The Risky Journal

Salah seorang teman saya dalam SUSI RPA 2011 meminta saya untuk membuatkan sejarah Amerika secara singkat. Dalam tulisan ini, saya tidak memasukkan semua bagian dari sejarah Amerika. Saya hanya memasukkan poin poin pentingnya saja. Rentang waktunya adalah semenjak kedatangan Puritan tahun 1600 an hingga era Civil War tahun 1865. Sejarah Amerika Secara Singkat : Awal Kedatangan – Perang Saudara Muhammad Rizqi A. Kebebasan, hal inilah yang menjadi kunci utama bagi berdirinya Negara Amerika Serikat. Pada awal mulanya, Amerika Utara hanyalah bagian dari benua Amerika yang dihuni oleh suku Indian. Namun, banyak orang yang tertarik ke Amerika. Bukan karena emas, perak atau minyak. Golongan pertama yang ke Amerika, datang karena ingin menghindari penyiksaan atas apa yang mereka percaya di negeri asal mereka. Merekalah orang orang Puritan pada tahun 1600an [1]. Semenjak itu Amerika terkenal dengan sebutan ‘the New World’ dan semakin banyak pula lah golongan – golongan agama lain yang i...

(From:  http://newsblaze.com/pix/2009/1031/pix/Precious-Movie-.jpg  ) In my previous movie review post, I reviewed Precious for its representation of Black Feminism thoughts. In this post, I would like to share my article after researching the movie. In conducting the research, I mostly employed semiotic film theory as the main tools of analysis. Besides, I also included a brief overview of what Black Feminism is so that we are in the same sphere and not lost in the texts. Happy reading, if u read it  The Construction of Black Feminism Thought In Precious (2009)

Courtesy to Mary James Edward, an Excellent African American Mentor in One Session of SUSI RPA 2011 in  Understanding the Concept of Prejudice and Stereotype Stereotypes, as defined in the previous post refers to mostly negative opinions to the Other ( a certain group, or groups of people that have different ground with us in terms of either race, gender, religion, belief or else) that are held to be true. The Other is mostly the minority group in a certain society. For example, in a white dominated US society, the other groups encompasses Black, Latin American, Asian American or other ethnic minorities. In a Muslim dominated Indonesian society, the Other encompasses Catholics, Protestants, Hindus or Buddhists. Remember that the concept as majority and minority is heavily influenced by time and place. One may belong to the Other group in a certain time and place, but in a very different time and place s/he may belong to the majority group. 

Taken from Cartoonstock.com In a very diverse and multicultural society, there exists what so called as majority and minority society. In one session of my short course in US (SUSI for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism), I more profoundly studied this issue. ‘A miniature of the world’, in this way one of my friends called the United States of America. In this country, there are various people coming from different nations and cultures speaking different languages. Therefore, in US, as in many other plural places, the existence of majority group is observable. Nowadays, the majority of US citizen is indisputable White people. They make up larger amount of US citizen. Other groups of people make up minority group. They consist of African American, Latin American, Asian American and others. Each possesses and preserves each own distinct culture. Thus, the concept of salad bowl is now more preferable rather than melting pot. In salad bowl, each member of the society still p...

One of the most interesting journey during my five weeks experience in US was visiting the Amish Mennonite community in Lancester, Pennsylvania. I happened to know few information about Amish and Mennonite from one discussion in my American Studies class months ago. It really was an amazing experience since I was involved into a very serene worship inside Amish Mennonite church and invited into a group lunch afterwards. By having dialogue and conversation with them, I was exposed to their concept of viewing life which is very different from other people. GROUP PHOTO WITH SOME AMISH MENNONITE CONGREGATION MEMBERS Mennonite and Amish Perhaps, only few of us in Indonesia know about the existence of Amish and Mennonite. Perhaps, most of us never heard them before. The history of Amish and Mennonite could be dated back to the history of Protestant tradition. The tradition stemmed in one of reformation movement. One of the groups rejected the idea that baptism should be...

This evening, I read an extremely shocking news. Hollywood movies are soon to be withdrawn from Indonesia !!! It really is a big disaster for me, a moviegoer, movie maniac and movie analyst. I cannot imagine if this is going to be true. How can I watch my expected movies: Thor, Captain America and the most anticipated movies of this year Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 !! Based on the news, there is a new duty regulation for the imported movies -especially Hollywood movies. It causes the duty higher than before. It makes the Hollywood movies importer reluctant to import more. They do not to pay more money. Government argues that they do so to protect national films. They want to make national films to become national box offices. I don't know why the government makes such a hasty and unplanned decision. Why don't they discuss it with the movie importers at first? Don't they have sociologist in their governmental bodies? Don't they calculate the sociolog...

SUSI for Student Leaders Religious Pluralism 2011 - The Great Participants- Slideshow of SUSI on Religious Pluralism  in order of appearance  .. 1. Zeva Aulia Sudana (International Relations-UNPAR) 2. Ghufron Mustsqim (International Relations-UGM) 3. Ratna Sari (International Relations-Universitas Jember) 4. Ilham Muh. Firdaus (English Education  - UIN Bandung) 5. Safitri Bonea P. (American Studies - UNS) 6. Febe Amalia H. (International Relations - UNPAD) 7. M. Iman Usman (International Relations - UI) 8. Jessica Angkasa (International Relations - UPH) 9. Asep Nanda P. (Accounting - UMS) 10. Elaine Tan (Business and Economics - UI) 11. Muhammad Rizqi A. (American Studies - UNS) 12. Nurul Ichsani (Communication - UNHAS) 13. Safrin La Batu (English Literature - UNHAS) 14. Salwa Amaliyah (Mathematics Education - IAIN Sunan Ampel) 15. Moh Hamli (Islamic History and Civilization  - UIN Jogja) 16. Nur Hayati S. (English Education - UIN Jakarta)...

In the last five weeks, I joined a group of 19 students from across Indonesia in a program sponsored by US Department of State, Study of United States Institute (SUSI) for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism 2011. This program took place mainly at Temple University , Philadelphia . It was organized by Dialogue Institute of Temple University (DI) and also International Centre for Contemporary Education (ICCE). In this post, I will only just state what this program is all about. My whole experience there will be divided into some posts as it is so valuable to be included in one post. About the Program As the title goes ‘SUSI for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism’, this program selects 20 young Indonesian student leaders. I met 19 other extraordinary students from all across Indonesia . They are the brightest students I ever met. In this program, we studied Religious Pluralism in US. We learned about the position and the role of religion in a-proclaimed-as secular ...