Kegelisahan Generasi Baru

“Portugese, Spaanse, Griekse en Britse jongeren uiten hun woede over gebrek aan een toekomstperspectief.” Begitulah isi berita di koran NRC Handelsblad hari Kamis kemarin. Kegelisahan mereka terutama pemuda dan pemudi di Eropa patut mendapat perhatian. Di Indonesia mungkin juga terjadi kegelisahan yg sama akhir-akhir ini, hanya saja tidak diekspresikan melalui gerakan-gerakan protes yang serupa. Menurut penilaian politikus Spanyol di koran tersebut bahwa para pembuat kebijakan telah menggunakan masa depan sebagai tempat pembuangan sampah jaman sekarang, sebagai tempat untuk masalah-masalah yang tidak terpecahkan.

Banknote

Somehow, I have collected some banknotes from different countries in the past. I was thinking that it was worthy enough to be kept neatly and safely. At least, it was used by everybody to pay the telephone bill, to buy foods and clothes, and all kind of stuffs that people can imagine.

Banknote or what ordinary people will know as money has been created as if we could not live without it. It already becomes the main issue in our daily life. Without money, it will be difficult to survive among the society on earth. It drives people to go to the street begging some amounts of money. Sometimes they put an extra effort to get attention, so that others will give them money without hesitate. A man on street in Rotterdam asks one euro to them who are passing him by, by saying that it’s his birthday. In other places like big cities in Indonesia, some beggars even act as if they are disabled while they are not. It’s amazing!

Only one time I went to The Netherlands with some banknotes of rupiah in my wallet, I could not change them with a good rate. The Money Changer wanted to buy it with a very low price. I was a bit shocked to know when I did similar exchange through the machine which is called ATM, it came out with a good rate which I mean as noted on the formal exchange rate. It seemed that the papers were not worthy enough in The Netherlands, so I decided to keep the papers. Yes, I call it paper because they are just like pieces of painted papers after all. And, how they become such a valuable thingy, I need more some studies about it because I’ve heard that nowadays it is based on trust.

Money is trustworthy?!?!

Pim Fortuyn

It's about Rotterdam at the beginning of the second millenium, when the whole world was still shocked by the September Eleven incident, then The Netherlands was shocked by the death of Pim Fortuyn. He was a politician from a party which talks about 'livable', and murdered in May 2002.

I barely know Pim Fortuyn, but I'm interested to write a bit about him in my blog, because it relates to my own life-story as I started to get to know The Netherlands on my own footstep.