Farewell 2008, Welcome 2009

I was just back in Medan 2 days ago after together with all family member I spent 8 days of Christmas vacation at my parent’s house in Bandung. Actually my daughters wished us to stay longer in order they can celebrate a new year together with us, but my husband prefered to leave the outgoing year 2008 and to enter the incoming year 2009 at our own home in Medan

There are new year greetings from family, friends and relatives I got during these two days at my mobile phone through short message service, through email and on my wall at Face Book. Here are some of the greetings which to me are impressed and touched.

When the sky breaks into a beautiful sunrise, may God open the heaven to shower us with lots of love, joy, peace, happiness and prosperity in the future.

Ketika Tuhan membuka jendela surga, Dia melihatku dan bertanya “Apa permintaanmu anakKu?” Aku minta, Bapa jaga dan cintai keluarga yang membaca sms ini selamanya. Berikan mereka kesehatan yang prima dan hati yang penuh sukacita serta hasil usaha yang penuh kesuksesan.

Semoga akhir tahun ini menjadi awal yang membahagiakan untuk tahun 2009 yang lebih baik bagi kita semua.
Wish the end of this year is the beginning of happiness in the year 2009 which is a better year for all of us.

I wish you all the gift of : 356 days of Love, 8760 hours of Happiness, 525600 minutes of Peace, 31536000 seconds of Prosperity
Day by day was going on, and now the new day on a new year was coming. Let the day brings us the new life, new hope and new dream.
Hidup ini hanya sebentar. Sebentar senang, sebentar sedih, sebentar marah, sebentar ketawa, sebentar berduit, sebentar bokek, sebentar lagi . . . . TAHUN BARU !!!

Yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is a hope. May our Lord Jesus Christ give you happiness and bless.

Jika diibaratan langit itu adalah kertas dan lautan adalah tinta, maka langit dan air laut tak akan cukup menulis kasih Yesus kepada kita. Walau langkah tak bertemu, tangan tak berjabat, ucapan tak terdengar namun ijinkanlah hati memohon maaf yang sebesar-besarnya.

Baik buruknya di tahun 2008 menjadi tolok ukur untuk menghadapi tahun baru 2009. Selamat Tahun Baru 2009.

Tak henti bertahan, tak henti berkreasi, tak henti untuk berbuat yang terbaik. Semoga Tuhan memberi kesempatan kepada kita untuk mampu melakukannya.
Tak selamanya hati seputih awan, tak selamanya jiwa sebening embun. Apabila mulut salah berucap, sikap dan tangan salah berbuat, terimalah maaf walau tangan tak sempat berjabat.

All those sentences are closed with a "Happy New Year" greeting.

Farewell 2008, welcome 2009.
To the world, to my country, to all my friends, to the whole family and relatives, and to all visitor of this blog with all best wishes I would greet you

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

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Heartbreaking Tsunami

In about more than 2 weeks from now, the 26 December 2008, will be the 4th year after tsunami destroyed Aceh, Nias and Padang. It means the organizations for the humanity, mostly non government organizations work for humanity including the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the destroyed area will end in December 2009. The effects caused by this 2 days natural disaster needs at least 5 years for reconstruction and rehabilitations on physical facilities and infrastructure. The trauma of some victims may need longer time to be healed. The lost of hundred thousands life can not be replaced.

image by global picture

Everybody does hope tsunami will not happen again. The memories of how this tsunami killed people, separated parents from their children, destroyed future of some people remains heartbreaking.

the picture shows how tsunami destroyed land and killed people

Of course as faithful person we always believe and leave anything happen to Him, the almighty God. Many people believe it as their destiny, their fate, which is already written. However, faith solely without praising Him through our good attitude does not guarantee this natural disaster stop to happen.

there is no bufferzone to protect the area

Tsunami is just one of the natural phenomenas that can not be avoided. What we, as the residents of the earth can do is to minimize the negative effects on human, on all the living creatures and the land. If only the people in the destroyed area had maintained the mangrove along the beach for instance, the destroyed area might not be very large. What we can do in order to minimize the victims of natural disaster is to conserve and maintain the nature. The earth has been created in a balanced system which has mutual relationship among each diverse component. With the effort to keep the nature maintained, at least to not do any activities that may damage the nature, will hopefully minimize the victims whenever natural disaster happen.

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Merleau-Ponti

I am currently reading Phenomenology of Perception, philosophical thought written by Merleau Ponti.Before going far through the readings, I usually read autobiography of the author just to get the idea about on what track the discussion will be. I have heard about Greece philosopher such as Plato, Socrates etc. as well as German philosophers since I was at High School when I learned physics and science. Most of them are positivists and rationalists. I have heard about Sartre and other French philosophers as well. This time I read a book of French phenomenologist, monsieur Maurice Merleau Ponti.

Merleau Ponti is a French philosopher who introduced phenomenological thought to France. He combined a new way of thinking about the basic structure of human life with reflections on art, literature and politics. Grew up as a French, he spent most of his childhood in Paris with his brothers, sisters, and his widowed mother. He devotes most of his writings to explorations of this perceived world, in order to enable reader to ‘rediscover’ it for him/herself. His background knowledge which was psychology influenced him in discovering this perceived world from the point of view of a psychologist. This can be seen from his dissertation “Structure of Behavior”, a critical survey of psychological theory with special emphasis on Gestalt theory, inspired him to work on phenomenology. He is one of a few modern phenomenologist in the world. His first thesis in philosophy is Phenomenology of Perception which was first published in 1945. His other famous published articles on philosophy are: ‘The World of Perception’ (1948), ‘Sense and Nonsense’ (1948), ‘An Adventure of Dialectic’ (1955) and ‘Signs’ (1960). ‘Visible and Invisible’ (1964)

Unlike logical positivist philosopher of the 1930’s who affirmed the ‘verification principle’ that the meaning of a proposition given by its method of verification, i.e. by a way in which its truth or falsity can be settled on the basis of observation, Merleau Ponti rejects the emphasis solely on ‘scientific’ observation as well as the forms of empiricism which aim to restrict or reduce the contents of thought to possible contents of experience. Attempted to overcome the problems of empiricism and rationalism in the Cartesian tradition of modern philosophy, he takes that the relationship between perception and all other modes of thought, including science as one of foundation which involves a kind of rootedness that does not restrict the capacity for more sophisticated articulations of experience in the light of deeper understanding of the world. During the German occupation of France, he joined Jean-Paul Sartre the writer of “Being and Nothingness” to constitute an intellectual resistant movement (Socialism and Freedom). The experience of the German occupation forced him to think much harder about politics than he had previously done.

After his death (1961), his former students somewhere else, especially in United States preserved his reputation and ensured the translation into English of all his major works. His discussion of the ‘intentionality’ of consciousness, especially the way in which things are presented in perception, and the role of the body in perception are recognized as important contributions to the understanding of the phenomenology of perception.

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