From Rasa Sayange to the detention of diplomat's wife

For the last a couple of days, I've been bothered by the news that one of our folk songs was claimed as Malaysia's song! Oh my goodness... what is happening here?
I still remember I used to sing this song when I was a kid, at school, at the birthday parties or when I play around with my friends. This song was part of my childhood memories. And I believe many Indonesians feel the same way too.

That's why it shocked me when I heard that our neighbor country claimed that "Rasa Sayange" actually belonged to Malaysia, not Indonesia. I felt really sad. And I felt so stupid being an Indonesian too... for being easily fooled! :( After batik, now our folk song. Then, what's next?

I'm wondering what is going on between my country and our neighbor, M? Sometime ago, the Indonesian karate coach was beaten by the Malaysian police, then yesterday, I read in the news about the detention of a diplomat's wife by security personnel, while she was shopping! The security personnel mistook her for an illegal immigrant! My goodness... If I were her, I would be very upset.

But hey, who am I anyway? I could do nothing apart from thanking everyone (both Malaysians and Indonesians) who gave their supports when The Malaysia Tourism Minister accused me a liar ;P. So, I guess, in this case, I could only show my support to Muslianah Nurdin, the wife of the embassy's culture attache who received ill treatment from the RELA officer. Keep your chin up, Ibu! :)

I really wish that one day, me and my neighbor could live in harmony, happily ever after... and all these "little fights" wouldn't occur in the upcoming days.. Let us live side by side peacefully... as I would love to make my neighbor as my good friend coz I know that a lot of the people in that house are actually very nice and wise ones :).
I do hope the rest of the people in the house are like them too: good and fair, so that the people in my house and everybody in the house next door could be good friends too! *cross my fingers* :)

My First Scuba-Diving Experience

Some people are scared to try scuba-dive. Some people LOVE this sport and always find their excuses to go somewhere only to dive. Is this sport has some similarities with my favorite fruit -- durian? Either you LOVE it, or you HATE it. Or just don't have the courage to try.

I've been thinking to take a course on scuba-dive months ago, but wasn't sure coz I'm scared of snakes! Sea snakes. Thinking about it makes me sick and all frightened.

But then, I was so curious why people love it so much. They all say that under the sea is like a totally different world, yet a beautiful one. And for that, I'm taking my risk and try to overcome my fear of the possibility of bumping into a sea snake (yeah.. yeah.. you can laugh at me!)

So, after taking a private lesson from my diving instructor, Mbak Vita, I went to Sepa Island in Thousand Island with her and another girl, Anin, to take the final exam and get the PADI open water dive certificate. Here's my first experience (again, feel free to laugh at me):

First dive, 12 meters depth. Tried hard not to panic. "What the hell am I doing?", I said to myself. What if something bad happened?" But I kept a positive thought: "It's gonna be a wonderful experience. Just do it!" Then I sinked myself and went down... deeper.. and deeper..
I could feel my heart beats fast and my ears hurt as I went deeper. Following my diving instructor, I equalized my ears often, until I felt comfortable to explore the underwater sea..

Suddenly all around me was green. It felt like living in a green world! Really. As far as I could see... everything was green! I saw some corals, big ones, some of them look like giant mushrooms. I saw some sea urchins too, giant "keong" in white and lots of "goby" fish hiding in the sand.
I was enjoying the scenery all around me until my instructor waved at me with her hand holding a pink fin. What?! "That fin looks familiar", I thought. And.. yes! That's my fin!!! Hahahaha... I didn't realize that my right fin managed to release itself from my right foot! Naughty fin! I was almost choke from laughing with the regulator on and the mask attached on my face :)).

So, that was the first dive. In total, we dove 5 times in 2 days. Managed to dive up to 18 meters depth. The next dives were smooth and for sure I didn't lose my fin! hehehe... Was so happy to see different types of fish swimming in front of me as if I was invisible. The sea definitely looks beautiful underwater and it really amazed me to realize that there are thousands of creatures living under the sea. Peacefully.

It was indeed so peaceful down there. So quiet. All I could hear was only my breath... breathing in.. breathing out.. while enjoying the "green world" and its inhabitants around me..
Now I can see why people LOVE it :)

Rockin' Girl Blogger Award

On a freezing afternoon (yes, this room is freezing cold!), after the "market" is slowing down, I allow myself to spend some time to read my lovely friend's blog. Scrolling down her blog, I feel honored to find my name was chosen to receive "Rockin' Girl Blogger Award".
Oh, thank you, Hanny! I feel flattered! You've made this afternoon warmer :)

Now I have to choose 5 female who deserve the Award. Here they are:

1) Nadia, a smart and talented girl who has been living in different places in the world and has shared her experience and thoughts in her blog. Her life is always exciting and colorful! Thanks for sharing it with us, darling! I miss you heaps!!

2) Raquel, my ex-neighbor in Amsterdam. She lives in Toronto now and busy taking care her twins sons, getting her MBA and writing for some projects. She just talked to Brad Pitt a couple of days ago in a film festival and it made me so jealous! hahahaa.. I found her blog interesting and I loved her writing :).

3) Susan Loone and 4) Elizabeth Wong -- two women "activists" in the blogosphere. Love their blogs' content as well as admire their spirits t0 fight for freedom of expression!

And last but not least, I think, Hanny deserves to have another Rockin' Girl Blogger Award for her passion in writing :).

Again, thank you for the award and now it's your turn to pass it to 5 other female bloggers ;).

HELP… I’M ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK!

For those who doesn’t have an account in facebook, I recommend you to get one. Facebook is burning hot! Friendster, Multiply and MySpace will soon be a history.

I signed up about a month ago under recommendation of an Australian friend. He said that it was a good way to connect with people. At first, I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve had two accounts on Friendster and one on Multiply already. It would be too much to have another one, I thought. But then, I got more and more invitations from my friends’ facebook. So, one day, I decided to sign up. And now, here I am, before I know it, I already addicted to this site! I check it everyday, whenever I get a chance. It’s crazy. It’s even more addictive than alcohol.

I found Facebook is more interesting than Friendster and Multiply. It’s fun since there are just so many cool applications, such as we can tickle our friends, send them cocktails/cakes/gifts/naughty gifts, cast a spell, etc. It’s just hilarious. That’s why I’m all hooked!

Even though, I have to admit that not many people here in Jakarta are aware of this site yet, compared to Friendster. Just to give you a rough figure, I have more than 1,000 people on my friends’ list on friendster (and 99.9% I know these people personally. They’re my real friends, so they do exist!), but on Facebook, until today, I only have 138 friends. It’s true that the fact might be different in the other countries.

As I noticed, during my first days as a “new-bee” in Facebook, I mostly “only” found my graduate school friends from Europe or the States. I was so happy and excited to meet them again as we’re all scattered everywhere, in each corner of the world. Some of them live far away from where I live and I really miss them. Having “friend requests” from them is just like finding long lost friends (of course with the closest friends, we still keep in touch by email, but not with all friends, right?).

I was kind of waiting to see when Facebook became popular among my Indonesian friends. Apparently, I might not have to wait long, during this week, I started to get “friend requests” from my Indonesian friends here! Yipppeee… It seems that the wind is blowing from European and American continents heading to South East Asia region! Still, it’s not as popular as Friendster yet. People are still hesitant to sign up a new account on Facebook. When I asked around, usually they gave me the same answer, like: “I have Friendster and MySpace already. I don’t want to have another similar site. What for? And uhm… what the hell is Facebook?”

Don’t worry… I believe when everyone starts to talk about it, then.. BOOM! People will race to sign up. It’s getting there ;).

There are already 31 million active users who probably as addicted as me. And according to July Time magazine, with more than 150,000 new users signing up daily, Facebook is growing three times as fast as MySpace.

And guess what, in 2006 study in USA, Facebook was named as the most popular site among American college students and the second most popular thing among undergrads after iPod. It’s sharing equal importance with beer and sex! (The Sunday Times, August 19, 2007).

Salute to Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard College student, who invented this site in 2004!! Well done, dude! I found the most handsome guy from my grad school again because of you! Hahaha.. (guess which one is the hunk?!) ;)

2 Months of Absence

I’ve been receiving emails from people asking me to start writing in my blog again. Firstly, apologies for haven’t been writing for such a long time. I was giving myself a break. I haven’t been writing anything (for blog or any publication) for these past 2 months. Instead, during those periods, I did something else, things that I haven’t experienced/tried before or got nothing to do with my current activities. New things. New experience.

Have been through a rough time this year. From a shocking moment when my younger brother lost his sight due to methanol intoxication to a lost of a dear one. It’s been tough. I haven’t been experiencing tough times like this in my life. Usually my paths go smooth, study and career wise. There’s nothing wrong with my own path, don’t get me wrong. It’s the external factors or things around me that go not as I wanted to. I put so much hope in my younger brother and wish that he could use his talents to reach his dream. And I never expected that I would lose someone dearly so soon and in such a way. When I started to feel down, I remembered my friend said, “Nila, look, you also had wonderful things this year”. He was right. So, whenever I’m blue, I try hard to count my blessings. Despite what happened around me, God still be kind to me. Giving me good jobs and opportunities, plus a nice and warm circle of friends.

There are things that we can’t control in life. How true that is. I thought I could control everything. But I’m wrong. My life experience has taught me that it’s not possible.

I could only control myself, my mind. I even can’t say that I can control my plans for the future anymore as those external factors would pay a contribution to the plans too. I still, however, have short-term goals and long-term goals, as always. But I just try not to expect that everything around me will go smooth along the way: things that are beyond my control. There must be some small stones or rocks that would pop up now and then. And I have to count those factors in, too.

Anyway, about 2-3 months ago, I felt strongly that I needed a change. I just need a totally new environment and activities. So, that’s why I stopped doing my daily routines (of course I still went to office!). Meanwhile, I took a scuba-diving lesson and made it to be certified by PADI. Plus, I started to make more time to paint (I’ve been taking a private water color painting course with my fave water color painter). Painting is such a stress relief and a good therapy for me. It makes me happy. Oh, and I did some traveling during weekends, too. Will tell you more about those trips in my other posts.

And here’s the big news. I’ve given up my job in the public relations consultancy. Instead, I took the opportunity to step in the capital market, again. You can call me crazy. Why did I do that? Simple. I needed a change. Sometimes change is good, sometimes it isn’t. I remember, however, I’ve made a big change about 5 years ago, when I decided to quit my job as a bond sales at a securities company, go to Europe to study and return to Indonesia to work in the PR industry afterwards. It was a good decision. A good change. I got a whole new life experience, new knowledge, new friends and network. So, this time, it should be fine, too. Of course it’s not gonna be easy to get out of my comfort zone. But, I realize that it’s ok to step out from it. There are a whole bunch of new experiences, friends, network and other things that life has in store for me. And am up for new things! That’s what I need now. And… I prefer to see it from this perspective: Change is good.

Treasure in trash

This article is published in today's The Star, the leading English daily newspaper in Malaysia

You’d be surprised what can be done with things that you would usually throw away without a second thought.

By NILA TANZIL

ENTERING a bookstore in South Jakarta, my eye is caught by a burst of colour in a corner. When I take a closer look, I discover funky looking makeup pouches, pencil cases, book covers, passport holders and laptop and sling bags – all made out of the packaging of well known brands of household products! I can’t help but smile as I recognise the packaging from my detergent on a pencil case....

There’s another reason to smile over these products that make use of discarded packaging: Currently, Jakarta generates approximately 28,000cu m of trash a day; the World Bank estimates that this will almost double, to approximately 50,000cu m a day, by 2010 (Kompas, Sept 16, 2006). This city – like most large cities today – desperately needs to reduce the amount of trash that ends up in its landfills.

The XSProject Foundation in Jakarta help train economically disadvantaged women to generate income by training them to make unique products from discarded plastic packaging.

Which is why I’m delighted to meet the people at the XSProject Foundation, producer of those ingenious products. Founder, artist and environmentalist Ann Wiser enthusiastically explains the four-year-old foundation’s ideas.

The first idea is to reduce the volume of non-recyclable plastic trash in Jakarta by re-using it. The foundation buys waste from the city’s trash pickers to stop it from ending up in landfills. Says the foundation’s daily operations manager, Yuniar Wulandari (aka Uni), “There are 80,000 tonnes of flexible plastic packaging manufactured each year in Indonesia. The average use of a single-use drink container made from this material is only four seconds. After that, it may sit in a landfill forever.”

Most people do not know that this type of plastic is not recyclable, so it doesn’t have a market value – no one is interested in buying and re-using it so it will just end up in the dump. And manufacturers still use it for their packaging because it is cheaper. As a result, the amount of non-biodegradable plastic trash in the city’s dumps is increasing.

Not bad for products made from trash! And they’re unique, too.

Another of the foundation’s ideas and a major part of its mission is to reduce poverty. Which is why it buys that waste from the city’s trash pickers at above the market price and then trains women from lower income groups to produce those funky products from it. For this activity, XSProject collaborates with a small NGO, Yayasan Kampung Kids, which provides training on how to make high quality handmade products, sewing techniques as well as designing patterns.

Another part of the foundation’s mission is to raise awareness about environmental issues, especially among children. It works with several schools, from the elementary to junior high school levels, on this. Says Uni, “We start by giving them a shock therapy: showing a video of the environmental damage caused by trash.”

They then share information on where the plastic trash comes from, what the kids can do to reduce its volume and how to manage waste by sorting it into different types – glass, plastic, metal, paper, etc – that can be recycled or re-used.

The foundation’s project manager in charge of raising awareness in schools, Adit, then explains that, “We show them what can be made out of the non-biodegradable trash. Then we try to involve them by asking them to bring their own packaging wastes to the school. We provide several trash bins in each school. Students can throw the plastic waste from home into the XSProject trash bin.

Sorting through discarded plastic packaging. If the foundation did not find a use for it, all that would end up in the city’s landfills.

“The children get excited when they see XSProject’s products. They feel involved in the whole project and they are proud to use pencil cases or bags that are made of the trash that they bring to the school,” Adit says enthusiastically.

Adds Uni, “We want to make people look good and feel good at the same time when using our products. All profits from the sales go to the foundation to fund our programmes to increase the standard of living of the disadvantaged as well as to raise awareness on reducing plastic trash in the city.”

It’s nice to know we can look cool while doing some good with these socially responsible products.

To order XSProject Foundation’s products or for more information, go to xsprojectgroup.com or e-mail info@xsprojectgroup.com. In Jakarta, the foundation’s products can be found in Aksara Bookstore, Kemang, and several art galleries in South Jakarta.

“We expect 2 million tourists from Indonesia to Malaysia”

Two days ago, I attended a business gathering held by the Malaysia Club in Jakarta (MCJ). There was a talkshow themed "Business and the Press" presenting Yosef Ardi, a well-known blogger who also works at Bisnis Indonesia-daily newspaper and Riyadi Suparno, the Managing Editor of The Jakarta Post.

Both of the speakers gave insights on how the media work in Indonesia. The discussions went quite interesting too and the MCJ members were actively asking questions to both speakers. I've attended many business gatherings before, from Amcham's, Britcham's , Eurocham's, IABC's, etc, yet I think yesterday evening's gathering is the liveliest. Probably because this one isn't only about cocktail party where people "just" hangout, drinks wine and cocktail and chit-chat, but there's a talk-show with prominent guest speakers delivering a topic that of interest of the members.

After the talk-show, the Ambassador of Malaysia for Indonesia Dato' Zainal Abidin Zain delivered his speech. What interests me is that he says, "We expect 2 million tourists from Indonesia to go to Malaysia".

When hearing this statement, I couldn't help not to smile. A Monalisa smile :).