The Next Generation of Indonesian Women: Stepping Into Borderless World

An excerpt in the middle of frolic with friend of mine a few months ago:

“I don’t think that Indonesian women can be independent” said my Singaporean friend. He seemed very convincing about his opinion. I suddenly shrugged my shoulders and argued, “Hmm.. Are you sure?” and added ,”You can’t generalize premise without any relevant proof.”

“I have observed this fact based on my previous experience. They are mostly dependable, shy, risk averse, less confident, and difficult to express their minds.” And for the next thirty minutes, we kept arguing and finally he came up with conclusion, “Ok, they are a few exceptions, including yours! Perhaps you should find the way how to change the mindset of many Indonesian women” he concluded. I was (finally) quite receptive with his opinion while kept thinking “HOW TO BUILD THE NEXT GENERATION OF INDONESIAN WOMEN”, of course in the most effective ways.

Borderless World

I excerpt that conversation merely because I would like to show you an incarnation of foreigners’s perspectives about Indonesian women. Unfortunately, bit by bit, I have to tell you bitter opinions about Indonesian women. As a matter of fact, it’s a common perception among them that Indonesian women are born to raise children, no more no less. I don’t want to argue that statement because there’s nothing wrong on that inherent statement. Frankly to say, instead of supporting that statement, I would reveal several secrets of building the next generation of Indonesian women, therefore, we all know how to improve international stereotypes and appreciation of Indonesian.

Time flies, we are moving towards dynamic and globalization era so does the demand for women’s  competences. We are moving with faster and unprecedented speed. This is just the start of a sweeping change towards contemporary context. Everybody has realized that. World becomes flatter. Thus, competition is getting fierce around the world. We, as modern women, should embrace every opportunity to be able to compete globally, especially in this borderless world. Therefore, we should enhance our competitive advantage in order to increase our international exposure, build our international credentials, and also follow global markets and business trends.

Moreover, we live in the new generation which are demanded to do multiple roles with better quality of outcomes since women are special creatures that have possessed special skills to do multiple roles at one time. For instance: for those who have already married, you are holding so many roles: as a daughter, as a professional, as a mom, as a wife, etc. Of course, you can cope with this challenge as long as we can harmonize these multiple roles, so every portion can be fulfilled.

Female Indonesian Workers

Today nearly 50 percent of women around the world are in the labor force. It’s a tragic fact that they are so many female Indonesian workers in abroad who mostly work only for administrative and housekeeping tasks. Basically, competency is an absolute key. Passion is an important ingredient. A habit of leadership is also imperative. All sort of these ingredients will automatically create you a strong competitive advantage which can extend the capacity of your intellectual growth. It would be excellent if you have possessed those things. So at the end of the day, you will know what role you have to play.

Moving further, we should discover ourselves, find our passions, do not ever afraid to dream high. Like the Latin Proverbs, “Alta Alatis Patent” (read: The sky is open for those who have wings).  We should harness our potentials and find the true meaning of being.

Discover Yourselves

To compete globally, good communication skill necessarily does matter. We express our ideas through language, thus mastering English is a must. Do not afraid to try and expand your vocabulary. To gain mastery in English you should try to use English as much as possible.

I would share my personal experience, I have taken a test which showing that I’m a typical of linguistic person who possesses clarity of thought and potentiality to become excellent communicator and elegant speaker. Knowing that, in these consecutive years, I have been trying to learn everything that can nurture my communication skill especially in convincing someone to follow my point of view. Simply to say, I learn how to structure my thoughts, come up with succinct concept and finally communicate it through effective way. Furthermore, it would be valuable if you can speak several languages especially for the one who has planned to enter new emerging market.

Looking forward, as predicted before, in 2030 the economic power will shift from west to east region meaning that there will be a huge expansion to Asian market. Some business leaders often find it difficult and time consuming to enter Asian market. You have got all these shades of meaning and cultural face-saving devices that are a core part of communication. For instance: to survive inChinamarket, one must have good networks and relationships in the market. The Chinese uses the term, “Guan Xi” refer to any kind of relationships: personally or bureaucratically. That’s the reasonable reason why many people attend and invest their times in mandarin courses.

Train Your Mind, Train Your Body

Finally, to complement all of explanation above, which I think, is really focused on hard-core thingy, it’s also important to mention: Kindly take care of your appearance. I barely remember  the ancient Greek philosophy saying, ‘Train your mind, Train Your Body’. Believe it or not, we communicate very strong message about who we are in first 30 seconds, even before we have chance to say anything. Genuinely, our attire is closely associated with our personality. Not to mention, dressing professionally can advance careers. Women should leverage their femininities. One important note for women: Do not suppress your femininity and imitate man. We should leverage our differences as women. Though, being smart and knowledgeable is far more important since in the workplace women should appear just as professional and capable as male counterparts. In order to stand out among the crowd, I suggest you to apply these simple principles: Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a leader.  After applying these principles above, I’m pretty sure we can improve the stereotype of Indonesian women by being able to embrace globalization and compete globally.

One Bicycle Makes A Significant Movement for Education in Biduk-Biduk

A tribute from Young Leaders for Indonesia Alumni Community

Massive enthusiasm was exuding from the faces of children from Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) in Biduk-Biduk regency, Berau, East Kalimantan, when we officially handed free bicycles to them on May 7 during the “Bicycles Procurement for Children below Poverty line in Biduk-Biduk, East Kalimantan” event.

Attended by the students, teachers, school’s committee, and government officials from Biduk-Biduk regency, the event was held on behalf of the Alumni of Young Leaders for Indonesia (YLI) program.

There is no doubt those children deserve the bicycles, living in remote Biduk-Biduk, which is a village included in the Society Empowerment National Program (PNPM) because of a poor economy.

Indeed, there will be no significant future changes without a proper and good education. Here we are always talking about the notion that youths are the engine of change — the ones that can create big leaps in society. Yet many youths at Biduk-Biduk don’t attend school, and it is not because they don’t want to, but simply because they cannot afford the transportation expenses.

If students at Biduk-Biduk want to go to school, they have to walk approximately 11 kilometers to reach it. The only existing public transport in this area is a pick-up truck, which could carry a maximum of 40 people, with a round trip costing Rp 4,000.

Since bicycles are the most suitable vehicle for Biduk-Biduk geographic and demographic conditions, we came up with the idea of distributing bicycles to students in Biduk-Biduk that can increase the Participation Index (APM) of education in this area. On May 7, the YLI Alumni Community officially distributed 15 bicycles to MTs DDI Biduk-Biduk, and I was enormously surprised how the bicycles could render wide smiles on the faces of students, teachers, school committee members and government representatives who attended the event.

Indonesia is in the mid of a generational transition. There is a shortage of leaders in our country, particularly with a 21st century mindset. Therefore, there are some professional development programs that aim to enhance personal leadership skills of youths and improve their ability to lead change within the greater community such as YLI, an intensive leadership development program initiated by the McKinsey and Company Jakarta office for high performing university students in Indonesia that wish to contribute their deeds to Indonesian society.

YLI Alumni Community works independently from YLI. It is founded on the basis of YLI alumni’s willingness to continue the fulfillment of the aspiration to unleash Indonesia in any positive way after they graduate from the program. We aim to empower and enable young people to take action and also connect the alumni with a multidisciplinary approach, knowledge, tools, advice and a network of like-minded young leaders and create an immediate difference by applying new skills and creativity to solve Indonesia’s biggest challenges. Furthermore, YLI Alumni seek opportunities to gain a better understanding of today’s issues, to develop their skills, and most importantly, to get involved.

Hopefully, this local action project can encourage and inspire other youths to be the agents of change and to do even more and better for our beloved country.

Even though they are just bicycles, the importance of them is perfectly portrayed by the response from Pak Agil, the vice headmaster of MTs Biduk-Biduk:

“Thank you so much for everything,” he said. “May God always bless the good deeds of YLI’s fellows in helping our school, which is located far away in the north of Indonesia.”

The writer is The President of McKinsey’s Young Leaders for Indonesia Alumni Community

This article has been published in Jakarta Post

Link to Jakarta Post

 

Climate Change: The Failure of Reaching Consensus

Young Economists Convention, Philippines, 2010

This article was part of the 20-page paper presented at Young Economists’ Convention 2010 in De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. The paper, titled “The Integration of ASEAN and Taking Advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade in Tackling Climate Change”, was the first-prize winner in the competition.

NOWHERE TO HIDE. Thanks to human’s deeds now it is just a matter of time before increasing global temperature and thawing ices cause animals, like this Polar Bear, to be left with almost no place to live.

During the Copenhagen Summit, no common ground was established and the end result of the conference was a shocking loss for all environmentalists. The expectations from the summit is to see whether if countries leaders who set their foot at Copenhagen can assemble specific numbers of carbon emission cut or anything necessary to solve the climate change problem. In such predictable end, the output from the conference turned into zilch, which left many people wonder: if there was no tangible outcome generated from the summit itself, then why wasting time being at Copenhagen anyway?

Few were surprised when those conferences in Copenhagen –as well as at Kyoto or Bali– failed to deliver a solid way out from the climate change issue. Thanks to mankind deeds now the earth is getting sicker. The doomsday’s sign is becoming clearer as global temperature is becoming hotter, yet human beings –who are considered as the most responsible party for the whole problem–stand still and do almost nothing to evade the looming catastrophe.

Also, efforts from countries all over the world were always considered courteousness and there was actually no such thing as tangible actions from them to cure mother earth. World leaders who attended such conferences (which were deemed by them as integrated efforts to fix the climate change problem) walked away from the conferences with huge expectations on their shoulders yet did almost nothing at home. We must accept a bitter fact that so-called integrated endeavour from countries all over the world to fix the situation, in fact, is still yet to be defined.

Indeed, there is still clash of interests among both parties involved. On one hand, environmentalists argue that finding a way out from the hotter-than-ever earth is necessary before the situation becoming any worse in the long run. The ending of the story of our earth and all human beings, of course, will be scary if that happens. But the policymakers, especially those who currently run countries with booming industries like China, still observes things in the short-run as they think that strict regulations, as carbon emission limitation, will disrupt their industries and eventually hamper the massive surge of their economic growth.

This is the decade which will be best remembered by the story of how developing countries are dominating the world’s economy. Economy in China and India are growing at unprecedented rate, and if the condition remains unchanged, it is only a matter of time before they take over the lead from developed countries like United States and United Kingdom. The rise of China –and other developing countries as well– comes with a predictable repercussion: as the economy surges, so does the carbon emission which it generates from their booming industries. It is, indeed, an absolutely distressing fact for the environmentalists.

When great power is not always followed by great responsibility

When the economy of United States grew rapid in the mid-90s (thanks to the scrumptious blend of economic policies from Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan), the country drew many criticisms from all over the world for the massive pollution it generated as well as its ignorance in the environmental issues. By the end of 2000, United States generated 24% of the world emission, making them the world’s largest polluter at that time.

Most of the questions pointed to United States’ government simply were why it can be so unaware of the environmental problem amid the fact that it has more than enough power to help reducing the emission which it produced. Many can understand if developing countries, who have insufficient funds to apply environmental-friendly technologies to reduce carbon emission, was lagging behind on the effort of tackling the environmental issue. But people wondered why it can occur in United States, a well-developed country which was deemed as one of the economic superpowers during that period.

Yet what happens today is China, not United States, who is actually making headlines on newspapers like Wall Street Journal or Financial Times. Today’s generation are the beholders of how China is pushing very hard to overtake United States as the new economic superpower: its economy is growing with a seemingly unstoppable rate, and it seems only economic overheating can stop its economy from growing as even the financial woes of 2008 could not curb it.

But as China’s economy grows, so does its carbon emission –or to put it in a better way: its ignorance to the environmental issue. According to Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, in 2007 the soaring economy of the Chinese saw their carbon dioxide pollution to swell to the level of 24%, while United States is trailing behind at the second place with the level of 22%, two percent adrift behind the new champion.

In various matters like the olympics and the economy China has been breathing on United States’ neck for years and ready to overtake it any time, but in terms of carbon emission production currently China has become the new leader in the pack, successfully overtaking the US in 2005. Massive growth of economy in China yields not only rising GDP but also an increase in carbon emission production, which lately has been deemed as responsible for environmentalists’ resentment towards the country. India, according to the Energy Information Administration, is also predicted to have significant growth rate of carbon emission over the next 20 years. According to the Energy Information Administration’s Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2004, carbon emissions are expected to surge in Asia over the next 20 years, and based on the same report, the emerging markets will have the largest growth rate of carbon emission over the same period of time.

This 2007 data shown clearly that China, India, South Korea, and Australia (countries that are involved in the ASEAN free trade treaty) can become vulnerable preys for environmentalists’ condemnation as they go well within the environmentalists’ shooting range because of their carbon emission numbers. In addition, the ASEAN free trade treaty will intensify their trade activities as well as their industries further –and thanks to the ASEAN’s zero-tariff policy as well, those countries will see their industries rising to an unforeseen level and it is very likely they will be more ignorant towards the carbon emission which they generate.

Led by BRIC Countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China, the economies of emerging markets will be growing significantly which is indicated by their staggering number of GDP growth. So, if there is question asking whether economies activities are the major cause of carbon emission or not, the answer will be mostly yes since it means the use of fuel for production activities and the consumption of products which are the major sources of carbon emission.

And f the original purpose of the installment of the Kyoto Protocol was to reduce the global carbon emission, then we can say that it fails to fulfill the initial expectation. Based on our present situation we can see that –irrespective of the limitation from Kyoto Protocol– the world has seen a rise in carbon emission numbers, which are not only driven by developed countries such as United States and European Countries but also emerging economies like China and India, who have seen a considerable increase in the global emission they produce.

The problem of climate change is trapped in a difficult deadlock and therefore we might well ask whether there is a key or not to break this lingering standstill. Looking at how the world progresses at the moment, it is clear that so far we simply have not done anything. The major difficulties in overcoming this unsolved issue is that many countries, especially developing countries with massive growth like China, fear that the limitation of gas emission will decrease industries’ efficiency and eventually engender a slower economic growth.

Today, environmentalists are like cats on the hot bricks –and what was shown by our carbon emission number we have at the moment may make their blood runs even colder. The earth currently is in a terrible health and the signs of doomsday caused by global warming are becoming more apparent. As if as An Inconvenient Truth movie with its various signs of imminent armageddon are not enough, the cumulative number of world emission continues to surge for years and, unfortunately, it shows no sign of stopping for years to come.

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Once You Have Bitten, You Will Be Smitten!

Greetings from England

After experiencing United Kingdom for almost two weeks, I feel beyond bless to say: I can’t stand how much I love being here. I live in a beautiful, new and well-decorated house in Newingham Crescent, Cambridge. Living with British family, a kind young couple, Peter and Diana Pearson, really gives me a first-hand-experience to feel both of the British culture’s nuance and ambiance. Diana is a Lithuanian. My roommate is a 20-year-old nice curly Italian girl, named Dalila di Tanno. Luckily, Diana working as a chef, she always serves us delicious food and dessert. In my first weekend, we had a family picnic in the afternoon then we went to the horse racing and saw a concert in the evening. For sure, it was amazing!

Cambridge, which is widely known of the river Cam and one of the oldest universities in the world, is a grand old dame of city, dripping with ancient architecture, soaked in history and tradition and many ways oblivious to the passing of the time. Everywhere you go, the sheer weight of achievement seems to seep from very walls. Along the side of the road, you can see there are so many historical sites. In my framework as a student, I feel that Cambridge is really a great place for studying and also enjoying your youth-life. You can indulge both million of fascinations and also passion for study in here. This is a centre of mixture of multiculturalism where you should try to put yourself in the other frame of references so that you can easily get along with others. Obviously, I have so many fun times in here. In Cambridge, many students go to school by riding bicycle. The University of Cambridge has lots of ancient and magnificent buildings as their colleges. I can guarantee that you would imagine studying in the castle or cathedral rather than in the college. One of the sites of the college had been used as the place of Harry Potter’s scene. At the right of Trinity College’s gatehouse, there is a tree which is reputedly a descendant of the one that dropped an apple on the head of Isaac Newton. The students often come to the park to study to avoid tedious feeling studying in the library. You can see the exquisite view of the backs of the college when you go punting in river Cam.

Now, I’d like to share some tips what  I’ve done in my first week in Cambridge to accelerate the process of getting well-known to each other: Firstly, I tried to reduce the use of social networks, such as: facebook, twitter, so on and so forth in order to avoid bogged down with my fellows and colleagues in Indonesia. On the other hand, I often went out with my new acquaintances who came from different nations across the globe. I avoid to be hooked on intensively with other Indonesians.  Secondly, I tried to keep my eyes on every single thing happened to prevent misunderstanding between each other. For instance: it was a common for Venezuelan and people from some other countries to greet someone with kiss on cheeks or chin *even in the first meeting* instead of saying hello or hi. On the first day of the course, a Japanese girl was shocked by a guy from Venezuela who suddenly came to her and tried to kiss her. She automatically pulled her body to another side whilst the guys still felt awkward. He kept trying to figure out what happened to her. After a few minutes, he realized what has already happened. After the awkward moment, they had a chit-chat and finally, both of them were laughing.  The guy said, at first, he still didn’t understand why a nice girl whom he met and already had a chit-chat in the morning, immediately tried to avoid him when he tried to give warm greeting to her in their second meeting. In contrast, the Japanese girl felt very shock indeed when there was a guy suddenly coming to her and trying to kiss her! Therefore, I don’t feel strange when my friend, Antonio *Sneak peek:  pssst…he is a gay* encountered me in city centre and suddenly gave me a kiss.

I’ve many more stories to tell but I can’t share it all in this notes. So, keep on waiting !

Cheers,

Pradita Astarina

At The End of My Remarkable Thousand Miles Journey

London

Hi avid readers! Back with me, Dita. Tonight is my last night in London. It’s a little bit difficult to determine my feeling right now. I write this note while relishing the song entitled down sung by Jay Sean. My fingers are still dancin’ on the top of white keyboard to share a piece of my experience in the UK meanwhile a cup of coffee accompany me who is currently sitting alone in front of my laptop in my room nearby Heathrow.

***

Returning my mind back to January 30^th, 2010, still a vivid memory for me, one week after my 21^st birthday* of course, it is not easy to wipe out such a sweet memory* GOD gave me a great birthday gift: I won the trip to the UK. I felt exhilarated and blessed. My beloved sister, Indira, really knew what my birthday wishes were. Quite long lists that’s why I recognize myself as a passionate dreamer. As a globetrotter who loves to travel foreign parts, discovers the parts of the world and dreams to have all country’s stamps on my passport, I put trip to Europe, especially UK as my first option and trip to US as my second option. I’ve set my heart on them though I don’t even remember anyone putting the ideas into my mind. At that time, Indi just laughed out loud and said, “C’mon,, who will give you the ticket to Europe? Please be realistic honey…” I just kept smirking and grinning whilst listening to her. Honestly, even I, myself, couldn’t envisage how to get the ticket to Europe… hahaha.  There were many opportunities when I failed to grab the ticket, I have tried in many occasions, such as: competing in Danone Trust, L’oreal Brandstorm, etc * Definitely, I prefer UK than France, but I don’t have any choice, it’s really rare occasion for competitions or anything to get a ticket to UK J*.

Why I share my personal experience in this note? Honestly, it needs a quite enough openness and courage from me to share it. Hmm.. that’s an eye-opening-story to keep you AWAKE that nothing impossible in this world as long as you enjoy the process, keep consistent in your daily life, hours by hours, minutes by minutes. Aligning action with your dream is a big deal. You should have a vision in your mind, create your dreams. Do not ever give up in seizing your dreams even if the way is tortuous. Just be tough. Stretch beyond the boundaries. Unleash your potential & explore your surrounding while you are still young, do not get too comfy with your safety-zone because you gain strength, courage, insight and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Today I reminisce again, then I remind myself that I still stand for what I believe, picture the future, set the new targets and keep them in my heart, converge with my actions. As a devotee, I believe the way leads me there because I fully hold on my life to The Almighty, Allah SWT.

***

Cambridge

Cambridge and London. I would like to make brief comparison of the cities where I have been in this month. First time I set my feet in London, in my second day I arrived in the UK, after the EF driver, Nigel, picked me up from Heathrow to Cambridge. In the next day, I went to London to finish some tasks related to my role as one of Young Leaders for Indonesia (YLI), a special leadership program held by McKinsey Indonesia. I took a train along with my heavy luggage. I was alone when I arrived in King’s Cross Station, London. Then my friend picked me up. I had an appointment with Sir Michael Barber in McKinsey’s office. He was the former head of UK’s Prime Minister Delivery Unit and also the expert partner of McKinsey in the UK in its Global Public Sector Practice. In this capacity, he has been working on major transformations of public services, especially education, in the USA, UK and other countries. Fortunately, the meeting ran well. After the meeting had finished, I went back to Cambridge.

The next question emerged in my mind, “Are my prejudices about London true?” As time goes by, I realized that my prejudices are not totally correct.  As a matter of fact, in London, you would understand the reason why God creates diversity, richness of culture and mind on the earth. There are so many immigrants in London but they show respect to each other and live together with perfect harmony. I feel a sense of enchantment!

In London, there were many times, when people greet me with, “Assalamualaikum…” in public places because of my veil. Another nice thing to be remembered was their sincerity to help.  Obviously, I found difficulties to carry on my luggage because it weighed more than 27 kgs moreover there were many steps in the underground stations and there was a gap to enter the bus. They (both men and women) offered to help me. They said pleasantly,” Miss, Do you need a help?” before I answered the question, they already carried my luggage. How nice it was. Basically, that’s the perfect time to share and learn about fraternity of the unknown which have not yet been explored and understood before. London is a heaven of diversity.

In this city, you will explore the art of walking and the nature of queuing anywhere and everywhere. Discipline *No Haphazard Movements*. Having said that, I was enjoying wandering the streets of London until my feet ache and my calves felt like iron. Embracing in the warm sunshine and fresh air whilst walking on the streets, ceasing a while to browse through second hand books displayed on the sides of the road or losing myself in the narrow roads that often house so much history or fascinating enigma, were a privilege for me as Jakarta citizen whose idea of walking would be in the gym and fresh air is anything closely related with air conditioner.

Furthermore, it’s a common thing to see the women and men with the formal outfits (long dress, blazer, tuxedo, etc) wearing sandals or sneakers or flat shoes which used to be worn in sports events. The women often brought their hells and changed in the bus, tube (underground train) nearby their destination place. In Cambridge, I often saw people wearing very formal outfits riding a bicycle. What a bizarre thing! Such a hilarious view that you couldn’t find in Jakarta! Whatever you wear and however you look, nobody will judge you or make you feel unwelcome or strange in London. Everything is plausible.

Time flies, I’ve  strolled out London for two weeks. I’ve visited many landmarks of London such as: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, London Eye, London Bridge * Suddenly I remembered Fergie when I was walking on it!* Madame Tussauds, Buckingham Palace, Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Wimbledon and Thorpe Park. Holding my camera pointing at my favorite objects and capturing multiple shots of pictures! I found special fondness doing that thing! Overall, I pinpoint Westminster Abbey as my favorite one, I adore the architecture.  Soon after, I visited Manchester and Brighton. I loved the pictures that I took in Wimbledon and Old Trafford. I serendipitously had a dinner, went to Thorpe Park and Manchester with a famous Indonesian presenter, Choky Sitohang.

Manchester Trip with Choky Sitohang

Apparently, I will miss the underground train announcement “Please mind the gap” when I go back to Jakarta. I will miss the time when I was enjoying the art of walking in London. All in all, I will yearn for everything in here and makes me whisper tenderly, “I would go back again, someday.. ”

Best wishes,

Dita

Why Study Business and Entrepreneurship in The UK?

This essay has been published in British Council Facebook Page:

Link to British Council Facebook Page

The complete pictures from Education UK Alumni Workshop can be seen through this link:

Link to British Council Facebook Page