Lesbia Harford’s poetry was lovingly human, social, physical and spiritual. One of Australia’s truly great writers. We can learn from her. She died in her thirties and was buried at Kew Boroondara Cemetery.
I am in deep grief now for the death in April this year of my best friend, Anna Rumaderun, a young mum, who named her only son after me. Like Harford, Anna died in her thirties and is now buried in Ternate, Indonesia.
In a bewildered spirit of freedom, rewriting Lesbia’s poem Pink Dressing Gown, this slightly complicated concatenation of words words is for Anna (and Ms Harford too) :
l’d love to feel her looking up at me Stretched underground In a pink resting shroud Her hands are by her side Her hair all gone I loved to see I loved to see her smiling back at me
Melihatnya memandang Aku/Senang Aku Senang. (Seeing her look at me, I was happy)
Berbaring bebas dia dari kesakitan/Nafasnya hilang (She is now lying free of her pain: her breath is gone.)
Kusenang melihat/Senyumnya padaku (I was so happy seeing her smile.)
Senyumnya padaku (her smile for me)
I hope to hear a better singer than I am singing the above words.
Geoff Fox a previously Registered Midwife and still seeking to live life with women. August 1st, 2025, Melbourne, Australia
The most famous words of Raden Ajeng Kartini are found in the Indonesian language clause: “Habislah Gelap Terbitlah Terang”. (After the Dark, the Light Rises.)
These words come from her original Dutch language writing: “Door Duisternis tot Licht”.
She wrote those words 123 years ago today, on July 28, 1902, at the age of 23, in this profoundly wise and beautiful letter:
“No cloud lasts for ever; neither is there such a thing as eternal sun-shine.
From the darkest night the most beautiful morning is born and here I console myself.
Human life is a true reflection of the life of nature.
What we must pray for day and night is strength.
But the rain which makes the leaf and bud of one plant burst forth, beats another into the earth, where it rots.”
On this day, in 2025, a very real light in my life, after a horrible period of isolating darkness, is Chris Crewther, a Liberal member of Victoria’s state parliament.
In my dealings with him, Chris has been a perfect embodiment of the Indonesian national ideals, as expressed in the national ideology, Pancasila, of civilised humanity and wise representative government.
There is more than one reason for this astonishing human goodness from Chris, but one key factor IMHO is his healthy rural background:
53 years ago today, on February 21, 1970, the Simon and Garfunkel album “Bridge Over Troubled Water” hit number 1 on the UK chart and stayed in that chart for 300 weeks. It went back to the top of that chart 8 times and spent a total of 41 weeks at number 1.
That is astonishing longevity in popular music.
So, I now use today as an auspicious day to launch this website, dedicated to the idea that when we go way back in time, into the depths of our beings, and when we look at the present and into the future, we people are all human and we need to live in peace with each other and overcome any hatreds that get in the way of doing that.
The Abrahamic religions are all cousins.
They should be able to live in peace.
But they can’t.
Lets look at the meaning of a few very similar words to examine human spirituality from an Ibrahamic point of view and beyond.
Eloha is a ancient Hebrew name for God, more often spelt Eloah. Its plural form is Elohim. (According to the website blueletterbible.com the plural form Elohim meaning “God, Creator, Judge” occurs in the Old Testament over 2,000 times.)
Ilaha is an Arabic word, meaning, as I understand it, “God, Deity, Object Of Worship”. It is part of the first half of the Islamic confession of faith “La Ilaha IllAllah.” which I like to transcreate as “There is no god but God.”
Aloha is defined by Wikipedia as “the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, (and) is commonly used as a greeting.”
Aloha is not Abrahamic at all, but allows me to indulge my penchant for discursive thinking and introduce into this post the mention of a personal hero of mine, America’s new Director Of National Intelligence, the extraordinarily intelligent Tulsi Gabbard, who is both a graduate of Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in international business and also a serving Lieutenant Colonel, in the US Army Reserve. Gabbard is currently in command of the 1st Battalion, 354th Regiment, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I revere Tulsi Gabbard as an outstanding woman of peace for statements like this:
“My mom was a practicing Hindu, and my dad was a Catholic who practiced yoga meditation and karma yoga. My earliest memories are of the bright colors, beautiful sounds, and fragrant aromas of both Christian and Hindu celebrations ……. My siblings and I grew up studying from both the Bhagavad-Gita and the Bible, going to Mass, and then coming home to a yoga kirtan.”
“When a person thinks, I am a Christian, this other person is a Muslim, therefore he is my enemy, or I am a Muslim, this other person is a Hindu, therefore she is my enemy, they reveal their own lack of spiritual depth. No religion teaches this, and any understanding of any religion that adopts this divisive attitude proves itself false by doing so.”
“The best way to honor our troops, the less than 1% of our country’s population who voluntarily put their lives on the line in service to our country, is by making sure that when they are sent into combat, it is the last option, not the first, and that the mission is worthy of their great sacrifice.”
“While in the Middle East, I saw how quickly religious sectarianism and bigotry can lead to the disintegration of a country – how leaders manipulate people to fear others who are different, who look different, or who have different beliefs.”
“Our actions to overthrow secular dictators in Iraq and Libya, and attempts now to do the same in Syria, have resulted in tremendous loss of life, failed nations, and even worse humanitarian crises while strengthening the very terrorist organizations that have declared war on America ……. There is no denying that the interventionist wars in Iraq and Libya that were propagated as necessary to relieve human suffering actually increased human suffering in those countries – many times over ……. We need to end our country’s counterproductive regime change war policies that have undermined our national security, destroyed so many countries, and taken so many lives.”
“The cause of peace is too great for us to allow political disagreements or partisanship to stand in our way.”
“If we want to change this culture of hate and bigotry, every one of us must stand up and speak with one voice to condemn it, because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”
“As a soldier, I stand ready to serve and protect and defend this country. And as a soldier, I know the cost of war. And as president and commander-in-chief, I will end these regime-change wars.” (when running for President in 2016)
“As a combat veteran, I know the cost of war.”
“We need to stop judging individuals based on their race, profession, gender, religion, or anything other than their own individual behavior and character.”
“Finding common ground means reaching out with respect and aloha – despite the issues that divide us, despite the hurt, despite the fear – and recognize what unites us as human beings.”
Thank you, Tulsi.
Aloha.
Geoff Fox, 21st February, 2025, Mebourne, Australia
Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
Anna R is a deeply patriotic, Kartiniist citizen of the Republic Of Indonesia.
Anna embraces the modern world and international friendship. As a student of tourism, her decade long commitment to international engagement has won deep respect from all who know her.
This commitment from Anna reminds me of the words of R A Kartini written on February 1, 1903, “I am also glad to do what I can for “East and West.” I feel that I am only doing myself a service, for it is for our people, and I and my people are one.”
Anna, like Kartini, sees international engagement as a service to the Indonesian people.
But, like Kartini, whose great achievements were made at home and not abroad, there are certain issues where Anna steadfastly chooses her traditional culture ahead of the sometimes mechanical impersonal ways of the west.
For Anna R, for better or for worse, traditional medicine such as Jentungan Suntung has proved effective. Whereas in Anna’s real life experience modern surgery is terrifying and sometimes dangerous.
Her husband fully supports her in her choice. Today he carried her in his arms out of a modern hospital to seek traditional care.
I admire their courage.
Their bravery is founded in a reality of faith.
Today Anna wrote this prayer:
“Tuhan ini takdirku Yang telah kau Tetapkan Aku ikhlas semuanya Tapi jgn biarkan Aku menyerah Ajari aku tuntun aku agar bisa Kuat.”
(Lord, this is my fate, which you have ordained. I accept it all. But please do not let me become a quitter. Teach and lead me so I can be strong.)
Anna is suffering badly from a very serious illness. But her faith in God and the old ways of her people is rock solid strong.
Habislah gelap terbitlah Terang. (RA Kartini)
After the dark, let light rise.
Geoff Fox, in awe of Anna from Down Under, 16th February, 2025.
On January 21, 1901, 124 years ago today, R.A. Kartini wrote these thoughts:
“We went at midday to the shore with Mevrouw Conggrijp to bathe. It was splendidly calm, and the sea was all one colour. I sat on a rock with my feet in the water, and my eyes on the distant horizon. Oh! the world is so beautiful! Thanksgiving and peace were in my heart. If we go to Mother Nature for consolation she will not allow us to go away uncomforted.
I have thought so long and so much about education, especially of late, and I think it such a high, holy task …………..
Education means the forming of the mind and of the soul.
…………
I subscribe warmly to Mijnheer’s idea, which is set forth so clearly in his paper on the “Education of Native Girls,” “Woman as the Carrier of Civilization!”
…………..
Man receives from woman his very earliest nourishment, at her breast, the child learns to feel, to think and to speak; and I see more and more clearly that the very earliest education has an influence which extends over one’s whole after life.”
On the 8th of August, 1903, Javanese princess and common people’s advocate Raden Ajeng Kartini wrote of a deeply meaningful meeting she had with a village midwife:
“Just now we have company; at the table where I sit there are five of us working. Justinah the wise woman came this morning and will stay until next week. We think her a treasure. She spends her time here usefully, teaches embroidery and is so severe when we are careless. When we make a mistake, she immediately pulls everything out. How rich I felt this morning when she laid her hand trustingly on my shoulder, while I explained something or other to her. Now she feels at home with us; I look with so much pleasure into her fine intelligent eyes; they say so much.
She is a dessa-child. Oh, how full of love is her calling! You would enjoy meeting her. She listens with attention when one speaks, and then asks such intelligent questions. If you ever come to our neighbourhood again, I hope to be able to take her to you. This clever little woman has already attended forty-eight women in child-birth, and she is such a young thing still, with all a child’s eagerness.”
Exactly one hundred and ten years years later on the 8th of August, 2013, I was blessed to meet an astonishimg Indonesian man, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, (SBY), who rose from birth into a lower middle class family in the very small village of Tremas (about 8 kilometre north northeast of the alun-alun in Pacitan on the glorious south coast of East Java) to become the first two-term democratically elected president of his homeland, Indonesia, the fourth largest nation on earth.
I told SBY in that very brief meeting a little bit both about the results of my cross cultural engagement with a wonderful grassroots man, Mr Syukur Kuseke, the traditional owner of Air Kaca, a national heritage (cagar budaya) site in Morotai and about my dad’s time in Morotai in World War Two. SBY said that he would like to visit Air Kaca. The president met very many people that day so my time with him was limited, but, as I left the room in the presidential palace, SBY’s eyes followed me with a child like eagerness to know more that I will never forget.
Alhamdullialh.
I praise the Lord for allowing me that treasured memory of meeting SBY.
The villages of the world are frequently where the greatest joys and purity are found, created and nurtured for us all.
Mbah Jeff (sudah tua), December 2nd, 2024, Melbourne, Australia
To the people of the Republic Of Indonesia, I report a statement on the 8th of August 1903 by my personal heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini as she awaited her approaching marriage:
“The children are to be my future, and I shall live and work for them, strive, and suffer, if need be, for them.”
More recently, a significant event which also happened on the date of August 8, was in 1984: the birth of Sherly Tjoanda who is now set to become the governor-elect of North Maluku.
Congratulations, Sherly.
InsyaAllah nanti Kartiniisme mendunia.
Geoff Fox, budayawan, Melbourne, Australia, December 2nd, 2024.
In November 1899, Raden Ajeng Kartini wrote this in one of her letters to Holland about her father:
“Father knows everything that goes on in our hearts. Father does not tell us so, yet I am certain of it. Now and then Papa tells one or the other of us precisely what we have been thinking; something that we had kept to ourselves and never told to any one. It is without doubt, because Father loves us so much, and we so love him. Every now and then he discovers something, and lays it bare, that had been in the bottom of my heart, and of which I had thought no one except myself had the slightest idea. Does not that show true kinship of soul?”
In the same letter Kartini wrote this about her mother:
“O little Mother, dearest Mevrouwtje, I wish that you were back with us. Your daughters miss you so much. We long for the pleasant days that we spent with you to come again: the splendid times that we used to have in your dear little sitting-room, where you would read to us from great books, and where we spoke of so much, the memory of which shall always remain with us. I miss the intimate talks with you, when I used to tell my dear little mother all the rebellious thoughts that came into my head, and laid bare the feelings of my restless heart. When I was in a rebellious mood, I had but to see the love light in your face, and I was again the happy, careless child, that, in overflowing good spirits, could sing: “Whatever Heaven to me shall send, I’ll set my shoulders bravely under.” “
One of the foundations of Kartini’s greatness was her love for her parents.
Lest we forget: without family life, we are nothing.
MOTHERHOODS MATTER 