Partir est mourir, un peu...

Leaving is dying, a bit...This is how I'm feeling (a bit drama spices up your life) now I decided to definitely using my new home at Wordpress. During my short time at Blogspot I've made new blog friends (not buddy, it reminds me of voluntary buddies who keep company cancer patients). I move everybody on my blogroll to this new home. Please change my new url as you can see below.

For new visitors, I gladly welcome you here http://chezlorraine.wordpress.com/.


Ciao!

What do you think about this?

Concept of my new home.

Been working for a week on this and still amazed of the possibilities at WP, even for me who are not really into html stuff. So, speak out! I am dying to hear your opinion about this concept.

Pink Ribbon

October is the month of breast cancer awareness worldwide. For those of you who don't know what Pink Ribbon is, click here for Wiki information. The Dutch Pink Ribbon fund for Breast Cancer Awareness has been issuing the Pink Ribbon Magazine for the past 4 years. On its site, I found a link for a Pink Badge, which from now on appears on my blog as a sign that I sincerely support this initiative.

In the Pink Ribbon glossy magazine, sold for € 4,99 each, the makers (editors, journalists and other staff etc. are from well-known glossy such as Marie Claire, Elle) work voluntarily. Editorials are the one and only income sources to be able to publish this glossy. The turnover would be donated to Pink Ribbon fund for breast cancer research.

The facts about Breast Cancer (as stated in the Dutch Pink Ribbon Magazine, year after year, to build more awareness):
Breast Cancer is the most type of cancer found in NL
1 out of 8 Dutch Women would get it
Dutch Women will be called on a mandatory mammography at the age of 55 by the Ministry of Health (in the USA this happens on the age of 40).
Men can get breast cancer too
Self check after your period does help to prevent this or to discover a bump in an early stage
Using roll on deodorant will not cause breast cancer



I won't write about the content of this initiative as you all could read it elsewhere (through the link to Wiki I put above for example). I prefer to write about my own experiences with this type of cancer due the presence of cancer gen in my family (of both sides). I underwent two operations (when I was 17 and 21 years old) to remove a suspicous bump on my breast, so did my sister. This is the reason why I stopped smoking. The bump was a benignant tumor though, but still I was scared to death at that time.

Psychologically speaking, breast cancer for women is a very tough disease. It is severe enough to have cancer on your breasts, when they are to be amputated the effect on yourself as a woman would be huge, not to mention the hair lost due to the chemotherapy. After all, sick or not, most women of all ages, love to take care of their body.

I know/knew women around me who survived after some painful & torturing chemotherapy sessions, lost their weight and hair, forced to wear wigs and now their hair grows again. Some didn't survive it, some prefer not the have her breasts amputated risking death to follow against the wil of their husband/boyfriend.

So I dedicate the month October and this post to tante Wiwi (in memoriam), bude Wan (in memoriam), Frank's mother (in memoriam), Marijke, Thea, Sam and other ladies I don't know by name.

Image and Identity

Borrowing the terms Image and Identity from my Marketing Teacher: Identity: what you are as a person (sex, occupation, civil status, other status) according to yourself, Image: the way people see you as a person. The ideal situation is of course when Image matches the Identity.

This week I attended a seminar about this. During this event, there was an inevitable session to analyze the difference between Identity and Image. Guess what? 4 colleagues from other department who followed the session in my group were surprised to discover new things about me (yes, this is the reason to hold such session or I was just being very honest..). My image in their eyes was: humble, happy & polite while I am proud to be direct & assertive (I'd come a long way to reach this). I found it intriguing that my Image didn't match my Identity, so there's something left to guess about me.

What about you? How do people see your Image and what is your Identity? This without being JaIm of course :-D.

Dutch ban on sex with animals

Dutch Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin informed the Tweede Kamer (Dutch Parliament) today that Sex with Animals would be banned officially starting from January 1 2009. For those who understand Dutch, click here for more information.

I thought that this was forbidden but no, till end of the year Sex with Animals is not a crime as long as the animal in this case doesn't experience pain. What kind of regulation is this current one anyway? It is ok when the animal doesn't get hurt but hey, how can we analyze this? If you are Anglingdarma (a king from Javanese legend who speaks and understands languange of all animals) I can imagine it is a piece of cake, you could just ask the poor animal.

What kind of people prefer to have sex with animals than with humans anyway? Sick people I think or people who turn to be beast.

This short post ends here.

Reunion Online

I don't know whether this is a coincidence but people from my junior and senior high school have been adding each other in Facebook the last two weeks. You all know how it goes, news spreads really fast.

So, there is a group created for my graduating year. I joined this, to my surprise there is a girl (ok, perhaps a bit exaggerating, we are now 36 years old), a person, who attended my wedding party back then in 1995, uninvited! She did this while she never invited me to her parties!!!! I only knew her from the dancegroup, PKC.

Wedding parties at that time (at least wedding parties of my fellow students/classmates) were an onofficial reunion. So, there I was, busy taking best wishes from my guests (for Indonesian standards, my wedding was quite intimate), then she came up. I told her bluntly in front of other ex classmates, that she was not invited (as I only invited 16 people I really knew from my SMA-time).

Call it childish reaction, I don't care, never did actually, even if my guests saw me as a bridezilla back then.Now I wonder, does she still do this? Uninvited coming to a party while she only invites her own inner circle to her own parties.

Prinsjesdag 2008

Every third Tuesday of September Dutch governement presents the (concept) budget and the financial plan for the coming year (in Indonesia is comparable with RAPBN). The Queen read the plan in front of the whole cabinet & her royal family yesterday. It is a Dutch royalty show every year with loyal fans. Even the ministers are keen to be part of this tradition, as the female ministers are obliged to wear a hat, so on this matter Prinsjesdag is comparable with The Ascott race in England.

Queen Beatrix and her son Willem-Alexander en his Argentinian wife, Maxima arrived in a golden chariot at the Binnenhof (Dutch Parliament's building, in the middle of city center of The Hague). Other son of Beatrix, Friso and his wife, Beatrix's sister Margriet and her husband arrived after them, also in a chariot but an open one.

As a foreigner living here, I find it rather fascinating, partly because of my job and my private situation as a tax payer. I mean, when I lived in Indonesia, I was never ever interested in the RAPBN cause I kept being sceptical, nothing would change whatsoever! But here, due to the economy crisis in the USA, the Minister of Finance (or is it Minister of Treasury), decided not to apply the raising of VAT (taxes) with 1% as planned before. As a working mother I also profit from the regulation concerning childcare costs and so on and so on....The day after, today, the opposition parties revised this budget concept & showed how they would have planned it.

Hereby, the impressions through the pics I found in http://www.nu.nl/, some of the pics are from ANP.

Red carpet laid on the Binnenhof (parliament's building in the Hague)

The ride in the golden chariot through The Hague city center.

The wave to the folks at the Nordeinde Palace's balcony

This last pic reminds me of the middle age when prince and princess would wave just to satisfy to curiosity of ordinary people.

Fundraising Time

The fundraising time has just begun. Yesterday, G came home with a booklet of coupons from Jantje Beton. She must sell 10 coupons à € 1,50. Her opa and oma bought one coupon. The rest must be sold out within 14 days. As I wrote above, the fundraising has begun, so there is not much chance left for G to sell out all 8 coupons left these days as other children in the neighbourhood have to sell them too. She asked me to help her by selling these at my & her dad's office, poor G, she needs to reach her target :-(.

Starting in September, the time of Collecte (Dutch for Fundraising) begins. The form of this vary, you can buy coupons from Jantje Beton and Kinderpostzegels or donate money in the box for other organisations. Around 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening (most people are at home for dinner as the Dutches eat their dinner quite early), my homebell would ring ca. 3 à 4 times with children (some with their mom or dad) in front of the door carrying a collecting box. I will do the same thing with G this week end (hoping that then the peak of children collecting money would decrease, I expect that my neighbours would give more :-D).

In connecting with my previous post, there are several causes here in NL which raise the Funds annually by collecting money door to door, such as KWF Kanker Bestrijding (with news of the day, ex cancer patient, Lance Armstrong will ride his 8th Tour de France next year!), Astmafonds, Kinderpostzegels to name a few. These organisations are so well-known, people recognize the logo immediately which is positive. KWF and Astmafonds have adults vollunteers to collect money, Kinderpostzegels and Jantje Beton ask children of Secondary Schools to do the fundraising. This is arranged by the board of the school itself.

Till the next two weeks I need to keep my wallet filled with enough cash (€ 1,- coins) to support these causes.

Which causes do you believe in?

Last week I attended an event about organisations in the city I live. I was there to inform people who were interested in Integration Act in the Netherlands.

A lady passed by. She asked me to support a petition against animal testing by setting my signature on a list. I politely refused this. I am against animal testing but some groups could be real fanatic in defending their ideas, and this lady's organisation (after seeing some brochures she brought with her) was, according to my humble opinion, one of those.

What made me refuse to support the petition was the thought to undermine human life in order to save animals. I can't follow this idea. I take this for example: a parliament member of the Dutch Green Party, Wijnand Duyvendak. This following information is quoted from Wikipedia English version(for my own convenience, so I don't have to translate it in English, my sincere excuses for this) 'In 2008, Duyvendak published his book Klimaatactivist in de politiek. In this book, he described his run-ins with the law, including his 1984 jailing. He also mentioned how, in 1985, he admitted having stolen documents on nuclear power plants during a burglary on the Dutch ministry of economic affairs. The fall-out was severe, prompting calls for his resignation, especially after media reported that the burglary had led to threats of violence against civil servants. My own notebased on what I read from other sources: Duyvendak also published the addresses of the government's officials in this project and encouraged fellow activists to disturd these officials' life at that time. Previously, Duyvendak always denied such involvement but he subsequently announced his resignation from the Tweede Kamer (Dutch Parliament) on August 14, 2008. His resignation became effective on September 2, 2008'.

Let me put it this way, I am against animal testing, yes animals have rights too. Me don't like fur, don't even find it beautiful. I understand that animal testing is not only about raising animals for its fur, it is beyond that but if there is a need to test some experiences on animals in the name of science, for a better life I'll opt for this, no doubt.

I do believe in other causes though, such as Accessible Education for Everyone and Nature Preservation for our children's children.

Which causes do you believe in?

Every now and then....

I will post an entry. I promised in my previous post I will keep you posted about this week. Here is the summary of the week, G is sick, she coughs the whole day and night, I am also sick but too koppig (stubborn) to stay at home due to an important campaign I have to arrange which is planned by the end of this month.

Now I have an impression that I kind of overrate my ability to consistently maintaining this blog. I've been exhausted when I got home. Please give me some more time to get use to this rythm of living a life I want to live (ssssttt, I am not complaining, aren't I?). I'd really love to leave some comments at the blogs of everybody's who's on my blogroll but haven't got enough time to do so. I plan to introduce a blogging schedule to myself, for example every wednesday and in the week end.

OK, now the interesting part of the week. My class is cut in a half! When I started studying in 2006 there were 12 students, but now, exactly at the half of the period there are only 6 of us left. The subjects are attractive ones though. For the time being, I will enjoy the readings, researching & presenting the projects which I'm in.

Dutch endless struggle against water

For those of you who have never heard of this, one third of the Dutch Soil is below sea level. As an uncle of mine who's pilot once told me, he found it very special everytime he landed at Schiphol due to Dutch official's greeting "Welcome to Amsterdam at 10 m below sea level' when his plane approached this Dutch international airport.

The blue marked areas are below sea level.


Underneath, you see more detailed map of The Netherlands. The Dutch big cities ('s-Gravenhage below Amsterdam is Den Haag or The Hague) are actually built 'under sea level'. I live in Arnhem, nearby German border (far right, in the middle), safely high and dry according to the map below :-).

Let me begin by explaining the country's name itself, The Netherlands as Neder=low Land=Land, the Low Lands, Les Pays-Bas. This explains the spelling of it in plural form with The before).

The worst flood The Dutches had ever experienced took place in 1953 in the Zeeland Province (South of NL). The threat of such flood is still potent, that's why Dutch Government installed this Delta Commission directly after 1953's disaster. At 3 September 2008 a national Delta Commission presented its plan to protect NL from floods & dike breaks. Those who are really interested in this can look here for detailed information. This ambitious plan will cost Dutch government starting from the year 2010 to 2050 € 1,3 billion till € 1,9 billion annually.

The Dutches had begun in early years in their battle against flood. I found a report that North Sea Canal was built in 1865. Water Engineering is one of Dutch successful export product. Major Dutch Engineering and Dredging companies have built/are building mega projects all over the world such as the Islands Palm Jumeira and the World in Dubai (Ballast Ham Dredging), new dike lines in New Orleans, USA (Boskalis, Royal Haskoning & Arcadis).

Let's hope that Delta Commission will succeed in its plan, otherwise there's a risk that my children's children will have to experience the big flood.

A Minute Maid

Tomorrow, my lessons at school will start again, it will be my third academic year which I expect to be more and more complicated and it will cost me much time to have those projects done on time. For me, this means organising, delegating & blood, sweat & much tears to manage a household, raising my little G combined with busy times at work & countless pages to read.

Man, I wish that I had Rasem (my parent's maid) here. Having a maid is quite a luxury in NL. With the beginning of the Ramadan, I couldn't help but think of her. Why? because after the third week of Ramadan, she would have a holiday, Pulang Kampung, to Jati Lawang, Purwokerto, usually for 3 weeks. In her absence I had to do most things by myself (I said most things, although I knew to limit it by only keeping my own bedroom clean & ironing my own clothes, that's all!).

But hey, I've managed well since I came here 13 years ago. You can say I have come a long way all right. From a spoiled girl I have turned into a mother, a minute Maid and a not really Domestic Goddess who really loveeee to cook (cooking works therapeutic for me) but actually not that Domestic at home. According to my humble opinion: a little mess at home is not really a problem, it is a sign that real people live in it!

Surely I will keep you posted about this week. Meanwhile, I wish you all who are fasting good luck. Cherish your maid(s) and let them know you are satisfied with them as their boss so they would come back to you after the Lebaran :-D.

Next Saturday.....

M's father will die. So I was told by G, my 7 years old daughter, today when I picked her up from school. M is G's classmate. M's father sits on a wheelchair, people at school know that he is sick. G told me that M had to share this in front of the class. He is incurably sick, so Saturday next week he will have a doctor execute Euthanasia at home, surrounded by his loved-ones.

As an adult I found this news really confronting. G, she told me this news as if she was telling me about her gym lesson, just like that (snap finger)!

Now, I can't help but thinking of M's family. Somebody would be a widow, the children will soon miss their father etc...etc...

The Balance after Beijing 2008

Today, Dutch Olympic Team landed at Schiphol. They took 7 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals (the 12th on the list).

One winning athlete I won't forget is swimmer Maarten van der Weijden. He won gold medal at 10 km swimming at open sea, his record 1:52:51. An inspiring story he has: 7 years ago Van der Weijden suffered from Leukemia, he underwent several treatments and was declared Leukemia free. After that he started to train again focusing on his goal, he was going for gold.

I also admire the Dutch female Water Polo team. They were underrated but they beat the USA ladies with 9-8 (7 of the Nine goals were made by one single athlete, Danielle de Bruijn).

G, my daughter told me that her country (she meant NL) has won many medals and mine (RI) not. G nduk, it is not true, Indonesia won 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. Or, by second thought, 2 gold? Cause Ranomi Kromowidjojo (member of Dutch winning team of 4 x 100 m estafette Free Style swimming, far left at the pic) has a Javanese-Suriname Father and Dutch mother.

My Beijing moments to remember: The Usain thunderBolt, Men Basketball Final between USA - Spain, what a thrilling match, Viva Espana!, Samuel Wanjiru, you are the man! Wanjiru did 42 km 195 m in 2:06:32! My last record for 10 km was 47 min. (sorry, false comparison, I am a recreational jogger). I do not include Michael Phelps on my list because it was expected that he would set that incredible achievement (newest technology in swimsuits etc.).

At the end, I hope that there would be no doping cases afterwards. Sport must be cleansed from those dangerious stuff.

Pengaruh Bahasa Belanda dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Untuk yang tertarik dengan warisan Belanda dari jaman kolonisasi: kata-kata Bahasa Indonesia yang berasal dari Bahasa Belanda.

Apotheek = Apotik
Rok = Rok
Punten = Punten (nilai)
Bioscoop = Bioskop
Krant = Koran
Pannetje = Panci
Knalpot = Knalpot
Spoor = Sepur (bahasa Jawa, kereta api, di Belanda spoor itu juga berarti Rel kereta api)

Vermaak = Permak (v menurut lafal lidah indonesia menjadi p, reparasi pakaian, di Belanda kata yang sering dipakai sekarang Innemen)
Mislukt = Mislek (istilah untuk kue yang gagal, ngga jadi)
Rijbewijs = Rebewes (Surat Ijin Mengemudi)
Zoom = Som (untuk celana pantalon & ujung rok)
Voering = Puring (lapisan dalam rok/gaun)
Voorschot = Persekot (uang muka)
Oppas = Polisi (kata ini masih sering dipakai penduduk Jakarta Kota Intan, deket jl. Fatahillah dan sekitarnya. Sementara kata Oppas di Belanda sendiri sekarang artinya Babysitter)
Olie = Oli (di Belanda sendiri kata Olie ini artinya minyak).
Dienst = Dinas

Hanya segini yang gw inget sekarang. Kalo ada ketemu kata2 lain, nanti ditambah ke daftar diatas. Atau kalo ada yg tahu kata2 lain, be my guest.

My dancing career

Inspired by accordingtod and trilingual I decided to share some experiences as an Indonesian Traditional Dancer.

When I was a child I attended Balinese and Javanese dance lessons. After a while I tended to love Balinese more than Javanese dances. So after tari golek and tari bondan, I stopped the Javanese dance lessons. My shows as a child were at the end of the lesson's year or during the celebration of the Independence Day in my neighbourhood where I lived. Of course, beside traditional dancing I also love to do modern dance. So I did join my High School's dance group (PKC, SMA 70 Bulungan). At my last year at High School, I did some cheerleading also, but deep in my heart I found it a bit too western for me at that time. At the university, I was often asked to dance, both traditional or modern.

Between 1995 - 1997 I wasn't able to dance since I was new here in NL and knew nobody. In 1998 I met an Indonesian woman from Bandung. We agreed to establish a dance group due to our annoyance seeing many dance groups in NL presenting themselves as Indonesian Dance Group but they didn't perform original Indonesian Dances. Some were so bad, they wore kebaya, a loose sanggul & with a bit of Gamelan Music, they dared to call it Traditional Indonesian Dance. We learned from each other (she taught me Jaipongan, I gave her some Balinese & Javanese dance lessons). We were very keen on preserving the original Indonesian dance that we visited dance workshops (at ASTI, Bandung & ASTI, Solo) everytime we visited Indonesia to learn more.

After two years, the dance group succeeded in gaining some network and clients. We danced mostly for Indonesian or Indo Events, shows at Pasar Malam or even the Silver or Golden Annniversaries of Indo pairs. On top of it we were asked by KBRI Madrid & Rabat (Morocco) to perform there (the pic above is me (on the right) & N performing Banda Urang, Jaipongan at KBRI Madrid in June 2004). One particular place in Arnhem is like our second house kumpulan. Here many parties & reunions took place where I performed.

Indonesian Traditional Dancing gives me satisfaction & makes me feel a real Indonesian. I am proud of Indonesian Culture and love showing it to others. Especially when the audience is really interested in the culture (normally there's an explanation about the dance before the show). I would gladly explain not only the dance itself but also the costume.

Funny or Sad stories during my dancing career: Once I was performing tari Gambyong with two other dancers. Just after we began I felt my Kemben (top) got off, fortunately the moves allowed me to cover it which I managed till the end. Other funny story which I can never forget is when I had to do my first exam for Balinese dance, if I'm not mistaken I must be 7 years old then. So, there I was, nervous at the backstage waiting for my turn to perform tari Pendet because everyone (dad, mom, sisters, uncles and aunties) was there to see me perform. Suddenly I heard the intro of the gamelan & just jumped up to the stage, after the third turn I saw my teacher whispering at me, 'Yoyen, you are still wearing your flip flops!'. Immediately I went backstage to take them off accompanied by the laugh of the audience of course, but hey I passed the exam :-D!.

Another funny story I often experienced were the shows during reunions of ex KNIL-ers or regions where the indische nederlanders (Indo) come from (reuni Palembang, reuni Bandung, reuni Yogya etc...etc..). After the show, people go dance mostly rock and roll, twist and jive but sometime Waltz. There I was waltzing with an old man in my Jaipongan or Balinese dance costume. It was very difficult to catch his steps due to the tight Kain I wore.

Sad story: this happened during the show in a home for the Indo elderly. At the end of the show, we asked the audience to dance with us. Two very old ladies with a thick Sundanese accent asked me if they could go home with me. I told them that I lived in NL too (just in case they thaught I was especially flown from Indonesia to perform there) but they were too demented to understand this & started to cry. I felt really sad, they must have taught that I was being mean to them.

In 2006 I stopped dancing for two reasons: I don't have the body of a dancer anymore (udah ibu ibu) and don't have enough time to practice (one child, full time job & part time study). The hectic backstage is what I miss the most. Feeling the adrenaline coming, checking my make up & costume for the tenth times and trying to remember my own position on stage well.

Thirtysomething

Today I turned 36 years old, still alive and kicking. Some of my girlfriends here don’t like the idea of being Thirtysomething, a number of them even get paranoid. For me age is just numbers of years you exist on earth. Sometimes it goes parallel with wisdom, maturity & well developed knowledge of oneself as expected by some certain age but sometimes it doesn’t.

Nowadays it is quite normal to have your nose or your face done by cosmetic surgery or even in less painful manner, botox (still wondering about the side effects let’s say 5 years after taking a botox injection??). Where does it come from, the longing for eternal youth??? I imagine in the (perhaps near) future almost everybody would look similar, similar mouth, the same nose etc…etc…..

Anyway, I do feel ‘old’ when I pick up my 7 years old daughter at school and her friends shout out at her as soon as they see me “G, your mom is here!”. And ladies and gentlemen, this happens on daily basis :-). Or at the physician, the dentist or even any other official institutions for example, when I’m called Mrs. Riva, for God's sake, Mrs. Riva is my mother in law! The name is Lorraine.

I just want to dedicate this short essay for those who are or would be Thirtysomething. It’s just another phase in life which we have to pass. Me, I just want to grow old graciously………

Troostmeisjes

Hari ini di Belanda kaum Indo (Indische Nederlanders bukan Indonesia) memperingati berakhirnya PDII. Tahun lalu seiring dengan peringatan ini pemerintah Jepang secara resmi mengeluarkan statement bahwa mereka menyayangkan keberadaaan rumah bordil militer di PDII. Perhatian! Ditekankan dengan perkataan menyayangkan bukan permintaan maaf resmi. Di rumah bordil itu yang dipekerjakan perempuan2 Indonesia, Indo & Belanda yang disebut Troostmeisjes (gadis2 penghibur) sebagai pelacur untuk melayani nafsu sex militer Jepang kala itu. Mereka dipaksa 'bekerja' disitu, tanpa bayaran, kebanyakan anak2 mereka tinggal di kamp kerja paksa, suami kerja romusha di Birma buat rel kereta api dsb...dsb...

Kalo ngga salah waktu gw SD, pertengahan tahun 80-an sempet dibuat film, peran utamanya Jenny Rachman yg jadi letnan kempetainya El Manik, judulnya (waktu itu heboh banget) Budak Nafsu. Pertengahan 90-an juga keluar film Paradise Road (Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Julia Margulies & Frances McDormand) ttg kehidupan wanita Eropa di kamp Jepang & di Comfort Houses.

Gw kenal seseorang sebut aja si A, ibunya, orang Belanda pernah bekerja di bordil militer, bapaknya tentara Jepang. Setelah lahir si A ini diberi adopsi ke pasangan Indonesia. Nah, awal tahun 70an si A ini imigrasi ke Belanda, sempet ketemu ibunya yang londo, sementara ibu kandungnya ngga mau hubungan karena trauma. Di Belanda si A akhirnya mendirikan yayasan anak2 yg dilahirkan di rumah bordil militer PDII. Tujuan utama yayasan ini untuk mendapatkan pengakuan resmi dari pemerintah Jepang (sampe hari ini pemerintah Jepang menyangkal keberadaan rumah bordil (Comfort House Eng.) yang mereka dirikan, dan kalo bisa permintaan maaf resmi. Alasan lain gw tulis posting ini karena gw sempet nari di satu acara reunian yayasan anak Jepang tidak diinginkan ini. Biasanya acara reuni kan rame dan suasananya seneng ketemu temen2 lama, tapi di acara itu suasananya asli reserved, bedroefd (=bener2 sedih) dan ngga happy. Kasihan banget, cause they didn´t ask to be born in such circumstances. Jadi, posting ini gw tulis supaya kita ngga lupa, sejarah itu ngga bisa diapus begitu aja, bukti nyata dan hidup masih banyak, sejelek apapun sejarah itu terjadi.

So what?

I began to work last Thursday after having 3,5 weeks summer holiday. Gradually the work floor has been filled with tanned colleagues returning from a vacation in a warm country.

It is a sort of etiquette to ask how the holiday was, even if you are not really close with those colleagues. This morning, I made a chit chat with several of them. I noticed two of them were really disappointed during the holiday because everything didn't go as they wanted. The complaints varied from the location of a hotel room to food, from the souvenirs boutiques to public transport. And this, to think that they were only 2 weeks vacationing abroad!

I mean, come on people. Within 2 weeks you can not judge that a country is not suitable for a holiday. Within 2 weeks you can find restaurants who serve tasty food. As to souvenirs boutiques and public transport: ignore them, hire a car or don't buy souvenirs at all!!! I admit that those souvenir vendors on the streets could be very annoying or people who grab your blonde hair to check whether it is not a wig too, but still I don't like this way of thinking.

It is that these people think a well earned vacation (where everything goes well, to their satisfaction) is nothing but normal because they had worked hard the whole year. One important thing they forget when vacationing abroad, things are simply different than their native country. Instead of trying to make it work, they just had been bitching around about how everything went 'wrong' in their eyes. I told them that they could change the situation by looking for alternatives or just try to look things at the bright side. Not much effort needed to make your well earned vacation a successful one!

PS countries where everything went wrong on vacation were Greece and Turkey

In the name of privacy

There is an interesting case in protecting privacy this week in the Netherlands. A request of family of a man who committed suicide to see his file was rejected. In a file, there are medical information about his sessions with his psychologist.

After a suicide of a patient, the Health Institute (where patients with psychological problem are treated) is to report this to Inspection of Health. This has to check whether the Health Institute had done the right thing to help the patient. So this procedure was done with this particular man's file, who succesfully committed suicide.

While the Inspection of Health was checking this file, the man's family wanted to acces the file which was OK by the Inspection of Health. The Health Institute however objected and succeed at Supreme Court in preventing the family to get the file. The reason was protecting the privacy of the patient. Health Institutes are afraid that patients with psychological problem would be reluctant to get help if they know that after their death, the file would possibly be read by others.

Personally, I think the family has the right to know what had happened before the patient came to end his life but only the family not other people. In case of suicides families are left with many questions. Perhaps, reading the medical report could give them some answers so they can go on with their life.