Divorces Via Text Message To Teen Wife After 4 Days

Hundreds of Indonesians rallied Tuesday to demand a district chief's resignation after revelations of his text message divorce to a teenage girl four days after their marriage sparked public outrage.

Aceng Fikri, chief of Garut District in West Java province, took 17-year-old Fani Oktora as his second wife in July. But Fikri, 40, quickly divorced her via a short text message, alleging Oktora was not a virgin when they married as he had expected. He said he spent about $26,000 on the wedding.

Students and rights activists in Garut spit and trampled on pictures of Fikri on Tuesday before burning them outside the local council building.

It was the second consecutive day of protests against Fikri, whose case came into the spotlight last week after a picture of the couple was posted on the Internet. On Monday, dozens of people rallied in front of his house and the council building.

Late Tuesday, the local council issued a recommendation for Fikri's dismissal, but the process will have to wait for a verdict by the Supreme Court.

Also on Tuesday, Oktora, accompanied by her lawyers, filed a complaint with police in the capital, Jakarta, accusing Fikri of domestic violence by holding her captive after the wedding and fraudulence for declaring that he was a widower.

A lawyer representing Fikri said they would file a complaint of defamation against Oktora, whom he said had signed an agreement saying she would not complain about the marriage.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly discussed the case with West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan on Tuesday during a visit to the province.

Some Muslims believe in an Islamic ritual allowing men to end a marriage by telling their wives they divorce them. However, divorce by text message is uncommon in moderate Indonesia.

Beautiful Spanish Architecture

Some photos, like our hero Mark likes to take pictures, and then process them to obtain images with high dynamic range. In the Spaniard’s Mark talent to do amazing photographs of architectural works. In our gallery there are 17 amazing masterpieces from the collection of Mark, which he did last year. These images allow us to take a virtual trip to Spain and pay tribute to the skill of Spanish architects.

Desa Pare Tempat Belajar Bahasa Inggris Murah & Efektif

Kampung bahasa Inggris Pare adalah desa kecil yang terletak di Kabupaten Kediri, Jawa Timur. Tak sulit untuk menuju kampung ini. Kalau Anda tinggal di Jakarta atau Bandung, bisa naik kereta api jurusan Surabaya. Sebelum kereta sampai di Pasar Turi, Anda harus turun di stasiun Jombang, lalu diteruskan dengan naik angkot menuju Pare. Perjalanan dengan angkot menuju Pare ini memakan waktu sekitar satu jam. Alternatif lainnya, bisa menumpang kereta jurusan Kediri. Dari kota rokok itu, perjalanan disambung dengan naik angkot.

Sebenarnya di Pare sendiri yg tepatnya di Desa Tulungrejo adalah merupakan suatu kampung kecil yg memiliki lembaga kursus bahasa Inggris yg sangat banyak dan terkenal sampai penjuru Indonesia. Awalnya hanya beberapa lembaga kursus saja namun sampai sekarang masih berkembang sangat pesat dan terdapat hingga 50 lembaga kursus kecil maupun besar. Pada waktu libur sekolah maupun kuliah, kota pare layaknya kota wisata yg banyak di kunjungi orang (siswa, mahasiswa, dosen, dll) dari luar kota yang hanya ingin mengusai bahasa Inggris dengan baik. Seperti materi-materi yang diajarkan di tempat kursus yaitu GRAMMAR, SPEAKING, WRITING sampai TOEFL bahkan tingkat lebih tinggi lagi seperti untuk media pengajaran dll.

 

Apa istimewanya Pare dibanding tempat kursus bahasa Inggris di kota-kota besar? Keunggulan utamanya sudah disebutkan di awal, yakni biayanya lebih murah. Biaya kursus di Pare sekitar seperempat atau seperlima dari tarif yang dipatok lembaga-lembaga pengajaran bahasa Inggris terkenal seperti LIA dan ELTI. Biaya kursus untuk satu bulan penuh dengan 40 kali pertemuan (sehari masuk dua kali) sekitar 100 ribu rupiah per bulan. Itu untuk level pemula, kalau program tingkat lanjut seperti TOEFL dan IELTS biayanya sekitar 200 ribu rupiah. Cukup murah bukan?

Tapi, apakah kualitasnya sebanding dengan lembaga-lembaga terkenal seperti LIA dan ELTI? Jawabannya tergantung, karena ada tempat kursus yang sangat menjaga kualitasnya dan ada yang abal-abal. Lalu, bagaimana dong caranya memilih tempat kursus yang baik dengan biaya ringan? Tenang, itu akan saya jelaskan. Begini-begini saya hasil didikan kursus di Pare juga loh!

Selain biaya kursus yang relatif ringan, pengeluaran untuk kebutuhan sehari-hari juga tergolong murah. Misalnya, biaya kos (sharing) dipatok sekitar 75 ribu rupiah per bulan. Untuk makan di warung dengan lauk telur atau ikan sekitar 6000 ribu rupiah per porsi. Tak ada pengeluaran ekstra untuk transportasi, karena tempat kursus bisa dijangkau dengan jalan kaki saja. Atau kalau mau menyewa sepeda, tarifnya 30-50 ribu saja per bulan. Pokoknya jauh lebih murah dibanding Jakarta, Bandung atau Yogya!

Lembaga kursus tertua di Pare adalah BEC (Basic English Course) yang usianya sekarang sudah menginjak 34 tahun. Ini adalah salah satu lembaga kursus terbaik dan gedungnya paling megah pula. Sayangnya, untuk mengikuti kelas-kelas di BEC kita harus mendaftar berbulan-bulan sebelumnya. Ini tentu tidak praktis kalau Anda hanya punya waktu yang sangat singat di Pare. Alternatifnya, Anda bisa memilih lembaga-lembaga lain yang jumlahnya lebih dari 30 buah.

Kalau kemampuan bahasa Inggris Anda masih sangat dasar, saya sarankan mengambil kelas privat. Mengapa? Jumlah siswa di tiap kelas biasanya sangat besar, sekitar 20-30 orang. Ini sangat tidak ideal untuk belajar bahasa asing, apalagi kalau kemampuannya masih sangat terbatas. Harap dimaklumi, kelas yang besar ini adalah salah satu strategi untuk menekan biaya supaya harganya tetap terjangkau. Program privat tingkat pemula biayanya tidak terlalu besar. Siswa-siswa tingkat senior bahkan banyak yang mampu memberikan kursus privat pemula ini. Supaya biayanya bisa ditekan lagi, Anda bisa bergabung dengan 3-4 orang siswa lain membentuk satu kelas kecil.

Khusus untuk tingkat pemula ini, ada cukup banyak lembaga yang kompeten. Kalau ingin memperdalam percakapan, Anda bisa memilih Daffodils. Kalau ingin mendalami tata bahasa, bisa pilih Mahesa, EECC atau Smart. Bagi pelajar tingkat lanjut yang ingin mendalami TOEFL dan IELTS, saya merekomendasikan ELFAST. Jangan dikira semua pelajar yang menimba ilmu di Pare semuanya bisa sukses cas cis cus dalam bahasa Inggris. Banyak yang gagal dan akhirnya cuma lontang-lantung di sana. Saya berani bilang kalau kualitas siswa-siswa di pare kini jauh menurun dibanding beberapa tahun lalu saat saya belajar bahasa Inggris di sana. Bukan kualitas lembaga kursusnya yang menurun, tapi kualitas siswanya!

Beberapa tahun lalu, siswa yang masuk level tiga bisa dibilang sudah lancar berbahasa Inggris. Tapi sekarang, kualitasnya setara dengan level satu di zaman dulu! Saya tidak berlebihan. Saya mengunjungi Pare sekitar empat bulan lalu dan membandingkan dengan seksama kondisinya saat saya belajar dulu. Inilah cerminan dari kualitas pendidikan kita yang menurun.

Lalu, bagaimana caranya supanya bisa berhasil belajar bahasa Inggris? Belajar bahasa tidak seperti belajar ilmu pertukangan. Butuh waktu bertahun-tahun karena nilai rasa bahasa itu hanya bisa dipelajari dalam waktu yang panjang. Jangan percaya kalau ada yang bilang lembaga anu bisa membuat Anda lancar hanya dalam waktu tiga bulan. Kalau sekedar percakapan ringan tentu bisa. Tapi, untuk mengusainya dengan baik dalam tempo tiga bulan adalah klaim yang mustahil!

Bila Anda belajar bersungguh sungguh, waktu yang dibutuhkan belajar bahasa Inggris hanya menghabiskan tak lebih dari satu bulan di Pare. Hal itu bisa dicapai dengan melalukan setiap liburan semester. Selama sebulan itu bisa mempelajari dasar-dasar yang akan diperdalam selama setahun dengan belajar sendiri. Bandingkan dengan gaya belajar kebanyakan siswa-siswa di Pare sekarang. Mereka mengambil cuti kuliah selama setahun hanya untuk kursus bahasa Inggris. Ternyata, masih banyak yang gagal dengan cara itu. Mengapa? Karena mereka hanya belajar rumus-rumus bahasa, tidak mencintainya dan tak pernah dibawa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari.

Untuk meningkatkan cita rasa bahasa Inggris, kita perlu rajin-rajin membaca koran bahasa Inggris, membaca buku-buku teks, menonton film dan mendengarkan berita dalam bahasa Inggris. Rasanya, hal-hal itu bisa dilakukan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari tanpa perlu kursus yang panjang. 

Bagi murid-murid sekolah dan mahasiswa, daripada lontang-lantung tidak karuan pada waktu liburan, lebih baik mengisinya dengan belajar bahasa Inggris di Pare. Tak perlu mengambil cuti bertahun-tahun. Kamu bisa mempelajarinya dengan mudah asal dibawa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Cukup luangkan waktu satu atau bulan saja di Pare, selebihnya praktikkan sendiri. Mumpung waktu liburan sudah dekat, ayo ramai-ramai membuat rencana liburan ke Pare!

Poverty in Muslim World

Poverty is the biggest moral challenge of this humankind. Poverty has been a constant feature of society throughout history. History shows that poverty has always existed in lives of people. However, it is also a historical fact that although the majority of people have lived in poverty, the remaining minority has lived in luxury. This is also valid in today’s societies and nations. Again, while some countries, called first world countries, live in a very luxurious manner, the remaining countries, called third In primitive societies it was most often the case that everybody was equally poor, but more modern societies have generally tended to involve poverty being confined to an often substantial minority only - though this can often harm those concerned even more than universal poverty does. More than three billion human beings in this world live in abject poverty.

Muslim societies are far worse than the rest of the world in the matter of addressing the problem of poverty. The Islamic world is enormous with over 1.2 billion people, stretching from Senegal to the Philippines – comprising six regions: North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Except for a handful of countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, there are high and rising poverty levels in both urban and rural parts of most Muslim countries. Poverty levels have also been associated with high inequality alongside low productivity. In Indonesia alone with world’s largest Muslim population, over half of the national populations - about 129 million people are poor or vulnerable to poverty with incomes less than merely US$2 a day. Bangladesh and Pakistan account for 122 million each followed by India at approximately 100 million Muslims below poverty line. It is estimated that the ten Islamic countries at the bottom account for more than 600 million of the world’s poor.

Islamic Views about Poverty

In Islam poverty is a multidimensional concept. Term used in Islamic literature for a poor person is "Faqeer". A person is considered to be a Faqeer or Poor who do not have sufficient material wealth in hand to satisfy his/her basic needs which are defined in fiver broad categories. Word "Faqeer” is mentioned in the Qur’an twelve times. Careful examination of these verses reveals that two speak of “spiritual poverty.

v  “O men, it is you that have need of Allah, and Allah is the Self- Sufficient, the Praised One.” (Al Fatir 35:15)

These verses compare the inability of human beings to sustain themselves and their absolute need for Allah (Al-Fuqara ilallah) while Allah himself who does not need anybody (wallahu’-ghani). The remaining verses are related to “material poverty” and mean helping, protecting, and sheltering poor people. In these verses; those who are not rich have material needs and require other peoples’ help. Thus, it is seen that the majority of verses deal with material poverty.

Since material poverty has significant mention of material poverty in Quran and Ahadith it can be stated that is does not like or promote the state of poverty. Islam encourages people to gain wealth and property as long as it does not become a source of pride, arrogance and oppression. The Quran mentions in this regard.

v  Say, "Who prohibited the nice things GOD has created for His creatures, and the good provisions?" Say, "Such provisions are to be enjoyed in this life by those who believe. Moreover, the good provisions will be exclusively theirs on the Day of Resurrection." We thus explain the revelations for people who know." Quran 7:32

On another occasion Allah S.W.T invites man to seek from the wealth Allah has bestowed and do not forget your portion.

v  "But seek, with the (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on thee, the Home of the Hereafter, nor forget your portion in this world: but do thou good, as Allah has been good to thee, and seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land: for Allah loves not those who do mischief."

28:77al-Qasas

 

According to Islam poverty is a social anomaly that must be alleviated, and a situation from which a Muslim should seek protection from Allah from its consequences. Like other heavenly religions Islam provides some guidelines to eliminate its negative effects. The issue of poverty is spoken more comprehensively in the hadiths but there is not even a single verse or Hadith that advocates poverty. The authentic hadiths related to the Prophet indicate that poverty is an important danger and threat for both individuals and societies. The Prophet clearly points out that poverty is an unwanted situation from which every Muslim should protect himself/herself.

The Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) used to pray.

v  “O my Allah, I refuge to you from the evils of poverty,”

v  “O Allah, it is you who make the dawn break and makes the night a time for rest and appoints the sun and moon to reckon by. Relieve me of debt and PROTECT/DELIVER ME FROM POVERTY and let me enjoy my hearing, my sight and my strength in your way."

Muatta Imam Malik Book 15, Number 15.8.27

Poverty is a well-known fact Islamic society/economy and Islam has devised a very strong and meaningful institution of Charity. Islam does not want from its followers who are poor to become become dependant on charitable donations and become economically inactive. Rather Islam wants from such believers to undertake some kind of entrepreneurship activities and become economically active and stable. This fact can be grabbed from following Hadith

Narrated Anas ibn Malik:

A man of the Anssar came to the Prophet (P.B.U.H) and begged from him. He (the Prophet) asked: Have you nothing in your house? He replied: Yes, a piece of cloth, a part of which we wear and a part of which we spread (on the ground), and a wooden bowl from which we drink water.

He said: Bring them to me. He then brought these articles to him and he (the Prophet) took them in his hands and asked: Who will buy these? A man said: I shall buy them for one dirham. He said twice or thrice: Who will offer more than one dirham? A man said: I shall buy them for two dirhams.

He gave these to him and took the two dirhams and, giving them to the Ansari, he said: Buy food with one of them and hand it to your family, and buy an axe and bring it to me. He then brought it to him. The Apostle of Allah (P.B.U.H) fixed a handle on it with his own hands and said: Go, gather firewood and sell it, and do not let me see you for a fortnight. The man went away and gathered firewood and sold it. When he had earned ten dirhams, he came to him and bought a garment with some of them and food with the others.

The Apostle of Allah (P.B.U.H) then said: This is better for you than that begging should come as a spot on your face on the Day of Judgment. Begging is right only for three people: one who is in grinding poverty, one who is seriously in debt, or one who is responsible for compensation and finds it difficult to pay.

CAN I DREAM ( Bolehkah Saya Mimpi )

A child of farm worker families can learn in school to develop their interests and talents, unfortunately it was just a dream.

A factory worker with joy over his wife returned home: "My wife's affection, beginning today, apparently we can afford college earnings of our children."

A president has been elected, he never spent campaign, he did not engage in corruption because they do not have dependents or other campaign bills.

Movement of people from Jakarta to East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, Sumatra, Kalimantan and other kedaerah spread, not because of catastrophic events but changes the welfare center.

Bolehkah Saya Mimpi

Seorang anak dari keluarga buruh tani bisa belajar di sekolah untuk mengembangkan minat dan bakatnya, sayangnya itu hanya mimpi.

Seorang buruh pabrik dengan suka cita pulang ke rumah menghampiri istri : "Istriku sayang, mulai hari ini tampaknya penghasilan kita mampu membiayai kuliah anak kita".
 

Seorang pemimpin telah terpilih, dia tidak pernah mengeluarkan biaya kampanye, dia tidak melakukan korupsi karena tidak mempunyai tanggungan tagihan biaya kampanye atau lainnya.
 

Perpindahan penduduk dari Jakarta menuju Nusa Tenggara, Papua, Sumatra, Kalimantan dan menyebar kedaerah lain, peristiwa itu bukan karena bencana akan tetapi perubahan pusat kesejahteraan.