Untuk komunikasi “biasa” sih tidak menjadi masalah. Artinya orang lain tidak sulit menangkap apa yang ingin saya sampaikan ketika saya berbicara dalam bahasa Inggris. Tapi unsur-unsur yang lebih luas dalam berbahasa, yang memerlukan ungkapan ekspresi dari dalam, saya masih sering gelagapan. Kalau kata istri saya, “rek dicarekan ku basa Sunda” (artinya “mau kumarahi pakai bahasa Sunda”), saking tidak bisanya kita mengungkapkan perasaan dalam bahasa Inggris.

Karena itu saya agak terkejut ketika membaca Warta Berita Radio Nederland Weleldomroep (edisi Bahasa Indonesia, Jumat 08 Desember 2006 13:50 UTC) yang mengutip seorang wartawan di Jakarta yang merasa lebih ekspresif ketika berbicara dalam bahasa Belanda. “Saya merasa lebih bebas dalam bahasa Belanda, saya bisa lebih baik mengungkapkan diri dalam bahasa itu,” begitu katanya.

Senang juga ya bisa mengungkapkan diri dengan sempurna dalam bahasa asing. Atau jangan-jangan, hal ini terjadi karena ketidakmampuan beliau dalam berbahasa Indonesia?

Berikut laporan selengkapnya dari Radio Nederland:

Kita beralih ke topik Indonesia. Ratusan mahasiswa Indonesia belajar bahasa bekas penjajah: bahasa Belanda buka tabu lagi, demikian tulis harian Belanda Het Parool. Dengan belajar bahasa Belanda, para mahasiswa berharap mendapat pekerjaan sebagai penerjemah atau dosen bahasa Belanda. Mahasiswa hukum dan sejarah bahkan wajib belajar bahasa Belanda supaya bisa memahami sumber-sumber yang kebanyakan dalam bahasa Belanda. Pusat Bahasa Erasmus di Jakarta, yang dibangunkan 25 tahun silam adalah tempat untuk belajar bahasa Belanda di Indonesia. “Itulah ciri bahasa Belanda sekarang di Indonesia, bahasa asing modern”, demikian Hans Groot pemimpin lembaga tersebut. Tentulah sejarah penjajahan tidak bisa dilupakan. Dengan menyelenggarakan lomba menyanyi dan bicara dalam bahasa Belanda, Hans Groot berusaha melibatkan lebih banyak mahasiswa dalam lembaga bahasanya. “Sekarang kita punya 1.500 mahasiswa setahun. Kita berkesimpulan bahwa kebijakan imigrasi keras yang dilakukan Den Haag saat ini, juga berdampak untuk kita,” demikian Groot.

Untuk warga Indonesia tertentu yang belajar bahasa Belanda, bahasa itu sebenarnya tetap tabu. Sarah Sayekti yang bekerja sebagai wartawan tv dan penerjemah dimarahi orang tuanya ketika dia bilang ingin belajar bahasa Belanda. “Namun sekarang mereka melihat bahwa saya bisa mendapat gaji dengan menguasai bahasa Belanda, antara lain karena pekerjaan saya di acara Spoorloos, yang ditayangkan televisi KRO di Belanda. Sayekti menang lomba bicara bahasa Belanda. “Saya merasa lebih bebas dalam bahasa Belanda, saya bisa lebih baik mengungkapkan diri dalam bahasa itu,” demikian Sayekti.

Kebanyakan mahasiswa tidak memikirkan zaman kolonial lagi jika mereka mendengar bahasa Belanda. “Tentu ada ikatan sejarah antara Indonesia dan Belanda,” kata mahasiswa tahun keempat Fajar Nugraha. Namun itu perlu dilihat lepas dari bahasanya. Apa yang pernah terjadi, sudah berlalu.”

Demikian harian Het Parool dan demikian pula tinjauan pers hari ini.

Syaratnya gampang:

1. bisa diakses oleh publik
2. ada meja dan bangku tempat bekerja, plus colokan listrik untuk komputer
3. ada akses internet, kalau bisa gratis
4. nggak perlu merasa bersalah kalau harus duduk selama tiga empat jam sekaligus

Yang sudah saya temukan adalah di National Library Building. Di lantai 5 ada Study Lounge yang cocok untuk bekerja dan belajar. Satu-satunya kekurangan adalah harus bersaing dengan anak-anak pelajar, mereka inikan percaya diri dalam masalah rebutan tempat. Kapasitasnya sih lumayan, bisa menampung sekitar 80 orang. Boleh bawa minuman dan makanan lagi.

Ada alternatif lain yang anda tahu? Tolong isi di bagian komentar di bawah ini, ya?

One of the things that I asked Paul Horstman, who was driving the other day, was about taxi: how many kinds of taxi do you know? I think he was unprepared for that question. “What do you mean how many?” he asked. A taxi is a taxi.

Well, yeah, I said, you probably know only one kind of taxi, which is a car. For us in Indonesia, we know a lot of other kinds of taxi. Of course, we have the standard taxi as it is known here in the US.

But apart from that, we also have motorcyle taxi, which is called ojek.

picture from expat.or.id

As you can see in the picture above, ojek is mainly run by individuals. They wait for the passengers usually at the entrance of big housing complexes where there is no public transport serving the complex. Safety is not a very big concern when you ride an ojek, some of them might offer you a helmet, but most of them will just “tancap gas” (which means go off) right after he feels (he wont even look at you) that you have been seated behind him without even asking you where to go. Only after riding for a while that he asks where to go.

Apart from that, we also have ojek sepeda (see picture below) which means bicycle taxi. Its similar to the ojek, but the driver gets a little bit more sweat as he has to paddle the bicycle under the tropical sun.

A fancy counterpart of ojek sepeda can be found in the City of Buffalo (below). I might be mistaken, but the bike taxi in Buffalo seems to be more of a tourist attraction than a transportation solution.

Source: Buffalo Bike Taxi

There is nothing fancy about ojek sepeda. It is there because of pure demand. The demand of getting some money (albeit very minimal) for the driver, and the demand of transportation for the client who needed the bike taxi service because the areas are not covered by the public transport.

No, not yet. The list is not over yet. We still have “ojek payung“, which means umbrella taxi (below).

Source: Agus Syafii’s Blog

The kids with happy faces and colorful umbrella in the picture above are commonly found in front of malls and supermarkets in Indonesia. What they do is renting out the umbrella to people either to reach their car or the a bus stop with a shelter. Many of them usually bring two umbrellas, one for themselves and the other one for the customer. But most of them will simply walk in the rain.

Will many people hire the ojek payung, you said? That means you haven’t been in Indonesia, right? Indonesia has the kind of tropical rain that will make you soak just with a minute of shower. People will be happy to rent from them.

I think it was the first time that Paul heard about this, and he kept saying “what?!” repeatedly every time I told him about the kind of taxi he has never heard before. And those are the taxies that I quickly summarized for him just to give in the big picture.

***

As if those weird kinds of taxies are not enough, a new development in the world of taxies put me in no other position than to report (Paul, this one is for you) that there is a new kind of taxi in Indonesia: food taxi (ojek makanan). I actually do not know if such a thing exists, until the trouble in IPDN.

IPDN is a school that trains future administrators (and supposedly leaders) of local governments. Even though their future duties will be as civilian administrators, the education system in IPDN is very much militaristic in its approach. Furthermore, the senior students have the rights to beat up their juniors. Although the IPDN administrators said that those beatings not part of the system, the practice is widely know and has caused several death in the past, with many of the seniors were charged and convicted for the crime.

So as you can imagine, the campus of such school will have their own kitchen to cater for the needs of the students. The students are basically not allowed to buy food outside the campus kitchen.

But you know Indonesia, food is everywhere and your imagination is the limit of the variety. Those students has been exposed to that kind of environment before they come to IPDN, and now they have to refrain from buying those food, literally on other sides of the fence.

The solution: ojek makanan. There will always be someone who will bridge the gap between supply and demand. These people, the food taxi, are basically delivering the food into the IPDN campus. God knows how the students order the food in the first place. But in this SMS country, everything can be ordered with a text message through a cell phone.

Of course these transactions are deemed illegal by the IPDN, and these poor people could be charged of trespassing. They could be detained by the campus security.

But that does not stop them to continue to operate: they do what they have to do.

And don’t tell me that ojek makanan is the same thing as food delivery man that you find everywhere in the US. No food delivery will ever deliver your food to a campus where outside food is prohibited.

***

The ojeks actually remind me of what Hernando de Soto (in The Mystery of Capital) said about people in the failed-capitalist countries. We cannot be anywhere in those big cities “without someone trying to make a deal with you.”

These people keep on trying to squeeze some money out of impossible situations. Look at the creativity that they have to pursue new kind of business that we would have never thought possible.

Why am I writing this? Well, Paul might love this new addition of taxies that he would never thought exists. Other than that, I just want to show that Indonesians (and many people in other countries) actually work very hard for their own livelihood. The fact that they remain poor shows that somebody has to do something to help them jump off the poverty line. This somebody might be you, or the government, or whatever.

want to add to that list. Another kind of taxi

This is the transcript of my sermon delivered on Friday prayer 21-Mar-2008 at the Islamic Center of Boise.

Brothers and sisters,

I start this khutbah with an advice for every one of us to always increase our imaan and taqwa to Allah s.w.t. Allah says in the Quran (surah Ali Imran, surah no 3, verse no 102)

[3:102] O ye who believe! Have taqwa to Allah in the real form of taqwa, and do not die except in a state of Islam.

Our whole life is a struggle to get closer to Allah. According to this ayat, muslim is not a state of being, but a process of becoming. The ayat challenges us all to live however we want, and the only requirement is that we should be a real muslim at the time of our death. We will not succeed in that challenge if we do not seek the true meaning of takwa throughout our life.

Brothers and sisters,

In the month of Rabi’ul Awwal, the month of when the Prophet s.a.w. was born, the best topic to discuss in this khutbah is how we should remember the Prophet s.a.w. In particular, I want to explore how we should defend his noble status in the hearts of muslims, in this crazy world where people can freely mock the Prophet with insulting cartoon. I want to share my exploration into this matter with all of you, to see just how the Prophet s.a.w himself wants us to respond to such provocation.

Brothers and sisters,

If we love someone, we will talk about that person, we will honor the person, we wish the person well, and always remember the person. Our love to the Prophet is much stronger than our love to other people, even stronger than our love to our own parents. Our love to the Prophet is not only based on stories from his life, but also a religious obligation.

There is no wonder if many muslims are so angry if the Prophet was drawn in insulting cartoons. There is no wonder that so many muslims are even willing to die when the Prophet’s name was mocked.

However, curiously enough, many of those muslims who were so angry and even willing to die for that purpose, many of them are not devoted muslims. We see ourselves in our home countries, that many muslims are simply not practicing Islam. But when it comes to demonstration and public show of anger, they will be in the front row defending the Prophet and Islam.

Angry demonstration, public show of anger, killing people, those are extreme acts that can result from insulting the Prophet s.a.w. In this khutbah, I want to warn every one of you, Brothers and Sisters members of our congregation, that we should not defend our Prophet by doing any of these extreme acts.

The obvious reason for this warning is that because these extreme acts are against the law. Of course, you can say that I have to say this because we live here in the US, where you cannot say anything to approve those acts.

But let us stop there, and imagine that we live in our own countries, where you can get away with running amok, burn churches, harass the westerners, or even kill people, all in the name of defending the Prophet. Think about this question: does the Prophet really want us to do those things?

Does the Prophet really want us to kill those cartoonists who drew insulting cartoons? Absolutely not. Why would he want us to do that? He used to be called a witch, in front of his face. People called him crazy, in front of his face. They boycotted him. They spit on him. They put a wet camel skin over him when he prostrated in an attempt to kill him.

In the famous story that everyone knows, he was chased out of a village where everyone threw rocks on him. And what did he say to those people? Did he ask them all to be killed? Even when an angel lost his temper (can you imagine an angel lost his temper?), and proposed to the Prophet that he throws a mountain on that village, what did the Prophet said to the angel? He did not approve such action and said that “they are just ignorant people. If not them, I hope that their children will embrace this religion.”

And now these cartoonists depict the Prophet as terrorist, should we all kill them? Absolutely not!

Brothers and sisters, imagine it in your heart, ask that question to the Prophet: Ya Rasulallaah, should we all kill those people who insulted you?

Ask that question in your heart, and let the history of the Prophet answer that question for you. You would not believe that this kind hearted Prophet would approve such a thing, when he himself during his life time would resort to other ways of responding.

Ask another question, Brothers and Sisters, because these cartoonists are from Christian nations, should we burn the churches? Absolutely not. You will not believe that this kind hearted Prophet would approve burning churches in response to insulting him, when he himself during his lifetime has never burnt down any places of worships, from any religion.

But then the question remains, brothers and sisters, how should we respond to those insults?

O yes, I am sad and angry for those cartoons insulting the Prophet. We are all sad and angry, because people are mocking and insulting our beloved Prophet s.a.w. But our sadness and anger should not be shown in manners that are not consistent with the teachings of the Prophet s.a.w. How should we show our love to our Prophets in this uncertain time?

Brothers and sisters, the answer has been written down by the Prophet himself in the history of his life. I will summarize two ways of responding it.

The first way is on the personal level. Looking inward, what we should do is measure our love to the Prophet.

Allah says in the Quran, surah Al-Ahzab, surah 33, verse 6:

For the believers, the Prophet is “awla” even to themselves.

“Awla” means to have priorities in various forms. If you love the Prophet, you love him more than you love yourselves. If you protect the Prophet, you will protect him more than you protect yourselves.

Look at those cartoons, Brothers and Sisters, and if you feel nothing, then there is a problem with your relationship with the Prophets. This unfortunate event is an opportunity to gauge our love towards the Prophet.

Increase our love to the Prophet by repeating the shalawaat to him. Teach your children about this particular form of remembrance. In Indonesia, we even sing it together in the Masjid while we are waiting for the prayers to start:

[Allaahumma shalli alaa Muhammad, ya rabbii shalli alaihi wa sallim, Allaahumma shalli alaa Muhammad, ya rabbii balligh hul wasiilah]

Also on the personal level, do not forget to pray for those cartoonist who insult the Prophet, exactly the same prayer that the Prophet said to those people who chased him out of the village: May Allah bless them with hidayah. If not them, may their future generations be blessed with hidayah.

We as muslims believe that Allah is the “Muqallib al-quluub”, the One who change the feelings in our heart. As you all know, we cannot control how we feel. How many times that your anger was washed away by things outside your control? How many times that your joking mood erupted into anger?

We cannot even control who we love or who we hate. We have seen cases where the love of thirty years was changed into hate because of one single incident. We also have seen cases where eternal enemies suddenly become jealous lovers.

Allah is the One who has full control of our feelings. That is why we always pray to Him, that He would keep our hearts steady in this religion.

In the same spirit of what the Prophet has done, we should always pray, may Allah change the hearts of those cartoonists. They may now hate the Prophet s.a.w., but may Allah turn that hate into love. And if not them, let their future sons and daughters be blessed with love and tolerance.

Brothers and sisters,

The second level is the public level. What should we do in public? The best way is to educate the people around us. We need to tell them that this is how we feel about the Prophets, about Muhammad s.a.w. and also all of other Prophets.

There was one incident not long ago in the Middle East. A western teacher (meaning a non-muslim) was asked by her student what is the best name for her teddy-bear. She answered “Why don’t you call it Muhammad?”

What happened next was typical of our reactions to this matter: public show of anger. It’s like: the more you show your anger, the more you love the Prophet. It’s a race in showing bigger and greater outrage.

The teacher lost her job, and might have faced criminal prosecution. I did not follow what happened next, but that is irrelevant for this khutbah.

What I want you to do is think about it. When she said to the student to name her teddy-bear Muhammad, did she intend to insult? On that very specific occasion, on spontaneous reaction to her student’s question, did she really mean to insult?

I don’t think so. The worse that could have happened is ignorance. The teacher might have even meant well when she suggested the name Muhammad. Probably she knows that Muhammad is a beloved person to muslims, and muslim girls love teddy-bear. So why not call the teddy-bear Muhammad, to show affection, to reflect love.

This is the ignorance on the teacher’s part. She do not know that we muslims do not show our love to the Prophet by calling a doll Muhammad. In fact such action can be seen as insulting. The fact that she does not know this disqualifies her from being a teacher.

But looking deeper into the community where she comes from, how could we blame her? The people in the western culture, including the people here in the US, they generally do not know how to show respect to religious figures. In this culture, people can affectionately call their dog Jesus, or Adam, or Moses. And this can happen innocently, without any ill spirit.

When somebody from this culture goes to muslim culture, and sees that muslims girl affectionately loves both teddy-bear and the Prophet, it is not hard to imagine that they would suggest Muhammad as the name of the doll. And mind you, there might not be any insult, it is plain ignorance.

Brothers and sisters,

And what is the best cure for ignorance? One word: education. Muhammad s.a.w. was sent to ignorant Arabs with a single mission: [li utammima makaarimal akhlaaq], to improve the moral values.

How did he do that? Not with killing those ignorant people, not by burning their churches. By education.

And the best education of all is by example. It means that we should show them how to respect all religious figures, including religious figures from other religions.

There is a constant question from this community, a question with accusing tone: if Muhammad was insulted the whole muslim world erupted. Would they do the same thing if religious figure from other religion is insulted?

I want to be able to answer this question with a strong: YES. But unfortunately, the reality is not.

But this only shows that education is really the answer to this issue. Let us start teaching and training ourselves to respect religious figures, whatever the religion is. Try to understand how other religion show respect to their religious figures, it might be different from us.

There was one important lesson from Indonesia that I want to share with you. A few years ago, a Muslim musician publish his song with a cover on the CD showing himself riding a bird-like figure. There is a complaint from Hindu community that this bird-like figure in the CD cover is one of the representations of Wishnu (one of the Hindu Gods).

Immediately after the complaint, the musician made a public apology, and all of the CD was withdrawn to be given a new cover.

Now think about this: Hindu is a very tiny minority in Indonesia. The musician and the authorities can simply ignore them, and with a little bit of intimidation the Hindus will probably forget about it. But instead of just ignoring them, the musician made a public apology.

This kind of spirit should be shown in our daily life: showing respect towards religious figures from other religions. This is the best education that you should always demonstrate and explain to the people around you.

Brothers and sisters,

Those are the main principles on how to show our love to the Prophet in the crazy world that we live in today. May Allah keep the love alive in our hearts towards the Prophet s.a.w., and may He keep us strong in our efforts to be his followers. May Allah guide us how to respond to the insults on the Prophet, and may our guided acts be an inspiration for others to know the beauty of mutual respect.

The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. It requires the body to be taut like a plank with toes and palms on the floor. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit.

Read through this New York Times article “As a symbol of health and wellness, nothing surpasses the simple push-up“. And after that, compare your performance with this table from Washington Post.

What? How many times can I do it? That is a jealously guarded trade secret.

Keep pumping guys!

Pernahkah anda membayangkan bahwa akan ada seseorang yang beragama lain akan bersedia membisikkan kata-kata itu ke telinga seorang muslim yang sedang sekarat? Itulah yang pernah terjadi di kota Twin Falls, Idaho, Amerika Serikat.

Kisah itu, dan juga kisah-kisah lainnya, terungkap ketika kami mempersiapkan pelatihan bagi Chaplain yang bekerja di rumah sakit di Boise. Pelatihan tentang kematian dalam Islam, dan bagaimana seharusnya seorang muslim menghadapi kematian.

***

Di setiap rumah sakit di Amerika biasanya ada seorang Chaplain, seorang rohaniwan, yang akan memberikan bimbingan spiritual kepada pasien dan keluarganya, terutama kepada mereka yang tengah menghadapi kematian. Kebanyakan dari mereka tentu saja beragama Kristen, sebagian lagi ada yang beragama Yahudi.

Di Boise, Idaho, seperti juga di banyak kota lainnya di Amerika, tidak banyak kita dapati Chaplain yang memahami bagaimana konsep Islam tentang kematian, dan bagaimana seharusnya seorang muslim menghadapi ajalnya. Sebuah rumah sakit kedapatan memutar lagu kematian di saat seorang muslim sedang sekarat, tanpa sadar bahwa memutar lagu apapun di saat seperti itu sangatlah tidak sesuai dengan ajaran Islam.

Baru sejak akhir 90-an keadaannya sedikit berubah akibat inisiatif seorang Chaplain yang bingung menghadapi seorang Bosnia yang sedang sekarat. Sang Bosnia tidak bisa berkomunikasi dengan baik dalam bahasa Inggris. Anak-anaknya pun tidak tahu apa yang harus mereka lakukan dalam menghadapi situasi seperti itu. Tinggallah sang Chaplain yang kebingungan.

Berbekal pengatahuan bahwa si pasien adalah seorang muslim, maka dia mengontak masjid kami. Datanglah seseorang ke sana, seorang Pakistan, yang tidak bisa bercakap Bosnia. Tapi setidaknya dia tahu apa yang harus dilakukan. Dibisikkannyalah kata-kata talkin ke dalam telinga si pasien, dan si pasien itu kemudian meninggal sambil “mengucap” seraya memegang dan menatap foto ibunya.

Sanak kerabatnya semuanya tahu bahwa si Bosnia itu meninggal dalam keadaan bahagia. Mereka semuanya sangat berterima kasih kepada si Pakistan yang telah bersedia datang. Sang Chaplain? Beliau diam-diam menyelinap pergi meninggalkan keluarga muslim itu, dan membiarkan si Pakistan mendapatkan hujan terima kasih.

Tapi upaya sang Chaplain tidaklah berhenti sampai di situ. Beliau kemudian mengusulkan kepada pihak rumah sakit untuk mengadakan pelatihan tentang masalah ini untuk semua Chaplain di semua cabang rumah sakit itu. Maka datanglah semua Chaplain yang bekerja di rumah sakit itu dari seluruh pelosok Idaho untuk dilatih bagaimana menghadapi kematian seorang muslim. Termasuk di antaranya adalah seorang wanita Yahudi dari Twin Falls, yang nantinya bertahun kemudian akan mentalkinkan seorang muslim.

Tugas utama Chaplain adalah memberikan dukungan moral bagi pasien dan keluarganya. Dalam konteks itu, pertanyaan yang paling mengemuka adalah apa yang bisa mereka lakukan untuk memberikan kenyamanan bagi seorang muslim yang sedang sekarat? Lagu kematian? Doa bersama? Tentu saja alternatif yang mereka ajukan adalah berdasarkan latar belakang agama masing-masing.

Di titik itulah mereka diberi tahu bahwa hal yang terpenting bagi seorang muslim ketika kan mati adalah mengucapkan penegasan kembali terhadap keyakinan kepada Yang Satu. Kemampuan untuk mengucapkan kata-kata itu akan menimbulkan ketenangan dan kenyamanan dalam menghadapi pedihnya proses pencabutan nyawa. Melihat pentingnya kalimat itu, maka mereka semua meminta agar diberi bekal teks berisi kalimat tersebut sesuai dengan bunyi aslinya dalam bahasa Arab tapi dituliskan dalam transliterasinya dalam huruf latin.

Dan catatan itulah yang dibuka oleh wanita Yahudi itu, sang Chaplain dari Twin Falls, bertahun kemudian ketika ada seorang pasien muslim yang sedang sekarat. Keluarga sang pasien tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan dan di Twin Falls tidak ada masjid yang bisa ditelepon untuk dimintai bantuan. Berbekal catatan dari training yang diceritakan di atas, sang Chaplain lantas berinisiatif untuk melakukan talkin terhadap si pasien.

Si pasien akhirnya meninggal dalam keadaan “menyebut” berdasarkan tuntunan seorang Yahudi yang mengucapkan kata-kata Arab dari teks yang ditulis dalam abjad latin. Anak-anaknya tahu bahwa sang ayah meninggal dalam keadaan tenang dan bahagia, dan mereka tidak bisa percaya kalau sang Chaplain bisa melakukan ritual sebagaimana mestinya. “How could you know what to do?” tanya mereka.

Kejadian itu baru diceritakan oleh sang Chaplain ketika bertemu kembali dengan Furqan, sobat saya di masjid yang sekarang menjadi direktur Islamic Center of Boise. Beliaulah yang melakukan training yang pertama itu, dan kejadian ini terungkap ketika kami menyusun rencana untuk kembali melakukan training bagi para Chaplain.

Saya hanya bisa menunduk tertegun mendengar cerita itu. Dalam hati saya iri, alangkah besar pahala yang sudah dilakukan oleh sahabat saya yang satu ini. Semoga semangatnya dalam memperkenalkan Islam kepada masyarakat di Boise ini bisa menular kepada saya yang lebih banyak sibuk di depan komputer.

Lokasi kamar mandi di kamar pasien dalam sebuah rumah sakit bisa diletakkan di sudut terjauh dari pintu (berbatasan dengan dinding luar), atau bisa juga diletakkan di dekat pintu masuk, berbatasan dengan koridor yang membelah gedung. Di salah satu rumah sakit di Idaho, semua kamar mandi di kamar pasien diletakkan di sudut terjauh dari pintu masuk, berbatasan dengan dinding luar.

Ketika Lab kami diundang untuk memberikan komentar terhadap rancangan rumah sakit terbaru mereka, salah satu komentar kami adalah bahwa kamar mandi itu harus dipindah dari dinding luar, karena posisi di dekat dinding luar itu akan mengurangi luas jendela. Akibatnya, jumlah pencahayaan alami yang masuk ke kamar pasien tidak akan optimal. Kami memiliki beberapa rekomendasi lainnya mengenai pencahayaan alami ini, tapi rekomendasi inilah yang ditolak mentah-mentah oleh pihak rumah sakit.

Alasannya?

Kalau kamar mandi itu dipindah ke dekat pintu masuk, itu artinya seorang perawat yang sedang melakukan tugas keliling ke kamar pasien akan mendapat tambahan rata-rata tiga langkah untuk mencapai tempat tidur pasien. Ya betul: tiga langkah.

Kalau anda sama seperti saya, maka anda akan bertanya-tanya, apa hebatnya tiga langkah kaki itu sampai bisa membatalkan rekomendasi tentang pencahayaan alami yang berpotensi menghemat ribuan dolar dari penurunan pemakaian lampu listrik? Ternyata kata kuncinya ada di kata “rata-rata” itu.

Tiga langkah itu adalah rata-rata per kamar, yang kalau dihitung seluruh rumah sakit yang jumlah kamarnya mencapai seratus, maka jumlahnya sudah cukup besar. Masalahnya ketika jumlah itu di akumulasikan, jangan-jangan dengan tambahan segitu, nantinya pihak rumah sakit harus menambah jumlah perawat untuk mengkompensasi tiga langkah ekstra itu. Hitung-hitungan tepatnya bagaimana saya agak kurang paham, karena ini datangnya dari pihak manajemen rumah sakit, tapi akibatnya mereka secara tegas menolak rekomendasi kami untuk memindahkan kamar mandi menjauh dari dinding luar.

Tanggapan kami?

Kami secara konsisten tetap merekomendasikan hal yang sama. Kalau masalahnya adalah tiga langkah tambahan, kami malah mempertanyakan asumsi dari pihak manajemen. Tambahan tiga langkah itu akan memberatkan kalau suasana lingkungan kerja tidak berubah. Ini adalah asumsi yang salah karena rekomendasi kami justru akan mengubah suasana lingkungan kerja. Pencahayaan alami akam memberikan nuansa yang jauh lebih baik dibandingkan dengan lampu jenis apapun.

Kami berargumen bahwa para perawat itu akan senang sekali menjalani tiga langkah tambahan kalau kita bisa memberi ruang bekerja yang dilimpahi dengan cahaya alami. Kalau tidak percaya, kita uji cobakan saja pada para perawat itu, dan kemudian tanya pendapat mereka.

Tidak ada tanggapan balik dari klien kami itu, yang jelas mereka tidak mengubah rancangan mereka untuk yang satu ini. Ada banyak rekomendasi kami, banyak yang diterima dan ada juga yang ditolak. Lama sekali kami tidak mendengar kabar dari mereka, bahkan proyek yang satu itupun agak tersendat-sendat pembangunannya.

Setelah lama tak mendengar kabar dari mereka, tiba-tiba saja datang sepotong informasi dari orang lain, bahwa mereka benar-benar membangun sebuah mock-up, model skala-penuh dari rekomendasi kami. Mereka mengujicobakan semua yang kami rekomendasikan, dan kemudian mereka menanyakan kepada para perawat jenis kamar yang mana yang lebih mereka sukai.

Guess what? Perawat memilih kamar yang sesuai dengan rekomendasi kami, sekalipun dengan tiga langkah ekstra tadi.

Saya hanya bisa geleng-geleng kepada mendengar berita itu. Kenapa mereka dulu mereka mati-matian menolak rekomendasi kami? Apakah karena ide ini berasal dari orang luar? Tapikan mereka mengundang kita untuk jadi konsultan, jadi harus dianggap insider dong, ya nggak?

Dan kemudian kenapa mereka tiba-tiba mengujicobakan rekomendasi kita tanpa berkonsultasi kembali dengan kami? Apakah karena ide dari luar itu perlu waktu untuk menginternalisasi? Ini bukannya masalah gagah-gagahan kalau saya berharap mereka konsultasi kembali ke kami. Saya sih cukup senang kalau ide kami bisa dijalankan dengan baik. Yang jadi masalah adalah mereka sudah keluar uang untuk mengadakan studi itu. Kalau mereka melibatkan kami kembali, maka mereka akan mendapatkan hasil yang jauh lebih banyak dan jauh lebih reliable daripada hasil yang sekarang.

Pelajaran dari kisah ini? Inilah pentingnya konsistensi, atau lebih tepat lagi persistensi. Kata Kevin kawan saya:

just release your opinion out in the ether, and it will float around until somebody else picks it up and make it their own idea, and they implement it.

Ada dua pesan penting mengenai kalimat di atas:

1. orang perlu menginternalisasi ide baru agar mereka bisa menerima perubahan.
2. seringkali kita harus melepas “authorship” dari ide itu agar ide itu bisa diterima oleh orang banyak.

Lepas dari bagaimanapun prosesnya, kalau rekomendasi kami bisa dipakai oleh orang banyak, maka kami sudah mencapai misi Lab kami, yaitu mengadakan transformasi pasar di dalam industri bangunan, terutama di dalam pemasyarakatan metoda rancangan terpadu dalam perancangan bangunan.

Catatan: Adakah yang bisa membantu saya dalam menerjemahkan istilah-istilah berikut ini? Silakan sampaikan melalui komentar di bawah ini.

• rancangan terpadu = integrated design
• desain awal = early design
• model skala-penuh = full scale model
• mock-up = ?

Tapi ada satu hal yang membuat saya penasaran. Kalau email yang saya buka itu bertopik Indonesia, yang keluar adalah tautan porno. Apa dosa saya sehingga disuguhi tautan yang seram seperti di bawah ini?

Gambar sebelah kiri saya dapatkan ketika membaca email bersubyek “Cari” (dari milis AlumniTF-ITB). Isinya hanya dua kalimat yang bertanya ttg nomer telepon seorang alumni. Iklan yang keluar? Bagian “Sponsored Links”nya sih tidak terlalu bermasalah, tapi bagian bawahnya itu yang bikin kening berkerut. Yang paling atas berjudul “Artis Indonesia Telanjang”.

Saya jadi penasaran, apakah karena topiknya Indonesia? Saya coba ganti dengan dengan subyek yang lebih bersifat teknis.

Gambar yang di tengah saya dapatkan ketika membaca email bersubyek “Reuni TF di Emerson Fieldbus Seminar” lagi-lagi di milis AlumniTF-ITB. Memang benar, bagian atas yang berjudul “Sponsored Links” ternyata berubah sesuai dengan topik FieldBus. Tapi lagi-lagi, bagian bawah yang berjudul “More about …” ternyata masih belum berubah: yang paling atas berjudul “Artis Indonesia Telanjang”.

Waah, jangan-jangan karena milis AlumniTF? Mentang-mentang ada PakDhe di milis ini. Saya ganti milis lagi, dan topiknya masih berbau teknis.

Gambar yang di kanan saya dapatkan ketika membaca email bertopik “CFP Arte-Polis 2 Bandung 8-10 Aug 08″ dari milis IAI-Architect. Bagian atasnya sih canggih, Google bisa langsung menebak tanggal dan menawarkan untuk langsung memasukkan tanggal ini ke kalender. Bagian “Spronsored Links” juga masih lumayan, karena menawarkan tiket pesawat dan hotel di Indonesia, walaupun sudah tidak nyambung dengan topik konferensi ini. Di bagian bawahnya … lagi-lagi masih menyebut “Telanjang Indonesia”, bahkan ada “Indonesia Bugil”.

Memang sih ada tautan ke “Academic Conferences” dan “Call for Paper”, tapi ini karena topiknya tentang konferensi. Apakah kalau topiknya Indonesia maka yang ditawarkan adalah telanjang dan bugil?

Apa dosa saya sehingga saya dihukum dan mendapat tawaran tak senonoh seperti ini? Atau lebih parah lagi, apa dosa Indonesia sehingga selalu dikaitkan dengan kata telanjang dan bugil?