Thursday, June 30, 2005

Do You Mean the Street, or the War Hero?

Many cities in Java name their streets over war heroes'. Jalan (literally mean: street) Sudirman1 or Jalan Diponegoro2, for instance. I find little uses of this convention. I mean, unless it helps us in finding our ways through town, it doesn't do anything but confuse people in different cities. To honor the heroes? How can we honor them if the streets are becoming more popular than the heroes' deeds? Nowadays, many people know by heart what buildings are located at Jalan Sudirman Jakarta. But these same people would think hard before answering what battles the General won.

It'd be a different story if the streets' names actually related to actual history.

A: Okay, where's this Jalan Sentot Prawirodirjo?
B: Wait, there's Jalan Diponegoro! We're going down this road now.
A: So?
B: Sentot Prawirodirjo was Prince Diponegoro's right hand man!
A: Ah, I see. So we turn right...here! There it is!
That way, at least there's a reason for students to learn history. To avoid getting lost. And it's easy to study for tests. Just drive around town.

___________
1: A famous general in the War of Independence against the Dutch Agression
2: A Javanese prince who fought against the Dutch Occupation during 1825-1830 AD


THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

We should make a word for "remembering that we forgot something, but we don't know what it is."

12 comments:

roi said...

hohoho
template baru nih....

Eddy Fahmi said...

kalo di surabaya, panglima sudirman, balik kanan ke basuki rahmat.
jadi bisa disimpulkan mereka berlawanan prinsip? musuh di medan perang? wekekekekkk :D

Unknown said...

Funny stuff. Somehow I have you in my Bloglines subscription, but don't have you in my Blogroll. Need to fix that. I guess you already know Jakartass and Indcoup, and probably Bali Blog and Bali Forum. Great post! Carl

Anonymous said...

hey, template baru ... salam kenal ... *apaan sih?*

Anonymous said...

This is the closest that I can get (Merriam Webster's non dictionary word: http://m-w.com/info/favorite.htm):

Cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you're on the highway

serenity said...

who man, welkom back (ala arnold and karpet welcome) - the javascript for comment doesn't work for sometimes in my compie.. just been wondering when you are going to fix that. Anyway, welcome back means that you haven't wrote as much as u use to, uh.. are you still a writer or changing business already?

Anonymous said...

Yo Man, paling ngga di bandung kalo mo ke jalan merdeka salah satu caranya adalah lewat jalan perintis kemerdekaan....

adhitya said...

Bagus sih kek gitu, orang jawa. Tapi terkadang irritating aja bahwa sampe 'Kapten Bismo' pun dikasih nama jalan. siapa pulaaa itu orang? hehehe

Isman H. Suryaman said...

Yeah, roi. About time, I know.

Atau orang-orang yang ngasih nama punya jagoan masing-masing, kali, mimimama, hehe.

This is the first time I heard Indcoup, Friskodude, but I've subscribed (through) to the others. Thanks.

Salam balik dari template-nya, Q. Kalian jadian, gih.

Whoa, jo. So, basically it claims to be a premonition that we'll forget something after leaving the house. Umm, somehow that hardly sounds like a premonition at all.

I'm still in two industries, serenity: writing and IT. Sometimes one industry demands more time than the other. Which is usually why I vanish for sometime from blogging.

Hehe, setidaknya itu masih masuk akal, anonymous.

Mungkin untuk pelajaran sejarah lokal, Dhit, hehe.

Jakartass said...

Remind me not to forget to remember whatever it is I was about to tell you.

serenity said...

eh man 4th of July kemaren, sutiyoso datang pake busway loh..

Isman H. Suryaman said...

I forgot to remind you not to forget, Jakartass.

Wehehe... pake arak-arakan, nggak, serenity? Ada foto?

Or "Remember not to forget!", Herics.