"Two presidents met, the President of Konoha and the President of Wakanda. After sitting next to each other, the Wakanda said, 'Congratulations Mr President, you have opened up 'freedom of speech' in your country.'Moving closer to the Wakanda's ear and covering it with his palm, the Konoha whispered, 'I don't give a crap, the important thing is, my son won!'And they both chuckled while taking selfies.""According to a philosopher, funny things are in the head, because, according to a President, all the numeric data is in the hands of the Intelligence," said Sansevieria after greeting with Basmalah and Salaam. "And apparently, according to intelligence reports, although the Malays call me 'Lidah Mertua', my species' are native to Africa, and a few originated in India and Asia. My nation was discovered over 200.000 years ago. The name sansevieria comes from Bagamoyo, a locality on the Indian Ocean in Tanzania. We were lumped by Linnaeus into Aloe in 1753. In 1763 Adanson called us 'Cordyline'. In 1786 this was altered to 'Acyntha', and a year later we were christened 'Sanseverinia' after the Prince of Sansevero, an Italian Prince with many accomplishments: nobleman, inventor, soldier, writer, scientist, alchemist and freemason, best remembered for his reconstruction of the Sansevero Chapel in Naples. It's far differed from 'the prince'—not Machiavelli's Il Principe—currently 'showing' in Indonesia, who only accepting such things arranged by 'uncle' and 'father.' I'm curious as to why 'Big Aunty' is still hesitant to carry out 'impeachment', even though it is clearly displaying arbitrariness, which violates Ethics, and of course is also regulated in the Law.In 1794 Thunberg corrected the spelling of this commemorative name to 'Sansevieria'. Talking about names, some of my species are followed by the letter 'i', such as hahnii, ballyi, ehrenbergii, kirkii, stuckyi, francisii etc. However, I am really sure that Steve Jobs did not follow these names, when giving names to his products like 'iPhone, iPad or iPod'. Talking about names, many of my species are followed by the letter 'i', such as hahnii, ballyi, ehrenbergii, kirkii, stuckyi, francisii etc. However, I don't know if Steve Jobs followed these names, when naming his products like 'I-phone'. Even though I am not native to Indonesia, many of my new species, were born in the hands of Indonesian Sansevieria collectors, including variegated, but do not yet have names.So, the intelligence report made me curious that is it true, Democracy is a 'Western value'? You see, I am familiar with various Indonesian traditions, for example, Ketoprak, Wayang, Ludruk, Gamelan, Slametan, Kenduren and many more. There are also various dances and music such as Janger and Kecak in Bali, Angklung and Jaipongan in Sunda, Uruk Langgai Dance in Mentawai, Ronggeng Blantek Dance in Betawi, Serimpi Jogja, Reog Ponorogo. In West Papua, you will find many traditions that are rich in meaning. Everything I found is a tradition that will never go stale. All them, are like a name, an Identity, a Value.Identity Politics you say?! Listen guys, the world will always involving Identity, from Europe, America, Africa, to Asia; Scotland to Ethiopian. As Hermine Stover says that what makes a person wish to put a plant in a place where no plant could possibly grow. Nothing ornamental in dead or dying plants. However, since human beings are collectively capable of breaking all the Ten Commandments, it is not surprising that some individuals have sunk to the lowest depths of the human spirit—they try to kill Sansevierias. The unappealing sight of so many filthy, neglected 'Mother-In-Law's-Tongues' has given the genus a bad name. 'Mother-In-Law’s-Tongue' is a bad name! The only reason more people are not crazy about Sansevierias is that they have no idea how many different kinds there are, and what they look like when they appear are properly cared for. To know them is to love them, and for that reason, Sansevierias need to be yanked out of the dark corner, out from under the bench, out from under the coat of dust, and thrust into the light of day where they can grow properly and be admired! I bet you could easily locate and rescue an abused Sansevieria today, very easily little effort!As for Value, just like Prince Sansevero, my genus has many benefits for humanity. In Africa, our leaves of former are used for fiber production; we are popular house plants in temperate regions; in China, we are usually kept potted in a pot often ornamented with dragons and phoenixes; we are used in a set decoration in many films and TV shows. According to a NASA Clean Air Study, along with other plants such as golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum) and corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), we are capable of purifying air by removing some pollutants such as formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene. We use the crassulacean acid metabolism process, which absorbs carbon dioxide at night, although oxygen is released during daylight. Nighttime absorption of CO2 purportedly makes us especially suitable bedroom plants. However, since our leaves are potentially poisonous if ingested, we are not usually recommended for children's bedrooms. According to feng shui, because our leaves grow upwards, we can be used for feng shui purposes. For smokers, compared to roses, we are able to reduce air pollution both outside and indoors, especially pollution caused by CO from cigarette smoke. We can absorb chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, nicotine, benzene, trichloroethylene and dioxin. And we are uncomfortable if pollution, created and intimidated by those in bowtie.And I started to open the intelligence reports, then I found several notes. So, listen to this! Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British Historian, satirist, an author, the most famous of which was his best-seller Parkinson's Law, put it this way, 'In commenting upon the course of history, St. Augustine is shrewd enough to suggest (as did Sallust before him) that the Athenians exceeded other people more in their publicity than in their deeds.Most subsequent scholars have been more credulous, one result being a surprisingly widespread belief that the Athenians were the inventors of democracy. That they were nothing of the kind is tolerably clear. What we owe to the Athenians is not the thing itself or even its name but the earliest detailed account of how a democracy came into being, flourished and collapsed. Of the Indian democracies, which were probably older, we have all too little precise information. There is, however, a sense in which many people have had a measure of democracy in their village life. Of China it has been said, 'The family, the clan, the guild and the unorganized gentry play the leading part in rural and urban self-government; but . . . there is an endless variety of groups and associations organized on a free and voluntary basis for an endless variety of social ends and purposes which make China a vast self-governed and law-abiding society, costing practically nothing to maintain.There was likewise a great measure of democratic activity in ancient India, considerable powers being left to families, clans, village communities and guilds. The Russians also had their mir or village community, their artel or craft guild; the former being an assembly of the peasants, the latter of workers in the towns. The Anglo-Saxon folkmoot had its parallel in Vedic India. It would be difficult, therefore, to decide in what country democracy first appeared. Nor would it be much easier to find the oldest republic. However, we can conclude what Parkinson means, that democracy should not abandon local values, but rather walking hand in hand with them for the common good.While it might prove impossible to decide when and where democracy first appeared. But it is clearly, its being normally a development of aristocracy, by which is termed ‘timocracy’ by Plato. The French Revolution of 1789 provides us with a classic example, the classes battle. Had none of the aristocrats believed in aristocracy the rising wrould never have begun. Had they all believed in aristocracy, it might have been easily suppressed. As it was, some were unpopular, more were undecided, and a few were openly on the side of the unprivileged. The assumption of ‘gentle’ rank by so large a number is not inconsistent with the claim by a minority to a still higher status. But the claim becomes difficult to sustain as against others whose birth, education, military prowess and wealth is not perceptibly inferior. Such a claim, if persisted in, may end in middle-class revolt. If, on the other hand, the claim is tacitly dropped, a democratic equality has been practically achieved. Historically, the tendency has been for the privileged class to split, the more snobbish provoking by their conduct a revolt with which the less snobbish are openly sympathetic (not without advantage to themselves).The same situation existed in Britain during the period 1900-1920. The aristocracy was too uncertain of itself to make any spectacular stand against the quiet revolution which was taking place. Many sought to escape the unpopularity which a few had earned. There emerged the Mirabeau type, the Etonian socialist. None dared uphold the principle of aristocracy as such save in the most evasive term. The collapse of aristocracy was further hastened by two other factors which may well have been important at similar periods of transition in the past. One factor was the failure to breed, common among the politically uncertain. The other was the incidence of war casualties, falling most heavily upon the limited class from which future leaders might otherwise have been drawn. The British aristocracy went down before the revolution of 1914-18, victims of a conflict in which generals lost their reputation while subalterns lost their lives. The survivors of a war in which the dangers had been experienced by all alike could do nothing but talk about the virtues of democracy. Death duties finished what machine guns had begun.In lands with a less rigid system of class distinction, it was always difficult, in practice, to exclude from the upper class a growing number of the skilled, the able or the dangerous. Knightly rank has always been won on the battlefield and can scarcely be denied to the merchant whose travels may bring him into comparable peril. And if the merchant wears the sword, the lawyer sent on embassy deserves no less. But no trader or professional man can deny a measure of respect to his customers or clients. He who sells can claim no superiority over those who buy. When in doubt, he will prefer to call the stranger ‘Sir' or ‘Lord'. That his customers are all ‘ladies and gentlemen’ is the proof in fact of his success. There is thus a tendency in most languages for the word ‘gentleman’ to become meaningless, being applied eventually to all above the status of peasant, or to all perhaps not actually slaves.What was novel, in fact, about the republic of Athens was not its democracy as such but its emphasis on the individual rather than on the group. Once the individual citizen becomes the unit, divorced from his clan or trade guild or village, he is immeasurably weakened in his relationship with the State. And the State is correspondingly strengthened as group loyalties disappear. Athens was ruled at first, like other States, by a god-descended king. But whereas at Rome the king was dethroned by an aristocratic revolution, at Athens the monarchy was gradually and quietly replaced. First, we hear of the king’s successor being chosen from among members of the royal family. Next, we hear of a General and a Judge (both of royal blood) appointed to assist the king. Then the office of judge or Archon is thrown open to men of noble family (c. 725 B.C.), the period of office being reduced from ten years to one. The appearance of the Council of Nine, and the Areopogus or Council of the ‘Eupatridae’, marks the aristocratic control which existed during the later days of the monarchy. By 683 B.C. Athens was an aristocratic republic.It seems that I will walk backwards when opening the next page, discussing this evolution of political thought. We will continue in the next session, bi 'idhnillah."While waiting for the break to the next session, Sansevieria sang,I wanna know what love isI want you to show meI wanna feel what love isI know you can show me *)
Citations & References:
- Hermine Stover, The Sansevieria Book, 1983, Endangered Species Press
- B. Juan Chahinian, The Splendid Sansevieria: An Account of the Species, 2005, El Author
- C. Northcote Parkinson, The Evolution of Political Thought, 1958, The Riverside Press
*) "I Wanna Know What Love Is" written by Mick Jones
