I have never heard about TED actually (to be honest), but i surely believe that there’s no such thing as coincidence. I still remember some time ago when i was reading my twitter-timeline, and suddenly bumped into an id called @TEDxJakarta . Visited their website attracted me to register to the event. What i didn’t know was that, i was visiting at the same time the registration to the event was opened (and they opened it only for one hour). I registered, was accepted, and then i waited. To make the story short, i got in, and there, i experienced things that are unique, rich with knowledge and information, and surely packed with confident and positive-pride. What i will write in here, is basically some talk that i heard in TEDx Jakarta as a simple small reporting activity, in order to share brilliant ideas.
TEDx Jakarta presented 13 speakers in one full day event. There were three sessions with their own themes. But, surely, all the speakers were inspiring.
Session one was about The Golden Rule. There were three speakers there; Musdah Mulia, Didik Nini Thowok, and Arif Abdilah. Musdah Mulia is actually an Islamic figure who’s actively involve in the human rights activities, especially those that have feminist insights. She’s actually very liberal, when she spoke about the Islamic attributes, like hijab, and also the use of arabic language is the context of religion. One question that was intrigued me is, based on her story about discussing religion issues with others, (in the context of having 5 times of praying) “What if God does not accept any single thing that you do on earth? Like praying early in the morning and stuffs?”. Her story then led me to a conclusion that she’s a person with great heart, great mind, and awesome understanding. How many people like her do you think Indonesia has? I’m sure Indonesia has plenty.
The second speaker was Didik Nini Thowok. Didik is someone who’s actively involve in the development of Indonesia’s Trans-Gender dancing. In fact, he is probably the best trans-gender dancer that Indonesia has. Listening to him speaking from that stage, made me realize that our words, are sometimes giving people difficult times. Didik was raised as a Chinese, and from a little boy, he already fell in love with dancing which unfortunately, most of the time, he had to dance as woman. Didik mentioned that his journey to today’s successes was not easy. He got all the bullies words come back and forth. But today, as if he’s becoming one living proof, that your passions will strengthen you all the way to the top.
The third speaker is Arif Abdilah with his project of sharing a secret. In his project, he was trying to ease people’s burdens of life. That’s why he made the project. His point was, by sharing on whatever thing on your mind, usually secrets, you’ll be freer.
The second session was about progress with purpose. In this session, there were five people who are working in different areas of life. The first one was John Hardy, who constructed green school in Bali, with one awesome architecture that will drag your fully attention. Dhira Narayana was the second speaker, who conveyed the message of legalization for marijuana. Ewa Wojkowska was offering the idea to help the rurals with technologies that are user-friendly to be utilized for the sake of the low income people in Indonesia rurals. Ridwan Djamaluddin was speaking about early warning system in Indonesia, especially due to Indonesia’s location, on top of Ring of Fire that makes Indonesia prone to disasters like earthquake. The last speaker in the second session was Derek Sivers who spoke about four principles that work; wisdom of crowds, and 50 pounds of pots were among the two.
The third session was a blast (at least for me). In this session there were aspects of daily living called The Forgotten Wisdom. Opened by Muhammad Noer on fast reading. Then continued to Muljadi Pinneng Sulungbudi, an underwater photographer who traveled to lots of places, collecting photos about Indonesia’s underwater scenes. One of it is the picture of whale shark, a very nice shark with almost 14 meter in length that the largest population is in Papua. Then came Zaini Alif, a person who is passionate with traditional games; not only Indonesian traditional games, but he also traveled around the world just to see the traditional games from other countries. Jubing Kristianto was next. Jubing is a guitarist who is famous with his first debut album, Becak Fantasy. His live performance with acoustic solo guitar in the event, was stunning. Listening to his story made me realize, that sometimes, to get to your destination, the roads are not always straight.
Zaini Alif
Muljadi Pinneng Sulungbudi
Jubing Kristianto
TEDx was closed with the appearance of Pak Raden, a childhood figure who still loves to educate children with his drawings. Though he’s quite an old, but his passions, never let him down.
For me, TEDx is a place to look for inspirations and a very good place for us to see positive things that Indonesia has. Politics are most of the time (or probably always?) sucks, but there was never been a suck brain or a suck passion. Fortunately, TEDx Jakarta had closed the gap between those negativity of Indonesia with all the passionate people on board as Indonesia’s positive sides.
The next TEDx Jakarta’s speaker, would probably you.
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