motivasional Tianshi
Diarsipkan di bawah: Interesting, MLM — by anthonysteven @ 9:21 pm
Tags: Menyedihkan
Awalnya gak ingin buat tulisan tentang Tianshi dalam waktu dekat ini, however, habis ngelihat transkrip dari kaskus di sini:
http://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?t=773641&page=27
(Yang ditulis oleh saudara Music Healing), saya merasa perlu menulis postingan ini, mengapa? Karena transkrip yang ada sungguh menyayat hati saya.
Berikut adalah Transkripnya (berikut commentary dari saudara Music Healing)
——————————————————————————–
Isi Starter Pack Unicore
kemaren pelan 2 saya mendengar dengan seksama, word by word, starter pack bapak LT yang terhormat
catatan2 di bawah ini, saya ketik kata demi kata ikutin omongan 2nya LT di CD starter pack Tienshi
ps: kata2 dengan “”” kata….””” adalah sedikit pikiran spontan saya ketika mendengarkan
PART 1
mari kita mulai dari awal ::
1. Dibuka dengan quote dari ahli dunia,
Albert einstein – 95% impian dan 5% teknis (pendidikan, skill, koneksi, dll)
Thomas Alfa Edison - 90% impian dan 10 % teknis
“” tolong temen2 yang jago googling
tolong cari perkataan mutiara dari Albert Einstein dan T A Edison yang memberikan kata2 indah ini untuk dunia””
2. menekankan kalau IMPIAN adalah segala inti keberadaan dan keberhasilan
Ini adalah ketikan kata2 bapak LT :
Impian
• Definisi : keinginan yang DENGAN SEGALA CARA HARUS TERWUJUD, ini 95% nya… 5% teknis
• Alasan yang terkuat untuk jalanin bisnis ini
• ciri2 rang punya impian: wajah berseri2, mata berbinar2 , matanya dollar… matanya BMW, terpancar dari wajahnya
• Kesulitan : gara2 krisis berkepanjangan, Impian nya orang Indonesia kok luntur??
• LT menekankan kita belajar kembali menjadi anak kecil, harus ngotot, harus maksa, harus dapat yang diinginkan..
karena masalahnya adalah orang dewasa yang terlalu banyak tahu, sudah belajar terlalu banyak ilmu, sehingga impian seperti seorang anak kecil luntur
karena menurut LT Impian mendahului segala tindakan – ( jelas dong ya, semua orang juga tau ?? )
HARUS BERPIKIR KAYA DULU WALAU BELUM KAYA
KOK MIKIR DAPET 100 JUTA PERBULAN AJA TAKUT, APALAGI MIKIR 1 MILYAR PERBULANTakut jadi ayo BERPIKIR KAYA !!! ….
Orang yg tidak pernah berpikir tidak mencapai sesuatu !! (INGAT , kerja keras dan teknis cukup 5%)
Impian adalah arah , direction, tujuan hidup kita, ayo ngaku lah… elo pada
ga punya arah hidup kan? Krn elo pada ga punya impian…
ELO PADA ORANG2 YANG GA PUNYA TUJUAN HIDUP …
plok plok plok penonton
3. Alasan punya impian dan alasan masuk Tiens Unicore
- BISNIS INI MILIK ANDA SENDIRI, ANDA GA PUNYA BOS, GA USAH TAKUT DIMARAHIN BOS, BISA PULANG PERGI NGAPAIN AJA KAPAN AKA
IMPIAN ADALAH BOS HIDUP ANDA
- Modal sangat kecil dan tanpa risiko…
buka toko harus ada modal besar.. mau ga mau krn sudah keluar modal, usaha kaya gini harus dilanjutkan terus…
“””” INI GW GA NGERTI BANGET LOGIKA NYA… JADI TAKUT BERUSAHA DENGAN JUJUR DAN BENAR KARENA TAKUT KETEMU MASALAH DAN HARUS KOMITMEN DENGAN USAHA DAN PROFESI KITA?? “”””
- KITA KELUAR DARI ZONA KENYAMANAN KITA…
ga kaya orang2 yang kerja biasa, pergi pagi pulang sore, duit selalu pas2an, rutinitas kehidupan dalam kekurangan
hal2 kaya gini bikin nyaman, pegi pagi pulang sore, ama keluarga .. ga ada impian
Harus punya impian !!!
ISTRI BELI SEPATU MERAH, SUPAYA MATCHING, KITA BELI MOBIL MERAH (plok plok plok)
ISTRI BELI SEPATU KUNING, KITA BELIKAN MOBIL KUNING (plok plok plok)
Jangan mau hidup kaya air, biarpun keruh diterima aja??
Orang2 yang hidupnya butut kok puas sih ?? itulah orang2 biasa .. !!!
orang2 luar biasa di tienshi.. adalah harus orang yang spesial
yaitu orang tienshi,
Elo orang takut bermimpi??
LT memberi contoh:
LT selalu ditegur ibu bapak nya sendiri krn ibu bapak saya takut mimpi tapi saya cuek
aja dong
ANDA SEMUA JANGAN JADI KAYA Gajah Sirkus
da di zona nyaman, dari kecil sering gagal kalo mau melarikan diri, mau lari, kena rantai sakit, terus dah gede, ga berani lagi lari
jangan kaya gajah sirkus, yang mestinya bisa lari, ga ada yg bisa halangin, tapi gajah itu dia yakin dia ga bisa pegi.. takut mimpi takut gagal.
Musuh terbesar adalah diri sendiri..
ayo elo pada ngaca lo…
HARUS JADI BEBAL…. KAYA ANAK KECIL… INTINYA NGOTOT
JANGAN TERLALU PINTAR DAN DEWASA !!
terus omongin thomas alfa edison (TAE) gagal dulu 2000 x sebelum berhasil bikin lampu
kalo TAE dulu give up
susah dong, BMW2 kita, masa pake lilin ? (hahahahah plok plok plok)
TAE ampe tuli ketemu lampu meledak terus, benar ga?
“”” ada yg bisa konfirmasi, TAE emang tuli karena
kena lampu meledak 2000 x??“””
JANGAN KEBANYAKAN KUPING
JANGAN KEBANYAKAN TAHU
TUTUP ITU KUPING
TUTUP ITU TAHU
Kentucky Fried Chicken 1009 x ditolak…
“”” please guy confirm this fact””
tapi emang pak Sanders jualan MLM ??
Abraham lincoln ngotot akhirnya jadi presiden setelah 45 tahun gagal
pak Lincoln, dari jadi ketua RT, gagal,
coba jadi RW gagal
jadi lurah gagal
jadi camat gagal
naik jadi menteri gagal
jadi wakil presiden gagal
berarti menurut LT, pak Lincoln berpendapat gini” saya berarti bakatnya jadi presiden!””
plok plok plok
“”””
Thomas Alfe Edison 2000 x gagal.. (apa hubungan ama MLM?)
ini kan proses ilmiah.. bukan proses nawarin dagangan ke orang? semua proses ilmiah dalam ilmu pengetahuan ya emang gitu?? “””
End of part one
PART 2
cara jadi sukses :
Baca buku tiens terus, terus berpikir dan punya impian besar.. ada di pikiran maka itulah terjadi
Dengarkan kaset sukses .. gali impian dengan kesuksesan orang2 lain
Pertemuan orang sukses Unicore, contoh Luci, SMA udah sukses dapet kekayaan.. yang ini harus ditiru
siapapun harus bisa kaya dia
Pertemuan, antusiasme itu harus menular, jadi jangan jauhi pertemuan !!!
supaya anda2 semangat terus
JANGAN SOK BIJAKSANA BUAT ANDA YANG UDAH TUA!!
COBA YAH.. ISTRI SIAPA INI.. IH KEREN BANGET LOH.. PAKE MOBIL SESUAI BAJU DAN SEPATU
Beli peta, buat impian ke luar negeri kapanpun , dengan bebas,bisa bawa siapa aja ke seluruh dunia, bawa ortu dll..
Bahagiakan dong ortu dengan kasi kejutan
mama mama, ini ada mobil baru
mama, suprise, ini rumah baru
besok mama papa terserah mau ke luar negeri,
jadi mama papa anda2 bangga punya anak yang punya impian
Plok plok plok !!! histeria massa
SEMUA PAKE DUIT
ANDA-ANDA ORANG2 ANTI UANG — MUNAFIK
Uang itu perlu buat segalanya .. kalo perlu mama kita ikut prospek
jadi kalo ortu da mati , mereka bisa ikut prospek ,
ortu kesaksian nanti di akherat kalo anaknya sukses di tiens Unicore
“”” gua cuma geleng2, kualat banget nih, mama papa da ga didengerin nasehatnya, da mati dengan bangga, LT punya impian kalo mama papa nya juga prospek setan di akhirat sana”””
nah orang2 Tienshi itu
sudah kaya, ceritanya bantu orang lain,
LT bisa rubah orang dari naik sepeda jadi naik BMW
karena diri anda anda, semua orang berterimakasih pada anda krn jadi kaya .. luar biasa kan??
saya turun dari airport , disalami orang2 yang ga saya kenal, semua terima kasih2 krn mereka da jadi kaya karena saya
mau ga kaya gitu? bangga kan kaya gitu??
plok plok plok
dari Segi spiritual.. anda bisa biayain orang yang anda cintai untuk naik haji, ziarah rohani dll
BAPAK IBU, JUJUR AJA
IBADAH AJA PAKAI DUIT — JADI DUIT ITU PALING PENTING YA KAN?
IBADAH AJA NGERTI DUIT
IBADAH GA AKAN BERTAHAN, KITA CUMA SUMBANG PERASAAN DAN SIMPATI DOANG
IBADAH PAKE DUIT
ADA DUIT, STATUS SOSIAL DAN SPIRITUAL AKAN NAIK
“”” asli gw cuma bisa elus2 dada denger kata2 ini…. orang2 yang dengerin LT semua ketawa ketiwi membenarkan “”””
mau ga anda?
Bebas waktu dan bebas finansial
Uang ga masalah…mau apalagi..
keluarga mau belanja apa aja bisa…
orang 2 biasa, anak istri mau beli apa aja—ga bisa
musti boongin anak krn ga sanggup beliin yang anak mau
tapi Orang2 tienshi beda
banyak uang, banyak waktu, deket ama semua orang… ga stress
buat apa jadi orang kaya tapi ga ada waktu
Milikilah waktu… kerja di luar, banyak meeting ga ada waktu..
di tiens itu ada Passive income..
uang datang tanpa kerja,
sehingga orang2 tiens, justru kerepotan krn kelebihan uang.. duit ga abis2…
beban beratnya justru adalah gimana abisin uang berlebihan .. itu orang tienshi
mama mama, papa bingung nih.. duit da masuk lagi..
jadi kita bagi tugas
papa dapat passive income
mama harus bisa abisin itu duit sebanyak itu
PLOK PLOK PLOK HISTERIS
jadi bapak2 ibu2
Lindungi impian , jangan ampe dicuri orang lain.. terutama orang2 deket
kita….. orang2 sekitar kita mau curi impian kita
“”BACA BAIK2 PERNYATAAN LT INI. JANGAN SAMPAI IMPIAN ANDA DICURI ORANG LAIN TERUTAMA ORANG2 DEKAT ANDA “””
Anda mesti marah ama orang2 yang mau curi impian kita, terutama orang2
dekat kita
jreng jreng
ini adalah quote kesukaan saya dari seminar LT di starter pack Tien Unicore :
NASEHAT ADALAH PEMBUNUH
Nasehat orang sekitar kita adalah pembunuh karena orang2 sekitar kita terlalu sayang ama kita, jadi orang sekitar kita takut kita gagal,
jangan turuti nasehat orang 2 sekitar kita, karena NASEHAT ADALAH PEMBUNUH
harus kita teruskan impian kita supaya kelak
orang dekat kit, mereka bisa bahagia krn elo yang berhasil bisa bahagiain mereka
BIARPUN KELUARGA KITA SAYANG AMA KITA
HATI2 !!
HATI2 DENGAN MEREKA KARENA MEREKA MAU MENCURI IMPIAN KITA
“”” plok plok plok dari saya buat LT buat nasehat ISTIMEWA satu ini “””
end of part 2
PART 3
gimana cara kita menjaga impian kita???
Caranya:
1. buat daftar semua keinginan kita
100 barang apa aja yang kita inginkan,
boleh barang, harta, keinginan apa aja
liatin daftar ini setiap hari untuk semangat,
dan pada akhirnya kita tau, dari 100 itu mana yang paling kita inginkan…
2. Visualisasikan – ini paling penting..
cari gambarnya, tempel dimana2 , buat dream book.. supaya kita tetap setia ama impian kita..
Survey di USA mendapatkan bahwa
60% manusia ga punya impian jelas.. hidup di bawah rata2..
30% punya impian samar2 tapi tetep lakukan rutinitas orang rata2
7% hidup di atas rata2 krn punya impian yang jelas
3% impian jelas dan tertulis serta divisualisasikan….
“”” tiens masuk yang 7 dan 3% ya pak LT?
terus kaya bapak di majalah2 Tiens bilang
saat ini, bapak bawa foto jet pribadi ditempel di laptop, di rumah, dimana aja, supaya dengan cara apapun bapak LT bisa dapet uang untuk beli jet pribadi .
ada di majalah investor plus terbitan tiens kan
mainan BMW udah LT dapat
sekarang harus dapat jet pribadi “””
contoh Jim carrey main the mask dapat 10 juta dollar, santai aja tuh
dia da punya dream book, dan dapet 10 juta cuma di urutan paling awal
“””” confirm dong bener ga Jim Carrey menyatakan ini? “”””
YANG DI BAWAH INI ADALAH QUOTE FAVORIT KE 2 SAYA PRIBADI DARI BAPAK LT
JREEENNGGGG JRENGGGG MUSIC ON
IMAN YANG PALING TINGGI ADALAH KITA MERASA KITA SUDAH SUKSES
tinggal tunggu waktunya
“”” top banget ini pernyataan.. Iman paling tinggi adalah ketika kita udah merasa kita sudah sukses “”””
3. Miliki lingkungan yang positif yaitu orang2 unicore yang positif.. semua di unicore adalah orang positif dan sukses semua,
cari terus upline anda dan ikuti semua perkataannya
biarpun upline anda lebih muda dan anda merasa lebih tua, ikuti dia
biar semangat terus.. orang sukses tidak dipengaruhi orang lain.. hanya oleh orang2 positif
KOMITMEN DENGAN IMPIAN ANDA
5. fokus dan setia dengan impian, bukan fokus pada masalah2 ..
makin tinggi posisi anda, makin banyak masalah
dengan fokus pada impian..
masalah bintang 3 mah kecil, ga sebanding dengan masalah uplinenya apalagi masalah broze, bahkan diamond
jadi kalo upline anda yang masalahnya jauhhh lebih besar dari anda, kenapa anda pusing dengan masalah anda
keep looking up to your upline
Ingat , berani rugi besar berarti untungnya makin besar
6. Lakukan usaha sesuai sistem yang belaku dengan unicore.. tidak boleh di luar sistem,
krn sistem UNICORE ini sudah terbukti berhasil
7. “”” ini adalah favorit quote gw dari LT yang berikutnya”””
SUARA UPLINE adalah SUARA DARI ATAS.
IKUTI SEMUA KATA KATA UPLINE ANDA
JANGAN SOK TAHU
JANGAN SOK PINTAR
ORANG YANG TERLALU PINTAR ADALAH ORANG GAGAL !!!
HARUS DENGARKAN UPLINE
JANGAN TENGOK DAN DENGARKAN SIAPAPUN
HANYA DENGARKAN SUARA DARI ATAS, UPLINE ANDA
‘”””” ini dia nih yang bahaya dari Tiens Unicore
kita diajarkan menjauhi semua logika, suara upline kaya suara Tuhan ya??? “””
8. Jadilah Core person – biasakan diri jadi orang sukses, besarnya bisnis tienshi
tergantung besarnya orang2 berpikiran sukses/ core person ini yaitu anda
9. Komitmen minimal serius 2 tahun,
Allah aja di kitab suci mengajarkan ada musim tanam dan panen, minimal 2 tahun kan?
ini Investasi, ini perusahaan besar,
invetasikan waktu anda 2 tahun ini
bangun aset 2 tahun ini
dan sisanya adalh FREEDOM of TIME and FINANCIAL
SEUMUR HIDUP
Plok plok plokkk
Kalo anda ga lakukan, anda seumur hidup hanya orang keras
10. buat orang Tienshi,
Ga ada dan ga kenal namanya inflasi
ga pusing dengan hukum ekonomi, itu untuk orang non tiens,
Buat orang tiens,
setiap tahun, harga bukan makin mahal
harga terus makin murah , barang barang apapun terus makin terbeli oleh kita
terus begitu tiap tahun
mau kan ? plok plok plok
“”” gw asli da malas komen lagi hihihihihihih “”””
ada 4 faktor yang mempengaruhi bisnis ini :
1. perusahaan Tiens sudah besar, sudah mendunia, dengan produk2 bagus dan membawa mujijat
perusahaan ini telah membangun ribuan orang tiap hari..
BERPEGANGLAH PADA PERUSAHAAN YANG TEPAT
YA PERUSAHAAN YANG SEPERTI INI
UNTUK KIRA MEWARISKANNYA PADA ANAK CUCU KITA
plok plok plok
2. Omset Tianshi di indonesia, 80% nya adalah dari sistem unicore
80 BMW, 3 pesawat, telah dibagi,
jangan ikut sistem tiens lain
3. Garis sponsorisasi.. upline itu suara nya harus diikuti..
anda2 yang da punya jabatan besar di luar, punya perusahaan besar dan keberhasilan 2 besar sebelumnya
LUPAKAN ITU SEMUA
hanya ikuti apa kata upline anda krn mereka udah terbukti berhasil di sistem unicore ini
plok plok plok
4. Anda sendiri
anda adalah faktor terbesar dari bisnis ini,
downline adalah faktor utama
percuma kalo semua dowline gagal dengan impiannya.. semua akan jadi useless… jadi ujung2nya semua tergantung anda sendiri.. downline
semua kembali pada anda sendiri
Maukah kita hidup fokus pada impian anda?
“”” agak kontradiksi ama pernyataan awal ya??”””
penutup
dari chicken soup
ada orang cacat yang berniat mau lari
sampai dari orang cacat yg dokter bilang ga mungkin jalan
jadi juara lari dunia
“”” apa hubungannya dengan Tiens?? “””
END
itu semua saya ketik kata per kata bapak LT di CD starter pack beliau
terima kasih
menjelaskan sekali sikap dan tingkah orang2 masuk tiens unicore ya??
———————————————————
Bagaimana para pembaca? Apa masih perlu saya komentari? Tapi gpp, biar saya komentarin dikit.
Hal-hal yang ditekankan di CD Motivasi ini adalah:
1. Dalam hidup yang terpenting adalah Uang, banyak uang = banyak ibadah, banyak uang = bahagia
2. Orang di luar Tiens Unicore = negatif, Orang di dalam Tiens Unicore = positif
3. Jangan terlalu banyak tahu
4. Jangan banyak mendengar
5. Jangan sampe impian-impian BMW, uang melimpah, dll dicuri
6. Nasehat bisa membunuh, jangan dengarkan!
7. Hanya dengarkan Upline, karena Upline adalah orang sukses
Sungguh amat dangkal dan mengecewakan dari sebuah alat bantu motivasional.
Para pembaca sekalian, perluas pikiran, dengarkan nasehat, dengarkan hati nurani, biarkan impianmu dicuri asal anda bisa bangun dan menghadapi realita, dan satu hal lagi, uang bukan segala-galanya banyak hal dalam hidup ini anda bisa dapatkan dari ketiadaan uang.
Tuhan memberkati.

(Sy lupa ini ngambil dari mana. Waktu itu browsing2 nyari bahan kerjaan, malah ketemu ini. Lupa juga dari blog nya siapa. Jadi, Bagi Yang Telah Menulis Blog Ini, SAYA MOHON MAAF klo lupa nyantumin blog anda. BUKAN SAYA BERMAKSUD PLAGIAT, tidak mencantumkan sumber. Karena saya memang benar2 lupa. Tolong konfirmasi saja nama blog anda lewat comment. Terima kasih,,,,)
(permohonan maafnya diulang lagi, biar jelas hehehe)

Six Month to Live

2009-07-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Fernando Sirait

0608441

I’m very interesting in this novel. I can’t imagine if I am in this case. This novel tells about an ordinary guy (Matt) who often plays his mp3’s at his work and in the hoops on the weekend. Then, a month before his wedding, he was diagnosed with cancer by doctor. Six months later he was dead said the doctor. But six months to live isn’t really about dying. This story tells us of how Matt, his family and his friends struggled to accept his suffering, and how it changed each of them. This story’s also tells us about facing life rather than avoiding.

I recommend you to read this novel. Many messages that can we take from this story such as: the purpose of life and when you’re going to die. Sometimes we don’t want to talk about them, unless you have to. In my simple word, this novel tells us about tragedy when life is cut short, though in being compressed it becomes like a diamond.

Color Problem in Happer Lee’s “To Kill a Mocking Bird”

2009-07-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

Race issue and great adventures take a large part in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. A social problem of deeper significance is presented in the story. The color problem appears with all its bad aspects. To kill a mocking Bird reveals of how a people in a community contaminated with the disease of color prejudice and it appears as a prominent theme. Yet the story conducts the meaning of how social and color problem raise as race issue.

The story is quite simple but then tightens up into a deep meaning. The story is narrated in the first scene by Scout, who is barely six years old. Numerous incidents happen in the story and one of the incidents is when Jem’s arm is broken. Jem is Scout’s elder brother. The story also comes up with the mysterious figure Mr Radley who seldom speaks to others. It makes the children curious about the story of his life. It is Miss Stephanie, a gossip of the neighbourhood, who has told the children of the mysterious ways of Boo Radley’s life and they finally begin their adventure around Mr Radley’s house. The incidents link together the social problem of color prejudice. It seemed by the narration from Scout of the Boo Radley mystery and the breaking of Jem’s arm.

Yet the story grows to the deeper social and race issue. Scout the narrative reveals the bad aspects of racial prejudice that grows in the societies of Alabama and other states in the Deep South know as Maycomb. In the story, Maycomb has a mixed population of whites and blacks, the whites as a landowners and farmers employing the Blacks as farm hands and domestic servants. There is discrimination against the Blacks as this is an accepted fact in the Deep side. “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men everyday of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.” (Page 233). The discrimination is seen through the point of view of the narrator. Here, the farmers in the countryside are being illiterate and prejudiced. All these treatments against the Blacks are the phenomena happens in the story that reveals the racism issue in the story.

To Kill a Mocking Bird is an example of how the social problem can be major issue through the eye of the innocence, Scout who links together the incidents revealing the social problem and color prejudice. The story much like a mockingbird that makes music to us to enjoy and in a deep meaning carries out the race issue.

Fauziah Umar Abdat

0608789

Feminism in Sidney Sheldon's Rage of Angels

2009-07-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

Women portrayal plays a large part in Sidney Sheldon's “Rage of Angels”. This novel told the different side of women,as a heroine that is equal to men. Sidney usually illustrates the lack of dominant female characters in his novels, because women are often seen as inferior to men in society.

The story begins with a beautiful woman, Jennifer Parker. She works as an Assistant District Attorney for the State of New York, in Manhattan. Because of her mistake as the criminal defense attorney, she became the victim of Michael Moretti’s conspiracy, one of the most powerful organized crime families in America. She was accused of being involved with the mafia headed by Moretti and took a bribe from him.

That was the beginning of Jennifer’s ruin life. She was fired and could not find a job anywhere until she met Adam Warner, who then changed her life. he decided Jennifer was not guilty of taking bribe. However, Jennifer's life did not get better; she had to face terrible struggle to survive in New York City. One of her big problems came from Robert Di Silva, a brilliant district attorney who had vowed to destroy Jennifer’s carrier as attorney because of her guilty.

The complication continued as Jennifer fell in love with Adam Warner, her fellow attorney. He was being groomed for the Senate and promoted into the White House. It grew more complicated when Jennifer met Warner's wife. After discovering Mary Bath was pregnant, Adam told Jennifer that she had to keep on his marriage a little longer; he never knew that Jennifer was pregnant too. They broke up and Jennifer decided to become a single mom. Unexpectedly, Jennifer's son was kidnapped, and in desperation he asked Moretti for help and as an exchange she agreed to be Moretti family's lawyer.

Jennifer's life soon became more terrible and turned into a nightmare when her son died because of head injury. The story ended up when Jennifer was shot by Michael, who finally knew her affair with Warner. Warner also discovered that Jennifer's son was actually his son that he never realized it before because of his promotion as the president of the United States.

The overall meaning of this story is portrayed through the use of literary devices which influence its feminist theme. The woman character in the story is extraordinary, such as when Jennifer got desperate in looking for a job but she tried to be independent. The woman in this novel is seen as independent, tough, and hard worker under the pressure of the men. Moreover, in this novel woman becomes a heroine that is able to conquer the men using her intelligence. This is seen when Jennifer wins the court. This time Jennifer wins the court over Robert Di Silva and it seems like David who had slain Goliath.

The setting of the story is a big town, New York City. Big cities usually deal with individualism, modernism and freedom, which keep the reader idea that it's not easy for women to live alone and work the whole day to achieve their dream.

There is a symbol in the novel which relates to the meaning of this interpretation of the story. For example, the writer wrote this book at 1980’s. In the late 1980's, when the mafia organization was spreading from Italy into America, it declined because FBI and the US government tried to destroy them. In the novel, it was related to the situation at that time. The idea of chaos in the city is exemplified by the battle between government represented by lawyer and organized crime families represented by mafia.

To sum up, Rage of Angels illustrates many interesting ideas about woman portrayal in a big city like New York, and also symbolically in the society where we live in. through the use of literary devices, Rage of Angels tells a suspenseful story that can be interpreted to mean many things. Among those things is the idea that women are as well as men in the society and equality can be achieved if both of them reconstructed the mindset and form in society.

posted by laili azizah 0608243

Explosive, Overwhelming, Terrific but also Awful

2009-06-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

On June 24th 2009, the second installment of of Transformers is released in the whole world, including Indonesia. Transformers 2: Revange of The Fallen is the most anticipated movie of the year because everybody must be curious with the continuance of the story and finally they cant hardly wait to watch this movie (So do i). hehehehe.

In fact, The movie can earn roughly 201 million US$ just in a week after released and be the No 1 on US box office two weeks in a row.

Firstly, I will say the action scenes and visual effects are wonderful. 90% of this movie filled by action, action and action; that will coddle your eyes and also make your head keep spinning around till the end of the show.

Michael Bay keeps adorning his movie with explosions or massive destructions even bigger and crazier than before. With the overwhelming budget, he tries to widen the scope of the by creating an unreasonable – plot and very long runtime. Bay insists to present new robots either Autobot or Decepticon to to fill the plot that takes 2 and a half hours without giving detail information about them. They just come and go, in the meantime, the audience actually don’t know who they are; do they belong to autobot or cecepticon, etc.

How about the acting of the main characters?.......just so-so

Shia Le Bouf will never become my favorite if he doesn’t want to take another acting courseto improve his bad and soulness and flat acting.He looks stupid in this movie. Megan Fox ? oh she is nothing better; fortunately she still looks amazingly hot but she cannot act well here, perhaps she just shows her big boobs to entertain the audience. The Parents? THEY ARE Ridiculous. Everybody else can be sure not to win the Oscar for best supporting role neither.

Transformers 2 tends to present great visual effects instead of a good plot. Honestly I’d like to say I enjoyed Angels and Demons and Terminator Salvation a lot more than this movie.

Just love or hate it….

It depends on you

Overall, Transformers 2 is quite entertaining and absolutely fun for those who look for a cool popcorn movie that doesn’t need much effort to think about the heavy plot. Just go to the cinema with your lovely brothers and sisters and enjoy your summer holiday.

XOXO

Posted by Eku Baruna Graha (0608185)

The Ingredients of Twilight’s Novel

2009-06-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Mirna Tania

060791

Twilight is one of the best seller novels in the world. Stephanie Meyer is the writer of Twilight series. Twilight divided into four series novel: twilight, Eclipse, New Moon, and Breaking Down. The premise of Twilight novel is simple; it’s about love between a girl named Isabella Swan and a vampire named Edward Cullen. Yeah, I can read your mind this story is just about love, a freak and non making sense love. Simple, predictable, boring, and common story, that is the people’s perspective before read this novels. Even Stephen King said Stephanie Meyer is a bad writer; I don’t have comment about that judgment. I believe that everyone have the different definition of what is the good and bad novel. Based on my experience if you want to explore and improve your knowledge about everything don’t judge it by the cover. Hehe, I found that words about three seconds a go..

To be honest I have read the whole Twilight series about three times. Please don’t call me weird or an idiot girl, just because I spent my holiday to read those novels. I love the story of Twilight novels because I find equality between Edward and Bella. I didn’t find the term of Oppressor and Oppress in the novel. I think that is the educated reason and I have an uneducated reason, this story is about love. Yeah, I like read love story but don’t worry I like to read the other novels too.

Twilight’s novel bring some new atmosphere for my brain (I used my hyperbole to impress the reader..). Don’t ask me whether this novel just came up with a boring love story and bla bla bla. Based on my opinion, this novel gave me a lot of advantages, check this lists:

a. This novel provided me medium to improve my imagination and sharper my imagery about how to make the novel vivid in my mind. The result is I have a wild imagination. Hehe.. Then I can apply this into other novel because I have practice my imagination through Twilight series.

b. I have improved my vocabulary, yeah I know that it’s not your business but I just want to share with you about the good news :)

c. This novel also put some novels that I never heard before like Romeo and Juliet in many versions and Jane Austin’s works. To be honest I started like to read classical novels like them. So I called this reasons are the advantages reading Twilight’s novel.

d. The last but not least, this novel showed me the equality between men and women.

It is just small things that I can share with you about the ingredients of twilight’s novels. I hope you can find the other ingredients through reading this novel. Don’t judge it before you read it.

Thank you for your attention...

Shakespeare is Misogynistic, isn’t it?

2009-06-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

Mirna Tania
060791
Non-Education A 06

This work deals with Shakespeare’s play Hamlet with regard to feminism. It will analyze Shakespeare’s treatment of the female characters is misogynistic. Furthermore it will try to find out if Shakespeare’s treatment of the female characters is misogynistic or not, if he created feministic women and if he supported the idea of equal rights. It is here that the root of Hamlet’s problem is discovered, his mother’s hasty marriage to Claudius. This is preying on his mind even before he discovers by means of the ghost that his father had been murdered by Claudius. He is still trying to come to terms with his mother’s sexuality and he has to work through these feelings before he can even really consider avenging his father’s death.
Based on that question i’m trying to investigate whether Shakespeare is Misogynistic or not? Through his plays and short story I will analyze Shakespeare’s treatment of the female characters is misogynistic. I hope some of you have different perspective or ideas according to my mini research. I just want to share my curious about Shakespeare. Thank you for attention.

Children of heaven Movie

2009-06-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Mirna Tania
060791
Non Education A 06

Have you watched this movie? I hope you already watched this movie because this movie is a very good movie. This movie was directed by Majid Majidi and distributed by Miramax Films. This is an Iranian movie, created at 1997. Cited from Wikipedia, film was the first Iranian Film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I have watched this movie three times at the Television. I love this movie. The acting of actor and the actress were very good.
The story is about a brother and a sister and their adventure to get a pair of shoes. Brother named Ali and his young sister named Zahra. One day, Zahra’s shoes lost in Ali way home from the shoemaker. They decided to hide this accident from their parents because they no money to buy a replacement pair and they fear that they will get punishment to lose Zahra’s shoes. The solution for this problem is they share Ali’s sneakers, in the morning Zahra will wear it to school and at midday Ali’s turn. Ali always came late to the school because he waiting Zahra in the alley to change their shoes. Finally, Ali saw a footrace at his school then he saw the third prize is a new pair of sneakers. Then Ali decided to enter that race and hope that he can be a winner in the third position. Accidentally, Ali came up with the first winner then wins another prize. During his victory, he is crying all the time because he feels so disappoint to be a first winner. One day, their father bought them new shoes; a pair of white sneaker for Ali and a pair of red shoes for Zahra.
I think this movie is very great. The premise of this movie is interesting. How is relationship between brother and sister are constructed and a brother and a sister who love one another. This movie is a perfect movie for children and I think adults will like to watch this movie too. This movie is about the adventures of children and the children aren’t build a robot or the comic’s things. This is about children who losses their shoes. “When you are kid, you know you are not likely squished by a giant lizard, but losing something that has been entrusted to you? And getting in trouble at school? That’s big time” (quoted by Rogers Ebert).
This is holiday time, why don’t you ask your children, nephew, niece, sister or brother to watch this movie. This movie is full of moral messages that we can share with our family.. Have a nice holiday.. thank you for your attention...

Psychoanalysis on the Movie “The Punisher”

2009-06-27T03:51:00.000-07:00

Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary criticism which, in method, concept, theory, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. It has been accomplished since the beginning development of psychoanalysis itself and has developed into a rich and varied interpretive tradition. Psychoanalytic literary criticism is a literary approach where critics see the text as if it were a kind of dream (the text represses its real, or latent, content behind manifest content). This process is known as the dream work and involves operations of concentration and displacement. The critic analyzes the language and symbolism of a text to reverse the process of the dream work and come to the underlying latent thoughts.

This theory can also used as an approach to analyze a movie as a text. In this essay the psychoanalysis approach is used to analyze a movie “The Punisher” (2004). “The Punisher” is an action movie based on the Marvel Comics character The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/The Punisher (protagonist) and John Travolta as Howard Saint (antagonist). The story is an adaptation from the Marvel comic books. FBI agent Frank Castle is an undercover agent working his last case before his retirement. He had planned to retire and take his wife and child to London where it was safe and wants to start a new life. Yet, it was not goes right. On his last case, the son of crime lord Howard Saint is killed, and Saint wants revenge. Saint ordered his men to go to Castle's family reunion and kill everybody. Frank is shot, but can manage survives and get treatment by a local man named Candelaria.

Frank “hides” in an old apartment building where three other people live (Dave, Bumpo, and Joan). He starts his revenge after knowing that the law enforcement has no intention of pursuing Howard Saint. Frank sabotages Saint's business and “cuts” Saint's partnership with the Cuban mobsters. He then starts tailing Livia and Quentin, learning that Quentin is in fact a homosexual, with information from Micky. After the sequences of Frank’s revenge action, Howard realizes that Frank is still alive and sends two assassins to kill him. Both assassins failed their mission and killed by Frank. The second assassins, Frank kills him by throwing boiling water to his face (makes him blinds) and then throw him down the staircase, crushing his head. Not long then, Saint's men arrive. Dave, Joan, and Bumpo hide Frank in an “elevator” and refuse to tell Quentin where he is. Quentin then pulling Dave's piercings out sadistically. Quentin leaves a man behind to kill Frank when he gets back. Frank leaves the elevator and kills the man. That night, Frank prepares himself for battle, and manipulates Howard into believing that Quentin and Livia were having an affair by putting one of Livia's earrings on Quentin's bed. Howard, unaware that Quentin is a homosexual, and believing Livia to be capable of cheating on him, kills them both.

Frank then burst into Saint's club alone, killing everyone. Howard tries to escape, but Frank catches him and shoots his stomach. As he suffers a great pain, Frank tells him that Quentin and Livia were not having an affair. Frank then ties Howard to a car which running into a bomb-laden car park, blowing up many cars and lighting Howard on fire. The destruction and wreckage creates the shape of Frank's iconic skull. He leaves and lets Howard burn to death. After Frank finish his vengeance, he prepares to commit a suicide. Just before he shoots his mouth, he remembers his wife and decides he will continue his "mission” against others who deserve receive punishment. Before he continues his “mission”, he leaves some of Howard's money for Bumpo, Joan, and Dave. In the final scene on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Frank delivers a short monologue: “Those who do evil to others - the killers, the rapists, psychos, sadists - you will come to know me well. Frank Castle is dead. Call me... The Punisher.”

Charles Mauron in 1963 conceives a structured method to analyze literary works using psychoanalysis (psycocriticism). The study implies four different phases. First, the creative process is akin to dreaming awake: as such, it is a mimetic, and cathartic, representation of an unconscious impulse or desire that is best expressed and revealed by metaphors and symbols. Second, the juxtaposition of a writer's works leads the critic to define symbolical themes. Third, these metaphorical networks are significant of a latent inner reality. Forth, they point at an obsession just as dreams can do.
The first phase is the creative process is akin to dreaming awake: as such, it is a mimetic, and cathartic, representation of an unconscious impulse or desire that is best expressed and revealed by metaphors and symbols. In “The Punisher” the protagonist (Frank Castle/The Punisher), the antagonist (Howard Saint) and also other characters, symbolize three sides of life; white, black and grey side of human life. As in real life that human can not be always right or wrong every time. One time someone do a bad thing, on the other time, do a good thing. The action did by both characters are based on their reaction towards the event happening on their life. An attack by the law enforcement to an illegal drugs/firearms transaction is a reaction to protect the society from illegal drugs/firearms; as the illegal drugs/firearms dealer do they business to feed their life and need. The Punisher shirt which has a death head skull picture on its breast and the name of company own by Howard Saint “Saints and Sinners” are also symbol of three sides of life. The Punisher is not a usual superhero type. He legalizes killing, extortion, kidnapping, and coercion, threats of violence and torture to reach his goal to defend the justice. The usual superhero type avoids those kinds of tactics to uphold the law/justice. Howard Saint uses an opposite symbol as a name for his business “Saints and Sinners”, as saints are person who dedicates his/her life to do good while sinners are person who do a sin as a mortal.

All of these symbols represent the desire of human as they nature’s characters. For some point, human in nature wants to do everything they want, ignoring every rules and regulation/want to be free just to reach their goals. This is very common reason for someone who did something that violates rules on the society to fulfill his/her need. This reason is also acceptable since God gave human a free will; but sometimes human forget that they free will are also must respect others free will.
The second phase is the juxtaposition of a writer's works leads the critic to define symbolical themes. In this movie, position of opposite things can be seen through out the movie: The Punisher is a opposite to Howard Saint, the Saints and Sinners brand, the place of Frank “hiding”, where he lives in an apartment with people who considered the mutual values, and The Punisher death head skull symbol itself. In general, this juxtaposition leads the reader/the viewer to consider the meaning of those symbols. Why Howard Saint naming his company “Saints and Sinners” is to represents his attitude toward life. He acknowledges that his business is illegal but he did that to earn money and make a living for his family. The Punisher death head skull mark symbolizes Frank’s motives to uphold the law/justice, which is to eliminate the bad guy. This contradict with his background as law enforcer, which his main duty is to “preserve life”, whether it is a good guy or a bad guy. This also shows Frank’s psychoanalytic concept of Thanatos, an instinct towards death and destruction. His superego shows his moral voice toward justice, the “an eye for an eye” ideology. When Frank “hides” himself in an apartment, his “lonely” attitudes show the opposition to his neighbor. Frank does not want to engage in any people at that time. His only purpose is to prepare himself to take revenge. It is quite different with his neighbor (Dave, Bumpo, and Joan) which they care each other.
The third phase shows that these metaphorical networks are significant of a latent inner reality. As a child, the point of view of life of human was as consistent as black and white. As the time passed by and human grew, they realize that life is not only black and white. There is another color in between those two colors, grey. White is the representation of all the good thing, black is the opposite of white, while grey, represent something which is not in exact place. Grey as a blend of white and black is also represents the doubt of human. This kind of doubt often times emerge in human’s thought and mind as the results of circumstance occur in daily life. The grey area is the condition which people “mix” the condition as a mean to do something based on their need. The reality which occurs later was the consequence of human’s choice. This was also shows the free will of human.
The forth phase is “they point at an obsession just as dreams can do”. Human as God’s most perfect creature has their own capabilities to dreaming, imaging what they could not do and hoping that they could do the impossible things as human. This unconscious and conscious mind added by they ability to imaging something impossible, human had already able to make an effort to make their dream do come true. In the beginning of the time, human had a dream to fly. As the time passed by many inventions were invented even now human can explore the space. In “The Punisher”, the human dream is about to uphold the law/justice where the system itself could not do that. Human want to search for justice they could not afford by depending on the law system which has many procedure, bureaucracy, and so on and so forth. These also show the human need for justice, not only in a normative but also in practical.

In a brief, “The Punisher” as a movie can be analyzes using the theoretical frame works of psychoanalysis. “The Punisher” represents human’s will to get justice not only for their safety but also as their basic need. Human also have a desire to do everything freely does not “tied up” by rules, system, norm, and so on and so forth. In the other hand, God created human not only to fulfill their own need but also to control their desire so human distinguished from animals. Human have special things, the free will and the ability to dreaming and make the dream come true by doing efforts to realize it. As a creature which can thinking and doing by their own will, human should be wiser to face the reality of life because the actions did by human could influence the other.

Ref:
1. www.wikipedia.com/psychoanalitic_criticism
2. www.wikipedia.com/The Punisher (movie)
3. www.imdb.com/The Punisher

by : Fajar Supriono (0608216)

The Virgin, which "cinta terlarang"

2009-06-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

if we listen to a music on the radio it will be bias about what the singer try to show us trough the lyrics they sang. then we have to see what does they mean trough the video clip they made on TV. the Virgin a new duo that recently come up to our music industry are actually being compare with the Russian duo TATU. both of this duo has two girls as their personal, one with a tomboy outlook(Dara) and the other one with a feminine look(mitha).

most of the people already know that TATU as a duo come up with an issue that they are actually Lesbians, and here in my opinion The Virgin wants to show the same issue to us. cinta terlarang their latest single is merely about a forbiden love that no one can have it, whether it is because of our culture in the society that forbid the love because its inappropriate, religion, or even they are in love with the same gender.

as I mention before if we only listen to the radio without the visualization they make for us its very bias when The Virgin about "cinta terlarang" because first if we only see their appearance we will guess what they mean by cinta terlarang is their own relationship to each other.

then I watch the clip they made, at first i thought that it is true that its is about the relationship between the two of them but then come Marcelino Lefrant separate both of them, in this video clip Marcelino is actually has already get married but still he is in love with one of the girl. then i Question my self when i saw that scene, is the forbidden love belong to the relationship between the girls or the relationship between the girl and Marcelino?

in the end i think that not all of the video clip makes the message clear enough, still we will have many interpretation on a things like a song. well which "cinta terlarang" then it is in your opinion?

Asep Saepudin (0608389)

Boys in comparison with Dogs

2009-06-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Actually, this novel is not a book I recently read. I’ve finished reading it several months ago but I think there are some points I should share with you all about this teen lit. Macarin Anjing is second Christian Simamora’s best seller novel published by Gagas media in 2007. This novel tells about a girl named Libby who hates boy so much because she has betrayed by her ex, Dogma. Besides, her best friends Bianca and Miata also have trouble with boys. Those facts bring Libby to a perspective that a boy would not be better than a dog. Until one day she spreads a paper to her classmates which notes:

15 Reason Why A Dog Is Better Than A man
- Dogs do not have problems expressing affection in public
- Dogs miss you when you’ve gone
- Dogs feel guilty when they’ve done something wrong
- Dogs don’t brag about whom they’ve slept with
- Dogs don’t criticize your friends
- Dogs admit it when they’re jealous
- Dogs don’t feel threatened by your intelligence
- Dogs understand what ‘no’ means
- You can home train a dog
- Middle-aged dogs don’t feel to abandon you for a younger owner
- Dogs don’t mind if you do all the driving
- Dogs don’t step on the imaginary brake
- Dogs admit it when they’re lost
- Dogs can’t feel threatened if you earn more than they do
- Dogs mean it when they kiss you
(Taken from macarin anjing page:53)

Some girls admit it even they add more facts that man is worse than a dog based on their own experiences. But boys contradict it. They feel Libby’s note is not fair and shrinking boys too much. Since that day, Libby keeps up dating the list with new facts about boy’s jerkiness.

As Niko comes to Libby’s life, everything’s changing. Through many processes, finally Libby changes her mind. Niko is different from any boy she knows. And so Bianca and Miata, her closest friends in the end find their Mr. Right guys who are not jerk. The story ends as Libby throws her notes ‘Reasons why a dog is better than a man’ away and decides to make a new note ‘Reasons Why a man is better than a dog’ even she doesn’t know what to write yet. She only writes one thing, dog’s kiss would not be as hot as boy’s.

I love this novel; it’s not because of the story. Honestly, the plot is kind of cliché. But I like how Simamora delivers the story in his fresh language style; humorous, flowing, and crunchy. As a man, he begins the story by mocking and cursing boy. But at the and of the story, man’s role becomes very lovable. Christian Simamora perhaps wants to make the reader learn that in a thousand jerks there must be one man who is not jerk. It’s proved by Niko’s character. Besides, Simamora puts many information and references at the foot note, it shows that he is knowledgeable and experienced.

“Sekarang dia ganti menuntut pada Tuhan, kok bisa-bisanya cewek dipasangkan sama cowok? Kenapa? Apa karena persamaan rima kata: cewek-cowok, man-woman? Kalo memang alasannya bukan itu, Libby mo ngasih masukan buat Tuhan supaya cewek dipasangkan sama sesuatu yang lebih mudah diatur aja… dengan badak, misalnya. Yah, memang aneh sih berjodoh sama badak, tapi paling nggak dia ngga bakalan nempelin upilnya sembarangan kan?” (Macarin Anjing:58)
This novel raises gender issue as woman here (Libby) gives judgment about men in half of eyes. She always thinks that boy is a mess based on her experience and some friends’ experiences. In boy’s point of view, boys are jerk since girls love the jerks. They think it’s not boy’s fault. It is girl’s for they are so foolish to be fool.

However, this novel makes me realize that man and woman are different in any kind of thing. But God has many reasons why he creates man and woman to be different. One of them is to complete each other.
Now, it’s your turn guys! Do you agree that a dog is better than a boy? Or the vice versa?

BY: GHEA LISANOVA (0608211)

belanja terus sampe mati (by efek rumah kaca)

2009-06-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

Belanja terus sampai mati
( by efek rumah kaca)

akhir dari sebuah perjalanan
mendarat di sudut pertokoan
buang kepenatan

awal dari sebuah kepuasan
kadang menghadirkan kebanggaan
raih keangkuhan

tapi tapi
itu hanya kiasan
juga juga suatu pembenaran
atas bujukan setan,
hasrat yang dijebak jaman
kita belanja terus sampai mati

duhai korban keganasan peliknya kehidupan urban
duhai korban keganasan peliknya kehidupan urban

I would like to analyze this song using Marxism theory (a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies.” Marxism is the antithesis of capitalism which is defined by Encarta as “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit.”( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)), this song tell us about people in urban lifestyle which like to spend much their money to buy something that sometimes it is not necessary but they buy it to raise their prestige. People who usually do that activity are the high class societies who like to “shop until drop”, they buy and use goods with famous brand with sky-high price to show that they are the high-class societies that indeed different with common society.

intan nirmala (0607978)

The Concept Of Beauty

2009-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

I have read an interesting article in kompas few months ago. It has opened my mind, because the issue was extraordinary and it did happen in our society. I get the point of the article that “Most of women in Indonesia want to have white skin”. The most interesting part was when many people did not realize the big impact of this issue. In my opinion, loosing identity became the big impact. I would like to give some comments about the article in the next paragraph.

“Most of women in Indonesia want to have a white skin”, yes I think that’s true and really happened!!!. Thats all because many advertisement have created the concept of beauty in our mind. It told us that beauty is white.

Advertisement is one of many ways to promote and create your opinion, brand, company, etc. We could see that most of advertisement told that women would look beautiful because of their white skin, most of them implied that. Most of the ad of soap, lotion, and cream said how to have a white skin, because white skin will makes you more beautiful and then everyone will love you.

In similar ways, we also see that most advertisement in the television use white women as their model, and also in some ads there are some boys whom interviewed about how’s the beautiful women looked like, its all the same white skin.

Honestly, I felt so sad to hear that. It is loosing our identity,because most of Indonesian women have brown skin. I think it could be included as orientalism or even post colonialism. Indonesia used to be colonized country, but we still feel the impact of it until now. Most of us feel inferior about western because they have white skin. So that, it becomes a doctrine in our minds or brainwashing and the characteristic of beauty becomes one subject, white skin. Beside that, it becomes a way of contrasting us, western versus eastern.

On the contrary, most of western amazed our skin, brown skin. Actually, they wanted to have a skin just like us. They said that our brown skin is awesome and beautiful. They tried to bask in order to make their skin brown.

After all, we should proud of our original skin, and should not sad with that. Because white skin does not always deal with beauty. It according to us in regarding ourselves. Beauty is in our mind not in other people perspective.

Posted by Laili Azizah -0608243-

It is a rule, but it's hard to obey it. Is it hard to obey the rule??

2009-06-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

Ida Hidayah-060099

My name is Ida Hidayah. I was born in Cilacap, June 4 1988. I live in Lembang and nearby Pasar Panorama Lembang. I spent my life in Lembang with my parents about 21 years. My father is a Sundanese and my Mom is a Javanese. In 1992, they had an ice cream shop at Pasar Lembang. Pasar lembang is a traditional market which had unforgettable memories in my family life. To me, Pasar Lembang was not only a place to earn money but also a place for making friends with neighbours at Pasar. I can be here as a college student because my parents earn the money from there. it was nice when i helped my parents at Pasar. Everything was in order, the location of the sellers, especially sellers who sale their stuffs outside the market or what we usually called as Pedagang Kaki Lima (PKL). But everything has changed now. when i was in fifth grade in elementary school, the tragedy happened. Fire came to Pasar. That was the most chaotic situation i ever seen. My parents got panic when they saved the stuffs left inside Pasar. at about year 2002, my parents decided to sell the shop. I remembered at that time that I didn't go to school because I helped my mom. after that tragedy, the situation of Pasar Panorama changed and messy. Everything is not in order until now. The seller (PKL) stands their stuffs in sidewalk. The pedestrian will get the impact of these changes.
They will get difficulties to cross the street and walk through Pasar Lembang, that's for sure. But this is the environment where i live. I love to be here.
Three days ago, June 14 2009, when my father sold ice cream outside the Pasar lembang, the security guard of Pasar panorama, they did their job seriously in handling the PKL. The security guard cleaned up Pasar panorama from PKL. My father was there at that time. he ran and found a place to hide. that was funny and sad in one time. he told me that the situation has changed and uncertain. the sidewalk has cleaned up and nice. It was nice to see the sidewalk got clean and nice, but there was something missing. I usually see the PKL sale vegetables there, but they were not there anymore. My father said that in a few days the situation will be okay to sale outside the Pasar Panorama, people just wait for the right time to begin the activities again, and because it has happened before. So, I think it is a weird situation. the security guards are people with authority to kick the seller especially illegal seller from the market. when they do their job to make the market clean and in order, but the sellers do not obey the rule which they know by themselves, it will make their (security guards) job more difficult. the should work harder. It's a rule, but it's hard to obey it. is it that hard to obey only a rule you should obey??

WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER by Sally Nicholls

2009-06-16T03:45:00.000-07:00

If you want to know ways to live forever, just read this book.
I cried, I smiled, and I laughed when I read this book. A very inspiring book.

This book tells a story about Sam, 11 years old, who had leukemia and has no much time to live.
One day , he decided to write a book before he dies.

This book contains lists of simple questions, such as:
1. How do we know that we already dead ? (bagaimana kita tahu kita sudah mati)
2. Why God made children sick ? (kenapa Tuhan membuat anak-anak jatuh sakit)
3. If there is someone who not really dead , but people think that he is already dead , what happened ? Is he going to burried alive ? (bagaimana kalau ada orang yang sebenarnya belum mati , tapi dikira sudah mati oleh orang-orang lain ? apakah dia akan dikubur hidup-hidup ?)
4. Is it hurt when we died ? (sakitkah kalau mati ?) , etc .

So simple but it's so hard to answer. Those kinds of questions tells us how innocent Sam as a boy. But then, he is so wise and so real. Sam loves facts and he wants to be a scientist. Actually he has some things that he wanted to do before he died, and with his friend and his family, he could do all of things that he wanted to do.

Also , this book contains story of Sam's life , pictures , and facts that he collected for weeks.

This book is inspiring, because we can see how strong Sam in facing his death and we cannot ignored the fact that he's still a boy and innocent.

Through his questions, we can sense his innocence in asking such as simple questions but nobody can answer it, but he determined to find the answers.

Afterall , he died peacefully with his family around .

You have to read it , guys ..
Enjoy !

PS: So sorry for all my mistakes in spelling and grammar .

cheers ^^

R. Melinda Aisyah 0608301

Ketika Cinta Bertasbih—“Another Sinetron Movie”

2009-06-16T01:05:00.001-07:00

I watched movie “Ketika Cinta Bertasbih” together with my friends last Friday. My curiosity about this second movie from the famous author of Ayat-ayat Cinta, Habiburrahman El Shirazy is because his first movie became a successful movie in Indonesia. I believe this is also the reason why some people are willing to stand in line for hours. Although this movie was taken in Egypt but in my opinion this movie was disappointed. I think this movie was quite the same as a sinetron movie in our national television. I will explain the reasons why I had this opinion.

Firstly, this movie tells a story about a man named Khairul Azzam (M. Kholidi Asadi Alam) who studied in Al-Azhar University in Egypt for nine years. He sells fermented soybean cake and meatball for a living and to support his family fund in Solo. This business also made him get acquaintance with a beautiful girl named Eliana Pramesti (Alice Norin), a daughter of Indonesia Embassy for Egypt, Mr. Alam (Slamet Rahardjo). The main character was quite similar with the previous movie, Fahri in Ayat-ayat Cinta. Both of them have some similar characteristics, such as handsome, tall, religious, and luckily many girls chase after him.

The story continued when Azzam thinks that he wasn’t right for Eliana, because of her lifestyle was totally different with him and afterward Mr. Ali (Didi Petet) suggested him to propose Anna Althafunissa (Oki Setiana), a beautiful, smart, and religious Indonesian woman which also studied in Egypt. Unfortunately Anna was already purposed by Furqon, Azzam’s friend. One day Azzam and Anna were accidentally met in the bus, but they didn’t know each other. Then, after Anna come back to Indonesia, by chance Anna and Azzam’s sister met and they become friends. Not long afterwards Azzam and Eliana also will come back to Indonesia. I think many coincidences happened here and this kind of plot was rather predictable for me just like in the sinetron (television drama).

The other factors which disappointed me are the quality picture in one of the scenes where Azzam and Furqon met in the sea shore. The sky background was changed and the effect wasn’t perfectly edited so that we can see the white lines at the edge of Azzam and Furqon’s body. This is quite disturbing when I watched the movie.

Lastly, when the movie was reaching its raising action where Anna finally accepted Furqon’s marriage proposal the movie ended with words “to be continued. . .” and it followed by the sneak peak of the upcoming Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 2. This is completely made me feel like I am watching a sinetron on the television and I grumbled a little while I’m leaving the theater.

To conclude this, I think Ketika Cinta Bertasbih was an average Indonesian movie, even though the scenes were taken in Egypt. It was not a guarantee to make this movie outstanding than the last one.

Sara Mufidah-0608241

Orientalism in Drag me to Hell

2009-06-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi. It stars Alison Lohman, Justin Long and Lorna Raver. By put my opinion first, I like this movie because during I watched it, I was getting involved on it from started to end, and I was scare, screaming, and fear become one. I think the director has successfully made all the features perfect, fully satisfied me as audience, I really enjoyed it. In my opinion, this movie has proved that western people broke the concept of rational in believing superstitious; some issues in this movie are used to make this point as I am going to elaborate below.

To start the idea, I begin to introduce first issue that is a thing which believed as “holly thing”. it can be seen in the first scenes, The settings of place take In Pasadena, California in 1969, a young Mexican couple rushes to the home of medium Shaun San Dena. Their son had stolen jewelry from a group of gypsies and since then, has been complaining of seeing and hearing things not of this earth. San Dena tries to help the boy in a seance, but she and the boy's parents can only watch in horror as the boy is thrown from the balcony by an unseen force before being pulled into Hell by demonic hands. From this part, it proves that the gypsies which initially the word was used to referred to the Romani people, who first appeared in England at about the beginning of the 16th, and here they beliefs the irrational as use their jewelry as something “holy thing”, to be compared in Indonesian people who dominantly by people who beliefs in “holy things” such keris, Batu ali, etc. which believed those are giving magical power to the owner. From this, I pull a line that western (gypsies) basically have same perception with eastern (Indonesian) beliefs in irrational thing.

Then, three is the issue of cursed which experienced by Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), she is a loan officer in Los Angeles. One day, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), an elderly gypsy woman, asks for a third extension on her mortgage because she is struggling with economic problems due to an illness. To prove herself to Mr. Jacks, Christine, against her better judgment, denies Mrs. Ganush the extension. In desperation, Mrs. Ganush prostrates herself before Christine, begging and kissing the hem of her skirt. Christine panics and shoves the woman away, shaming her in public, as security guards escort Mrs. Ganush out. That night Christine is attacked in her car by Mrs. Ganush. After a violent struggle, Mrs. Ganush removes a button from Christine's jacket and uses it to place a curse on her. Mrs. Ganush disappears, leaving the cursed button with Christine. Because Christine disappoints Mrs. Ganush (gypsy), she got cursed along her life.

Thirdly, they believe in paranormal. Christine's boyfriend, college professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long), takes her to a coffee shop to comfort her. On the way home, they pass a fortune teller's store, and Christine insists they go in. There, they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she has a dark spirit upon her. Christine consults Rham Jas again, who tells her that the spirit haunting her is actually a demon called the Lamia, and that she is to be tormented by it for three days before being dragged to Hell to burn for eternity. Horrified by this revelation, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten in hopes that it will satisfy the Lamia. In this part we can see that they try to solve the problem by meeting the fortune teller and doing his suggestion.

Throughout the movie, I can conclude that the concept of orientalism which is said western beliefs about philosophy that they are rational and the eastern are irrational is not fully can be accepted. For some cases, the western is in one line with the eastern, they beliefs in irrational thing such as superstitious.

Sinta Dien Wulandari-0608222

edge of love

2009-06-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

I watched a movie entitle edge of love in blitzmegaplex. I would not believe I saw this kind of movie in cinema. It was starring keira knightley and it was totally drama. Because it was free i would not say any complain. It was a treat from friend who got 1 million from UPINET PUBLIC BOOK.

The setting was in world war era,and it was about a relationship between old friends that connects to other people lives. They met in the underground place (bunker maybe) which is quite safe to the bomb attack. Keira is a singer here and she meets dylan who is her old friend. Everything starts here, betrayal, love, and dirty relationship.

I guess I saw how tricky sex life could be in this movie. When we can't seem to keep our closest people faith, we will cross the line that must not be crossed

POSTED BY BRAMANTYAFP0605780

Angels & Demons is better than the Da-Vinci Code

2009-06-13T02:34:00.000-07:00

Robert Langdon is back and continuing his new adventures in the sequel of The Da – Vinci Code, Angels and Demons. The Oscar winner, Tom Hanks who plays as Harvard Professor, Robert Langdon shows his new haircut in this movie. But I will not talk about his new haircut because I’m not a columnist of Cosmopolitan Magz.

Fortunately, it annoys me to tell this because Angels and Demons is a good film that finds a better balance between exposition and action than its predecessor.

In this movie, Langdon is recruited by Vatican officials to help them prevent an attack on the Catholic Church. Langdon's opposition is the Illuminati, a secret society of scientific thinkers who seek vengeance against the Church for centuries-old persecutions. On the eve of a papal conclave to select a new pope, the Illuminati have kidnapped the four Preferiti -- or papal successors -- and planted a volatile amount of combustible antimatter somewhere in Vatican City. With hours to spare before the antimatter is detonated, Langdon recruits sexy scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) on a last-ditch mission to trace a rumored Path of Illumination across Rome, apprehend the Illuminati's hired assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), retrieve the kidnapped bishops, and defuse the bomb.

For your information, Dan Brown wrote Angels and Demons before the Da Vinci Code but the director, Ron Howard and screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp have made it a sequel because The Da – Vinci Code is Brown’s bestselling novel.

In my opinion, Angels and Demons is just like a full session of US TV series, 24. As long as 8 hours, Langdon and his team try to discover the mastermind of this terror and also swap the political deception for religion versus science conspiracies. Though Angels and Demons actually preceded The Da Vinci Code, both of them show the same storytelling method by cramming ancient history and also artistic history.

It is obviously seen that Ron Howard and his team tried to lighten the mood by relating the story with Salvatore Totino’s photographs of Rome as if its gorgeous architectural structures are separate characters. Meanwhile the score is very wonderful; Hans Zimmer writes a playful ominous score that could strengthen the movie. And Tom Hanks tries to inject humor whenever possible.

The visual effects are very are unbelievable, The setting of Vatican City and also Vatican Achieves are very palpable and real. The explosion in St Peter’s Square caused by the antimatter is very horrifying and perhaps this is what will happen if the antimatter explodes.

Meanwhile the Catholic reviewers have called Angels and Demons harmless, because I think it didn’t dwell on its many controversies. Unlike Da vinci Code which struck a raw nerve at the centre of the faith. And if anything, this film served as a great tourism promotional video with a nice showcase of the many prominent touristy landmarks that would entice many around the world to go pay a visit. Through this movie we can enjoy the view of Vatican City, the churches and also the beautiful fountains, but the view of St Peter's Square and Basilica from inside and outside are the most important things that we can get from this movie.

Finally, I would recommend you watch this film if you're looking to have a good time and live through an incredible adventure.

POSTED by EKU BARUNA G. 0608185

FINAL TEST WILL COME

2009-06-12T03:10:00.001-07:00

bener bgt bentar lagi UAS akan tiba...
bannyak tugas yang menunggu kita...
bgmana aku harus membagi waktu antara Shooting sinetron baru, kuliah ama jalan2 keluar negeri?

help me please

Posted by someone

Jangar

2009-04-16T14:11:00.001-07:00

Mohon maaf atas judulnya.

yg jls jangar.

Klo kasih comment ko ga bisa dari email sendiri?
Padahal dah jadi "pengikut".

Tlg penjelasannya lagi!

Dragon Ball – Evolution just Makes Akira Toriyama Cry

2009-03-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

If you expect more about this movie, you should be ready for being disappointed.

There are so many differences between this movie and the comic book.

The director tries to create a new world or perhaps some new characters and put aside everything that has been created by Mr. Toriyama.

That’s why most of Dragon ball fans are disappointed after watching this movie.

James Wong as the director decides not to be faithful with the comic book because the movie should be different with the comic version. If the movie is same it means you just read the comic but through different media. There fore he tries to make a “new “Dragon Ball by creating new characters, plots, settings, etc.

In my opinion the director just “repairs by patching” in making this movie because there are so many scenes that look so forced and don’t make sense.

What’s wrong with this movie man?

Nothing personal to James Wong as a director. I love his Final Destination series but would say that James Wong is not the right person to direct this million plus dollars franchise…..

Why James is hired to direct this movie in the first place? It is a big mistake. Like having Ang lee directing the hulk. Hiring an Asian to direct an Asian animation epic doesn’t mean the movie will turn out great. The director must have a vision of the given materials.

Now, all I can say is this is exactly what you thought it would be. Hollywood took a popular Japanese anime, and turned it into an American teenager popcorn flick. If you are upset when a movie doesn’t stay true to the original work, then this is not the movie for you.

Chow Yun Fat, the biggest name of the characters doesn’t give his best acting and perhaps he just plays as an entertainer in this movie or just a complement. His role as Master Roshi will destroy his reputation (If we compare his acting in DBE than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) it means he has made wrong decision to take a part in this movie.

The special effects are so pathetic, They look so cheap and I wonder whether Producer Stephen Chow would roll his eyes at what would be extremely pale when put side by side with his Kung Fu Hustle done many years ago.

Ayumi Hamasaki’s contribution of the theme song, RULE sounded really bad as well (I may get flack from her fans), and I guess having some Asian participation doesn’t legitimize what is essentially a poorly done movie. Not even Chow Yun Fat’s star status could save this, and you wonder what figured when this is the movie that he gave up Red Cliff for.

Overall, this movie is disappointing.

I highly recommend not watching this movie because this movie only gives big effect to our 5 year – old brother.

I give 4 out of 10 stars for this movie.

posted by: EBG-0608185

Posting & Comment

2009-03-30T02:55:00.000-07:00

guys.. if you still have any trouble with the blog, let me show you the way :
perhaps its true but if you have another idea or found some mistakes about it, you can give a comment on it..

how to post ur blog :

insert user id & password of non dik a 2006
click posting
posting ur essay

how to give comment on the other posts :

look at the posting
write ur comment
click on box 'beri komentar' sebagai
choose ur own email
insert ur own user id & password
click 'poskan komentar'

is it clear?? sorry if u find any mistake..
i'm just trying to help.. ^^

posted by : LA

PUSH is JUMPER sequel or HEROES wannabe

2009-03-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Jumper or Heroes?

I think Push more like Jumper than Heroes. They both feature a small population of gifted individuals being hunted by a powerful and secretive organization and with both securing the skills of a ruthless African American Agent (In Jumper, an agent is played by Samuel L. Jackson).

I am wondering what the movie makers are thinking of their audience these days. Push is another bad Hollywood movie with nothing to offer. The entire plot is so very predictable from the start itself mashing in all new fictional physic abilities. Trust me; you have seen this movie before. If you are a younger teenager you might like this movie. But for those of you who remember the action movies of ‘90s you have seen this movie.

The Hong Kong setting is the only positive, it looks so fresh and different than others but not enough to carry the movie.

The weakness is in the story/script, it looks is just happen, and there is no historical background that explain more about this movie.

The problems are multiple and the movie ends up being incoherent.

The movie looks so fake, cheap and boring that I am trying hard to keep me from sleeping.

This movie is lack of action scenes; meanwhile I expect too much for this movie. The visual effects don’t help too much to raise the tension of its action scenes. They look so fake and cheap.

I’m surprised there is Dakota Fanning (Cassie)here and finally she has grown up. I watched Dakota Fanning two years ago in War of The World as Tom Cruise’s daughter. She plays so wonderful in that movie and can raise the audience’s emotion through her acting but I don’t see any of that here. She acts wildly by wearing a short skirt or other weird costumes, drinking alcoholic drinks or trying to show her bad temper but I think all of them are not working and they make her just like a b***h. She is clearly looking to this movie as a vehicle to bridge the transition from child performer to adulthood.

Chris Evans(Nick) couldn’t put aside the character of Johnny Storm (Fantastic Four). His acting is not brilliant but does his best with such an awful script. Meanwhile Camilla Belle(Kira) and Djimon Honsou(Carver) are just complements in this movie. The director doesn’t give enough portion for each of them so they can show how important them in this movie.

Overall, this movie is quite entertaining and it’s appropriate for you guys who look for a “light” movie. You will see the beauty of Camilla Belle or the wild side of Dakota Fanning.

I give 6 out of 10 stars for this movie.

posted by EBG - 0608185

Assigment: Media Review

2009-03-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

Have a look at this article! Give your review(s) and personal comments on the article!
Please write your full name and student number when you post your comments.

The Myth of Lost Innocence

At a journalism conference a couple of years ago, I met Linda Perlstein, the author of “Not Much Just Chillin’: The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers.” This meeting occurred right in the middle of the “rainbow party” craze – that is to say, the media frenzy around the alleged oral activities of oversexed (and lipsticked) tweens.

Rainbow parties hadn’t actually played any part in Perlstein’s book. But that, she told me then, hadn’t stopped TV producers – representing “Oprah,” from “The Dr. Phil Show,” from a Katie Couric special – from calling and cajoling her to come on their shows to talk about them.

“I’d say, ‘No one is doing that,’” she told me when I called her this week to refresh my memory of her story. “Even the sluttiest kids I knew, when I told them about that said, ‘Ewww. No one does that.’ This really prurient stuff was being way overblown.

“Believe me, I wanted to be on ‘Oprah.’ I had a book to sell. I’d say, ‘There’s lots of stuff to talk about. Stuff that really should be talked about, that’s more nuanced and complex.’ They were like ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’”

I found myself thinking about Perlstein’s media follies this week, when I read Tara Parker-Pope’s article “The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity” in Science Times on Tuesday. For me it not only raised the issue of myth and reality (teens are, in truth, having sex less and later than they did a decade or two ago), but also brought to mind the stories that we tell and what people are willing to hear.

Two sociologists in Philadelphia, Kathleen A. Bogle, of La Salle University, and Maria Kefalas, of St. Joseph’s University, both specialists in teen sexual behavior, told Parker-Pope that they’d had to struggle mightily to get people out of their “moral panic” mindset, and make them understand that teens are not “in a downward spiral” or “out of control.”

“They just don’t believe you. You might as well be telling them the earth is flat,” Kefalas told me when I called to follow up with her this week.

This reminded me of how the developmental psychologist Joseph Mahoney – and others – have had to fight to convince people that another much-discussed creature of our time, the Overscheduled Child, isn’t as common or as stressed-out or even as busy as we commonly think. (I myself didn’t believe him at first, and wasn’t too nice about it.) It reminded me, too, of the Boy Crisis – how hard it has been for scholars who have taken a hard look at the boy/girl achievement numbers to counter the popular wisdom that boys are falling behind. And it reminded me of the Overmedicated Child, that particular trope of child corruption, soul theft and performance pressure that has for so long fascinated me.

In each of these examples, real problems – that some girls are engaging in too-young, risky and degrading sex, that some children are being stressed excessively and stifled by nonstop structure, that some boys (poor and minority boys) are doing badly in school, that some children are getting really reckless mental health services – are grossly simplified and, via the magical thinking of dogma and ideology, are elevated to the level of myth. Real complexities and nuances – details concerning exactly which children are suffering, flailing or failing, and in what numbers, and how and why, and what we can do about it – are lost.

That’s no accident. After all, moral panics – particularly those concerning children – always serve some hidden purpose. “Modern ideas about the innocent child have long been projections of adult needs and frustrations,” Gary Cross, a professor of modern history at Penn State University, writes in his 2004 book, “The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children’s Culture.” “In the final analysis, modern innocence has let adults evade the consequences of their own contradictory lives.”

All the examples of child myth-making that I’ve mentioned here have to do, at base, with the perceived corruption of childhood, the loss of some kind of “natural” innocence. When they depart from kernels of reality to rise to the level of myth, they are, I believe, largely projections that enable adults to evade things. Specifically, the overblown focus on messed-up kids affords parents the possibility of avoiding looking inward and taking responsibility for the highly complex problems of everyday life.

In the case of the allegedly lascivious Lolitas, Kefalas sees this flight from reality very clearly: “People don’t want to hear about the economic context, the social context” to young teen sexual activity and teen pregnancy, she told me. “For a 14-year-old to be having sex it’s usually a symptom of a kid who’s really broken and really hurt. Those who are having sex without contraception are a distinct set: they’re poor, from single-parent households, doing poorly in school, have low self-esteem. Teen pregnancy is so high in America compared to other places not just because of access to contraception but because we have a lot of poverty. But Americans don’t want to see themselves as a poor society. They want to make a moral argument: if only teens had better values.”

Certain kinds of children have certain kinds of vulnerabilities that make them particularly susceptible to the toxic elements of our culture. This is true of those who do or don’t fall victim to stress and anxiety, and it’s true of those who do or don’t engage in too-early, too-risky sex. Certain kinds of policies can help children. (Abstinence-only sexual education clearly does not help in combating teen pregnancy.) Certain kinds of parenting can help or hurt, too.

Having a family life that’s so atomized and disconnected that children have the physical and emotional space to upload nude pictures of themselves onto the Internet, and lack the self-esteem and self-respect to know better is obviously undesirable. Being a stressed and frantic, frazzled and depressed parent is harmful, too. (“We are a mess,” Suniya Luthar, the Columbia University psychologist, once told me, explaining why she saw overscheduling as a symptom rather than a cause of family distress. “We are the ones running around like freaking chickens without a head…. It’s the situation where the captain of the ship has lost control.”)

If we parents hadn’t created a world this high-pressured, if we hadn’t, for decades, voted in policymakers who stripped away regulations that protected us, we wouldn’t be so certain that other parents are “drugging” their kids to make them more high-performing, and we wouldn’t have to be so fearful of the influence of Big Pharma.

Luthar is right: we – the adults in this society – are “a mess.” I think it’s time to stop projecting our dysfunction onto our children.

Posted by Nicke YM

welcome

2009-03-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

welcome..

buat yang mau posting blognya silahkan..

english ato indonesia bebas..

kalo bisa si english kan jurusan bahasa inggris..

Go Posting!