Trust

TRUST was the theme raised last Sunday in my first Anusara class in Singapore with a Certified Anusara Teacher, Bo Srey.

In entering new environment or a new relationship, it is our natural human instinct to find and to build the trust relating with new places or new acquaintances. Some people are easy to open their hearts to explore trust but not for some others.

Building inner trust in ourselves would--despite whatever things happen or people do to us, good or bad, high or low-- brings confidence for us to continuously grounded and connected to the greatest energy of the Universe, and to endlessly extend the light to all directions.

What is Our Carbon Emissions and Energy Profile?

Every time my night flight approaching any airports, glimpse of scattered lights always strikes me: How human spends millions and billions of joules to generate electricity. How millions and billions of carbon are produced from that energy mix.

Most of the time we took it for granted.

Every Megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity transmitted and distributed through the grid consumes about three times of primary energy in terms of energy unit. It produces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) which is measured in CO2e (carbondioxide equivalent). The quantity of CO2e/MWh depends on the type of primary energy, be it coal, oil, gas or renewable energy sources, which is used to generate the electricity.

Energy mix of Java-Madura-Bali grid in Indonesia contributes to about 0.75-0.89 ton of CO2/MWh. in India, the national electricity grid has the emission factor of 0.81 ton of CO2/MWh, while is Pakistan is about 0.43 t of CO2/MWh. Difference lies in higher coal consumption of energy mix of power generation in Indonesia and India, while cleaner electricity, in terms of lesser carbon emissions, in Pakistan is due to their high consumption of natural gas. Vietnam has almost 52% of of their power generation by Hydro and it was estimated that their electricity emission factor is about 0.62 t of CO2/MWh. Laos produces 98% of their electricity by hydropower and this creates a low electricity emission factor for sure.

A lady who spends 20 minutes/day, 365 days/year, drying her hair with 1000 W hairdryer would generate about 91-108 kgs of CO2e/year in Jakarta from this activity, while she would only generate about 73 kgs of CO2e/year in Hanoi. Assuming the rule of thumb of 3:1 in converting primary energy to electricity, she consumes about 3600 kilojoules of primary energy.

Do your own math and you'll see how much emissions you have generated and how much energy you have consumed in your life!

Happy New Year

As the end of year drawing near, both lunar and solar, Hijriah and Gregorian, we are preparing of the future that lies before us. This year is so rich with global shocking news: US Election, financial crisis, Pakistan bombing, Mumbai Hostage, etc, etc. It gives doubt but at the same time a slight hope. Thus, we also start listing our individual plans for 2009: Will I have a promotion? Will a get a new job after being laid off from my old company? God, oil price have decreased a lot, it is impossible to get more bonus next year….Can I still take holiday this year? Hmmm, I’d better save more cash than spending.......

We, as human, tend to focus on what happen next, and worry about what happen in the future. We often forget that the future is built on the past, and it is necessary to prepare our future by taking time to look back, learn from the past.

We, as human, tend to be carried away by success and afraid of failures. We expect joy and try stay away from sorrow as much as we can. Nevertheless, many great successes are result from capability of learning in failures. And how we could appreciate happiness without experiencing sorrow?

Our past, be it good times and be it bad times, provides us the opportunity to enrich ourselves. It comes in a sinusoidal cycle of circle, no starting point and no end. We could imagine as if this universe is a classroom, and all of us are student that keep on learning in dimension of time without beginning and without an end. Past and Future are integrated into a full infinite cycle and “Present” is the balancing point where we weave our future based on our past experience.


“I am not afraid of tomorrow for I have seen yesterday and I love today”

William Allen White

Wish you a happy, thoughtful, and enlightening Hijriah 1430……….and Gregorian New Year 2009………

It All Depends on How One looks at Things

By Taoist writer, Lieh-tse:

"A man noticed that hiz axe was missing. Then he saw the neighbor's son pass by. The boy looked like a thief, walked like a thief, behaved like a thief. Later that day, the man found his axe where he had left it the day before. The next time he saw the neighbor's son, the boy looked, walked, and behaved like an honest, ordinary boy."

Luggage Tag

It was 12.30 at Changi Airport. I was waiting in front of the conveyor belt delivering checked luggage and baggage, SQ 873 from Hong Kong. One, two, three, and chain of baggage were circulating slowly. My eyes were focused to the belt, following the movement of the conveyor. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. I did not see any sight of my greenish-Grey (or grayish-green?) 23 kg-luggage.

20 minutes. 25 minutes.

A security officer was approaching and he asked me, “Excuse me ma’am, are you still waiting for your luggage?”

And, of course, I said yes. So finally, 10 minutes after that I was asked to report to the lost and found counter, where they prepared a report for missing luggage and a request of worldwide luggage tracing.

“we’re so sorry ma’am, but we will try the best that we could do to locate your luggage and deliver it to your place, can you sign here please? Meanwhile, we shall provide you a compensation of 120 $ and amenities kit for you”.

Ooooopssss.

To date, checked baggage and luggage are identified by the paper tag with bar code which allows for automated sorting of the bags to reduce the number of misrouted, misplaced or delayed bags. The transfer of bags from one airline to another is possible and we just need to inform at the first check-in counter, to which destination our bags shall be delivered according to our itinerary.

Quoted from Wikipedia, Bag Tag :

The first "separable coupon ticket" was patented by John Michael Lyons of Moncton, New Brunswick on June 5, 1882. The ticket showed the issuing station, the destination and a consecutive number for reference. The lower half of the ticket was given to the passenger, while the upper half, with a hole at the top, was inserted into a brass sleeve and then attached to the baggage by a strap.

The criteria for issuing a baggage check or luggage ticket with liability limit was established in Warsaw convention, article 4.

How on earth people traveled with bags those days??

I woke up the following day, full of anxiety. Switched computer, connected to internet and virtually went to www.worldtracer.aero, keyed-in file reference and name and clicked “Enter”:

Status: Item located. Pending confirmation. The phone rang.

“Is this Ms. Priambodo? Ma’am, we would like to inform you that your luggage has arrived in Singapore and we will deliver it to your address within the next two hours”.

HURA!!!!!!!!!

Chang'an dulu, Xi'an kini

Sekitar tahun 80-an, ada film seri kungfu kondang yang berjudul “the legend of condor heroes”. Sang tokoh bernama Kwee Cheng dengan pasangannya Oey Yong. Keduanya aktif beraksi di dunia Kang Ouw dan ada periode dimana mereka membantu pemerintah untuk mempertahankan Ibu Kota Xiang Yang dan Chang’an di jaman Dinasti Sung, Tiongkok, sekitar abad 9. Saat itu, kedua kota ini memiliki peranan penting dari segi politik dan ekonomi.

Tak dinyana, lebih dari 10 abad kemudian, Kota Chang’an, yang kini bernama Xi’an masih menyimpan pesona keemasannya. Konon, daerah ini memang sudah menjadi tempat pemukiman dari sejak jaman neolitik. Bahkan dinding yang mengitari kota Xi’an sebetulnya sudah dibangun sejak 194 AD. Dinding ini direkonstruksi di jaman dinasti Ming dan menjadi dinding yang mengelilingi kota tua Xi’an sampai saat ini.

Biasanya turis yang mengunjungi Xi’an bertujuan untuk mengunjungi situs galian patung terracotta yang saat ini menjadi bahan cerita di film mummy 3. Tetapi, situs yang tidak kalah menarik di Xi’an adalah perkampungan muslim yang letaknya persis ditengah-tengah kota Tua Xi’an. Daerah ini penuh dengan toko-toko jajanan dan barang-barang antik, dan juga menjadi tempat salah satu masjid tertua di China, the Great Mosque of Xi’an. Masjid ini dibangun tahun 748 AD dan arsitekturnya murni arsitektur Tiongkok. Sentuhan timur tengah hanya ditemui pada ukiran-ukiran kaligrafinya. Masjid ini masih aktif menjadi tempat ibadah kaum muslim di Xi’an selain menjadi obyek wisata turistik.

Penganan dan jajanan yang membanjiri kios-kios di perkampungan muslim ini banyak yang mirip dengan jajanan pasar yang ada di Indonesia: ada yang berbentuk seperti Jenang dan wajik dari jawa, ada yang mirip sekali dengan kue putu betawi, kue tambang, manisan buah, sejenis dodol dan juga berbagai macam kudapan serupa dengan enting-enting.

Berbeda dengan komunitas muslim di negara lain yang pernah saya kunjungi, toko-toko makanan ini tetap buka dan menjalankan bisnisnya seperti biasa di siang hari di bulan Ramadhan. Prinsip yang saya lihat disini “Puasa sih puasa, tapi bisnis bisa jalan terus, wong banyak orang yang gak puasa mau makan kok….."

Puasa 2008

04 September 2008

Al Baqarah 183:

“O you who have attained to faith! Fasting is ordained for you as it was ordained for those before you, so that you might remain conscious of God”

Puasa biasanya lazim disebut sebagai ritual umat islam setiap bulan Ramadhan. Dimulai dari fajar sampai matahari tenggelam, umat muslim tidak diperbolehkan makan dan minum dan juga harus menahan hawa nafsu yang lainnya. Biasanya sih, menahan lapar dan haus itu lebih mudah dari menahan godaan yang lainnya, terutama emosi dan percakapan.

Sebetulnya, berpuasa itu sudah lama diterapkan, bahkan dari sebelum Islam diturunkan. Disebutkan dalam kitab Injil (Exodus, 34:28) bahwa Musa AS berpuasa selama 40 hari/40 malam, Isa AS juga berpuasa selama 40 hari di padang pasir , sebelum Beliau menghadapi tiga macam cobaan (Lukas 4:2) dan kemudian puasa ini diadopsi sampai kini oleh umat katolik sebagai puasa “pantang” sebelum paskah. Di kalangan Kejawen, ada beberapa jenis puasa dan bentuk-bentuk puasa ini ada yang bersifat sinkretis, karena dipengaruhi oleh tradisi Islam, seperti Puasa Senin-Kamis.

Secara moral, pesan yang explisit dari puasa adalah merasakan bagaimana kaum miskin dan papa berjuang untuk sesuap nasi dan segelas air. Lebih dari itu, puasa menyadarkan kita bahwa kebutuhan fisik kita, yaitu makanan dan minuman, tidak sepenting kebutuhan ruhani kita. Berusaha untuk tidak marah,emosi dan pengendalian diri adalah makanan ruhani agar jiwa kita tetap bersih.

Mudah-mudahan puasa kita tahun ini diterima oleh Tuhan dan jangan sampai lapar dan haus sia-sia yang hanya kita dapatkan!