Islam dan Demokrasi

Oleh: Helmi Junaidi

Saya sudah agak lama juga mau menulis soal ini, tentang adanya beberapa kalangan Islam yang menentang demokrasi. Alasan mereka anti demokrasi adalah karena di dalam demokrasi semua keputusan diambil dengan suara terbanyak. Dengan demikian, undang-undang bisa dibuat atas dasar suara terbanyak walau hasilnya bertentangan dengan agama dan moral, seperti misalnya yang sering mereka ambil contohnya terjadi di Eropa, di mana keputusan terbanyak di parlemen bisa memutuskan bolehnya menikah sesama jenis, menghalalkan narkoba dan sebagainya. Itu alasan mereka menentang demokrasi.

Tapi, sebetulnya kalau menurut saya tidak harus menentang demokrasi. Kita tahu bahwa di dalam negara demokrasi yang menjadi andalan utama untuk memenangkan pemilu adalah mendapat dukungan rakyat. Jadi, prinsipnya harus bisa membujuk rakyat dulu supaya bisa sepaham. Memasarkan ide yang diyakini ke mayoritas rakyat. Kalau mayoritas rakyat sudah sepaham, maka otomatis mayoritas anggota parlemen yang terpilih akan sepaham juga sehingga otomatis wakil di parlemen akan banyak yg mendukung setiap keputusan yang mereka inginkan. Jadi, tidak dengan memaksa rakyat sepaham, tapi dengan melakukan persuasi. Dan persuasi biasanya akan berhasil bila dilakukan dengan cara-cara yang simpatik.

Kalau menurut saya begitu. Nah, persoalannya, sudahkan mereka berusaha memasarkan ide mereka ke masyarakat dengan baik dan simpatik?

Atau untuk jalan tengahnya begini saja. Memakai sistem demokrasi, tapi kita buat peraturan supaya parlemen dilarang meloloskan undang-undang yang membuat kegiatan molimo di masyarakat makin merajalela. Hal-hal yang melanggar aturan moral dilarang untuk diloloskan oleh parlemen. Malah tentu kalau bisa parlemen membuat peraturan yang bisa membatasi hal-hal yang buruk tersebut. Bisa dibuat begitu saja, tidak lantas harus ramai bilang anti demokrasi. 

Kalau anti demokrasi, lalu bagaimana sih sistem yang ingin mereka terapkan itu? Tanpa pemilu atau bagaimana? Kalau tanpa pemilu lalu memilih pemimpin dan wakil rakyat itu caranya bagaimana? Asal tunjuk saja atau bagaimana? Konsep mereka juga masih belum jelas.

Dunia sekarang ini didominasi negara-negara demokrasi. Kenapa? Karena mereka KUAT. Adakah kekuatan lain di dunia yang bisa menantang dominasi mereka? Tak ada. Soviet yang dulu luar biasa perkasa itu pun akhirnya bangkrut gara-gara menganut kediktatoran. Di negara diktator, bila kita punya pemimpin, maka sekali diangkat seumur hidup tak bisa diganti. Sampai tua buyutan akan dipimpin oleh orang tersebut. Sampai berpuluh-puluh tahun. Baik anda suka atau benci dengan pemimpin tersebut. Anda mau seperti itu?

Di negara demokrasi pemimpin dipilih tiap empat atau lima tahun sekali. Tiap periode bisa berganti. Bila kebetulan pemimpin yang terpilih tidak kita sukai atau yang sudah terlanjur memilih tiba-tiba berubah pendapat, maka lima tahun lagi bisa berganti pilihan. Bila pun yang tidak kita sukai terpilih lagi, maka itu pun maksimal cuma sepuluh tahun berkuasa, atau di Amerika cuma delapan tahun. Tidak akan seumur hidup sampai buyutan kita dipimpin orang yang tidak kita sukai tersebut seperti halnya yang terjadi di negara-negara diktator. Tiap lima tahun atau empat tahun bisa berganti pemimpin, selalu ada penyegaran, selalu ada kemungkinan regenerasi. Kebijakan salah yang dilakukan pemimpin terdahulu bisa dikoreksi oleh penggantinya. 

Anda memilih seumur hidup dipimpin orang yang anda benci atau memilih bisa diganti tiap lima tahun saja? Atau maksimal sepuluh tahun.

Diktator = seumur hidup sampai buyutan.
Demokrasi = bisa berganti-ganti tiap lima tahun sekali. 
Pilih mana?

Di dalam sistim demokrasi kita hanya disuruh bersabar cuma lima tahun saja. Dengan kediktatoran kita disuruh bersabar sampai buyutan. -_- Bila ada yang punya alternatif yang lebih baik dari demokrasi silakan beritahu saya sistem yang bagaimana itu. Harus jelas bagaimana itu alternatifnya. Yang jelas, kalau bagi saya bersabar lima tahun adalah sangat jauh lebih baik ketimbang bersabar sampai buyutan. Smart way for smart people. Ugly way for ugly people.

Di dalam sistem demokrasi ada mekanisme yang jelas untuk mengganti seorang pemimpin, yakni lewat pemilu. Mekanisme yang relatif damai. Di India dan Pakistan mungkin saja ada sedikit kerusuhan tiap pemilu, tapi takkan pernah ada perang saudara dan kerusuhan besar. Kalau di negara-negara yang makmur seperti Eropa dan Amerika, maka pemilu (pergantian pemimpin) bisa berlangsung dengan damai sepenuhnya. Di negara-negara diktator setiap rakyat ingin mengganti pemimpin, maka akan ada pertumpahan darah, bahkan perang saudara, seperti misalnya di Libya dan Syria.

Di Indonesia pra reformasi, karena dulu belum dibatasi tiap lima tahun sekali, maka pemimpin bisa berkuasa seumur hidup juga. Akibatnya tiap mau berganti pemimpin di Indonesia terjadi kerusuhan dan pertumpahan darah. Tahun 1966 dan tahun 1998. Apakah kita mau seperti itu lagi?

Demokrasi = negara damai, tak ada perang saudara. 
Kediktatoran = kerusuhan dan perang saudara. 
Pilih mana? Ada yang bisa menunjukkan alternatif yang lebih baik dari demokrasi?

Di negara demokrasi ada mekanisme yang jelas untuk mengganti pemimpin. Tak perlu ada kerusuhan dan perang saudara. Orang juga cuma disuruh bersabar lima tahun sekali saja, tidak seumur hidup. Ada yang punya sistem alternatif yang lebih baik dari ini? Atau ada yg tidak sabaran menunggu dan lalu usul pemimpin diganti setahun sekali? Gundulmu kuwi. hahaha... :D

Bila pemimpin bisa diganti tiap lima tahun sekali, maka takkan ada ketidakkepuasan yang lalu bertumpuk-tumpuk hingga berpuluh-puluh tahun. Bila ada kesalahan yang dibuat pemimpin yang sekarang, maka akan bisa dikoreksi lima tahun lagi, tak sampai kerusakan itu bertumpuk-tumpuk berpuluh tahun.

Masa depan negara kita masih panjang. Dengan menganut demokrasi kita akan bisa menyelamatkan negara kita dari kemungkinan terjadi kerusuhan besar lagi di masa depan. Negara akan bisa tetap damai senantiasa.

Selama ini sebagian umat Islam ada yang mengritik demokrasi dengan alasan bahwa dalam sistem demokrasi itu tiap mengambil keputusan walau cuma 1 persen selisihnya, yakni 49% vs 51,%, maka yang menang adalah yang 51%. Betul memang begitu. Tapi, tentu saja tak selalu begitu, sering juga selisihnya lebar. Akan tetapi, para pengritik demokrasi itu lupa bahwa alternatif dari demokrasi adalah suara 100% rakyat vs 1 orang dktator. Walau 100% rakyat berkata YES, tapi bila sang diktator berkata NO, maka yang menang adalah suara 1 orang tersebut. Suara 100% rakyat diabaikan.

Betul begitu, bukan? Kalau tidak, lantas alternatif sistem yang anda inginkan itu yang bagaimana sih? Monggo dijelaskan.

Sekarang saya ingin membahas masalah suksesi (pergantian pemimpin) di khilafah Ottoman. Sebagaimana kita ketahui Ottoman berupa kerajaan. Kerajaan tentu berupa dinasti dimana kekuasaan berlaku secara turun temurun. Apakah suksesi di kerajaan Ottoman berlangsung damai juga? Well, damai tapi sadis. Ada hukum fatricide. Apa itu artinya? Artinya, para pangeran yang tidak ditunjuk ayahnya untuk menjadi khalifah wajib dibunuh semuanya. Ini dimaksudkan untuk mencegah perang saudara berebut kuasa.

Tidak ada pemilu dan demokrasi di zaman khilafah Ottoman. Juga tak ada parlemen yang menunjuk khalifah pengganti. Hak mutlak sang raja.

Silakan baca sejarah Ottoman. Memang begitu sistem suksesi di kerajaan tersebut, yakni sultan yang dipilih oleh ayahnya wajib membantai semua saudaranya untuk mencegah terjadinya perang dan perebutan kekuasaan.

Apakah begitu sistem yang anda inginkan? Seperti di kerajaan Ottoman tersebut. Atau bagaimana? Silakan dijelaskan.

Kalau sistem al-Baghdadi bagaimana? Tak ada yang menunjuk dia. Tanpa musyawarah dengan siapa-siapa dia mengangkat diri sendiri. Yang tak setuju akan dipenggal. Begitukah sistem yang anda inginkan? Sistem al-Baghdadi? Siapa saja bisa mengangkat dirinya tanpa musyawarah dan yang tak setuju dipenggal? Bila memang sistem begitu yang anda inginkan monggo pergi jadi raja di hutan saja.

Dan saya yakin andai saja kekuasaan al-Baghdadi bisa berlangsung lama, maka itu pun bisa berlangsung berpuluh-puluh tahun juga. Suka atau tidak suka dengan dia. Salah benar al-Baghdadi bisa tetap berkuasa seumur hidup, tak bisa diganti setiap lima tahun sekali. Betul begitu, bukan? Bila ada elemen-elemen di antara pengikutnya yang di kemudian hari tidak setuju dengan salah satu tindakannya, maka tak bisa menggantinya. Sampai buyutan tetap dipimpin al-Baghdadi.

Bila lalu ada elemen ISIS yang tidak sabaran dan tidak mau sampai buyutan dipimpin al-Baghdadi, maka mereka akan mengadakan pemberontakan bersenjata. Hanya begitu caranya, lewat pertumpahan darah untuk mengganti pemimpin karena mereka tak punya mekanisme yang jelas untuk mengganti pemimpin. Perang saudara antar sesama ISIS dan akan ada ribuan penyembelihan di mana-mana di seantero negeri. Begitukah sistem yang anda inginkan?

Atau ada yang yakin bahwa al-Baghdadi selalu bertindak benar? Wah, yang selalu benar itu hanya Allah. Bila ada yang berpendapat al-Baghdadi selalu bertindak benar berarti dia musyrik. Wajib dipenggal juga tuh orang. Lol.

Bila anda mendukung al-Baghdadi dan khilafahnya ya memang begitu. Kalau tidak lantas bagaimana? Silakan jelaskan sistem yang anda inginkan. Banyak orang yang teriak-teriak anti demokrasi, tapi waktu ditanya alternatifnya tak tahu jawabannya. Lha ini maksudnya bagaimana? Tak jelas. Bila anda menentang sesuatu itu harus ada alternatif yang jelas dari yang anda tentang itu. Sistem pemilihan pemimpinnya bagaimana, sistem suksesinya bagaimana, dipilih tiap berapa tahun sekali, yang memilih siapa, ada parlemen tidak dan sebagainya.

Atau memang sistem yang anda inginkan itu tak perlu parlemen, tak perlu pemilu seperti al-Baghdadi begitu? Waduh maaf, saya tak mau ikut-ikutan. Bila inginnya sistem yang begitu, maka seperti yang sudah saya bilang silakan menjadi raja di hutan saja. Tak perlu pemilu dan parlemen bila ingin menjadi raja hutan. Angkat diri sendiri dan bila rakyat ingin suksesi adakan pemberontakan. Itu sih gile. Kacau terus negara.

Dan tentu saja yang berlaku di khilafah al-Baghdadi itu adalah suara 100% rakyat vs suara satu orang. Walau 100% rakyat berkata YES, tapi al-Baghdadi berkata NO, maka suara 100% rakyat itu diabaikan. Betul, bukan? Kalau ada rakyat yang ngeyel bilang YES  maka akan dipenggal. Begitulah alternatif demokrasi.

Orang-orang itu mengkritik demokrasi karena katanya mengabaikan suara 49% rakyat, tapi lho mereka malah mendukung al-Baghdadi yang mengabaikan suara 100% rakyat. IQ ??

Apakah lalu kita menjadi kafir bila memakai demokrasi yang katanya buatan orang kafir? Lho, twitter dan handphone yang kita pakai sehari-hari itu buatan orang kafir. Semua barang yang kita pakai dan gunakan sehari-hari itu mayoritas buatan negara kafir. Apakah kita lalu menjadi kafir dengan memakai itu semua? Demikian juga, yang kita pelajari di sekolah dan universitas saat ini juga ilmu dari negara kafir. Dan dulu ilmu-ilmu tersebut sempat diharamkan oleh ulama-ulama aliran gembel. Ilmu-ilmu umum haram, fisika dan biologi haram, pakai jas dan dasi haram, sepakbola haram, bahkan menerjemahkan al-Quran juga haram sehingga umat Islam mengaji tanpa mengerti artinya. Begitu fatwa ulama-ulama aliran gembel zaman dulu. Oleh karena itu, umat Islam lalu sulit menjadi maju.

Dan sekarang ada juga ulama super gembel yang berfatwa bahwa demokrasi haram, yang sialnya lalu dianut juga oleh santri-santri gembel. Masih ada yang mau meneruskan tradisi pergembelan tersebut? Maaf seribu maaf, saya tak mau ikut-ikutan karena saya bukan santri gembel. Saya santri yang modern dan necis saja.

Segala hal yang baik dan berguna, dari mana pun asalnya itu, maka boleh saja kita anut. Jangan sedikit-dikit haram, ini haram, itu haram.

Adanya mekanisme yang jelas untuk suksesi adalah hal yang sangat amat penting di dalam kehidupan bernegara. Negara bisa menjadi kacau balau, berantakan, pecah belah, perang saudara, pertumpahan darah hanya gara-gara mekanisme suksesi yang tidak jelas. Termasuk juga di dunia Islam. Umat Islam terpecah belah menjadi Syiah, Sunni dan Khawarij juga gara-gara tidak adanya sistem suksesi yang jelas. Masing-masing pihak ngotot dengan calonnya sendiri karena dulu tak ada pemilu dan akhirnya semuanya diselesaikan di ujung senjata. Akibat dari perang saudara di zaman dulu itu masih membekas dengan kuat hingga zaman modern saat ini. Gara-garanya ya cuma soal suksesi itu.

Bibit perpecahan umat Islam sebenarnya tidak dimulai pada zaman Khalifah Ali, tapi pada zaman Khalifah Usman. Khalifah yang berkuasa paling lama adalah Usman. Ada beberapa kebijakan Khalifah Usman yang tidak disetujui sebagian umat Islam. Khalifah tak bisa diganti tiap lima tahun sekali sehingga ketidakpuasan itu lalu bertumpuk-tumpuk. Lama-lama bergejolak tak bisa ditahan dan akhirnya timbul pemberontakan. Khalifah Usman tewas di tangan pemberontak dan para pendukungnya lalu menuntut balas. Bani Umayyah itu adalah pendukung utama Usman karena memang termasuk keluarganya. Dan dulu ikatan kekabilahan memang masih sangat kuatnya.

Dan yang membuat keadaan makin rumit, para pemberontak itu lalu bermaksud mengangkat Ali menjadi khalifah. Dan setelah melalui musyawarah dengan penduduk Madinah, Ali akhirnya bersedia. Walhasil, suasananya kemudian adalah Ali vs pendukung Usman. Karena banyak di antara pendukung Ali adalah para pemberontak tersebut. Perang saudara tersebut baru berakhir setelah tewasnya Ali di tangan orang Khawarij. Muawiyah yang lalu berkuasa dan mendirikan dinasti Umayyah.

Gara-gara ribut soal suksesi itulah umat Islam lalu terpecah belah menjadi beragam mazhab hingga saat ini. Karena itu saudara-saudara, mekanisme yang jelas untuk suksesi ini adalah hal yang sangat amat penting. Bila tidak, maka akan berakibat kacau balaunya negara.

Indonesia juga pernah kena dampaknya bukan akibat tak punya sistem suksesi yang jelas? Kerusuhan besar dua kali, untung tak sampai perang saudara. Andai Indonesia terletak di wilayah yang banyak senjata api beredar seperti di wilayah Timur tengah, maka bisa berakibat seperti di Libya dan Syria. Kita sekarang sudah punya sistem suksesi yang jelas, dan itu harus kita lestarikan sehingga negara bisa tetap damai senantiasa.

Jakarta, 29 Desember 2013

Revisi: Malang, 3-5 September 2014

AK-47, Sturmgewehr 44 Versi Rusia

 Oleh: Helmi Junaidi

Kalashnikov dan AK-47

Mikhail Kalashnikov, perancang AK-47 meninggal. Tapi, boleh anda ketahui, rancangan Kalashnikov itu tidak orisinil. Meniru rancangan StG 44, Sturmgewehr 44. Kalau senapan era PD II saya memang lumayan hapal karena  sering main game bergenre tersebut. Kadang ada keterangan profil riwayat masing-masing senjata di manual game tersebut sehingga kita bisa tahu.

StG 44 adalah senapan terbaik pada masa PD II. Kalau yang asli buatan Sovyet adalah PPSh 41. StG 44 memberi inspirasi bagi kelahiran seluruh kelas senjata infantri, termasuk nama-nama terkenal seperti AK-47 dan M16. Bahkan bentuk magazin AK-47 juga sama dengan StG 44, yakni agak melengkung. Lihat gambar StG 44 dibawah. Sekilas persis AK-47 bukan? Jadi AK-47 itu memang berbau plagiat juga.

StG 44

Kalau senapan jarak jauh yg terbaik FG-42, Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 atau paratrooper rifle 42. Bisa untuk sniper. 

FG 42, Fallschirmjägergewehr 42.

Senjata pasukan Nazi dulu memang lebih hebat bila dibandingkan sekutu. Lalu kenapa kalah? Karena dipimpin seorang kopral, yakni kopral Hitler. Pangkat tertinggi Hitler kan memang kopral selama menjadi tentara. Dan tentu saja tak pernah belajar siasat pertempuran. Tapi, dia sering mencampuri urusan para jendralnya dan sering pula mengambil keputusan yang keliru. Kalah Nazi akhirnya.

AK-47

StG 44 atau disebut juga MP 44, Maschinenpistole 44

Perhatikan gambar StG-44 dan AK-47 di atas. Ada bedanya tidak menurut Anda? Hampir tak ada. Jadi, AK-47 itu memang berbau plagiat. Lebih tepat disebut StG 44 versi Russia.

StG-44 di front Rusia

Kalau yang asli  buatan Sovyet adalah PPSh 41. Magazinnya bulat, peluru banyak, tapi akurasi kurang. 

PPSh 41, Pistolet-Pulemyot Shpagina 41.

Stg 44, senjata era PD II ini masih tetap dipakai hingga sekarang, termasuk di perang saudara Syria.   Setelah PD II,  senjata serbu Sturmgewehr 44 tetap digunakan oleh beberapa negara dan juga oleh pasukan gerilyawan dimana-mana, seperti Jerman Timur, Yugoslavia, dan berbagai pasukan di Timur Tengah dan Afrika. Malah ada juga StG-44 yang disita oleh pasukan PBB  dari Australia yang bertugas di Somalia, tanggal pembuatan senapan tersebut adalah tahun 1946. Sudah antik sekali, tapi ternyata tetap tangguh dan bisa digunakan hingga sekarang.

Milisi wanita Somalia membawa StG 44

Saya menjadi takjub juga waktu tahu senjata era WW II itu masih dipakai hingga sekarang. Saya kira sudah masuk museum. Ternyata masih banyak dipakai di berbagai negara, termasuk di Syria dan Somalia. Tapi, yang jelas tidak akan pernah dipakai oleh pasukan Israel. :D 

Jakarta, 26  Desember 2013

Sistem Kasta di Bali

Dipublikasi pada 13 November 2012 oleh Riyan Hidayat Tulloh

 

 

Sistem kasta Bali adalah suatu sistem organisasi sosial yang mirip dengan system kasta India. Akan tetapi, sistem kasta India jauh lebih rumit daripada Bali, dan hanya ada empat Kasta dalam Sistem Kasta Bali yaitu :

Empat Kasta Bali antara lain:

Sudra – petani, berjumlah sekitar 90 persen dari populasi Bali. Sudra (Sansekerta: śūdra) adalah sebuah golongan profesi (golongan karya) atau warna dalam agama Hindu di India. Warna ini merupakan warna yang paling rendah. Warna lainnya adalah brahmana, ksatria, dan waisya. Sudra adalah golongan karya seseorang yang bila hendak melaksanakan profesinya sepenuhnya mengandalkan kekuatan jasmaniah, ketaatan, kepolosan, keluguan, serta bakat ketekunannya. Tugas utamanya adalah berkaitan langsung dengan tugas-tugas memakmurkan masyarakat negara dan umat manusia atas petunjuk-petunjuk golongan karya di atasnya, seperti menjadi buruh, tukang, pekerja kasar, petani, pelayan, nelayan, penjaga, dll.

Wesias (Waisya) – Kasta pedagang dan pegawai pemerintahan. Waisya adalah golongan karya atau warna dalam tata masyarakat menurut agama Hindu. Bersama-sama dengan Brahmana dan Ksatria, mereka disebut Tri Wangsa, tiga kelompok golongan keraya atau profesi yang menjadi pilar penciptaan kemakmuran masyarakat. Bakat dasar golongan Waisya adalah penuh perhitungan, tekun, trampil, hemat, cermat, kemampuan pengelolaan asset (kepemilikan) sehingga kaum Wasya hampir identik dengan kaum pedagang atau pebisnis. Kaum Waisya adalah kelompok yang mendapat tanggungjawab untuk menyelenggarakan kegiatan ekonomi dan bisnis agar terjadi proses distribusi dan redistribusi pendapatan dan penghasilan, sehingga kemakmuran masyarakat, negara dan kemanusiaan tercapai.

Satria (Kshatriya) – kasta prajurit, juga mencakup bangsawan dan raja.  esatria atau ksatria, adalah golongan karya atau warna dalam agama Hindu. Golongan karya ini memiliki tugas profesi sebagai bangsawan, tokoh masyarakat, penegak keamanan, penegak keadilan, pemimpin (direktur), pemimpin masyarakat, pembela kaum tertindas atau lemah karena ketidak-adilan dan ketidak-benaran. Bakat dasar seorang ksatria adalah berani, bertanggungjawab, lugas, cekatan, prilaku pelopor, memperhatikan keselamatan dan keamanan, adil, dan selalu siap berkorban untuk tegaknya kebenaran dan keadilan. Di zaman dahulu ksatria merujuk pada klas masyarakat kasta bangsawan atau tentara, hingga raja. Zaman sekarang, ksatria merujuk pada profesi seorang yang mengabdi pada penegakan hukum, kebenaran dan keadilan prajurit, bisa pula berarti perwira yang gagah berani atau pemberani. Kelompok ini termasuk pemimpin negara, pimpinan lembaga atau tokoh masyarakat karena tugasnya untuk menjamin terciptanya kebenaran, kebaikan, keadilan dan keamanan di masyarakat, bangsa dan negara.

Brahmana – pendeta. Brahmana adalah salah satu golongan karya atau warna dalam agama Hindu. Mereka adalah golongan cendekiawan yang mampu menguasai ajaran, pengetahuan, adat, adab hingga keagamaan. Di zaman dahulu, golongan ini umumnya adalah kaum pendeta, agamawan atau brahmin. Mereka juga disebut golongan paderi atau sami. Kaum Brahmana tidak suka kekerasan yang disimbolisasi dengan tidak memakan dari makluk berdarah (bernyawa). Sehingga seorang Brahmana sering menjadi seorang Vegetarian. Brahmana adalah golongan karya yang memiliki kemampuan penguasaan ilmu pengetahuan baik pengetahuan suci maupun pengetahuan ilmiah secara umum. Dahulu kita bertanya tentang ilmu pengetahuan dan gejala alam kepada para brahmana. Bakat kelahiran adalah mampu mengendalikan pikiran dan prilaku, menulis dan berbicara yang benar, baik, indah, menyejukkan dan menyenangkan. Kemampuan itu menjadi landasan untuk mensejahterakan masyarakat, negara dan umat manusia dengan jalan mengamalkan ilmu pengetahuannya, menjadi manggala (yang dituakan dan diposisikan secara terhormat), atau dalam keagamaan menjadi pemimpin upacara keagamaan.

Kasta Dalam Kehidupan Sehari-Hari

Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, pada umumnya mereka yang berkasta menggunakan bahasa Bali halus untuk berkomunikasi dengan kasta yang selevel dan level di atasnya. Sementara ketika berbicara dengan berkasta lebih rendah, yang memiliki kasta lebih tinggi kadang dianggap bisa menggunakan bahasa yang biasa atau lebih ‘kasar’.

Dalam kegiatan sosial masyarakat, mereka yang berkasta lebih tinggi juga biasanya lebih dihormati, salah satunya ditunjukkan dengan bahasa seperti yang saya katakan diatas. Apalagi mereka yang berkasta itu kebetulan secara ekonomi lebih mampu atau kaya.

Tentu tidak semua orang seperti itu, banyak juga mereka yang tidak berkasta namun tetap dihormati. Dan kembali juga kepada masing-masing orang karena pada kenyataannya tidak ada aturan yang mengharuskan seseorang hormat kepada mereka yang berkasta.

Pernikahan

Dalam urusan pernikahan, kasta sangat sering menimbulkan pro dan kontra bahkan kadang menjadi masalah atau batu sandungan. Sama seperti pernikahan beda agama, di Bali pernikahan beda kasta juga biasanya dihindari. Walaupun jaman sudah semakin terbuka, tapi pernikahan beda kasta yang bermasalah kadang masih terjadi.

Di Bali umumnya pernikahan bersifat patrilineal. Jadi seorang perempuan setelah menikah dan menjadi istri akan bergabung dengan keluarga suaminya. Dalam pernikahan beda kasta, seorang perempuan dari kasta yang lebih rendah sudah biasa jika dijadikan istri oleh lelaki dari kasta yang lebih tinggi. Bahkan pihak keluarga perempuan kadang ada rasa bangga.

Lalu bagaimana jika seorang perempuan berkasta menikah dengan lelaki tidak berkasta atau dengan lelaki yang kastanya lebih rendah? Ini istilahnya “nyerod” atau turun kasta. Pernikahan seperti ini sangat dihindari dan kalaupun terjadi biasanya dengan sistem “ngemaling” yaitu menikah dengan sembunyi-sembunyi. Karena pernikahan “nyerod” seperti ini biasanya tidak akan diijinkan oleh keluarga besar pihak perempuan.

Dibandingkan dengan kasus “nyerod”, masyarakat sepertinya lebih terbiasa dan bisa menerima melihat perempuan yang menikah dengan lelaki yang bukan orang Bali/Hindu.

Sistem patrilineal ini juga menyebabkan orang Bali secara tidak langsung lebih menginginkan anak laki-laki daripada anak perempuan. Ya walaupun tidak semua orang tua seperti itu.

Bagaimana jika tidak memiliki anak laki-laki? Ada juga sistem pernikahan matrilineal. Yaitu pihak lelaki yang akan bergabung dengan keluarga perempuan. Istilahnya “nyentana” atau “nyeburin”, saat ini juga cukup lumrah terjadi.

Kalau pernikahan “nyeburin” atau “nyentana” ini terjadi dalam satu tingkatan kasta yang sama, biasanya tidak akan ada masalah. Tapi bagaimana kalau beda kasta? Pernikahan “nyentana” dengan kasta berbeda sangat jarang terjadi, karena baik “naik kasta” atau pun “turun kasta” akan terlihat aneh di masyarakat.

Nama

Nama orang Bali pada umumnya memiliki kaitan erat dengan kasta, karena pada nama orang Bali biasanya akan terlihat apa kastanya. Imbuhan kasta ini akan terlihat di bagian awal nama.

Referensi

• http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RqTTgH-ZGjcJ:radbert.com/sistem-kasta-bali/+sistem+kasta+di+bali&cd=12&hl=id&ct=clnk&gl=id

• http://imadewira.com/sistem-kasta-di-bali/

• http://imadewira.com/nama-orang-bali/

The Disease Detectives

This 1991 article from National Geographic describes the work of epidemiologists, modern day “disease detectives,” who travel the world seeking the cause of both old and new infectious diseases.

The Disease Detectives

By Peter Jaret

“We live in muck and filthe,” they wrote to the London Times on July 3, 1849, in a letter signed by 54 of that city's poor. “We aint got no priviz, no dust bins, no drains, no water-splies, and no drain or suer in the hole place..... We all of us suffur, and numbers are ill, and if the Colera comes Lord help us.” Five years later, in 1854, cholera came with a vengeance.

A man waking in good health, it was said, could be dead by sundown. Within 250 yards of the intersection of Cambridge and Broad Streets, more than 500 people died in little more than a week. Carts groaned under the weight of corpses carried away for mass burial. Those who could, fled. Others locked themselves away in fear.

No one knew how or why contagions spread. Some blamed foul vapors. Others saw the work of divine retribution. Decades would pass before medical scientists accepted the idea that microbes too small to see were the cause of infection.

But a 41-year-old physician named John Snow believed he had found the source of the Broad Street contagion. On a map of London, Snow marked where victims died. Nearly all the deaths, he saw, had taken place near the Broad Street pump—one of many public water pumps in London.

But before he could be sure, Snow had to understand why ten deaths had occurred nearer another street pump. Amid the growing panic Snow visited the families of the deceased. Five of the distant victims, he learned, regularly sent for water from the pump at Broad Street, preferring its taste. Three others were children who attended a school near Broad Street's pump.

That was all he needed. On September 7, Snow appeared before the vestry of St. James's Parish, meeting in solemn consultation on the causes of the epidemic. His request astonished them. He asked that the Broad Street pump handle be removed. It was. Within days the outbreak of cholera ended.

Although Snow did not discover cholera's cause—a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae—his methodical work helped establish modern epidemiology, “the art and science,” as one of his present-day counterparts would put it, “of chasing epidemics.”

Today the Broad Street pump is gone. In its place I find the John Snow pub. I've come here to inaugurate a journalistic adventure. I am setting out to explore the nature of today's epidemics as well as the scientists who chase them. I've taken a crash course in epidemiology at the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters for the world's most famous medical sleuths. My honorary diploma in hand, I'm ready to follow in the footsteps of John Snow. Even as I raise my glass in the pub that bears his name, the CDC receives word that his old enemy, cholera, has struck again, this time in the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau.

“Stop! Zona infectada cólera,” warns the handwritten sign strung on surgical gauze across the courtyard of Simão Mendes Hospital in Bissau, the nation's capital.

“Not very long ago this courtyard was crowded with cholera victims. Scores of new cases were arriving each day,” says my companion, a young physician named Nathan Shaffer. He is an officer with the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a corps of CDC disease detectives—some 65 doctors, nurses, and other experts in public health on call 24 hours a day for two years, ready at the first alarm to chase down an epidemic.

Vibrio cholerae infects the intestinal tract, releasing a toxin that causes severe diarrhea. Untreated, patients can become rapidly dehydrated and die. But drinking a simple solution of water, salts, and sugar usually heads off severe dehydration, giving the body a chance to eliminate the infection. So though the faces we pass in a cholera clinic are gaunt, these victims are safe. And the epidemic is ebbing.

Shaffer fills me in on his investigation. “Of course, I wondered about water—especially in a country that lacks even basic water sanitation. But the outbreaks didn't seem to be associated with particular wells. Here, you can see for yourself....”

He unfolds a map of Guinea-Bissau. Black marks indicate reported outbreaks of cholera. “The epidemic was spreading up and down the coast. Right away I suspected shellfish.”

Like John Snow, Shaffer went door-to-door through the hot, dusty streets of Guinea-Bissau. “An epidemiologist, like any good detective, begins by asking questions,” he tells me. “Who are the victims? What sets them apart from those who remain well? Where do they live, what do they eat and drink, when did they fall ill?”

Shaffer and I tour local markets, gathering shrimp and crabs to be tested for cholera. But even if the specimens harbor the cholera bacteria, one mystery remains.

Shaffer points out three black marks on his map—places where cholera has flared up far inland. Contaminated shellfish could have been carried from the coast. But there's a more macabre possibility. The bacteria may have traveled in bodies carried home for traditional funeral rites. Washing the bodies and preparing funeral feasts, often in unsanitary conditions, relatives and friends of the dead could have spread the disease.

We set out for the village of Quinsana, where cholera had claimed more than 80 victims. There we learn that a dockworker named Ocanti Te fell sick after returning from the capital. He died two days later. So did his 15-year-old son.

Villagers gather in the shade of the dockworker's porch.

“Who cared for the sick man and his son?” Shaffer asks them. “Was a funeral feast held? How were the victims buried?”

We learn little. The government has banned traditional funerals, and the village leader forbids talk about the burial.

Shaffer is disappointed. “An epidemiologist is part historian,” he explains. “We depend on people's memories and their willingness to tell what happened.”

For the next three weeks Shaffer continues his investigation. I visit him in Atlanta several months later, near the end of his EIS term, to discuss his findings. He has been seriously ill, not with cholera but with a rare parasitic infection he picked up in Guinea-Bissau—one risk of medical detective work.

But his persistence paid off. In another inland village where 11 had died, he proved his suspicion. The body of a dockworker had been smuggled home for burial. More than half the people who ate the funeral feast came down with cholera.

Shaffer adds a footnote. “When I went back through the data I gathered going door-to-door through the capital, I found an unexpected pattern. Families that possessed hand soap were far less likely to become infected than those without soap.”

Could something as simple as soap have slowed the epidemic? Almost certainly. John Snow himself wrote that “nothing has been found to favour the extension of cholera more than want of personal cleanliness....”

Strictly speaking, an epidemic is any unusual outbreak of illness,” Lyle Conrad of the CDC tells me. As director of field operations for the Division of Epidemiology, he has seen plenty. “There are as many as 3,000 outbreaks each year in the U. S. alone. No one knows how many more occur around the world.”

He shows me a list: hepatitis in a Washington, D. C., daycare center; measles at a small college in Colorado; an unexplained surge of tuberculosis in New York; Legionnaires' disease in Michigan.

Each year the CDC's laboratories receive hundreds of thousands of specimens—blood, tissue, puzzling microbes—illnesses in search of a diagnosis. Many are permanently stored here, part of a huge archive of maladies. Some are so deadly that scientists must don helmets and contamination-proof suits to enter the air lock of the maximum containment laboratory, where killer microbes reside.

“The same new technologies that have revolutionized modern medicine have also given us amazing powers of detection,” says Conrad. For instance, new instruments can search a single drop of blood for signs of dozens of diseases.

“But the science of epidemiology still owes much to John Snow,” he adds. Maps remain crucial. A pen and paper often come in handier than the fastest computer. The epidemiologist's laboratory is still the human community.

In the 1970s that laboratory was the wooded areas near Lyme, Connecticut.

A young mother named Polly Murray was among the first to notice. One by one her family had developed a baffling array of symptoms: rashes, headaches, pain and stiffness in their joints. “By the summer of 1975 my husband and two of the children were on crutches,” she recounts. “Meanwhile I kept hearing about other people, most of them children, with the same symptoms.” Alarmed, she contacted state health authorities.

At the time, epidemiologist Allen Steere had just settled down at Yale University to pursue a fellowship in rheumatology—the study of arthritis-like diseases. “Juvenile arthritis is rare,” Steere tells me. “And arthritis isn't known to be infectious.”

But in the Lyme area he found 39 children and 12 adults with swollen, painful joints. Along four rural roads, one in every ten children was affected. “I was astonished,” he recalls. “It seemed almost certain that we were looking at a new disease.”

But what was it? And how was it spreading?

All of the victims lived near wooded areas. Many first noticed their symptoms in summer or fall. Summer is insect time, and the woods around Lyme are a perfect breeding ground. Steere began to wonder if an insect could be transmitting the illness.

When he interviewed his patients, some mentioned an unusual bull's-eye rash that appeared weeks before their symptoms began. It was similar to a rash reported in Europe, thought to be caused by a tick bite.

“In 1977 one of my patients who happened to be an ecologist actually brought me the tick that had bitten him,” Steere remembers.

That tick was Ixodes dammini. And where it occurred—mostly on the east side of the Connecticut River—people were getting sick. To the west, where the tick was much rarer, the puzzling illness was far less prevalent.

In 1981, while studying tickborne diseases with pathologist Jorge Benach, entomologist Willy Burgdorfer discovered that I. dammini was infected with a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called a spirochete.

“The Lyme disease spirochete has probably been infecting ticks for a long time,” contends Andrew Spielman, the Harvard University entomologist who first described I. dammini. A recent study noted that museum specimens of ticks collected on Long Island in the 1940s were infected. Since then tick populations in the Northeast have increased dramatically, triggering the epidemic.

Why are there more ticks? Many of the forests that had been felled in the region have returned. And deer populations, especially in the past few decades, have exploded. So have the numbers of I. dammini, which feed on deer.

Deer themselves do not become ill. But when a tick bite infects a human host, the result can be devastating disease, including crippling arthritis and memory loss. Last year more than 7,000 new cases of Lyme disease were reported. Efforts to find a vaccine are under way, but the infection continues to frighten much of the country each summer.

Each fall the CDC epidemiologists brace themselves for one of nature's most reliable epidemics—influenza. “Believe me, we have every reason to be afraid of this virus,” warns Alan Kendal, head of the CDC's influenza branch. “Every year it claims thousands of lives in the U. S. When a new strain appears, hundreds of thousands of people may die around the world.”

Periodically, devastating global epidemics develop. During the 1918-19 pandemic, flu killed at least 20 million people. “We don't know what made that flu so deadly,” Kendal admits. “And there is always the chance that another one will strike.”

Influenza viruses constantly evolve. And spread fast. A new strain emerging in Asia can circle the globe within months. Vaccines can protect, but a vaccine must be created for each strain. That means spotting mutations early.

“For flu hunters China is the most fertile ground,” Kendal tells me. “Virtually all new strains arise there. Pigs and ducks, common on Chinese farms, harbor the virus. Perhaps they serve as mixing vessels for new strains.”

Mutations may enable animal viruses to infect humans. Not just flu but also such diseases as tuberculosis and measles may have originated in animals.

“The sooner we spot a new strain of influenza, the sooner we can prepare a vaccine against it,” says Kendal.

He describes a flu-hunting mission to China he is planning for December. “Want to come along?” he asks.

Such a strange safari is irresistible, and a few months later we are touring the country in search of the latest virus. To our chagrin we can find none. In Beijing and Xian, to the west, we are told that 1987 is an unusually light year for flu. But the CDC has already reported the first outbreak of influenza back home—among a group of American tourists returning from China!

Persistent, we head to China's largest city, Shanghai. Our taxi ferries us through its crowded streets, past the bustling harbor filled with ships from around the world. We pass farmers with carts of produce from the countryside. So many people. So many comings and goings. So many opportunities to catch the flu.

We reach the Shanghai Hygiene and Anti-Epidemic Center, housed in a dilapidated building of European design—a reminder of this city's past. It is not heated, and for several very cold hours, while we warm our hands around cups of tea, Kendal tells the Chinese scientists that he hopes to procure freeze-drying equipment for them. That way they could mail specimens back to Atlanta, eliminating the need for trips such as this. He proposes an exchange with the CDC, to train students in genetic analysis techniques. Eventually their labs might simply fax a sheet of paper with information about the genetic structure of new viral strains. Still, for now we need live viruses.

We tour overcrowded laboratories, wearing down jackets beneath our medical gowns. I am convinced we will go home empty-handed. The meetings are finished. We are getting ready to leave, when Huang Yu Shun, deputy director of the center, holds out a shiny stainless-steel canister. Kendal opens it to find just what we came for: a dozen glass tubes filled with flu specimens from local hospitals.

A month later, back at the CDC, the viruses have been analyzed. We have caught a new strain: A/Shanghai/11/87. It has been transformed into a map of sorts.

Microbiologist Nancy Cox points to a sheet marked by rows of numbers and strange codes—Asn, Phe, Gly, Leu, Ser, amino acids that make up the proteins of a virus.

“Because the unique identity of a virus is determined by the specific order of amino acids in its proteins,” Cox explains, “we can use maps like these to compare different viral strains. And when a new strain like A/Shanghai/11/87 appears, we can alter the current vaccine to protect against it.”

What would John Snow have made of such a map? A simple street plan of London had helped him track down cholera. Now molecular epidemiologists are using genetic maps to extend the search for patterns deep into the building blocks of life itself.

And disease detectives have stretched the boundaries of epidemiology in other directions, taking on new illnesses like heart disease and cancer, diseases that may develop over a lifetime.

“The whole point of Framingham was to begin when people were healthy,” physician William Castelli tells me at the Framingham Heart Study clinic. In 1948 epidemiologists descended on Framingham, Massachusetts, population 28,000. Some 5,000 volunteers were recruited for the initial study. Every two years since then they have undergone physicals and answered dozens of questions. “As our subjects developed heart disease, as some inevitably did, we began to understand what factors put people at risk.”

Indeed, much of what we know about the risks of heart disease—high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, cigarette smoking, lack of exercise—has been learned here.

But ending the epidemic of heart disease, says Castelli, won't be easy. “The causes of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease are complex, rooted in how we live. It would be nice to think that all we have to do is locate the pump and remove the handle. But our job is much tougher.”

Nowhere is the challenge greater than in an epidemic that runs wild through the streets of the nation's inner cities. One Saturday night in an emergency room at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, I witness its toll.

Just after eleven o'clock the call comes. An ambulance is on its way, carrying a black male, 18, shot through the back.

I watch from the corner of the operating room while doctors and nurses try to save him, connecting IV tubes, transfusing blood, probing the wound. “I'm not getting a pressure on him,” someone says.

The flow of blood can't be stemmed. The bullet has torn his heart. Forty minutes later Edward Smith is dead.

“A black male born in the U. S. today has a one-in-27 chance of being murdered,” CDC epidemiologist Mark Rosenberg tells me. He shakes his head in outrage. “One in 27. And most of those victims will be young.”

Traditionally, violence has been a matter for the police, not medical sleuths. But Rosenberg believes classic methods of disease detection can help curb violence.

“If we can find a pattern,” he says, “we can find ways to intervene. Kids who are at risk can learn to stop arguments before they escalate into violence. Public-health people can begin to recognize behaviors that lead to spouse abuse. Communities can learn to spot the warning signs of teenage suicide.”

Rosenberg is no dreamer. He knows the causes of violence and suicide—poverty, drugs, hopelessness—run deep. “But it wasn't long ago that smallpox was considered a fact of life in most parts of the world, something that people simply accepted,” he reminds me. “We've eradicated smallpox, wiped it off the face of the earth. Today people think violence is a fact of life. I don't believe we have to accept that.”

In truth smallpox remains, sequestered in two laboratories—one in Atlanta, the other in Moscow. Scientists still debate whether to exterminate these last viruses or preserve them for study.

But there's no doubt that the end of smallpox represents one of the greatest triumphs in public health. Indeed, until this past decade, it seemed as if most infectious diseases were being tamed, at least in the developed world. Until 1981—when we first realized that a new, appallingly destructive disease was silently spreading. That disease was AIDS.

“Classic epidemiology was all we had to go on,” recalls James Curran, who directed the CDC's first investigations in the early 1980s and now leads the agency's continuing battle against AIDS. “Week by week the reports came in of a bewildering array of puzzling infections. An unusual and often deadly form of pneumonia. Skin cancer so rare that most physicians had never seen it.”

Epidemiologists quickly traced the disease to sexual contact. Then the first hemophiliac with AIDS was diagnosed, and it became clear that contaminated blood could also transmit the illness. Soon an infant was born to an infected mother, proving the disease could spread from mother to child. Researchers also realized that it could lurk in the bloodstream for years before producing any symptoms.

In July 1981 Curran and his staff reviewed local medical records for rare cancers and infections going back to 1976. “Nothing showed up in 1976 or 1977,” he remembers. “Then in 1978 we began to find isolated cases of the symptoms we are seeing now. No one knew what to make of them back then. Now we know we were looking at the birth of a new disease.”

Recently medical detectives have tracked AIDS surprisingly deeper into the past. At the Manchester Royal Infirmary in England, British physician Trevor Stretton still recalls vividly the 25-year-old sailor who appeared in the clinic in 1959. “He was feverish, losing weight, wasting away,” says Stretton, who was himself a young physician in training at the time. “Sores covered his skin. Nothing we could do seemed to help. He died before our eyes. We hadn't the slightest idea why.”

The customary autopsy was performed. Tissue samples from different organs were preserved in blocks of paraffin and stored—but not forgotten. The unsolved case haunted Stretton and his colleagues.

Then in the early 1980s young men in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles began to sicken and die—wracked with fever, gasping for breath, bodies often covered with strange sores.

Could the sailor, Stretton wondered, have died of AIDS? No one dreamed AIDS was afoot in the 1950s. If so, could it be proved? No blood samples had been saved. Pathologist George Williams, who performed the original autopsy, located the tissue specimens. But when virologists at nearby University of Manchester examined them, they found no sign of the AIDS virus.

And there the case might have ended. But in the 1980s American scientists developed a disease detection technique of extraordinary sensitivity. Called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), it allows researchers to detect a mere fragment of a virus lurking within tissue and then make millions of copies to analyze. Using PCR, the Manchester virologists identified the AIDS virus in four of the six tissue specimens. Thus, three decades after he had helplessly watched the young sailor die, Stretton was able to make his diagnosis....

In 1989 the CDC began random and anonymous testing of blood samples from 26 hospitals around the country. One out of every 75 patients was found to be infected with the AIDS virus.

Some areas of the nation are harder hit than others. In one New Jersey hospital one in every four men admitted between the ages of 25 and 44 years old is infected.

And AIDS continues to spread. Based on a military study, the CDC estimates that as many as 40,000 adolescents and young adults become infected each year. It also reports that some 2,000 babies were born in 1989 carrying the virus.

What spawned AIDS?

I put that question to Max Essex, director of the Harvard AIDS Institute and one of the world's leading experts on the origins of the AIDS virus. “One possibility is that AIDS has been around for a long time, hidden away in some remote human community,” he explains. “Then, as travel and contact increased, the virus began to spread. But I think there's a more likely explanation.”

The AIDS virus, called human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, may have existed for centuries in African monkeys and apes.

“African chimpanzees can be infected with HIV, but they don't develop the disease,” Essex tells me. “That suggests that chimpanzees have developed protective immunity.”

Then, perhaps as recently as 40 years ago, this virus crossed from monkey into man. Was there a small genetic change in the virus? Or was there simply more contact between monkeys and people as human populations encroached on jungle areas?

“When a new disease infects a previously unexposed population, the impact is often devastating,” says Essex. “Smallpox, carried to the New World by European explorers, decimated the native peoples.

“But it never pays to kill off your host, even for a virus. Evolution favors a truce. Viruses become less virulent. Hosts eventually develop immunity. Explosive epidemics are often just the first stage in the evolution of a new disease. Eventually AIDS too will probably evolve into a milder, even harmless disease,” says Essex. “But that will require centuries.”

Long before then, some researchers worry, new diseases, perhaps even deadlier than AIDS, will emerge. “An epidemic is an experiment of nature,” explains virus expert Stephen Morse of Rockefeller University. “Like all living things, viruses and bacteria are constantly evolving. At the same time, human communities are changing, creating new ways for diseases to spread.”

Morse believes we may be inadvertently creating ideal conditions for new epidemics. Rapidly increasing human populations provide a fertile breeding ground for microbes. And as the planet becomes more crowded, the distances that separate us seem smaller. “Today it takes a matter of hours to travel by plane from Sierra Leone to New York,” Morse points out. “In the rush to get from here to there, we're opening up unprecedented highways for viral traffic.”

In some cases, literal highways. “The recent completion of a major road through the Amazon rain forest of Brazil led to outbreaks of malaria in the region,” he says. “In Kenya, AIDS almost certainly traveled the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.”

Commerce too provides routes for new disease agents. In 1985 used tires imported into Houston, Texas, from eastern Asia carried larvae of the Asian tiger mosquito. Virtually unknown in this country until then, this mosquito can be a dangerous vector for serious tropical diseases—including dengue fever, which kills as many as 5,000 children worldwide each year. Today the Asian tiger mosquito has established itself in 17 states.

Ironically, even lifesaving medical technologies pose a threat. Blood transfusions have provided an unforeseen path for viruses, spreading both hepatitis and AIDS.

But perhaps most worrisome, says Morse, is disruptive environmental change. “We know already that deforestation and sweeping agricultural changes can unleash epidemics. Major outbreaks of Rift Valley fever followed the construction of the Aswan High Dam—most likely because breeding grounds were created for mosquitoes, which spread the disease. In Brazil the introduction of cacao farming coincided with epidemics of Oropouche fever—a disease linked to a biting insect that thrives in discarded hulls.”

Will the destruction of tropical rain forests release viruses that have long remained isolated? Will the sweeping changes predicted because of global warming alter animal habitats in ways that encourage the spread of new lethal diseases?

“Isolated outbreaks of exotic diseases are constantly occurring,” says Morse. Seven years ago, for instance, a mysterious epidemic of a swiftly fatal hemorrhagic fever killed a dozen children in rural Brazil. Other isolated outbreaks have followed. Researchers linked the disease to a common bacterium long known to cause conjunctivitis, a mild eye infection. A slight evolutionary mutation, they suspect, has transformed it into a killer. If the disease should reach densely populated São Paulo, it could prove disastrous.

“Ebola fever, swine flu, Marburg fever, Rocio encephalitis—these are all deadly diseases that have appeared and then, for no reason, disappeared again,” says Morse. “Any one of them, given the right circumstances, could break out and ignite global epidemics. That's the lesson of AIDS.”

Such lessons will have little meaning to a small boy I'll call Jerome.

Jerome is a Christmas baby, born December 25, 1985. But he has had few blessings. He began life infected with AIDS. Most of his short life will be spent here on the 17th floor of Harlem Hospital Center. Except for a few halting words, he has never learned to speak, and probably never will. His fingers have become clubbed, a sign that his lungs aren't taking in enough oxygen. His doctor tells me that he probably won't see another Christmas.

AIDS continues to spread fast among intravenous drug users. The epidemic of crack cocaine, which encourages prostitution and indiscriminate sexual behavior, has worsened the situation. Inadequate medical care in our country's inner cities allows other sexually transmitted diseases to go untreated, fostering an environment that may also speed the spread of AIDS. Warns Phyllis Kanki, a researcher with the Harvard AIDS Institute, “We are creating the conditions of poorest Africa right here in our own backyards.”

What is there to feel but despair?

For Michael Talbert, however, despair is a waste of time. I meet him one afternoon in Steve Swanson's senior English class at San Francisco's Riordan High School, six weeks before graduation. Today these students will learn a lesson as important as any they will take into the world.

Talbert, 37, has come to tell them about AIDS—which will eventually claim his life.

They seem wary at first, embarrassed. Talbert tells them that it has been three years since he was diagnosed with AIDS. “My hobby then was weight lifting,” he says. “I was pressing 350 pounds.”

The kids look startled. Talbert's body is so frail that he sometimes needs a cane to walk.

“I always thought bad things happened to other people. Other people got mono. Other people's girlfriends got pregnant. Then I got mono. My girlfriend got pregnant.”

The kids laugh. He has touched a nerve.

“That's what I thought about AIDS too,” he says quietly.

Later the students ask questions. “How do you think you got AIDS?””Most likely through sexual contact,” Talbert answers. “What did your friends say when you told them?””Some of them were very caring. Some of them were afraid,” he replies.

“Back when I got infected, people didn't know how to protect themselves,” he says. “We didn't have a chance. You do. You don't have to let this happen to you.”

In his small, determined way, I realize, Talbert is removing the pump handle.

Perhaps that is the most important lesson of AIDS. For if this devastating disease has taught us that epidemics will always threaten, it has also shown us that we are not helpless. Day by day, knowledge about AIDS is winning out over ignorance. Fear is giving way to compassion. Medications are slowing the disease's progress. Hopes for a vaccine grow. Moreover, in recent months intensive research has identified 13 ways the AIDS virus may be vulnerable to medical counterattack.

And around the world there are people like Michael Talbert.

“If I can keep just one of these kids from becoming infected,” he tells me after class, exhausted by the effort of speaking, “I've made a difference. I've won one small victory against this terrible virus.”

Source: National Geographic, January 1991.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Arab culture, a culture that is Deeply Loved by Americans and Europeans

By: Helmi Junaidi

There are some people in Indonesia who want to make Islam in Indonesia entirely native by removing all the things that they perceive as Arab culture. However, they often misunderstand it. Everythings that they don't agree immediately branded as Arab culture. Certainly that is not always the case. I consider them careless. I wonder why they become fervently anti Arab culture. They always call themselves pluralists, and of course it means honoring and respecting all cultures. However, in reality they are not tolerant to all existing cultures.

The problem is, if they really want to get rid of Arab culture, a lot of sciences and musical instruments would be lost, including Javanese and European instruments. For example is rebab, the Javanese fiddle. This is originally an Arab instrument. Its original name is rabab, after entering Indonesia it is called rebab. In Europe it is called rebec, which gradually evolved into a variety of bowed instruments, including the violin. Are we going to discard the violin, a beautiful Arab instrument? Well, Paganini, Mozart, Stradivarius and his friends would be furious. Meanwhile, in Java since long ago rebab has become an integral part of gamelan orchestra. Should we get rid the rebab as well? Well, our dalangs would be furious.

Okay, I'll give three references about the violin and rebec, violin ancestor which came from the Middle East. From Encarta, Britannica and Wikipedia. See also The RebecProject.

1). The viola, which evolved from unstandardized medieval fiddles, is first depicted in early 16th-century pictures. Like most other instruments of the Renaissance, it was built in a range of sizes that, together, made up a consort. Small violas (violins), large ones held between the knees (violoncellos; see Cello), and even larger ones played standing up (violones) were the specialty of Italian artisans such as the Amati family and Antonio Stradivari. The pochette or kit, a miniature violin-type instrument played by dancing masters, often had a one-piece body and neck carved from a block of wood; it thus resembled the medieval rebec, the name and shape of which were in turn derived from the Middle Eastern rabab. (“Musical Instruments”, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002).

2). Rebec: bowed, stringed musical instrument of European medieval and early Renaissance music. It was originally called a rubebe, developed about the 11th century from the similar Arab rabāb, and was carried to Spain with Muslim culture. ("rebec." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010).

The word lira, a misapplication of lyra, the ancient Greek lyre played with a plectrum, had appeared by the 9th century for the Byzantine form of the Arab rabāb, the ancestor of all European bowed instruments. ("lira." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010).

3). The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and originally various other spellings, pronounced /ˈriːbɛk/ or /ˈrɛbɛk/) is a bowed string musical instrument. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and 1-5 strings and is played on the arm or under the chin, like a violin. It is also an ancestor of the violin.

The instrument did remain in use by dance masters until the 18th century, however, often being used for the same purpose as the kit, a small pocket-sized violin. The rebec also continued to be used in folk music, especially in eastern Europe and Spain. Andalusi nubah, a genre of music from North Africa, often includes the rebec. (Rebec - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

The lute (al-'ud) was another Arab instrument that also very popular in Europe. Many famous composers in Europe composed songs for lute, including Johann Sebastian Bach. While in Europe it is called the lute, in Indonesia it is called gambus, which is also very popular here. After I explain it, now you understand why gambus and qasidah always include the violin in its performance. Because the violin is an Arab instrument. Islam influence entered Europe  from  Spain, then surely no coincidence that one variant of the lute, the guitar, is also from Spain, so there is a term "Spanish guitar".

The compositions for lute also can be played with guitar. It certainly shows that both instruments are closely related. For example you can see on youtube the work of Johann Sebastian Bach for the lute, the Prelude from Lute Suite no. 4 played with guitar by John Williams, and he perform it at Alhambra palace. Certainly we already know the beauty of the Alhambra Palace, build by the Arabs.

So, it is very difficult to get rid of the Arab culture because J.S. Bach and his friends were also al-'ud lovers and their works are still played by many classical musicians around the world. Because many people don’t know about it, they become anti-Arab and want to get rid of Arab culture. Due to their lack of knowledge.

And surprised!! The banjo, a country music instrument that is considered a native  instrument of rural America, also descended from that Arab instrument, the lute (al-'ud). It brought by black people from West Africa. Banjo ancestor in West Africa is a variant of the lute. See history of the banjo at Banjo Ancestors.

It's worth noting that the griot phenomenon is not now nor has it ever been as widespread as once thought. As stated earlier, it is actually confined to specific Muslim peoples in only a few West African countries-- primarily Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea, the heartlands of the griot tradition-- and, to a lesser extant, among the extended branches of those peoples in neighboring countries like Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea Bissau, where the traditional caste distinctions have waned.

The Griot are traditional lute players in the countries mentioned above. The West African tribes that have traditional lute are only Muslim tribes. If such instrument is native West Africa or derived from non-Islam cultures such as ancient Egypt or others, the instrument would already existed before Islam and had been adopted by all tribes in the West Africa, both Muslims and non-Muslims. But, in fact the lute only can be found in Muslim tribes.
 
Arab culture have influenced West Africa long before the arrival of the Europeans. The ancestor of banjo came from Senegal, Gambia and Guinea, the majority of their population are Muslim. Senegal 92%, Gambia 90%, and Guinea 85%. Guinea Bissau is often included because it has significant Muslim population, 35%. But, the largest country is Senegal (Gambia and Guinea Bissau are only tiny countries) so most expert prefer to associate the banjo with Senegal. Guinea is also a large country, but it located rather inland. On youtube there is a banjo performance From Senegal to Seeger. You may watch it. Seeger is an American banjo player. Here is a brief description of the show.

Protest, passion, politics, poetry - the banjo is the voice of the people, and 'From Senegal to Seeger' unshackles that voice. 'From Senegal to Seeger' is a journey into Americana - a social and political portrait of America through the eyes of the banjo.

In this 90 minute tour-de-force Michael plays music that spans 300 years and charts the transformation of the banjo from an African instrument to the quintessential expression of the American voice. (From Senegal to Seeger - Stories of the American Banjo)

So, if we see cowboys dancing accompanied with  violin and banjo, they actually enjoy the Arab culture. They would be really angy if you want to get rid of Arab culture, they would lynch you and shoot you. :D
 

So, we can't blame Cassius Clay when he changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Or Karim Abdul Jabbar and other blacks. Because many black people ancestors are Muslims, those who brought the banjo to the American continent. But Malcolm X simply remove his last name, changed it to X, to cut his association with his forefather's master.

In science, the contribution of Muslim scientists among others is in mathematics, which we know as algebra and algorisme, which are compulsory subjects at school throughout the world. Actually it is not the work of an Arab because Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian, from Khwarizm, which is now part of Uzbekistan. So, it is more appropriately if we call it Islamic science. However, Al-Khwarizmi lived in Arab land. He was born during the rule of Harun Ar-Rashid, the legendary caliph of the Abbasid dynasty. When he was a child he moved with his parents to Baghdad, Iraq, an Arab country. Then he served at the court of Caliph Al-Ma'mun, the son of Harun Ar-Rashid. He wrote all his works in Arabic, the official language of the Abbasid empire. Al-Khwarizmi also introduced Hindu-Arabic numbers to Europe, so we called it Arabic numerals. Arabic numerals is 1,2,3 .... the figures that we use in modern mathematics. Modern mathematics does not use Roman numerals. That's impossible, it would be very difficult. Another Muslim mathematician was Omar Khayyam, although now he is more famous as a poet. Of course there are many more other Muslim scientists. You may googling it yourself.

Western Europeans also did not study Greek philosophy in Athens, the academy in Athens had long been in ruin. They also did not study it in Rome because Rome had long been in ruin as well. Western Europeans studied Greek philosophy, mathematics and other sciences to Arab professors, especially in the universities in Spain and Sicily.

Islamic Contributions to Medieval Europe were numerous, affecting such varied areas as art, architecture, medicine, agriculture, music, language, and technology. From the 11th to 13th centuries, Europe Absorbed knowledge from the Islamic civilization. Of particular importance was the rediscovery of the ancient classic texts, most Notably the work of the Greek natural philosopher Aristotle, through retranslations from Arabic.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, many Christian scholars travelled to Muslim lands to learn sciences. Notable examples include, Leonardo Fibonacci, Adelard of Bath and Constantine the African. Also, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, numerous European Muslim students attended centers of higher learning (which the author calls "universities") to study medicine, philosophy, mathematics, cosmography and other subjects. ("Islamic Contributions to Medieval Europe", Wikipedia)

After European students graduated, they returned to their countries and brought with them Arab culture and sciences that they had learned in Arab land. And before long Europe awakened, the Renaissance then began. The Renaissance is impossible without transfering sciences from Arab professors to their students from Western Europe. Beside wikipedia, all history books also state that Western Europeans studied Greek philosophy, mathematics and other sciences from Arab professors. There are thousands books about it. You may read those books as well.

Arabs themselves still considered themselves superior over Europe until early 18th century, when Napoleon conquered Egypt. Then the Arabs realized the progress in science and technology that has been achieved by Europe. Previously they despised Europe and considered it still as backward as during Crusaders era. Only after Napoleon counquering Egypt the Arabs realized they need to learn from Europe.

If we trace it back further, some Arabic-Islamic science and culture came from many other regions, such as from Persia, India, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Central Asia and others. However, scientists and artists of Arab-Islam who developed it, refined and spread it all over the world, both to the West and to the East. From the Atlantic coast of Western Europe and  Western Africa to the Pacific Ocean. And of course along thousands miles of the silk road. Before the era of Western dominance, the culture that dominated the world about a thousand years was Arab culture. A very long period indeed. So, don't be surprised if Arab culture took rooted everywhere, all over the world. For a thousand years the Arabs travelled everywhere, bringing with them their culture and science. It is certainly different from Greco-Roman culture because their influence only limited in the Mediterranean. The Greeks and the Romans never travelled to sub-Saharan, exploring the silk road, and certainly never sailed to the Pacific Ocean.

So, it would be difficult if we intend to discard Arab culture. It has been so pervasive and spread throughout the world, both to the West and to the East, and its origin often forgotten and many people consider it as local culture, such as rebab and kebaya in Indonesia (from Arabic abaya). Even the Chinese fiddle certainly have Arabic origin. If you want to know further about Arab contributions to the world, please browse the internet. Perhaps the people who anti-Arab think that the Arab culture are only a turban and robe. Thats wrong, brothers. I think you need to learn more about Arab culture.

How about Indonesian culture? Will they someday able to influence the development of the world culture as the Arab culture? Indonesian are rich in culture and have good talent in music and some other fields, but mostly lack of confident to introduce them abroad. But, the most unfortunate are the people whose work only berate Arab culture, but they never contribute anything to the development of the world culture, let alone the world sciences. Nil.

Acculturation

When I was still in college I was asked by a lecturer from ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia = Indonesia Institute of Arts) about foreign cultures that flow incessantly into Indonesia. He is my brother's friend. All my brothers are ISI graduate, they studied classical music there. Now it is located in Sewon, Bantul, D.I. Yogyakarta. Therefore, I know history and origin of some classical instruments because sometime I read their textbooks. Only myself who is not an artist. I am just a good audience. :D 

Well, after thinking for a moment I answered that it is inevitable. Both in former time and present. However, as time goes by, there will be a process of acculturation, a blending of local and foreign cultures. Eventually, foreign cultures will be adapted by the locals, even regarded them as their own culture. For example keroncong, a Portuguese music, lenso dance which also brought by the Portuguese, wayang from India, and rebab from Arabia and many others. Now we regard all those foreign cultures as our own national culture. The same would happen to many cultures that now we consider them "foreigners". Eventually, it will enrich our culture that already exist today.

Actually, we have adopt a lot of foreign cultures in our daily life. Even in food, such as bakso, tofu and noodles from China, Italian pizza, martabak India and many others. In clothing we know that our everyday clothes all come from abroad, such as trousers, shirts, T-shirts, shorts, hats and our formal clothing. But, we have accept them and do not complains about them and don't want to forbid people to eat or wear them. It has been regarded as our national food and clothing.

Sometimes a foreign music that is considered very "dangerous" and offensive, threatening young people such as rock music, did not last for long. It cannot survive for centuries such as wayang and keroncong. Until the late 80s, on the walls and in the streets, on the sticker, or school textbooks there is often the phrase "Rock Will Never Die", and at the time it looks like so because rock music was very popular. Everywhere there were graffiti of Hellowen, Metallica, Scorpion, GnR, Rush, Van Halen, Mick Jagger's tongue and so on. At that time the ears of older generation became very miserable. The teachers not only brought textbooks, but also brought scissors to cut students long hair. However, now we can safely say that "Rock Nearly Die". 

By the mid-90's, pictures of unkemp long-haired musicians were taken down and replaced by boys band, such as NKOTB and others, whose personnels introduced clean-cut appearance. Rock was also replaced by grunge music such as Nirvana. Even Metallica personnels cut their hair short, their songs also became more calm, to adapt to the changing market, which was already bored with rock music and looking for an alternative music. Arguably teenagers of 1980s and early 1990s were the last generation who saw rock music as mainstream music. After this generation, rock music presumably would also gone forever, and become only a nostagia music of a gone-by era. The rock generation then replaced by Korean music generation and Gangnam style fans.

So, why should we fear the invasion of a foreign culture? That is too narrow-minded. Moreover, it don't necessarily long-lasting. Foreign cultures that can survive until modern time their origins had long been forgotten and now is considered as local culture, and enriching our local culture such as wayang, rebab and keroncong. Therefore, I always oppose cultural puritanism/Wahhabism that wants to get rid all foreign cultures. Why? We eat foreign foods everyday such as cassava (from South America), rice (from mainland Asia) and corn (from South America). And of course bread and supermie, obviously not native Indonesia, even wheat is never planted in Indonesia. But all people in Indonesia, even who is fervently anti-foreign culture love to eat all those foreign foods. Not consistent. And our native food, sago, had been abandoned altogether long ago, except in eastern Indonesia. But, all those foreign foods are now considered Indonesia traditional food and enriching our local diet. So, why should we fear the invasion of foreign cultures? Of course it must bring benefit, and not destuctive. Eventually, foreign cultures that are now still considered "foreigners" will become part of our national culture and must be conserved as well.

18 November 2010