Keluarga

Keluarga means family, and family is one's backbone. It is this backbone that I am reliant upon; nuclear, Sky Lake, WaM, TFA, Sekolah Mentari, and Fathonys. The Fathonys were my gracious hosts in February and through Nina, I met Elena and ended up getting the job at Mentari. Not only did the entire Fathony family serve as ambassadors upon my initial visit, but also welcomed Ab and I into their home today to share stories from the past few months and get to know one another better. Their overall presence and proxy to Indonesian culture is my newest family; my backbone that I can rely on throughout the course of the year (and Mom and Dad, they're very excited to meet y'all if you are able to come out to Jakarta!)

In other news, I stumbled upon a TEDtalk by Chip Conley (CEO of Joie de Vivre - an independent hotel chain in Cali-for-ni-way) who discussed the importance of analyzing what we count. Essentially he argued in favor of ascending Maslow's hierarchy of needs in business as in life, and to give more consideration to Gross National Happiness (initially argued for by the king of Bhutan) rather than Gross Domestic Product. His talk goes to the heart of my discontent with economics, which first arose during the fall semester of senior year when I did an independent study in growth economics which revealed a negative correlation between GDP and GNH. Robert Kennedy was exactly right when he argued for a redefinition of GNP and said, "it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud that we are Americans." (the whole 2 minute clip can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlxlWruZOV0) Finally, it is best that this TEDtalk came from a CEO because it empowers the notion that focusing on happiness and company profits is not a zero-sum game. American fascination with sport has ingrained that there must always be a winner and a loser, when in reality multiple things can simultaneously "win."