Student Theatrical Performance, Part II

Continuing on yesterday's post, here are the photos from the second theatrical perfomance produced by my students from a different class of Exploring Drama. The title they picked was "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Commedy for Serious People" by Oscar Wilde.

I took these picture in the near-dark of the theater stage without the aid of flash lights. To get these pictures, I was forced to use the highest ISO rating my digital camera would allow. At ISO 3200, the digital noise is very visible.

Student Theatrical Performance, Part I

Last week, my students from two different classes at the English Education Department of Indonesia University of Education (UPI Bandung) performed two theatrical performances for the final project of their exploring drama class that I taught.

The following pictures are from their performance of Our Town, an early twentieth century play written by an American playwright Thornton Wilder. I am posting these pictures in honor of their hard work.

PMB Web

This is the PMB stand at Braga Fest last December.

PMB (Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Bandung) or Bandung Student Union is an extramural student organization. The union was established on March 17, 1948 and has about 6000 members. The photos on the web are the documentary pictures of some of the activities they have had recently.

Some of PMB's alumni are Indonesian prominent public figures. Among them are Adnan Buyung Nasution (a prominent lawyer and member of Presidential Advisory Board), Ginandjar Kartasasmita (member and the former speaker of DPD - the Regional Representative Council, one of the two chambers of the Indonesian parliament), and Arifin Panigoro (a tycoon, owner of MEDCO Energi group of companies, and - according to this Forbes report - one of the the top 40 richest persons in Indonesia).

Choir

I was walking to my car one late afternoon when I heard beautiful chants coming from the basement of my office building. I walked over and found a group of students practicing choir. I found out later that they were the members of KMK (Catholic Students Union) of the Indonesia University of Education Chapter, Bandung.

To listen to the beautiful chants they were practicing, please visit Bandung Daily Photo's sister blog Bandung Daily Video.

Learning Democracy

As a newly emerging democracy, Indonesia still has a lot of things to learn about its nature and decent practices. Just a little more than ten years ago, we did not use to have or enjoy what we do now. Direct and free elections of government officials and the freedom of speech and the press, for example, were only a dream when I was a student. Demonstrations - except if they were in support of the ruling regime - were strictly forbidden in the name of "national security" and "political stability" and for the sake of "economic development and progress," the polical jargons that the New Order regime under President Suharto often used to defend its undemocratic practices.

We did enjoy a remarkable economic growth then, and Indonesia was named as one of the emerging economic tigers of Asia. However, a government without transparency and public accountability tends to become corrupt and abusive of its power. And that is exactly what was discovered when the economic crisis of 1997-98 hit the region. A large portion of the wealth of this country was found to have been circulating only in a limited circle of people, mostly those closest to power and their cronies. Collusion, corruption, and nepotism were rampant that what appeared to be progress and prosperity was nothing more than a shell that was hollow inside.



With the crises, came the Reform movement, and democratization programs were speedily instituted. The 1945 Constitution has since been ammended four times to make rooms for democratic institutions and practices, and avoid abuse and misinterpretations by those in power.

Government officers and members of the legislative bodies are now freely and directly elected and, with the abolition the regulations that gave the government control over the press, the press is now as free as those in any democratic countries. Citizens are also free to stage protests and demonstrations and to petition the government for redress of grievances. The establishment of the all powerful Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission) particularly has made the efforts to get rid of corruptive practices a crowning jewel of our efforts to have a clean and accountable government and get back on track to prosperity. A lot of high ranking public officers, including a substantial number of the members of the legislative bodies, have been captured, tried, and indicted for embezzlement of public funds.




Although relatively new, the spirit and practices of democracy are well-embraced by Indonesians from all walks of life, as these photos show. The top photo is of a small group of Indonesia University of Education students who - like a lot other students from around the country - recently protested a new legislation passed by the DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) - the Indonesian parliament. They considered the new law, which would require that all Indonesian schools and universities be made into Badan Hukum Pendidikan (Legal Educational Body), as an effort to privitize education and a betrayal of the Constitutional rights of the citizens to get an affordable education for all.

The second, third, and fouth photos are of students giving their votes for Students Legislative and Executive Bodies.

City of People # 21: Music Students

I was heading to one of the university's canteens for lunch last Thursday when I saw this group of young men performing beautiful music and songs in front of one of the eating places. No, they are not ordinary street musicians, at least not in the ordinary sense of those performing on the streets for tips. These young men are the students of the Music and Performing Arts Department of the Indonesia University of Education (UPI), Bandung.

I don't know if their "street" performance was part of a course they were taking. The music and songs they performed were very fine and tasteful though. They performed a couple of jazz tunes and a popular Indonesian song before they left for another eating place on campus.

As I said in at least one of my previous posts, Bandung is home to quite a few top Art and Perfoming Art schools in the country. The Music and Performing Art Department of the Indonesia University of Education (UPI) is one of them.

Exam Time

These students of mine were doing their mid-term test. They look very serious, do they?

Written tests or exams are a common educational practice today, but it has not always been so. The first written tests known in history were conducted by the Chinese in the 6th century CE. In the West (read: Europe) tests used to be given orally and were conducted in Latin. According to historical records, the first written exams in Europe were conducted at Cambridge University, England, in 1792 (that's only slightly more than two hundred years ago).

I took this photo with my 2 megapixel camera phone, Nokia 5320 ExpressMusic, which I just bought about two weeks ago. I desatured the colors a bit in my image editor program, so the colors you see in this photo are not the original colors captured by the camera.

Street Photography # 7: Courage and Determination

A junior high school student braving the rain and traffic on his bicycle on his way home from school. What's more inspirational than the courage and determination he shows?

A fresh from the oven (camera) photo, taken this afternoon on the street of Bandung.

This photo is my participation for the Monochrome Maniacs meme. Please click the link to see other participants' wonderful black and white photography.

City of People # 15: Students

There is nothing more wonderful than seeing young people seriously at work like what these students of mine are doing.

This is the fifteenth post of my "City of People" series. City of People, as you may remember from my previous posts, is a series that is aimed at capturing the photographs of the people of Bandung from different walks of life doing different kinds of activities.

Bandung, by the way, is one of Indonesia's major educational centers. In fact, one of its nicknames is "Kota Pelajar" (City of Students). There are a least 16 universities and 45 academies and professional schools in this city. Bandung is the home of the three oldest and most prestigious state universities in Indonesia: Bandung Institute of Technology or ITB (established in 1920), Padjadjaran University (established in 1958), and Indonesia University of Education (UPI, established in 1956).