feel wn go back to Brisbane again……..

Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been doing her best to save her planet from environmental catastrophe since she was knee-high to a grasshopper.

At age six when most girls would be playing with their Barbie dolls Cullis-Suzuki was selling her father’s hardcover books at lawn sales for 25 cents each to raise money for native land claims in British Columbia.

By age 10 she had co-founded ECO, the Environmental Children’s Organization, with a group of like-minded grade six girlfriends at Lord Tennyson Elementary School in Vancouver.

Their first project was to buy a water filter for natives in the Malaysian tropical rain forest whose water supply was threatened by over logging and the effluence of an ever-encroaching population.

In 1992, when she was only 12, she brought world leaders to tears with a speech at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in which she chastised them for failing to protect her and her friends from the looming environmental catastrophe.

“I’m afraid to go out in the sun now because of holes in the ozone. I’m afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it,” Cullis-Suzuki said in a six-minute speech heard around the world. “I used to go fishing with my dad in Vancouver until just a few years ago. We found the fish full of cancers.”

Then she read out a checklist of the things the adults had failed to do to protect and preserve the health of the planet and urged them to get on with the task of making it fit for 5 billion people, or get out of the way.

“I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realize neither do you…if you don’t now how to fix it then please stop breaking it,” she pleaded with the delegates.

All parents should be able to comfort their children at night by assuring them that everything’s going to be all right. “But I don’t think you can say that to us any more.”

Cullis-Suzuki and her ECO pals got to Rio by holding bake sales and making and selling hand-made earrings and beaded necklaces. After the speech, Al Gore, the soon to be U.S. vice-president rushed to congratulate her on what he said was the best speech he’d heard at the summit.

That performance brought her instant fame and propelled David Suzuki’s daughter on to the world stage. Overnight she was transformed into a media darling and a much sought after environmental speaker.

Today at 24, with a Bachelor of Science degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale, Cullis-Suzuki travels the world preaching her passion — and getting paid for it.

Wake up and smell the ecological devastation in the air, move to save our forests, and stop polluting our lakes and oceans. It’s a message she fears often falls on deaf ears now that the applause in Rio has long since died down.

“I’ve seen a major disconnect between talk and action,” she says adding that activists must find new ways to get their message heard and acted on. “The real innovation is at the grassroots level. Things can only get better through a lot of little habit changes.”

And that means convincing young people that by making small changes to the way they live their lives can have a huge impact on the environment. Riding a bike to work or taking public transit, drinking coffee from a mug instead of a disposable cup and resisting the urge to buy things you don’t really need, to name just a few.

She acknowledges that it’s a big challenge to protect the environment while maintaining economic growth but believes it can be met by making industry and commerce understand that what’s good for the environment is also good for business.

Healthy fish populations are essential to supporting a fishing industry, just as trees and parks are needed for tourism and life itself. She talks of the importance of eating locally produced food and how environmental problems must be framed as social issues.

“We need to identify what the new vision is, what the alternatives are to our current destructive lifestyles,” she said in a recent interview. “I’m particularly interested in asking young people this question. “What do they want for the future?”

Her own immediate future calls for a return to university in the fall to pursue her studies at Victoria University on Vancouver Island to keep harping on the environment until we all get it, that there is only one planet Earth, and it is worth saving for grasshoppers and people alike.

taken from this site

Well.. here i am in Jakarta…
Having back my routine after a year absent from my daily life…
Back to busy days of works… back to traffic again…
i found it so difficult.. especially without you… dad…
hehe.. ga ada yang jemput aku lagi niy Yah…

where am i in 25?.. that’s what i asked in my mind when i was high school kid..
Well, the answer is: i was at Green Island, Great Barrier Reef – Cairns.. ^_^ snorkeling funded by Australia..

n the best gift ever is that I’ve graduated… i’ve got my title on Master of Environment.. alhamdulillah

Dad n Eyang,  i dedicated my title for both of you… n i know you were smiling up there talking about me..

i love you eyang….

i love you dad….

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
—————————————————————————————————————————

Almost a year I’ve been living in Brisbane..

Many things happened here..

I’m glad that I’ve got a chance to study here..

But…

If only I knew I will lose you, I wouldn’t come here..

I wish I could turn back time..

I always think I’ve choose the wrong way now..

I’m going back home soon Dad..

Home will never be the same without you..

Dad, I miss you..

Dear Dad,

I miss you so much..
Im sorry for not being your good girl..

I wouldnt go to Brisbane if i knew that you’d leave me..
Dad, O daddy..

I remembered those days when we went to work together..
you usually fell asleep everytime i started the car on..
you never mad even when i woke you up coz i crashed your car…

i always enjoyed our time together when i could treat you eating ‘ayam bakar’..
i always thinking about you, mom, deri, and dea..

i jst finished my  presentation today..

i knew you were there watching n i bet you’re smiling seeing me talking in front of the class..

daddy, im a big girl now.. i know i made you proud.. :)

i love you so much..
have a safe trip there.. and say my regards to eyang uti n eyang kakung..
i always pray for all of you..
i know you always will watching me, mom, deri, n dea..

dont worry, i’ll take care of them..
i’ll be good daddy.. i always be your girl.. i will make you n eyang always smiling up there..:)

hugs n kisses,
with love,

your first daughter
Fitri

guess what..

ive got a new project..;)

so.. last sunday, my friends and i jst had a meeting with some people from Queensland Moslem Community..

They want us to help them to collect data about mosques around Queensland especially Brisbane..

I mean, friends, we will make a history…

So.. the data will be wrapped into digital stories… so everyone in Queensland can access it..

and i may say.. this will be a big project for us… ^_^ doain yah….

-dev-

after a long conversation with my mom………..

i wonder..

is there anyone in this world… that would generously gave me everything the best that he had ( i mean really the best), even if i didnt ask him to…

well.. as far as i know, i never met that kinda guy..

..maybe im not that lucky enough yet..

Sorry God, for asking another silly things again…. im jst hoping too much, aint i??

hufff…. wake up dev… stop daydreaming!!!….

actually there’s a philosophy saying, “if you want to give something to someone else, give the best one not the bad one”…

Im trying to put that philosophy to my daily life now, eventhough sometimes it’s hard to do it…

imagine if you have two bags, one is new and the other is old.. and suddenly your sister, or your brother, or your girl/boyfriend really needs a bag.  would you give the new one to him/her?

that’s the challenge of your heart…….. goodluck

singing time..

let’s sing..

i am not yours.. i jst like this song..

I’M YOURS  by JASON MRAZ:

dududu…dududu…

Well you done done me and you bet I felt it
I tried to be chill but you’re so hot that I melted
I fell right through the cracks
and now I’m trying to get back
Before the cool done run out
I’ll be giving it my bestest
Nothing’s going to stop me but divine intervention
I reckon its again my turn to win some or learn some

I won’t hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait, I’m Yours 

Well open up your mind and see like me
Open up your plans and damn you’re free
Look into your heart and you’ll find love love love
Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing
we’re  just one big family
It’s your God-forsaken right to be loved love love love love

So I won’t hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait I’m sure
There’s no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate, I’m yours

I’ve been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer
But my breath fogged up the glass
And so I drew a new face and laughed
I guess what I’m saying is there ain’t no better reason
To rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons
It’s what we aim to do
Our name is our virtue

But I won’t hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait I’m sure
There’s no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate, I’m yours

Well no no, well open up your mind and see like me
Open up your plans and damn you’re free
Look into your heart and you’ll find the sky is yours  

Theres no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate, I’m yours

Im always be yours……………..

Three days ago, my convenor took me and 9 of my friends (all Indonesian) to the mentoring night program Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EAINZ) – South East Queensland Division.  So, that nite we went to Charlotte Street to go to that meeting.

Well..when we got there, we should put our name-tag so everyone would know our name. There was about 20 people there, 5-6 people who became mentors and the rests are students or beginner staff. I thought all mentors came from the Environmental background, but i was wrong. Some of them are from IT (same as me) and engineering..:)  So, we started that nite, 6 mentors were sitting in different tables, and then we could freely sit wherever table we want. After some minutes, we switched seats, so we could talk with other mentors as well..

So, the night started with talking about everyone’s job…. All the mentors are specialist in their jobs. There are GIS expert, environment consultants, EPA expert, and so on..

Talking about my job.. to tell you the truth, i don’t have any background in Environment. So, here is my story why i stick in Brisbane, Australia right now..

I graduated from Gunadarma University, Jakarta. Luckily, i didn’t have to wait long for a job. I directly accepted as a staff in a government institution, Ministry of Environment (of course, after passed some test and interview..). The first time i entered the office, i thought they’re going to put me in Information Unit as my background was from IT. Well, they put me in Accounting Unit, which I really really hate accounting. I learnt a bit about accounting in my Uni, n didn’t like it. I was kinda upset that day, never in my life that i want to be an accountant, i never want to involve with anything with money. But i couldn’t say any words of it.  I need the job.

Working wasn’t a new a thing for me. I previously worked in Gunadarma as an English assistant in a Language Laboratory for about 2 years.  So, my day at the new office was very slowly. Even though, now I realize that accounting is an important thing to learn and I started to enjoy my job as an accountant.

One day, I had an offered for a master degree to Australia. I took it, because i really interested in environment. Why should i work in Ministry of Environment if I don’t know anything about environment? So, with a gut, I flew to Brisbane, for a Master of Environment, without any background nor experience at all. So..here i am now, meeting new people and sharing experience..:)

it’s kinda mix-up for me hey..  IT – Accountant – Environment..  lol.. that’s what my life now.. colourful!!!

Note: you’ll never know where’s destiny takes you, until it happens to you..   ^_^

Well.. after that mentoring night, we went to the cassino to have some coffees and live music.. -end-