Anthem Untuk Jakarta

"ke Jakarta, ku akan kembaliii......"

demikian lirik sebuah lagu yang populer oleh sebuah grup band yang juga populer pada tahun '60-an (kalau penulis tidak salah ingat)

tetapi sekitar 20 tahun kemudian,

"siapa suruh datang Jakarta, siapa suruh datang Jakarta..."

adalah penggalan lirik lagu yang populer setelah banyak cerita sedih seputar nasib para perantau yang mengadu nasib datang ke Jakarta.

sekarang, tahun 2000-an, apa lagi?

rasanya, di tahun 200-an ini, Jakarta membutuhkan anthem (lagu kebangsaan) baru. lagu yang dapat menggambarkan kondisi ibukota negara kita ini. mungkin single "Membakar Jakarta" dari grup band Seringai? sayangnya hal ini tidak mungkin terjadi karena - jujur saja - ada berapa banyak dari Anda para pembaca budiman, yang pernah mendengar (dan menghapal lirik) lagu tersebut???

rasanya Anda para pembaca - terutama yang berdomisili di Jakarta - perlu mencari, menetapkan, dan mempopulerkan sebuah anthem baru untuk kota Jakarta.

[sebelum itu semua, mungkin anthem untuk Jakarta adalah lagu "Ondel-Ondel" atau "Jali-Jali"???]

BACA, TERTAWAKAN, tetapi TETAP SEBARLUASKAN!

untuk Indonesia (dan Jakarta) yang lebih baik!

(originally published somewhere in the internet on 15-02-2006)

Smoking Women, Banned?

(originally published somewhere on the internet on 14-01-2006)

just curious: why is that some people - including some that i have personally known - dislikessmoking women? i mean, to them (and probably you too), think that it is inappropriate for women to smoke, but think otherwise for men. is it okay - and normal - for men to smoke because they are men? is it wrong for women because women shouldn't be smoking in the first place? i had started some never ending debates over this issue and the reason why they were unfinished because both parts kept to their own POV.

that's what i am trying to start right now. i think i am not a feminist, but the idea that women should and shouldn't do something just because they're females just a little bit absurd, since a child can not decide what sex he/she born with (that's why we got transsexual now) and rights shouldn't be limited to some factors that you can't really control (sex, skin color, place of birth, etc.).

i have to admit, i am not a smoker and sometimes i just can not tolerate the billowing smoke. that's why in the past times i just left the room abruptly. so maybe you can say i am biased. when i was a child, my father is a smoker. but he quit for reasons i still haven't found out. of course i stole some cigarette he owned, just out of curiousity, to feel what is it like to be smoking. i lighted the cigarette, try it, then coughed because the smoke stung my senses. i threw it away while my so-called friends laughed at me. i do not left them though. i sat with them watching they consume rest of my thieving goods. yes, afterward there are peer pressure too, but maybe the pressure is not enough to "break" me.

all in all, this is all about option and just to think that there are other people out there that think you SHOULD or SHOULDN't do something because it is inappropirate based on some weak reasons makes me wondering...

cont'd