The Risky Journal

Supreme Court USA, Washington DC During my trip to USA on January - February, I visited one of the most important building in US i.e. Supreme Court building. It is located in Washington , DC . Like any other governmental building in US, it is all painted white and it has Greek architecture style. It felt so great to be there. It felt like a dream since one year ago, I only studied it from text book in my American government class.  It was in the morning, and pretty cold, somewhere between 0 - 5 Celsius degree. I love the cold haha. I stood in a line with my group waiting for the door to open. Entering the building, like usual we needed to pass through a very tight security check. Then, the awesome part ... the museum ... Like any other governmental building in Washington DC , there is a museum that is opened for public, and it is free !!! I observed many photos, figures and else ... Then, I found this scripture... ...

Hey folks. here is a video about my activities in US during SUSI Program two months ago (God it still feels like yesterday) !!! The video is created by my friend, Jessica Angkasa, a brilliant International Relations student from Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta. Thanks for making this great video Jess !!!

Hey friends, other photo sets are on the go ... Below are some of my journey at the very first days of my visit to US. We were brought to some historical sites at the heart of Philadelphia. This city is really historic. There are some key events taking place here. To mention some are the drafting as well as the signing of Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. It is the hometown of Benjamin Franklin and is where he is buried. It is also a very historical city in the context of religious freedom. There are plenty religions exist there. There are various churches of Catholic and Protestant's denominations on every corner of the streets. The oldest synagogue is also located there. And, it is the city where American Muslims mostly live. Don't be surprised if you wander at the town and meet women in veils. Enjoy ... The Old City Philadelphia Trolley Tour Part I Part II of the trolley tour will be added soon I get the photos from my friend >,<

Last Sunday, I went to a local radio station. RIA FM is a local radio station in Solo which is quite famous. They agreed to have me as their guest in one of their English radio program. During the one hour show, there were some questions from listeners that I found interesting to share here. Q: "What is your most interesting experience when you were in USA?" When joining SUSI RPA2011, I found so many interesting programs. However, there were two most significant program that I chose. Firstly, I said that this program gave me the opportunity to interact with many religious group that I never had interactions with. In this program, my group and I were brought to various houses of worships in Philadelphia and Florida. We were introduced to different kind of Churches denominations (i never heard the word 'denomination' before I joined the program :D ), Synagogues from two (and three for my self) denominations, Buddhist temple, and Bahai community, a religion...

Participants of SUSI RPA Winter 2011 from Indonesia (Art Class) I create some photo set to remember my experience in SUSI RPA 2011 ... Enjoy ... The first set is my departure from Solo and Jakarta. The second set is about Temple University, Philadelphia. The last set is about class activities. Really missing these moments.... Departure - Arrival Temple University  In class - lectures - discussion Seriously, lectures in US are not boring. I really love how they teach us. There will be more photo sets in process just wait and see :)

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...

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 ...