Being Free With Restrictions

What happens to the human brain after being isolated from the outside world for so long? A study reveals that being physically and emotionally isolated tends to result in decreased brain function. The Max Planck Institute for Human Development conducted tests on nine crew members of the Antarctic research station Neumayer III. They detected changes in the dentate gyrus, the part of the brain that plays a vital role in learning and remembering things. This part of brain has shrunk 7% within 14 months the crew spent on duty in Antarctica. During that time, they survive in minus 50 degrees Celsius, exposed to drastic changes in natural light and without contact in a remote location in Planet Earth's northern tip.

The elderly who are isolated tend to decline health conditions faster than the elderly of the same age but are not reluctant to socialize with others and their families. During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients who fled from the hospital because they didn't feel isolated were no longer breaking news. As for an inmate who is currently in prison, time is running very slowly. Isolation results in feelings of deep loneliness, hopelessness, and no hope for the future. Depression can affect anyone, young and old, who feel deprived of their freedom and can no longer enjoy life freely.

Meanwhile, our predecessors had lived differently. Famous inventors, scientists, and artists have succeeded in creating the best work and most remarkable achievements in their field after isolating themselves away from the hustle and bustle of the world to contemplate, experiment, analyze, connect patterns, and realize ideas. The Great Plague (1665-1666) was the largest pandemic of the era due to the bubonic plague outbreak, which killed 20% of London's population. This epidemic forced many people to isolate themselves, including Sir Isaac Newton. He and his fellow students left the Cambridge University campus to isolate themselves not to catch the disease.

Newton called that period the most productive period in his life, annus mirabilis (years of wonders), which has created space for him to reflect on and develop his various theories in optics, calculus, and prism experiments, which are very well known to this day. Perhaps because he was tired of being isolated, young Newton made a hole in his room wall so that a beam of sunlight streamed in and put the two prisms in a parallel position in the direction of the sun rays. And he was amazed when the two prisms managed to decompose the sunlight into seven different colors. This idea of "capturing" the sun's rays later played a significant role in the creation of your photographic equipment, video cameras, televisions, computer screens, and cellphone screens as well.

 

Openness as a Form of Insulation

Over time, isolation no longer means being confined in one place. Confinement means limiting a person's physical movements and thinking patterns, and creative powers. Newton was very Lucky that isolation did not succeed in confining his imagination when observing the monotonous surroundings. The limited facilities at that time (there was still no electricity, let alone the internet) made ancient people explore their minds so that they could momentarily forget about the discomfort of being confined for a long time. It is amid contemplation that they find questions and seek answers through experiments. And this is also experienced by a small number of people during the COVID-19 lockdown. They help many people through technology to overcome limitations without catching the coronavirus. Check out the discoveries made during the pandemic here.

Some humans try to overcome limitations by imagining that there are no boundaries. Restriction of mobility as an individual force a human to spend a lot of time with himself and observe the conditions that occur in his body and soul. First, the reaction is resistance because humans who already feel comfort tend to take various ways to maintain that comfort. The anti-lockdown protests that occurred in several places are a clear example of this practice.

Does that mean openness and freedom from restraint is always better than restriction? Democracy allows people to voice their aspirations and express themselves freely. How could this freedom be invisible confinement? If given the freedom to surf the internet, 80% of us would choose to look at things that we love and do not exist in the real world. That's why students who attend school from home would rather watch YouTube than go to Wikipedia, for example. Freedom in cyberspace is also very fragile, as the desire to grab more likes and views encourages netizens to expose activities that are currently popular. What happens then is uniformity, both in terms of expressing and the quality of the expression itself.

There are no limits to what we can explore from the internet; we can learn anything from cooking and build a house to learn foreign languages. However, if we think of the internet as a place where we can hide from the real world's cruelty, we can be sure that we will not get anything because we think that this place is just an escape and not a "home" where we will virtually live. The internet is another world with unique endemic realities, norms, and laws with or without any connection to the real world. Without progressive digital literacy, netizens will stop growing by locking themselves in the latest mainstream trends to avoid online or offline bullying. Instead of becoming a momentum to interpret freedom by daring to be different but responsible, digital openness has locked netizens in the mainstream in all fields, be it information, trends, or lifestyle.

The real example is the pros and cons experienced by the COVID-19 vaccine made by the Gamaleya Institute, Sputnik V. The initiative to manufacture this vaccine arises due to concerns about the social and economic impacts that the global community must accept due to the pandemic. Globalization makes all countries free to trade with any party and makes the trade sector dependent on one another. If a region locks itself down, all parties that previously worked with this area will also be affected.

So, the only way to stop the spread of the virus is to make the entire global community immune to the virus simultaneously. The Sputnik V vaccine was developed quickly, much faster than other manufacturers to meet this deadline, and at a much more affordable price. But competitors' dirty political play is trying to find loopholes to tarnish the first COVID-19 vaccine's reputation recognized by the WHO. After accusing Sputnik V of deliberately passing Phase III clinical trials and questioning its safety, several media outlets highlighted the allergic reactions experienced by several volunteers who received this vaccine.

 

Change With No Losing Principle

To speak of freedom of expression implies two types of action that are different in direction. The first is to express oneself, according to the abilities, interests, and talents of each. Whereas the second is to express an opinion about any event or phenomenon that occurs around us. If the first party is the performer, the second is the audience. If the first party is free to do whatever it wants, the second party is free to comment on what the second party is doing. This kind of relationship is common in digital interactions, especially on social networks.

Years before Mark Zuckerberg got enlightened to found Facebook, the relationship between commentators and commented ones had already occurred elsewhere, namely on a campus where I had studied art. Students at my campus study fine arts, performing arts, and electronic media arts. At the end of the semester, each student must present their artwork before the lecturers and peers in the same class, where the presentation explains the work's title, creation process, and the reasons for the artwork. At the end of each presentation, anyone can ask questions about other student's artwork, and he/she must defend the concept that has been prepared. Debates about results are also common in campus corridors, coffee shops, and even boarding houses. Arguments can be fierce, but fortunately, they are not taken to heart because the aim is to give opinions about each other's progress.

By being a participant in this kind of interaction, anyone will understand that we will reap what we plant. There are always consequences of everything we believe in and we let them outside of us know about it. Considering the reactions that will arise can be massive and violent, we create our boundaries to straighten our freedom on the right path. We will think long before we act if our conscience admits that we are not ready to reap the fruit. It turns out that we can create a moral compass ourselves without orders from other parties, wherein we can become masters of ourselves in the end. But of course, it is a long way to go to reach this stage.

It does not matter if we feel we are not ready to pick up the fruit of expression and choose to refrain from issuing statements that provoke uproar. Choosing to follow the mainstream and live in peace is also a choice, so this is also a form of freedom in determining attitudes. Is choosing to be mainstream will save our life forever? Whatever awaits us at the end of the day, this is not the case. The problem is, is your heart strong enough to accept the shocks? (swast)

A Quest to Search A Partner

According to people who are now in their 40s or 30s, so-called modern youngster attitude is becoming ruder and less mannered.  Is it the failure of modern age, as media and internet becoming more and more open and anyone can exploit anything anywhere? Every child’s life starts from home, this is where a conscience to control one-self can actually be nurtured to avoid growing as a person who only brings troublesome to the society. Parents must work together to build their child’s vision. This is not an easy task, as there will be moments when father and mother’s love no longer as warm as newly wed couple.

Even though a couple is being together and living under the same roof, there are many men and women around us who involves in toxic and unhealthy relationship. It is not domestic violence that pushes the relationship to unhealthy direction. In most cases, simple and not-so-important matters are the triggers. One of them is the same vision and mission to build a life both sides want.

The resemblance goes the same for finding a partner country to work together in all kind of fields. Years before, the foundation of starting joint partnership was historical, ideological, and cultural roots similarities, as well as the misfortune of being colonized countries. These backgrounds seem irrelevant when forced to sustain today, as if we choose a partner by judging his/her family background. Indeed, family holds a major role when it comes to develop one’s (a country’s) characters, but the person holds the very role to find and lead oneself to a better direction, to something which has not been achieved yet by his/her family and ancestors. There are many things to learn from the past, including those of our potential mate. It is more appealing to know how the past has created them to be better than before, because everyone needs to know everything about the other person before they take up the relationship to any serious degree.     

Perfect Doesn’t Make Happiness

It is very common if some women are more interested to men with established circumstance, having a steady job, and wealthy. It is understandable why they make such preference, and it’s not because they are materialistic. After women get married and have children, it is their responsibility to make sure that their children will grow as they should be and get their nutrition needs fulfilled. Anyhow, we know that nutritious food are not cheap. So, does it mean wealth bring happiness to all families?

There are 193 countries listed as United Nations members, 211 countries registered in Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), and 106 countries members of International Olympic Committee (IOC). There are developed countries, developing countries, not-so-wealth countries, and there are also endless-conflict countries among them. All of them exist until this present day as each of them has experienced their own historical journey that shape their own characters, views, policies, and current achievements.

There is sugar, (so) there are ants. It is very unlikely that no countries will get attracted to other countries’ success, power, and wealth. It is believed that whom we interact with has major role shaping our ways of thinking and how we will act in every situations. If ones have a close relation with successful people, there is a chance that such success will get them infected. Just as finding a partner for life, we should know how our partnering country candidate would act during hardships. The harder the situation is, the more well-established one’s mentality will be, since greater challenges are waiting in the future.

Very few people could foresee that COVID-19 outbreak would turn into a global disaster. The real impact is not only the loss of human life, but also economic impact. A number of economic activities stalled as countries are very worried contracting the virus when exchanging goods with others or carrying out production activities, so many businesses were under threat of bankruptcy.

The situation has actually been forecasted since the death toll began to arise in Wuhan, China since January, which forced the country stopping production activities and implementing lockdowns. However, the superpower USA then seemed to take advantage of the moment to promote an anti-China campaign by promoting a policy to ban imported products as well as tourist visits from China through massive US media coverage that kept updating the data on number of deaths every day.  

As the first COVID-19 case found in the US last January, President Donald Trump was busy sending threats to Iran. When some US’ companies began entering difficult time due to Chinese tourists ban, Trump insisted that he did not expect any government officials to say or do anything about COVID-19. According to his view, the stock market might collapse and the plague will distance his opportunity to be re-elected in the upcoming US presidential election.

What Mr. Trump was worried about eventually happens.  During the early weeks of COVID-19 spread in Europe and America, the US stock market crashed. After social distancing (and lockdowns) policies began to be implemented globally, the number of unemployment claims in the US increased. Trump administration released an economic stimulus package as a solution to face the upcoming crisis threat, with a quite large of amount compared to any country in the world, namely around 2 trillion dollars.

However, don’t get envious too soon to notice the stimulus funds amount that US government ready to provide. It is not wrong to be curious about where such funds come from, or at least how they process the funds. And the answer is … it is debts, no wonder US Government debt is among the highest in the world. Indeed, there are certain situations where debt is the only solution, nevertheless, debt must be paid. As we reflect on the experience of online loan service applicants not so long ago, anyone can lose their minds if they have no other way to pay their debts. What will a country do if they are in this position?

A part or apart

What is the best partner like? The answer for this question will be very different for each person, and it’s normal. Everyone wants to have a partner because they want to be loved, want to have somebody to lean on, and obviously, they want to be happy. We need to remember that nothing lasts forever in this world, happiness and sadness are an eternal couple and they can’t live without each other.  

Fortunately, in terms of state order, any country is free to search for and free to cooperate with partner countries as much as they want to. Ideally, the more partner countries the better, as there will be more and more diverse markets for our products. Our views and perceptions will also be more open to the various natures and characteristics of our partner countries which are no doubt different one another. This should have been not a complicated matter, isn’t the world made up of different nations and customs?

During recent years, the world situation (and in the country, sometimes) has developed in a way contrary to the openness for diversity and differences we have held and believed all along. We have been seeing unilateralism, racism, and trade war out there. Meanwhile, in 2017 the US enacted Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act which legalized any US President’s decisions toward countries considered as enemies, as well as other countries cooperating with such US enemy states.

Facing the increasingly challenges each day, we should realize that competition also occurs between the world’s great powers. There is a positive side of such competition and rivalry, as each party will be motivated to improve their abilities in all fields, so that they can be the winners. Situation that has evolved so far is a party that has been a long defending champion wants to keep its position by all means, including to create a gap between countries. They announce who their enemies are, and other countries should also consider them enemies. If not, they will impose sanctions because they dare to throw down the gauntlet.

Citizens of some developing countries themselves have realized that the interference of inferiority complex might be an obstacle to progress, especially if they have to deal with possibility of sanctions. On the other hand, many of us need the outside world to market domestic products and increase income. So where does this foot have to go, to endure a toxic relationship or to find a new partner?

What is clear, the storm will (and must) pass. We can fight independently and partner with other countries to accelerate the storm passage. Even in times of COVID-19 crisis today, we can clearly see the real face of all countries in the world. This is the best time to choose which potential countries can see our potential and are willing to help us to develop it, based on the principle of international cooperation that are mutually beneficial, respectful, supportive, and avoid orchestrating reasons to impose sanctions.

(swastantika)