A Lesson From Two Boxes With A Louse Each In Them

One day, a father gave his son two boxes with different size. Each box contained a louse. The width of both boxes were about the same. The difference was at their height.

"Son, I have presents for you," he said.

The boy asked back his father, "What are these, Dad?"

"Open them by yourself, Son."

The boy opened one of the boxes, the higher one. When he saw the inside of it, he was a little surprised.

"Dad," the boy said to his father, "It's just a louse."

The father smiled at him. "C'mon!" he said to his son. "Let's go to the garden. Bring the boxes with you."

They walked side by side to the garden. The boy brought the boxes by his hands, each box on each hand. His father was still smiling at his son.

When the reached the garden, the father sat on a chair. He said to his son, "Come here, Son!"

The boy approached his father, then he sat on the grass.

The father said, "Open the boxes! Let the louses come out."

The boy then opened the higher box first and let the louse jumped out from the box. A few seconds later, he opened the other box and let the louse came out too. He watched the louses jumped.

For a moment, the boy didn't see anything unusual. But not more than 5 minutes, he noticed something which caught his interest.

The boy asked his father, "Dad, why was the height the louses jump different? The one is higher than another?"

The father laughed and then said, "I was right when I thought you will notice the difference this fast."

The boy's face seemed more confuse than before.

"Okay," the father started his explanation. "The louse that jumps higher must came from the higher box, while the other came from the lower one."

The boy asked his father again, "So this is caused by the box height?"

"You are correct, Son."

The boy looked like he was thinking of something. A moment later, he flicked his fingers.

"I know, Dad," the boy said to his father with his funny smiling face. "The height of the boxes creates a limitation for the louses. If I get the heigher louse into the lower box and I let it be for a while, when I let it out, it will jump as high as the other."

"Great, Son. Don't set a limitation on yourself. Let your dreams and creativity get higher and higher."

The boy hugged his father and said, "Thank you very much, Dad."

The father hugged his son back.

Politik Indonesia

Saya bukan orang yang 'melek' politik Indonesia. Padahal, harusnya saya peduli karena hal ini terjadi di negara saya sendiri. Tapi nyatanya saya memang ga terlalu tertarik dengan hal-hal yang berbau politik. Sayangnya, deadline yang lagi happening banget saat ini berhubungan dengan politik. Jadi, saya ga tahan juga untuk ga komentar.

Pertama, kasus dugaan keterlibatan Ketua Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK), Antasari Azhar dalam pembunuhan Direktur PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran, Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, kalau ga salah sekitar Maret lalu. Pendapat saya sederhana aja. Saya ga yakin kalau Antasari terlibat. Kenapa? Dengan kecanggihan lembaga KPK yang cukup berhasil membongkar beberapa kasus korupsi kelas kakap, masa iya KPK ga bisa mendeteksi keterlibatannya sejak awal? Kalau dibilang KPK mentutup-tutupi hal ini, kayanya ga mungkin juga. Kalau hal ini terjadi, berarti memang sudah ga ada lagi lembaga yang dapat dipercaya untuk menyelesaikan berbagai kasus korupsi di Indonesia. Dengan kata lain, kita memang harus mengakui bahwa negara ini memang masih bobrok dari segi hukum dan pemerintahan. Hal ini berarti juga kampanye yang selama ini didengung-dengungkan oleh SBY dan Partai Demokrat (yang inti iklannya kurang lebih ialah di zaman pemerintahan SBY, korupsi dapat diberantas) kurang tepat.

Saya (dan mungkin beberapa orang lainnya) jadi sedikit curiga ada permainan politik di sini. Bukan politik yang berkaitan dengan partai, tetapi politik untuk menjegal seseorang yang tidak sesuai dengan keinginan mereka agar orang tersebut tidak lagi 'mengganggu' kegiatan mereka. Kita semua tau bagaimana kinerja KPK hingga saat ini. Mungkin ada orang-orang tertentu yang takut kesalahan mereka tercium oleh KPK. Jadilah mereka memunculkan skenarion untuk melenyapkan Antasari. Semoga hal ini salah. Lantas jika salah, bagaimana yang benarnya? Kita ikutin ajalah perkembangan selanjutnya.

Kedua, proses Pemilihan Umum (Pemilu) Legislatif yang hasil perhitungan suaranya telah diumumkan tadi malam. Dalam proses pengumuman semalam, ada beberapa catatan yang perlu digarisbawahi, kalau perlu ditulis tebal dan diberi tanda kutip. Dari sekian banyak warga Indonesia yang terdaftar dalam Daftar Pemilih Tetap (DPT), hampir 30% ga menggunakan hak pilihnya. Saya memang ga tau peraturan yang berkaitan dengan proses Pemilu ini. Tetapi, kalau nyaris 1/3 dari warga yang terdaftar saja tidak memilih, apakah hasil dari Pemilu Legislatif ini dapat dikatakan valid? Memang tidak akan mungkin jika Pemilu Legislatif ini dilakukan lagi mulai dari proses pencontrengan hingga rekapitulasinya karena pasti akan sangat menghabiskan waktu, tenaga, dan biaya. Semoga hal ini bisa menjadi koreksi untuk Pemilu yang akan datang. Agar paling tidak jumlah populasi Golongan Putih (Golput : warga yang terdaftar dalam DPT tetapi tidak ikut memilih) dapat ditekan. Agar tidak ada lagi Kongres Golput yang diketuai oleh Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

Untuk Indonesia yang Lebih Baik!!!

Between "Do What You Love" and "Love What You Do"

This post is inspired by my friend's post (unfortunately I forget the person who wrote the post).

"Do what you love". Everybody usually picks this quote, right? Even sometimes it's not possible, but who doesn't want to only do what he/she loves? When you do something that you love, you will do it with full of passion and give all your effort to achieve the optimum result. Sometimes you won't mind to do it again.

Why do I say that? Because sometimes I experience it too. For example, when I took part in a sport team, either futsal or basketball, I always feel great. I even don't mind to delay another activity, so I can do it for as long as I want. Not to mean that I don't give a damn to another activity. I just don't want to miss a thing that I love. Heheheh..

But I don't blame people who prefer the quote "Love what you do". There are more challenges when you have to do what you don't really love. Why is that? Because you will need to push yourself harder in order to get great result as you expect. But I'm sure that when you are able to achieve great result in things you don't really love but you have to do, you will be more delightful. Am I right?

In reality, there's no possibility to choose one quote only. There will be things that we love to do and things that we don't really love but have to be done. We may do what we love, but we too have to love what we do. So, despite of what is your choice between both quotes, let's always give our best effort in everything we do. Insya Allah, when there's a God's will, we will be able to achieve great results too. Just keep trying and praying for the best.

When A Will Comes ...

When there's a will ...
Will you put it into reality?
If the anwer is yes ...
Have you ever consider it before, for a long time?
What are the things that you usually consider when the will comes?
Would it be questions like ...
Is it that important?
Is it what you need?
What will be the benefits?
How much will it cost?

Don't bother. The above writing are just unroutine questions when I'm very confused of some silly (or perhaps not?) things.

HAHAHAHA!

Some Thoughts About Children

One day, my aunt and I were talking about dolls which is produced by PTMI, the company where I'm working now. The dolls are distributed out from Indonesia. Even in here you will find dolls which are produced in Indonesia, the quantity is not as many as the export one. Then, at that time we concluded that the dolls are not so happening here.

Then, we were thinking about what I will tell you next. If the dolls are not happening in Indonesia, then what toy does girls in Indonesia always play with? Cooking set toys? Nope. I think children at this time, including girls, like to play computer games or other electronic games like PS3, XBox, etc. rather than games or toys that can make them interact with each other. That's not a good sign.

Here is my opinion about why it can be happened? First, electronic games are much more interactive than dolls. Playing with electronic games gives the player feedbacks, so that the players can then act based on those feedbacks. When children plays with dolls, the dolls can't give them that kind of feedback. A doll is a passive toy.

Second, a doll's price is sometimes as worth as 3 times dishes, even more than that. Why is the price so high? It can be happened because of some reasons, like the making process complexity (now I can imagine since I work in a doll manufacturer) and the distribution cost (especially when the dolls are imported).

Third, the residence where the children are living doesn't provide any place to play with each other. What I mean here is like a play court, where children can meet with each other and then play together. Rather than making a play court, the developers like to build shopping centre. Okay, sometimes there's a place like "Timezone", but it's definitely NOT a play court in a right definition (the phrase "right definition" doesn't sound good, anybody can help?).

Is this condition good for the children psychology? My aunt said NO, it's not. Children need to interact with each other. They need to learn to be with others, learn about someone else character, learn how their acts can give impacts to others, and many more. Others will give them feedbacks, so they can improve their action while interacting with each other in the next days.

So, what are the solutions? First, I think this is primary, all parents have to encourage their children to play with other children. It's okay if the children like to play with electronic games too, but sometimes they need to play with others. Take the children out to any play court, so they can meet another children and play together.

Second, for all developers, please kindly help these children. Build more play courts for them. It doesn't have to be a big one, but not too small too. And it doesn't have to be too many, but at least there's one play court in one residence.

Hope this post won't be just a post. Perhaps you, readers, have another perspectives. Please feel free to give some feedbacks.

A Little Conversation in A Restaurant

One day, when I was in a restaurant with my friend, Alfa, a boy worn a torn t-shirt and a dirty white short came to our table.

The boy upturned his hand and said, "Pity me..".

As usual, Alfa and I wave our hand as a sign of not wanting to give the boy our money. Fortunately, he urged us to give him a little money.

As a result, Alfa asked the boy while his finger pointed at the empty chair in front of him, "Would you care to sit with us here?".

Without long thoughts, the boy sat directly on tha chair pointed. His eyes were looking at his surroundings.

Read Alfa thoughts, I asked the boy his name, "What's you name, Kid?"

"Imam," the boy answered without looking at me nor Alfa.

"Hi, Imam!" I said to him. "Would you like to eat something?"

The boy didn't answer. He was still looking around, like someone being confused of something.

Alfa then called the waiter, "Sir, may we have another fried noodle for this boy?"

"Certainly," answered the waiter with a confusing look on his face.

The waiter then yelled at another waiter to bring the fried noodle to our table. Fortunately the food was ready to be served, so Imam didn't have to wait for too long.

While we were eating, Alfa and I had a little conversation with Imam.

Alfa : "So Imam, do you go to school?"

Imam : "Yes, every morning."

Me : "What grade are you?"

Imam : (scratching his head) "3th grade."

Alfa : "Why are you asking for someone else pity? Upturn your hand and hoping people to give you some money?"

Imam : (increasing his voice a little) "'Cause I don't like you two who have enough money even to buy me a plate of fried noodle. My Dad passed away a year ago. After that, my mom has to work, usually overtime, to get some money for me my little brother, so that we can go to school."

Me : (giving an angry look to Alfa) "We're sorry, Imam. We didn't mean to hurt your feeling."

Imam : (almost standing from his chair, angry) "Ah..! Then don't be. I know that most of the rich people like you two never care with people like me."

Me : (holding Imam's left hand) "Wait, Imam. We're really sorry."

Imam : (sitting again on his chair, continuing to eat his fried noodle) "Okay.."

There was a silent for a moment. Alfa and I took this moment to look closer at Imam, trying to read what's on his mind.

Imam : "My mom's earning can only make only myself go to school. So, I have to help her to pay for my brother's school activity. Walking around my neighborhood and pity myself to gain some money."

Alfa : "What do your mother do for living?"

Imam : (smiling to us) "She's a teacher."

Actually, the conversation was very long that I can't put it in here 'cause it will make you all feel bored. At the end, we did give him some money (big enough than the nominal we used to give to other poor people). Instead of making this post become longer and longer, there are things that I want to underline.

First, do we really care for our brothers and sisters, the same Indonesian people who perhaps not as lucky as we are? Honestly, I was surprised when Imam accused Alfa and I for not being that care to people like them. Okay, we feel pity when they ask us to give them money, but then what? What can we do to change their life? (Actually this question is for myself too.)

Second, do we do something wrong when we refuse to give some money to them when they ask for it? I know that the government gives us instruction not to give them some money. But in some cases, they do really need it at that time.

I leave the questions without being answered. It's you, dear readers, who really know what should we do on these matters.

"WorldWalk - Peacetour" Blog

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