1. TAUFIQ: 1 LINE, 28 COUNTS
1. TAUFIQ: 1 LINE, 28 COUNTS
Revitalizing literature in schools
A great many people have been complaining about the chaos surrounding the teaching of literature in our schools, but only a few of them have actually been doing anything to remedy the situation, people like renowned poet Taufiq Ismail.
The 68-year-old poet has won commendations for his efforts to improve the teaching of literature. Last week, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Yogyakarta State University (UNY) for his efforts.
Born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, on June 25, 1935, Taufik is a veterinarian by training. He has been campaigning for reform in the teaching of literature since 1962.
In the early 1990s he had to quit his studies at the American University's Language and Literature School in Cairo, Egypt, due to the Gulf War.
Now a senior editor of Horison literary monthly, Taufiq says that literature has been "marginalized" in the Indonesian school curriculum and the public has largely lost interest in it.
He believes that the root of the problem is the lack of assignments on literature for students, and the fact that literature receives an insignificant time allotment compared to other subjects.
"Literature teaching in our high schools has been set aside in favor of grammar," he said.
He reckons that during the Dutch colonial times, a student was assigned an average of 25 literary works to read in the course of his three years in high school, or Algemeene Middelbare School (AMS) as high school was known then.
"Today, the number has dropped to zero," Taufiq said in his acceptance address.
Similarly, written assignments have plummeted from 36 a year during under the AMS system to six in today's high schools.
"High school students nowadays are simply taught knowledge about literature but not how to enjoy the pleasure of reading literary works," Taufiq said, quoting a survey he conducted in 1997 involving students in 13 countries.
The survey, which was part of his study into whether Indonesians were suffering from "reading myopia" and "writing lameness", revealed that when finishing their four years of study in high school, students in the U.S. had read 4,824 pages of literary works, while students in Malaysia had written 2,016 quarto-sized pages upon finishing high school.
"The essence of literature teaching -- reading works of literature -- has been missing here for over 60 years, or since the last graduates of the AMS system emerged in 1942," said Taufiq, who was fired as a civil servant in 1964 for signing the Manifesto Kebudayaan, a cultural petition critical of the government.
He said that until 60 years ago, the quality of Indonesian students from the AMS was on a par with that of high school students in the U.S. and Europe today.
Taufik insisted that Indonesia should change the way it looks at how schools should teach literature.
"We have been very, very late in diagnosing the disease and have also been very, very, very late in providing the therapy," he said.
The findings of the survey managed to convince then minister of education and culture Wardiman Djojonegoro of the need for a new paradigm in the teaching of literature.
The new paradigm basically involved making the reading of literature a pleasure; obliging students to read the complete work -- not just excerpts. Promoting good writing and knowledge about literature was the second priority.
Through Horison, Taufik proposed an action plan aimed at improving public appreciation of literature to be implemented between 1996 and 2004.
The plan includes the distribution of a Horison supplement called Kakilangit that features the works and biographies of leading writers. As part of the action plan, 9,000 copies of Horison's 12,000 monthly print run are distributed to 4,500 state-run high schools across Indonesia at the government's expense.
Other programs involve the holding of workshops on reading, writing and understanding literature for teachers, as well as a writing contest for high school teachers.
"We also established 12 workshops titled Sanggar Sastra Siswa Indonesia (Indonesian Students Workshop) in 2002 in 12 cities," said Taufiq.
Many of Taufiq's poems have been sung by famous singers, such as Bimbo Group, Chrisye and Ian Antono. He has been the recipient numerous awards, including the Art Award from the Indonesian government (1970), Cultural Visit Award from the Australian government (1977), South East Asia Write Award from the Kingdom of Thailand (1994), and the Poet of Nusantara Award from Johor State, Malaysia (1999).
Taufik says his campaign to promote literature in schools has brought about encouraging results although it will require more concerted efforts to make the dream come true.
"Hopefully, our children in the future will no longer suffer from reading myopia and writing lameness like their parents," said Taufiq.
2. AFFLECK: 1 LINE, 35 COUNTS
Affleck takes darker turn with 'Daredevil'
Ben Affleck, you've just saved the world in Pearl Harbor and The Sum of All Fears. What are you going to do next?
Save it again, this time in leather.
As the title character in Daredevil, Affleck is Hollywood's latest comic-book superhero, testing the waters with a more obscure title than Superman or Spider-Man.
Affleck, who also has played the save-the-world hero in Armageddon, said such good-guy roles can get tiresome. A Daredevil fan since childhood, he was drawn to the story's emotionally wounded hero because he's a darker character whose crusade for justice strays into vengeful vigilantism.
Daredevil - by day a blind attorney named Matt Murdock who seeks justice for the downtrodden, by night a leather-clad zealot whose other four senses are superhuman - actually must pause to ask himself, Am I the bad guy?
"He's a flawed guy. It's very gray. He's not doing the right thing, and I like that," Affleck said in an interview. "It gave me a lot more to play rather than just playing the kind of iconic, square-jawed hero."
The 30-year-old actor has been trying to put some distance between himself and the Boy Scout heroes he's played in his biggest hits.
In between the stouthearted good guys of Pearl Harbor and The Sum of All Fears, he squeezed in the petty, materialistic attorney of last year's Changing Lanes. After the ambiguous moral world of Daredevil, which co-stars Jennifer Garner and Michael Clarke Duncan, Affleck has the mob romance Gigli and the down-to- earth family tale Jersey Girl coming this year.
He counts on those films to put him in a new light with audiences. But Gigli and Jersey Girl come with other baggage: They co-star his fiancee, Jennifer Lopez, and Affleck worries the films could suffer amid tabloid headlines over their engagement.
Gossip columnists have questioned how long the relationship will last. Some hinted that Lopez wanted to break off the engagement, but Affleck said the wedding is still on, though no date has been set. From the start, they figured on roughly a year-long engagement, he said.
Is Lopez on the fence?
"No, that's not my impression. Unless they know something I don't know. Unless she's calling the tabloids, which just seems highly unlikely," Affleck joked. "It's just because people are writing fictional stories. They need a second act. And if you don't deliver it, well, can it be manufactured?"
For the first time since his career took off in the late 1990s, Affleck says, he has become better known as a romantic partner with Lopez than as best buddies with Matt Damon, a frequent co-star with whom he shared a screenwriting Academy Award for 1997's Good Will Hunting.
Affleck and Damon wrote Good Will Hunting to fire up their acting careers, which consisted mostly of small parts or independent films.
They almost lost the chance to star in Good Will Hunting. The original studio planned to cast other actors but gave Affleck and Damon a month to shop the script to other companies. Their pal Kevin Smith, for whom Affleck starred in Chasing Amy, interceded and landed Good Will Hunting with his backers at Miramax, which took over production and let Damon and Affleck star.
Since then, the two have worked steadily in high-profile films and have become part of the regular roster for Smith, who wrote and directed Jersey Girl. In Smith's Dogma, Affleck and Damon played fallen angels; in his Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, they spoofed themselves on the set of an ultra-violent sequel to Good Will Hunting.
"I love Kevin's movies. I love him. I owe him a great debt," Affleck said. "But that's not why I want to work with him. It's because I love doing it, and I think he's extraordinary. This most recent movie we did (Jersey Girl) I think is his best, my best."
Affleck and Damon also created Project Greenlight, the HBO show that chronicles the experiences of a first-time filmmaker given $1 million to make a movie. And Affleck co-wrote the short- lived TV series Push, Nevada.
Stardom took a toll on the actor, who checked into rehab in 2001 for alcohol abuse. Affleck, who said he no longer drinks, decided that live-in treatment was more likely to succeed than trying to kick the booze on his own.
"Frankly, I wouldn't have done it if I'd thought it was going