Diversity is Our Attraction!

Still in August, our theme last week was “Independence Day: Diversity”. TTM Kelvin gave questions about Diversity to three guests: Taufan, Zuldesh, Widya, and our member, Christina.

Our guests last week.

Zuldesh as Table Topic Speaker.

Christina participating in Table Topic.

The prepared speeches were all very interesting, taught us something, and very memorable.

Partricia opened the session by telling about her experience in Australia, which, she said, was all about taking a courageous leap of faith.

After graduating high school, she and her mother went to Australia to enroll at a university. Her family didn’t have much money, and definitely not enough to fund her education there, but her mother said, “Just do what you can, and the rest will be taken care of, if God is willing”.

So she took the examination and was accepted into a good university. The wait for the departure date was anxious because she knew there was not enough money for her to go. Everything seemed so impossible.

Yet a miracle did happen. Her father said, he could pay for one semester fee for her university and her one month living cost. She’d be able to go, but she must earn money for the rest of her school fee and living cost herself.

So Patricia left for Australia, promising herself she’ll do whatever it takes to graduate.

She had to work really hard and juggled studying time there. She took cleaning jobs, mostly, sweeping and mopping floors and cleaning toilets, because it paid most from all part time jobs. And she took more jobs when she can, like selling fruits using a Chinese accent to attract customers.

From thinking it was not possible to making it possible, Patricia funded her own university fee and living cost in Australia until she got her bachelor degree.

And then she asked, “What is impossible? I could hold my graduation certificate after promising I’ll do whatever it takes to get it and following it. So what is impossible?”.

Ikhwan, the TOM, added a very good insight afterwards.

He said “Impossible” can be read as “I m possible”.

Then you’ll get through everything.

Isn’t it inspiring?

Moving on to the second speaker,

Yoga presented his BM1 telling us about the meaning of his full name, “Yoga Bagus Wicaksono” and the story behind it. Yoga means “handsome”, Bagus undoubtedly means “good”, and “Wicaksono” means “wise”. The name was a wish from his parents, making him determined to do the best in life.

Ronald gave his BM4 an impressive beginning, asking, “Have you ever been to heaven?”. On the screen was a picture of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, where he stood higher than the clouds, blue sky surrounding the mountain, and it did look like heaven.

Ronald delivering his speech.

A few months ago, he had climbed Mount Kinabalu. Apparently, hiking the mountain needed lots of skills. Like teamwork, perseverance and humility, because on many chances, if you’re not careful enough, you might as well die.

It felt too much at times, he was very exhausted, but he wanted to see the scenery from above, and he pushed through with his friends. Like the movie 5 cm, he said it was like pursuing a dream. You have to put your dreams as something close, as if it’s only 5 cm in front of you. His state of mind when he climbed the mountain was the same.

It was all worth it when he reached the peak, he said. Very breathtakingly beautiful. He didn’t regret taking the tiring hike for such a scenery as a reward.

Really a story about perseverance with a happy ending.

Lia presented her BM7 about Marriages and Divorces in Indonesia. The rate of divorces in Indonesia is increasing, even reaching 320,000 cases in 2011. This was caused because of the lack of harmony in marriage, the lack of responsibility from both partners, and also financial problems.

People’s view on divorce is also changing. It used to be a taboo, but now marriage couples see it as the fastest and easiest solution of a marriage problem. The heavy coverage of celebrities’ divorces in the media also played a part in changing people’s opinion.

However, Lia also did a quick polling from 10 of her male friends, then 10 female friends. 7 of 10 male said they’d marry to settle down. While 8 of 10 female said they’ll marry for love. These answers seemed a good reason for marriage, so maybe the divorce rate in Indonesia could decrease in the future!

The next speaker was Ikhwan, who really tried to break the limits this time, by using the S word in his speech. I as the MOM writer am a bit confused how to put this into writing, but let’s just do it for scientific purposes. His “Shit For Life” speech shocked many, yet hey, who can say it was not memorable? At first, we thought he was going to talk about his life’s challenges for BM8. But no, the speech was actually about fossil and human’s faeces for energy. How it would be so easy to produce and how effective it would be.

Ikhwan delivering his shocking speech.

The ending tagline that he made was “Shit is Use-fuel”. We definitely caught his message loud and clear, although stunned and laughing out loud for the use of words. Still, it was a daring choice, and we applaud him for being original.

Tantia brought an interesting ending to the night. She presented a talkshow, in which Satriyo became her partner as the host of “Iyok’s Show”, and she became the winner of “Asia’s Next Top Model 2013”. The talkshow was indeed believable, since she dressed for the occasion, like a supermodel adopting the hip-hop style, talking like a famous diva, and the slides that showed her poses in several Asia’s countries were enough to be made into a portfolio.

The Iyok Show with guest star: Tantia.

The interview was no less interesting, where she talked about how she had always wanted to be a model, walking in straight lines since she was 5 year old. Toastmasters, she said, made her special, since she was taught to communicate well, and she’s different from many models who can’t speak up for a cause. Thanks to Toastmasters, she became a model who can be a UNICEF’s Ambassador too!

It was a great speech, for Tantia made us all want her to be the real Asia’s Next Top Model!

Evaluators and role takers:

Patricia Evaluating Ronald.

Agi evaluatng Lia.

Ariel evaluating Ikhwan.

Lia as Grammarian.

Hall of Fame: Taufan was favorite TT speaker, Patricia was favorite prepared speaker, with Prawsident, Ariel as favorite evaluator, and Mira as Ballot Counter.

Last week was amazing! I'm sure tonight won't be less than that!