About Death and Love

Actually, I don’t like talking about death. I hate saying goodbye, especially to your family or close friends. And I don’t like being in funerals, it’s very scary seeing a lot of cries and grieves. For those of you who had lost family members, you must know how it feels like some part of you died along when they put the body in grave. But, I need to write this unspeakable (so, I write it) thoughts in my head, my view about death.

My Dad passed away when I was 16 years old. He was a very good person, a responsible husband, a respectful man. He worked hard, traveled a lot, and spent most of his time in piles of work. That’s why we didn’t really have a close father-daughter relationship. For some years after his death, I often felt disappointed about this. I wish I had better relationship with him, I wish I had more time to talk to him, I wish I could told him all those exciting teenager’s stories. I never had those time with him.

Besides all of my disappointment, all time I wish I had, all time that he wasn’t there in my life, I never had doubt about his love to his family. That’s the magic of love. Though you can’t see it, you can feel it, especially the love that exist in family. Though he’s been gone for ever, I can still feel his love stay with me.

:’)

(I am inspired to write this post, after I saw my friend’s post, Fitry Zuliarty, in Tumblr. Keep the love, mate!)

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

Pain, Love and Forgiveness

I wake up. I think I’m dead. The last thing I remember was looking at the message he sent me at my phone. But, I don’t remember anything about the message, I just remember when I read it my heart beat fast, my blood running through my neck and pain strike my head. Then my eyes started to hurt and tears came down. And then… I saw a very bright light in front of me, almost made me blind and the next thing I know, I woke up here in a colorful room full of cotton candy and lollipops hanging down from the ceiling and wall.

I walk around the room with strange feeling.
“Is this heaven?” I whisper.
“Well, it could be.” someone answer my question. I’m looking back and there’s a man my age, sitting at a classic bench. I don’t know why I didn’t notice him, but I’m pretty sure there’s no bench there before.

“Who are you? And where do you came from?”
“I am you.”
“Where is this? Am I dead?”
“Technically yes, you’re dead. But… it can be compromised.. Yeah, don’t think about it. Let’s take a walk!” He get up from the bench and grab my shoulder. We are walking through that room. What I notice next is, this room is a very long room you cannot see the end. And we keep walking. The strange man beside me humming a song.
“What song is that? It’s familiar.”
“I don’t know. It’s just very catchy.” And sometimes he jump and make some kind of weird dance like from the 80′s. He grab some cotton candy and eat it.
“Hey, grab some! Its delicious!” He offers me and I try a bit.

Magically, the second it touch my lips, I feel very very happy. And next we both already dancing around, and humming the same song. It is an incredible feeling.

Suddenly, I remember about the message in my phone. And I stop dancing.
“Why are you stopping?”
“What did he say? What did he text that make me feel so much pain?”

The strange man stop dancing. And make a pout.
“You really wanna know?”
“You know what he said?”
“Of course I do. I am you.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“I am you.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
“No, you’re a.. man!”
“Well, actually I could be man or woman. I’m just a projection, you project me as a man, so, here I am.”
“I still don’t get it! And how do you know what he said to me and I don’t remember it at all? And what kind of place is this? and what happened with me and why am I here?”

“Okay, let’s sit and I’ll try to explain all of this to you.”
We sit in a bench that I’m pretty sure its not there before.
“Where do we start?”
“What is this place and why I am here?.”
“Okay. This is nowhere and you’re technically not here… Okay okay, I’ll try to make it sense. You had an accident, a car accident, and you’re in between.”
“In between?”
“Yeah, in medical language is you’re in a coma, but I would like to say in between. It’s more cool.”
“So I’m in a coma?”
“Yes, you are.”
“… And how did that accident happened? What made the car crashed?”
“You remember you got a text?”
“Yeah, from my boyfriend. But I don’t know what it is about. Everytime I try to remember I feel strange, like I wanna puke.”
“You really wanna know?”
“Yes.” The strange man take a breath and make a really serious face he never shown before.
“The consequence of knowing the truth is pain. And this pain could be there forever.. You ready?”
“Wait! How painful it is?”
“Oh you bet, this is the pain that made some young girl like you didn’t wanna live. The worst pain of all. The pain of guilt. And one thing you should know, when I tell you the truth, this place will be gone, I will be gone, because this place itself can’t stand to a pain like that.”

I look around. This is a beautiful place. Looking only at anything turn your heart warm. This is a perfect place to live forever. But this unknown feeling make me feel funny. I feel like I forget something, missing something really important. And I can’t help cannot remember it.

“Okay. I’m ready. Tell me the truth.” The strange man smile at me and hold my hand.

—

I wake up. I think I’m alive. I’m in a room. A white room. A hospital room. There’s a song played, me and my boyfriend’s favorite song. My eyes feel so heavy, and I’m starting to feel pain all over my body. There’s a man sitting beside me, holding my hand with his face lying on the side of my bed, he must be fell asleep.

At that second I remember everything. Everything about the text, about the crash, about the truth.

He texted me ‘I love you’.

I read it on my way home, my way to our apartment when I just got back from someone else’s house. I just cheated with a guy I met on an photo exhibition. He’s one of the photographer. Out of my control, tears coming from my eyes.

“Are you awake? Oh, thank God you’re awake!!” He’s awakened with his surprise face checking me and calling out doctor.

The guilty feeling come right away. I feel so guilty that it hurts so much. I hate myself. I feel sick and angry of myself. Then tears come down through my cheeks like a fountain.

“I.. I.. was cheating on you.” I said it between my tears. He stare at me with his glassy tired eyes, holding my hand.

He take a deep breath. Then he say the most beautiful and painful words in my life.

“I know, I forgive you. If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best possible. Then I will either wait for you or forget you. Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering… And I already know what to do. To wait for you.”

The doctor come into the room, checking my heart, picking up my hand and checking my pulse.
“Hey, what’s written in your hand?” The doctor pointing at the palm of my hand.

I look at my hand and there written ‘Second chance. Make it worth’ and slights of pink cotton candy between my fingers.

Dream Catcher

I just feel like writing. The clock in my PC say it’s 7.53 pm, still in the office though, i just finished taking photos of Citos’ visitor for the bulettin. There’s only like 4 or 5 persons here. Bruno’s live performance is playing in the background. He performed runaway baby with a lil bit touch of ska music. My head is nodding and my body’s shakin, hahaha. My desk is kinda messed up right now. My drawer is opened and there’s a pair of socks there, haha, it’s such a multifunction drawer ya know, i put everything there.

by the way, i think i wanna talk about dreams. There’s a lot of things that made me think about it this past few days. I’m a dreamer. I think that’s what i enjoy most when i’m alone since like i don’t know when. I love dreaming about a life out there, maybe being a free person in paris, hanging out around eiffel. I dreamt about being a rockstar and lived in hollywood. that kind of stuff is really fun to dream about. It’s silly, but it’s fun, and it’s not real hahaha. but i have a lot of dream, real dream, the dream that in reality i’ve been tryin to achieve. All this time i’ve been working to get it and it’s kinda tiring. sometimes, when i’m down, went home and tryin to sleep it’s kinda came and strike you. i kept asking what if to myself. what if I cannot get wat i want, what if i don’t get in before my deadline (that i made by myself, haha), what if i won’t get a chance to experience to live in that dream.

When you really want something and you try really hard to make it happen, sometimes it could make you really depressed. it’s poor ya know, depressed about something you don’t get yet. sometimes, i did. sometimes, i just wanted to stop, taking an easy way out and stop tryin. It was always seem like the easiest thing  to do. to give up. It’s never been easy for me to be here today. Since i was a little kid I’m the kind of girl who always bustin my ass in school, i took a lot of courses and pratices. I fight through a lot of things in my life until now. Everything’s never been easy. why? because i’m not rich, i’m not a genius, i’m not popular, and many other things. I’m not born with that advantages. Thank god I had such a great parents who know how to build that fighting spirit high. I had always been a kid that fights and will always be. it’s in my blood.

So here i am, I’m 22, just building my career. I really hope and pray and fight all my best to achieve my dreams. I really want to tell you what it is, but i wonder if i don’t achieve it in the future and i already told everybody about it i will be very devastated. so i’m keeping it to my self. only me and god knows what it is. and only me and god know how bad i’ve always wanted it and how hard i fight. i really do. we’ll see in the next 3 years if it’s gonna happen or not. my 25 years old me had to write another post about it. see ya.

PS: Find someone funny when you get depressed. Other’s emotion could influence yours. Believe me, it works.

Is there a soulmate for everyone?

I just wondering, is everybody have a soulmate at work?

I think so. I think I had twice and I heard some stories that make me believe me believe that there’s 2 person who really connected in doing work. I know a an Art D in an advertising agency who got a new job, and then few months later his copywriter join him in his new company. They said they feel really connected doing work together, and yes they had made great ads and won some award.

I’ve been thinking, is it all about working? For me, it’s not always work. It could be personal thing. I think I had met one in my previous job, a lot of common made me enjoy working there, and even though we don’t work together anymore, we still hangout and connect in a lot of other things.

Like Carrie in Sex and The City said we could have more than 1 soulmate in this crowded world. I haven’t found a new soulmate in work yet in my new office, but who knows maybe time will show. I promise u when I get one, I’ll tell you every detail, maybe I could make How I Met Your Mother sequel, titled How I Met My Working Soulmate.

So, have u met your work soulmate yet?

Windadodoy

Spare energy and the rockstars

When I was a little girl, I often imagined myself being a Hollywood star, pop star, rock star… Hahaha yes, I always love rockstars, they’re very cool and so much energy around them. Jumping around in a stage like no one else there, breaking the rules, and don’t care so much about other people. In fact, I was just a smart girl, always got good grades, entered top schools (yes, I’m  really proud of this). Everybody always expect the best from me, and it’s no problem until one day in your life you wake up, and realized what’s happening.

You grew up and pushed down this child energy for years, and going on for the other story of your life, get a settled career, buy things, get married, having kids, and die. Most of us walk in almost same journey. The energy of your childhood’s dream buried in the bottom of your brain and replaced by the same pattern that our brothers, sisters, parents, grand parents, and everybody else has gone for century.

I have this theory that they’re not gone forever, they’re just lay there waiting the right moment when you let it burst out. I call it spare energy. When I feel down, losing hope and don’t have passions to start on something, I put that energy back. Sometimes, when I need my spare energy, and it all already used up. So, I go out and get another from my friends, colleagues, a stranger in the bus, a taxi driver, or anybody else, because you don’t know where you’re gonna meet those enthusiast.  I am once met a really cool taxi driver that made me laugh hard and really made the highlight of my day (I’ll tell you later about this story). And sometimes, when I stuck in a traffic, or in a jammed road, I remember him, and it doesn’t feel so bad anymore.

I always try to keep my spare energy bag full. What for? To be a rockstars once in while, like my childhood dream. I didn’t become a rockstars, but I wanna build those energy in whatever I’d become. Nobody knows what the future are, but I got a spare energy to boost up through the hardest time of my life.

Take your spare energy out, have fun with your friends and grab the mike, put on your costumes, jumping around, till the morning called you up and then back to reality, meet a cool person, and get more energy! YEAH!

Bunga dari Roy

Gue baru dapet bunga mawar. Bukan dari pacar, karena gue emang ga punya. Tapi dari salah satu teman baik saya, namanya Roy. Ceritanya, gue dan teman-teman mau pergi bareng ke ulang tahun teman lama. Karena acaranya baru mulai jam 9 dan kita semua kepagian akhirnya kita nunggu di Boxmart Kemang buat ngebir-ngebir dulu. Gak lama, ada anak-anak SMA yang nyamperin.

“Kak mau beli bunga gak kita lagi cari dana nih.”
“Berapaan emangnya?” tanya Roy.
“Sepuluh ribu Kak.”

Setelah mikir-mikir sebentar Roy pun buka dompet ngambil duit dan ngebayar. Yang gue kaget tiba-tiba dia ngasih bunga itu loh ke gue.
“Nih doy, buat lo, baru pertama kali nih gue ngasih bunga ke cewek, bini gue aja ga pernah gue kasih.” Katanya sambil ketawa yang langsung disambut sama sorakan teman-teman yang lain.

Gue agak terkejut sekaligus senang loh, hehehehe. Soalnya ini pertama kalinya gue dikasih bunga. Gue senangnya tulus banget loh karena gue tau dia juga ngasih bunganya tulus banget. Gak ada maksud terselubung dibalik tindakannya itu, berlawanan sama teman-teman gue yang jadi heboh mencie-ciekan kita berdua. Gue gak lupa ngucapin terima kasih pastinya, terus kita berdua asik aja ngobrol lagi, terserah teman-teman yang lain mau ngomong apa, hehehe.

Sebetulnya gue dan Roy udah temenan dari SD, Cuma kita emang gak terlalu sering main bareng, apalagi sejak lulus dan pisah sekolah. Boro-boro main, ketemu aja ga pernah. Tapi karena ngurusin reuni SD bareng, akhirnya gue dan Roy sering ketemu dan jalan bareng. Tapi herannya gue ngerasa klop banget dia jadi temen gue, dan Roynya pun juga begitu. Gue suka gayanya dia yang santai dan easy-going. Wah pokoknya dia berubah banget dari dulu yang jaman SD keliatannya alim dan agak kaku. Yang gue rasain adalah gue nyambung banget sama dia. Temenannya tuh tulus banget, dan gue jarang-jarang nih ketemu orang yang kayak gini. Bisa nyaman mau cerita apa aja, mau gila-gilaan di tempat karaoke, atau ngebir bareng sampe pagi. Padahal dia udah punya istri loh, baru aja seminggu yang lalu nikah.

Yup, dia umurnya 21 tahun dan udah nikah. Waktu dia ngundang gue ke nikahannya, gue kira dia becanda, terus gue tanya dia alasan dia berani ngambil keputusan yang besar tu.

“Gila lu Roy! Lo masih 21 gitu. Ngapain sih nikah, puasin aja main-mainnya dulu.” Pas gue kasih pertanyaan itu mimiknya langsung berubah.
“Roy, lo gak MBA kan?” tanya gue, karena gue jadi agak ga enak.
”Enggak, gue pengen nikahin dia karena gue sayang sama dia, dan mau cepet atau lambat gue akan nikahin dia. Jadi ya kenapa enggak sekarang aja.”
Gue dengernya cuma diam. Dalam hati gue mau bilang “ Beruntung banget ya yo bini lo!” tapi cuma dalam hati sih.

Dua hari menjelang hari pernikahannya gue pergi jalan lagi sama dia. Dan obrolan pun mengarah ke topik pernikahannya lagi.
“Roy, gue penasaran apa sih alasan lo buat nikah umur segini. Kalo cewek mungkin biasa, tapi kalau cowok kayaknya jarang banget yang punya pikiran kayak lo. Kayaknya lo masih pengen main-main deh, lo ga takut nyesel nikah kecepetan?” tanya gue penasaran.
“Sebenernya doy gue nikahin dia karena empat tahun yang lalu gue udah merawanin dia.”
“Terus??” Gue agak bingung alasannya benar-benar di luar prediksi gue. Selama ini gue gak pernah denger cowok nikahin pacarnya karena dia udah ML sama ceweknya. Kalau nikah karena MBA banyak. Mau bilang cowok ini baik, tapi kok ga juga, tapi kalau dia tanggung jawab karena alasan itu kok baik banget ya.

“Gue tau arti keperawanan buat seorang cewek itu penting banget, apalagi buat dia. Jadi gue tanggung jawab. Gue sayang sama dia, gue udah ngambil punya dia, makanya gue pertahanin terus sampe 4 tahun gue pacarin, baru gue nikahin dia.”

Jujur gue agak kaget denger alasannya. Jarang banget cowok di Jakarta yang punya pemikiran kayak dia, apalagi dengan gaya hidup urban kaya di Jakarta. Gue kagum dengan kedewasaan dia yang umurnya baru 21 tahun itu. Gue bingung mau bilang dia bego karena ngorbanin masa mudanya yang masih pengen seneng tanpa beban, tapi di satu sisi gue bangga akan keberaniannya mengambil keputusan yang besar dan merubah seumur hidupnya. Semenjak percakapan itu, gue jadi memandang seorang Roy dengan cara yang berbeda.

Maaf ya Roy, tapi kok gue gak percaya lo sedewasa itu ya. Gue yakin banget kalau dia sebenernya belom siap berkeluarga. Umur 21 tahun itu bagi gue masih anak kemaren sore, masih pengen seneng-seneng, masih pengen main-main. Masih pengen hidup tanpa beban dan bebas. Umur 21 tahun itu masih suka mabok, dugem, ngebaks, pacaran, selingkuh, dan sederet pengalaman hidup lainnya yang menurut gue gak akan bisa lo alamin lagi kalo udah berkeluarga, apalagi punya anak. Emang sekarang adalah fase hidup lo yang kayak gitu, dan hasrat-hasrat itu pasti akan dialami oleh semua orang. Dan menurut gue Roy emang masih pengen bebas. Buktinya, dua hari menjelang hari pernikahannya aja dia masih ngajakin mabok bareng, hehehehe. Mendingan lo alamin sekarang kan daripada waktu lo udah nikah, udah punya anak, lo baru tergoda untuk nyobain hal-hal kayak gitu. Kalau kata gue “telat coy!”.

Pikiran jelek gue muncul, bahwa Roy nikah karena rasa bersalah dia udah merawanin ceweknya, jadi cuma keterpaksaan aja. Karena penasaran, gue mulai tanya lagi ke dia.
“Roy, seandainya lo gak merawanin dia, lo gak pernah ML sama dia, lo bakalan nikahin dia gak umur segini?” Dan ternyata jawabannya seperti yang sudah saya prediksikan.

“Kayaknya ga deh.” Jawabnya sambil nyengir.

Hahahaha gue ketawa sangat keras. Bener kan, umur 21 tahun itu masih cemen, masih ingin menikmati indahnya dunia pergaulan. Gue cuma mendoakan aja supaya rumah tangganya berjalan lancar sampe mati. Amin!

Roy… Roy… seandainya lo belom nikah, mungkin bunga mawar yang lo kasih maknanya bisa beda, hehehehe.

Mochi-Mochi and Moshi-Moshi

Yesterday, I found a box of mochi in my dining table. I take a look inside and found there’s 3 balls lying there. Wow! I never try this mochi brand before. And I pick up the classic-looking white one. One bite.. and it’s superb! I really want to take another one, but I’m afraid it’s someone’s. In the morning I opened my refrigerator, and voila! the box’s still there! I asked my mom and she said I could have it. So now, I’m eating the mochis here in my desk at my office.

The white mochi is a typical other mochi, with mungbeans (kacang hijau). The second one is green. I don’t know what it is but I think there’s green tea there. It filled with mungbeans too. The last one is black. I thought it was very cool black mochi yeay! And it taste a little weird but also unique. It covered with black sesame. It filled with mungbeans and sesame too.

Well, basically I like mochi very much! In fro-yo or just simply that Sukabumi’s sold in keranjang. I googled and found out that this one sold in Foodhall. Hmm, I should get another box! Yummy!

Mochi-mochi.

The magical black sesame mochi.

When I first saw mochi-mochi I remember ‘Moshi-Moshi‘ that Japanese often use when they pick up the phone. So I’m thinking… why should they say it twice, why not only ‘Moshi’? ahaha silly question, but then I googled and found a really interesting explaination.

The reason has to do with ghosts and ghouls. Ghosts have a long history in Japanese culture. According to the historian, saying ‘Moshi Moshi’ twice was the way to prove you were not a ghost. Apparently ghosts can only say ‘Moshi’ once! Hahaha so that’s the reason! The people believe if the ghost call out to you only ‘Moshi’ and you answer, it could steal your soul away…So in order to prove that you are a nice, warm-blooded (and hopefully harmless) human being, you say ‘Moshi-Moshi’ twice, just to be on the safe side. This also goes in making phone call.

You wanna read it yourself? Fine, then go here.

Okay, that’s for today. Oh I heart knowledge!… and food… good food. Too many thoughts here in my head. I really should get back to work. Bye!

a short note and a thought

Jakarta is the city where i live most of my life. though many people say it sucks, full of pollution, dirty, bla bla bla, i never had a doubt that i really enjoy living here.

Jakarta inspire me so much about life, dreams, and hope.

The street’s is someone’s home. Even the garbage is someone’s source of living.

I found beauty in the ugliest thing i ever see and history in a bunch of wrecks. So sad, but beautiful.

The people’s desire to survive in the city they called METROPOLITAN. The spirit of staying alive, of reach another level of life.

Those kids running around in the streets, like it was their playground.

I wannabe one of them. Being happy of what i already had. Hoping but not insisting. Trying but not resisting.

I want, if you meet me someday in Jakarta, you inspired something about bravery, toughness, basically anything. Because  i wanna inspire people, i wanna be the cause of some movement, and being known for what i have had work very hard.

i wanna be remembered,

like i’ll always remember you.

Thanks Jakarta, I love you

marketing talk

few months ago i joined a forum here http://www.axioooutofthebox.com/ and i didn’t opened it for a  long time. until today, i got an email and enter the marketing forum of the web. and i thought this is a very goog forum though. we could talk about brands, strategies and many more about marketing. well for a ll my friends in advertising it’s a very good forum to learn and expand our view about advertising, marketing world..happy study!

so i submit my first post for topic “mass or niche target”, here it is:

Menurut saya memakai brand lama atau baru harus mempertimbangkan semua faktor yang berkaitan dengan brand tersebut. Tapi yang paling penting menurut saya adalah target marketnya sendiri. seperti apakah tipe target marketnya, apakah mereka masih suka coba2 atau merupakan konsumen yang loyal? Jika pasarnya berbeda maka treatmentnya juga berbeda bukan? Salah satu faktor yang penting juga adalah competitor. Zaman sekarang persaingan semakin ketat, jadi bagaimana membedakan diri (melalui komunikasi) dari para pesaing menurut saya lebih penting daripada sekedar memakai brand lama atau brand baru.

Mengapa di tengah jalan? Teknologi terus berkembang, kebutuhan bertambah, masyarakat juga semakin dinamis. Kalau brand tidak menyesuaikan diri ya siap-siap aja ditinggal konsumen alias mati, karena tidak tidak ketemu lagi apa yang ditawarkan brand dan apa yg diinginkan konsumen. Strategi marketing yang dibuat secara jangka panjang tentu tidak dapat memprediksi hal-hal yang muncul di tengah jalan di luar dugaan kita, contohnya: competitor mengeluarkan produk baru lebih dahulu. Dengan kata lain kalau mau tetap hidup ya harus tanggap dan sigap terhadap perubahan2 yang ada.

well, thanks to all lecturer that talk about brand extension, line extension, etc, ahahah. it’s very useful ya know!

cheers!

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hey ya know what, i got the third winner in this forum! yeay! so happy. thank u axioooutofthebox!

pro dan kontra pengemis- ECOLA Jurnal Depok 21-01-10

gw lupa gw udah pernah cerita belom ya kalo gw nulis di Jurnal Depok. ceritanya gw nulis di kolom mahasiswanya gitu. and btw gw belum pernah publish tulisan gw di blog, nah ini salah satu tulisan gw mengenai pengemis, ini tulisannya buat headline loh, silakan dibaca..

Jalan Sawo adalah salah satu jalan menuju UI yang paling ramai dilewati oleh mahasiswa. Ada banyak pedagang berjualan di sana, mulai dari pakaian, makanan, sampai peralatan komputer. Tapi, satu yang saya ingat dari Jalan Sawo adalah seorang kakek yang setiap hari duduk di jalan, dengan kaki terbalut kain, dan sesekali memainkan lantunan lagu Sunda dengan sulingnya. Suatu hari saya berbincang dengannya. Si Kakek itu bilang kalau kakinya terkena letusan Gunung Galunggung, dan dia tidak dapat bekerja lagi di sawah. JIka saya kebetulan lewat jalan itu dan ada uang lebih, saya memberikan uang itu kepada si Kakek. Mungkin tidak seberapa, namun saya ikhlas bisa membantu orang lain.

Mengenai bolehkah memberi uang kepada pengemis selalu menuai pro dan kontra. Di satu sisi mengusik rasa kemanusiaan, di sisi lain menuai banyak larangan karena mengemis dianggap bermalas-malasan dan merugikan orang lain.

Beberapa bulan menjelang bulan ramadhan yang lalu Pemkot Depok pernah mengklaim kalau wilayahnya bebas dari pengemis dan anak jalanan (www.okezone.com), namun pada kenyataannya sekarang banyak yang kita temukan di beberapa tempat, termasuk di wilayah kampus kita sendiri.

Pemberian uang kepada pengemis sudah dilarang oleh Pemprov DKI Jakarta. Dinas Sosial Jakarta melarang warga yang kedapatan memberi sedekah pada pengemis. Merujuk Perda 8/2007 hakim PN Jakpus, Jakbar, Jaksel dan Jaktim memberi sanksi Rp 150.000-300.000 kepada para pemberi sedekah itu. Hukuman itu jauh lebih ringan dibandingkan ancaman hukuman dalam Perda Ketertiban Umum, yaitu kurungan maksimal 60 hari atau denda maksimal Rp 20 juta. Namun nampaknya di Depok sendiri belum ada larangan khusus untuk tidak memberikan uang kepada pengemis.

Penggunaan hukum positif ala Jakarta ini ditempuh pula oleh Makassar, Aceh, Palembang, dan Bali. Yang lain menggunakan otoritas lembaga keagamaan, seperti dilakukan MUI Sumenep Jawa Timur jelang Ramadhan 1430 Hijriah yang mengeluarkan fatwa haram mengemis. Menurut Ketua MUI Sumenep KH Syafraji mengemis akan menjadikan diri hina dan merugikan orang lain. “Islam sudah secara tegas melarang kegiatan mengemis karena termasuk bermalas-malasan,” paparnya (www.tempointeraktif.com).

Alasan seseorang hingga mengemis mungkin ada banyak. Salah satunya adalah keterpaksaan karena ekonomi. Namun, tak banyak pula yang menjadikan pengemis sebagai bisnis, yaitu dengan adanya jaringan pengemis yang dikuasai oleh orang-orang tertentu. Hal inilah yang membuat kita harus berhati-hati, jangan sampai niat baik kita ternyata disalahgunakan oleh orang-orang yang malas dan tidak mau berusaha.