Exploring Poetry "Poetry Analisis"

When you are Old William B. Yeats   WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

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Bagaimana pun harus bertahan!!

Tadi siang didekat mesjid Al-Furqon UPI, saya bertemu dengan kenalan lama.  Ia sudah semester 10 sekarang. Sudah satu tahun tidak bertemu dan sekarang saya lihat dia sudah berjenggot tebal haha (tapi meski berjenggot tenang saja, bukan anggota ISIS kok hehe)

      “Hei ri, gimana kabarmu? Semester berapa sekarang?” sapanya..

      “Alhamdulillah baik bang, baru semester 4, mau ke 5.”

     “Wah cepet juga ya ri, ga kerasa, dulu saya lihat kamu masih pake celana abu-abu” celotehnya sambil sedikit tertawa..

      “Iya..alhamdulillah” jawabku mengiyakan sambil pura-pura tersenyum.

                                                                       ***

Lha kok pura-pura tersenyum? Ya sebetulnya engga pura-pura juga sih. Saya sekedar mendiktekan bahwa hal seperti ini memang bukanlah perkara aneh. Bertemu dengan seseorang yang sudah lama tidak berjumpa akan terasa pangling dengan perubahan atau hasil yang ada. Namun apabila melihat ke prosesnya, wah pasti aja sebundel kisah suka maupun dukanya. Seperti saya sekarang ini, mungkin orang akan mengatakan “wah ga kerasa ya kamu cepat sekali sudah semester sekian.....dst”, tapi saya sebagai orang yang menjalaninya, merasa empat semester ini terasa delapan semester. Bagaimana bisa?

            Yeah secara administratif, saya sudah dua tahun menuntut ilmu (ilmu kok dituntut? :D) di kampus yang terkenal dengan kampus perjuangan bumi siliwnangi ini. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, atau ironinya lebih populer dengan nama IKIP Bandung. Saya juga kadang kalau ada yang nanya, eh lu dimana kuliah? Sering saya jawab di IKIP Bandung. Dan setelah itu perbincangan menjadi senyap..Haha apaansi.. UPI, salahsatu kampus negeri di Indonesia yang katanya terkenal nomor wahid dalam bidang pendidikannya. Allright I affirm that, but I am not in favour for another fields.  Lha jadi kesini,, hmm oke yang ingin saya ceritakan disini adalah perjuangan saya selama dua tahun di kampus ini. Saya merupakan salahsatu mahasiswa di fakultas bahasa. Berkecimpung didunia kebahasaan, tidak semerta-merta membuat saya nyaman. Jujur, selama menjalani perkuliaahan ini, baik fisik maupun batin merasa tertekan. Saya sebenarnya tidak terlalu minat didalam ilmu kebahasaan atau linguistik. Hal itu terbukti dengan hasil psikotes saya yang tidak menunjukan adanya kelebihan di bidang kebahasaan. Malahan skor tertinggi berada di bidang Sains. Hmm, jujur sih sejak SMA saya sangat suka dengan sains apalagi fisika dan astronomi, wah rasanya indah sekali mempelajarinya, sampai-sampai  waktu itu lumayan sering berpartisipasi di Olimpiade Sains Nasional (OSN). Tapi entah mengapa, saat ikut ujian seleksi masuk perguruan tinggi, saya memilih jurusan bahasa disalahsatu pilihan saya. Dan ... mungkin sudah jalannya, saya diterima di salah satu jurusan di fakultas bahasa. Oke pada waktu itu saya merasa tertantang, namun setelah beberapa bulan diperkuliahan, hmm tidak semanis capucino cincau yang dijual disepanjang jalan geger kalong. Mungkin masalah gadang ngegarap tugas, semua mahasiswa mungkin pernah mengalaminya. Bukan itu sih yang menjadi tekanan. Bukan pula ruangan kelas yang sering berada dilantai paling atas gedung FPBS yang membuat saya kumat dari phobia ketinggian. Juga bukan pulalah karena kantin ‘yahudi’ (begitulah anak-anak FPBS menyebut kantin yang berlokasi di basemen gedung yang terkenal dengan harga jajanannya yang selangit). Tapi tekanan terberatku ialah diri saya sendiri. Saya bukanlah orang yang pandai dalam ilmu kebahasaan. Jangankan berbicara pakai bahasa asing, berbicara didepan umum pakai bahasa Indonesia yang notabene bahasa ibu saja terkadang terbata-bata. Sering saya mengalami antara apa yang saya pikirkan dengan hasil yang diucapkan tidak sinkron. Itu mungkin salahsatu yang membuat saya underpressure. Terlebih lagi, dijurusan saya masih terkenal dengan jurusan nasakom (nasib satu koma), artinya bukan tidak mungkin mahasiswanya memperoleh IP atau IPK satu koma lima.. Hmm.. Iya gitu? Entah lah, yang jelas yang saya rasakan sendiri, mendapatkan nilai B saja sangat susah. Sangat berbeda dengan jurusan lain dimana teman-teman saya yang santai-santai saja pun sangat begitu gampang memperoleh nilai A. Sedang dijurusan saya meskipun rajin masuk, berusaha murah senyum didepan dosen, tugas lengkap dan kumpul tepat waktu, ujian pun terisi penuh, masih saja mendapat nilai D. Nilai D loh.. bukan B ataupun A. can you imagine how jerk it is/ Sudah cape-cape belajar 6 bulan, buang uang buat print tugas, gadang tiap ngegarap tugas, eh hasil akhirnya tetap dosen yang menentukan. D. Ya, D dengan mutu 1 dan kalau 2sks menjadi 1x2= 2, kadang paling banter dapat C+ (C+ sudah seperti pemrograman komputer saja ya) The courses are always demanding. Jadi dijurusan ini yang dinilai memang benar-benar kemampuan kita, nomatter how famous you are in the campus, nomatter you are the president of students’ association or not, no matter who you are,, kalo misalnya jelek ya jelek. Banyak yang mengatakan mungkin karena 95% dosennya lulusan luar negeri. Hmm tapi saya sendiri, sudah terlanjur disini, the show must go on,. Saya dengan keterbatasan, terus berjuang, biarlah Allah yang menetukan hasilnya, yang penting sudah berusaha. Saya juga yakin, bila bersungguh-sungguh dosen pun tidak akan semerta-merta memberi nilai yang tidak sesuai dengan kemampuan kita (meskipun apa beberapa yang sering ngasih nilainya engga jelas huehe). Dan setelah berjuang, alhamdulillah di tingkat satu hasilnya tidak terlalu mengecewakan. Memperoleh indeks prestasi (IP) yang nyaris 4,0 membuat saya kaget. Ya gimana tidak kaget, saya sangat tertinggal sekali dalam hal kebahasaan, dan teman2 laki-laki lainnya berada di sekitaran 3,2.. Namun hal ini saya anggap sebagai hal yang tidak perlu dilebih-lebihkan, maksudnya dibuat sebagai ajang untuk aktualisasi diri, karena hakikatnya output tidak akan selamanya sama. Bisa naik, bisa juga turun, tergantung dari ihtiar kita. Ini menyangkut dengan hakikat hidup kita didunia ini (sok bijak banget sih haha..).

            Namun memang, berbicara masalah hakekat hidup sebenarnya membutuhkan rincian yang sangat panjang dan terinci. Namun secara ringkas, hakikat hidup bisa terungkap dari pernyataan Ali bin Abi Thalib. Menurutnya, awal kehidupan adalah tangisan, pertengahannya adalah ujian dan ujungnya adalah kefanaan. Ketika anda lahir anda menangis, dan tangisan itu akan menjadi warna kehidupan. Saat anda sedih dan juga bahagia terkadang ditandai dengan tangisan.  Ketahuilah, bahwa sesungguhnya kehidupan dunia itu hanyalah permainan dan suatu yang melalaikan, perhiasan dan bermegah-megah antara kamu serta berbangga-bangga tentang banyaknya harta dan anak, seperti hujan yang tanam-tanamannya mengagumkan para petani; kemudian tanaman itu menjadi kering dan kamu lihat warnanya kuning kemudian menjadi hancur. Dan di akhirat (nanti) ada azab yang keras dan ampunan dari Allah serta keridaan-Nya. Dan kehidupan dunia ini tidak lain hanyalah kesenangan yang menipu. (QS. 57:20)

Ada sesuatu yang kita akam dimiliki secara abadi sampai di akherat. dan juga yang hanya didunai ini. Maka jadikan dunia ini sebagai sarana dan mencari bekal untuk masuk ke alam selanjutnya. Karena alam yang akan dilalui manusia hanyalah one way, satu tiket. Alias tidak bisa balik lagi. Waspadalah, berhati-hati, bersungguh-sungguh dalam mencari ilmu dan beramal ketika didunia ini. Karena dunia, hanya dilalui sekali saja.

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Can Men and Women be "Just Friends"?

Teks ini merupakan salahsatu teks untuk ujian mata kuliah Reading 4

Can heterosexual men and women ever be “just friends”? Few other questions have provoked debates as intense, family dinners as awkward, literature as lurid, or movies as memorable. Still, the question remains unanswered. Daily experience suggests that non-romantic friendships between males and females are not only possible, but common—men and women live, work, and play side-by-side, and generally seem to be able to avoid spontaneously sleeping together. However, the possibility remains that this apparently platonic coexistence is merely a façade, an elaborate dance covering up countless sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface.

New research suggests that there may be some truth to this possibility—that we may think we’re capable of being “just friends” with members of the opposite sex, but the opportunity (or perceived opportunity) for “romance” is often lurking just around the corner, waiting to pounce at the most inopportune moment.

In order to investigate the viability of truly platonic opposite-sex friendships—a topic that has been explored more on the silver screen than in the science lab—researchers brought 88 pairs of undergraduate opposite-sex friends into…a science lab.  Privacy was paramount—for example, imagine the fallout if two friends learned that one—and only one—had unspoken romantic feelings for the other throughout their relationship.  In order to ensure honest responses, the researchers not only followed standard protocols regarding anonymity and confidentiality, but also required both friends to agree—verbally, and in front of each other—to refrain from discussing the study, even after they had left the testing facility. These friendship pairs were then separated, and each member of each pair was asked a series of questions related to his or her romantic feelings (or lack thereof) toward the friend with whom they were taking the study.

The results suggest large gender differences in how men and women experience opposite-sex friendships. Men were much more attracted to their female friends than vice versa. Men were also more likely than women to think that their opposite-sex friends were attracted to them—a clearly misguided belief. In fact, men’s estimates of how attractive they were to their female friends had virtually nothing to do with how these women actually felt, and almost everything to do with how the men themselves felt—basically, males assumed that any romantic attraction they experienced was mutual, and were blind to the actual level of romantic interest felt by their female friends. Women, too, were blind to the mindset of their opposite-sex friends; because females generally were not attracted to their male friends, they assumed that this lack of attraction was mutual. As a result, men consistently overestimated the level of attraction felt by their female friends and women consistently underestimated the level of attraction felt by their male friends.

Men were also more willing to act on this mistakenly perceived mutual attraction. Both men and women were equally attracted to romantically involved opposite-sex friends and those who were single; “hot” friends were hot and “not” friends were not, regardless of their relationship status.  However, men and women differed in the extent to which they saw attached friends as potential romantic partners.  Although men were equally as likely to desire “romantic dates” with “taken” friends as with single ones, women were sensitive to their male friends’ relationship status and uninterested in pursuing those who were already involved with someone else.

These results suggest that men, relative to women, have a particularly hard time being “just friends.” What makes these results particularly interesting is that they were found within particular friendships (remember, each participant was only asked about the specific, platonic, friend with whom they entered the lab). This is not just a bit of confirmation for stereotypes about sex-hungry males and naïve females; it is direct proof that two people can experience the exact same relationship in radically different ways. Men seem to see myriad opportunities for romance in their supposedly platonic opposite-sex friendships. The women in these friendships, however, seem to have a completely different orientation—one that is actually platonic.

To the outside observer, it seems clear that these vastly different views about the potential for romance in opposite-sex friendships could cause serious complications—and people within opposite-sex relationships agree. In a follow-up study, 249 adults (many of whom were married) were asked to list the positive and negative aspects of being friends with a specific member of the opposite sex. Variables related to romantic attraction (e.g., “our relationship could lead to romantic feelings”) were five times more likely to be listed as negative aspects of the friendship than as positive ones. However, the differences between men and women appeared here as well. Males were significantly more likely than females to list romantic attraction as a benefit of opposite-sex friendships, and this discrepancy increased as men aged—males on the younger end of the spectrum were four times more likely than females to report romantic attraction as a benefit of opposite-sex friendships, whereas those on the older end of the spectrum were ten times more likely to do the same.

Taken together, these studies suggest that men and women have vastly different views of what it means to be “just friends”—and that these differing views have the potential to lead to trouble. Although women seem to be genuine in their belief that opposite-sex friendships are platonic, men seem unable to turn off their desire for something more. And even though both genders agree overall that attraction between platonic friends is more negative than positive, males are less likely than females to hold this view.

So, can men and women be “just friends?” If we all thought like women, almost certainly.  But if we all thought like men, we’d probably be facing a serious overpopulation crisis.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.

About the Author: Adrian F. Ward is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His doctoral research is focused on the relationships between technology, cognition, social relationships, and self-esteem, and he worked briefly as a scientific consultant for a dating website.

 http://www.scientificamerican.com

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Fethullah Gulen's Message Condemning ISIS Appears in 5 U.S. Dailies Today

Fethullah Gulen, a world renowned scholar, preacher and social advocate published his message of condemnation in today's New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times and Chicago Tribune. Fethullah Gulen is the Honorary President of Washington, D.C. based Rumi Forum.

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ISIS Cruelty Deserves Our Strongest Condemnation

As a practicing Muslim deeply influenced by tenets of my faith, I strongly condemn the brutal atrocities of the ISIS terrorist group. Their actions are a disgrace to the faith they proclaim and are crimes against humanity. Religion provides a foundation upon which to establish peace, human rights, freedoms and the rule of law. Any interpretations to the contrary, including the abuse of religion to fuel conflicts, are simply wrong and deceitful.

ISIS is not the first group to use religious rhetoric to mask its cruelty-Al Qaeda did so 13 years ago and Boko Haram more recently. What they all have in common is a totalitarian mentality that denies human beings their dignity.

Any form of violence against innocent civilians or prosecution of minorities contradicts the principles of the Qur'an and the traditions of our Prophet (upon whom be peace and blessings). ISIS members are either completely ignorant about the faith they proclaim or their actions are designed to serve individual interests or those of their political masters. Regardless, their actions represent those of a terrorist group and, as such, they should be brought to justice and compelled to answer for their horrific crimes.

I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased in Iraq and Syria, and to the families of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and David Haines. May God give them strength, patience and perseverance, and alleviate their suffering. I also pray for the immediate and safe release of hostages and ask God, the Merciful, to lead us all toward mutual respect and peace. I invite everyone around the world to join me in these prayers.

Fethullah Gulen

Islamic Scholar, preacher and social advocate

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 Fethullah Gulen's original August 22 statement on ISIS is available at www.afsv.org

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Explicit and Embedded Sexual Content in Indonesian Horror Films and its Effect for Children

Student Essay

Harri Istihari  (1304554)

“Study on Media-2”

Argumentation

Writing for Academic purposes 1

1.   Lecturers:    Prof. Emi Emilia Ph. D

2.      Sudarsono, M.I, M.A

Indonesia University of Education

May 26, 2015 Bandung

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The movies released by some film productions have steadily got more graphic over the years, whether it is through scenes of violence, harassment, abusive, or sexuality. It is not astonishing that there is an arguable connection between how graphic a film is and how much attention it receives. Certainly, there is one genre which is notorious for combining all those graphic categories to grab as much attention as possible. It is horror movies. 

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If you are a partisan of horror, you may probably be in favour that the most eagerly awaited parts of these films, beside the mediocre acting and ridiculousness of the plots, are the scenes where the clothes start coming off. It seems when you were in your teens, Harry Potter was just hitting theaters, but now either way you have to admit: the sexier the movie, the better. All may agree that every aspect of a horror movie is quite beyond extreme. We mean the sex and the gore, things that are polar opposites, but paired together as a horror flick hallmarks. There is; however, the questions emerge dramatically about if those scenes allows for children. How come do we as supervisor of the children put them in such circumstances in which they are suffering from high as they watch sexual scenes? Who will be responsible for that? As long as there are two different sexes in a situation, sexuality exists everywhere, no matter in any environment either formal or informal setting and occurs to all level of society. It exists to make us aware of how we can be a protective guide for our children as the matter is knockout to deny.

Many studies have revealed that television programs often portray sexual themes that may inappropriate for children. Today’s television programming is replete with sexual innuendo, sexual contact, and sexual reference (Collins, Elliott, Berry, Kanouse & Hunter, 2004). Furthermore, the presence of Indonesian horror movies in many theaters can be easily accessed by kids under eighteen through many ways, for instance by youtube channel. So what is it about this particular genre that makes steamy scenes a guarantee? When asked whether or not sex was even necessary for horror films to be successful, Rami Ungar a writer, explains that sex is sometimes used to relax the audience after they have seen something scary. But how if the sexual scenes are displayed at the beginning of the movie as in Hantu Datang Bulan and Paku Kuntilanak movies which clearly portray the sexual intercourse scenes? As Ody Mulya Hidayat, a producer of Maxima pictures points out, most of the time sex is used by filmmakers to distract the audience when they know that their script is not strong enough. Amid the uproar of criticism from some parties, the criticism has done him good. Instead, he proudly plans to generate horror genre that contains sexual content within the film. As cited in tempo.co, he said:

“Kami memang jawara di genre ini, semakin banyak ditentang justru kian merangsang” (tempo.co/29/03/2010) 

(We are indeed the best of this genre, the more people oppose us, the better we feel stimulated)

            But it can be argued that the genre has gone a little overboard. In fact the amount of sex in these films has become so abundant that the adult industry has decided to further blur the line of explicit material by creating pornographic horror films. This skips the sham of hiding them as anything but porn while giving the audience the extended adult scenes that they enjoy from typical slasher flicks. Series of Suzana film for instance the episode of  Malam Jumat Keliwon is a perfect example of a mash up between the adult industry and horror films. In terms of western film, a parody of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the movie has a full storyline about a man who was unjustly murdered by the townspeople. Like the real Freddy, he then haunts the people responsible in their dreams, though with a far more sexual vibe. And people seem to enjoy it. Wet Dream has positive reviews on Adam and Eve, earning 4/5 stars from the 10 users who have rated it.

            Regarding the effect creating by the media, media portrayals of sexuality can affect young people’s socialized attitudes toward sex. In discussing potential effects of sexualized media, Stern (2009) states, “One concern is that sexual content posted by teens may prompt the perception among teen viewers that sex is normal, even glamorous, and risk-free” (Stern, 2009, 5). Here, there are several preventive steps to keep the children from the sexual content in the television that may become the consideration.

            First is related to the guidance of parents. Parent should be able to regulate and direct their children in many kinds of sex shows in television especially the horror movies. They have to explain things that the children may not understand. Here is to do with sexual education. It can be upheld not only in the school by the biology teachers but also in the house. Regarding this, some scholars propose to state that media such as television is a form of sexual education that is utilized by parents instead of sitting down with their children to talk about sexuality (Schneider, 2010). This is also in line with the statement of Stern

 “These media have become important sex educators as they include frequent discussion and portrayals of sexual behaviors that affect adolescents’ conceptions of sexual behavior” (Stern, 2009, 22). This is relevant considering the amount of time (6-7 hours) the average person spends watching television and engaging other forms of media.

            Second is to do with the role of government. the role of government is very important. Indonesia has Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia that can manage and filter the programs in Indonesians’s TV and movies. We can look at Malaysia. Malaysia’s Information Department has banned TV shows featuring sexuality content in the television. In Indonesia itself, the performance of KPI towards banning sexual content on television has considered well performance. But there are still depiction both explicit and embedded sexuality in almost all Indonesian horror movies. Therefore, KPI should be more aware towards the horror one.

Is this stronger influence from adult films the next step that we can expect from the horror film industry to attract audiences? If they stop making them more sexually explicit, they could be forced to go the other way and gain viewers simply by bettering their production and writing. Unfortunately—or fortunately depending how you look at it—it is probably just easier and cheaper to pay an actress to show off her breasts as opposed to writing a quality script.

To sum up, as long as there are still two different sexes in a situation, sexuality exists everywhere, no matter in any environment either formal or informal setting and occurs to all level of society. It seems not to consider the educational background. It is also undeniable that sexual content on television bring negative effects for children in the age of 13-18. The effects are related to the perception among teen viewers that sex is normal, even glamorous, and risk-free. There are also some preventive way that can be considered to prevents young generation towards the harm of sexual content in horror films. Those are the role of parents in home as an educators of sex education and the role of government that may filter some inappropriate contents on television or movies.

Works Cited

Collins, R. (2004). Does Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens’ Sexual Activity? Retrieved May 17, 2015 from RAND Corporation: http://www.rand.org/ pubs/research_briefs/rb9068/index1.html>.

Stern, Keller. Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, SexEd: Adolescents and the Media. The prevention research (1086-4385), 16 (5). 2015. Print.

http://tempo.co/read/news/2010/03/29/Tren-Mesum-Berbungkus -Seram

http://teens.lovetoknow.com/TV_Effect_on_Teenagers

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/facts/mediafacts.asp

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