Children and Gadget by Mahaputra Nanto

Do you ever see or find a child who can play gadgets when reading by him or herself alone is not fluently? It is confirmed that the child was not the only one in the world, most of them certainly is not the only children with a similar toxicity in Indonesia.  Though not necessarily a positive impact, Children and gadgets it has become the norm.

Children today are very familiar with the gadgets. I know that this is not entirely justified. I also still agree with the opinion that the child should spend their free time playing outside the home with peers, or run around until exhausted or play bike. But in reality, many of those who spend their time playing video games or watching Youtube in gadgets.

Children who struggle with a lot of gadgets in excess can have negative things like potential eye pain, lack of movement, resulting in obesity, until it difficult to absorb the lessons at school.

Not that using the gadget to no avail. Skilled Children in using gadgets will keep up with technology. Children can also learn English because English dominates the gadget. In addition, a number of studies also have shown that those who play the game have a better focus and can do many things (multitasking) at once.

Charge an error to the parents who gave the gadget (at least given permission to use the gadget) also does not solve the problem. The problem is the gadget is getting attached to everyday life, not to mention the life of a child

Parents should be able to determine what content is worth (or should) be consumed by children in order to support the development of children according to age. Not just block access to adult sites and applications, parents are also able to balance that with the introduction of a ban on websites or applications educative and entertaining.

 

CHILDREN Part 1 (Qd)

Children are the hardest and the easiest creature to understand. Children are unique. They have many kinds of characteristic that we can learn about. They are honest. They cannot hide anything. But, it is not easy to handle them. Here, the writer want to share about her experience since entering pre-school as a teacher assistant and beginning to handle the children age 2-4 years old.

Children are imitators. When you say something or do somtehing, they will easily imitate you. Let’s take a sample from one of my children at school. In my previous class, it is a pre-nursery class, for children age 2-3 years old. I had one child. He was just moved to my class because he was one of the new students. At first, I forbade him to master the toys because he did not want to share the toys. Then, he was angry with me. Moreover, he grumbled at me and used his index finger to point me while grumbling. It was funny. You can imagine a little child could grumble at you. Day by day, he is doing the same thing. Till I met his mother, I finally knew that why this child did so. His mother always treated him roughly. One day, when she picked up her son, the Son did not want to go home because he was playing. Then, she got angry with her son, she dragged her son’s hand roughly to bring him home. I was shocked at that time. One day, I got her grumbled at her son. The way she talked to her son could be said as rough. Then, I could draw a conclusion that this child imitated his mother’s.

Children are unique. They have so many characteristics that we can learn about. One of the characteristics has been explained above, namely imitator. The second one is honest; children cannot hide anything even though they try to hide, you can read that they are hiding something from you. They cannot hide anything they see. In my class, the children always report to me whatever they see when some of them fight or some of them master the toys and do not want to share. Sometimes, it is boring to hear them reporting, but they are children. If you do not understand them, they will never understand you.

The third is Moody; some of children have this characteristic. In my class, I have one child who is moody. His name is Mario. He is four years old. Sometimes, he is moody. All day long, he will not get good mood till the class ends. He will be very sensitive as long as he is in a bad mood. I have to be careful when I read that he is not in a good mood. He will not do something that you ask him to do even though you ask him many times. That is him. But when he is in a good mood, he will be very happy and enjoy school till the class ends.

So, what kind of children that you ever handle? Imitator, honest, and moody; these are just apart from information that I want to share. These three characteristics probably can give you some information about the children. The writer will continue it in Children Part 2. 

MODERN SLAVERY (Sulaiman)

Modern slavery is the illegal activity, in which one person is controlled by violence, the threat of violence, or psychological coercion, has lost free will and free movement, and forced to work for little or no pay. Slavery that exists until now called as Modern Slavery. It also prohibited by many international treaties such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 195G UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.

There are some characteristics of modern slavery, someone is in slavery if they ares
• treated as a commodity or bought and sold as property;

• forced to work - through mental or physical threat;

• -- owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse;

• physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement.’

I think there are many factors why modern slavery still exists until now, for instance lack of education and training skills. Every labor has to have education and training skills so that they can boost their position in their community.

Modern slavery cases are common in Indonesia, like forced labor from a kitchenware factory in Bayur Opak village (CV Cahaya Logam), East Sepatan district, Tangerang regency, where labors forced and got torturous treatment, they forced to worked 18 hours with only two meals a day, they also didn’t get their salary, moreover some of them are still underage.

To conclude, to end modem slavery there are many ways like giving some knowledge and conducting training for labor. Government must give their attention about protection of labor rights so that labors can work safely and comfortably. 

Rebellion in the Context of Demonstration and Writing (Mas’ud Kallolona Sawitto)

Rebellion, this word is not strange at ears; there are many perceptions about rebellion. Perhaps someone wants to destroy a system of one country or someone wants to kill each other due to some purposes. In this essay the writer tries to differentiate two types of rebellion. According to the writer the two kinds of rebellion are: rebellion through demonstration and rebellion through writing.

 The first one is rebellion through demonstration. Demonstration is our aspiration that said by demonstrators because there is something wrong done by stakeholders so that’s why they are going to make sure its going the right way. Demonstrators are like cconnective tongue of society or voice of God because they do the demonstration just for protecting small societies or sometime they disagree with the obligation or policy made by government. On the other hand, demonstration has a bad effect, for example when they are burning tires on the street that affects traffic jam and they often disobey the rule such as fighting with the same demonstrators. Oh my God!!! Make me sad.

The second one is rebellion through writing. It is believed that the nice way ever in fighting against the government is through writing. Someone may criticize the government in order to tell their inspiration, critic or protest by writing, such as poetry, essay or short story. Poetry is one way to kill someone without touching, that’s quoted from a poet. With writing we can express our feelings especially our heart to government, we can say as ‘Freedom of writers’. Just like demonstration, writing has a bad effect too. We have to wait for responses from the government for a long time and it means that we waste our time to wait for something that there is no guarantee. According to someone who likes writing, after we have written, there’s something amazing or free on our mind that we can share whatever we’re thinking. Writing is a weapon for those who understand what writing is, and according to poets Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s words “just by writing I become hero for myself’, and “how smart you are if you don’t write you will be left by this world”.

Finally, I do agree that every single person has a perception between writing and demonstration, so I don’t like saying which one is better, because writing and demonstration have weakness and benefit, so it’s up to us because we are leader for ourselves. You know more than others do.

Teacher, High Dedication Low Appreciation (Agus Putra Gowa)

Twelve years studying at school makes me know many things. I can write, read, count and speak. It’s because of dedication of a hero called Teacher. They are heroes in our nation. Because of their dedication, I, you, and all of us can enjoy this brighter life. Some of us become a trader, a doctor, a policeman, even a president. We realize it or not, teacher has given crucial contribution in our success. When we were in elementary school, teachers patiently taught us how to write and read. They educated and led us to be a better person. Thus, whatever you are, either farmer, doctor, minister or president, we will never get loose from the service of teacher.

Teacher has rendered a lot of service to this country, but appreciation given is not really satisfying. In fact, there still many teachers spend their spare time to find another job. Some teachers in remote areas become a farmer or tukang ojek to fulfill their daily needs and education for their children.

Looking at the fact above, the government should do improvement of the teacher’s prosperity. One of the ways to make teacher more prosperous is certification program. It is considered as the best solution to increase not only the quality but also the income of the teacher. Those who pass certification program will get double salary and automatically increase their income. However, this program just gives a negative impression. It is about the “integrity” of the teacher. Many people argue that teachers nowadays are not sincere anymore. In fact, many teachers more emphasized to arrange portfolio than prepare a good method for their students in the classroom. Yet, I think it is humane. Teacher is a human being. They need to eat, drink, and absolutely need money to fulfill their needs. On the other case, some teachers are being criminalized, reported to the police officers because of giving physical punishment to their students.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the ally’s force, the government of Japan talked to his people. Neither shoulder nor minister he was asked, but He asked how many teachers remained. It indicates that the teacher has crucial contribution to develop a country.

In conclusion, teacher is a teacher. They are Hero in my life. We cannot do anything without them. Teacher is a normal human being. They need money to fulfill their needs. They need to eat, drink, to buy clothes, and so on. Thus, respect your teacher.

Dedication (n): Pengabdian
Patiently (adv): Dengan sabar
Prosperity (n): Kesejahteraan
AIly(n): Sekutu

Our Education (Awaluddin Syamsu)

One of the purposes of education in our country, Indonesia, is to gain a spiritual generation. Therefore, Children are being taught religion at school. It is different case in western country or even in Australia. Religion is not taught at school. It is not too much if we say that we are lucky enough because our education provides religion teaching at school in order to create a religious generation. This short essay will discuss education at elementary to senior high school, in terms of the educational system. Then it will present some questions to be discussed.

Education in Indonesia could be divided generally into two, general school and religion school, any school which provides more religion subjects such as Islamic boarding school and madrasah. Both types of schools are addressed to create a spiritual generation. However, I am pessimistic on our education to be able to create spiritual generation because the educational system is secular. Either general schools or religion schools are just the same. They both adopt secularism system of education. The difference is only at the number of subjects that students have to learn. If our education purpose is to produce spiritual generation, then the system should be integrated. All subjects that students learn at school must be linked to religion. Even more, Religion should be the basic foundation of all subjects. When the students learn math, biology, physics and so on, they have to learn religion at the same time consciously or subconsciously. That is only the way to create a spiritual generation in terms of school context.

Some of you may think that some people who graduated from Islamic boarding school are able to understand religion well or even memorize the entire Qur’an. This assumption is true if the definition of religious generation is the generation that is able to memorize and comprehends Islamic concept and teaching. Yet, the definition of religious generation should be more extended. The true Spiritual generation is the ones who can internalize religion in any aspect of their life and any subjects. They are experts in math, biology, physics and so on but the basis of their understanding on the subjects are coming from religion.

In conclusion, the purpose and the system of our education are not fit.

Questions:
1. What do you think about our educational system?
2. Can our educational system produce religious generation?
3. How to deal with this fact?
4. Have you seen any school that is truly applying the integrated religion in all subjects that they provide?

BULLYING BECOMES STUDENTS’ BEHAVIOR (Saddam Husain)

It is not difficult to find bullying in junior high school, senior high school and even in university. It is important to address the issue because bullying has become a culture in school and university. The definition of bullying it self is a form of aggressiveness behavior that is intentional, hurtful and threatening someone. Bullying is not only in physical form but also in psychological form. Boys tend to do physical bullying such as hitting, kicking, slapping, elbowing, shouldering (slamming someone with your shoulder), etc. Otherwise, girls tend to do psychological bullying such as name-calling, insulting remarks, putting down, teasing in order to inflict psychological pain.

Have you got bullies in your school or university? In particular university, there is a culture to welcome new student, that we call Ospek or Pengkaderan. Formally, Ospek is held for at least 1-2 weeks, but in fact, this is going to be held for 6 months. Even in certain department it will spend 1 year. There is no essential benefit comes from this culture except pain because the new students are not treated well as human being.

Is it good to hit back if you get hit from your senior or someone? People who answer yes think that it is important to make bullies become wary and will not bully you again next time. Bullies will think that you are strong enough to maintain your self and it make them afraid of you. Contrarily, people who answer no think that when you hit back it will make the situation become worse. Bullies would hold grudge and can call all of their friends to attack you next time.

Actually, what makes people bully someone? Bullying is a culture and also popular thing for certain people. They will be so proud of themselves if they have done bullying. They feel they are the most powerful human in that place. Besides, some of bullies come from a broken home. They bring their problems to their school or university and conduct their anger by bullying someone to feel better and satisfied. People who are being bullied tend to hide this incident, although they are supposed to tell this incident to their teachers, lecturers, dean and of course parents. They don’t want to make people especially their parents worry. They love their parents. They do want to make their parents become proud of them by telling good news, not bad news. 

WORKING MOTHER (by Hermita Arif)

Life after marriage sometimes put a woman in a dilemma situation; either she keeps being a career woman or totally being a housewife. Different consideration makes people different in viewing this matter.

Some people opine that woman may still have official job after getting married. Economic factor is one of their considerations. By working, a woman may help their husband to fulfill their daily needs which tend to be increasing lately. Furthermore, in a wide scope, it will pursue the economic growth of a country. It is based on the fact that potential number of woman is higher than man in terms of working field.

On the opposite side, some people are on the opinion that married woman has to focus on managing their household. They argue that by being full-housewife, a woman may dedicate all of her attention to the family, especially in educating the children in the best way. It is because they are the first and the primary education for the children. The future of children which mainly determines the future of a country depends too much on their parent’s role especially mother. Having said that woman indirectly contributes the country civilization.

I personally think that having a job for a married woman does not matter as long as they know how to manage their time properly between their job and family. But, being an official worker is not the best option. They may choose another job such as a business or a lecturer which is more flexible in terms of time and activity so that they can still execute their role as a housewife.

To conclude, in order for a woman to be able to play their role well as housewife and have any other profitable activity at the same time, she is better to choose the one which has more flexible time and busyness.

Discussed on February 5th 2013

Blur Portrait of Street Children (Dwi)

Seeing beggars on the street aren’t new scene in Makassar. There are compassionate and concerned people toward them but there also people who pay them no attention. But, do you know how the real life of street children? Like many expected, the beggars are already forgotten their education. Actually there is an opportunity for education, but their willingness has disappeared. This condition is a point of “safe” parents. It means, the parents are deliberately let their children begging on the streets. “What is left? Because they are also taking advantage of it,”

Already many NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) are trying to help them, but in reality not many parents and children interested in this program. They have more fun on the street than to sit and learn at school, from 105 numbers of street children around Tamalanrea, only half of which would come to learn. Even that, they must be forced and lured with money.

For example, Aris (not his real name) must also beg for money on the street. Though his father, Mr.S was still able to find the cost for the 8-years-old boy. Mr.S is the seller of crackers around Tamalanrea, he earns less than 50 thousand rupiahs a day. This means that Mr.S can collect approximately Rp. 1,5 millions a month. Financial condition is not good enough so Aris, like many other children, shall begs in the streets. Not only because of need, but also because his parents told him to. Every day, from morning till night, he has to beg around Tamalanrea. If he rejects to beg and earns money, his father would beat Aris.

In conclusion, street children deserve better lives; they deserve to play and not tortured or forced to find money on the street. Parents should guide and teach positive things to their children, don’t use their children as a means of producing money. 

UNIFORMS (Anna Lestari Wandira)

School uniforms are dress codes that are determined by the teaching institution and students have to follow the designed code obediently every day. Many people believe that school uniforms should be applied but not for others.
Uniforms have various advantages for both the family and the child. A united school apparel can relief a financial stress of the backs of many families. As kids tend to compete and imitate each other, the race of following new trends in fashion or providing different attire for every school day is considered a financial burden, not every family can afford it. Additionally, uniforms create a sense of equality among all pupils. Young kids tend to judge others according to their look and what they wear. Uniting their school attire will draw their attention to other criteria and, the only advantage of one student over another would be personality, academic achievement or being good at sports.
On the other hand as repetition can lead to boredom, children can get frustrated of wearing same thing to school every day. Furthermore, it prevents their first step of individuality bay taking away their right to choose what to wear on their own free well.
In conclusion, I believe that uniforms are not meant to suppress the creativity or freedom of children. It helps redirecting kids’ creativity toward more important things than outer look, and waive financial burden of their families.

"CELEBRITY PREACHERS NEED TRAINING" SAID MUI (Agus Putra Gowa)

Source: Merdeka.com


Indonesia television industry spawned a number of preachers (penceramah) who publicly known as celebrity preachers. Armed with knowledge of its religion, the preachers preach on screen with the characteristics and style of each. Occasionally, these celebrity preachers act like a celebrity who often covered by infotainment. Even, Gossips about their personal life were often hunted by infotainment workers. Affairs and lifestyle issues like a celebrity as their familiar hits. To gain the Sympathy of the public, they often use jokes and humor in his talk, It sometimes leads to core mission should which should have been delivered cannot be comprehended by the public.
Unlike the ‘village’ preachers who just paid with baskets or sometimes just gratitude, ustad celebrities actually get paid millions of rupiah. So how do the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) concern to the phenomenon of celebrity preachers? “Their preaching less wears and educates the public. For instance, their style and theme which sometimes are no contents or just kidding, it’s not going to improve the morals of society, the appearance and the words used are also too vulgar,” said chairman of the MUI, Ma’ruf Amin to merdeka.com Friday (3/8).
According to him, based on evaluations that have been conducted by MU! found that their propaganda methods need to be improved. Therefore, the preaching which is delivered will affect the people. Based on that finding, MUI has set up a training program to celebrity preachers, “We will hold training to preachers who frequently appeared on television in order to bring improvements, so it’s not just as an entertainment but also have the education,” he said.
On the other hand, most of the people precisely prefer the “preaching style” of the preacher who always shown on TV. Their preaching style is simple, understandable, and also they are physically good looking. They look like artist with lots of fans in which their presence is waited for. However, it should be bear in mind, people go to mosque/masjid to listen a preaching, not to look at the preacher in person.
In conclusion, the writer would like to quote a hadits of Rasulullah SAW, “at the end of the world, there will be a group of people who look for wealth by religion. They show simplicity and look so humble in front of many people. Their words is sweeter than sugar, but their heart is like a fox (they do love wealth and power)”. (HR: Tirmidzj). We do hope the preachers today show the real preaching to build Islam and improved the moral of this country, not to look for popularity and wealth. Wassalam.

SMOKING CAN CAUSE SERIOUS ILLNESS AND SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL (Arif Supam Wijaya)

There are clear arguments for banning smoking, based largely on health, but there is perhaps a stronger case to be made for maintaining the current situation, as will now be explained.
The most important factor for keeping smoking legal is that the decision to smoke is not something that should be controlled by the government, but by the individual. If a person decides to smoke, they do so of their own free will and this should be respected, as it is the government’s role to advice against harmful practices, but ultimately not to make decision for its citizens.
The other reason for allowing smoking is that by making laws against it is more likely to result in the sale of tobacco moving to the black market, and consequently increasing the level of associated crimes. There will still be people who cannot overcome their addiction, and will search for any means available to access cigarettes. A clear example of this reaction can be seen in the illegal sale of drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana,
Of course, there is the fact that smoking is known to have adverse health effects on both the smoker and those around them who are affecting by passive smoking. Yet there are other lifestyle choices that also have negative impact, such as fast food and alcohol, and banning these items would restrict the choice available to the customer.
To sum up, the decision to ban smoking, although having some advantages, would be more likely o have an overall nega.ive effect. It would therefore be better would be for the government to continue campaigns that educate people about the potential dangers of the habit.

RING OF FIRE (Sabah)

Indonesia is a rich country with diverse natural resources, it would not be separated from geographical location consisting of a cluster of islands, sea, and land with consist stunning cluster of volcanoes. However, behind the natural resources owned, Indonesia also is home to the birth and death of most of the volcanoes on Earth. The island state has 400 volcanoes, and 127 which is a volcano that erupts regularly. Some active volcano eruptions were recorded having a most violent in the history of this earth that ever happened on this earth. This is caused because Indonesia is on The Pacific ring of fire.
Pacific ring of fire is a cluster of volcanoes in the Pacific region which passes through the territory of Indonesia, thus making the region prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Recorded, about 90 percent of the genesis of earthquakes worldwide occurs in the Pacific ring of fire. And about 81 percent of the earthquake on the Pacific ring of fire is the largest earthquake in the world. Recorded in Indonesia occurred 3 eruption that caused the most intense change of nature on Earth, the explosion was the third eruption of Krakatau, Tambora eruption, and eruption of Toba.
The Toba Eruption (74,000 BC) resulted in the onset of the ice age of 1,000 years. About 10,000 people become victims, volcanic ash as high as 6 meters of burying India and Pakistan. After the catastrophic eruption of Toba, some groups immigrated to Australia passing through East Timor and Papua New Guinea through Borneo (Stephen Oppenheimer, 2003). The eruption of’ Tambora (april, 1815 M) island of Sumbawa NTB does not only bring devastation of civilization in the surroundings, the emption of Tambora also cause the year without a summer in Europe. When Tambora erupted, the radius approximately 600km from Mount Tambora darkness all day almost a week away, the eruption was heard to reply over 2000km of distance and the Earth’s temperature has dropped to a few degrees resulting in earth being cold due to the volcanic dust obstructed sunlight for several months. An eruption of Tambora is the most ruthless, even the strongest ever recorded in the history of modern humans.
The eruption of Krakatoa (August 27, 1883 AD), takes up 36,000 victims soul, so loud so that tumultuous World. The lava burst and volcanism ashes reached a 8O km height, while brush wooding around the Earth for several years. Seen from North America and Europe when it appears in blue light from the sun and moon looked orange.
With the abundance of volcanoes, making the land fertile, and Indonesia also rich in precious minerals, but behind that, Indonesia keep potential natural disasters which may occur anytime, either from eruption of the volcano or an earthquake. A related problem is the earthquake attacks occur suddenly. Its occurrence is almost impossible to be predicted by human calculation. We just have to wait and wait, until we forgot and suddenly struck back by large shocks.

VALUE OF PEMUDA (Hendrick DW)

In the era of globalization now, we gradually forget the value of PEMUDA because either at home, school or environment, people uninterested to learn the freedom’s value at the past time, so the majority of young generation now do not have the value of PEMUDA in their live.
According to Suardi an army pension veteran, PEMUDA different from the youth. PEMUDA (Penangkis Musuh Datang) means, when enemy come to attack our country we have to repulse, either in the form of foolishness or warfare, while the youth is the teen-aged, but protagonist at PEMUDA are mostly the youth not old man.
Therefore, the young generations have to implant to themselves about the value of PEMUDA because one of the increase propriety in a country is the youth, so keep value of PEMUDA in ourselves to prevent enemy attacks. Holy Quran has said that “yaa ayyuhallazina aamanuu khuzuu kliizrokum fan firuu subaatin awinfiruu jamiiaa” (qs. Annisa’ 71), it means; you who believe! Take your precaution, then go forth in detachments or go forth in a body.
In conclusion, majority of the young generation now do not have value of PEMUDA in themselves because they are not taught about it, and PEMUDA is the enemy rejecter from the outside, so one of increase propriety in a country is the young generation