Indonesian Disaster: The effects and how should we act

Indonesia is a developing country which has many natural resources in Southeast Asia. The resources include forest, crude oil, natural gas, gold, and so forth. Therefore, there are many ways to take that natural resources in order to satisfy human desire. Thus, human itself sometimes forgets about the effects of their greediness. Recently, Indonesia faces two problems of human greediness, open forest in Riau and mud volcano in East Java, which are caused by company exploration. Therefore, the effects of these problems can cause in term of economic, health, and social.

The first problem that country will face is economic collapse. Due to the open forest, which is happening in Sumatra and Kalimantan, will produce heavy haze until the safety limit visibility only less than five meters. The citizens who usually work in outdoor area will not go to work in order to avoid undesirable consequences such as health problem as well as road accidents. For instance, if the airport is close, then the pilot will not allow to fly or to land. On the other hand, the government will allocate a certain amount to provide maskers to the citizens and to stop the hazard. The government needs to pay a big amount to third party companies which are believed eligible to stop the hazard. Additionally, the resident’s lands are burnt and swept away by mud, still, the government will take responsibility for that by providing temporary house. Therefore, the economy of the country will collapse if a country’s income is unequal, where the outcome is more than income.

The second effect of this hazard could implicate the health problem. The particle in the pollution can increase the risk of respiratory disease, cancer, and could also increase cardiovascular risk. The Air Quality Index (AQI) has increased day by day, whereas the numbers are fluctuating between unhealthy to very unhealthy. The analogy is like the residents, all ages, are smoking twenty-four hours for certain months. On the contrary, the mud eruption could contaminate the soil and the well which are located in the village. Consequently, many residents get poisoned because they still depend on the environment surrounding which already spoiled.

The social effect is obviously having broader than any other effects. It is related to the human cost. Many people have fled the area, which already affected by pollution, to escape the record air pollution levels. Thus, massive urbanization to another place will create another problem in another area where the destination of the migrants is located. Many people will lose their job due to this migration, and it will create culture shift which might cause rejection for the local people. Therefore, the crime will increase as the result of unemployment.

In the conclusion, the major effects of disaster in Indonesia will affect in economic collapse, the health risk problem and social problem. Therefore, there is no other way to solve these problems except from human itself. Start doing reforestation and change our mind to avoid greediness. Everyone on this earth is deserved to live. Do not always blame the government because they fail to do so, but there are many foreign companies who play in it. However, the government should responsible for the safety of its citizens.

References

Choi, C. (2013, July 22). Mud Eruption In Indonesia: Was Disaster Blamed On Drilling. Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/mud-eruption-indonesia-disaster-drilling-quake_n_3634361.html

McCafferty, G. (2015, September 18). Indonesian haze: Why it's everyone's problem. Retrieved from CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/17/asia/indonesian-haze-southeast-asia-pollution/

Yansen, B. (2010, November 2). Indonesia and the great. Retrieved from The Jakarta Post: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/02/indonesia-and-great-challenge-natural-disasters.html

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Do you still want to smoke?

Smoking is a dangerous bad habit. It contains nicotine. It causes different diseases and damages our brain and lungs. Most of the people are addicted by someone, for example, the teenagers are affected by their friends as well as their relative family. Approximately, about four million worldwide people die every year as a result of smoking.

Smoking has a lot of disadvantages. It causes a lot of diseases such as cancer and risk of blood restriction in the brain which causes a stroke. It is not only lung cancer, but it will cause all types of cancer in our parts of the body. Cigarette smoke contains at least 43 carcinogenic (cancer-causing) substances. For the pregnant women who smokes can cause spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, death among newborns, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

At the first stage, curiosity and peer pressure are the major influence that encourages them to smoke. Then, after several days of trying, they become a chain smoker which is really unthinkable. Our young generation is involved day by day, but they do not know about the long term effect of smoking. They have no idea on how many diseases will they get either short-term or long-term effect. Surprisingly, about 80 percent of adult smoker started smoking when they were younger than 17 years old. Approximately, each day, 6000 youths try the cigarettes and 3000 becomes a daily smoker.

However, smoking can be good for some people. Smoker argues that smoking can release their stress. It is the best choice for them to smoke in order to avoid their stress into depression. The effect of relaxation, the smoker claims that it can improve their creativity and it also improves their confidence to the public. On the other hand, smoker claims that smoking the cigarettes also affect the economy of the country. Thus, it is interrelated with tobacco farmers, company, and the worker itself. Imagine if no one in this world is smoking, the economy will get the impact. The cigarettes company will bankrupt, therefore, jobless will increase.

In conclusion, smoking is a really harmful to our body and is really disturbing people who stay surrounding. Everyone should conscious about the bad effect of smoking. The government, neighbor, friend, and family should work together to fight with this problem. For those who want to smoke, it is advisable to smoke in the hidden place where their children want to clone of your behavior now as well as it won’t disturb passive smoker surround you. Keep Healthy and hit the road!

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The Day of Arafat 2015: Food Unifiying

Couple weeks ago, I fasted on the day of Arafat. Fasting on the day of Arafat is Sunnah, it is not compulsory but it should do. Those who are not performing pilgrimage are recommended to fast on 'Arafah day. It is expected that Allah will expiate the small sins committed in the previous two years.

On the way to Library after I had finished all my classes, I met my classmate from Bangladesh, Pinto. He informed me to join breakfasting ceremony, which was held by Arabian Community in UUM. But I was still blur about the location of the ceremony. He just mentioned in Maybank Residential.

Then I remembered about the place that I used to attend the previous ceremony in Ramadan with Abdulrahman. He was the one who introduced me to Yamani food at Dr. Jamal's House last year. I was very infatuated with that food until I was thinking to change all my favorite foods to Arab food.

I went there with Huda because previously, we had an appointment to breakfasting together in the Mosque. Luckily, we went there by motor bike whose belong to my country-mate. Otherwise, with the remaining energy that we had, walking in this huge campus like UUM was a nightmare for us.

The Surau, used for worship and religious instruction similarly with Mosque, is small. But the intimacy between International students from around the world, hush the hierarchy of the education and social stratification inside the community.

Eating together in one plate

We started eating after Maghrib prayer had done, because the Maghrib time was limited. When adzan had reverberated, Huda and I still on the way finding where was the Surau located. 

"You guys are late. hehe" greeted my friend, Gido, "Please you can take milk and date over there. I'm sorry if we provide the simplest meal for you". He smiled

"Thank you Gido. It is more than enough for us. I am really appreciated bro!"

After Maghrib prayer, everyone had folded up their sajadah. They started pulling off the plastic base for about 3-5 meters along the foyer. This plastic was used to collect unexpected rice going out from the plate. As well as, it would be easy to clean the Surau from dirt.

Chicken Mandi Rice

A big plate was seen from the entrance door of my left side with Dr. Jamal carried on it proudly on his shoulder. Then, the rest of the members carried sequentially.

"Here please, you can eat with 4-5 people" he said

But that was not the end of the section. There was a dessert, sweet cake, that could freeze my mind. The taste was totally awesome. In the first bite, my eyes goggled and I looked at Huda.

"Wow, seriously this cake is freezing my brain. It is tasty man!" I told Huda, "come to take a bite".

"Aha, Indeed. It is very tasty!" he giggled, "thou from the appearance is simple, but the tasty is unpredictably amazing. It has milk, very sweet, and little bit coconut inside" he tried to be food examiner like in serial Tv Master Chef.

"Do they still have extra cake? haha" I whispered

"Maybe, me too. I want to take again" he replied

Basbousa Cake

I enjoyed eating in this manner. Surprisingly, not all Muslims are eating in this manner nowadays. But, there are valid reasons why we should eat in this style. Eating together can save food from waste, unity and feelings of unity among people eating from one plate, lastly, it could develop and sense of sharing available resources.

PS: 

• Thank you to the community who organized this event.

• If you eat together, you will forget the amount of the food that you eat. Please be aware for people, especially girls, who always measure food that they eat and try to be slim.

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Are you afraid of programming?

OMG, I have programming class after this. I should't go to class!

Some and many of the students, especially students who take course in Computer Science, have to take a programming course in the first semester. We cannot skip from word 'Programming' if we take Computer Science. The more you skip the class, the more you get nothing from this course. Don't try to skip even one class. If you are late, try to come. Late is better than nothing, sometimes I do that. Programming is something which is really fun if we know the concept. The analogy for student who failed in programming is like

"a doctor who doesn't know how to inject medicine to the patients...."

Programming is a way we communicate to the computer. We tell the computer about to do some tasks in instructions. Computer doesn't know our language, we have to know the language of the computer which already standardized with some rules. At this point we have to have, at least, a passion to learn another computer languages.

"You have to fall in love with 'Programming' right now !"

What is love? I don't know what is love exactly. But in my opinion, love is something that we are passionate about. With love, you can 'sacrifice' to do something for the one you love. How? tell your mind, heart and your subconscious to love a bit in programming. It is the first thing that you have to do. If you cant fall in love in programming, then you cant proceed to the next step.

"My seniors always say that programming is very difficult, many of them had failed several times.."

Influence from other, especially 'The Senior' is very important. The human psychology is often to get change by outsiders. Mostly, junior get influenced by their senior that programming is the scariest thing in this course. Let me tell you why the senior always say such thing. It is because their senior are failing too in that course. Senior wants you to inherit that failure continuously. Do not listen to them about something which makes you down. Just listen to something which makes your brain boost.

"You have to do your own growing, no matter your grandfather was" - Abraham Lincoln

White Lion Lyrics

Success obviously comes from what we do. What you do, is what you deserve. I remember the lyrics of White Lion "When the Children Cry". I suggest you to start sitting on your chair and face your laptop then start typing codes. Just write simple codes from the internet or lecturer slides. The common issue with the student is they don't know where to start the code? Their mind has lost somewhere. Perhaps, it is basically their logic is weak. I suggest you to write a codes based on the requirement of the project. let me give you an example:

if the project needs to print out the output of asking their name, age, address, etc, just try to write only that. Then the next step is to think another process such as addition, subtraction, or anything. It will make you little bit easier where the program is going.

Understanding the concept by making an analogy in the real life. . .

This is really important for the students. Most of the students try to memorize all the codes but they don't understand the concept of programming. Consequently, in final exam the codes are lost due to brain formatting. It happened to me too in final exam three years ago. I was so panic because I was not ready to memorize all the codes which was written in the handout.

Then I'd changed my learning style. Perhaps, my learning style is visual and auditory. I listen to the lecturer and I try to get the idea what is happening in the real world though just little bit. Example, class is consist of method and data. I create a class named 'CAT", then I connect to the 'CAT' in the real world. The method is something related to the behavior of the cat such as walking, eating, and sleeping. The data of the cat is the name of the cat, age and skin color. Easy right? Please try to make an analogy that makes you understand.

Gather and ask your friends who know about programming. . .

Lastly, you can ask your friend and receive some suggestions about the program that you are writing. I usually ask my lecturer or my senior to consult about my program. But sometimes, the word 'ask' is full of ambiguity. They don't literally ask about the project, but they need them to write a code for them. It is totally unacceptable.

VOILA, bonne chance mes amis!

Here is some link to boost your knowledge
TheNewBoston

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Mahasiswa: Dipertemukan Oleh Janji

Aku masih ingat pertemuan pertama kami sekitar empat tahun lalu di salah satu kampus bersejarah bernama Albukhary International University. Di tempat itu kami semua dipertemukan dan di tempat itulah cerita suka dan duka kami bermula. Berlatar belakang dan mimpi yang sama meskipun budaya, ras, etnis dan bahasa kami yang berbeda.

Sebagian dari mereka akan lulus tahun ini. Tiba – tiba terlintas untuk mengadakan buka puasa bersama para mahasiswa Indonesia eks AiU. Segera aku berdiskusi dengan teman yang lain untuk menentukan dimana tempat yang cocok.

Rencana awal bertempat di Warung Penyet KL Sentral yang sejak awal aku datang ke kota ingin mencoba masakan disana. Katanya masakannya enak dan khas Indonesia. 

“Eh kalau kita makan disana, kita harus booking tempat dulu”, Roza menyarankan, “biasanya kalau bulan ramadhan, disana sudah tidak ada tempat.”

“Baiklah, besok aku yang akan booking tempat”, Roza menambahkan.

Memang untuk menyatukan cerita lama menjadi satu kembali, jujur saja agak susah. Mungkin karena kesibukan masing – masing dengan tugas dan kelas yang padat, peluang untuk bertemu sangat tipis. Aku hanya berharap semuanya untuk hadir di acara itu. Mungkin saja setelah lulus, aku tidak bisa menemui mereka lagi secara tatap mata.

“Ping!!!” suara bbm masuk dari Dewi.

“Udah penuh nih, ada opsi tempat lain ga?” dia menanyakan kepadaku. Sepertinya dia bertanya pada orang yang salah. Aku memang bukan tinggal di Kuala Lumpur selama kuliah, jadi menanyakan hal itu sangat sulit untuk kujawab secara spontan.

Mengandalkan internet rumahan untuk mencari tempat makan favorit, benar – benar sangat membingungkan. Disamping karena beberapa hal seperti kenyamanan tempatnya dan rasa makanannya yang enak, aku juga harus memperhatikan urusan kantong keuangan mahasiswa rantau yang serba tipis.

“Setauku sih di Pasar Seni de. Soalnya, pernah lihat makanan ada yang serba Indonesia di Food Court-nya”

Grup AiU-Indonesia di Facebook yang sejak pertama sudah ramai membicarakan acara ini sontak setuju dengan tempat yang saya usulkan. Mungkin karena aku satu – satu-nya tamu dari jauh atau memang tidak ada tempat lagi akhirnya mereka menyetujuinya. Entahlah. Yang paling penting adalah terlaksananya acara ini.

Dengungan mesin kendaraan dan asap mengepul sudah menjadi ciri khas ibu kota yang selalu macet. Antrian kendaraan yang sudah memanjang membuat minat untuk menumpang taksi turun drastis. Pengemudi taksi juga tidak akan mau mengambil penumpang disaat macet, membuat mereka rugi karena bahan bakar mereka terbuang sia – sia.

“Sudahlah, kita jalan kaki saja ke stasiun KTM! Taksi juga tidak akan mau naikin penumpang dengan jarak yang dekat”. Aku, Wahyu dan Serina memutuskan untuk jalan sembari bercerita tentang pengalaman masing – masing. Jarak ke Stasiun Serdang sekitar 2 km melalui jalan arteri.

Sungguh indah kejadian masa lalu terulang. Sedih, tawa, canda, suka dan duka entah apapun namanya, mereka sudah seperti keluarga keduaku di negeri rantau. Meski sering dibumbui konflik internal, itu menambah kesan jika pertalian persaudaraan kami masih tetap solid. Hanya hati yang bisa meluluhkan pikiran yang sudah mengeras seperti batu.

Jalan yang kita lewati bukan seperti kompleks perumahan dan bukan juga seperti perkampungan. Warna – warni rumah dan modelnya, bisa di lihat jika rumah hanya ditinggali untuk merebahkan badan. Rumah sebesar itu rata – rata sepi ditinggal para penghuni mencari rezeki di tempat yang super sibuk. Hanya kedai makan yang menyediakan daging babi terlihat seperti pasar karena ramainya pengunjung. Terlihat pria paruh baya sedang menikmati semangkuk sup berwarna oranye.

Beberapa meter dari kedai itu, hanya ada sebuah masjid kecil yang terlihat seperti surau / mushola diapit oleh rumah mewah. Kelihatan miris memang. Masjid ini setiap jumat akan membeludak dipenuhi para jamaah dari berbagai belahan dunia yang mayoritas adalah para ekspatriat yang tinggal di sekitar apartemen temanku itu. Jika sudah membeludak, para jamaah akan sholat diluar tanpa menggunakan alas. Hanya beralaskan aspal hangat jalanan. Bagiku, dengan keterbatasannya, ini yang akan menambah kesan khusuk waktu sholat. Serasa sholat di padang pasir yang beratapkan langit, beralaskan tanah dan pasir, dan bermandikan keringat. Sempurna!

Hanya seingatku sekitar 1.7 Ringgit dari Serdang menuju ke Stasiun KL Sentral dan 1 Ringgit tambahan untuk LRT menuju Stasiun Pasar Seni. Hanya antrian calon penumpang bus dan beberapa kendaraan saja yang nampak. Jalanan sore itu tidak terlalu banyak. Pasar Seni terletak diseberang jalan, dan sudah ada di depan mata.

Teman – teman sudah hadir dan sedang memilih makanan untuk berbuka. Saya lebih memilih menu bakso yang dikombinasi. Aku pun juga tidak bisa menjelaskan bagaimana rasanya. Bakso atau sup atau soto? Entahlah. Hadirnya teman – teman sudah sangat bahagia dan makanan hanya sebagai pelengkap. Hadir sore itu Yazid, Mahara dan Cindy, mereka dari Aceh; Heny dan Ervin, teman angkatan saya dari Surabaya; Wahyu dan Nova + doi, mereka berdua dari Palembang dan Noni, yang seingatku dia mahasiswa Indonesia di UPM (University Putra Malaysia).

Kami menuju ke KLCC tempat dimana menara kembar itu berada. Insting pemudi akan fashion, membuat pemuda di sekitarnya menurut seakan telah di hipnotis oleh dewi yang agung. Ada yang ingin membeli sepatu karena sidang kuliahnya yang sudah dekat, ada yang ber-alibi belum membeli pakaian lebaran. Semua saling membangun argument yang intinya malam itu adalah belanja.

Manusia terus mengalir seperti sungai di sepanjang jalan. Begitu pula dengan uang mereka. Perputaran ekonomi sangat lah kentara. Mata manusia sudah ditutup dengan gemerlap produk brand terkenal dunia. Yang nampak hanya pasang – pasang kaki melintas. Sesekali mencoba, berkaca, dan tersenyum.

“Yang ini bagus tidak? Cocok tidak?” teman saya Serina bertanya. Dia dari tadi sangat antusias mencari sepatu untuk sidang skripsinya yang akan berakhir di tahun ini. Tempat itu bernama Vinnci. Menurutku itu hanya kedai sepatu yang hanya mengubah gaya marketing di kelas menegah ke atas saja.

“Ooh, bagus banget itu!” aku juga tidak tahu harus jawab apa. Yang terpenting membuat dia bangga dan senang, intinya tidak kecewa dengan barang yang sudah dia beli tadi. Secara saya juga awam masalah selera perempuan karena bukan desainer baju sekelas Ivan Gunawan.

“Ini nanti saya pasangin sama baju warna kayak gini trus celana ini!” Dia menjelaskan panjang lebar. Saya hanya memandang dia dan sesekali tersenyum. Apa yang dia bicarakan??

“Oh ya harganya berapa itu tadi?” sontak aku bertanya.

“Aku lupa tidak lihat harga tadi.” Dia tersenyum menunjukan gigi seakan tanpa dosa. Mungkin akibat euphoria karena menemukan sepatu favoritnya. Lupa akan ada tagihan listrik dan apartement. Mungkin pilihan lain adalah nyeduh untuk menekan biaya konsumsi.

Malam semakin larut. KLCC tetap dipenuhi oleh para wisatawan. Kita terlupa jika kereta terakhir berangkat jam 11 malam. Baru pertama kalinya kita ketinggalan dan kehabisan tiket seperti ini. Pilihan lainnya untuk pulang harus berlari mengejar kereta terakhir yang akan menuju ke Stasiun Bukit Jalil.

Malam yang sepi, diterangi oleh sinar bulan dan lampu dari kendaraan yang silih berganti. Sopir taksi yang berkepala botak berada di sampingku bermata sayup tanda dia sudah lelah seharian bekerja. Suara taksi butut yang sudah kehilangan beberapa baut dan dinginnya AC menghipnotis kami. Saya hanyut dalam letih dan bangga, telah bertemu janji dengan teman lama.

(Bersambung)

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Cause and Effect of Air Pollution

Air pollution is commonly a great issue now, and is something that we cannot really ignore from it. Whenever we go most of people always talk about this problem and the solution. This is proof at the moment when we step out from our door and greeted with black smog from cars that hits us directly. Reminding us, the air that we breathe everyday contains of several or more “evil-substances”. Breathing clean air is more of dream, and it is so easy for us to endlessly rant and rave about the causes of air pollution and it is ill effects, but little do we realize that each person is responsible for the situation that we face today. Generally, air pollution is caused by two factors: human-made and natural.

Human is the main control of our world and become worse nowadays. As we can see, all the problems start from human-nature that they have desire to find something new. First, gas emission of transportation and factories are the leading causes of air pollution and it contributes 60 – 70 percent pollutants in the world. The emissions combustion engines include carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HCs), methane (CH4), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and more than 1000 evil-compound. And it happens now in our society, everyone does not aware about that. Second thing is caused by disturbance biological system which people do is very worst instead. Because of over desire that people have to fulfil their desire, they open “green place” become bald. As we can see at the mountain, they are falling down the trees unthinkingly even nothing left. This adds to the cause of this problem so difficult to overcome because human greed.

Another cause of air pollution is caused by natural activities that produce foreign substances.  Some of people do not aware about cause of natural pollution; they think that only human can make the problem of air pollution. Air pollution from Volcanoes is one of the most important natural causes of air pollution are volcanic eruption. The most problematic gases emitted in a volcanic eruption include sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen fluoride. Besides the volcanic gases, there is also volcanic ash. Volcanic ash can move hundreds to thousands of miles downwind from a volcano. Second cause by nature is forest fire; more than a hundred thousand hectares forest in the world are fires. That problem may happen because of thunderbolt attack dry trees in the summer. 

However, air pollution has big effect in our environments and societies. We can imagine what will happen in 20 years later, maybe we will not see the green place like park or we cannot breathe clean air. Spreading disease is very fast, we just regret about our nature and cannot turn back the time.

The main effect of air pollution is damage to our environment. Climate change or global warming will impact agriculture and food production around the world. Farmer has difficulties to predict when the time is rain, and when should they harvest their farm. Climate change is changing weather patterns and indirectly through changes in water and air, it can influential with our health. Evil substance which is engine waste makes respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion.

Second effect of air pollution is migration and conflict; migration related to climate change is likely to be predominantly from rural areas in developing countries to towns and cities. Millions might be displaced by shoreline erosions, river and coastal flooding, or severe drought. Limited resources and resulting human migration could become source of political and military conflict. Low confidence in predictions of increased conflict due to climate change.

Air pollution is caused by two factors: human-made and natural. Human is the generally makes a big causes in the earth, and we cannot do anything with natural activities. Air pollution has effect mainly in global warming, health, and also societies such us: migration and conflict.

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