trahjournal

Nyaman. Itu kesan yang tergambar saat kaki pertama kali memijak di warung Kopi Klotok, Yogyakarta. Bagaimana tidak, semilir angin pepohonan rindang, hamparan sawah yang instagramable, serta kicauan burung yang terbang kejar-kejaran membuat siapa saja enggan beranjak pergi. PARKIRAN. Area pelataran parkir warung Kopi Klotok. Minggu siang, 22 Maret. Terik matahari yang menyembul kuat berganti udara sejuk begitu memasuki pelataran parkir warung Kopi Klotok di Jalan Kaliurang Kecamatan Pakem, Kabupaten Sleman, Yogyakarta. Hari itu tampak sepi. Hanya beberapa pengunjung yang lalu-lalang. Pandangan lantas tertuju pada orang yang berseragam kuning. Raut mukanya kelelahan memapah nampan yang disampirkan ke bahu. Bolak-balik mengantar pesanan. Ia adalah orang yang bertugas melayani pengunjung. "Duduk dulu, mas. Nanti pesanannya diantar," katanya setelah saya memesan dua gelas kopi klotok dan pisang goreng. Asal tahu saja －barangkali pembaca sudah tahu－ ternyata nama kop...

Rasa aman, tentram dan damai bagai ungkapan 'sampai ketemu nanti'. Perang tak pernah benar-benar mengucapkan selamat tinggal dari tempat itu.  Ibarat menjelajahi wahana di Dufan yang tidak ada habis-puasnya. Belum lagi perang NIIS yang punya franchise di Indonesia. Well , sebelum membaca tulisan ini, kita sepakati dulu kalau ada korelasi positif antara sejarah dan yang akan menjadi sejarah. Untuk lebih jelasnya tentang ini nanti bisa ditanyakan ke ahli penyakit dalam (baca:filsuf). Kita sepakati saja dulu dan saya akan cerita. Konon, kala melacak sejarah asal-usul konflik di timur tengah, sumber yang paling sering dikutip para peneliti adalah catatan Ibn Jubayr (antara 1183-1185) berjudul Rilah. Seorang politisi yang kurang populer, Ronald Broadhurst, menerjemahkan catatan itu menjadi The Travels of Ibn Jubayr . Diceritakan, dibagian utara Damaskus (sekarang Suriah) menjulang Gunung Qasiyoun setinggi 1.151 mdpl. Di tempat ini, terjadi pembunuhan manusia yang perta...

China dirundung masalah. Sudah jatuh tertimpa tangga pula. Belum selesai dengan gejolak demonstrasi Hongkong, pemblokiran 5G Huawei, cyber war , perang dagang, hingga provokasi muslim Uighur, kini merebak virus korona tipe baru. Yang disebut terakhir menostalgia kembali wabah SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pada tahun 2003 dan H5N1 atau flu burung yang menjangkiti peternak ayam di China. Baik SARS maupun H5N1 adalah endemi yang juga bermula dari negeri tirai bambu itu. Setelah ditelusuri, ternyata virus korona terbaru ini punya skala genosida sepuluh kali lebih besar ketimbang SARS, kata ahli virologi Universitas Hong Kong, Guan Yi, seperti dikutip Media Indonesia. Namun dilihat dari asalnya, untuk sementara belum diketahui pasti. Para ahli masih bergelut di laboratorium. Disisi lain, Komisi Kesehatan Guangxi bekerja sama dengan Universitas Niangbo serta Natural Science Foundation melaporkan, bahwa virus ini bersumber dari ular kobra atau disebut juga ular Naja A...

Feelings are the most challenging battleground in life. It is a reciprocal sensation of wanting what is good for life, although it seems to be much easier to hide what's going on as we know the answer lies somewhere between emotion and complexity. A few years ago, in 2017 when I was texting each other with a female friend, there was a melodramatic word that she typed to me. "I feel procrastinating and I don't find someone to tell it," she said. Somehow I suddenly replied asking what the ‘procrastinating’ word means? As it was a new word I ever heard. I really didn’t have any assumption about that. Whether is it something to eat like a lollipop, something to do or something to hear? “What does it mean?,” so I asked. To put it simply as she explained, 'procrastination' word related to our thoughts and sense of emotions. It is likely similar to boredom, but not boredom that was understandably caused by, maybe we got tired of waiting, maybe we could ...

Grand design M-Tower, Mamuju. Recently, the public has been faced by notion of Mamuju's iconic construction plan Manakarra Tower (referred to M-Tower) in the municipality. Argument split into two perspectives, those who agree with and doesn't is like two sides of coin. Moreover, the pros and cons evoked a resistance between supporter and repellent with various analysis. A specific trigger is the fact that this infrastructure will spend tens of billions money. A likely explanation of M-Tower's supporter views point out that the building could be an iconic value for the city, which will look stylistic features for tourists and the locals. Like an Eiffel Tower did that was attracting anyone to go there for example. Still, it has been commonly assumed the presence of M-Tower will encourage profitable revenue for the resident around it. Simply put, street vendors and micro enterprises nearby the district will be overwhelmed by buyers. However, what the main conc...

Mirna sat down in front of his huts MAMUJU, -- Early June, 2019. A heavy rain just fell down when I were in the waste's final destination area located in Botteng Village of Mamuju administrative. The surroundings were deeply silent due to no activity as scavengers usually did everyday. From the distances where I stood, I saw a middle-aged women, anonymously Mirna, sat on the floor of her grubby huts which was approximately 4x5 meters in size. Then I walked slowly to get there. She seemed quite busy, sorting out plastic garbage that would be exchanged into money. It was heartbreaking. In the moment we were greetings each other, she told that she have been working for years as a scavenger in that dirty place, converting plastic trash into money continually. Garbage is like a gold to sell, roughly $2.00 for 1 kg plastic waste, but not quite enough for life. As we have known that standard living cost is roughly $5.00 in a day. It could be assumed it takes around $150 per mon...