Group Dispute

Never have I experienced that so-called group dispute. Members of the groups that I belong were usually conformist. Well, actually disagreement is not a big deal unless it doesn't appear 2 days prior to the presentation day! One of the members of my group in the marketing class is too stubborn to change his part! (I'm not talking about modifying, but he has to change his part to make the flow of presentation consistent)

The end of the semester is approaching, final presentations, loads of paper assignments, and final exams are just couple of days ahead. Tonight, this Tuesday, I'm going to have my database final exam. I'm supposed to concentrate and finish my database materials. But instead, I feel so uneasy about this marketing presentation thing that I have to write it in this blog and listen to this lovely bossa nova/samba jazz, Astrud Gilberto "So Nice (Summer Samba)" from the original soundtrack of "Something's Gotta Give" (I have to listen to soothing songs to relax my feeling).

Okay, about this marketing group presentation dispute, it is actually a disagreement of the majority of the group against one guy. A chinese, he is eventually the oldest in the group (By the way, my group is very eclectic, it consists of an Indonesian, which is me, a Thai, an American, a Russian, a Chinese, and a Singaporean). The Singaporean lady is the one who is very diligent, she's the one who always prepares ahead all the group's materials, especially the presentation slides (I often feel bad about this one since it appears she's doing almost all the works). The Russian guy, the funny and talkative one, is the brain in the group, whatever he said rules the decision (eventually, all of his ideas make sense). The Thai guy, is also the brain in the group, the thing is that, he is very quiet and calm, and talk only when it is needed. The American girl, she's also quiet and she often complains of being left behind, but she is very diligent; she does the research needed for the materials. I myself contribute some ideas and do some research for the materials as well. And this Chinese guy, I suppose he should be one of the brains in the group. The thing is that, all of his ideas don't make any sense and he is too wordy and confusing.

I remember during the first presentation, the Chinese guy did his part with thick-letter papers on hands (those are not note cards, please keep that in mind ;-p) as though he was reading a speech ;-p (he did not look at the audience and kept bending his head behind the papers, OMG ;-p) Lucky for him, this is not a communication class, otherwise he (or worst of all, all members of the group) would be penalized and the grade would be reduced as well.

As I said, most of his ideas don't make sense. The other members never listen to him. Whenever he suggests something, the others will just keep silent. I remember clearly, during the last lab session, one day before I left to Washington DC on November 18, 2004, we were all confused about the reason of choosing the location for the target market (we are presenting the DS700 MP3 player by Sharper Image). Nobody knew exactly the answer. I didn't either but I was the typist, so I wrote according to what I'd heard. The Chinese guy gave his opinion that I think only Henry V and Elizabeth I understood it ;-p I remember he mentioned something about head count and national GDP, but nothing was about taste, demand, the latest trends of music and technology, and other logical psychographic and behavioral factors. In addition, what do national GDP and head count have to do with location of target market? There will always be somebody who can afford a 90 GB Pound MP3 player, especially in cities with density beyond 1,000 K in United Kingdom! I hesitated first (yo dude, that doesn't make any sense), but since I saw nobody said something (although I saw bitter smiles on their faces ;-p), I typed what he had to say. When he left to the restroom, the Russian guy then started to object the idea and demanded that I erase it immediately. The Thai guy supported him. The Chinese guy returned to the class and went silent the whole night (he didn't contribute after that).

And then there was a group meeting in Brentwood's Border in which I couldn't attend due to my absence to Washington DC. According to what I heard, there was some disagreement between the Chinese guy and the rest of the group (except me and the American girl who didn't attend the meeting) over the competitive analysis of DS700. The Chinese guy threatened not to give presentation if his part was changed. Foolishly, the rest of the group didn't further object it nor finally agreed with it but instead they assigned the American girl (who is to do the introduction and the conclusion parts) to do what they want the competitive analysis to be in the introduction part.

The result is, my dear loyal readers, a discrepancy between the facts of competitors given in the introduction part and the facts stated in the competitive analysis part! By the way, each person is responsible to develop his or her own slides based on the part assigned to him or her. Each of the conflicting parties are currently too stubborn to react (they don't mention this via e-mail so it seems that everything is okay until the Singaporean lady started panicking and demanded that someone do something about this discrepancy and the presentation scheduling) and the presentation is just 2 days from now! In addition, the Russian guy has had a surgery on his leg and the American girl has had her wisdom teeth removed, surely they can't give presentation. We will have to reschedule the whole parts of the presentation. Plus this Chinese guy who doesn't want to give his part of presentation if his part is changed. The rest of the group (including me) has already covered parts of those who cannot give presentation because of health issue. Now all I can do is to beg the others to listen to this Chinese guy this time for the sake of our grade (of course, without the Chinese guy, we would have to cover so many things, three times the amount of one person's part plus the grade would be reduced because of inconsistency). This is so ridiculous.

Intermezzo 2

These are not necessarily true ;-)

You Are From Venus

You love all forms of beauty. You love dressing up and anything luxurious. A social butterfly, you're incredibly popular and a great host. You're known for your fairness and affection. And as a friend to all. Careful though! You're desire to please may make you too willing to conform. Be yourself. Focus on what matters to you. You'll be all the more popular for it.

What Planet Are You From?

This Ain't No Vacation

Hi all,

Some of you may know that I'm currently at Washington DC, spending my thanksgiving break (although that means skipping two classes ;-p) with my family. Well, this is actually my 5th visit during my study here in the States, or my 6th visit in my lifetime. I always escape myself to DC whenever I have at least a week break, away from the place I consider related to my routinity (being in the place related to my routinity somehow gives me some sort of depression). But once I got here, all I could do was sleeping because of those **m* elixirs that I took (when I'm sick/ill, I'll take any kind of medicine to get myself recover A.S.A.P.) An interesting fact is that I come here with lots of textbooks and a laptop to do my paper assignments, catch up with my classes (the end of the semester is coming up, final exams await). Then how can you call it a vacation when most of the time, I have to study database, production & operations management, do my independent study paper, research for data warehouse assignment, etc.? I even neglect my piano lesson for the past two days (Sorry Koko, but you do agree that academic affair should be the top priority don't you?).

In my spare time, such as the previous weekend, I visited 3 houses, Eid ul-Fitr open houses. Unlike last year visit, this time I get to befriended with these 3 siblings around my age. Well, not exactly around my age, the oldest guy is 22, the middle girl is 20, and the youngest girl is 19. Talk about being "cengok" last year, the people my family usually meet are either too old for me or too young for me. Even I can't tune myself in their leisure conversations. There are around one or two thousand Indonesians in DC metropolitan area (this area covers Northern parts of Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland).

Not to mention this sore throat, great, I couldn't sleep at all last night. I went to bed at 2:30 AM DC time (that means 1:30 AM St. Louis time), and I was still awake until 8:30 AM because of this ticklish sore throat (I had to cough it out, otherwise my throat hurts so bad). And then I woke up with a slight headache today, around 1:45 PM DC time. Oh well, hope you guys have a great week, just look at the bright side, thanksgiving break is coming up (unlike me, who started his own break since last Thursday ;-p). No sources available this time (this one came straight from my heart and mind). Talk to you guys later.

Fresh High-Quality Fruits from Japan

Nowadays, quality is considered as the most important value any material should possess, including agriculture. A high-quality of products of agriculture will result to not only succulent fruits or veggies, but also nutritious diet. Hence, it is important to increase agricultural-production methods, from the planting, ripping, to processing. These are according to farmers in Japan.

For instance, the production of tomatoes. First of all, tomatoes are manually sorted. Later on, sorting process is done using an infrared device to measure the amount of sugar/sweetness and the level of ripeness. Finally, a special camera is used to distinguish fruits according to their sizes and forms. During the process, each fruit is kept several distance away to avoid collision since this will reduce the quality.

Similar procedure is used to handle the production of strawberry. After the sorting process, these fruits need to be kept in a special-cooling device with a very high moisture. This cooling device produces cold air of approximately one-degree celcius in which the air is 90% moisturized. In order to avoid the growth of fungus, negative ion and ozone are used in the storing process.

The process of producing honeydew has been improved by using an optical censor after manually sorting these fruits. This censor is to detect the level of ripeness, sugar/sweetness, colors and forms. This device can even sort those honeydews into 300 different levels of quality. Each honeydew is then given each code with some information for the customers. This information contains the planting`s location, name of the farmers, date of delivery, the type of soil and fertilizer. All of these informations can be accessed online.

After reading this, you may want to have Japanese fruits as souvenirs or gifts.


Source (in Bahasa Indonesia):
- Liputan6

Happy Eid ul-Fitr 1425 H

To everyone,

Taqabbalallahu Minna wa Minkum, Minal Aidzin wal Faizin. Happy Eid ul-Fitr Syawal 1, 1425 H or November 14, 2004.

M. Faisal Fariduddin Attar Nasution a.k.a. Abo Dja Naunong

A Letter from Faiz to Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Do you know Abdurahman Faiz, an 8-year old who sent a poetic letter to the former President of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri? This third grade student of an elementary school, SD Negeri 02 Cipayung, Jakarta Timur, has sent a poetic letter as well to the new President, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Born on November 15, 1995, the son of a reporter, Tomi Satryatomo, and a writer, Helvy Tiana Rosa, is very sensitive to the surrounding circumstances such as social, politic, and economic life. Not wanting to have the reply sent by someone else just as the one by Mrs. Soekarnoputri, Faiz requests that the reply should be sent directly to his residence by Mr. Yudhoyono himself. The reason is very interesting, so that the new President knows how it feels to live in a house like his, not just to live in the State Palace.

Below is the letter of Faiz to Mr. Yudhoyono in Bahasa Indonesia:

Surat untuk Presiden Baruku

Kepada Yang Terhormat
Bapak SBY
Di tempat

Assalaamu`alaikum.
Apa kabar, Pak? Aku berharap Bapak baik-baik saja seperti aku saat ini.

Bapak, namaku Faiz. Sekarang aku duduk di kelas III SD. Aku suka sekali membaca dan menulis. Alhamdulillah aku sudah menerbitkan dua buku. Tahun lalu aku mengirim surat pada Ibu Presiden. Kata orang, suratku lucu. Ibu Mega sempat juga membalasnya.

Bapak sayang, selamat ya sudah dipilih rakyat sebagai Presiden Indonesia yang baru. Selain bersyukur, aku tahu Bapak pasti deg-degan. Soalnya menjadi Presiden itu kan susah. PR-nya banyak sekali, lebih banyak dari PR seluruh murid sekolah di dunia ini.

Aku tahu juga sedikit tentang PR itu, Pak. Misalnya PR bagaimana membuat rakyat tersenyum. Kan susah ya Pak. Kalau semua harga mahal, untuk makan, berobat dan sekolah saja susah, bagaimana rakyat mau tersenyum? Apalagi cari pekerjaan pun sukar sekali. Kudengar di luar negeri banyak tenaga kerja kita yang disiksa. Terus juga PR untuk membuat negeri kita lebih aman. Agar jangan banyak orang jahat berkeliaran, apalagi bawa bom segala. Kami takut sekali.

Kalau bisa nanti negeri kita tidak mendapat rangking I lagi untuk korupsi. Sedih kalau ingat itu. Padahal teman-teman kecilku banyak yang harus berjuang di jalanan. Padahal negeri kita kaya. Makanya aku harap Bapak bisa peka dan tegas. Mimpiku sih ingin punya presiden yang dekat sekali dengan rakyat. Tidak malu makan di warung, sering jalan ke tempat kumuh, ngobrol dengan orang kecil seperti aku dan sering tersenyum.

Bapak yang ganteng dan pintar, betapa berat menjadi presiden yang tumbuh dari duka lara rakyat. Apalagi rakyatnya selalu berharap terus seperti aku. Ya, seperti yang Bapak bilang, Bapak tak bisa berjuang sendirian, tapi bersama kita bisa! Aku yakin itu!

Aku juga ingat kata Bunda, kalau kita menjadi orang baik dan punya hati yang bersih, kita akan dicintai tidak hanya di bumi tapi juga di langit. Makanya aku berdoa semoga nanti tak ada lagi air mata duka. Hanya ada pelangi di mata kita. Seperti lagu yang sering Bapak nyanyikan itu loh.

Selamat berjuang, Presiden baruku. Aku akan selalu mendoakan Bapak. Tapi kalau Bapak salah, biarpun Bapak Presiden, Doktor dan Jenderal berbadan tegap, aku boleh menegur ya? Dan Bapak jangan marah ya, sebab itu aku lakukan karena cinta.

Jakarta, 21 September 2004

Salam hormat

Abdurahman Faiz
Kelas III SDN 02 Cipayung, Jakarta Timur

Below is the translation of the letter in English. I try to pick words that usually appear in a mind of an 8-year old.

A Letter to My New President

To Mr. Yudhoyono

Assalaamu`alaikum.
How do you do Sir? I hope you`re fine just like I am.

Sir, my name is Faiz. I`m now a third grader. I love reading and writing. Alhamdulillah (praise the Lord), I have published two books. Last year I sent a letter to Mrs. President. People said that my letter is funny. Mrs. Soekarnoputri has replied it.

Dear Sir, congratulation for being elected as the new President of Indonesia. Besides you`re grateful, I know you`re scared. Because being a President is very tough. You have a bunch of homework, even more than the homework of kids in this world.

I know just a bit of your homework, Sir. Example, the problem of how to make people smile. It is tough, isn`t it Sir? If everything is expensive, and it is hard to eat, to buy medicine, to go to school, then how would people smile? Also, getting a job is more difficult, I heard so many of our labor forces who work abroad are being tortured. And then the problem of how to make our country more secured. So that no more evil people running around the street, especially those who carry bombs. We are very scared.

I would love not to have our country as the most corrupted country in the world. It`s very sad if I remember that. You know that lots of my friends are working on streets (as paperboy, street singer, or even beggar). But our country is very rich. That`s why I hope that you can be more sensitive and firm. I dream of having a President who is close to his people. Not embarrassed to eat in small restaurant, walk in the slums, talk with people like me, and smile a lot.

The handsome and smart Mr. Yudhoyono, it is very hard to become a President on the people`s mourn. Especially if the people keep on hoping just like me. Just like what you said, you can`t fight alone, but you can fight together with us! I`m sure of it!

I also remember of what my Mom used to say, if we become good people and have a sincere heart, we will be loved not just on earth but on heaven. That`s why I keep on praying so that there`ll be no more painful tears. Only rainbow shines in our eyes. Just like the song that you used to sing.

Good luck my new President. My prayers will always be with you. But if you make a mistake, even though you`re a President, a Doctor, or a General with a strong body, I will always remind you, can I? And please don`t be mad at me, because I do it for love.

Jakarta, September 21, 2004

Best regard,

Abdurahman Faiz
3rd grade, SDN 02 Cipayung, Jakarta Timur


Source (in Bahasa Indonesia):
- Otista

Intermezzo

Well, well, what do we have here? This is so not me ;-)

Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

Abo Dja Naunong Nasution?

My true name is actually Muhamad Faisal Fariduddin Attar Nasution. Many friends of mine have wondered why I use Abo Dja Naunong Nasution so often, instead of using my true name. This name is actually a result of combining two customs in Indonesia, Mandailing of North Sumatera and Bolaang Mongondow of North Sulawesi.

My Dad is a native of Mandailing, a south part of the North Sumatera. Although Mandailing is located in North Sumatera, the people are not part of the Batak clan which means I am actually not a Batak, but I am a Mandailing. The majority of the people in this region are Moslems (Islam is the religion), yet similar to other regions in Indonesia, customs and traditions play major roles in the society. I inherit the surname Nasution, since the custom has a strong patrilineal descent. The Mandailings who are Nasutions are believed to be descendants of Baroar, who was found as an infant in a jungle by Sultan Pulungan, a King of Huta Bargot of Mandailing-Godang. Other version says that the first Nasution was the son of King Iskandar Muda of Pagar Ruyong (the main region of the ancient kingdom of Minangkabau), who was the grandson of Sultan Iskandar, the Indonesian name of Alexander the Great. In his journey to conquer the land of Sumatera, Iskandar Muda had a relationship with a Bunian maid, who then gave birth to a son named Pulungan. The name Dja Naunong, was actually a title name of my late Grandfather, the Father of my Dad. It was said (no fact supports this, I only heard this from a relative of mine) that when I get married, I will actually inherit this title as I am the eldest son. My Dad is considered as the eldest son in the family since there is no news about his elder Brothers.

Although I inherit only one name from my Mother side, the more interesting story is actually from her side. The name Abo, is not actually a simple name; it is actually a Royal title bestowed to a male descendant of the Royal family of Bolaang Mongondow. Abo means Count, Duke, or Earl (it depends on the line of the heritage), while Bua means Lady, Countess, or Duchess. My Mother is a direct descendant, the granddaughter, of King Datu Cornelis of Manoppo and Bua Sahabi of Manoppo, Queen Consort of King Datu Cornelis. His Majesty was the only King in Bolaang Mongondow to ever rule under control of the Dutch colony. During this era, the first hospital was built in Kotamobagu (the capital city of Bolaang Mongondow) which marked the recognition of modern-medical treatment. The King enhanced the law and amandement of the region, educational system and built a large palace in Kotobangon (which was burnt to ashes during the unrest of Permesta in 1958). The marks of the enhancement of the educational system and religion were the new methods of agriculture, customs/traditions, wedding ceremony, funeral ceremony, housing/building erection, transportation management, communications, etc. The religion of the people of Bolaang Mongondow is Islam, which was brought by Syarif Aloewi in 1832. He introduced Islam to the King (the King at that time was Cornelius Manoppo) and the Royal family, and since then Islam was considered the Royal religion.

The Independence proclamation on August 17, 1945 at Jakarta marked the end of the monarchy in Bolaang Mongondow, uniting all regions/kingdoms in Indonesia in one political system and one central government based on Democracy, yet the sense of nobelity can still be felt until today; similar to other monarchies in Indonesia except, for instance, those in Yogyakarta and Solo under certain limitations. Although most of the time we (the descendants) are not exactly treated in special manners in Bolaang Mongondow, some locals (usually elders or those who recognize the history of the region pretty well) with no nobel title do talk in different tones, words, and gestures. However, only nobel elders with very high rank such as my Grandmother, an Aunt of my Mother (she is the last/former Duchess, the daughter of the last King before Bolaang Mongondow became part of Indonesia), are treated with high respect and are involved in many decision-making concerning the development of the region; the local Government of Indonesia in this region is always involved in discussion with these Nobels before doing any action. These high-rank Nobels still hold their own audiences, making their residences some sort of a small, unofficial court.

This story represents my feelings, how proud I am of my background, the history of my ancestors. Now you all know the meaning and the sense of those weird words that I combine in my nickname. Please excuse any mistake or misrepresentation of the facts above. I welcome any correction.


Sources (all are in Bahasa Indonesia):
- Horas Mandailing
- Putra Tatobuan Online