April 20, 2008

Kartini SALE ??

I’ve just arrived at home, after picked up my son from school. An hour ago while I was stop driving at the traffic light, my eyes stared on a colorful street banner with big letters: “SALE only TODAY….CELEBRATE KARTINI’S DAY. Discount up to 50% for ALL ITEMS”.
You see, that ad comes from one big department store in Indonesia.

Something is bothered me to see that ads, I read it again…
I think this is all wrong to celebrate Kartini day with shopping!
Ok, I’ll explain to you who Kartini is, maybe some of my blog reader is not come from Indonesia. Kartini is an aristocrat Javanese woman who lived a century ago. She married to a regent, who was a widower with couple of children. She has progressive thinking about women in her era and all of her thinking was written to her European best friends by letters. After she died, her letters were booked in “After the Dark, Rising the Light”. Her thinking became a beginning of Indonesian women movements, that’s why we celebrate her birthday every April 21st as Kartini’s Day. It seems like ‘Indonesian Women Day’ here. Kartini has become a women emancipation personage here.

Ok, now back to my thinking….(not Kartini’s of course).
I think to continue Kartini’s struggle not just only wear traditional costumes every her birthday with all the ceremony blah, blah, blah….. (the students here still do this way, I don’t agree at all). That’s not the point. The most principle on women development here is education. Women here should reconstruct her own paradigm. For women, school is not only for looking good jobs with good salary, more than that…. School is a must and necessity to change the paradigm of thinking and to see the world with different perspective. Oh, you should read this sentences, I read today at Kompas Daily:
“ If you educate one man, you educate one person. But if you educate one woman, you educate one generation “ (Meutia Hatta).

Beautiful, isn’t it?

In our hands as women, new generations with more good behaviors, high moral standards and good qualities will be born. So, let’s build our motivation and don’t be broke our enthusiasms down in improvement our selves to a better one….
Remember, don’t shopping today just to get Kartini’s Sale…That’s not us!
Ha-ha-ha….
Hope the Department Store that gives ad “Kartini’s Sale” would hire a smart woman for its Marketing Department next year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the way school celebrating Kartini's day (wearing traditional costume), I hope it will be like that forever. Believe me , we will need that for young generation to remember their own hero/ine. Now a days many youngens are not respect on their anchestor anymore. Progressive, moderate are fine but tradition is good to have it one!

Anonymous said...

Agree! But I still hope there would be another kind of celebrating than only wearing traditional costume, especially for kids from grade 4 --> up.