My first attempt to provide some musics on my blog. Let's see if this works out.
The song list:
01. Prayer
02. Never Saw Blue
03. Dell Amore Non Si Sa
04. Ave Maria (Caccini)
05. Both Side Now
06. What You Never Know (Won't Hurt You)
07. May It Be (From the Fellowship of the Ring)
08. Quanta Qualia
09. Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 Aria (Cantilena)
10. She Moves Through The Fair
11. I Say Grace
12. My Heart Belong To You
It was ripped @ 320 kbps.
File size: 70 mBytes
http://rapidshare.com/files/74269719/Hayley-Odyssey_Intl_.rar
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Living in a new country - The Arrival - part 1
We have moved to Canada and have been trying to make a proper living for the past 8 years.
If there is something, I would say that you need to be fully aware of what you will face when you move away from your birth-place.
Moving or immigrating to a new place should only be used as a last resource to make a better living. This is true in most cases, since most of the time people will immigrate only if the situation has become very uncomfortable, intolerable and unpleasant. Of course the degree of all these discomfort will be different for different families.
There is one sure thing about immigrating, i.e. that you will suffer, whatever the reason of your migration is. If that is the case, then what is the benefit of migrating for somebody who is not under any kind of intolerable discomfort.
The human nature is always to look for something better, more comfortable, less restriction and a lot of other goodies. With that attitude in mind, it is easier to understand why people are migrating. I, for one; was not doing so bad in Indonesia, but there I have seen something happened to me in the past and it will happen again in the future. There is a certain risk factor that my children will have to face if we continue to live in Indonesia. Being a Chinese descent, we are facing a certain risk in of discrimination in Indonesia. The degree of discrimination are changing from time to time, but it is always there. The bad thing is that it is regulated into the law. There are certain laws which only applicable to the Chinese community, but not to other ethnic group.
With that in mind, we are looking for a new place to live with less discrimination and more prospect for our family. That is normal, isn't it ???
We have 3 options at the beginning; Australia, USA and Holland. Later on Canada and New Zealand are being considered as well. Austrial is being scratched from the option because of their white policy which resurface from time to time and also their "high and mighty" attitude. The Aussie are surrounded by Asian countries, but yet they always feel that they are part of Europe...ha..ha..ha.. I am not so sure what European are thinking about Australia, but it is out of favour due to their disriminating policy.
USA is an option, but not easy to get. We have to be an illegal immigrant to enter now or to apply for political refugee or win the lottery. All these options are not something that you have a full control. So we have to wait for a more appropriate moment to move to USA.
Holland is a good choice, but the burden to learn another language is not something that can be handled easily. I do understand and maybe able to pick up the language faster, but my family will not be in the same boat.
Canada is an unknown place for Indonesian. The geographical location is so far away and we have very limited knowledge about the country. The only thing we have heard about Canada is that it is very cold and located on the Northern part of USA. That is all....
New Zealand is a nice place. Unfortunately, you have more goat and kiwi than human. They have a higher population of kiwi bird and goat than the human inhabitant. They have a lot of empty space, but I thought moving to a place with very little population is not going to be easy for us.
Given all the consideration, the obvious choice for us would be Canada. The population is not bad (abt 35 millions people), a large empty land, a well develop country with a good level of social welfare, situated next to US which is an added bonus (US has a population of more than 250 millions people and relatively high purchasing power) and the most important thing is that is not discriminative. What else do you need ?
Another point which is also important is the fact that you can apply for it, which means that it is under your control.
So we apply for it after a rather short process of interview and heath check, we got our visa to enter to Canada. It was lucky for us, 3 months after we landed in Canada, September fiasco happened and things got much more difficult after that.
Our children have little difficulty in adapting to the new environment. Partly because we have prepared them with the language course in Indonesia and also our children are rather outgoing type. We arrived in summer; another timing which is very important. I've seen a few friends from Indonesia who arrived in Canada during winter and.... boy... do they really run into trouble..... By arriving in summer, we have the time to adapt our bodies to the winter climate, so we did not have a real difficult adaptation. Of course the fact that we have a mild winter is also a help.
They were accepted right away into the education system in Canada.
Believe me, children learned very fast when in come to language. Within 3 months time, our children has spoken English like they were born with it. So don't be afraid if the English language is not the main language.
Finding the Indonesian community in Toronto is not too difficult. I've been in contact with several people before we arrived in Canada. Infact, when we arrived for the first time, we were picked up by an Indonesian family who immigrate to Canada 20 years ago, whom I met and knew through a friend in Jakarta.
We met the first Indonesian community about 2 weeks after our arrival. To my surprise, I met my old friend from high school whom I have not seen for the past 25 years... ;-)
And of course a few other unexpected people which I was to become a close family friend now in Canada.
However, there is a certain thing which we are lacking off in our Indonesian community. It could be my fault, but I think it is also because of the nature of the Indonesian community in Canada, specially Toronto.
The Indonesian community in Toronto consist mainly of Chinese descent. We were moving to Toronto mostly due to similar reasoning and it is still in the first generation. The attitude that we have in Indonesia still remain and become an integral part of our relation. For this reason, I feel that we can not become a good solid community like the Philippines or Indian immigrant. There is always a certain distrust among the Indonesian immigrants.
If there is something, I would say that you need to be fully aware of what you will face when you move away from your birth-place.
Moving or immigrating to a new place should only be used as a last resource to make a better living. This is true in most cases, since most of the time people will immigrate only if the situation has become very uncomfortable, intolerable and unpleasant. Of course the degree of all these discomfort will be different for different families.
There is one sure thing about immigrating, i.e. that you will suffer, whatever the reason of your migration is. If that is the case, then what is the benefit of migrating for somebody who is not under any kind of intolerable discomfort.
The human nature is always to look for something better, more comfortable, less restriction and a lot of other goodies. With that attitude in mind, it is easier to understand why people are migrating. I, for one; was not doing so bad in Indonesia, but there I have seen something happened to me in the past and it will happen again in the future. There is a certain risk factor that my children will have to face if we continue to live in Indonesia. Being a Chinese descent, we are facing a certain risk in of discrimination in Indonesia. The degree of discrimination are changing from time to time, but it is always there. The bad thing is that it is regulated into the law. There are certain laws which only applicable to the Chinese community, but not to other ethnic group.
With that in mind, we are looking for a new place to live with less discrimination and more prospect for our family. That is normal, isn't it ???
We have 3 options at the beginning; Australia, USA and Holland. Later on Canada and New Zealand are being considered as well. Austrial is being scratched from the option because of their white policy which resurface from time to time and also their "high and mighty" attitude. The Aussie are surrounded by Asian countries, but yet they always feel that they are part of Europe...ha..ha..ha.. I am not so sure what European are thinking about Australia, but it is out of favour due to their disriminating policy.
USA is an option, but not easy to get. We have to be an illegal immigrant to enter now or to apply for political refugee or win the lottery. All these options are not something that you have a full control. So we have to wait for a more appropriate moment to move to USA.
Holland is a good choice, but the burden to learn another language is not something that can be handled easily. I do understand and maybe able to pick up the language faster, but my family will not be in the same boat.
Canada is an unknown place for Indonesian. The geographical location is so far away and we have very limited knowledge about the country. The only thing we have heard about Canada is that it is very cold and located on the Northern part of USA. That is all....
New Zealand is a nice place. Unfortunately, you have more goat and kiwi than human. They have a higher population of kiwi bird and goat than the human inhabitant. They have a lot of empty space, but I thought moving to a place with very little population is not going to be easy for us.
Given all the consideration, the obvious choice for us would be Canada. The population is not bad (abt 35 millions people), a large empty land, a well develop country with a good level of social welfare, situated next to US which is an added bonus (US has a population of more than 250 millions people and relatively high purchasing power) and the most important thing is that is not discriminative. What else do you need ?
Another point which is also important is the fact that you can apply for it, which means that it is under your control.
So we apply for it after a rather short process of interview and heath check, we got our visa to enter to Canada. It was lucky for us, 3 months after we landed in Canada, September fiasco happened and things got much more difficult after that.
Our children have little difficulty in adapting to the new environment. Partly because we have prepared them with the language course in Indonesia and also our children are rather outgoing type. We arrived in summer; another timing which is very important. I've seen a few friends from Indonesia who arrived in Canada during winter and.... boy... do they really run into trouble..... By arriving in summer, we have the time to adapt our bodies to the winter climate, so we did not have a real difficult adaptation. Of course the fact that we have a mild winter is also a help.
They were accepted right away into the education system in Canada.
Believe me, children learned very fast when in come to language. Within 3 months time, our children has spoken English like they were born with it. So don't be afraid if the English language is not the main language.
Finding the Indonesian community in Toronto is not too difficult. I've been in contact with several people before we arrived in Canada. Infact, when we arrived for the first time, we were picked up by an Indonesian family who immigrate to Canada 20 years ago, whom I met and knew through a friend in Jakarta.
We met the first Indonesian community about 2 weeks after our arrival. To my surprise, I met my old friend from high school whom I have not seen for the past 25 years... ;-)
And of course a few other unexpected people which I was to become a close family friend now in Canada.
However, there is a certain thing which we are lacking off in our Indonesian community. It could be my fault, but I think it is also because of the nature of the Indonesian community in Canada, specially Toronto.
The Indonesian community in Toronto consist mainly of Chinese descent. We were moving to Toronto mostly due to similar reasoning and it is still in the first generation. The attitude that we have in Indonesia still remain and become an integral part of our relation. For this reason, I feel that we can not become a good solid community like the Philippines or Indian immigrant. There is always a certain distrust among the Indonesian immigrants.
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