Monday, February 4, 2008

Fishermen’s Tradition in Pelabuhan Ratu

Pelabuhan Ratu is the capital of Sukabumi regency. It is one of tourist objects in Sukabumi. It provides beautiful view of the sea. Because of its geographical condition, which is near sea, most of people there work as fisherman. There is a unique tradition of the fisherman society in Pelabuhan Ratu, called “Labuh Saji.” In this essay, I would like to tell about that tradition.

Labuh Saji” is an annual ritual that is held on Fisherman day. It is also called “Pesta Nelayan” (Fishermen’s Party). It is not only celebrated by fishermen but also by all Pelabuhan Ratu society. On the day, people come to the fish public sale which is called “Dermaga” where the ritual is held. The ritual is started with traditional dance performance. While the beautiful dancers are performing the traditional dance, a buffalo is slaughtered in front of the fish public sale. The buffalo’s head, later, will be thrown to the sea as a present for Nyai Roro Kidul. She is a supernatural creature whom Pelabuhan Ratu society believes as the ruler of the sea along Pelabuhan Ratu. Before the buffalo is slaughtered, it is adorned with ribbons and flowers first. While it is being slaughtered, the fishermen take the buffalo’s blood on glasses to be poured to their boats. They believe that the buffalo’s blood can bless them when they are fishing. Then, the fishermen cut the buffalo’s body into slices and give them to people who show the ritual. However, they kept the buffalo’s head because it will be mixed with other ritual offerings such as rice, vegetables, and fruits that will be thrown to the sea on the next day. At night, there is “Wayang Golek” performance. Many people are interested in watching it. They watch it until late at night. Nevertheless, the Wayang Golek performance is stopped for awhile at midnight because people have to pray for the ritual offerings that will be presented to Nyai Roro Kidul on the next day. After that, the Wayang Golek performance is continued. On the next day, people fulfill the fish public sale in the morning. The ritual is begun by convoy start from Pendopo building to the fish public sale. Beside the dancers, there is a girl who is made up as Nyai Roro Kidul in the convoy. She rides a carriage and wears green dress with jasmines everywhere. Green is the color that people in Pelabuhan Ratu believe that Nyai Roro Kidul very likes. After the simulator of Nyai Roro Kidul arrives at the fish public sale, it is time to throw the ritual offerings which consist of the buffalo’s head, yellow rice, vegetables, and fruits to the sea. The person who has a right to throw the ritual offerings to the sea is the elders of Pelabuhan Ratu society. After that, the fishermen jump to the sea to take the water, again, to be poured to their boats.

In conclusion, the tradition of throwing the buffalo’s head to the sea in Pelabuhan Ratu is held to get Nyai Roro Kidul’s blessing. She is believed as the ruler of the sea along Pelabuhan Ratu. The fishermen there believe that with the ritual they can get fish easily when they go fishing. The ritual does not relate to religion because the fishermen are Muslim and there is no command to do that in Islam. It is only their tradition so that we can call it that it is culture of Pelabuhan Ratu society, especially the fishermen.

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Friday, February 1, 2008

Summary of "They've Gotta Keep It: People Who Save Everything" by Lynda W. Warren and Jonnae C. Ostrom

The article is about the pack rats. The writers tell that pack rats is the people who collect, save or hoard insatiably , often with only the vague rationale that the items may someday be useful. Pack rats are different from collectors. Although pack rats collect, they are different from collectors, who save in a systematic way. Collectors usually specialize in one of a few classes of objects, which they are organize, display and even catalogue. But pack rats tend to stockpile their possessions haphazardly and seldom use them. Why do some people continue to save when there is no space for what they have and they own more of something? These are the reason: possible future need, potential value, sentimental attachment, and lack of wear or damage. I have experience of pack rats, I saved many kind of things that I did not use anymore. I did not throw them away because I was afraid that sometime I will need them. The things that I saved are the shoes boxes, plastic bags, and a pile of newspaper.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Comment of Friends' Blog

I have observed 20 blogs, and this is the research result: Most of them copied articles that they had posted to Bogorchickensoup. These are the statistical result:
  1. 50% wrote about Bilingualism and Muslim New Year
  2. 45% wrote about Pilgrimage and Stereotype
  3. 40% wrote abut How to eat
  4. 35% wrote about Democracy
  5. 25% wrote about Culture
  6. 20% wrote about Minority
  7. 15% wrote about New Year and Christmas
  8. 10% wrote about Achilles and Word Meaning
All of them used blogspot. From the appearance, they use different template of blog. 95% of the blogs are colorful. 95% did not put their photo in their profile.
These are the address of the blogs:
  1. http://Sintapuspitasari.blogspot.com
  2. http://Hertidamayanti.blogspot.com
  3. http://tetisusilawati.blogspot.com
  4. http://srirejekiVIIA031104018.blogspot.com
  5. http://dewiindriani.blogspot.com
  6. http://deniellevine66.blogspot.com
  7. http://avot84.blogspot.com
  8. http://leoboys08-trisno.blogspot.com
  9. http://nikennikadewi.blogspot.com
  10. http://evienovikasari.blogspot.com
  11. http://ufpratama.blogspot.com
  12. http://endang-deyan-cute.blogspot.com
  13. http://evieaprianti.blogspot.com
  14. http://mutzonly.blogspot.com
  15. http://minxdinasty.blogspot.com
  16. http://azaskia85.blogspot.com
  17. http://erwicute.blogspot.com
  18. http://dewiakhriyantinoviana.blogspot.com
  19. http://niesdiary.blogspot.com
  20. http://kartinipakuan.blogspot.com

Summary of "Momma, the Dentist and Me" by Maya Angelou

"Momma, the dentist, and me" story tells about racism. It tells about
discrimination to a Negro by a white man dentist. When the Negro—the
writer—had a toothache, the dentist did not want to treat her because
she is black. I do not have experience about discrimination when I get
toothache but I had been discriminated in sport. It happened when I
was a child. My classmates were playing football and I wanted to join
them. But, they did not permit me to join the playing because I was
not as tall as them. I was the shortest boy in my class and it made me
very sad. However, when I told my mother about it, I was not sad
anymore because she told me that it was a natural thing if I was
shorter than my friends because I was younger than them.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Stereotype

Stereotype is people judgments about someone by only looking at
their physical appearance, names, age, gender, and social status. For
example, the stereotype of names. Boy consider that a girl who has a
good name is pretty. When his friend ask him to choose between Sarah or
Kokom to be his girlfriend, he will choose Sarah because he thought
that Sarah is more beautiful than Kokom. In this case, he just look at
the girls' name, whereas, Kokom might be more beautiful than Sarah. So,
it is important not to judge someone from his/her name only. The ways
to avoid stereotype are: being aware of standardized images in our
head, become suspicious of all judgements that we allow exceptions to
prove, learn to be chary of generalizations about people.

Summary of "Why 'Model Minority' doesn't Fit" by Diane Yen-Mei Wong

Diane Yen-Mei Wong told about minority. She gave an example of her
community, Asian-Americans community, as a "model minority".
Asian-Americans community is considered to be succeeded minority group
because they do not get racial discrimination anymore. However, in
fact, it doesn't like that because there are many Asian-Americans
people who still live in poverty, uneducated, and work for less, or
even, no wage. In addition, Seattle government assigned special units
to investigate Asian-Americans ' crime because there are many
crimes/violence done by Asian-Americans. In short, minority is
always discriminated. Otherwise, we should not think that minority is
harmful.

Summary of "Of My Friend Hector and My Achilles Heel" by Michael T. Kaufman

The writer tells about his prejudice and stupidity of his childhood
friend, Hector. The writer always thought that he had a better fate
than Hector. He was in special class in Junior High School but Hector
was not. He went uptown to Bronx Science while Hector went downtown to
Commerce. He became a reporter while Hector was only a longshoreman.
The fact, it was only the writer's assumption because when the writer
read a newspaper; he knew that Hector was replacing Peter Falk as an
actor. Since then, the writer realized that his thought was wrong. He
had made a stupid prejudice.

Battle of Culture

People say that child is a gift from God that we should take care it
well. A child is produced by a woman—mother—and a man—father—in a
marriage. However, many children were born before marriage today. Now,
let us see how Americans and Indonesians' perception about it.
In America, many women start their families before marriage and
before the end of their adolescence. It is not odd to have a child
before marriage and to take care a child without a father for American
women because it is not an embarrassing thing for them. Their society
would not ostracize them because of the condition. On the contrary,
Indonesian society will ostracize the women who have a child before
marriage. It is because, in Indonesia, it is considered to be an
embarrassing and bad thing. Indonesians think that a child should be
produced after marriage and he/she should have a mother and a father.
In conclusion, one thing that is considered to be an embarrassing or
a bad thing in a country can be not embarrassing and not bad in other
countries. It happens because of the different cultures. Each cultures
has a different point of view about something. Apart from that, you
have to view something by your thought, not because you are an
Indonesian or American or something else.

Bilingualism

Bilingualism is the use of two language by person to speak in his
daily conversation. I also do bilingualism, I speak Indonesian and
Sundanese in daily conversations. Both languages are used for
different situation and purpose. At home, I speak Sundanese because my
family use Sundanese to speak. I do not only speak Sundanese to my
family but also to my friends who are Sundanese. Next, I use
Indonesian language to speak to my friends in college. I also speak
Indonesian when I talk to lecturer. When I meet people who I haven't
known them, I also speak in Indonesian language because it is the
national language. However, Indonesian language that I use is not
standardized Indonesian language because it is only used in formal
situation. There is another language that I use to speak but I use it
sometimes, that is English language. I use it in my lecture when I
have to do presentation.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Everywhere's Garbage

Garbage is the easiest thing that we can find in Indonesia. Everywhere we can find garbage scattered around. It is the scenery that we can find easily in Indonesia. That is because many people forget about the use of garbage-can. It doesn't mean that there is no garbage-can in Indonesia but many people ignore it so they throw garbage everywhere they want. Many efforts had been done to make people aware to throw garbage to the garbage-can, such as attachment of slogan that said that clean is beautiful, etc, and the elucidation of the consequence if we throw garbage everywhere we want. Ironically, people still throw garbage everywhere they want. Even, under the slogan that says "Bersih itu Indah", we can see garbages scattered around under it. Throwing garbage everywhere has become our culture. it's very dolorous and dishonoring. So, could we change it, please?