by Kristy Emilia (016201200030)

My opinion from the picture is that we live in the world where what we see is what we perceive, we don't want to know the truth behind all the things. As for me the picture above giving a message that most woman perceive that how they dress is to impress the man. In fact, how woman dress is can be related to culture and season, and many other reasons. Those 2 woman is the picture judge each other from the outside, from how they dress, one woman perceive that the woman that wearing a bikini because she wants to look sexy and pretty in front of the man, while the other woman perceive that she wearing a full dress to cover her body because her man ask him to do so. When may be the truth is the woman wear bikini because she wants to go to the beach, and it is right to wear bikini to the beach, while the other woman wear all cover up because it is her belief and her culture to not show any body parts in public. Never judge people from what they look, because what inside is not always the same as it seems in outside. 

by Kristy Emilia

A Prada menswear show wouldn’t be complete without a couple lady counterparts strutting down the intricate runway. At first it may seem a little bizarre as to why a designer would have females in a male-designated fashion week, but undoubtedly, women and men have been sharing the runway for multiple seasons. Sometimes they are hot dates, sometimes they are androgynous, and sometimes they are simply
his and hers. Miuccia explains her theory on the women of menswear: “Anytime I do a men’s show, I’m thinking this would be fantastic for women—or at least for me. And more and more, it feels instinctively right to translate the same idea for both genders” quoted from STYLE

Prada’s standard motley crew is now the essence of gender-neutrality. Instead of making his clothes that she can wear, Miuccia designed apandrogynous collection. Rather than possessing features of both male and female as androgyny does, pandrogyny does not define differences, it creates similarities. It is not the disconnection, but unification of gender. Pandrogyny is the conscious embracing of gender roles, sexual orientations, or cultural traditions so as to render the person's original identity completely indecipherable. It is the “third gender” that is sometimes referred to on this site, a type of gender-neutral living being more akin to the OTHER, or internal self.

From Kanye West head to toe in Céline, to the Olsen twins wearing three piece suits, to Marc Jacobs in Prada skirts, it is common to see women and men sharing clothes and the runway. But, becoming one in the same, is a third gender idea that Prada has projected next in the evolution of both our culture and our humanity. What a brilliant!

Written by Ivony Lestari  (016201200029)


Who doesn't know Bali? beside it has so many hidden paradises it also has many kind of interesting and unique cultures itself that can attract people all over the world. One of their cultures distract my attention is Omed-omedan. The means of attraction in Indonesian, was followed by young men and women who are not married, aged between 17-30 years, the attraction followed kissing scene between a young man and woman. This tradition is quite unique and makes we are curious, this procession is celebrated just a day after Nyepi ceremony or on Geni Ngembak day, the 1st of the new year Çaka Balinese calendar. This unique tradition is celebrated in Sesetan village, South Denpasar in order to ask the safety of a whole village.




what i concern to this culture is Indonesia as one of the eastern countries which in accordance with eastern customs that still holds ethics which means there were several of pro and contra to this culture. the ones who against this culture because they perceive it doesn't appropriate with eastern ethics, but meanwhile for whom they support because they think it's our own absolute culture which have been already there for a long long time ago and must be preserved. Once a time, this event has ever stopped but there was a fighting between 2 pigs in the temple but believe it or not strangely both just dissapeared in the middle of fight. and the people consider it as a bad sign. Therefore, Omed-omedan was re-held. It all depend on how we do perceive and how we define culture as our customs itself. Why dont we just preserve the culture as long as it is good and doesn't harm for other people instead of we should be proud because this event can attract tourist and our culture can be more known abroad.

by Kristy Emilia. I am proud to be Asian, why? because Asian have so many culture and ethnic! And when it comes to food hmm i just cannot describe how good Asian food is, the video above is show how American taste Asian food. Such as; Durian, Ceker ayam and so on.. We perceive that our food is delicious to us, but what happen when the American taste our food? Mostly they dont like it there are many factor why they dont like it because of the shape, the smell and many more, but who can blame them if they dislike our food. We born with different culture and different taste. What i concern is why most Asian love all kind of food?? They are all known to eat all kind of food, even it seems disgusting. Once again, who can blame us? Culture raise us. What we eat what we did is all define by our culture we follow the line of our culture. Same thing might happen when we visit US or any other countries outside Asia, we may find that their food is did not satisfy our tongue, Asian like food that spicy and salty while most of American like something that have plain taste, we might found the weird taste in us. That is also what happening when American taste our food. What we must do is just appreciate and tolerate each other culture 

             with love, Ariance Valentina Hia (016201200120)

           In yesterday’s class, we discussed about culture and terrorism. The term of culture is used to define who we are, how we act on something, how we response situation, the style of thinking, and our attitude. Culture represents us as human. Terrorism is term that used to define any action that use violence or threat or force to intimidate, coerce, frighten people to achieve goal that much relate to political purposes. 

          When talking about terrorism, it could not be separated from culture. First, culture can be a factor that may shape terrorism. According to the lecturing session from Dr. Jonathan Matusitz and Congresswoman Sandy Adams on “How Culture shapes Terrorism”, all human beings are sensitive to threats any values or culture (include language, religion, group membership, and homeland) that identify themselves. The possibility of losing any of these can trigger defensive, even xenophobic and reactions. It might lead to terrorism which basically terrorism is about some people try to defend their basic values of life. If I may take a brief conclusion, this is why culture can shape terrorism. Second, culture is as the target of terrorism. An effort to defend some values or culture by using violence will directly threat other culture. Third, culture can be used as a tool to combat terrorism. Culture with its values of life may help to prevent the development of a terrorist mentality in human being (from Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe).

         In the discussion session, there is one question that attracted me. The first question from my friend is about “Is terrorism based on culture? Take an example the case of Boko Haram”. In my opinion to answer that question, yes it is true that terrorism based on culture. Culture is not always talking about something that can be directly seen by human eyes, but it is also about the character of the human being itself. Any characters of human being determine how the human acts which could lead to be terrorism. In case of Boko Haram, many people only focus on the background of people of Boko Haram. If we can be more critical, Boko Haram appeared as how their life there has shaped minded of the people. It is not about the religion who teaches them to be a terrorist. It is more about how the people response towards any teaching or doctrines.

picture was found in Google picture

Written by Grace Debora C. Ongkowidjojo (016201200028)

Have you ever heard of the term Generation Z? Generation Z is one of the groups of generation established by experts to analyze the generational change and characteristics from the World War era. The earliest generation is the Veterans, then the Baby Boomers, followed by Generation X and the Millenials (or Generation Y). Generation Z is the latter generation consists of those who were born from mid 1990s until early 2000s. They are natives to digital technology. They were born into technology and never experience a life without it. They communicate through social media and the their lives revolve around the internet. They are very open to diversity and very willing to share their opinion and mundane details of life in the social media.

As it happens, this year's presidential election in Indonesia would be the very first election where some older parts of Generation Z are able to vote. As a part of Generation Z myself, the euphoria of the elections, friends sharing news and blogs about the candidates are the very thing I see everyday on every social media I have, Facebook, Twitter, Path, and many more. Many of my friends even "unfriend" or "unfollow" someone who has different preferential candidate on the basis of "cleaning their timeline".

Generation Z contributes almost one third of this year's voters, and since it is in our culture to express ourselves publicly through media and our awareness of the social and political happenings locally or globally, the presidential election has run more rampant online than ever before. People changing their profile picture showing their preference and many online jokes, memes, critical opinions are posted everywhere.

Each generation has its own culture and values based on the environment and advancements of the world. And this will bring different outcome and approach needed in the society. And the natives to digital technology have indeed shifted the way of this year's biggest political event.

with love, Ariance Valentina Hia (016201200120)

    Once upon a time, there lived a thing named culture. He was created by the world, preserved by the history, but time by time, was forgotten by human. It does not matter for him to stand without any appreciation. He only needs to “live”. Nothing can kill him and he is unseen. Even if the human will die, the culture will never die. Until one day, he was given a chance to have a conversation with human.

          “What do you think right now?” the culture asked.

          “I am thinking what should I say and response to what happened in my life” the human answered.

          “Do you know it was me? It was me how the way you think, how the way you act?”

          The human is getting confuse and answer..

          “What do you mean with that? It is totally me. You lie!” while pointed toward the culture.

          “The way you response my statement is me as yours.. Sometimes it is hard for me to be judged as you have acted. Okay now, if you say that it was you, so may you make others don’t judge me as you do? You always forget about me.. I am living in you, and will always live. I cannot die. I am tired, but I have to hold on..”

          “Don’t say anything. Go out from me!” the human slapped the culture.

          Suddenly the human realize that he has slapped himself. He has slapped his own face. He has slapped the culture, the human himself. 

It was us...

by Kristy Emilia

Surfing through the internet, and what I got is this. 2 pictures combine to 1 that describe the 2 different time but they have similarities with one another. In the first picture, there are picture from 1900s that show people are busy with themselves because they are focus with their newspaper. While in the second picture people is from today view and people are busy with their gadget. This picture bring me a chill, I just knew that people from long time ago is just the same like us, they are tend to be individualistic because they are reading the newspaper while people nowadays are just too busy with their gadget. If people said that people nowadays are so individualistic because of gadget, then they are wrong because as we can see in the picture the newspaper are also control the people attention. People behavior doesn't really change at all, what change is what distract them and make it as the controller of people's mind.

By Kristy Emilia Last week i went to Dieng pletau at Wonosobo to have a fun hiking to Mount Prau. Before i went to Dieng, my friend told me everything about how beautiful Dieng is. Little bit i know about the culture in Dieng, but what i know most is about the anak gimbel dieng. Why called anak gimbel? Because their hair look like a reggae artist. Their hair is not made in purpose, their hair is suddenly grow up when the kid reach 6 months until 2 years. At first, the kid will feel sick like a fever but after they recover their hair will start to gimbel by itself. People in Dieng believe that anak gimbel is come from Nyi Roro Kidul, the goddess of laut selatan. It is not a bad thing to have a anak gimbel, but people believe that anak gimbel will bring luck to the family. So what did the kid do everyday? The anak gimbel do just the same like an ordinary kid. What make them different is that anak gimbel will get special treatment than any other kid. Here is my picture with the anak gimbel in Dieng.

The anak gimbel hair should not be cut by anyone until the kid want to cut their hair. Usually the Dieng pletau have their special occasion to cut anak gimbel hair every mid year. If the kid don't want to cut their hair and someone cut their hair it can cause the kid sick and the hair will still continuously grow up.

Usually every year in august, people in Dieng will held an event to cut the anak gimbel hair. This is became an attractive event for the foreign tourist and the local tourist. The kid that the hair will be cut will ask one wish to the parents and the parents must grant the kid wish. People believe if the parents didn't grant the kid wish then it will bring a bad luck to the family and the hair will be grow again. This year, the event will be held in 30 - 31 August.

Written by Grace Debora C. Ongkowidjojo (016201200028)

Recently, I have just finished reading a book titled "Me Before You". It is a romance novel by Jojo Moyes. Like any other love story, the novel unravels the life of two unlikely hero and heroine who eventually find their way to each other. What makes this book intriguing and worth sharing, though, is that it brings up a very controversial subject: rights to die.

"Be with me. Give me the end I am hoping for."

Truthfully, I entered the book without warning of such theme, and without realizing I have dove in and ended the book emotionally exhausted. I am still not entirely sure whether I like the ending or not.

So, the book starts with the accident that changed the life of the hero, Will Traynor. He was once a successful businessman with everything a man could ever ask. In short, he's got a perfect life. Then came the accident that turned him into a quadriplegic. He becomes a physically disable person who needs help from people for almost everything.

After two years of struggling with his condition and fragile health, he decided to go to Dignitas, an organization in Switzerland that "assist" people to die with dignity. His parents try to prevent him from doing so and hired Louisa Clark. From then on, both of them gradually changed from the person they were.

What I want to talk about is about the Dignitas. I checked on google directly after I finished the book and it is a real organization. The topics of euthanasia performance and rights to die have always been a very highly debateable subjects. Do you think people have the rights to end their life if the reason is logical? And what constitutes a logical reasoning?

Will Traynor decided to go through that because he felt hopeless with his life. He constantly felt pain and his health is very fragile and not seldom his illness threatens his very life. He also will never be able to do things he once did, leading an adventurous life. Do you think that his reason is justifiable to end his life?

I think this can relate to any kinds of culture. Basic human rights has always been a universally acknowledged culture. It is in the nature of human rights to live and if the quality of life itself does not meet the expectation, do mankind hold the rights to end it?

My personal opinion on this is quite against it. I was raised in a family with strong religious culture, and I have since little been taught that taking someone's life is not good, even your own life. It all rests in God's hands. But then, when it comes to, say, your family member, lying very sick and unconscious with no hope to live, barely breathing with the help of a machine, will you end his/her sorrow or continue to believe? What is your opinion?

with love, Ariance Valentina Hia (016201200120)

We always talk about culture. Culture is something that lives within us. Culture is representing how the society see, think, and the way of analyze something. Culture means our identity. When you live with your way, it is your character. It is your identity and it is your culture. You are your own culture. 

What do we do towards poverty?

What do we feel about poverty?

These pictures show how the world walks nowadays. The world walks as we, the human, walk. Is this the identity of modern human? Is this the culture of developed generation? Our culture will determine our future.

with love, Ariance Valentina Hia (016201200120)

Indonesia is well known by its diverse cultures, ethnics, heritages, and even historical life of the societ. When you want to talk and discuss deeper about culture in Indonesia, it will not enough in only one page of this website. However, if you may know and realize, there is one thing that could shown the whole culture of a country in only one tour time. It is a museum. In Indonesia, people of Indonesia know well about what it is called National Museum of Indonesia. 

It was the first time when I came to Jakarta since two years ago I arrived here to study in President University. It was the first time I was amazed by the wonderful view of the Central Jakarta. The environment is so peaceful, neat, beautiful, fresh, and there are so many places that I have watched in television before. I am amazed by Monas Monument and National Museum of Indonesia. I imagine that one day my future house will be there (at least near that area). 

National Museum of Indonesia is the place where all cultural heritage, cultural education, ancient heritage of Indonesia are kept and preserved. Actually, I have never been inside the Museum. However, it is because my curious feeling about it, I tried to search all sources about this National Museum of Indonesia. A brief history, National Museum of Indonesia was built in 1778 in the age of Dutch Governmental in Indonesia. It has been 236 years till this year. There are prehistorical, ethnology, archaeology, history, and even geography collections. 

Prehistorical is where people had not known yet any writing. This is one of the prehistorical collection from Makasar, called BEJANA

Ethnography collection shows any ancient goods as the result of ethnicity in Indonesia. One of the collection is WATER VESSEL from Bajo, South Sulawesi. This vessel comes from Takalar ethnic. 

Archaeology collections included any culture as the result of human activities in Hindu-Buddha era. One of the collection in National Museum of Indonesia is GENESA STATUE. It is from Banon Temple, Central Java.

These are some collections that I found in the Google. Beyond those ancient goods and cultural heritages, I may state an amazing status of an Museum. Museum is where cultural diversity is being one. Museum represents that Indonesia lives in unity. How strong an influence of the existences of museum in a country. Museum is the place where power of society is found in one. Museum may create a love for any generations towards their nation. Museum may promote a country to other country. Museum could also bring cultural diversity in Indonesia keep balance and tolerance among each others. 

This is why I love Indonesia. I love museum. I love Jakarta. That's true that traffic jam is the worst problem of Jakarta, but it never break my love for Jakarta. Jakarta is much beautiful if you want to explore more about it.  My dream to live there will always stay in my heart. 

Written by Grace Debora C. Ongkowidjojo

*This is something just for your contemplation without any meaning to offend particular culture and demean the other.*

Different culture may perceives differently on a same object. And this shows that one cannot judge or measure something according to your own culture. This is where learning cultural diversity comes to importance. By learning this, we will be able to understand what brings someone to act or perceive the way they do.

Written by Grace Debora C. Ongkowidjojo (016201200028)

Talking about cultural diversity, we cannot deny it from our present reality, especially with the presence of the globalization. Globalization and the rapid advancement of technology have made the contact among people from all over the world easier and higher in frequency. Because of the frequent and easier contact, people are becoming more tolerant and open to the cultures of others. That is why people often call our society now as a global community, living in a global village. Though the statement is moot, it is a fact that we learn about each other, try to understand others, even sometimes adopt each other’s culture and try on new things.

One of the best examples of this is the development in culinary world, which is called food fusion. Food fusion is taking the best out of unique traditional food into a union that creates another food. Food fusion is raging everywhere. Unlike adapting a type of food into local style, food fusion tries to maintain the original uniqueness as well.

In the example below, we have these cute sushi donuts. They keep the palm-sized sushi to form sweet donuts.

Next, is a ramen burger, making the ramen and the beef filling still the highlight point of the food itself.

Then, there is this taco with Korean fried chicken.

There are many other example of food fusion; and maybe you can try to make one yourself, too! Through food fusion rage we can see how people are trying to make the best out of their own culture and introduce it to others. Instead of fighting over our differences, we should celebrate our uniqueness and rich culture. And if you are creative enough like these people, you can also enrich our culture as a global community.

Pictures are taken from Pinterest.

Written by suci putri ramadhani

Exposure to cold and consumption of chemicals found in chili peppers both appear to increase the number and activity of so called brown fat cells, which burn energy, rather than store it as typical "white" fat cells do, said Takeshi Yoneshiro, a researcher at Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.

The study is the first to show that brown fat activity can be induced in people who appeared to have very few or no brown fat cells, said Dr. Clifford Rosen, a professor of medicine at Tufts University who wasn't involved in the study.

Cold burns fat

Brown fat cells are currently a subject of intense research as a target for anti obesity drugs,

In the new study, researchers exposed eight people with little or no brown fat cells to moderately low temperatures of 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) for two hours daily, over the course of six weeks. Compared with the control subjects, who went about their normal lives, the cold-exposed people had about 5 percent less body fat at the end of the study, and also burned more energy when exposed to cold, The researchers also looked at people who ate capsinoids, which are normally found in chili peppers, for six weeks, and found they also burned more energy than the control group when exposed to cold, but didn't lose any more white fat than the control group.

so the research very important to helping the people which is have obesity problem, such as this research already prove if chili can burn more fat.