Hello world!

Welcome to notes of my journey!

Here you will find some of my reflections, which based on my journeys.

I graduated in 2005 from Master Programme in International Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden http://www.pcr.uu.se with the support from The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education http://www.stint.se

I met and talked with different people coming from various sides of the world. They shared their stories to me and I shared with them mine.

From my journey I look for answers of different ‘questions’ in life which include daily politics; stories about impacts of development; stories on why people from different culture are intentionally still “trapped” in a violent web of identity (this to differ with those who ‘embrace’ identity with a more conscious fashion) … and on other stories.

When think about differences and similarity, recently in a concerned tone, my friend Rune asked me rhetorically: “you can’t even see through your own web, almost per definition, and so how are you to soundly describe and judge the web of others?”

I used to be a big fan of these movies which inspired me in many ways: ‘The Outsiders’ (1983) by SE Hinton); ‘Stand by Me’, ‘Blue Velvet’ ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Whale Rider’; ‘Escape from Woomeera’

Whenever tiredness occur these books can give soothing feelings: ‘Things Fall Apart’ (Chinua Achebe, 1961); ‘Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window’ (Tetsuyo Kuroyanagi, 1981, translated into English by Dorothy Britton, 1984); ‘Japanese By Spring’ (Ishmael Reed, 1994); ‘Say Uncle’ (Eric Shaw Quinn, 1994);

But when I am in a desperate need to look for answers I turn myself to ‘God of Small Things’ (Arundhati Roy, 1998); ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ (Jhumpa Lahiri, 1998);’Le Sang des Autres’/ The Blood of Others, (Simone de Beauvoir, 1944); ‘The Plague’ (Albert Camus, 1948); The Buru Tetralogy/ Buru Quartet, Vol.1:’Bumi Manusia / This Earth of Mankind’ (Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 1980).

I think, writing stories from journeys is a good way to let people feel, and see, that the world is not such a bad place to live.