A week with Rachel in Creative Movement Workshop

For the first time of workshop, Rachel (the instructor of Movement Therapy) introduced herself. She told about her education’s background and the organization that she works in. She explained more about those things so the participants know about her background.

Then, she asked the participants – who the members of CAIREU are – about the programmes of CAIREU. So, she can affiliate the movement therapy with it. Some of the workshop participants answered Rachel’s question and most of them told about the programmes that they have completed such as Mediation Training, Peace Building, Strengthening of organization capacity, Peace study, Conflict Transformation, etc. Furthermore, she said that this therapy can be useful to victims of the conflict and other depressed people because of something connected with mediation, peace, and conflict.

Before the participants learnt about the movement therapy, Rachel asked them to introduce themselves but it was done in a group. So, she divided the participants into several groups, and in a group there are two members. Each of two people in the group introduced his/her name, position in CAIREU, other activities outside CAIREU, and the expectations during and after the workshop.

After break, she was beginning tell about the movement, humans, and social beings or being context. She also told about therapy – workshop – creative dance – daily life. In this workshop, she told more about workshop and creative dance, because therapy is used for bigger problem, inner problem, and has a long term, use some method, systematic, commitment, and specially has psychology background. On the other hand, in daily life no need those things anymore; like do the movement just for fun, short time, and no commitment. In the middle, workshop and creative dance, are used for solve smaller problem, bonding each other, sharing, and need an introducing before meeting or doing some movement.
She tried to bringing the participants up with make them thinking about what creativity is and the aim of creativity. Some participant said that creativities are about idea, thinking out of box, has new strategy, inventive, and etc. And the aim of creativity are getting a break through and finding solutions. Next, Rachel explained what the differences between free dancing and freedom in dancing or moving. She said that free dancing is the dance without rule and express our feeling by ourselves. However, freedom in dancing or moving is a movement which is commanded by a teacher or an instructor. The teacher asked us to move like lightness feather, for instance. The movement can be depending on our perception of the lightness feather, that’s the freedom dancing or moving. Rachel also explained the theme of the movement. First is warming up, exploration of theme, deepen the movements, and the last is total the dance process. To make the movement easier, she suggested the participants a web spider. So, from one word, it can be many words to express. Furthermore, the movement is very useful if we can’t express our emotion through the words. We can blow up our emotion through the better way.

Tuesday/ March 30th, 2010

In the second day of workshop, Rachel explained about the self confidence and how to make us still focus on the themes or topics. This day, Rachel did the workshop through the different way. She did more exercise, many movements, and after that she told the participants why they move like those movements.

Firstly, she did a warming up and the participants must concentrate in what they did. We made a big circle and feel where our feet ground on. Then, we tried to focus to our body like feet, hand, finger, stomach, and head. Rachel asked us to breathing in and breathing out for several times. After that, we have to stretch our hand while made some round and move our fingers slowly then quickly. She told us to lift our knee and move it in the front, back, and side. Next, the participants jumped, kicked, and stopped.

Second, she did another exercise by asked the participants to find the spot – free space around the workshop room – in order to make us free doing a movement. First step, walked to space room slowly and quickly in order, when we did this movement we have to be careful to each other, we can make a contact with another participant without talked with them; in other way we may see person in front of us or just see on our feet. Tried to do this in a few times in a full concentrate and stopped it.

Furthermore, Rachel explained about how to build our confidence and self confidence. She was imagining a powerful big tree as a symbol or image to build strength in our body. She told the participants to walk slowly and keep focus on the move; saw the floor for awhile and find the empty space then stopped. Next, tried to imagine that we were a big tree which has strong roots and feel that we were a strong person. This movement can be used to build our confidence.

Then, we tried to walk in a small range carefully and also find the empty spot, and keep walking while make the big range for our steps, did it – walk in small and big range steps – in order. Some participants considered that this movement was describing our character. Some people said that when we walked in a small range steps, we was feeling insecure and uncomfortable, but we can think more creative to find a solution. In the other hand, the bigger range makes us secure, more comfortable and also more creative because many solutions we can find in a big space.

The last exercise, she asked some people to make two groups and stand in opposite way. Next, one group have to walk normally, slowly and quickly in front of the other group in order. Then, the second group said “STOP” to the first group that walked to them and did it in order. This exercise may we use to build our self confidence. It can be seeing when someone gives the order, whether she/ he do it in loud or low voice and how long the range that she/ he need to say “STOP”. Rachel gave the participants some suggestions before we do some exercises; like is it okay If we touch each other, or how about the feeling if we use the short range of steps and etc.

Wednesday/ March 31st, 2010

This day, Rachel told about how to make a good relation with the others and minimize the tension between them, she made more exercise too. In this session, Rachel did something for relaxation, so she asked the participants to lying up on the floor. And again, find the empty space in order to not touch anybody. Then, close our eyes and put our hand on the floor while make our body relax. Move our toes slowly and our fingers too while feel that our body united with the ground. Next, we have to do same thing with our feet, legs, knees, upper legs, hips, stomach, shoulders, neck and head. Feel that we were relaxing our body, and try to give it the energy. Feel the energy was blowing up from feet, legs, stomach, hands, finger, and head while move those things slowly to the left and right side. Rachel said that we have to open our eyes slowly while feel the energy in a whole body, turned around and stand up again.

Then, to build self confidence and also knowing each other, Rachel showed us about the movement to say hello without voice and talk, only with our body. For example, we used our hands to say hello or we use other part of our body to say hello to the others.

For the next activity, she asked four person to do some movement that aim to concentrate, relaxing, and just go on as there’s no end in our life. Four person walked in a very slow motion and stay focus while imagine that the way which they will go never end. This activity needs full concentration. After that, we discussed about this activity in a group with Rachel. After break time, Rachel explained about movements that have purposes to increasing our trust to the others, feel comfortable in a big group, and once more about self confidence. Every movement that she taught us really useful when we organize some workshop or seminar.




Thursday and Saturday/ April 1st and April 3rd , 2010

After theory, there were two days for practice our theory that has given by Rachel before. The participants will have an opportunity to practice the creative movement to the others. On Thursday, the participants showed about creative movement to woman study center in STAIN Pontianak. This organization needs this activity because they also work in traumatic healing especially for woman trafficking, violence or sexual harassment. So, CAIREU member explained about this movement and Rachel just see and added a little bit things that we missed.

Besides, in Thursday evening, CAIREU members have to practice the theory to orphan children who live in the orphanage. Children really enthusiastic in this activity, especially when we showed the movement that Rachel told us before. For the children, we just want to make them comfortable in a big group although some of them still confuse and shy to move. So, sometimes we were repeating the movement or let them moved as comfortable as they want to move. (Continued)

Takut di Negeri Sendiri

Aku merasa gelisah di rumah sendiri
Makan tak tenang, karena masih berpikir akankah besok aku masih bisa makan?
Tidur tak nyaman, sambil berpikir kemana lagi aku harus mencari rezeki?

Aku merasa tak aman di tempat tinggal ku sendiri
Pergi tak bisa terlalu awal
Pulang pun tak bisa terlalu larut
Bimbang memikirkan rumah, jangan sampai ada pencuri yang masuk dan melibas harta bendaku
Tak nyaman di jalanan, karena berpikir apakah aku diikuti seseorang yang akan menjambret atau merampok isi dalam tasku?

Aku merasa gerah di kampung halamanku sendiri
Hasil bumi dieksploitasi
Masyarakat kecil mengemis segenggam nasi
Pribumi hanya jadi kuli
Sementara masyarakat lainnya bergaya hedonis setiap hari
Pemerintah hanya sibuk sendiri dengan elitnya birokrasi
Sementara anak-anak dan perempuan dijual beli

Aku merasa takut di Negara sendiri
Ledakan bom bertubi-tubi
Koruptor menari-nari
Westernisasi makin menjadi tapi yang diambil hanya dari satu sisi
Katanya modernisasi, tapi pemikiran masih kolonialisasi

Mau jadi apa negeri ini?
Kalau kejujuran ditukar dengan materi
Keikhlasan hanya imajinasi
Uang jadi prioritas tertinggi

A BOOK REVIEW

Title : Riots on the News in West Borneo
Writer : Zaenuddin H. Prasojo
Number of pages : vii + 146
Publisher : STAIN Pontianak Press
Reviewer : Dian Kartika Sari

Zaenuddin has written a book about conflict studies, “Riots on the News in West Borneo”. I think this is a great book because written in English and has information about conflict more. This book consists of five chapters. First chapter is introduction, which tells us about West Borneo in 1990s on the eyes of media and conflict studies. Then, it also divided into three matters: a glance of mass media and group relationships in West Borneo, ethnic relationships in West Borneo: what many have said, and the media and conflict studies.
Therefore, in the introduction, the writer tells us about conflicts that happen in West Borneo such as ethnic conflicts between the Madurese, Malay, Dayak, Chinesse, and etc. these happened in some places like Pontianak, Sanggau Ledo, Sambas, Bengkayang, and many else. In the beginning the conflicts were caused by economic and cultural problems, especially for those directly involved in the community.
Moreover, this book explains about how the media take a look the conflict especially in West Borneo. Because this book addresses the questions of how the riots happened and how people perceived them by analyzing how their issues were presented by the media. Using media as a resource for the analysis is one way in the news about the conflict, this work will contribute to the academic resources of media research especially in West Borneo. The focus of this work will be to reveal how the conflict between the Dayak and the Madura in West Borneo during 1997 was constructed by the media especially by the Akcaya Pontianak Post and Kompas. Because its carried news of the riots comprehensively and continuously.
Besides, in chapter one, a writer talks about Ethnic Relationship in West Borneo based on the media. The mass media are influencing human life in many aspects, wherever they are. By conducting this research, people will get information about the conflict not only from field of studies but also from media studies. To do this research, he use discourse analysis to analyze texts in the media especially in newspapers.
In chapter two, a writer brings a reader to know more about West Borneo especially its people and culture. Moreover, we may know much information about West Borneo in general. Geographical view, for instance, he explains about West Borneo that famous for a province that has “thousands of rivers” because its have thousands of both big and small rivers. Then, Sungai Kapuas is known as the longest river in Indonesia. Besides, he also tells about the equator line which through Pontianak City. It means that West Borneo is a tropical area which is damp and has high temperature. Therefore, a writer also write about the agriculture in West Borneo, economic structure, living societies there, social life and what kind activities do they usually do, and the last about variety of ethnic and religious relations in West Borneo.
Zaenuddin writes about Dayak and Madurese Once in West Borneo in the third chapter. He begins with the history of a broken relationship between Dayak and Madurese. There are classifies ethnic conflicts in West Borneo into three categories. They are close and open conflicts, individual conflict and group conflict, then, vertical and horizontal conflict. In this chapter we will find the reason why many conflicts broke out in West Borneo. Besides, he explains about the number of conflict in West Borneo.
A writer tells us about the mass media in chapter four, he talks about when the mass media talks: Pontianak Post and Kompas on the riots emerging in West Borneo in 1997. He elaborates news and information that published in Pontianak Post and Kompas. At the first time, he has told us why he choose these two newspapers, it’s about comprehensively and continuously the news about conflicts. Besides, he talks about the risk if news about conflict has show up in a society. He also tells about public knowledge and perceptions of the riots as reflected in the news.
Finally, in the last chapter, a writer is concluding the writing and making a reflection in order to it become very important to rebuilding and creating peace in West Borneo. This book becomes very important not only for people involved in the riots to learn what is reported in the mass media, but also for many people in West Borneo to take a lesson from those conflicts.

Jangan Jauhi Mereka

Di salah satu sudut kota, salah satu dari mereka ada yang meringkuk di dalam rumah, terasing dalam ketidakberdayaan mereka. Ada yang hidup diliputi dengan perasaan penuh dendam dan kebencian. Ada yang terbaring lemah menunggu maut menjemput. Bahkan ada yang bisa tertawa lebar menatap masa depan yang masih diliputi misteri kehidupan. Itulah beberapa gambaran manusia yang terkena virus Human Immunodeficiency Virusses (HIV). Virus dengan penyakit yang bernama Acquire Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) ini seolah menjadi momok dalam kehidupan sosial kemasyarakatan. Banyak yang menganggap penyakit ini adalah penyakit kutukan dari Tuhan karena perbuatan penderita itu sendiri. HIV AIDS merupakan penyakit yang belum ada obatnya di dunia.
HIV adalah virus yang menginfeksi sel-sel yang ada dalam tubuh manusia dan mereplikasinya (membuat copy-an yang baru dari sel-sel tersebut). Virus tersebut juga dapat merusak sel manusia yang bisa membuat seseorang sakit. Pengertian lain dari HIV yang paling mudah dipahami oleh masyarakat adalah hilangnya sistem kekebalan tubuh manusia sehingga mudah terserang penyakit. Virus HIV ini dapat masuk dalam tubuh manusia melalui darah. Seperti yang kita ketahui penularannya bisa melalui jarum suntik yang dipakai bersamaan atau melakukan seks bebas. Seeorang yang terkena virus HIV ini biasanya disebut HIV positif.
Penderita HIV AIDS atau yang biasa disebut Orang Dengan HIV AIDS (ODHA) biasanya tinggal menunggu waktu kapan penyakit itu akan berakhir. Karakter orang-orang yang terkena HIV AIDS ini sangat berbeda-beda. Ada yang bisa menerima kenyataan dan tetap melakukan aktivitas sehari-hari seperti biasa. Dan ada yang memilih mengasingkan diri di rumah karena malu atau takut dengan pandangan masyarakat terhadap dirinya. Dari segi fisik, penderita HIV AIDS masihlah sama dengan manusia normal lainnya. Akan tetapi, ketika virus itu sudah mulai menggerogoti tubuhnya maka akan terlihatlah tanda-tanda orang yang terkena virus HIV ini.
Di Indonesia sendiri banyak berdiri lembaga-lembaga yang menangani permasalahan penderita HIV AIDS. Kebanyakan berbentuk lembaga sosial dan pekerjanya juga kebanyakan dari penderita itu sendiri. Pembinaan yang paling berat dilakukan bagi penderita adalah pembinaan mental. Karena tidak semua orang bisa menerima orang dengan penyakit AIDS ini. Oleh karena itu, seseorang yang terkena penyakit ini biasanya dibina mentalnya terlebih dahulu sebelum terjun ke masyarakat.
Hukum masyarakat dapat dikatakan merupakan hukum terberat yang harus diterima oleh para ODHA. Betapa tidak, omongan, cemoohan, sikap mengucilkan, biasanya datang dari masyarakat itu sendiri. Padahal tidak semua penderita AIDS ini mereka yang menggunakan obat-obatan terlarang atau mereka yang melakukan seks bebas. Orang yang terjangkit virus ini juga bisa terjadi karena kesalahan penggunaan jarum suntik. Atau yang biasa terjadi adalah hubungan perkawinan tanpa mengetahui latar belakang pasangannya masing-masing. Kasus yang paling menyedihkan adalah seorang anak yang harus terjangkit karena tertular orang tuanya.
Banyak orang-orang yang terjangkit HIV AIDS ini harus merasakan gunjingan, kucilan serta cemoohan dari masyarakat. Padahal tak semua dari mereka yang terjangkit penyakit itu karena hal-hal negatif. Penyakit ini dinilai sebagian masyarakat sebagai penyakit kutukan, penyakit yang memang belum ada obatnya. Akan tetapi, tak semestinya orang yang tidak terjangkit virus ini menjauhi para ODHA tersebut. Karena virus ini tidak tertular melalui makanan, jabatan tangan, dan kontak fisik lainnya. Hanya saja rasa cemas dan khawatir akan tertular membuat sebagian masyarakat ‘takut’ untuk berinteraksi dengan mereka.
Tak banyak orang yang menganggap penderita penyakit ini harus ditolong. Memang secara fisik dan medis belum ada obat untuk mengobati penyakit ini. Tapi setidaknya secara mental dan batin, orang-orang yang terjangkit virus ini harus dibantu. Karena tekanan batin dan mental merupakan cobaan berat yang harus dihadapi para ODHA yang mendapatkan gunjingan dan cemoohan dari masyarakat. Dengan bersikap baik dan menganggap mereka ‘ada’ setidaknya membuat keadaan mereka lebih baik. Dan yang terpenting adalah mereka dapat berpikir bahwa mereka masih bisa berguna di lingkungannya dan masyarakat luar karena mereka masih bisa beraktivitas laiknya manusia normal. Oleh sebab itu, dukungan dan bantuan secara moral dari orang-orang yang mau membantu mereka tentunya sangat mereka butuhkan, sebelum akhirnya mereka kembali pada penguasa alam. Wallahualam bis sawab!

Mental Hedonis Berujung Korupsi

Indonesia tengah dilanda permasalahan yang sangat pelik. Terutama menyangkut kasus korupsi yang tak pernah habis-habisnya terjadi di Indonesia. Di tengah kondisi alam yang tak bersahabat dengan manusia (dapat dilihat dari banyaknya bencana alam di berbagai wilayah di Indonesia), Negara tercinta ini juga tengah dilanda permasalahan yang tidak pernah ketemu ujung pangkalnya, yaitu korupsi. Seperti yang marak diberitakan di berbagai media massa, kasus yang sedang hangat belakangan ini adalah kasus perselisihan antar oknum di Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) dengan pihak kepolisian dan pemerintah.
Sungguh miris memang, karena oknum-oknum yang berselisih adalah berasal dari lembaga yang memiliki peran penting bagi Negara Indonesia ini. Dengan munculnya kasus ini, dapat dipastikan kepercayaan masyarakat kepada beberapa lembaga ini jadi berkurang. Bahkan mungkin tak ada lagi yang dapat dipercaya. Karena, setiap kasus yang berkembang memiliki bukti-bukti baru yang saling menguatkan dan menjatuhkan. Belum lagi kasus yang berbeda tapi dikaitkan-kaitkan dengan kasus lain, misalnya kasus pembunuhan Nasrudin yang dituduhkan kepada Antasari Azhar dikaitkan dengan kasus penyuapan yang menimpa Bibit dan Chandra Hamzah. Hingga ujung-ujungnya adalah pada kasus korupsi di Bank Century yang merugikan Negara.
Pemerintah membentuk tim pencari fakta yang diberi nama tim 8. Tim ini diluar dari penyidik kepolisian yang menurut Ketua Divisi Humas Polri, Nanan Sukarna – pada konferensi pers – tidak memiliki kekuatan hukum untuk memenjarakan seseorang. Akhirnya, tim 8 bekerja, tim penyidik dari pihak kepolisian juga bekerja. Hingga masyarakat kebingungan bukti dan pendapat mana yang mau dipilih, tim 8 atau penyidik kepolisian? Berita-berita serta bukti-bukti yang ditampilkan di depan publik justru membuat masyarakat akan kebingungan karena semakin banyak informasi yang dikonsumsi tapi tidak dibarengi dengan verifikasi yang jelas. Kasus-kasus yang muncul juga tumpang tindih sehingga tidak jelas siapa menuntut apa dan siapa menuntut siapa.
Korupsi (bahasa Latin: corruptio dari kata kerja corrumpere = busuk, rusak, menggoyahkan, memutarbalik, menyogok) menurut Transparency International adalah perilaku pejabat publik, baik politikus|politisi maupun pegawai negeri, yang secara tidak wajar dan tidak legal memperkaya diri atau memperkaya mereka yang dekat dengannya, dengan menyalahgunakan kekuasaan publik yang dipercayakan kepada mereka (dikutip dari website Wikipedia Indonesia). Korupsi merupakan permasalahan yang tak kunjung selesai – minimal berkurang – di Indonesia. Hal ini menurut penulis dikarenakan budaya konsumerisme yang besar di kalangan masyarakat Indonesia, terutama pejabat. Mental-mental mereka telah dijejali dengan kebiasaan menggunakan barang-barang mewah. Fasilitas yang mereka terima tak sebanding dengan apa yang bisa mereka lakukan. Misalnya, kendaraan dinas yang mereka gunakan berupa mobil Mercy yang eksklusif. Akan tetapi, mereka lupa bahwa masih banyak orang-orang tak mampu yang menggelandang di jalanan. Jangan salahkan rakyat kecil ketika mereka harus mencuri demi sesuap nasi ketika anggaran untuk pembinaan mereka lebih kecil ketimbang dengan pembelanjaan fasilitas mewah para pejabat di atas-atas sana.
Padahal, dana-dana untuk kendaraan dinas, rumah dinas, fasilitas umum, kesehatan, dan lain sebagainya yang diterima para pejabat bisa lebih ditekan dan dialihkan untuk pembangunan infrastruktur atau pendidikan di Indonesia. Toh, gaji dan tunjangan yang mereka terima sudah lebih dari cukup untuk menghidupi kebutuhannya sehari-hari. Akan tetapi, balik lagi pada permasalahan awal adalah mental-mental hedonis yang ditanamkan pada orang-orang gedongan itu. Meski tak jarang beberapa pejabat yang melakukan kegiatan sosial dengan separuh gaji yang ia terima. Dari gaya hidup yang mewah tersebut, ditambah dengan banyaknya ‘proyek’ yang mampir ke tangan pejabat membuat uang mengalir dengan mudah. Dari situlah kemungkinan besar ‘korupsi’ kecil-kecilan dilakukan.
Melihat kondisi diatas, ada beberapa hal yang bisa dilakukan untuk meminimalisir kasus korupsi yang terjadi. Misalnya, dalam pelaporan keuangan lebih bersifat transparan. Selain itu, penekanan dana untuk tunjangan, fasilitas umum, dan lain sebagainya bisa dilakukan untuk dialokasikan ke bagian lain yang lebih memerlukan, misal pendidikan dan infrastruktur. Hal ini tentunya dapat mencegah terjadinya kesenjangan sosial antara yang ‘atas’ dengan yang ‘bawah’. Semoga!

Coretan untuknya

Dia tak datang saat kelulusan Sekolah Dasarku
Dia juga tak bisa datang saat-saat pembagian rapor di tingkat menengah pertamaku
Dia tak hadir saat aku memasuki gerbang SMA
Dia juga tak ucapkan selamat sewaktu aku menyelesaikan wajib belajarku
Ucapan selamat ulang tahun tak terdengar dari mulutnya
Dia juga tak bisa berkenalan dengan lelaki yang pernah mengisi hatiku
Tak kulihat senyumnya saat aku berlari membawa ijazah kelulusan perguruan tinggiku
Dia tak bisa hadir menjadi wali di hari pernikahanku yang sakral
Dia tak mampu menemaniku dengan vespa butut kesayangannya dimana aku pernah tertidur sambil memeluknya
Dia sudah disana, bersama penguasa alam, melihatku yang selalu merindukannya
I really miss u dad…Love you so much!

Ways to Get a Successful Life

What do you think about success? Do the rich people can be defined as a successful person? Or the poor one called an unsuccessful one? I think there’s no scale to measuring “success” in my life. Some people think if they feel happiness in their life, they are a success person. Although, they are not a wealthy person; sometimes, properties are not valuable things for some people. There are two ways to reach a successful: work hard and patiently.
To reach a successful, we need do everything in hard a way, it means we have to work hard to reach it. Student study hard because they want to pass their final exam to graduate excellently, for instance. Another example, some workers work very hard to get promotion in order to go to the higher level in a company. Every people do many things to get the best result in their life; however, they do “illegal” activity to get it. For example, they try to persuade their boss to get better promotion in their job and get more salary; even though no every people to that, just some of them. Sometimes, money can make people “blind” in their life, whereas it isn’t a main point to determine a successful. So, getting a successful life is not easy. Every thing must be hard for us to reach it.
The second way to get success is be patient to everything that we do. In my opinion, keep patient is the most important thing in our life; furthermore, it is impossible if everything that we want in this life can be reach. I will give the example, a labour who has been worked for 2 years in a company, but he still work in the same division and get same salary till now. Does he called an unsuccessful person? I think, if he has felt comfort with his job and he’s enjoyed it, he can be called a successful person because he keep patient with his job. Therefore, while we always try to be patient we can get what we really want; nonetheless, it is not as soon as that we want.
In conclusion, if we want to reach a successful in our life, we have to work hard to do that. Also, we have to always be patient when we try our best, because if we don’t do that we’ll get frustration. We just thinking about “success” in our life without thinking about the way to reach that, whether to do positive thing or to do negative thing to get the best result. Then, we can be an arrogant, impatient, and stubborn person. Benjamin Franklin said, “There are no gains without pain”. So, in which way you want to choose to get your successful life?