Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Properly preserving our heritage

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Properly preserving our heritage

Mariani Dewi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/06/2009 11:09 AM

"Don't be reluctant to get burned by the sunlight when you visit the houses of old landlords in the suburb of Jakarta, or when you go to Tugu *in North Jakarta* to go sightseeing, or to go to the cemetery at the court of As-Salafiah mosque in Jatinegara, and even so when you take a boat to the historic islands at the Jakarta Bay. Your sweat is nothing compared to the history behind these places," Adolf Heuken, a German missionary who wrote a book on historic sites in Jakarta, suggested in the introduction to his 1996 writing.

"When the citizens of a city do not know and respect its history, its purpose and its genius loci, where the people fight for themselves and themselves only, the solidarity between them to keep the security, cleanliness, environment and ownership will be hard to grow," he continued.

Properly preserving heritage sites for people to visit has been a struggle in Indonesia, including in the capital Jakarta. The lack of city planning, a dearth of public funding and no monitoring of preservation efforts despite regulations are all challenges thrown up to preserving the city's visible legacy. Understanding the importance of these sites among the public and officials is also low.

Budi Lim, an architect who cares about preservation, said he has helplessly watched many worthy buildings get torn down.

"In the 1980s, the Senen Triangle was revamped. Almost all the old buildings were pulled down. In the past different ethnic groups lived there: Indians, Malays, Chinese. I went there so often to watch people's exchanges on the street and to admire the architecture. See what it's turned out to be now. It's lost its identity," he said.

Showing The Jakarta Post around his home office, Budi pointed to various objects he has collected, relics from torn-down buildings -- a door from a temple, a pillar from one old house, a roof ornament from another.

"There are many more upstairs. I've never purchased anything from a building that's still standing. But if there was no way to save it, I would buy up some parts as memorabilia. I have things from all over Jakarta, north to south, east to west. So many buildings have been torn down, leaving not the slightest mark," he said.

Even if the owners wanted to keep their buildings standing in their original form, most lacked the funding and the knowledge to do it properly.

A volunteer group, Concerned Citizens for Heritage Buildings, said they planned to raise funds to help out owners of historic houses who are determined to preserve their buildings but cannot afford to do it themselves.

"Still, I think we can only help one or two owners a year at a maximum," one member Andipo Wiratama said.

In addition to private efforts, the public needs government involvement because preservation goes beyond just maintaining particular buildings. It means preserving the environs and the local culture as well, according to UNESCO's 2007 publication Asia Conserved.

"The body is the physical fabric of the heritage site in its original state and setting. The soul, the spirit of place, is the sum of the site's history, traditions, memories, myths, associations and continuity of meanings connected with people and use over time. Collectively, these tell the story of the place, generate its identity and give it emotional impact," Laurence Loh, a Malaysian architect, wrote in the guideline.

Preservation techniques, though not simple, can be learned and are usually not the biggest hurdle to conservation, Budi said. The main challenge was for preservationists to give old sites a new role in the living city.