191
Ariana A.
Orang Indonesia di Amerika. An American in Indonesia.Ariana A.
Orang Indonesia di Amerika. An American in Indonesia.
(My mother in 1985)
I have always loved reading blogs. Strangers, friends, famous and non famous people alike. I appreciate the sense of understanding you get from reading someone else’s words. Enlightening. After reading a particular post I felt that I know a little bit more about their views on the world. A good reminder that everyone has their own interpretation of things.
With this change of theme, I am opening a new chapter in this blog.
“Project 191”, a name I’ve not so creatively came up with, is a commitment to write one post each week in this blog for initially three months. Hopefully I will be consistent enough to continue until the next year. Why am I doing this?
First, I have been occupied lately with a project launched by Pak Dino about 50 Indonesians who have lived in the United States in any point in their lives. I was tasked with writing and editing a post that belongs to someone very dear to me. My task at the beginning was difficult since as it turns out, that person does not have a “blog” to begin with. There was no written account of her life in the detailed, narrative manner that I was seeking. I knew important milestones in her life, but I had no idea about what she thought about each of them, how that made her into a better person, how she made her struggles into her strength. Unlike countless strangers whose blog I have read, I felt like I didn’t even knew my own mother in the same intimate way.
I collaborated with someone who does: my father. Both of us wrote the essay and in doing so, I constructed the words, the “blog” that I so desperately wanted to read. Although my mother didn’t write it, it felt like I was reading her narrative. I learned nuances that were important to her, events that were significant, and people who she was close to. Writing the ‘mini-memoir’ made me appreciate the significance of documenting your life.
Second, I read the blog of a stranger who meticulously documented his two-year journey to Africa. I stumbled upon his blog on a random search. I did not know this person, but I enjoyed reading his critical thoughts and vivid experiences so much that each time I open his blog, it seems like I was in the Kalahari with him.
I am not aiming to make this “my journal” or exposing myself to ‘the internet’. I just want to write regularly, to have something from my life now to remember later on, and have fun in the process. I hope to have in each post something to discuss and think about, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Ariana
Brookside Gardens, heaven on earth?
There’s much more money out there then truly great ideas.
Janet said this once at one of the orientation sessions at WRI. One of those quotes that makes you think about it over and over again.
Yoga in the morning.
(photo taken from Jaunt Magazine)
Perfect demi-tasse cup of simple french roast.
One step closer.
Let me start by this quote I found after re-reading an article about Sri Mulyani on lemonde.fr:
Le monde change, de facon spectaculaire et fondamentale.
(Jan 17th, 2012)
She was referring to the shifting global geopolitics that are following the economic outlook: ‘emerging’ countries are gaining strength in a way that was never seen before and she experienced this every day at the Bank.
As I read the article that I printed and posted on my cubicle wall, I re-read the quote again and again. Le monde change, de facon spectaculaire et fondamentale. Le monde change, de facon spectaculaire et fondamentale..
The world changes, in a fundamental and (quite) dramatic way.
In my very short stint on earth, I am fortunate to have witnessed this. When I was younger in the late 90s and early 2000s, I remembered that Indonesia was in a much weaker economic position. Nothing seemed to be going particularly well, esp near the crisis years.
Contrast that to the big Indonesian cities today. So much… Energy. Vigor. Confidence. Novelty. Economic activity. The country is remarkably growing.
Though it can never be as simple as that, for this post I would just reiterate that being in the country just felt.. different. It became cool, novel, cutting edge and exciting.
For me, Sri Mulyani’s quote above is the realization of my feelings felt by many in the emerging world. And it is indeed a fundamental and quite dramatic experience.
One lesson I would like to draw for my personal development: things change. What you have always assumed doesn’t have to stay that way in the future. Good times and bad times come and go hand in hand.
What I needed is then the continued quality, focus and drive to stay relevant in a changing world. I need to keep investing in myself, improving my strengths and overcoming my flaws and weaknesses. I need to stay afloat, or better yet, to shoot above. Consistently and constantly.
For that I need my focus.
And that is what I’m pursuing this year, my driving force and the one that pushes me forward. Focus. Focus. Focus.
Whats yours?
It’s nice to be back here in Washington DC. Back to the winter weather, the crispness of the day and the evening chill.
Being back made me realize how much unprofessional conduct, drama, cultural clashes and communication problems occur in Indonesia. La-bas, people are a little bit too insular, too closed-minded, too much… There is no “outside world.” Everything and everyone is there.
Except they are not.
My natural tendency is to look elsewhere, plunge myself into a new challenge. When they are stagnant, I vow to always move forward.
cat.
Sungai Tembaga
We want an effective institution that can act as a safeguard system in the degraded land areas to the North, so that when it becomes APL, oil palm companies acknowledge and respect the community’s adat rights in a just and fair manner.
What we have seen in our areas to the west, east and south are examples of things that happen when community’s rights are being sidelined.
If this safeguard is not in place, these land tenure conflicts will happen over and over again.
And that will be the day that you are no longer welcome in this village.
Those powerful words will stay with me. Thank you Pak Sangai.
