Waktu saya masih SMP, selera musik saya selera anak gaul. Apa yang ada di MTV, saya embat. Waktu itu saya paling suka Backstreet Boys, dan ngefans sama Nick Carter. Ya, selain namanya mirip, tampangnya juga ga jauh beda. Ternyata eh ternyata, waktu SMU trend-nya berubah; saya malah cenderung lebih suka ndengerin lagu jadul atau ga umum, misalnya hair rock dan soundtrack anime.
Omong-omong soal lagu anime jadul, saya ngefans banget sama lagu ini. Runner, dinyanyikan oleh Fujiwara Makoto untuk anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, disiarkan di TV di Jepang tahun 1982-1983, dan pernah disiarkan di Indosiar tahun 90-an, kalo ga salah. Rasanya gimanaaaaa gitu, ndengerin lagu anime jadul yang mendayu-dayu kaya gini. Serasa nostalgia kembali ke masa kanak-kanak. Serasa masuk ke alam utopia selama 4 menit. Membayangkan diri ada di tepi sebuah tebing pada suatu hari yang cerah, bermain gitar, menyanyikan lagu ini. Hal yang tidak mungkin saya lakukan, karena takut ketinggian. Ah, apalagi sang penyanyi sudah meninggal tahun 2002, dalam usia yang tidak terlalu tua untuk ukuran orang Jepang, 55 tahun. Waktu itu, 27 tahun yang lalu, beliau masih berusia 35 tahun, masih dalam masa kejayaannya sebagai penyanyi. Eh, sekarang kok sudah 7 tahun meninggal. Waktu memang cepat berlalu. Rasanya semakin murung…
(Ga punya gitar, jadi cuma bisa air-guitar ngikutin lagu ini sambil umik-umik )
Dibandingkan lagu anime zaman sekarang (karena ga banyak tahu juga –> rasanya seperti orang mengaku ateis hanya karena malas melakukan eksplorasi spiritual ), saya lebih suka lagu anime jadul, dalam artian anime abad 20. White Reflection, Pegasus Fantasy, Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze, Kimi ni Fureru Dake De, Tottemo Uma Nami, Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai, Mienai Chikara, Sunao de Itai, Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku, Ano Hi Ni, dll.
…standar ya? Biar deh…
Anyway, enjoy!
Lyric is taken from here: [link]
——————————————————————————
Fujiwara Makoto - Runner
Boku wa moo oikake wa shinai
Kimi no hashiru kage no ato
Hito wa dare mo hashiritsuzukeru
Goru wa mada mienai
Kyoo no tsugi ni nani ga aru
Asu no saki ni nani ga aru
Haruka kanata no hikari ni mukete
Boku wa ima mo hashiritsuzukeru
Boku wa moo mayoi wa shinai
Jibun no michi o ayumu dake
Hito wa dare mo hashiritsuzukeru
Goal wa tooi keredo
Kyoo o sugisaru hibi no naka
Asu to iu hi ga kureba ii
Haruka kanata no hikari ni mukete
Boku wa ima mo hashiritsuzukeru
Boku wa moo tomari wa shinai
Itsuka deau toki mo aru
Hito wa dare mo hashiritsuzukeru
Goal wa mienai kedo
Asu to iu na no kiboo no hi
Mirai to iu na no kagayaki ga
Haruka kanata no hikari ni mukete
Boku wa ima mo hashiritsuzukeru
Long long centuries ago I wrote about Anggun who changed her citizenship into French, but still has the feeling as Indonesian and dedicates her body and soul to Indonesia *halah*. I have also read about Indonesian-born Andy Tielman, the frontman of Tielman Brothers, among the first rock n roll bands in the world, and probably the first in Netherland, the first who owned Gibson Les Paul in Netherland (the list won’t stop), with their song, Stranger in My Land (please play the video below to find out what this song is about).
But now it is my friend that faces the same dilemma. He is an Indonesian physics PhD student who almost graduates (3-4 years from now) (the PhD programme itself takes 4 years, so, yeah, he is still in his first year ) and plans to do postdoc afterwards. The postdoc programme that he is interested to apply urges him to change citizenship. So, which one should he take? Taking this programme in change for his citizenship, or seeking another programme but with “longer and more winding road”? Currently he decides not to take this programme and look for another programme that does not need him to change citizenship. His senior, a Chinese citizen, was also offered the same programme, but she declined, since “She is a proud Chinese”, said my friend about her.
I read his catharsis note in his Facebook, and, yeah, it is interesting to me, who often thinks about this citizenship and nationality issue. While he and several others persisted to be Indonesian by citizenship, a prominent figure in Indonesian Theoretical Physics Community who has been working abroad for several years pointed out the differences between concepts of nationality and citizenship. He said that, while he could change his passport 100x, he would be Indonesian by nationality till death do us part.
The risk of citizenship change is not easy to handle anyway. Yes, even though you can enjoy facilities offered by your new country, it will be harder to go back to your home country when you miss her. You know: visa, travel, the like. You can lose things commonly found in your home country but hard to find in your new country. Say, I change my citizenship to Singaporean. In an island this narrow, chances to have private home like in Indonesia is very scarce. Lastly, I don’t need to say that you have to obey rules that may sound weird in your previous country, but are applied in your new country. If I were to be a Singaporean, South Korean, or even Israeli, for example, my descendants (or maybe I) would need to enter NS, something not present in Indonesia.
…oh, OK, that was not the last. Another obstacle is facing denunciation from ex-fellows of citizenship. Two examples. A member of Beasiswa mailing list, that I join, assume his name is Z, a humanity NGO worker, wrote his opinion and plan to change his citizenship to Canadian in order to achieve higher position in his career more easily. Yeaaah…as you can predict, some members, either via PM directly to him or the public folder in mailing list, stated their disagreement toward his opinion. One even explicitly expressed his disgust, stating that Z only wanted the bling bling money.
Another example. Not exactly about citizenship change. I asked some friends about their opinions regarding Indonesian expats working abroad, especially in the field of academia. I refer to some Indonesians that take professorships in universities in other countries. Some friends accused them of not being nationalists, and of betraying their home country. If they were nationalists, they would be working in Indonesian universities. Being a perfect Devil’s Advocate (you know what I mean lah…heheheh ), I argued that had they worked in Indonesia, they could not get the same achievements. Then I showed them some foreign researchers. The late Abdus Salam, the first Nobel Laurate from Pakistan, who worked in Imperial College London, founded The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, enabling physics researchers from developing countries to contribute to development of Theoretical Physics. Another example is Lotfi Zadeh, Iranian of Azeri descendant Professor Emeritus in University of California at Berkeley, the inventor of Fuzzy Logic. If they worked in their home countries, can they achieve that? I forget how this ended up. It seemed like I won the debate .
If people think this way about Indonesian professors working in universities abroad, how will they respond if one of their friends converts citizenship? What will they practically do?
I would like to mention some advantages of “giving your soul to another country”. I have ever watched a badminton match between two European countries in a prestigious competition, now in final phase. Guess what. All players are Chinese. If I were a Chinese, I would be really really proud of my nation.
Now take a look at some universities in USA and UK. Any universities: Oxbridge, Ivy League, mid-class universities, and count how many Chinese- and Indian-educated professors are there. Again, if I were a Chinese or Indian, I would be really really proud.
My opinion about this matter evoluted over time. When I was a child, having been fed up by the doctrine of nationalism in school, I decided not to change citizenship, ever! I wouldn’t even live permanently abroad, in contrast to what my father told me. I forgot why, but somehow at a point when I was really disappointed to Indonesia, I searched for procedures to change citizenship, and among the first targets was Scandinavian country. Hell, what countries are better to live in than them? OK, then I changed my mind. I thought that God won’t put me inside Indonesia if I cannot do something for her (WOW WOW NOW I AM TURNING RELIGIOUS LOLOLOL). I won’t change my citizenship unless it is very critical, e.g. if I will be persecuted in my own country. Now I changed my mind again. If I can contribute to humanity better, it’s OK to change citizenship. I can still visit my family and friends in Indonesia anyway, or even contribute to development of Indonesia, just like what my father said, “live outside, work for inside”. Somewhat fluctuative, eh?
So, my brother, whatever option you choose, go to Cambridge, Oxford, or Harvard lah. Find a wife first and then you two move there to contribute to humanity. Can can?
*halah*
(halah)
:halah:
~halaaa~~~~hh~
To conclude this post, let me half-quote Lotfi Zadeh.
————————————————————————
BTW, another quote of the day.
“Breaking a pledge…breaking a pledge of loyalty neutrality is a Knight Journalist’s highest disgrace. But…But I am…I am…I AM!!! I AM a human first and a Knight Journalist second!!! I don’t need your title! I resign myself to your disgrace! But I will never forgive you!!! I can never look idly by while lives are being thrown away!!!”
~ Sir Miklotov in Suikoden II Muntader al-Zaidi in another dimension, an RPG geek, while performing the same action as another him in this dimension
Aku pikir negeri ini negeri kemakmuran.
Aku pikir negeri ini negeri kedamaian.
Aku pikir negeri ini negeri kesejahteraan.
Aku pikir negeri ini negeri impian.
Ternyata aku salah.
Negeri ini seperti halnya negeri yang lain, punya kelebihan dan kekurangan.
Konon ada seseorang yang mengeluhkan kesulitan mendapat kerja (diskriminasi?). Orang dengan usia nanggung (terlalu muda untuk tua, terlalu tua untuk muda), seperti yang akan dicapainya beberapa tahun kemudian, susah mendapat pekerjaan. Hal yang menyedihkan terjadi. Seorang anak muda cerdas dan berbakat mencemoohnya dan mengata-ngatainya sebagai “kelas rendah”. Dan kisah pun berlanjut.
Tanpa bermaksud menyombong, dan justru mengungkap sisi burukku. Aku pernah dalam posisi seperti sang murid berbakat itu. Dan jelas itu salah. Elitisme itu menyebalkan. Arogansi itu menyebalkan.
Dulu aku tidak mengira semua ini bakal ada. Aku lihat di papan pengumuman di stasiun, selebaran mengenai tunjangan bagi orang tua. Oh, aku pikir ini fasilitas biasa bagi orang jompo. Aku dengar gerejaku mengadakan bakti sosial, dan aku heran, siapa yang mau ditolong di negeri seperti ini? Dan aku semakin bingung lagi melihat anak-anak seumuran SMP yang masih berseragam sekolah meminta sumbangan. Kepada siapakah uang itu akan diserahkan?
Earlier this morning, I read from one of my friend’s Y!M status that an earthquake had struck Gorontalo.
This morning, after I woke up, I asked Ryan, a friend who works in Sulawesi about the condition. Too bad, he didn’t feel it and kept sleeping. He referred me to Detik. Doh! It takes a lot of time to access Detik from Singapore, so I read Kompas Online instead.
As usual, when I read online news website like Detik and Kompas, I always take some time to read the comments, just in case there are funny or offensive ones . This time, I noticed several comments that can be written like this:
Maybe God is tired of our wrongdoings.
Have us human done wrong?
Let us make more prayers to God. All these disasters happened because of human fault.
Human being must be more aware! This is a warning to us!
What I don’t understand is, in Indonesia, when natural disaster occurs, many people will say like this. What warning? Aware of what? And what does a (real) natural disaster (in the sense that it doesn’t occur because of human fault or greed like some floods resulted from lack of precipitation, due to excessive deforestation) relate to human behaviour? What will more prayers do?
Please note that I am not saying that this is bad. I cannot judge it so. I just don’t understand.
PS: From other friends’ Y!M status, I also noticed that there was an earthquake in Jogja too, but I guess it was weaker than the Gorontalo one. When I asked one of them, he also suggested me to read…guess what? *drum sound* …… Detik! Again! Damn, why do internet-literated friends like them always tell me to read Detik? I wanted to know their individual experiences!
Last night I entered Youtube to watch live rock concerts. But before I wrote a rock band’s name in the search box, my eyes suddenly noticed a nice video snapshot: a beautiful East Asian woman, who has shoulder-length hair, with her uncovered shoulders. And the title. Experiment -Being A Nudist-. Wow. Wow. WOOOOOWWWW!!!!! How come I didn’t watch that, even though I was in lab? How come I would miss this chance?
But the more I looked into her other videos, the more I thought that she is just a funny (sometimes stupidly behaving…you know, those weird but cute facial expressions) Japanese girl with her daily activities…and I think she is quite a melancholic person when it comes to love-thingy, just like me…hahaha
And yes, she is damn cute! Kawai! Kawaiiii~~~!! ^^
She has been on hiatus for months. Where is she? Is she OK?
Yuuki-san (her real name), in case you read this…oh damn, what should I say to her? Ah…OK lah…good luck with your efforts! ^^ and you know what, I learn something from your plan to give your parents gifts and you know what, I also learn something from your tendency to frequently apologize
Warm regards from Singapore! (But I am not Singaporean)
(Sore’s Karolina is once again played smoothly in my room)
I just watched a video of Mudvayne live concert in Youtube…well, it doesn’t seem to be their solo concert. People started to shout "Slipknot! Slipknot!", but they ended up enjoying Mudvayne’s performance, jumping all around, headbanging…I wonder why many of them shouted Slipknot’s name
…saya dan 2 teman (sebut saja Y dan Z, bukan inisial asli) ngobrol. Ceritanya si Y ini kesengsem sama teman labnya si Z yang kata si Z biasa aja tapi modis. Masih kata si Z, kalau temannya ini ke lab jarang pake celana. Kan cewek, biasa aja kan kalo ga pake celana (pake rok, misalnya)? Masalahnya adalah, beda agama kewarganegaraan.
UPDATE: Beberapa kalimat dihapus, karena saya salah tulis. Saya lupa mereka ngomong apa secara detil
Nah, kita biarkan si Y dengan kisah cintanya. Sebenarnya saya mendukung pernikahan yang kedua mempelainya berbeda, termasuk beda kewarganegaraan. Pasangan yang berbeda jenis kelamin saja saya dukung, apalagi cuma beda kewarganegaraan –> logika yang aneh . Namun demikian saya jadi kepikiran, sejauh apa sih saya bisa mendukung itu? Sepertinya tidak terlalu jauh. Jujur saja saya ini takut tertarik dengan orang yang berasal dari negara yang "aneh", terutama kalau berasal dari keluarga yang "aneh". Jangan protes dulu, tolong lihat contoh kasus di bawah ini.
Nah, FYI di kelas saya banyak orang Myanmar (atau namanya berbau Myanmar). Sialnya, waktu semester sudah selesai, saya baru tahu kalau ada teman sekelas yang mirip sekali dengan mantan calon saya yang kedua, aka The 2nd! OMG…kenapa baru sekarang tahunya? Tapi saya mikir-mikir, SEANDAINYA suka sama dia, namanya kok bau Myanmar, gimana kalo dia keluarga junta? Seandainya bukan, gimana kalo dia keluarga pemberontak? Gimana kalo dia adalah ujung tombak pemberontakan?? Ampun!!! Bisa-bisa saya jadi buronan pemerintah Myanmar!! Saya cuma mau hidup damai!!! (Ini maksud saya dengan "aneh": junta itu aneh kalau menurut saya).
Nah, apakah saya paranoid? Apakah saya tidak konsisten? Apakah saya rasis? Apakah saya pilih-pilih? Apakah saya terlalu banyak mikir? Apakah saya tidak logis? Apakah saya tampan? Apakah saya ga mutu? Apakah saya apa? Apakah saya berpikir terlalu jauh? Bukankah cinta itu nomer 1?
"…NAH, OMONG AJA YANG GEDHE. MBOK NGACA DULU, EMANGNYA DIA MAU SAMA KAMU!?!?!?!?" teriak Cupid.
)
–> rasanya seperti orang mengaku ateis hanya karena malas melakukan eksplorasi spiritual 
), saya lebih suka lagu anime jadul, dalam artian anime abad 20. White Reflection, Pegasus Fantasy, Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze, Kimi ni Fureru Dake De, Tottemo Uma Nami, Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai, Mienai Chikara, Sunao de Itai, Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku, Ano Hi Ni, dll.
), I argued that had they worked in Indonesia, they could not get the same achievements. Then I showed them some foreign researchers. The late 
. Namun demikian saya jadi kepikiran, sejauh apa sih saya bisa mendukung itu? Sepertinya tidak terlalu jauh. Jujur saja saya ini takut tertarik dengan orang yang berasal dari negara yang "aneh", terutama kalau berasal dari keluarga yang "aneh". Jangan protes dulu, tolong lihat contoh kasus di bawah ini.
