My note on the concept of Culture

Last weekend I was involved in an activity where I have to assess one's ability to adjust to new environment and culture to be able to perform self growth from it. From that activity, I am seeing young individuals who are determined to become world citizens by gaining experience and learning interculturally. What is it about this intercultural experience and learning that attracts people to be immersed in?

The concept of intercultural experience and learning is very closely associated with culture. In my definition, culture represents a wide aspect in our everyday life, from our way of thinking, way of living, way of creating something, etc. I think that every single person is part/product of a bigger culture and they represents the culture of their own at the same time. The process of creating culture involved external stimulus as well as generating our own values and ideals.

We see and witnessed varieties of individual ways of living, thinking, etc. We can see that, potentially, there are many ideas and new ways that could be developed by opening our minds to learn and see how the way of others may benefit us. Ideally, with open minds, we can be more receptive and able to unleash limitless creativity to create or improve many things in life. But on the realistic side, of course there are challenges to overcome when implementing the effort, from really believing the power of oneself, being misunderstood by others, to unsupportive external conditions (i.e corruptive government, conflicts,  etc).

While it seems that there may be no boundaries when it comes to discovering culture, the boundaries actually exists within ourselves as individuals. In other word, the extend to where we can change our behavior (even though we have been culturally empowered) actually has limit. If you happen to follow Daniel Pink and his show at Nat Geo channel, it is validated how we are tend to be 'lost' in our habits and culture, therefore controlling it becomes necessary. Or we all recalls on how our prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) always behave in kind manner in order to inspire and influence the disbelievers to take the right path. Culture could also be formed as influence to inspire and empower.

I guess these young people are aware on how intercultural learning and experience will benefit them by being able to learn about something that they have never been exposed to,and also being used to accepting new stimulus. The experience will have effect not just in short term, but also long term, as culture is not something to be mastered in an overnight. It is a fluid entity, which will stimulates, inspires, and challenges us in our entire life.

my note on community based tourism

source : https://socentindo.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/community-based-tourism-in-waerebo-flores/

How is the way of travelling changing in the nowadays context? And how is it associated with the idea of improving communities?

For you wanderers and explorers, I am pretty sure that you have the thought that there are many ways to experience the world. As an ultimate traveler, you tend to find ways to be connected with the people that you meet at your destinations, as well as the surroundings. You will make the best of your time and money to gain as much experience as possible. Travelling is not just a means of leisure, but also a means of exploring local cultures, food, history, landscapes, etc

For us millennials, travelling has becoming something that is incorporated to our lifestyle. Travelling is somewhat the catharsis media of the buzzing routines millennials tend to have. We realize the importance of taking our time offs and to keep exploring.  On the other hand, there are some people who are dedicating themselves freely, and took the opposite approach. Out there, there are individuals who directly took part as catalyst, entrepreneurs, agent of change that promotes tourism in many different ways. With their creativity, these people offers new ways of travelling to the emerging market, while on the other hand also engaging and collaborating with the local community to help improve their lives.

We see this growing trend of travelling, particularly among youngsters in Indonesia. If you look closely, what is there to miss? Our nation has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. And on top of that, given thousands of islands that existed in this nation, there are many settings and cultures that could be explored. Given these potentials, it is not too vague to say that tourism is a promising industry that is worth to be explored. With their entrepreneurial mindset, some people took the chance to create something out of it. One example that I am going to emphasize in this writing is the concept of community based tourism.

Community based tourism allowed local residents (often rural, poor, and economically marginalized) to develop strategies and plans to promote the local potentials by inviting tourist to visit their communities. This will includes activities such as organizing festivals, providing homestay, as well as marketing products of artisan goods. This system allows residents to earn income as land managers, entrepreneurs, service, etc. On the consumer side, community based tourism allows tourist to discover local habitats and wildlife, as well as knowing more about traditional cultures, rituals, and wisdom.

Kampung Wisata Mola is one example of community based tourism implemented in Wakatobi, Sulawesi. The idea of this project is to develop an ecotourism that allows the establishment of sustainable socio-cultural interaction. Wakatobi has one of the richest underwater life in the world which attracts thousands of tourist coming to experience it. With quite a number of visitors coming, the local community who established Kampung Wisata Mola are findings ways for visitors to also experience their majestic local culture in various ways, such as tasting local culinary, introducing the Bajo star telling tradition, and let tourists to have hands on experience being a traditional Bajo fisherman.

The concept of community based tourism somewhat contribute in offering new ways of travelling and exploring and empowering communities at the same time. These two ingredients are important in creating a sustainable social enterprise, where in the bigger context, business and development are also shifting to a more impactful and environment friendly causes. Community based tourism may be small business units which contribute in creating new employment opportunities in communities. Specifically, this system also allows the transfer of knowledge, as well as exchange of ideas and experiences between tourist and the local people. If managed properly, these advantages will enhance growth as both sides gain new perspectives, skills, and knowledge from the process.

So, are you on board?

I want my kids ...

I want my kids to be a proud Muslim and always have the willingness to learn more about their religion.

I want my kids to have minds that are broad, and they could imagine of anything to achieve their dreams.

I want my kids to have hearts that are open, so they could have empathy and forgive easily.

I want my kids to understand that failures should not beat them, and they have continuous energy and aspiration to keep going.

I want my kids to know that working hard is important, yet are not blinded by material things. I want them to know that happiness is sometimes a simple thing.

I want my kids to be constantly grateful, especially when they face difficult times.

I want my kids to value their life by keeping on exploring the world, and enrich their perspectives by doing it.

My kids doesn't have to be the smartest, as long as they know what they are doing, and what they do is useful for others.

I want my kids to be in the blessed path and be happy about their life.

Amin ya robbal alamin

my note on the concept of leadership

Our nation is currently entering its "new age" as we officially have a new leader, a new president, elected directly by Indonesian people. Many people are hoping for new breakthroughs under his leadership, many people are hopeful for improvements of the nation. In less than one third of his first quarter of governance, the new president has caught us attention through various stories and headlines, particularly on his composition of cabinet, named Kabinet Kerja, literally translated as Working Cabinet.

Susi Pudjiastuti has became the most talked about person in the nation since the day Mr. Jokowi announced his cabinet and assigned her as Minister of Marine and Fishery Affairs. Many critics and cynical comments were being addressed to her, given her educational background and other personal matters. The assigned minister is a high school dropout whom on the other hand has been a very successful entrepreneur in the field of fishery and aviation. This is probably a rare type of case. Hard work, correct strategy, effective leadership, and probably luck are the key factors which has brought Susi Pudjiastuti to where she is now, a successful businesswomen of two companies with billions Rupiah worth of assets. Before, many people may have not known Susi Pudjiastuti and what she does. Despite of negative comments on her background, Susi Pudjiastuti has raised a positive story, which hopefully, encourage others. Her story tells how anyone can be successful, by being a hardworking and empathetic entrepreneur. A successful example of a leader.

Being elected as the first female Minister for Marine and Fishery Affairs, Susi Pudjiastuti's model of leadership, experience and knowledge is to be tested in a whole new level. Given her background as a high school dropout, particularly, has always been challenging for her to gain trust and acceptance from others. This may also applies during the earlier period when she was just starting up her business. What constructs her success? How was her leadership established and maintained?

In his interview with Harvard Business Review, Daniel Goleman explained how effective leaders are able to functioned through three types of focus: inner focus, other focus, and outer focus. With inner focus, one will be able to give constant effort and gain continuous power to achieve goals, targets, and put their vision into realization; with other focus, one will believe that they are doing good cause, because it is also affecting other people and thus adding strength and confident in achieving goals; and with outer focus, one will be able to place themselves in a bigger context, and they have role within that larger context which enables them to moderate their effort in achieving targets through strategies, networks, etc. With the three focuses working in parallel, one will be able to practice an effective leadership which most likely will lead them towards success.

The above mentioned theories may have been implemented by Susi Pudjiastuti in running her business. At the core basis, she knew she had to survive by the time she dropped out from school. She was leading herself to start her own small business which happened to continue growing as she gain more experience. Her experience and visions enables her setting bigger goals. She started gaining reputation and trust, which enable her  to include other people in her vision and to have them impacted by her business: families, local fishermans, foreign pilots, etc. By doing this, she generates more resources which helps her business to grow. In a wider context, she need to develop strategies in order to have her effort and the people impacted by her business to be put into effect, there's a product or outcome that is recognized by the market. With USD 40 Million of revenue in 2014, it is not too vague to say that people are satisfied with the product, adding more wealth to her company, both material and non-material.

Susi Pudjiastuti is one of many example of extraordinary individuals who shared similar success stories. New Challenge is ahead of her in developing Indonesia's vast potentials in the field of marine and fisheries. As Daniel Goleman explained, to become an even more effective leader, one need to develop their focus through practices. Realistically, different context have different consequences on the degree of practice that is being done. Supposedly, those practices are drives and motivations for effective leaders.

my note on the concept of trust

Societies which lives in countries located in the Eastern sphere of the world are often associated with being collectivist, meaning that people living within these societies highly valued collectivity in their daily life.  Of many characteristics, individuals living in collectivist societies are usually family oriented, have many informal associations, have strong group spirit (gotong royong), etc. Some of us are indeed familiar with these characteristics as we are living in Indonesia.

Now, as a nation, Indonesia has been one of the emerging Economies in Asia (with 5,7 % rate of GDP growth in 2014 according to Asian Development Bank). Though our nations economy is still slowly growing, still it is achievement and would be an impossible without good cooperation between government, private sectors, and of course the Indonesian public. The last determinant will have major role in the process, the public. Some study results concluded that economic growth is associated with public trust, where societies with high level of trust mostly lived in countries with stable and promising economic growth (i.e Scandinavian and West European countries). 

What forms trust? in individual scale, trust will grow when one finds other individual is reliable, indicated by integrity, effort, leadership, etc. With trust, individuals are able cooperate and collaborate in achieving common goals. Moreover, people with similar interest and goals tends to be easier in trusting each other. In wider scale, the term used is generalized trust, which is often referring to bunch of individuals trusts as well as trust towards government, officials, etc. Clean and good governance is often associated by high degree of trust by its people as individual well being and wealth are being emphasized. People respect the government of the consistency and integrity in empowering the nation. This balance therefore promotes stable economic growth, civic engagement, civil political involvement, etc.

How does the trend of trusting applies in Indonesia? given its characteristics of collectivist nation, in general it is not difficult for people to engage with each other, despite given the nation's multicultural background. Assuming that trust should form naturally, generalized trust in collectivist country such as Indonesia should also be high. However, the hypothesis referring to the positive association between generalized trust and wealth, particularly, does not seem to generally apply. At some point and levels the mechanism of trust works does promote cooperation between individuals, but in some other there are just too many challenges to be faced such as corruptive government, propaganda, weak law implementation, etc, which hinders generalized trust to grow, thus slowing nation's development. Despite, potentials and resources towards nation's betterment are there already. Hopefully to make breakthrough in the near future.

Reference: Uslaner, Eric M and Mitchel J.Brown. 2003. Inequality, Trust, and Civic Engagement. American Politics Research, Sage Publication

my note on the concept of migration

Our cohort of generation is living under the period where the process globalization is becoming vast and rapid. The process of globalization enables some aspects to become easier : human mobilization (migration), communications, etc. And with easier human mobilization etc, wide range of societies has been impacted by the process, adding new dynamics to the existing complexities.

                                                       Worldwide Migration Graphic in 21st Century

                                      (brown = origin countries of migration; blue = destination countries of migration)

                                                                                     Source : wikipedia

In the 21st century, human migration has becoming wider than ever. Why do people migrate? 

The graphic above shows that most people are migrating from developing countries to develop ones, indicating economical background as the main determining factor. Job sectors in developed countries are seen to be more promising. Many people also hope to improve their well being by living in a better environment. Aside to those, there are also thousands of students who come to study abroad, not just to get better education, but also to have in-person experience of living in culture different to their own and having to challenge themselves by adjusting to it. Not forgetting tourist and travelers who are simply passionate to explore and discover new things in different places. These processes have been easier as people have easier access to gain overall information of getting to the other side of the world. People gets the idea of "that other country and culture" even before migrating, which gives them slight confident in coping with the "new adventure" ahead.

Now, what happens when people have migrated? of course, there are implications. 

On the micro scale, the process allows individuals to grow. Individuals who migrated have bigger urgency in stretching their potentials, in order to be successfully adjusting to the new culture as well as to grow their skills and personal networks. On the broader scale, societies and communities becomes melting pots of multicultural backgrounds. Exchanges of ideas has become easier as ideas developed faster. People are also becoming more open minded due to the exposure towards other individuals with different cultural backgrounds, thus they understand and accept differences. In the end, these two aspects increased productivity and promotes peace among societies, though in some cases the reality is completely the other way around. Due to massive number of individuals migrating to their countries, governments of some countries are troubled with the reality. Conflicts emerge between indigenous and migrants, mostly battling over resources. As result, migration policies has become stricter in some countries.

Afterall, should people continue migrating? I personally think the rights to migrate shall never be abolished in this world. We are all unfinished products, and migrating gives people the opportunity to explore things beyond their imaginations and expectations. This world has become borderless anyway, that it is too late to stop people migrating. However, it is important to keep in mind that our cultural identity will be challenged throughout the way, and to decide on our own identity is not a simple thing to do.

it's been a WHILE

Whoa! it's been ages since the last time I posted in this blog.

My writing appetite has been drained off lately, apology for that.

Now let me try this again...