Simon Cowell quits American Idol. . . that gotta hurt! Not for Simon, but for the show.

Both Fox and Simon said that the show will survive. I disagree.

I don't think the show will go off air, but it will not have the same rating or audience number as before. So what if Ellen DeGeneres is a judge now, the show will be funnier, but still not the same. Simon is the top reason for most people to watch American Idol; he's rude, but often right, and these what people like. American Idol without Simon Cowell is like ice tea without the tea, what's the point?

Moreover, I think Simon's X Factor will cast the net wider, because of so many ways, including the fact that it's a new show. And if Paula Abdul joins the panel, it will definitely put American Idol under the bus.

Ever since I was enchanted with Mia Michaels's dance routine, I've been having urges to do a contemporary dance; weird, huh?

As far as I can remember I've never known contemporary dance until I began to watch Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. There's something about the movements which often, especially Mia's, capture the emotion of the songs really well.

I want to be able to dance contemporary.

Yup, I think so, it's way too easy to be a critic, especially when you are Simon Cowell; but, unfortunately this blog post is not about him, it's about being a critic.

When you are in a democratic country like the USA or Indonesia, the chance of being blasted by critics are high. It's not wrong, but sometimes people just need to step back and look at the reality and the facts.

For example, the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, recently said that Indonesia was economically better off in 2009 despite of the recession. The comments that this article gets are provocative; most are really, ignorant comments. One comment said something like it's nice to be complimented but the facts are often wrong. And, I said to myself, this person has not even seen the report from the Ministry of Finance; how ignorant!

It's easy to be a critic, may be because we were taught to judge people from we were young. Remember, "Don't talk to a stranger!". The media have a lot to do in shaping the public's perception also. For example, I found that the media always attribute the words "Islam" or "Muslim" after or before the word terrorism or terrorists. They don't do that to other religion, and people still wonder why people fear Islam so much.

It's easy to be a critic, may be because they think democracy equals full liberty. That is an interpretation I found ridiculous. Democracy is not full liberty, there is no such thing. We live in a country governed by laws. The laws dictate what we can and can't do. Democracy is a governmental ideology, hence, what can and can't do is still on the hands of the government. Even when there are no governmental laws, there are still norms, ethics, that guides our behaviours.

It's easy to be a critic because our "hero" said so. Most of us are probably unaware about politics, and most just follow one party; and suddenly the party's opinions become bible--the opinions are always true. Look at how many Republicans think President Obama wanted to turn US to become an Islamic nation because Sean Hannity said so. Look at how many Republicans think President Obama never uttered a word about terrorism in his Cairo speech because Megyn Kelly said so; and those who believe were just too ignorant to even read the full transcript of the speech.

So, my point is, it's easy to be a critic, but stop, and look at the facts. Find the right information, digest and analyse the information that we have, then we can critic. In today's age of information, we should not be one step behind just because we are too lazy or too ignorant to find and analyse the information.

A few days ago, I finished reading a book titled Manusia Indonesia by Mochtar Lubis. It's the full transcript of Mochtar's speech on 1977, along with some responses and responses to those responses.

The speech is a provocative and, of course, controversial. The main content of the speech is six characteristics of Indonesians. Well, five of them are bad characteristics, only one that I found positive. These are stereotypes of Indonesians; but, just like any stereotype, it's neither totally right nor wrong.

The speech was 32 years after Indonesia's independence, and there are some particular sentences that I found intriguing; one of them is Mochtar's hope that there will be manusia pancasila by 2000. However, when I look at how the youngsters now act, it seems that the stereotypes are even more true.

I will not dwell to explain or describe the six characteristics. I will be posting an article about it for Diaspora, I just need to find an angle for it.

Just one more thing. . .

Happy New Year!!