Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Balancing Life

There is something about blue sky, clear water, and the dripping sound of fountains that feels peaceful. I guess that is why people try to reproduce those natural beauties in places where people want to relax. Like the view that you see in the picture above: the pool view of a hotel near my office where I had lunch today.

One day in autumn 2006, as I hiked along the track of Healing Forest in Nagano, Japan, our guide explained that human DNA retains the memories of its primal lives millions of years ago. Those are the memories of living so close to nature, where the abundant of fresh air, the scent of the woods, and everything that awakened human senses came from the forest environment where our ancestors lived. The sensations from the forest are invigorating. How it happens is maybe similar our memories about dinner with our family that we retain so well, that when we sense the scent of warm meals in the air around the early evening time, our hearts would swell from a beautiful feeling. The only difference is, with dinner, our senses have direct experiences while with forest, our DNAs recorded it and replay it, giving us a somehow good feeling without direct-experience-based explanation.

An Escape To Discover

5.46 p.m.
Cloudy sky hangs over the Indian Ocean. The usually-turquoise water absorbs the gray hues of the sky. Sounds of the waves, busy kitchen, people chat, gospels sang in German at the stereo, a space for myself at a corner of a café made of bamboo and coconut woods, an open view to the ocean, a book corner with shelves filled with books from many corners of the world, individuality that stands out but never disturb each other. Wide open air outside, and I know so well that soon dots of stars will cover every corner of its horizon.

This is the place I turn to when I need some moments to think. A place for a short escape, place to find inspiration. This is an escape to rediscover.

My Interview in The Story from Disaster Land

Today TV One, a national news television channel in Indonesia starts a new 30-minute documentary program called "Cerita dari Tanah Bencana" - literally means "The Story from Disaster Land". (TSDL). This program is developed in cooperation with the National Disaster Management Agency of Indonesia to cover disaster issues in the areas where major disasters hit.

The issues include the stories of community's survival, the efforts done in post-disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation, the lessons learned from the disaster recovery processes, and the efforts to reduce future risks. I was requested to be one of the resource persons in TSDL series on Aceh. The request from one of the producers, Hendra, was very specific, "I want you to be the resource person because you were here, actively involved, since the beginning of disaster risk reduction in Aceh."
So I was just like, "alright, let's see how I can assist you."

When I was a journalist, I always said that one day I want to shift role from someone who interviews into the person to be interviewed. As I moved to Aceh to start my disaster risk reduction works, I enjoy my roles as the person producing or directing my organization's TV programs on disaster risk reduction public awareness. My works have been my second university. I learned a lot from the people I work with, and from the documents that I have to review. As time goes by, I have collected precious knowledge on the field that I work on. I think I am very lucky.

This program with TV One is my first appearance in a national television as the resource person for disaster management issue. Apparently, I enjoy this new role. Here I answered some questions on how post-tsunami blueprint worked, what made it fail, and what would be the best approaches to involve the community in reducing disaster risks.

So this is the collection of my interview in TSDL, recorded from my TV:

Thank you for everyone who gave me the opportunity to make my voice heard. :)

My Smile Is My Best Make Up

A neon sign I saw at Roppongi Hill, Tokyo :)

My daily routine starts with turning off my alarm, checking my mails, and doing a little writing or document review. Then as my driver arrived, I usually rush to get ready for work. Forget the make up, or proper hairdo. I would just hop in the car without make up, except when I have to go directly to a morning meeting or workshop. In the mornings when I arrive at work, I must first walk pass a metal detector gate, and then the security guards would run their metal detector bar over my bag. I cannot just walk into my office unnoticedly, while often, I arrive at work with bare face. Without any make up, at all.

This kind of life is so different from when I worked in broadcasting industry. I was always be neat and camera-ready, because people recognized myself, and they would expect me to look as good as how they saw myself on TV. I could not go shopping in flipflops with messy hair, because I felt like I have the responsibility not to let them down, added with a little ego of not wanting them to say that I looked messy in reality. :D

The TV make up was done for at least one good hour, with neat shadings, eyeshadows, fake eyelash, blush-on, and lipstick, and really good hairdo that involves the heat of the blowdryer and good salon products. I also sometimes wear designer or boutique-sponsored outfits, that sure looked good. It felt good, but it also feels good to live without the obligation to always look flawless.

I love my life and my works today. I can wear things that fit my personality. I often say that one thing that I love about working with the my organization, in the field office, is that I can wear my jeans to work.:) Physical look is not our capital, nor our commodity here. But still, looking good makes me feel good. I love to see people dressing up and groomed well, and thus I want myself to be as presentable. I can go with my jeans, but time to time I can also go with my nice suits. How good is that? :)

Here I have figured out that the important beauty factor from my look is my smile. People know knows me know that I am very generous about smiling. I even put a lot of smileys on my informal writing, naturally, because that is the way I converse. How do I start my smiling habit? I don't know exactly, but I think just like any other custom, or cultural properties, I took it for granted from the culture where I grew up.

Some books, including traveling guidebooks about Indonesia describe Indonesians, especially the Javanese, my native tribe, are the people who are generous about smiling. Smiling is part of our acts of greeting. Smiling is our ways to say that we agree and disagree, sad and happy, accepting and refusing. Confusing? Yes. Many foreigners may get really confused about it. They thought that we agree when we actually strongly disagree. Often a Javanese just stays quiet, shakes his/her head, and smiling, and it could mean that he or she was strongly disagree. Smiling is our ways to maintain harmony. To get the harsh messages of disagreement across without being harsh (to our standard of culture). This potentially-confusing uniqueness got some people from different tribes simplifying their conclusion by saying that we are the most hypocrite people for not willing to strongly express our stance. That, is the case of cultural misunderstanding,

Morning Flights

I've been flying a lot recently. I have became very familiar to some airports that somehow I feel like there is an auto pilot in my head. I don't have to stop and read the airport directions carefully because I just know where to walk straight and where to turn. I even often feel that just suddenly I arrive on my seat. It feels like taking your usual shuttle bus to school. After a while you know that you just need to be at the very same bus stop, board in, and you would arrive to where you are heading to.

However, I haven't gotten used to early morning flights. It still feels quite torturing to wake up so early or even not sleeping at all to anticipate the early hour trip. Just like this morning, I had to leave at 4.30 a.m. from home to catch my 6.20 a.m. flight.

I haven't found the most comfortable way to do it. I usually end up staying awake all night or sleeping restlessly for some few hours. Then I'd sleep all through the flight. I wonder if others also have the same difficulties and I wonder how they cope with it.

One thing I can do is making sure that I don't bring too many things to the cabin. With sleepiness I tend to forget things easily. That is the best I could do to minimize the risk of losing things during my morning flights.

I am now waiting for my flight to Jakarta. One thing I love about morning flight is to see the sun rises at the airport. I can't get bored of it. The wide, open landscape allows me to see the crimson ball raising up gradually into a bright yellow sun. Wherever I fly from, it is always worthed to see the sunrise. Like the one below, this is what I am talking about. :)



After all, there is always beauty in every event. I should be glad I can cherish it. :) Now the sunrise moment has passed. I just want to board into the plane. I need to sleep. Soon.

Ahmad Yani Airport
Semarang, September 3, 2011

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4