Greetings from New York

Until the end of November Peggy and I  were sharing our time for the Merapi relief efforts till Dec 2nd ( we made 3 trips for this efforts)  and from there we were rushing to go back to our designated places ( Peggy to Kupang  doing all the preparation at the orphanage and at the home stay for our guests and I went to Singapore to fly).

On Dec 4th we were receiving the first batch of youth from Singapore which are sponsored by The Singapore Government ( through MCYS or Minister of Community and Youth Developments of Singapore) .  There were 3 groups and each group are staying with us for at least a week for doing projects at the orphanage, at the rice field and at the farm. We were also doing some activities at village area like feeding the children some nutritious food which the main urgency is providing them some protein into their food diet. Each group was  consist of 16 to 18 person. It has been a very good experience for all of us to be working together for everything that was needed to be done during their stay. It was fun and also healthy and productive physical activities when we were doing the land clearing, carrying banana trees and planting them in our farms. It was a rare chance for a Singaporean person to be able to work with back hoe ( cangkul) , steel rods and big cleavers ( parang). Indeed Singapore is not a place to work with those equipments and they are rather working with all the modern items like computers and new gadgets.  It was a great chance for the youth ranging from 16 - 22 years old to feel and experienced some basic equipments and basic survival skills.  I hope that we will be able to get the pictures soon . We were making a new basket ball court , playing with the children , practicing our togetherness of so many things and doing things according to the guidance from MCYS ).

We planted at least some 450 banana trees by which at the interval of 1 year time we shall see from those 450 trees will be multiplied at least 4 to 5 times naturally. I was there with the second group ( Dec 9th - 15th ) then I must go to Jakarta to join the Indonesian scientist's summit which was help in Jakarta from the 15th evening ( taping at Metro TV ) , doing the seminar from Dec 16- 18 and till the 19th for some more program.   All participants were either professors and Doctors  ( except me which only holding a degree in economy  marketing and finance) and they were coming from all over the world.  Some of the Indonesian scientist are world's known people which are having lots of patented items ( but the patents are belongs to other countries as they are not being sponsored by the Indonesian government).  A total of not less than some 120 outstanding scientist from local and overseas were attending this summit. One of them is Prof 4Drs Ken Kawan Soetanto , he has 4 Dr on 4 different disciplines . He is working at Waseda university in Japan. One person is a person who has discover 19 new planets ( Dr Johny Setiawan) , another person , Dr Mulyoto has been able to patented how to preserve sperm cheaply and he does not need a super cooler place which costing so much but he is able to use his method for doing the same thing for only 2 USD. His patent is belongs to Australia. Another person Dr Khoirul Anwar has dicover the 4G technology , DR Irwandi has made a device which can scan fat to determine the fat is Halal or not by the Muslim food's standard. Many more members on this summit are people from Indonesia with so many patented items but all of them do not belong to the Indonesian Government.  It is sad that all their patents don't belong to the Indonesian Government. Our gathering was to do our best to make a formulation on how we can improve Indonesia's future developments ( we were acting like a think tank). I was participating on the education cluster ( there were 11 clusters in total) . This gathering is conducted by a group of people under " Ikatan Ilmuan Indonesia International" or I-4 2010. It was making the front page in Indonesia news paper and magazines and also in Televisions.  We were received by the Indonesian Vice President ( representing teh president who was at the graduation ceremonial of the new arm forces program) , also we were seeing at least 4 Indonesian ministers.

Most of all the participants for Ikatan Ilmuan Indonesia International December 2010

Prof 4Dr Ken Kawan Soetanto of Waseda University

Dr Khoirul Anwar the one who found of 4G technology

Dr Irwandi  the one who found a scanner for defining halal fat

Dr Jonhny Setiawan the one who found 19 new Stars

Budi and Prof Nelson Tansu

Budi , Prof Yow Pin Lim MD/PhD and Dr Albert

with Prof Baswedan

These are the facts about the success people which I was with during the recent seminar in Jakarta. This is a show case of what an individual can be if they are working hard upon his valuable time which is full of efforts and dedication. Indeed I was so privilege to be able to take picture with but the main thing is there are solid prove for me to be able to tell more to the orphanage's children about their potentials and their future will be if they are working hard enough upon reaching their goals.  This message can also be used to all youth and students who are loosing hope or efforts.  For example , from the detail that we got from prof 4Dr Ken kawan Soetanto, he was coming from a broken family , living with a step mom and not having enough to be called sufficient in his up bringing. From his back ground he is now a professor with 4Dr and a professor who is teaching with heart. He is so popular in Japan , China , USA , Italy and Hong Kong ( not  to mention in Indonesia where is originally coming from and still he is an Indonesian). There is no reason for us to loose hope or being lazy if we want to strive our goals in life. In  education there is no limit about how high you want it and there is no shortage of sciences and knowledge that can be reached . It is up to an individual to strive their goals.

Nothing is impossible

Have a blessed day to All , always