Be preparing for not being trapping into violent rumors!

                                                                  

Reformation movement has brought democracy in Indonesian society. In this article I have thought for a long time to what extend a democratic society can maintain a peaceful life in Indonesia. Historically, we could see the seeds of democracy produced a mass violence among common people. Structural violence occurred in Maluku, Poso, Pontianak and elsewhere.  However, what the learning lesson that people have taken from the past violence?

My research has shown that through the difficulty of life during the violence that occurred among them, the people began to be mature. They tried understanding what caused to make them involving into a violent action. They began to aware that they can be manipulated by outside factors around them. They began believing that their religions do not teach them about violence. They began responding the violent action with reaching out other people to work together to stop the possibility for other groups outside their community to throw a lit to start burning into their peaceful life.

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Imagining when all people in Indonesia began to say no for those who want to see them to be trapped with a violent action. Imagining of all people in Indonesia believe that terrors in our society could not weaken their belief to live in peace. It cannot break their heart to believe that they neighbors, their people as a nation have trust to each others. They have learned from those who had experiences from violence, those families, friends who died from the conflict. They those who know that they were trapped into a violent action as the work that was done by “setan or iblis”. They knew that the impact of being refugees was so hard for them. So that, their experiences have brought them to promise for not believing in any efforts which come to break down their society.

These people have prepared themselves through their readings and studies that violence could be made. They know that human’s feelings could be manipulated slowly by washing their consciousness to be having opposite pictures in their mind to those who can be called as their enemies. These people who turn to be mature are those who know how to control their emotion for not letting their mind to be under their aggression behaviors.

They are might be among us who know that television can be an instrument to spread fear to the nation. But they could not be weakened with any efforts showing by terrors of bombing around them. They know that when they feel fears they can go out to share on their Face Book’s link for those who could help them to explain what has happening in our society.

I watched the news about bombing thread in this weekend during the Easter celebration. I would not believe that it was going to be prepared by a group of a religious people. I think religions have been blamed as cause of any problem in Indonesia. Islam has been pointed as the cause of any bad things in our society. I would argue that it is not about Islam. It is about the politics.

Any conflict happens in a society can be inspired from injustice issues relating to the economic accessibilities among people equally or about who get and who do not have anything. This gap can be easily the area to be used by actors who want to use this reality to create chaos in our society.

My research in Halmahera showed that violence had planted slowly among the people. Starting from people prejudices and stereotyping to transform into reality of everyday life as the rumors to relate with something that people believe was a pattern of how to create the beginning of violent rumors. When we got this type of phenomena, we need to reach out our community to clarify this situation where all issues have spread out and might have influenced to the mind of people.

Reading the media needs to be carefully to stop us from being fears. Media in many ways can deceive us! Especially we know that religious symbols have often to be used to break the trust among people of faiths. Also, religious holiday is being used as the bloody date for people in the nation at least what I have learned from my research. The Muslim and Christian holidays in 1998 that were close to each other was seen as a right moment to imply what was called in the rumors as “kiamat” (the end of the world). So violence was seen as “destiny” (Indonesia: nasib). Coming to this type of phenomena we need to deconstruct our myths and cultural understanding for what are believed as the truth!

Organizing people by using religious symbols to spread threads among citizens in Indonesia has been seen as old fashion of terrors. People became mature to say no for these phenomena when they began to learn more on what they have heard from any media information.

Having living in modern life when everything of information is accessible, people can learn about other people religions. Reading what have made from different comments on religions, on the origins of religions, the question of their doctrines, so openly to make me wonder whether in this era of openness people could become as wiser as what they want to be faithful in their understanding and practicing of their religions.

This is my hope for Indonesian people. So can we imagine when all kind of efforts to increase fears among us cannot work. If we realize that fears are being planted then we can ask our government whether there is other important task that they have to take care of.

As Christians in Indonesia, I thank for your love to have us to worship during this weekend Passover since yesterday on Good Friday to tomorrow on the Easter (Paskah). With all your maturity of your faiths I can see the love of God within yourselves as I find also God in my life. Your love freed me from any fears to not believing what has been saying on the news of television. May my belief come fulfilling.

Asghar Ali Engineer on Imagined Dialogue between Gandhi and The Prophet

I have admired the work by this Indian scholar, Asghar Ali Engineer. I am so happy to find some quotation provided through this cyber link on his Imagination of the dialogue between Gandhi and The Prophet.

The link can be found below. I am thanking to Ramanuy Ganguly, a scholar who creates Sociology of Everyday Life which sounds very anthropological. To his link, I got this wonderful resource to share to you all in Indonesia.

I wish I can translate this to give to the wife of the bomber as I wrote on my imagination over her challenging time now to deliver her baby in the midst of situation after her husband exploded the bom at the mosque in Cirebon.

My pray goes to her that she still has her hope for a new life of her baby. It is the life without violence.
All women and mother have the same hope to this world.

http://ramanuj-sociologyofeverydaylife.blogspot.com/2010/10/imagined-dialogue-between-gandhi-and.html

After the explosion of the mosque!

We were shock to hear again another bom exploded at the mosque in Cirebon, West Jave last Friday, in April 15, 2011 during the Friday sholat. The case has been investigating by polices. However we know that the person who did the suicide bom was considered as a unstable person. He is a man whose wife is waiting to deliver their baby.

I just finished my writing about my baby of the marmer. Then I remember of the wife of the man who died after the bom exploded. What would be her feeling to know that her husband did such a shocking news for all people in Indonesia. I would love to be with her to comfort her in her difficulty time. Suicide booming was happening among the Palestinians whose mothers standed patiently to lift up their children into God's hands. Mothers are part of the spirit of struggles among the Palestinian people who have lost their homebase in their own land.

The case of the wife of bomber in Cirebon is different from the mothers in Palestine. But I feel like I understand their feeling about life. Having a baby means opening our heart to the new chance that she/he will have to have. I should say that they have to have what they ought to become as they also have their rights to good life to live in.  Then we will invest our times to grow together with the baby.

I never have my own physical baby, but I live with Syalom, the baby of my brother and his wife, Vina. I observe Syalom growing. Their home is the next door to us. I admire the creation of life made by God as I have seen in her little growth, in Syalom.

Our personality relates with our psychological problems that we carry since we are little. Even I am proud with my mother, I also feel piety to her due to the codemnation given by my eldest brother who sometime points to her. She has been blamed as a cause of my brother's tempramental behaviours. My mother once told me when we shared about our life during our early childhood, when we were little and growing up. She said that she had a emotional difficulty during her first pregnancy.

Marriage brings a transition and we need to work closely to overcome a trambeling feeling in this new step of our life. My mother believes that her early feeling after the marriage to have her first child might be the cause to the unsable feelings of my eldest brother who we love so much up to now.

People in times and places have experienced pain and suffering for any reasons that we can  not comprehend except we recognise our own struggles to relate with others.

So what could we do after we understand it?  What will we do?  Where are the strengths which can give us a home for moving to a new hope to act in a good manner?

I believe in everywhere we will look for the foundation of value that guide our life. Our practices on religions could become an inspiration to withdraw a deep solution. Perhaps this is the case in Indonesia where religions influence people of faiths in many many ways. Can we reconcile ourselves, our phychological problems to get the strengths from our religious teachings?

When we imaginate our life as a blessing of God, we will honour those who have done violent actions with respectful atttitude to bring them out from a trap of their own enmity feelings. We will work to find the way where our tradition can help us to imagine the life. We will work with new interpretation from our religious teachings to see mercy and love of God whose life have given to us to be blessing for all people.

Women and men are called to imagine the life in the fact there are so many crimes around us. This is I believe in, the only way to transform violent action to become a living behaviour. This is only the beginning of the foundation to think differently in order to dig out the essence of our religious strengths to make a living condition peacefully and beautifully.

Below you will see the picture that shows how children are taught to imagine the voices of lions. They imitated lions to feel anger and wildness of these animals in order to conceptualize the distinction between them as human beings and the animals. They learn slowly to control their emotion. Their complexity of feelings need to be acknowledged and to be named by themselves. Songs that are sang following with actions children sing, need to inspire them to open for a good imagination of life.

When they since beginning are introduced with words of hatred feeling to refer to particular people, they at the same time develop their idea of fighting to something that they have no understanding before. Something outside them need to be killed because they are being destroyed. This mechanism of defence does not grow naturally as a reflective response human beings have.

The early teaching about hating to people as we write in the mind of children, will shape their mechanism of defence to be uncontrolled aggression.  For the whole life these children will live with feelings of suspecion to others. In this condition, they are very easy to be manipulated for any reason to attack because they already develop the stereotipes of a particular people to be seeing as their enemies.

Can children have their rights to be free of this ways of us as adult people to educate them? Can children have their rights to imagine life not violent action, hatred feelings that are shaped in their mind through songs to pointing others as "kafir" (infidel)? Then children develop the word of "kafir" to name to any people who do not support their belief, ideas and plans to what they really want to do eagerly as their awaiting realities!

I imagine the man, the bomber has developed this feeling since his early childhood to wait for the right time to fulfill what he believe in as his reality. Then the last Friday was the time to achieve what he had been carring as the truth.

I wish this background of my thought is not too complex to explain what I want to say to the wife of the suicide bomer. I hope she understands what she can choose for her new baby, to have a life or a death. I believe in her whose hope can make a difference for her baby.

I remember meeting Prof. Daniel Lev, an Indonesianist whose work I used in my writing, and I met him at Seattle University in Washington State few years before he died. He told me at the beautiful afternoon while having lunch at the native type restaurant along the lake of Washington that the differences of him and me was on "the hope". Then he shared his story when his grandchild was born. He visited him/her, I am not sure which gender he referred too, but he took him/her into his hand to lift up sadly while saying that he was doubtful about the grandchild future in the US settings. Future that might be around with hatred stereotyping, violence to other races and nations. Then he smiled to encourage me when he said: "You, Farsijana, have your hope to see the life". I smiled back to him and said "yes" sir. Only life can make a hope to living.

Therefore I will not call the bomber's name, because I know his name can be put on other people names from different tradition, religious, ethnic backgrounds. He has killed himself for many reasons, but the life is strong than the death. We those who believe will then work to think a new way to give hope for our children, youth and people around for a better life of everyone.

        Children learn how to imagine and to imitate the voices and the behaviours of lions at Pondok Tali Rasa

Explaining the title of the blog!

Life is about us. It is about the earth where we live together. We share one earth with many many nations, cultures, religions and ideologies. Life is about letting ourselves to grow. Life is a living spirit that all human beings have naturally but it needs to be enlivened to function with propriety.

History of human beings teachs us about the roles playing by mother who delivers the new baby. Loving for this little baby creates a symbolic languange that she/he will develop it naturally. Baby can stop crying when they hear the gentle voices from the mother and people around.

Through the symbolic languange, voices, the mother and others create the environment of safety that the baby feel securely. It is a beginning of the idea of life. Life begins growing as the imagination in the mind of the baby.

Four years since we had lived at our home in Yogyakarta, Pondok Tali Rasa, one night we came home after going out, my husband went directly to our bedroom, instead of me, I needed to drink at the kitchen. I took a glass of water to drink it slowly while sitting on the high chair at kitchen. Suddently, I felt that I was with somebody at the area. Nobody was around me. However I still felt I was being called to see around. I stared on around the kitchen but I could not find anybody.

The energy of calling was so strong as if I was directed to counter table in the middle of the kitchen. I said to myself, no worry just following the energy that was holding my attention. I smiled while saying that I had to open my heart to see things that I could not see with my bare eyes. After that I felt like so much energy pulled me out to concentrate on the spot that became visibly to me. My heart was bitting, I could not believe that I was watching the face of somebody. I rubbed my eyes many times to make sure that I was awake. The figure was still there.

It is still there until now on the table of the counter in my kitchen. It is the face of a baby whose eyes so gently with soft smile spreading her hair out. I took the picture of my baby to put as the profile of this blog.

At the night I went to bed with lots of wonder. How could I interprete this experience? The figure of baby has been in my kitchen. What would it be explained?

At the next morning I woke with lots of joy. I went straightly to the kitchen to meet with my two helpers, not those who has worked now, but other ones. I asked them, Lisa and Diah, whether they had seen something on the table of the counter. They said, "No". Then I showed the figure to them. They were so surprised to learn about this figure of a baby. I told them about my interpretation I had when I woke up.

It is my baby. I named the baby of the marmer. She lives there to belong with us because she knows that we will be sincere to serve people around. When we cook, we cook with our heart. We serve with our sincere heart to the people as we know we will do to the baby who depends on us. Serving with our deep heart will bring us to meet a deep imagination of life. If we want to have our baby alive, we will make any efforts to bring life to her.

Imagination of life can be inspired from inanimate object. Imagining life reconcilies our enmity reality that grows within ourselves. Life and death exists side by side in our life. In our sacred scriptures we read that life and death are recognised. We, even in our home, have the symbols of life and death belonging to the  Hindus Balinese cultures on Barong which represents life and Rangka which represents death/bad things. We want to recognize these two entities in our life but we, with the grace of God, can transform the death/bad things into a life.

I create this blog with my deep concern for having my thoughts on how we can transform violence to become a living action in our life. Can we withdraw the strengths from our religious teaching, our cultures of traditions to imagine life instead of violence for a better life of all us?