Respect
In Jogjakarta, Indonesia, students made a video about why young people should show respect to their peers, adults, and elders as part of Asia Society's Creative Voices of Islam project. They were assisted by two youth media organizations: Appalshop (US) and Kampung Halaman (Indonesia).
This video was made by students at Public High Schools 1, 3, and 8 in Jogjakarta, Indonesia to share with students in Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network in Charlotte, North Carolina and Mathis, Texas. After you watch the video, read what the students thought and post your own comments!
Responses to "Respect"
Creative Voices of Islam is a three-year initiative implemented by Asia Society with support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The goal of this initiative is to foster an increased understanding of the diversity of experience and voices within the multicultural societies of contemporary United States and Asia. The initiative includes a series of exhibitions, cultural events, and public programs at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York City, as well as a youth media exchange between high schools in the U.S. and Muslim countries in Asia.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
This story is very interesting because it tells us about surrounding society life. As javanese, we have a tradition to respect others, not only to older people but also the younger ones. The story tries to show us how simple it is to respect people, but sometimes we are just too lazy to do it. Recently these days, the respect culture has decreased, but after seeing this production, we are encouraged to treat people with respect. This is a simple production but full of meaning and lesson to learn. We live together in our own society, without respect, there will be no life at all. (SMA 1 YOGYAKARTA)
February 27th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I like this production because it shows us the description of most teenagers who don’t care to other people. For instance, they wear the uniform untidy, teenagers don’t behave theirselves to adults and their friends. This production reminds e of something in my own life, after I saw the movie I understand how important it is to be polite to others. And I believe that others will be happy if I’m being polite to them. (Astrid)
March 11th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
That’s a behavior which is stick to the Jogjakarta people as Javanese ethnically distinct groups. Unfortunately, on recent days, this behavior is getting left by us, young generation. This movie could remind us, that such thing as respect is actually the identity of Jogjakarta people that should be kept and reserved. Just take a look at the part of the movie where the boy respects his father or his teacher. Doesn’t it look so beautiful? (Rasis)
March 12th, 2009 at 9:32 am
The idea is simple but it can make the film looks great. The film is easy to understand. It is appropriate with teen’s life. This story is interesting because it is related with my whole life. It can improve our attitude. The story reveals about the small thing that sometimes we often do not realize, like bowing when walking in front of old men, kissing our teacher’s hand when meeting him or her. It reminds me of my behavior. The importance of respect in Javanese society, especially Jogjanese people. This film shows us how to respect others. People will respect us more if we respect them. Life will be meaningful if we respect one another. Now, many people forget this kind of culture. This production reminds me of my bad attitude to my parents and to my friends. It makes me want to change it. (bagus)
March 12th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Rasis, to your question, “Doesn’t it look so beautiful?” My simple answer, yes, with respect everything can look beautiful. Respect should be everywhere, sadly though, time changes everything. Mostly everywhere you go, you’ll hardly see a teenager showing respect to his elders, help them out without asking, or many other ways. Respect should be revived once again, respect shows how we are in truth. -Joshua MHSIS
March 13th, 2009 at 4:06 am
I want to add another one. Joshua, I agree with you actually. Time changes everything and in fact, wherever i go, i don’t see any teenager showing respect to the elder. It is actually the thing that we really have to keep an eye on. I think this project is a good media to show people that respect is a simple, easy, and beautiful, but why do people always forget about it? Is it that hard to respect people? Well, the answer is in ourselves. To be honest, this production has opened my eyes about my own behavior. Especially, the way I dress up. Just like what Joshua said, “respect shows how we are in truth” (Anisa)
March 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am
This video is an inspirational to me because life is all about respecting people and your elders even if they are younger than you “You could be a role model to the younger ones”. This video also has mentioned and has showed that you would need to respect many others no matter if they disrespect you because sometimes you will get out of hand because of the way that they are treating you. Think about it they could just be doing it to get on your nerves or to push your buttons so they have a better reason to show you up and say “Well he and/or she was disrespecting me also”. Lets just say that this is a very good video for all of the students and even elders because sometimes our elders kan be disrespectful.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I really like this video it shows that we need to be respectful of others. There are a lot of people who ask for respect but we also need to know that we have to give respect in order to earn it. Being respectful can be a beautiful thing. When I’m respectful to an elder I can see that they are calm, nice,and respect you back, but if your not then they treat you just the way you treated them. (esther)
March 13th, 2009 at 10:22 am
This reminds me of when my parents were raising me when i was little how to respect others everywhere i am at even at skool especially. The biggest thing for me is respecting elders that is a big part my parents taught me. This video shows a lot of stuff about respect. I am glad who ever made this made a good choice to do a video on respect.
-Janice-
March 13th, 2009 at 10:24 am
To Anisa’s questions, “but why do people always forget about it?”
Well, I honestly think that there are more than one answer to that question. One would be is peer pressure, a simple would be that, if you don’t see others around your age doing it, why should you? Peer pressure makes us who we aren’t, and in turn, make a lie out of ourselves. Another answer of how they forget could be that parents don’t respect others properly, and in turn, the child thinks it is ok not to respect others. Those are the only two reasons i can think of why someone would forget to show respect. -Joshua MHSIS
March 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
This video is really good because it’s shows that we have to be respectful to mainly everyone especially to our parents,and when you don’t have respect towards others then you don’t have respect for yourself.That shows people that your rude and cruel and you’ll give yourself a bad look.I personally wouldn’t want to have a bad look on myself for not being respectful and i’m pretty sure other people wouldn’t either.So giving respect to people is a nice and kind thing to do and this video shows what would happens when you are/when you are not respectful towards everybody. ~Adelida~
March 17th, 2009 at 8:03 am
I think respect is an important issue to always remember. Many people do not think adults, especially teachers, deserve respect. I think that the people who do not show respect for others suffer from a lack of self-respect. If we all work on loving ourselves, then it would not be hard to love others!
~Simona
March 17th, 2009 at 8:10 am
I really liked this video because the I can see that the issues we deal with in Charlotte are also occuring elsewhere in the world. Teenagers are rebellious here too in dress and disrespectful behavior and often ignore people they pass. I agree that it is important to acknowledge those around you to have a happy community! ~Luke
March 25th, 2009 at 5:35 am
I agree with bagus. The simple idea that respect is a mutual agreement has been lost throughout the past few years. Small thing such as just acting polite and having patience for one another is slowly dwindling. I can definitely say that I may not always be respectful toward adults in general, but if I catch myself in a situation that I am in conflict with an adult I do try to act as polite as I can toward them until they become disrespectful. I definitely can say that the respect for older people has been lost because the teens of today believe that they should be dominant even when they are in the wrong. This video definitely opened my eyes to the realization that there should be more efforts to try to help everyone understand the true concept of respect. -Chereka
March 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Katrina, you wrote: “I feel that there is very little of it when it comes to people respecting others”. Do you have an experience related to this? (Lila)
March 31st, 2009 at 4:13 am
Yes, Lila i do! Because many people think just because I am a mixed girl with an African Amercian mother, that neither blacks nor whites give me any respect. It really makes me feel like i do not belong sometimes… and it also makes me feel like i can not hang out with one without hanging out with the other. And i also feel that some adults to not give any respect to teenagers today! They think that just because we are younger and less experienced in life that they do not have to respect us or listen to what we have to say. So yes i experience people not respecting me everyday!
March 31st, 2009 at 4:25 am
To mathis, so in your country?, you guys don’t really show respect to your elder or you are just trying to show people the way they show behave in a community. from napoleon.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:24 am
to napoleon some do and some don’t -ruben
April 1st, 2009 at 10:28 am
To Katrina, i agree on the adults not respecting others too, and feel that it is wrong in a way. Since most of the time some adults/parents say to people who are younger than them that, “you should treat people the way you want people to treat you.” If this is so, why don’t parents/adults respect others younger than them, or older for that matter, is this suppose to be done by us only? Maybe someone knows the answer to this, since I don’t… -Joshua MHSIS
April 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
To Joshua,
I agree with you if adults want to be respected by people younger than them than they should also respect them. Young people want to be respected by elders so they feel that if their not then they dont have to respect them, but elders should also respect younger people. Its not only us that are being disrespectful and its not only up to us to respect older people they should respect us as well. <<darlynna>>
April 1st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I can relate to this video because there are sometimes that I disrespect or treat people bad and I know its not the person I am. But in a way I feel that kids should be repected. After all we are the future of the world and we deseve some credit. (Kevin)
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:07 am
This video shows how there is a common problem in the two places where things seem so different. Lack of respect is a huge thing here as well, and it sometimes shocks me how rude people can be. It isn’t just teenagers, though. There are many adults who are just as rude as the kids, and it begs the question - where do people think we learn this kind of behavior from? They harp on the fact that today’s generation is so horrrible, but the people who are supposed to be our role models, the people who are supposed to teach us this kind of behavior is wrong, are the ones teaching us the exact opposite. -Megan-
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 am
It is the same over here in America . We, my generation, have lost our respect for elders and adults. We fail ro realize that the elders and adults “made” the country what it is and even though we’re improving what they established, we still do not show them the respect that they deserve. I agree with the video, becuase it shows the lack of respect that we are giving to our elders and adults. I have established an understanding on why adults feel as though we lack the respect that is well deserved to the. I agree with Mathis on the adults not showing us respect when it is due. Both, adults and teenagers, need to learn that respect is a 50-50 effort. If we both show each other respect, we wouldn’t have the respect issue, not just in America, but throughout the entire world. [Ryan]
April 15th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
we believe everybody agreed this video.
but, why do we still have no respect each other people??
Not just to older people, but to all people in the world.
For Indonesian,
Why we always put rice on our plate but not eat that??
is that a respect to the farmer??
Ulfah and Chlara
April 16th, 2009 at 6:23 am
we want to give an opinion about Megan’s question.
where do people think we learn this kind of behavior from?
we think its because globalization. people learn so many things from internet, news, TV etc. in Indonesia, there are so many bad TV shows that influence kids or teenagers to act so rude and impolite. but sadly our government do nothing about that. this video can be a good way to remind all of us, to keep our respect, not only to the elder but also to our playmate.
“you should treat people the way you want people to treat you.”
Joshua, you are so right
(ofi and dilla)
May 12th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Although the duration of the movie is not too long, it shows us many things such as moral values of Indonesia people. It is not only telling us the custom of Indonesian but also making us to know about lives of Indonesian people in general. So that it can enrich our knowledge about culture in a country.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
To Ofi and Dilla, those are words used everyday by adults/peers.
If people want to follow on them or not, it is up to them. However, the World would be much better if everyone gave each other respect.
From here next to you, to those acros the world, you should respect each other, even if you will never meet face to face.
-Joshua MHSIS