Superworms offer hope for recycling

 I read a news about a type worm that could digest plastic. Below is my summary of that topic.

 Australian scientists have found the Zophobas morio - commonly known as a superworm - can survive on a diet of polystyrene. They believe the beetle larvae digest the plastic through a gut enzyme. That could be significant for advancements in recycling. Polystyrene (PS), including extruded polystyrene (also known as styrofoam), is among the most commonly produced plastics worldwide. 

In this study, the researchers changed in the gut microbiome of superworms (Zophobas morio) reared on bran, PS or under starvation conditions over a 3 weeks period. Superworms on all diets were able to complete their life cycle to pupae and imago, although superworms reared on PS had minimal weight gains, resulting in lower pupation rates compared to bran reared worms. The change in microbial gut communities from baseline differed considerably between diet groups, with polystyrene and starvation groups characterized by a loss of microbial diversity and the presence of opportunistic pathogens. This study confirms that superworms can survive on polystyrene feed, but this diet has considerable negative impacts on host gut microbiome diversity and health.

The minimal weight gain of the larvae on a PS diet will probably hamper their use in the PS recycling process. In particular, downstream applications such as biodiesel production from superworm fatty esters, an approach that has been proven feasible using superworms raised on regular feed,  might not be achievable. Diet diversification, for example by supplementing styrofoam with food waste, could help to counteract the dietary deficits of the unbalanced PS feed and might increase gut microbiome health and subsequently host weight gain.

The researchers hope to identify which enzyme is the most effective so it can be reproduced at scale for recycling. Plastic would then be mechanically shredded, before being treated with the enzyme. The breakdown products from this reaction can then be used by other microbes to create high-value compounds such as bioplastics. 

Despite the promise from this study, the scale-up and translation of research like this is always a challenge, which is magnified in the area of plastics by the incredible scale of the problem and the economics in terms of how cheap new plastic is to produce.

References
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61727942
https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000842

DNA don't lie

 On 24 August 79AD Pompeii erupted. More than 1800 years later archaeologists dig bones of a couple of human skeleton from the site. From the position [of their bodies] it seems they were not running away, The answer to why they weren't fleeing could lie in their health conditions.

Recently scientist analyzed the DNA taken from a "really small amount of bone powder" and find that the man's skeleton contained DNA from tuberculosis-causing bacteria, suggesting he might have had the disease prior to his death. And a fragment of bone at the base of his skull contained enough intact DNA to work out his entire genetic code. 

This showed that he shared "genetic markers" - or recognisable reference points in his genetic code - with other individuals who lived in Italy during the Roman Imperial age. But he also had a group of genes common,

The technology to extract DNA information from ancient skeleton is remarkable. Our silent bones just could not lie. It would not be too much stretch of imagination if someday our DNA data are routinely stored in a huge database. Below we could see that cost has dropped significantly. 

Of course there would be questions of legality etc but really how could we prevent our DNA data from being collected without our consent. Even our saliva contains our DNA. Whenever we dine out we would leave our saliva sample inadvertently.

References
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61557424
https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Sequencing-Human-Genome-cost
https://salimetrics.com/collecting-and-handling-saliva-for-dna-analysis/#:~:text=The%20DNA%20in%20saliva%20originates,then%20extracted%20by%20various%20methods.

Lost in Synodal Way

The Catholic bishops’ conference of Germany launched its “Synodal Way” Dec. 1, 2019, nominally to provide a platform for discussion and reflection on the shocking revelations of clergy sexual abuse that roiled the nation. The Synodal Way's supreme body is the Synodal Assembly. It consists of 230 members, made up of archbishops, bishops and auxiliary bishops, as well as an equal number of lay-members from the Central Committee of German Catholics. To be noted that 60 out of the country’s 67 bishops are supportive of the Synodal Way.

The Synodal Way is further divided into four Synodal Forums that each focus on a particular topic : 
(1) Power and Separation of Powers in the Church - Joint Participation and Involvement in the Mission (2) Life in succeeding relationships - Living Love in Sexuality and Partnership
(3) Priestly Existence Today, and
(4) Women in Ministries and Offices in the Church

Back in 2019, in statements that alarmed the Vatican, the Synodal Assembly signaled its intent to challenge Church doctrine and discipline, and vowed to issue its own “binding” teaching on a range of sensitive matters. A plenary meeting of the Assembly on March 2022 in Frankfurt approved drafts in favor of same-sex union blessings; changes to the Catechism on homosexuality and the ordination of women priests; for priestly celibacy to be optional in the Latin Church; and for lay involvement in the election of new bishops.” 

Pope Francis wrote a letter to all Catholics in Germany in June 2019, objecting to the Church in Germany’s course of action. He cautioned that a failure to heed his warning could result in “multiplying and nurturing the evils it wanted to overcome.”

But, more generally, the majority of German citizens seem to care little about the country’s “Synodal Way,” including many of the country’s 22.6 million Catholics, of whom many are lapsed or poorly catechized. “Most of them only read the headlines ‘Celibacy should be abolished!’ ‘Demand for the ordination of women as priests’; ‘Blessing of all sexual orientations,’” said Father Guido Rodheudt, a parish priest in Aachen. “The result is usually a loud yawning.”

Most critics are convinced that despite discussing changes to doctrine the German church has no intention of breaking from Rome or attempting to change doctrine without Rome’s approval, even if none of their proposals are accepted. The recent movement in Germany to bless same-sex couples in defiance of the Vatican as a sign that the German church is willing to break from Rome, but the German bishops’ conference opposed the blessings. The movement revealed the tension that sometimes exists between bishops and the progressive grassroots in Germany, but the synodal path is generally a place where those groups, among others, are seeking common ground. 

Pope Francis  has not made any official comments, although many people took a comment he made in November 2020 as a reference to the synodal path. He said: At times, I feel a great sadness when I see a community that, with good will, takes a wrong path because it thinks it is making the church through gatherings, as if it were a political party: the majority, the minority, what this one thinks of this or that or the other.... “This is like a synod, a synodal path that we must take.” I ask myself: “Where is the Holy Spirit there? Where is prayer? Where is communitarian love? Where is the Eucharist?” Without these four coordinates, the church becomes a human society, a political party.

References:

https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-german-synodal-path-an-explainer

https://www.ncregister.com/news/germany-s-synodal-way-divides-local-catholics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synodal_Path

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/06/24/german-synodal-path-way-explainer-240919

Unorthodox Church

Father Pluzhnik belonged to the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church which takes its direction from its religious leadership in Moscow. Recently he applied to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Many fellow priests who followed Patriarch Kirill in Moscow are doing the same because of the Church leader's stance on the war. Not only in Ukraine,  Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam also has announced split with Moscow. 

The head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, a trusted ally of Vladimir Putin, has declined to condemn the Kremlin’s decision to invade its neighbor, referring to Russia’s opponents in Ukraine as “evil forces”. In a Sunday sermon last week he also said gay pride parades organized in the west were part of the reason for the war in Ukraine.

Such negative reaction to the Russian Orthodox Church is shared by more than 280 Russian Orthodox priests and church officials from around the world signed an open letter expressing their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It said “eternal torment” awaited those who gave “murderous orders”.

For Russian Orthodox nationalists -however- Putin is fulfilling the prophecy of a twentieth-century saint from Chernihiv, now one of Ukraine’s beleaguered cities. “Just as the One Lord God is the indivisible Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” this monk foretold, “so Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus together are Holy Rus’ and cannot be separated.”

It looks like Patriarch Kirill to pay  a colossal price for loyalty to Putin. A third of his parishes and monasteries are located in Ukraine. Orthodox abroad have condemned the war—including Kirill’s own bishops in Estonia and Lithuania—along with Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Instead of a Russian World, the Moscow Patriarch may soon find his authority stopping at the borders of the Russian Federation.

sub-atomic controversy

Recently some scientist announced their finding of the weight of a sub-atomic particle called W boson. Apparently it is more massive than the theories predicted. If the experiment could be verified by other experiments then the so-called standard model of particle physics - which has predicted the behaviour and properties of sub-atomic particles with no discrepancies whatsoever for fifty years- has to be revised. The standard model was “probably the most successful theory and scientific theory that has ever been written down – it can make fantastically precise predictions”. But if those predictions were proved wrong, it could not merely be tweaked. It’s a like a house of cards, you pull on one bit of it too much, the whole thing comes crashing down. The W boson is considered a key building block of the Standard Model,

But the standard model is not without its problems. For example, it doesn’t account for dark matter, which is thought to make up 95% of the universe. Of course extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  All eyes are now on the Large Hadron Collider which is due to restart its experiments after a three-year upgrade. The hope is that these will provide the results which will lay the foundations for a new more complete theory of physics. Physicists have been here before: tantalized by hints of exciting new physics only to have their hopes dashed as more evidence came in.

Just a note about the measurement that lead to this claim. The scientists said they had determined the W boson’s mass with a precision of 0.01% – twice as precise as previous efforts. They compared it to measuring the weight of a 350kg (800 pound) gorilla to within 40 grams (1.5 ounces). They found it was different than the standard model’s prediction by seven standard deviations, which are also called sigma. If you were flipping a coin, “the chances of getting a five sigma result by dumb luck is one in three-and-a-half million”.

If this is real, and not some systematic bias or misunderstanding of how to do the calculations, then it’s a huge deal because it would mean there’s a new fundamental ingredient to our universe that we haven’t discovered before. The most obvious candidates would be the exotic particles predicted by supersymmetry theory (SUSY), which calls for supersymmetric partners of all existing known particles in the Standard Model. The catch is that no particle accelerator to date, including the LHC, has yet uncovered any hint of SUSY particles in the data.

sectarian middle east

The rather long documentary by PBS titled "Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia (Part One)" opens my eyes to the issue of sectarian in the middle east. Living in a country with Sunni majority I had no idea how brutal the relationship between Sunni and Shia embodied by Saudi and Iran. They literally kill and destroy each other. I would wonder if it is possible to have peace in near future. 

The split between the sects went back some 14 centuries back. The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced. Sunni and Shia have lived alongside each other in relative peace for most of history. But starting in the late 20th century, the schism deepened, exploding into violence in many parts of the Middle East as extreme brands of Sunni and Shia Islam battle for both religious and political supremacy.

I wondered if left to themselves, would the rivalry between the two sects would reach this level we have recently? The presence of oil in the region is undoubtedly be a factor that would cause the escalation of the conflict. With the oil money countries in the region are able to arm themselves with modern weapons. Obviously the weapon manufacturers would deny their involvement. For them it is business as usual. They would argue that once sold the buyer would assume the whole responsibilities of the consequences. 

The other factor would be the religiosity of the people in the region. Above it mention that the conflict is mostly driven by the extremes. Obviously these extremes are able to push their agendas so that it becomes the states agendas. Imagine that these radicals failed to have their goals assumed by the rest of their countrymen. 

The instability of middle east would eventually affect the whole world. Conflict between sects is always with us since the dawn of history. In the past we had wars between catholic against protestant. I think the relationship between those sects of Christian has much improved in our time. I am sure it would also be possible in the middle east.  

Rain whisperer from Mandalika

One of the highlight of recent Mandalika MotoGP was a ritual performed by a female rain whisperer that was proven effective to stop (well technically what she had done was pushing the rain elsewhere)  the rain pouring on the race track area. For many foreigner such ritual was a spectacle in itself and of course the fact that it stopped raining was amazing. 

Some Indonesians thought that such ritual is against the teaching of their religion while some others argue that such ritual is an inherent part of genuine Indonesian traditions. Such ritual to modify weather in fact is pretty common across cultures. In North America, Africa and China people some kind of rain dance is common.

However this role of the rain whisperer in Mandalika is different to those people who did rain dance as the idea is to move the rain away from the designated area in comparison to summon the rain cloud to one particular area. The latter would more 'powerful' in a sense of creating something out of nothing while the former is mere relocating something that is going -presumably- to happen.

Those who thought such ritual is compromising a religion belief would be mistaken to assume that the rain whisperer is more powerful that the deity or any supernatural as the concept of his/her action is relocating the rain. Whatever the whisperer does or pray he/she mere cajoling the rain cloud to draft away to another place. 

Of course such ritual would be outside scientific endeavor. However if I were in the position of the organizing committee of the event I would adopt Pascal's wager to the situation. The fee of such rain whisperer is nothing (less than USD 350/day) in comparison of the value of the event at stake. Certainly the benefit would outweigh the cost and in case the rain whisperer failed we could say we had tried all efforts, including something that others do not have it in their culture.  

propaganda terminator

Propaganda is a modern Latin word meaning 'to spread' or 'to propagate'. Originally this word derived from a new administrative body of the Catholic Church (congregation) created in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation, called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith), or informally simply Propaganda. Its activity was aimed at "propagating" the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.

This morning I watched the nine-minute video of Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine. The video was trending on Russian Twitter on Friday and has sparked reaction. To some Schwarzenegger sees Russians are people who have lost their ways, but pro Kremlin would just dismissed it an opinion that was paid US talking heads which means nothing to Russians

I could understand why those pro Putin would belittled this propaganda from a movie star who played as terminator but to me Arnie's points are valid. I could not see the war as justification to "denazify" Ukraine. Nazi is a ghost from the past. But I guess to many Russians this ghost is still real or at least sells. Schwarzenegger on his part wants to bust this ghost as without it the invasion would have no basis.

I would not expect Schwarzenegger would be successful in stopping the war single handedly but I certainly admire his action to step up and tell the people of Russia some side of the war that their government wants to hide from them.

Negativity DNA

The bias toward bad news is hard wired. We use negative information to protect ourselves against life’s dangers. Floods, fires, and tornados put our brains on high alert. Destructive aftermath moves us to find ways to help, with a sense that any of us could be victims next time. However in the age of 24 hours TV and internet this tendency is often manipulated by the media to drive rating and increase clicks. 

This constant exposure to such bad news also makes us misplacing the importance of such events. For example a news about plane crash would likely locked up the attention of the whole nation for days if not weeks. Yes flying has some risk but the risk is lower than death due to car accident.  It is estimated that the odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 9,821.  For a better perspective, that is 1 fatal accident per 16 million flights.  Whereas the odds of dying in a car crash are approximately 1 in 114. However any news of plane crash would be rated "very important" that we misplace the risk of car accident as of lower rate.

It seems that we are at the mercy of the media in terms of defining the importance of the news we see on TV or internet. It is obviously dangerous to watch TV or social media mindlessly. At least we need to do our own homework to check the fact, the hear the balancing arguments, etc. But of course no one wants to do hard works when all the want is entertainment. 

Some would have made up their own opinions that they would just disregards anything that would argue the opposite. In this situation these people would select opinions that would strengthen their own opinion. Of course this is another bias. But anyhow it is clear that we do have our own agendas when we hear news or read social media. 

I understand that media editors find it hard to create a clickable headline from the fact that “John Doe is fine and dandy for the 3578th consecutive day and nothing is new.”  We all wants to enjoy our life. This pleasant view of the world, we unconsciously create a light background on which the negative news stands out even more prominently.

From Russia without Love

In the 1963 From Russia with Love, the second of James Bond series was released. Somehow this movie makes me to correlate the words 'Russia" with "Love'. Might be due to the soft voice of Matt Monro. Of course when Russia attack the neighboring Ukraine it would be impossible to correlate 'Russia" with 'love'.  Firstly I could not understand why Russia had initiated the war. In this article BBC mentioned that Putin wants Ukraine be freed from oppression and "cleansed of the Nazis". Such a strange argument but it would seems that main drive is Putin would not want Ukraine to move towards the European Union and the West's defensive military alliance, Nato.

I am writing this on day five of the conflict. The fight keeps escalating , even as Russian and Ukrainian representatives held their first face-to-face talks since the conflict began. The United Nations' refugee agency says half a million people have now fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. The western countries are sanctions to Russia and the impacts are started to be experienced by millions of Russians like him are starting to feel the impacts. The aim of this economic war is to isolate Russia and create a deep recession there. Western leaders hope the unprecedented measures will bring about a change in thinking in the Kremlin. Ordinary Russians face seeing their savings wiped out. Many are predicted to lose their jobs as the economy reels from being cut off from financial markets in the West.

Russia is banned by FIFA and UEFA who suspend all Russian clubs and national teams. The Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix, due to take place on 25 September in Sochi, had been cancelled too. World Rugby and other sports like Badminton etc. have also suspended Russia from international and cross-border competition.

I would wish this conflict to end sooner than latter but it seems that the decision of one particular leader to drag the whole world to war is ridiculous. Many innocent are killed. Many suffer physically/ economically. But for what ? I could not agree more to Pope Francis twit 

Life is very short, and there's no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend

(The Beatles, we can work it out, 1965)

lost and found

I read two different news about lost and found on BBC about 5 days ago. I had no idea if BBC put these two news  on purpose but they made me ponder about lost and found. The first news is about A dog that has been reunited with her owners in California after being missing for 12 years. The second one is about one criminal who got arrested after 12-year hunt. 

The dog was able to be identified when the animal services officer scanned the dog's microchip. The detail of her owner's contact details was available from the chip firm and she still had the same mobile number. The dog was found about 60 miles from where she had gone missing in 2010.

Police arrested the criminal after they were told he was thousands of kilometers away in Queensland the neighboring state of Victoria where the crime was committed. There had been several unconfirmed sightings of him across the country, but police had reached a dead end in their search in 2017. The criminal had experimented with changing his appearance and demeanor to evade detection, and he was discovered with items that could disguise him, such as hair dye.

Twelve years is a long time. In twelve years three American President would have been elected and left the white house, Australia would have moved 84 cm due north east, 3 world cups, etc. The first story tells me the power of IT. The chip lasted so many years presumably in rather rough condition. The dog would likely be living on its own and there is no telling what kind of life it was. The second one tells me that Australia is pretty vast and rather empty. A fugitive could escape the surveillance despite Police chasing him around (A reward of A$100,000 had been offered for information leading to his arrest). It also be due to people's tendency to mind their own business. In any case the criminal did his part by having items that could disguise him.

I guess this world is getting smaller by the presence of IT and internet. In the future I guess finding things, persons, etc. would be more and more easier so that some gives advice how to disappear from the Internet. Well, we could be lost from the Internet but as part of society we would still be recorded elsewhere, we have ID, bank account, school records etc. which all are available to authorities. 

We would never be nobody

 

  

Cat Debate

Recently in news a footballer lost his sponsorship deal and fined by his club for kicking his two cats. I do not have any pets and I watched the video of his acts online. To be honest I wonder if the punishment balanced what he has done to the cats (they are still alive obviously) 

Of course social media world reacts immediately. Some argues that the punishment is not fair. He is being punished severely because he is black. Another footballer was punished relatively lighter for kicking a human being   

Animal cruelty to pet is one thing but how about legal hunting on African big games ? 

The world -with social media around- is not the place it used to be. Back then taking video and posting it (where?) was time consuming, difficult and well impossible as there was no media for sharing. So what ever people do in their privacy would remain private. Now even company like Adidas had to succumb with the public pressure. Of course people would debate why Adidas seems to care more about cat than human being. Some would even call for boycotting Adidas (I would doubt if it would work moreover the first to suffer if Adidas went out of business would be the factory workers, human being)  

I would not expect this cat kicking news would start a raging fire. I am sure it would be forgotten rather quickly. The media would be busy posting other things. Our attention is pretty short  

Covid choice

I could not understand why a number of Canadian truckers protesting the government regulation to vaccinate those crossing the US-Canada border. They drove their trucks to the capital of the country, parked and crippled the business in some parts of the city. They also constantly blare their air horns to the annoyance of local. Some of the locals are understandably protesting back against these truckers. But after a number of days looks like status quo remains. 

I read that the main reason the protest is simply that "...unvaccinated Canadian truckers crossing the two nations' boundary to quarantine once they've returned home..." which of course makes sense to me. Well not to them. Of course behind them are the opposition who saw it as an opportunity to increase political pressure to the government 

I could understand that opposition would do whatever it takes to gain political advantages but I guess this is why many - me included- think that politics is dirty unethical business. Yes in democratic country the citizen has the right to express opinions, to oppose the government etc. but my freedom is limited by other's people freedom  

If you don’t want to be vaccinated, that’s your decision. But then, stay home, so that responsible citizens can get on with their lives

Drowning in trash

This BBC article about food waste made me think about my contribution to the problem of waste in general. My mind concern is plastic. In time plastic would  be deteriorated and broken into small pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are harmful to our ocean and aquatic life. They also dangerous to humankind. The question is : would we return the a world without plastic ? I guess no. Hence how do we managed this useful stuff but dangerous as waste? 

Of course we often hear the cliché of of reduce, reuse and recycle. One article quotes 9% as the amount of recycling we do. If this is correct than more than 90% of waste are accumulated somewhere and as we only have but one planet eventually those waste would drown us.

No waste in nature - we know that. Nature has great mechanism to recycle everything nature produces. That is basically the circle of life. Leave by itself nature would exist indefinitely - well so long as the sun provides the energy.  But of course modern life would disrupt this balance of nature. To some degree nature would be able to absorb the impact but eventually it is overwhelmed and now we are experiencing the impact too

I hope that someday the technology to process plastics and other modern product would eventually save us.  Judging from the leap of technology development I am sure this is a wishful thinking. Until then I do hope my small contribution would at least buy us some time

 

The Power Of Early Effective Intervention

This morning I read BBC news that Australia is on track to eliminate HIV from the country. 

Australian HIV diagnoses have hit an all-time low, with the country in sight of eliminating transmissions. It's a legacy of Australia's early, effective response

The article is pretty short for me to understand the details but I thought the keys are in these words early and effective. The government did not hesitate to act nor got bogged down in length empty narration or debates. Some things need to be answered immediately. 

I remember when this disease was first mentioned in the news. As it was spreading among gay people I could almost hear people would say let them die as the punishment of their crooked sexual orientation. But of course AIDS was also transmitted via infected blood donation to non gay communities. This disease did not have morality. It will affect any people as long as the virus is transmitted regardless the means of transmission.

 Back to Australia. I thought it shows us the triumph of humanity over horrible disease like AIDS. Now we are still under the grip of Covid-19. But we could see that slowly the vaccination and health protocols would allow life getting back to (new) normal. This is of course a collective efforts that requires all of us to buy in participate with the efforts.

I am sure eventually humanity would prevail. Yes there are casualties but we would march on. 

The 8th wonder

It is said that Einstein once said “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world” It implies that your money would always grow more - ad infinitum. Now this quote does not say anything about the not haves. What would happen to the not haves when the haves getting richer?  Is the size of the pie limited ? 

The pandemic has made the world's wealthiest far richer but has led to more people living in poverty, according to the charity Oxfam. 

The above news implies that the size of the pie is limited. Hence the more some get, the poorer others would become. This reminds me of the social critics of Rhoma Irama, the Indonesian King of Dang Dut in his song 'Indonesia'  

Yang kaya makin kaya (The rich gets richer)

Yang miskin makin miskin (the poor gets poorer)

Rhoma sang that the root of this economical gap is corruption 

Selama korupsi semakin menjadi-jadi (as long as corruption is rampant) 

Jangan diharapkan adanya pemerataan (do not expect for economic equality) 

I guess no one would deny the impact of corruption to the problem of wealth distribution in one country. But is it applicable in global scale? I am no economist but I sensed that the economic system is could have some loopholes and flaw that would eventually support this inequality. 

It is possible that the rich people have found loopholes in the tax regime so that they did not pay enough. etc. In any case I sensed that the pie is limited and the recent pandemic has made the slices for the poor people got smaller and smaller. And once the money was redistributed to the rich  it would what Einstein once said : the 8th wonder of the world 

 

Wacko Jacko Sio-sio

Pagi ini aku dengar Jacko tutup usia. Konon 2 bulan kurang dari genap usia 51 tahun. Di CNN kudengar komentar yang bagus tetang kariernya. Jacko ini nampak dewasa sekali manakala ia meraih sukses luar biasa lewat album Thrilernya, tetapi belakangan ia nampak makin tua makin kekanak-kanakan (apalagi setelah operasi plastik yang over-dosis itu).

Rupa-rupanya puncak itu cuma satu kali. Setelah lewat orang harus berpisah dan dengan rela melangkah kedepan. Come-back adalah pengecualian.

Lihat saja-sebagai misal- karier anggota the Beatles. Setelah Beatles pecah -secara individual- mereka tidak sampai bisa meraih kesuksesan masa lalu mereka bersama. Aquinas tidak selesai menulis bagian ke-3 dari Summa-nya. Kukira Einstein pun meninggal tanpa lengkap merampungkan teori yang ia mulai. Manusia mungkin macam bunga dipadang yang hari ini mekar esok layu dan lusa mati. C'est la vie. Dan dengan rada sinis pengkhotbah menulis: "kemudaan dan hidup adalah sia-sia" (Pkh 11:10)

Mungkin Pengkotbah memang sinis (coba saja hitung kata-kata "sia-sia" dalam kitabnya). Tetapi kurasa ia mau mengajarkan bahwa hidup adalah seni menggenggam sementara dan melepaskan jika waktunya telah tiba. Semua adalah kesementaraan belaka. Masa muda harus dilepaskan, masa tua harus dijelang dan diterima. Kesuksesan dan puncak boleh dinikmati, tetapi tidak bisa digenggam erat seolah itu bisa jadi milik kita yang abadi.

Hidup adalah aliran dan sia-sia jika kita mau berhenti disatu titik. Perhentian dialami saat badan membusuk. Dan hendak berhenti ditengah jalan adalah tindakan pembusukan yang futile dan self-destructive.

"It is always hard to understand these three things: when is the time to let things go, which things to let go and how to let them go"

the dark side of the church

Apa yang kau lakukan kalau engkau kehilangan kepercayaanmu pada gereja katolik ? Baru-baru ini kita baca perihal penerbitan laporan skandal abuse para pastor/suster pada anak-anak di Irlandia. Jumlahnya bukan puluhan atau ratusan, tetapi ribuan! Bukan cuma 1 -2 tahun, tetapi 60 tahun! Pagar makan tanaman!

Apakah engkau lantas berhenti berdoa rosario ? Berhenti misa? menolak menerima komuni ? Tidak ada yang tidak berdosa dan kita tidak boleh melempar batu yang pertama. Baiklah - tetapi apa yang bisa engkau harap kalau institusi yang mestinya menjaga standard lantas kehilangan standard itu ? 

Kita bisa berkilah bahwa kita kegereja karena iman pada Kristus dan persetan dengan orang-orang dalam gereja - baiklah, tetapi kriminalitas adalah tetap kriminalitas. Bandingkan saja dengan kisah Yesus yang mengamuk di bait Allah. I would bet Yesus pun akan mengamuk mendengar kisah ini. Dan Ia pernah kita dengar pula - kalau ada yang menyesatkan saudaranya maka lebih baik batu gilingan dikalungkan keleher dan ia ditenggelamkan saja. Not very nice coming from a lamb of God, tetapi aku kira Ia serius - yang mengkorupsi komunitas harus ditangani serius.

Tidak heran kalau dilaporkan bahwa jumlah peminat agama Katolik menyurut. Hal ini sudah lumrah ditengah arus modernisasi, materialisme, dsb. Tetapi perusakan oleh kaum biarawan/ti jelas memperburuk keadaan. Ibarat obat yang kau minum berbalik menghianat dan malah menjadi racun ditubuhmu

Aku rasa gereja memang sekumpulan pendosa belaka- jadi tetap waspada. People can be corrupted - there is always good and bad in anyone anywhere

links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/catholic-clergy-courageous-nichols

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7645342&page=1

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=122787&d=23&m=5&y=2009

The power of words

Ini kiranya soal citra dan informasi. Sekelompok pengusaha babi rupanya khawatir penghasilannya menurun kalau orang ogah makan daging babi gara-gara berita flu babi merebak kemana-mana. Berbeda dengan peristiwa flu burung dimana orang tetap makan daging ayam. Burung tokh bukan ayam dan ayam bukan burung, mungkin begitu logikanya.

Shakespeare jelas salah kalau meremehkan arti sebuah nama. Bunga mawar memang tetap bunga mawar meski dipanggil dengan nama berbeda. Tetapi flu babi berpotensi menghentikan orang untuk mengkonsumsi daging babi (dan mungkin segala hal yang berkait dengan babi)

Dari sisi sini kita bisa lihat bagaimana berkuasanya "kata-kata" itu. Juga kita lihat bahwa kita kerap "tidak berpikir" melainkan bereaksi spontan berdasar khazanah makna yang sudah kita simpan dibenak kita.

Kita gunakan kata penghalus untuk menyamarkan keadaan - bensin tidak naik, cuma "disesuaikan". Bukan bekas pejabat tetapi mantan pejabat. Dsb. Sudah tentu bensin naik dan bekas pejabat bukan menjabat lagi, tetapi kenyataan mungkin terlalu keras dihadapi sehingga seolah penghaluskan dapat menyelesaikan masalah.

Sudah tentu, istilah bisa salah kaprah. Misal Iklan Indosat di harian Kompas tertanggal 26 April 2009 hal 17 yang berbunyi: "Sejak memakai Blackberry saya jadi suka autis. Namun ternyata menjadi 'autis' itu sangat menyenangkan. Terima kasih kepada PT Indosat yang telah memberikan saya kesempatan menikmati BlackBerry Storm" --Marcel (artist). Marcel jelas tidak paham apa makna kata autis (dan lantas mengundang protes)

Pendeknya - kata-kata berkuasa melukis kenyataan - dan kita selalu bereaksi terhadap kata-kata, never mind the reality. Dalam domain pribadi tentu kita perlu mawas diri - aware - terhadap apa sebenarnya yang hendak disembunyikan atau disamarkan oleh kata-kata. Tetapi menyangkut ranah publik tentu perlul bergiat pula untuk meluruskan dan mencerahkan (misal kasus komentar Marcel yang dikutip diatas)

(support puterakembara http://puterakembara.org/archives9/00000070.shtml)

Tidak Siap Gagal

Konon ada ratusan ribu orang akan mengalami gangguan jiwa. Mereka ini adalah orang-orang yang tidak berhasil mengumpulkan dukungan pemilih dalam Pemilu baru-baru ini. Sesungguhnya mereka ini tidak siap mengalami kekalahan. Setelah menginvestasikan dana, tenaga dan harapan yang tidak sedikit tidak heran kalau kegagalan ibarat bunyi lonceng kematian.

Kesuksesan dan kegagalan kiranya adalah dua sisi dari mata uang yang sama. Kalau mau sukses maka kita perlu bersiap menghadapi kegagalan. Konon orang yang sukses adalah mereka yang bangkit satu kali lebih banyak dari pecundang. Pencundang menjadi jerih dan malas mencoba lagi, sementara pemenang berupaya bangkit lagi dari kejatuhan. Kalau kamu sepuluh kali jatuh bangunlah sebelas kali.

Maka yang selalu perlu dikerjakan adalah langkah manejemen resiko. Apa yang kita lakukan jika kita menghadapi kegagalan ? Bagaimana meminimalkan resiko? dan seterusnya. Kegagalan tidak perlu jadi kata akhir kalau kita selalu menyimpan plan B. Kecuali kalau semua sudah dipertaruhkan dan menjadi hangus - mungkin kita bisa terguncang dan sakit jiwa. Dan jelas tindakan pertaruhan mencerminkan ketidak-bijakan kita.

Mungkin karakter bondo nekat adalah salah satu kekayaan bangsa ini. Mungkin kalau tidak nekat kita tidak pernah merdeka. Namun demikian asal seruduk bonek tidak selalu pas untuk setiap keadaan. Ada saatnya kita perlu duduk dan berhitung.