My name is Hanif Adinugroho Widyanto, a final-year undergrad student at President University, Jababeka, majoring in International Business study. I was born at St. Boromeous Hospital, Bandung, on October 23, 1987. In the early years of my life, my father got a scholarship to continue his master's at Curtin University so our family moved and lived at Perth, Australia for about 3 1/2 years. That's when my brother born. I remember that I was just a couple of months away before I celebrated my 5th b'day when we returned to Indonesia. Having spent the year after at my granny's house at Tebet, our family finally settled (until today) at a decent house in Melati Mas Residence, Serpong, Tangerang. My educational background from kindergarten until junior high school was dominated with one name: Al-Azhar BSD. I had such fond memories back then, but it was when I finally got accepted at Taruna Nusantara Senior High School, a semi-military boarding school at Magelang, Central Java, that my life hit its critical u-turn and started to drastically change. I started to realize and identify my 'purpose' as a person in this ever-competitive life, a Moslem in such a changing society, and an Indonesian in a globalized era. Today, I'm currently working on my thesis regarding "Analysis of Major Due Diligence Determinants to Attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) on Toll-Road Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Projects" , which has completely drained my very-limited-capacity-when-it-comes-to-doing-thesis brain, to the extent where I'd rather sleep than working on it (huhuuu,, lousy procrastinator me as always,, I know T_T). On the other hand, I'm also involved with the "International Symposium in Commemoration of 100 Years of National Awakening Day" in Berlin, Germany; an international event which is hosted and organized by my friends at the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) in Germany. This blog is just a snapshot of my life's chronicle, and while "I" am naturally gonna be the dominant 'force' in this blog, but my story could also be about you. About the challenging yet amusing life that I always cherish and adore (and hate sometimes ^^;). About every step that I have to take, decisions that I have to make, options and alternatives that I've got to choose (sometimes at a spur-of-the-moment notice!!). But mostly, it's about life in general and how I put things into perspective. This could easily be my story, but one in which (hopefully) you could relate and share with me and the rest of the readers. "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."Now you've heard my A-B-C, so what you think of me? ^__^ |
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Judging from the title alone, you might expect this post to be yet another deliberate attempt to bear out the importance of “nationalism”. Well, I can’t argue on that. This post is indeed intended to address the issue. But this time around, I’m gonna point out the case from the perspective of an International Business student. Thus, the following is the very reason why I love my country, Indonesia, and why I will do anything at my disposal to defend and develop my country for the rest of my life. (Oh, since it turned out to be a pretty extensive post, I’m dividing it into two parts. Enjoy!)
Being an Indonesian vs. Citizen of the World
First of all: I’m an Indonesian, first, last, and for good. I live in my great and beautiful country which is suffering from major calamity in virtually every aspect of life. Corruption, poverty, high unemployment, soaring inflation, poor infrastructure, drawn-out bureaucracy, moral degradation, broken law enforcement, and the list goes on; the entire nation is in a great jeopardy of becoming a failing state. The newly released Doing Business 2009 report has shown how Indonesia’s rating stumbled down yet again in the midst of the ever competitive world market. Personally, I am ashamed of this. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worthless to stand up for Indonesia. In fact, I’m gonna show you that having the spirit of nationalism burning within might as well be our last resort to survival.
Let’s face it: the world is sometimes harsh and tricky. And it only comes as natural for us to have wishful thinking of living in a picture perfect environment where we don’t have to break a sweat (at least) to earn a decent life cos we’ve got social security covering our entire life. Cos the government actually work in our best interest. Well, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to say that such a situation is a far cry for the case of Indonesia. So then we hear about the old remarks (which is strongly associated with globalization) saying, “Hey, what’s with this whole nationhood thingy? What’s the point of having the so-called nationalism? Don’t these terms only tear us humans apart? In the slightest of sense, in the end, aren’t we all citizens of the world?”
Precisely. Citizen of the world. The idea that we’re all essentially equal as humans and thus should be treated accordingly. Just google it and you’ll find around 9.4 million entries (and counting) about the term, including “how to register as a world citizen”. For some us (ignorant) Indonesians, it might sound like a great runaway – and excuse – to break out from the harsh reality of living in Indonesia or being an Indonesian. Why should we even bother to raise and develop Indonesia? A “failing” state in the verge of a major collapse with virtually no hope… why don’t we just simply forgo the concept of Indonesia as an entity which unites the whole country as one, and become part of this “world citizen”? Sounds fun and less complicated, isn’t it? Well, for me, this is where we got it all wrong, folks…
Lemme get it straight. As a Moslem, I do believe that in the eye of God Almighty, we’re all equal. Make no mistake about it. But unfortunately, we couldn’t be so naïve as to say that the same situation holds true when it comes to the world “order”. The world as we know it consists of different nations with their own unique history and cultures. And while most members of a particular nation may never meet each other, but they feel a common bond which unites them in the “imagined community” called nation. Once originated from one of the most influential doctrines in Western Europe since the late 18th century or so, the concept of nationhood has since evolved until it becomes what we have now taken for granted as “nation” – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Hence the evolution and implementation of the term nationalism in our daily life.
to be continued...
Labels: Economics, Indonesia, Nationalism, Politics, World
posted by KiD_HaHn! on 6:19 AM  |   0-comment(s)
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