Assalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Barangkali Blog ini bermanfaat untuk para Ibu.
Wassalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Gene
18 July, 2007
16 July, 2007
Kalla blames teachers
Letter to
We are fortunate that Vice President Jusuf Kalla pays such close attention to education issues. While addressing hundreds of teachers at a seminar, he said, "In the past you used to make all students graduate, leading the country to a national dumbing down of the system."
So, according to Kalla's theory, some of the people who graduated in the past didn't really deserve to pass and yet were passed anyway by their teachers, resulting in a "national dumbing down of the system".
Here are a few people who graduated in the past: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Hamzah Has, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, B.J. Habibie, Din Syamsuddin, Hasyim Muzadi, Quraisy Shihab, Amien Rais, Faisal Basri, Emil Salim, Sutiyoso, Agum Gumelar, Tri Sutrisno, Wiranto and also every member of Parliament.
Although these people graduated from high school, we have no way of knowing if they actually worked hard to pass, or if they were just part of Kalla's "dumbed-down nation". If any person wishes to hold a prominent public position, then perhaps we should interrogate their school teachers to find out if they really deserved to pass.
Now that Kalla has pointed teachers in the right direction, we will no longer be faced with hordes of people (including national leaders) who, according to the Vice President, were simply passed by their teachers, and weren't really smart enough to succeed on their own.
Hopefully, now that teachers have been made aware of the problem, this country will not be led by any of the dumbed-down people who were allowed to graduate from high school before the Vice President fixed the problem.
GENE NETTO
(Published Monday 16 July 2007)
13 July, 2007
Komentar Rencana Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (SBI)
(Isi perencanaan SBI disarikan dari buku “Sistem Penyelenggaraan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional untuk Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah” Depdiknas, Dirjen Mandikdasmen)
SBI ini merupakan rencana program baru dari Diknas (atau pemerintah). Siapa itu Diknas? Baca dulu kutipan ini dari Jakarta Post:
According to the House commission's evaluation, there Rp 4.6 trillion went missing from last year's total education budget.
[Artinya: menurut analisa Komisi X DPR (Pendidikan) sebanyak Rp.4,6 Trillion hilang dari anggaran pendidikan pada tahun 2006]
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070419.H05
(Tidak dijelaskan secara spesifik “hilang” di mana; apa seluruhnya di Diknas, atau di Propinsi, atau dua-duanya).
Mohon kenyataan uang yang “hilang” ini dipikirkan sambil membaca komentar di bawah ini.
SBI adalah sekolah nasional yang menyiapkan peserta didiknya berdasarkan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (SNP) Indonesia dan tarafnya internasional sehingga lulusannya memiliki kemampuan daya saing internasional. Rumusnya adalah :
SBI = SNP + X
1. lulusan
2. isi
3. proses
4. pendidik dan tenaga kependidikan
5. sarana dan prasarana
6. dana
7. pengelolaan
8. penilaian
“Cambridge, IB, TOEFL/TOEIC, ISO, UNESCO.”
Cambridge: saya kurang tahu karena belum pernah ada pengalaman. Teman mengatakan baik, tetapi saya belum memeriksa.
Toefl: Toefl yang mana yang dimaksudkan dan kenapa memilih Toefl? Kalau Toefl yang lama (Paper-Based) lebih baik pilih IELTS. (Dijelaskan lebih lengkap di bawah).
ISO: oke, standar international. Saya baru tahu ada ISO untuk sekolah.
UNESCO: Hmm. Unesco punya tujuan apa di dunia ini? Apa sesuai dengan situasi dan kondisi bangsa ini? Apa sesuai dengan agama Islam (mayoritas dari penduduk)?
“Visi: Terwujudnya insan Indonesia yang cerdas dan kompetitif secara internasional”
Bagi murid tertentu. Hanya buat anak yang lulus proses seleksi. Sisa dari murid (mayoritas) diabaikan.
“MISI = Mewujudkan manusia Indonesia cerdas dan kompetitif secara internasional, yang mampu bersaing dan berkolaborasi secara global.”
Buat anak tertentu, bukan semua. Bukannya anak ini bersaing secara national juga? Mereka akan menjadi lebih pintar dari tetangga (dengan bantuan dari pemerintah) dan akan mengalakan orang lain pada saat berjuang untuk pekerjaan yang sama di dalam negeri. Berarti Pemerintah akan menentukan “siapa” yang bakalan menjadi sukses (karena anak pilihan diberikan bantuan sebanyak mungkin, dengan uang pajak anda, untuk menjadi lebih pintar dari anak tetangganya, yang juga bayar pajak).
“SBI menggunakan bahasa Inggris dan menggunakan teknologi komunikasi informasi (ICT) (p.6)”
Kualitas bahasa Inggris sebelum masuk atau ditentukan? Lewat Toefl? Toefl yang lama (Paper-Based) atau yang baru?
Jadi harus pintar bahasa sebelum masuk. Siapa bilang lulusan Toefl itu pintar menggunakan bahasa Inggris? Mayoritas dari murid Toefl saya (saat mengajar di kursus bahasa Inggris) hanya mampu masuk kelas Basic atau Intermediate kalau masuk kelas regular. Mereka hanya mengikuti Toefl untuk dapat nilai Toefl setinggi mungkin biar bisa daftar kuliah. Kemampuan menggunakan bahasa tidak bisa ditentukan lewat Paper-Based Toefl
Tujuan sekolah ini berubah dari “membuat anak pintar” menjadi “hanya menerima anak pintar yang akan menjadi lebih pintar dengan mudah setelah diajar”.
Mungkin ada anak yang akan menjadi pintar sekali dalam bahasa Inggris kalau ada kesempatan untuk belajar. Tetapi karena tidak sanggup bayar kursus di EF atau ILP, dia tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris saat ini, dan karena itu akan ditolak masuk program SBI ini.
“STANDAR OUTPUT = Lulusan SBI memiliki penguasaan ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi mutakhir yang canggih serta kemampuan berkomunikasi secara global. Mampu menerapkan nilai-nilai (religi, ekonomi, seni, solidaritas, dan teknologi mutakhir dan canggih), norma-norma dan etika global untuk bekerja sama lintas budaya dan bangsa.”
Contoh:
Nilai religi global: semua agama sama. Kalau anak mau pindah agama dari Islam menjad Kristen, tidak boleh dikritik atau dicegah. Hak dia. Orang tua harus terima! Kalau tidak, melanggar HAM anak.
Nilai ekonomi global: kapitalisme di atas segala2nya. Kalau pabrik rugi sedikit, dan harus mem-PHK ribuan orang untuk menjaga profit share bagi investor, lakukan saja. Tidak usah memikirkan dampak sosial. Itu urusan orang lain.
Globalization adalah benar, dan semua pasar harus terbuka. (Tetapi jangan coba menjual ke Amerika Serikat. Hanya sebagian dari pasarnya terbuka, sisanya masih dilindungi dari persaingan international (misalnya, agriculture, steel, textile, pharmaceuticals, car manufacturing, dll.). Intinya, semua negara, selain dari yang berkuasa, harus membuka pasarnya untuk perdagangan bebas. Sosialisme atau kepedulian sosial bukan bagian dari ekonomi.
Nilai seni global: telanjang bulat (kaya Anjasmara menjadi Nabi Adam AS.) adalah seni. Tidak boleh dikritik. Fotografer Spencer Tunik membuat foto dengan ratusan sampai ribuan orang telanjang bulat di tempat umum (seperti taman kota) di berbagai negara. (Gallery: http://www.i-20.com/artist.php?artist_id=19 ). Ini adalah seni. Jangan mengritik! Anak anda akan belajar tentang nilai seni global ini dan barangkali akan mengundang Spencer ke Jakarta.
Norma2 global: Bercerai, normal. Hidup dengan “pasangan” dan membesarkan anak tanpa harus menikah, normal. Mencoba sedikit narcoba, normal. Minum alcohol (tidak sampai mabuk), normal. Punya banyak teman yang homo, normal. Menjadi Pekerja Seks Komersial, normal (bahkan di Australia membayar pajak!). Menjadi donor sperma, normal. Aborsi, normal. (Di beberapa negara, bila anak remaja ingin lakukan aborsi, dokter wajib layani dan dilarang memberitahu orang tua dari anak itu). Tidak peduli pada orang tua, normal.
Etika global: Ketika anda memimpin delegasi AS ke Cina untuk membuat Perjanjian Perdanganan, jangan membahas Pelanggaran HAM. Ketika ada keributan di Papua, menegor Indonesia tentang HAM (karena perdagangan Indonesia dengan AS tidak begitu penting). Membunuh satu orang Amerika merupakan tindakan kriminal terbesar di dunia. Menjatuhkan bom di atas sebuah kota dan membunuh 600.000 orang yang tidak berdosa, tidak menjadi soal. Dan jumlah orang yang dibunuh AS tidak perlu dihitung secara terinci (perkiraan saja juga tidak perlu diterima). Yang penting, jangan sampai manusia terbaik di dunia ini (warga AS) diancam, diculik, disiksa, atau dibunuh. Kalau warga negara lain, no problem. Kalau AS menyiksa tahanan, disebut “interogasi”. Bila negara lain melakukannya, disebut “penyiksaan”. Bila AS menahan orang tanpa disidang untuk bertahun-tahun, mereka adalah “enemy combatant”. Bila negara lain melakukannya, mereka adalah “tahanan politik” yang harus segera dibebaskan.
Apakah semua ini termasuk yang diinginkan buat anak Indonesia? Setelah diajarkan “norma-norma global” ini, bukannya mereka akan mulai bersikap seperti orang barat yang sekuler dan kafir?
“STANDAR PROSES = A) Pro-perubahan, B) Menumbuhkan dan mengembangkan daya kreasi, inovasi, nalar dan eksperimentasi”
Dalam semua bidang? Temasuk agama? Bahasa?
“STANDAR INPUT: A) INTAKE = diseleksi ketat, memiliki potensi kecerdasan unggul, yang ditunjukkan oleh kecerdasan intelektual, emosional, dan spiritual dan berbakat luar biasa”
Deseleksi ketat? Apakah ini supaya mudah berhasil? Kalau dimulai dengan anak yang paling pintar di seluruh nusantara, lalu anak itu berhasil, apakah karena program SBI atau apakah karena mereka akan berhasil dengan sekolah apapun?
Siapa yang bisa menentukan anak yang “memiliki potensi kecerdasan unggul” secara massal dan cepat? Dari mana ketahuan memilki potensi ini? Ditentukan dengan tes apa? Kalau ada anak yang agak bego saat dites, tapi setelah dididik menjadi pintar sekali, bagaimana? Kenapa dia tidak berhak dididik dengan sebaik mungkin juga?
Pengalaman Pribadi Teman Saya: Ada seorang teman yang kumpulkan teman2nya untuk santuni beberapa anak. Ibu2 itu dengan sengaja mengambil anak yang nilainya kurang bagus (karena biasannya orang memilih anak yang nilainya tinggi, sehingga yang lain tidak mendapat kesempatan). Setelah disantuni beberapa bulan, nilai semua anak itu meningkat. Ternyata, nilai tes mereka selalu rendah karena mereka jualan setelah sekolah, tidak punya buku atau pensil di rumah dsb. Setelah mendapat bantuan nyata, mereka bisa belajar dengan benar di rumah juga dan nilai mereka meningkat.
SBI hanya memilih anak yang “memiliki potensi kecerdasan unggul”!!! Yang lain, biarkan saja!
INSTRUMENTAL INPUT: A) Kurikulum Plus X, B) Guru memiliki kompetensi professional (penguasaan mata pelajaran), pedagogic, kepribadian dan social bertaraf internasional yang ditunjukkan oleh penguasaan bahasa Inggris. Mampu menggunakan ICT mutakhir dan canggih (laptop, LCD, dan VCD).
Dapat guru hebat ini dari mana? Dibutuhkan ribuan dalam waktu singkat. Profesional = menguasaikan mata pelajaran sesuai dengan standar internasional. Apa ada ribuan guru seperti itu sekarang? Atau perlu dilatih? Oleh siapa? Di mana? Untuk berapa lama? Dan apakah guru ini akan digaji selama mengikuti latihan?
Kepribadian dan social bertaraf internasional? Kata Jusuf Kalla, guru Indonesia tidak dapat dipercayai karena mereka akan luluskan semua anak. Berarti etika profesional mereka rusak. Siapa yang akan memperbaikinya?
Bahasa Inggris? Siapa yang akan melatihkan guru ini untuk 1-2 tahun sehingga sanggup mengajar dalam bahasa Inggris? Dibutuhkan ratusan trainer untuk mengajar para guru bahasa Inggris. Di mana ratusan trainer itu?
Catatan : Pada lampiran 2 Standar guru SBI haruslah mampu mengajar dalam bahasa Inggris secara efektif (TOEFL > 500, Kepala Sekolah TOEFL >500, Pustakawan TOEFL > 450, Laboran TOEFL > 400, Kepala TU harus S-1 dan TOEFL> 450
Toefl yang mana yang dimaksudkan? Yang disebut “Institutional Test” atau “Paper-Based Test” yang lama? Bentuknya, ada tiga ujian dan semuanya multiple choice. Orang yang tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris dengan baik (tingkat Basic 2 – Basic 3) bisa mendapat 500-550 di tes ini. Sebagai mantan guru Toefl, tugas saya bukan untuk mengajarkan bahasa Inggris akademik, melainkan mengajarkan trik-triknya supaya murid yang awam bisa mendapat nilai 500 untuk daftar kuliah di UI dll.
Atau tes yang baru yang dimaksudkan: IBT (Internet Based Test) yang dikerjakan online? Ini jauh lebih sulit daripada yang paper based. Waktu saya mengikuti training untuk mengenal tes baru ini, kami (para guru Toefl) berdebat selama 20 minit untuk menjawab satu pertanyaan karena begitu sulit. Kalau kemampuan para guru tidak advanced (mendekati Native Speaker), akan sulit sekali untuk lulus IBT dengan nilai yang tinggi. Akan dibutuhkan waktu 1-2 tahun persiapan untuk lulus dari ujian ini.
“Lab.Fisika, Kimia, Biologi, Bahasa, dan IPS”
Lab Bahasa ketinggalan zaman. Tidak ada yang gunakan di sekolah Australia dan Selandia Baru. Setahu saya, lebih banyak negara yang tidak menggunakannya lagi daripada yang menggunakannya. Lab bahasa terlalu terbatas dan bagi anak sekolah, jauh lebih bermanfaat menggunkan pelajaran bahasa yang komunikatif dengan kerja kelompok, berpasangan, diskusi, berdebat, dsb.
“KEBIJAKAN PENGEMBANGAN: 1. Ekualitas dan aksesibilitas : Siswa miskin tapi pandai harus diterima dengan subsidi silang”
Ekualitas buat yang sangat pintar saja. Yang dianggap pintar biasa saja (karena jualan koran sampai jam 10 malam biar ada uang sekolah) tidak mendapat kesempatan. Ini ekualitas apa?
“1) SBI meningkatkan mutu input, proses, dan outputnya, 2)Tatakelola yang baik (good governance) : partisipatif, transparan, akuntabel, professional, demokratis, tanggungjawab, layanan prima, tidak KKN, ada kepastian hukum, ada kepastian jaminan mutu”
Ini sebelum atau sesudah ada petugas pemerintah yang “menghilangkan” sebgaian dari dananya untuk kepentingan sendiri? Ingat yang ditulis di paling atas: SBI adalah program baru dari sebuah kaum yang “menghilangkan” (baca: MENCURI) Rp 4,6 TRILLION dari anggaran pendidikan tahun 2006!!!
Tetapi karena dana masuk program SBI (daripada umum), tidak akan hilang? Semua orang di Diknas dan Propinsi sudah bertaubat dan tidak akan “merampok” anak SBI demi kepentingan diri sendiri? Hanya anak di Sekolah Negeri biasa yang akan “dirampok” terus setiap tahun?
(Malu deh kalau uang untuk beli laptop bagi anak SBI diselewengkan. Kalau uang untuk atap kelas baru di SDN, no problem deh!)
STRATEGI IMPLEMENTASI: Pelaksanaan SBI harus dimulai dari kondisi nyata di Indonesia..
Maksudnya? Harus dimulai dari gedung yang atapnya runtuh, lapangan rusak berat, tembok banyak retak, tidak ada perpustakaan di sekolah, guru sering bolos karena punya 2 pekerjaan lain supaya bisa mendapat nafkah hidup yang cukup, dan seterusnya. Inilah “kondisi nyata” yang dimaksudkan?
Berarti harus ada berbagai macam proyek untuk memperbaiki semuanya. Atau hanya sekolah yang sudah dalam kondisi bagus yang akan digunakan? Sekolah yang seperti di atas, biarkan saja dalam keadaan rusak?
Perintisan SBI harus berdasarkan pada data-data actual dan factual.
Siapa yang akan mengumpulkan data-data ini? Orang yang sama yang menghilangkan 4,6 TRILLION dari anggaran pendidikan tahun 2006? Tetapi sekarang mereka akan mampu mengumpulkan data yang akurat? Apalagi kalau data itu menunjukkan bahwa program mereka gagal dan ada dana yang “hilang”? Tiba-tiba mereka akan menjadi orang yang bisa menghitung secara akurat dan jujur? Tetapi penggunaan dana anggaran tahun 2006 tidak bisa dihitung secara akurat?
STRATEGI PEMBIAYAAN
- Pemerintah Pusat = 50 %
- Pemerintah Propinsi = 30 %
- Pemerintah Kota/Kab. = 20 %
Ini secara teoretis. Yang akhirnya masuk ke sekolah berapa persen? Tinggal sisanya setelah sebagian menjadi “hilang”.
Bagi SBI swasta, biaya pendidikan ditanggung oleh masyarakat dan yayasan pendiri sekolah tersebut. Subsidi pemerintah dapat diberikan atas dasar persyaratan tertentu.
Sekolah swasta akan menerima uang pajak kita? Jadi kalau saya seorang sopir mikrolet, termasuk kaum yang tidak mampu, uang pajak saya diambil dan diberikan pada sebuah sekolah swasta biar anak orang kaya bisa mendapatkan fasilitas yang lebih baik lagi? Dan di SDN anak saya, atap yang hampir runtuh dibiarkan saja. Hanya SBI dan SBI Swasta yang diperhatikan? Lebih baik saya tidak membayar pajak daripada uang saya diberikan ke sekolah swasta!
Rencana Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional (SBI) ini adalah sebuah rencana yang kelihatannya dibuat sepihak saja, tanpa konsultasi, tanpa berfikir terlalu dalam tentang dampaknya, sebuah rencana yang tidak relevan, tidak dibutuhkan, tidak adil, and hanya menguntungkan sebagian anak (minoritas) dan mengabaikan yang lain (mayoritas), tetapi menggunakan uang pajak kita.
(Saya jadi ingat Busway dari Gubunur Sutiyoso yang dibuat secara buru-buru dengan ciri-ciri perencanaan yang sama, dan sekarang terancam berhenti karena bankrut!)
Saya melihat ada banyak kesempatan untuk orang yang telah “menghilangkan” 4,6 TRILLION rupiah dari anggaran pendidikan tahun 2006 untuk membuat macam-macam proyek baru dengan segala bentuk “mark-up” dan komisi yang akan menguntungkan mereka. Akan ada proyek beli laptop, proyek renovasi gedung sekolah, proyek beli buku, proyek beli perlengkapan belajar (meja, kursi, dll.), proyek melatihkan guru, proyek kesejahteraan guru, proyek asuransi, dan banyak proyek baru yang lain. Apakah semuanya akan dijalankan dengan cara yang benar dan terbuka?
Apakah rencana SBI ini akan membuat sebuah kaum elit, yang terdiri dari anak yang mendapat kesempatan masuk SBI, menjadi sukses dan menjadi orang yang paling kaya dan berkuasa di negara ini? Dan semua itu dikerjakan dengan uang pajak kita? Anak anda belum tentu diterima. Dan setelah dia lulus dari sekolah biasa dengan nilai biasa, dia akan mencari pekerjaan dan langsung bersaing dengan anak tetangga anda yang dibuat lebih pintar oleh pemerintah karena dia diterima di SBI. Pada saat para employer melihat anak dari sekolah biasa dan anak dari SBI melamar untuk pekerjaan yang sama, kira-kira yang mana yang akan diterima?
Uang pajak anda menciptakan masa depan dan kemungkinan besar akan sukses bagi anak orang lain, sedangkan anak anda dibiarkan saja menderita dalam sekolah negeri biasa dengan atap kelas yang hampir ambruk.
Kemudian, apakah anak ini yang lulus dari SBI menjadi mirip sekali dengan orang barat? Apakah mereka akan lebih senang berbincang dalam bahasa Inggris dan meremehkan atau anggap bodoh orang yang tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris (seperti neneknya)? Apakah mereka akan sanggup kuliah dalam bahasa Indonesia?
Apakah anak SBI ini menjadi mirip dengan orang barat? Apakah mereka akan tinggalkan nilai-nilai agama dan budaya yang diajarkan orang tua dan menggantikannya dengan nilai-nilai “universal” yang didapatkan di sekolah (yang telah direstui Unesco dll.)? Kira-kira berapa banyak dari anak ini akan murtad atau pindah agama? Apakah tidak perlu dipikirkan? Apakah tidak perlu kuatir? Siapa yang melakukan analisa terhadap masa depan anak ini? Dan siapa yang akan melindungi mereka dari kerusakan budaya negara barat yang sekuler?
Apakah ini yang dinginkan orang tua?
Pajak anda yang akan digunakan!
Wallahu a’lam bish-shawab
Wassalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Gene Netto
10 July, 2007
Situs Halal Guide: LPPOM-MUI
Assalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Saya menemukan situs ini. Barangkali ada yang sudah tahu (tetapi belum memberitahu saya. Hehe).
Barangkali ada isi yang bermanfaat bagi pembaca.
Wassalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Selamat datang di situs HalalGuide LPPOM-MUI. HalalGuide adalah sebuah persembahan dari LPPOM-MUI untuk ummat Islam
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09 July, 2007
Artikel Sekolah Bilingual di Majalah Intisari Bulan Juli
Assalamu'alaikum wr.wb.,
Bagi yang berminat, di Majalah Intisari, Bulan Juli 2007, halaman 160-166, ada artikel tentang Sekolah Bilingual. Saya menjadi narasumber yang utama.
Informasi di artikel kurang lebih sama dengan yang saya tulis di Blog tentang sekolah bilingual.
Semoga bermanfaat,
Wassalamu'alaikum wr.wb.,
Gene
08 July, 2007
Merokok Dalam Mesjid
Pertanyaan:
aslm. af1 tadz mo nanya ni, klo merokok dalam mesjid apa hukumnya, sebab di mesjid dekat rumah saya kadang2 ada yang merokok dalam mesjid. terus bagaimana cara yang paling baik untuk menginggatkan jikalau merokok di dalam mesjid itu dilarang? sukron tadz
waslm...
amin
Jawaban:
Assalamu alaikum wr.wb.
Bismillahirahmanirrahim. Alhamdulilahirahmanirrahim. Washshalatu wassalamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa shahbihi ajmain.
Secara umum para ulama sepakat bahwa hukum merokok [haram] karena mendatangkan bahaya bagi kesehatan dan membuang-buang harta. Atau, minimal hukumnya makruh. Sehingga biaya yang dipergunakan untuk membeli rokok lebih baik dipergunakan untuk hal lain yang bermanfaat.
Lalu, bagaimana dengan merokok di masjid? Karena merokok bisa mengganggu dan membahayakan orang disekitarnya lewat bau dan asapnya sebagaimana malaikat juga terganggu seperti halnya manusia, maka merokok di masjid lebih makruh lagi atau lebih dilarang. Kondisinya sama seperti orang yang memakan bawang di mana Nabi saw. melarangnya masuk masjid sehingga membuatnya kehilangan pahala shalat berjamaah.
Karena itu, kalau Anda mendapati ada orang yang merokok di masjid, upayakanlah untuk memberikan penjelasan kepadanya secara bijak dan jelas. Bisa dengan cara Anda sendiri yang menyampaikan, atau lewat orang lain yang merupakan ustadz dan tokoh setempat, lewat artikel yang ditempel di [dinding] dan sebagainya. Sebab, bisa jadi apa yang dilakukan mereka karena ketidaktahuan. Jangan sampai mengingkari sebuah kemungkaran dengan kemungkaran yang lebih besar. Misalnya memicu terjadinya konflik dan keributan di dalam masjid atau memutuskan tali silaturahim.
Wallahu a’lam bish-shawab.
Wassalamu alaikum wr.wb.
30 June, 2007
Apakah Aplikasi Qur'an Pada Ponsel Termasuk Mushaf?
Assalaamu 'alaikum Pak Ahmad,
Saya ingin bertanya mengenai beberapa hal, yaitu:
1. Apakah aplikasi Al-Qur'an pada ponsel termasuk juga mushaf Al-Qur'an?
2. Bolehkan kita menjawab salam, walaupun tanpa menyebut nama Allah
ketika kita sedang berada di dalam WC?
3. Bolehkan kita membaca ayat-ayat Al-Qur'andi dalam hati ketika kita
sedang berada di dalam WC? Sebab kebetulan saya cukup sering mengakses
eramuslim via ponsel ketika saya berada di WC.
Atas perhatiannya saya ucapkan terima kasih.
Wassalaam,
Boymuh
Jawaban
Assalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
1. Aplikasi Al-Quran di HP atau PDAapakah merupakanMushaf?
Aplikasi Al-Quran di HP atau PDA adalah mushaf ketika sedang diaktifkan.
Sedangkan ketika sedang tidak diaktifkan, maka dia bukan mushaf.
Dan fenomena ini tidak pernah terjadi di masa nabi Muhammad SAW. Di
zaman itu, yang namanya mushaf pasti berbentuk benda yang tertulis di
atasnya. Baik terbuat dari kulit, pelepah kurma, tulang, batu dan
seterusnya.
Handphone, PDA, smartphone, laptop, PC, tablet, mp3 player, ipod, dopod
dan semua alat modern yang bisa diinstall program Al-Quran, jelas tidak
pernah ada di zaman nabi.
Namun demikian, benda-benda itu tidak pernah disebut sebagai mushaf
Al-Quran, kecuali pada saat program aplikasi Al-Quran di dalamnya
diaktifkan. Saat itulah benda-benda itu berfungsi sebagai mushaf
Al-Quran. Begitu dimatikan, wujudnya berubah lagi seperti semula.
Secara logika dan nalar sederhana, seharusnya saat di dalam WC kita
tidak mengaktifkannya, karena saat itu benda-benda itu berubah wujud
menjadi mushaf. Kira-kiraqiyasnya mirip dengan otak kita. Di dalam
memori otak kita pasti ada 'file-file' Al-Quran, dan selama file-file
itu tidak diaktifkan dalam bentuk dibunyikan lewat mulut, maka kita
boleh masuk WC. Sebaliknya, kita tidak boleh masuk WC sambil membacakan
hafalan Quran yang ada di otak kita sendiri. Biarkan saja file-file itu
diam sementara di otak, jangan diaktifka kecuali setelah kita keluar WC.
Memangnya tidak ada waktu-waktu lain?
Secara adab, kita memang dilarang untukmembawa dan membaca tulisan yang
mengandung nama Allah SWT atau nama yang diagungkan seperti nama para
malaikat. Atau nama nabi SAW.
Dalilnya adalah apa yang dilakukan oleh Rasulullah SAW bila masuk ke
tempat buang hajat, beliau mencopot cincinnya. Sebab di cincin itu
terukir kata "Muhammad Rasulullah."
Dari Anas bin Malik ra berkata bahwa Rasulullah SAW bila masuk ke WC
meletakkan cincinnya. (HR Arba'ah)
2. Dilarang Berbicara Saat Buang Hajat
Di antara adab buang hajat adalah kita dilarang melakukannyasambil
berbicara, apalagi menjawab salam. Dalilnya adalah hadits berikut ini:
Dari Jabir bin Abdillah ra berkata bahwa Rasulullah SAW bersabda, "Bila
dua orang di antara kamu buang air, hendaklah saling membelakangi dan
jangan berbicara. Karena sesunguhnya Allah murka akan hal itu.
3. Mengakses Eramuslim di WC
Mengakses eramuslim.com pakai handphone memang menarik dan sangat
praktis, tetapi hindari melakukannya bila di dalam WC, terutama
halaman-halaman yang mengandung ayat Al-Quran.
Kalau sekedar membaca berita dunia atau berita nasional, mungkin tidak
masalah, tetapi jawaban di rubrik ini seringkali mengutip ayat Al-Quran,
hadits atau pun hal-hal suci lainnya.
Wallahu a'lam bishshawab, wassalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
Ahmad Sarwat, Lc
20 June, 2007
Schools to install digital whiteboards
Kapan di Indonesia ya? Kapan
SD Indonesia masih menggunakan papan hitam dan kapur.
Sedih deh.
(NSW,
The interactive whiteboards, along with video-conferencing technology and e-learning tools, will take up $28 million of tomorrow's 2007-08 state budget.
In the western NSW region, 168 of the 202 schools there already have at least one interactive whiteboard, according to the NSW Department of Education and Training.
Paul Loxley, principal at Dubbo South Public School, said interactive whiteboards were "possibly the best teaching tool we've ever had".
Baca terus, dan Lihat gambar di:
16 June, 2007
Seen but not heard, life is tough for forgotten kids
City News - May 24, 2007
Prodita Sabarini, The
Pass a red light in the morning, the children are there; in the day time, the weather-beaten children are there; in the afternoon, as well as the evening, midnight, and even dawn, the children are still there. From toddlers with their mothers sitting on the roadside, up to scruffy pubescent teens, the children are a fixture of traffic lights, public buses and parks.
Data from the Social Affairs Ministry showed the city had some 30,000 street children on 2005. While there has not been another survey since then, volunteer worker Heru Suprapto from the
"It's obvious just by looking at the streets, there are more and more children there," he said. Street children are likely to become victims of violence. Sexual abuse against street children has been frequently reported in the media, the latest case being in Bekasi earlier this month. The body of a six-year-old boy, showing signs of sexual abuse, was found in a cardboard box at a bus stop.
The bitter reality of being young and poor in
The
"The violence faced by the poor is against human rights, but since they're poor they don't have much power to fight back," he said. A skinny 16-year-old boy, Zulfikar, said a public order officer "scraped" him off the street and placed him in the Kedoya Social institution in
He was taken to the
"It's as if, because we're poor, we have no place in this city," said Zulfikar's friend, 17-year-old Dedi Yansen Apriyansyah. Dedi has been on
Arist said the public order bylaw views street children as criminals rather than victims.
The deputy head of the Jakarta Public Order Agency R Sitinjak said public order officers did not commit violence against street children. "There is no such thing," he said. Sitinjak said officers took public order offenders, such as side walk vendors and three-in-one jockeys to the Kedoya rehabilitation institution. "I don't know about violence there since it's run by the social agency," he said.
Arist said public perceptions of street children should also be altered. "Street children are stigmatized as troubled and poor, which stops them from functioning in society," he said. Dedi said that some of his friends were lucky enough to enroll in school. But even there they faced mockery from their fellow students and even their teachers.
Dedi said he aspires to be a journalist. Under the guidance of volunteer workers from The Jakarta Center for Street Children, he produces a weekly bulletin, named Dekkil Pos (an abbreviation of "Dengan kata kita lawan" -- "With words we fight") about life on the streets.
"I'm not that worthless. I can be good at something if I get the chance," he said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Amerika Serikat Sebagai Pelopor Etika Berpakaian
Percaya nggak? Seorang walikota di Negara Bagian Louisiana akan segera mengesahkan sebuah Perda baru: warga
Pak Walikota Carol Broussard mengatakan “Bila daerah kemaluan anda (= celana dalam) menjadi nampak, anda akan ditilang $US 500” (hampir 5 juta rupiah). Juga ada ancaman bahwa para pelanggar bisa dipenjarakan selama 6 bulan!
Kata Pak Walikota, “Daripada memakai celana dengan
Wah, Gubunur Sutiyoso kalah jauh nih. Kalau ada perda seperti itu di
Kenapa tidak ada perda seperti itu di sini ya? Ternyata, pejabat Islam di DKI perlu belajar tentang perasaan malu dan etika berpakain sopan dari orang kafir di Amerika. Lucu sekali.
Story from BBC NEWS
A mayor in the
Delcambre town council unanimously passed the ordinance earlier this week making it a crime to wear trousers that show underwear. "If you expose your private parts, you'll get a fine" of US$500 (£254) Mayor Carol Broussard said. Offenders will also risk up to six months in jail.
Speaking of people who wear saggy trousers, Mr Broussard told the Associated Press news agency: "They're better off taking the pants off and just wearing a dress." Town attorney Ted Ayo said the ordinance expands on the existing state indecent exposure law by adding underwear to the list of forbidden exposures.
"This is a new ordinance that deals specifically with sagging pants," Mr Ayo said. "It's about showing off your underwear in public." Some residents say the ordinance targets blacks, as low-slung trousers are fashionable among hip hop fans. Mr Broussard denied it was racially motivated. "White people wear sagging pants, too," he said.
Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2007/06/14 09:54:01 GMT
© BBC MMVII
15 June, 2007
Indonesia’s Forests Destroyed in 15 years
Reuters
Sunday 03 June 2007
But conservationists say maybe not for long.
Indonesia's rainforests - especially those on Borneo island - are being stripped so rapidly because of illegal logging and palm oil plantations for bio-fuels, they could be wiped out altogether within the next 15 years, some environmentalists say.
"Sixty percent of the protected and conservation areas are already badly damaged due to illegal logging and palm oil plantations," Rully Sumada, a forestry expert with Indonesian environmental group Walhi, told Reuters.
"The deforestation speed is 2.8 million hectares a year. At this rate, by 2012 the forests in Sumatra, Borneo and
But the tropical Southeast Asian country - whose forests are a treasure trove of plant and animal species including the endangered orangutans - has already lost an estimated 72 percent of its original frontier forest.
The biggest threat to the forests of Borneo, and also Aceh on the northernmost tip of
A recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Indonesia-based Telapak said that
Greenpeace's
Merbau is a resilient red hardwood, one of the most valuable in
"The effects of deforestation are crystal clear. Bio-diversity will be destroyed," Masnellyarti Hilman, a deputy minister in
"Not to mention floods, landslides. We see them as a result of massive deforestation by people who do not care about its impact. Although they actually know that one of the conditions to fulfill before cutting trees down is to re-plant, some do, some don't."
Orangutans in Peril
Environmentalists say
The world's second largest palm oil producer already has around 5 million hectares of land planted with oil palm and the government aims to develop between 2-3 million hectares more of oil plantations nationwide by 2010.
Environmentalists say the slash-and-burn technique used to speed up the clearing of land for plantations sends huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and is also destroying several endangered species such as the orangutan and the Sumatran tiger.
According to a recent U.N report compiled using new satellite images and Indonesian government data, orangutan habitat is being lost 30 percent quicker than was previously feared.
It was estimated in 2002 about 60,000 of the shaggy ginger primates were left in the jungles of Borneo and
But experts say the new units remain crippled by a lack of funds, vehicles, weapons and equipment, and face a huge threat from ruthless loggers.
"We allow people to open palm oil plantations as long as they replant. Palm oil plantations open a wide range of jobs but they must not do that in conservation areas," Hilman said.
The palm oil industry defends itself and its methods.
"If there are some endangered species in the area or an area is of high conservation value, then it will not be opened for plantations," Derom Bangun, executive chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association, told Reuters.
"The government has classified areas and has rules and we obey them. It is not what people from outside think that we just come, clear land and burn."
Krisis Air
Assalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
Hari ini saya telfon orang tua di
Orang dilarang mencucui mobil kecuali dia menggunakan air bekas. Jadi banyak orang malah tidak pernah mencuci mobil.
Dan warga disuruh mandi dengan berdiri di dalam ember besar untuk menangkap air bekasnya. Air itu kemudian dituangkan ke bunga di depan rumah (kalau masih ada yang hidup) karena rumput dan bunga dilarang disiram pakai selang (air PAM). Hanya boleh dengan air bekas.
Bagi yang punya kolam renang, tidak boleh diisi dengan air PAM. Harus pesan truk tangki air yang akan antarkan air ke rumah. (Saya tidak diberitahu air itu dari mana: bekas dari industri barangkali). Dan kalau air di kolam renang surut karena menguap, tetap tidak boleh ditambahkan dengan PAM. Harus membuat bak air sendiri yang bisa menangkap air hujan dari atap rumah (walaupun air hujan sedikit), atau biarkan kolam renang setengah kosong.
Betapa nikmatnya tinggal di
Krisis ini melanda seluruh
Enakan di sini ya? Saya berfikir, kalau banjir lagi tahun depan, gubernur baru bisa mengekspor air banjir itu ke
Ketika anda mandi nanti, jangan lupa bersyukur kepada Allah swt. yang Maha Kuasa atas persediaan air di dunia ini.
Wassalamu’alaikum wr.wb.,
14 June, 2007
Bersyukurlah anda tidak tinggal di Zimbabwe
Diperkirakan ekonomi negara
Inflasi sudah mencapai 3.714% (tingkat inflasi paling tinggi di dunia). Semua orang biasa menjadi tidak sanggup belanja di toko dan akan kembali menggunakan sistem tawar-menawar (barter system) seperti di zaman dulu (sebelum ada uang).
Tender untuk bisnis atau biaya suatu jasa hanya berlaku untuk satu hari sekarang, bahkan sampai satu jam saja. (Setelah satu hari/jam, biaya akan meningkat dan harus membuat perkiraan baru!)
Sebagian dari perusahaan sudah membayar karyawannya dengan makanan, bukan uang.
Semua toko menaikkan harganya 2 kali lipat setiap dua minggu. Kalau ini berlangsung terus, diperkirakan inflasi akan mencapai tingkat 512.000% dalam 7 bulan terakhir tahun ini, dan ekonomi negara akan hancur total.
Pelayanan listrik (PLN) dan air (PAM) sudah hampir berhenti. Bulan kemarin listrik disediakan untuk 4 jam per hari saja.
Diperkirakan hanya 1 dalam setiap 4
UN World Food Programme menganggap 4 juta
Presiden Robert Mugabe menyangkal keadaan krisis ini adalah disebabkan kebijakan2 dia (yang dinilai menghancurkan ekomoni negara). Katanya, ini hasil dari konspirasi barat untuk menjatuhkan pemerintahannya.
Hmmmm….
Enak
Jangan banyak ngomel…. Bersyukur deh!
Inflation: 3,714%
Unemployment: 80%
4m need food aid
Life expectancy: 37 (men), 34 (women)
07 June, 2007
John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire"
Transkrip/Artikel ini sangat panjang tetapi juga sangat menarik.
Coba membacanya pelan-pelan (kalau kurang lancar dalam bahasa Inggris).
Mau tahu siapa yang menguasaikan dunia ini? Baca saja...
Coba membacanya pelan-pelan (kalau kurang lancar dalam bahasa Inggris).
Mau tahu siapa yang menguasaikan dunia ini? Baca saja...
John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption"
Interview With Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!
Tuesday 05 June 2007
Today, we spend the hour with a man who claims to have worked deep inside the forces driving corporate globalization. In his first book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", John Perkins told the story of his work as a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S. government and corporations - what he calls the "corporatocracy." John Perkins has just come out with a new book. It's called "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption." [includes rush transcript] Hundreds of thousands of protesters are gathering in
Today, we spend the hour with a man who claims to have worked deep inside the forces driving corporate globalization. In his first book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", John Perkins told the story of his work as a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S. government and corporations - what he calls the "corporatocracy." Perkins says he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies.
John Perkins has just come out with a new book. It's called "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption." John Perkins joins me now in the firehouse studio.
John Perkins, From 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described "economic hit man." He is the author of the new book "The Secret History of the American Empire."
Transcript
Amy Goodman: Hundreds of thousands of protesters are gathering in Germany ahead of tomorrow's G8 meeting of the world's richest nations. The three-day summit is being held in the coastal resort of Heiligendamm. German police have spent $18 million to erect an eight-mile-long, two-meter-high fence around the meeting site.
Global warming will be high on the agenda. Going into the meeting, President Bush has proposed to sideline the UN-backed Kyoto Accords and set voluntary targets on reducing emissions of greenhouse gas. Other top issues will include foreign aid and new trade deals.
Today, we spend the hour with a man who claims to have worked deep inside the forces driving corporate globalization. In his first book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins told the story of his work as a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into creating policy favorable to the US government and corporations, what he calls the "corporatocracy." John Perkins says he helped the US cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies. John Perkins has just come out with his second book on this issue. It's called The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals and the Truth about Global Corruption. John Perkins joins us now in the firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!
John Perkins: Thank you, Amy. It's great to be here.
Amy Goodman: Well, before we go further, "economic hit men" - for those who haven't heard you describe this, let alone describe yourself as this, what do you mean?
John Perkins: Well, really, I think it's fair to say that since World War II, we economic hit men have managed to create the world's first truly global empire, and we've done it primarily without the military, unlike other empires in history. We've done it through economics very subtly.
We work many different ways, but perhaps the most common one is that we will identify a third world country that has resources our corporations covet, such as oil, and then we arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or one of its sister organizations. The money never actually goes to the country. It goes instead to US corporations, who build big infrastructure projects - power grids, industrial parks, harbors, highways - things that benefit a few very rich people but do not reach the poor at all. The poor aren't connected to the power grids. They don't have the skills to get jobs in industrial parks. But they and the whole country are left holding this huge debt, and it's such a big bet that the country can't possibly repay it. So at some point in time, we economic hit men go back to the country and say, "Look, you know, you owe us a lot of money. You can't pay your debt, so you've got to give us a pound of flesh."
Amy Goodman: And explain your history. What made you an economic hit man?
John Perkins: Well, when I graduated from business school at Boston University, I was recruited by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and perhaps most secretive spy organization.
Amy Goodman: People sometimes think the CIA is that, but the NSA, many times larger.
John Perkins: Yeah, it is larger. It's much larger. At least it was in those days. And it's very, very secretive. We all - there's a lot of rumors. We know quite a lot about the CIA, I think, but we know very, very little about the NSA. It claims to only work in a cryptography, you know, encoding and decoding messages, but in fact we all know that they're the people who have been listening in on our telephone conversations. That's come out recently. And they're a very, very secretive organization.
They put me through a series of tests, very extensive tests, lie detector tests, psychological tests, during my last year in college. And I think it's fair to say that they identified me as a good potential economic hit man. They also identified a number of weaknesses in my character that would make it relatively easy for them to hook me, to bring me in. And I think those weaknesses, I [inaudible] might call, the three big drugs of our culture: money, power and sex. Who amongst us doesn't have one of them? I had all three at the time.
And then I joined the Peace Corps. I was encouraged to do that by the National Security Agency. I spent three years in Ecuador living with indigenous people in the Amazon and the Andes, people who today and at that time were beginning to fight the oil companies. In fact, the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the world has just been brought by these people against Texaco, Chevron. And that was incredibly good training for what I was to do.
And then, while I was still in the Peace Corps, I was brought in and recruited into a US private corporation called Charles T. Main, a consulting firm out of Boston of about 2,000 employees, very low-profile firm that did a tremendous amount of work of what I came to understand was the work of economic hit men, as I described it earlier, and that's the role I began to fulfill and eventually kind of rose to the top of that organization as its chief economist.
Amy Goodman: And how did that tie to the NSA? Was there a connection?
John Perkins: You know, that's what's very interesting about this whole system, Amy, is that there's no direct connection. The NSA had interviewed me, identified me and then essentially turned me over to this private corporation. It's a very subtle and very smart system, whereby it's the private industry that goes out and does this work. So if we're caught doing something, if we're caught bribing or corrupting local officials in some country, it's blamed on private industry, not on the US government.
And it's interesting that in the few instances when economic hit men fail, what we call "the jackals," who are people who come in to overthrow governments or assassinate their leaders, also come out of private industry. These are not CIA employees. We all have this image of the 007, the government agent hired to kill, you know, with license to kill, but these days the government agents, in my experience, don't do that. It's done by private consultants that are brought in to do this work. And I've known a number of these individuals personally and still do.
Amy Goodman: In your book, The Secret History of the American Empire, you talk about taking on global power at every level. Right now, we're seeing these mass protests taking place in Germany ahead of the G8 meeting. Talk about the significance of these.
John Perkins: Well, I think it's extremely significant. Something is happening in the world today, which is very, very important. Yeah, as we watched the headlines this morning, you know, what we can absolutely say is we live in a very dangerous world. It's also a very small world, where we're able to immediately know what's going on in Germany or in the middle of the Amazon or anywhere else. And we're beginning to finally understand around the world, I think, that the only way my children or grandchildren or any child or grandchild anywhere on this planet is going to be able to have a peaceful, stable and sustainable world is if every child has that. The G8 hasn't got that yet.
Amy Goodman: Explain what the Group of Eight are.
John Perkins: Well, the Group of Eight are the wealthiest countries in the world, and basically they run the world. And the leader is the United States, and it's actually the corporations within these companies - countries, excuse me - that run it. It's not the governments, because, after all, the governments serve at the pleasure of the corporations. In our own country, we know that the next two final presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat alike, are going to each have to raise something like half a billion dollars. And that's not going to come from me and you. Primarily that's going to come from the people who own and run our big corporations. They're totally beholden to the government. So the G8 really is this group of countries that represent the biggest multinational corporations in the world and really serve at their behest.
And what we're seeing now in Europe - and we're seeing it very strongly in Latin America, we're seeing it in the Middle East - we're seeing this huge undercurrent of resistance, of protest, against this empire that's been built out of this. And it's been such a subtle empire that people haven't been aware of it, because it wasn't built by the military. It was built by economic hit men. Most of us aren't aware of it. Most Americans have no idea that these incredible lifestyles that we all lead are because we're part of a very vicious empire that literally enslaves people around the world, misuses people. But we're beginning to understand this. And the Europeans and the Latin Americans are at the forefront of this understanding.
Amy Goodman: Well, we're going to talk to you about Congo, about Lebanon, about the Middle East, about Latin America, much of what you cover in The Secret History of the American Empire, when we come back.
[break]
Amy Goodman: Our guest is John Perkins. From 1971 to '81, he worked for the international consulting firm of Charles T. Main, where he was a self-described "economic hit man." His new book is called The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals and the Truth about Global Corruption. Let's talk back, going to Latin America, about this ChevronTexaco lawsuit.
John Perkins: Well, that's extremely significant. When I was sent to Ecuador as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1968, Texaco had just gone into Ecuador, and the promise to the Ecuadorian people at that time from Texaco and their own politicians and the World Bank was oil is going to pull this country out of poverty. And people believed it. I believed it at the time. The exact opposite has happened. Oil has made the country much more impoverished, while Texaco has made fortunes off this. It's also destroyed vast areas of the Amazon rainforest.
So the lawsuit today that's being brought by a New York lawyer and some Ecuadorian lawyers - Steve Donziger here in New York - is for $6 billion, the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the world, in the name of 30,000 Ecuadorian people against Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron, for dumping over eighteen billion gallons of toxic waste into the Ecuadorian rainforest. That's thirty times more than the Exxon Valdez. And dozens and dozens of people have died and are continuing to die of cancer and other pollution-related diseases in this area of the Amazon. So all this oil has come out of this area, and it's the poorest area of one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. And the irony of that is just so amazing.
But what I think - one of the really significant things about this, Amy, is that this law firm has taken this on, not pro bono, but they expect if they win the case, which they expect to do, to make a lot of money off of it, which is a philosophical decision. It isn't because they wanted to get rich off this. It's because they want to encourage other law firms to do similar things in Nigeria and in Indonesia and in Bolivia, in Venezuela and many other places. So they want to see a business grow out of this, of law firms going in and defending poor people, knowing that they can get a payoff from the big companies who have acted so terribly, terribly, terribly irresponsibly in the past.
And Steve Donziger, the attorney - I was in Ecuador with him just two weeks ago - and one of the very touching things he said is - he's an American attorney with, you know, very good credentials, and he says, "You know, I've seen a lot of companies make mistakes and then try to defend themselves in law courts." And he said, "That's one thing. But in this case, Texaco didn't make mistakes. This was done with intent. They knew what they were doing. To save a few bucks, they killed a lot of people." And now they're going to be forced to pay for that, to take responsibility for that, and hopefully open the door to make many companies take responsibility for the wanton destruction that's occurred.
Amy Goodman: Let's talk about Latin America and its leaders, like Jaime Roldos. Talk about him and his significance. You wrote about him in your first book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
John Perkins: Yeah, Jaime Roldos was an amazing man. After many years of military dictators in Ecuador, US puppet dictators, there was a democratic election, and one man, Jaime Roldos, ran on a platform that said Ecuadorian resources ought to be used to help the Ecuadorian people, and specifically oil, which at that time was just coming in. This was in the late '70s. And I was sent to Ecuador, and I was also sent at the same time to Panama to work with Omar Torrijos, to bring these men around, to corrupt them, basically, to change their minds.
You know, in the case of Jaime Roldos, he won the election by a landslide, and now he started to put into action his policy, his promises, and was going to tax the oil companies. If they weren't willing to give much more of their profits back to the Ecuadorian people, then he threatened to nationalize them. So I was sent down, along with other economic hit men - I played a fairly minor role in that case and a major one in Panama with Torrijos - but we were sent into these countries to get these men to change their policies, to go against their own campaign promises. And basically what you do is you tell them, "Look, you know, if you play our game, I can make you and your family very healthy. I can make sure that you get very rich. If you don't play our game, if you follow your campaign promises, you may go the way of Allende in Chile or Arbenz in Guatemala or Lumumba in the Congo." On and on, we can list all these presidents that we've either overthrown or assassinated because they didn't play our game. But Jaime would not come around, Jaime Roldos. He stayed uncorruptible, as did Omar Torrijos.
And both of these - and from an economic hit man perspective, this was very disturbing, because not only did I know I was likely to fail at my job, but I knew that if I failed, something dire was going to happen: the jackals would come in, and they would either overthrow these men or assassinate them. And in both cases, these men were assassinated, I have no doubt. They died in airplane crashes two months apart from each other in 1981 - single plane; their own private planes crashed.
Amy Goodman: Explain more what happened with Omar Torrijos.
John Perkins: Well, Omar, again, was very stalwartly standing up to the United States, demanding that the Panama Canal should be owned by Panamanians. And I spent a lot of time with Torrijos, and I liked him very, very much as an individual. He was extremely charismatic, extremely courageous and very nationalistic about wanting to get the best for his people. And I couldn't corrupt him. I tried everything I could possibly do to bring him around. And as I was failing, I was also very concerned that something would happen to him. And sure enough - it was interesting that Jaime Roldos's plane crashed in May, and Torrijos said - got his family together and said, "I'm probably next, but I'm ready to go. We've now got the Canal turned over." He had signed a treaty with Jimmy Carter to get the Canal in Panamanian hands. He said, "I've accomplished my job, and I'm ready to go now." And he had a dream about being in a plane that hit a mountain. And within two months after it happened to Roldos, it happened to Torrijos also.
Amy Goodman: And you met with both these men?
John Perkins: Yes, I'd met with both of them.
Amy Goodman: What were your conversations like?
John Perkins: Well, especially with Torrijos, I spent a lot of time with him in some formal meetings and also at cocktail parties and barbecues - he was big on things like that - and was constantly trying to get him to come around to our side and letting him know that if he did, he and his family would get some very lucrative contracts, would become very wealthy, and, you know, warning him. And he didn't really need much warning, because he knew what would be likely to happen if he didn't. And his attitude was, "I want to get done what I can in my lifetime, and then so be it."
And it's been interesting, Amy, that since I wrote the book Confessions, Marta Roldos, who's Jaime's daughter, has come to the United States to meet with me, and I just spent time with her in Ecuador. She is now a member of parliament in Ecuador, just elected, and she married Omar Torrijos's nephew. And it's really interesting to hear their stories about what was going on - she was seventeen at the time her parents - her mother was also in the plane that her father died in; the two of them died in that plane - and then to hear her talk about how her husband, Omar's nephew, was in that meeting when the family was called together and Omar said, "I'm probably next, but I'm ready to go. I've done my job. I've done what I could do for my people. So I'm ready to go, if that's what has to happen."
Amy Goodman: So what were your conversations at the time with other so-called economic hit men? I mean, you became the chief consultant at Charles Main.
John Perkins: Chief economist.
Amy Goodman: Chief economist.
John Perkins: Right. Well, you know, when I was with other people that - we could be sitting at a table, say, in the Hotel Panama, knowing that we're both here to win these guys over, but we also had our official jobs, which were to do studies on the economy, to show how if the country accepted the loan, it was going to improve its gross national product. We would talk about those kinds of things. It's, I suspect, a little bit like if two CIA agents, spies, get together or have a beer together, they don't really talk about what they're really doing beneath the surface, but they've got an official job, too, and that's what you focus on. And, in fact, the two, in my case, are very closely linked.
So we were producing these economic reports that would prove to the World Bank and would prove to Omar Torrijos that if he accepted these huge loans, then his country's gross national product would just mushroom and pull his people out of poverty. And we produced these reports, which made sense from a mathematical econometric standpoint. And, in fact, it often happened that with these loans, the GNP, the gross national product, did increase.
But what also was true, and what Omar knew and Jaime Roldos knew and I was coming to know very strongly, was that even if the general economy increased, the poor people with these loans would get poorer. The rich would make all the money, because most of the poor people weren't even tied into the gross national product. A lot of them didn't even make income. They were living off subsistence farming. They benefited nothing, but they were left holding the debt, and because of these huge debts, their country in the long term would not be able to provide them with healthcare, education and other social services.
Amy Goodman: Talk about Congo.
John Perkins: Oh, boy. The whole story of Africa and the Congo is such a devastating and sad one. And it's the hidden story, really. We in the United States don't even talk about Africa. We don't think about Africa. You know, Congo has something called coltan, which probably most of your listeners may not have even heard of, but every cell phone and laptop computer has coltan in it. And several million people in the last few years in the Congo have been killed over coltan, because you and I and all of us in the G8 countries demand low - or at least we want to see our computers inexpensive and our cell phones inexpensive. And, of course, the companies that make these sell them on that basis, that "Oh, here, mine's $200 less than the other company." But in order to do that, these people in the Congo are being enslaved. The miners, the people mining coltan, they're being killed. There's these vast wars going on to provide us with cheap coltan.
And I have to say, you know, if we want to live in a safe world, we need to be - we must be willing, and, in fact, we must demand that we pay higher prices for things like laptop computers and cell phones and that a good share of that money go back to the people who are mining the coltan. And that's true of oil. It's true of so many resources that we are not paying the true cost, and there's millions of people around the world suffering from that. Roughly 50,000 people die every single day from hunger or hunger-related diseases and curable diseases that they don't get the medicines for, simply because they're part of a system that demands that they put in long hours, and they get very, very low pay, so we can have things cheaper in this country. And the Congo is an incredibly potent example of that.
Amy Goodman: You talk about the so-called defeats in Vietnam and Iraq and what they mean for corporations.
John Perkins: Yeah, well, that's - yeah, we, you and I, look at them as defeats, perhaps, and certainly anybody who lost a child or a sibling or a spouse in these countries look at them as disasters, as defeats, but the corporations made a huge amount of money off Vietnam, the military industry, huge corporations, the construction companies. And, of course, they're doing it in a very, very big way in Iraq. So the corporatocracy, the people that are in fact insisting that our young men and women continue to go to Iraq and fight, they're making a tremendous amount of money. These are not failures for them; they're successes from a very strong economic standpoint. And I know that sounds cynical. I am cynical about these things. I've been there. I've seen it. And, you know, we must learn not to put up with that anymore. All of us.
Amy Goodman: We're talking to John Perkins. His book is The Secret History of the American Empire. It's the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. You talk about Israel being a Fortress America in the Middle East.
John Perkins: I think it's very sad and very telling, once again, that the Israeli people, for the most part, are led to believe that they've been given this land as a payoff, basically, for the Holocaust, because they deserve to be recompensed. And, of course, the Holocaust was terrible, and they do deserve to be taken care of and recompensed and have stability.
But why would we locate that place in the middle of the Arab world, their traditional enemies? Why would we locate that place in such an unstable area? It's because it is serving as a huge fortress for us in the biggest oil fields known in the world today, and we knew this when Israel was located there. And I think the Israeli people have been terribly exploited in this process.
So, in fact, we built this vast military base, armed camp, in the middle of the Middle Eastern oil fields that are surrounded by the Arab communities, and in the process, we've obviously created a tremendous amount of resentment and anger and a situation that it's very difficult to see any positive outcome there. But the fact of the matter is, our having this military base in Israel has been a huge defense for us. It's been a place where we could really launch attacks, rely on. It's been our equivalent of the Crusaders' castles in the Middle East. And it's very, very sad. I think it's extremely sad for the Israeli people that they're caught up in all of this. I think it's extremely sad for the American people. It's extremely sad for the world that this is going on.
Amy Goodman: As we crisscross the globe, John Perkins, which is exaclty what you did in your years as an international consultant, having been groomed by the National Security Agency, but then becoming a top economist in an international consulting firm, you have also written books about Shamanism. You also write about Tibet. Where does Tibet fit into this picture?
John Perkins: Well, you know, I was just in Tibet a couple of years ago, and it was an interesting thing, because I took a group of about thirty people into Tibet with me as part of a non-profit organization. I was leading the trip. And some of these people had been in the Amazon with me, been to other places. And, of course, Tibet right now is - it's very depressing, because the Chinese presence is extremely strong, and you see how the Tibetan culture has been put down. And you're always aware that there's Chinese soldiers and spies all around you. And many of the people on the trip came to the realization, yeah, this terrible here. "Free Tibet," we all know about that, but the ones who had been with me on a trip to the Amazon, where the oil companies and our own military are doing the same things, said, "But doesn't this remind us of what we're doing in so much of the world?" And it's something we tend to forget.
We can all wave banners about "Free Tibet," which we should, but how about freeing the countries that are under our thumb, too? And certainly Tibet is not nearly - well, I hate to say it this way, because some people might disagree with me, but I think Iraq is in worse shape than Tibet is these days, although both of them are in pretty bad shape. But so, what we saw in Tibet is that same kind of model that we're implementing around the world. And yet, most Americans are not aware that we're doing it. They're aware that the Chinese are doing it, but not aware that we're doing it on actually a much bigger level than the Chinese are.
Amy Goodman: John Perkins, talk about your transformation. You were making a lot of money. You were traveling the world. You were in a position where you were meeting presidents and prime ministers of countries, bringing them to their knees. What made you change, and then, ultimately, the decision to write about it?
John Perkins: You know, Amy, when I first got started - I grew up - three, four hundred years of Yankee Calvinism - in New Hampshire and Vermont, with very strong moral principles, came from a pretty conservative Republican family. And all during the ten years that I was an economic hit man, from '71 to '81, I was pretty young, but it bothered my conscience. And yet, everybody was telling me I was doing the right thing. Like you said, presidents of countries, the president of the World Bank, Robert McNamara, patted me on the back. And I was asked to lecture at Harvard and many other places about what I was doing. And what I was doing was not illegal - should be, but it isn't. And yet, in my heart, it always tore at my conscience. I'd been a Peace Corps volunteer. I saw. And as time went by and I began to understand more and more, it got to be more and more difficult for me to continue doing this. I had a staff of about four dozen people working for me. Things were building up.
And then, one day I was on vacation, sailing in the Virgin Islands, and I anchored my little boat off the St. John Island, and I took the dinghy in, and I climbed this mountain on St. John Island in the Virgin Islands up to this old sugar cane plantation in ruins. And it was beautiful. Bougainville. The sun was setting. I sat there and felt very peaceful. And then suddenly, I realized that this plantation had been built on the bones of thousands of slaves. And then I realized that the whole hemisphere had been built on the bones of millions of the slaves. And I got very angry and sad. And then, it suddenly struck me that I was continuing that same process and that I was a slaver, that I was making the same thing happen in a slightly - in a different way, more subtle way, but just as bad in terms of its outcome. And at that point, I made the decision I would never do it again. And I went back to Boston a couple of days later and quit.
Amy Goodman: We're talking to John Perkins, worked for Chas Main International Consulting Firm, self-described "economic hit man," now has written a new book called The Secret History of the American Empire. When we come back from break, we'll talk about - well, from quitting the American empire to taking it on. Stay with us.
[break]
Amy Goodman: We're talking to John Perkins. His second book on the issue of economic hit men is called The Secret History of the American Empire. John Perkins is a New York Times bestselling author. His book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man took this country by storm.
So, you quit, but that was one step. Writing about it was another. Talk about your attempts over time.
John Perkins: Oh, yes. After I quit, I tried several times to write the book that became Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and each time I reached out to other economic hit men I had worked with or jackals to try to get their stories, word got out and I was threatened. I had a young daughter at the time. She's now twenty-five. And I also was offered some bribe. In fact, I accepted a bribe of about a half a million dollars. It's what's called a legal bribe, but it's a bribe, and it was given to me with the condition that I not write the book. There was no question about that. I describe it in detail.
And I assuaged my guilt by putting a lot of that money into nonprofits I had formed - Dream Change and Pachamama Alliance - that are helping Amazonian people fight oil companies, so to assuage my guilt some. But I didn't write the story. And this happened a number of times, and I would find one excuse or another, and I wrote other books about indigenous people. I worked with these people. I wrote the books you mentioned earlier about Shamanism and so forth, and so I kind of, you know, distracted myself and assuaged my guilt and went on with this.
And then, on 9/11, I was in the Amazon with the Shuar people, had taken a group of nonprofit people in to learn from indigenous people in the Amazon. But shortly after that, I came up to New York to Ground Zero, and as I stood there looking down into that terrible pit, that smoldering - and it still smelled of burning flesh - I realized that I had to write the book, I could no longer defer, that the American people had no understanding of why so many people around the world are angry and frustrated and terrified, and that I had to take responsibility for what happened at 9/11. In fact, we all have to take a certain responsibility, which is not in any way to condone mass murder by anybody ever - I'm not condoning that in any way - but I did realize that the American people needed to understand why there's so much anger around the world. I had to write the book.
So this time I didn't tell anyone I was writing it, and even my wife and daughter, they knew I was writing something, but they didn't know what. I didn't reach out to other people. It made it a little more difficult to write it. But finally I got it in the hands of a very good New York agent, and he sent it out to publishers. At that point, this manuscript becomes my best insurance policy, as at that point if something strange happens to me, including now, suddenly the book will sell. Even though it's been a bestseller for a long time, it will sell a lot more copies, if something - people sometimes laugh and say, "Do you worry that your publisher may be trying to assassinate you, because it would certainly help book sales?" I don't worry about it. But, you know, so at that point, once I got the manuscript there, it became my insurance policy.
Amy Goodman: You write "A jackal is born," about Jack Corbin. Who is he?
John Perkins: Well, Jack Corbin - and that's not his real name, but he's a real person - he's alive and well today, working for us in Iraq. But he is a jackal, he is an assassin. And one of the most fascinating stories, I think, involves Seychelles, which is a small county, an island country, off the coast of Africa. And it happens to be located where Diego Garcia, one of the United States's most strategic air bases, is located.
There's a long history behind Diego Garcia. But in the late '70s, Seychelles had a president that was very friendly to us, James Mancham, and he was overthrown in a bloodless coup by [France-Albert] Rene, a socialist. And [France-Albert] Rene threatened to get us out of Diego Garcia, to expose the real facts behind the terrible things that went on to put us in Diego Garcia. There's a lot of details that I won't get into now.
In any case, I was called down to Washington to meet with a bunch of retired generals and admirals, who were trying - who were all working as economic hit men for consulting firms, and they were prepping me to go in and corrupt [France-Albert] Rene and bring him around to our side. But before doing that, they wanted to find out whether he was really corruptible or not. And it was sort of interesting that they - one of these generals had a young protégé, a young man, and the general had noticed that a high diplomat from Seychelles in Washington had a young wife who was not very happy. So this young man was sent in to seduce the wife and compromise her and get information from her, which is a fairly common tactic. Sex is a big thing in this game of diplomacy and economic hit people. And sort of an interesting bi-story here is that one time at lunch this general came back, and he said, "You know, I think you economic hit men have a much tougher job than you women counterpart, because," he said, "now this woman, the diplomat's wife, is buying into this with the young man, but she wants to be convinced that he loves her. So, you know, my god, you know, I'd give the keys to the Pentagon to a young lady just for some good sex. I don't need to be convinced that she loves me. But I guess that's the difference between men and women." That's what he said. Kind of interesting. Anyway, in the end, the young man did get the information from the wife, and the information was that [France-Albert] René was not corruptible. There was no point in even trying.
Amy Goodman: Also, Diego Garcia is very significant as a military base.
John Perkins: Extremely significant. And it was used - it's being used in Afghanistan and Iraq and sorties that we fly in to Africa or any part of that world. In any case, I was called off the job, and a little while later a team of assassins were sent in from South Africa - forty-five, forty-six, I can't remember the exact number - were sent in as a rugby team to bring in Christmas gifts to children of the Seychelles, but their real job was to overthrow the government and assassinate Rene. At the time, I didn't know these individuals. Now, I know Jack Corbin. I know him very well, personally. I've met him since. Our paths crossed back then, but we didn't know each other.
Amy Goodman: What exactly did he do?
John Perkins: Well, the team went in, and they were apprehended at the airport. A security guard discovered a hidden weapon on one of them. A huge gun battle broke out at the Mahi airport, and these mercenaries were surrounded by perhaps a thousand soldiers on the outside. Jack told me it was one of the few times in his life where he figured he was going to die and had time to think about it. Many times he could have died, but he just reacted quickly. And they didn't know what to do, but eventually an Air India 707 came into view and asked permission to land, and they gave it permission to land. As soon as it landed, they hijacked it, and they flew it back to Durban, South Africa.
And I'm now watching this on the national news. This was now on US national news, and I'm knowing that this is - I didn't know what was going to happen when I was called off the case, but now I'm seeing it unfold. And to the world, what we saw is this plane, Air India 707, flies into Durban, South Africa, surrounded by South African security guards. The men on the plane give themselves up. They march off. They're sent to court and then sentenced to prison, and some, I think, to execution, and that's the end of the story, as far as we know.
Now that I know Jack, what actually happened was when the plane was surrounded, the security forces got on the telephone with the plane and discovered there was their good friends, their teachers in fact, on the plane. They worked out a deal. The men gave themselves up. They did spend three months in prison. They had their own wing with television, etc., and then were quietly released after three months. A lot of those same men, that team, a lot of them today are in Iraq working for us there, doing things that, you know, our soldiers are forbidden from doing. And they're making very good money doing it.
Amy Goodman: Who is this man, so-called Jack Corbin, working for today in Iraq?
John Perkins: Well, he works for a private company in Iraq that has a contract, you know, that comes through the Pentagon, CIA, one of those organizations. So, like so much of this work, there's a tremendous, as you've reported on this program, a tremendous number of these mercenaries there. Jack Corbin and his people are at the very top of that level. They're the extremely skilled ones who do the really delicate work. We've also got a lot of people working for Blackwater and others that, you know, are not quite as skilled and are just out there doing kind of the grunt work. But there's all kinds at that level.
Amy Goodman: Bechtel, Bolivia, the water wars. You're based in the Bay Area, where Bechtel is based, and the continent you know best, South America.
John Perkins: Yeah, well, you know, Bechtel was given the franchise to own and operate the water system of Cochabamba, Bolivia, third largest city in that country. And the World Bank forced this to happen. It's so sad. When it happened, suddenly the price of water quadrupled for some people, went up by tremendous amounts. People could no longer afford water. Cochabamba is a pretty poor city. There's sections of it that are extremely poor.
And so, the people took to the streets. They rebelled against this. There were riots. And Bechtel dug in its heels, but eventually they threw Bechtel out of Bolivia. Bechtel then sued Bolivia for $50 million in a European court, because they couldn't sue in a US court, because of the laws between Bolivia and the US. And then Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia, and very shortly after that, Bechtel dropped its lawsuit. But it was interesting that the lawsuit was for lost profits that they hadn't been able to realize because they had been thrown out for doing things that were so onerous to the people there.
Amy Goodman: John Perkins, what do you see as the solutions right now?
John Perkins: Well, you know, Amy, this empire that we've created really has an emperor, and it's not the president of this country. The President serves, you know, for a short period of time. But it doesn't really matter whether we have a Democrat or a Republican in the White House or running Congress; the empire goes on, because it's really run by what I call the corporatocracy, which is a group of men who run our biggest corporations. This isn't a conspiracy theory. They don't need to conspire. They all know what serves their best interest. But they really are the equivalent of the emperor, because they do not serve at the wish of the people, they're not democratically elected, they don't serve any limited term. They essentially answer to no one, except their own boards, and most corporate CEOs actually run their boards, rather than the other way around. And they are the power behind this.
And so, if we want to turn this around, we have to impact them very strongly, which means that we have to change the corporations, which is their power base. And what I feel very strongly is that today corporations exists for the primary purpose of making large profits, making a few very rich people a lot richer on a quarterly basis, on a daily basis, on a very short-term basis. That shouldn't be. There is no reason for that to be.
Corporations have been defined as individuals. Individuals have to be good citizens. Corporations need to be good citizens. They need to take - their primary goal must be to take care of their employees, their customers and all the people around the world who provide the resources that go into making this world run, and to take care of the environments and the communities where those people live.
We must get the corporations to redefine themselves, and I think it's very realistic that we can do so. Every corporate executive out there is smart enough to realize that he's running a very failed system. As an economist, as a rational person, nobody can conclude anything otherwise. If you look at the fact that less than 5% of the world's population live in the United States and we consume more than 25% of the world's resources and create over 30% of its major pollution, you can only conclude that we've created a very flawed and failed system. This is not a model that can be sold to the Chinese or the Indians or the Africans or the Middle Easterners or the Latin Americans. We can't even continue with it ourselves. It has to change. And corporate executives know that. They're smart individuals. I believe that they want to see change.
And when we have really pushed them to change, we've been extremely successful. For example, we've got them to clean up rivers that were terribly polluted in the 1970s in this country. We got them to get rid of the aerosol cans that were destroying the ozone layer. We got them to change their policies toward hiring and promoting minorities and women. We've gotten them to put seatbelts in cars and airbags, against their initial resistance. We've got them to change tremendously in any specific area where we've set out to do that.
Now, it behooves us, we must convince them that their corporations need to be institutions to make this a better world, rather than institutions that serve a few very rich people and their goal is to make those people even richer. We need to turn this around. We must.
Amy Goodman: I want to ask one last quick question on Ecuador, and that is the death of Ecuador's Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, who died in a helicopter crash last year near the Manta US Air Base installation. Do you know anything about that?
John Perkins: Well, yeah. I just came from Ecuador, and everybody is talking about it, because the same thing happened to Jaime Roldos's minister of defense before he was assassinated. And the fact that it happened next to the US air base in Manta and it was a freak crash, two helicopters collidng, the similarities between what happened to Jaime Roldos, people all through Ecuador are saying this was a warning to Rafael Correa, the new president of Ecuador.
Amy Goodman: We're going to have to leave it there. John Perkins, thanks for joining us. John Perkins's new book is called The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals and the Truth about Global Corruption.
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