Diary of my Dream

I have a dream. As far as I can recall, it was Srinagar, India in winter so fierce that it could crack man’s bone. I walked along the alley, where I could see many chickens slaughtered. Red blood was every way on the way I walk. To the right, I saw the corroborated window hanging on the perpetual loss of balance, blown by the fierce wind. While on the left, I saw an old lady, with her back bending on Earth, chewing gum, I guessed. Her eyes stared as if there was a hollow- sky hanging in from of her. Abruptly, a man hailed me, “Hi, you there, come here!” He waved his hand as a sign for me to get closer to him. “Yes, sir..did you want me?” I said. He rushed to me and without answering my question, he told me, “what on earth are doing here? This is a place where the most reputable criminal in this city lives. In a minute you may be a hopeless victim of their brutality. Back to where you belonged! Go..go..go!” I was so frightened then that it made me awake immediately. So powerful this dream was that I can’t resist writing it down.

AI comments:

It sounds like you had a very vivid dream! Dreams can often be a reflection of our thoughts, emotions, and experiences. It’s possible that your dream was influenced by something that you saw or experienced during your waking hours, or it could be a manifestation of your fears and anxieties.

The setting of your dream, Srinagar, India in winter, with its harsh weather and the sight of slaughtered chickens, creates a very bleak and eerie atmosphere. The old lady you saw chewing gum may represent a sense of detachment or apathy towards the violence around her, while the man who warned you about the dangerous criminal in the area could be a symbol of a protective figure in your life.

It’s important to note that dreams are highly personal and can mean different things to different people. If this dream has left you feeling uneasy or disturbed, it might be helpful to talk to a therapist or counselor about your experience. They can help you explore any underlying emotions or concerns that may have contributed to this dream and work with you to find ways to address them.

2.

On that day I played on the beach with my close friend. When I woke up in the middle of the night I realized that I have dreamt about the vast ocean. I was on a small boat without a machine. The boat was just rambling along the ocean with no clear destination. I was wondering where I was going ahead. The ocean was so vast that hardly I could see the horizon. So silent. So chill. Nobody with me. Nothing I heard. The sun was just going down glowingly pouring its reddish array of light. My boat seems just a small dot on the vastness of the blue pale of the ocean. I sat at the back of the boat quietly, with sorrow, with emptiness. I thought I was going to die dipped by the whale that might sense my presence. She showed her big eyes at last. He was so dreadful. She asked me, “What are you doing in my place?” Her voice was not musical although it sounded like a base instrument. It was not nice to hear. Well, I did not answer her and I did not want to say anything to her. What was her business asking me a question, I asked myself. In a sudden moment, she swayed her big tail and blew my boat into pieces beyond hope of repair. I dipped into the deep sea in the darkness.

3.

I have had two consecutive horrible dreams. But tonight, it changed a bit. I think I have been in a good mood during the day with so much ice cream I bought and eat. I know he was just a small kid, around ten years old. He is my neighbor whose house is just next to mine. His legs are wanky. No, I mean he is wanky. There is nothing to do with his legs. I can see also his bloated eyes as if they were full of jellyfish substance. His sound is soaring when he tries to talk to me. “Do you want an ice cream?” He asked me. “What?” I said. “Do you want an ice cream?” He repeated. It was so kind of him to offer me ice cream that I liked so much. “Sure,” I said. He gave me a bucket full of chocolate ice cream. Well, not only chocolate. Some of them were strawberries. I thanked him for a great deal. Then I woke up only to walk to my refrigerator, wanted to have one or two ice creams I bought during the day.

4.

My dream was backpacking. I went to Hong Kong. Yes, it was Hong Kong I recalled. I still remember the name of the road. It was Nathan Road in Kowloon. I hope I was right. The city was quite busy. I saw the people rushed for their work hours. The bell at the cross-road was so bizarre while cars and buses stopped and people crossed the road. No, it was my first time traveling to Hong Kong, I mean it was my first dream traveling to Hong Kong. On each side of the road, the shops were getting open one by one. Some shops opened simultaneously. Some shops were still closed for no obvious reason. I like the city. I enjoy the circumstances. It had been almost an hour since I walked the road but I spoke to nobody and bo body spoke to me.  So, I decided to enter a coffee shop and talked to somebody there. A young lady was sitting alone. I got close to her. “Mind?” She nodded. Then I sat in front of her and hail the waitress for my breakfast. She even did not bother by my presence.  I wanted to talk to her about the weather today, about the hurry of the people in the city, about the things that no people tried to say hi to me. I dismissed. I did not dare enough to begin the conversation. So I just kept silent looking at my gadget. Soon I woke up and realise that it was only a dream.

What does true terror look like?

By Moneeb Saada

In the wake of increasing tensions in Palestine, the Zionist lobby along with other influential forces are attempting to skew the narrative of the Palestinian reality; the Palestinians who are defending their right to live, their right to their occupied lands, and their homes that the Israeli occupation takes with force.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine is in direct contradiction of international law and international legitimacy. Those violations include the massacres it commits, the continued settlement and confiscation of lands, forceful expulsion of the country’s indigenous inhabitants and the destruction of their homes, racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and not least of which is the vandalization of sanctities…all the markers of occupation.

Resisting occupation is a right guaranteed by international law.
Israel and influential figures in America and Europe – tied through their coinciding interests in the Zionist lobby – repeatedly distort the Palestinian reality by sullying their right to defense with accusations of terrorism.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is the Palestinians did not occupy another state, nor did they displace its inhabitants, commit massacres, or crush their revolutions.

The explicit truth is that the executor of terror is Israel, possessing an army with an armamentarium of sophisticated military equipment, including internationally banned nuclear weapons, hundreds of aircrafts, thousands of tanks, and a navy consisting of hundreds of ships and submarines, while the Palestinians are bereft of any of this.
The explicit truth is that Israel has orchestrated and executed hundreds of brutal massacres against the Palestinians – and is continuing to do so – because it has never been held accountable by the international community nor by the favor the American government bestows upon it.

The explicit truth is that Israel is in control of all the Palestinian ports of entry through land, air, and sea. The Palestinians have no way to vent…Israel controls everything.

This indecisive and irresolute position on the part of the international community, for fear of American backlash, reflects a crude bias and double standard, considering the right to self-defense is guaranteed to all peoples and countries of the world as stipulated in the United Nations Charter. If Israel has the right to defend itself, then the same right must be extended to the Palestinians. When the Palestinians are defending themselves as a people under occupation, then resisting the occupation – with all possible forms of resistance – falls within the context of self-defense. As for Israel and its herds of settlers, they are the occupiers of Palestine who operate with aggression and terror.

The moment the Palestinian people unite and emerge from every region of Palestine from the river to the sea to face the Zionist occupiers, is the moment patience relinquishes its hold, and initiative must be taken to launch a national uprising; the moment when they must resist all forms of injustice, aggression, oppression, and racism practiced by the occupiers. This is especially significant considering they have given more than one opportunity to the Israelis, the Americans, and the whole world to achieve a just peace based on the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions and the signed agreements, all to no avail.

Saba Budaya Baduy, Sustainability, and Plastics

 

The Indonesian version of the article is available here

Mandala Kanekes is just like a mysterious black hole at the center of Milky Way, 26 thousand light-years from Earth, forcefully drags on every matter surround it, nowhere to escape. Since the eighteen century, when a Dutch traveler, Blume, felt in love with the allure of the nature of Kanekes’ land, up till nowadays in the twenty-first century there have been many scientific fellows, backpackers, and Baduy’s volunteers visiting Kanekes’ village.

Researchers, mostly academics, are interested in the social life of the Kanekesian or are concerned about environmental issues to study scientifically about the cultural, social, and economic activities of the Kanekesian. They do the researches as studies’ fulfillment in their respective field for master theses or doctoral dissertations, scientific journals or books.

Unlike the researchers, which numbered few—not exactly few, however, there are actually a plethora of academic articles pertaining to Kanekes scattered online—tourist visitors have been in an incessant influx into the village of Baduy, except during the Kawalu Fest, which lasts for three month –usually begin in March and end in May, during which no visitors can enter the village—these visitors, act as tourists, walk along the footpaths, watch gleefully every object they find on the way onto the village, some stay for a couple night, some detour in a day fulfilling their alluring curious imagination of Kanekes. When they go back, the unforgettable moment of the experiences they encounter wrap around their memories, but then forget carelessly any plastic they bring onto the village.

Unlike the tourist-visitors, the Baduy’s volunteers, who mostly come from outside of the village but have passions and intentions to respect and preserve Kanekesian’s ways of life, they come to offer their services to volunteer. Most likely these volunteers have aligned their vision and mission with the Baduy’s, either politically wrong or politically correct. They are prepared to raise an objection to any activities that will surely destroy the land, culture, and people of Kanekes. For example, if there is an ongoing ‘plot’ to open onshore oil exploration, then these volunteers will do their part protecting the Kanekes. They will oppose any illegal lodging activities and they will be very happy to campaign a Car Free Day in the village (which is impossible because there is no way car roads inside the Kanekes village!)

The effects of visitors’ influx

The effects of visitors’ influx have been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, some benefits emerge from the visitors as they bring money to the village. It boosts the economic activities of the villagers and there are more options available for villagers to make money instead of traditional farming only. Villagers may sell crafts, traditional woven-clothes, honey bees, and some fruits like coconut, durian, and mangos. On the other hand, visitors bring problems that the villagers some time difficult to handle. For instance, the problem of plastic garbage the visitors bring in.

Mulyono Kanekes reported his volunteering activity on plastic cleansing operation just to clean scattered garbage left by visitors who had carelessly forgotten to bring back plastics they brought in.  They bring with them ‘unforgettable memories’ back home but they are in deep shit ignoramus forgetfulness of taking back plastics out of the village.

Ujung-ujungna, urang Kanekes keneh bae nu katempuhan. (Read: Consequently, villagers have to play the chorus of cleansing these scattered plastics)

Identifying solutions to the problem

Once Moshe Dayan (He was an Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1977-1979) answered a journalist’s question as to how to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem. He said, “There is a solution to every problem. If there is no solution, then it’s no problem.” So to speak, there will be solutions to a problem of plastic in Kanekes. Nevertheless, unlike the Dayan proposition for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, identifying solutions for the plastic problem in Kanekes is a must.

Having years acquaintance with the Kanekes villagers Kang Heru Nugroho, initiated a meeting with some Kanekes leaders to discuss ways out from existing and potential problems. A solution agreed: To send a formal letter to His Excellency Joko Widodo, the President Republic of Indonesia mentioning several demands that the government should take action on Kanekes, among others, is a plea for omitting Baduy as a tourist destination. Done and ‘boom’ most mainstream national media made ‘buzzing’ news: Indigenous Baduy mandated Heru Nugroho and team sending letter to President demanding the exclusion of their village as a tourist destination.

Merely in a couple days, interestingly enough, the mandate given to Heru Nugroho and team was invalidated (!) as reported by travel detik. What the heck is going on? This article will not go into this matter.

Back to Kang Heru move, Baduy’s stackholders shocked by news and tried to make some clarification, as discussed in Sawala Budaya: “Mencari Solusi Untuk Masyarakat Baduy,” held in Cafe Umakite  Serang City, Banten, Indonesia in July 12, 2020.

A differing point of view

According to Kang Suhada, sending a letter to Presiden Joko Widodo is not a recommended way— rather, considering the way the mandate was given, it is against Adat customs. Pertaining to the matter of visiting Kanekes village, there is existing regulation that has been applicable since 2007, i.e. Peraturan Desa Kanekes Nomor 01 Tahun 2007 Tentang SABA BUDAYA DAN PERLINDUNGAN MASYARAKAT ADAT TATAR KANEKES (BADUY). In this Perdes there are some chapters regulating the way and process of visitation of the village that every visitor must comply (Chapters IV — V).

Kang Suhada further elaborated the Adat governmental structure that governed the society of Kanekes people that was effective by ‘the jure’ and by ‘the facto’ implemented and acknowledged by the Republic of Indonesia, even by the Dutch colonial, and even farthest by Banten Sultanate more than four hundred years ago. The point is that only Djaro Pamarentah who is authorized as a ‘foreign affairs’ officer to communicate formally with the outside world. As such, any other bodies, such as Djaro Tanggungan or Djaro Danka, have no such authorization (They have different job descriptions and spans of duty!) Hence, there will be no such thing as ‘diplomatic services’, even a free of charge service, from outsiders.

The philosophical messages of Saba Budaya Baduy convey the root meaning of ‘nyaba’ in Sundanese, Kang Suhada explained. It describes the moment when two different cultural entities meet and communicate. When a city fellows come to a village fellow or vice versa, it is called ‘nyaba.’ In the Indonesian cultural context, it is known as ‘silaturahmi,’ which comes from Arabic, meaning ‘to connect’ the love, the benevolent, and the mercy among humans, men and women, between two parties at equal distance, respects, and cares.

Therefore, Kanekes seen as an object destination of tourism is out of context for Kanekes culture. The terminology of Baduy Village as a tourism destination must be objected. Saba Budaya Baduy is ‘two-way equal communication’ rather than ‘one-way ignoramus communication,’ which will benefit the visitors only at the severe costs of Kanekes’ sustainability.