This poster was made by Rahadian Paramita, also known as conscientizacao in Politikana. I think the message is clear enough.

Just want to share with you the e-mails I got this morning. Here's one:


Edwin --

What started as a few scattered demonstrations against ACTA has exploded into an international day of action this Saturday! There are nearly 200 events across the world, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to hit the streets to protest this dangerous international agreement.

Our feet have not yet hit the pavement, but our voices are already being heard! Facing a groundswell of opposition to ACTA, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia are already wavering on ratification and the European Parliament’s point person for ACTA resigned his post in protest.

With ACTA’s supporters starting to wake up, we're facing a critical moment. ACTA can still be stopped in the European Parliament, and if it’s defeated there, the whole agreement will unravel. Momentum is on our side and we must not stop now. Click through to find out how to join hundreds of thousands of people protesting online and offline against ACTA:

https://www.accessnow.org/acta-protest

Here you’ll find information about ACTA, a listing of Saturday's protests, fact sheets in several languages to hand out, and steps to download the ACTA Protest USTREAM App so you can livestream the event using your mobile phone. If there’s no protest near you, host one by starting a Facebook event and e-mail info@accessnow.org the link.

While we support the rights of creators, protection of intellectual property should not come at the expense of freedom of speech and our privacy. It is the duty of government to protect our rights, not put them in the hands of corporations and encourage ISPs to act as judge, jury, and executioner over our content and web activity.

Once seen as a done deal, ACTA’s fate is now hanging in the balance. The world is watching. Stand up for internet freedom this Saturday and protest ACTA!

https://www.accessnow.org/acta-protest

See you out there,
The Access Team

P.S. Our petition has hit 350,000 and is still growing. To have the most impact in the European Parliament, it needs to get to 500,000. Help us by sending this link around to your family and friends: https://www.accessnow.org/acta 

And here's another one:

Hi--

Together, we beat SOPA in a huge victory for internet freedom.  But this Saturday, internet freedom protests are breaking out in over 200 cities across Europe.  Why?  

Because the companies behind SOPA are using international trade agreements as a backdoor to pass SOPA-style laws

SOPA's supporters are pushing two agreements: ACTA and TPP¹.  ACTA would criminalize users, encourage internet providers to spy on you, and make it easier for media companies to sue sites out of existence and jail their founders.  Sound familiar?  That's right, ACTA is from the same playbook as SOPA, but global.  Plus it didn't even have to pass through Congress².

TPP goes even farther than ACTA, and the process has been even more secretive and corrupt.  Last weekend (we wish this was a joke) trade negotiators partied with MPAA (pro-SOPA) lobbyists before secret negotiations in a Hollywood hotel, while public interest groups were barred from meeting in the same building.³

Trade agreements are a gaping loophole, a secretive backdoor track that--even though it creates new laws--is miles removed from democracy.  Trade negotiators are unelected and unaccountable, so these agreements have been very hard for internet rights groups to stop.

But now the tide is turning.  Fueled by the movement to stop SOPA, anti-ACTA protests are breaking out across the EU, which hasn't ratified ACTA.  The protests are having an impact: leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have backtracked on ACTA.⁴  Now a massive round of street protests in over 200 cities is planned for this Saturday February 11th.

We're planning an online protest this Saturday to support the protests in the streets.  Why?  Because together we can drive millions of emails to key decision makers--and start tipping the scales like we did on SOPA.

Can you take part?  Click here to get the code to run on your site!

We just built an ACTA & TPP contact tool, and it's not just a petition.   It's code for your site that figures out the visitor's country and lets them email all their Members of European Parliament--the politicians who will be voting on ACTA in June--or the trade negotiators behind TPP.  This direct contact between voters and their officials, driven by websites of all sizes, was instrumental in the fight against SOPA.  

We can use the same tactics to defeat ACTA & TPP, but we need your help!

Support the street protests with a flood of emails to the officials responsible for ACTA & TPP.  Get the code for your website!

Don't have a website?  Tell officials in your country to scrap ACTA & TPP!   And spread the word about Saturday's protests! 

This is going to be tough fight.  But we need to make secretive trade agreements harder to pass than US law.  If we don't, our internet's future belongs to the lobbyists behind SOPA.     

This is just the beginning,

--Holmes Wilson, Tiffiniy Cheng, Joshua Blount & the whole Fight for the Future team.

P.S. This map of ACTA street protests in Europe is amazing. The largest has almost 50,000 RSVP's!

Sources:

1. For more information on ACTA, read these excellent articles from Techdirt and La Quadrature du Net. For information on TPP, read this Ars Technica piece. For video, watch this.

2. Obama's signing of ACTA may have been unconstitutional. See Anti-counterfeiting agreement raises constitutional concerns and Techdirt.

3. Hollywood gets to party with TPP negotiators, public interest groups get thrown out of the hotel.

4. Ars Technica: Czech, Slovak governments backing away from ACTA, too.

---

This email was sent to:
edwinlives4ever

"Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I was three or four years old when I was first asked this question by my father. Like most other people, this question was repeatedly asked to me over the years. And like most people, I gave different answers for any different period. For a brief moment, whenever I was asked this question, I thought I knew the answer. However, as I grew older, I found it more and more difficult to answer the question, because I learned somewhere along the way that although it's normal for people to imagine growing up and working their dream profession, most people simply grow up and be perfectly content working in an occupation completely different from their wishes.

These days I find out that it's becoming more stressful for any young people to answe such a question. Most of the high-school students I know only know the world around them, which usually includes television and what their parents do.Their career goals are heavily influenced by their present culture and surrounding, but most of time, after they have a better understanding of a job's requirements, they change their plans. They find out that's it a world totally different from their expectation and they don't like it. Sadly, some (if not most) of them simply waste their time by hating the world instead of trying find the world they can fit in.

My case is, more or less, the same. Different career goals, including being a comic artist and a diplomat, were set on my mind over the years. And over the years one goal replaced another, depending on the situation and surroundings as I grew up (a voice suddenly comes out of nowhere, "What do you mean, 'you grew up', kid?" Ha-ha, very funny guys, you may jump out of that window now).

Where am I now? Fortunately, I am right now with an occupation that I love. I wish other other people gets as lucky as I am, but believe me when I say that it's not pure luck that got me here. There are three important factors, and they are:

1. I know myself
2. I learned about the world of works
3. I learn what it takes to do it better than other people

I owe the first one to the J-Dorama Tokyo Love Story. I saw a scene of a crowd of expressionless people going to work. They looked so much like robots and I think to myself, "Somewhere along the line, those people used to cheerful and playful children; happy and content with their lives. What went wrong? What turned them into such joyless rubbery working machines?" I came up with the idea that they simply let their lives flow like a river, instead of making it like a dam. And it's all because they don't know who they really are and what they really want. That's when I decided to learn more about myself. I took a semester break (unauthorized, of course) to travel alone. I thought that if I want to know myself, I have to see how I function with a bigger world with unknown possibilities.

What did I find? Only one thing and that's that I like people. I vaguely concluded that I don't want a job providing goods, but the one providing services. The two other factors simply follow the first one naturally.

So here I am, not really a rich man but well above average with an occupation I can enjoy. Am I happy? Without being as pretentious as saying that I am a happy man, and without being discouraging as saying that I am disappointed with my life, I can say that I am content with what I am now.

Now, why am I writing this? I've been thinking about Yas and his younger brother lately. I think the younger brother needs to know himself, and I think Yas can find a way to get him to know himself.

Oh, one more thing. Just in case you're wondering what my answer was the first time my father asked that question, I answered, "A penguin."

Just want to share with you the e-mail I got this morning:


Dear Edwin,

With an incredible showing of power and belief, over 300,000 people in 72 hours called on the European Parliament to reject the rights-threatening international copyright treaty, ACTA. We’ve shone a bright light on the countries that signed this secretly negotiated agreement – but the fight to save the internet is far from over.

ACTA still needs to be approved by the European Parliament, and if it goes down there, the agreement will effectively be dead in the water. Now we invite you to join us by taking to the streets at a protest near you on Feb 11.

You signed the petition against ACTA, now check out the amazing map below showing the global day of action, and grab a friend to join a protest and make your voice heard: 

https://www.accessnow.org/acta-protest

If you can’t make a protest, you can still participate. Go to our Tumblr page and show your solidarity with the Feb. 11 protestors by submitting a picture, words of support, or protest signs! Your pictures and words will be posted on our page, and the best signs will be printed out by us and given to protestors on Feb. 11.

http://accessnow.tumblr.com/

As you know, the internet is facing many threats and in 2012 Access will ask for your help on those issues. This is the year to protect the internet, and it starts with all of us! We're right in the center of the fight for digital freedom in 2012 and we're happy to have you with us.

The internet has been used for activism. Now it’s time to use activism to save the internet.

Thanks for all your support,
Brett Solomon
Access Executive Director

PS: For ACTA updates, make sure to follow Access on Twitter at @accessnow.

Several people have asked me that question. "Are you a pirate? I mean you keep on sharing some e-books and videos and other files online, and illegally, don't you?"

Yes, and no. Yes, I'm aware that I've broken most laws regarding illegal file sharing by doing it. No, I'm not a pirate. I fancy myself as The Tramp who takes what he can and share the joy with anybody else. More or less.

First, I have many (not all) of the hardcopies of those e-books & videos I share online, and I obtained most of them legally. Second, I don't sell them for profit. I share them here for free. Third, I believe some laws are made to be broken, but not all of them.

Why do I do that? I don't share everything, you know. I only share things worth sharing, and the ones which are hard to find. Take that Max Havelaar video, for example. Most of us know that such a good film should be watched by as many people as possible. Most of us also know how hard it is to find that video in Indonesia. That's why.

Am I a criminal, then? Yes, of course. But those big shot companies who demand too much of the profit are also criminals; maybe even worse ones than I am.

I respect the creator's right to earn what he/she sweat for, but I also don't believe in paying too much. I also believe that knowledge and entertainment belong to the world, not only for those who can pay big money.



If what I believe in is wrong, well, then, I don't want to be right.

Just received this notification via e-mail this morning. This is only the beginning. Stay alert.

Hi everyone!

A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game.  You were heard.

On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday.  See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.

This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.


The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled.  “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”

“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added." 

Tweet with us, shout on the internet with us, let's celebrate: Round of applause to the 13 million people who stood up  - #PIPA and #SOPA are tabled 4 now. #13millionapplause



 

We're indebted to everyone who helped in the beginning of this movement -- you, and all the sites that went out on a limb to protest in November -- Boing Boing and Mozilla Foundation (and thank you Tumblr, 4chan)! And the grassroots groups -- Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, CDT, and many more.

#SOPA and #PIPA will likely return in some form.  But when they do, we'll be ready.  Can you make a donation to Fight for the Future, to help us keep this fire going?

We changed the game this fall, and we're not gonna stop.  $8, $20, every little bit helps.

13 million strong,

Tiffiniy, Holmes, Joshua, Phil, CJ, Donny, Douglas, Nicholas, Dean, David S. and Moore... Fight for the Future!


P.S.  China's internet censorship system reminds us why the fight for democratic principles is so important:

In the New Yorker:  "Fittingly, perhaps, the discussion has unfolded on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site that has a team of censors on staff to trim posts with sensitive political content. That is the arrangement that opponents of the bill have suggested would be required of American sites if they are compelled to police their users’ content for copyright violations. On Weibo, joking about SOPA’s similarities to Chinese censorship was sensitive enough that some posts on the subject were almost certainly deleted (though it can be hard to know).
...
After Chinese Web users got over the strangeness of hearing Americans debate the merits of screening the Web for objectionable content, they marvelled at the American response. Commentator Liu Qingyan wrote:

‘We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics.’"

#######
(press release is here: https://fightfortheftr.wordpress.com/press-releases/)

Once the great prophet Muhammad advised the Islam refugees to seek shelter in the Christian Ethiopia. The Quraisy leaders demanded the refugees to be deported to Mecca but the Christian king refused. The great prophet Muhammad was a believer of religious tolerance, and that was why he gave that suggestion to the refugees. Are we, who claim to be his followers, going to do the opposite?

How many mosques have we built with disregards to zoning policy or to other people's discomfort? How many times a day have our adzan been disturbing those of different faiths? Can we be honest enough to admit it or will we simply disregard it, on the ground that as the chosen ones we can do as we pleased? How difficult is it to allow a community of other faith to build their own church in a land they purchase with their own money?

Everybody has the right to believe in God almighty in his own way. Islam guarantees people of other faiths to follow their own faiths, as mentioned in Al Kafirun.

Take GKI Yasmin as an example. If we dub their protest as a tyranny of the  minority, what shall we call our way of preventing them to build their own church? A tyranny of the majority? In what way is that supposed to make us better?

We all know what a credit card is. It's a small piece of plastic card issued to users as a system payment, based on the cardholders' supposed capability to pay the amount due to the issuer of the card. The main benefit to each customer is convenience. Compared to debit cards, for example, a credit card allows small short-term loans to be quickly made to a customer who need not calculate a balance remaining before every transaction, as long as the total charges do not exceed the maximum credit line for the card.

When organized adequately, a credit card does provide convenience. When organized badly, for example by treating the credit line as extra money, it will potentially become a source of enormous debts.

If you have credit card, and you have the ability to organize its usage wisely, maybe it's time for you consider adding another good use to it. You can help the less fortunate children in Indonesia. We know that there are millions of malnutrition cases in Indonesia, regardless of what SBY's administration says.

True, Indonesia has made considerable progress in reducing the rate of infant mortality in recent years; between 1991 and 2009, the number of deaths amongst children under the age of one fell from 68 to 34 for every 1,000 live births. Under-five mortality rates have also fallen - from 79 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 1991 to 44 in 2009. Malnutrition, however, remains a serious challenge. Many Indonesian infants are unprotected against disease because of low levels of breastfeeding (less than a third). Only 41% of children aged between 6 and 23 months are fed according to recommended practices. This leaves children exposed to the risks of diarrheal disease( this accounts for 18% of all child deaths in Indonesia) and serious malnutrition.

Fighting this malnutrition problem takes a lot of money, and this is where you can help. Last Saturday, when entering the mall to buy a box of blank DVDs for my private piracy collection, I was approached by a young girl in light-blue t-shirt. She introduced herself as a UNICEF volunteer, and invited me to donate for the children's cause. Being a father myself, I agreed instantly. The method of donation is quite simple. I only need to fill some forms stating my agreement to donate Rp. 5,000.00 per day (simplified as Rp. 150,000.00 a month), to be paid monthly, charged directly into my credit card account. I find it very convenient, because I can donate without having to go anywhere else to do it.

Now Rp. 150,000.00 a month doesn't sound like much to some of you. To a child with a serious malnutrition case, it's the difference between life and death.

Don't just take my words on it. Check HERE, and also HERE.

The next time you are approached by a volunteer for such a cause, please, don't just ignore him/her. Spare a few minutes to listen to what they want to tell you. That few minutes might save a child's life somewhere.

Be a champion for the children. That's one of a few things that will never be overrated.

I've mentioned in some places that this week is my week for downloading some seriously classic movies. It's still ongoing now, as the total size is considerably big; some 24 GB.

What do I have so far? Well, let's start from the ones I like best, which are naturally on the top list of my SlimRat downloading-database:

Samurai I - Musashi Miyamoto
Samurai II - Duel At Ichijoji Temple
Samurai III - Duel At Ganryu Island

The trilogy was based on Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, and starring one of the greatest actors in Japanese movie history, the immortal TOSHIRO MIFUNE.

The other one is a touching yet amusing 1983 movie based on short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story. Well, some of you might not think of it as a classic, but I do. Besides, I plan to buy Nevan his very first BB gun.

Ongoing downloads are the 1960 Spartacus (fuck Andy Whitfield, Kirk Douglas is the only true Spartacus), the musical 1982 Annie (I just can't get that song Tomorrow off my head), and the 1964 My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion.

I guess I'll have to spend this weekend designing the DVD menu for each of those movies and burning them. For the Samurai Trilogy, I'll see if I can design it so a 8.5 GB double-layer DVD can contain the whole three movies without reducing the picture quality.


Wish me luck!

This post by Febby reminded me of one of the old ideas that had been carried out by me and my friends a long time ago. I always think that if there is really any good thing I ever done, it's this one.

Back in my high-school days, we set up our own scholarship program. I and my classmate named Joko invited other 22 students who were financially stable to join this group. Every month every member donated Rp. 10.000,-, making about Rp. 240.000,- per month, and the money was divided equally as a scholarship program for three smart yet poor students (2 boys, 1 girl), whose identities are known only to me and Joko.

The two of us never actually met the three students directly, and all communication were done through an intermediary (we consider this essential, as we didn't want the three students to feel like they owe us). Our group kept in touch even through our college years and several years later, until the mission was accomplished. This program was carried out until two of them (1 boy & 1 girl) graduated their S1 in 1994 and 1995 (1 of the 2 boys went straight to military academy after graduating high-school in 1990).

Do you think such a program can still be carried out today? From students to students?





Or am I to believe that our students today care less about their less fortunate fellow students?

Most fans of horror fiction are aware of the rising popularity of zombie fiction which is rivaling vampires and werewolves. In a way, it's started by Romero's classic Night Of The Living Dead which borrowed some elements from the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The most important point of all zombie fiction is that a zombie outbreak, no matter how small in scale, will always lead to what is known as a zombie apocalypse, an event of a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies in a general assault on civilization. A zombie apocalypse always means the end of human civilization as we know it. a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization.

Many of us have been able to overcome such common fears as darkness, heights and many other phobias (yes, that includes coulrophobia, you clown!), but the zombie apocalypse sends a shiver down anyone's spine in a more frightening way. The premise of a zombie apocalypse is that human civilization is actually very fragile when facing unprecedented threats. To human, any unprecedented threat is extremely traumatic, causing shock, panic, disbelief and possibly even denial, and thus minimizing the human ability to deal with it properly. Even the most insignificant unprecedented threat is likely to lead to the collapse of civilization, unless it is dealt with quickly. There is a mathematical model published by  Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad, and Robert J. Smith which confirms it, called When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modeling Of An Outbreak Of Zombie Infection. You can download it for free here if you really are curious enough to see the mathematical model. Just don't ask me to explain it to you. I find it hard enough to understand that I simply asked my cousin, a math genius, to read it and tell me if it's plausible enough. Sadly, his answer is a terrifying 'YES'. The methods of that modeling may be applicable to the spread of political views or diseases with dormant infection.

In 2003, an American author named Max Brooks published his book titled The Zombie Survival Guide. Despite its tongue-in-cheek nature, the book does make some sense in an odd way: you cannot apply usual method in an unusual situation. In one of the book's most interesting parts, Recorded Attacks, where the author makes use of some ''historical cases' (either real or made up) to point out that, in those cases, the authorities almost always dealt with it wrongly; and often denied the true extent of the threat with extreme efforts. In the end, it's always up to the common people to deal with it directly and properly, while the authority are busy with their own power play. And in the end, according to the mathematical model I've mentioned previously, on a longer time scale, the researchers found that all humans end up turned into zombies or dead; and of human civilization.

Now, look at what is happening in Indonesia. Does the last two sentences of the above paragraph sound familiar to you? Does it make you want to say to the government the equivalent of "Sorry, kid, but nerf guns will not help you surviving a zombie outbreak. Real guns will."

Unfortunately, it does to me. Zombie is a perfect metaphor for a worst-case scenario. If you are prepared to survive the complete breakdown of society due to a zombie outbreak, then you will be ready for almost any emergency situation imaginable. Fortunately, I am ready. More or less.

Are you?

The Mahabharata is a timeless epic of Indian origin. The powerful, beautiful epic has been a daily inspiration in the lives of millions throughout the countless generation. It has been adopted by many people, and several versions which evolved in many countries were born through the centuries. One of the many versions is the Javanese/Indonesian one. Characteristically, the Javanese had created their own version of Mahabharata which has significant differences from the original Indian version. Some of the differences are very essential, and there are even some partial stories as parts of the whole epic which never even exist in the Indian version. The Javanese version, in its own rights, is an exposition of the Javanese philosophy, based on their views of the universe.

One of Indonesia's greatest comic artists of the 20th century, Teguh Santosa, was apparently one of those inspired by this epic. He did not stopped at being inspired. He took action, and the result is 472 pages of great comic of Mahabharata, first published as a comic series in the now defunct Ananda magazine, to be recompiled and remastered many years later by Erwin Prima Arya and the whole crews of Pluz+.

Nowadays, it is fashionable to translate the world's great books into some form of basic English, or of daily speech. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the Mahabharata does not easily render itself to such treatment. Yes, I am talking about the original Sanskrit text, of course. However, the same thing applies to this comic by Teguh.

I have allowed myself some small liberties. The Mahabharata comic is sprinkled with Javanese epithets. I decided to keep quite a few of them. Teguh claimed that he made the comic based on the original Indian storyline. However, being a Javanese, he could not escape his heritage. Here and there, the traces of his Javanese heritage make some appearances in his Mahabharata comic. The death of Iravan (Irawan in Javanese version), for example, is depicted as happened in the early part of the great war in the hands of a giant king named Kalasrenggi (they practically killed each other) as seen in the Javanese version. In the Indian version, Iravan was killed much later by a rakshasa (giant) named Alamvusha. Iravan's death was later avenged by his cousin Ghatotkacha. Such differences, and several other aspects, make the translating process a little bit more difficult than I expected.

Being a Javanese, Teguh also showed an inevitable tendency to use Javanese words or idioms here and there. He even used several Javanese proverbs to make some points. Well and good, but anybody who ever deals with translation can tell you how frustrating it is to find matching idioms, let alone proverbs. Not all Javanese proverbs have their English counterpart, you know. In translating Teguh's Mahabharata, I have no choice but to do what I usually do in translation, and that is translating ideas instead of sentences. In some part I even take the liberty to replace the Javanese proverb with an Indian one of roughly the same meaning, and translate it into English. I aimed mostly at an interpretation rather than a literal translation, while keeping the Javanese/Indonesian tone and atmosphere. After all, the comic is a creative work and I have every intention to preserve the tone and atmosphere of the story. This is a great work of art, and I don't want a too pedantic approach. I don't want to make it into a comic with archaic texts meant for professors only. I want to extract the message, not just the words. Some Javanese/Indonesian words, which are kept as they are, are explained in a glossary of terms I created for this. So don't be annoyed to find the words such as 'Dinda', 'Kanda', 'Eyang', 'Prabu', and many others throughout this English version. Just be patient enough to check the glossary from time to time while reading the comic.

Another problem is inconsistencies. I hate to say this, but Teguh showed some inconsistencies with his choice of Javanese words and idioms. For example, while the Indonesian word 'Dinda' basically shares the same meaning with the Javanese word 'Rayi', I don't think it is a good idea to keep interchanging one for another throughout the course of the story. Unfortunately that's what Teguh did. There are even some words he used which, I am sorry to say, have the potentials of ruining the story's continuity. For example, there are some scenes where Destarata is depicted addressing Abiyasa as 'Eyang' (which means grandfather/grandmother) while in all existing versions of Mahabharata Abiyasa was his father, not grandfather. Such a mistake requires drastic action. In this case, because I tend to keep some Javanese words to preserve the atmosphere, I simply changed the word 'Eyang' with 'Rama'.

I am not trying to kid myself that I've done a perfect job translating this comic. To be honest, halfway through the translation I was beginning to think that I've just taken a task meant for somebody far more capable than I am. There were times when I just stared on the screen of my notebook for hours, trying to gather whatever was left of the little sanity I have. There were times when I had to lie down on the floor right by my desk, trying to convince myself that I would be able to finish it. There were times when I had to stop and pray that Teguh, were he still alive, would not be upset with the way I messed up his work.

Too late to worry about it now, though. The work is done.

In conclusion, I have to thank the Pluz+ team who trusted this project to me. I also have to express my admiration to any reader who decides to read this English version of Teguh Santosa's Mahabharata; you must have nerves of steel.

Those who are familiar with DC Comics are almost surely familiar with the term 'reboot'. In the world of serial fiction, it means discarding most or even all of the previous continuity of a series and start afresh the series with a brand-new continuity. The rationale behind such an action is to clean up the conflicting continuity which resulted from the creation of too many stories with  various writers who have their own creative thinking. A reboot is deemed necessary when a series' continuity can no longer support its future installments. When the story becomes stale due to the highly irreconcilable mess of contradictory history, the only solution left is a reboot.

A reboot can also be an option when the publisher wish to attract new generation of fans to an old series. After all, you cannot expect every single one of the new generation to have to learn the long and complicated history (especially if there are so many contradictory story elements in it) of a series. A reboot gives the chance for new fans to experience the core story by reintroducing it in smaller and simpler installments. It can also serve as tool for refocusing the story on its most important elements and abandoning many subplots and many conflicting minor details.

DC Comic's “Crisis On Infinite Earths” can be seen as one of the most famous reboot. Not only it rebooted the continuity of most of DC's series, it also gave a final explanation that all the conflicting details occurred due to the stories taking place in different universes, and it removed the whole multiverses from DC's new continuity. Several long standing heroes such as Barry Allen and Supergirl were killed-off. It is normal enough in a reboot; heroes can be killed off or even turned into villains, and the same thing applies to villains as well.

Prior to Crisis, DC Comics was notorious for their continuity problems. You  couldn't really tell the character's back story, within the comic books, in an entirely self-consistent and reliable view. This reboot was expected to take care of it. It succeeded up to some degree.

Unfortunately, the changes made in the wake of Crisis were not implemented consistently. The series was published over the course of a year, with ongoing series continuing simultaneously. Once again, various writers with different creative thinkings started the continuity problem all over again. Some critics, myself included, believe that it won't be long before the old mess of conflicting facts and histories will return in full force.

Why do I write this? Well, let's jump to another section, shall we? There is this film titled “Unbreakable”, directed by M. Night Shyamallan, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson's character Elijah believes that the comic world reflects the real world, after which it is modeled. I, more or less, share Elijah's belief for one important reason: Indonesia's history.

We have seen several reboot in Indonesia's history. A small example, in the colonial days, all ketoprak performances telling the stories of Trunojoyo always referred to him as “Brandal Trunojoyo”, with the character depicted as an antagonistic loudmouthed bully with face painted red. No ketoprak troupe would ever dare to depict Trunojoyo as such these days, eh?

Take a look at 1966 and 1998. Those two particular years marked two important reboots in our modern history. Lots of facts prior to 1966 were eliminated in that year, to rise again either in  their original or modified forms post 1998.

Today, I suddenly have a dreadful feeling that we are going to see another reboot of our history. And soon.

Do you?

It is another time... Another place... A time and place where the 1950's is mixed with the present or the future. In a city where it is always night time, during a concert performing live before a crowd of her fans, singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) is kidnapped by motorcycle gang leader Raven Shaddock (Willem Defoe) and his gang "The Bombers" on stage. Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), Ellen's manager and boyfriend hires Ellen's Ex boyfriend, the mercenary Tom Cody (Michael Pare) to rescue Ellen from the Bomber's nightclub, where they are holding her captive for their own amusement. Joined by female soldier McCoy (Ammy Madigan) who is also in town looking for work, Cody and Fish set out across the rain infested streets inhabited by cops, street gangs and rock fans and into the gang controlled neighborhood 'The Battery', where Cody, Fish and McCoy set out to rescue Ellen from the "Bomber" motorcycle gang.

Yeah, you children of the 1980s should remember this story. Streets Of Fire was not a box office success; as a matter of fact, it was a box office failure. However, it has gained a cult status, mainly due to the Wagnerian Rock atmosphere, thanks to Steinman and his two songs "Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" performed by Fire Inc. with Holly Sherwood as the vocalist.

I've been searching for the DVD of this movie for years to no avail. Until one day I found the files stacked in Rapidshare. They were files of split avi video, so after downloading them I had to join the using a software named hjsplit (thank God it's easy enough to find, and free). Still, what I want is a DVD movie, not one avi file. And that's when I decided to us my DVDStyler again.

DVDStyler is a free and easy-to-use software, and it comes for both Linux and M$ Window$. The latest version even support subtitle. So I made haste and gathered all of my Streets Of Fire pictures and started to build a DVD movie menu using this DVDStyler and make a DVD cover using The GIMP. I've already had the script of the film, so it's not too hard (although time-consuming) for me to make a complete .srt English subtitle text out of it.

Well, I'm pleased to say that the result, amateurish as it may be, is satisfactory enough. Anybody care to try doing it with the Streets Of Fire film? You can download the split avi files here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/224545078/Streets_of_fire.avi.001
http://rapidshare.com/files/224554538/Streets_of_fire.avi.002
http://rapidshare.com/files/224555158/Streets_of_fire.avi.003
http://rapidshare.com/files/224557256/Streets_of_fire.avi.004
http://rapidshare.com/files/224557889/Streets_of_fire.avi.005
http://rapidshare.com/files/224558470/Streets_of_fire.avi.006
http://rapidshare.com/files/224559493/Streets_of_fire.avi.007
http://rapidshare.com/files/224560045/Streets_of_fire.avi.008

What's next? I'm currently leaving Diane in my office and she's doing a multiple download (using Slimrat as usual, with my new and blindingly fast internet connection) of Jim Henson's "Labyrinth", Wolfgang Petersen's "The Neverending Story", Gary Sherman's "Wanted: Dead Or Alive", and Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" (one film around 1 gigabytes each). After I return from a meeting with my Swiss partners this evening, all of those files will be downloaded fully. Then I'll make DVDs of those films.

Greedy? For sure!

My name is Duryodhana. Yes, that Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas, the rightful ruler of Kurus, the rightful king of Hastinapura. Most of you know about me, but you don't know me at all. You've heard about me from the stories told by those who take the side of my cousins, the Pandavas. You've heard about all the things I did, but you don't know anything about the reasons behind the things I did. You all condemned me as the usurper of the throne of Hastinapura and Indraprastha, when what I did was merely trying to unite the split nations into one great nation as it were before the Pandavas came to claim a part of Hastinapura.

I was the eldest son of the eldest son. My father was the one who should have been the king, not the Pandavas' father. Granted my father was blind, but wasn't it unfair to rob a man off his rightful place due to a disability, without considering his other virtues? Blind as he was, my father was wise and just. His prowess in infighting was so great that he managed to defeat King Shalya who nearly killed my uncle Pandu. However, the council of elders seemed to think differently. Thus my uncle Pandu took the throne which was rightfully my father's. Not for long though, as he finally was banished to the forest, due to his own arrogant deed that angered the gods. And my father became the king of Hastinapura as he should have been.

I was raised by my parents as the future king of Hastinapura. My uncles Vidura and Shakuni taught me everything there is to know about politic, both the bright and dark side of it. My cousin Balarama taught me the way of the warrior, and he made me one of the most formidable mace fighters in the world. My great-uncle Bhisma, the greatest general of the sixteen mahajanapadas, trained me to be a great general, and he gave me my first battle to prove my worth. Later, a warrior hermit named Drona came to be my next teacher of the way of the warrior. I lived a completely satisfying and promising life as the heir to the throne of Hastinapura. I knew I would be a good and just king, and I would make my country greater than it was. I knew I would be the greatest king this country ever had.

Then one day my cousins returned along with my aunt Kunti. Their father, my uncle Pandu, had died years before due to the curse laid upon him. Their return shattered my dreams. Rumors spread among Hastinapura's council of the elders that they would be the ones to inherit the throne of Hastinapura, not me. Not me? I was the eldest son of the eldest son. I should be the one. That was my birthright, and no one, not even the gods, should deny me that right, especially after all those long and hard training I took to make me worthy of the right. Jealous, was I? No, why should I be? I was the better man. While those bumpkins played in the forest, I learned about state matters. I was the one raised and educated to be the king, not them. So I would be the king.

It was not surprising that enmity raised between us, the five Pandavas and the hundred Kauravas. Despite our greater numbers, we soon realized that our five cousins were not to be taken lightly. Their martial prowess matched those of ours, and we would need more than what we had to beat them. To make matters worse, my uncle Vidura took the my cousins' side, as for some curious reasons he seemed to be very fond of Yudhistira, the eldest of the Pandavas. I still had my maternal uncle Shakuni as my advisor, but it was still an uneven match. Then one day a poor boy named Radheya, a son of a charioteer, came to compete in the royal archery competition. He was the only one who could match my cousin Arjuna, the best archer of the Pandavas. However, the Pandavas soon learned about his humble origin and mocked him, banning him from the competition as he was not of royal blood. Me, I saw something in this boy. I've known him before not only as the son of a humble charioteer. I saw a flaming spirit, a great potential. Royal blood or not, such a potential was not to be wasted. So I immediately gave him a fief of Anga, which was rightfully mind after I reclaimed it on my very first war, and gave him a ducal title to rule that fief. Thus I gained a new friend, a new brother, who was loyal to me. No matter what happened Radheya, later known as Karna, was my brother to the death. He was loyal to me, even after finding out the fact that he was actually the eldest son of my aunt Kunti and thus was the Pandavas' half brother, and for his undying loyalty I gave him my loyalty, totally. When I say totally, I mean without reservation. I would have given my life for him.

When it was finally clear to me that the Pandavas were to inherit the throne, I made my decision. Those usurpers had to die. So I devised a plan to assassinate them. It seemed to work, but somehow they escaped, leaving six corpses of innocent beggars behind. However, they were hiding long enough that I was inaugurated as the king of Hastinapura. Their return threatened the equilibrium of Hastinapura. To prevent a civil war, I decided to give them a portion of the country, and aided by Krishna they built it into Indraprastha, which soon nearly rivaled Hastinapura.

As a king, I was determined to unite the split nations into one as before, but a war was not an option. A war would destroy us all, and the victor would suffer too many losses and risked being swallowed up by the subdued and neighboring nations who were jealous of our greatness. So my uncle Shakuni devised a plan to lure the Pandavas, especially Yudhisthira, into the game of dice. It worked and the Pandavas lost everything, even their freedom. Once again, Hastinapura became one great nation. However, my own father betrayed me out of his kindness. He petitioned me to return Indraprastha to them. I reluctantly agreed, with one condition: the Pandavas had to be banished into the forest for twelve years, and hide themselves for another year. Should any of us find them before the thirteenth year was over, they would have to suffer another twelve-year banishment. I was sure this would settle things once and for all. If the forest didn't finish them, there would be no way they could have hide for a year without my spies finding them. And while they were on exile, I put my time and energy to establish Hastinapura's dominance over the existing mahajanapadas, aided by Karna. He managed to reduce to submission the Kambojas, the Shakas, the Kekayas, the Avantyas, the Gandharas, the Madarakas, the Trigartas, the Tanganas, the Panchalas, the Videhas, the Suhmas, the rest of the Angas, the Vangas, the Nishadas, the Kalingas, the Vatsa, the Ashmakas, the Rishikas and numerous others including mlecchas and the forest tribes. Hastinapura became the greatest nation on the known world, and the Pandavas would no longer be a problem.

I was nearly as wrong as I could be. They survived the banishment, and they managed to hide for nearly a year in the united kingdom of Matsya, among King Virata's household. We managed to find them by pure luck when we tried to invade Matsya, and saw our five cousins fought on their side. It was the last day of their hiding, and by all that's holy they should have endured another twelve year banishment as agreed upon. They refused, and this led to the greatest civil war in our history, The Kurukhshetra War, the war between the descendants of Bharata. The Bharatayudha.

The war lasted for eighteen days. It was supposed to be a war to follow the code of the knights, and instead it turned into a war of trickery and deceit. My great-uncle Bhisma lost his will to fight when Krishna, the Pandavas' chief war advisor, spread a rumor that Sikhand was the reincarnation of Amba, a princess who committed suicide because of her love to my great-uncle. Sikhandi and Arjuna managed to beat him easily with this trickery. Afterward it was trickery for trickery and deceit for deceit. We killed one of their best young generals, Abhimanyu the son of Arjuna, after cutting him off his troops with the Chakra Vyuha battle formation led by Dronacharya. Then the Pandavas tricked Dronacharya into committing suicide by spreading the lie that Asvattama, Dronacharya's only son, was killed in battle. In an act of cowardice, Dhristadyumna decapitated the unarmed and dying Drona. The war went on brutally in such a fashion, and both sides suffer great losses. I lost all my brothers, my allies, my trusted generals and aides, and to top it all, I lost my best friend, my truest brother, Karna.

So I lost. I fought well, but I lost. Karma. Nothing else to be done but my one last battle. Tomorrow I would face Bhima in a mace-fight. If I won, I would have Hastinapura, and they would have Indraprastha. If I won, I would have another chance to rebuild my country, and hopefully in the future I would have another chance to unite the split nations into one again. And I think I'll win tomorrow. My cousin Balarama was the only one who can beat me in a mace-fight. Bhima, formidable as he is now, is not my match in this kind of fighting. He can only win if he cheats, and Balarama as the judge will make sure that he won't do that.

Now, reflecting on my whole life, I ask myself if I have anything to regret. My answer comes up immediately. No. I have no regret. I did what I believe was right. No regret at all.  Besides, even if I died, my father's line would not be totally eliminated. At least my sister Dussala and her son Suratha are alive and well in the kingdom of Sindhu. Much as I despise the Pandavas, I believe they wouldn't go after them.

What about tomorrow? What about my one last fight? Am I afraid? No. Why should I? I've come this far, sacrificing almost everything dear to me along the way, for my dream of having one great nation under a just rule of mine. It's not about bravery or cowardice at all. Everyone is afraid just like everyone is brave. Only some people are brave for some time longer, for some time they need to make their dream come true. It's a good dream and worth fighting for, worth living for, worth dying for, worth going to Hell for.

Tomorrow I'll fight one last time for that dream. Whether or not I win, my efforts to make the dream come true will live forever. My name will live forever. Will I be remembered as a villain or a hero? It doesn't really matter. If I lost this one last fight, so be it. Let those usurpers live in this unhappy world, while I am going to another world. Who is happier than I? I reigned on earth. I was just. I laughed. I sang. I loved my friends and wive. I protected my servants. I held out my hand to the afflicted. I knew all of human joys. I lived a full life.

I am a king. I am a man.

Tomorrow I'll fight one last time. One more fight. Just one last fight.....

Author's Note: This is an extended version of the older one I made and posted here many months ago. Erwin asked me to make it longer and in Bahasa Indonesia. I made it longer, rediscovering it in the process. Ask Triyadi to make the Bahasa Indonesia version.

A date is arbitrary. Thus a year is arbitrary, too. Millions of people all over the world are now partying to celebrate an arbitrary game called New Year. Yes, 2010 AD is here to stay for an arbitrary year.

"Well, what will happen in 2010?", one might ask. I can speculate freely that at least we'll still see the sun rises from the East everyday. I see no need of interpreting the events which occurred lately near the end of last year (including the death of Gus Dur) as the sign of a gloomy future. As Sarah Connors used to say, "No fate but what we make." Sure, I believe God has a saying in our fate, but I'm also a believer of free will. And that's why I always eat my fortune cookies whole, including the paper.

We've seen bad times before us, that's no reason to give up. However, I can't help noticing that the general public refuses to believe it. People tends to believe that his problem is graver than the ones you describe to him. You see, an argument that all men are mortal will never console a dying man. "Man, you're dying, but please be reasonable and gather your strength. Death happens to everybody!" If he has any strength left, he will slap you in the face or kick your nostril in.

We have to resign ourselves to growing up, my friends. Let's assume that the universe, compares to a man's life, is rather close without beginning and without end. With that assumption, we see our universe as something without any precise boundaries, and thus we have to accept that it becomes almost impossible to think about it in anthropological terms. We are then more likely to be able to free ourselves from the obsessive idea that the universe must behave and do as we do.

Yes, we need to free ourselves. Only then we can see the two ways in which progress can be understood. One way is that we never go back on ourselves, that transformation and change is the most natural law of the universe, and that even when we look back to our past we think of it in a way which produces something new. The other way of understanding progress is to think that everything which comes after is better than what existed before. The two ways are never the same, never have been and never will be. We are living on the age that has realized that progress is not necessarily continuous and cumulative. Progress knows phases of ascent and reversals. For centuries we had the impression that our culture was defined by the interrupted accumulation of knowledge. But it's not true. The history of civilizations is a sequence of abysses into which tons of knowledge go missing. The Egyptians knowledge of mathematic was a lost mystery to the ancient Greeks. The Middle Ages lost Greek science. The late Majapahit Empire forgot the architecture of the Syailendra. We could go on and on in the same vein, and will surely notice that throughout history an amount of knowledge had been lost during every age (but I'm not going to say anything about  the lost ancient high-grade civilization of Atlantis and Lemuria without solid evidence!).

So, the ups and downs are parts of our universe and history. So, there's no reason to be afraid of what might or might not happen in 2010. The future is a mystery, yes, but that's what makes it interesting. No need to try to predict it, let alone to fear it. The future is a just another present waiting to happen later, and the past is just another present that has passed us by. The now is our present now, and that's what we should live with. Remember that always.

Remember that always, or you'll have one leg on the past, one leg on the future, and piss all over the present. We still have a long way to go, so let's keep on walking. To the end.

Happy New Year, folks, arbitrary as it may sound. Celebrate the now, our now.

December 22 is known as Hari Ibu in Indonesia. Considering the history, it may be more appropriate to refer it as Women's Day instead of Mother's Day. However, since I was a kid I've considered it Mother's Day, and so even to day I always think of this day as a Mother's Day, Indonesian version.

That being said, I only want to share these words with all mothers in Indonesia:

"Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children." (Eric Draven)

Keep that words in mind, all mothers. Keep saying the words, all children.

Happy Mother's Day, all children of all mothers.

That's all I need to say for today.