Fauzan Erich Emmerling

World Cup 2010 is here and soccer fever is everywhere. As a soccer fan and a player, I followed the world cup games that is currently in the last few games of the preliminary round, a decisive time for teams to break into the knockout stage. I rememberred when I was 6 years old. It was the time of World Cup 1990. My family watched the final between Germany and Argentina in which the Germans won by 1-0. The goal was scored by Andreas Brehme from the penalty spot. That was my first time watching a world cup match and as a half-German I fell in love with Die Nationalmannschaft with Jürgen Klinsmann being my favourite player. During the last 20 years I've witnessed Germany's matches. I saw them lift 2 trophies, World Cup 1990 and Euro 1996. I witnessed Klinsmann's upset face when they lost against Bulgaria in 1994 and Croatia in 1998. I've witnessed changes in the trend from having mostly 'experienced' (old) players into the team of young guns Germany is in...

I started using the internet back in 1998. I was amazed by the things I found on the net back then and I believe that the internet will be very useful in the future. That is also one of the reasons why I took information technology for my bachelor degree and continue to dig deeper into the usage of the net. After years of wandering around the net, I finally say a really big thank you to the internet because of the story I'll tell you next. In 2010, 12 years after my first use, the internet rewarded me nicely. My father, Kurt Adalbert Emmerling, is the youngest of four, Bert, Erich, Ingeborg, and himself. He was born in Indonesia on June 29, 1938. He spent his childhood in Bogor, a city south of Jakarta famous for the Raffles Botanical garden. He was really close with his older brother, Erich. Now, just by reading the name, you can tell where I got my middle name from. Around the late 1940s, my dad lived in a boarding house separated from his family. He went to school and then...

Lately there's this wave of protest across Indonesia due to the attack launched by Israel on the Mavi Marmara Ship. Everyone's shouting at the government and condemning the action. Most of the protesters are angry because 12 Indonesians were aboard the ship with 2 injured due to the attack. What they shouted was mostly about helping their fellow Moeslems in in the Gaza strip. They feel that helping fellow Moeslems is the most important thing to do. Nothing wrong with that, but deep inside I feel that this is a false form of solidarity. Most Indonesian Moeslems feel strong relationship and solidarity with those Moeslems in the middle-east region. A view that, in my humble opinion, blinds them from objectively seeing the actual fundamental root cause of the Israel - Palestine conflict. It's basically a conflict fighting for their territory. It will be the same conflict even if Palestine is inhabited by Hindus or Buddhist or whatever other religion. The conflict has nothing ...

Welcome to the world full of hatred and greed. A world where differences are treated like sins. A world where violence is the first, not the last resort. Humans have forgotten so many values, important and fundamental values I should say. Now humans let their anger control themselves and destroy their own world. Some people say that they care about peace, but still they try to make peace by performing violence. In the end, violence is the one that will be harvested. What happenned to peace? What happened to unity? What happened to tolerance? What happened to the feeling of care for fellow human beings? Even animals care about their own kind and they do not prey their own kind. Why do we humans kill other humans and take advantage from others? This world is now deteriorating, not slowly but fast. If everyone goes by this direction we're heading into, we'll see the end of mankind anytime soon. When greed, hatred and violence control people's lives, the world is not goin...