Category: Around the World

ETHNICITY commonly speaking is seen as the most major sources of conflict within society. Nevertheless, many studies find that ethnicity is not! Continue reading “Ethnicity and Violence”

Continue reading “From Tahitian Hula to Indonesian Angklung: 2009 East West Fest”

NATIONALISM is one of significant subjects and debates in the real politics.

It is a sense that stirs group of human beings in particular territory, which share many similarities and experiences among them, to unite themselves and to form a distinct supra-organization called state. In practice, nationalism is used for the first time as a political banner in the resistance and anti-colonial movement. After that, it is used in many ways, from the political arena to the sport fields.

As a political banner of the resistance movement in modern world, nationalism movement meets its goal following a very severe political turbulence and crisis in one existing polity. After the First World War, for instance, the Ottoman severely lost many of its territory in the Middle East and the Central Asia where the people in those regions found them, culturally and historically, were different with the Turks, and were different among each other’s. Or, following the end of the Second World War, many colonized countries in Asia and Africa, proclaimed their independence from colonizers. The last significant wave of nationalism happened following the downfall of the Soviet Union and socialist block in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. As much as 17 new countries emerged following the end of the Soviet Union and at least sevens new states proclaimed their independence following the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

THE fall of Soeharto in May 1998 and the decline of authoritarian regime in Indonesia followed by people’s great enthusiasm for democracy has gradually and in a sense almost extremely changed both of the country’s political structure and culture.

ROBERT Putnam (1993) and Sheri Berman (1997) discuss the making of civil society in nation state and its role in promoting and extending the values of democratic life in a nation-state. Continue reading “Civil Society Or Masyarakat Madani”

Kartun Sean Delonas di New York Post, edisi 18 Februari 2009. Continue reading “Simpanse yang Ditembak Mati, Obama dan Sang Kartunis”