No, i’m not going to discuss this Ubuntu, but rather what is the philosophy of Ubuntu. And forgive my laziness, because my search come only from wikipedia. Archbishop Desmond Tutu defined ubuntu as :

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

It’s the opposite of envy and jealousy. Chris Abani said in his video :

It’s ubuntu, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.

So, Ubuntu is basically how you can improve the humanity of your community and other people. Nelson Mandela said it best :

A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

Examples? Well, a simple act of kindness to other people really covers it all.

Yesterday, I receive an email that is sent by myself exactly a year ago. Some excerpt from that email :

The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, and sent via FutureMe.org
hello koko satu-agustus-2008,

bagaimana kabarmu? semoga baik2 saja. oke, semoga eloe sudah melupakan surat ini jadi saat kamu menerimanya akan berupa kejutan…haha..bakalan banyak hal yang terjadi dalam diri eloe selama setahun ini…kejadian penting dalam hidup eloe.
< cut here>
semoga sukses dengan pekerjaanmu,
koko satu-agustus-2007

It’s a wake up call, and a gentle reminder that you’re more blessed than you are a year ago. Need some more inspiration? Click here.

If you’re ready to write a letter, here’s the blank paper.

Do you feel bored? Here’s some idea :

1. When you feel bored in a meeting, make some quick notes.
2. Explore wikipedia both English and Indonesia, and you’ll find something like Point Nemo or discover R.A. Kartini
3. Play You Don’t Know Jack.
4. Planning to go on diet? Well, make notes on what you eat using twitter.
5. Check your password strength.
6. Create your own business card online.
7. Watch inspirational speaker on TED.
8. See the world in numbers.
9. Clean your place in five minutes.
10. Organise your RSS Reader.

I’ve read about happiness almost everywhere in blogosphere. It’s all positive, cheerful, and full of optimism. But is there any side effect when you’re constantly happy? I think so.

1. You cannot enjoy most of popular songs anymore, because basically artists are miserable people. Yeah, you hear about betrayals, goodbyes, unrequited love, and no matter that you do, you feel disconnected from that song. Your favorite song is now Macarena and you dance stupidly following that song.
2. You’ll be considered naïve. People will look at you and comment, “Get real. Don’t be naïve. The world is full of misery. You need stuffs. You need love. You can’t be happy when you’re not rich, etc.”
3. You’re not sincere. Although you’re aware and concern about the problems of the world, just because you’re happy (concern usually corelated with sadness), you don’t think of the problems seriously.
4. You’re guilty of making other people looks shallow. When you say that you’re happy and you don’t need any love and stuff, you make other people look bad and shallow from wanting those and not happy.

Be happy anyway.

My friend said to me the other day, “Parents always want a son or a daughter. They never want the person that happened to be their son or daughter.”

Meaning : people always have this image in their head about somebody else’s character and rarely accept somebody else just the way they are.

Sometimes people even enforce their image to somebody, and when they have resistance, they said, “I don’t like you, you’re not what i imagine in my head.”

And the funny things is, a lot of people that want to fulfill those images that created by others. They are not completely free because their choices are limited by perception by others.

Free yourself from your peers’ opinions, views and all that they think you should be.

Before it’s too late.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. (Kahlil Gibran)

1. And he replied, “My children are not my children. They are my investments. They will took care of me when i’m old.”
2. And she said, “My children are not my children. They are the vessels of all my unfulfilled dreams. My dreams should be their dreams.”
3. And they said, “My children are not my children. They are our footprints left in this world. When people see them, they should see us.”

Happy National Children Day, Kids. Good luck!

vs

* Warning : might contain spoiler *

At first, there’s this movie Jerry Maguire and the famous quotations :

Jerry Maguire: I love you. You… you complete me. And I just…
Dorothy: Shut up, just shut up. You had me at “hello”.

This sentence has been overused all over the world for twelve years. And last week, there’s The Dark Knight and the will-be-famous quotations :

Batman: Why do you wanna kill me?
The Joker: Kill you? I don’t wanna kill you… you complete me.

So, now, the romantic situation changed :

Him : you complete me.
Her : In what way? The Dark Knight way or Jerry Maguire way?
Him :  …….

Picture taken from here and here.

Three signs that your life is photoshopped :

1. You really, really want to know what others think, write and say  about you. Sometimes you even put up an act to please your crowd.
2. You didn’t care about the cost as long as you look “Good” in the eyes of others.
3. You photoshopped other people’s life as well according to your perspective.

Picture taken from xkcd.com