That Bloody Microchips

Imagine how the world would be if people are divided into the ones tagged with microchips and the ones without. Imagine how your life would be if you happen to be the one whose body is tagged with the microchips. Everywhere you go, whatever you do will be all monitored. Doesn’t it sound like a tale from a dusty, old book or movie? Unfortunately, it might well turn into a reality, here in Indonesia, in the land of Papua. The parliamentarians in Papua are considering a controversial bylaw that would enforce this using of microchips.

The purpose of the bylaw is to monitor the sexual behavior and activities of people living with AIDS. One of the lawmakers there calls it a “major breakthrough” to fight against HIV/AIDS. What was running through their minds to even consider such things? This is a power/state intervention to the human body. It reminds me of Michel Foucoult that explains this relation between power and knowledge in an attempt to control the behaviour of society. What’s left to a person if s/he cannot have power over her/her own body?

Let’s continue our imagination. Imagine how devastating your life will be when people around you look at you as “the other” who should be avoided. Wherever you go, you bring with you the tag of the outcast, the pariah. This is the most brutal form of modern discrimination. Having the microchips tagged you may cost you your job, your family, your friends. You may even have to live in a secluded, designated area. You stop becoming a person. In short, you lose your life.

Phew … I think I should stop the imagination here because it starts to freak me out to think of the possibility of tagging the microchips not only to people living with HIV but also to anyone that those in power would like to get rid of. That would be the most horrifying thing one could ever imagine.

I hope this is only a dream … Wake me up, please!!!

Where God Kissed The Earth

I always dream to have a house by the lake with huge windows looking out to the mountains. The other side of the house, as I imagine, is surrounded by the carpet-looking paddy field or grassland. I just recently found the perfect place for that dream house. And it isn’t that far … not in New Zealand or Switzerland or South Africa which I consider among the most beautiful places on earth but it’s there in my homeland from which my ancestors come from.

How ironic that it has got to take someone else from a different land to show me how absolutely beautiful Tano Batak.

Tano Batak is in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The highlight of it is off course Lake Toba. All this time I had been aware of its beauty (or so I thought) but I didn’t realize that the beauty is so stunning until my recent visit. This time I have a chance to see it from the side which I didn’t know ever existed before. Despite the cold feet that I got when we drove down from Tele to Sianjur Mula-mula, the picturesque view really took my breath away. The scene in Tongging where the waterfall Si Piso-piso is situated is also amazingly exquisite. Rm Lili jokingly said that God must have kissed the earth once when God created it in whatever year. And that part of the earth is of course Lake Toba.

However, the view is so far enjoyed by only a few people. There are only a few tourists go visiting the place. Many would rightly say that tourism in North Sumatra is not well or properly managed. The government has not been really exploring the potentials of that region. Or perhaps they simply don’t know what and how “to sell” the potentials? Apart from the panoramic scenery, the Batak culture is actually very interesting to observe. Nice landscape would eventually bore you but interesting people would always be fascinating to explore.

But ... ah, isn’t a blessing in disguise for me? Keep it that way, the place for my dream house would neither be so expensive nor overly commercialized like other touristy places. It will remain quiet, fresh and clean. Hopefully I could still feel the kiss of God over there …