Jennie M. Xue

Youth Pledge, entrepreneurship, and young Indonesian ambassadors

 by Jennie S. Bev 

The Youth Pledge was declared on October 28, 1928, where three ideals of Indonesia –one motherland, one nation and one language– were immortalized and became the unifying promise among young Indonesians.

Today, such commemoration may sound like a routine without much practical meaning. While it is true that it was an important milestone in Indonesian history and we appreciate those heroic youth role models, many of us aren’t even aware of today’s young Indonesians who are inspiring and successful internationally and have been carrying the country’s name on their shoulders. We should give proper accolades to past and present heroes and ambassadors, and breed future ones.

The man who saves the American Dream

 

 by Jennie S. Bev 

San Joaquin County is one of the hardest-hit counties in California in this mortgage crisis. And Mountain House was named by New York Times in November 2008 as “the most underwater community in the United States,” as 90 percent of home values there have gone underwater, and the depth of depreciation is as steep as 70 percent.

Those who have been paying skyrocketing monthly mortgage payments and have been receiving reduced earnings are probably feeling the pinch of the economic crisis. Many of them have stopped payments and are facing foreclosure.

Preventing and healing conflicts through artistic endeavors

 by Jennie S. Bev

Whenever we hear the word “peace,” oftentimes we think about Mohandas Gandhi and Dalai Lama, two epitomes of peace. Dealing with peace, however, also means recognizing seeds of conflicts, preventing them from growing into full-blown ones, and eventually past and existing conflicts must be healed. In Indonesia, there have been many conflicts, past and present ones. And due to its diversity and predominantly patriarch social structure, Indonesia is a land of conflicts of various scales, yet the study of peace and preventing and healing conflicts through artistic endeavors haven’t been considered seriously.

The 1965 “communist eradication” massacre that had caused 500,000 to 2 million deaths is a colossal hidden conflict of which its reconciliation hasn’t been done properly. Its improper reconciliation can be observed from the on-going strong stigmatization of relatives of PKI members or those who were wrongfully accused as “communists.” Others like East Timor, West Papua, Aceh, and Reformation incidents, such as Semanggi I and II and May 1998 Tragedy are to list a few of smaller scale ones but equally as appalling and heartbreaking.

A quest for strong, proper home after natural disasters

by Jennie S. Bev

The recent earthquake in West Sumatra has opened another window into the quest for home after disasters. Annually, throughout the world, there are 40 million displaced people who move from one place to another in the quest for a safe home free from natural or humanitarian disasters.

Some people travel to a nearby village or city, while others travel far away to the other side of the globe. Whatever the reasons for the migration are and wherever they finally decide to reside are as important as how the world should treat them and why a quest for home is the ultimate search in one’s lifetime.

The silence breaker

 

by Jennie S. Bev

What do Benedict Anderson, John Roosa, and Robert Lemelson have in common? They have all talked about the G30S/PKI incident and its aftermath. Anderson with his Cornell paper A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup in Indonesia, Roosa with his book Pretext for Mass Murder, and Lemelson with his psychiatric anthropology documentary film 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy. These three works complement each other very well as Anderson’s is a view from high politics, Roosa’s perspective is linear in historical fashion, and Lemelson’s is from a grassroots vantage point in which it portrays innocent people suffering long-term adverse effects from the incident.

In a recent meeting at an Indonesian restaurant in Berkeley, California, Lemelson explained that 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy was a work 10 years in the making with a budget of less than US$500,000. Both the director and the producer of the film, Lemelson appears in a few of the scenes as well. The film is also supported by big names like Pietro Scalia, who won two Academy Awards for Best Editing (JFK and Black Hawk Down), and historians John Roosa, Geoffrey Robinson, and Baskara T. Wardaya. Richard Henderson, a winner of the Golden Reel Award, served as the music editor and Malcolm Cross, a trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, served as the composer. The music featured Dengue Fever, a Los Angeles-based band that combines Cambodian pop music with psychedelic rock, which brings a new aura to the “Genjer Genjer” song.

Apparently, residing in the world’s movie capital of Los Angeles, and teaching at UCLA as an anthropology professor provide an unprecedented advantage over accessible intellectual capital needed to produce an unforgettable movie.

Myths and misconceptions surrounding intellectual property rights

 by Jennie S. Bev

“Patenting” Indonesia’s cultural heritage is tempting, but it just a widespread misconception. The so-called “public domain” of Internet is a myth too, as creative common rights based on creative common licenses also have limitations. Myths and misconceptions surrounding intellectual property (IP) rights must be clarified if Indonesia is to be considered equally advanced in terms of legal literacy in this highly borderless world.

Now, first things first. What are intellectual property rights? They are exclusive rights belonging to the creators or owners of products of the minds, which immediately materialize at the moment of creation. Thus, registering them is not required, but oftentimes necessary for the purpose of producing legal evidence of time of creation.