A place where I can live, breathe, talk and see

A gloomy Sunday afternoon, with dark clouds looming above the sky. I'm sitting at the bus, on my way to meet a stranger for some thing I want to buy (nothing illegal, I can assure you).

I keep my eyes on the small forest which stretch along the way from my suburban area to the city. And seeing those beautiful trees, I'm remembering Bintan.

Remembering the clear star-filled sky, and the magnificent giant trees which stand proud about 40m tall, stunningly and beautifully straight. The branches only show on the far top part of the tree. Before I don't really appreciate such a quality in a tree. It's very normal to me seeing straight trees, having lived my entire life in the island of Java, where teakwood is literally scattered everywhere; it makes all the canopied and widely branched trees of Singapore are stunningly beautiful to me. And with the average height of 30 meters and it's huge moldy branches spread out very dramatic and ever gracefully to shade any other lives below; it always reminds me of the most ancient and wise creature from the Middle Earth; the Ent.

But now I come to realize the value of straight trees I often see in Java. Especially the monetary value. In the old days, those giant straight trees can be easily cut down and carved into a boat for our brave Indonesian sailors to cross the limitless ocean. Or in the recent days, you can just have it cut down and smuggled it abroad for some hefty amount of money. It's THAT precious. But of course there's also an environmental value for such a big tree can absorb the average of 20.3 kg of carbon dioxide/ annum.

And back to the trees of Singapore, it makes me realize that all the trees here are just 'recently' planted. The Singapore government started their Garden City campaign from the 1960's; and that's when they planted all of these magnificent trees. And those trees are carefully picked for its easy maintenance, the beautiful colored flowers, the fragrant scent, the canopied shape, etc. Everything but its economical value. That's why the trees in Singapore are so much different from what I usually see in Indonesia, which obviously, everything is naturally grown. Or purposefully planted for its economy value. There are of course wee bits of planned landscape in the city planning, but I think it's not as advanced as in here (CMIIW). Here everything is planned, engineered, even a tree tucked away in the far corner of Woodlands, it was there for a purpose, and was carefully picked to serve that purpose. :D

I don't know why I get so excited talking about trees. I realized it since I moved here. Those trees evoke my amazement and curiosity. Maybe I was a tree in my previous life? A Bodhi tree which shades Buddha during his journey in finding enlightment? Or a very old creature of Middle Earth called Treebeard? :D

Don't' you just LOVE this picture? I know I do.

It evokes so many of my childhood and current dreams. I'd definitely buy this if I am as rich as Warren Buffet. :D
Anyway, this is a winning entry for Seastead’s first design contest.

Click here for the complete article.

Climate change hurts China's poor from Greenpeace China on Vimeo.

This is a very valuable and easy to follow 7 precepts to live a green life by http://www.dothegreenthing.com/

1. Walk The Walk; You get from A to B without any C. Walk as often as you can. Or if it's really unbearably far, take public transport.

2. Easy On The Meat; It’s delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars.

3. Stick With What You Got; Resist the urge to buy the latest trends/ products and only buy what you REALLY need.

4. Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat; or if you live in the tropics like me, try to manage to live with a fan and reduce your AC usage as minimal as you can bear.

5. All-Consuming; The art of wasting nothing and using up everything

6. Stay Grounded; Instead of jetting your way around the world

7. Plug Out; Don’t leave it on or even put it on

I've been trying to understand God lately.

What I've read, seen, experienced lately has either confuse me or scared me. And both are not some kind of feeling that I fond of.

It all started with me trying to find God. And I browse through shelves of books on spirituality, from Buddha and Dalai Lama to Mother Theresa and Eckhart Tolle.. But then I ended up with a biography of His last Messenger, Muhammad. Because I thought, if I really wants to find God, I should start with the closest person to God, which is Muhammad. I read Mohammad's biography, and found how life, even Muhammad himself, as the best amongst humans, are vulnerable. And how Muhammad, is guiding his life and path to the real victory by having a strong faith in God, and surrender everything in the Hands of God. And how our judgment, is so short-termed, shallow and stupid, and truly, most humans don't know the REAL good thing when it's standing right before him.

After that, I read this books titled The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. This book, really is a revelation. It actually is a non-fiction book covering the main theme of what happens to the earth when human beings disappear. But for me, the book manage to covers not only the scientific aspects of what happens to the world after we're gone, but also the human nature and it evokes a deep religious and philosophical thinking. In short, a really good book. :)

Quoting from the book :

"I can't imagine a more appropriate setting." he says, "to describe what amounts to genocide. In my lifetime, millions of people slaughtered in death camps, from Europe's Holocaust to Darfur, are proof of what our species is capable of. My 50-year career has been absorbed by the extraordinary loss of huge animals whose heads don't appear on these walls. They were all exterminated, simply because it can be done. ..."

and, :

The matter is more complicated than a killer instinct that never relents until another species is gone. It involves acquisitive instincts that also can't tell when to stop, until something we never intended to harm is fatally deprived of something it needs. We don't actually have to shoot songbirds to remove them from the sky. Take away enough of their home or sustenance, and they fall dead on their own.

While reading the book, I get too carried away, at some point I even hate humans. :)) And I start thinking about God again, about Angels, and what did they think about humans, and are they ever regret for choosing us as Khalifah's of the World..

And I became really curious, about what God's plan behind all this.. Why God let us humans slaughtered all the magnificent creature that He once created? Why God let us human to keep on doing damage in this world, suffocated His other perfect creation to death, hunt them to extinction, and poison the entire Earth?

If I were God, I'd be very disappointed. I'd be very angry. But I'm not God. And I know that God has the most beautiful plan for all of us.

When I started my search of God, the Economic Crisis has been looming around for a couple of months. And now, as the Great Wall of Capitalism is falling around me, one of it's gracious brick fell right smack into my right foot, not enough to hurt me, but enough to startle and wake me up.

My friends got laid off right in front of me.

I knew that people being laid off, and I knew that the economy is bad, but looks like all of those things are only happening in TV. In my little world, nothing could go wrong, and I could live forever.. :P But this, really got me thinking.

This job, which I consider is pretty good; the one job that once got me thinking about re-assessing my wedding plans; the one job that I could count on; the one job where I can actually see it as my ladder to the peak of my precious career; is nothing but a mirage that can disappear anytime now.

And now I really understand, that life IS vulnerable. And we shouldn't count on anything but God, and only God. Because God can turn one life's around in a single second, and we have no power whatsoever on our lives. That's why, just like Muhammad (PBUH), we should just try our best, and always have faith in God, that God would never neglect us, and will always provide with what's best for us.. :))

And what relates Global Warming with Global Economic Crisis? Very easy. This Global Economic Crisis, I think its God's beautiful way of fixing human's harm to Earth and teach all of us to be a better person. In a hard way.

No economy, no factories, no pollutions, no CO2s.

This is even better than Alan Weisman's extreme solution of exterminating humans from Earth. And my friends, who were being laid off, are all part of God's masterplan to revive Earth to it's glory.

With a lower income than before (or no income at all), humans are trying to adapt by consume less, recycle more, and .. I don't know. Maybe have more time to spend with their families?

It's not that bad after all, right? :)

Pardon me for not being able to spot this image up to 10 months after the biggest flood in Jakarta.. I'm trying to, with my limited resorces, but I've tried.

And this is the very first publication of the sumur resapan diagrams I've ever seen.

We should have this picture socialized to the whole community months ago!! This image is do damn important, I wonder why people doesn't even care to apply this simple technique to make our world, our city, a better place.

It's the very least thing we can do...

The war against carbon gasses emissions has gone to an insane level, I think.

Not long ago I read about scientists has found that paddy (yes, our very own paddy, the one plant that Dewi Sri has given her name for) emits quite a significant number of carbon into the atmosphere, and now the scientists are trying to develop an 'environmental friendly' paddy (gee, the term itself disgusts me.. :-P). Can anyone see the weirdness of those lines? I thought the word 'environmental friendly' is only for those things that aren't existed naturally in nature. But PADDY??!?!?! Hmm, well, apparently not.. :-P That's 1 forgiven ridiculousness. And I thought, we can forgive this one. After all, if it's worth for the sake of the whole society, then why not?

But then came the 2nd news that changes my opinion almost entirely. Which is, scientists has done research on cows, and it turns out that their farts emits a 'significant' (I don't know what that word actually means anymore..) carbon gasses to the atmosphere; while kangaroo's fart are more 'environmentally friendly' than cows. And now scientists are doing a research to make cows fart like kangaroos. Now how stupid is THAT??

This war against carbon gasses has gone from denial, skeptical, thriving, supportive to obsessed and ridiculous.

Or maybe it is way easier to make a different kind of paddy, or to make cows farts like kangaroos; than banned capitalists & crazy industrial businesses in countries like USA and China?

The climate crisis and it's derivatives (green living, low carbon emission, alternative energy, horrible disasters, etc) are today's hot issues.

In a way, I feel that this is Mother Nature's way to cleanse her self. Yes, all those disasters, the melting ice caps, the floods, the wild fires, the bursting volcanoes, the hunger, the elongated dry season, even the victims..

Buddha taught us that everything in this world is connected to each other, forming a perfect balance, the perfect equilibrium. And a positive disturbance at one part of the equilibrium will cause a harsh negative disturbance at the other part. And in our beloved earth, human has caused the equilibrium to shake, stir, twist, fold, skew, and almost torn. To keep this balance calmed, and to keep the equilibrium from torn apart, Mother Nature'd have to do a few things. To make things right. I just hope that the past bad karma we're paying off now isn't too devastating..

This morning a read a post at BLDGBLOG, and it's simply terrifying. It discusses the images by artists Pedro Armeste & Mario Gomez for this new new project by Greenpeace. It's images of how the earth landscape will be affected by global warming.

The pics are before and after pics; showing rising sea levels, aerial views of flooded cities with helpless skyscrapers, dry rivers, dry cropfields, and things like that. I've seen images like that before, but seeing it all over again, and reading the naration (please read the complete post on : http://www.bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/climate-change-escapism.html) makes me think again about the world, life, and what really matters in our short, helpless life..

We're small, we're nothing, so why there are egomaniacs in this world with their politics and so-called power, who thinks they can play God? What will they do if all their money, politics and power are helpless against the forces of nature?

Definitely a good read. Thanks BLDGBLOG for sharing! :D