From a man that started a garbage picker association

In the modern society, social status and materials are two important thing that defines your identity. Even some says, your future. But after watching "Waste Land" I need to rethink the way I see what I want in my life. Especially when it comes to the pressure  from my family to be successful and rich. 

From Brooklyn to Jardim Gramacho

Waste Land offers an interesting angle to see poverty and the future. When some people can be pessimistic about being poor, but for the rest there is always a future even though you are poor. Waste Land brought together a Brazilian born famous photographer, Vik Muniz, to Rio De Janeiro to work together with the garbage pickers in the the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramach. The first idea was simple, he just wanted to "paint" the pickers with garbage as background. However their interaction and personal stories from the pickers were inspiring. 

They managed to survive and lived with dignity despite the poverty and social problems that imposed. The pickers came from different backgrounds - some came because their parents worked there, some had to come because they had nowhere to go. The land filling site was their way to get away from prostitution or drug trafficking industry which are common in Rio de Janeiro. Some female pickers chose to picking up garbage than selling their body. 

The central person in this documentary is Tião. An impoverished garbage picker who started a garbage picker association in Jardim Gramach. He and his friend had a dream to protect other garbage pickers and  hoped to provide them with other life skills, such as computing or reading. It was inspiring to see these two ordinary garbage pickers had to deal with people who brought them down or even stole their collective money. But they did not stop, they kept working and even trying to train the younger generation of Jardim Gramach to read so that they can have a better future. 

Tião's meeting with Vik Muniz opened Muniz's eyes to an inspiring side of the slum. It was not just about a pile of garbage but a collective of people with hope that choose to live in dignity. The life in slum area is bad enough that you can easily be involved in drug trafficking and then die. In one scene Tião explained that many of his friends died because of drugs or involved in criminal acts. 

After working in a while with the garbage pickers to create their 'art works', Muniz and his team had a debate about bringing Tião to London. The debate was triggered from a picker that said she hoped not to go back to the land filling site again. She had a good time in the Muniz's art studio and she hoped she could get a better job at the studio. 

A project insider then took that statement as a consequence of the project - have they changed the pickers natural habitat? What if they refused to return to the land filling site after experiencing a better lifestyle? But Muniz, who also grew up in a slum area in Brazil, defended the pickers. He thought they deserve to see a different side of the world they see everyday. They deserve to have a better life than Jardim Gramach. 

Inspiring!

I cried when the film ended. It is inspiring and have collected my favourite lines in the film. Mine are from the old garbage picker in that community, Valter. 

"The fight is long, but victory is certain,"
"It is not bad to be poor. It is bad to rich at the height of fame with your morals a dirty shame," 

Valter passed away not long after he met Muniz. Muniz also made an art work from his photo. 

Valter: a senior garbage picker in Jardim Gramacho who died in the beginning of the documentary project

Here is a link to the documentary. Someone uploaded it on Youtube. Thanks!

More information about Waste Land can be found here  www.wastelandmovie.com/

Why It Is Not Okay to Blame the Dead Victims of the #CharlieHebdo Attack

The #CharlieHebdo attack has a significant impacts on how my Muslim friends see this tragedy. First thing I noticed that for them, it's all about religion and such thing called 'the freedom of speech' is nonsense if you use that to attack their religion and Mohammad.

I respect my Muslim friends and how the value their religion and their Prophets. As someone who grew up in SUCH a religious family, I find it difficult to separate the doctrine of my family religion from my personal views. Even though personally I categorise myself as a 'free-minded' person, still I am not that perfect that sometimes I can be bias in judging a problem. Because I will still use the values of Christianity like, "don't be self-righteous", "make peace, not war", "pray for people that hate you", and "forgiving others". That why I cannot see why someone must attack others just because they do not like them? Why don't they just pray and use a peaceful approach instead? Well, I wish I could do better than that. Because it seems the world does not work in Christian way. 

After I posted comments about my support for the victims of the #CharlieHebdo attack, some of my Muslim friends approached me and then we discussed about our feelings about the attack. For them it is all about religion and there is no such thing called ''making fun of Islam and their Prophets". I am also interested in a comment from a senior Indonesian journalist. Overall he stated that the attack was caused by the cartoonists themselves, because they kept publishing satirical cartoons about Prophet Mohammad even though they had been criticised and threatened by Muslim groups.

Post by Pepih Nugraha.

I understand the reason behind his statement and my Muslim friends. For them, Prophet Mohammad is a highly respected figure and it is painful when other people make fun and disrespect their religion. Especially when you have been warned before NOT TO do that. Because it is not funny!

But is it fair to justify the attack with the "they did it first" analogy? 

People have different opinions on this issue, but for me I will not use the analogy. First only cowards will use that reason. Additionally, not just because it simplifies the actually a complex social problem, it gives legitimization to other religious extremists to do the same. 

So instead of simplifying a chronic social problem, let us think clearly and constructively. 
Firstly, France is different from Indonesia and in my previous article I explained how France is a vulnerable country and the social tension is high. Silvestri from the the City University London has an interesting insight how actually the #CharlieHebdo attack was a horrific escalation of violence in an already tension society.  So I must say the satirical cartoons are just the small top of an iceberg of the French social problems. 

Secondly, before we make any comments on this topic, we need to understand that people in journalism and media industry are sensitive about 'the freedom of expression' topic. This has become a sensitive topic because the increasing number of journalists and media producers that were killed or imprisoned on duty. For example there were journalists who were murdered and three Al Jazeera journalists are jailed in the Middle East for being  falsely accused and then found guilty of aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

 

Please spare your time to read a letter from an Egyptian journalist who could not make it to his son's birth.

If someone justifies the attack with the 'they did it first' rule, while ignoring other social tensions other related conflicts then maybe they need to sit down and do a little research. And before you rush and leave your computer, thinking I am just a stupid person, an interesting article by Ali Mamouri from the Australian Catholic University about Islam, blasphemy and free speech, three interrelated issues that have become a modern conflict could be your cup of tea. 

So before you rush to your phone, computer, pad, or even your boyfriend (like me) and make nonconstructive comments, please make sure you have done appropriate research. Done by reliable sources and verified. 

And please don't hate me just because I wrote this. I am just like other people who love laughing

Post by Marjane Satrapi.

Repost: Post-trauma recovery in digital age and why the #CharlieHebdo Attack is not simply a religious issue

I am sad to follow  the updates of the Charlie Hebdo attack. It was heartbreaking and I feel personal connection because I have friends who live, work, and have families and friends in Paris. As an Indonesian who is living in Australia, I am still in the mourning period of the Sydney siege and the crash of AirAsia QZ8501. After watching the news, I felt restless then I decided  to write my sympathy for the victims of this attack. Of course it is not just for the innocent people who died in the attack, but the people of France and all Muslims around the world. 

Like many people, I have a dream to visit France one day. France has always been magnificent for me: its history, revolution, language, wine, and the girls!  And like other countries, France also has complex problems: economy, immigration, and job crisis - especially if you live in Paris. The Guardian called France as 'the New Sick Man of Europe' for its economic problems, such as the rising unemployment, weak growth, a disaffected business community, low productivity and high taxes. In 2009 New York Times published a report of the increasing number of stressed workers in France following a sucide accident of a worker of the Orange Telecome company. Not to mention the racial and religious problems within the society. From what I have gathered, France is just the same as other countries, it is vulnerable. 

We all grow up vulnerable in the fear of something. I never thought that my generation will grow up afraid of being killed in a public place, just because we happen to be there. I thought it would still be AIDS or the ASEAN open market thingy. A totally different kind of tragedy that I wanted. 

The little weapon! #CharlieHebdo #cartoon pic.twitter.com/VFFZD2f8Rz

— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) January 7, 2015

Share love, not hatred

With the internet and media coverage in this digital age, it is difficult not to be emotionally affected by a tragedy. Especially when it happens in your neighborhood, work place, or even in a little village in Pakistan where a friend of the extended family of your sister-in-law's colleague used to live. See? It is amazing how technology can connect us, but also destroy us. 

As millennials, we have our mobile devices to connect with people from all around the world. Everyday we exchange information - some are shits, some are gold. It all depends on you which one you want to share with your peers, or the strangers in your follower list. After I saw the ABC published the news on the Charlie Hebdo attack, I checked my Facebook page, just in case anyone that I know was a victim. I sent a message of sympathy to my French Friends, then I checked Anggun C Sasmi's twitter and she still looks fab. But that's not the point. The point is that we don't need to put more religious tension at this stage. We feel afraid, then we need to find ways to cope. It is more effective to be nice and be emphatic. 

Because the victims are not just the cartoonists and other people who were shot in that attack, but also the people of France and all Muslims around the world. The social media such as Twitter and Facebook then became a public sphere where people came together to express their concerns and sympathy. It is easy to raise the tension by making religion-related comments on social media. If you are reading this, I hope you did not do the same mistake. That just shows that you are scared, and you should know that you can feel scared without hurting others. 

However, we should not be afraid. Because as a Taliban attack survivor, Melala Yusofani, once said "I am stronger than fear". Cowards are afraid of something they don't even understand. Don't be one. Investigate, digest, understand better. Then if you feel less scared, pass this feeling to others. That's how we millennials make the world - at least - a less scary place. 

"Thousands of demonstrators gathered Wednesday at the Place de la Republique after the shooting deaths at a French satirical newspaper in Paris" .
Image Source: the Daily Beast