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I

MAKING OURSELVES HUMANKIND

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You may say Im a dreamer,

but Im not the only one,

I hope some day you'll join us,

And the world will live as one, I sang the last part of Imagine by John Lennon .

It is one of my favorite songs even I cannot sing it. Singing is my worst thing I can do.

I am dreaming to write a booka kind of book that make me free to imagine, to say what I want to say, tospread what I believe.

I am a dreamer .

So, what I am going to write here is only imagination, ideas..not talking with matters that are subject tolaw. I have to say in the beginning because I am afraid. I have nothing except mind and body and soul. Ifone of them that I only have taken by someone forceful, I will die. If you take my mind, I will diementally. If you take my body, I will die physically. If you take my soul, I will die completely!

I have lived in a tradition of command. Everything is commanded. Everything is directed! Even yourfuture is guided. Finally, I cannot think, I cannot feel, and I cannot believe something, except if someone,my boss, my superior, commands me to do all those things. Do you know what I get?

I got nothing!

Yeah, I got many things done. But it was only in a physical terms. My mind has been weakening day byday. Finally, I realized I have to go home to stop what people call working!

I have to redefine what is the meaning of work for people and, of course, for me.

I must be able to escape from our social traps or social fences. What are they? They are parts of ourmisuses of our mind!

We believed that it is a true way but in fact they are our traps to reach our status as humankind.

***

I remember I have a friend of mine who lives in the United States. He is my good friend. I just wrote aletter, actually the longest letter I have ever sent to him. Here is below:

My friend, John, I want to tell you a story. It is a story of humankind than has been evolving forthousand and thousand years. I hope, you will enjoy the story. I believe you will be interesting on what Iam going to tell you. It is only a story, not a history. I would like to write it in a book, a novel! You maydont believe me because it is not our profession. But, I think, a profession doesnt limit ourselves to do

what we believe is good and so I hope it is worthwhile too. Because it will be only a story you no need to

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be bothered by precise or accurate data. All here should be understood just imagination or a fiction. , Iwrote in my letter.

It was a letter that I would like to send to my friend, my old friend in the US. His name is John Bright. Heis a real bright and wise man I knew.

I wrote: When we had a long discussions in our discussion room in the Cook Hall, you mentioned thatthe developing countries will not be able to gain progress as what have been experienced by thedeveloped countries if the developed countries cant change the dependency attitude. You meant bydependency attitude was that the mind of developing countries people that saw what was achieved by

people in developing countries should be expected as an achievement of people in developing countries.In other words, progress of developing countries should not be measured by progresses that have beenachieved by developed countries. I argued that you were unfair. You have enjoyed what you haveachieved but you asked we developing countries people should not imitate. Now, I understand what youmeant John.

When I was in the state, I was so optimistic, except by Reagans policy. I said to you that I didnt like

Reagans policy, namely Star Wars! I said to you Star Wars will destroy developing countries simplybecause we have no means to run away! Can you imagine if the missiles from both the West and TheSoviet Blocks misdirected and they fell in my country, Indonesia? We cant destroy them in the sky. So,we just must ready to die. Furthermore, why we make peace by wars? It was illogical and immoral. I saidto you that I couldnt accept means justify the ends. I believed means and ends were inseparable. If wewanted the trees we must sow the seeds! Seeds were means and trees were ends! I continued to write.

John, what I mean by I understand what you said is that about the costs of dependency. You mentionedthat people in developing countries should be able to be ourselves. It means that we have to set our owngoals and means that fit to ourselves. I agreed, John. I learned that even an individual person should beable to be him or herself. A nation was more than an individual person. So, as a nation we have to be ableto set ourselves uniqueness! It was uniqueness that was rarely taken care. What we learned was only acomparative advantage or a competitive advantage without deep consideration of uniqueness as itsfoundation. If we applied a comparative advantage or a competitive advantage principle without afoundation of uniqueness it was only giving our throat to be cut by the strength parties. What I meant wasthat we at developing countries would certainly be the looser because we have no advantage. Naturalresources availability was not sources of advantage, I thought. What was the real advantage of a nationwas the mind of the people! So, what can we say if we have no knowledge? What can we say if other

people saw us just like they saw the crappy dog? I wrote to John.

John, I recently argued with a friend of mind who worked for a credible international bank. He said to

me that why people in developing countries are still poor because we have no knowledge to be rich. I avulgar word, what he meant by we have no knowledge was that we are stupid people! At the first glance Iagreed with him. But, at a second thought I was curious to know why we have no knowledge and youhave full knowledge. Then, I asked him to explain why people in developing countries have noknowledge, I continued.

Did you know what he said, John? I was surprised and mad. He said that if we want to reach progress,we, developing countries people, should be re-colonized. He said that colonization was not bad becausethrough colonization we have a direct chance to learn from people in developed countries. He said:Education of people in your country was much better under colonization era than what you can do now.Self-disciplined in colonization era was also much better. The salary of teacher and government officials

were also much better. You can learn and use developed countries language that will improve you in

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continue to live. It will sustain in itself. We pain from colonization. We made mistakes that made us thelooser. Of course, we cannot prove by evidences through examining with or without the Dutchexperimentation of creation of Indonesia. But, what is matter to me is that colonization is wrong and itsconsequences are bad! What do you think, John? I explained and asked Johns opinion.

I can give you figures, John, so you can imagine how bad was colonization for us. In terms of economy,

cultuurstelsel (cultivation system) gave huge money to the Dutch. Between 1855-1860, the Dutchreceived about 140 million guilder and in 1860-1865 the Dutch revenue from cultuurstelsel declined toabout 120 million guilders. But, in terms of relative term, it increased from about 50 % of the Dutchnational income in 1855-1860 to about 60 % of the Dutch national income in 1860-1865. In fact, theDutch economic crisis in 1830s was right away solved by cultuurstelsel in early 1830s. Before 1800 thecolonizer was a company, namely the VOC. But, since 1800 the colonizer was government. Where themoney was coming from? It was from Javas farmers who were forced to plant industrial crops. Beforecultuurstelselimplemented by Van den Bosch in 1830, there was the Diponegoro war (1825-1830) in Javaand about 200,000 Javanese people were killed and it left a half of the population of Yogyakarta, I wrote.

What did his reaction to what just I explained to him, John? Can you guess? Well, his reaction was so

cool. He was like a God Father in a mafia movie. He didnt say with words but he reacted with a bodylanguage. I interpreted that he just looked at me as a foolish person. Then, he changed the subject. He

picked up agriculture and agricultural development as our topic of discussion. I thought it was also arelevant topic that has direct linkages with colonization, I continued.

He said : You cannot compete the developed world. So, you have no choice except you must increaseyour capability. But, you cannot follow the way of developed countries to manage farmers. Your farmersare great in numbers; our farmers are small in numbers. So, you will have no money to give your farmerssubsidy. We can do that but you cannot be. In order to be able to compete with us you must be able toincrease your productivity. John, I am afraid to say that why you sent us that kind of consultants. He isincapable person because he doesnt know what is the problem. He doesnt know what the problems

because he has no sufficient knowledge. I guessed he has no sufficient knowledge because he is lazy toread. I thought he has too much fun here, in my country. Why? He has a lot of money and everything,especially pleasure, here is cheap in terms of dollar. As far as I knew, John, agricultural productivity is anice word. But, because of agricultural international market is not perfect, or, in fact unfair, increasing

productivity will just kill us. We knew that international prices have been continually declining over time.And, the world value of net exports of agricultural and food products were negative. So, increasing

productivity of agriculture will only reduce farmers welfare. What he proposed will good for consumersand manufactures and traders. But, it will be bad for farmers. I hope someday, John, you will help us here.I believe you will have better understanding than him, I added.

John, what I mentioned above were just a background. The main purpose of this letter is that I wouldlike to share with you about how we contribute to the world problems. You might laugh at me. That isfine, John. You might think I am too ambitious and you might think that I am a silly man. That is alsofine, John. I dont care what you think, but I care what you can contribute. I expect you are still JohnBright that I knew. What I really expect from you is your thought and your wisdom. I need you becauseyou are a part of people from the developed countries culture. But, you are a part of them that care andfull of empathy to disadvantaged people in developing countries. So, you can be our bridge. You are our

bridge of mind between two different mind cultures. I hope you are happy to help me, John, I wrote.

First of all, John, I would like to share my feeling. I feel that our social and economic distance arebecoming widening. I dont know whether you share the same feeling with me or not. Of course, I expect

you share what I feel. What is dangerous thing with widening our distance? One of the most easily seen iswe will have two worlds of ours. In the past, you call me here as the Third World. Now, you call us here

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developing countries. What I mean, we have already two worlds now, but it will be becoming extremeworlds in the near future! Globalization is a process of creation of two extreme worlds. Why I come withthat believe? It is because I see that the power of exploitation of the developed world has reached thelevel that cannot be balanced by the rest of the world. Your power is extremely strong but our power isextremely weak. Can you imagine if two powers, one is weak and one is strong, and they make anegotiation in a market place, then the strong will always be a winner? It is natural, isnt it? I wrote.

If the strong is a predator and the weak is a prey, then the predator will eat the preys. In one time, thepreys will be not enough to feed the predators. What will it be? It will create a situation when onepredator will fight with another predator. The First World War and the Second World War, I thought asituation that reflected the predators fighting each other. We are glad that Star War was not due. But,what will follow Iraqs war? What will follow Afghanistan war? What will follow hundreds or thousandsof conflicts all over the world? I continued.

There are many causes of wars, of course. But, most of them closely related with economic imbalances.Poverty and inequality, includingperceivedpoverty and inequality, create non-harmonious feeling across

people. It will create hatred, jealousy, envy, and other kind of negative feelings. It is not about logic. It is

about whether we care to each other or not. It is important to note that we have a shamed past history.However, our history might also be interpreted differently. For the winners, it becomes a source of proud.For the looser it becomes a source of sadness. The only way to have better future is to forgive the past butnot to forget it. John, I want you to help me to think together and to find some thoughts that might beuseful for us to build our future, I wrote.

The second issue I would like to share with you is that how we can develop a cooperation among us.What I mean is a real cooperation. I remember what you said that what is the most dangerous for us isdependency. In a cruel word dependency means that our people are just only your puppets. We only dowhat you asked. You said that one the most important situation in the Dark Age of Europe was that thetruth was monopolized by a certain institution. It is what happened now. A certain institution monopolizesthe truth. You have experts, mass media, military power, and so on. So, the only truth is what you say. We

just follow what you say to us. But, you know, the truth of life is very private. The meaning of good life isalso very private. Of course, there are certain common and universal standard. But, it is only true for avery general thing. In fact, we will have difficulties to apply general standards because we have lack ofrequirements to be able to implement them. Let me give you an example. The idea of democracy isgenerally accepted as universally good. However, when we want to implement it, there is a basic moralrequirement. Money politics is not acceptable. But, it is a fact of life that the rich buys votes. How can wesay a system is democratic if votes are determined by money? How can we say the world is democratic ifthe powerful parties put pressures on us? A real cooperation, I thought, is not the same with a cooptation.

Now, what we have is a cooptation, not a real cooperation. So, John, please help us to think about how we

are able to develop a real cooperation, I continued.

Well, John, I hope you still have time to read my letter. The third issue I would like to propose is theissue of food and agriculture. You know that 97 % of the world farmers resided in developing countriesand most of them are poor families. How can we able to transform our economies if most of us are poor?I think it will be impossible to have economic transformation if most of us are poor. How can we createsufficient energy for increasing farmers welfare if we know that international market is unfriendly tofarmers? John, I thought that developing countries alone couldnt solve this problem. There is already aradical change of source of wealth. The new economy is the economy that depends on knowledge power.However, we are still in agricultural age. If we use the Second World War as our time benchmark, we seethat only a few countries can transform their economies. In fact, our hand fingers are too many to count

how many countries that are now approaching or becoming developed countries. Most countries are stillstruggling how to feed their people. In fact, grain Self Sufficiency Rate between developed and

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developing countries will be widening in the future. It means that developing countries will depend moreon developed countries to feed their people. John, there is a high correlation between food and freedom. Ifwe have no food, it is meant we have no freedom. How the world will have a democratic system if wehave no freedom? I think a democratic system will be an illusion only if we cannot solve our food

problem. Agricultures role, one of the most important roles, is to produce sufficient food for people. Howcan we feed our people if agriculture in developing countries is wakening? I am afraid multinational

corporations will create more harm than good effects to farmers in developing countries in the future. Infact, I read an article written by John Ikerd that large corporations have colonized rural America. Fordeveloping countries such the case is a part of history and up to now is still taking place. Can you imaginecoffee farmers in developing countries only received 10 % of coffee retail added value margin? Can youimagine rubber farmers have no money to send their children to school even though they contributesignificantly to civilization?one of your cars tires is from Indonesia. How about three largest tireindustries in the worldMichelin, Bridgestone and Goodyeardetermine the world natural rubbermarket? So, how can we improve food and agriculture which is at the same time will also improvefarmers life, I continued.

John, I just remember that a day before yesterday I met Max. He said that he met you about a moth ago.

He mentioned to me that you just got a prize from your academic professional associationtheAssociation of Humanity Economics. He said that you give a significant contribution to the theory of lovein economics. He said that you are now one of the promoters of the economics of love! It must beinteresting, right? Max said that according to your theory, global capitalism without love is the same as ifwe put tigers and deer in one room. The tigers will always think that the deer are they food. And, the deerare always thinking that tigers are their predators. The old capitalism is also similar to the old tigers. But,

because the deer have been caught to many, so there are only few deer remain. The old tigers have nopower to reproduce and to catch the deer. And, at the same time the deer are too few to be able toreproduce enough deer. In addition, the deer population has also become inbreeding. The only way tosave the world of deer and tigers is to put them into a separate cage and train them how to reproduce andto help them by applying the newest genetic engineering technology. So, we should invent a new clone oftigers that change their food, namely, from eating meat to eat grass. In addition, we have also to create anew clone of deer that only need to eat a significantly smaller amount of grass but more dependent on airsupply. After new deer and new tigers reach certain population we release them into the same cage. Theearth is its cage. So, new global capitalism will not continue the relationships among people like tiger anddeer as predator-prey relation. The new form of institution of capitalism is a form of relations like cows-deer relations. The new tigers are like cows now. They eat the same kind of food but they dont eat one ofthem. In fact, they love each other and care each other. Please send me your piece of works what Max toldme because in my place books or journals are the scarcest resources, I wrote.

John, I dont know whether what I say about your theory is right or not. But, your view about the world

we should have is much better than the world situation that we have before. What I mean is that in thepast what we have here was the relation between a tiger, a watchdog and a crappy dog. A tiger looks aftera watchdog. A tiger is lazy but powerful. So, a tiger asked a watchdog to catch a deer for food. The otherdogs are crappy dogs. They are hungry and unhealthy dogs. So, they cannot catch or find good food. Theyare free but poor and sick. I imagine we were crappy dogs and among us there were watchdog. They werewealthy dog but unfree. So, we had to choose between to be a watchdog or a crappy dogwealthy butunfree vs. poor but free. We dont like to be both, of course. We cannot be tigers and we dont like to becloned tiger, too. I believe we no need to develop cloning of humankind for making our socialtransformation to be successful. Why? It is because we are neither tigers, deer, and nor dogs. We arehuman beings and love is a matter seeds that we must grow it, I said.

John, I think I have written a long letter for you. I hope you dont mind to read it. I thank for yourkindness.

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II

The First Meeting with Alex

Have you ever experience something mysterious for you in your life? I asked myself.

Life itself is already a mystery, I answered.

So, if life is a mystery, what can we say about our life? What can we say about our future? I askedmyself.

Can just we say that all what happened and will happen to us are mysteries? I continued asking.

No. Life is a matter what we can do and what it will be to be. Our life depends on us, I replied.

So, where we place a mystery? I asked myself.

***We can imagine our normal view of the origin of a man. The God creates man and woman. Except forChrist, a man will always be the successful result of the meeting between XX (female) and XY (male)genes.

So, making love is the first meeting of a woman and a man in the process of mankind creation.

If a man is a product of a mystery, can we say that love is also a mystery? I asked myself.

Making love, of course, is not a thing mysterious. It is just reproductive practice that should be done bypeople to sustain their generations. But, does love that make people making love is a thing mysterious? Iasked again to myself.

In animals world, such as in insects, we learn what scientists called sex pheromones. The males andfemales insects release their sex pheromones and make them meet each other and then make love. Theyreproduce their generation naturally, I said.

Does our love because of our sex pheromones or because of something else such as a strongcommitment? I continued my own dialog.

Well, if we know how to keep our love and live forever, it must be not a caused of sex pheromones.Pheromones will soon not lasting just as other chemical things we produce. So, forever love and live areproduct of commitment, I said.

So, it is not a mystery, I asked myself.

No! I replied.

So, what is a mystery? I said.

It is not matter of what but it is a matter of our mind, I said.

What do you mean?

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I mean, all are mystery if our mind cannot reach them, I said to myself.

Alex is not a mystery for me, I said.

***

A baby is a seed of humankind that will sow a civilization. In a normal way, a baby is carried by awoman, which is called a mother. A father and a mother will determine what kind of a babys charactersthat will fill the world of people on the earth, which is called society.

A civilized society is a product of what a father and a mother transmitted to their baby in terms of bothgenetically and noogenetically. The use of the last term I borrowed from Professor K. Boulding. Bouldingsaid that what make the revolution in our world is not a genetic revolution but noogenetic revolution. It isa revolutionary replication of knowledge, information and technology through various processes ofreplications and social transmissions.

Revolution of genes as a fundamental of human life may also take place in the future. Cloning and other

kinds of genetic engineering technology could be used to modify the characters of human genes such asfreeing a new life from certain degenerative diseases. It will be possible in the future we have two kind of

people that one group is a group of people that the genes of this group have been fertilized. On the otherhand, we have also a group of people that is characterized by their genes characters that are naturallytransferred. The embodied genes, which are contained by an individual in the first case, is not transferredthrough a process of the first meeting, namely making love, but through a cold process in alaboratory.

If we know about gene but what do we know about genie, I asked in my own dialog.

Have you ever seen an atom? I said.

No!

Why?

Because I havent put my mind and time studying physics, I said.

Why did you ask about genie?

Because we are not alone! I replied.

We dont want to be alone, I said.

***It was March 17, 2005, in the middle of the night, when I was in the front of my computer, a man lookedthe same age with me, came to me. He came to me very quietly. I couldnt hear when he entered theroom. I couldnt hear his steps. He just right away stood in front of me. I was surprised. But, I was notafraid. I didnt know why I was not afraid. In the middle of the night, when everybody slept, it was soquite. Even my birds, two prukututs1, Kliwon and Salasa, were very quite since early evening. Theyseemed knowing what would like to come in that night. It was unusual for Kliwon or Salasa. It was also

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Geopelia striata is a bird that Javanese place a certain meaning in their life. An old Javanese saw that alife was complete if one had a house, a wife, a horse and a prukutut. A tradition of having aprukututisstill alive now. A price of goodprukututcan be a billion rupiah.

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If you have a real trouble, you just call your brother in your deep heart three times and then ask his helpto solve your trouble and you kick the floor three times. God bless you, you will solve your trouble, mygreat-grandpa once told me.

Is he my couple brother as what my great grandpa said? I asked to myself.

I know what is in your mind because you are not just only my brother. We are actually one, but we livein a different world. I live in the world of mind. You live in the world of dream. Your world is not a realworld. Why? Because you are mortal. I am immortal. But, again, we are one. Why I know you but youdont know me? You know me, of course, because we are one. What happen is that you just dont realizeit. Why? Because you only use your eyes to see the world, you only use your ears to listen to the world,you only use your skin to feel the world. Therefore, you just able to see outside. You never see your self.When you use a mirror what you see is not you. It is an image of your face, your body. You cannot seeyourself using your eyes. You just see your shadow. If you turn off the light now you cannot see evenyour shadow! he continued.

I saw his serious mimic. His voice increased in tension. But, his face stayed cool. His hands, a right and

left hand kept in harmony with his voices tension. I didnt know my feeling became closer. I didnt knowwhy it happened so fast. I watched his eyes and I saw his eyes look mine. I see his face, it was alsoresemble mine. I thought I was confused. But, when I kept watching him, it didnt changehe was real!

I told you, I knew what is in your mind. Let me tell you what is in your mind, now, he told me before Ihad a chance to speak something.

My brother, I love you. I saw every night you just kept praying. You just kept reading, browsing Internet,and spoke to yourself. In one night, after midnight praying, you spoke to yourself. You said: God, giveme a friend, a real true friend. God, if You give me a friend I will give his name Alexander X. I love thename because its meaning is helper of mankind, defender of man. I put X in his name, because X could

be many things. I want X means every good things, my Lord, he described what he knew what I havedone recently.

What he described all was true. I didnt understand what I heard. I meant why he knew what I had done. Ikept myself quite. I felt I had changed what I believed. I meant I tried to do what I had rarely done. WhatI meant was I usually prayed in the past but what I had done was more or less a routine job. Now, Iunderstand, for example, why Einstein or Edison had reached what we thought unreachable things for us.I meant I believed that a person that made what were impossible things became possible must be a personthat was able to love the God. So, that person was able to make his own interest into a zero level of self-interest. I thought I couldnt do that. But, I kept trying and trying and trying just like what had been done

by Forrester in the movie, which was played by Tom Hanks. I love that movie. I showed it more thanthree times.

My brother, I want to tell you. You have a true real friend. It is your self. No one can be as a true realfriend as yourself. No one! Did you remember when you were a small kid? You were always to talk withyour self. I was with you. We played together. Did you remember when our mother went for working andgave us a life big fish in big bucket? We played with a fish. You talked with a fish. You called it Lauk. Weforgot for lunch.Laukmade us happy. Did you remember when our mom came home and put Laukbackto our pond? We cried together. We wanted Laukalways with us. But, our mom said that Laukwill die

because a place for a fish is in water. Please try to remember. I knew you forgot already. Never mind mybrother. I just want to tell you that when we were a small kid, I kept playing with you.

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He brought me back to early kid. It was almost 50 years ago. He was clever, I thought. He opened mymind with a right trick. Who knew our experiences when we were a small kid? Of course, they wouldalways our closest persons such as our parents. But, this man knew exactly what I remembered. I didntremembered I played with him, but I remembered when I was kid, I love played with a fish that put in a

big bucket. I remembered I called my fishLaukthat meant also fish in my mother language. Well, the pastwas filled by memory. Our kids now wouldnt comprehend how a kid played with fishes in a big bucket.

Todays kids couldnt even imagine because what toys are in their mind are toys made in a factory. Theyonly care about Nintendo, a play station. They read a book but not read nature. Time has changed! But,what he said made me curious.

Yes, I love to play with Laukwhen I was a small kid. Can you explain what kind ofLaukand whathappened with my Lauk just after I had a circumcision? I want to know what he knew about whathappened to me and to myLauk.

Aha! You checked on me. Good, my brother. I will answer your question. I am happy to do that. Yes, weneed to talk a lot and then I believe we finally will be one. You have two fishes. First is a gurame, justlike a bass. Second is a carp, a beautiful carp with yellow, red and black colors. It was big and you cannot

lift it. The gurame was also big. It was also colorful gurame, not like gurames that are now sold in market.It was a white gurame spotted by black color. We put them in the pond in front of our house. We have two

ponds, remember? Everyday you gave them food. You sang for them. Because you took care of them,they didnt afraid to you. When you called them, they came to you. You put your finger in water, theytried to swallow your little fingers. Of course, they were not hurting you, they bite your fingers gently.You were laughing and laughingWe did that everyday my brother. Before we played football with ourfriend, Ojak, Eju, Abu, Awar, and others, we talked first with our fishes. In fact, we didnt played football

because what we used was not a ball, but a big grapefruit (jeruk bali). We had fun even our legs hurt. Wepicked up our grapefruit from our own tree, grown nearby the pond. Remember, our great grandpa nevermaid of us even we picked up a grapefruit for playing football. Yeah, my brother, I am afraid to say whathappened to your fishes after you had a circumcision. I just want to give you a hint. When we were backfrom school, we found the fishes were gone. .took them. They must be cooked and eaten. You and mecried for a whole day. Well, we have to forget it, my brother.

He stopped talking for a while. I saw his face sad. I was sad too because I remembered what hadhappened to my fishes. I didnt want to say who took it. I knew he didnt know exactly the meaning of myfishes to me. I remembered they were not toys. My fishes were my friends! It was just like a dog or a catfor someone. But, I knew that making friendships with fishes were a rare case. Except, if you put them inan aquarium. I put them in a pond, in a place where they usually lived. I loved them.

My brother, do you believe me that I am your brother? he woke me up from dreaming.

It was unbelievable. I didnt think that one would believe what I told. One thought I would be a liar. A bigliar! Its OK. But, it was only a story, not a science. We made up a story. You may believe it or not. I lovedif you believed my story, of course.

I dont know, I said.

I really didnt know. I was not in dreaming. I was conscious. I knew what time it was. I saw him and Iheard what he said. But, what I saw and heard now was illogical! So, I really didnt know to answer hisquestion. But, the truth was I need a friend, a true real friend. As far as I knew, I had no brother like him.

But, it never mind, if you kind to me why dont be my real friend? I explained my position.

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It was 1:15 am in the morning. I was waiting for his answer. Now, I thought, we really fell into very deepquestion. It is the question that had come to us for more than two thousand years. We have to realize thatmore than 6 billion people in the world now have not come to the same answer. It is a question about theGod or Gods. So, I wonder what would his answer.

Before we believe something we have to know first what we believe in. Now, the subject is God, the

name we use now. We are the creation of the God. The God not only creates men, but creates theUniverse, he stopped and I saw from his face he thought seriously.

It is about idea. The idea of God. Is idea a real thing or not? he asked about idea. He continued.

Idea is a real thing. Can you imagine? Idea is a real thing. People create ideas and then from ideas createother human actions according to their purposes, he stood up and his eyes stared on me.

I want you to think, to use your mind to see what you cannot see, he continued.

He still stood up and his right hand scratched his head. He sat down in the same chair and kept watched

deeply into my eyes.

I dont want to talked about the God. Saying that I believed in God is enough for me, I replied shortly.

I really didnt want to talk about the God because I didnt want he brought me into a dangerous situation.What I meant by a dangerous situation was that the situation when we had in advance that the answerwould be very sensitive and subjective. A belief was a subjective thing. A belief was as a matter of whatwe had in our mind. I didnt want we went into a situation that would make us fighting each other.

Well, I dont want to push you deeper into more abstract situation, my brother. I just want you to thinkand to believe that there are something mystery in our life. A mystery is something of which the cause orthe origin is hidden or impossible to understand. We will never know why we are as we are that exist inthis world, except we believe that there must be the Creator, our God, he expressed his purposed to makean abstract discussion.

I am not sure whether you have a complete argument to defend your thought. But, admiring the Creatorbased upon what has been created is far from sufficient. The Creator must be the Greatest that ourimagination will never enable to reach. So, why dont we change the subject. You want me to believeabout you, right? You want me to believe that you are my brother, right?

I told him what I had in mind. I didnt want to continue to discuss something we would never fully

understand. Belief in God had no more discussion. I hope he will understand. I thought also how to enddiscussion. I felt sleepy already.

My brother, I dont want to force you that you have to believe me that I am is your brother. We have thesame attitude, brother, we never ask somebody to follow our thoughts by force. We always wantsomebody to accept what we say voluntarily. I know you. So, it is up to you. I am happy if you are alsohappy to see me. If you dont like to meet me, I will go and back to my world and will come to see youagain when you need me. I am not a ghost, you should know this. I am not a genie either. Just imagineevery thing has a pair. A coin has two faces. Everything has a pair, my brother. I and you are one.

He explained that he was my pair. Alex was my pair. How come? I never understood. But, I was not

dreaming. We had discussion for about two hours. I watched him. He smiled on me. I love that smile.Smile that full of care. I had never seen someone smile like that to me. I liked him.

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Goodbye my brother. Just call me when you need a friend to talk. I will always with you. Just believe it.I am always with you because we are a pair. Goodbye, he disappeared.

Ohhh.

I could not say a word. He disappeared. I was really confused. I was stuck. I couldnt stand up for a while.I couldnt understand for a while. I worked hard to control my mind and my heart. My birds, Kliwon andSalasa sang.

Prukutuuut ..prukutuuttt.prukutuuttt, Salasa and Kliwon sang together. It was unusual the birds sangin early morning when the sun was far from shining. It was strange morning.

O, God, help me, I said.

I hoped the God would listen. I knew He must listen. I thought the God was not an idea. The God wasreal. In fact, the God is the Greatest Creator. But, I couldnt explain. In fact, we no need to explain. What

we had to do just to believe and to follow. We have to be a creator, to be helper of mankind and to bedefender of man. Alexander is the word that has that meaning.

Goodbye Alex. Goodbye! I hope we can be a helper of mankind and a defender of man, I said tomyself.

What is the point of Alex in my life? Is the point is now I have a friend or a couple brother? If I tellpeople that I have a couple brother but we cannot show him physically, then people will call me I amcrazy man. What is the point? I continued asking myself.

The point is that I have to be myself. Alex is a part of myself! finally I made a conclusion for myself.

Morning was broken. I havent sleep yet. I went to the bathroom down stair. I took a wudlu, a Moslemway to clean our hands, mouth, face, eyes, ears, forehead, and legs using clean water, for morning

praying. It was about 4 a.m. Salasa andKliwon continued singing. My dogs outside also were barking. Itgave signs that human activities were starting busy, where people were passing by my house. A paperboycame around 4:30 am, scavengers collected things in garbage collectors, food vendors shouting to attracttheir customers, and so on. Friday morning was starting busy. I felt I was so sleepy. I fell a sleep anddreamt to meet Alex, my couple brother. It was our first meeting.

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III

SEEKING FREEDOM

For people whose entire life has been fully living through instructions, freedom is confusing. On the other

hand, for people whose all life is just to keep instructing other people, freedom is also a strange thing.

Why?

If we give freedom to farmers, farmers dont understand. They know nothing about technology, markets,information, banks, etc. So, we have to guide them. If they dont follow us, we have to use force. Forcingthem first, then they will build new habits, Mr. Diklav said. I heard that statement in the 1970s and it wasstill true up to know.

You know, we cannot reach food self sufficiency if we let farmers just do what they want to do. Localautonomy make us very difficult situation now because we cannot force them to work, Mr. Diklavan

said. Mr. Diklavan is a family of Mr. Diklav that continued Mr. Diklav teaching.

Dont let farmers get to organize themselves. If we do that it will be the same as we look after tigers.Once they are strong, they will eat us, Mr. Ratib said. Mr. Ratib is a CEO of trading companies.

Farmers are always cheating us. And, they are lazy too. I dont want to work together with them. Theyare stinky, Mr. Siangbau said to his friend. I heard their conversation in the elevator we used. I was sosure he said such thing because he didnt know me.

We can make a long list of insulting or abusive words directed to farmers or to powerless people. Weknow already so we no need to make it.

I really dont understand if almost all people disregard farmers. You cant catch the ideas how farmershave been or are being disregarded from a formal conversation but you will get such attitudes frominformal conversations or indirectly from enacted policies.

Power is not only make us powerful but also abusive!

So, the land was taken from us;

Waters followed;Forests were the next;

The air is taken already.How about the Sun, the moon and the stars?

The skies and the clouds will also be taken soon.

Our life had been taken at the beginningWhat do I have?

What are for our children?Nothing, except our debts

Nothing except shameful for them

Why?We have no freedom

Why?

Because we havent served our land and our peopleWe only served our owned greedy

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By letting them make us unfreeBy trading freedom and dignity with money

Exchanging God with Go(l)d.

***March 24, 2005, at almost the same time as last week, approaching a midnight of Thursday or early

morning of Friday, I invited Alex to come and to have some discussions.

Just as what we had in the last week meeting, Alex instantaneously came. Without knocking the door, hewas instantly with me. He was wearing the cloth and pant as he wore last week. All were in white color.

But now he has a kris, a small kris in his right hand. It was a beautiful kris with straight model. The lengthofkris is about 20 cm with Javanese characters printed on it. It says Tunggal Iman means Keeper ofSpirit.

Good evening, my brother, he said softly.

Good evening, Alex, I replied.

My brother, Y, I have something for you. I brought a kris for you. It is a kris that made by our ancestor in1300. You see, our ancestor had good knowledge of metallurgy. It was made from three kinds of metals,namely, iron, steel and bronze. In addition, it was also mixed with a meteorite. I got it from our great-great grandpa. He asked me to give you as his gift for you. He said that you are the right person to keep itnow, Alex said and he gave me the kris.

Thanks, Alex, I said.

The kris was not with its kris-cane. It was naked. So, I can see directly the body of kris. It wasbeautiful, an artistic kris. I saw a dragon snaked body with the dragon snakehead at the head of the krisand the other end was very sharp. The mouth of the snake was widely opened and there was a small gold

ball in its mouth. For Indonesian, especially for Javanese and Sundanese, a kris was not only a symbol ofcharacters, is also believed there is magical thing in it.

Alex, this kris is very beautiful. I dont care whether the kris has a magical power or not, Ill keep it andcare it properly. Why? It is because reflecting how far our ancestors had been able to master advancetechnology, art and culture in metallurgy. Their predecessors, like me, however, not even make a kris andits advancement, we still import agricultural tools such as hoes or knifes. So, as my appreciation to ourancestors, I will keep it and care it. Thanks, I said to Alex.

Well, brother. I am happy to learn your attitude. It is right what you just said. We have not muchattention to what we have inherited from our culture. In fact, most of us now seeing our culture areinferior. So, they see that it is just wasting time to learn or to care for our culture. It is wasting time! Idont think so, brother. That is why I gave you a kris. There is a very important message in it, namely,Tunggal Iman or Keeper of Spirit. It is a symbol that we have to have a strong spirit if we want to befree or to have freedom, Alex explained.

I learned that life is full of symbol. What we use are all symbols. Languages, letters, numbers, codes,chairs, cloths, haircuts, and all aspects of life are symbols. So, I was not fanatic to a symbol because Iknew what we all talked about were about symbols. Through those symbols our mind made

interpretations and stored them. A Keeper of Spirit was also a symbol of mind strength. Of course, weneed to keep our mind, body and soul to work hard to make our live correspond with the meaning bearer

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by a certain symbol. A culture ofkris is a complete culture. It is a blend of spiritual and physical arts andtechnology of our ancestors.

Alex, you are genius. You bring with you a kris. I am ashamed I dont know it very much. I feel that Ihavent taken care of our ancestor high creation. Can you explain it a little bit, Alex? I told Alex that Ididnt know very much about kris.

Well, I am not surprised if you dont know about kris. In fact, I am surprised if you pay attention on it asyou just said. Brother, people usually think ofkris as a simple thing. It is not like that. A kris reflects a

philosophy, art, technology and culture in one creation. It is not a weapon, but it can be used as a weapon.It is a symbol of life. For Javanese, if a man cannot arrive in a wedding day, for example, because of acertain reasonable thing, the wedding can be continued and the man can be represented by a kris. A goodkris is also believed has a magical power, Alex explained.

How about this kris, is it has a magical power? I asked Alex.

Ha..haYou have to find it by yourself. I cannot tell you, brotherha..ha.., Alex laugh and he asked

me to find by myself.

I know. I knowIt has a magical power! I said.

What!? Alex asked.

Yes. The power is its beauty and its strength. A combination of beauty and strength is a magical power,I explained what I mean by magical power.

You forgot another one, brother! Alex said.

What is that? I asked.

Smart! Alex added.

So, beauty, strength and smart are magical power, I said.

Yes! Those are the basic elements of power. Beauty is emotional power, strength is a physical power, andsmart is a mind power, Alex explained.

I think, we still forget one thing, I said.

What is that? Alex replied.

A spiritual power. What is representing spiritual power? It is represented by a kris maker. You know, anEmpu, a kris maker must do some spiritual conducts before he started making a kris. Fasting for days isalmost a must. So, what Empu had done actually thought us that if we want to make a good thing, spirit,mind, body, and soul must be in totality concentration! I said.

Wow! You learn fast, my brother, Alex said to me.

No. I just read last night about spiritual capital. Then, I tried to remember what had usually done by our

great-grandparents when we were kids. I tried also what had been done by Einstein or Edison or AbeLincoln. My conclusion is totality is a must, I explained to Alex.

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What does make one in total capacity? Alex asked me.

I think if one loves what one does, one will be able to build ones total spiritual energy. Spirit is theorigin of life. The next steps are just as a matter of experiences. The more one has experiences in doingsomething, the more ones capability will grow. So, we need to build our experiences in doing something

seriously, I said.

What make ones spirit growing? Alex asked me again.

It is one of the most difficult parts to explain. In fact, we cannot explain it fully. According to myexperience, our spirit is borne since our childhood. I remembered what Isaac Rabbi, a Nobel Laureate in

physics, said that his spirit to know something new was trained since he was a child by his mother. Rabbisaid that everyday his mother asked him: Did you have a good question today Isaac? I thought whatRabbi said that growing spirit is also a part of tradition or a part of culture, I said to Alex.

What kind of a question that is a good question according to Rabbi? Alex asked.

It is a question that illuminate ones mind to work, I said.

What do you think is a good question for our discussion tonight, brother? Alex asked me.

Well, how about freedom, I said.

Why you choose freedom as our topic? Alex asked me.

I think freedom is one of the most important aspects of our life. For me, life itself is seeking freedom.Without freedom we are not different from a robot or a toy. In fact, it is my belief that freedom is theorigin of life, I explained.

I saw Alex kept quite. He might think hard to find an answer why I proposed to discuss about freedom.The Thursday evening was so silent. Everybody in my house had enjoyed his or her owned world, theworld of dream. So, only Alex and I that still awoke. Tonight was a second meeting between Alex and I. Ithought to know some one is a matter of a process. It can be a long or a short time.

Knowing each other is also unique. I have to say that I miss X if I didnt see him for a day. He said thatwe were a pair. A pair is a construction of elements that all make one. If one element is missing, then aconstruction is broken. When a construction is broken then we cannot say that it is well functioning.

A pair doesnt mean one-to-one construction. A pair is more or less a construction that makes a certainunit becomes one unit independently to others. Let me show you a construction of water. In chemistry welearned water is written as H2O. I would like to imagine our life just like water, a pair of Mind-Body-Soulor M-B-S. What we can observe with our eyes is a body and other physical things. Mind and soul cannot

be seen by our eyes. But, all are pairs. A complete life is a function all of them.

Alex is my pair, a pair of my life, a pair of interacting mind, I said to myself.

What are you thinking, Alex? I saw Alex just kept quite.

I try to understand what you just said. I dont think I understand. Would you please say again why youchoose freedom as our topic tonight? Alex asked me to explain.

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Well, let us try to see another way. Let us suppose you have everything what you need. But, all you needare not yours. You fulfill your need according to someone decision. If you need food, one will give youfood. If you need cloths, one will give you cloths. Whatever you need, someone will give you accordingto your needs. What do you think? I asked Alex.

I think, I will be like a broiler! Alex said.

Or, you just like a prisoner, I said.

Or, we just like a slave, Alex added.

Well, fulfillment biological need is necessary for ones life. But, how to get them and how to relate themwith psychological and spiritual needs is also matter. Happiness cannot be measured by what one hasonly, it is also measured by how one gets it, I said.

I understand what you said but I havent been convinced, Alex explained.

You are thinking too serious, Alex. What I want you to do is to use another part of your potent. It is yourintuition, spirit, and feeling. Not only ratio or logic. You wont get to meaning of freedom if you just useyour logic, I told Alex.

Do you remember a definition of a mystic we quoted from the Oxford dictionary last time? I remindedAlex

Yes, of course, Alex replied.

Good. Logic has a limit. Logic only gives you an understanding of patterns, I told Alex.

Do you mean that the other parts of the world cannot be explored by logic? Alex said.

What do you think, Alex?

HmmmLet me think for a whileWell ..But without logic we mean we are not thinking. If we arenot thinking meaning we will get loss. I cannot imagine what we will do if we dont use our logic , Alexsaid.

I didnt say we dont use logic. Logic is very important when we deal with a logical thing. But, we deal

with more than logical thing, logic is not sufficient to serve our purpose, I replied.

Is there any illogical thing? I cannot see there is illogical thing in the world, brother? Alex said.

Let asked ourselves, why we are as we are. Can you explain it? I told Alex.

Why are we as we are? Why are we as we are? I repeated my question.

You mean, why we are not the sons of Abraham Lincoln or Khadafi or Einstein, you mean? Alexreplied.

Ha..ha.. yeah. That is one question.., I laugh.

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Because they are not our fatherhaha, we were laughing together. We knew that is not theanswer.

Can we use a random theory to explain why we are as we are, Alex said.

It is nice to use random theory, but at the end we cannot answer what is exactly the next event. Just like

we draw a dice. We know its probability, but we dont know which one will actually come, I explained.

How about evolution theory? Can give us insight? Alex asked me.

I am not an evolutionist, but I think evolution theory is nice but it cannot really explain the creator.Evolution is a result of creation. Just we create an idea, and our idea diffuses. Then, there will be manyideas interacting with our ideas and forms other ideas. However, those ideas cannot explain the originalcreation. In fact, we also do not completely understand why we come up with certain ideas. What weknow is just we do a process. Such a process is also not only a thinking, but also total process in ourmind, I explained quite detail.

So, what is the answer why we are as we are? Alex asked again.

I dont know. I just believe the God created us. This is a logical thing that I can reach. What do youthing? I said.

Aha..But, let me first asked you. Do you remember Kim? Our friend in M when we took graduate class,I said.

Yes, off course. I remember that he didnt believe in God, right? Alex replied.

Yes. I just want to know your opinion why there is a kind of people, in fact many people, dont believein God. People called them Atheist, I said.

I dont know why. When we asked Kim, why he didnt believe God, he just said that he just didntbelieve it, Alex said.

So, the reason is just dont believe it. So, a belief is becoming a reason. How come a belief wasbecoming a reason? I asked Alex further.

Well it is what people call that at the first place people have to establish what in a science called anaxiom or a paradigm. An axiom or a paradigm is a thing that is believed by itself as a truth. Then, from an

axiom we derive reasons or theory, either logically or empirically tested to produce what we calledknowledge. So, if we try to seek the origin of knowledge we will end up with a philosophical orientationused by a person that have been seeking certain knowledge. We see the origin is a belief, whatever he orshe believe about the real world, Alex described the choice of an axiom or a paradigm as a root ofknowledge was also a matter of ones belief.

Can you elaborate why one come to certain axiom or an axiom or a paradigm that one believes as thetruth? I said.I tried to imagine what had been done by Einstein or Edison. Einstein said that imagination is moreimportant than knowledge. In addition, Edison said that an invention is 99 % product of perspiration and

only 1 % caused by ingenuity. If we combine what had been said by Einstein and by Edison, then we willcome with the possibility of successful invention or innovation was a process that was guided by an

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illuminative imagination which was followed by a complete action of thoughts and works that keep onealmost totally forget all things except what it was in his attention, Alex explained.

So, one should forget everything, except what he wants to achieve if he wants to reach a successfulinnovation. Is that what you mean, Alex? I said.

Yes. It means one should focus. It means one should be able to reach a highest degree of concentrationone can make. We only have 24 hours time availability. It is true for a baby or an old man, it is true for aman or a women. 24 hours time availability is given to everybody. Now, a high motivation is notmeasured by what one said, but it is measured by what one has done. That is a motivated person. It should

be done by everybody in every field of he or she chooses, Alex explained.

Are you crazy? How about happiness that people always pursue in their life? If one just makes a fullconcentration like that, how about his duty to other people? His duty for families and friends? I said.

What is happiness any way, Y? I want to listen to you? he asked me.

Well. I think happiness is that one always seeks in ones entire life. Happiness is a state of mind thatexpress he or she is happy..welllet me think about latter on. What do you think Alex, I asked him toexplain first. I was waiting.

I agree with you that happiness is a state of mind. But, what I think is that people usually choose awrong choice. They think they already reached a state of happiness when they got money, houses, cars,Ph.D degree, etc. Those are not happiness by themselves. Those are just instruments to reach happiness.So, we have not to confuse between the ends and the means. Material things are important because we aremen who need those things. But, those things are not the end by themselves, Alex explained.

So, what are the ends or the goals of our life? I asked Alex.

Many people may have different ends. I think we are freed to choose what are our goals. For me, our endis freedom? Why? It is because without freedom is not a humankind not a humankind. It is just a robot! Alex said.

Wait, Alex we return to the same place as we discussed before. We return to the issue offreedom! I saidto Alex.

Yeah! We have far away to use our time but we havent reached our end. I think we have to stop for awhile and try to evaluate whether we are in the right track or not, Alex said.

I tried to think that our question is how to justify that freedom is the most important fundamental issue forour discussion. Our mind has been traveling quite along way. But, we realized that we had not have asufficient answer. Freedom was easy to say but we realized was difficult to understand. We looked at eachother and we continued discussion.

***Well, what do we get? I asked Alex.

I think we get a good thing. At least we know that freedom is a difficult issue. We know also that peoplearound the world try to seek their freedom. It is a fact of social live, Alex said.

Can we start again? I asked Alex.

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Ok. Let us start with understanding that humankind is a creator. To be a creator he or she has to be free.He has to be free from fear. He has to be free from coercion. He is free to act and to pursue what he has inmind. He is free to think, to speak and express with other means. No one should be allowed to stop whathe or she wish, Alex explained.

But, it is an anarchy. Are you a follower of anarchism? Is it anarchism bad? I said.

Anarchism is the view that no government has a legitimate authority to coerce people and that publicinterests and individual rights can only be served without a state of any kind. Of course, what I mean isonly a model or a thought. It is unfortunate the word of anarchy has been interpreted negatively such as tomean a disorder or chaos. It is unfortunate because without understanding the moral meaning of anarchy,the value of an individual will be disregarded. What I mean that without recognizing a full individualright, collective power will decline or even eliminate the status of freedom of an individual. However,there will be a unification of individual interest and collective interest as long as they collective decisionis a right aggregation of all interests, Alex explained.

How about people who are not able to make a choice due to certain condition such as a baby or a serious

sick person, I asked Alex.

Well, it is very clear that a baby is a very weak person physically. If a physical coercion is allowed to ababy, clearly a baby cannot make a self-defense. So, right to live for a baby is not a physical thing. It is anabstract concept that built by a society that a baby should be protected. So, a babys freedom to liveshould be granted by a society, Alex argued.

We see here that concept of freedom is not a physical power concept. Freedom is value. It is an abstractconcept that is located in human mind, Alex explained.

But, how about the relations of one individual and a community that all have freedom in themselves? Ifall people are becoming anarchists will they follow orders or laws established by a community? I askedAlex.

Yes, of course. Respecting individual freedom is also at the same time respecting oneself. If we oblige torespect others than others also oblige to respect us. A concept of freedom is reciprocal. Ones freedom isother responsibility and others freedom is our responsibility. If this is not the case, then it must be onecoerces the others, Alex said.

It means that freedom is not freedom if we cannot do any thing. Is that right? I told Alex.

No. We can do everything as far as we do not violate other freedom. Humankind invents morality, lawsand orders to protect individual freedom. On the other hand, we are not allowed to do anything we wantto if what we do endanger others freedom, Alex replied.

So, if freedom subject to laws, then it will depend who make the laws. If a law is made by a king, forexample, then freedom is only for a king, but not for people. What do you thing if this is the case in ourlife, I asked Alex.

Yes. It is why people will react to that kind of laws, Alex said.

Is that means people will fight to seek freedom? I asked Alex.

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Yes. It is an unavoidable fight because it is a natural thing for people to seek their freedom. It isunfortunate if people make a war for freedom, Alex replied.

So, why people should make a war to seek freedom? Isnt it war is bad by itself? If a war is bad by itselfand people conduct a war for freedom, isnt it mean that freedom is also bad by itself? Can a means

justify the ends? I asked Alex.

Well, it is a hard question, brother. Of course, a means cannot justify the ends. If we follow this thoughtthen we will have a difficult situation such as what we face now. The means we choose should alsomorally and legally acceptable, Alex said.

But, who define that ones action is immoral or illegal? I asked Alex.

Yeah. It is a problem of making and interpreting morality or legality. Here we will stuck with who arerepresenting society. In a democratic society, a society establishes an institution that is given tasks tomake and to implement a law to govern people, Alex said.

Why dont we just choose a king or someone to govern us instead go in a circle but then we finally donot know for sure the results will be just or not? I asked Alex.

You are right, brother. But, it will be more uncertain and foolish if we give our freedom to somebodywithout our concern. In a democratic system, at least we have a time to make some corrections becauseour political power is given for only a period of time. For example, every 5 years we make a vote, Alexsaid.

Why, you are interested in freedom and power, brother? Or, do you think that I have different politicalaffairs in my world? Alex continued.

Well, I just want to know your thought. Actually, the issue is my new interest. You know I am anagricultural economist by training. I know farmers in developing countries are poor. In our country,farmers are not only poor but have no freedom. Politicians say that they will fight for farmers and askfarmers to give him or her a vote. But, when he or she became a politician he or she forgot what he or she

promised. The same thing with government officials. They created projects and borrowed money. But,they did not consult to farmers what kind of projects should be developed. So, we can say that they made

project for themselves. As an agricultural economist I think I have duty to work for farmers. If not, whatfor I took Ph.D in agricultural economics. It is funny, Alex, most agricultural economists developed

policies that made farmers poorer. I dont understand what is in their mind, I explain to Alex myposition.

Well, I think freedom should underline economic theory. In fact, economic theory is a theory thatseeking freedom. We learned a competitive market model, right? It is a model of choice, a free choice.One has freedom to choose. In monopoly theory, a monopolist has a freedom but people who facemonopoly market have no freedom. In this case we understand that a competitive market model is

preferred than a monopoly model, I continued.

But, why people fighting for liberal or free competitive market? Why people struggling to fight freetrade if competitive market is good?, X asked me.

Because what we say is not correspondent with what we experience. In reality the world market is not a

competitive one. In fact, the world market is controlled by only a few multinational corporations. Theydetermine price of agricultural products faced by farmers and at the same time they also determine

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product prices faced by consumers. So, they make huge profits. They can be richer than a state. It willmake our world in danger. Why? Because the world will be controlled by a few owners of the companies.They have no purpose making a democratic society. Their purpose is only how to make money to makethey are richer and richer. The money is collected from the weak part of community, farmers and poorconsumers. We have to realize that a largest part of poor household expenditure is for food. Higher food

price will tax the consumers, mostly poor consumers. So, why I think people now more aware to what we

have to be aware. We are backed to 16th

or 17th

century, namely, the world is colonized by corporation, Iexplained further.

Yeah. For almost 200 years we were colonized by VOC. It was a company that was backed up bygovernment. In fact, actually we cannot make a separation whether it was a company or a state thatcolonized us. I think it was a state using the hand of a company that they had created. The proof is easy.When VOC collapsed in 1799, all was taken by the Dutch government. So, they just changed the hand.The VOCs bloody hand was changed by governments hand. What do you think our present situation?Are we governed by VOC or by states, brother? Alex asked me.

I think we have more difficult time to say whether we are colonized or not. Every thing now is

determined by external agents that our power is so limited. WTO determined what is right or what iswrong in the world market affairs. They make rules that we have to obey. The rules are representing notour interest but the powerful countries interest. Developed countries also make their own trade rules thatmake our products cannot enter their markets. There are tariffs and non-tariffs restrictions. All arerestricting our product entering their market. We cannot afford to fulfill their requirements. Why?Because we have lack of many things. I think the most rational reason to underline their strategy is how tomake their processing industries are continued supplied by cheaper inputs. It is cheaper than before whenthey colonized us. So, we are really having difficult time, I replied.

But, if I read economic journal or the World Bank reports, every thing seems okay. The numbers of thepoor have been declining dramatically, volume of trade increasing, foreign direct investment increasing,and inequality within a country also declining. How you explain it, Alex? I continued.

Well, that is what they said. Just have always with us, we dont have data; they have data. We dont havecapacity to say no; they have capacity to instruct us. They have every thing to influence us, we havenothing to defend, Alex described the situation.

But, people dont listen to that argument. We are poor because we are poor. We are weak because we areweak. And, according to them we are corrupt society, I said.

That is a part of their strategy. In fact, I think the strategy that had been fully thought. Why? Because the

most reasonable strategy to control the world is to make other societies that had been colonized as weak abefore, or even weaker. There is no proof in history that one nation make other nations stronger.No..No..It is unreasonable if I was a fighter to help my foe to be a stronger fighter than me. How manycountries in the world that now have higher status than before? Our fingers are too many if we would liketo count how many countries are now as developed or entering developed countries status. Most ofcountries that had been colonized in the past still stay just like before, Alex explained.

Corruption? Ha..haI love this world. Why? Because we had been taught to be a corrupt society. Youknow, the most effective lesson people learn is to imitate what other people do, especially actions that had

been done by people up there, Alex continued.

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VOC managed our society not with good governance principles. Remember, VOC was bankrupt becauseof corruption. Corrupted organization tended to corrupt power. They controlled us by corrupted power. Itwould be reasonable for our people to adapt or to learn from what they taught, Alex replied.

Let us imagine. What will you do when you were in the bottom of society and you want to survive or toclimb up into a higher status? Alex continued.

Well, I can see that our people would choose the following actions. First group, a rebellion will try tofight. But, their number will be smaller and smaller. In Diponegoro war in 1825-1830, there were about200,000 people killed and made a population of Yogyakarta reduced a half. Second group of people willkeep them under surface and try to survive by their own. They just keep quite. They dont want to be inconfrontation. They followed order. This group is the largest part. The third group is a group that theychoose the run away strategy. They will try to find a new place for making a new life. The number of thisgroup will be not many, especially for our society that love to stay together even we have to share our

poverty. The latter group is a group of people that adapt and to adjust themselves to the ruling power.They abdicated to the corrupted power. So, they have no interest to fight. In fact they become a part of

power. So, for more than three hundred years our social environments just like that, Alex explained

further.

I cannot buy your argument Alex. Why? Because I think it is dangerous to follow your thoughts. Why itis dangerous? Because you bring us into a bad habit. Your thought just gives us an escape goat. We cannotdo that, right? We cannot blame that the cause of our corruption is because of history, I replied.

No. I just showed you that today cannot be separated from the past and tomorrow cannot be separatedfrom today. We have to see what is our history look like and what are the lessons we can learn. Basedupon our history we will try to find our solution for our future, Alex explained his argument.

But the past is the past, I think. We have to forget it and let us keep working now to find our solutions, Isaid.

No. We should not forget the past. What we have to do is to forgive the past. Forgiving is a must to cleanup our mind. But forgetting is wrong because we will never find the right way. We have to be able torepeat the bad past history, he said.

So, can you make further clarification what do you mean by lesson from a history and what do you meanby forgiving. I think those words are not clear by themselves. Lesson can imply negative or positivemeaning. Forgiving is also very abstract for me, I asked him to make further explanation.

Well, I think they are obvious. I think you confused yourself my brother. Anyway, just for our exercise, Iwould like to say that one of the most important lesson from our history is we know our path of life. Weknow what have been happening during our journey. Who were our friends and who were betrayed us.Did we travel happily or have we been hijacked. History is reality. It is data. Without data we cannotmake analysis. Without an analysis we cannot make a right decision. In fact, our weakness or strength isindicated by our capability to make an analysis to our problems. Analysis is necessary before we make a

judgment. So, it is the first lesson from history. You see all value of history depends on whether we cananalyze it or not. A second lesson from a history is that it will give us wisdom. I call wisdom because byknowing a history will grow our part of mind that is not a part of logic. A meaning of wisdom is anopinion that almost everyone seems to share or express. Without sharing opinion what is good, what is

bad, what is right or what is wrong in our society we will have difficulties to communicate and to advance

ourselves. History builds a sense of community. A third lesson is that history can be used to predict ourfuture. As I said earlier that future is not a repetition of our past. However, it will be useful for making

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projection of our future. Of course, it is very difficult to make a correct projection. But, without a history,it will be more difficult or in fact, will be impossible to make some projections, Alex explained.

Well X, I am tired to listen to you. But, I think we learn something from our discussion to night. I amready to sleep. But, what is the main purpose of our discussion any way? I asked him a silly question.

Ha..ha..My brother. We havent finished our discussion. You already tired and you dont know also whatpurpose of our discussion? Common wake up, my brother. You face a though challenge in the future. Youhave to prepare your self for being able to fight with many things. Of course, you will not be fighting interms of physical fight. You have to have a strong mind and a strong mind is a mind that full ofknowledge, full of spirit, full of brave. You cannot sleep early that one rule. You cannot be lazy this is asecond rule. You cannot be weak it is a third rule. You cannot be stupid it is a fourth rule. And, you cannot

be alone, it is the fifth rule, Alex told me.

I didnt understand what he meant and what he asked me. And, why he gave me those rules. But, I wasreally tired. My watch showed that it was 2:30 am. I was really sleepy.

I dont care Alex, I am tired and I am sleepy. Let us stop our discussions. We go to sleep okay, I said.

Common, Y. You have to stay up to 3 am, at least. Because I havent finished to talk with you, he said.

What do you want to say, Alex? I said.

You have to survive. It is hard if you dont understand the philosophy behind what you have to do.Philosophy is a matter of belief. There is no right or wrong answer in philosophy. We are old enough tohold a certain philosophy now. The purpose of our discussion now is to find what philosophy we have tohold. What kind of purpose of life we have to hold. There will be an ocean of difficulties in front of us.There will be many rivers we have to cross. There will be many dangerous roads we have to drive. Wecannot make our journey if we have no philosophical life we hold. Life, my brother, is just a matter howwe keep our spirit strong to reach our destiny, he told me about the purpose of discussion tonight.

I really dont understand Alex. What I want to be now is I want to be a writer. I know to be a writer isvery challenging. I realize it is not easy job. That is why I admire a great writer. Before I tried to writesomething, I cannot feel how hard to be writer. But, writing is also enjoyable. I feel it and I am happy.That is what I want to do in the rest of my life, I told Alex. I really didnt understand what he meant.

My friend we have to prepare ourselves for something that we dont understand. You remember whenyou got a motorcycle accident in 1974. Did you remember two of your fried got killed in the same place

where you got accidence? You got nothing hurt, even a scratch. Did you remember? It is what I called youa mystery. There are some mysteries in our life, brother. The purpose of tonight discussion is that how weface a new mystery in the future. One of the most important tasks in our shoulder is that how can we helpfarmers to get freedom. That is our purpose, he replied.

I really didnt understand. I dont want to argue with him. But, his words made me awaked. He mentionedsomething spiri

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ALEXANDER-X