They Say The Law is not Creative
When I first got into law school, I had a dream of turning this country into a better place for its people. I graduated last February and the dream has been reduced into a hope that I could still contribute something for the country. Most people have been deceived by the notion that studying law means memorizing thousands of rules. They say, being a lawyer, you’re either a slave or a corruptor. Whatever you do, it will be fenced by the regulation and there will be no place for imagination.
Having been colonized by the Dutch for the supposedly three centuries, a lot of Indonesian laws were derived from the Dutch. Even now, the Netherland remains as the top choice for advance studies for Indonesian law students. I often think about the Netherland sometimes and wonder how on earth our law implementation could be so unalike between each other. Indonesia is infamous for its level of corruption, while the Netherland is considered as one of the cleanest countries in the world.
During my time in law school, we would be frustrated over the incoherence and overlapping of our own laws. If the law is rigid, you can’t move. If the law is flexible, you have no certainty of where you can move to. I was taught that people change. A nation changes. The law should be able to adjust to a social situation of a certain time. The Netherland reviews its laws every ten years. They adapt. For a nation who grabbed its own independence with its own hands, it’s ironic how Indonesia doesn’t seem to learn.
They say the law is strict, that there’s no fun in it. They say that to be a good lawyer, you only need an outstanding debating skill. I say, they should try making a law out of the facts of their lives. The Netherland is one of the few countries where it’s legal to marry anyone and consume a certain (supposedly) forbidden plant. Don’t you ever wonder how such laws could be passed when the rest of the world seemed to be unwilling to entertain the idea?
Being a law student, I learned that it was a tough job to listen to people and cater their needs in one single document of law. How can you rule a society with one sentence? How can you convince people to follow the rule in one sentence? How can you reduce everything to one sentence and yet that one sentence covers everything? Being a lawyer means you have to have the skill of a poet: concise and romantic. That simple. Unfortunately, most people lack the imagination to believe it. The Dutch believe it. Why can’t we?
By Fallissa Ananda Putri
Day #74
I don’t know what my purpose is yet, but I know what I’m gonna do until next year. I’ve decided to do this and screw what everybody else got to say. Including you, Mom. I’m an executive manager in a music school and you’ll see what I’ll become. I’m gonna make that trip around the world. I’m gonna make these stories of mine published.
Day #72: Caught the Flu
Was supposed to work in the morning but dismissed it by pretending to catch the flu. Not that I wasn’t exactly healthy anyway. I could feel a flu coming, thus I needed the extra sleep. Especially when I just arrived from Bali after midnight. God, the amount of tasks I had to catch up. Started to work in the afternoon, dealing with schedule and students’ parents. Decided that this was what I wanted to do until next year, and probably next years to come. A member of the family still urged me to apply to a government-run oil and gas company in which I had no interest in whatsoever. I declined her offer kindly. Had dinner with Ci Ajeng in Radja Ketjil. The restaurant is always such a heaven. Felt like flu fly away, or maybe it was because the sky dining rooftop wasn’t that chilly. I felt content and discontent at the same time. I missed someone and I hated myself for it. I’m almost 23 and I still feel like 13.
Day #71: Home
It was unexpected that someone would walk along the beach when I’d stopped crying last night. It was dark, I didn’t even get to see his face that clear. The lighting was minimal, especially with the moon hiding behind the clouds. We didn’t exactly introduce ourselves in the beginning and somehow we just started talking. He was from Bangladesh, a heart doctor with two children in an unhappy marriage. He couldn’t divorce his wife in order to avoid the social judgment. Funny how life isn’t that much different in Asia. And we cover the whole anthropogenic races, mind you. In exchange, I told him my life story. There is something about a faceless stranger that makes you trust him. Maybe it’s the knowing that you’ll never see him again. I told him everything, and that was when I realized and admitted that I was still in love with the same person I was in love with three years ago. I should be ashamed, but all I felt was pain.
This morning, I took over the cashier duty alone because my partner was being a jerk. Second-day period. Always a justified reason to have a bad trip. Finished at 10 in the morning. Should have spent the whole day looking for mushroom in Kuta, but I was so tired. I ended up sleeping until it was time to go to the airport. Took the almost-midnight flight. Home. Finally. I hated Nusa Dua already.
Day #70: Gala Dinner
Stood by the cashier desk once again. By now, I’d handled almost 50,000 USD I think. In cash. The dollars smell awesome, and if only I could run away with the money, I’d certainly use the money to visit Jillian in the US for her wedding. To be honest, these ASEAN and US trips are my only motivation to earn money at the moment. Bali was still boring and I was looking to get some mushroom in Kuta, but I couldn’t go anywhere. Read Discover Magazine again to kill time, while my two workmates talked with this fly guy who danced to SNSD when work was low. K-Pop is freaking everywhere.
I thought of missing the Gala Dinner, because really, what would I do there besides eating? Oh yeah, exactly, eating. Decided to go cos I was hungry. Let’s see how doctors have fun.
The gala dinner was very fancy, but honestly? I don’t think the food was that great. We watched a couple of traditional dances. Always fascinated with those colors in their costumes. Ate some more, and it still didn’t taste like a gala dinner. Then the band played and I was suddenly aware that I came alone. People danced and I hurt. Damn period. These doctors danced to Volare, Livin La Vida Loca, and the freaking Black Eyed Peas. They looked like they were having fun. Suddenly I remembered myself telling this guy that I hated people, and he told me that was why people hated me. Is that so?
The gala dinner was over, and I walked back to the next hotel. That was where I stayed. I passed the lame, empty beach in the lame, empty Nusa Dua. There was no moon. The beach was waveless. All I saw was black, and black, and black. I just couldn’t take it. I sat down on the sand and started to cry.
Day #69: Congress, Day 2
Made a deal with my cashier-mate that we would do the job in shifts. He would take the 7am-2pm, I’d take the rest. Finally, woke up late and missed the breakfast. Spent the morning reading Negeri 5 Menara and it was boring. Didn’t really feel like going outside. Bali was still cold. Or was it just my room? Looked around the room and it was empty. And dirty. Exactly like my own bedroom. Roommate never came. Busy with her own duty in the congress. Kept reminding myself of the Vietnam-Thailand trip on why I agreed to go to Bali in the first place. Nusa Dua was still lame. Took over the cashier booth in the afternoon. Traffic was empty. Asian doctors still had problems speaking English. Wasted my time reading Discover magazines until 9pm. But hey, I created a plot for 2012’s SHINee Big Bang! :D
This was not a day wasted.
Day #68: Congress, Day 1
Stayed behind the cashier desk from 7am until 9pm. Only bearable cos I worked with the cutest guy ever. Served with an overpriced lunch box that everyone wasted. Dealt with world doctors with sucky English. Found that these Japanese doctors were cute. SHINee teasers went out and was immediately distracted from work. Bali was still cold. Nusa Dua was lame. Went back to the hotel room tired.
Was this a day wasted?
Day #16: Rihanna vs. Katy Perry
DONE WITH THE THESIS! Retrieved 13 hard copies of my thesis in the morning and waited for the faculty administration to finish taking care of the presentation invitations. My presentation is on Wednesday and I have to kick ass if I want to pass with flying colours. I don’t really care. We’re all gonna pass anyway. My only concern for the day was the length I had to take to deliver the 6 particular invitations, which was the whole Jakarta. Our route was Depok (West Java), Mampang (South Jakarta), Cikini (Central Jakarta), Kayu Putih (East Jakarta), Cipinang (East Jakarta), and Slipi (West Jakarta). We were planning to hit the road at 10 in the morning, but alas, the invitations were finally done at noon. We hit the road around 2PM and it caused such a worry if we would deliver the invitations in time. I, for one, had to deliver the invitations that day, because I only had one day to study before the presentation.
There were six of us in the car, Sasha, Agip, Nay, Jumel, Naufal, and me. We hit Depok first and learned that the invited teacher couldn’t come, because she broke her hip. Oh well, we moved on. We hit Mampang and dropped our invitations. Then we hit the road again to Cikini. I was the navigator with a map of Jakarta ready on my lap. It was awesome. I didn’t even know I loved reading maps that much. LOL We were stuck in traffic for a bit when we moved to East Jakarta. We also spent some time to look for the right street, because the addresses given to us were not updated. However, other than that, we were actually quite effective in delivering the invitations. We had prepared our route earlier and we took the right roads. We were done six hours later.
Through the whole trip, we listened to six number of stations and tried to count how many times they played Rihanna’s and Katy Perry’s songs, because apparently, they are so happening right now. During the 6-hour trip, in 6 radio stations, we listened to 10 Rihanna’s songs, while Katy Perry only had 5. Whoa, Riri, you must have done something right in your marketing, especially with those duets and all. Katy Perry almost caught up by Adele (3 or 4 songs, cant’ remember), Bruno Mars (3 songs), and Budi (3 or 4 songs). LOL and I thought this was Katy Perry’s week due to her upcoming concert.
I have to admit that the trip was fun. All day, I had my own personal drama inside due to the (I think) unnecessary attention given by a particular someone. I was so used to be ignored by him, and yet today, when I sighed, he asked what was going on. At the end of the day, I’m just glad that we’re still friends and in good terms. I think that’s the best that could have happened between both of us. This is also a sign that I should really get a move on.
Book #2-#6: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison (Part 1)
So I finally started to read the series. I read the first half of the series in three days. To be honest, this series sucks, but I couldn’t stop reading it. Crap. Georgia Nicolson is such a rude, whiny, self-centered teenager, and she’s ruining my English too! I hate the way she has no empathy, sympathy - the slightest regards! - for others. Her only problems are boyfriends, snogging, and what else could she attempt to look pretty and cool. If only her series of boyfriends (or snog-mate in Dave the Laugh’s case) aren’t so adorable, I probably wouldn’t spend so much of my time reading this series. If only Dave the Laugh isn’t such a laugh, I’d probably just close the book already.
At the end of the day, I thought about myself when I was Georgia’s age (14) and to be honest, I wasn’t that much of a difference. I hope I wasn’t as rude though. I faced the same problem she did. And I think the series sounds so harsh, because we’re reading Georgia’s thoughts on it through her diary. There’s no telling what her real words and actions are if we only learn what she thinks about in her head. It’s still scary to read about how ugly the inside of her head is though.
I don’t recommend this series. It’s funny, but not that funny. You won’t miss a thing if you don’t read this series. I’m not even interested to read the last half of the series.
