Globalization makes the world flatter, companies are now worldwide, opportunities came to the person who can cope with international markets. Realizing this fact of life, more and more Indonesian parents from the middle to high level of household financials are now searching for International or National Plus Schools. A well known education expert, Mochtar Buchori, said to the Jakarta Post (see the article International classes 'not better quality' in printed Jakarta Post, June 27, 2008): "Schools compete to achieve the international label, which actually widens the social gap further because it reduces equal educational opportunity for all children." He also stated his feeling that the education nowadays reminding him to the Dutch colonial era where schools were divided into social groups, like the Dutch schools to the lowest Indonesian schools.
The article was actually criticized the "quality" of "International" schools as there is no official agency who monitor the development and operation of the schools. But even if the schools charged higher for the "quality" offered than they should have asked, they are still serving a better foundation to the children than other schools in the remote areas. Some private schools are competing by giving more learning time for subjects in English. Other, which convey full international curriculum should always use English language in classes. But of course the quality offered would link to the teachers' competency in teaching (see my other blog post: Teaching Teachers is Important).
Some international school students who grabbed English language from their early years can fluently speak in English, but sometimes are not really capable to speak or to write in good Indonesian language. That's probably a negative aspect of the term "international" school. We can see that in the old generation who prefers to speak Dutch because that was the first language they were educated in their school days.
Then, should we see English language as an enemy to our own national language? No! Once again, we do need to balance the pride of being Indonesian and to ability to convey our ideas to others in other international languages, where English is one of them.
English as Second Language is important for Indonesian. We don't need to look to the high level above. Scholars are surely the high level who need ESL to venture into the global world. Yet, in the low level of the society it should be considered important too. We should also see the need to cope with ESL for other Indonesian workers, such as household helpers. Other foreign languages are important too, but that depends on the country destination of a worker. Those who will work in Korea will need the ability to understand Korean, while those who work in Hong Kong will need a little training in Cantonese. Those who work in Saudi Arabia will be better off if they understand Arabic words.
How our Indonesian female helpers are different from the Philippines' female helpers usually due to their inability to speak basic English. With low ability in ESL they don't know how to communicate with their employers or to communicate with the authority when they do need help. Helpers who can speak English and (or) other foreign languages usually were more successful than those who can't communicate in foreign languages. Usually, their basic salary will also be affected to that language skills, their ability to communicate can help rising their income standard.
Seeing from the helpers' case, we can guess how important ESL competency for the blue collar workers and white collar workers in facing the globalization. Language can be a plus point in the world of global workers.
There are some opinion stated that sending female migrant workers as household helpers is a disgrace to the country. Yet, with their low education background and the limited job opportunity in the country, these female workers have no other choices. Woman would not really willing to go to work overseas leaving her husband, leaving her children, or her old parents at home, but she need to go through it to provide a better future for her family. Globalization are not only for those who can enjoy better education, it should also work equally for these uneducated or low educated women. Improving the Indonesian education system, and adding the value of ESL in the elementary school education would perhaps help Indonesian workers to face the global and fast changing world.
Showing posts with label bc blog competition - KE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bc blog competition - KE. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Monday, 23 June 2008
Indonesia's Hidden Treasures
I wrote "Creativity in Tourism" because I really think that tourism is the going to be the future of Indonesia. Of course that will only happens if we could manage a lot of aspects. First, we do need the national stability and safety. Then, good management of our tourism objects and destinations. And of course a good marketing actions!
It is important to learn how other countries manage their tourism destination, and lured people to come to their place to enjoy the place as a dream destination.
Indonesia has so many hidden treasures. We have our rich cultures, our beautiful environments, and the most important aspect that was usually impressed foreigners are the smile, sincere smiles to greet guests...We do need to keep it that way!
Economic greediness made us explore our forests or our seas without thinking of the future. Building man-made environment without a longterm vision will have negative impact on the natural environment, and perhaps also the social norms of the society.
With the global access to the television or the internet, youngsters tended to imitate the Hollywood way of living.
Hidden treasures in the forest.
Last May I joined the seminar "Human and Forest", there was a presenter who said that the local people who lived in the forest preferred to live in the forest but with facilities like in the city. I thought in some cities where mining was the only reason that keep the workers over there, they do have facilities that is even more luxurious than in the other Indonesian cities.
The interesting aspect of the seminar is the question; "What are we going to do with Indonesian forests?" Some participants were thinking about the productive forests for the industry, some others were thinking about the natural rain forests.
Whatever function would be chosen for the Indonesian forests, the government should really be looking through a lot of perspectives. There is the need to supply our woodworking industry, to supply our paper industry, to supply our CPO production, etc. There is also another aspect to be taken into consideration which is the need of carbon for the earth, the home for various flora and fauna, the home for the local people of the forest.
I've read in the Reader's Digest Indonesia an advertisement of an expedition into the heart of Borneo. It will be an expedition with WWF. We would hope that the expedition will really help people to look into one of the hidden treasure in Indonesian forest.
WWF was starting to think about eco-tourism long time ago, I think it was around the 90s. As people grew more concern about the global warming and the climate change, we would hope that the expedition will help laymen to understand the meaning of the forest as an aspect of greater life. We surely hope that the expedition was not merely an out-bond track in the real forest. I hope from this expedition people who join it could raise their awareness and pay more attention to the forest. My journey to TNKS with WWF made me more aware about different aspects and function of the forests to people.
Rafting and canoing in the big rivers are other interesting activities that could also be performed here. There are so many interesting places either in the forests, or in the villages that would need a "little" marketing effort to sell it.
Hidden treasures in the ocean.
The treasures could be hidden in the forest, but it could also be hidden in the ocean and deep seas. Indonesia has so many beautiful place for diving, and the content of the sea are so varied. It shows the richness of varieties of our treasures as well as the beauty of it.
A blogger who is also a free-lance diving instructor said in her blog that people who visit Indonesia must try diving. (Of course that would only work for those who can swim...).
Bali is perhaps one of the destination, as the island is already very popular as a tourism site. But there are more places to go. If you do have more money than you can also go to Raja Ampat, the "Four Kings" in Papua. It is said to possibly hold the richest variety of species in the world.
I found one website which could be useful for tourists who need more information about scuba diving in Indonesia. It is Dive the World.
Next year there will be the 3rd International Diving, Adventure Travel & Water Sports Exhibiton (see Deep Indonesia 2009 for more details). It is obvious that the future of Indonesian tourism is also the marine tourism.
Hidden treasures in the cities.
Cities can always be jewels of tourism if they can manage to sell the cultural attraction, the culinary tourism, as well as improving their function as cities who can serve the need for MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition).
From what I've seen in Europe and the UK when I visited their tourism sites more than ten years ago, it is very important to owner of the tourism site to be able to manage the financial management to keep the place as an interesting place to visit. Museums, castles, other historical buildings are well kept and in some places they also offer special events to attracts visitors. Dining in an old castle and served by Paul Bocuse's students was certainly a creative way of selling a tourism site. A theatrical casting in the palace of Versailles was an attraction to me.
The most important aspect in gaining visitors is the creativity to attract them to come. And Indonesian can learn the need from the prospective countries of visitors from those foreign counterparts who knew the need of their market, and who can help to show us the unique treasures of Indonesia that would attract people to come here. Things that were probably taken for granted by Indonesian as we are not aware of our own jewels.
Precautions.
There is always the negative side of one positive heritage, which is the possibility of over exploiting it. Basically we know that people who manage tourism places will try their best to keep it comfortable and nice for more visits. Yet, the perspective of comfort is sometimes differ between individuals. It would be dangerous if the comfort zone used is in the perspective of people from the city. That could ruin the natural environment into piles of garbage, or just because the need to have some small token from the tourism sites.
Other important aspect is the social effect on local peoples. Teaching them to adapt to the tourism industry without loosing the fundamental values that linked them to the place. Values that were probably attract the visitors to come too.
I once wrote for wikimu.com a reflection about Butet Manurung, the founder of Sokola which provide education for the people from the forest. I thought she was very lucky to follow her passion. The people from the forest do need help to build their basic knowledge in taming the changing climate together with the intrusion from the global business. It is important to help them to adapt to the new future without loosing their right as the real owner of the forest.
The creativity that we do need is not only to lured people to visit this country, but also to help us to keep the balance between using it to over exploiting it. This is the real challenge!
It is important to learn how other countries manage their tourism destination, and lured people to come to their place to enjoy the place as a dream destination.
Indonesia has so many hidden treasures. We have our rich cultures, our beautiful environments, and the most important aspect that was usually impressed foreigners are the smile, sincere smiles to greet guests...We do need to keep it that way!
Economic greediness made us explore our forests or our seas without thinking of the future. Building man-made environment without a longterm vision will have negative impact on the natural environment, and perhaps also the social norms of the society.
With the global access to the television or the internet, youngsters tended to imitate the Hollywood way of living.
Hidden treasures in the forest.
Last May I joined the seminar "Human and Forest", there was a presenter who said that the local people who lived in the forest preferred to live in the forest but with facilities like in the city. I thought in some cities where mining was the only reason that keep the workers over there, they do have facilities that is even more luxurious than in the other Indonesian cities.
The interesting aspect of the seminar is the question; "What are we going to do with Indonesian forests?" Some participants were thinking about the productive forests for the industry, some others were thinking about the natural rain forests.
Whatever function would be chosen for the Indonesian forests, the government should really be looking through a lot of perspectives. There is the need to supply our woodworking industry, to supply our paper industry, to supply our CPO production, etc. There is also another aspect to be taken into consideration which is the need of carbon for the earth, the home for various flora and fauna, the home for the local people of the forest.
I've read in the Reader's Digest Indonesia an advertisement of an expedition into the heart of Borneo. It will be an expedition with WWF. We would hope that the expedition will really help people to look into one of the hidden treasure in Indonesian forest.
WWF was starting to think about eco-tourism long time ago, I think it was around the 90s. As people grew more concern about the global warming and the climate change, we would hope that the expedition will help laymen to understand the meaning of the forest as an aspect of greater life. We surely hope that the expedition was not merely an out-bond track in the real forest. I hope from this expedition people who join it could raise their awareness and pay more attention to the forest. My journey to TNKS with WWF made me more aware about different aspects and function of the forests to people.
Rafting and canoing in the big rivers are other interesting activities that could also be performed here. There are so many interesting places either in the forests, or in the villages that would need a "little" marketing effort to sell it.
Hidden treasures in the ocean.
The treasures could be hidden in the forest, but it could also be hidden in the ocean and deep seas. Indonesia has so many beautiful place for diving, and the content of the sea are so varied. It shows the richness of varieties of our treasures as well as the beauty of it.
A blogger who is also a free-lance diving instructor said in her blog that people who visit Indonesia must try diving. (Of course that would only work for those who can swim...).
Bali is perhaps one of the destination, as the island is already very popular as a tourism site. But there are more places to go. If you do have more money than you can also go to Raja Ampat, the "Four Kings" in Papua. It is said to possibly hold the richest variety of species in the world.
I found one website which could be useful for tourists who need more information about scuba diving in Indonesia. It is Dive the World.
Next year there will be the 3rd International Diving, Adventure Travel & Water Sports Exhibiton (see Deep Indonesia 2009 for more details). It is obvious that the future of Indonesian tourism is also the marine tourism.
Hidden treasures in the cities.
Cities can always be jewels of tourism if they can manage to sell the cultural attraction, the culinary tourism, as well as improving their function as cities who can serve the need for MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition).
From what I've seen in Europe and the UK when I visited their tourism sites more than ten years ago, it is very important to owner of the tourism site to be able to manage the financial management to keep the place as an interesting place to visit. Museums, castles, other historical buildings are well kept and in some places they also offer special events to attracts visitors. Dining in an old castle and served by Paul Bocuse's students was certainly a creative way of selling a tourism site. A theatrical casting in the palace of Versailles was an attraction to me.
The most important aspect in gaining visitors is the creativity to attract them to come. And Indonesian can learn the need from the prospective countries of visitors from those foreign counterparts who knew the need of their market, and who can help to show us the unique treasures of Indonesia that would attract people to come here. Things that were probably taken for granted by Indonesian as we are not aware of our own jewels.
Precautions.
There is always the negative side of one positive heritage, which is the possibility of over exploiting it. Basically we know that people who manage tourism places will try their best to keep it comfortable and nice for more visits. Yet, the perspective of comfort is sometimes differ between individuals. It would be dangerous if the comfort zone used is in the perspective of people from the city. That could ruin the natural environment into piles of garbage, or just because the need to have some small token from the tourism sites.
Other important aspect is the social effect on local peoples. Teaching them to adapt to the tourism industry without loosing the fundamental values that linked them to the place. Values that were probably attract the visitors to come too.
I once wrote for wikimu.com a reflection about Butet Manurung, the founder of Sokola which provide education for the people from the forest. I thought she was very lucky to follow her passion. The people from the forest do need help to build their basic knowledge in taming the changing climate together with the intrusion from the global business. It is important to help them to adapt to the new future without loosing their right as the real owner of the forest.
The creativity that we do need is not only to lured people to visit this country, but also to help us to keep the balance between using it to over exploiting it. This is the real challenge!
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Teaching Teachers is Important!
picture: EfYLs Teachers' training in PPBUITeachers are the most important aspect in achieving the best result on teaching English to speakers of other languages. I've read the British Council website about their Primary Innovations Regional Seminar. I think it is important to be able to share stories from those English language specialists in order to grab each regional's need, and to solve similar problems back home.
Another very interesting and important activity is developing the cadre of teacher trainers(ToTs). It is important to have good teachers to teach the Young Learners (YLs). Young learners have fresh minds that can absorb information like sponges. Giving them the wrong input would not help them to face the future but instead it could also ruin their future.
I remember how Ibu Itje Chodidjah made a lively classroom in PPBUI. She taught us how to make a lesson interesting enough for young learners. Being bored in the classroom can also be a reason that kill the learning spirit. Lacking this spirit will not help the student to gain a better study.
Unfortunately, not all of the Indonesian classrooms are supported to the interactive way of learning language. As Indonesian classes usually are large classes, teachers do need more knowledge about classroom management. Then, having a good source of library will also help teachers. Perhaps learning through the online sources will also help teachers. Sites such as About.com , or Pearson Longman English Language Teaching are good sources of information and games.
Another unfortunate fact is that students who study to teach English language are not always serious enough in learning. There is a person I knew who asked me to supply her with English articles and its translation. Then, in preparing her thesis, she asked me to find a novel that has two version, Indonesian and English. I think it is a task she should do herself to fit in the shoes of a graduate student!
Not all schools are serious enough in recruiting their English teachers. Some teachers are not really capable to teach this language. Now, with the term "international school" mushrooming in towns, the needs for English speaking teachers are even higher. Yet, schools capability to hire good teachers are sometimes limited. Then, teachers with good knowledge and skills in math, science, etc. sometimes are not fluent in English, while on the contrary those teachers who are capable to teach in English would probably not very good in Math or Science.
So, there is an urgent need to teach English language to the Indonesian teachers. That way we are not too dependent on imported teachers. It is important to improve the quality of Indonesian teachers. It's a way to serve the citizens who are facing the globalization.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Creativity in Tourism
Writers like Charles Dickens and Enid Blyton are actually the greatest public relation to the UK. I had the story about the UK before I had the chance to visit it through their books.
Then my stamp collecting hobby was another aspect that made me interested more in the UK. Who would claim herself as a stamp collector without knowing Stanley Gibbons? So, I did put it in my agenda to visit one of Stanley Gibbons store when I was in London.
London was expensive, and it would probably continue to be very expensive for my Indonesian pocket. Yet, traveling the UK was fascinating and it will always be...
I was certainly interested in their creativity of selling their tourism object. They can sell from the architectural heritage to the haunted places. Even British Airways is promoting its Christmas and New Year Ghost Tour in Cambridge!
I hope Indonesian can learn from those creativity in selling their tourism object. Of course we do not need to copy their creativity, we are supposed to look into it and develop it using our own cultural heritage!
Knowledge and Creativity can be shared...
Thinking about how global the world is, made me think back into BC Blog Competition on Knowledge Economy.
We have seen how China was preparing the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The event is also an event to sell their tourism industry. It is also an event to gain more money into their country.
Euro 2008 is also the same, this event is also going to get the attention to European countries which hosting the events.
Unfortunately the Indonesian did not really used the event of Thomas Cup and Uber Cup to promote the tourism sector. Actually we are in the Visit Indonesian Year programme, but there were no integrated programme that join all the events to market our tourism sector, either locally or globally.
Marketing now should consider the global world as the target of marketing. And to know the global market we should also be able to know specific needs of each market. What would they need from our country and sell it out. Selling or buying is only the activity, but the important thing is learning and exchanging knowledge between two countries, between two different cultures.
I remembered those days I'd spent in Europe. It was a long time ago, imagine that were coming to London through a channel under the sea...that's Eurostar. The tunnel was new, we were among those curious passengers who would like to know how it felt to go from Paris to London in a fast train under the sea. It was expensive, but my uncle who is a civil engineer (who was specializing in hydraulic engineering) would like to try it. Actually I would prefer to sail on a ship to gain the feeling of the air of "A Tale of Two Cities". And of course the journey in Eurostar was just like another journey in a train, the fascinating thing was only we cross the border without realizing it (except for those customs who came to verify your passport).
Yet, there will be a lot of interesting things to learn from the engineering sector in building under the sea if Indonesia is considering to build a transportation like that between islands. We should not forget the volcanic problems that we might have, but exchanging knowledge could really save more time to have a progress...won't it? The problem for Indonesia would be in the ability to buy knowledge, but perhaps this knowledge could be an installment that would help us building a foundation the ability to sell other product or other knowledge.
We have seen how China was preparing the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The event is also an event to sell their tourism industry. It is also an event to gain more money into their country.
Euro 2008 is also the same, this event is also going to get the attention to European countries which hosting the events.
Unfortunately the Indonesian did not really used the event of Thomas Cup and Uber Cup to promote the tourism sector. Actually we are in the Visit Indonesian Year programme, but there were no integrated programme that join all the events to market our tourism sector, either locally or globally.
Marketing now should consider the global world as the target of marketing. And to know the global market we should also be able to know specific needs of each market. What would they need from our country and sell it out. Selling or buying is only the activity, but the important thing is learning and exchanging knowledge between two countries, between two different cultures.
I remembered those days I'd spent in Europe. It was a long time ago, imagine that were coming to London through a channel under the sea...that's Eurostar. The tunnel was new, we were among those curious passengers who would like to know how it felt to go from Paris to London in a fast train under the sea. It was expensive, but my uncle who is a civil engineer (who was specializing in hydraulic engineering) would like to try it. Actually I would prefer to sail on a ship to gain the feeling of the air of "A Tale of Two Cities". And of course the journey in Eurostar was just like another journey in a train, the fascinating thing was only we cross the border without realizing it (except for those customs who came to verify your passport).
Yet, there will be a lot of interesting things to learn from the engineering sector in building under the sea if Indonesia is considering to build a transportation like that between islands. We should not forget the volcanic problems that we might have, but exchanging knowledge could really save more time to have a progress...won't it? The problem for Indonesia would be in the ability to buy knowledge, but perhaps this knowledge could be an installment that would help us building a foundation the ability to sell other product or other knowledge.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Education as Tool of Empowerment.
The most interesting thing in the internet is its function as the open source to informations. When I was in my last year in the university I need to go to the British Council and to the American Culture to gain information on schools and scholarships. With the internet we can cut the distance, everybody can access the information through the internet (For the UK, you can read it here.)
When I came to the British Council Bloggers' meeting I saw a lot of eager youngsters searched information about education in the UK. Some are with parents, some others came by their own groups. I even saw some of the participants of the bloggers' meeting were also holding schools' brochures. It reminded me of my old days...when I was full of dream to be able to go abroad, to take a further study and to open my horizon of knowledge.
Back then, the dream land is America. I was also interested in the UK because of its architectural heritage. Today, as more and more news on violence in the American universities I don't think people are viewing American universities as the best destination.
Yet, there are a lot of consideration to have when choosing a destination. The most important thing is of course the financial support. Then we also need to know more into the university and the chances of having work experiences while studying there. It is just the same with window shopping for universities here in our own country, but it is even more crucial as the student will be there by his/her own, trying to live independently in another culture and another seasons.
Cultural shock should be minimized in order to achieve the best result. That is why it is important not only to gain study information before hand, but also to have better knowledge of the destination place. Internet, again, can be an important tools to gain information and even friends.
Education is the most important tools to empower people. Indonesian youngsters are actually equally capable with other global youngsters. Delivering them the key to education is also giving them the chance to change their lives. Providing the youngsters intercultural dialogues with equal educational knowledge will boost their creativity in serving the global world. Yes, the new millennium is opening the barriers of background, it will be the world for professional sans frontier.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
IYCEY: Planting More Professional Youngsters!
The British Council Blogging Competition is coming to the second topic Knowledge Economy (KE). Actually I am more interested in talking about intercultural dialogue than knowledge economy, but as we are living in the global world where knowledge economy will help the survival of a nation I will try to give some of my cents on this issue.
As stated in the official website of BC now 60, British Council Indonesia’s programmes related to the KE issue are:
Creative Industries
Education UK
Scholarship Management
DelPHE
Primary Innovations Project
Today (May 24, 2008) Indonesians are facing the augmentation of the fuel price. There will be a lot of consequences coming from the increasing price, generally the transportation cost will be increased and almost all prices will going up with them. At the same time our capability of paying are not increasing so we are going to face a harder life.
It is a bit annoying that a country which is one of the oil producers could be beaten by the increase price of the oil market in the global world. Why can’t we enjoy the increasing price as an increase source of income? On the contrary, the citizens should be suffering to provide a proper life for their families.
Being independent economically will really help Indonesia to build its future. In this sense then knowledge economy is a very important issue in gaining a better position to be free in financial term.
Knowledge Economy is a very huge topic to discuss, I would probably limit myself with several sub topics although all of these programmes are very interesting to browse around to get new knowledge and inspirations.
I will start by talking about the creative industries.
There is a programme that I’ve also mentioned in my intercultural dialogue post; the International Young Creative Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (IYCEY). The Indonesians who were sent to London to join their other friends impressed the panel of juries, and for the year 2007/2008 Indonesia gained the honour to be the only country worldwide invited to compete for all four of the IYCEY awards.
I have been peeking into Yoris Sebastian’s weblog about his trip to the UK. It seems that this kind of travel to meet other participants will always trigger creative persons to have new ideas, or at least other reflective thoughts.
Yoris Sebastian won a consolidated prize in the UK for his Goliath proposal. He started to work on his project and did a good start. He invited Ben Drury from the UK to share Ben’s experience with digital music to the Indonesian music entrepreneurs. On the other hand, being Indonesian, he knew the Indonesian market and he had his own way in introducing the digital music to Indonesians. Sharing knowledge as Yoris said is not swallowing the whole knowledge from others and penetrating it in another country without knowing the market’s capacity.
Another person known from the IYCEY is Ridwan Kamil, an Indonesian architect –also an urban planner. His award winning perhaps has also showed the Indonesian peoples that we are also having local seeds to grow in the global competition.
Reading through other website I found out that his company Urbane was also offering a fellowship programme. And it turns out that the programme was also linked to the British Council. The final selection included the ability to make a presentation and answering interview in English. The important message from this programme is the need to improve our local architects’ competencies to be able to compete in the professional world sans frontier.
I am happy for this kind of achievements received by our young professionals. It would help increase the fighting spirit of their colleagues and for the whole young Indonesians in general.
As stated in the official website of BC now 60, British Council Indonesia’s programmes related to the KE issue are:
Creative Industries
Education UK
Scholarship Management
DelPHE
Primary Innovations Project
Today (May 24, 2008) Indonesians are facing the augmentation of the fuel price. There will be a lot of consequences coming from the increasing price, generally the transportation cost will be increased and almost all prices will going up with them. At the same time our capability of paying are not increasing so we are going to face a harder life.
It is a bit annoying that a country which is one of the oil producers could be beaten by the increase price of the oil market in the global world. Why can’t we enjoy the increasing price as an increase source of income? On the contrary, the citizens should be suffering to provide a proper life for their families.
Being independent economically will really help Indonesia to build its future. In this sense then knowledge economy is a very important issue in gaining a better position to be free in financial term.
Knowledge Economy is a very huge topic to discuss, I would probably limit myself with several sub topics although all of these programmes are very interesting to browse around to get new knowledge and inspirations.
I will start by talking about the creative industries.
There is a programme that I’ve also mentioned in my intercultural dialogue post; the International Young Creative Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (IYCEY). The Indonesians who were sent to London to join their other friends impressed the panel of juries, and for the year 2007/2008 Indonesia gained the honour to be the only country worldwide invited to compete for all four of the IYCEY awards.
I have been peeking into Yoris Sebastian’s weblog about his trip to the UK. It seems that this kind of travel to meet other participants will always trigger creative persons to have new ideas, or at least other reflective thoughts.
Yoris Sebastian won a consolidated prize in the UK for his Goliath proposal. He started to work on his project and did a good start. He invited Ben Drury from the UK to share Ben’s experience with digital music to the Indonesian music entrepreneurs. On the other hand, being Indonesian, he knew the Indonesian market and he had his own way in introducing the digital music to Indonesians. Sharing knowledge as Yoris said is not swallowing the whole knowledge from others and penetrating it in another country without knowing the market’s capacity.
Another person known from the IYCEY is Ridwan Kamil, an Indonesian architect –also an urban planner. His award winning perhaps has also showed the Indonesian peoples that we are also having local seeds to grow in the global competition.
Reading through other website I found out that his company Urbane was also offering a fellowship programme. And it turns out that the programme was also linked to the British Council. The final selection included the ability to make a presentation and answering interview in English. The important message from this programme is the need to improve our local architects’ competencies to be able to compete in the professional world sans frontier.
I am happy for this kind of achievements received by our young professionals. It would help increase the fighting spirit of their colleagues and for the whole young Indonesians in general.
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