Friday, February 22, 2008

Dedicate to Gombloh

Maybe you've never heard of the name of Gombloh, but I have. Nowadays, his name is not very familiar to many people. But as I remember when I was 10 ish, I heard his songs on the radio or TV.
As I clicked on youtube, I found his songs by accident!

Gombloh was born in Indonesia on July 14, 1948 to Slamet and Tataoekah, a chicken-seller family. Slamet always his children to pursue high education so they can live better. After having finished his high school, Gombloh studied at Institute Technology Sepuluh November in Surabaya majoring Architecture, but too bad he didn't finish it. And he ended in music industry.

Gombloh died on January 9, 1988 because of complex illness. But do you know that most of Gombloh's songs were used as a research by Martin Hatch from Cornell University entitled "Social Criticism in Songs of 1980's Indonesian Pop Country Singers" in Toronto, Canada in 2000.

Too bad, Indonesian government paid attention to his creation after his death, especially for his song "Gebyar Gebyar". As he was still alive, this song was totally ignored.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Turkish in Germany

"Conservative German politicians have accused Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan of interfering in German affairs and harming efforts to integrate the country's Turks. Are they really that angry or do they just want to whip up sentiment against Turkey's bid to join the EU?" That was in the front page of Spiegel yesterday.

Spiegel said that Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel and her party criticized the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogen for having told 2.5 million Turkish immigrants in Germany that "assimilation is a crime against humanity."

I personally think that Germany has already had a lot of problems with "Auslaender" aka the foreigners. In Germany, especially in Aachen, if you walk on the streets, you'll hear every language from every where. It is really like in Babel! In Germany, foreigners are not only from Turkey, but as well as from Poland, Russia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech, Albania, Lebanon, Syria; mostly from eastern European countries and middle east. There are also from Asia like Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and of course India.

According to the CIA World factbook the ethnic groups of Germany are:
(from wikipedia)

Total population = 82,400,996
German = (91.5%) 75,396,911
Turkish = (2.4%) 1,977,624
Other = (6.1%) 5,026,461 (including Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian)
When you look back into the history how come so many Turkish in Germany then you have to start after WW II. After WWII, Germany was divided into 2 parts : East Germany and West Germany. West Germany was very rich and very quick developed for the industrial majors, they even needed workers from other countries.

Then they started to collect so-called "gastarbeiter" literally means guest workers. They thought to hire them and the guest workers would go back to their home lands after the contract finished. Most of these guest workers were from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey. The workers from Spain, Portugal and Italy mostly went back home after that, but the Turkish workers stayed in Germany (most of them). For Germany, of course they let them stay here. But then the problem came...................................

German government didn't really pay a lot of attention to these people, and it ended that the second generations didn't really speak good German and also have problem at schools. Now the third generations have come, German government doesn't want to commit the same mistakes again. So, ..........................................(to be continued) :D

Friday, February 08, 2008

Bettercaring is better for us :D

Bettercaring is a website providing information on care. The 3 main important things from Bettercaring are care information, care search and care discussion.
At care information, you can find any information about care at home, resident care, health matters, finance, etc. In care at home and resident care, Bettercaring shares some information about the way you can stay at home and get supported. Besides that there is also information (tips) about buying/renting shelter or choosing housing scheme.

And at residential care, you'll get information about general information about residential care and also what to look for in a care home.

Health matters are really important for older people! That's why Bettercaring provides a list with common illness that happens to older people. For example arthritis, bed sores, blindness, dementia, diabetes, falls, pneumonia, strokes, and etc are in the guidance of Bettercaring.

In financial part, there is CareAssist that can help you with free advice and guidance of funding care for older people.

I think the coolest thing is the "care search". If you go there, and if you know the post codes from UK, then you can just fill in and search. But if you are not from UK, then don't worry, you can just click on the places you know and it will provide you the lists of the whole care centers in the place that you searched for. And the coolest thing is if you don't know about that place, there is some information about that place and I personally think it's very useful.

Then you can click on the care center name and you can see the all the information provided.
All you want to know is there, such as address (complete with the tel number), price, owner, accommodation, facilities, accessibilities, support service to resident, until the language.

Still want to know more? Check it out here :D
nursing home

BT Free Hub PR3

Need wireless broadband? The answer is BT Free Hub PR3. Nowadays internet is like food, you can not live without internet (at least I can't). And I am sure with wireless, we have more freedom than non-wireless. BT Wireless broadband offers you wireless from only 8.90 Pound Sterling/month. It is UK most complete broadband which includes ; Free wireless BT Home Hub, Up to 8 MB download speed, wireless broadband out & about, UK calls included (evenings & weekends), 24-7 support! This is limited order, so get online and order before 29th February 2008!

There are also some options for internet/contract:
Option 1: 18 month contract – £8.95 for the first 6 months, £17.99 thereafter.
Option 2: 12 month contract – £12.99 for the first 3 months, £17.99 thereafter.
Option 3: 18 month contract – £13.99 for the first 6 months, £22.99 thereafter.
Option 4: 12 month contract – £17.99 for the first 3 months, £22.99 thereafter.
Option 5: 18 month contract – £18.99 for the first 6 months, £24.99 thereafter.
Option 6: 12 month contract – £22.99 for the first 3 months, £24.99 thereafter.
etc....

BT not only offers wireless, but home phone, total broadband, BT vision and cordless handsets as well. Check "what's news" to see new products.
Besides BT also provides online purchasing, so you can save your time searching for stuff you want at the shops :D
broadband isp

Monday, February 04, 2008

Fresh cheese vs cream cheese

In German, there is no word for cream cheese.
Instead of cream cheese, it is "fresh cheese" in German.
If someone tells you that they just buy "fresh cheese", then you know that they mean cream cheese.

Back at home, we only have cream cheese from Philadelphia (from Kraft company). And also only one flavor (plain). I used to put in on the top of my toast or bread and then slices banana on it.

You may be not familiar with this kinda way to eat cream cheese, but it's tasty :D

Last nite, I went to Kaufland (big supermarket in Germany), I saw Philadelphia "Frischkaese" (Philadelphia 'fresh cheese'). I was wondering since when there was Philadelphia 'Fresh cheese'.
Then I looked at it closely, weeeeeeeeeeee I just realized that it was no fresh cheese, but cream cheese that I ate a lot !!!!

I love love love love cream cheese, but back at home we only have 1 kind and also not too many kinds of flavors (as I know). But in Europe, especially in Germany, and Netherlands, there are many kinds of cream cheese and lots kinds of flavors.
I just bought Buro (Indian curry) and Tex-mex cream cheese. It sounds crazy to you, but really it's delicious.

For you who also love cream cheese, check it here on wikipedia.


So, Frischkaese (German) = cream cheese (English).

Oh, there is also another kind: Quark (German) = curd cheese (English)

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Hatun Sürücü

Hatun Aynur Sürücü (also spelled Hatin Sürücü; born January 17, 1982 in Berlin; died February 7, 2005 in Berlin) was a Kurdish woman whose family was originally from Erzurum, Turkey. She was murdered at the age of 23 in Berlin, by her own youngest brother, in a so-called honor killing. Sürücü had divorced the cousin she was forced to marry at the age of 16, and was reportedly dating a German man. Her murder inflamed a public debate over forced marriage in Muslim families.
Sürücü was sent back to her village by her family and was forced to marry a cousin there at the age of 16, and gave birth to a son in 1999. In October 1999, she fled her parent's home, finding refuge in a home for underage mothers. She attended school, and had moved into her own apartment in the Tempelhof neighborhood of Berlin. At the time of her murder, she was at the end of the training to become an electrician.
On February 7, 2005, at a busstop in front of her apartment she was killed by three gunshots to the head. The police arrested her three brothers on the 14th of February. The motive of honor killing was assumed, since she had received and reported numerous death threats to police before the murder.

In July, 2005, the Berlin Public Prosecutor's office charged Sürücü's brothers with her murder. On September 14, 2005, Ayhan Sürücü, the youngest brother, confessed to murdering his sister.
In April, 2006, Ayhan was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison, and his two older brothers were acquitted of charges of conspiring to murder their sister.
Sürücü's murder was the sixth incident of "honor" killing since October, 2004. Public anger was aroused by an incident at a high school near the scene of the crime some days after Hatun Sürücü was killed, when some male students of Kurdish and Turkish origin reportedly applauded the crime. During a class discussion on the murder, one allegedly said that she "only had herself to blame," while another remarked "She deserved what she got -- the whore lived like a German." The Director of the school, Volker Steffens, sent a strongly-worded letter to students of the school and their parents, warning that the school would not tolerate incitement against freedom.
On February 22, 2005, a vigil called by the Berlin Gay and Lesbian association was held at the scene of the crime, which was attended by about 100 Germans and Turks together. A second vigil, called for by German politicians and artists was held on the 24th of February.
Sürücü's murder, and several similar cases in Germany and elsewhere in Europe have been cited by political opponents of Turkey's admission to the European Union, as an example of disregard for human rights in the Turkish culture.
The Sürücü family's behaviour again sparked public outrage when Hatun's sister Arzu applied for custody of Hatun's six-year-old son Can who lives with a foster family in Berlin since the murder of his mother.[1] Eight months later the district court of Berlin-Tempelhof rejected the request.[2]Arzu Sürücü intends to appeal this decision.[3]

Links:
PS: Every single sentence here is copied from wikipedia :)