5 KEMAMPUAN DASAR DALAM BERSUVIVAL

5 KEMAMPUAN DASAR DALAM BERSUVIVAL

Survival adalah kegiatan bertahan hidup di alam terbuka dengan peralatan seadanya. Lalu, apa yang harus dipersiapkan untuk mengikuti survival?

Menurut Patrick E McHugh, ahli survival dari Amerika Serikat hal terpenting dalam survival adalah memanfaatkan fungsi telinga dan otak Anda. Jadi Anda tidak perlu panik melakukan kegiatan tersebut, jika Anda memiliki kecerdasan yang cukup untuk menggunakan lima elemen dasar dalam survival. Kelima elemen dasar itu adalah:

Api. Api berperan penting dalam survival, baik dipakai untuk membuat minuman, memasak makanan, memberikan sinyal bahaya, sarana penghangatan, penerangan, menjaga diri dari hewan buas, maupun sebagai sarana persahabatan. Ada dua cara untuk mendapatkan api itu, yaitu dengan cara alami dan pemakain alat (korek api). Yang perlu Anda ingat, untuk menciptakan panas, ternyata api kecil mampu memberikan kehangatan yang lebih dibanding api besar. Untuk membuat api, Anda bisa mencari potongan-potongan kayu. Kumpulkan secukupnya lalu berilah sedikit minyak untuk memulai pembakaran.

Pelindung. Pelindung diartikan sebagai apa pun yang mampu melindungi tubuh dari sengatan matahari, dingin, angin hujan atau pun salju. Baju adalah pelindung pertama tubuh Anda. Pakailah baju yang sesuai dengan kondisi lingkungan. Jika panas gunakan baju yang tipis. Sebalikanya jika cuaca sedang dingin pakailah baju tebal (hangat). Kenakan jas hujan bila turun hujan.

Sinyal. Sinyal yang dimaksudkan di sini adalah segala sesuatu yang bisa dijadikan alat untuk meminta pertolongan seperti api, cermin, lampu senter, bendera dan apa pun yang bisa Anda pergunakan. Ada berbagai cara yang bisa Anda pakai untuk memberikan sinyal. Jika Anda ingin memanfaatkan api untuk sinyal maka berhati-hatilah jangan sampai terjadi kebakaran. Gunakan sinyal cermin jika Anda melihat pesawat atau orang pada jarak yang cukup jauh. Sedangkan bila malam tiba Anda bisa menggunakan lampu senter untuk memberi sinyal. Atau bisa pula Anda minta perhatian dengan cara membuat asap dengan pembakaran. Selain itu, Anda bisa meminta pertolongan dengan menggunakan batu, balok atau kain yang berwarna mencolok.

Makanan dan minuman. Makanan dan minuman adalah hal vital dalam survive. Karena itu, Anda harus pandai memanfaatkan persediaan air dan minuman yang sangat terbatas. Cobalah minum jika sedang haus atau sore hari. Pasalnya, Anda bisa hidup tiga hari lebih tanpa air. Sehaus apa pun jangan sekali-kali minum air kencing karena berbahaya buat kesehatan Anda. Selain itu, perhatikan soal makanan. Jangan sembarang makan tumbuhan yang Anda belum mengenalnya.

Pertolongan pertama. Pertolongan pertama yang dimaksud di sini bukan berarti obat-obatan dari dokter, tetapi bagaimana Anda bertindak untuk tetap hidup. Mungkin Anda sudah mengenal istilah STOP, yaitu Sit (duduk), Think (berpikir), Observe (mengamati) dan Plan (merencanakan). Di sini dibutuhkan kemampuan berpikir dari Anda untuk membuat pertolongan yang jitu. Analisa kebutuhan yang diperlukan sebelum Anda melakukan perjalanan, cek daftar obat serta bawalah obat standar untuk kebutuhan pribadi Anda. Pastikan pula Anda bisa menggunakan obat atau peralatan yang Anda bawa

The Guardian: Yemen

Here's a Soundslides presentation titled The Secret Life of Yemen, as featured by The Guardian newspaper in the UK, and narrated by Kevin Rushby. It doesn't credit the photographs, but they could be by Bruno Morandi, whose photograph appears on the accompanying article by Rushby.

The producer of the slideshow attempted to use the "flip-book" technique for a sequence of stills to convey dynamic movement, and the sound editing includes both Rushby's narration and a catchy Yemeni folk song...but no ambient sound.

I've always wanted to travel to Yemen, however its bad publicity is a deterrent. Will this slideshow change my mind and others?

Incha'Allah.

VJ Multimedia Workshop

I'm not in the habit of advertising workshops that I'm not directly involved in, or knowledgeable about, but the VJ Workshop announces that it will provide a tuition-free multimedia shooting and production workshop for visual storytellers based in the traditions of journalism.

Their goal is to give back to the visual journalism community by educating a new generation of visual journalists in current practices and strategies. This year, university students and Visual Journalists who were laid off in the past two years will receive a tuition-free workshop.

The workshop is July 30- August 2, 2009 in Ventura, CA. The work will be displayed on www.vjworkshops.org and launched on August 2, 2009.

The individuals involved are Tom Kennedy (ex WaPo and NGS), Dave Labelle and others.

Two External Backup Hard Drives

Having had the misfortune of frying two of my external hard drives a few weeks ago, I decided to take the example of TheLightroomLab, and get two OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' FireWire 800/400 + USB2 2.0 + eSATA of 1TB each, and restructure my backup storage system.

Yes, I'm eschewing all advice for a RAID system, DOBRO, and Time Capsule by buying these two behemoths, and doing my backups manually, and mirroring one with the other giving me two identical RAW vaults. The hard drives come with software called Data Backup 3 which is a utility to backup, restore and synchronize data with minimal effort. We'll see how it performs. These two OWC drives will be used for RAW only. The TIFFS, multimedia and all the rest of the stuff will remain spread between 3 Lacie drives.

Call me a dinosaur if you like, but that's my favored system. Copying almost 25% of my library of RAW images from DVDs onto a OWC hard drive is enough to drive one crazy, but I'm lucky that I religiously archived my images on DVDs.

Jodi Hilton: Pakistan's Kalash People

With all the news of Pakistan these days, I thought I'd feature the work of a talented freelance photographer which documents the life of the Kalash people.

Jodi Hilton is a freelance photojournalist based in Cambridge, MA. She works for newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, People, TIME, The Guardian and others. In 2002, her Master's project Return To Eboli was published in the National Geographic Italy.

Jodi has a number of galleries on her website, but the one that attracted my attention is the one of the Kalash culture. The Kalash are an ethnic group of the Hindu Kush mountain range, residing in the Chitral district of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalash language, a member of the Dardic family of Indo-Aryan. Non-Muslims, the Kalash adhere to their own religion, whose mythology and ritual strongly resemble those of the Vedic (Hindu) Indo-Aryans and the pre-Zoroastrian Iranians.

Shiho Fukada: The End of Kashgar?

© Shiho Fukada/NYTimes-All Rights Reserved
One of my favorite photographers/photojournalists is Shiho Fukada, and she returns to the pages of The New York Times with photographs of Kashgar made into an audio slideshow titled A City and People At a Crossroads with the narration of Michael Wines (also author of the accompanying article To Protect an Ancient City).

Kashgar is a important hub on the Old Silk Road, a vibrant Islamic centre within Chinese territory, where over a thousand years ago, traders from all over Asia, sold and bought their goods on its streets. It is the largest oasis city in Chinese Central Asia and 90% of its population of over 3,000,,000 are Uygur. Kashgar’s Old City, is “the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in central Asia,” as wrote the architect and historian George Michell.

The article questions whether the Chinese government's policy to demolish the Old City and replace it with modern buildings is really because of its fear of earthquakes, or motivated by the desire to dilute the Uygur's identity by moving them elsewhere.

Some lovely photographs by Fukada of the Old City, especially the first one in the slideshow.

Zekr or Soccer?

© Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Over at Photocrati.com , I wrote of my experiences in covering one of the Sufi ceremonies in a neighborhood of Old Cairo that is, shall we say...dodgy.

A few moments spent with its quirky denizens however, and I quickly realized that Cairenes never lost their warmth, humor and kindness.

I also concluded that soccer trumps religion, even among Sufis.

Read Part 1 of the Cairo Report here.

Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn: Tibetan Smiles

Photo © Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn-All Rights Reserved
Bhanuwat Jittivuthikarn is an emerging visual artist who works in all cross-disciplines, including photography. He graduated from the School of Creative Art (University of Melbourne) with a combined degree in International Politics. Returning to Thailand in 2006, he joined SNF Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, a grassroots empowerment organization in Asia. He worked on community development projects such as the Post-Tsunami Art Project in Thailand, a visual art training in Sri Lanka, documenting life of Tibetan refugee in India, and fund raising for an art project for young novices in Burma.

Between 5-18 January 2009, Bhanuwat traveled to Saranarth in India, to photograph 45 elderly Tibetan refugees, who were meeting the Dalai Lama for the first time in their life. His photographs of smiling and laughing Tibetans are a tribute to the fortitude of the Tibetan people; many of whom have lived in exile for so long.

NYCPhotoWorks: Portfolio Review Event

On October 22nd-24th, NYCPhotoWorks will be hosting a Portfolio Review event at the newly renovated Sandbox Studios in lower Manhattan that will bring together more than sixty photo editors.

Participating publications include Time, People, Stern, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast, Details, Forbes, ESPN, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventurer, Redbook, and many more. Photographers must apply to be accepted into the event in order to ensure quality of work. If accepted, the photographer will be given the chance to meet with 14 photo editors 1-on-1 over two days, plus a third day of workshops taught by the Directors of Photography for Conde Nast Traveler, People and Redbook.

Further details available at NYCPhotoWorks

Canon 5D Mark II's Movie Exposure

I haven't posted much on what I call Soft Gear, so Eric Beecroft's heads-up this morning was a welcome one.

According to DPReview, Canon just announced it will release a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II allowing users to manually control exposure when shooting video. The new firmware will be available for download from 2 June 2009 on Canon Europe’s support web site.

(via Planet 5D Blog)

Alia Refaat: Theyyam & Kathakali Exhibit

As I hinted earlier, another participant in my Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition is about to step into the limelight. Alia "Coucla" Refaat is putting the final touches to an exhibit of her photographs of Theyyam ceremonies and Kathakali performances, and has issued the following press release:

“The Art of Kathakali & The Rituals of Theyyam,” an exhibition by Alia (Coucla) Refaat, an award winning and internationally recognized and exhibited commercial and travel/documentary photographer will be open to the public Thursday 18th June 2009 through Sunday 28th June 2009 at The Cairo Opera House, Music Library. The exhibition along with a reception will be held Thursday 18th June 2009 at 7:00pm inaugurated by his Excellency the Indian Ambassador Mr. R. Swaminathan, along with Indian Embassy staff.

The exhibit highlights two religious rituals and performances from the Kerala area of South India: Kathakali and Theyyam.

An extremely talented photographer from Egypt, Alia studied commercial, studio and portrait photography at the Speos photographic institute in Paris.

My Work: Al Ziqr Multimedia

The ziqr is a form of ritual performed by Sufis, a sect of Islam frequently considered as too liberal and too progressive by the more orthodox theological authorities in Egypt and the Islamic world. Nonetheless, it is practiced in Egypt, particularly in the slums of Cairo and in the country's rural areas. There has been a recent revival of interest in Sufism, and many of Egypt's contemporary Sufis are young, well educated people in professional careers.

The devotions of many Sufis center on the ziqr, a ceremony at which music, body movements, and chants induce a state of ecstatic trance in the disciples.

I photographed two of these rituals; one in the Old Cairo area of Darb Al Ahmar, and the other in a small village called Manawat. (Click the small arrow to start the slideshow).

A large version of this multimedia photo essay is here.

Books: The Photographer

From what I've seen online, The Photographer is an innovative book combining the photographs of the late Didier Lefèvre, and the drawings of Emmanuel Guibert, and tells the story of a small group of mostly French doctors and nurses who traveled into northern Afghanistan by horse and donkey in 1986, at the height of the Soviet occupation.

The fact that a woman, Dr. Juliette Fournot, led the medical mission whilst dressed as a man and managed to command the respect of the French and Afghans (including the war-hardened warlords and local chiefs, is not only a testament to her character, but shatters our stereotyping of Afghan culture and its Islamic orthodoxy.

Chris Hedges reviews the book in The New York Times, and he writes this insightful paragraph at its end:

The power of “The Photographer” is that it bridges this silence. There is no fighting in this book. No great warriors are exalted. The story is about those who live on the fringes of war and care for its human detritus. By the end of the book the image or picture of a weapon is distasteful. And if you can achieve this, you have gone a long way to imparting the truth about warfare.

For more info on Juliette Fournot, MSF has this page, and on Didier Lefèvre here.

Pulau Enggano

Enggano lies about 110 miles (177 km) south of Bengkulu city. It is about 22 miles (35 km) long east west and 10 miles (16 km) wide north south. Its average elevation is about 330 feet (100 m). Hills, rising to about 922 feet (281 m), cover most of the area. The island covers an area of 40,260 hectares, which is dominated by dense rainforest with its wild buffaloes. Mainly we can see the culture, or the life manners of traditional society and native's Enggano dances. A pioneer boat at Baai Island Harbour or hiring a small boat at Bintuhan seaport can reach the island. Visitors can see the culture, or the life manners of traditional society and native's Enggano dances. A pioneer bat at pulau Baai harbor or hiring a small boat at Bintuhan seaport can reach the island. 

There are 5 clans Isukul spread over the entire island: The Kaharuba, Kaarubi, Kaitora, Kaahoao and the Kauno. A matrilineal society, descent is traced through the female line and daughters usually inherit farmlands. Half call them Christian, the other half call them Mosleem. But actually this society is one of the last truly animist strongholds in Indonesia. Engganese culture is sure now to disappear as a result of assimilation into an indiscriminate Indonesian culture.

kenali dan kunjungi objek wisata di pandeglang

Rafflesia Arnoldi

The world's largest flower is found in many areas in Bengkulu forests, on the slopes of Bukit Barisan Mountains. The flower has a diameter of about one meter in full bloom. It has no visible root or stem, and no leaves. The weigth up to 7 kg, it takes the buds up to 8 months to mature. The flower stays in bloom from 1-15 days and can be seen during the months of September-December. Rafflesia Arnoldi is a big Flower in the worlds, if one visit Rejang Lebong, the Flower was stand at the City Center of CURUP as a monument, that is why, the people call Bengkulu is A LAND OF RAFFLESIA, or in Indonesian means BUMI RAFFLESIA, because in a certain seasons, if we are lucky, we can see a beautiful flower of Rafflesia, in the forest, which appear in periodic of 5 years or more.

Pulau Tikus

Tikus Island is a group of small islands is excellent for fishing, snorkeling and diving with easy access. Mountain air makes this a pleasant stop for a couple of days. There is popular hot springs near Curup at Suban. Tikus is the name of a cluster if islets surrounded by coral reefs that teem with various forms of marine life, soft and hard corals, and fish of all colors and sizes. The islets can be seen from Bengkulu town.
This Island is surrounded by rock composition with its various colorful fish. The island has a good potential to develop marine tourism, particularly around the area and is quite enjoyable to do fishing, snorkeling or diving. In the island, there is a lighthouse, which is occupied by a keeper. It is easy to reach the island because it is not far from Bengkulu City and visible from Bengkulu coast by speedboat in the old harbor of Bengkulu City.

Pantai Panjang

This beach is located 3 km west of Bengkulu town, and stretches for approximately 7 km. Many cottages are available as well as other recreational facilities. The Long, Clean, white-sand beach is good for sunbathing. There is a public swimming pool and tennis facility, along with restaurants, seaside cottages and hotels. This long white clean beach is hard to find in another Indonesian beaches, which is good for sunbathing and has some marine attractions.

Danau Emas

Inhabited by schools of carp, this lake is located near Curup, in Rejang Lebong regency. Emas Lake means GOLD LAKE, a place for recreation. Anyhow, the place is look so nice, a lake with abundant of- Water Lily -a small Lotus flower, a small island at the center, a play ground for children, Rental boat, and many rest house, small cafe and restaurant, some villa at the slope of hill side. Many cottages have been built around the lakeside to accommodate the holidaymakers.

Curup

Curup is the capital of Rejang Lebong regency in Bengkulu. Located on the slopes of Bukit Barisan Mountains. The motto of Curup Administration "KOTA IDAMAN", a dream city, IDAMAN is an abreviation from INDAH dan AMAN means BEAUTIFUL and SAFE, the peoples said beautiful of its green forest, beautiful of mountains, beautiful of water fall, beautiful its virgin of nature and SAFE for who come and visit this small and cool Bengkulu town. This is a rich area in recreation spots. There are hot water springs at Suban, 7 km from Curup, and at Tambang Sawah about 4 km away. Kepala Curup waterfall is 31 km from the town.

Bukit Kaba

Kaba Volcano is located at Rejanglebong Regency, Bengkulu, Sumatra Island. There are 8 craters show historical explosive activity. The summit area of Kaba volcano contains three high peaks - Bukit Kaba, Bukit Itam (1893 m) and Bukit Malintang (1713 m) with three craters among them called Kaba west-old crater, Kaba middle-new crater and kaba vogel sang crater, one of them is still active. Vapors incessantly escape from 12 fissures in the earth and hot water springs are found in the vicinity. For those who like mountain climbing, this crater complex is in the sulfurous mountains.

Bukit Daun

This is a protected recreation forest located between Bengkulu and Curup, about 45 km from Bengkulu. It is inhabited by a great variety of animal species. Located in a sparsely populated region of Sumatra, Bukit Daun forms a twin volcano with Gedang volcano, which is truncated by a 3-km-wide probable caldera. The 600-m-wide summit crater of Bukit Daun contains a crater lake; a smaller crater lake is found at Tologo Kecil on the SSW flank. No historical eruptions are known from Bukit Daun, although active fumaroles occur in the SSW flank crater.

Bengkulu

Bengkulu is the smallest and lowest populated province of Sumatra. Bengkulu province is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It occupies of 19,831 sq. km area and has about one million populations, comprising mostly Rejang, Malay, Bugis and Chinese ethnic ancestry people. Bukit Barisan mountain range constitutes its northeastern border, beyond which laid of South Sumatra province and Jambi province. The province protected by a stretch of mountains, which soon flow into the mighty Bukit Barisan. Tigers and elephants wander through the remains of the original rainforest, where exotic rafflesia's and orchids grow.

The British founded Bengkulu in 1685. It is a university town and administrative centre. It is the last territory in Indonesia to be held by the British. Fort Marlborough, constructed in 1762, is a castle with gatehouse that contains old gravestones with English inscription. Sir Stamford Raffles, who later found Singapore, was lieutenant - government of Bengkulu from 1818 to 1823

Thomas Stamford Raffles was an important figure in Bengkulu history, which in 1817 was appointed as a Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen, the only territory in the area, which the Dutch had never managed to bring under their control. Raffles was an extraordinary and energetic man of wide-ranging interests. In the year of his arrival, he and a botanist named Joseph Arnold discovered the world's largest flower, at Manna River near Lubuktapi, in South Bengkulu. The flower is now known as Rafflesia Arnoldi and is the official symbol of Bengkulu province.

Tabah Penanjung, an hour drive into the hills above Bengkulu is a nature reserve where rafflesias are often found. Mt Bukit Kaba, near the hill town of Curup can be climbed in a day from Bengkulu.

Geographically
Geographically, Bengkulu is located between 2o and 5o South Latitude and between 101o and 104o Eastern Longitude. This Province is bordered by:
East Side: Jambi Province
West Side: Indian Ocean
South Side: Lampung Province and Indian Ocean
North Side: West Sumatra Province

Administratively 
Bengkulu Province is divided among 1 municipality and 3 districts, with Bengkulu as its capital city. 
Temperature
Its humidity is 87% and the rainfall ranges 3,598 mm per year. The temperature of this area ranges between 22.2o C and 31.1o C.

Demography
Bengkulu Province has an indigineous community consisted of Manna, Muko-Muko, and Minang. A transmigration program supports a migration flow to this province. The population density of this province was 68 people per Km2. Compared to the average national population growth amounted to 2.144% per year; this province was on the higher level with 3.42% per year in the 1990-1994.

Population
Bengkulu province is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It occupies of 19,831 sq. km area and has about one million populations, comprising mostly Rejang, Malay, Bugis and Chinese ethnic ancestry people.

Wide Area 
Bengkulu province area is 21,168-sq.km widths. Bukit Barisan mountain range constitutes its northeastern border, beyond which lie in South Sumatra and Jambi provinces.

Thiago Bahia: Amazonia

Move over Ian Wright (Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker) and Michael Palin...you have a talented competitor who'll run circles around you.

Thiago Bahia is one of the hosts of Amazonia; a travel documentary soon to be aired on PBS that features the natural beauty of Belém, a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the northern part of Brazil and capital of the state of Pará. Wach the 10 minutes documentary to appreciate Thiago's innate abilities to relate to the natural wonder of his birthplace.

Although his employment in a major financial institution is here in New York City, Thiago's heart (and possibly his mind as well) belong in Belém, and he is most comfortable as far away from concrete jungles as possible. Counting this talented young man as a personal friend, I have no doubt that he'll astound us even more.

Boa Sorte Thiago!

PDN Photo Annual 2009 Winners

PDN presented the winning images of the 2009 PDN Photo Annual, which were submitted by an international group of photographers.

Apart from the obvious talent so amply displayed by all the photographers, I was gratified to see that most of the winners in the Web Sites category have used large images...and some like David Maitland and Dani Brubaker have used enormous images on their websites' landing pages.

I've been advocating that larger is better for a long time. My previous posts can be found here, and on Photocrati as well.