A Time to Blog

8:33 AM Washington, D.C. time at World Bank, I building. No one's here except me and the ISG - E-Gov manager, Mr. Deepak Bathia. Another lazy morning waiting for my co-worker to give me another works. How time flies if you're stuck with something to do. Just got to read liputan6.com and found another news about "pornography" and "porno-action" bill in Indonesia. It seems that some Indonesian females and citizens of Bali strongly argue this bill. It is said that this bill controls how Indonesian women should dress and discredits women and children as the perpetrators instead of as the victims. I've read some of the draft of the bill and I found what they've been arguing specifically on the content of section 25. The content should read like this:

(1) Setiap orang dewasa dilarang mempertontonkan bagian tubuh tertentu yang sensual.
(2) Setiap orang dilarang menyuruh orang lain untuk mempertontonkan bagian tubuh tertentu yang sensual.

Translation:
(1) Every adult is prohibited from displaying certain parts of his or her body that are sensual.
(2) Every person is prohibited from suggesting someone to display one's parts of body that are sensual.

Now, you know that I'm not interested in politic at all. But, what is the definition of sensual here? Have they (the government) defined the meaning of sensual/sensuality? Have they delineated the limit of sensual/sensuality? Well, pardon me if they have defined this limit but in my opinion, sensual/sensuality can have a different meaning to each individual as to how far the limit of sensual is. We need a clear definition and limit to what sensual/sensuality is and then we can agree with this definition. I found that the bill is just filled with sections, there is no definition to what should be adhered to and what should be prohibited from. This causes ambiguity, people from different cultural and educational background come with their own definitions that it then creates arguments. I don't know about the sections that express women and children as the porno-action perpetrators as I don't really read all the contents of the draft. But from what I've read and heard, I'm not surprised that the bill draws so many disagreement. The government probably thought that we basically adapt the eastern culture, thus this bill won't make such controversy. But it seems that they forget how diverse Indonesians actually are, in terms of culture and religion. It seems that the bill is constructed mainly from one specific point of view. It ignores other elements that contribute to forming the Indonesian society. Then why not form a nation on the basis of that particular element only? Why bother creating a controversy that leads to arguments, which might lead to a bigger chaos (for the love of Allah, please no, I have enough of riots.). Well, fortunately for those who argue it, the fact that it's still a bill, yet to be formalized as a law. It can still be revised (just cross your fingers.).

My eyes are very heavy. I didn't have enough sleep last night. To make things worst, I had a nightmare. It's been a long time I never had dreams about ghosts or mystical gimmicks since I never believe in mystical things (my nightmares were usually about arguments or getting lost alone in mysterious places or mazes.). This is silly. The dream was so surreal that I can still remember most parts of it. I dreamed that one of my friends (who I've never seen or even known) died beheaded. His body was thrown in a well and his head was wrapped in an Indonesian, traditional-batik sheet. A couple of days later on, all of the sudden the body was revived and came out from the well, morphing into a different form of person looking for that head (although this form had a head). He killed anyone or everything that came into his way, chopping part of the victim's body into pieces before finally killing the victim. This bizarro zombie got to injure a female friend of mine who kept the head for good-luck charm (who, again, I've never even seen or known, but she's very pretty though =p), he chopped her left arm. I remember seeing blood flowing like a river in my dream. I remember that I carried her in my back and we escaped to my other friends' place. These people were husband and wife. Another bizarre scene, they knew that they would be the next victims so as their only chance of survival, they dressed like "pocong" (Indonesian zombie in which a dead Moslem is bundled in a white sheet before he or she is burried) and wore beeds or a Catholic Rosario type of thing around their neck. They kept reciting some mystical prayers and it was not in arabic (so I know that it wasn't an Islamic prayer). Carrying your injured, one-armed friend on your back, seeing your friends dressed like the deads and waiting for a zombie to attack surely was creepy. I forgot the rest of it but I remember that during the final battle (it's like those kind of games =p), we all got to gather in a river (I repeat, in the river, not near the river) and I remember I was flying on the surface of the river like Jet Li with his kung-fu gimmicks on his action movies =p Although I didn't sweat at all, but this morning, I woke up with chills all over my body. Some dream huh? =p Probably I was very tired yesterday as I worked hard at office (I haven't been busy since 3 weeks ago) and went to wushu training afterward (I got to finish half of the praying-mantis style and Stephon is very pleased with my progress.). But last week, the night after I hurt my back during the praying-mantis style practice (and then I suffered back cramp and had trouble getting myself to sleep. Stephon told me that I didn't do enough bridge stretching.), I dreamed of being in my wushu school, stretching and doing a middle straddle when suddenly a sumo wrestler jumped on my back and fell right on my back, when I was right in the middle straddle position! I suddenly woke up with a terrible pain on my back but after that, the pain was suddenly gone! I guess I slept in the wrong position that night, but that position cured the pain on my back (with a tremendous amount of pain first of all, of course.). Now, this one is hillarious =p

Now, yesterday's wrap-up of American Idol =) He..he..he... My blog isn't complete without the review of my current favorite show, is it? =p My two favorite contestants, Mandisa Hundley and Elliott Yamin are safe. Of course, they have a terrific voice. But their performances that night were so-so, not that catchy. But that night, I fell in love with Katharine McPhee. Her version of Stevie Wonder's "Until You Come Back To Me" was fabulous. She has a terrific voice and she's HOT! She reached a higher-octave pitch during the refrain part of the song and I love her outfit. So classy and so sexy =p A new blog-buddy of mine, Rico, covers the review of Katharine McPhee on his blog (but the language is mostly Indonesian. So those who are not Indonesians might have difficulty reading it.). Anyway, I did notice that the first half of the performances was alright and the second half was fantastic. I have to say that the best performers that night went to Katharine McPhee and the Vin Diesel look-a-like, Chris Daughtry. I have to admit that Chris Daughtry is a fantastic singer and performer, but rock is just not my thing, so I'm never interested in this guy. But his rock version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" was absolutely phenomenal. I understand that he said in the intro that he was a bit worried to sing Stevie Wonder's song since he's more of a rocker type of singer (even his stage act looks like a heavy-metal performer's style.). Sekar was complaining that that-night's theme was not fair for the female contestants since Stevie Wonder is a guy. But I think gender has nothing to do with it as it has to do more with the match between the character of the voice and the character of the song. It's all about style match. I imagine if I were to sing a rock song, I would be DEAD! My voice character is far from rock or heavy-metal style, I can't even rap although I can scat (of course, I can sing jazz songs too.). Anyway, last night, America chose to lay-off Melissa McGhee, whom I think is just another average singer. To make matters worst, she messed up with the lyrics of Stevie Wonder's "Lately", which is a big NO-NO to every singer who has to do live performance. Well, that's it for now, gotta get back to work. Thanks for reading this.