My generation : Choose.

This is one of those notes where I let everybody know what I have in mind about things that happened recently, things I observed, and a message I want to convey to everyone who reads this.

For every young people out there.

Tempat tinggal yang kita tinggali sekarang membutuhkan kita.

Indonesia.

To avoid being so overly nationalistic -if those two sentence haven't made it already- I''m going to try and make it less.... emotional.

As we all know, Steve Jobs passed away about 2 weeks ago. I never know the guy, I never owned an Apple product, but I do know how Steve changed the world, with his company AND his philosophy.

I linked a video about his Stanford Commencement speech in my wall, I really suggest you check it out.

The thing I never know about him, was that he really was a "crazier" man than I learned.

Tidak mudah memutuskan untuk mengikuti kata hati dan melakukan hal-hal yang tidak lazim dilakukan, seperti ikut kelas kaligrafi disaat kita tahu bahwa hasil ekonomi yang didapat dari kelas tersebut mungkin tidak ada.

He did that because he followed his heart. Tetapi karena kelas kaligrafi tersebut, Apple memiliki font Sans Serif yang pertamakali muncul di sebuah PC.

The rest of the story, check out the full speech.

I've always had this naive idea that one person can change the world.. and like Steve, there are a few people who I believed has changed the world.

For the obvious examples; Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, David when he fought Goliath.

For the more "modern" examples.. Steve Jobs, and try and google "Stanislav Petrov".

All these are prime examples of how one person can change -or NOT change- the world.

Now, this is the part where I say something about my life.

Banyak dari kalian udah tau kemana akan gw lanjut setelah kuliah. It's not a decision of logic and reasoning, but one of passion and heart. I HATE CORRUPTION. I think it brings more harm than just financial loss.

It truly is corrupting every aspect of our lives in this country, that we unknowingly take part in it.

I see it everywhere. Temen2 yang nyontek, motor2 yang ga bisa nunggu 2 detik sampe lampu ijo, bus bus yang berhenti sembarangan dan bikin macet -- and to that part, PENUMPANG-PENUMPANG BIS YANG NGGA NUNGGU DI HALTE BUS DAN BERHENTIIN BUS SEMBARANGAN, yeah, sadarlah, kalian secara ga langsung bikin macet.

Oknum polisi yang memberi opsi "damai", anggota DPR dari partai yang sangat mengusung semangat agama yang nonton film porno di iPad yang dia beli dari gajinya yang berasal dari pajak 10% Pepsi kaleng gw.

Corrupted.

Mental "selama gak ada yang liat, gapapah" ini bener2 ngga banget buat gw. Pernah gw marahin nyokap karena dia gak pake seatbelt, trus stlah gw ingetin malah ngejawab "ah, ga da polisi". Ketok2 meja yah, suatu hari nyokap gw ga pake seatbelt karena polisi lagi demo, and something bad happen to her, I lose someone loh mum. (I know she'll read this note)

It's all small action, but try and see the big picture of the consequences it bring.

Yakin gw banyak dari kita yang udah pernah nyogok pak polisi.. I did it 5 times. Nyontek ? SMA, Mandarin, uh, satu kelas buka buku XD

Even I did it.. Tapi ketika makin lama makin ga damai di dalem ati gw, I stopped doing that.

I could go on and on and on about corruption but I think you got the point.

Next, this country.

Indonesia.

Who wants to move out from this awful country ? I know I do.

Jujurlah, kalo bisa milih mau dilahirin dimana or tinggal dimana, Indonesia could be the 100th choice.

Kalo bisa milih gw mau tinggal di Jepang.

Macet di Jakarta, panas dimanadimana, tsunami-prone, gempa bumi when I was watching The Hangover in the cinema. Masalah hukum KUHP (kasiuanghabisperkara), pokoe sgalanya lbih mudah dengan duit disini, which means if you are poor, you're screwed.

Ngurus surat2 aja dipuyengin. Dari loket 1, ke loket 2, abis itu ke loket 1 lagi, abis itu ke loket 3, abis itu.... bingung.

Yang ngaku2 wakil rakyat, yang ngaku2 wakilin gw di Senayan SAAT INI lebih doyan ngomongin Pemilu taun 2014 daripada ngurus situasi di Papua, Presiden kerjanya nyanyi prihatin.

That's what makes us very special.

My friends, we are given the chance to change all that.

Think about it.

6 billion people in the world, 200 states, and God -or something like God, for you nonbelievers- puts us to be born right HERE. Indonesia.

God --or Somebody- believes us enough to make something good out of this country.

Chance- or destiny, or fate- puts us here, to matter.

I joked with my sister, yang sekarang lagi kerja di Singapura, bahwa suatu saat nanti gw akan buat Indonesia jadi mirip Singapura, or maybe even better. Joked, but I kinda make it my mission now, however stupid and unreal it is.

It's unreal as a person who lead a nation to eventually drive out a colony, as unreal as a woman who has nothing but still gave everything to every person she could care for, it's stupid as one man erasing a racial law.

It's unreal as ONE man stopping the third world war, and stupid as one man, quitting school and taking caligraphy classes and end up selling computers that changed the world.

Wait. It all really happened.

I pray to God that one day, I will be able to eradicate corruption, in every sense.

If you think I'm a selfless man, you're dead wrong.

My motivations are as selfish as any other selfish human being.

GUE gak mau lagi liat ada anak jalanan tidur DIATAS semak-semak di trotoar PasBar. (Try to wake up and go jogging on Gunung Sahari at 4.30 in the morning if you don't believe me) yang sebenernya dengan dana 100T something itu yang katanya di korupsi taun ini MUNGKIN bisa tidur di bangunan singgah dari dana tersebut.

GUE males menjawab godaan pak polisi untuk berdamai, I really wish he'd just do his job, give me a ticket for my own stupidity and be over with it.

Last, but not least, I really don't want Nico, Vian, River and Rain my little brothers and sister to finally grow up and be troubled with corruption. This thing is been going on too f'n long. Sayang banget kalo mereka harus mengerjakan apa yang gw kerjakan sekarang di masa depan. I mean, they should have other things to deal with, like making this country her first space shuttle, or inventing a time machine or creating the world's best.... something.

Curhat sedikit, orang-orang yg tau gw mau kemana mayoritas terpana akan keputusan gw, they basically said "we need more people like you." Gw hanya terdiam dan berkata dalam pikiran gw, "well, I need you."

One man can change the world, but I really think it'd be easier if there were two.... or more.

Really, you don't have to jump in into the anti-corruption thing, JUST DO WHAT YOU DO, AND DO IT YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST, FOR THIS COUNTRY, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, FOR YOURSELF.If you're an insurance agent, be the best Indonesian-made insurance agent in the world. If you're a lawyer, be the best lawyer in the universe, make criminals pay for the crimes they did by making them pay your US$500/an hour bill. Hell, if you're a just going to be a simple housewife, be the best, the most loved mother of all time !

I've been drafting this note for a couple weeks now, I'm trying to post it on Sumpah Pemuda, I failed by 3 hours.. Still, I did it because this post is my absolute best.

So, friends, colleagues.. there are more important things to take care of than your BlackBerry, your Prada bags, or your future Maserati. I for one will not enjoy those things if I know that 10 years from now, a beggar will ask me for chump change while I'm driving my Lamborghini. I think I'd sell my Lambo for sneakers to jog. It really opened my eyes to see the actual condition of the place I live in.

Hari ini, para penguasa dan orang-orang Senayan hanya berfokus kepada kekuasaan dan citra, tanpa pernah mereka ngeliat apa yang gw liat saat gw jogging pagi buta.

They say the future is on our hands, it's true.

It all came down to what you choose.

I need your help. Sombong banget gw mikir bisa memperbaiki negara ini sendirian.

That kid, sleeping on top of a bush, needs our help.

Listen to your heart.

Choose well.

My Story. Pt. I

Hi, My name is Alexander Bobby Wijaya, in case you didn't know my full name.

Name that my parents gave me, so remember if you're making fun of someone's name in a mean spirit, you're disrespecting the people who gave them.

I write these series of notes because there's been an event I went through, and I found that most people are getting the wrong impression of what I'm trying to achieve. I feel the need to explain myself.

Why do I go and have the trouble of doing this ? Because even though we should NOT judge a book by its cover, some people really does it. I knew someone, who literally judged a book by its cover. Other than this, I just want to share, and I hope from these notes you can get something positive, or at least, entertained.

So, first thing you have to know about me. I consider myself an equalizer. - or I often act like one

Ketika banyak orang overjoyed karena terjadi sesuatu, I smiled once, and pull them all back to the ground. It's not fun, I didn't enjoy it, tapi ketika kita terlalu bergembira, pada banyak waktu akan membuat kita menjadi lengah, bercanda terlalu "asik", dan berakhir terluka. Ketika kita terlalu bergembira, we let our defenses down, dan gw sendiri mengalami beberapa keadaan "overjoyed" yang berakhir ga enak.

And because of this, a LOT of people say that "gw ga asik". Fair comment. To a certain extent, it's true.

Sebaliknya, ketika orang-orang bersedih, keadaan lagi ga enak, or fairly awkward situation where most people in the room is dead silent, I turn the fun button. You may punish yourselves severely for the things that had happened, but change will happen if you have a bit of hope inside. I try to instill that hope.

And because of this, a LOT MORE people say "ah, you're the best", "wow, you really cared for me", "you're the most optimistic person I've ever known." etc. I don't want to go overboard.

I've grown to say the things I need to say, even though people may not like it, to equalize conditions.

Let me take you back to my childhood.

When I was on 2nd grade, there was this classic school bully. His name was Samuel. I remembered him because, because even though he was such an assh*le, his actions led me to stand up and made me a better man.

Gw inget bagaimana uang jajan gw diambil paksa, bagaimana tiap hari gw takut ke St. Paula utk sekolah karena dia sama sekali ga takut main fisik (He was the boy with the biggest body, I was -and still am- a fairly small, skinny kid) Gw masih inget bagaimana dia selalu sukses bikin gw nangis karena, well, he's a bully.

I befriended this chubby, geeky, but really sweet girl. Honestly, I forgot her name. But thanks to Samuel, I can never forgot her.

I was pretty close with the girl, one time, I even said to my dad that I feel like she's a big sister to me. Whenever I cried, she was there calming me down. Whenever big Sam took away my break time snack, she gave me some candies that she brought from home.

One day, after school, Samuel decided to went overboard and bullied a girl, you guessed it, he messed her up.

The girl who I a considered my big sister. He called her a "fat pig", and well, physically hurt her.

She cried and cried, and I was there, watching from a distance.

When I walk towards her, trying to do stuff she'd always do when I cried, she gave me the look, the eyes, that til' this very day I can never forget. A look that says "why didn't you do something ?!" She got up wiped the tears herself, and went home before I even got the chance to say anything. The next day, and the day afterwards, she spoke to me only if she really needed to.

From that day, an anger began to grow inside me.

So, we got to 3rd grade, she went to another school. I was still at St.Paula, feeling lonelier than I've ever been.

Big Sam was still the bully that he is, though I cry less often because I was getting used to it.

Then one lonely day, after school, I was thinking about her and big Sam decided to pull my ear.

Her eyes, that look, glanced in my mind and I screamed and shoved him as hard as I could to a cupboard in the class, it broke the hinges.

Next day, big Sam got his parents to came down to the school. And I was never the same. (Hey, at least I never had my parents came over to talk for me getting bullied)

Years passed, I went back to St. Caroline, dan sejak saat itu setiap kali ada seorang bully di sekolah gangguin seseorang, gw selalu bertindak. Mungkin tidak selalu dengan kekuatan fisik gw, karena tetep gw cowo paling mungil, tapi sering gw sprint ke ruang guru en ngadu sejujur-jujurnya kalo menjadi saksi terjadinya bullying.

I consider myself a hero. Even though, the truth is I got arrogant, I wasn't.

I became a bully's bully. Percayalah, SD-SMP banyak temen2 yang ngajak gw ribut. (So now you know why I took TaeKwonDo and Karate back then) Either karena gw bales perkataan mereka yang nyakitin dengan perkataan yang lebih menyakitkan, atau karena gw arogan.

Percayalah, I got very arrogant to a point that my older brothers humbled me. Both of them kicked my ass, literally.

I learned that I have to use this "ability" to a certain, select boys with the specific intent to hurt others.

So now you know why I'm not very gentle to, well, male. As weird as it sounds.

And obviously why sometimes I seemed to be a playboy (or kata mantan gw, menel =p) because I try to be very gentle, nice and protective to every female I know.

The Best Selling Book in the world (and most shop-lifted too) tells us to treat younger women as our little sisters, and the older women as mothers, that's what I'm doing.

It is my mentality to bully a bully, especially if the victim's defenseless, more especially, if a guy tries to hurt a girl, physically or mentally.

And most especially, if someone tries to hurt the ones I love.

Believe me, I had a nunchaku ready when three tough guys claiming to be cops used some nasty words on my mom.

Believe me, I was ready to punch a guy who first threatened to punch my aunt.

As "evil" as I am, I'm as nice as Barney (the purple dinosaur, not the legen-waitforit-dary one) to kids, as gentle as I can be towards the opposite sex. As much as I love to fight, I have a tender side I'm not cool enough to hide, ask my mother, she and I argued when on my 21st birthday I wanted to do something "big", and wanted to be a liver donor for baby Bilqis. True story. Ask her.

I am an equalizer.

The misfortunes I had when I was a kid, made me an equalizer.

I hate bullies and people who hurt others only for their amusement, I hate their conducts with a passion.

I am a bully's bully.

Of course, I grew up. I let go TKD and Karate because it only helped fueling my aggresiveness. I took up Aikido because I learned that it teaches purely self defense techniques for self preservation rather than teaching me some striking or punching, or kicking techniques to defend (see the irony ?), and I recently started to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu cuz' I think it's effective for small guys like myself (not to mention it's AWESOMELY COOL)

Dan tiap kali ada temen yang dikata2in karena yang ngata2in cuma mau ngata2in, I do my best to tell the victim otherwise. Bahkan kadang gw jawabin balik tuh preman kampung, kalo dia sudah sangat amat keterlaluan tentunya.

The equalizer folks.

*bows, exit stage.*

Better Than You

Posted on March 15, 2006 by Raven at Raven Rants

You see them everywhere you go. The people that blaze through four way stops, the jerks that cut in line at the movie theater, the morons that intentionally take up two parking spaces at the mall and the fools who thrash around their lives without a care for what impact they might have on others.

While everyone makes mistakes and, on a planet with six billion people, we're going to adversely affect those around us, some among us take it to a whole new level. They are either so negligent, or even malicious, that their acts are a conscious disregard for others. This goes beyond a lack of compassion or the absence of empathy and shuns all convictions and morals aside.

When you see these people, take a moment to look into their eyes. You'll see something truly unique. When you stare down into the pit of their souls, you'll see that they believe they're better than you. They seem themselves as a superior life form and yourself, along with those around you, are just insects waiting to be stomped.

With this form of imagined superiority comes a sense of entitlement, and that is where things go wrong. These people not only believe that they are better than the world, but that the world owes them something. Be it the color of their skin, the way they grew up, the money in their pocket or just something inside them, they feel that they are entitled to better treatment and they will take it if necessary.

That sense of entitlement is what leads to their downfall. Nature, as luck would have it, doesn't possess and entitlement clause. Those who think that they are owed something might be able to take it from time to time, but will never really be able to possess it. Those who believe they deserve something, for no other reason than who they are, are incapable of working for it and earning it.

And in there lies the bitter truth. All men are created equal, but they don't always stay that way. Some of us work hard, achieve great things and make something of our lives. Those who do that, for the most part at least, learn humility and invest themselves emotionally into ideas of justice and equality.

Others feel entitled; they do nothing, achieve nothing and, instead, leech off society. These are the ones who feel superior, the ones who achieve the least, offer nothing to the world and, instead, only flex their supposed superiority by taking that which does not belong to them.

In the end, it's their very sense of superiority that prevents them, not just from becoming better people, but from becoming anything at all. They can't plow the fields in the kingdom they believe themselves to rule, thus, they never make anything grow.

Their accomplishments are fantasies and society, let alone nature, will not favor these fools. They are doomed by their own delusions and will feel the wrath soon.

So when wronged in such a manner, try to let it go. If it was an honest mistake, it will not be repeated and, if it's someone taking what does not belong to them through a feeling of entitlement, they will feel their own demise soon enough.

For nature is cruel to those who don't earn their keep and nothing you can do will ever be able to compete with the very forces that keep evolution going.

This is the first time I've ever posted someone else's post in my blog. I like it that much.