eat. play. love

My grandmother used to live in a small beautiful village, an hour drive from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Right in front of her house was a very productive beautiful wetland where the locals cultivated fish and ducks for consumption, with huge trees surrounding. There were one mushola (a small community's praying room) and six houses around the wetland, five of them were owned and lived in by three generations of the same family. On the west side of the wetland were rice fields and farms. Meanwhile tea plantation was in the far west of the village. My grandmother’s house was surrounded by low fences with a one-meter-tall gate as an entrance. Then there was a long path with exotic fruit trees and flowers before the porch, before the front door. The house itself was surrounded by rambutan garden. It was an ideal preferred environment and territory for the family. At least that is how I remember that place from when I used to live there and the weekly visit later on. St

Hari Selasa lalu kami menyaksikan sejarah baru di Amerika Serikat, seorang pemerkosa, patriarkis, rasis, misoginis terpilih oleh sistem electoral college untuk menjadi presiden mulai Januari nanti, hingga empat tahun ke depan. Bukan sejarah yang menyenangkan bagi mayoritas masyarakat Amerika. Ya, mayoritas. Amerika tidak memilih Presidennya langsung seperti di Indonesia, Electoral College lah yang memilih presiden. Kalau mereka memilih langsung, Hillary Clinton yang akan keluar sebagai pemenangnya karena menang suara meski tipis. Sebab itu saya katakan mayoritas. Donald Trump menang karena hitungan algoritma tertentu memilih electoral college yang pada akhirnya memilih Trump. Sudah tiga kali electoral college menggagalkan calon dari Partai Demokrat, termasuk pada tahun 2000, saat Al Gore urung menjadi presiden. Satu hal yang agak mengganggu bagi saya adalah bahwa pemerintah tidak mengakomodasi warga negara untuk menggunakan hak suara. Bahkan angka Golput di Amerika mencapai 46%