Bowery

  Tohir, a 50 years old Shia Muslim, still remembers a mob of over hundred men stomping their feet at the ground, coming to his village. He still remembers rocks were being thrown at people, women rushing into their house, panic and fear spinning out of their eyes. He still remembers the mob burning down more than 30 houses, forcing villagers to run seeking refuge at the sports hall, all the while expressing their angry snarls with assailing remarks ‘Burn the Shias’ houses’ and ‘Kill the Shia’. He still remembers the mob was armed with swords and sickles and other objects they deemed decent as weapons. He still remembers the mob hacking his brother to death, after his fruitless effort to calm them down. The memories are still fresh breathing in his head. Alongside hundreds other villagers, nothing that they do could possibly erase the trauma from their painful retention. Shia is one of the two main branches of Islam (Sunni & Shia) that rejects the first three Sunni Calip...

According to Wikipedia, maturity psychologically means the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. Since the term ‘appropriate’ is too subjective of a word, Dr. William Menninger established the progressive stages of emotional maturity as the criteria whether or not someone is a hundred percent matured. Menninger’s criteria are carefully listed with the intention that it has to be followed in order without skipping any step. According to Menninger, an emotionally immature person possesses the following characteristics: Having the ability to deal constructively with reality; having the capacity to adapt to change; having a freedom from symptoms that are produced by tensions and anxieties; having the capacity to find more satisfaction in giving than receiving; having the capacity to relate to others in a consistent manner with mutual satisfaction and helpfulness; having the capacity to direct one’s instinctive hostile energy into creative constructive o...

Its is almost 12 PM on Wednesday, i am supposed to write my paper for Psychology class instead of wandering around on my blog. Or start writing my Natural Resource journal instead of researching the life of Harvey Milk. Or studying evidence for my upcoming Michigan State debate tournament this week end instead of having my eyes glued to Tyler Oakley's youtube channel. I know i am natural procrastinator and i have no excuse for that, but i just cant get these stuff out of my mind. I will try my best to explain these 'stuff' i am talking about. As you know i am living in United States at the moment because of my exchange student program. I realized that coming from a totally different society would surely trouble me at some points while living in this country. In every orientation programs i have attended, they've always subtly segues the idea of 'reserving judgement' as a coping mechanism to live in a totally different society. That it is not better or worse...

by : Raditya Darningtyas   The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Taking place in a fictional town on the Long Island, Fitzgerald was trying to depict the reality of wealth communities behind their lavish parties and luxurious houses. This story focuses mostly on Jay Gatsby, a rich man who lives in a big mansion next to the house the narrator of this story.   Throughout the novel, Gatsby is trying to rekindle his love with a woman from his past. Unfortunately the woman he loves, Daisy, has married to another rich yet arrogant man named Tom Buchanan.   Both the men love Daisy and refuse to let her go. As the result, they make some bad decisions in term of morality to win Daisy.   But they also show some differences between them in the way they try to achieve their goals. That is Gatsby to win Daisy back, and Tom, to keep Daisy on his side.   While persistency in pursuing our dream is mostly perceived as a good thing, it could also le...

I feel like now i know what happy and blissful means. I was completely amazed by their performance. If voices were food, then D.O = Green Tea Cake with Vanilla Cream Luhan = Strawberry Ice Cream Crepes Chen = Butterscotch + Cinnamon Popcorns Baekhyun = Nutella Cookies D.O has this distinctive deep, gentle & manly voice, a bit RnB perhaps. He is indeed the perfect choice for the opening part (as expected from my favorite ballad singer!). What captures my attention the most is somehow Luhan's voice. He is my second favorite member after D.O. I've noticed Luhan's great singing skill since their debut but somehow he never gets the chance to really put it on display. I've been waiting for the moment when SM Entertainment will finally unleash his power and yeah here it is!

August 17th is Indonesia Independence Day and i happened to be in US instead of joining balap karung in Indonesia. So, my hostsister and i decided to make Nasi Goreng or Indonesian fried rice to celebrate. You know how i am really bad in the kitchen but my hostsister is a really good chef. So we looked at the recipe online and she did most of the work though since i didn't want to ruin the taste.

At the Dulles airport, some YES committee welcomed us and we met few Indonesian volunteers too. We then headed straight to Hilton Hotel DC where we had our Orientation with other friends from all over the world. I guess Paris Hilton should feel thankful because we'd just added her pocket money. My roomates were Amelia (fellow Indonesian from Aceh) and Gifty from Ghana. All of us fell asleep on the first night so we missed dinner and the welcoming speech. Amelia & i were hungry that night so we wandered around the hall in the middle of the night trying to find some foods then we met a friend from Egypt (who has just arrived that time) who thankfully gave us info about sahur. If we hadn't met her, we would have starve while fasting the next day.