Loneliness and introverted writer
by Jennie S. Bev Reality is the one word that Vladimir Nabokov said shouldn’t go without quotation marks, despite the fact it is something that most artists and writers have been pursuing and imitating as closely as possible. This explains why every...
Forgiveness and justice after May 1998 Tragedy
by Jennie S. Bev Twelve years ago, our family and my parents’ house were saved by a mosque. A mob came to torch down the neighborhood but a good Muslim neighbor shouted, “Don’t torch our homes. There is a mosque nearby!” I was fortunate I was there and not on the way...
Why I love the land of the free
by Jennie S. Bev We Americans are fortunate. We live where ideas of democracy, equality, and freedom live on. It is a privilege that I can’t stop being grateful for. In other parts of the world, such as Indonesia, the country where I was born and raised, even...
Liberal democracy and compassion for Indonesia
by Jennie S. Bev Barack Obama has not confirmed when he’ll be visiting Indonesia, thus it is not too late to remind ourselves that Indonesia is interested in promoting liberal democracy alongside the United States. It is good timing for Indonesia to end its ambiguity...
Persecution, minority rights, and being human
by Jennie S. Bev Immanuel Kant posited that not all humans are considered as persons. He argued that being a human isn’t sufficient to make one and to be considered as a person. A human being is considered a “person” when he or she possesses more than rationality, but...
Happiness, positive psychology, and liberated learning
by Jennie S. Bev The motivation and self-help industry is worth US$64 billion worldwide. People, who are seeking for a voice of reason and enlightenment, turn to print, electronic, and audio books and videos of motivational learning. It taps a huge market for...
Barack Obama: the boy from Menteng
by Jennie S. Bev Barack Obama is a different kind of president. He is not merely a president per se, as he is also a strong activist and a reformist. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “We are reformers in Spring and Summer, in Autumn and Winter we stand by the old,...
Avatarism and cyber law
by Jennie S. Bev We all live as avatars. The term “avatar” refers to the projection of one’s personality, particularly over the Internet. While in Hinduism, an “avatar” is a reincarnation of Vishnu, in today’s society, it is nothing more than an image of...
Blogs are Global Forum for Homespun Ideas
[Read directly at The Jakarta Globe.] by Tasa Nugraza Barley “Blogs are naked conversations where you have no editing process. Communication can be very objective or biased,” said Jennie Siat Bevlyadi, 39, who has been blogging since 2004. Born and raised in...
Friendship, lust, and love
by Jennie S. Bev Love and lust are addicting and intoxicating. Friendship keeps things grounded. In a good marriage, all these elements are present with friendship as the underlying principle, a lot of love as the building bricks, and a few dashes of lust to...
Peaceful pluralism and nonkilling policy
by Jennie S. Bev The world of politics is based on violence, within which killing —as a form of violence— is a major component in gaining and maintaining power. Throughout the history of political philosophy, from Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics,...
The anatomy of a kiss
by Jennie S. Bev A kiss is not just a kiss. It is more and sometimes it is less than itself. A kiss may mean many things, yet we all are so infatuated with kisses. We kiss and are kissed. We love watching kissing movie scenes and cheer whenever we see lovebirds...
Virtue, liberty, and rational control
by Jennie S. Bev 2009 was filled with drama. A high wall between the Indonesian people and their government continued to exist. Great divides were present between hope and reality, between policy and implementation, and between the powerful and the powerless....
Minority rights, cladistics, and language watch
by Jennie S. Bev One of the most common form of harassments experienced by a minority is verbal. Often it is so subtle that the targeted group doesn’t even realize. In Indonesia, it’s common that abusive and oppressive remarks are made by the media and even by...
Statelessness, refugees, and human rights
by Jennie S. Bev The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed in Article 14 that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. In Article 15, it stated that everyone has the right to a nationality...
The Mindanao conflict, ‘rido,’ and foul politics
by Jennie S. Bev The Mindanao conflict is one of the oldest and the most misunderstood conflicts in human history. The complexity of this conflict involving intricate relationships pertaining to self-determination and access and control pertaining to land, which is...
Universal jurisdiction and global governance
by Jennie S. Bev International law has risen to a new level where it is no longer a series of norms that nations agree to adopt but rarely enforce. It has risen to a new plateau where it is more than a political instrument. Landmark cases are being...
Charter for Compassion and hope
by Jennie S. Bev On November 12, the Charter for Compassion, a document promoting peace and tolerance, will be officiated and hopefully it will serve as an antidote to religious fundamentalism. It is the brainchild of religious scholar Karen Armstrong whose...
Asian culture is thriving in America
by Jennie S. Bev In today’s mainstream society, Americans illustrate a greater acceptance of Asian influences, values, and culture. Asian pop culture is thriving. From suburban noodle houses to Zen-style spas, Ayurvedic restaurants,...
Verisimilitude, bullshit, and meaning
by Jennie S. Bev Every single incident captured through the senses has at least one meaning, if not several. Meanings are both attached and given. As a writer, I give both concrete and abstract meanings to many things, since verisimilitude is a principle that I always...
The stoning law, wan’ni, and sharia implementations
by Jennie S. Bev Bylaws in Aceh for stoning adulterers to death and 100 lashes for premarital sex should be nullified as they are not merely against human rights and unconstitutional, but perpetuate the myth of inequality and overindulge in the...
Youth Pledge, entrepreneurship, and young Indonesian ambassadors
by Jennie S. Bev The Youth Pledge was declared on October 28, 1928, where three ideals of Indonesia –one motherland, one nation and one language– were immortalized and became the unifying promise among young Indonesians. Today, such commemoration may...
The man who saves the American Dream
by Jennie S. Bev San Joaquin County is one of the hardest-hit counties in California in this mortgage crisis. And Mountain House was named by New York Times in November 2008 as “the most underwater community in the United States,” as 90 percent...
Preventing and healing conflicts through artistic endeavors
by Jennie S. Bev Whenever we hear the word “peace,” oftentimes we think about Mohandas Gandhi and Dalai Lama, two epitomes of peace. Dealing with peace, however, also means recognizing seeds of conflicts, preventing them from growing into full-blown ones, and...
A quest for strong, proper home after natural disasters
by Jennie S. Bev The recent earthquake in West Sumatra has opened another window into the quest for home after disasters. Annually, throughout the world, there are 40 million displaced people who move from one place to another in the quest for a safe home free from...
The silence breaker
by Jennie S. Bev What do Benedict Anderson, John Roosa, and Robert Lemelson have in common? They have all talked about the G30S/PKI incident and its aftermath. Anderson with his Cornell paper A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup in Indonesia,...
Myths and misconceptions surrounding intellectual property rights
by Jennie S. Bev “Patenting” Indonesia’s cultural heritage is tempting, but it just a widespread misconception. The so-called “public domain” of Internet is a myth too, as creative common rights based on creative common licenses also have limitations. Myths and...
The Koran as a text of compassion, pluralism, and free will
by Jennie S. Bev The holy month of Ramadan has come. It is Kairos time for Muslims worldwide, a special time of the year when the truth will appear, blessings are abundant, and peace fills the air. In this special month, we should remember those who are unfortunates...
Time to protect consumers of home-loan modifications
by Jennie S. Bev A week ago, the office of Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, and the Mountain House Community Services District co-hosted a Foreclosure Prevention Summit Workshop at Bethany Elementary School in Mountain House. The resident-led housing...
To bailout or not to bailout, and by whom
Read a news article on Mountain House Action Group's activism on foreclosure help: Foreclosure Help in Mountain House on Monday (August 14, 2009). by Jennie S. Bev Bailout after bailout, things haven’t shown any significant progress except for a few...