About The Writers

Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli, was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860) in which he denounced the abuses of colonialism in the colony of the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia).

Dekker was born in Amsterdam. His father, a ship’s captain, intended his son for trade, but this humdrum prospect disgusted him, and in 1838 he went out to Java and obtained a post as a civil servant. He moved from one posting to another, until, in 1851, he became assistant-resident at Ambon, in the Moluccas. In 1857 he was transferred to Lebak, in the Bantam residency of Java (now Banten province). By this time, however, all the secrets of Dutch administration were known to him, and he had begun to openly protest about the abuses of the colonial system. Consequently he was threatened with dismissal from his office for his openness of speech. Dekker resigned his appointment and returned to the Netherlands in a state of fierce indignation. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multatuli)

Traveler, rockstar, artist, musician, writer. Works in medicine.That’s how each writer of this blog best describe themselves.

This blog is a collaborative efforts of several writers, don’t get too excited and think you know exactly just who writes what here.

From Blog of enduring spirit and beauty of life http://freedocere.wordpress.com/about-2/

Why did I write publicly? Say there are 10 people who go through an experience. 8 may think about it once in a while. 6 seriously contemplated their experience. 4 thought about writing that experience. 2 eventually wrote about it. But perhaps only 1 spoke truly about the depth of that experience, a moment, honesty about the glory or failure. I’ve chosen to be 1 out of 10 people, the one who eventually speaks and tell a story.

I write my journey through life, through experiences, hardship and happiness, but never specifically through medical school. I write about my experiences abroad (one was an intercultural course + voluntary camp for 2 months in France and Italy, a UNESCO organized program; another is a medical course and internship for 3 months in Holland). In fact I started the blog because I went to France. But those writings were mostly my experience, my fascinations, my pleasure in finding beauty through travelling and meeting new people.

There is so much life in this blog. Those who’ve been reading it for 2 years, or at least through the part where my journey was toughest (being discriminated in Rome because I looked so muslim is not exactly easy), can appreciate me more than just the medical student who write stuff. There is emotion, sweat, and from what I learn to appreciate, an enduring spirit through life.

Personally for me, the joy, the beauty, the tough stuff, can not be packed in this box called “my journey through medical school”. Legal issues, formal and informal rules, cultural reasons require me to be extremely critical of myself. Simple to say that I choose to not frame my writings as my journey through medical school,because most of them (90%?) is not related to med school anyway.

The blog is not about med school, not about people in med school, they’re not meant for med school audience in particular. This blog is not anonymous, but shows less than 10% of who I really am. This blog is definitely NOT all what there is of me.

I hope the new audience/readers of this blog can now get to know me a little better, more than just one or two posts that people gossip about. Yes I study medicine, yes I want to be great in what I do, and yes, I write in english in a quite lovely way for an Indonesian.

One profound Latin expression is my source of inspiration: Docendo disco, scribendo cogito, I learn by teaching, think by writing. I write because I learn, I write because I think.

I have learned to grow by experiencing life, feeling, doing, contemplating, and eventually writing. Once again, this blog is for us to be able to share the enduring spirit and beauty of life.

Semarang 21-1-09