Tuesday, November 24, 2015

School Life: GAMARVANI


This year the festival of SMA3, named GAMARVANI. A cultural festival that combines traditional culture and modern art. This annual festival they hold in order to preserve and foster a sense of pride in the community at large to the culture of West Java, and also enliven the birthday celebration of Bandung to-205.

The event was held on Saturday, September 19, 2015 in Bali Field, road Bali, Bandung. Well, the main activities carried out in the event were the efforts of imaging culture through an exciting and interactive event for all young people. With the theme legend in west Java, Nyi Anteh with a legend full of cliches, drama, and also the message spiritual typical folklore of West Java.

With a concept that does not always, of course, the performers was not unusual. HiVi and Adera will with Mangala Awi, Sasadana, and also my friend Culture were invited. Not to mention there will be performances by Giri Harja puppet show, martial arts by the university Gadjah White Mega Pasksi Heritage, and many other traditional arts. Cool! Well, i got an exciting entertainment and also made me more familiar with the traditional culture, GAMARVANI!

My sister bought the ticket from me but we didn't come together. There, i was with my Friend, Mikail. And i met my old friends. I enjoyed the event, i didn't took so many pictures but more for video. I took some photos with my best friends at noon before the sky getting dark. I din't really know HiVi because all i know is Taylor Swift's songs. But i could sing along because i had downloaded the song before.

At 9 PM, the event got close to the end, but i decided to go home because i feel cramp. My mom picked me up, and then we went home and slept.

School Life: Camprt

Camprt, read Camping Pramuka Tiga. As it's a must from 2013 curriculum, everystudent has to join pramuka. So everyyear, we have to join some scout activity.

The camping started at 20 of November. At 7 AM, i arrived at school with big carrier on my bag. The carrier was so heavy. There's i put so many things that maybe will be needed such as clothes, instant food, pan, spirtus, snacks, water, ponco, knife, cap, shoes.

Not long, army trucks arrived. Every one truck carry students from one class. Because i'm the last class (IPA9), our truck arrived on the last term. Eargerly, my friends and i took the truck even our truck was the smallest size. We shared the truck with IPS students. It was okay. On the way, we sang along, took so many pictures, and shared the snacks. But we couldn't move excessively, we sat like 'ikan pindang', there's no space between me and friends on the next and front. But we enjoyed the three hours trip.

Finally we arrived on Ranca Upas. The weather was cold but the air was so fresh. We took off from the truck and get our carrier and bring the tent. We walk from the place we arrived to the camp spot. we had to pass muddy ground. We had to walk so carefully, so we stepped so slow, so we had to walk in queue. Our shoes got dirty. Our back felt pain.



Not long, less that 15 minutes, we arrived to camp spot. My team (sangga 18) got the spot to built tent besides my friend's team (sangga 17 and sangga 19). So quickly we built the tent. After built the tent, we, girls, took rest while the boys doing Jumat prayer on the mosque. After they had finished, the girls did prayer in the tent. After that, all student had lunch.

After that, we started the scout activity. Everyteam, had to pass the post by finish the game that the scout leader give. We enjoy the game. The game was coding, doing first-aid, explode the balloon, tasting our five sense and many. Beside that, we had to pass the muddy route ground. Some of my friends fell down because the road was slippy.

After finished the game and the post, the sun got down. It was getting dark and getting cold. Every team had to cook food for their team. Because there was no consumption. My team was so very lazy, we cooked instant food, we cooked indomie jumbo.

At night, next activity was so exciting! Everyclass performed something. My class performed: together we sang Hymne Guru and Lost Stars. I thought every class performed so well. After the perform finished, it was time to sleep. But i couldn't sleep. So i went out from the tent and looked for my friends. They were circling the camp fire, broiled marshmallows and chocolates. The air was super cold, so we warmed up our bodies close to each other and shared some story. After long, i felt sleepy, then i chose to back to the tent and sleep. 

The night passed so fast. The sun started rise and we had to wake up. I was still sleepy. But i forced myself to wake up when the air still cold with the fog cover the atmosphere. Then i took a pray in the tent and washed my teeth at behind of the tent because the toilets were crowded and the queue was so long. After that, all the teams cooked for breakfast. Because our team was lazy, we cooked instant food again; macaroni. After that we did aerobic. But i still felt hungry, so i asked my friend to accompany me to buy some food; nasi kuning. After that we made "hasta karya".


After that, we gathered and continued the scout activity. We divided into 5 teams and started to pass every pos again.  Every pos gave us a game. I thought this part was more exciting. The game was so engrossed, such as bebentengan, as my favorite. I really enjoyed the game. And on that day, we didn't have to pass muddy road anymore. 

After finished the pos, we went back to camp spot and packing because at 12 PM we would go home. I packed my things such as dirty clothes, remain foods, and our residues. After packing was finish, we took some picture with my friends, my team, and 32016.


And then we did ceremony before go home. But unfortunately rain came and the ceremony was disbanded. We used our ponco and take our truck to go home. On the way, i fell down because i wore sandal when the ground was really muddy caused by the rain. I didn't feel the pain or ashamed, but i feel so peeved. But unluckily, the truck that would carry IPA9, IPA1 and IPS students came so late. So we had to wait with wet dirty clothes and felt cold. Maybe after 30minutes, the truck finally arrived. Soon we got up to the truck and went to SMA3.

As soon as i arrived to my home, i ate and went sleep, i forgot to take a bath.  

Peace Day

WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE MEAN TO YOU?
In 1981, the United Nations declared today, the 21st of September, as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. The ways in which people can engage in the day are endless – through thinking, speaking, acting on strengthening the ideals of peace.




THE IMPORTANCE OF INSTITUTIONALISING PEACE…
ON THE ONE HAND, WILPF IS INVOLVED AS A CONSULTATIVE BODY OF THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) AND HAS A VOICE IN OTHER SIMILAR STRUCTURED INSTITUTIONS. ITS INVOLVEMENT IN INSTITUTIONALISED METHODS OF PEACE MAKING GIVES WILPF THE CHANCE TO CHALLENGE GENDERED STRUCTURES WITHIN THESE ORGANISATIONS THEMSELVES – IF WE’RE GOING TO LISTEN TO BIG INSTITUTIONS, THEN THEY NEED TO WALK THE TALK, RIGHT?
MY TAKE ON IT
AS A SELF-IDENTIFYING WILPFER, I HAVE ALWAYS ADMIRED WILPF’S ABILITY TO PLAY SUCH A BIG ROLE IN MANY TYPES OF DIALOGUE WITH MANY TYPES OF PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS. I THINK THAT THIS OPENNESS IS PART OF WHAT GIVES WILPF SUCH AUTHORITY.
SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
AND NOW I WOULD LIKE TO OPEN UP THE FLOOR TO YOU, FELLOW ACTIVISTS!
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE PEACE? WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN PROMOTING PEACE? AND FINALLY, HOW WILL YOU BE SPENDING THIS YEAR’S INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE?



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Book Review: Nefertiti

Nefertiti hasn’t walked this earth for nearly 3500 years, but she is still remembered as a great beauty as evidenced by her bust which can be seen at the Neues Museum’s Egyptian Collection in Berlin, Germany. Besides, the image of her beauty what do we alive today know of her? Michelle Moran’sNefertiti’ attempts to fill in the blanks between how Nefertiti became the chief wife ofAkhenaten(who may or may not have suffered from Marfan’s Syndromebased on artistic interpretations of him on walls and statues) to being co-pharaoh with her husband. I should inject here that there is another book called ‘Nefertiti: Book of the Dead’ by Nick Drake that I read and reviewed back in 2009, which could be confused with Moran’s novel.
The story is narrated by Mutnodjmet who is Nefertiti’s younger sister as believed by the historical record. In the story they share the same father (Visor Ay who in later years became a pharaoh in his own right) but Nefertiti’s mother (whom Moran’s identifies as a Mitanni princessalthough there is speculation that Nefertiti herself was a Mitanni princess) died during Nefertiti’s birth so the sisters have different mothers. Did you get all that? Good, because to top everything else off in the book, Akhenaten’s mother is Ay’s sister so in the end it was a first cousin marriage – let’s give a shout out to recessive traits!
Although the world remembers Nefertiti as a powerful beautiful woman, Moran through the eyes of Mutnodjmet, sees her as demanding and manipulative. In fact, I found that a large amount of this novel was dedicated to making Nefertiti unlikeable. The only one who gets worse treatment in ‘Nefertiti’ is her husband. According to the historical record, upon achieving the throne Akhenaten turned away from Egypt’s multiple gods and devoted his reign to one God called Aten who was a sun deity. To praise Aten, especially because of the great social upheaval that his worship caused (polytheism to monotheism in a few short years for arguable the most powerful nation of the world at that time) Akhenaten decided to build his own city, and new Egyptian capital, near the Nile but off the beaten path. Amarna, which is just one of its few given names, lasted for about a generation before the sand reclaimed it.
In the novel Akhenaten orders his army to build the city as Egypt loses territories to neighboring nations (particularly the Hittites) which never puts a pharaoh in the good graces of his people. He makes his chief wife, Nefertiti, his co-ruler and gives her the title of pharaoh, which is a title much more powerful than being a mere queen. Of course throughout the novel there is a rivalry between Nefertiti and his first wife Kira, along with other political intrigues. All the while Mutnodjmet watches from the sidelines often wondering at the age of sixteen or so if she is ever going to be able to get married and have children… one of the things you have to get used to in historical novels, especially those dealing with events before the birth of Christ, is that people tended to live shorter lives so they got to being wives and mothers, not necessary husbands and fathers, very early in life because their biological clocks were really ticking at a different beat. Nefertiti married Akhenaten when she was fifteen (if I remember correctly in the novel).
I enjoyed ‘Nefertiti’ more for the history lesson than for the prose. I have just finished Moran’s ‘The Heretic Queen’ which I thought was a better read than this one. Although most of the plot is fiction, Moran does give her readers a historical overview along with other facts that make this book interesting. I think some of my disappointment with ‘Nefertiti’ is because Moran starts the ‘The Heretic Queen’ which is about Nefertiti’s niece, Nefertari, with a story about how Mutnodjmet’s husband, her son, her father (who was pharaoh by this time) her mother and even her nieces (Nefertiti’s children) all perish in a fire in the royal palace. The only survivor is Mutnodjmet who is then forced to marry the new pharaoh while still pregnant by her first husband. As a reader, I was like WOW and caught my breath before askingif I missed something at the end of ‘Nefertiti’. No, I didn’t, Moran just leaves this juicy part out. She ends ‘Nefertiti’ with a murder, but hope in the future that Tutankhamun (“Now, when I die don’t think I’m a nut, don’t want no fancy funeral just one like old King Tut” as sung by Steve Martin) will be a good pharaoh. There is much more to the story so I didn’t reveal that much –yet, there obviously is so much more that I felt cheated as if Moran had written four hundred and some pages and decided to end her story in the middle.
I don’t think Moran is going to be giving Philippa Gregory any sleepless nights when it comes to writing historical fiction, but I do appreciate that she has opened a new subgenre with ancientEgyptian history from a woman’s perspective. If you are interested in this time period than this book is a must read, if you aren’t than I don’t think you should bother.
BTW, I would highly recommend Moran’s History Buff website. I find it delightful.