AGE AND MARRIAGE

As people get older, one common question may arise, that is, when will I get married? That is the question that we have been talking lately at the teachers’ common room. Most of the teachers agreed that age of 25 is the best moment for women to get married. They believe that if women have reached the age of 30 and have not married yet, they are likely to be spinsters and not ‘strong or agile’ in bed anymore [I don’t know this matter, I have not tried yet]. On men, it seems age is not a matter. Many teachers say that men can get married anytime they want as long as they are still productive and their sperm is still good. Some gave comments like this: even a grandpa can give a baby!!! That is a silly remark. I am not really sure with the above ideas. For sure I do believe that age matters but I don’t agree that 25 is best age to get married. For me, whenever I am ready, that is the perfect time to do so. Now, I turn to 24 and I am still not thinking about getting married since it does not bother me. I am still free and for the time being still wanted to be free.

Tung Desem Yang BODOH

Pertama sekali saya ingin minta maaf pada Tung Desem Waringin karena saya telah menyebutnya BODOH di judul tulisan saya dan jika beliau membaca tulisan saya ini tentu saya bahagia. Tentu pak Tung bukanlah orang yang bodoh karena beliau adalah lulusan universitas dan seorang motivator terkenal Indonesia. Baiklah jika saya memulai cerita mengapa saya dapat mengatakan bahwa pak Tung bodoh sehingga tidak menuduh dia semaunya. Baru-baru ini, saya membaca dan menonton di TV bahwa ada kegiatan pembagian uang gratis dengan cara menghamburkan uang dari sebuah pesawat chesna yang disewa seorong motivator. Kalau tidak salah uangnya berjumlah 100 juta dan dengan berdesak-desakan tua muda berebut uang yang berterbangan itu. Dan rupanya uang itu di hamburkan oleh seorng motivator terkenal Indonesia, Tung Desem. Wah saya cukup terkejut. Sebagai guru bahasa Inggris dan seorang yang awam sekali, saya tahu bahwa kata Motivator berasal dari kata Bahasa Inggris ‘motivate’ yang bearti mendorong atau memberi semangat pada seseorang untuk melalkukan sesuatu. Misalnya jika saya guru yang miskin dan bodoh ini, tugas seorang motivator adalah memberi saya semangat untuk bekerja pintar dan belajar dengan tekun dan memberi tips-tips untuk menjadi kaya bukan langsung meberi uang 1 Milliar. Maka menurut saya tugas motivator adalah sebagai pendorong kehidupan. Saya pernah kenal motivator seperti itu yaitu Bu Lanny Anggawati dosenku yang sangat luar biasa hebatnya. Maka perbuatan pak Tung menghamburkan uangya dari pesawat adalah suatu kebodohan besar dan celakanya lagi beliau adalah seorang motivator. Benar-benar dua hal yang kontradiksi sekali. Bukanya menyemangati, perbuatan itu justru mengajari kita menjadi pengemis dan malas dan tak berfaedah. Dan tentu itu terjadi karena pak Tung promosi buku barunya. Tetapi yakinlah, buku yang berkualitas akan terpromosi dengan sendirinya. Maka pak Tung tidak bodoh dalam arti intelektualitasnya tetapi dalam arti perbuatanya itu. Bukankah ada cara lain mengunakan uang secara bijaksana. Mengapa tidak memberi beasiswa atau bantuan pada panti asuhan saja. Memang dunia sudah berubah dan orang semakin banyak sudah masuk dalam kegilaan dunia. Sekali lagi saya minta maaf pada pak Tung karena telah menyebutnya bodoh dan tentu saya bukanlah orang yang pintar dan kaya seperti pak Tung. Saya juga kadang berbuat bodoh dalam hidup saya namun karena saya tidak terkenal maka kebodohan saya tak diketahui. Namun saya sedih jika orang yang pintar seperti pak tung berbuat bodoh. Jika pak Tung punya uang lagi untuk dihamburkan, lebih baik sumbangkan saja kesekolah tempat saya mengajar untuk membuat lab. Bahasa Inggris sebab kami belum memilikinya. Lebih baikan????



Peace


Kristian

The Consequence of Honesty: Our School’s Lessons

As I am writing this post for my blog, I have just come home from school. This morning, the school held a meeting to see and discuss the result of our school UN. As I told you before, we were a bit confused what options to choose in facing the National Examination or UN before. The options were to choose the honest path or the deceitful path. And thank God, we finally decided to choose the honest path, meaning that we will not help our students in doing the UN test. As one of the English teachers at the school, I strongly disagree with the idea of cheating in the UN. Therefore, I refused to help my students and let everything goes as it should be. The two UN try out has given us an indication that not more than 30% of our students deserved to graduate. Most of them are still not worthy to pass. Today, we gather at the school common room to see the result of UN. The result was not so surprising because out of 70 students only 14 of them graduated, others failed. Therefore, the 14 students are the best and worthy students. Most teachers including myself of course felt sad with the result and we become the victim of our community mockery but I feel proud as a teacher because honesty is being upheld now. It does not matter for me. All schools succeeded in the UN test in my region. SMAN 1, 2, MANIAMAS all students graduated with 100 percentage of graduation. In addition, they are so proud of their school. However, for me, they are cheaters of education. The schools helped the students by asking the teachers to do the test and I am NOT a kind of those teachers. My university taught me to be honest. Tomorrow we will announce the result to the students and we are ready to face the anger of students and their parents. Some teachers are afraid that some parents will go crazy and damage our school. I am ready to face the consequence of honesty. It is hard to be honest in today’s world since the system forces us not to be honest. I feel sad and proud at the same time. I am proud of my school because we dared to fight against the mainstream. I am proud because we still respect the meaning of honesty in education. Education without honesty is not education at all and if we teachers help students, we are not teachers but cheaters. Life is never easy and that is the main important thing that we must teach to our students. Now they are paying the consequence of life. They pay the risk of their behavior. On the other hand, I am sad because most of my students failed in the stupid test called UN. UN is nothing but a new form of our government STUPIDITY. We decide to continue passing through stupidity to our youth. I am sad because I am afraid my students will be so desperate. I hope everything will be just fine tomorrow and God be with us. Let cheaters now enjoy their joy. I promise to myself that as long as I become a teacher, I will never become a CHEATER. That is not me at all. As a nation, we will never be much better if we do not bring our education system to the right path. I hope that my headmaster will not be replaced due to the poor graduation.


Love and Peace




Kristian

Bad Days

Bad days!! That is what I have been facing lately. There are some reasons why these days have been called Bad Days.
First, during these few weeks, my body condition has been unwell; I feel that my body is sick. When I walk, my body feels like in a boat sailing in the ocean or waving condition. Then I visited a doctor to make sure what caused such conditions. After the doctor checked my body, then she came to a conclusion that I have suffered a disease called anemia. My blood pressure is only 90/70. That’s too low said the doctor. So far, I have done my best to recover, I have taken medications such as taking Sangobion (Blood stimulating pills) and I have also eaten cassava leaves and eaten goat barbecue. Till now, I often feel confused and get a headache. If I sit too long, when I get up, the world is quite black and my body is not balance. I don’t know what makes me suffer so. I don’t work really hard, or stay up too late.
Second, I have not been paid by the school for two months. Or in short, I have not received my salary. As you know, I am a non permanent teacher at school, so the salary heavily depends on the school financial condition. Since the school management is bad and worse. The money has gone somewhere, so many teacher are left unpaid for two months. Maybe this is the reason why every teacher in this country wants to be a civil teacher or state servant. Luckily, I teach at a course, so that helps to keep me alive. Though the course’s salary is not much, but at least it helps me in dealing with my daily needs. In my opinion, the school’s headmaster has led the school to a bankruptcy. He has embezzled the money. Maybe my accusation is wrong but that what I think of him.
Third, I have moved to a new home which is known as”haunted home’. Few months ago, my brother bought a quite big home or big in my opinion. The home is big and nice. Former owner of the home decided to sell the home cheaply. I feel afraid of living in the home alone since my mother goes to the village often. Some rumors say that the house has a kind of another world dweller or ghost and since most of my new neighbors confirmed so, I started to believe and my fear makes me sleep with my mother till now. Maybe, that is what in Psychology called the power of suggestive. As my gets longer in the house, I start to be brave and try to ignore the talks of others. Since then, I always pray before going to bed. Maybe, that makes me closer to Jesus.
Fourth, the internet connection sucks. The internet has not been working for two months. It has something wrong with the LAN or something. For sure, I can’t surf or check my email. The internet is provided by a network launched by the ministry of education called national education network or JARDIKNAS. Maybe, the local education office has not paid the bill or whatever which cause the error.

So, bad days surround me and I can’t avoid them. Sadly or happily, I have got to live and face them. No one hopes to face such days, but for sure they are coming by to everyone.

Cheers



Kristian

Feeling Happy Again

Wow..Today is a suprising day...the reason is simple:the internet connection now works again and this news makes me feel happy. I am totallh happy coz i can check emails, surf the net and be a blogger. Thank Gods for such happy moments.

Love