On Becoming a Woman

Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola

nadia febina — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:29:19 +0000

She is Angola's hero, and after reading her story she is mine too now. What a woman! I wrote my review in goodreads.com and would like to share it here in my blog. Afterall, my original blog's name is "On Becoming a Woman" and she is surely one role model for women... :)

Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 by Patricia C. McKissack

My review rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book so much, I read it very fast like for couple of hours only or so, but I am sure I will keep it in my bookshelf, in case I'll have children I want them to know about the life of this remarkable woman.

As you can see from my profile I am not Angolan but curently I live in Luanda, and the busiest street here is named Gingha (or, Nzingha). It took me sometime to understand that Nzingha was an Angolan queen, who fought for her kingdom against colonialist (portuguese) and slavery. I was amazed to hear that story from somebody. Amazed to imagine in this patriarchy society, she was the warrior and the leader in this country. And on top of that, at that time slavery was so normal -as her mother was also an ex-slave captured during war between the kingdoms, aparently- yet she knew the recent type of slavery brought by her enemy is something else. She said, "This way, the baby of a slave will be born a slave. It is not correct".

Like the previous review mentioned, reading this book I'm stunned by her persistence yet saddened at the same time, knowing that her fight against colonialism was not successful. Although, she still never gave in until end of her time.

Outside Angola -except it says in the book, in Brazil- she is not too popular, but her story is definitely one to be passed on for generations.

View all my reviews.

A Short Catch Up

nadia febina — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:41:04 +0000

I would like to say an apology for not updating blog for more than a month, but I feel like I'm such a big head if I say that!

I've just been back from vacation to Singapore, Lombok and Jakarta. A short and sweet one. Back home in Indonesia, apart from enjoying all the food and meeting up again with the loved ones, I was enjoying the hype of pre-presidential election. I watched in television the speeches and interviews of some candidates, and although in my opinion none of them have distinctive program that sets them apart from each other, but I think I know now who I'd vote. ;)

During my 2-week stay there I also witnessed one of Indonesia's strangest case which I think endanger Indonesia's reputation as a democratic nation. It was the biggest headline during my stay there, it's about a modest indonesian woman being jailed for sending around complain email about improper treatment(s) she had received from Omni International Hospital Jakarta. The hospital sued, and she lost. Almost all indonesian blogs and social networking sites reacted to this case, but I missed the momentum in commenting to their postings.

I could not ignore the case of Manohara and Prince of Kelantan Malaysia. The news was everywhere! On top of that, there was also Ambalat issue with Malaysia, abused indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia, in which again, contribute more to the already un-romantic relationship between the two neighbours, Indonesian and Malaysia. I did not have a car to transport me from one point to another in Jakarta that I needed to use taxi to go everywhere. I noticed that in many taxis I was in, there is one topic they'd like to talk about with me: Malaysia.

In Jakarta I also watched in TV the famous speech of President Obama in Cairo in which he mentioned a few times about Indonesia being a good example in interfaith tolerance in its society as he witnessed it firsthand during his childhood in Indonesia. I believe what he said and I think his speech was cool.

What's new about me... Well..

Not much. Work gets busier to an extent that I feel a need to put more effort in taking more care in my physical and mental health. Beside continuing doing daily yoga/meditation and some regular sports, I have found two new things that I love to do to support that effort: scuba diving and belly dancing. (taddaaaaa!!) :D

Belly dancing is something I've always wanted to try because first of all, I love to dance; and second of all, it looks so difficult it makes me feel challenged. I took the class here just 5 minutes from my housein Luanda and yes I can confirm, it IS difficult!! Imagine moving your shoulder or ribcage or hip in lot of different ways but has to be in isolation of each other and then you have to mix the moves (duh!), and plus, you have to look as beautiful as a goddess when you're doing it. Soooo much coordination needed. I've had 4 classes already and I did not get it yet!! But I'm not going to give up.. :D

As for scuba diving, although I've only had around 30 dives in my logbook, it can be too early to say that I love it, but I think I can confirm now that I do. It's not about the water and the fish only. It's the whole chain of activities: the team-work nature, the planning, the fact that you need to keep sane underwater and to breath in a relaxed manner, the feeling of weightlessness underwater, the fact that it uses basic chemical engineering principle the theory just feels so natural (haha! hey it helps!!).. And then of course, the main thing itself which is to see the fish and the corals.. Berry berry niceee!! :)

Well this post is suppopsed to be a short one as the title suggested "A Short Catch Up". But short is relative..

Have a good weekend! :)

The Snake Story

nadia febina — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:49:29 +0000

I came across a nice blog, Happy Lotus, whose owner's name is Nadia (noo.. not being narcisstic this time.. she's another Nadia!); and in one of the articles, it quoted a classic Hindhu story about a snake. I just love the story as it shows how setting your boundaries and being kind & loving are not mutually exclusive. So I thought it is worth to share :)

There is a story that is told in India about a snake who got tired of children being afraid of it. Because of its desire to be loved, it followed the advice of a wise man to be more loving and stopped hissing when children were nearby. Eventually, the children started using the snake as a jump rope and it got upset for being disrespected. The story ends with the wise man telling the snake: “I told you to be loving but I did not tell you to forget to hiss”.

Can Self-Sufficiency Solve World Hunger?

nadia febina — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:30:02 +0000

This article is to contribute to the World Hunger Day in Bloggers Unite

Imagine this scenario:
A price for a simple cucumber is USD 10. A set of mandarin of 4 is US$15. Cauliflower is USD 20. And bokchoy for USD 15. Going to a supermarket for your weekly groceries shopping means spending USD 250.. and I repeat, weekly. Crazy, huh? And a simple lunch in a small modest restaurant is USD 20, something with modest quality. You can get a lower quality one with "only" USD12. Now you may want to multiply it by days a month and weeks a month and you'll get idea how much one spends per month. Only on food.

That's my life in Angola. And I was not talking about expatriate standard. That is THE standard here in Luanda. And we are one of those lucky ones who can afford. The maximum we do is to complain on our big expenses on food. And yes, we do this daily. But what about those majority of people who can barely afford or can not afford at all?

As Luanda is voted world's most expensive city, Angola's case is probably an extreme one. Nevertheless, hunger is still a global problem. Even in those countries where source of food is abundant and soil is fertile.

Why is that?
*Ok, this is just my stupid analysis since I'm somewhat exposed to such an extreme case with regards to price of food*

If I hear it correctly, the high price of food in Angola is because everything is imported. Although I heard from an Angolan friend that it is now coming, the locally produced food is still not enough to cover the demand. I am not an economist but I think this makes sense. When we depend too much on market, we will be fully driven by it. Thus, maybe self sufficient is the key.

Some of my friends here in Angola who are lucky enough to have a small garden in their yard have started to plant some vegetables and fruits. And now they are not anymore my kind who regularly complain about how a bucket of rotten grapes cost 25USD. They're content now.

Indonesia's first president, Soekarno, also came up with such concept. He called it Marhaenisme. One time he walked down a street and met a typical Indonesian man of that time (in around 1930's) who do not have any money, but live a family. When he talked to that guy whose name is Marhaen, he found out that Marhaen had his own small area of land where he plants his rice and veggies, had his own cow to help him to process the land, and some goats. And that is all his possession. He had just enough to feed himself, his wife and his family.. without any dependence on anybody and on any party. And this was how basically most Indonesians at that time lived their life. Soekarno who at that time was one of Indonesian young leaders fought for Indonesia independence from Dutch rule was amazed of this concept and named this concept "Marhaenisme" after the name of the man he spoke to. According to Soekarno, the very first step to be independent is to be self sufficient.

Mahatma Gandhi in his fight against British rule also encouraged the same concept. He was going to such an extent even his own clothes were self-made from raw material.

Now the million dollar question:
Can self sufficiency solve world hunger? And if yes, can any place in the world apply self-sufficiency?

Somebody might tell me that the concept of self-sufficiency is against modern economy principle. I am not an expert on that, so probably you can tell me. One thing for sure, we are now hit by global financial crisis.. and probably one way to get out of it is to be back to basic. Dont know, really, so feel free to comment on this.

The big talk of the moment in philantrophy is about giving gift that can give back. People now start to think that to donate livestock to a poor family is much more valuable than to donate money alone. Giving livestock (ie.goats or cows) with appropriate training of what one can do with it can provide sustainable income for the family. For example, a goat or a cow produces milk that can be sold, and then when the goat or the cow has springs, they can multiply the income. Mr.Heifer is the pioneer of this concept of giving. His organization even makes a game rule that whoever receives the donation of livestock, when the livestock has spring, the recipient has to give away the first spring to other poor family in their community. So donation can be multiplied to the whole village.

Although not to its full version, to some extent Heifer encourages the importance of self-sufficiency.

Fingers crossed, it will probably work. I secretly want to believe so.

However, now is not the Marhaens era anymore. In this modern age, self-sufficiency will only work if basic facilities in the villages are available. The importance role of a government is then to ensure that infrastructure is available in these villages, namely schools and hospitals as the very basic of standard. This part, though, is another global issue!

So I Have an Excuse (Why I dont Write Enough)

nadia febina — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:46:05 +0000

Every blogger must have had this, at least once in a lifetime: You were quite sure that you want to write something and even the ideas were already in your head.. and yet you spend 15minutes stare at a blank monitor.

Writing needs creativity. And creativity is something dynamic, it can be up and down with time and due lots of possible causes.

My blogging frequency has never been good actually, and of course I always hide behind Oh-my-dayjob-is-so-busy- reason. Easy, heh? :)

And then, I bumped into this article.
It is quite an interesting article which I'd recommend you to read its whole story, if you have time, but the clipped paragraph below is the part I'm so interested in:

clipped from writetodone.com

What hinders creativity?

There are lots of things that can hinder creativity, from low self esteem to a lack of break-fast. But let me focus in on one particular hindrance for now: linear thinking.

Linear thinking kills creativity

In term of the way our brain functions, linear thinking means triggering neighbouring ideas. For example, if you use logical thinking, you move down a linear pathway of thinking until you have a result. That’s great for engineers. But not for writers.

Aha!

So friends, I hope you can now feel what I've been going through daily. Those ideas that are constantly appearing in my head - although, sometimes shyly - and dying to be let out are constantly being opposed by the other force that is pulling them to the other side of the equation on the consequence of having to do my dayjob as a so called engineer. Haha... yes, I am asking for your empathy.. Please? :)

No, but to be fair, it is not the reason, dont think so. And still of course I have the safest excuse for all time: I am busy with my dayjob. That's why I think I need to try to follow the advice from this wiseman. The last link is really recommended to read especially if you are a blogger with dayjobs (like many of us).

So, enough for the linktime.. And now I am preparing to enjoy the Easter holiday. Tomorrow is the start of a long weekend.. yayy! Hope you'd take the time to recuperate and have fun.. Talk to you later. :)