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The Pill
The 18th of August 1960, 50 years ago, the “combined oral contraceptive pill ” was launched. It meant the beginning of the end of a female curse. For the first time in history women could feel free from the anxieties about unwanted pregnancies. It separated sex from childbearing. In a sense this was the start of a real women’s liberation. It reduced teenager pregnancies. And no one would have to give birth to an unmanageable large number of children. At least in that part of the world where the Pill rapidly became a common product, women got their rightful decisive say on that part of life.
Not everyone is happy with the pill. The pope isn’t, evangelists aren’t. Religions in general are usually frowning upon contraception anyhow. And actually, there are disadvantages connected to the huge advantages.
But, putting one and one together, the conclusion in my opinion is: three cheers to Enovid-10, the mother of all “Pills”.
65!
Congratulations. The Republik Indonesia is 65 today. And a vigorous senior it is. It’s a magnificent milestone for the birthday nation, this spectacular, fascinating and most of all complex society, where much to my pleasure seniority still counts ( though perhaps Indonesians tend to exaggerate this virtue sometimes).
The baby was born on the 17th of August 1945 and grew ( Papua), but essentially it maintained it’s fundamental Pancasila characteristics. Yet, like it often is the case at this age, not all is well.
Human capital
Education” hardly exceeds 10% of GDP in both Indonesia and the Netherlands. Which is less than it should be. It should be top priority.
In this context five little bits of information on education crossed my eyes yesterday.
Two were not quite good. First I read an article on scientific innovation in the Muslim world. It revealed that of the top 25 most productive universities in the Muslim world “most notably absent from (the) list are institutions in three of the largest Muslim countries, namely, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh that account for about 40% of the population of entire Muslim world“. And on top of that Triesti’s blog had this alarming news about $67 million going to be transferred from the education budget to the SEAGAMES project, which is due for next year in Palembang.
But the third bit of information is very much on the sunny side. According to these statistics* Indonesians are smart. With the average IQ as criterion they rank in the top 20% compared to 112 other countries. Indonesia´s human capital is a gigantic asset. The next newsitem was even better in my perception. Nuffic-Neso Indonesia organized a pre-departure briefing event for Indonesian students who are going to pursue “their bachelor, master, short courses or PhD degree programme in the Netherlands“. About 400 youngsters of Indonesia´s huge brainpower therefore gathered at the Erasmus House last week. By way of introduction they received “Negeri van Orange”, a novel written by four alumni, one of them being our friend Rizki.
I hope they will have a great and rewarding time over here. And who knows, maybe I will accidentally walk into and meet one or two of them in the city of Utrecht. That´s quite probable actually. Because I guess some will land here because “my” Alma Mater, Universiteit Utrecht, is ranking 50th out of 1000 Universities in the ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities 2010‘. Which is a recommendation I guess.
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*The facts of these statistics are not valid facts, Mer writes. She is right. Read her comment below. And if you are in for some gloating, well, read my lame words in defence also.
When I was young
It was a miracle. Two actually.
Immediately after WWII an explosion of births took place. Well, I don’t know about South-East Asia, but at least it happened in Europe and to a lesser degree in the US. It was like nature wanted to compensate for the losses of the millions of lives. But also it of course was the passionate celebration of peace, together with the ecstasy and happiness of the end of the evil empire of Nazism.
These newborn babies from the period between ’45 and ’50, have been called the “Baby Boom Generation” since. They were the ones who brought about the cultural revolution in the sixties. That was the second miracle: the ultimate liberation.
However it’s the same generation that the recent two decades is getting the blame for all that went wrong. That is “wrong” in the eyes of the neo-conservatives (who by the way held the helm in the years leading up to the huge crises – environmental, cultural, economical, social- the world is experiencing now).
Being born just before WWII myself, my wife and I didn’t fully participate in the excitement and adventure of the late sixties. But of course we were close, we felt the thrill, we cheered a lot of the change and did admire pop-art and pop music. We stayed on the periphery though.
These days, sometimes, especially now the petty bourgeois and even xenophobic reactionaries seemingly are in control, I get fits of nostalgia. Philip Larkins wrote “Annus Mirabilis”, which to me is exactly what it was:
Fry and Rome
The concept of God is beyond common human comprehension. So is genuine faith in my opinion. And by consequence both are out of reach of human criticism. But institutionalized, formalized religions are not. Reasonable doubt and criticism is valid here. Of that I’ve got a lot. That’s one of the main reasons to call myself agnostic.
Last Sunday I stumbled on a fascinating entry on this blog. It offers a contribution by Stephen Fry on “the Catholic Church as a force for good in the world” – a subject which was part of the “Intelligence Debate“.
With due respect for believers and the huge value of faith for spiritual life, he delivered an intelligent, critical, strong, emotional yet most of all elegant and eloquent view on the institutional part of this Church. In the process Fry also touches more or less accidentally on the institutional parts of other religions.
I really think it is worthwhile for Catholics, other believers and agnostics alike. It only takes two times 10 minutes to view and hear it all: