Inspiration Night, Which Was Truly Inspiring!

Hello, this time I’m going to tell you something definitively, utterly cool.
Last night, I attended British Council Indonesia’s Inspiration Night which was held alongside the exhibition of 50 social enterprises competing in the Arthur Guinness Fund’s CEC Wave II.

The Inspiration Night was opened by a video of a TED talk from R.A. Mashelkar. The talk was a heart-warming one about a new concept of engineering, Gandhian Engineering. Engineering nowadays are all about plain innovation. There is nothing more to it. The Gandhian Engineering is a concept of engineering that comes with compassion and passion. The way of getting more, from less, for more.

What captivated me most was that. Getting more from less, for more. Mashelkar talked about how medicines are invented. Through years, meds are developed with extremely big budget with fewer outcomes. And what results are high-priced medicines, affordable for only some wealthy ones. This is getting less from more, for even less people.

The great example of the gandhian engineering concept is the Nano car. Moved by seeing how Indian families used to ride on motorcycles, which, as you might say, is extremely dangerous even in an Indonesian’s perspective (imagine seven people, including infants,riding one tiny motorbike), Ratan Tata and a group of young scientists invented the Nano. Nano’s price was 100000 rupee~~ USD2000, an ultimately affordable car.

There are also the Jaipur feet. A European artificial feet for the disabled was priced USD 20000 when The Jaipur feet was priced for only USD 28. You might think it’s got much lower quality than the European’s. You’re wrong, it’s got more. The Jaipur feet were invented in demands of a normal Indian, so basically it was much different to the European’s which is unfortunately only able to walk on such perfect pavements and roads. Now, the Jaipur feet enabled the disabled to walk on uneven or marshy grounds, cycling, climbing trees so on and so forth. That is, pleasantly, extreme affordability and feasibility, fantastic, eh?

In the end it’s not all about the money. The compassion point is very important. It is how you look at people with issues and go do something about it, even do business which profits you and profits your customer as well.

After such gripping video, Cliff Southcombe, the founder of Social Enterprise Europe took over the stage. Now, A business is a person, partnership, or corporation that seeks to provide goods and services to others at a profit, as I quote from my business textbook. But, Southcombe introduced to the audiences a concept of businesses (the one Mashelkar is doing ) that not only revolving around profit, but also social objectives which based on values. An idealists’ crap some commercialists’ might think, but to me it’s wonderful and such a bold move in these era.

He then introduced us to Coin Street, a building owned by the local community. There was also SUMA, a wholesaler that claimed to have no bosses and was managed by the local owners democratically. And who doesn’t know about FC Barcelona? That glorious football club is owned by 150k of the locals. “Unlike the premier league’s clubs whose owners are millionaires and where financing is a mystery, it is all transparent in Barcelona and they even get to sponsor UNICEF,” Southcombe explained.

The following speaker was Goris Mustaqim, the Business Week’s Best Young Entrepreneur, as well as the founder of ASGAR(stands for Asli Garut) Muda. His Idea was “Membangun Bangsa Dari Desa”. He showed several examples of this; 1. The states, whose development is mostly moved by the private sector, build its country on an each states’ excellency basis. 2. The China, the opposite, developed by government, built their nation in the same spirit of localness. They didn’t only build the cities, but also infrastructures in villages that support economy growth and stuffs.

He then emphasized on how the youngsters can do that. “Bung Karno pernah berkata, Beri Aku sepuluh pemuda, maka Aku akan mengguncang dunia. Kalau Saya, beri Aku sepuluh pemuda maka Aku akan bangun sepuluh daerah.” He modestly declared.

After the young enterpreneur, The 2005 WWF’s Climate Hero, Tri Mumpuni, supported Goris’ idea of “Membangun Bangsa Dari Desa” with her Pro-Poor Development Road Map. She told us things every Indonesian must have heard before. Truths like how wealthy this nation is, how abundant of natural resources this country has got, etc. But she pointed out how commercial investment disconnected the people to their own natural resources, how the profits of all these resources go to corporations and multinationals rather than the people who actually own it.

There goes the social business, the business that brings advantages to society. The involvement of society in social businesses were vital since the profits not only go the owners’/investors’ pockets but also to the locals’ involved and there started a difference.

That night, I was thrilled to be introduced to this not-that-new paradigm of doing business. I am truly inspired by all these men and women who tried to do so. I can’t express of how many respect they earned from me who saw their works last night, but all I can say is, You guys rock, Keep rocking in the business of doing good! *does sound like a  pesan sponsor of AGF but no, it’s not one*

Catatan tidak penting: I wonder what Rupert Murdoch and other succesful profit-pursuing-businessmen would say about this kind of business, That’d be hugely interesting.
Kay, not important as well.

*hugs*
Yours, M

A Petty Remark: Suck It And See

Dear, Arctic Monkeys, I’m truly sorry.

Uuuuh totally am, but you guys did tumble down from my second-coolest-band to number third. The Suck it and see album of yours is, so to speak, a tad bit less fascinating than that one-released-almost-on-the –same-time single of Coldplay (I feel bad writing this).

Suck It And See was released, like, a couple of months ago but for the hecticness I was for the past few weeks, Here it is, late petty remark!

Now bring it on, first single.

It’s The BBB(funny acronyms, no?). Well, I personally find the single Brick by Brick, which was released months before the album, quite different to the rest of the songs in the album (different feelings!). Exempli Gratia, Reckless Serenade and The Hellcat Spangled Shalala. I’m not into classifying songs into genres but, these two are completely in different genre with that first single of the album. Brick by Brick is a hundred-percently those of the Rock n’ Roll, while the two latter are plausibly love(lust?) songs.

Suck It And See and That’s Where You’re Wrong are utterly decent, very sing-alongable, me favourite tracks. Some of the songs I actually play over and over again lately. Fancy the lyrics of both, some lines like, “There are no handles for you to hold”, “and no understanding of where it goes”(which sounds like A wisdom) “I pour my aching heart into a pop songs” (That’ll mean you rarely have aching hearts, Alexxxx XD), and “You’re rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock and those other girls are just postmix lemonade” (I’d literally go mad if the very Alex turner serenaded me with this line). Inimitable lines, aren’t they? And for the sake of curiousity (kepo-ness) of how rare a burdock is, I actually googled burdock, it’s a biennial thistles in the genus Arctium, family Asteraceae, according to wikipedia. That.

Whoosh, Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair is… awesome, though Alex Turner said that he quite regretted writing the songs for the many moving-your-chair jokes he got. Library Pictures, can I simply say that my mind’s stuck with it all day long when I first heard it?

And there are Piledriver Waltz and Love is A Laserquest, which inexplicably sounds alike to me. Along with the Singing—and the half whispering— of Turner, The Guitars’ sounds are somewhat similar. I’m no guitarist and I don’t have any idea whether anyone thinks so though. Both are good.

Final Statement: It is, to me, not a Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not or Favourite Worst Nightmare version of AM. It hasn’t got any Humbug-feeling to it as well. So what is it like?  In this very writing, I suppose, this album marked a rather different but still very impressive  sound of AM.

PS. kay, I know I’m not supposed to compare things  since, I, myself don’t like to be compared to anyone. Yet, I absolutely adore the new singles of coldplay, you should go and check it out 😀

M

Short is Hot

Bonjour, people 😀

Last Tuesday, I and Arya attend Provoke! Flick: Short is Hot at Sinou cafe.

It was a film screening stuffs, and why I came in the first place was for they screen the film Payung Merah which I knew from Arya was Hot. Okay he didn’t actually mention hot, he said award-winning. There were also two other short films featured, titled Borrowed Time and Broken Vase. The three film screened was somewhat known as  the Atiqah Hasiholan trilogy, since she’s the main actress in all three.

Anyway, remember I mention award winning?

Payung Merah, Directed by Edward Gunawan and Andri cung  was awarded The Best Short Film in the Asian Short Film Awards which was held in Singapore last month.
Which is Awesome.

I and Arya missed the Borrowed Time screening, though, Thanks to the jammed traffic in Lenteng Agung. And The second film, Payung Merah was on.

The film started with dangdut music(easy, it’s not going to be a spoiler) and Rio Dewanto, acting as a taxi driver, and Atiqah Hasiholan acting as a woman going home(in bintaro) from work. Since it’s a short film, the film is pretty short(wth), but what is so mind-blowing about the film is its ability to capture so much stories in it. It tells you about how the taxi driver’s relationship with his wife, how the woman feels about her father(and the other way around), and about her family, so on and so forth. I enjoyed it much.

The third movie is hugely entertaining. Titled Broken Vase, it films the quite engaging conversation between two strangers Marissa Trigg and Atiqah Hasiholan. The first woman(Marissa Trigg) was having a garage sale because she’s moving with her fiancee, Paul, to Hawaii. Atiqah acted as the other woman who has an unknown agenda(though she was looking like a normal customer on a garage sale). The film is pretty simple but has a twistful ending, so if they(the AddWord Production) held another screening, just attend it.

Cheers,
M.

I Was Utterly Indifferent to The Fact.

I am such a kid. I’ve got people to “take care” (not that literally) of me. This taking care thing didn’t apply to my kindergarten life, though. That was the time I was bullied, the time when other kids didn’t smile back at me, or let me play on the slides, swings, and the see-saw, and took the entire colour markers I got hold of, and ran crying to the teachers to tell I did vicious things to them—which I’m completely sorry about now but, only happened for they did those things to me first!!

Well, you’ve got the idea.

Bullies didn’t go for me in elementary school until 4th grade. That was the time when my teacher had this marvellous idea to order the seating. My seat could have been perfect, only if these two girls behind me stopped pinching my back or plucking my hair for the whole day. It was such a disturbance. You know I really don’t know why they did that, but I guess it’s just another sort of bullying.

Thank God, He sent me this gentleman, called Dinur, to share desk with. When the two girls started pinching my back and I started ouch-ing, He’d turn his chair back and tell them not to give me any trouble, and as soon as he faced front again, they’d stop—for a while. Then, the idea of princes in shining armour no longer sounds too abstruse to me.
Time of no more bullies on my life started in junior high. Consequently, the term taking care got a whole new meaning those times. Well,the person in charge of taking care of me was Radiztia—Isti in short, exceptionally Genius, as well as courteous, but still sociable—A really good friend of mine.

I was awfully absent-minded so,she often called to remind me about which homework should be done and what to bring for tomorrow’s classes, things like that. Now She is studying in Japan (She received the Monbukagakusho Scholarships!), oh major coolness.

High School was even easier. I was honoured (effortlessly) as the class’ second weirdest, on 10th grade. I wouldn’t consider that as an attempt of bullying or character assassination whatsoever. It was just because I didn’t think alike most people those days, and high schoolers pick the word ‘weirdest’ for it since most of them haven’t learnt words like ‘most perplexing’, ‘most inexplicable’ or, ‘MOST INIMITABLE’ yet. So, that’s perfectly fine.

There were quite a number of people nonchalantly taking care of me, Andanti, the informatics girl, Dwi Rezeki and Indah Miranti, The CPA-to-be, Arya Satya, The journalist-to-be, Bayu Prabhawa, The nutritionist-to-be, Dian Ilmi, The statistician-to-be, Fitri Afrilia, The social-welfare worker-to-be, Irma Adlina, The Shrink-already :p, etcetera. Not only That because of them, I survived the most monotonous, tedious, and tiresome times of my life (classes, yes), Also, That I could actually enjoy my extracurricular activities (All hail the debaters!), and, for the first time,was encouraged to go the extra miles for maths and physics.

Now, in the university, I’ve got too many people taking care of me to mention, Turbo, the batch 2010 of the faculty’s students and some seniors who even know on which lecture I fail, when my mum don’t. It may sound cliché, but these are the truth that somehow I feel people around me are all unpretentiously helpful and I’ve got no clue of how life would be like without most of them. Aaw, yeah there I said it.

Mérci beaucoup, but y’know,I simply can’t thank you all enough.
Take care. Mira :3