meet me halfway...bridges2

There's something about bridge walking that thugs at my heart. It inspires thoughts of life and love as people walk together or alone.

One such walk happened yesterday when in a symbolic gesture of bridge walking, France rejoined NATO. We could walk on bridges more and have more of this kind of peacemaking gestures all over the world.

Flora Purim sang, "There are bridges made of love". It sounds cliched but we've been building steel bridges; why don't we build more of those love bridges to walk on.

photos by deviantArt

Barack's "a part of me"

Barack Obama's "a part of me" speech was something that we, who watch American politics, may never forget for a long time. It hits the nerve of racial divide and points to the anger and marginalizations in American society. I feel for him and I do not think that the speech will destroy him. It is something that must come out in the open, and for people to resolve all forms of racial conflicts in societies.

rebel no more

One of the pluses of a good marriage, I think is the calming effect that it gives a couple. Most of the time, the both of you go on agreeing together on things that concern your children's welfare whatever the means and the methods. I used to put my foot down, protest with all my might, against traditions, superstitions and any folk-isms that may creep in our lives, e.g., the fatalistic "kapunan", etc. But, when you see the confident faces, the bravery, the sense that everything will work out well for the family, I can now and then, go along with the tide and get used to those pseudo-rituals. A good marriage works like a covenant. It mostly deals with peacemaking - and trust and faith on both sides.

an era that was

In the few hours after Suharto's passing there was an explosion of comments, praises, criticisms, and apologies on the late strongman. In my late teens, I would not have cared for what Suharto was doing or not doing, but because he was definitely one of the most debated and the topic of long exams in my freshman's "Politics and Governments of Southeast Asia", it was imperative that we studied him. It was a course that was a requirement for graduation even though you were an Art student and would not damn care about some turmoil in a neighboring country. I remember the hours of researching for his speeches and any material that would give us an idea of the realities of Indonesian politics in those days. Those days we did not have the internet; we only had the dusty nooks at the Archives section of the library we considered as sacred as the places of worship that I and classmates went to. In our young minds, we reckoned that Suharto like Marcos or any friend of the USA for that matter were evil despots.

Today, in my ripe age of 'discernment' I find myself slow to criticise the man who to many was the 'Father of Development'. In those days, the realities were different. There was the 'Cold War' and the password for longevity was 'deterrence' and only 'deterrence'. This era has passed and we in SEA have a totally different set of problems post 'Cold War'. And with this passing, we should pray for a peaceful Indonesia and for the rest of SEA.