Pemimpin yang Amanah

oleh Nuniekk Nuriani Nuriman

Banjir menghantam Jakarta lagi. Aku menyaksikannya melalu berita malam yang ditayangkan oleh televisi Jepang di Tokyo. Terbayang rumah orang tua ku di Jakarta kebanjiran. Sofa yang baru di beli dengan susah payah dengan penuh perjuangan adikku itu… kulkas yang baru di beli setelah belasan tahun penantian itu….

Terbayang susahnya orang tua dan adik adik berusaha menyelamatkan barang-barang yang menurut kami berharga. Terbayang ketakutan ibuku akan suara derasnya air mengalir, kecemasan mereka, …..

Tapi yang lebih membuatku cemas dan sedih adalah kampung kampung yang terletak bersebrangan dengan perumahanku yang di batasi oleh sungai. Rumah rumah di kampung itu sangat memprihatinkan. Tidak ada lantai, alasnya hanya tanah. Dibuat dari bambu atau dari kayu kayu yang lapuk. Penghuninya makan hanya 2 kali sehari, anak anak mereka tidak sekolah. Ya Allah…. Mungkin saat ini rumah mereka rata dengan tanah karena rumah mereka tepat di pinggir sungai. Bagaimana dengan bayi bayi yang ada di rumah itu, anak anak itu…. Ingin aku pulang untuk menjenguk mereka.

Ah, perih hatiku ini mengingatnya. Karena banjir yang datang ini bukan sepenuhnya gejala alami, tapi karena ulah manusia juga. Dan juga ketidak seriusan pemerintah untuk menanganinya. Tentu saja aku tidak menyalahkan pemerintah saja, banjir itu pastinya ulahku juga, ulah kita semua. Tapi pemerintahpun punya andil yang besar dalam hal ini. Karena yang namanya pemerintah artinya mengemban tanggung jawab yang besar untuk mengayomi rakyatnya.

“ Ah…. Sebesar apapun dana mengucur untuk banjir, mungkin tak akan sampai …..” timpal salah satu temanku.

Aku bolak balik menelpon ke luarga ku takut banjir susulan. Tapi sebenarnya yang paling aku khawatirkan bukan ke luargaku, tapi perkampungan kumuh dipinggir sungai itu…… Orang orang itu cukup dekat dengan penduduk kompleks kami. Karena mereka ada yang berja sebagai pencabut rumput untuk orang orang kompleks, penjual keliling, pencuci pakaian, dan sebagainya dengan penghasilan harian yang tidak seberapa.

Ya Allah, aku dan ke luargaku tau, betapa susahnya hidup mereka tanpa banjirpun. Kini mungkin mereka kedinginan di suatu tempat tak beratap, lapar… Adakah orang orang kompleksku ingat akan keadaan mereka? Karena mereka pun sedang sibuk dengan banjir yang menggenangi rumah mereka.

Di berita aku baca ada yang meninggal karena kesetrum, ternggelam dan sebagainya. Di berita foto terlihat orang orang dengan susah payah menyelamatkan diri di tengah air yang kotor. Ada yang menangis karena kehilangan, ada yang terpampang dengan wajah khawatir, tapi ada yang tersenyum karena mencoba untuk bersabar. Dan tiba- tiba aku lihat berita lagi….

Seorang menteri menyalahkan media massa yang telah membesar-besarkan bencana banjir yang melanda Jakarta dan sekitarnya. Sebab pada kenyataannya, jelas menteri tersebut banyak pengungsi banjir yang masih dapat tersenyum. "Kalau kita lihat para korban itu masih ketawa. Jangan sampai dikondisikan seolah-olah dunia mau kiamat seperti yang televisi Anda katakan demikian, " kata menteri itu di Jakarta, seperti yang diberitakan suatu media.

Seperti kilat menyambar hatiku. Perih, sedih, adakah seorang manusia yang mempunyai jiwa, perasaan, dapat mengatakan hal seperti itu di tengah tenagh musibah yang nyata nyata masih berlanjut dan di depan mata. Dan hal itu ke luar dari mulut seorang pemimpin yang di beri amanah oleh rakyat. Mungkin beliau itu tidak pernah berjalan jalan di tengah air kotor mengangkut barang barang miliknya. Beliau tidak pernah menyaksikan kampung kampung kumuh di seberang sungai dekat kompleksku. Beliau tidak pernah tau penderitaan mereka yang berlantaikan tanah, makan 2 kali sehari dan berpenghasilan harian dan kini rumah mereka rata dengan tanah.

Pemimpin yang lain berkata “Jangan saling menyalahkan. Hari ini saya tidak tidur sampai jam 3 pagi untuk mengatasi masalah pengungsi…”

Bagi orang Jepang itu suatu pernyataan yang lucu dari seorang pemimpin. Karena di Jepang berkerja sampai jam 3 pagi lalu bangun lagi jam 8 pagi untuk bekerja adalah hal yang rutin yang biasa dilakukan orang orang yang mempunyai jabatan sebagai pemimpin entah itu hanya pemimpin bagian dari sebuah kantor kecil atau kantor besar. Apalagi seorang pemimpin dalam pemerintahan.

Nabi tercinta Rasulullah Sallalahu alaihi wassalam dan sahabatnya terkenal sebagai pemimpin pemimpin yang sederhana yang sangat memperhatikan rakyatnya dan bahkan takut sekali manyalah gunakan uang rakyatnya. Meraka adalah pemimpin pemimpin yang takut hanya pada Allah. Sangat jauh sekali dengan pemimpin pemimpin kita yang kadang malah berpesta terang terangan di atas penderitaan rakyat. Seharusnya paling tidak, sebagai negara yang mayoritasnya penduduk muslim dan mengenal agama dan bernamakan dengan nama nama Islam, ada arah menuju seperti yang di contohkan Rasulullah.

Kontrasnya di negara yang tidak beragama ini di negeri sakura, setiap orang begitu diperhatikan oleh pemerintahnya. Kalau di negara kita pada umumnya pmerintah dari camat sampai yang ke atas berlomba lomba untuk memanfaatkan jabatan memperkaya diri. Di jepang dari pemerinath seperti lurah sampai gubernur berlomba lomba untuk memberikan yang terbaik untuk rakyatnya. Misalnya di kelurahan A berusaha agar penduduk yang tinggal di kelurahan itu bisa berobat dengan sangat murah atau kalau bisa gratis. Di kelurahan lain, berusaha membangun fasilitas yang berguna dan modern untuk penduduk di ke luarahan itu agar penduduk di ke luarahan itu dapat lebih maju dengan memakai fasilitas itu seperti cultural center, dan sebagainya.

Jadi jangan heran kalau rakyat Jepang punya banyak asuransi dari asuransi yang di ke luarkan oleh kelurahan, kota, kantor hingga negara.

Bayi bayi yang lahir berobat gratis sampai umur 2 tahun. Di banyak kelurahan sampai 3 tahun. Setiap 6 bulan sekali bayi sampai umur 2 tahun cek kesehatan gratis. Umur tiga tahun ada cek kesehatan lagi yang sampai masalah gigi dan mata pun ada cek terpisah juga. Konsultasi untuk kesehatan sang ibu secara fisik dan mental, psikologis sang anak. Dan semua itu gratis.
Perlu ambulan? Anda tidak usah memikirkan dari mana uang harus di dapat setelah orang tercinta kita di antar ambulan ke rumah sakit. Ambulan gratis. Bahkan sebelum ambulan datang, kru pemadam kebakaran terdekat rumah anda akan datang duluan mengecek si pasien memberikan pertolongan darurat sembil menunggu ambulan yang datangnya kurang dari tujuh menit kerumah kita. Karenahampir di setiap kelurahan tersedia pos pemadam kebakaran dan rumah sakit. Untuk ibu ibu yang melahirkan bayinya pun pemerintah menyediakan dana. Bahkan jika si ibu memilih melahirkan di rumah sakit yang sangat murah sehingga jatah dana ibu itu ada sisanya, sang ibu bisa mengambil sisanya.

Dan dari setiap rumah sakit di berikan banyak sekali buku panduan tentang melahirkan, merawat bayi, kesehatan jasmani dan psikologis ibu dan anak serta ayah sampai yang mendetil seolah semua sudah di antisipasi oleh pemerintah dan pemerintah sudah menyediakan solusinya sebelum masalah datang.

Dan di rumah sakit manapun kitaberada, di kantor manapun kita berada, walau itu rumah sakit pemerintah yang murah atau kantor sipil, mereka akan melayani dengan ramah, senyum dan sopan.
Jikalau kita melihat, sebenarnya nilai nilai Islam itu ada di negeri sakura ini yang sayangnya saja belum ada hidayah turun di sini. Setiap rakyat tau hak dan kewajibannya. Pemerintah yang sangat simpati dan memperhatikan rakyatnya.
“Kalau kita lihat para korban itu masih ketawa. Jangan sampai dikondisikan seolah-olah dunia mau kiamat seperti yang televisi Anda katakan demilian.”
Ah, jika hati ini sudah mengeras seperti batu sehingga empati sudah mati rasa, semoga akan ada air mengalir diantarnya seperti pada surat Al-Baqarah ayat 74 :
" Kemudian setelah itu hatimu menjadi keras seperti batu, bahkan lebih keras lagi. Padahal di antara batu-batu itu sungguh ada yang mengalir sungai-sungai dari padanya dan diantarnya sungguh ada yang terbelah lalu ke luarlah mata air dari padanya dan di antaranya sungguh ada yang meluncur jatuh, karena takut kepada Allah. Dan Allah sekali kali tidak lengah dari apa yang kamu kerjakan ."

Dan harapan kita akan lahirnya pemerintahan yang amanah ini bukan hanya tanggung jawab pemerintah itu sendiri. Ini adalah tanggung jawab kita semua. Kuncinya adalah di mulai dari dirikita, selanjutnya adalah anak anak kita.

Jika kadang kita lelah dalam berusaha, lihatlah wajah wajah layu di perkampunga kumuh atau anak anak jalanan di lampu merah. Bangkitkan lagi semangatmu untuk merubah diri.
Merubah diri kita, anak anak kita, untuk menjadi manusia yang lebih baik agar berguna bagi mereka, saudara saudara kita di pelosok perkampungan kumuh.

Source : www.eramuslim.com

Wanita Cantik

Seorang anak laki-laki kecil bertanya kepada ibunya 'Mengapa engkau menangis?' 'Karena aku seorang wanita', kata sang ibu kepadanya. 'Aku tidak mengerti', kata anak itu. Ibunya hanya memeluknya dan berkata, 'Dan kau tak akan pernah mengerti' Kemudian anak laki-laki itu bertanya kepada ayahnya, 'Mengapa ibu suka menangis tanpa alasan?' 'Semua wanita menangis tanpa alasan', hanya itu yang dapat dikatakan oleh ayahnya.

Anak laki-laki kecil itu pun lalu tumbuh menjadi seorang laki-laki dewasa, tetap ingin tahu mengapa wanita menangis. Akhirnya ia menghubungi Tuhan, dan ia bertanya, 'Tuhan, mengapa wanita begitu mudah menangis?' Tuhan berkata:

'Ketika Aku menciptakan seorang wanita, ia diharuskan untuk menjadi seorang yang istimewa. Aku membuat bahunya cukup kuat untuk menopang dunia; namun, harus cukup lembut untuk memberikan kenyamanan '

'Aku memberikannya kekuatan dari dalam untuk mampu melahirkan anak dan menerima penolakan yang seringkali datang dari anak-anaknya '

'Aku memberinya kekerasan untuk membuatnya tetap tegar ketika orang-orang lain menyerah, dan mengasuh keluarganya dengan penderitaan dan kelelahan tanpa mengeluh '

'Aku memberinya kepekaan untuk mencintai anak-anaknya dalam setiap keadaan, bahkan ketika anaknya bersikap sangat menyakiti hatinya '

'Aku memberinya kekuatan untuk mendukung suaminya dalam kegagalannya dan melengkapi dengan tulang rusuk suaminya untuk melindungi hatinya '

'Aku memberinya kebijaksanaan untuk mengetahui bahwa seorang suami yang baik takkan pernah menyakiti isterinya, tetapi kadang menguji kekuatannya dan ketetapan hatinya untuk berada disisi suaminya tanpa ragu '

'Dan akhirnya, Aku memberinya air mata untuk diteteskan.

Ini adalah khusus miliknya untuk digunakan kapan pun ia butuhkan.'
'Kau tahu:
Kecantikan seorang wanita bukanlah dari pakaian yang dikenakannya, sosok yang ia tampilkan, atau bagaimana ia menyisir rambutnya.'

'Kecantikan seorang wanita harus dilihat dari matanya, karena itulah pintu hatinya - tempat dimana cinta itu ada.'

Jawaban Sederhana Penuh Makna

Di suatu senja sepulang kantor, saya masih berkesempatan untuk ngurus
tanaman di depan rumah, sambil memperhatikan beberapa anak asuh yang
sedang belajar menggambar peta, juga mewarnai. Hujan rintik - rintik
selalu menyertai di setiap sore di musim hujan ini. Di kala tangan sedikit
berlumuran tanah kotor,...terdengar suara tek...tekk.. .tek...suara tukang
bakso dorong lewat.

Sambil menyeka keringat..., ku hentikan tukang bakso itu dan memesan
beberapa mangkok bakso setelah menanyakan anak - anak, siapa yang mau
bakso ?
"Mauuuuuuuuu. ..", secara serempak dan kompak anak - anak asuhku menjawab.

Selesai makan bakso, lalu saya membayarnya. ...
Ada satu hal yang menggelitik fikiranku selama ini ketika saya
membayarnya, si tukang bakso memisahkan uang yang diterimanya. Yang satu
disimpan dilaci, yang satu ke dompet, yang lainnya ke kaleng bekas kue
semacam kencleng. Lalu aku bertanya atas rasa penasaranku selama ini.
"Mang kalo boleh tahu, kenapa uang - uang itu Emang pisahkan ? Barangkali
ada tujuan ?"

"Iya pak, Emang sudah memisahkan uang ini selama jadi tukang bakso yang
sudah berlangsung hampir 17 tahun. Tujuannya sederhana saja, Emang hanya
ingin memisahkan mana yang menjadi hak Emang, mana yang menjadi hak Orang
lain / tempat ibadah, dan mana yang menjadi hak cita - cita penyempurnaan
iman ".

"Maksudnya... ?", saya melanjutkan bertanya.

"Iya Pak, kan agama dan Tuhan menganjurkan kita agar bisa berbagi dengan
sesama. Emang membagi 3, dengan pembagian sebagai berikut :
1. Uang yang masuk ke dompet, artinya untuk memenuhi keperluan hidup
sehari - hari Emang dan keluarga.
2. Uang yang masuk ke laci, artinya untuk infaq/sedekah, atau untuk
melaksanakan ibadah Qurban. Dan alhamdulillah selama 17 tahun menjadi
tukang bakso, Emang selalu ikut qurban seekor kambing, meskipun kambingnya
yang ukuran sedang saja.
3. Uang yang masuk ke kencleng, karena emang ingin menyempurnakan agama
yang Emang pegang yaitu Islam. Islam mewajibkan kepada umatnya yang mampu,
untuk melaksanakan ibadah haji. Ibadah haji ini tentu butuh biaya yang
besar. Maka Emang berdiskusi dengan istri dan istri menyetujui bahwa di
setiap penghasilan harian hasil jualan bakso ini, Emang harus menyisihkan
sebagian penghasilan sebagai tabungan haji. Dan insya Allah selama 17
tahun menabung, sekitar 2 tahun lagi Emang dan istri akan melaksanakan
ibadah haji.

Hatiku sangat...sangat tersentuh mendengar jawaban itu. Sungguh sebuah
jawaban sederhana yang sangat mulia. Bahkan mungkin kita yang memiliki
nasib sedikit lebih baik dari si emang tukang bakso tersebut, belum tentu
memiliki fikiran dan rencana indah dalam hidup seperti itu. Dan seringkali
berlindung di balik tidak mampu atau belum ada rejeki. Terus saya
melanjutkan sedikit pertanyaan, sebagai berikut :
"Iya memang bagus...,tapi kan ibadah haji itu hanya diwajibkan bagi yang
mampu, termasuk memiliki kemampuan dalam biaya....".

Iya menjawab, " Itulah sebabnya Pak. Emang justru malu kalau bicara soal
mampu atau tidak mampu ini. Karena definisi mampu bukan hak pak RT atau
pak RW, bukan hak pak Camat ataupun MUI. Definisi "mampu" adalah sebuah
definisi dimana kita diberi kebebasan untuk mendefinisikannya sendiri.
Kalau kita mendefinisikan diri sendiri sebagai orang tidak mampu, maka
mungkin selamanya kita akan menjadi manusia tidak mampu. Sebaliknya kalau
kita mendefinisikan diri sendiri, "mampu", maka insya Allah dengan segala
kekuasaan dan kewenangannya Allah akan memberi kemampuan pada kita".

"Masya Allah...,sebuah jawaban eelegan dari seorang tukang bakso".

Sahabat....
Cerita ini sangat sederhana. Semoga memberi hikmah terbaik bagi kehidupan
kita. Amin



Best Regards,
Oki Widhi N

Is green the new sexy?

by Alison Benjamin

Recycling and turning off the standby are apparently the new ways to a woman's heart according to a poll for men's magazine Nuts. Women quizzed for the survey on the personality traits they found most attractive in men, put caring about the environment top of their list, surprisingly ahead of a good sense of humour.

Call me cynical, but I find it hard to believe that most women would really base their decision on whether to go out without someone on how often they pop to the bottle bank. As a woman who rides a bike and eats organic, I should have been on the look out for a eco-friendly man when I met my boyfriend. But I never once checked to see if he was dimming energy efficient light bulbs, or recycling those bottles of wine we consumed over dinner.

Yet according to Nuts relationship expert Louise Prior "There is something sexy about a man who recycles".

If that's true then the new place to meet men will be at the bottle bank, with women asking in all seriousness, 'Do you come here often?'. What about singles adverts? In future will they be peppered with the acronym Cate (cares about the environment)?

Some experts have partially attributed women's change of attitude to global heart-throbs including Leonardo DiCaprio backing environmental causes. In the UK, does that make Bill Oddie or our very own Leo Hickman the new pin-ups?

It may come as a surprise to learn that there are already a host of dating websites catering for the more "environmentally responsible" adult, from earthwise singles, to veggie romance and lovesorganic.

Ironically 'well travelled' is a trait women also rated highly in the poll, just after confidence and intelligence. (No mention of good looks or being good in the sack). But isn't it difficult to be well travelled these days, without flying vast distances and destroying the planet in the process? So perhaps bragging about the size of your carbon offset credits will become the new party chat up line. And if that doesn't work, there's always, "Is that an organic courgette in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"

Prior says that if a man goes green it shows that he "cares about more than just himself and shows he has a sensitive side and thinks about the future". But isn't Cate man just the new man or the metrosexual dressed in organic clothing? A new market for the advertisers to sell green gadgets to?

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2007/aug/01/greenisthenewsexy

Alcohol kills faster than ecstasy

A new drug list was revised by Britain's drug experts to reveal that alcohol and tobacco put your health at greater risk than such dangerous drugs as LSD, cannabis and ecstasy.

Experts conducted a new all-compassing research with the government top advisory committee involved to make a shocking conclusion on the harm of regular tobacco and alcohol.

A modern classification of drugs doesn't reflect the real situation on harmful substances. Thus more than 20 drugs were tested on their social and individual impact and results lead to revision of ABC system.

A team of 29 psychiatrists took part in the the study to classify all drugs into nine groups that were analyzed on the physical harm, addiction and social danger. Another group consisted of 16 experts did the research in several fields including chemistry, pharmacology, psychiatry and legal field to say a final word on drug ranking.

According to this new drug list, alcohol is named A drug. It slightly outruns heroin and cocaine. Tobacco was placed ninth and fell within a category B drug, after amphetamine. Such dangerous drugs as cannabis, LSD, ecstasy were left far near the end of the drug list.

This latest study raised the question that government's drug policy was not paying enough attention to modern state of affairs and didn't take notice of the scientific findings.

There should be no surprise that ecstasy drug was placed almost at the end of the list. One person a day dies from acute alcohol poisoning in comparison to 10 people a year who die from ecstasy overdose.

A new classification brings to light many issues concerning drug policy with a more thoughtful approach and corresponding legal response.

Drug and alchohol abuse is more common than we think. Learn more about alchool or opiate addiction by visiting a trusted detox site. A drug addiction is usually a very difficult segment of one's life, but with the proper care, it can be beat.

Source : http://www.infoniac.com/health-fitness/alcohol-kills-faster-than-ecstasy.html

River Drying Up to Lead to Freshwater Crisis

Due to the changes in climate, pollution and bad planning some of the largest and well-known rivers in the world are currently at risk of drying up. An environment group called WWF made a study that pays attention to ten best-known rivers that can dry up in case people won't take certain measures. The report states that indifference towards these rivers might lead to "fresh water emergency."

Among the ten rivers that the report is focused on five are situated in Asia. These include the Yangtze, the Salween and the Ganges. In serious danger are also: Danube, that flows in Europe, African Nile and Rio Grande, flowing in South America.

One of the most important issues that the report focuses on is concerned with the dams and dykes, like the ones along the Danube. The representatives of WWF stated that both dams and dykes were the cause of destruction of the river basin's wetlands and floodplains. About 80 percent was destroyed.

Another problem concerns the extraction of water for agriculture. An notable example of the issue, as showed by the report, is the Indus river, flowing in India. Water over-extraction might cause water scarcity which in its turn is a threat for the freshwater fish populations. These represent an important food source for people around the globe.

The report calls on governments to provide a better protection of rivers and a sustainable water use. In such a way governments will be able to protect the livelihoods of people and the habitat, which is being provided by freshwater sources.

Heading the Freshwater programme of WWF, Dr. David Tickner, outlined the fact that today our world is facing a massive freshwater crisis. This fact, he said, might be as harmful as the change of climate.

Those businesses that deal with food and fibre products use a large amount of water, which is why they must look for a more efficient way to use the vital resource of our planet, said Gr. Tickner.

For a better response to the issue the WWF said that countries should have certain agreements on smart use of water resources. In addition Dr. Ticker stated that the crisis of the freshwater is much bigger than the rivers listed in the report. "It mirrors the extent to which unabated development is jeopardising nature's ability to meet our growing demands." he said.

Source :http://www.infoniac.com/environment/freshwater-crisis.html

Carbon trading: dirty, sexy money

by Fred Pearce

MONTE CARLO, February 2008. All the high rollers are in town, discussing the biggest bet of them all: that capitalism can save the planet and turn a profit at the same time. In a room near the famous old casino, bankers are talking to green technology companies hungry for cash. Just down the road, at a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting, politicians from around the world are deliberating on how best to lure the financiers into staking their cash on a greener future. Welcome to the dynamic new world of carbon capitalism.

On 1 January the Kyoto protocol's emissions targets came into full force, creating a long-anticipated market in permits to emit greenhouse gases. To service this marketplace a financial infrastructure of bankers and brokers has sprung up - and people are getting rich. "Carbon is a new commodity, a new currency," says Tom Whitehouse of UK-based consultancy Carbon International. "I believe a robust carbon market can and will deliver the emissions cuts that will delay and avert climate change."

A robust carbon market can and will deliver the emissions cuts that will delay and avert climate change

On the face of it, even as the wider world economy stutters, everything is going swimmingly for carbon capitalism. Yet, inexplicably, the two sides in Monaco rarely spoke. The politicians never came to talk to the money men and the financiers were not involved in the political deliberations. Was this a mere social oversight, or does it point to a bigger problem? Many fear the latter, claiming that carbon capitalism is already out of control, delivering big profits while doing little to halt global warming. They are deeply sceptical of the notion that market forces can fix climate change. "To believe that is to believe in magic," says Tom Burke, a former director of Friends of the Earth in the UK and adviser to several British environment ministers.

To believe that market forces can be used to fix climate change is to believe in magic

There's little doubt that free-market capitalism helped to get us into the mess we're in. As Nicholas Stern, former chief economist at the World Bank, puts it: climate change is "the greatest market failure the world has ever seen". The question now is whether capitalism is able to make amends. Can it provide a mechanism that rewards people for reducing their carbon emissions instead of increasing them? Or will it simply give big polluters a way of dodging their responsibilities?

The bare bones of carbon capitalism are simple enough (see Diagram). Under the Kyoto protocol, most industrialised nations except the US have agreed to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases over a five-year period from 2008 to 2012. Governments intend to meet the targets partly by capping the emissions of major industrial polluters - electricity generators, aluminium smelters, cement manufacturers, steel makers and the like. These companies are being issued with permits allowing them to emit only so much carbon dioxide each year. The permits are tradeable - for instance, through the European Emissions Trading Scheme. The thinking is that polluters who can cut their emissions most cheaply will more than meet their legally binding targets and end up with permits to spare. They can then sell these unwanted permits to outfits who are finding it costlier. In this way the Kyoto protocol puts a price on emitting CO₂, and a value on reducing it.

There's more to it, though, than rich-world companies trading permits. Many of the cheapest ways of cutting emissions are to be found in the developing world, where industrial processes are often inefficient and polluting. The Kyoto protocol allows companies in the rich world to invest in emissions-cutting projects in developing countries. This will earn them credits known as certified emissions reductions (CERs) which they can use to offset their own emissions, or trade on the open market. The result is that for every tonne of CO₂ or methane or other greenhouse gas they prevent from spewing up a chimney stack in China, somebody can emit a tonne of gas up a stack in Europe.

This system is known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and by late last year the UN had approved more than 1600 projects for CERs. Carbon capitalists have funded wind turbines in India, geothermal energy in central America and methane capture from landfills in Latin America, and sold the CERs on to the highest bidder.

Alongside the CDM is a growing "voluntary" market in unofficial carbon credits. These are mostly earned by small carbon offsetting schemes (New Scientist, 9 March 2007, p 38) that have not gone through the UN accreditation process. They are substantially cheaper than official CERs because they cannot be used to offset Kyoto caps on emissions. Nonetheless, they are popular among individuals and companies who want to voluntarily offset their emissions. The biggest market is in the US, where many companies are keen to show they are doing something.

Most of the companies that want to buy carbon credits have no expertise in green energy projects - or indeed in buying and selling financial instruments as esoteric as carbon credits. So middlemen are moving in, closely followed by speculators. Some set up energy projects to earn carbon credits. Others buy these credits and sell them on. Still others buy options on credits not yet generated or which might be awarded by regulatory regimes that don't yet exist - such as the next phase of the European Emissions Trading Scheme, due to start in 2013. These speculators anticipate that rising prices for carbon permits will eventually deliver a juicy profit.

Carbon brokers

Even ordinary people are getting involved. For example, if you offset your holiday flights with UK company Climate Care last year, some of your money will have gone into a Chinese wind turbine project. This was set up by a local company, which sold the carbon credits to a broker, which then sold them to Climate Care, which finally sold some of them to you in the form of the offsetting deal.

Carbon trading is catching on in a big way. In 2007, the value of the deals being done doubled to an estimated $60 billion - though because many credits are traded more than once, the value of credits in circulation is considerably less than this. Nonetheless between now and 2012 European companies are expected to buy about $25 billion worth of carbon credits. With this sort of money up for grabs, it is no surprise that what began as a niche market is now attracting major financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital. Climate Care has just been bought by JP Morgan.

Yet the critical question remains: does this frenetic activity actually keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere? There are widespread fears that it does not. One flaw in the CDM in particular is that credits are being claimed for investments that would have happened anyway, without the added stimulus of earning carbon credits. These projects should not qualify for the CDM because they do not create additional emissions reductions. In fact, they actually make matters worse by allowing companies in the rich world to exceed their limits without genuinely offsetting it elsewhere.

Some of the evidence that this sort of thing is happening is alarming. More than one-third of the official CDM projects approved so far are for hydroelectric dams, mostly in China. The rationale is that by building dams rather than coal-fired power stations, the investors are reducing emissions and so are entitled to carbon credits. Maybe so. But International Rivers, an NGO that campaigns against dams, has shown that most of the dams issued with CERs were either completed or already under construction before the application for carbon credits was made - suggesting they were going to be built anyway, without the incentive of carbon credits. For instance, the Xiaogushan dam in Gansu province began construction in 2003. Later it qualified for carbon credits. Once sold, those credits will allow their purchasers, probably in Europe, to pump out some 3 million tonnes of CO₂ that they would not otherwise have been allowed to emit.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is a widespread view among investors and politicians alike that this is perfectly acceptable. Almost any project that cuts emissions is entitled to carbon credits, they argue - even if those investments would have happened anyway. In Monaco, green technologists were keen to show how adept they were at earning CERs, but many also claimed their schemes would be profitable anyway, without the windfall of carbon credits.

Take the case of Canadian company Polaris Geothermal, which is tapping geothermal energy in Nicaragua. Its chief executive, Tom Ogryzlo, said in Monaco that he had sold CERs equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of CO₂, and would soon be selling a million tonnes a year - worth around ¬20 million at today's market rates. "Carbon credits could be 10 per cent of our income," he said. But since he also claimed the project had a rate of return on its sales to the Nicaraguan grid of 25 per cent, that would suggest it may be profitable even without the credits. When we put this to the company, it explained that "Polaris needs the carbon credit revenue in order for the project to be economically attractive and viable."

False assumption

Situations like this are a weakness of the system itself, which presumes that without the CDM nobody would invest in green technology in developing countries. This assumption is false. Over the past 30 years, global CO₂ emissions have grown only half as fast as the world economy, thanks mainly to cleaner energy generation. As economies develop, they almost always start to use energy more efficiently even without any external incentives. So it is almost unavoidable that some of the carbon credits the CDM hands out go towards projects that would have happened anyway. Advocates of schemes like the CDM counter this with the argument that whatever their flaws, the pursuit of healthy profits in a buoyant carbon market increases investment in climate-saving technologies.

Investment in green technologies is certainly on the increase. "Mainstream money is flowing into clean tech," says Paul Clement-Hunt, head of UNEP's Finance Initiative. "That is a big market signal. Corporations are building climate change into the way they do business." The London-based consultancy New Energy Finance estimates that $148 billion was invested in renewable energy in 2007, 60 per cent up on 2006. Highlights included wind and solar power, biofuels and the development of lithium-ion batteries, which are expected to be powering new fleets of hybrid cars and buses by 2010.

Even so, critics point out that another reason for the growth of investment in renewable energy is the soaring cost of oil, which has also triggered other developments that are far from climate-friendly - in particular, a rush to exploit dirtier fossil fuels such as coal and tar sands.

The danger now is that governments are seduced into believing the initial success of the carbon market allows them to avoid hard political choices on climate change. But markets are unpredictable, says Burke, and can only be part of the solution if regulated by laws such as a ban on new coal-fired power stations and guaranteed prices for renewable electricity. In other words, the politicians need to go to the casino and cut a deal with the money men.

Another danger of making a market in carbon emissions is the least discussed, but perhaps the most important: only a minority of emissions are covered by legal caps. Most industrial and transport emissions in developing countries remain outside the market. So too do most of the huge emissions caused by deforestation, draining wetlands and ploughing fields.

What that means is that market solutions to carbon emissions risk displacing the problem to activities and places where nobody is counting, and there are no penalties. Most obviously, companies facing limits at home can simply relocate their polluting processes to developing countries where there are no emissions targets. The steel and aluminium industries are already doing this. In November 2007, Ian Rodgers, director of the trade association UK Steel, warned that European carbon pricing "is not going to curb emissions. It will just move the emissions elsewhere".

Just as insidiously, it now makes market sense to cut your emissions in ways that cause much larger emissions from natural ecosystems. You can gain carbon credits for burning biofuels in Europe, even if the crops from which they are produced are grown in fields created by draining peat swamps or cutting down forests. For some hydroelectric schemes, gains are more than outweighed by the methane bubbling up from vegetation rotting in the reservoirs behind the dams.

One answer might be "full carbon accounting", in which all exchanges of greenhouse gases - both into and out of the atmosphere - would have to be included in national and corporate carbon accounts. Remote sensing may soon make this possible.

The danger for now is that carbon capitalism becomes disconnected from the reality of the planet's carbon cycle. If that happens, we face an environmental version of the Enron saga. The giant Texan energy corporation prospered through the 1990s by keeping many of its transactions "off the books". The company appeared wealthy while hiding a mountain of debt. Eventually, someone blew the whistle and the company collapsed. The same thing could happen with carbon capitalism, if big reductions in carbon emissions continue to appear on the books while increases always stay off them.

With Enron, it was the shareholders who suffered. But if the atmosphere continues to be filled with greenhouse gases and the planet's climate crashes as Enron did, no one will be spared.

Climate Change - Want to know more about global warming: the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report.

Energy and Fuels - Learn more about the looming energy crisis in our comprehensive special report.

Source :http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826521.600-carbon-trading-dirty-sexy-money.html?full=true

100% Of Energy Needs From Renewable Sources By 2090

Have you ever thought how the Earth would look like with 100 percent of the energy needs to come from renewable sources? Well, if you did I bet you didn’t image that this would happen by 2090! The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace have developed a scenario which would need large investments and carbon legislation, but it would completely remove our use of fossil fuels.

The scenario is called the Energy [R]evolution Report and it says that by 2050 the hard part will be completed and we will use mostly solar and wind power. As nuclear power will be removed, the four renewable primary sources will be solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass fuel like ethanol.

According to the report, the world will look drastically different with solar panels on every rooftop, “refurbished” old buildings, and wind turbines where the wind is most “violent”. Also, we will need greener building techniques and the structures of the future will be a sightseeing pleasure as their design will be unbelievable.

The only problem is that EREC and Greenpeace expect the energy usage to go down, however, in fast-developing countries like Asian countries, coal factories pop-up weekly. Well, the report mentions that the energy usage will drop as the efficiency will rise meaning that we will use less energy, but with a high efficiency.

I know this may seem like an unrealistic scenario, but I think it’s encouraging. Please read the Energy [R]evolution Report [PDF alert] and maybe you will contribute to the CO2-emission cut down.

Source :http://devicedaily.com/environment

The Air War at Home: An environmental policy that everyone should love ( part 2 )

by David Frum

Yet it has to be admitted: Environmentalists have a point about the dirt and danger of coal. Here we are, more than half a century after the splitting of the atom -- and we're still deriving more than half our electricity from the fuel that powered the steam engine. It's a fuel for which hundreds of miners still die every year, that puts millions of tons of emissions into the atmosphere, and leaves more millions of tons of ash and waste behind on the ground.

Though wind and sun cannot substitute for coal, there is a fuel that can: nuclear power. Nuclear power is the whispered theme of the report delivered in May 2001 by the Cheney energy task force. Of course, the enviros hate nuclear power even more than they hate coal. But in the years since Jackson Browne strummed outside nuclear reactors, the enviros have lost the public. During the California energy crisis, in fact, polls found that majorities of Americans now favored the expansion of nuclear energy. Do Americans still feel the same way 18 months later? The pollsters no longer ask, or at least the publicly available pollsters no longer ask. But it would be interesting to know the answer -- to know whether there might be a bigger prize out there for the Bush administration's energy policy than the incremental improvement of the technology of yesteryear, or rather yester-century.

Source : http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_24_54/ai_95056782

The Air War at Home: An environmental policy that everyone should love ( part 1 )

By by David Frum

In the last week of November, the Bush administration handed down a new regulation that will simultaneously reduce air pollution and increase energy conservation, all without costing either taxpayers or consumers a dime. Is everybody happy? Not hardly.

The Natural Resources Defense Council instantly condemned the decision: "The Bush administration decided to allow corporate polluters to spew even more toxic chemicals into our air, regardless of the fact that it will harm millions of Americans." The Sierra Club described the new rule as a step backward into barbarian darkness: "The president is trying to give polluters permission to ignore modern technology and keep fouling our air." To Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, Bush's action was a "devastating defeat for public health and our environment." And Paul Krugman warned readers of the New York Times to "breathe while you still can."

Actually, when you think about it, it's a miracle any of us can breathe at all, what with all that arsenic poisoning us. Yet it's a very odd thing: At almost exactly the moment that each environmental scare story exhausts its fundraising potential, along comes another, even more horrific than the last. It's safe to say that the excitement over Bush's revisions to the Clean Air Act won't be the last environmental blowup. It may, however, very well prove to be the silliest.

To understand just how silly, you have to brace yourself for a little regulatory history.

The story begins a quarter-century ago, when Jimmy Carter stumbled into a Washington political crossfire over his plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. One obvious way to achieve that reduction was to use more coal -- and less oil -- in factories and power plants. Unfortunately, coal is a very dirty fuel. To appease environmentalists, the Carter administration drafted a Clean Air Act in 1977 that allowed existing plants to continue in business -- but that required them to install expensive anti-pollution technology if they changed or expanded. This rule was called "new source review," and for 20 years few paid it much attention.

The power shortages that began in California in 1999 and spread through the western United States got people paying attention again. For the first time since the days of fat neckties, electricity became a sexy topic. And suddenly a lot of people began to notice the perverse effects of the new source rule.

Imagine you own a coal power plant built in 1952. If you decide to upgrade your plant -- say by adding an additional generator, a new one that will produce more power with less fuel and less pollution -- you will trigger a new source review that will force you to spend millions to clean up the otherwise protected, older part of your facility. If, however, you decide to forget about modernization and continue to run the plant the way your grandfather did -- why then, you are free to pump as much coal ash into the atmosphere as you like. Result: Rather than build a cleaner new generator, you'll probably just shovel more coal into your old dirty one.

In the name of environmental protection, new source review deters investment in cleaner new technologies and artificially extends the life of obsolete, dirty, and often dangerous old facilities. Freed from new source review, industry can add new capacity without being forced immediately to update the old facilities that the new plants are meant gradually to replace.

In fact, even environmentalists quietly acknowledge that new source review was perverse and counterproductive. That's why they liked it. They calculated that because the policy was so crazy, industry would cheerfully pay quite a high price to get rid of it. They hoped to use the perversity of new source review as a lever to force a massive new system of regulation of factory emissions through Congress. Bush beat them to the punch -- and that is why the environmentalists are enraged.

Environmentalist organizations may fulminate; everybody else should celebrate. The massive scheme favored by environmentalist organizations would have dramatically raised the price of power. And since many environmentalists also favor tax subsidies to uneconomic power sources like wind and solar, their regulatory scheme would have imposed large, hidden costs on taxpayers as well.

Of course, higher electric prices do not bother enviros. They believe we have too many gadgets already. The environmentalist answer to Americans worried about energy security is a reprise of Sen. Robert Taft's notorious answer to housewives worried about the rising cost of food in the 1940s: "Eat less." The enviros want us to consume less, and nothing reduces consumption like high prices.

The 1990s were America's first cheap-energy era since the 1960s, and that fact as much as new technology may account for the decade's fabulous boom. Over the past three years, energy prices have been rising -- and the pace of growth has been faltering. "Eat less" remains a lousy answer to an important question.

Source :http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_/ai_95056782

Membaca Adalah Kebutuhan, Bukan Selingan

oleh Eko Prasetyo

”Buku adalah teman bicara yang tidak mendahuluimu. Ia teman bicara yang tidak memanggilmu ketika kamu bekerja. Ia teman bicara yang tidak memaksamu berdandan ketika menghadapinya. Ia teman hidup yang tidak menyanjungmu. Ia kawan yang tidak membosankan. Ia adalah penasihat yang tidak mencari-cari kesalahan.” (Ahmad bin Ismail)

Kiranya, tak ada sedikit pun yang bisa saya sangkal dari goresan mutiara di atas. Nyatanya, buku memang sumber ilmu, guru yang tak akan pernah berharap pamrih.

Dulu, saya pernah ditanyai oleh salah seorang redaktur, “Sudah berapa buku yang Anda baca hari ini?” Pertanyaan tersebut saya tafsirkan sebagai suatu perintah agar saya tidak meremehkan salah satu aktivitas ringan tapi penting, yakni membaca.
Memang, saya tak pernah merasa rugi ketika beradaptasi dengan lingkungan membaca. Yang lebih penting, saat kita malu atau enggan bertanya tentang sesuatu yang kita tidak tahu kepada seseorang, kita bisa mendapatkan jawabannya lewat membaca buku.

Di saat banyak orang sibuk ngerumpi sana-sini, bergosip ini-itu, membahas kapan gaji naik atau kapan tunjangan cair, membicarakan keburukan atau kekurangan orang lain, serta menggunjing hal-hal tak terpuji, kegiatan membaca menjadi suatu hiburan lain yang mampu menetralkan suasana.

Membaca apa pun, mulai kitab suci, buku, koran, hingga majalah. Membaca adalah media komunikasi antara kita dan diri kita. Jika perut lapar, kita penuhi keinginannya dengan asupan makanan. Kalau tubuh lelah, kita penuhi ia dengan mengistiratkannya. Namun, bila hati kita beku, membaca adalah salah satu solusi untuk menetralkan. “Bacalah dengan nama Tuhanmu. Bacalah dengan nama yang menciptakanmu.” (QS: Al-Alaq, 1-2).

Alkisah, ada seorang tukang becak. Dia tak bisa baca tulis alias buta huruf. Puluhan tahun dia menghidupi istri dan anak-anaknya dari hasil mengayuh becak. Meski demikian, salah seorang putranya ternyata mampu melanjutkan pendidikan tinggi setelah diterima di Akademi Militer di Magelang. Yang membanggakan, sang putra berhasil menyabet bintang Adhi Makayasa sebagai lulusan terbaik di kawah candradimuka para calon perwira itu.

Saat ditanya dari mana dia membiayai anaknya tersebut? “Bagaimana mungkin saya punya uang untuk menyekolahkannya? Wong saat anak saya masuk SMP saya bingung cari uang,” paparnya.
“Saya cuma berdoa memohon sama Gusti Allah agar kami sekeluarga diberi kemudahan dan ridha. Cuma itu thok karena saya nggak bisa doa panjang-panjang,” lanjutnya. Subhanallah. Saya tak melihat batas yang terbuka lebar antara doa dan membaca. Sebab, dalam doa terkandung permohonan yang diucapkan secara sungguh-sungguh.

Tukang becak itu mampu menerjemahkan bacaan tanpa teori meski dia tak mengenal aksara dengan doa. Dia percaya dengan kekuatan doa, kekuatan yang mengantarkan anaknya menjadi perwira muda. Meski bertahun-tahun hidup miskin dari hasil mengayuh becak, tak terhitung berapa kilometer yang dia kayuh, si tukang becak tersebut tak pernah lupa dengan sang Pencipta. Tiada lain, dia memfasilitasi kekurangannya dengan giat bekerja dan berdoa.

Bisa dibayangkan bagaimana raut tukang becak itu ketika melihat putranya dikalungi penghargaan tertinggi di Akademi Militer. Namun, dia ternyata tak berubah, tetap sama, masih bersahaja.

Suatu malam, ibu menelepon saya. Beliau menanyakan kabar saya karena lama tak bersua. Sembari menyelesaikan pekerjaan, saya berbincang ringan dengan beliau. Di akhir perbincangan kami, ibu sempat mengingatkan saya untuk selalu menjaga shalat. Tak lupa beliau minta dibelikan buku masakan. Saya langsung menyanggupinya. Sebuah permintaan yang wajar. Sebab, beliau sehari-hari berjualan kue dan makanan yang dititipkan di warung-warung dan kantin sekolah.

Di usia setengah abad, tubuh ibu kian kurus karena menderita diabetes. Meski demikian, semangat beliau dalam bekerja membantu keuangan keluarga kian menumpukkan rasa hormat saya. Lima buku masakan sekaligus saya paketkan ke rumah untuk ibu. Jika ibu saja masih mau membaca, tak ada alasan bagi saya untuk malas membaca. membaca yang begituan itu membuat semangat kerja jadi berlipat. Seperti menimba air untuk mandi dan mencuci, membaca menjadi suatu kebutuhan, bukan lagi selingan.

prasetyo_pirates@yahoo.co.id
samuderaislam.blogspot.com

Source : www.eramuslim.com

Human Rights in Islam

Islam grants individuals living an honorable life, and forbids humiliation, torture, killing and all forms of injustice.

Islam provides many human rights for the individual. The following are some examples that prove that Islam is a religion of justice.The life and property of an individual in an Islamic state are considered sacred, regardless to his religion.

Islam also protects honor. So, in Islam, insulting others or humiliating them is prohibited. The Prophet Mohammad (PBHU) said: {Truly your blood, your property, and your honor are inviolable}Racism is not allowed in Islam, for the Quran speaks of human equality in the following terms:(O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes for you to know one another.

Truly, the noblest of you with God is the most pious- Truly, God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. ) (Quran, 49:13)Islam rejects certain individuals or nations being favored because of their wealth, power, or race. God created human beings as equals, what distinguishes one from another is faith and piety. The Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said: {O people! Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one. An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety.}One of the major problems facing mankind nowadays is racism. The developed world can send a man to the moon but cannot stop man from torturing, killing, or humiliating another man.

Ever since the days of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam has showed us different ways by which racism can be ended. The annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to Makkah shows the real Islamic brotherhood of all races and nations, when about two million Muslims from all over the world came to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage.Islam is a religion of justice. God has said: (Truly God commands you to give back trusts to those to whom they are due, and when you judge between people, to judge with justice.... ) (Quran, 4:58)And He has said:And act justly.

Truly, God loves those who are just. (Quran, 49:9)We, Moslems, should be just even with those we hate and those who haven't been fair to us, as God has said:And let not the hatred of others make you avoid justice. Be just: that is nearer to piety.... (Quran, 5:8)The Prophet Muohammad (PBUH) said:{People, beware of injustice, for injustice shall be darkness on the Day of Judgment.}

And those who have not gotten their rights in this life will receive them on the Day of Judgment, as the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said: {On the Day of Judgment, rights will be given to those to whom they are due (and wrongs will be redressed)...}

Source: Islam Guide
Cited from : www.islamonline.com

Penyebab Rusaknya Ilmu

Oleh Shohib Khoiri,
Mahasiswa Universitas al-Azhar Kairo

Sudah empat belas abad yang lalu Rasulullah mewanti-wanti kita akan adanya ulama suu' (buruk), mereka tidak mengajak kita kepada surga, akan tetapi justru mengajak kita kepada neraka. "Gelar" cendekiawan sering kali melenakan kita dan menipu kita, sehingga kita terkagum-kagum dan membenarkan segala perkataannya tanpa memperhatikan maksudnya. Saya teringat dengan nasehat kyai saya dahulu ketika masih di pesantren tentang bahaya penyakit ini, beliau berkata kurang lebih "Sebesar apa pun kecintaan kita pada seorang ulama atau orang-orang yang benar, maka janganlah hal tersebut melebihi cinta kita kepada kebenaran, karena orang benar tidak akan selamanya benar, sedangkan kebenaran selamanya akan benar".. Mungkin ini sesuai dengan pepatah arab "undzur maa qaala wa laa tandzur man qaala", lihatlah apa yang dikatakan tetapi janganlah engkau melihat siapa yang mengatakannya..
Kalaulah kepada orang-orang yang 'alim dan pintar kita tidak boleh terkagum-kagum dan taqlid buta, maka apalah jadinya jika seandainya kita terkagum-kagum kepada al-Muta'aalim (bukan al-muta'allim) yaitu orang-orang memperlihatkan diri seakan-akan berilmu, padahal tidak. Ulama-ulama terdahulu sudah mewanti-wanti akan hadirnya golongan al-muta'aalim ini, mereka banyak berkata-kata tentang agama dan ijtihad padahal mereka belum sampai pada derajat mujtahid, merekalah yang merusak ilmu dan agama. Maka tidak heran jika Ibnu Abidil Barr al-Qurthuby berkata dalam Jami'nya dan Al-Ghazali dalam Ihyanya "Lau sakata man lam ya'lam saqatha al-khilaf" (jika orang-orang yang tidak tahu diam niscaya tidak akan terjadi perselisihan).

Islam adalah agama yang mengenal otoritas, Islam melarang kita untuk berbicara tentang dien semau mulut kita, islam mengajarkan kepada kita untuk bertanya tentang agama kepada mereka yang tahu atau ahli dalam bidangnya, fas-aluu ahla adz-dzikr in kuntum laa ta'lamun. Lalu siapakan para ulama itu?.. Allah berfirman: Innama yakhsyaLLaha min 'ibaadihi al-ulama.. (Sesunggu yang paling takut kepada Allah dari hamba-hamba-Nya adalah Ulama).. Imam Ibnu Katsir dalam Tafsir al-Quran al-A'dzimnya mengutip perkataan Ibnu Abbas mengenai pengertian kata ulama dalam ayat ini, Beliau berkata: al'aalim bi ar-Rahman man lam yusyrik bihi syai-an wa ahalla halaalahu wa harrama haraamahu wa hafidza washiyyatahu wa aiqana annahu mulaaqiihi wa muhaasab bi'ilmihi (orang yang mengenal ar-Rahman dengan tidak mempersekutukannya, menghalalkan apa-apa yang dihalalkannya, mengharamkan apa yang diharamkan oleh-Nya, menjaga segala wasiat-Nya/perintah-Nya dan yakin bahwa ia akan bertemu dengan-Nya serta akan dimintai pertanggung jawaban atas ilmu yang dimilikinya). Dari perkataan beliau sudah sangat jelas bahwa ulama adalah mereka yang mempunyai karakter diatas, yang dapat menyatukan antara ilmu dan amal dan yakin bahwa ilmu mereka akan dipertanggung jawabkan di akhirat kelak, maka dari itu ulama bukanlah mereka yang menghalakan homoseksual/lesbian, menghalalkan pernikahan muslimah dengan non muslim, menginjak lembaran-lembaran al-Quran atau mengatakan tidak ada hukum Allah di muka bumi walaupun mereka bergelar "cendekiawan". Benarlah apa yang dikatakan oleh Sufyan ats-Tsauriy: Ta'awwadzu billah min fitnatil 'aabid al-jaahil wa min fitnati al-'aalim al-faajir, fa-inna fitnatahuma fitnatun likulli maftuun (Berlindunglah kepada Allah dari fitnah seorang ahli ibadah yang jahil dan dari fitnah seorang 'alim yang gemar maksiat, karena fitnah keduanya ibarat sihir bagi orang-orang yang tersihir)

Menurut Syeikh Bakr Abu Zaid Rahimahullah, seorang ulama yang tidak diragukan lagi keilmuan dan kesholehannya, salah satu faktor penyebab rusaknya ilmu sehingga terjadi berbagai macam perselisihan adalah: An ya'taqida al-insan fii nafsihi aw yu'taqada bihi annahu min ahli al-'ilm wa al-ijthaad fii ad-diin – wa lam yablugh tilka ad-darajah – fa ya'mal 'alaa dzaalika ( jika seseorang yakin atau diyakini bahwa ia termasuk ahli ilmu – padahal ia belum sampai pada derajat tersebut – kemudian ia beramal sesuai dengan ilmu yang ia yakini).. Mereka berkata-kata tentang agama berdasarkan akal mereka atau mungkin mereka belajar kepada orang-orang men"tuhan"kan akal mereka..

Inilah apa yang disabdakan oleh Nabi Shallallah 'alaihi wa sallam : Laa yaqbidhuLLah intizaa'an yantazi'uhu min an-naas, wa laakin yaqbidhu al-'ilma biqabdhi al-'ulama, hataa idzaa lam yabqa 'aalimun ittakhadza an-naas ru'asaa juhaalan fa su-iluu fa aftuu bi ghairi 'ilm fa dhallu wa adhallu (Tidaklah Allah mencabut ilmu dengan cara melepaskannya dari manusia, akan tetapi Dia mencabutnya dengan cara mencabut ruh para ulama, sehingga jika tidak tersisa seorang 'alim diambilah oleh manusia orang-orang yang bodoh sebagai panutan, mereka ditanya dengan berbagai macam pertanyaan dan mereka pun berfatwa tanpa ilmu, maka mereka sesat dan menyesatkan).

Penyakit inilah yang sering kali menyerang para "ulama", yaitu malu untuk berkata tidak tahu atau ada keinginan untuk mengshowkan diri agar dapat disebut sebagai 'alim atau cendekiawan. Mereka senang untuk ditanya padahal tidak tahu, tidak memperhatikan atau bahkan tidak segan-segan melanggar apa-apa yang sudah jelas dalam agama.. Mereka seperti apa yang dikatakan oleh Bisyr al-Hafy: Man ahabba an yus-al fa laisa bi ahlin an yus-al (Barang siapa yang senang untuk ditanya maka dia bukalah orang yang tepat untuk ditanya).

Perhatikanlah contoh mulia ketawadhuan dan kehati-hatian terhadap ilmu dari seorang ulama yang telah lama mendahului kita, yaitu al-Imam asy-Sya'biy, suatu ketika dikatakan kepada beliau :Kami malu atas sikapmu ketika engkau ditanya engkau mengatakan aku tidak tahu. Beliau berkata: Mengapa kita mesti malu, sedangkan malaikat saja tidak malu ketika ditanyakan kepada mereka perkara yang mereka tidak ketahui seraya berkata "Maha Suci Engkau tidaklah kami mengetahui kecuali apa-apa yang Engkau ajarkan kepada Kami". (al-Baqarah: 32)..
Selain itu perhatikanlah contoh-contoh ketawadhuan dan kehati-hatian para ulama kita terdahulu:

Imam Malik: Ketika ditanya puluhan pertanyaan kepadanya beliau tidak menjawabnya kecuali hanya sedikit, akan tetapai hal tersebut tidak membuat harga diri beliau turun atau jatuh.
Imam Ibnu Hibban: Ketika beliau mengarang bukunya (ats-Tsiqat) beliau sering terganjal ketika menulis biografi para rijal hadits dan berkata: Aku tidak tahu siapa dia dan aku pun tidak mengetahui siapakah ayahnya.

Imam Adz-Dzahabiy: Berhenti ketika membandingkan keutamaan antara Ummul Mu'minin Khadijah dan Ummul Mu'minin 'Aisya Radhiyallah 'anhuma.
Kalaulah para ulama diatas begitu tawadhu dan hati-hati terhadap ilmu, maka siapalah kita yang baru belajar agama kemarin sore. Mungkinkah kita berkata-kata tentang agama semau akal kita dengan keilmuan kita yang serba pas-pasan. Apakah melalui mulut kita umat ini mendapat hidayah ataukah sebaliknya justru karena mulut kitalah umat ini menjadi sesat.. Na'udzubillah.

Jika sekiranya seekor keledai memakai sehelai sutraMaka tetaplah orang-orang akan memanggilnya: wahai keledai#

Shohib Khoiri , alumni Pondok Pesantren Modern Gontor, sekarang sebagai Mahasiswa Fakultas Ushuluddin-Tafsir Universitas al-Azhar Kairo.

Source : www.eramuslim.com

Laskar Pelangi Masa Kini

oleh Baihaqi

Semenjak dilaunching filmnya. Laskar Pelangi menjadi perhatian banyak masyarakat Indonesia. Betapa tidak kurang dari dua bulan saja, film tersebut mampu menyedot lebih dari setengah juta penonton. Laskar Pelangi awalnya merupakan novel yang ditulis oleh seorang pemuda tentang pengalaman hidup bersama kawan-kawannya masa sekolah dulu. Novelnya pun bak kacang goreng laris manis dibeli pembaca. Bahkan kemudian orang nakal pun ketiban untung dengan menjual versi bajakannya.

Laskar pelangi membawa pesan bahwa pendidikan adalah suatu hal yang sangat penting, dari masa dahulu hingga sekarang. Tentu semua orang mengamini bahwa pilar peradaban manusia akan dimulai dari proses belajar dan pendidikan menjadi hal yang tidak bisa dilepas darinya. Namun sayang, dimasa kini seolah-olah pendidikan masih terpinggirkan.

Orang lebih suka sibuk dengan politik kekuasaan atau semisalnya. Memang kita tidak bisa lepas begitu saja dari politik dan semisalnya, namun politik menjadi kurang bergairah jika orang-orang nya masih berkubang dalam kebodohan karena terbatasnya pendidikan baginya. Laskar pelangi mencoba menyibak tabir itu. Bahwa dalam kondisi apapun pendidikan harus tetap berjalan dalam relnya.

Selain pesan semangat untuk berjuang dan belajar yang disampaikan dalam Laskar Pelangi, film itu seolah-olah juga ingin menyampaikan pesan kekinian. Ia ingin menampakkan wajah pendidikan Indonesia pada dunia nyata. Bagaimana susahnya menjangkau sarana pendidikan, bertahan dengan kondisi seadanya dan lainnya.

Semakin hari ramai Laskar Pelangi dibicarakan orang. Sudah tidak kurang dari puluhan kali produser, sutradara, sampai penulisnya menjadi bintang tamu untuk mengupas tentang film itu.
Mungkin bagi sebagian (kebanyakan) penonton terbayang bahwa pendidikan (sekolah) pada jaman Laskar pelangi sangatlah susah. Kondisi sekolah yang hampir roboh, guru yang terbatas, apalagi fasilitas. Namun siapa sangka, kondisi yang ditayangkan dalam laskar pelangi ada pada dunia nyata masa kini.

Adalah Pak Alis guru SD didaerah terpencil, ujung dari propinsi Riau tepatnya di kabupaten Indragiri Hilir. Beliau rela untuk berangkat mengajar dengan harus terlebih dahulu menyeberangi laut naik kapal menuju sekolah tempat beliau mengajar.

Waktu yang diperlukan dari rumah sampai ke sekolah adalh 3 jam bahkan lebih, dan tidak setiap waktu ada kapal menuju kesana. Karena itulah kemudian beliau rela untuk tinggal di pulai terpencil itu dengan ditemani istri tercinta yang juga guru disekolah tersebut dan meninggalkan putra-putrinya. Seminggu sekali beliau pulang ke rumah untuk menengok rumah dan putra-putrinya. Begitu seterusnya setiap waktu.

Lalu bagaimana kondisi sekolahnya, jangan bayangkan sekolah SD yang megah seperti biasa kita temui di kota-kota besar dengan murid yang berpakaian rapi. Jangankan gedung yang megah. Kini sekolah tersebut sudah tidak dapat difungsikan lagi, karena sebagian atapnya sudah roboh. Jumlah seluruh muridnya dari kelas 1 sd kelas 6 juga tidak lebih dari 30 orang.

Mereka kini belajar disebuah bangunan kosong milik warga setempat. Sementara kantornya adalah rumah kecil tempat Pak Alis dan Istrinya menginap. Pak Alis dan istrinya hanyalah 2 guru yang dimiliki sekolah tersebut. Mereka berdua harus mengajar dari kelas 1 sd 6 setiap hari.

Entah bagaimana metode yang digunakan olehnya. Apakah tidak pernah ada guru lain datang ke situ? Pernah suatu saat ada guru bantu lainnya, tapi karena kondisi daerah yang terpencil membuatnya tidak betah dan memilih pindah. Namun tidak bagi pak Alis dan istrinya. Mereka rela berpisah dengan anak-anak, tinggal didaerah terpencil yang penduduknya pun masih jarang. Setiap hari mereka rela mengajar dan terus memompa semangat anak didiknya.

Dengan berbagai keterbatasan mereka terus menularkan ilmunya pada murid-muridnya. Pak Alis tidak pernah mengeluh dengan kondisi itu. Sesekali pernah beliau laporkan kondisi sekolah tersebut kepada petugas terkait supaya ada perbaikan. Tetapi sepertinya sampai sekarang belum masuk prioritas kebijakan atasannya. Bahkan pak Alis malah ditawarkan untuk pindah saja ke kota sehingga bisa dekat dengan anak-anak dan tentu dengan kondisi sekolah yang lebih baik. Tawaran itu ditolaknya secara halus.

Beliau memikirkan bagaimana jika sekolah itu ia tinggal, apakah ada guru yang mau tinggal seperti beliau nanti. Ah, lagi-lagi pak Alis rela mengalah demi anak didiknya.

Namun Allah Yang Maha Gagah tidak tinggal diam. Selalu ada balasan pada setiap perbuatan. Setidaknya itu dirasakan oleh keluarga pak Alis sekarang. Putra-putri beliau tumbuh menjadi anak-anak yang cerdas dan mandiri. Putri pertamanya kini telah lulus sarjana dari perguruan tinggi negeri bergengsi di Bogor dengan biaya beasiswa semenjak SMA.

Tidak ketinggalan dengan putra keduanya, kini ia tercatat sebagai mahasiswa kedokteran semester 5 juga dengan beasiswa. Begitu pula dengan kedua putrinya yang lain yang masih duduk di SMP dan SMA. Mungkin pak Alis dan keluarga tidak pernah menerima penghargaan sebagai pahlawan apalagi harta yang melimpah karena jasanya.

Tapi Allah telah menunjukkan kekuasaanNya. Ia balas setiap pengorbanan yang telah dilakukan. Apalagi diakhirat nanti.

Dalam diri pak Alis tersimpan semangat yang luar biasa. Ia mungkin salah satu profil guru yang benar-benar menjadi ‘guru’ yang harus digugu dan ditiru begitu orang jawa bilang. Bahkan kini pak Alis juga telah menyelesaikan pendidikan sarjananya karena adanya tuntutan akreditasi guru oleh pemerintah.

Subhanallah, bagi saya pak Alis dan keluarga dan mungkin guru-guru lainnya yang tersebar di negeri ini adalah Laskar Pelangi masa kini. Mereka akan tetap menampakkan keindahan warnanya seperti apapun kondisinya, meskipun orang lain tidak melihatnya… Seandainya para siswa, guru, politisi dan lainnya mempunyai jiwa yang serupa, pasti negeri ini akan semakin baik dimasa mendatang..

Ya Allah yang menguasai langit, bumi dan isinya. Balaslah semua jasa-jasa mereka dengan limpahan rahmatMu, berkahilah kehidupan mereka dan jadikanlah pada dada-dada kami tumbuh jiwa-jiwa seperti mereka. Aku tahu hanya Engkau yang akan terus mengalirkan pahala amal perbuatan mereka sampai akhir zaman, sebagaimana yang telah Engkau janjikan bahwa Ilmu yang bermanfaat akan tetap mengalirkan amal pahala. Amin.

Gottingen, 31 Oktober 2008
-special for Abah dan Mama.. jazakumallah khairan katsiran. Thank you very much for everything-

Source :http://www.eramuslim.com/oase-iman/laskar-pelangi-masa-kini.htm

Obama Menang, Dunia Arab Skeptis

Ucapan selamat dari berbagai pemimpin dunia mengalir, setelah Barack Obama dinyatakan menang dalam pemilu presiden AS. Saingan Obama, John McCain mengakui kekalahannya dan ikut mengucapkan selamat atas kemenangan Obama. Begitu juga Presiden George W. Bush yang akan menyerahkan jabatannya secara resmi pada Obama pada 20 Januari 2009 mendatang, mengucapkan selamat pada Obama.

Presiden Prancis Nicolas Sarkozy, selain mengucapkan selamat, menyebut kemenangan Obama "kemenangan yang brilian." Para pemimpin negara-negara Amerika Latin menyatakan dukungannya pada Obama. Mantan pemimpin Kuba yang menjadi "musuh bebuyutan" AS, Fidel Castro bahkan memuji Obama sebagai orang yang tidak diragukan lagi kecerdasannya.

"Dia lebih pintar, lebih berbudaya dan lebih tenang dibandingkan lawannya," kara Castro.

Dukungan yang sama diberikan oleh Presiden Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Ia mengatakan, dengan terpilihnya Obama akan ada "sedikit sinar di kaki langit."

Gaung kemenangan Obama disambut meriah sampai ke Hawaii bahkan Jepang, terutama di kota yang namanya kebetulan sama dengan nama Obama, yaitu kota Obama yang artinya "pantai kecil" dalam bahasa Jepang.

Skeptis

Situasi berbeda di belahan dunia Arab, yang skeptis dengan pemilu presiden AS dan kemenangan Obama. Di Jalur Ghaza, Palestina, para pimpinan Hamas tidak yakin akan ada perubahan dalam kebijakan luar negeri AS terhadap Timur Tengah. Siapa pun presiden AS yang terpilih tidak akan membuat Washington menghentikan kebijakan jahatnya pada gerakan-gerakan perjuangan di Palestina.

Juru Bicara Hamas di Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum menyatakan, Obama dan McCain adalah pilihan yang sama buruknya. Namun, kepala biro politik Hamas yang saat ini dalam pengasingan di Suriah, Khaled Meshaal mengatakan, dirinya siap berdialog dengan presiden AS terpilih.

"Hamas siap berdialog dengan presiden AS yang baru, Obama atau McCain. Tapi kami akan tetap ketat mempertahankan hak kami. Kami mengakui AS adalah negara yang memiliki kekuatan besar, tapi kami lebih kuat di wilayah kami sendiri," tukas Meshaal.

Sementara Perdana Menteri Palestina-yang diberhentikan secara paksa oleh Presiden Palestina Mahmud Abbas- Ismail Haniyah menegaskan presiden baru AS harus mencabut embargo yang dilakukan Israel dan dunia internasional di Gaza. Haniyah juga mendesak agar pemimpin AS yang baru memutus dukungan terhadap Israel.

Di lain pihak, Presiden Palestina Mahmud Abbas mengucapkan selamat atas kemenangan Obama dan mendesak agar presiden baru AS itu mempercepat upaya untuk mencapai kesepakatan damai antara Israel-Palestina.

"Presiden Abbas mengucapkan pada presiden terpilih AS Barack Obama atas namany dan atas nama rakyat AS. Ia berharap Obama akan mempercepat upaya perdamaian," kata Juru Bicara Kepresidenan Palestina, Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Di negara-negara Arab, meski antusias masyarakatnya juga tinggi mengikuti proses pemilu presiden AS, sebagian besar dari mereka pesimis presiden baru AS akan membawa perubahan besar bagi dunia Arab. Mereka berpendapat, baik Obama maupun McCain tidak menawarkan harapan bagi perubahan kebijakan AS terhadap dunia Arab.

Polling yang dilakukan situs satisun televisi Al-Arabiya menunjukkan, 62 persen responden menyatakan apapun hasil pemilu AS tak kan membuat mereka kagum, karena kedua kandidat presiden AS adalah pendukung Israel. Namun 26 persen responden menginginkan McCain kalah, dengan alasan kebijakan-kebijakan McCain yang anti-Arab. Cuma 13 persen responden yang menginginkan Obama kalah, dengan alasan Partai Demokrat tidak punya rasa hormat terhadap agama.

Hasil polling ini hampir sama dengan hasil polling yang dilakukan lembaga survei Zogby yang dilakukan bulan Maret kemarin. Hanya 18 persen responden Arab yang meyakini Obama mampu memciptakan sedikit kedamaian di Timur Tengah, sementara keyakinan pada McCain hanya 4 persen.

Tidak seperti masyarakat di berbagai belahan dunia lainnya yang cenderung mengelu-elukan Obama, masyarakat Arab pada umumnya tidak terlalu antusias dengan Obama. Di Amerika sendiri, dukungan warga Arab Amerika yang semula tinggi, menurun drastis setelah dengan sikap Obama yang sangat menjaga jarak dengan warga Arab dan Muslim serta menghindari isu-isu yang terkait dengan Islam.

Dukungan itu makin melemah, ketika Obama di hadapan American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-lembaga lobi Yahudi di AS-menyatakan dukungan penuhnya pada Israel dan mengatakan bahwa Yeruslaem seharusnya menjadi ibukota bagi negara Yahudi.

Warga Arab Amerika mulai mempertanyakan perubahan macam apa yang akan dilakukan Obama-karena tema kampanye Obama adalah "Change, We Need"-setelah kasus relawan kampanye Obama yang melarang dua Muslimah berjilbab berdiri di dekat Obama, yang bisa ditangkap oleh jepretan kamera.

"Saya sangat kecewa. Apa yang saya alami sangat kontradiksi dengan tema kampanye yang diusung Obama," kata Lydia Habhab, seorang muslim AS.

Yang paling berbahagia dengan kemenangan Obama pastilah Israel. Apalagi dalam kampanyenya Obama menegaskan bahwa dirinya adalah "sahabat sejati" Israel.

"Rakyat Israel mengucapkan selamat pada dua sahabat baik Israel, John McCain untuk kampanyenya yang hebat dan Barack Obama untuk kemengannya yang bersejarah. Kami yakin, persahabatan Israel dan AS dimasa depan akan cerah," kata PM Ehud Olmert, yang bakal mundur dari jabatannya karena terlibat skandal korupsi.

Terkait dukungan Obama terhadap Israel, Juru Bicara Hamas Fawzi Barhoum mengingatkan Obama agar belajar dari kesalahan pemerintahan AS yang terdahulu. "Termasuk pemerintahan Bush yang telah menghancurkan Irak, Afghanistan, Libanon dan Palestina" tukasnya.

"Kami ingin Obama mendukung isu-isu Palestina, paling tidak, ia tidak bersikap bias terhadap penjajahan Israel di Palestina," sambung Barhoum.

Sementara itu, pemerintahan Irak menyatakan akan tetap bekerjasama "dengan tulus" namun Irak tidak mengharapkan perubahan akan terjadi dalam satu malam setelah Obama terpilih.

"Kami yakin ini adalah pilihan rakyat AS. Kami menghormati pilihan mereka. Tapi masih banyak tantangan yang akan dihadapi Obama," kata Menlu Irak Hoshyar Zebari.

"Kami pikir tidak akan ada perubahan kebijakan dalam satu malam. Banyak persoalan AS yang masih tersisa di sini," tukasnya. (ln/berbagai sumber)

Source : http://www.eramuslim.com/berita/analisa/obama-menang-dan-dunia-arab-yang-skeptis.htm

Obama victory sparks cheers around the globe

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Write

PARIS – Barack Obama's election as America's first black president unleashed a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill, and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that minorities elsewhere could follow.

People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya — where Obama's father was born — declared a public holiday.

In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared winner and poured into the courtyard where they hugged each other, danced in the rain and chanted "Obama! Obama!"

"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place," South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.

Many expressed amazement and satisfaction that the United States could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American as president.

"This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's black junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "America is rebecoming a New World.

"On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes," she said.

In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong's 1969 moon landing in describing Obama's election as "one giant leap for mankind."

Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces global challenges as momentous as the hopes his campaign inspired — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a global economy in turmoil.

The huge weight of responsibilities on Obama's shoulders was also a concern for some. French former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Obama's biggest challenge would be managing a punishing agenda of various crises in the United States and the world. "He will need to fight on every front," he said.

Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government's chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.

"At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a congratulations letter to Obama.

Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski spoke of "a new America with a new credit of trust in the world."

Skepticism, however, was high in the Muslim world. The Bush administration alienated those in the Middle East by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide.

Some Iraqis, who have suffered through five years of a war ignited by the United States and its allies, said they would believe positive change when they saw it.

"Obama's victory will do nothing for the Iraqi issue nor for the Palestinian issue," said Muneer Jamal, a Baghdad resident. "I think all the promises Obama made during the campaign will remain mere promises."

In Pakistan, a country vital to the U.S.-led war on the al-Qaida terrorist network and neighbor to Afghanistan, many hoped Obama would bring some respite from rising militant violence that many blame on Bush.

Still, Mohammed Arshad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in the capital, Islamabad, doubted Obama's ability to change U.S. foreign policy dramatically.

"It is true that Bush gave America a very bad name. He has become a symbol of hate. But I don't think the change of face will suddenly make any big difference," he said.

But many around the world found Obama's international roots — his father was Kenyan, and he lived four years in Indonesia as a child — compelling and attractive.

"What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had," said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in Bangkok. "He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president."

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_as/us_elections_world_view;_ylt=AjIWeAG3nwlkxINWG7Y1sNpvaA8F

President-elect Obama faces daunting challenges

By TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – His name etched in history as America's first black president-elect, Barack Obama turned Wednesday from the jubilation of victory to the sobering challenge of leading a nation worried about economic crisis, two unfinished wars and global uncertainty.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep," Obama cautioned.

Young and charismatic but with little experience on the national level, Obama smashed through racial barriers and easily defeated Republican John McCain to become the first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office, America's 44th president. He was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America," Obama told a victory rally of 125,000 people jammed into Chicago's Grant Park.

After an improbable journey that started for Obama 21 months ago and drew a record-shattering $700 million to his campaign account alone, Obama scored an Electoral College landslide that redrew America's political map. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections, like Indiana and Virginia, which hadn't supported the Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to President Bush's twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which McCain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.

With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 52.3 percent for Obama and 46.4 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was lopsided — 349 to 147 in Obama's favor as of early Wednesday, with three states still to be decided. Those were North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.

With just 76 days until the inauguration, Obama is expected to move quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees. Campaign officials said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel was the front-runner to be Obama's chief of staff. The advisers spoke on a condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

With these moves and many others to come upon him quickly, Obama planned a low-key, everyman day-after in his hometown of Chicago. The president-elect was taking his two young daughters to school, and then heading to the gym, with little else on his schedule.

The nation awakened to the new reality at daybreak, a short night after millions witnessed Obama's election — an event so rare it could not be called a once-in-a-century happening. Prominent black leaders wept unabashedly in public, rejoicing in the elevation of one of their own — at long last.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had made two White House bids himself, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the tears streaming down his face upon Obama's victory were about his father and grandmother and "those who paved the fights. And then that Barack's so majestic."

"He's going to call on us, I believe, to sacrifice. We all must give up something," Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and leading player in the civil rights movement with Jackson, said on NBC's "Today" show.

Speaking from Hong Kong, retired Gen. Colin Powell, the black Republican whose endorsement of Obama symbolized the candidate's bipartisan reach and bolstered him against charges of inexperience, called the senator's victory "a very very historic occasion." But he also predicted that Obama would be "a president for all America."

Bush, whose public approval ratings have plummeted in the waning days of his presidency, was mostly behind the scenes in the last weeks of the historic campaign. He called Obama to congratulate him late Tuesday and scheduled a midmorning statement in the White House Rose Garden.

Democrats expanded their majority in both houses of Congress.

In the Senate, Democrats ousted Republicans Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and captured seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. Still, the GOP blocked a complete rout, holding the Kentucky seat of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Minnesota seat of Norm Coleman, who had been challenged by Democrat Al Franken, and a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott — three top Democratic targets.

In the House, with fewer than a dozen races still undecided, Democrats captured Republican-held seats in the Northeast, South and West and were on a path to pick up as many as 20 seats.

When Obama and running mate Joe Biden take their oath of office on Jan. 20, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said the American people "have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America." She scheduled a midday news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday to elaborate.

After the longest and costliest campaign in U.S. history, Obama was propelled to victory by voters dismayed by eight years of Bush's presidency and deeply anxious about rising unemployment and home foreclosures and a battered stock market that has erased trillions of dollars of savings for Americans.

Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.

Obama acknowledged that repairing the economy and dealing with problems at home and overseas will not happen quickly — alluding even in the first blush of victory to the possibility of a second term. "We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."

"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

Obama faces a staggering list of problems, that he called "the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century." He spoke of parents who worry about paying their mortgages and medical bills.

"There will be setbacks and false starts," Obama said. "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem."

The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organizer to state legislator and U.S. senator, now just four years into his first term. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Bush called Obama with congratulations at 11:12 p.m. EST. "I promise to make this a smooth transition," the president said. "You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself." He invited Obama and his family to visit the White House soon.

Obama won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

McCain had Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. He also won at least 3 of Nebraska's five electoral votes, with the other two in doubt.

Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

The results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.

In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate.

"That would be the highest turnout rate that we've seen since 1908," which was 65.7 percent, McDonald said early Wednesday.

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_el_pr/election_rdp;_ylt=AlGqjR.si_XWeI_p_he_c3YSq594