GFA Event

U.S. EMBASSY
PRESS RELEASE

July 11, 2008

U.S. Ambassador, Prambors Honor Indonesian
“Greetings From America” Student Radio Hosts

Bahasa Indonesia

U.S. Ambassador Cameron R. Hume presented certificates to recognize the contribution that the student hosts of the “Greetings from America” youth radio program made to further U.S. - Indonesian relations. The U.S. Embassy co-hosted an event honoring Prambors, at d’Place Restaurant in Sarinah. The five students returned to Indonesia after a year studying in the United States as high-school exchange students and living with American families. In addition to their studies, the students reported for the nationally-broadcast radio program, “Greetings from America.”

“Through their insightful radio reporting, they shared their experiences with young people throughout Indonesia, and described the ‘real America,’ through Indonesian eyes,” said Ambassador Hume, during his remarks. “Through the Greetings From America programs, they remind us how similar we actually are, and in many senses, the radio shows are as much about Indonesia as they are about the U.S.” MCed by Prambors DJ Imam Darto, the event featured readings by the students of some of their best reports from the past year’s Greetings From America show, as well as a live performance by the band DREW.

Ari Wijanarko Adipratomo of Jakarta, spoke about his experience living in Skokie, IL, for the past year. “GFA has given me the opportunity to encounter stereotypes about America and inform Indonesians about the real United States.” The other student hosts participating were Anggita Paramesti (Yogyakarta), Raden Aryo Febrian Moedanton (Bukittinggi, West Sumatra), and Muhammad Rasis Surya Prathama (Yogyakarta).

Over the past three years the “Greetings from America” series, has helped millions of young listeners on six radio stations throughout Indonesia learn what it is life is like in the U.S. by following the lives of Indonesian students as they study and live there. The series gives the students an opportunity to describe their impression and real-life experiences in America in bahasa Indonesian and through Indonesian eyes.

For a more information about the Greetings From America radio program, you can go to http://www.greetingsfromamerica.org and for more information about U.S. Embassy Jakarta, please visit the Embassy’s website at http://jakarta.usembassy.gov/.

The five student “Greetings from America” radio hosts accept their certificates from U.S. Ambassador Cameron R. Hume (center). The students spent the past year studying in the U.S. and broadcast regular reports about their lives and experiences there. Prambors DJ Imam Darto (far left) and CEO Jerry Justianto (center right) also participated in the event honoring their efforts.

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Annie Wright Spring Festivities!

Let me just say, despite my romanticism with autumn, i love spring! From Spring Break to the end of the school year, my spring trimester is what made everything worthwhile.. all the homeworks, assignments, and staying up late doing projects are all worth it for all the spring happening, especially at Annie Wright, where your last trimester of your senior year is one of the best times of your life!

Di Annie Wright itu banyak banget tradisinya, secara sekolahnya tu udah 124 taun.. Tradisinya ada yang konyol, atau ga penting, tapi buat seniors right now, all the traditions are fun, or as we say it here in the Northwest, "hella" fun! Pertama ada Senior Skip Day, where the seniors can pick one day of school to skip school! Taun ini kita pergi ke rumahnya Courtney, a senior, buat nonton DVD, play random games, and just chill and have fun. Tapi sebelum kita berangkat, we decorated the entire school with blue stuff, secara kita kan the "Blue Tie Class of 2008".

Tradisi lain lagi itu Mountain Day, yang juga hari bolos sekolah, but this time it's a surprise! Yang nentuin kita bakal kemana dan kapan is the school ASB president dan kepala sekolah. We haven't had it yet, so we look forward to it coming within the next couple of weeks!

Tapi, tradisi yang paling gw suka, and is also one of the best days of my life, is May Day! May Day itu sebenernya tradisi yang udah tua banget, dating back hundreds of years, where people celebrate the coming of spring and fertility. Kalo di Annie Wright, it's a celebration for the seniors by the entire school (termasuk yang Lower dan Middle School juga, plus parents, teachers, friends, etc.). Jadi, the seniors get to wear pretty white or cream dresses, bring pretty bouquets, walk in pretty dress shoes, and basically for the entire day we sit there and look pretty! Di sekolah gw, May Day is an even bigger deal than prom atau bahkan graduation, so the entire week has been spent preparing for this. Buat seniors, that means practicing "the walk", where we have to count "alligator one..alligator two.." in our heads. Trus ada May Day rehearsalnya, where we run through the program, but the seniors don't wear the dresses. Instead, we could dress up crazy as what we are, what we want to be, or what we absolutely are not.

Then, finally the day came - the actual May Day. Lots of pictures were taken, lots of faces hurt from smiling, lots of toes were numb, and lots of amazing memories will be treasured. The best part? It didn't rain!

I love spring!!!

Harlem Rockets vs Dream Team

Hari Jum'at kemarin ini harusnya ada janji makan siang sama temen di Brattleboro Downtown. Tapi setelah nunggu selama 20 menit di Mocha Joe's (semacam warung kopi gitu deh), eh dianya nelpon dan bilang, "Aku ga bisa pergi!" Sial. gondok deh.

Makanya, pas sorenya diajakin pergi nonton basket di Keene State College sama temen-temen, aku males, "Aku lagi anti social," begitu alasanku. Tapi temen2ku terus maksa, "Gita, ten dollars, when you goin back to your country, you'll lookin back at this time then you'll regret that you werent goin with us."

Akhirnya akupun memutuskan ikut.

Pertandingan basket di Keene State College ini cuma for fun. Ngga ada kejuaraan. Yang bertanding: Dream Team (yang terdiri dari anak-anak high school, 4 di antara mereka berasal dari sekolahku lho!) versus Harlem Rockets.

Harlem Rockets ini adalah tim basket professional yang memang entertaining. Di setiap show nya, mereka biasanya cuma lucu-lucuan doang; keluar make kostum yang aneh-aneh, dribble bola terus bolanya malah masuk ke dalam baju, dan sebagainya. Plus secara fisik mereka ini juga amazing. Dua di antarnya setinggi enam dan tujuh kaki!!

Jelas aja mereka membabat habis Dream Team. Skor akhirnya 57 : 67 untuk Harlem Rockets. Padahal Dream Team ini terdiri dari pemain2 pilihan dari beberapa high school varsity teams.

Anyway... show yang berlangsung kurang lebih dua jam ini cukup menghibur. Selama pertandingan, lagu hip hop dimainkan, bikin penontonnya pengen goyang terus.

Para pemain dari Harlem Rockets juga constantly berinteraksi dengan para penonton. That was Fun..

*gita*

$%)&#^@)*$^&^@# (read: the US presidential primary system)

Nerusin tema presidential primaries dari Gita.. so in case you didn't know, gw termasuk staff koran sekolah gw (aka The Annie Wright Inkwell), dan kebetulan gw dikasih assignment to write about the primaries from the perspective of an exchange student. Plus, I just finished another debate tournament yang topiknya tentang the primary system. So I thought it would be cool to share some stuff with you! (If you despise or don't care about politics, might as well ignore this post ^^)

So, confusing, complicated, sometimes even unfair. Yes, that’s about exactly how I feel looking at the almighty US political system as a foreigner. My first thought at hearing the word primary was, “what the”. After asking a few people about it, I get the basic gist: it’s the process to elect a presidential candidate from both the Demoratic and Republican Party. So then I thought, “ok, great. But what’s all the fuss about?”

Sensing my complete lack of understanding on the subject, I decided to do research about it. So, after shifting through numerous websites, news articles, magazine articles, charters and episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I can say that I now have the information I need to understand the subject. Perhaps even more than I had been willing to pay attention to.

But nevertheless, I now realize that the system is, to say the least, imperfect. With every party in each state able to make their own kind of primary: caucus, open primary, closed primary… no wonder some people are confused! Not to mention, citizens who are overseas, especially in the military, are often disadvantaged due to the problems with mailing the absentee ballots.

Then, the primary system emphasizes the domination of the two-party system. With all media attention on the primaries, potential third-party or non-partisan candidates are neglected and unheard of.

Speaking of the media, the system hits another problem: the fact that it is highly unfair to some candidates. Not only do hopefuls have to pay the filing fee in each state to just get on the ballots in each state (some like South Carolina require a hefty $25,000), the candidates also have to spend an additional tons of money to pay for advertisements, media coverage, and traveling across the nation. This unbelievable expense has been known to cause candidates to drop out of the race. One example is multimillionaire Mitt Romney, who was quoted in The Economist saying “Does anyone have change?”: too poor to pay for his own coffee. As we know, he has dropped out of the race.

Furthermore, the system consistently cause conflict within the nation, such as the issue with superdelegates and their roles in the primaries (who, by the way, are party members who only vote as a tie-breaker, if the number of votes for the candidates are too close to call, and despite what you might have heard, their votes has the same weight as any other delegate). Another problem is the issue of front-loading, which is where states have pushed their primaries forward so they have more influence, which resulted in Florida and Michigan losing a part or even entire delegates.

So in the end, I’m back to my original thought: “what the”, and now added with another thought: “why???”.

And then I realize that the primaries are one of the things that make the United States a working democracy. The primary system and all the attention it gets interest enfranchised voters so that they actually vote. With the information, voters are also able to learn in depth the plans, ideas, and characters of each candidate so that they further learn who would make the better president and what should be on the platform. But the best part is the simple fact that the primaries give power to the people, because unlike most countries such as the United Kingdom, the people have direct voice to express who they want as the party’s presidential candidate instead of giving the choice solely to the elite party members.

I wish I could compare this system to the Indonesian system of picking a presidential nominee, but, and I'm very embarrassed to say, I am also in complete lack of understanding about the subject. I guess there's more research to do *sigh*.

So there you go, my ramblings on the primary system. Ga tau deh whether that helps or not. But you know, whatever, hope you enjoyed it haha.

Barack Obama is on the phone!

Apparently, the presidential candidates have bunches of ways to attract the public. Their brand new tactics is randomly calling the people, and deliver their campaign on the phone! Yesterday, I went to my friend’s—Sam Harris—house. He and his sister was freak out and said, “We just got Barrack Obama on the phone!” But I wasn’t really paid attention because I’m too excited to see Sam’s girlfriend’s new hair color (she dyed her hair dark-brown).
This morning, probably around 8 o’ clock in the morning, the phone was ringing in our house. My brother (the birthday boy, he turns 12 today) was picking up the phone. The next second he was laughing, “Hillary Clinton is on the phone!” and he hang up. I just realize that campaign via phone call is the candidate’s brand new tactic. Unfortunately some people are careless and they rather hung up on them.
I’m not a big fan of presidential election issue. But some of you may expect that I’m being a little more aware, since I’m involved in Greetings from America J So this is a little bit story around the campaign that I noticed: Barrack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) were arguing and ‘attacking’ each other on their speech related to Iraq War. McCain frankly justified America’s decision to send the troops to Iraq because this is about safety reason. “There is Al-Qaeda hiding somewhere there,” that was pretty much what he said. The next day, in Obama’s campaign (unfortunately I didn’t even know where was it) he said, “There is nothing such as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, until President Bush and John McCain decided to send the troops.” And that was followed by claps from the crowds.
Well, since I ain’t American citizen, I won’t bother to choose whether I want Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama or John McCain or Huckabee. But I’m hoping that whoever win is he or she who’s gonna end this baloney war soon. I know though that there are probably a lot of considerations to call back the troops from the battle zone, even though I don’t know what are they. I also still questioning my self, if America and his troops decided to stop their intervention, will the terrorism by the militant groups of Moslems stop? *eyes rolling*
“gita”

Indonesian Scout National Rover Moot 2008

Hi semua penggemar greetings From Amerika di Indonesia,
this is Ari from Chicago

Kali ini saya tergugah untuk menulis masalah kegiatan besar anggota gerakan pramuka tingkat penegak dan pandega (16-24 tahun) yang dikenal dengan nama Raimuna Nasional. Raimuna Nasional tahun ini merupakan Raimuna Nasional ke sembilan yang diadakan oleh gerakan pramuka. Dan Insya Allah event kali ini akan dihost oleh Kwartir Daerah DKI Jakarta di Bumi Perkemahan (BUPER) Cibubur Jakarta.
Bagi para listeners yang mungkin belum familiar dengan nama Raimuna Nasional ini, event ini sebenarnya nggak jauh beda dengan event sejenis di tingkat penggalang, yaitu Jamboree. Bila di tingkat internasional, event sejenis Raimuna kebih dikenal dengan istilah Rover Moot. Raimuna adalah istilah yang diambil dari bahasa daerah suku Ambai di pedalaman Yapen Waropen-Papua; terdiri dari dua suku kata yakni Rai dan Muna. kata Rai berarti pertemuan, sedangkan Muna berarti Kepala Suku. Sehingga Raimuna dapat diartikan Pertemuan Para Pemimpin Suku, makna tersebut dapat mewakili makna pertemuan besar Pramuka Penegak dan Pramuka Pandega, karena Pramuka Penegak dan Pramuka Pandega merupakan para pemimpin dikelompoknya masing – masing dan calon pemimpin bangsa. Gerakan Pramuka yang memiliki sistem pendidikan yang terorganisir dan lengkap harus mampu menjadi solusi bagi permasalahan-permasalahan yang dihadapi oleh Generasi Muda saat ini dengan menyelenggarakan kepramukaan bagi kaum muda, bersifat tidak membedakan suku, ras, golongan dan agama.


Saya sendiri masih ingat kenangan manis sewaktu saya ikut Raimuna Nasional VIII lima tahun yang lalu di komplek Candi Prambanan, Yogyakarta. Saat itu saya mewakili Kwartir Cabang Pramuka Kota Bogor. Masa masa raimuna tsb tidak dapat saya lupakan. Karena, selain saya dapat pengalaman, skill dan juga kenalan baru (termasuk my current girlfriend dari Dewan Kerja Daerah Sumsel),Raimuna juga merupakan event yang sangat membekas dalam benak saya karena kenangan manisnya tak dapat terlupa.

Lima tahun yang lalu saya masih ingat betapa bangganya perasaan saya mewakili Kota Bogor di event berskala Nasional. Betapa senangnya (sehingga dengan agak sombongnya) memamerkan jaket berlogo kontingen Kota Bogor ke teman teman di sekolah; Betapa senangnya belajar kursus teknik fotografi sewaktu Raimuna, betapa menantangnya petualangan kebaharian dimana saya diajarkan teknik mendayung, Water Rescue, dan juga makna makna bendera international maritime signal, dan yang paling penting, memahami betapa indahnya persahabatan dan persaudaraan yang dikemas dalam ikatan persaudaraan kepanduan.

Aniwei, balik lagi ke masalah raimuna Nasional IX ini, ada beberapa hal yang berbeda dengan raimuna sebelumnya. antara lain jumlah quota peserta tahun ini akan lebih banyak dibandingkan raimuna sebelumnya, mengingat daya tampung Bumi perkemahan Cibubur jauh lebih banyak dibandingkan kompleks Candi Prambanan. Diperkirakan 19.000 Pandu akan datang dari dalam dan luar negeri dan tumpah ruah untuk bersilaturahmi di Cibubur. Untuk peserta, memang mostly prioritasnya goes into peserta dari dalam negeri; penegak, pandega baik pramuka biasa maupun Pramuka Luar Biasa. Sedangkan untuk pandu (tingkat rovers/venture) dari luar negeri diberi jatah 1500 orang (termasuk anggota Pramuka Indonesia yang berbasis di gugus depan Perwakilan Republik Indonesia dan juga Sekolah Republik Indonesia). Selain hal tersebut, banyak perubahan dan perbaikan yang akan dilaterapkan dalam raimuna nasional kali ini.

Raimuna Nasional kali ini, seperti raimuna sebelumnya, akan diisi kegiatan-kegiatan yang tidak hanya berfokus pada kegiatan kegiatan berbentuk petualangan high adventure, namun juga pengembangan wawasan, bakti, keterampilan, dan kebudayaan. Beberapa bentuk kegiatan yang akan dilaksanakan pada raimuna kali ini mencakup :

-Giat Petualangan (diadakan di Subcamp yang tersebar di Propinsi Jawa Barat dan Banten) yang mencakup kegiatan-kegiatan antara lain: Giat mendayung (Kayak, Boating, Water SAR, pengenalan sandi bendera laut dll), Giat kedirgantaraan (aeromodelling, Air SAR, teknik parachuting dll), Giat pendakian, dan juga selusin kegiatan high adventure lainnya.

-Giat Life Skill yang mencakup : fotografi, kerajinan tangan, dan juga kursus kursus personal enrichment lainnya

-Giat Wisata yang akan mengunjungi situs situs bersejarah di daerah jakarta dan sekitarnya

-Giat Bhakti/Kurve yang merupakan kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarkat secara langsung yang dilakukan oleh peserta.

Saat ini saya sendiri sedang bantu-bantu Panitia Dewan Kerja Nasional (DKN) untuk mempromosikan kegiatan nasional ini kepada teman teman Boy scouts of America (BSA). Dengan harapan mereka mau mengirimkan beberapa wakil mereka untuk ikut berpartisipasi langsung pada kegiatan kepanduan di Indonesia. Akan sangat berguna bila dua organisasi kepanduan terbesar di seluruh dunia ini (Pramuka dan BSA) saling berkomunikasi dan aktif bekerja sama. Karena dengan diskusi dan kerjasama, kedua organisasi kepanduan ini dapat saling memperkaya pengalaman masing masing. Selain promosi ke BSA saya juga akan coba promosi ke Kepanduan Canada, (siapatahu ada yang bisa bantu?) . Untuk pelaksanaan di lapangan, Insya Allah saya akan bantu-bantu panitia, apalagi kalau mereka butuh bantuan interpreter for either english/espanol, saya sih siap bantu.

melalui artikel ini saya ingin mengundang seluruh listerners di mancanegara, khususnya yang tertarik mengenai kegiatan ini untuk dapat bergabung dan menyukseskan jalannya raimuna ini. sukur sukur kalau bisa menambah variasi peserta asing sehingga yang datang ke Raimuna kali ini nggak cuman dari negara negara ASEAN dan atau sekolah Indonesia saja. hitung-hitung membantu menyukseskan program pemerintah "Visit Indonesia 2008" bukan?.
Bila ada yang ingin tahu informasi lebih lanjut, dapat menghubungi Dewan kerja Nasional Gerakan Pramuka pada email : dk_nasional@yahoo.co.id dan bila ada kontingen asing/listeners mancanegara yang berminat mengetahui informasi lebih lanjut dapat menghubungi Ari Adipratomo di email: AriFutureDiplomat@gmail.com
Come and Join Us di Kegiatan Raimuna Nasional Gerakan Pramuka ke IX di Jakarta!!

General Information

This blog site is created for Indonesian students studying in the US who are participating in the Greetings from America radio program and for radio listeners in Indonesia to communicate with the students.