NOTES FROM ALL OVER

UNITED STATE

PUBLIC SENTIMENT is clearly against the penny. Instead of lugging pennies around, many Americans toss their daily accumulation in a junk drawer or hoard them in old mayonnaise jars. Others indulge in the distasteful practice of conspicuously throwing them away. This sometimes leads to penny shortages. Last spring the Treasury asked Americans to circulate the coins. As an incentive, banks have offered as much as $1.10 per hundred to get them back.

JAPAN

THROUGH A SPECIALIZED AGENCY in Tokyo, people who live alone can hire trained “family members” to spend a few hours with them. These “relatives” are expected to play their part to perfection. A widowed grandfather, for instance, might spend 120,000 yen a day (about $1400) for a grandmother, a son, a daughter-in law and their child.
While the two women are busy in the kitchen, Grandfather talks business with “his son” and keeps an eye on the child doing his homework. At the end of the day, the guests, who met today for the first time, go their separate ways.
For those in need of temporary prestige, it is also possible to rent the services of a “subordinate” who can be severely reprimanded by his superior in front of other people.

INDIA

INDIAN TV PERSONALITY Prannoy Roy observed that people prefer handwritten notes to typewritten ones. So he and his NEW DELHI-based computer-software firm developed “MyScript,” a program that has the ability to scan, memorize and simulate an individual’s handwriting. The computer can then print out a message that looks as though it has been written by that person. “If you want to increase the simulation effect, “say Roy, “you can cross out a few words so that the note looks like the real thing.”

CANADA

GARDENS ARE SHORT-LIVED in the chill of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada. But now residents of this mining town enjoy fresh fruits, herbs and roses-year round. The bounty grows 1170 feet beneath the surface in what was a vacant chamber of bustling copper and zinc mine.
The subterranean garden experiment was conceived by Wyne Fraser of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. and Brent Zettl of Prairie Plant Systems Inc. The mine installed high-intensity lights, a drip irrigation system and computers. The temperature is maintained at 25-degrees Celsius by day and 20 degrees at night and moisture and soil conditions are constantly monitored. Three months after planting, 80 rose plants produced 1100 flowers, instead of the normal 700. The results are sold in local markets and miners have dibs on any surplus.

JAVANESE TRADITIONAL CEREMONIES

Welfare and happiness are needed by people to support their spiritual life. To obtain this, people had created norms which gradually became traditions. Each nation and tribe has different traditions, and Javanese tradition may be the most complicated in the world. From mother’s womb until three years after death, Javanese go through periods of certain ceremonies. Following are some Javanese tradition ceremonies:
1. Traditional ceremony held for a woman who has been pregnant for seven months is called mitoni or tingkeban. The ceremony is aimed at the education given to the baby to-be since it is in mother womb. The baby to-be receives the education indirectly through its mother emotion. The ceremony is always held on Wednesday or Saturday of the middle of the month at nine to eleven o’clock in the morning. In this event the mother to-be is bathed by her parents, grandparents, and other older relatives. The water used is mixed with any kinds of flowers called kembang setaman, flowers picked from one garden.
2. The first earth-touching ceremony is a ceremony for a baby who is allowed to touch the earth for the first time. It is called tedak sinten. Tedak means to step down from mother’s carrying and siten or siti means earth. This ceremony is held when the baby is about 254 days old, in the morning of his or her birthday, in the front yard.
3. Exorcism ritual. This rite is called ruwatan, a ceremony held to save children from any disturbances, accidents, and fatalities. Most Javanese believe that a family that has only one child, two children of different or same sex, five sons or daughters, and some others must hold such ceremony. Otherwise, the child will be swallowed by Divine Ogre. This belief and ceremony have been existed since the Majapahit Age.
4. Circumcision or Sunatan, or Tetesan is a ceremony for boys. Parents must circumcise their sons marking their readiness to become a fully grown person. It is originated from Jewish tradition. Jewish baby boys of eight days old must be circumcised as a covenant between God and His people. But now, teenagers are expected to do circumcision.
5. Wedding ceremony is held in series, from bathing the bride to-be and the groom to-be called Siraman, a day before the wedding party and is continued with Malam Midodareni, the night in which the bridge to-be is isolated from the groom‘s sight. In this event, the bridge to-be is treated as a goddess. Both ceremonies are perfectly prepared with prayers asking God’s bless and expecting the smooth and happy wedding. In the wedding, beautiful and elegant aristocratic ceremony is performed.
6. Funeral and commemoration of the dead people are the last ceremonies held for the sake of people’s welfare and happiness now, and in the hereafter. The commemoration after the death is held for the first day after one’s death continued to the third day, seventh day, fortieth day, one hundredth day, first year, second year and third year.
In all the traditional ceremonies, neighbors participate in ritual gathering. They involved in ritual prayers and eat ritual meals. One who holds the ceremony must offer flowers and food to spirits.

FUNERALS

In big cities like Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung, people may witness several kinds of funerals because of various citizens’ backgrounds. Islamic funeral is familiar to us since most Indonesian are Moslems. The mourner holds three religious ceremonies in home, mosque, and cemetery. The corpse is covered with a piece of cloth called “pocong” and carried to the cemetery in a bier. It is buried in a grave by orienting the corpse toward Mecca. The burial needs only short time and the funeral is simple.

Christian’s funeral is almost the same with Moslem’s. The dead person is fully dressed and beautified as if it is still alive. Holding a Gospel and rosary, the dead is placed in a coffin and buried. The religious ceremonies are also held in home, church and cemetery.

Some Moslems and Christians are still practicing a very traditional ceremony heavily influenced by Hinduism. They are telung dina, mitung dina, matang puluh dina, nyatus, nyewu or mendhak pisan, ngrong tahun or mendhak pindho, and nelung tahun or ngentek which mean the third, seventh, fortieth, one hundredth, three hundredth and thirty sixth, seven hundred and thirtieth and one thousandth days after the death.

Cremation is a Hinduism or Buddhism funeral. In this ceremony the corpse is placed in a heap of wood and burned. For not wasting time some people choose electricity use instead of wood. The ashes of the dead who has been ceremonially burned are sometimes put away in a funerary urn. Among the cremations, Balinese Hinduism ceremony costs the most. That’s why, it is hard for the poor people to cremate the dead directly. They must save their money until they feel that they are able to do cremation. Generally, to minimize the cost they cremate the dead together with some others. Waiting for the cremation day, the corpse is buried in a temporary grave.

A unique funeral is seen in trunyan, a very small village located on the shore of Lake Batur, Bali. Trunyan people, the native Balinese, are only about one hundred persons. When a native dies the fully dressed corpse is not buried or burned but laid on the ground under the Trunyan trees. Surprisingly, although decayed, the corpse is not odorous at all. A bier is used to shelter the corpse from being eaten by dogs or crowns. When the flesh is extinct the bones and the skull are placed on a provided altar. Only natives are permitted to be laid on this unusual cemetery. The dead of immigrants though they are husbands or wives will be sent to their homeland.

SUPERMARKET

Market is the center of community life. It is the place where social and mainly economic activities of the community turn. Now there are old and modern markets. The old is called traditional market which is easy to be found in villages, towns, and big cities, and the modern one is called supermarket, shopping center or shopping mall.

A supermarket is well organized and is beautified with landscape gardening, facilitated with large parking lot and spacious clean air-conditioned room. It is so pleasant that attracts crown of people. The goods are arranged and displayed so attractively that shoppers feel relaxed to find and select the goods they needs. Shopping in supermarket is self-service. A customers may take the fixed-price good freely. Many kinds of people’s needs are on sale in separate departments such as shoes, shirts, watches, jewels, rice vegetables, fruits, flowers, TV sets, electricity, books, medicines, etc. selecting the goods the shoppers enjoy soft music. Escalators are installed to let them easy to reach other higher floors. When thirsty or hungry, they may have drink, snack or lunch at KFC, Pizza Huts, or at other fine restaurant. Shopping is not a must. A visitor may walk around the spacious room, mingling with the crowds, passing one hour or two without spending a cent. He may read books or magazines available just for killing time. For someone, visiting supermarket may be one of his hobbies as he can meet people from all walks of life such as employees, students, executives, housewives, and so on. It seems, for him, that supermarket is a place that is fun to be in. Now, there are dozens of supermarkets and mini markets are built in cities, it easy to find Matahari, Ramayana, Hero Supermarket, Carrefour, Alfamart, Indomaret, etc. in town or cities. However, traditional markets are still needed especially by villagers and low-income people.

WAGE RUDOLF SUPRATMAN

Supratman, son of Indonesian colonial army instructor, was born on 9^th May 1903. He had five sisters, but no brothers. When his father retired from the army the family moved to Cimahi. At the age of seven, his father sent him to “Budi Utomo” elementary school, where he proves to be of the bright pupils. In 1912 his mother died. Two years afterwards he joined his eldest sister in Ujung Pandang. His sister added “Wage Rudolf” to his name so it became Wage Rudolf Supratman. She did this to enable her to send him to the Dutch elementary school (HIS). He joined in the second year.

Completing his elementary school he continued his study at the Teacher’s Training school. He graduated in 1920 and became a teacher. In 1923, the government appointed him to teach at Singkang another town in South Sulawesi, but his sister objected. At last he resigned. He worked in a lawyer’s office for a year, and then he went to Bandung and worked as a journalist. One year later he moved to Jakarta and worked for the “Sin Po” newspaper. He married Mujenah in 1926, but had no children. After ten years of marriage they divorced.

As a journalist, W.R. Supratman got in touch with many Indonesian nationalist leaders. Besides, Supratman was a musician and composer. His father taught him to play the violin when he was young and he continued playing when he was in Ujung Pandang and Bandung. He composed several pieces of music. “Indonesia Raya” or Great Indonesia was one of them. He composed it in 1928 when the Dutch ruler of Indonesia carried out a divide and rule policy, which stressed ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious differences among the Indonesian people.

The birth of “Indonesia Raya” was closely related to the awakening of Indonesia’s nationalist and political movement. The song was first introduced by W.R. Supratman at the Indonesian Youth Congress held on 28^th October 1928 in Jakarta, when Indonesia’s Youth from different ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious backgrounds adopted the now famous Pledge of Indonesian Youth. In this they state that they belong to one nation, the Indonesian nation, have one fatherland, Indonesia, and acknowledge one language, the Bahasa Indonesia. The pledge was later recognized as the Youth Pledge which is now commemorated every year.

The song stressed the call for unity among Indonesians, and it soon gained popularity. The song was the n sung at Indonesian political rallies where the participants stood up in solemn respect. It had really implanted a national consciousness among the population throughout the archipelago.

Wage Rudolf Supratman died on 17^th August 1938 and was buried at Kapas cemetery in Surabaya.