"He" is Beautiful (Edited Version)

Because our creative writing class’ lecturer, Mas Dalih, had been gone to Bali for two weeks for an important business, he has sent her friend, Mbak Abmi as the substitute teacher. We already met her before when she came as a guest. Last week, she played the movie “Bag it” that I reviewed previously and today, she brought a guest with her, a beautiful guest with a long hair, pointed nose, and proportional body. The first thing that I have felt for the guest was she is beautiful…but…I don’t know her ‘beauty’ felt strange, it make me wonder whether the guest is female or male.

My wonder was confirmed when Mbak Abmi said that today we would interview the guests and did you know how she address the guest? She addresses her with a ‘he,’ that means that he is a transgender person, better known in Indonesia by waria. The guest’s name is Olivia Sonya Aresta, or Mbak Sonya for short. She lives in Yogyakarta until now since she was in her vocational school. Sure she is a transgender but who knows that behind her status as a transgender she is actually a wonderful, hardworking person? She is activist in Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia (PKBI), a beauty consultant, a seller of online shop, and a make-up bride. She is so wonderful, right? Even not many women or men can reach her level in this world.

Yet her life was not as easy as her success now. His mother, who is a teacher that is supposed to be followed, had against her decision to be a transsexual until now. There are people who assume that he went out of Klaten to Yogyakarta because her family had thrown him yet, she refused the assumptions. She was the one who went away because she wanted to be free from the restrain of inconvenient that her family felt for her decision to become a transexual.

Lived in Klaten until her high school time, Mbak Sonya was not allowed to play together with boys, afraid that they will be mocked him, that’s why they preferred her to play with girls. It seems that it caused Mbak Sonya to become girly, like to do make up, dressing like a girl, and playing dolls, even in junior high school she start to hang out in the night dressing like a girl. There are funny story when he was still in a high school, he met her friends from the school when she went to the mall in Yogyakarta, dressing as a girl, and called her. She was so shocked that she threw a shoe at them and ran away and after that... well, let’s say the end was not too good, they mocked her and she must hide herself to avoid mocking and laughter at the school until she graduated.  

 As a transsexual, Yogyakarta is not the only towns that she has gone to prove her identity as a transgender, she also went to Solo, Bandung, Jakarta, and Bali, yet, for her, Yogyakarta was the only pleasant place where the atmosphere felt different than the other towns. In Yogyakarta, she found so many things to be learned. She found her confidence when she volunteered in Bantul, the meaning of friend, when their transgender friends stayed in her side when she was sick, and many other things.

For Mbak Sonya, became a volunteer in PKBI is a contract that she signed forever. She wants to help people, especially the transgender, against HIV/AIDS. One thing that she want to proof is that a transgender person have a real contribution to change the world, with do something beautiful. Always willing to dedicate her life for the sake of others…isn’t that the true beauty of human? That’s why…even though she is a transsexual, she is a very beautiful person. A beauty that give people, including myself, many great inspirations of life….

The real link of the article: http://tiyannuno.blogspot.com/2013/05/he-is-beautiful.html 

The Happiness of The Bright Arcylic World

Kim Yee Seul is a student at Universitas Gadjah Mada, but other than her status as a student, who knows that she is actually a brilliant artist? Yes, Yee Seul is specializing in acrylic painting. She is already made so many great paintings and all her paintings can be considered as something that is made by an amateur.  Stop painting because she felt tired after do it for a long time and because of the pressures from the Art school does not make her lose her skill, and in turn proven her as a great artist with a great talent of painting. When she starts painting again, she still not loses her touch, and her skill. Her paintings still gorgeous and surely beautiful, and the paints that is used still mixes perfectly to show the real color of the worlds that she framed into, it almost looks like she transfers the world that she sees into a still object of a painting, and to can do that, surely a great skill is needed.

 

Has a habit to imitate the things in the real world that she sees, Yee Seul apparently sees the world as a bright, cheerful thing. All her pictures show the brightness and happiness of life, with the mixture of bright, unique objects, happy atmosphere and light paints. All her paintings shows a lovey-dovey and cute things, like cars, yachts, friends that close with each other, the object that made even the viewers felt the happiness that radiated at the pictures. For Yee Seul, painting is her way to run away from negative feelings of human like sadness, upset, or many other nasty feelings, made it actually understandable why there is almost no bitterness and dark, sad things in her paintings, because for her, world that is reflected in her painting is the perfect, beautiful world that is full of happiness. A world where there is no sadness, bitterness, disappointment, and the dark side of the world. 

LGBT people: No matter What, They Are Also Humans

Yesterday, I have an interview class in my creative writing class. Whatever happens in the interview, it is better not to be told. The clear thing is the topic is around LGBT people.

LGBT (acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) people maybe only the small numbers compare to the millions lives of humans in Indonesia and around the world, but they surely exist. They are there, in front of our eyes, yet no one cares to portray them.

One thing that I focus on the interview is the reality that many of LGBT people are being shunned away by the society. Many of them separated themselves from their family because their family doesn’t approve them to be one of the LGBT. One thing that I must say is, just because they are different, it does not make them less human than us, that can consider ourselves as normal. 

Sure, their behavior or sexual preference is different but other than that they are human, right? Sure, what they did maybe wrong through the culture, religion, and social’s point of view but must we shunned them out? Pretend that they are not exists? And when the person that close to us is LGBT must we cut off the family’s relationship, the friendship, or the love that is built up for years just because of that? After all being LGBT is not only because they are already one since the start, there are some cases where people became an LGBT  because of their environment (that is too firm to separate women and men maybe) so it’s not like an LGBT is someone that is already destined to be one since they are born. For me avoid the LGBT is the same like said that their existence is not acknowledged, and even though in our culture and religion maybe it is wrong to support this kind of people but at least please, don’t deny that these kind of people exist.  

What can I say, in humans’ lives, culture and religion is everything that makes the norm of the lives. And unfortunately, there are no religion that straightly accept LGBT and eastern culture (including Indonesia) is not as open-minded as America or other western societies there (even in the open-minded society like American and other western countries I think this LGBT issues is still a sentimental issue to be accepted) and in turn makes LGBT becomes something that is really taboo. 

Humans are social being and LGBT people are humans. They are not independent people that can live alone, they need to interact with other people (that is normal) too in order to live. They need a place where they can feel safe, that they are accepted too (which I admit surely must be not so many in Indonesia). And LGBT is not useless, they can do many things better than what normal people can. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual people can help so many orphans to get a chance to have a family (because it is impossible for them to have children, right) and transgender people they looks like a best friend that can see the world from two point of view, man and woman’s point of view at the same time, it is the best friend for someone to come over when they have a problem to share. They can help our lives too, the normal people. 

So if the next time you see one of LGBT people please don’t look down upon them. Don’t insult them, don’t humiliate them, don’t show them that you actually despise them, don’t hurt them more than what they already got. If you can’t accept their existence don’t say or show anything about it, just shut your mouth, put your poker face on, and go away.  After all, just because you are normal and they are not, what can make you so sure that you are better than them?

Movie Review:Bag it!

Yesterday, I watched the documentary film entitled Bag it! It is a documentary film that tells a story about plastic bag. There is so many things that are explained in the movie about plastic bags, such as that plastic bags are now overused by people for things that is only single uses, like plastic cups, mineral water’ bottles, food packages, etc; how plastic bags are actually dangerous for humans’ health because it contains several dangerous chemicals and minerals; how the foreign countries like America, England, India, and other nations have their own rules about plastic bags; whatever the topic the movie really tells us many useful information that I have never realized before. It open my eyes, make me know that a seemingly innocent thing like plastic bags can bring a great destruction towards the earth. 

Actually the movie also tells us how to minimize the use plastic bags. But unfortunately for me, it is really difficult to do in real life, in other words, it is a simple theory but the practice is difficult. For example, the actor tell us we must bring our own water bottle so we don’t need to buy coffee that use a single use cups or mineral water bottle that we will just throw away when we finish it but actually in my opinion, it is really a difficult thing to do. I mean, you see, humans’ lives are hectic now! Everyone is so busy running around to keep away with time! With works, families, schools, and other aspects of lives that humans need to live humans tend to make their life simple! And who would be willing to make their life difficult to bring around a coffee thermos or their own water bottle around when you can just buy it around with affordable price in a limited time? And compared to junk food that use paper plates like McDonald and friends, who is willing to bring their own lunchbox when you are so busy that you even doesn’t have time to cook? In foreign countries that are already improved like America, England, France, and others it is surely difficult to be care about a plastic bag when you feel like you must run around the place in order to get living. 

I admit the documentary tell us that there are people who actually concern about the plastic bags and its long-term damage result (I think the movie is made to influence us and make us realize the dangers too)  but again how many people that are concerned about it compared to the people who are don’t give a damn about it? Maybe the people know the danger but there are not many people who care enough to do something and in turn make their life difficult. They are choose an easy but dangerous live rather than a difficult but healthy live. Sound selfish? Humans are egocentric creature anyway. In a certain degree, humans will just always think about themselves first before cares about other people. 

So really…this movie is educational, this movie give us inspirations, this movie open our eyes, but to save the earth from the plastic bags/garbage through this movie…maybe it is not give too much help to the earth. It is really a human’s thought…do something when it is already too late. But well…why not be more optimistic? A change for one human can make a great change to the earth. So let’s just try to change ourselves through this movie, let’s be more responsible towards our plastic garbage from now on! And I hope…it will led to the better life and better earth from now.