Thursday, November 4, 2010

Children Climate Forum Copenhagen

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Delegations from around the world held the shout-out globe. I was inside the crowd.

In 2009, UNICEF cooperated with UNFCCC held the first climate forum for children, as a pre-event for COP15, a special meeting for our world leaders to make decision and solutions about what will we do as a human for this Earth’s sake.

I represented Indonesia for the first time, with two other colleagues, one from Jakarta (currently studying in a college at Australia) and other came from Bali (currently studying in a college). I went there as the youngest one, along with our chaperon, the Ministry of Environment’s representative, Ms. Aini. The event was held from 28th November until 5th December 2009, mostly indoor, at one of the most historical building in Copenhagen, the City Hall of Copenhagen. This forum was held in the middle city of Copenhagen, which was quite far from the COP15’s place itself.
There were 44 countries which sent usually three children as their representatives, mostly from 15 until 17 years old. Indonesia and Vietnam were the only countries which represented South East Asia. India, China, Hong Kong, and South Korea also represented Asia in this forum.
This forum was actually more similar like classes in college. We chose what subject (in this case, what problem) we desired, and we attended classes which discuss about the matters. For this forum, we discussed about matters which would affect our Climate, because we knew that Climate Change is one of the hottest issues around the world, and we knew, as the children of the world, we should take actions along with our leaders. Mostly to encourage our leaders to make a more wise decision rather than argue about each country’s matter.
Because I lived and grew up in Kalimantan, I chose matters which were the base one, such as forestry, biodiversity, etc. rather than population in a city, industry pollution, etc. Those classes were side one, because we had to choose the main team or group we wanted to be involved, and I chose the CAP (Climate Ambassador Program) team. In CAP, we were the team-matchmakers; we connected countries which have same issues, so they’ll figure other solutions and share what they had. Also, we made a toolkit for CAP, which has many great ideas about how to solve our community’s problems, individually and with our teammates back in the country. Other teams worked with their own tasks, so here, we also learned how to be a part of a team where you need to learn how to work together, but still become an active or dominant one, so you’ll make your voice being heard.
Aside from my main team, I joined forestry, which discussed about problems about our forest in the world, and how to solve those problems, again, individually or in groups. I joined Biodiversity class, and got a chance to represent the class in front of everybody to send what we had discussed in class. Gladly, I got great responses about what I’ve said, and this was a great start for us, the Indonesians, to be heard.
Luckily, Indonesia was one of the teams which got an overwhelming opportunity to visit the Copenhagen Zoo for our external visit. I saw some animals which I couldn’t here in Indonesia, such as penguins. We also got a chance for being interviewed by a youth-paper, and they encouraged us to make the same one here, in Indonesia. It was a great trip, because other teams probably went to companies which maybe weren’t as fun as ours, or went to a trip by boat, which is very unfavorable for those teams to have such a ride in the end of the year’s season, winter. I was and I am really glad that I am an Indonesian.
164 delegates around the world worked together to achieve our main goal: to pursue the world leaders and convince them to make better decisions about what the world have to do to prevent the Climate Change and to stop it as fast as we could, also to convince them that there are more than 100 youths who are ready and already made changes in our community, and we dare our leaders to do the same thing, for the earth and human’s sakes. Mostly, our main project was to make a declaration which be given to the COP15’s president. Other teams, such as my team, CAP, worked for the ambassadors’ toolkit, tools they could use to make project back home. We, as the representatives of our countries, would be Climate Ambassadors, the one who would take steps and break the silence to make changes.
In the last night, we had a great Cultural Night, when each country should represented local performances in their country, but sadly, Indonesia didn’t show any attractions, because of our time and lack of experiences. But the night was amazingly wonderful, and I didn’t regret anything that night.
I was crying when we departed from Copenhagen, because the environment and its people were really nice. But I was also spirited to make new moves in Indonesia. I do wish that someday, I can make Indonesia as nice as Copenhagen with its own way.
It’s our job, young generation, to make changes now. If we delay it today, then when?
We are the next world leaders, so why don’t we become the local and young leaders now?
Thank you.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

The other side of Twitter



"Hey you, somewhere there on the other side of this hectic and unrealistic world,
while you're daydreaming, or eating your lunch, or going off to bed, or having a date with those girls,
or perhaps doing a same thing as me,
did you ever think of me?
did you ever wonder why suddenly I never post anything on my Twitter account?
or why I never showed in your timeline?
or maybe, when you're searching for a girl's name, and you realized that my name is quite popular, then you accidentally typed my name in the search bar, and my profile was shown as the top one?
and then you started to realize that my avatar was quite cute, you decided to click on my profile, and you found out that I followed some same people as you?
or you're just curious why your crush mentioned me on her post, and you started to wonder what kind of conversation we had, then you tried to figure that out by reading our conversation?
or..."

And that list will never end, I bet. I typed that again, over and over again, on every medium I could use, for example, my homework sheet, my brain, my mirror, and even the wall. I figured out that one day, I realized someone was missing from my online-hectic-world. Just a girl, a very very unknown friend of mine, and I just wondered why she never showed up again, then one day, she talked more than she would yesterday.

And I wondered, if there's someone who did a same thing as me, who wonders why I never show up again. Someone far away from this town, perhaps in the United States? Or Arctic?

I was kind of hoping, though. A guy with a super black hair, with some blue or gray highlight, brown eyes, buy gray seems nice. Someone who's tall, quiet, has a very well-build body, but not too much. Someone who has very soft hands which he could use it to stroke my hair, gentle voice to call my name, warm hands, etc.
But for once, I just one someone to realize me here.
To also do a same thing as me.

It's almost past midnight, but I still have my mind over it. I typed again, again, repeatedly. I bet everyone is tired to read these kind of articles, so am I.

My mind goes to other side of my fantasy world, again. I admire Hayley Williams, or William, or someone who uses William as her name. Her strong personality was heard by her songs. And as a girl, I want to have her voice. Or her red hair. something I could use on my Twitter account. I want to be her.

But again, my mother would be so mad if I became her. Red hair. She always said that as if it's the most weirdest thing ever. I wasn't interrupting, but she felt interrupted.

After a long trip about her and her songs, my kittens, homework, comics, labels, bills, I remember you again, somewhere in the corner of my wide mind. Someone who cares about me, at least my timeline. Who fits my description, who's going to fill my night with softness, my days with gentleness, my afternoons with cups of yogurt.

But first of all, someone who fits my description.

"Hey you. I bet you wanted to send me a DM or something. You wanted to ask my name, or even just to say Hi, and probably compliment about what I wrote. Perhaps, you wanted to ask me to your friends whom followed, but you're scared, your friend would asked you which person you tried to know, and he/she asked you to mention my profile, and you're scared I would realize that someone have mentioned me, and I would ask who are you, and you're scared that you wouldn't know how you should respond to it. And you're scared to see my timeline too much, because if I accidentally use an application to know my most frequently reader, I found your name at the top of the list, and I would feel scared and I thought that you're a stalker. When you actually weren't. But you are curious of my life, aren't you?"

Those are what I will say to myself about me stalking your life through Twitter. Well, I did this, because I want you to do the same thing as me.

I quoted this.

How can I decide what's right?

When you're clouding up my mind

Can't win your losing fight
all the time


Not gonna ever own what's mine

When you're always taking sides

You won't take away my pride

No, not this time
Not this time


How did we get here?

when I use to know you so well

How did we get here?

Well, I think I know


The truth is hiding in your eyes

And it's hanging on your tongue

Just boiling in my blood,

But you think that I can't see


What kind of man that you are

If you're a man at all

Well, I will figure this one out

on my own

on my own


I'm screaming "I love you so..."

But my thoughts you can't decode


How did we get here?

when I use to know you so well

How did we get here?

Well, I think I know


Do you see what we've done?

We're gonna make such fools of ourselves

Do you see what we've done?

We're gonna make such fools of ourselves


How did we get here?

when I use to know you so well

How did we get here?

Well, I think I know


I think I know

I think I know

There is something I see in you

It might kill me 
I want it to be true

Somehow, I feel connected with this song, with my present condition, of course. It's like, every time I heard this one, I remember your existence. Someone who did a same thing as me.

But yes, it is my fantasy. And I'm hoping that you would do a same thing.
You already seduced me with your existence. But I want to be the one who seduced you.
I truly do.

PS: I categorized this as a short story, fictional. It just a based opinion, and I really hope you'll like this :)
Am sorry if I talked some too-fictional and undefined stuffs, well this is what my mind works for.
Thank you for your valuable time.

Sincerely,
d.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Story of ArtCycle Day


"My friends and I were picking the pests from each block of this small garden. We joined a club called PRIGES (Prima Green School), which focused on the environmental issues and how we prevent it. I miss this kind of time, when I got home dirtier than usual, the feelings when we saw our plants were growing and it's producing fruits.

This kind of activity, I glad I had them earlier than I can. I won't have any kind of this experience again. Well, each second of life has a different meaning, feel, lessons."

Here's a short story about my first official project, which is not the main one, but... Well you'll know why from my story below.

Like what I have said in my presentation on IYC (Indonesian Youth Conference), I am planning to make a "Tree-R Campaign", a summer-camp-kind-of-activity which needs one month or more for all events, and will be involving children from 8 until 12 years old. I was planning to do this project (with my team-mates) before I presented it, and I thought it was a great idea to present it in front of my fellows from all around Indonesia.

So, I started to design and arrange the events, BUT, I just found out a really disadvantage fact which made me think twice and unfortunately, I have to postpone this project. The fact that Students of Public Senior High School have less holiday than my previous school, which means My friends and I have less time to focus on this project. This news really turned me down at that time, and I can't think anything else for a moment.

Maybe some of you think it's not a big deal, because many people got no problems even they have less time, they still could do great things. Well, the problem for me and my friends is, this event needs a direct participation from the committee, which means, we have to go to the field. And in this project, we doesn't prepare things for a month for a day, but we prepare things for a month for a month full day.

I am trying to find solutions and I know we still able to do it in these years, but my closest holiday is here, and we (especially me) really want to do something. This is my first holiday outside my hometown, and I promise myself to do something useful for it.

Then, I got a click!

I remembered that one of my mother's friends, Aunt Sandra, usually makes a creativity day in our community every Ramadhan Holiday, and I planned to do almost a same thing as hers on this year's Ramadhan Holiday. The difference between our event with hers is that we are going to do it at school with more diverse children, and we will also do a short presentation about our environment. What makes me relief is that this event looks like a short version of Tree-R Campaign. Yuhuuui.

I will share to you all about what the event is going to look like, but for this time, I just want to share how grateful I am that Allah still gives me a chance to do something this holiday. Well, tomorrow we're going to meet the school's people, and I hope everything is going to be fine and we're able to run this event, which we call it ArtCycle Day(s). Nice, huh, ACD? It sounds like acid, hehe.

Will share more about ArtCycle Day soon, wish this project will be approved.

Wish us luck! Yippie!

PS: I really hope everything is going to turn out just fine. Relax...

Saturday, September 4, 2010

A Hope in Impossibilities





"A warm candle among the cold sticks. A light among the darkness. A white among the black. A real among the blur."

One of the reason why I love taking photos of fire, candles, lamps, every kind of lights. It shows a contrast match with two objects. The real object, and the unseen, untouchable one.

Salah seorang teman yang aku kagumi pernah mengatakan sesuatu di twitternya. Meskipun dia tidak menunjukkannya langsung untukku, tapi ada yang yang bisa diambil dari perkataannya. Mungkin ini tidak benar-benar banget, but at least what she had said was something like this:

"She's a ray of hope." - Kezia Gabriella Agusta

Like the photo above. Bagiku, A HOPE terkadang terlihat dan terasa begitu kecil, hanya setitik bulatan putih di atas lembaran hitam. Aku sudah pernah menuliskan mengenai hal yang sama di twitter, but to make sure, I want to make it clear here.

Suatu hal kecil positif yang kita miliki, meskipun itu hanya berupa titip yang berukuran super mikro dikali nano berkali-kali, at least we already had a good start. It's better than a full blank, no blink. Terkadang, titik kecil itu bisa mengisi satu kertas penuh tanpa kekosongan. Itu semua tergantung lagi apa yang yang kita harapkan dan kita lakukan untuk menggapai harapan tersebut.

I know some of you were thinking that I was only mumbling again. But it's better out than in, right?

Meskipun sebuah kertas hitam polos kini berada di atas tangan kita, dan kita merasa tidak ada lagi harapan dan apa yang bisa dilihat dari kertas itu, setidaknya kita bisa menyadari bahwa ada satu titik putih, TITIK PUTIH KECIL yang berada entah di posisi mana di atas kertas hitam itu. Like once I mentioned about start to love what I hate, akan selalu ada hal menyenangkan dan indah dari hal yang kita benci itu, yang bisa memutarbalikkan perasaan kita.

Salah satu kutipan yang kuambil dari komik kesukaanku adalah ini:
"Bila ia melakukan kesalahan, aku tidak akan memarahinya. Tapi aku akan memberinya kesempatan untuk mengulangi dan memperbaikinya, hingga dirinya sendiri sadar bahwa melakukan suatu hal dengan benar itu lebih menguntungkan dari membuat kesalahan. Tapi bila dia masih juga membuat kesalahan, aku akan mengintrospeksi diriku sendiri. Mungkin ada yang salah dalam diriku, yang hasil keluarnya tidak bisa tersampaikan padanya, dan aku tidak bisa mengajarkan padanya mana yang salah atau tidak."

Kesalahan tidak muncul hanya dari sebelah pihak, tapi kedua belah pihak memiliki faktor penyebab kesalahan itu. Mungkin kutipan yang kuambil nggak sepenuhnya benar, tapi intinya:

Untuk mengubah sesuatu, bukan berarti hal tersebut memiliki sesuatu yang salah sehingga harus diperbaiki. Bisa jadi, kita memiliki sesuatu yang menahan dan menekan diri sendiri untuk membuat hal tersebut salah dan tidak benar bagi pandangan kita. Terkadang, kita butuh melihat sesuatu di luar cara pandang kita yang biasanya. Coba lihat dari sudut pandang yang berbeda, apakah akan menumbuhkan kesan lain yang bertunas cinta?

Okay, again, I'm sorry if most of you think that I was mumbling again.

Salah satu yang menurutku nggak mungkin ada di dunia ini adalah, A human really hates something. Contohnya bisa diambil dari orang yang membenci kecoak, paling dasar. Definisi membenciku adalah Seseorang yang membenci sesuatu karena tidak ada yang menguntungkan dari hal itu bagi dirinya, sehingga muncul keinginan untuk menghilangkan atau bahkan menghancurkan apa yang dia benci itu. Sementara, di dunia ini nggak ada hal yang tidak memiliki fungsi untuk kita, secara langsung atau tidak. Paling dasar dari manusia itu hanya ketidaksukaan. Well, aside from many movie factors you've watched, mereka menunjukkan kepada kita KEBENCIAN tokoh pada tokoh lain yang menimbulkan keinginan untuk membunuh (Am I right?)

But in real world, I don't think we actually have someone and something we hate so much, that we even have the desire to kill them. Kembali lagi ke hubungan foto yang di atas, Even a deepest hate (I described it as a black blank paper), will have a drop of likeness (like the light), so we actually do not have this hate feelings.

Jadi, bagaimana jika kita belajar untuk jadi orang yang mencintai semuanya? Taraf mencintai itu sendiri tidak ada, bukan? Mungkin range-nya dari 1 sampai 10, even if we are on the lowest, it still means we have this love feeling to something.

Tidak ada yang negatif di dunia, bahkan hal yang menyebabkan Global Warming pun masih ada manfaatnya. Someone said that even we have a really high concentrate of CO2, it also has an advantage for us, like the trees can do more photosynthesis. 

Yang aku berusaha sampaikan adalah, di setiap manusia, selalu memiliki hal seperti foto di atas, A single white on a huge black. Dan kita diberi tiga pilihan, atau kita memiliki tiga pilihan untuk bereaksi terhadap hal tersebut.

1. Kita memilih untuk membiarkan komposisinya seperti itu, satu titik di atas halaman hitam luas, tanpa ada keinginan untuk membalikkan rasionya. Kita memilih untuk tidak melakukan dan mengetahui apapun mengenai kemungkinan yang bisa kita lakukan dengan dua hal ini.

Or,

2. Kita memilih untuk membalikkan rasionya. Kita belajar untuk menyukai sesuatu, dan menerima kehadirannya sebagai sesuatu yang membawa keuntungan bagi diri kita.

I am not in the position who could say which one is the right choice, I myself can even choose the wrong one, based on your definition of which one is wrong and which one is right.

Aku sering merenungkan tentang bagaimana kita selalu melihat sesuatu dari posisi yang salah, subyektif. Kita melihat dari satu sisi saja, sehingga sering sekali keluar dari mulut kita perkataan seperti ini:
1. Dia tidak akan pernah bisa membantumu mengerjakan pr ini.
2. Komputer itu tidak bisa dipakai untuk menggambar.
dan beragam jenis negative-statement yang kita gunakan untuk mendeskripsikan sesuatu.

Atau terkadang kita mengatakan hal dalam konteks negatif, seperti:
1. Aku tidak bisa melakukan ini tanpa bantuan kalkulator.

Mungkin aku cukup kurang jelas dalam menggambarkan maksudnya, tapi setidaknya intinya: kita sering merespon dalam konteks negatif, sehingga secara tidak sengaja, kita terbiasa melihat dan mengatakan hal yang bagus dalam bentuk negatif.

Mengapa tidak mencoba untuk selalu mengatakan sesuatu dalam konteks positif? Seperti:
1. Dia bisa mengerjakan tugasnya di komputer ibunya (instead of Dia nggak bisa mengerjakan tugasnya di komputer miliknya)
2. Aku bisa mengerjakan soal ini, dan dengan bantuan kalkulator, aku bisa mengerjakannya lebih cepat.

Maybe some of you think it's useless, but for me, the power of positive words are beyond my imagination. I read something about the power of words, and how words can affect our mind to do what words say. Dari itu, aku belajar untuk berkata positif, setidaknya untuk mempengaruhi pikiranku sendiri untuk yakin pada kemampuanku.

Karena itu, di tengah keterpurukkan, selalu ada harapan (instead of tidak mungkin tidak ada harapan). Di tengah ke-kurangbagusan, selalu ada yang paling bagus.
We, as the young generation, do not have time to stop working because of (we think that) there is no hope. There is always a hope, even in impossibilities.

Tunjukkan sisi positif dari dirimu, sesuatu, dan semuanya. World will be better if people try to show what they have to make this world better, than being pessimistic and scandalize about only the negative side of everything and bury their own optimistic because of their pessimistic. Let's try to be confident of what we have.

PS: maaf untuk blog yang panjang dan mungkin agak kacau, tapi aku harap kalian tahu maksudku dan bisa melakukannya. It's holiday, how about if we do something new?

Have an awesome holiday for you who have it, and have a great Sunday!

Regards,
Dina Puspita Sari