Dia sebenarnya hidup untuk dirinya sendiri, bukan untuk orang lain. Tapi entah mengapa orang lain selalu salah sangka dan berpikir bahwa dia hidup hanya untuk mereka saja. Semua orang sepertinya selalu mengharapkan agar dirinya bisa melakukan sesuatu untuk mereka. Sebenarnya dia sudah berupaya menolak, tapi orang-orang itu tidak pernah menyadari penolakannya, dan tetap saja menuntut dia untuk terus berkorban. Dia tidak suka, tapi juga tidak bisa mengelak dari mereka semua.

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Rejection and Denial of Lives

We live in a very troubled era…

The world that we live in is plagued by problems. Starvation, natural/man-made disasters, and wars have become all too common, particularly to the people living in third-world countries. Indonesia, has faced numerous bloody riots in the last 10 years. Aceh, in particular, is the region devastated not only by armed conflict, but also by a great natural disaster, perhaps the biggest natural disaster in the 21st century. India and Pakistan, in Southern Asia, has been locked in bloody conflicts for years now. Middle East is known as a complex battleground, involving Arabs versus Arabs, Arabs versus Israel/United States, factions versus factions, and so on. The list of actors involved in Middle East conflict can be never ending. Countries in Africa face starvation problems, bloody conflict (again), health and AIDS problems. And so on. And so on.


To live seems to be a very difficult proposition in the third world…

But the third-world people are not the only ones facing problems. The first-world countries are known for their well-being and riches. They do not have to face starvations or wars. But they are still vulnerable to natural disasters, as in the case of Katrina typhoon that hit New Orleans. Although it's true that their advance technology and high funding makes it possible for them to minimize the damage, it seems that was not enough to handle the societal impact of the disaster.

There are other problems as well. Let's see for example Japan. The phenomenon of group suicides is well known to us. It is a phenomenon where groups of people who hardly know each other, meet in the internet and made a compact to meet somewhere to commit suicide together.  In America, we have been shocked by the shooting in Virginia University by a student. 32 people were killed, before the gunner took his own lives. Unfortunately, the Virginia shooting was not the first case of its kinds, and there is no guarantee that it would be the last.


It is difficult for me, who live in the third world, to understand it. While people in the third world wants to live but hardly find enough chance to do it, the people in the first world have the chance to live but choose to deny it. But at least I understand one thing. The people who commit the suicide, and the one who made the shooting, they suffered too. Maybe it is not the same suffering that the people in the third world have to face, but it is enough for them to reject lives. One way or another, the group suicide, and shooting in Virginia represents the same thing. They symbolize the rejection of lives, with whatever reason that I probably can not understand.

The same things actually happen in the third world. But the rights to live, there, are not rejected by choice, rather denied by force. This rejection and denial of lives means one thing: that we are all suffering. Where ever we live, we see suffering.

The Power of Music

The ancient Greeks had a story about a blind musician name Orpheus. The legend told that he can tame Cerberus, the three-headed dog guardian of hell, by using only his harp. In ancient Greek legends, there is only one other mythical figure who can tame Cerberus. It was Hercules. But Hercules did that by using his own brute strength. Such stories gave the symbolization to us that the strength of music equals the strength of might, if not stronger.


I have not made a thorough research on this, but I believe similar or not so similar legends symbolizing the strength and influence of music can be found elsewhere. In North Sumatera, Indonesia, for example, there is still a strong belief that music (they call it Gondang there) functions as a bridge connecting human to the gods. By using music, people can communicate directly with the creator to ask for guidance, counsel and blessings. Of course this believes are now lessening, particularly since Christianity arrived. But music still occupies central positions in the everyday life of the people over there.

As in all over the world…

Music has been part of human cultures since its foundation. Let's just say, it is almost impossible for us to imagine a society without music. Also it is inconceivable to imagine a person who hates all kind of music. Every one of us must like music, even though what we like to hear is different from one another.

Music influence can be very big. The Beatles in the 60s has shown us how influential music can be. Simply by using music, they initiated a generation. These were represented by the hippies, the rebellious, anti-war, and anti-government people. Sometimes, they are also called the LSD generation, their era was called the 'free-sex' era, and their attitude was 'do what you like'. They are the youth of their generation; that's why they called themselves the 'Flower Generation.
  
In the era of the Beatles, music was used as an outlet of protest and criticism. Music was a tool to call for the attention of those in charge. Using music they voiced their concern to the conditions of the world, and called for a better world. A world without wars, a world filled with peace, love and – the last was also their concern – drugs.

Music and Youth

That era had passed. The Beatles had shown the world about the power of music. But actually there is one more thing, that the rise of the flower generation – influenced by music, and in turn influenced the music - also show us that the combination of music and youth can be potently powerful.


These powerful combinations are maybe what we need in order to heal the wounds of the world. Music is the needed outlet for everyone, because everyone likes it. It doesn't matter which culture you live in, or what language do you speak, you will still love music. Didn't the beast, Cerberus, love Orpheus' harp?

In the other hand, youth are also needed, simply because they are the one who has the energy to make changes to the world. They are also the ones who are still innocent enough, and relatively uncorrupted and unharmed by the world.  What they lack is only the means to do that. But, as The Beatles has shown us, the means is available through music.

It is only fair to say that we can not place the burden of healing the world to youth. It is not their duty yet. But there is one thing they can do by using music: that is to call for help for the world growing weary of its own wound.

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This is not the first time people have to starve because of the changing 'agricultural preferences' made by elites and decision makers for the sake of economy or development.  China and Russia had some experience on this. Russia in 1930s, and China in 1950s. Some may argue that the famine in Russia and China were of different reasons, mainly because of the authoritarian and scientific ignorance of the government. But I say that you'll find one basic and similar reason for these type of famines to happen: Governments and elites who disregard the lives of common people. They are more interested in making money. After all, they are the one who really believe this old saying: money makes the world go around.

When are they going to realize: there won't be any economy, without any human ?

Perhaps, it was just like Don McLean put it in his song, Vincent:

They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...

The world is now increasingly connected through a process we call globalization. People say that globalization brought about massive changes, especially in how distances are increasingly irrelevant to us communicating and interacting between each other. These bring about the exchanges of values between people in the degree that we have never experienced before. All this led many people to believe, that globalization can also bring the homogenization of culture, that globalization will give birth to one unified and common global culture.

But that has not been the case. Globalization seems to strengthen local values and ethnic identities. Thomas Friedmann, an international columnist from New York Times, once wrote on this phenomenon in his book, the Lexus and the Olive Tree, which I believe many of you have read. The book focuses on explaining two equally powerful but opposing forces in the contemporary world: the forces of globalization and the forces of identities. The post-cold war world, he said, will be marked with the clashes and strains between those two forces.

The book and its content invited many critiques from experts worldwide, especially because of the neo-liberal views expressed by Friedman in that book. But his conclusion seems to be unchallenged. We know it, we see it, we live it. We face it everyday. It seems obvious to us. We know now that Globalization is unavoidable. But globalization has brought so many things to us, so many new things, the opening of frontiers, conflicting values and confusing behavior from confusing foreigners, all in just one click. In the face of all that, it seems natural for us to cling to something we feel familiar of: our values and identities.

Realities are always composed of conflicting things: good and bad. Each time a new reality emerges, it always emerges with at least two distinctive impacts: the good one and the bad one. The emergence of this cultural awareness is good for one thing: its enriches our human society; but sometimes some people took this too far and identity become a source of conflict. 

Asia is a continent rich with cultural identities and heritages. It is also a continent ready to take the next step towards modernization and globalization. And so, the strains between the forces of globalizations versus the rising cultural awareness – and often along with that: the rising of nationalistic sentiment – have become increasingly felt throughout Asia.

It is in this context the study on the formation of identities become more and more important than before, especially in Asia.